Eternal Light | Regulus Black

First year at Hogwarts

Since sorted into the same house, me and Regulus were inseperable. Sirius even joked that he hadn't even once caught one of us without the other being there. It's not that we didn't have other friends in Slytherin. Most of them were more than eager to be friends with Wizarding 'royalty' like me and Regulus.

Our common room was filled with green furniture and silver details. The mantle was decorated with a huge serpent. Each student had their own small room which had a window to the lake's depths. All of the other houses had shared bedrooms but I guess students in Slytherin needed their own privacy.

I had talked to a few other Slytherins, including Ruby Parkinson. She was a timid brown haired girl. She had often braided her hair and had two places for earrings on each earlobe. I hadn't gotten my ears pierced yet, Mrs Black thought that it wasn't appropriate at my age. I might have gone talked to her more if she wasn't always hanging around that Bulstrode girl. She had an aura around her that made me want to stay away.

Marvel Ollivander had tried to strike up a friendship. He brought up his family lineage and how important they were in the wizarding community. Boring. After he made me uncomfortable by talking about Slytherin house's supremacy and how Gryffindors were garbage, Regulus shooed him away. The truth is, I didn't care that much about blood supremacy anymore. Day after day talking to these 'superior'wizards, the next one always stupider than the previous one, I started to doubt the whole thing. In classes there were no actual difference in skills between purebloods and muggleborns.

I was doing exceedingly well on my lessons as was Regulus. But so was Lily Evans, a Gryffindor muggleborn. We had some lessons with Gryffindors and I couldn't help but be fascinated by her fast learning skills. She was the girl hanging around Snape. I had heard several students from Slytherin talking about them. About Severus befrending a muggleborn and how they thought it was wrong. Who cares, he obviously cares for her so just let it go.

Yet again we had charms class with Gryffindors. I had been seated next to Severus Snape for the whole course and yet we hadn't spoken more than a few words to each other. Regulus was seated few rows behind me with Abraxas Malfoy. I quite enjoyed charms as I was excellent at it. Many struggled to make the wand movement the exact way to get the wanted result but it seemed not to matter how I waved the wand, it did exactly what I wanted it to. The charms professor praised me through all of the classes. The gryffindors were making a lot of noise as they chattered away and laughed at each others failures. I noticed Severus's eyes dart to their side of the classroom, glancing towards the red haired girl.

I wasn't the only one that had noticed. I heard a few slytherin boys snickering behind us. I rolled my eyes but Severus instantly blushed. He should learn to get a grip on himself. Some students in Slytherin were ruthless, it was better to keep your emotions hidden.

After class was over many hurried off since it was the last period for the day. None had left quicker than Severus though, I guess he was still embarrased. Lily had stayed behind to talk to the professor. As I left the classroom with Regulus I noticed the three boys that had laughed at Severus lingering by the hallway.

I had a bad feeling, so when I would have turned around the corner I couldn't bring myself to do it. Regulus questioned me but I sushed him, I wanted to hear what the boys were saying. Turns out I was right about their intentions as they cornered Lily, when she exited the class.

"So tell me mudblood, what's so special about you that you have the ice cold Snape wrapped around your finger, huh?" I heard Theodore Nott taunt her. The two other boys snickered. Lily tried to put on a brave face but I could see the glint of fear in her eyes.

"What's up boys!" I interrupted them and faked a cheerful smile on my face.

"Just getting to know the mudblood Snape seems so keen on, want to join us?" Nott smirked, assuming I was there to bully the girl too. So predictable. I smiled widely as I positioned myself between them and her, my back facing the girl.

"Oh I've already gotten to know her, she is actually on the same house as my dear friend Sirius. Do you know him? The heir to the Black family," I bragged. Theodores face dropped as he glanced towards Regulus. Regulus was leaning against a wall close to us, ready to jump in if needed. But of course he wasn't. I was more than capable of handling myself.

"You know, your father works for my uncle Zacharias, I'd hate to tell him you've started trouble with me at school. I'm sure your father would be dissapointed once he'd hear about it," I continued waiting for him to back down, which he did. The three boys left without saying another word, with Theo sending pointed looks my way.

"Must you always stir things up, I was enjoying our quiet life here," Regulus exclaimed jokingly. I giggled and turned to look at the red haired girl.

"Thank you, those boys were horrible!" She gushed and looked at me thankfully.

"Of course, I'm not the one to skip out on opportunities to put boys in their place," I smiled warmly at her. There was something about her that made me instantly like her. We ended up chatting with her and walking up to Gryffindor dorms with Regulus. Slytherin and Gryffindor dorms were on opposite sides of the castle. Gryffindor dorms were way up high where you had to take multiple stairs to. Slytherin dungeons were below the ground, so when you looked out of the window you could actually see below the surface of the Black lake.

"Do you guys want to come in?" Lily asked us sweetly gesturing to their common room entrance. They had a big sized lady in a painting guarding the entrance. Very different than the corridors leading to ours.

"Sure," I confirmed for both of us once I got an approving nod from Regulus. Lily uttered the password and the painting opened, revealing a path to the common room. There were many students there but most of them must still be somewhere else on Hogwarts grounds. My eyes landed on Sirius and his group of friends fooling around. They were laughing at something and Sirius was holding his stomach. I haven't seen him like this for ages, it was comforting.

James was the first to notice us. He tugged on Sirius's sleeve to alert him. Lily kept talking to us about charms studies without paying any attention to the boys by the sitting area.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius questioned us and stood up to greet us. His smile was reserved as he continued; "students from another house aren't supposed to be in other houses common room."

"Lily invited us in," brushing him off and continuing to examine their common room. I kept talking with Lily without being phazed by Sirius's friends and the rest of the Gryffindor students staring at us.

"Can she do that?" James huffed with slight admiration in his tone. Regulus was talking with Sirius, presumably about how we ended up here with Lily Evans. Lily proceeded to introduce me to her friends. Most of them didn't seem very keen on making friends with a girl from slytherin except for one.

"Zara, this is Marlene, Marlene Mckinnon," Lily introduced me to a pretty, blonde haired girl. We ended up hanging and talking in their common room until curfew. We had laughs as James would do something goofy to show off and Sirius would join him. I sat on the carpet next to Regulus and leaned my head on his shoulder once the laughter became too much to bare. Lily and Marlene fell on their backs and snorted at Peter's imitation of our DADA professor. No one seemed to mind anymore that we were from Slytherin, it didn't make a difference.

We hurried back to our common room with Regulus before the curfew would start and made it there barely. Everyone had already left the Slytherin common room and went to their own rooms. Before Regulus could walk up to the boys dormitories I grabbed his sleeve. He raised his eyebrows as he turned back to me.

"Promise me that, even though. Now that we have new friends that I'll. I mean we... we will stay best friends, that I'm always your first choise, because you'll always be mine," I struggeled to say it out loud. His expression put me luckily at ease.

"You don't have to make me promise that but yeah... I promise," he smiled softly at me, holding my hand while standing face to face.

"I think we should have nicknames for each other, names only we get to use," I breathed silently, hoping that he would agree and not think that it was a stupid idea.

"Sure, your's is Zar," he grinned.

"Alright, Reg... we have a deal."