till death do us part -regulus black (the blacks, vol. 1)

chapter 7 - regulus tells evangeline about the wizarding world (1976)

The clock hit midnight, which meant that it was officially Eva's fifteenth birthday. She was sitting on the couch in the living room in 18 Grimmauld Place, all by herself. Her mother was working a long shift at West End Central Police Station. She was watching nonsense on TV when a knock on her door caught her attention. She quickly stood up from the couch and ran to the front door. That knock was done in a unique style, a style only she and Regulus Black knew. She opened the door happily but the image she met scared her. In front of her stood a beaten-up Regulus Black who looked like he was about to die.

'I-I am sorry, b-but I wanted to escape a-and didn't know where else to go,' Regulus stuttered.

Eva welcomed him in and guided him to the couch, where they both sat down.

'W-What happened?' she asked, worriedly.

'My father and I got into a fight,' Regulus admitted. 'He was really angry and drunk and thought that I was my brother,' he added.

'Oh, God, Regulus,' Evangeline said, shocked, covering her mouth with her hand. She ran her free hand over some of the cuts and bruises, Regulus wincing a couple of times. 'I'll go grab the first aid kit from the bathroom. You stay here, all right?' Eva instructed Regulus who nodded his head in response.

The girl ran to the bathroom on the ground floor and started searching the cabinets for the first aid kit. When she finally found it, she ran back to the living room and sat back down next to Regulus. She put the kit on the coffee table in front of the couch, opened it and took out the necessary supplies.

'This is going to hurt a little,' she told Regulus, before starting to clean his cuts.

'A little only?' Regulus asked sarcastically. 'It hurts like a bitch.'

'What? It's not like you've never had your wounds clean up before,' Eva said and Regulus looked at her, laughing nervously.

'Eva, I have to tell you something. And I need you to promise me that you are going to remain calm and listen to everything I have to say, all right?' and Eva nodded. 'Okay, so, do you remember how I told you I go to a boarding school in Scotland?' Regulus asked and Eva nodded. 'It's a special one,' he added.

'Special how?' Eva asked.

'Alright, I'm going to be showing something, but don't you get scared, all right?' Regulus begged Eva, and the girl nodded. 'Kreacher!' Regulus said and in Eva's living room appeared a weird looking creature that Eva analysed.

'You've called for Kreacher, master Regulus?' the creature asked.

'Yes. Kreacher, I need you to apparate me and my friend here to that field in the outskirts of London, the one where I used to ask you to take me when I was younger,' Regulus instructed the creature. 'Oh, and have a picnic set up there,' he added.

'Sure, master Regulus! Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black,' the creature said and snapped his fingers.

Eva took Regulus' hand, intertwining their fingers, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was in a candle-lit field, with a picnic blanket and a basket on the blanket.

'W-Wha-...' Eva tried saying, but she was speechless.

'I'm a wizard, Eva,' Regulus told her.

'Wow...' was the only thing Eva could say.

'Yeah...' Regulus mumbled. 'Come on, let us sit down and celebrate your birthday,' he said and walked Eva to the blanket where they both sat down. He opened the basket and took out a bottle of wine and two glasses. 'Is it all right?' he asked, and Eva nodded. Regulus poured both a glass and handed Eva her glass. 'Happy birthday,' he said and they clinched their glasses.

Eva took a sip carefully, scared a little bit. Regulus saw it and smiled kindly at her.

'Relax, it's not so different from Muggle wine.'

'Muggle?' Eva asked, raising an eyebrow.

'The non-magic folk, that's what we call them,' Regulus explained, taking another sip of wine.

Evangeline nodded and took a sip from her glass. 'So, you're a wizard?' Eva asked, and Regulus nodded. 'And that creature was...?'

'Oh, Kreacher's a house-elf, more exactly my family's house-elf.'

'And what about that thing "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black"?' Eva asked.

'House-elves live to serve the wizarding families. Some can be freed with a piece of clothing.' Regulus explained. 'But most don't want to be freed.'

'Sounds a lot like slavery to me...' Eva mumbled.

'It's not,' Regulus argued. 'They chose to serve us and they've been doing so for centuries. They serve us until the day they die,' he added. 'Although, some are mean towards their house-elves, for example, my parents, and some are nice to them, for example, me. I always sneak Kreacher some biscuits or some shiny things I know he'll like.'

Evangeline smiled at the kindness Regulus was showing to a creature that was supposed to be inferior to him. He was too good for this world.

'Those bruises, they were caused by magic, right?' Eva asked and Regulus nodded. 'God, it's awful. What kind of parents do that to their children?' Eva said.

'The maniacally kind who should be locked up in crazy farms.'

Eva giggled, but then looked at Regulus who looked serious and stopped giggling. 'So, your parents are insane?'

'Borderline. They believe in this thing called blood purity, which means that the truly magical folk, pure-bloods like myself, should have the upper hand. Even the family motto is something like that,' Regulus explained. 'Then, there's this man named Voldemort who believes that all Muggle-borns should be dead because they tainted the magical blood. He doesn't have much to say against half-bloods though, because he's one himself.'

'Half-bloods?'

'For example, if we were to have a child, they would be a half-blood since they're born out of a pure-blooded father and a muggle mother. And some half-bloods are children of muggle-borns and pure-bloods or other half-bloods,' Regulus explained. 'There's also this belief that to restore the pure-blooded status of a bloodline, the half-blood from that said bloodline has to marry a pure-blood, and their child, too, and their grandchild. After three generations can be the bloodline considered pure again,' Regulus added.

'Wow, it's-...' Eva tried saying.

'Very complicated, I know,' Regulus laughed.

'What's your family's motto?' Eva asked curiously.

'It's Toujours Pur, which translates to Always pure,' Regulus answered. 'My family is a part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the twenty-eight British families that were still truly pure-blood by the 1930s.'

'Sound cult-y,' Eva told Regulus.