Regency in Diagon Alley [Theodore Nott | Harry Potter AU]

Chapter Twenty-One

Hours before their trek to Hogsmeade, hours before they saw a ghost in McGonagall's home, hours before two brothers were on the ground, one strangling another, Regulus Black was in his dining room, waiting for this cousin that his mother desperately wanted him to sit down and eat with. When he arrived at his home, he found the servants bringing multiple chests that belonged to this cousin into the room that Walburga prepared but there was no sign of the woman. He asked where she was but then Barrow told him the strangest thing he has ever heard – even the butler found his words strange, "Miss Black and the Dowager are in the kitchen, your Grace... Miss Black was insistent in preparing gooseberry pie for you."

Malia Black was a mystery indeed, for her to get his mother to go downstairs to the kitchens... even Carina could not get the Dowager to the kitchen so they could bake a pie together. Like how her grandmother, Louise, would. No matter how many times, when Carina was little, she asked Walburga to help her bake biscuits for Christmas or cupcakes, the Dowager won't and would scold the girl for disturbing her peace. In the end it would be Regulus who would accompany her, and if he was not around, the cook.

He had been checking his pocket watch when he heard someone enter the room, when he heard the foreign voice in his home. "Your Grace."

Just as she entered the doorway, Malia Black curtsied as low as she could get, which was mostly dedicated to the Chief Warlock. Once she rose, Regulus finally got a glimpse of the woman. Tall and slightly tan complexion. A heart-shaped face with full cheeks, and silver, almond eyes – there was some foreign touch on it that he could not place. Dark hair pulled back to a bun of complex braids, but not too tight, leaving the frame of her hair to droop down and frame her face. She wore a green muslin dress with a darker shade for her spencer, which made her appearance look sharper.

This was Alphard Black's bastard, he thought. He rarely saw Malia Black in his youth as she lived with her father in Prussia as he had his research on astronomy there with one of the descendants of Kepler. Then they moved to Scotland where she was still sheltered from them. Based on her appearance, she was just around his age, but she did not attend Hogwarts since he never saw her in their halls. Either she went to Durmstrang or had her education in a specialized school for Astronomy.

"Cousin Malia," Regulus slightly bowed as a greeting. "It's been... I can't seem to recall our last meeting."

Malia chuckled. "I don't blame you, the last time I was able to have a full conversation with you and Cousin Sirius, I was eight, I believe. And I barely said anything on the late Duchess' funeral and the memorial for Cousin Sirius."

It took a lot of self-control to not flinch at the mention of Sirius' name, and to put up a practiced smile as he said, "I guess it has almost been two decades then."

"I was hoping to see Carina today, the last I saw her, she was still a baby but Aunt Walburga mentioned that..."

"She is away. Carina hasn't been feeling well, the pressure of the season has caught up with her. The Healers suggested to let her rest, away from the bustling city." Vague and limited. He still did not know his cousin's stance with Carina's position as heir, and with the threat on his daughter's life, he will not risk her safety.

"How long do you think she will be gone?"

He shrugged. "It is unknown. The Healers will give me a report of her health every now and then, while she would write to me of her day. I can only hope she could come soon...the house is, it is not the same without her here." He smiled as he said the thought that passed his mind. "She always has a way to bring light into every room of this dark home."

"The bright star in the night sky."

Regulus' gaze returned to Malia and let out a chuckle, a genuine one. "Precisely."