[DISCONTINUED] I Know The End, Regulus Black

𝐎𝐎𝐎. Old Lady Chapman

August 4th 1991.
9 Heathgate
Hampstead Garden Suburb
London.

A candle stands between a pyramid-shaped statue and a photograph of a boy and girl, she is smiling while he is looking at her with adoration. Unlike another photograph of the couple, this one does not move. The couple is frozen in time here. In this picture, they have a chance to forever be young, always be eighteen. He will forever be eighteen, but she's all grown up now. Twelve years without him, twelve years since the owner of the house has last seen both of them. Longer, actually, if you remember the fact the couple has been over twice. Once to celebrate Christmas, once to celebrate their engagement. They'll never come back.

Old Lady Chapman is what the kids on the street call her, but she used to be known as Jenny Chapman, mother to that sweet girl that went to boarding school. She hasn't been called anything other than Old Lady Chapman for years. Not as long as she has last seen her darling daughter, but still quite some time. Restlessness has begun to take over once more, like it had that final summer. She still feels the horrors of having to go to the hospital to find her daughter in a frenzy over her lover. The feeling that she might see another one of those people on her doorstep is worrisome. Jenny Chapman hasn't given her daughter's world much thought after it became clear that they'd never see each other again.

She is enjoying her nighttime tea when the candle flares up, hissing and spitting sparks in a frightening green and yellow. The candle had been a gift from him. As a way of asking for the blessing to wed her daughter. Jenny hastily puts down the tea and looks around in suspicion. This is magic, magic that has her on her toes. She has never fully understood what it meant to be a witch, and neither did her late husband. Had she known that awful boy had it charmed, she thinks she might have thrown it out the moment they left her house.

The intruder is a young girl with bushy hair and quite some overbite. Jenny Chapman breathes a sigh in relief, that means there is no magical presence in her house at least. It's just the daughter of the nice people across the street. A girl who should have been in bed long ago, Jenny thinks.

"Hello Mrs. Chapman!" Hermione is her name, Jenny remembers. Too curious for her own good. Kind of like... "I thought someone was calling my name, but it's strange. I was just in my bed, and I thought I heard my name coming from your house. So, I thought I'd look to see if you needed my help with something. You do know I am going to boarding school on –"

"September 1st. You are going to that school."

Once upon a July, a woman dressed in strange robes had come by and explained it all. The existence of magic, the pull it would have for the stronger witches and wizards, the boarding school where the magic would be taught to keep it under control, and how some Muggleborns – the children with no previous magic in the family – would have a curiosity greater than commonly found within other witches and wizards. Jenny recognises the signs with Hermione, she's not daft. Hermione heard her name come from the house and didn't stop to think someone could just ring the doorbell to ask for help, that someone could use the phone. Curiosity had taken over the eleven-year-old because her name was called.

"Hermione, dear, do you still feel like your name is being called now that you're in my house?" Jenny carefully tests the waters.

"Hm. A little. What do you know about my school, Mrs. Chapman? Is it really a beautiful castle like Professor McGonagall said? Are the classes interesting? How many different kinds of magic are there really?"

"You would have to ask my daughter those questions, Hermione. But I'm afraid you won't be able to contact her, or find her for that matter. She's gone, and none of her old friends remember who she is. But I will answer with a story about a boy and a girl who stood above the pain and suffering they experienced." Jenny waves Hermione along to the fireplace mantle, where the picture and candle stand. The candle burns normal orange flames again. "My daughter and her fiancé. Charlotte and Regulus, they made a pair. That awful boy is the reason she left, I'd assume. She'd always excuse his actions..."

"You didn't approve?" Hermione asks, eyes wide as saucers.

"Charlotte Chapman and Regulus Black were doomed, Hermione. She was good, and he would have murdered anyone for my Lola."

avery speaks!

i wanted to introduce you to charlotte's mum first because jenny chapman is a queen, which you'll find out in later chapters. and yes, sadly regulus is going to die, but lottie is not, which makes their story all the more tragic, the prologue is also filled with easter eggs ;)