Regulus Black the reserved Slytherin heir, burdened with the weight of pureblood expectations.
Melody Rowe, a determined and warm-hearted Hufflepuff. A muggleborn witch thrown into a world of magic.
As Melody, driven by her innate Hufflepuff kindne...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The sun was shining brightly and a soft gentle breeze carried bird songs through the summer air. Today was going to be a good day. Melody awoke with excitement rushing through her veins. Of course it was going to be a good day, it was her birthday. She was finally twelve!
She raced downstairs and into the kitchen, where her mother was making some...toast? But where are my birthday pancakes? Melody shrugged it off, maybe they ran out of flour. "Good morning mother dearest." Her mother smiled softly at her "Good morning dear, would you mind popping down to Tesco with Celina, we ran out of milk." Melody nodded, waiting patiently for the birthday wishes but they never came. Her smile faltered slightly as she walked away to find her sister. In the middle of the kitchen, she turned swiftly on her heel becoming aware of the absence of her fathers deep, dulcet voice in the house. "Where's dad?" "He went to go get the car wash, I believe." "Why? Is it because we're going somewhere... special?" excitement and hope reignited in little Melody, maybe they hadn't forgotten after all. "No I don't think so, you know how it is with white cars they get dirty very easily." Her mother continued unloading the dishwasher, not sparing her daughter another look.
Melody walked off quite deflated, maybe Celina still remembered. She walked into the living room to find her older sister dusting the shelves besides the TV. Her sister turned at the creak of the floorboards from Melody's entry "Hey Lod." "Hey Cel." Melody giggled at the unconventional nicknames they made when they were younger from the most random parts of their normal names. "Anything really cool and special about today?" Her sister paused the show on the TV, "Oh my goodness, I completely forgot it's... Sunday! Happy Sunday Melody."
"Okay." Melody sighed in defeat and retreated back to her room. Her whole family had forgotten about her birthday and she was devastated. Just because they forgot doesn't mean that today can't still be a good day. Melody laced up her trainers "Mum I'm heading over to Remus' for a bit." "Okay, have fun sweetheart." Still got that birthday amnesia.
A short rap on the door followed by the sound of shuffling behind it led to a woman with wavy brown hair and a kind smile opened the door. "Oh hello Mrs Lupin, is Remus home? I was wondering if he wanted to hang out." Remus' mother smiled and invited her inside. "I'll just get him for you deary, he must be in his room." She returned moments later with a scruffy, lanky boy trailing behind her. "Hey Melody, what's up." "I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out, we could go to the park and I brought some bread so we can feed the ducks." She smiled at him holding a loaf of brown bread. "Excellent idea, you know, I was just about to go and ask you the same thing. Let me get my shoes on."
৹৹ ◊◈⁕⁘⁕◈◊৹৹
Melody reached out her hand to stroke the small yellow duck in front of her. It jumped into her hands, happily accepting the small chunks of bread from her. Remus stared at her with his jaw to the floor, "What are you a fuckin' duck whisperer or something?" Melody giggled at his comical expression "I don't know, I guess I've always had a thing with animals. Only cute, fluffy ones though, insects give me the heebie jeebies."
They continued to throw bread into the lake until the whole loaf was finished, "Hey Remus, I have a question." "As long as it's not 'where do babies come from' fire away." Melody smiled , "No it's not that. I was just wondering if you knew why Regulus is the way he is. Whenever I see him he's angry or sad like all the time. I thought you might know because you're friends with Sirius and well they're brothers so he might have told you something." She looked at Remus hopeful for any insight into this mysterious boy's behaviour. "Look Mel, I don't know if it's my place to say but the most that I can tell you is that they come from a pretty messed up family. Everyone in the Black family have been sorted into Slytherin, so when Sirius wasn't..." Remus sucked in a deep breath and ruffled a hand through his hair, "Well I can't imagine anything good has been happening inside that house." He sighed and glanced at the watch on his wrist "We should probably head back. There's something waiting for you at home."
Melody stood up and followed the boy in the direction of their houses "Wait, what's waiting for me at home? Remus?... What's waiting?" Am I finally getting a dog.
৹৹ ◊◈⁕⁘⁕◈◊৹৹
Melody unlocked the door and slowly stepped into her house, Remus shutting the door behind them. The house was empty, did they really go somewhere without her? "Come on, let's go to the garden." She followed Remus through her house "SURPRISE!" Everyone jumped out from behind the tables and trees. Balloons, streamers and fairy lights littered the garden and a huge 'Happy Birthday' sign was hung across the fence. "Oh my God!" Melody squealed with delight "I thought you all had forgotten but you didn't! Oh thank you all so so much" She rushed to her parents and sister and gave them a hug "Thanks Mum, thanks Dad for planning all of this. And you" she playfully punched her sister in the arm "How did you manage to keep this a secret, everyone knows you're an open book." Celina laughed "Yeah, they told me about all of this, like, yesterday."
"Oh don't forget to thank Remus darling, he helped us invite all your magic friends." Melody smiled and nodded to her mother scanning the room for the tall boy.
She finally spotted him talking to Peter. She wasn't sure where the other half of the group was but they probably weren't too far away. As she suspected, Sirius and James were standing around the snack table along with... Regulus? She wasn't sure that he really considered her a friend but it was nice that he was here. Priorities first Melody strolled over to Remus and Peter "Thank you so much Remus. Mum told me that you invited everybody." She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and gave him a side hug. "Oh it's no big deal, they were having a bit of trouble with the whole owling situation especially considering they don't actually have one." "Happy Birthday Melody." Peter spoke up shyly, she had forgotten the poor boy was even there. "Oh, thank you Pete." she quickly excused herself from the two boys and headed over to the snack table.
"Hey Mels happy birthday!" Both Sirius and James said once she had reached them. Melody giggled at them being in sync "Thank you boys. Hey Regulus." She gave him a small wave. The corners of his lips turned up as he moved around the table to stand next to her "Hello Melody, happy birthday." "Oh Reg you should give Mels her present, I think she'll really like it you should give it to her now." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows up and down. Regulus gave him a 'what are you doing' look and lightly grabbed Melody's wrist walking her over to the pile of presents. He picked up a small box wrapped in navy blue and silver paper "Here, I hope you like it." he handed her the small package. She carefully unwrapped it to reveal a wooden box, inside was small stars, a constellation, connected to a thin, gold chain. "Regulus it's beautiful" Melody carefully took it out the box "Do you mind putting it on me?" He nodded and took the necklace from her hands. She turned around and moved her hair to one side. She also saw Sirius and James along with the Lily and the girls huddled together by a bush, giggling and whispering together. They're so strange. As she felt the necklace being clasped, she turned back around to face the dark haired boy. "Thank you Regulus, I love it." Regulus smiled soft "You should probably return to the party."
