Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Eighteen

[Chapter Eighteen]

Despite that, they were given duties to tend to their prefect rounds on the train, Regulus didn't dare disturb Éponine from her sleeping state. When it came time to walking to both ends of the train to see if any students were causing trouble, Regulus did it alone, letting Éponine remain in the compartment with Emmarentia. He needed a few minutes to stretch his legs, so walking up and down the train didn't come across as silly as he thought it was going to be. It was so quiet in the compartment with one girl asleep and the other just reading, clearly not wanting to partake in small talk. That was fine with Regulus but in the end, he found himself becoming incredibly bored. 

His only source of entertainment had been at one point while he was sure Éponine was dreaming about something, she was muttering while asleep, making all sorts of faces. He would have never guessed that Éponine was the type to talk in her sleep, but it bother him either, he actually found it rather cute and amusing. The way her face scrunched up, her nose twitched, and for a brief second, her tongue stuck out in just the slightest of ways, bringing a grin to Regulus' face. It only left him wondering what she was dreaming about.

He thought about it to himself as he walked down the train, glancing into compartments at random. Most of the Hogwarts Express was silent as the evening hours were rolling in and it grew dark outside. Plenty of the first year students were practically glued to their windows, wondering when they were going to arrive while a majority of older students had taken to following Éponine's idea of taking a nap. He recognised plenty of younger faces as well in passing. 

In one of the compartments, Regulus spotted Éponine's younger cousin, Elizabeth sitting quietly among the company of other girls. Very similar to her older cousin, Elizabeth looked uncomfortable, not daring to say a word, probably since her brother wasn't there as her shield. He had left Hogwarts the year before and whenever he witnessed Elizabeth alone at gatherings, she looked miserable. It seemed the Rosier girls shared plenty of common traits, even if they weren't close with one another. 

Further down the line, there was Roderick Lestrange, quite the opposite of what Regulus had witnessed prior, with his intended. It was announced not very long ago that Roderick would be married to Elizabeth when they were of age, his oldest brother had married Regulus' cousin, Bellatrix. It was an odd thing to witness or know that even though they were quite young, everything was already planned out for them. Regulus felt a similar way when he was told that he would one day, marry Éponine. Everything was planned so that he didn't have to do much or so he thought in his head. 

He figured that because she was intended to marry him that there wasn't much work to be done, there was no need for dating and everything tucked in between because it was practically already established. But his father told him otherwise if Regulus wanted to share in a happy marriage with Éponine, he was still going to have to put work into the relationship. As of that moment, there wasn't a relationship between him and Éponine, due to his own actions. They were just working on forming a friendship that would hopefully blossom into something further later on.