Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Thirty-Seven

[Chapter Thirty-Seven]

While Éponine thought she was going to be up all night wearing the stupid grin on her face that refused to go anywhere, she eventually did fall asleep, entering a full night of pleasant dreams. Sharing her first kiss had been quite unexpected, sharing it in the Hospital Wing had only added to the surprise, but having Regulus kiss her back, well, it was enough for her to believe that she could take on the world. Still, there were thoughts in the back of her head, moments where she remembered some of the horrible things that Regulus had said to her in the past, but she couldn't deny how hard Regulus had been trying in the recent months.

Since their forced summer together, he had been doing everything to get to know her and convince her that he wasn't as terrible as he had come across to her initially. Éponine finally understood where a lot of his anger had come from and while he had taken it out on her, it hadn't meant for her initially. Instead, one of the boys that she had deemed to be so perfect in her mind over the years, was possibly one of the most shattered souls she had come across. Behind the calm and composed exterior, Regulus was always calling out for some form of help.

He was the victim of a picture-perfect family that told different stories behind the frame.

Of all the families that were inside the social circle, the Black family always had to keep this facade that nothing was ever wrong and it had taken a toll on all the family members. Regulus had been the one to witness it all, he was able to see both sides of where his family had been split down in the middle. He had been a witness to Sirius leaving, he understood why his brother felt the need to leave, but he also understood why his parents had spoken to his older brother the way they did, why they expected more from Sirius but were left disappointed in some way.

Unfortunately, all that weight of expectations that had once been evenly distributed between the two brothers, all came to rest on Regulus' shoulders and under pressure he had lashed out. It wasn't an excuse, but it was an understanding that Éponine came to understand the more time she and Regulus were in the company of one another. All the time she thought that she was trying to make an impression for another family, they were trying to do the same for everyone else.

She understood that pressure plenty, the same pressure that her parents had placed on her from the time when she was so young that she didn't even know what a surname was. Being born into the families was always viewed as a privilege to many that wanted inside the social group, but to those that were actually living in it, growing up under the expectations, it was something short of a nightmare a lot of the time.

It only worked if one was able to find someone that they could confide in and perhaps lean on when the pressure became too much. In a way, it was what Regulus and Éponine were finding in each other.

So perhaps, people would never understand why Éponine had given Regulus another chance when he had been quite cruel to her in the beginning, a source of the insecurities she was still fighting to that day. But holding grudges never seemed to work in her favour either and if she was to marry him, only fighting back and forth would leave them absolutely miserable. Maybe she didn't expect for their friendship to blossom into what it did at the rate it did, but she was thankful for it.