speak now | regulus black

1

castle — halsey

"and there's an old man sitting on the throne there

saying that i probably shouldn't be so mean."

♡

September 1, 1977

Sofia's neck was starting to hurt from her five-year-old brother clinging onto it like a monkey. She patted Vanya on the leg. "Buddy, come on, I'm not a tree."

She bent down so the kid could place his feet on the ground. Looking at his sad little face made Sofia's heart break.

She had to almost place her ear on his mouth to be able to hear Vanya's soft voice in the crowded train station. "I don't want you to go, Sonya."

She stroked his hair softly. "I know, Vanya. But I'll be back soon. Just like I always am."

"What about my birthday? You weren't here last year and Mami wouldn't let me save you a piece of cake." His big brown eyes glistened, and Sofia just prayed he wouldn't cry, because then she'd surely cry, and then their mum would probably cry, which might make Natasha cry, and then there'd just be Roman's thirteen-year-old aloof self, dealing with his crying family.

"I promise I'll be there this year, Vanya." She had no idea how she was going to pull it off after last year's fiasco, but all she knew was that she couldn't let her brother down again.

Vanya got the tiniest smile on his face, which subsequently turned into the biggest grin as he looked over his sister's shoulder. "SIRIUSHA!"

Sofia cringed internally at Vanya's Russian-ised nickname for Sirius.

Then he seemingly forgot Sofia's existence and flew past her, jumping right onto Sirius's open arms. Sofia rolled her eyes slightly. Of course, her brother was ditching her for her best friend. Her entire family adored Sirius, even Roman, who was thoroughly unimpressed by everything couldn't help but like the guy.

Sirius lifted Vanya off the ground easily and shook him around a little before setting him back on the ground. "Hey, bud."

He ruffled Vanya's hair before hugging Sofia in greeting. "You convince him not to come?"

Sofia let out a sigh and nodded. The him in question being her father, who had decided to show up in the lives of the family he'd pretty much abandoned five years prior just a couple of weeks ago.

Honestly, the ill-timed return of Mr Bessonov had delivered a gigantic blow to Sofia and her siblings and mother. They had seen him on occasion since he'd left and he still sent them money, and even though she'd wished for years he'd come back for good, she'd eventually made peace with his departure. But now he wanted in again. And the worst part was that she couldn't even resent him for it. It upset her, she wanted to turn him away, to show him they didn't need him, but she couldn't. Not with what he'd told them.

And apparently, being back in their lives meant that he wanted to attend every single Major Life Event for each of his children, which included Sofia's departure for Hogwarts. She hated attracting too much attention within the wizarding world as it was, so that had been a hard pass from her.

Sirius hugged Sofia's mother and and Natasha, whom at eleven years old, thought Sirius was the coolest person on Earth. Then he did that weird man-handshake and slap on the back thing with Roman. Sofia could tell her brother loved it.

Mum was starting to ask Sirius how he was when the train whistle blew, signalling five minutes for departure. Sofia's family had been late to the station, as per usual.