Polar Opposites || Regulus Black

the first look

Emily searched the London street below her window, before peering upwards at the grey clouds in an attempt to see any form of light behind them. But it always seemed that, no matter the season, Grimmauld Place always seemed dark. Even on the 1st September, the only light visible at 10am was yellow light spilling from the occasional window.

"There you are Em," her Dad smiled from the doorway, using the familiar nickname, "Get a shift on or you'll miss the train." He chuckled slightly before disappearing down the hallway, and Emily forced herself to get up from the slump she had dragged herself into behind her desk.

Her trunk was packed, her broomstick lay beside it, and her tawny owl Ferdinand perched proudly in his cage, puffing out his chest as if to show the girl how ready he was for the next year. As a grin slid onto her face, Emily undid the latch on his cage and lifted him out and towards the window.

"You can fly to Hogwarts from here, that way you won't have to be all cooped up on the train." She told him and he playfully nipped at her finger in response. Rolling her eyes at the bird she stroked the top of his head one last time before sliding the window open and lifting him into the air, watching as he ruffled his feathers then proceeded to take off, his wings spread wide.

Ferdinand had been a present in her first year from her father, who had attended Hogwarts himself and so fully understood the importance of having means to communicate whilst there. After all, it was in the middle of Scotland. Her mother was a muggle, but this didn't faze her when it came to her enthusiasm towards magic. In fact, she was frequently begging her daughter to break the underage magic rule and show her the spells she had learnt. Emily was waiting for the day that she turned 17 and could finally do this.

She was about to turn away from the window when she saw a familiar pair of brothers making their way down the street towards their house at number 12; Sirius Black and his younger brother Regulus. As a whole, the Black family were known to be exceedingly proud of their pure-blood heritage, and were very prejudiced when it came to this; Emily's father had often told her to stay away from that end of the street to avoid being called a 'filthy half-blood' or something of the like. Obviously, she had never made herself known to them.

But at school, the Black family got messy. At Hogwarts, their parents had no choice about how they spent their time. Bellatrix Black was in her seventh year, and Emily had always thought her to be slightly deranged; she was rude, loud and took it upon herself to terrorise whoever happened to annoy her. It was a wonder she hadn't been expelled yet. Narcissa Black was Bellatrix's younger sister and although she was somewhat more reserved, she wouldn't hesitate to look down her nose at people, and surrounded herself with the same crowd as her sister.

However, Andromeda Black was where the story differed. Although she was Bellatrix and Narcissa's older sister, she had long since cut her ties with her family around the same time that she had left Hogwarts. This had been various years ago, but Emily still remembered the kind smiles that the girl would offer her when she was a lost and bewildered first year trying to find charms class.

Sirius Black seemed to be following in his cousin Andromeda's footsteps from the moment he had brought shame to his entire family and been sorted into Gryffindor. Since then, he had made friends with muggle-borns and the like and had wasted no time in becoming the biggest playboy that Hogwarts had ever seen. Emily despised him, but for a different reason to his family. While the Blacks despised his choices to rebel against their beliefs, Emily held a severe dislike for the boy because he had broken the hearts of too many girls at Hogwarts and, in her opinion, there was no excuse for that- no matter how awful your family was.

Regulus Black was harder to read. He wasn't particularly well-known, apart from his ties to his family, and generally kept quiet at Hogwarts. He had been sorted into Slytherin, and spent time with some questionable people, but didn't tend to be the one to insult people whenever his group decided on a confrontation. To be honest, although they were in the same year and shared some classes, Emily had never spoken a word to the boy.

She continued to watch from the window until Regulus turned his head so sharply to look in her direction that it caused her to jump slightly, but she still couldn't look away. He had dark hair that just brushed over his eyes; dark grey eyes that searched the girl's face imploringly. For some reason, Emily couldn't look away from the youngest Black, despite being caught staring, and her green eyes locked onto his, unable to break the connection.

Her light brown hair and freckled cheeks were so contrasting to his elegant features, yet in that second they both seemed just as intrigued by the other. It was strange in a way. This connection lasted only for a few seconds before Regulus snapped his head back to the front and Emily left the room she had been hovering in, both pretending that nothing had happened between them. Both pretending that they had still never had any sort of interaction. Both pretending that nothing had changed between them.