He returned as steady as the Mountain Wind

Chapter 3: "Gilderoy Lockhart"

After breakfast the second year Slytherins and Ravenclaws went to Potions, whilst the Gryffs and Puffs walked down to the Greenhouses for Herbology. That meant Harry, Blaise and Daphne would share their class with Hermione and Theo. Regulus was left to fend for his own, which was not a good thing at all.

Regulus would have it rough. A lot was expected of a Black who entered Slytherin. In Reg's case especially so, since public thought that Regulus was actually Sirius' son, since they all decided that answering questions where a de-aged Regulus Black I had come from was too bothersome. So Regulus was known as the son of the "Gryffindor-Black", who of course had returned to the Dark but was still regarded with some suspicion. Lastly, Regulus situation was not the best to begin with. He was thrown twenty years into the future, since he had been in a coma for 12 years and had lost his memory of the eight years the healing spell reversed. In short, he was in an unusual situation to begin with and now had to fend for himself.

So, whilst the second years are off to History of Magic, let us take a look at how Regulus Black I, alias Regulus Black II, is faring for himself during Transfiguration...

It was not going well. At all. Professor McGonagall had told them to turn matches into needles. In itself, the task was not that hard to accomplish. Regulus remembered how he had done it before. of course at that time, his mother had pressured him into it. His mother's pushing and screeching was most likely the only thing that Regulus would not miss from his old life. Good enough, since he missed everything else. His grandfather, his allies, his first owl.

At least his brother was there. And his parents were not. And maybe, just maybe it was not all that bad to be here. For the first time in his life he did not have allies, but friends. For the first time, he could do whatever he wanted, without having anything worse to fear than getting grounded. Of course, being contained in the house sucked big time, but he would never have to feel the riding crop on his palms again.

Sure, his brother's displays of affection towards Angiola were sometimes disgustingly Gryffindor, but whenever Regulus was plagued by nightmares of a snake like face and red eyes, his brother would turn into the large, fluffy Grim hound and just lay by his side until morning.

But he was drifting off.

This lesson was not going well. And it was all his wand's fault. It was as if the wand refused to let him do the task. Somehow, he got the feeling, that the wand felt that the task was too menial for its greatness.

Regulus gave a silent sigh. He closed his eyes and reached towards the point in his mind where his magic connected to the wand. It was a branch of Occlumency that had been handed down as a Black-family secret for ages. (His brother could do it as well, that is why he did not need to pay attention in class and still perform the most stunning tasks with his magic. Regulus assumed that Sirius had told James Potter how to do it as well, but since Potter's mother was also a Black Regulus saw no need to let that tiny piece of information slip to his parents, it was better blackmail material however, if he pretended that he intended to tell his parents. He remembered many favours he got out of his brother that way).

Had he been drifting off again?

So yeah, Regulus reached into his mind to the joint of his magic with his wand. The whole point of this technique was to analyse why one was failing with a spell. Slowly Regulus poked at his magic. Nothing was wrong there. He "looked" at the connection between wand and core. They were perfectly in sync, much better than he had been with his practice wand. So lastly, Regulus checked his wand.

Why won't you let me do my task? He wondered. He felt pride resonating from the enchanted piece of wood. Great, now he also had to deal with a personality wand. Those were rare, but once you managed to befriend the wand's spirit a personality wand could make you really powerful.