Don't Tell Anyone About This | Regulus Black

Chapter Two

Nerezza Stark stared out at the horizon - as she had been for the past few hours. She'd watched as the clouds darkened and the sky was slowly painted a deep blue as Hogwarts feel deeper into the night. In the distance she could just make out a slither of the black lake, that shimmered under the silvery moon hung up amongst the stars.

Whilst Nera didn't associate her time at Hogwarts with particularly fond memories, she certainly couldn't deny that the views were spectacular.

Summer had passed by much too quickly for the girl's liking and she hadn't gotten around to half the stuff she'd wanted to do. There was still a large stack of books beside her bed at home that she hadn't read yet, she'd never gone on that walk around the lake, and she hadn't finished off the leftover curry that her father would no doubt have already thrown out.
Really, Nera was just looking for any excuse that her time would be better spent at home than Hogwarts.

Whilst she did enjoy learning all of the fascinating stuff she was taught at school, it was often overshadowed by just how lonely it was.

"Hal-Hello, hi." A soft voice shattered the silence coating the Gryffindor girl's dormitory.
Slowly, Nera turned her head to come face-to-face with a complete stranger.

"Oh, erm, sorry, hi." She raised her hand to wave, realised that was a stupid idea, and then lowered her hand back into her lap.

The girl, with almost golden hair piled on top of her head in a haphazard manner, crouched down to be at eye level with Nera - sat on the floor. "I-erm... I don't think we met before - when everyone was introducing themselves to me earlier, I don't think I saw you. I'm Ada Ostrowski." The girl extended her hand.

Nera stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. "R-right." She, after realising she was just staring at Ada, extended her own hand and shook the girl's. "Ada." Nera clarified, "I'm Nera. Nera Stark."

"I'm new, by the way." The girl laughed lightly as she finally sat down on the wooden floor and neatly crossed her legs, "I could tell you were trying to figure it out. I've just started at Hogwarts, from Beauxbatons."
"Oof, what did you do to deserve that?"
Ada laughed again, "My mother married a British man, so here I am - shipped in from Europe. Should have seen the look on his face when he found out my mother was a witch."

"My mother also married a British man, but that was before I was born." Nera explained, hugging her knees up to her chest.

Ada tucked some loose strands of her up out of her face and smiled again, "I hadn't realised that Hogwarts is nowhere near as international as the other schools. Is everyone here British?"
Truthfully, Nera had never considered it before. Of course, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang - the two mainland European schools - were much larger than Hogwarts, but they were also taking in students from dozens of different countries.

"You know, I think so." She said after a while, "I don't know anyone that isn't at least second generation British."

"Well, you know me now." Ada grinned broadly, a glimmer appearing in her green eyes as she reached into the pocket of her jumper to pull out something in paper bag. "Sweets?" She offered.

Nera peered into the bag, "If you don't mind me asking, what kind of sweets?"
"Krówki. It's-erm... Like fudge." She tried to explain, "Sorry, I forget English words sometimes."
"Thank you." The dark-haired girl reached in to pick up a small piece of fudge.

"Perhaps, if you don't mind me asking," Ada popped a sweet in her mouth and pocketed the bag again, "What are you doing?"
"Oh-erm..." This had somewhat startled Nera and she struggled to think of what to say, "I-Nothing, really. Just thinking."

Ada nodded her head solemnly, "Sorry, I don't mean to pry. It's just... I've never had to make my own friends before, so I don't really know how to do it."
Nera furrowed her eyebrows a little in confusion and this prompted the other girl to continue, "Back at Beauxbatons, my older sister was very popular and we got along great. So I would just hang out with her and her friends. They all liked me just because my sister liked me. But, my sister is doing her last year of school over at Beauxbatons and I'm here on my own now."

"I don't really know how to make friends either, so don't worry about me passing judgment over you." She offered warmly, with a slight smile.

"The other girls are nice enough," Ada shrugged slightly, "But they're in a big group and... They all know each other. They have in-jokes and things like that, so... It's a little difficult to get along with them."
Nera nodded in wholehearted agreement, "I understand."

Then clambering to her feet, Ada cleared her throat before looking down at Nera, smiling, and saying, "It's time I head to bed. I think the tiredness is making me wistful."
The brunette let out a light yet short laugh, and nodded in recognition before turning her attention back to the hills outside the window.

As much as Nera would have preferred to have been at home, it didn't quite have the same unpredictability that Hogwarts did. There was always something new to see or someone unfamiliar to spot around the castle.

Maybe she was getting ahead of herself. For a short moment, however, Nera did consider the fact that perhaps Ada Ostrowski might want to be her friend. That was ridiculous. Stupid, even. Even as Nera told herself not to allow that thought to linger in her mind for too long, she could feel a small spark of hope.

No. Nera wouldn't allow herself to feel that kind of disappointment again. She didn't want to feel that same pain as on her 8th birthday. That had been the year that, for whatever reason, Nera had convinced herself her mother was going to return home. That had been her hope for months, and was the wish she made when she blew out the right candles on her birthday cakes that year. But when her mother didn't walk through the door that day... It had been heartbreaking. And she'd seen how much her own sadness had also made her dad sad. So Nera had sworn to never allow the same thing to happen again.
Perhaps it was over dramatic, but it was most importantly self preservation.

She just had to keep her head down and focus on her studies. Easy.