The Devil You Know

Regulus Black x Muggleborn OC | Enemies to Lovers | Slow Burn | Marauders Era | 1979 | Canon-Divergent

Summary:

She's a Muggleborn orphan with no name anyone remembers and a past she doesn't speak about-not to the other girls in Gryffindor Tower, not to the professors who think they know her, and certainly not to the pureblood boy who's just been assigned to tutor her.

He's Regulus Black: heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House, model Slytherin, poster child for the kind of pureblood perfection that gets you killed in a war you were born into. Cold, composed, untouchable-and completely unwilling to waste his time on a girl he's been taught to despise.

But it's 1979, and nothing is safe anymore. Not the corridors, not the curriculum, not even the truth. The war brewing outside the castle walls has begun to seep in, staining the edges of their carefully separate lives. And when a failing grade forces them into close quarters, neither of them can afford to walk away.

Not unless they want to lose more than just the year.

Thrown together in the bowels of the castle twice a week-where the torches sputter and the shadows whisper-they begin to unravel each other. Slowly. Reluctantly. Painfully. Because she doesn't trust anyone, and he doesn't feel anything. Because they were never supposed to meet in the middle.

But the devil you know is still a devil.
And sometimes, the only way out is through the fire.

Themes:
- Introspective character study
- Moral ambiguity and survival
- Class divide & blood politics
- Repressed desire and reluctant vulnerability
- Late-night study sessions, clandestine cigarettes, near-touches that feel like confessions
- A love story that never asks for forgiveness, only understanding

Tropes:
- Enemies to reluctant allies to lovers
- Forced proximity (tutoring)
- Hurt/comfort
- "There was only one bed" (eventually)
- Mutual pining, but repressed to hell
- He falls first (but she falls harder)