The Half-Blood Princess

[Chapter 2]

Adelia found herself in a compartment with her brother, their friend from home – Lily –, and the nervous butterflies in her stomach.

She was worried. What if she was sorted into the wrong House? What if she wasn’t sorted into Slytherin, like Sev? Who would look out for her then?

Honestly, she didn’t think she belonged in any of the Houses.

She wasn’t brave like the Gryffindors.
She wasn’t hard working like the Hufflepuffs.
She wasn’t smart like the Ravenclaws.
She wasn’t cunning like the Slytherins.

She didn’t fit anywhere. Some days, she feared she would never fit in anywhere at all.

“Are you nervous, Leah?” Lily asked from where she sat across from Adelia.

The pale child nodded.

Lily smiled fondly and her green eyes sparked. “You’ll be fine. I was nervous too.”

“But at least you had Sev. I don’t know anyone.”

“You know me, and you know Sev.” Lily smiled reassuringly. “You can always come to either of us.”

Adelia nodded, but she wasn’t convinced.
She spent most of the train ride staring out the window as Lily and Sev conversed quietly.

“Leah,” Lily said, shaking the girl out of her reverie as she stood, “Come on. We should go change into our robes.”

Adelia nodded and followed Lily out of the compartment with a soft goodbye to Sev.

When Adelia had finished changing, she found Lily outside the bathroom waiting for her, already sporting her robes and Gryffindor insignia.

Lily began leading the way back their compartment when a voice stopped Adelia.

"Well if it isn't Adelia…" The girl whipped around, only to see the same boy from that day at Diagon Alley, Sirius Black.

Remembering her brother's words, she said nothing and tried to walk away.

However, the boy quickly caught up with her short strides.

Lily would be no help to the girl as she continued on her path to their compartment, unaware that her younger friend had been stopped.

"That's not very nice Adelia," he admonished. "I'm just trying to be friendly.”

Adelia rolled her eyes. She said quietly, "You're just talking to me to annoy my brother."

“And what makes you think that?” He said as he quickly jumped in front of her, blocking her path.

“Sev hates you.” Adelia said, as she tried to brush past him on the left.

Sirius smiled as he merely blocked her way again and took a step closer to her. Adelia took a step back in response.

“A-and,” she stuttered as he got closer and closer to her. “You hate him.”

“Oh?” Sirius said with a smirk upon his face. Adelia was uncomfortable with how close the boy was and Sirius was well aware of that fact.

“You know he doesn’t want me talking to you?”

“And do you do everything that your brother tells you to do?” Sirius smirked.

“N-no!” She protested, but was only annoyed with herself as she couldn’t stop herself from stuttering.

Sirius took another step toward her. Adelia took a larger step back and her back crashed into the wall.

The boy smirked as Adelia’s eyes widened.
Sirius placed both of his hands on either side of her head, trapping her in place.

“Adelia-”

“Stop saying my name like that!” She snapped.

And for the first time since he discovered her surname, he smiled.

Adelia found that it wasn’t too terrible a sight.

“Black!” But despite his name being called, Sirius did not move. He simply remained in close proximity to the girl and stared her down.

However, he was quickly shoved away from her.

“Sod off, Sirius.” Lily threw over her shoulder as she grabbed her young companion’s hand and pulled her down the train’s corridor.

“Sorry Leah.” Lily said apologetically. “I didn’t realize until I got back to the compartment that you weren’t with me. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she shrugged.

“Sirius can be an arrogant toe rag when he wants but he’s usually not that bad unless he’s with Potter.”

“Potter?” The girl asked as she followed Lily into the compartment and sat down. The name sounded familiar to her, probably from one of Sev’s letters.

“Potter,” Sev spat his name upon hearing their conversation, “is an arrogant arse who-”

“Try not to get too worked up, Sev.” Lily said with a small smile as she placed a hand on his arm to soothe him.

As Lily turned her gaze to the window, Adelia noted with a small smile that her brother was blushing.

Soon the train pulled into Hogsmeade station and the students filed off the train.

“First yers! First yers! Ov’r here!” Adelia’s eyes snapped to a large man standing on the platform.

“That’s Hagrid, Delia.” Sev said, standing at his side. “He’s the groundskeeper. You go with him in boats across the lake to get to Hogwarts.”

“L-lake?” She asked with the worry clearly evident in her tone.

“You’ll be fine, Leah.” Lily said, trying to assure her. “You’re safe with Hagrid.”

“Go, Delia.” Sev pushed her lightly toward the giant man.

The butterflies kept batting furiously in her stomach as she watched Sev and Lily walk away.

Adelia stood awkwardly with the other first years until everyone had gathered.
Hagrid then lead them to the edge of the lake where small wooden boats were waiting.

“Four to a boat!” Hagrid called out. “Four in each one!”

Glancing nervously as she clambered into a boat closest to the side of lake, she waited shakily for everyone else to be loaded in.

Hagrid garnered a boat for himself what with his rather large girth and all.

They were halfway across the lake when it happened.

A green light shot out from the darkness surrounding them and shook her boat.

Because she unable to stop herself from losing her balance, and her boat mates were unable stop her from falling, she tumbled over the side of the boat and into the Black Lake pulled.

Adelia was immediately submerged under the water. She tried to tread water to push her head above the water but it wasn’t working.

For a moment, she was above water before she slipped back under and darkness surrounded her.

Adelia was panicking. She’d never learned to swim. She was going to drown. This was it. She’d never be sorted. She’d never-

She felt suddenly something gain a tight grasp on her wrist. She thrashed and tried to struggle only to realize that the hand was not coming from the water to pull her down, but rather from above the surface, trying to pull her up.

Adelia stopped struggling and allowed herself to be pulled out of the water and onto a boat.

“Are you alright?”

The boy before he was an almost copy of Sirius Black himself.

“Are you alright?” The boy asked again as he placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her shaking.

She couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She was so cold.

“Here,” the boy said as he shrugged off his robe. It was like he read her thoughts, or perhaps he just saw her shivering.

“T-th-thanks-s.” She managed to stutter out.

The boy smiled at her. “What a way to start the year,” he chuckled. And despite her frozen state, she managed to throw him a small smile.

Once they got off the boats, Hagrid hurried to make sure that she was alright.

The prognosis was that she was fine, just shaken up a bit, as well as a tad frozen.

The boy stayed by her side as the group of first years entered the castle and stood in front of the doors to the Great Hall.

The group of eleven year olds, Adelia and the boy included, stood huddled together nervously as a Professor McGonagall, stood before them and gave them an introductory speech. Adelia barely heard it as she was busy stealing glances at the strange boy next to him.

McGonagall soon left the group to talk amongst themselves as she stepped into the Great Hall.

“I’m Regulus.” He said turning to her.

“Regulus Black, right?” She asked softly.

“Yes,” he said with a furrowed brow. “How did you-”

“I’ve met your brother.” She muttered unhappily.

“I see.” He mused. “Well-”

“Did you enjoy your swim, Adelia?” Both Adelia and Regulus’ eyes snapped to him.

“You could’ve killed her, Sirius.” Regulus replied icily.

Sirius’ eyes flickered to her for only a moment. “Caring about someone, Mum and Dad would be so disappointed,” he mocked.

“Sirius, come on.” A pale, brown-haired boy appeared behind Sirius. “We should go in before the sorting starts.

Sirius nodded at his friend before turning back to us. “Goodbye, Adelia.”

“I hate the way he says my name.” She muttered as they watched him walk through the doors to the Great Hall.

“Forget about him.” Regulus shrugged. “It’s what my parents do.”

She turned to question him, but McGonagall appeared back before them and led them into the Great Hall for sorting.

Adelia stared wearily at the hat that had just finished singing. This was it. This was how she was to be sorted.

She watched with anticipation as Regulus walked up to the hat.

A moment later, the hat yelled out “SLYTHERIN!”

He seemed happy with it and Adelia could only wait until her name was called. It was times like this that she wished her name wasn’t so far down in the alphabet.

Finally, her name was called.

Shakily, Adelia made her way, without tripping, up to the three-legged stool.

As she sat down, she caught her brother’s gaze. He smiled, reassuringly at her.
Further up the table, Regulus sat watching her intently.

Her eyes searched the Great Hall for her other friend. Finally she found Lily sitting at a table of gold and red.

Lily too smiled at her.

But then, involuntarily, before the brim of the hat slipped over her eyes, her eyes sought out Sirius. When his gaze met hers, he only smirked and sent her a little wave.

Her blood boiled. She couldn’t stand him! Why couldn’t he leave her alone? Why did he have to be so annoying? She wished she could just-

“SLYTHERIN!” The hat yelled out a house before she had spent a few seconds with it on.

As she made her way to the Slytherin table, which erupted in cheers, she caught his eyes again. This time, there was no wave. No smirk. His face was blank.

They simply stared at one another until Regulus grabbed her attention.