The Half-Blood Princess

Her first year had flown by quickly. It was just after finals that she found herself sitting with Regulus under the same tree where she’d spoken to Sirius during the holiday break.

She couldn’t forget what he had said to her that day. “Good old Regulus is exactly what my parents want from me. But being me, being a Gryffindor are only additions to the long list of disappointments that my parents have endured because of me.”

“Did you ever get along with him?” She had asked suddenly.

“Who?” He responded.

“Your brother.” She muttered quietly.

“When we were younger,” Regulus shrugged, “before I knew what he was like. Before I knew that he wasn’t like us. When we were younger I looked up to him. When I did something wrong, he would take the blame and get punished for it. His loyalty always astounded me. But he failed our parents; he failed me. He doesn’t think how he should. He doesn’t care about blood. He doesn’t see the importance.” Regulus said with anger evident in his voice.

“Maybe he thought he was doing what was right.” She muttered quietly as she leaned her head back against the rough bark of the tree.

Their first year was over. They had survived! Adelia was overjoyed! Her first year had gone better than she had expected. She made friends. She did well in her classes. The only downside the amount of torment she received from her best friend’s brother.

She didn’t understand Sirius. He had been so kind to her that day under the tree but then, once his friends returned, everything went back to normal. He tormented her more than his friends did; in fact his friends seemed to ignore her most of the time. It is her brother that they went fact. It seemed that Sirius was her own personal bully. But for the summer, it didn’t matter. School was done for the year and she wouldn’t have to see him for a few months. She was very pleased at the thought.

In a flurry of fellow students, Regulus and Adelia stayed together as they went through the barrier after getting off the train.

Despite her protests, Regulus dragged her over to where his parents were standing.

“Mother, father. I’d like you to meet Adelia Snape.”

Adelia’s stomach turned painfully as his parents looked at her. She could see the dislike in their eyes as clear as day. She nervously ran her fingers through her somewhat stringy hair. Noting Sirius standing nearby, she was somewhat glad to know she wasn’t the only uncomfortable one. She smiled politely and answered the Blacks’ probing questions all the while watching their eldest son out of the corner of her eye.

Sirius stood awkwardly with his parents, blatantly wishing to be elsewhere. She knew his parents must’ve made him leave his friends, no doubt people they didn’t approve of.

Adelia had stopped paying attention to the conversation between Regulus and his parents. She was too busy watching Sirius.

“Can Adelia come over for dinner during the summer, Mother?” Her eyes, now open wide, snapped to Regulus. His mother assented, but it was clearly not something she wanted to do.

Honestly, Adelia wouldn’t have minded if his mother had declined. She noted, out of the corner of her eye, that Sirius was now watching their exchange with a peculiar expression upon his face.

The date for their dinner arrived much sooner than Adelia liked. She was absolutely nervous. She knew she had to impress Regulus’ parents.

She came from the hearth and crashed right into someone. Feeling terribly embarrassed, she hurried to get up as she was lying on top of whoever she’d run into. However, she was paralyzed when her eyes met his.

“Sorry.” She muttered weakly.

“No problem.” He replied stiffly.

She scurried to get up but tripped over her own feet in the process. His arms caught her before she fell to the floor again as he had managed to get up much more gracefully than she had.

“Thanks.” She muttered, feeling even more horrified.

He said nothing and only moved to reach his hand out to wipe a bit of ash off her face. She felt goose bumps form where his fingers grazed her skin.

Uncomfortably, the pair stood in silence; Adelia shifted in her dress.

Sirius kept switching how he held himself: first with his hands in his pockets, then with his hands clasped behind his back, then with his arms crossed. He kept cycling through the positions all the while shifting his weight from one foot to the next.

“That’s not yours, is it?” Sirius asked noticing her discomfort.

“It’s a little big on me.” She muttered in embarrassment that she couldn’t afford her own dress. “I had to borrow it from Lily.”

Sirius didn’t meet her eyes as he stepped back and waved his wand over her dress. Instantly, it shrunk to fit her.

“Thank you.” She said again.

“You look—”

“Adelia!” Regulus said, appearing in the room. “You look nice.” He complimented as he pulled her into a hug.

Looking over Regulus’ shoulder, she watched as the elder brother limped out of the room with his hands clenched.

Dinner was a stiff affair. Everyone in the Black family was dressed to impress while Adelia’s dress made her uncomfortable.

Regulus sported a dark green dress shirt while Sirius was wearing a white dress shirt that was covered with a black sports jacket.

“We are quite proud of Regulus.” Walburga said with a smile on her face. It seemed unnatural to Adelia. “He is an outstanding Slytherin—”

“Because cruelness is to be admired much more than courage.” Sirius muttered sarcastically under his breath.

Walbura simply reached for her glass while glaring at her son.

“Sirius,” she said with an airy tone, “has always been such a disappointment to us, Amy—”

“Her name is Adelia.” Sirius interrupted but he was ignored.

“He is simply not as clever as our dear Regulus.” She said with a smile at her younger smile. “Wouldn’t you agree, Amy?”

She froze. That Sirius’ mother would so openly bash him in front of company and then ask her to confirm was astounding. Adelia did not know what to say.

She left she had to agree to be in Walburga’s good graces, but she knew that Sirius Black was anything but a disappointment. Granted, he did tend to be a bit bipolar in regards to her but his pranks were usually quite intelligent and thought out. She’d heard from Lily that Sirius could excel in class if he tried.

She tried to find an answer that would appease Walburga and not insult her tormentor at the same time, “I think—”

Suddenly, small house-elf appeared in the dinning room with a dinner platter. He hovered it to the table, bowed, and then returned to leave.

The creature was stoppe,d however, by Regulus.

“Kreacher,” Regulus began gently, “you didn’t greet our guest.”

Kreacher turned to face his master. “Why would Kreacher? Mistress Walburga called her a filthy half-blood! Kreacher does not—”

“Kreacher!” Sirius yelled standing up forcefully with his wand pointed at the house elf. Sirius’ movement caused the plates, silverware, and glasses to shake on the table.

“Sit down.” Mrs. Black said coldly, as if her house elf hadn’t just told Adelia what the Blacks really thought of her. A shiver went through Adelia and she could feel her face burning with embarrassment.

Sirius looked between Kreacher and his mother with his wand still outstretched. His eyes drifted from his mother to Kreacher to Adelia, sometimes staying too long on Adelia.

But finally the boy sat down slowly. Adelia knew he had decided to not test his mother; Adelia knew, judging by his limp, that it hadn’t been the first time he had tried his mother’s nerves today. The dinner commenced once again without a word about what had happened.

Finally, much to Adelia’s happiness and comfort, the night was over. Regulus and Adelia were standing before the fireplace to say goodbye when Regulus was called out of the room by his mother for a moment.

Adelia closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to will herself not to cry from the night’s events. She thought Regulus didn’t care about blood, or at least that he didn’t care about hers. But if his parents did, Adelia knew Regulus would too.

“Don’t— Don’t care about what they think.” Adelia’s eyes shot open to look at the boy leaning against the doorframe. “It doesn’t matter what they think.”

“But what—” To her dismay, Adelia knew her voice trembled. “Regulus will agree with whatever they think and he won’t—”

“If he chooses to follow our parents that blindly then he isn’t someone you want to be friends with.” Sirius said with a hard edge in his voice.

Hearing footsteps approaching, they both silenced themselves. Siruis turned to leave but stopped. Over his shoulder he muttered, “Reg is right though, you do look nice tonight.” And then he was gone.