Completed for the forum on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)

Assignment #10 Woman's History - task four: write a reincarnation AU

In 1979 during one of the Wizarding Wars, Regulus Black is assumed dead. The few who knew him believe that he got cold feet and tried to escape the Dark Lord after joining and becoming a Death Eater. At the time of his death, Regulus Black is a boy still – 18 years old.

Draco Malfoy is born in 1980 before the war ends a year later. He is born to Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. His father is a known Death Eater and a Pureblood of high status. His mother is widely accepted as a Voldemort sympathiser and is also a Pureblood of high class. Upon Draco Malfoy's birth, everyone already has expectations of the boy. He will be one of the most powerful Purebloods based on his blood status and his position as heir of the Malfoy name. He will be a Death Eater and a Voldemort sympathiser due to his parents. He will always be one of the wizards who uses the Dark Arts.

In one world, Draco grows up meeting people's expectations. In another universe, Draco grows up… differently. It is not a bad thing – there is nothing wrong with him. He's just a quiet boy, one who sticks in the shadows rather than boasting arrogantly.

"A true Slytherin," his father will tell him when he is older and ready to go to Hogwarts already.

"A true Black," his mother will tell him as she bids him goodnight.

When his parents tell him this, Draco never responds that he is a Slytherin, that he is a Black. He doesn't tell them that he has been to Hogwarts once, that he had once been Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Black, that he had once been a Death Eater, that he had once followed the Dark Lord, that he had died (can't breathe can't-breathe-can't breathcan'tbreathecaN'tBReAThE).

Draco doesn't tell his parents any of this, because they don't need to know, because Regulus once reached out and then his brother left, because reaching out means weakness, because there are no allies you can trust.

So, yes, Draco grows up with two sets of memories. One is from another life of another boy, a Pureblood, a Slytherin, a Death Eater, a brother. One is of a boy still growing, a Pureblood, a will-be Slytherin, a boy who remembers a past life.

He never brushed off his memories as false or told his parents about them because there are things you can imagine, and then there are memories of dying, memories of cruelty, memories of pain, memories of ill-treatment of other species, memories of killing other human beings. Draco sometimes wakes up sick from a nightmare, but that isn't important. What is important is that Draco remembers – he remembers Regulus' regret.

This is where things change.

When Draco enters the Slytherin common room – after years and years of being away from it, away from the place he had come to see as home – all his plans of hiding away, of staying in the shadows, of remaining unnoticed disappear.

There's no real reason for it except-

Except.

Draco enters Slytherin expecting to see laughter because it's the one place they don't have to hide. Loyalty to one another above everything else – everything. Except, he enters and instead of laughter there is fear.

He remembers three-quarters of the school booing him as he walks from the Sorting Hat to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall.

The Slytherin of Regulus Black had been a place of retreat, of relief – from both the war and the hostility from the other houses. Yes, there were definitely some problems with the Pureblood regime and the steadfast belief that being a Pureblood meant being the best, and that dirtying the blood in any way was bad. But Draco can't see that as anything but a lie – Tom Riddle had been a half-blood. The Dark Lord was defeated by a child of a muggleborn and a Pureblood. Surely, surely, that's meaningful.

So, Draco walks into the Slytherin common room and can't help but regret what Slytherin has come to. He regrets what Slytherin had been in his past life as well. Slytherin is nothing but a mess, a combination of a bad reputation and terrible morals. The hostility it is treated with by the other houses – if the Slytherins hadn't already been against them, then they were now.

He sees the way that certain members of the house are shrinking against the walls, hiding themselves in the shadows – but without reason, or maybe with one – just a bad one. There are others that hide themselves in groups. Half-bloods and muggleborns. They already lack safety in Slytherin. Draco's sure that Slytherin isn't meant to be like this. Maybe they have a bad reputation now, but they can change it. They can fight the system, they can fight everything they are, fight with everything they have.

Draco looks around – there are seventh year students here, fourth year students too, first years as well. He can't expect to win them all over, but-

There are enough people around to ignore him, to brush him off. He has his own name to throw around, his Pureblood lineage. He can either be ridiculed here – lose everything that has ever been his, everything he has been born with – or he can form Slytherin into something more, something greater, something new.

The Dark Lord rose because three-quarters of the school booed a half-blood without a family. Draco doesn't want that to happen again – doesn't want anything like it to ever happen. He wants Slytherin to prove their might, their power without needing to resort to violence.

The potential is there – these kids have potential with their ambition, their loyalty, their stubbornness, their fight. They could be great. Draco wants to see it happen.

Regulus Black died to kill a Dark Lord who looked down on his friend. It's only right Draco takes the memory of the boy he once was and uses it to make Slytherin a house full of Regulus Blacks.

And to do that – to do that he's going to need to speak up. That's what he has to do then – speak up, stand up, keep his head held high, let his eyes speak for him. He swallows and then he talks. He wonders if they'll listen or if he'll be laughed at – but for Slytherin, he is willing to try; because of Regulus Black, he gets to have that chance.

I've kinda really liked this idea for a while, and so I finally wrote a bit of it. I wanted to leave it open-ended because I don't really know how I'd go about it too much. There's potential here, and I'd enjoy developing this a bit deeper, but I'd really need someone to bounce ideas off to figure it out.

Anyway, I got this done, so I hope you enjoy?