Disclaimer: This story is written for entertainment purposes only. The only characters I own so far are Steph and Ryan.

Authors Note: This is a rewrite of Not What You Think. I've changed some parts, mainly because I don't think I have portrayed Mrs Black very well, I think Bellatrix was unrealistic, and I wanted to give a bit more insight into the some of the background characters.

Almost all we know about Regulus Black from the Harry Potter books comes from Sirius and Kreacher. From what Sirius says, it is clear that his relationship with his brother was not a good one, so is what is said actually the truth? How well did he know his brother and did Regulus keep secrets from him? What if Regulus actually had the same views as Sirius? This tells the story of life in the Black family from Regulus's point of view from ages nine to twelve. First in series (next story is ages 13-16).

This story is AU because of Regulus's views, and because Narcissa and Andromeda are younger than their cannon ages. I wanted them to attend Hogwarts with Sirius and Regulus to make the story more interesting. This first chapter is set around the spring before Sirius goes to Hogwarts. Bella is 18 nearly 19, Andromeda is 15, Sirius is 11, Narcissa is 10 and Regulus is 9. All nick names in this chapter are those used by Regulus, not by Sirius. The names change according to who is speaking.

Chapter One: Regulus Meets A Mudblood

Cissy's new shoes collided with my shin. I knew it had been her because she was trying to suppress a giggle, and Sirius couldn't reach that far. I glanced under the table to take a look, but I couldn't tell whether she'd made a mark or not because of my trouser leg. It actually hurt a lot, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want Bella to call me a baby again.

We were supposed to be sitting quietly at the dinner table, as Mother had said it was a special occasion. Mother, Father, Sirius and I had all been invited for dinner at our cousins' house to celebrate Bella's recent engagement to Rodolphus Lestrange. Bellatrix wasn't exactly happy about everyone getting together just to talk about the marriage and I wasn't happy about the marriage at all.

"He's slow, ugly and has no heart whatsoever, but if he's pureblood and it stops my Mother complaining about me not finding a husband then he'll do," Bella had said to me once in private. That had been in her sixth year, when they'd only just started 'dating'. Bella had said she'd only said yes to him to make her parents stop pestering her, but by the end of the year they were happily in love (well that's what Bella had said anyway) I doubted it was true - I'd seen the looks of disgust she usually gave him. I, on the other hand, had never liked Lestrange and never would.

Right now, Sirius, Narcissa and I were getting bored waiting for my Aunt's house elf to return with dessert. Since we weren't even of Hogwarts age yet, none of us were allowed to talk unless we were asked a question. This meant that there was nothing to do except listen to the grownups conversation.

"The Lestranges are very high up in the Ministry, aren't they?" my Father commented. This wasn't really a question since Father worked in the same department as Rodolphus's father, and the grownups had been discussing how 'wonderful' the Lestranges were since half way through our starter.

"Yes, and I've heard Rodolphus is following in his Father's footsteps," my Aunt replied. "He's only 19 and he's already landed himself an office job in the Department of Magical Defence."

Aunt Druella then went on another rant about how 'amazingly' talented he was. I looked across the table at Bella, who looked like she was ready to murder her mother. Meanwhile, Andromeda looked extremely uncomfortable and was probably desperately hoping that my Aunt wouldn't mention Rabastan again. Rabastan was Rodolphus's sadistic younger brother, and my Aunt thought it would be 'an absolutely wonderful idea' to set him up with her other daughter.

As if on cue, an elderly House Elf tottered into the room carrying a tray laden with bowls of strawberry meringue. A second, younger Houser Elf stood behind with another tray: this one with an ornate glass pitcher of white, sparkling wine and five wine glasses. Aunt Druella paused in her conversation to acknowledge them before continuing to talk whilst the House Elves laid the table. I waited until everyone had been served before tucking in.

Cissy was the first to finish and quietly raised her hand.

"Yes, Narcissa," said her Father.

"Please may I leave the table, Father?"

"Yes of course dear. Run along and play with your cousins," he said kindly. "And you too, Andromeda."

The four of us got down from the table and left the grownups in the dining room to discuss weddings and politics, and to eat their puddings at snail's pace. Cissy ran straight up towards the Nursery, which was full of porcelain dolls, dolls' houses, and pink, frilly things. Sirius followed her upstairs, which left me alone with Andromeda.

Andromeda was fifteen and a fourth year at Hogwarts. However, she was here for the Easter Holidays. She was my favourite cousin to talk to, especially since she had started Hogwarts and new lots of spells. She also liked to read, which was one of my favourite hobbies – other than drawing. Sometimes we could sit next to each other for hours just reading. Cissy was friendly, but a bit too talkative and far too girly.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" she asked me. "The others won't be done talking for ages yet so we've got plenty of time."

"Yeah, OK."

Andromeda popped her head back around the door to the dining room. "Father, is it alright if I go out for a while," I heard her ask.

"Yes of course dear, but will you take the boys with you so that we may enjoy some peace and quiet?"

"Yes Father."

…..

Five minutes later, we were out of the house and heading down the main road. Earlier we had gone upstairs to look for Sirius, but had found only Cissy, who had been sitting quietly brushing the hair of one of her favourite dolls. She had said that Sirius had gone off to explore the attic and that he wouldn't want to come anyway.

"So where are we actually going?" I asked my cousin. I had assumed we would be going to the park, but we were heading in the complete opposite direction. If Andromeda didn't turn off soon we'd be in the muggle district. I didn't mind muggles: Sirius had taken me to a different park to the usual one once and there had been some muggles there. They had been fun to play with until one of the muggle boys had asked me what my favourite 'TV program' was. I hadn't known what they'd meant (and I still didn't), and the boy had laughed at me.

"Well I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend and his cousins in a few minutes. Are you alright to come too?"

"I think so," I replied. "Do you not want me to come?" I asked. Meeting with her boyfriend sounded like it ought to be private.

"No, I wanted you and Sirius to meet him. He's called Ted and he said he has a little cousin your age that he'd like you to meet. I planned the meeting to coincide with you visiting us," said Andromeda.

"But what if Uncle Cygnus had said you weren't allowed out?" I asked.

"Father almost always trusts me enough to let me do what I want. And if he hadn't let me, Ted would understand."

"What's he like? Is he scary like Rodolphus is?" I asked. Once when I was four, he had locked me in a cupboard with a Boggart, which had turned into an Inferus. I still had nightmares about it sometimes.

"Who, Ted?" she asked.

"Yeah," I confirmed.

"No, he's really nice. He's not scary at all. I think you'll like him actually."

"Cool."

"Oh, and another thing. Erm, Ted's not exactly a pureblood," added Andromeda.

"You're dating a Half-blood? But Auntie and Uncle and Bella will hate him! And Mother won't even let half-breeds through the door, even if they're from the Ministry of Magic," I said.

"Um… well… Ted's not a Half-blood either. He's Muggleborn."

"What? But Bella said that Mudbloods were evil, scary mud people. She said that was why they were called Mudbloods, because they had had mud instead of blood. Why are you dating a that?"

"Reggie, first of all, don't call them Mudbloods. It's rude. And secondly, don't believe everything my sister tells you because she makes most of it up," Andromeda said in an exasperated tone.

"So they don't live in swamps then?"

"No! They're no different to us. They're just wizards with muggle parents so they don't know as much about wizarding culture that's all."

We rounded the corner and saw two boys about Andromeda's age wearing muggle clothing, and a smaller girl beside them. Andromeda ran and hugged one of them, who had brown hair and blue eyes.

"Hello, sorry I've only just escaped from dinner. By the way this is my cousin, Reggie."

"Hi, I'm Ted Tonks," said the brown haired boy, holding out his hand. I shook it, and noticed that it was clean and soft like mine, with not a trace of mud on it. "These are my cousins, Ryan and Stephannie," he continued, pointing at the other two.

I stuck out me hand for them to shake, which they did. Both of them had very dark brown hair, but while Ryan's was cut short in the same style as Ted's, Stephannie had hers in two long plaits. They both had the same blue eyes and the same shaped nose as Ted did.

"Hi, I'm Regulus," I said, even though Andromeda had already introduced me using the nickname Reggie: usually only family or very close friends called me that.

"I'm Ryan," said Ryan.

"Hi, I'm Stephannie, but you can call me Steph if you like," said the girl. "Do you want me to call you Reggie or Regulus?"

"Er, Reggie," I said, since she'd already said I could shorten her name.

"Come on, follow me. We'll go to my place 'cos it's nearer," Ryan said.

Andromeda and I walked followed the two boys through the muggle streets. As we got further from home, the streets became narrower, and the houses became shorter and thinner. There were also more muggle children playing in the streets. They didn't really look any different to wizards and, if I hadn't known that this was a muggle neighbourhood, I would have thought that they were wizarding children like I was. When I mentioned this Andromeda just looked exasperated and told me that the only difference between muggles and wizards was that muggles were unable to do magic. After that I didn't say anything.

When we reached Ryan's house, he led us up the garden path before letting himself and the rest of us in. I took off my shoes and left them by the door like everyone else had and then stared around at the hallway in amazement. The walls were painted a light blue colour, like the sky, and the floor was covered by a soft, darker blue carpet. That wasn't particularly remarkable. What were odd were the pictures all over the walls. The first of which was a picture of two people, whom I presumed were Ryan and Stephannie's parents, wearing wedding outfits. Another showed the same man, this time lot younger, wearing rather odd-looking, black robes, and a peculiar, square-shaped hat (I guessed this was some kind of muggle fashion). However, instead of waving at me they just stood there smiling – silent and rigid like statues.

"Why are they so still?" I asked.

Andromeda sighed and shook her head, willing me to shut up. Ryan just looked confused.

"Muggle photographs don't move like wizarding ones do," Ted answered eventually.

"What? Not at all? But don't the people in the picture get bored being stuck in the same position?"

"No, our photos just capture the exact moment when the picture is taken. When I first went to Hogwarts I was really confused that the pictures in the photographs on the chocolate frog cards moved. And I nearly jumped out of my skin when one of the portraits started talking." I found that hard to believe. At home all the portraits talked to me all the time. Maybe muggle portraits were as still as muggle photographs were.

I followed them upstairs. When we reached the first floor landing they stopped and Ryan opened the door to a room with bright red wall paper. I was shocked at how many toys there were. There was a dolls' house (a lot less fancy than Cissy's but still obviously recognisable as one); what appeared to be a very loopy and dangerous miniature road with pretend muggle cars on it (some of which were upside-down); a huge marble run taking up a quarter of the room, and lots of tiny multi-coloured bricks all over the floor. Mother would have gone berserk at me if I'd made a mess like that.

"Sorry about the mess. I was playing with the Lego earlier and I didn't know anyone was coming over." I presumed that "Lego" meant the bricks, for they looked like the thing that had most recently been played with. I wasn't sure what to say, so I didn't say anything. Steph asked me if I wanted to play and I said yes. We started building a castle.

Steph hadn't actually got enough 'Lego' or starting base to build a castle like Hogwarts, so we built a simple castle with four turrets in a square shape.

"Have you ever been to a castle?" Steph asked.

"No, but my brother Sirius is going to one to learn magic in September. I wish I could go too," I said. It wasn't the fact that Sirius would be learning magic when I wasn't that bothered me. It was the thought of being left alone in the lonely big house while Sirius got to make loads of new friends and play Quidditch that had me longing to go with him.

"Learn magic eh? My Mum told me magic wasn't real but I didn't believe her!" said Steph. Evidently Ted had kept his mouth shut about magic to the rest of his family. I hoped I wouldn't get in trouble for mentioning it.

"Well I think wizards try to keep it secret. I don't really know why," I said.

"Why you telling me then?" she said laughing.

"My cousin Bella says I shouldn't be talking about magic to muggles – non magical people – but my other cousin, Andy, says I shouldn't listen to what Bella says, so I'm doing the opposite of what Bella says from now on," I said. The idea was pretty funny, but then I realised that what Bella says might be based on what Mother says, in which case it would be very bad idea indeed.

"So, what else do you know about the castle then? Is it like this one?" I looked at the red, yellow, blue and green striped, four-walled, miniature castle. It looked nothing like the pictures of Hogwarts that Andy and Bella had shown me.

"No, it's bigger," I said.

"Obviously."

"Well, I've never been to it, but I've read all about it in 'Hogwarts: A History'. That's a big book about the school. The great hall has the ceiling charmed to look like the sky and it's absolutely immense," I said. Steph looked impressed. "If you like, I'll lend you it – the book I mean, not the hall," I added, as I looked at the expression on Steph's face. "If Andromeda brings me again, I'll bring it with me and you can read it."

"Thank you. So will you miss your brother when he goes there?"

"Yeah. We don't get on all the time, but when he plays with me it's fun," I said. I'd only just met her, so I didn't tell her how Sirius always blames me whenever anything goes wrong, how even if Sirius does get the blame, I still get punished after, or that Sirius thinks I am "weak, stupid, and a baby". I'm none of those things – well at least I don't think I am.

Just then, a woman who looked a lot like Steph and her brother entered the room.

"Stephannie, I'm just putting tea on. Can you please tidy up that awful mess, because I need to Hoover in here," she said. "Oh, hello, who's this?

"Reggie," I said.

"Oh. Are you related to Andromeda by any chance?" she asked. People usually said that Andromeda and I looked alike. I didn't really think we did: she had brown hair, whilst I had black hair. Our eyes were also different colours. However everyone would say that our faces were very similar.

"Yeah, she's my cousin," I replied.

Steph's mum didn't seem to have any problem with having to cook for uninvited guests, which I found odd. Steph and I chucked all the unused Lego into a box and then shoved it all under the bed. After we had done this, a strange loud noise started up. I jumped and clutched Stephannie in fright, but I managed to stop myself from screaming as the noise grew louder.

"Don't worry, it's just the Hoover," she told me, laughing.

"The what?" I asked. I'd never heard of a hoover before.

"Hoover. It's for cleaning," she said, pointing over at her mother. Her mother appeared to be standing next to a strange red monster with a very long, black nose, to which she had attached a pole with a brush on the end of it. I presumed the loud noise was because the creature did not want the pole to be attached to its nose.

"Don't you have a house elf to do that?" I asked, staring confusedly at Steph's mother's rather odd cleaning methods. Surely it would have been a lot simpler to use a broom or a mop, or whatever it was that Kreacher normally used to clean the floors with.

"House elf? I thought they were pretend. I've got a book all about them though."

"Oops. I thought everyone had house-elves," I said.

We looked at Steph's picture book with the house-elves in it. There were also fairies, leprechauns, pixies and mermaids in it too, and Steph said I could borrow it if I wanted. I said yes. It would be interesting to compare what wizards and muggles thought about magical creatures.

Soon it was time for tea. Steph's mum had made sausages, beans and some yellow, smiley-face shaped things. Ryan told me they were made of potato, like chips. I ate the sausage and beans, which were really nice, but then I was left with smiling faces, which I really didn't really want to cut into. Steph plonked hers in a blob of red sauce, so that redness came through the eyes and mouth. I imagined it was Cissy's face with blood coming out, and it made me feel sick. I didn't eat any more.

After eating, Andromeda took me home to her house again. Uncle Cygnus answered the door and led us into the drawing room where Aunt Druella, Bella, Cissy and my father were sitting drinking tea. Cissy also had a plate full of jam-laden scones, which nobody seemed bothered about. No one said where Mother was, but they didn't need to – I could hear her yelling at Sirius for messing with things in the attic that he shouldn't have been touching. The outcome was that Sirius was to go to bed with no supper and that next time we came he wouldn't be able to go off on his own.

Cissy, who had her lips covered in cream and jam, passed me the plate and I sat down next to her. I took one of the scones and passed the plate on to Andromeda.

"Narcissa, will you please eat a little more delicately. Especially since we have company," my Aunt said.

"Yes Mother."

"And for goodness sake, sit up straight dear!" she barked.

"Yes Mother."

Just then, my own Mother entered, dragging an unhappy-looking Sirius by the scruff of the neck.

AN: So, that's the end of the chapter. I know it's really similar to how it was before, but there were bits of my story that made no sense and that I really didn't like when looking back. I've tried to change them around. Any guesses as to what Sirius was messing with? Tell me what you think so far. How is my characterisation?