He stood in front of the cave, wind whipping his dark hair away from his face, the house-elf at his side. Like an old man who already had seen too much of the world, he slowly walked through the veil of darkness at the opening of the cave, entering it like prey willingly walking into the mouth of a great sea monster. Inside it was darker than midnight- an eerie darkness- and he wished he could go back, that he never knew what was inside the beast.

Pride cometh before a fall

-proverb

"Goodbye, Regulus." Orion clapped his son on the back; glancing over the boy's dark head, he saw the face of his other child. "Sirius."

Sirius glared at his father for a moment before spinning around and stalking off towards where the train waited like a red, fiery dragon. Regulus winced. Gryffindor colors, not a good sign. Ever since Sirius had sent a short letter home from Hogwarts- year before last- saying "I'm in Gryffindor. See you next summer," did Regulus long to be in Slytherin. He would be a good Black. He would make his parents proud.

Orion looked down at his son again. "Make us proud," he whispered. The boy turned around and took a step forward to the Hogwarts Express. A heavy hand gripped his shoulder, and he froze. "Toujours pur," his father said, and Regulus ran to catch up with the taller boy

Regulus followed his older brother onto the train. He paused at the door between compartments, wondering if he should follow Sirius or not. Just then, Sirius stuck his head out the right-hand side compartment door. "Go away, Regulus. Go make your own friends." When Regulus hesitated, Sirius continued on: "Go. I don't want anything to do with you; don't talk to me; don't bother my friends. Go find some pureblood to hang out with, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm not your brother here. You hear?"

Regulus nodded slowly, his face slowly draining of emotion. "Fine. Fine. I'm going." He turned away from the other boy whose face so resembled his own and whispered to himself, "Blood traitor." Out of the corner of his eye, Regulus saw Sirius glaring at him, but both boys decided it wasn't worth it to argue. "Fine," said Regulus one last time. "If you're not my brother here, you're not a Black."

"Good. Now GO AWAY!" Sirius disappeared inside the compartment and Regulus went through the door on the left. Inside was a boy who looked about his age, with brownish- blond hair and dark eyes.

"Hello," Regulus said uncertainly.

"Hello," the boy responded. "Are you in first year?"

Regulus nodded slowly. "Why?"

"I am too, but so far I haven't seen anyone else who is. Just some prefect with white hair and a boy with glasses." The boy glanced at Regulus. "What house do you think you'll be in? My father was in Ravenclaw but I- I want to be Slytherin."

Regulus slowly relaxed. "Me too. About the houses, I mean. My mum and dad were in Slytherin but my older brother- oh, nevermind."

"No, really, what? He- he is our kind, isn't he? I mean, he's a wizard, right?"

"Of course he is, what did you expect? It just doesn't stop him from being the world's biggest blood traitor there is. He ended up in Gryffindor, of all places!"

The other boy smiled. "Say, what's your name? I'm Bartemius- well, Barty, don't call me Bartemius- Crouch."

"Bartemius Crouch? Crouch? You know him?" Regulus was amazed.

"He's my dad. So who are you anyways?"

"Regulus Black."

"Christ- Black?" Barty stood up. "Wow. Black. I've heard about your brother- umm, Cyrus? I see what you mean about the blood traitor thing."

"Sirius. Like the star. It's in Canis Major; Regulus is a star in Alpha Leo." Regulus was embarrassed to talk about his brother, but at least Barty didn't seem ready to judge him because he had a Gryffindor in his family. Barty smiled again and gestured at the seat across from him.

"Sit. Did you see the Daily Prophet this morning?"

"Eh- no," said Regulus, wondering if he had missed something.

"Oh, well, Dad always has it with him so I read it sometimes. But anyways- did you see the front page? They say he's struck again." Barty's face glowed with a wild fervor.

"Who?"

"Christ, don't you know? They're calling him the Dark Lord, but he calls himself Lord Voldemort. He wants to get rid of the muggles and mudbloods, put purebloods back in their rightful place, you know what I mean?"

"I do actually," said a cool voice from the doorway. "So did a very nice man by the name of Adolf Hitler. Have you seen my brother anywhere?" The speaker was a girl about Regulus's age with white-blonde hair and cold grey eyes. Regulus was thrown for a moment; the sudden change of topic having knocked him off balance- he didn't even know who this Hitler man was, but he responded anyway.

Regulus said seeing as he didn't even know who she was; it would be hard to tell if he'd ever seen her brother in his life. She grinned- it really wasn't much of a wide grin, but the way her face seemed to smile along with her lips and the coolness of her features seemed to make it appear happier than it was. She had a look on her face like someone who knew too much of the world to know it was black and white, but all variations of grey; she looked like someone who knew what hatred was but still knew that life was beautiful for all its cruelty.

"My name's Rocella, Rocella Malfoy," she said. Regulus watched her go, something inside him knowing it wouldn't be the first time.

A few hours later, he watched her sit down next to Barty Crouch and him at the Slytherin table, hoping his brother wasn't glowering at him this very moment, half-hoping he would. Regulus would make his parents proud.
I don't think this was as good as the first chapter, but it will get better again. I NEED MORE QUOTES, PEOPLE!! A little help here!

Anyway, sorry if I don't update this very often cos for some reason I am only able to write this at a computer, and I'm in high school, people... Please be totally awesome and review this!!