Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or any of the associated characters.

AN: This chapter is set a few weeks after the previous one. I am assuming that pureblood children aren't taught about non-magical things, and I've extended this to exotic animals. By the way, Sirius has never been under the Cruciatus Curse and has absolutely no idea that his brother has been under it before. Tell me what you think.

Thanks to all those people who were nice enough to review.

Chapter Nine: New Creatures

I hated term time, for the simple reason that there was nothing to do. During the weekdays, Father would go to work at the Ministry and Mother would try to educate Sirius and I, but on the weekends, when there were no lessons, there was nothing to do. Andromeda was at Hogwarts, and my only other cousin who liked me enough to play with me was Narcissa, and I didn't really want to play with her. For some odd reason, Sirius refused to play with me, saying I only wanted to play baby games, and that I was boring; he would rather sit on his own in his room than play with me.

In the end, I decided to play chess with Kreacher. Kreacher wasn't the best opponent ever, since he kept letting me win, but was better than no opponent at all. I tried ordering him to try and beat me, but I still won every single game. For example, in our latest game, Kreacher had one pawn and a king, while I had Knight, a rook and a Queen (which used to be a pawn). There was no way Kreacher was going to win the game.

After winning forty games of chess against the poor house-elf, I figured that Kreacher's talents would be better used elsewhere, e.g. for making lunch ready to eat in half an hour or so. I ran upstairs to check in on Sirius, who at that time was still sitting brooding in his room – the was no chance at all that he'd take the time to play with me, so I went into my own bedroom. I reached under the bed where I kept my muggle books. I had recently given Stephannie back the book she gave me, as well as 'Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them' and 'Tales of Beadle the Bard', while she had given me back 'Hogwarts: A history' and lent me 'Animals of the world' and 'Grim's Fairytales'.

I chose the animal book, and decided to draw pictures of some of the animals. I drew long grass at the bottom of the paper, and then drew a gazelle, a zebra and an okapi eating some trees.

"What is that supposed to be?" asked Sirius, pointing at the okapi. I hadn't noticed he was standing behind me.

"What does it look like Siri?" I asked. I don't really blame him for not knowing. I'd never seen one until I read the muggle book – I guess Mother and Father haven't told us about non-magical, non-pet creatures.

"It looks like a deer with stripy legs," he said. I pointed out that it was actually more like a giraffe than a deer, but Sirius either wasn't listening or didn't care.

"It's called an Okapi," I told him.

"How come I've never seen one before?" asked Sirius.

"How about because it lives in Africa, and we live in London, where there are no animals anyway."

Sirius thought for a moment, and then looked as if he had just remembered something. "Oh yeah, Mother says lunch is ready," he said.

…..

By the time lunch was finished, it was two 'o' clock in the afternoon. Sirius and Mother had had another argument about blood purity, and although I knew Sirius was right, I had kept quiet – I was still scared to back Sirius up after what Mother had told me about punishing us harder if I got involved, even though it was nearly a month ago now. When the shouting match was over, Sirius was told to stay in his room for the remainder of the day, which didn't make much difference, as it was probably where he was planning to spend his time anyway.

Mother was still in a terrible mood, so I asked Father if I could go to Becky's house instead. Father took me, and I was very nervous, as this would be the first time I'd seen her since Diagon Alley. I'd been avoiding talking to her since Tigress was… since my kitten died, and I owed her an explanation as to why I hadn't spoken to her for a month. I just didn't know what to tell her.

I think Father knew what I was worried about, because when we arrived, he had a quiet word with Becky's mother about it, and then she told Becky quietly. I was thankful that father had talked to them for me, for now I wouldn't have to mention it, and I wouldn't get upset about it again. Sekhmet, who looked like a larger version of Tigress, wound her self around my legs and purred softly. She looked so much like Tigress had, that I couldn't help thinking about it.

We waited until Father left until we started talking properly. I told Becky how boring my life was back at home, and she told me how much more interesting hers was.

"Oh, by the way, Xenophilius told me to tell you that your head is full of wrackspurts," said her sister to me, poking her head around the doorframe.

"What's a wrackspurt?" I asked. That's the second new creature I've learnt about today.

"It's a tiny creature that floats through your ears and makes your brain go fuzzy," she said. Then, noticing Becky had cracked up laughing, she added, "and they're real you know. Xenophilius lent me his spectrespecs so that I can see them too you know. And he's right. Your heads are both full of them."

When she had gone, I ended up laughing too: Becky's laughter was infectious. "I don't care if she can see them with the spectrespecs," said Becky, "I refuse to believe that my head is full of tiny creatures." I myself wasn't quite so sure. I had recently been feeling quite 'fuzzy' or 'dizzy', but I wasn't sure whether that was because of the 'wrackspurts' or because Rodolphus kept using me to teach his brother how to do unforgivable curses. Actually, considering the things Becky's sister usually came out with, I decided it was more likely to be the latter reason.

I decided to tell Becky about my friend Stephannie, because her parents think it is Ok to talk to muggles. She thought it was brilliant that I was friends with a muggle, and that I didn't just blindly follow my parents and couldn't wait to meet her. The two of us set off to Stephannie's house.

It was lucky that I remembered where it was. It took us over an hour to get there because we had to walk from Becky's house to near my house, and then to Steph's house from there. As always, Steph's Mother was delighted to have guests round, even though she didn't know Becky.

Stephannie was playing outside, so her mother let us out the back. It was the first time that I had ever seen her garden, and it was very small – smaller than our kitchen at home. There was a small round pool in the middle of the lawn with a pretend dolphin floating in the water. I ran towards my muggle friend, who was just dressed in a swimming costume and was dripping wet, and stopped just in front of her.

"Hi Reggie!" she said brightly.

"Hi," I said. "This is my friend Rebecca-" I began, but Becky elbowed me in the ribs. "I mean this is Becky. She wanted to meet you."

"Hi Steph. Did you know your head is full of wrackspurts?" she said, in a perfectly dreamy imitation of her sister.

"What's a wrackspurt?" asked Stephannie. "Those weren't in that book you gave me."

"It wouldn't be. I think my sister or her boyfriend made them up," said Becky in her normal voice. I think Steph looked relieved that she wasn't actually completely bonkers.

"So, do you two want to play?" she asked. I said yes, and so did Becky. If we got soaking wet, Becky's parents would be able to make us dry again anyway. I took off my shoes and socks, and Becky tucked her dress into her pants so it would get wet. I thought it looked pretty stupid, but I didn't bother telling her that. We played at jumping in the water, then catch with her dolphin, and then tag in bare feet until her mother called us in for a drink.

We all sat down in the living room with towels underneath us so that we wouldn't make the chairs all wet. When her Mother had gone out of the room to make something called 'Hot Chocolate', Steph started asking awkward questions:

"So who's this dark lord person, you were telling me about in the letters, Reggie," she said. Becky gasped, shocked that I'd told this to a muggle.

"Well, I don't really know much about him, but it is sometimes talked about over dinner with important people. He is someone who doesn't like non-magical people and wants to only have a society with wizards in it," I said.

"My parents think it's a terrible idea," said Becky.

"Mine actually agree," I said sadly. "And I know Rodolphus and his brother are really keen to join up. I hate both of them right now though."

"You won't join will you?" Steph asked.

"Of course I won't," I said. "I'd rather have my arm chopped off than join."

"What if they don't give you that option though? What if they say 'kill all these people, or we'll kill you'?" she asked.

"Then I'll just have to die then won't I," I said.

…..

AN: The computer doesn't like my spelling of Steph's name, but it is spelt like it is because that is how the character wants their name spelt. It also tried to correct Lucius to luscious once or twice, and it really doesn't like Xenophilius Lovegood or Sekhmet (sachet).

Please have a look at my other stories.

Next chapter, Bellatrix will be going through her wedding list, and Regulus will be talking to the Lestranges again. Has anyone got any wonderful ideas for a prank that Sirius can pull at the wedding? If not, I'll send him off to Hogwarts soon anyway.

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