Regulus sat on the Hogwarts Express in silence. He'd managed to find a carriage away from his friends, though the compartment wasn't empty, and so had been left alone for most of the journey.
He hadn't bothered to change out of his school robes yet — he wasn't sure he wanted to — despite the train nearing Kings Cross. Any minute now, he thought, as he watched the familiar scenery pass him by.
He'd never get to see this sight again — he wouldn't be coming back to Hogwarts for work or misbehaving children — and he knew this. Once upon a time, he'd had dreams of becoming a teacher. Maybe History of Magic or Astronomy, the only mildly useful things being a Black had taught him. As it was now, he would be lucky to make it to his twenty-fifth birthday.
He didn't want this train ride to end, because he knew what that would mean. It would signify the end of his childhood, and he wasn't sure he was ready for that. Hogwarts was safe and welcoming, even to people like him, and the real world was not.
Regulus had no allusions to the contrary.