castle — halsey

"and there's an old man sitting on the throne there

saying that i probably shouldn't be so mean."


September 1, 1977

Sofia's neck was starting to hurt from her five-year-old brother clinging onto it like a monkey. She patted Vanya on the leg. "Buddy, come on, I'm not a tree."

She bent down so the kid could place his feet on the ground. Looking at his sad little face made Sofia's heart break.

She had to almost place her ear on his mouth to be able to hear Vanya's soft voice in the crowded train station. "I don't want you to go, Sonya."

She stroked his hair softly. "I know, Vanya. But I'll be back soon. Just like I always am."

"What about my birthday? You weren't here last year and Mami wouldn't let me save you a piece of cake." His big brown eyes glistened, and Sofia just prayed he wouldn't cry, because then she'd surely cry, and then their mum would probably cry, which might make Natasha cry, and then there'd just be Roman's thirteen-year-old aloof self, dealing with his crying family.

"I promise I'll be there this year, Vanya." She had no idea how she was going to pull it off after last year's fiasco, but all she knew was that she couldn't let her brother down again.

Vanya got the tiniest smile on his face, which subsequently turned into the biggest grin as he looked over his sister's shoulder. "SIRIUSHA!"

Sofia cringed internally at Vanya's Russian-ised nickname for Sirius.

Then he seemingly forgot Sofia's existence and flew past her, jumping right onto Sirius's open arms. Sofia rolled her eyes slightly. Of course, her brother was ditching her for her best friend. Her entire family adored Sirius, even Roman, who was thoroughly unimpressed by everything couldn't help but like the guy.

Sirius lifted Vanya off the ground easily and shook him around a little before setting him back on the ground. "Hey, bud."

He ruffled Vanya's hair before hugging Sofia in greeting. "You convince him not to come?"

Sofia let out a sigh and nodded. The him in question being her father, who had decided to show up in the lives of the family he'd pretty much abandoned five years prior just a couple of weeks ago.

Honestly, the ill-timed return of Mr Bessonov had delivered a gigantic blow to Sofia and her siblings and mother. They had seen him on occasion since he'd left and he still sent them money, and even though she'd wished for years he'd come back for good, she'd eventually made peace with his departure. But now he wanted in again. And the worst part was that she couldn't even resent him for it. It upset her, she wanted to turn him away, to show him they didn't need him, but she couldn't. Not with what he'd told them.

And apparently, being back in their lives meant that he wanted to attend every single Major Life Event for each of his children, which included Sofia's departure for Hogwarts. She hated attracting too much attention within the wizarding world as it was, so that had been a hard pass from her.

Sirius hugged Sofia's mother and and Natasha, whom at eleven years old, thought Sirius was the coolest person on Earth. Then he did that weird man-handshake and slap on the back thing with Roman. Sofia could tell her brother loved it.

Mum was starting to ask Sirius how he was when the train whistle blew, signalling five minutes for departure. Sofia's family had been late to the station, as per usual.

"I'll get your trunk up, and I'll meet you inside," Sirius said, taking the handle of Sofia's trunk.

She knew that this wasn't just him being nice, it was a ploy to get her to sit with him and his friends during the train ride. She relented though, "okay."

Once Sirius said goodbye to her family and walked off, Sofia turned to each member of her family.

She decided to humour her mother by speaking to her in Spanish. "You know how to reach me if you need anything. I'll see you soon."

She switched back to Russian to speak with her siblings. To Roman, she said, "please be good and help Mum out as much as you can. You know Papa coming back is though on her and it's not her fault. Do your schoolwork and please get better friends."

Roman rolled his eyes at the last bit, but Sofia was only half-kidding.

To Natasha, who was the opposite of Roman in many ways, she said, "Write me loads, about anything, anytime. Do your work but also allow yourself time to relax and please try not to stress yourself out about things you shouldn't."

To Vanya's big sad eyes, she said, "Promise me you'll be good and listen to Mami. I'll write you tons and I promise I'll see you soon. I'll miss you so much."

She hugged her brother's tiny body tight before finally getting on the train. She talked herself into not being sad by thinking she'd see them soon as if it were already a fact. Yes, in less than a month, she'd be home and she'd see them again. That was something that was definitely happening.

Sofia usually spent the ride to Hogwarts by herself. Sirius was her closest friend at school, but he had his own friend group, and Sofia wasn't really friends with them. Every year he'd try to rope her into sitting with them but she always refused. She didn't mind James, Remus, and Peter per se, but all four boys together could be a lot.

Sirius mainly did this because he didn't want her to sit alone for the long train ride but Sofia quite enjoyed her own company. She'd read, sleep, eat, solve some crosswords. But Sirius had all her shit, and she'd have to find him soon.

She delayed this process by paying visits to the compartments of all her non-Sirius friends, something which she usually did either way. There weren't that many of them, but it was something to do.

First, she checked in with her dormmates, with whom she was friendly, but wouldn't say she was friends with. Then she found Mrs Button, also known as the trolley lady, who was a lot of fun to chat with.

Then she paid a visit to the only student at Hogwarts apart from Sirius whom Sofia would call a friend. Chloe Honda.

As expected, Chloe was sat with her ever-present girl-squad, the Seventh Year Gryffindor girls. Evans, Macdonald, Jacob.

"Hey! Bess, come on in!" Chloe exclaimed as soon as she Sofia approached the compartment. Chloe's dark long hair swished behind her as she got up to give Sofia a hug before motioning for her to sit next to her. "How are you? How was your summer?"

Sofia inhaled. If that wasn't a loaded question... "It was fine."

She noticed Lily Evans sitting across from her, chest slightly puffed out, a pleased little smile on her face. A perfect little Head Girl badge pinned to her robes. "You're Head Girl then, Evans?"

Lily quickly nodded. Obviously pleased Sofia had asked. "I am."

"Who's Head Boy?"

Lily's smile dropped almost instantly, a sour look overtaking her features.

Mary Macdonald, who sat next to Evans, cringed slightly. "It's still a bit of a sore subject for Lily. It's James Potter."

Surprise flashed in Sofia's eyes. "Oh. That's certainly... a choice."

Lily made a face. "Please, just tell me he's not going to be Quidditch captain, that would just make him absolutely insufferable. Chloe said she didn't know."

"Well... Turner asked me if I wanted to be captain at the end of last year, but I said no, and he did say Potter was his second choice... although McGonagall has a say on the decision too, maybe she picked someone else."

Lily looked defeated. She sighed. "It'll probably be him, who am I kidding?"

Macdonald rubbed her friend's arm and whispered words of comfort.

Chloe let out a small gasp and grabbed Sofia's arm. "Hey, do you remember that conversation we had with Coach at the end of last year? About how most Muggle schools have school sports teams?"

Sofia vaguely remembered this. Coach – who preferred to be called just Coach because he thought it was cool – mostly just taught the First Years flying lessons and served as ref for the Inter-House games, and Sofia had always found it odd that he didn't, well, coach them. She nodded.

"Well, I ran into him at Diagon Alley a couple of weeks ago, and he told me he had presented a proposal to Dumbledore for a unified Hogwarts Quidditch team! He said it was pretty much in the bag, they were just figuring out which schools we could play, and he'd tell everyone he picked for it at the start of the school term."

Sofia wasn't quite sure what Chloe was so enthusiastic about. The idea might have sounded good in theory, but there was no way it was going to work in practice. Sofia had seen the way the Slytherins played, they'd never be on board. "Who's going to be on it? Are you?"

"I don't know. Coach said he was still thinking about it. But you'll definitely be on it, you're the best Beater in the school by far."

Sofia wasn't trying to be arrogant, but Chloe was not exactly wrong. "Well, Coach would be mad not to get you on the team, too."

Chloe smiled. "Fingers crossed!"

The compartment door slid open to reveal Sirius and Potter. Sirius smiled cheekily at Sofia. "Hey, I thought you'd want your things by now."

Sofia rolled her eyes.

"Lily, we should go start gathering the Prefects," James said to Lily, and Sofia was shocked he didn't add any obnoxious comments or even a mischevious look.

Lily sighed and got up. She looked like she was walking towards her execution as she exited the compartment without a word to James.

"Hey, James," Chloe said before he could leave. "Are you captain?"

His usual cheeky smirk returned to its rightful place as he glanced at his teammates. "You know it, babes." He winked and slipped away.


Sofia didn't hate Hogwarts. Yes, she missed her family terribly when she was there, and she didn't exactly have a ton of friends, but she'd learned to enjoy her time there. Most of her classes were nice, and she really liked playing Quidditch, and she had Sirius, even if he spent most of his time with his dumb friends.

She sometimes wondered how things could've been different if her father hadn't left. She didn't like to ponder on it, because it was useless and it usually only ended up making her angry. But she'd been doing it quite a lot ever since the man's return a couple of weeks ago.

She'd even made a list in her head.

Things that would have happened if Valery Bessonov hadn't abandoned his wife and four children:

1. Mum wouldn't have spiraled into a deep depression.

2. Sofia wouldn't have had to take such responsibility for her younger siblings at the tender age of eleven.

3. She would've started Hogwarts at the right time and not had spent her entire second year making up for lost time and not making any friends.

4. He wouldn't be dying right now.

But as she said, Sofia didn't like to ponder on it. She'd just get through this year and then the next, and then she'd hopefully exit the wizarding world smoothly. Well, except for Sirius, him she was keeping.

It wasn't as if Sofia hated magic, she really didn't. She knew it was useful and sometimes fun and she understood that she had to learn how to control it and use it, that was why she was still at Hogwarts. But she just never really felt like she was a part of the wizarding world. Yes, a lot of wizards had been quite welcoming to her, but others had made it pretty clear that they did not want her there, and they'd go as far as to kill to get rid of her and others like her. So, not very welcoming.

So, yeah, she'd graduate Hogwarts and at the same time graduate from her correspondence courses at Muggle school and then she'd go to university and pick a nice little Muggle career and would only use magic occasionally. Her Head of House had been surprised when Sofia had told her her plans, she thought Sofia had a talent for magic, but she'd understood and hadn't berated her.

As a result to all this, Sofia didn't really put that much effort into her Hogwarts classes. She was only taking a few NEWTs but she was a bit of an overachiever naturally, so she couldn't help trying to get at least semi-good grades. She'd gotten mostly Es in her OWLs. And one O, which she would never admit to anyone but had made her deliriously happy. Because it was the class she enjoyed the most. Potions. She didn't know what it was about that class, but it all came very easily to her, and she genuinely liked learning about it.

She knew she'd probably chosen the wrong class to do great in though. Because Slughorn was the only teacher at Hogwarts who would ask his best/favourite students to a monthly dinner party, that even though you weren't forced to attend, it would be pretty rude to refuse the invitation.

So, a couple of weeks into the school year, Sofia gathered her willpower and headed to Slughorn's office for the first official Slug Club meeting of the year. The only person there with whom Sofia was even remotely friendly with there was Lily Evans, so, that said a lot. Most times, Sofia just sat quietly and tried to blend into the background until it was a socially acceptable time to excuse herself. She'd sometimes be roped into conversation by Slughorn, and if he stuck to discussing potions, it wasn't actually that bad.

So it was quite a rare occurrence what happened that day. Sofia had gotten lost in conversation with Sunisa and Aaron, a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw respectively, both a year older than Sofia, who had been chosen for the unified Hogwarts Quidditch team along with her. The team was set to have their first practice together in a couple of weeks and Sofia had been on edge about it since she'd found out who was on the team. Apparently, so had Sunisa and Aaron. They talked about it well into the evening, and Sofia couldn't believe it when she realised that for he first time ever, she had stayed at the meeting until Slughorn asked them to leave.

She had already stood up when Slughorn had started speaking, but his last sentence, made her stop in her tracks. "And, Miss Bessonova, Mr Black, if you could both stay behind for a few minutes."

Sofia tensed. She wasn't too worried about Slughorn wanting to talk to her, it wasn't like she wasn't doing well in his class and she hadn't done anything she shouldn't yet. But it irked her that the younger Black sibling had been asked to stay back as well.

Sofia probably knew more about Regulus Black than she (or he) wanted to. Sirius didn't speak of his brother very often, especially as time had passed. He always got a very wistful look on his face whenever Regulus was mentioned, and would change the subject quickly. She knew that Regulus was his parents' favourite, and that Sirius had actually gotten along with him as children, but Regulus had sided with their mother after they'd declared Sirius a traitor. That was enough for Sofia not to like him.

Sofia relucantly approached Slughorn as everyone piled out of the room. Regulus stood stick-straight, with the usual brooding look on his face. Sofia couldn't help but notice how his hair curled slightly at the ends in exactly the same way as his brother's. She stood as far away from him as she could.

Slughorn made himself a drink as he spoke. "Ah, Miss Bessonova, Mr Black!" He exclaimed, as if he was surprised they'd stayed behind. "My two best Sixth Year students! I asked you to stay behind to tell you that... I don't want you in my class anymore."

Sofia's heart almost stopped. What the hell was this little slug man playing at?

Slughorn grinned. "Ah, don't give me those looks. I have a good reason, I promise. I... wasn't sure until the year started, but you both seem to have mastered the potions we've been making in class... curiously easily."

Slughorn paused, looking at them expectantly. Sofia wasn't quite sure what the right answer would be here, but Regulus wasn't saying shit either. "Well, to be honest with you, professor, I did happen to... experiment a little bit with the potions on our textbook during the summer."

Slughorn turned to look at Regulus.

"I... I'm afraid I did the same thing, Professor," Regulus said through gritted teeth.

Slughorn smiled knowingly. "Ah, I suspected so. It's not such an uncommon occurrence, it's happened before with especially talented students, but I found it most curious that it was two people who did it this year. Indeed, most curious." He paused to take a sip of his drink. Sofia had no idea where the man was going with this. "Now, I want you to understand first of all, that it was incredibly irresponsible and dangerous of you to experiment with these very powerful potions without supervision, and you should never do it again. But... I understand your desire for more."

Sofia wringed her hands. He was making her nervous.

"Now, as you both tend to finish your work in half the time your classmates do, and I'm quite sure if I keep telling you to get started on new potions every time this happens, you will run out of potions to make halfway through the school year, I have a proposition for you. You will not have to attend my classes anymore and you will be able to use that time to go off on your own and do more demanding work for me. I trust you both enough to be careful and handle your potionmaking with care."

That sounded good for Sofia.

"The only condition I have to let you do this is that you work together. And I will not take no for answer." He'd obviously already sensed their distress at the suggestion. "I would very much like to see what two minds as bright as yours can create together and I believe you will be able to keep each other grounded and in check. If you truly don't want to do this, I understand, but I'd be very disappointed."

Ugh. Sofia had never hated her professor like she did right now. She didn't want to be the one to say no to him, but if she'd learned anything from being Regulus Black's classmate for four years was that he was a suck-up when it came to teachers, he was never going to be the one to tell Slughorn no.

The professor eyed them hopefully. "I take that silence as a yes?"

Sofia was screaming internally.

"Of course, professor," Regulus was the one to finally answer.

"Okay," Sofia followed suit, after coming up empty with ways to get out of this without getting on Slughorn's bad side. Sometimes she wished her insticts weren't so nerdy.

Slughorn grinned. "All right, then that's settled. Now hurry off to your dormitories before curfew."


True to his word, during Potions on Monday morning, Slughorn showed Sofia and Regulus to an empty classroom down the hall from his own room and left them to their own devices, saying he'd return when the class time was up to answer any questions.

Sofia couldn't shake the awkwardness of the situation as she set up her cauldron and supplies on one of the tables. She took her sweet time arranging her things as Regulus did the same.

Finally she said, "So, I'm not sure what you want to work on first but I do have an idea for a variation—"

"What in the hell are you talking about, Bessonova?" Regulus interrupted Sofia.

Sofia frowned at his rudeness, but couldn't help the small leap of her heart at his perfect pronunciation of her last name. Bess - OH - noh - va. She chided herself internally.

"Um... our work," she replied, only a beat too late.

Regulus looked at her like she was speaking pure gibberish. "I apologise if you misinterpreted my words back at the party, I only agreed to Professor Slughorn's... suggestion because he is my Head of House and Professor and I didn't wish to disrespect him. I assumed you had done the same."

Sofia wanted to giggle at Regulus's formal manner of speaking but she held back. She wondered if Sirius ever spoke like that when he was younger. Now that was a lot harder to try not to laugh at.

Sofia shook her head to clear it. "So... what you're saying right now is that you don't want to work with me? Is that it?"

Regulus let out a small frustrated sigh. "I simply believed it might be easier for us to work on our own, and... just keep up appearances for the Professor."

Sofia nodded slowly. "Well, if that's what you want, sure, I guess. But if Slughorn finds out, I'm telling him it was your idea."

Regulus scoffed. "Fine. Just let me work in peace."

Sofia rolled her eyes. He was such a dick. "Fine."