I was eight years old when I first met Regulus Black.

The Blacks were well known within pure blood circles as the oldest and purest family. They threw lavish parties for all the pure bloods to dine together. I met Regulus at one of these parties.

My brother, Lucius, who was six years older than me, had ran off immediately to his friends, leaving me alone with my mother and father, to be introduced to the Blacks.

Mrs Black was scolding her oldest child, who appeared to be a little older than me. She sent him to his room, something he looked quite pleased about.

"Please excuse my son," she said smoothly, her anger disappearing immediately upon seeing my father. "Our niece, Andromeda, has just defected, it is a difficult time for us all."

"I understand," my father said. "Allow me to introduce my wife, Arabella, and my daughter, Lucilla. Of course, you already know Lucius, as he is courting Narcissa."

I bowed my head respectfully as I had been taught to do, my sleek blonde hair falling into my face.

"Well, this is a delight!" Mrs Black exclaimed. "Regulus, come here, and look after Lucilla."

A boy my age, almost identical to his brother, stepped towards me.

"Hello," he said shyly, his grey eyes probing my pale blue ones.

He sat with me at dinner, although neither of us said a word. We were both extraordinarily shy.

We met again at Hogwarts when we were both eleven. We'd been sorted into Slytherin together, Lucius was a prefect and wrote home immediately to tell our mother and father that I'd followed in family tradition. There had been some worry when the year before, Sirius Black had been sorted into Gryffindor.

"Hello," a quiet voice said in my ear as I sat beside my brother. I turned around, and there he was, exactly the same, except a few inches taller.

"Hello again," I quipped. I had somewhat gotten over my shyness in those few years. We managed to keep up a conversation throughout the feast, although we were interrupted several times by Lucius introducing his friends, one of which wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention and was staring across the hall.

A fiery redhead had his attention, who was stood and yelling at two boys. One of them I recognised as Regulus' brother, who had become extremely handsome. The other had messy jet black hair and was quite scrawny. Apparently they'd pulled some sort of prank on her, there was steam coming out from under her hair.

"Do something," the boy suddenly turned to Lucius. He had very dark eyes, a rather large nose, and long, dank hair.

"Their prefect will sort them out, don't worry Sev," Lucius told him. "Besides, it looks like she can hold her own."

One of the professors had come along and was sternly lecturing the two boys.

"Idiots," the boy called Sev scoffed at them, before turning back to his plate.

"You must tell me if they start on you again this year Sev," Lucius told him. "It's not right. You are much better than they are."

Sev hung his head. "I will."

"Good. And get a good curse or two in while you can," Lucius smirked, before turning to his girlfriend, who seemed to be arguing with her friend.

"No Cissy, I will not break up with him!" her friend, with a mane of brown her, and soft brown eyes, was saying. "I'm not coming back, not ever! Ted's family accept me for who I am!"

"But Dromeda -"

"No Cissy," the brunette said flatly.

"Bella is out for your head!" Cissy was saying, her short blonde hair falling into her face in agitation.

"I'm not afraid of Bella!"

"Andromeda is engaged to Ted Tonks, a mudblood in Hufflepuff," Regulus explained to me. "Narcissa is her sister, and so is Bellatrix. Bellatrix left Hogwarts a few years ago, Andromeda is in her seventh year and Narcissa is in her fifth."

"I know Cissy," I muttered back to him. "She's engaged to my brother."

Regulus' eyes were drawn the absolutely huge diamond on Cissy's finger. Lucius went all out on that ring, he had it specially made and everything.

Andromeda had fled from the Great Hall by this point, and Cissy was looking disappointed. Lucius caught her hand to reassure her.

"She'll come around."

"I hope so. I mean, Ted's nice enough but..."

"He's a mudblood," Lucius finished for her. "She can't possibly marry him."

Cissy nodded gloomily.

"Bella will talk her round."

"That's what I'm worried about," Cissy said grimly. "Bella's version of talking and ours aren't the same."

After the feast Lucius and Cissy took the first years down to the Slytherin common room in the dungeons. It was beautiful in an eerie way; the walls glimmered and reflected the water from the lake.

My owl, Feathers, was waiting on my bed with a letter when I arrived. I tore it open.

Dearest Lucilla,

Your father and I are so very proud of you for getting into Slytherin. You will go on to do great things, and will follow in Lucius' footsteps, we are sure. Hold your head up and represent our family well, and you will be rewarded.

We will see you at Christmas, write to us often.

Mother

The girl next to me, who had long curly dark hair, flopped onto her bed.

"I'm Calista," she said.

"Lucilla," I replied.

"That boy you were talking to is very attractive," she grinned at me.

"I suppose he is," I said warily, not knowing where she was going with this.

"Is there something going on there?" she asked slyly.

"No!" I gasped, horrified.

"Good. I can have him then," she grinned.

"Er, alright." I was a bit stunned by the conversation.

"Night."

The next morning, Calista and I ran into Regulus in the common room on the way to breakfast.

"Good morning," he said politely, his eyes on her. I introduced them quickly, annoyed by how giggly she'd become in his presence. Merlin, we were only eleven.

We walked through the dungeons, stomachs growling, when suddenly Regulus held his arm out to stop us. Someone was whispering round the corner.

I chanced a peek. It was Cissy's sister, speaking to a tall, sandy haired boy in a yellow tie. He was holding her hand cheerfully.

"Ted, I need to tell you something."

"If it's that your sisters don't approve, tell me something I don't know," he laughed dryly.

"No..." she bit her lip. "I'm pregnant," she blurted in a rush.

Her boyfriend raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

She nodded, and he grinned even wider and scooped her up in his arms.

"That's bloody brilliant!"

"Ted! We're seventeen!"

"I don't give two shits, Dromeda. You make me happy, and now we'll have a happy little baby too."

"Should we tell Cissy?" I whispered to Regulus. He nodded in reply, and led us in the direction of the Great Hall.

"Sleep well?" Lucius asked me as he piled eggs onto my plate.

I nodded. "Where's Cissy?"

He looked down the table and waved her over.

"Andromeda's pregnant," Regulus told her, and she paled.

"Are you sure?"

"We overheard her telling Tonks."

She ran off.

"You're a good kid, Regulus," Lucius told him. "Your mother was telling me about you at the last Black family dinner."

Regulus smiled, the first time I'd seen him do so. "Bellatrix told me to keep an eye on Andromeda."

"That doesn't surprise me."

That was the most exciting thing to happen all year.

As expected of us, Lucius went on to do well in his exams and married Cissy. I went on to keep my nose clean and by the time fifth year rolled around, I'd been made prefect, and been sat down by my parents to talk about arranged marriage.

Apparently I had some say in who I picked, as long as my parents approved. I wasn't particularly bothered at this point in time, but they said they'd like to see me engaged when I reached seventeen.

By the time I reached platform 9 ¾ on September 1st, I was already wearing my robes and prefect badge, trying to set an example. Before long, Regulus appeared beside me, wearing his robes and badge, and we made our way to the front carriage.

I felt distinctly out of place upon entering the prefects carriage. I'd been raised to be very proper, to sit up straight and never speak out of turn. Everyone else was just slumped about, not even wearing their robes, apart from the Head Boy and Girl.

I was surprised I was picked to be prefect. I tended to blend into the background most of the time. I'd never earned a detention. Even Reg had a few detentions under his belt, mostly for duelling with his brother, who I'd been informed had left home. I wasn't surprised. He'd always seemed determined to rebel.

"I suppose you got the same arranged marriage talk that I did over the summer," Reg said, and I nodded. "Do your parents have anyone in mind?"

"Not that they've told me," I replied. There were a lot of things my parents didn't tell me if they felt that I didn't need to know. Most of the time I preferred not to know.

"Mine made it abundantly clear who they didn't approve of," Reg grinned at me. "No half bloods, absolutely no mudbloods and no blood traitors."

"I suppose that rules McKinnon out then," I said slyly, and he frowned.

"Why on earth would you think I'd want McKinnon?"

"I've seen the way you look at her," I raised my eyebrows.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said coldly. It seemed that I'd touched a nerve.

"What happened?" I asked.

"She's with my idiot brother."

I suppose that made sense. They were in the same house, the same year, and shared the same group of friends. They were also both extremely attractive.

"What about Cal?" I suggested.

He looked taken aback for a minute. "Our Cal? Calista Flint?"

"Yes."

He looked unsure. "I don't know. She's not really my type."

"You're hers," I said bluntly, growing sour. This conversation always narked me, although I was usually having it with her.

"Boy is her type," Reg scoffed.

"Maybe a giant rock on her finger would calm her down."

"No. Definitely not. Not Cal."

The Head Boy and Girl called us to attention then, and we didn't get a chance to finish our conversation.

We were prepared to go to our separate groups of friends after the meeting, but we found them all congregated together in one compartment halfway down the train. Cal was flirting shamelessly with Mark Parkinson, one of Sev's friends in the year above. Sev himself had his nose in a book, looking up occasionally at the noise. Then there was Thorfinn Rowle, who was in our year, Alecto Carrow, who shared our dormitory, and her older brother Amycus, who was in the year above. There was also Mulciber and Avery, who I wasn't on first name terms with, but were in seventh year.

We sat in the compartment for a few hours, before patrolling the train. We found about fifteen second years all crammed into one tiny compartment.

"What are you all doing in here?" I asked suspiciously.

"Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon wanted our compartment," one of them said.

"Oh for Merlin's sake," Reg rolled his eyes and walked into the compartment next door, before hastily backing out.

"What?"

"They're..."

I looked for myself, and immediately wished I hadn't. I don't know what was worse, watching them at it, or watching the look of pure horror unfold on Reg's face.

"I think she's a lost cause," I said softly.

He shook himself out of it. "It's fine. Really. It's not like I was in love with her or anything."

"She's defected anyway. The whole family has," I reminded him.

"Let's go," he said tersely. The couple hadn't even noticed us outside, they were so engrossed in their amorous activities.

I followed him back down to our compartment, where he sat and joined the conversation like nothing was wrong.