He jerked. The ghostly pair of red eyes was sheer illusion, Regulus reassured himself and turned his back on the mirror and moved to the window sill. He drew the curtain and peeped in small playground overlooking his room. It was already dark: only the silhouette of abandoned swinging seat was visible. The sound of removal of debris had stopped at last, he thought and wondered whether his bottom had ever touched those swinging seats. And It was when the door swung open.

A middle aged, wearing a purple robe, stood outside the door, dark haired witch with black eyes. She was sweat stained, hair combed. She spoke in a low voice, 'Regulus, Dinner has been served. I want you with Bella and Cissy to join within five minutes. Come quickly. The guest arrived.' The Guest? But as Regulus nodded, the woman vanished out of sight as the door clicked shut behind her. He slowly changed into black dress robe and lead his out of the room. His hand glided down the bannister as he made his way to the basement. He stopped on the second landing and tapped on a door. 'Cissy, help yourselves with food in basement, please. Mom seemed to be ill tempered.' he called and hurried along the stairs. When he reached the basement, he found the circular table stood in the middle of hall was packed with Blacks. Almost everyone had joined. There was festive mood in the air. The reason was obvious. Around the corner, a young man with pale pointed face, long blonde hair sat. He cackled to something the old Black said, seating next to him. The younger ones head was stooped a bit, listening hard to Regulus' Grandfather. The chair next to the man was empty, as though it was reversed for someone.

Regulus wheeled towards the table and took his seat in the farthest corner, attempting to separate himself from the chaos. He raised his neck to get a clear glimpse of his mother, bathed and freshly clothed, was smiling broadly to the young man. In the meantime, the door leading the upstairs swung open and two young witches walked down the aisle. One of them was slim and tall, her blonde hair and untanned skin was glistening under the chandelier, pale golden robe was hanging cover her shoulder. Her companion wasn't so glamorous: she had dark black hair, heavy eyelids and curled lips. Regulus watched her cousin to walk by the diners and take the reversed seat beside the blonde man. The blonde man bestowed a smile, his eyes flashed, meanwhile the spare took the seat on Regulus' right.

'What's all the hell about, Bellatrix?' he muttered without his mouth moving to his cousin.

She looked up to him and babbled in her high pitched voice, 'Since when you call me Bellatrix, eh?'

'Urgh, for heaven's seek! What's going on? Why does Cissy-?' Regulus pointed to the blonde man with Narcissa as he watched Bellatrix to seep her glass of pumpkin juice.

She rounded to him, her eyebrows raised and she whispered, 'Not your business. You too callow to understand.' she nodded to herself, 'You see now', clutching the glass of juice around her long thin fingers. Regulus boiled up with abhorrence and fury. He grabbed a drumstick from the dish before him and tore it apart with his teeth, swearing under his breath. As he chewed audibly, at least loud enough for people seating close to him, Bellatrix whacked him and hushed, 'Don't eat NOW! There's Guest!' 'That's my mouth which I'm moving to chew food! Not yours!', Regulus snapped. Bellatrix gave him a nasty look, then looked away, her arms folded. Regulus gulped down the last chunk and leaned forward, 'So you won't tell me, will you?' This time Bellatrix turned livid; her eyes were bloodshot. She drew her Wand from her robe, pointed from the underside of the table, 'Silencio!' Before Regulus could defend himself, his mouth hung a little in the mid air, totally unable to make any noise. Bellatrix straightened up her face, stowing the Wand back in its place, as if nothing happened, while poor Regulus' eyes only widened, looking petrified. Meanwhile, Orion Black stood up into his feet, clapped his hands. As he coughed, the diners fell in silence. His voice spoke.

'Ladies and Gentlemen, what an amazing summer evening it is! You see we have found a new man among us tonight.' alluding at the blonde man beside Narcissa. 'He's our guest, 'course! But for just a couple weeks.' he winked and persisted, 'Lucius Malfoy, he is! He and Narcissa are going to tie the knot this summer!' Everyone clapped and cheered. There were cries of surprise and happiness. Regulus jaw dropped. He saw Narcissa's mother to dub her eyes in her handkerchief: dew eyed. She blew her nose and bestowed upon Narcissa with a firm squeeze in her arm. But Narcissa's face was harderen, only heaven knew why, Regulus thought, and next to her, Malfoy seemed to enjoy the atmosphere. 'That's every spectacular of you, Mr Black.' spoke Malfoy, bowing his head. 'Then can we start-?' said Mr Black gesticulating empty dishes. Mrs Black waved her Wand, and food appeared out of the thin ear and rest upon the long glass table top. As Mr Black reverted back to his seat, he raised his goblet and spoke with the rest of hall, 'Lucius!'. The feast began. Regulus felt the Silencing Charm being lifted as his mouth slackened. He took a kidney tart and another drumstick and began to slice. His eyes were fixed on young Malfoy. As he took the first chunk, his eyes moved to his cousin. Narcissa responded immediately, smiling miserably. He forced to smile back and returned to his dinner. The food tasted really good as always.

Why she was with Malfoy, Regulus thought. Malfoy was always a brat, booby. He's pure-blood though. But He had encountered him as a Hogwarts Prefect in his second year. Rowdy. His chums were a bit ominous in school, at least so far Regulus remembered, and Professor Slughorn always said he thought Malfoy's gang was always up to something ominous. Something really to do with dark arts. Intriguing? Or Is that anything to do with what that Snape boy-

'REGULUS! ... REGULUS!! DON'T YOU LISTEN?' a woman bellowed from the other end of the table. Regulus jumped, his heart pounding faster than ever. Food remnants cleaved and the knife swooped out of his hand, hitting the gravelled floor with faint clatter. His eyes widened with horror; the pair was bloodshot. 'What sort of impertinence it is!' spoke a female voice from his right. Soon he gathered himself back, he saw Bellatrix hushing like Sneak in her high pitched yet low voice. He ignored her and sat upright, facing to the other end. His eyes moved from his mother to Malfoy.

'Sorry, I was just-'

'It's alright, young man. How are you doing, eh?' said Malfoy, smirking.

'Just fine, I suppose.' replied Regulus, shortly.

'Don't you have a brother? He wasn't Slytherin, was he? What, his name was-'

Before Regulus could open his mouth, his father intervened. He interjected, pretending to smile, 'He do not have any brother, you see. Regulus is our only pride.' As he spoke, the hall fell into deathly silence. Regulus perceived his mother to mop tears silently on back of her sleeve, Old Black being horror struck and Malfoy raising his eyebrow. Regulus felt something hot blew him.

'Oh never mind, I might have mistook. Pardon me.' said Malfoy, turning his head from Mr Black to Regulus, 'You are a Prefect now, I suppose?'

'Yes. How-?'

'Dolohov is your roommate, isn't he?'

'Blimey, yes. But how do you know about about me so-?'

'I believe you are acquainted with Snape, Avery and Mulciber?' said Malfoy's cold voice crossly.

'I- yeah I'm acquainted with them. Good people they are. They are all-'

'Slytherin. Talented. And Serving the Dark Lord. Loyal people indeed.' nodding his head and leaned backward to his chair.

'Oh.' replied Regulus briefly. He got out of his chair and knelt down on the floor to retrieve the cutlery. He began to feel bit awkward. His stomach gave a tight knot. How Malfoy got to know so much about him? Is it possible Malfoy knew that he secretly longed to join the Dark Lord? But how could he know that. It was completely his secret and he never admitted to anyone. Even the Blacks did not know that, he did his best to conceal the attest. However, he just might guess, seeing that the entire family was obsessed with Pure-blood mania. When he reverted, he found Malfoy already on his feet. It was when Just noticed for the first time how tall he was. He shook hands with men and kissed the women of the hall. He spoke to Regulus at last, 'Oh young man! Come here.' Regulus teetered. But then as someone poked him hard, he wheeled ungainly to the man then shook his hand.

'Nice to see you, Mr Malfoy. Been great pleasure.' snarled Regulus. 'Oh been waiting to meet you, Err-Regulus. Will be meeting you often now on, I suppose', said Malfoy as he released his hand and walked to the fire place, to make his leave. As everyone bade farewell, Malfoy grabbed a handful of floo powder. He stepped in the grate and yelled, 'Malfoy Manor!' With bright red flame, he vanished out of sight.

The hall was quite for a long time. May be hours or so. May be days. Then Orion Black spoke, 'Regulus, I believe that was not what we taught you. To behave rudely with visitors?' Kreacher the Elf ran to the hall to see the chaos. He was too timid to draw his back leg to front. Mrs Black rushed to his son and clutched the front of his robe, almost hanging him in mid air. As she shook him, she shouted, 'YOU ARE BEING AS INDECENT, SCUMMY LIKE YOUR BROTHER! Are YOU BEING INHUMAN? HOW CAN YOU? YOU ARE THE ONLY THING THAT IS LEFT IN OUR LIFE!' She panted as she released him, she was red with fury. She stormed out of the hall to upstairs, footsteps echoed in tranquility. Slowly the hall began to empty and soon the only people were left was Regulus and Kreacher. Regulus drew a chair and collapsed. His eyes were bloodshot with fury. He should have been that rude to the man. But what made he so angry? Meanwhile the elf said, 'Kreacher has made his master's bed. He wants to know if anything his master requires.' bowing low as his bat like ears touched the gravelled floor. 'Water may do. Thank you, Kreacher.' said Regulus. With a crack! The elf disappeared and returned within half of a minute with a goblet filled with water. Regulus gulped the water and stood up in his feet. He opened the door to the staircase and looked back to the elf, who looked old. 'Goodnight.' said Regulus as he clicked the door shut behind him.

He fled the staircase. He jumped three steps at a time and as he reached the front of his room, for the first time he inhaled. He clicked the door open with his Wand and shut it behind him. As he wheeled to the window, the rain drenched wind hitted his hot face. He inhaled the fresh air as he slowly changed into pyjama. Soon he reverted to his bed and extinguished the torch. He slumbered shortly.

'It's raining. Fancy a trip to rooftop with me?' It was already midnight when someone spoke.