James, Sirius and Peter did not want to accept that they could not help Remus. Whenever Remus was busy studying, they researched what they could do. "The fact that we're in the library every day disgusts me," James grumbled as they sat in front of a stack of books again. "We should get out and play Quidditch!"
"I don't enjoy it either, but we're doing this for Remus, don't forget," Sirius reminded him.
And they stuck to it. Even though it was against their nature, they spent as much time in the library as they could muster. They didn't tell Remus about it. They didn't want to disappoint him if it didn't work out.
They found out that werewolves were not dangerous to animals. They remembered that Professor McGonagall had once told them that wizards and witches had the ability to turn into animals. Animagus was the solution. They had to become Animagi and spend the full moon nights with Remus as animals.
But the implementation was not as easy as they thought. It took them longer than hoped. Even after two years, they were not yet ready. Sometimes they were just frustrated, but Sirius always motivated his friends. At least they managed to successfully keep it a secret from Remus and the rest of Hogwarts.
In those two years, Regulus had distanced himself more and more from his brother. While he still loved him, he had to do it secretly. His parents didn't want him to have any contact with him and their relationship wasn't very good either. If Sirius loved him too, he didn't show it very much.
Regulus felt the gap between him and his brother widening. He wonder how long it would be before he turned his back on him completely? Regulus longed for the days before Hogwarts, when they were still children and had a friendly relationship. He thought back to the day Sirius promised that they would always be brothers. He wonder if he had forgotten that promise.
But now in third year, he was the only Slytherin who had chosen Care of Magical Creatures.
He wondered why. He had always been fascinated by magical creatures, but also by the animal kingdom, magical or not. He was of the opinion that every living creature was important and had to be treated with respect, even the house elves, or especially them, because they made sure that people lacked nothing. If you are served by them from front to back, then you should thank them and not treat them like a doormat! He wanted to be there for these animal creatures after Hogwarts, perhaps as a leader to guide and supervise magical creatures, and that was precisely why he chose the subject of Care of Magical Creatures.
Professor Kesselbrand, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, introduced himself. He did not look particularly healthy with the bandage over his left eye and his right wooden leg. It seemed that someone had tried to make too many friends with the dangerous animal creatures. He would never let it get that far. Regulus was a little too attached to his life. In the first lesson, the third graders were supposed to take care of a fire crab in pairs. To do this, the professor put the students together. Regulus had the pleasure of working with a girl from Gryffindor.
Shepherd was her name. He knew her by sight because the Gryffindors and Slytherins had taken some subjects together over the years, but he had never really had any contact with her. His circle of friends was limited to Crouch and the Slytherin Quidditch team. Now, for the first time, he had to really talk to her, if you could call it that. He gathered up the food and shook it into a wooden bucket, which he held out to her wordlessly.
She accepted it and placed it by the fire crab. "I'm surprised the prince even deigns to touch animal food," she said with a smug smile.
"Prince? You call me Prince?" he asked in surprise, sitting down on a tree stump to watch the fire crab eat.
"My friends call you that because you walk around like you've escaped from a palace. Besides, your first name means Little King or Prince," she explained. Shepherd didn't sit down next to him, but stopped and looked down at him while they talked.
"Hmph!" uttered Regulus. "I'm not a snob. You shouldn't believe everything you hear, Shepherd."
"Isabella. My first name is Isabella. My friends call me Isa," she said.
Regulus rose and smiled at her. "All right, Isa. And you can call me Reg. That's what my friends call me."
Isabella brushed a strand of black hair behind her ear and looked Regulus straight in the grey eyes. "Listen, Regulus. Who said we were friends?"
"Too bad, you're really missing out," Regulus retorted with a confident smile.
Isabella shook her head. "My parents are Muggles and you're a Black, andeveryone knowswhat your family says about Muggle-borns."
"I'm not like that," Regulus said in a serious tone.
Isabella raised her eyebrows.
"Prove it," she demanded, "Prove that you're not like a usual Black and maybe we can talk about a friendship sometime."
Regulus looked at the petite girl with the black hair and dark brown eyes. Everything about her appealed to him.
"I love challenges," he said with a confident grin.