The question Regulus asked himself was, how could he convince Isabella that he wasn't such a typical Black?
He had to come up with some Muggle facts. She wouldn't expect that. Yet he had no idea about such things. His parents had forbidden him to even come into contact with it and he couldn't ask the other Slytherins either. But first he had to do his homework for potions. Diligent as he was, he also did the extra task. This turned out to be harder than he thought. After dinner, he packed up his assignments and walked with them to Slughorn's office and knocked on the door. "Professor," he said and entered the office without waiting for an answer. No one was there. But then he should be in the classroom. He wandered over and entered. "Professor, can you give me-" Regulus faltered. "Slughorn just turned the corner," an annoyed voice rang out. Regulus turned his head to the right and caught sight of Sirius, sitting in front of a parchment, a mirror quickly disappearing into his cloak.
"Sirius? What are you doing here?" he asked, looking piercingly at his big brother. What a stupid question. It was actually obvious what he was doing here. "What have you done now?" he wanted to know, sighing. "You'd better watch out or Mother will get angry again." And Regulus didn't want that, because she could get cruel when she was angry.
Sirius snorted. "I'm sorry if I'm not the perfect son like you, but it's really none of your business what I do," Sirius snapped at his younger brother.
It was as if an icicle had entered Regulus' stomach and bored its way through to his heart, so cold did his insides suddenly feel. Ever since they went to Hogwarts together, Sirius had accused him of his parents favouring Regulus because he was in Slytherin. Could he blame his big brother? While Sirius suffered punishments at home, Regulus was praised to the skies and time and time again his parents said he was the son they wanted, unlike Sirius. It didn't surprise Regulus that Sirius took it badly, but Regulus hadn't asked for his parents' praise and he wished Sirius would realise it.
The elder Blacke ran his fingertips through his black hair and sighed.
"You wanted help with an essay? Maybe I can help you," Sirius said.
Regulus looked at his big brother. He could still see something familiar, something left over from childhood and that made Regulus' heart beat faster. Just a tiny smile flitted across his lips, while inside he was just raging with happiness. Regulus handed him the parchment he had with him.
Sirius could actually help him. He watched as his brother scribbled down some marginal notes.
"Say, Sirius," Regulus said after pocketing his homework again. "Those posters with those half-naked girls you put up in the summer, what are they sitting on?" he wanted to know. Sirius raised his eyebrows sceptically and looked at his brother suspiciously.
"Why do you want to know?" the older Black asked. Regulus shrugged his shoulders.
"Just because I thought you were the only one of the family who knew anything about Muggles and you might be able to tell your little brother."
Those words had their effect, because Sirius told him.
"They're called motorbikes. You ride them over the road." Sirius was about to say more, but that was also when Professor Slughorn returned. Regulus stood up and walked over to the Potion teacher to hand him the homework.
"Very good, Mr Black. I appreciate your diligence very much. You'll get somewhere this way."
"Thank you Professor. With such an excellent teacher as you are, it's quite easy for me."
Sirius rolled his eyes at the banter.
Regulus left the classroom afterwards feeling one experience richer.
In the next lesson, Care of Magical Creatures, they took care of flubberworms. Since they just had to leave them alone, it was easy to entertain themselves.
He also teamed up with Isabella Shepherd in this lesson.
"I now know what an motor ... um ..." Regulus moved his lips for a moment to get the word together again. "...Motorcycle... yes that's the name of the thing! I know what it is now! Muggles ride it across the street!" he declared with so much pride in his voice that Isabella couldn't suppress a laugh. "Congratulations, you know a term from the Muggle world. But that's not enough. You'll have to try a little harder to convince me."
"What, that wasn't enough?" asked Regulus, pulling a face. Isabella had to admit that the way the Slytherin sulked was so not typical of a Black.
He even looked very cute. As soon as she had finished thinking about it, she dismissed it again. She wanted to be true to her word and not let someone like Black get to her so quickly. Regulus had turned away from Isabella and was feeding the flubberworms a lettuce leaf. "Tell me about yourself," he said after a while. "If I know you a little better, at least I'll know what to work on."
Isabella seemed to consider, but then she smiled. "Well, all right. I won't be like that for once. You said you knew what a motorbike was. Well, my family runs a motorbike shop in London," she told him. Regulus perked up. "Really? I think my brother likes those things. He has posters of them hanging up in his room," he told her.
"Your brother is in Gryffindor, isn't he? He's known for being different from the rest of the family," Isabella commented.
"I'm different too!"
"You're in Slytherin."
"Yes, but a house doesn't define your character."
"Surely the hat will have a reason for putting you in Slytherin?"
"I'm just very ambitious."
At the words, Isabella smirked. "Ambitious. That's a great quality and a really good reason to come to Slytherin," she commented.
"Now was that enough to convince you?"
"No, that would be too easy. But you're on a good path," she replied with a wink and then just left him standing there. The lesson was already over and Isabella joined the other Gryffindors.
Isabella Shepherd was obviously hard to crack, it went through Regulus' mind as he made his way to the Great Hall after class and sat down next to Bartemius. He ate lunch in deep thought while Crouch delivered a monologue about Quidditch strategies.
He wonder what his parents would say if they knew he was competing for the favour of a Muggle-born? They would surely kill him.
"Reg?! Are you even listening?!", Crouch brought him back from his thoughts to reality.
"Huh? Uh... Yeah right. You're thinking of a Diving manoeuvre ," Regulus said.
Crouch was pleased. What luck that Regulus knew Bartemius' strategising inside out.
The friendship between Regulus and Isabella didn't really work out that way. No matter what he told her, she just left him sitting there at the end of the lesson.
Even in this hour of caring for magical creatures, Regulus had little hope of winning Isabella over. Maybe he should give up. Who was she anyway? And what was she imagining? Others would beg for his friendship. He really didn't need to go on with this charade.
That hour they took Niffler through. Professor Raue Pritsche had buried some gold pieces and the Nifflers had to find them. The students, especially the girls, enjoyed watching the Nifflers digging. "Ohhh! How cute!", some of the girls shrieked whenever the Niffler with the gold piece came ploughing towards them.
One of the Nifflers got stuck under a rock and hurt his belly. Professor Raue Pritsche took care of him. Everyone was worried about the Niffler, but none to the extent that Regulus was. While his classmates checked with Professor Raue Pritsche to see if the Niffler had recovered and then went on their way, Regulus stayed and looked after the animal. He used every spare minute to go to the enclosure and change his bandages and feed him. He held it in his arms as if it were a baby and talked well to it. "You are very brave. I'm sure you'll get better soon," Regulus said in a gentle tone.
Isabella went to check on the niffler too and spotted Regulus sitting on a tree stump with the niffler in his arms and stroking his head reassuringly. Isabella walked slowly towards him so as not to frighten the animal. "Have you been taking care of him all this time?" she asked. "Yes, I wanted him to get better," he replied.
"And, is he getting better?"
"Yes, he is doing well. He's a brave little fellow."
Isabella smiled at him. "You're really unusual," she observed. "I think we might actually become friends."