AN: Hi, this chapter is really a special one to me because I actually got the idea for this story while listening to innocent by taylor swift, so if you were going to listen to any of the songs I put on here, this one is definitely it. It is literally about Regulus Black, in my humble opinion. Anyway, I hope you like this and I'd appreciate it if you could leave a review !

innocent – taylor swift

"your string of lights is still bright to me,

who you are is not where you've been."

Sofia was proud to announce today that it had been a full month since she had kissed Regulus Black.

It was really all mostly thanks to her impending guilt over kissing Regulus just after having rejected Sirius. She had truly felt terrible after that day on the Quidditch pitch. Anyone could've walked in on them and it wasn't worth risking her friendship with Sirius anymore.

Sirius had finally started acting semi-normal after weeks of tiptoeing around her and Sofia felt pretty good. She almost thought things could go back to normal and she never had to think about kissing either Black brother ever again.

When Sofia walked into detention that day, Dumbledore was already gone. Probably since both she and Regulus knew the drill. It was the last week of detention, and Sofia was kind of sad about it. It had been nice. Spending some downtime with Regulus.

She immediately knew something was wrong when she saw Regulus's face. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked tired beyond his years.

"What's wrong?"

Regulus looked away from her and kept sorting through files from his seat. "Nothing."

Sofia took the seat next to him but she ignored the files. "Something is obviously wrong. Just tell me."

He took a deep breath. There was a deep crease on his forehead. "I... I just got a not-so-nice letter from home."

Sofia frowned. It had been a while since she had wanted to throttle Walburga Black, but it was not a foreign feeling at all. "What'd she say?"

Regulus half-smiled bitterly. He still didn't look at Sofia. "Just something about how I need to join the Death Eaters as soon as possible or people are going to think I'm like my blood-traitor brother or some bullshit."

Sofia's breath hitched. "As soon as possible? You're sixteen."

Regulus sighed deeply. "I'll be seventeen in April. Old enough to vote, old enough to join You-Know-Who."

Shit. That was three weeks away. "Your parents aren't Death Eaters though."

"No, but she still thinks I should be one. To prove I'm not like Sirius."

Sofia knew it probably wouldn't make things better but she said, "You have to get out of there."

Regulus leaned back on his seat and pressed his hands against his face. "I... I can't. It's my mother."

"Well, she's not exactly mother of the year, is she?"

Regulus didn't seem mad at the slander against his mother. He chuckled. "And yet, I still can't bring myself to leave."

Sofia said her next words very carefully. "You... could ask Sirius—"

"I am not asking Sirius for anything."

Sofia winced but she didn't press the issue. She stood and went over to examine one of Dumbledore's bookcases. "I know she's your mother and all, but I really hate that lady."

Regulus laughed. "Yeah... well, she's not too fond of you either, so don't sweat it."

Sofia smiled. "Oh my god. Did I ever tell you about my one and only meeting with your dear mother?"

Regulus's brows raised. "I... know you never so much as spared me a thought before this year but I was there for it, actually."

Sofia frowned. Shit, she truly did not remember that. "Oh, shit. Were you?"

"Well, they had to pick me up from school too, didn't they?"

Sofia's head tilted in thought as she looked at him. "Yeah, I guess. Sometimes I forget we've been classmates for so long. It's like that was a completely different person."

"Okay, ouch."

Sofia shook her head. "No, come on. You've always been so... reserved, I never in a million years thought you would be so... different once you let your guard down."

Regulus nodded. "Well, I wish I could say that I never noticed you either but, for how much you hate everyone, you surprisingly tend to wear your heart on your sleeve a lot."

Sofia wanted to argue but he wasn't entirely wrong. "And what did you think of me... before?"

Regulus's eyes narrowed. He thought for a moment. "Honestly?"

"Preferably, tell the truth, yeah."

"I thought... how the fuck did my brother get so lucky to be friends with the most interesting person in this school?"

Sofia smiled. "You're such a liar."

"Really. I mean, you were a tiny twelve-year-old Muggleborn girl who had never been on a broom before who just grabbed a bat and went absolutely batshit on the Bludgers, whose only friend was one of the most popular guys in school and just refused to talk to anyone else and got constantly caught sneaking out of the castle. You've always been the most interesting person in this school."

"I don't refuse to talk to people. I talk to you, don't I?"

He laughed. "Yeah, now, after I've known you for almost five years."

"Well... anyway, I was telling you about the time I met your mum."

"As I said, I already know that story, I was there."

Sofia huffed. "You were so not! I would remember, you're just trying to make me think I'm crazy."

"We were on the platform, after our Second Year," he said. "My mum saw you speaking to Sirius and went batshit on you when she realised you were a Muggleborn, told you to stay away from her kid and whatnot."

Sofia crossed her arms over her chest. "You could've heard that story anywhere."

"Or I could've been standing right next to my mother uncomfortably while she yelled at you and Sirius."

Sofia shrugged. "Yeah, no one can prove anything—either way... that was back when she still kind of tried to control what Sirius did."

"Yeah..." Regulus got a sombre look on his face. "I think if I started behaving like Sirius... that might actually kill her."

Sofia wanted to say good, but that was probably a little much. "You shouldn't suffer for her sake."

Regulus smiled sadly. "You know, I remember one of our few interactions before this year... you probably don't remember it but it was right after that summer, on the train back to school."

Sofia frowned. She wasn't sure she remembered. "Oh."

He looked down at his hands. "I was with Travers and some of those other fuckers and we were loitering in the corridor... and one of them was talking about how his brother had hexed some Muggleborn at Diagon Alley during the summer and we were all laughing and chirping in with snide comments about Muggleborns. You passed by and heard us. You'd had a murderous look on your face but then it faded and you just walked right by me and you said, 'Sirius was right. You're just like your mother.' I still feel it burning in the back of my head to this day."

Sofia let out the breath she had been holding. She stepped towards him. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise. I didn't mention it to make you feel bad. Besides, it's not like you were wrong."

Sofia frowned. "You are not like your mother, Regulus Black. Don't even fucking say that. You're not."

He looked defeated. "Aren't I though? I've hung around these people my whole life just to fit in. I've said and done things that have caused harm to Muggleborns."

"Who you are isn't what you've done. It's human to err."

He looked at her with steely eyes. "Please don't. I've done a lot of shit, Sofia. A lot of it unjustifiable. My mother might have pushed me but I did what I did all on my own."

"Yeah, on your own as a literal child! Forgive me for using this language to refer to your mother but she is an abusive piece of shit and she held a lot of power over you. You were a kid and you were easily influenced, it wasn't your fault. And if you won't believe that, at least know that I don't blame you."

Regulus looked at her for a long second. His eyes glistened. "Yeah, the only thing is that I'm grown now. And everything's still the same."

"Sixteen is not grown."

"Grown enough."

"And things aren't the same. You know who you are now, and what you believe. Don't you?"

He looked ill. "Yeah, I do. But like you said, if my actions don't align with that, that only makes me a hypocrite."

Sofia couldn't believe he was using her own words against her. "Things are not always so black and white. And things have changed. You don't hang out with Travers and those guys anymore, do you?"

"Yeah, well, because you gave me a pretty handy excuse to stop talking to Travers, and the rest of them just think I'm being a massive nerd and studying for our NEWTs already."

Sofia smiled. "That's progress! And I know that it's complicated with your mum but... I'm here if you need anything."

Regulus stared at her. He looked like he wanted to say something else but he held back at the last second. He nodded. "Thank you."

He stood and brought the file box over to a table to the side. Before he could return to his seat, Sofia grabbed a hold of his wrist and stopped him.

She took a step forward and wrapped her arms around him.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"It's called a hug. And you are in desperate need of one right now."

He relaxed into it and hooked his arms around Sofia's waist. He took a deep breath.

She held him so tight it was almost as if she were trying to hold him together. She rested her head on his chest, hearing his heart beating through his robes. Oddly, the embrace felt more intimate than any kiss they'd shared before.

Sofia worried about Regulus a lot more than she should the next couple of weeks.

She had the desperate need to help him, even if he didn't want her help.

Maybe it was that desperation that had led her to say what she did on the train ride home for spring break.

Sofia didn't think Regulus would take her on her word, but she had told him to write her if he needed anything. Also, that if he needed to get out of his house, her door was open. That last bit she hadn't really thought through, but it was already Friday and there were two days of break left, so Sofia didn't think he was going to show up.

Sofia looked out the window of the living room and had to do a double-take. Her eyes narrowed, trying to look at the black-clad figure standing in front of her building... it couldn't be.

Then he turned around and Sofia realised that it very much was.

She shot up from her seat and yelled at Roman that she was stepping out for a bit before almost sprinting downstairs.

She calmed down when she reached the first floor. She was being ridiculous. If he was still there when she arrived, good. And if he wasn't... that was fine as well.

He was still pacing, looking extremely awkward.

"You lost or something?" She called out, from a few metres away.

He turned to her, a look of surprise dissolved into something more like... relief. He smiled, ever so slightly. "I didn't know if..."

"I'm glad you came," Sofia said, a little too quickly.

He nodded once. "It was getting a little too stuffy at Grimmauld Place."

Sofia had never been there, but it had never seemed like the cosiest place to her.

Sofia wondered if she should invite him up. It was only Roman at the apartment at the moment, and he'd already met Regulus. But she didn't know when her mum and Natasha and Ivan would be back from the pool.

"Want to get some ice cream?" She asked.

"Sure."

They walked side by side and Sofia hoped he didn't think anything of how far away from her place she was leading him, especially when they passed two parks on the way there.

"I really like this park... it's always nice and empty," was the only explanation she offered.

Sofia got chocolate ice cream and Regulus strawberry. She paid since Regulus had no Muggle currency.

They sat on a bench, in a slightly secluded area of the park. Sofia sat with her legs pulled up, Regulus had left a good two feet of distance in between them. She had a brief flashback to that day in the Quidditch pitch and her cheeks started to go red but she did her best to think of something else.

"So," she said after their silence started to wander into awkward territory. "It's the 31st today."

Regulus nodded. "It is."

"You said your birthday was in April but you never specified what day."

"The seventh."

Sofia nodded, thinking back to the dates of their upcoming Quidditch match. "We'll be in Spain."

"Yes."

"You don't mind spending your birthday playing Quidditch in Spain?"

Regulus shrugged. "I've never done much on my birthday."

Sofia recalled Sirius mentioning before how their parents barely even said happy birthday to them. Even as kids. Her heart drooped. "Is your mum still set on...?"

He caught her meaning. "Pretty much. But I don't know."

He clearly didn't want to talk about it, so Sofia dropped it. She spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see a small black kitten lurking behind their bench. She smiled. "Ooh, privyet kotik."

She said it in Russian because god forbid Regulus heard her say hello kitty in English.

Sofia leaned on her seat to look back at the cat. She cut off a bit of her ice cream cone, which she'd barely just started eating. The cat meowed as she offered it. Sofia made a soothing noise. "Here, kotik."

"What are you doing?" Regulus asked.

"What does it seem like I'm doing?"

She continued trying to attract the kitten until it finally walked slowly over to her. She fed it and it walked under the bench until it bumped Regulus's legs. Sofia laughed.

It started trying to climb Regulus's calf while it purred softly.

"I think he likes you," Sofia said.

Regulus frowned at the cat. Then he tentatively reached out a hand and stroked it.

To Regulus's surprise, the kitten jumped up and held on for dear life from his lap.

Sofia gasped. "Oh my god, he has a friend."

The other kitten was also black and very small. Sofia immediately picked it up when it reached her. She stroked it. "Aren't you a cute little thing?"

Regulus still looked like he didn't quite know what to do with the cat on his lap, but he continued to caress it.

"Do you think they're stray?" Regulus asked.

"Seems likely. They don't have collars."

Sofia's kitten tried to climb up her chest and in a moment of boldness, Sofia laid her head on Regulus's lap, his kitten having climbed up to his shoulders.

"We're gonna be covered in fur after this," Sofia pointed out.

She looked up at Regulus's face. He had been quiet, but he didn't look too broody for once. In fact, he looked kind of... relaxed. His shoulders weren't tense, and his eyes didn't look so overcome with conflict. He looked like his guard was down. It scared and excited Sofia at the same time.

She noticed a tiny drop of pink ice cream beside his mouth. She reached up and wiped it off with a thumb. "You had... some ice cream," she explained.

His lips turned up slightly. "Thanks, love."

Sofia screamed internally. Did he just call her...? She did not know how to act with this new development. "You're welcome, love."

He rolled his eyes. "I knew you'd make me regret that."

She grinned. "Oh, nooo, come on. If you're going to call me that, I wanna give you a pet name too."

He sighed. "You're incorrigible."

She smiled and petted the kitten on her stomach. "How about... kotik?"

"Kitten? Seriously?"

"Okay, fine. It's too cutesy to call you that when we're not a couple."

And a glacial hush fell over the entire park. She tore her eyes away from him and focused on her kitten, who had started climbing up to her chest.

Suddenly, Regulus's kitten let out a screech, which caused Sofia's kitten to jump up toward its friend, scratching Regulus's face in the process.

"Oh my god," Sofia sat up and removed the kittens from Regulus's shoulders. "No! Bad koshak!"

Regulus grimaced. "Is it bad?"

Sofia examined the side of his face. The small claws had left three straight lines, only a couple inches long. Red blood seeped through.

"Oh shit," Sofia exclaimed. "Oh, fuck we gotta get to St. Mungo's right now."

Regulus's eyes went wide. "What? Is it really that bad? It doesn't even feel—"

"Are you kidding? We can't just let all that pure blood go to waste!"

She broke down into giggles as she said the last word, unable to keep a straight face anymore.

Regulus didn't look too amused. He looked at Sofia. "Very funny."

She was still laughing. "What? I'm serious! I've never been in presence of such pure blood before, I can't help you! I might burn if I touch it with my dirty Mudblood hands."

Regulus sunk down in his seat. "Will you stop?"

She took a second to stop laughing. "No, but seriously... we should probably do something about that scratch. If those were stray cats... I very much doubt they're vaccinated."

"That they're what?"

"You know that they don't have rabies and shit... it's hard to explain, you should really get that disinfected though."

"We can't use magic though."

Sofia smiled. "Oh, but luckily for you, Muggles have been dealing with this shit sans magic for centuries." She stood. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"To my flat, I have a first aid kit there."

"Are you sure?"

Sofia guessed he had realised her reluctance to actually have him near her home. He didn't seem upset though. She nodded. "Yes, I don't want you to get rabies. I'm not that evil."

He stood and looked back at the kittens, who had put a few metres of distance between them.

"I feel bad about leaving them, but I guess I can call the animal shelter later," she said and led him away from the park.

It was still just Roman locked in his room when they arrived at the flat. Sofia led Regulus to her room and fetched the first aid kit.

She thoroughly disinfected the wound while Regulus winced in pain. He bit down on his hand.

"Who knew you were such a cry-baby?"

"Who knew Muggles had such savage ways of healing?"

Sofia smiled. She patched up the cut. "I think you'll live. But maybe do try to get whatever the equivalent of a wizard rabies shot is."

He looked worried for a second but ultimately nodded. Sofia finished putting the plaster on his face and before she could withdraw her hand, he covered it with his. His touch was light, barely there. His hand was slightly larger than hers, his palm calloused from all those years of Quidditch. Sofia's heartbeat quickened. She caressed his cheek with her thumb, getting half plaster and half pale skin over sharp cheekbone.

He looked at her with those beautiful eyes and Sofia felt overwhelmed.

Then, the front door opened and the voices of her siblings resounded through the flat. Sofia withdrew her hand. Then, she heard another voice mixed in with Natasha and Ivan's. One that definitely didn't belong in the Bessonov household.

Sofia let out a soft gasp as she neared the door.

There was a knock on her door and she jumped back.

"Hey, Sof, you in there?" Sirius called.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a second."

She finally looked back at Regulus, whose face had dropped.

"I'll go see if I can get them out of the flat for a minute so you can get out," Sofia said and immediately felt a pang of guilt.

He nodded, his expression neutral.

Sofia rolled her shoulders before going out into the living room. Shutting her bedroom door firmly behind her.

She forced a smile onto her face. "What are you doing here? I thought you and James were day-tripping to Brighton."

Sirius shrugged, plopping down on the sofa. "We came back early. Thought I'd pop by. Ran into these guys outside."

Ivan immediately went over to Sofia and tried to start narrating their entire day at the pool to her.

"You guys want to go out for pizza for dinner?" Sofia asked.

Natasha and Ivan perked up.

"Did you ask Mamá?" Natasha asked.

Sofia shrugged. "She won't be back for dinner, she probably won't even notice."

Natasha seemed unsure but the promise of pizza was too tempting for her to argue further.

"Ooh, yes, I'd kill for some pizza," Sirius said as he stood from the sofa.

"Let me just get my jacket," Natasha said.

Sofia's eyes widened. "No! I mean, I'll lend you mine if you get cold. I'm so hungry, let's go."

Natasha looked at Sofia weirdly and walked over to their bedroom door. "Your jacket's too big, it'll just take a second, you can head down if you want."

Sofia rushed over to their door but before she could stop Natasha, the girl threw the door open.

Sofia held her breath as it happened. The room was empty.

Natasha frowned. "Why are you acting so weird?"

Sofia ignored her sister and stayed in the room to make sure Natasha just grabbed the jacket and got out.

Sofia herded her siblings and Sirius out the door and when they reached the Tube station, she made a show of having had forgotten her wallet and rushed back to the flat as they headed down to the train.

Sofia left the kids with Sirius and ran to the flat. She wasn't even sure why she went back. Regulus could just let himself out, she didn't need her to go back. But she just felt like she had to see him and say something.

But she reached the flat and Regulus was nowhere to be found.