Regulus was standing on Platform 9 ¾ staring at the shiny red train. He was in a good mood; excited for returning to school and cheered by the letter he had received from Hannah that morning (and promptly hidden away in Sirius's room with the others she had sent since she left for school). He hugged his mother goodbye and nodded at his unemotional father and dragged his trunk onto the train, quickly finding a compartment where one of his best friends Thomas Doge was sitting kissing his girlfriend Maude Vector.

"Should I find another compartment or are you two going to step away from each other," he asked amused, remembering how Hannah had kissed him when they had said goodbye.

Maude pulled away embarrassed, "I should go. Find my friends." The Ravenclaw student scurried out the compartment.

"You two still loved up then?" Regulus asked, his embarrassed friend ruffled his short blonde hair and nodded his head. Thomas and Maude had been together for over a year, and while Regulus liked her well enough they almost every waking minute together, which Regulus didn't like.

"Nulla was looking for you," Thomas informed him.

Regulus groaned and sat down opposite his friend.

"I don't see what your groaning for she is the most beautiful girl in Slytherin. And she is older. Most guys would give up their wands to have a date with her."

"Yeah well they are welcome to her."

"Oh come on. What happened between you guys anyway?"

Regulus shrugged.

"You were talking about getting back together at the start of the summer."

"Yeah, well. Things change." Regulus took the opportunity to change the subject, this conversation was a little bit close to comfort and as much as he didn't want the unpleasantness of talking about his ex-girlfriend, he was more worried about being pressurised into talking about his current relationship status and Regulus was determined no one would ever find out about Hannah.

They were soon joined by Barty and Priscilla and their friendship group was completed. Thomas detailed his trip to Athens with his parents and lamented of his mother's dislike of Maude. Priscilla, whose parents had moved to Australia three years earlier and now lived with her Uncle and Aunt, talked about her Aunt's annoying habits and the Australian witches she met ("you would like them Barty. Very blonde and pretty"), Barty moaned about his father and talked fondly of the camping holiday he took with his mother and Winky.

Regulus enjoyed being reunited with his best friends and the train ride passed quickly, with Barty disappearing part of the way through to perform his prefect duties. When they arrived at Hogsmeade they queued for a threstrel pulled carriage. Thomas and Pricilla got into one with one of the Alecto Carrow, one of the seventh years. It was then that Regulus was cornered by Nulla.

"Reg. How are you?"

"I'm good thanks Nulla. You?"

"Great. I tried to write to you but I think my owl must have dropped my letters off in a field because I never got a reply."

"Oh really I never got them." He felt bad lying but he didn't want to lead her on. He had only had two girlfriends before Nulla and both had dumped him, he had never had to break up with anyone before and he wasn't quite sure how to do it.

An empty carriage arrived and she followed him into it, shooting dirty looks at her friends to stop them trying to join them. When they got in the carriage she suggested they meet up next weekend and go for a walk round the school. We could go up to the Divination tower like we used to and hang out."

The Divination tower had been their make out spot and Regulus had no intention of ever being near there with Nulla again. "Look Nulla. I feel like we need to talk. I found out that you went out with Sirius and you were heartbroken when you split up and I was told you only went out with me to make him jealous. I don't like being used Nulla and now he's gone you can leave me alone, I doubt he would find out about us now he's finished Hogwarts."

"Oh Reg, it's not like that. I might have used you at the start but your much nicer than Sirius and I really like you. Please forgive me and think about us getting back together."

Regulus nodded. She seemed sincere but he had a girlfriend. He smiled to himself at the thought while his mother's voice told him to get back with Nulla pointing out she was a good pure blood girl. They got out of the carriage and Regulus helped Nulla with her bags. Nulla looked pleased, making Regulus instantly regret it. They made his way into the great hall were him and Nulla joined Barty, Thomas and Priscilla.

Regulus watched the sorting with minimal interest and daydreamed through Dumbledore's speech, it wasn't until the food appeared in front of them that Regulus started enjoying himself. He picked up the roast potatoes and a slice of quiche which was nowhere near as good as Hannah's. Regulus was enjoying himself immensely watching Thomas try to give Maude, who was a few seats down, a seductive look which made him look more like something had flew up his nose. Priscilla was retelling the story of her six year old cousin accidentally turning her dad into a pig leaving a lot of the table including Regulus laughing hysterically while Barty was making a show of intimidating the new first year slytherins.

When they eventually reached the Slytherin dungeon Regulus was exhausted and wanted to collapse into his four poster bed but Barty had other ideas. While him and Regulus were deatheaters Thomas and the three other boys in their room were not and Barty dragged Regulus over to a corner to discuss recruitment tactics.

"Reg you are good friends with Marco and Claudius, you all do ancient runes together and support the same quidditch team so how about you work on recruiting them and Thomas. Thomas should be easy to talk round."

I snorted, Barty was ambitious almost to the point of being delusional, "Barty this isn't going to be easy. Maude is a half blood and if she doesn't want Thomas to join he won't. And Claudius's father is a mudblood. They may not be so keen sign up."

Barty rolled his eyes, "Don't be so negative."

"I am being realistic."

They agreed to disagree and Regulus went to bed trying to plan how to talk to Marco and Claudius. Thomas was the easy one. He called him out of their dorm and they wandered out of the dungeon into the corridor outside. Thomas looked confused, "Have you got back with Nulla? Or do you want girl advice from the master?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Regulus replied and told him the story of how he became a deatheater. "Look I wanted to tell you as soon as possible, but it wasn't safe to put in a letter."

"Mate I wish you had of told me you were thinking about it. I would have dragged myself away from Maude for a minute to talk it through with you….. I would ask you if your sure but it's too late for that from what I hear. Once you join you can't go back."

"Look Tommy, I don't want to go back. I thought about this a lot and I believe it's the right decision. Your one of my best mates and I wanted you to know. I don't have to say this doesn't go any further."

"Of course of course. You and Barty are going to try and recruit me aren't you?"

"Barty is determined, but it's your choice."

Thomas nodded his head and after a few minutes of casual conversation the two headed to bed.