Regulus looked at the sky and sighed as he looked at the stars that were barely visible due to the clouds. Sometimes he wished he was an actual star.

_

_

3rd PERSON POV

The inside of Hogwarts was just as he remembered. He was one—if not the only one—of the first years that wasn't mesmerized by the floating candles or the artificial sky.

Regulus was done with Hogwarts when he died.

Being back here did not bring him much joy. (It never did. Not since—)

He kept looking at the people around him as they took in the sights, it was weird, being in the place that so many would see like their home. Like Sirius had like he had when he was younger—back when he was free. He shook his head, it's no use hanging on to the past. Or the many pasts just like the many futures that the higher being had shown him.

"Black, Regulus!" His name was called, and he blinked.

Right, he was in school, he went up to the stool and sat down while locking eyes with his brother as Sirius looked excitedly at him. The hat was placed on his head, and he simply remembered all the time's where he was made a Slytherin, a Ravenclaw, a Hufflepuff, but never a Gryffindor (he wasn't brave, he was a coward—)

'Hmm, let's see,' that hat said inside his mind and all he could do was tense up as he looked at his own tiny fingers. 'You been blessed by her… I haven't received one of her chosen ones in quite some time. I wonder though, what did she see in you?'

Regulus shrugged, 'Please do hurry, I do not want to stay here much longer than I probably have.'

The hat simply hummed, 'Well as you should have it, you will be—'

"SLYTHERIN"

Sirius's face fell and went cold. Regulus simply ignored it, he'd seen it, before in many runs of him being here. It didn't matter what happened whether he was Slytherin or Ravenclaw, they were never meant to be brothers. (It didn't matter to Regulus, it didn't—) Regulus went towards the table that politely clapped at him and sat down with the first years.

In another lifetime he would be proud of the fact that he was in the house that his mother wanted him to be in and finally saw him, it hadn't mattered that she only saw what she wanted to see, he was finally out of Sirius's shadow and thought it would've gotten better. In this lifetime he knew better and simply stayed quiet (stayed in his place like the fucking good son he was) and merged with the crowd.

…

Regulus took disappearing in the shadows very seriously. He sneaked away as soon as everyone finished eating and simply went to the dungeons to look for his room. Whispering the different passwords given to him in his first timeline, it opened the door after multiple attempts and looked for his dorm. He went to the left of the stairs and heard the door open once more as it seemed that the first years arrived with everyone else.

He ignored the noise and simply went to his dorm, finding it in the same place as it was before and went to his bed, the bed that became the closest thing he could get to a home throughout the many years. The door opened and soon came the roommates that he was supposed to spend the rest of his years here with. In walked Balfour Greengrass, Icarus Nott, Enoch Wilkes, and some random soon-to-be-death eater that he never bothered to learn the name off.

Back then he really didn't care much about the half-bloods that were in the group, didn't seem to really care about anyone that he didn't seem to be personally interested in. They walked in and stared at him as he sat on the bed that had his luggage, they seemed a bit surprise at finding him. He didn't know what their deal was until the nameless one went outside and yelled, "Found him!"

Regulus blinked and it soon dawned on him that maybe he wasn't as sneaky as he thought, he would work on that, soon someone surprising came in. Long pale blonde hair was the first thing that he saw before looking in the eyes of one Lucius Malfoy, the second thing he saw was the displeased look that the young man had.

"You had your cousin's worried when they couldn't find you. Made me look bad as a prefect in front of my bestowed and then have the audacity to skip the manual speech that your head of the house made for the first years. What do you, Regulus Balck, have to say for yourself?!" His tone was deadly calm, but it got more and more angry as he went on.

It was then when a memory from Before that made him inwardly groan, Regulus forgot how important his first night in the Slytherin common room was as his cousin Narcissa would come to check on him and introduce him to her own sisters. He doesn't really remember why she would do that, but he would assume it was to be seen as caring in the eyes of Lucius and in the eyes of his own parents. What a great way to fuck up on his first night in Hogwarts.

What should he do? He looked at Lucius before coming up with something on the spot, "Sirius-my brother wanted to speak to me about my sorting. He couldn't take no for an answer but as he is to be the next Heir, I had to see what he wanted to say, it would be as unpleasant as you would assume and when he was finished the group was gone. I had to make my way around and arrived here I assumed that you had all already went to sleep and went to look for my dorm."

Regulus kept his eye contact with Lucius until the end so that it seemed that he was truly sorry. (Which he was not, Lucius was just easier to manipulate when he thought he was stronger than one and was naïve to think that no one would dare lie to his face). Listening to his explanation Lucius let out a hum and continued to analyze his face before simply saying, "You better apologize to Narcissa tomorrow when you wake up, you made her worry about you."

He left without a word and left Regulus alone in the empty dorm room. He simply sighed and let himself fall into his bed before taking out his shoes and closing the blinds and taking out his wand to cast some privacy spells to ensure that no one would bother him while he slept.

With that the first night in Hogwarts ended.