From Eden - Regulus Black (Complete)

Chapter One Hundred and Twelve -

A nice little chapter to move things along a little bit. Prepare yourselves, a lot will happen at once in the next chapter, so this is a light one. A small TW for the discussion of sexual themes, nothing too explicit, but some implicit SA conversation and all that. Thank you for reading.

Do comment your thoughts!

Guess what'll happen next. I love this guessing game!

ACCEPTANCE

Three days of silence from Christian Evans made Anne thinking she was going crazy, her tunnel-vision barely allowing her to eat when Regulus or James were forcing her to. Three days of hesitance from Petunia made her fear her anger for the secret she kept from her make her turn into the Petunia she knew. Three days of Rose's pitying looks made her want to tear her own hair out.

And yet Regulus refused to leave her side.

When Mia wasn't beside her, pretending to need her around the house for chores just to keep her busy, Regulus was beside her. When she didn't need him, however, he was stuck in the music room, door closed and sheet music coming and going – he was writing a new song, though he hadn't shown or commented on it to anyone yet, Anne just assumed by the ink on his hands.

It was only on the fourth day, when Monty and the boys were out, Regulus was checking up on Grimmauld Place and its residents and Mia was on the garden with Coco that Chris appeared once more, walking out of the fireplace to see Anne sitting in the parlour already, reading a book, though not turning the page, just staring statically at the words printed.

"Hello," he said.

She looked up lazily.

"Mia's at the gardens," she answered.

He stood there for a second as she looked back down at her books, but he did notice her hands shaking a bit.

"I would imagine so. It's Wednesday. She's always at the gardens at Wednesdays," he said, moving slowly to sit down on another one of the comfortable chairs. "Anne, I came here for you. To apologise." She looked up at him once more. "I needed to think. I needed some time."

"Lily did as well."

"Lily is a lot like me in a lot of ways, not just the hair," he said. "Which you got from me as well, as I can see now."

"Well, it's not something one can miss about me, the red-hair, I mean," she said. "That's why my name is Anne, after all."

"After the book, yes?" he said, an amused grin on his face as she nodded. "Rose gave that book to Lily when she was a kid. Lily used to hate her hair with ardent passion, something you seem to share with her, but Lily stopped once Anne's story was read and she saw herself in another character."

"I never hated my hair. It was the only thing I had from my mother besides a beat-up book, which my brother showed no interest for," she said bitterly. "We weren't allowed to have pictures of them. I had not known what they looked like exactly until Harry brought back with him a few pictures that some of their friends got him in his first year, while I rotted away in a bedroom, forbidden from coming out unless for school. I knew Lily had red hair, but nothing more than that."

She looked up once more.

Chris was pale once more, all the amusement and well-intended humour gone from his face and eyes. He could scarcely believe his oldest daughter was capable of such cruelty, but he stayed quiet, just watching anger emanating from Anne.