Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 7

*4th Year*

Mariya Seratova was about to begin her fourth year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry when the first Wizarding War properly began. Though Tom Riddle had been rising to power for years, his cause really began to grow that summer as many of the Pureblood supremacist families pledged their allegiance to him. Though the Seratovs were Pureblood they did not share the ridiculous ideals regarding Muggles and Muggle-borns that were held by many of the ancient houses. When Mariya found out that the Black family had allied with Voldemort she sent a letter to Regulus asking him as subtly as she could if he was alright. Though his reply was reassuring as to his health, Mariya found the way it was written strange. He was writing in the fancy way he had been taught as a child rather than in the more natural script he had always used with her in school. This, along with the strange way he phrased his reply, made her realise that he must have been being watched as he wrote the letter. Knowing this, she didn't send many letters over the holidays, and the ones she did avoided any mention of the war or the suspicious deaths that littered the pages of the newspapers if one knew how to look.

She became even more worried when he did not sit with her on the Hogwarts Express, instead choosing to sit with his Slytherin friends. He gave her a look at the feast to let her know he couldn't sit with her then either and managed during the crowded chaos as everyone returned to their dormitories to slip her a piece of paper telling her where to meet him the next morning.

Before breakfast the next morning, Mariya headed to the classroom Regulus had told her to go to and made sure no-one saw her enter it. Inside she found Regulus sitting looking out of one of the windows and watching the black lake.

"You know, you can see the lake from your dormitory." Despite his initial shock, Regulus smiled when he saw Mariya and hugged her back as she rushed forward to catch him in a strong embrace.

"I am sorry I couldn't really reply to your letters over the holidays," He said pulling back and leading her to sit at one of the tables, "Something is happening and I didn't want to risk my parents finding out that I was communicating with someone who didn't support supremacist views."

Mariya gave him a gentle smile, "I know. I could tell from the way you were writing but I thought that you might go insane if you didn't have some contact with someone vaguely normal."

Regulus flashed her a grateful smile, "My parents have been confiscating Sirius's post as far as possible but I don't think they realised that he started to use my owl to communicate with his friends."

Mariya grinned at the mention of his brother, "I take it you are on relatively good terms then?" Her grin fell slightly as Regulus frowned at the question.

"My parents think they can use me to drag him back to their way of thinking. I am glad that they are still letting me talk to him though."

"I don't have any siblings so I can't really relate, but I can't imagine my parents ever doing that to me."

Regulus shrugged, "I'll be honest, I am used to it. They have always done whatever they could to manipulate us into thinking like them, and I know they will use whatever tactics they think necessary."

Mariya pulled him into another hug and they stood there for a moment just enjoying each others presence before they had to go down to breakfast and pretend not to be friends any more.

Pulling back Mariya ruffled his hair slightly before turning to walk to the door, "I'll miss you, mi hermano menor."

And she was pleasantly surprised when he replied, "You too mi hermana mayor."

Casting a single glance back at him over her shoulder, Mariya walked out of the door steeling herself to ignore the boy she had just called her little brother in the knowledge that the best thing she could do to help him survive and stay healthy was to act as though they didn't get along.

Everybody saw the way Mariya Seratova and Regulus Black were now ignoring each other. Most people thought nothing of it, Sirius Black was confused as he had seen the genuine care Mariya had displayed towards his brother the previous year, Regulus's friends were glad that he had come to his senses and ditched the Blood Traitor, and Remus Lupin couldn't understand how Mariya was acting so unconcerned when the boy she had been hanging out with for the last two years stopped being around her for no apparent reason. Remus had his suspicions that they were still friends, suspicions that were confirmed when he walked into a supposedly empty classroom one morning only to find them sitting together, deep in conversation. They had looked panicked when they saw him and both started to try to explain but stopped when Remus just smiled and nodded at the two before leaving the classroom, being careful to lock the door behind him so that nobody else would walk in on them.

She had explained to him during their next language lesson that Regulus could no longer afford to be seen with her, that he had to keep up appearances for his family. Though Mariya hadn't told him what had changed since the previous year to call for these drastic measurers, Remus strongly suspected that it had something to do with the war. Though Sirius had not stated explicitly that his family were on the other side, he had told them that they had had a renewed effort in trying to persuade him to join them by allowing Regulus to speak to him.

Remus knew how much it meant to Mariya that she had a friend in her own house for once and he would do nothing to compromise this happiness if he could help it. So he kept his silence, not even mentioning it to James and Sirius no matter how much he wanted to. He was a better friend than that and he knew that one day he would have to share his own secret with Mariya and he could only hope that when that day came she would prove to be just as good a friend as he had tried to be to her.