Chapter 4
Days passed by slowly. Grimmauld Place was insipid. I was left alone all day, with the occasional visitor to say hello, give an introduction, and leave within five minutes. There was a house elf, Kreacher, to make meals, but he kept to himself, constantly muttering to his feather duster about Mistress Black and all the filth let inside her household. Often a bit frightened by this, I chose to stay as far from him as possible.
I spent most of my time in the library. Even though my head hurt from all the sneezing I had done in there because of the dust, and my nose ached from the odor of yellowing book pages, I enjoyed letting the time pass leisurely in the presence of words and stories. This wasn’t an ordinary library. As I read and perused the towering shelves for a book, I could almost hear the books whispering their separate tales in soft unison.
As I explored the library even more, I began to feel more comfortable in the house. I began to delve farther into the depths of the bookshelves, knowing that my father might have once walked in this aisle. My father might have once stroked the spines of these very books. My father might have romanticized about the same philosophers as I. And for a moment, I felt connected again. I felt a warmness wash over me. I knew my father was watching, and I knew he was caring.
After this, I started to explore the house. I wanted that feeling again.
This place was huge. Everything began to swim together before me only after a little while of walking. I was in a maze. Every left I made, seemed to take me to a right turn, and then to a fork in the hallway. I could feel the walls close in around me, and the panic settled in, the claustrophobia zoomed into a flaming sensation-I flung myself into the nearest room and put my head in my knees to calm the hysteria I was experiencing.
A few moments later, I removed my head from my lap and peered around the room. It was dim, but I could still see. It was also quite chilly, but the goosebumps refrained. It was not until I looked at the walls that the goosebumps appeared. It seemed to be a family tree, with faces painted onto vines, and the vines multiplied and spread across the wall of the whole room. It was a very detailed map of the Black family, showing immediate family members to distant relatives. But the most peculiar thing (and definitely the most fear-evoking) was the random burnt patches scattered about the tree. I looked at the closest one to me. The face was blackened out, but underneath read the name Sirius Orion Black.
“Dad’s brother!” I muttered in surprise. I stood up and paced the room, examining the names of the blackened faces. None of them I recognized, but I still felt a distant link to them. They knew my dad. They probably loved him, just like I do… tears swam before my eyes. No, I thought. I can’t cry. The tears escaped anyway, despite my half-hearted silent plea.
I threw myself down on the floor like a small child having a tantrum, sobbing. The family tree was now blurred, my weeping the main cause. My silky black hair was soon disheveled with my distraught mourning.
It occurred to me there and then amidst all my crying that I would never experience love. I’ll never know what it would be like to have someone be proud of a good grade on a test, or tuck me into bed at night. I’ll never get a letter while at Hogwarts from someone saying that they miss me terribly, or give me advice. Affection was what I needed, but I’ll never get it.
Umbridge was correct. I was scum. I’ll never be loved.
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After having a large, dramatic, one-person pity party for myself in the family tree room, I decided to go to bed, even though it was still light out. Tomorrow I’d be going to Diagon Alley, and I wanted to get a good night’s rest for such an occasion. I was going to be exposed to the wizarding world for the first time in my life, and I was very excited.
But being the klutzy, un-loved person I was, I managed to get myself lost in the huge manor again, looking for my room. I was in a hallway with only two doors and then a dead end. I walked towards them curiously, gazing at the first door I approached. Looking at it with interest, the door had a gold plate on it, which read Sirius Orion Black. I didn’t go inside, but I turned around and looked at the door behind me. My heart beating a mile a minute, what I wanted desperately could be just behind me; Sirius’s brother’s room; my dad’s room…
Regulus Arcturus Black. R.A.B. This was it. My dad’s name was Regulus.
Before I knew it, my hand had already grasped the doorknob with a longing I had never experienced before, and the doorknob turned, revealing a very messy room.
It was torn apart. It seemed someone had been frantically looking for something, never found it, but left the bedroom in its shabby state and it had been untouched for years. It was strange, I could almost still feel the tension in the room, as if that same person was in here still looking for the lost item. The walls were painted black, just like most of the rooms here. Above the unmade bed hung a green tapestry that had a slithering snake ready to attack and read ‘Slytherin’. All the drawers of the dresser were pulled out, and most of them had things hanging haphazardly out of them. The desk in the corner was nearly hidden by all the papers stacked on and around it.
I walked in, breathing in the air my father once breathed. I sat down on the bed and felt the green velvet covers, looking around the room, taking in everything. I don’t know how long I was in there, but long enough to feel comfortable and fall asleep.
Hey! It’s about time I introduced myself. I’m isabellebroadwaygeek, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a Broadway geek. Harry Potter is kinda my life, so don’t judge me if you see me as a 40 year old woman in an apartment that constantly plays tracks from the 1963 version of “My Fair Lady” and hoards cats. Just kidding!
Thank you to all my faithful readers. I’m just slightly disappointed in the lack of engagement of fans and the small amount of reads, but you can’t have everything in life, can you? Well, anyway, I’d love to hear your feedback, comments, questions, suggestions, and meanings of life… anything you want. I feel so famous!
Sorry this chapter’s short and lame-ish. I’ve been super busy and overcome with writer’s block, and I just want to make you guys happy. I try to make the chapters as close in length as possible.
But anyway, thank you dear readers, and enjoy some surprises I have in store! (I actually don’t have any planned but I just want to get you peeples pumped. So-GET PUMPED!)
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Death Eater's Daughter-Book 1
FanfictionRegulus Black is mysterious. No one seemed to know a lot about his personal life, except for the fact that he was a Death Eater and was eventually murdered by the ruthless Lord Voldemort in the first war. No one knew he was in love. No one knew he h...
