Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Forty-Four

[Chapter Forty-Four]

The train ride had gone better than Éponine had initially anticipated once she and Regulus got their apologies out of the way. It seemed they both came to the agreement that Emmarentia was not a good influence on their developing relationship. The girl's selfish wants to have Éponine to herself had caused one too many problems for them and they were too young and too earlier into the budding relationship to be dealing with so much drama. For the time being, they could both agree that it was best to just ignore Emmarentia and cut off ties with her. It felt like such a shame to Éponine though because, in her mind, Emmarentia had been her first friendship outside of Regulus.

She had liked the idea of being friends with one of her dormmates, having another girl to talk to but it seemed it was Emmarentia was the one who wasn't ready for such things. She was too caught up in her own feelings to behave in an appropriate manner and after the last ordeal, Éponine was just fed up with dealing with such nonsense. It was bad enough that outside forces such as Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, and Gian were causing her enough stress, along with her parents, she didn't need anything else.

Instead, all Éponine wanted to do was share a nice Christmas in the company of Regulus and his parents. Of course, she would have liked her parents to own up to their neglectful ways and actually be there for her, but she knew she had to be thankful for what she was being given outside of them. Walburga and Orion were welcoming her to their home and she enjoyed her time around them, and it meant that she and Regulus would have time outside of school and their duties to bond, which was a nice thought in general.

On the train, Regulus and Éponine sat beside one another with Éponine sitting closest to the window to peer out. Avery and Mulciber had taken to sitting across from them, keeping the compartment entertaining as they told stories from past Christmases, such as Avery knocking one of his uncles into the fireplace by accident and never hearing the end of them. All of them had such wonderful or funny stories to tell that when it came to Éponine offering anything, she remained quiet.

How dull her Christmases sounded in comparison to the others, she had no exciting stories to really tell without sounding horribly boring. Eventually, Avery and Mulciber got up to walk the train to continue entertaining themselves, while Regulus and Éponine remained behind. Once the compartment was empty with the exception of the two, Regulus turned to her with a curious look.

"Are you sure everything is alright, Epi?" he questioned her. "You've been awfully quiet this entire trip."

"I know," she sighed, " but it's only because you three have such funny or exciting stories to tell about your holidays. When it comes to mind, they don't sound anywhere near as exciting, if I tried telling one, I'm afraid everyone would fall asleep."

"I think you might be exaggerating there, Epi, there has to be something fun that you and your parents did during the holidays."

"Nothing really special that we wouldn't do during normal times," she shrugged, " maybe if the weather held up, my father and I would go horseback riding. Or sometimes my mother would let me help her cook in the kitchens. But nothing out of the ordinary, I certainly didn't accidentally knock one of my uncles into the fireplace or dance the Rumba with a kneazle like Avery and Mulciber."