"Bianca, why was this letter addressed to you written in invisible ink?" Mum asked.

I dropped my book on my foot. My head involuntarily whipped upwards to look at her. She was holding up a letter that had my name written on it in Regulus's neat handwriting. My heart skipped a beat.

"I..."

"Who sent it?" she asked curiously, turning the sealed letter over in her hands.

I got up and snatched it from her. "How did you know it was in invisible ink?" I demanded. "Why are you going through my mail?"

"I didn't go through it, your owl brought it to the window in the kitchen. I thought it was strange that the envelope didn't have anything written on it; but come on, did you really think I wouldn't figure it out? Now, explain why someone is writing to you with invisible ink."

My eyes widened and I began biting my nails. I knew I would have to tell Mum about Regulus and I eventually, but I was trying to avoid it as much as possible. She had always wanted me to get a boyfriend and would just make fun of me and scream in excitement and jump up and down; all of the things I really, really didn't want. Guilt started clawing at my insides. What was wrong with me, though? My mother and I were basically best friends. I always told her everything...

"That letter," I said, crossing my arms, looking awkwardly at the ground and lowering my voice, "is from Regulus Black."

Mum did a double take. "Regulus Black, your friend Sirius's brother?"

"Yeah..." I mumbled.

"Are you going out with him?" Mum asked. There was an excited but joking edge to her voice.

I opened my mouth, then closed it, not being able to say anything. Then, bracing myself for Mum's reaction, I slowly nodded.

Her reaction was even worse than I expected, for a high-pitched shriek of delight rang through the house. "WOOOHOOOOOO!"

I put my face in my hands, blushing from her reaction. "Please stop screaming," I said, but to no avail, because she continued cheering. I just didn't want Ainsley and Corey to hear, because I didn't want to have to explain this to either of them as well.

Corey's head appeared at the top of the staircase. "What is Mum screaming about?" he asked me.

"Nothing, she, er... she's happy that I... that I got good O.W.L. results," I lied, saying the first thing I could think of.

Corey gave me a look of disbelief and disappeared again. I turned back to Mum.

"Would you stop screaming?!" I said.

Mum stopped jumping up and down. I dragged her away from the staircase and into the kitchen, sitting down at the dinner table in my regular seat. She sat across from me.

"You finally got a boyfriend!" she said.

"Shh!"

"When did it start? Why didn't you tell me this before?" she demanded, a huge grin on her face.

"I didn't tell you," I whispered, "because I didn't want you to react that way."

She wasn't listening, though, because she was staring at me wickedly. "And here I was thinking that you might've had a thing with Sirius!"

"Mum!" I screeched. "No! No, absolutely not!" I dropped the letter, put my head in my hands and let it slide onto the table. As I continued speaking, my voice was muffled my the table. "No! Sirius is one of my best friends, not... that. Ugh."

"What? It was just a thought," she said. "You know, because he came over and—"

I raised my head quickly. "I told you, he ran away from home and needed to talk about it! Come on, you know boys don't cry in front of each other because they think it makes them weak, so he came to me instead."

"All right, not Sirius. What about you and James?"

"Mum, he loves Lily."

"Remus?"

"My best friend!"

She paused for a moment "...Peter?" she said in a small voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Mum, I'm with Regulus, remember? That's what we were talking about, that's who the letter's from."

"Whatever. Bianca, then you'd better start explaining right now!" she said excitedly.

I groaned, rubbing my eyes. "Fine, I'll tell you. But you can't tell Ainsley and Corey about any of this—you can't even mention Regulus ever again in front of them."

"All right."

"And you can't tell Dad, either."

The day before, I had finally spoken to my father for the first time in a couple of days. Mum had convinced me to give him an insincere apology for something I hadn't even done wrong, tell him he was right and that I valued his opinion... all of which wasn't true. Mum didn't expect me to actually listen to Dad and not become an Auror, but she said that I had to make him think for now that I was considering all that he'd said. When the time came for me to finally pick a career, I would just do it and disregard whatever he said; but for now, I just let it go.

She pursed her lips. "Oh, he wouldn't react well if I told him."

"OK, good, so don't tell him, and never mention it to anyone else. Oh, and no more screaming or squealing or squeaking or whatever you're going to do. If I talk to you about this, you aren't allowed to have a reaction."

"Fine!"

I took a deep, nervous breath. I had never told anyone before about my relationship with Regulus, so Mum would be the first to know besides the two of us.

"It turns out that I'm kind of in a very complicated situation here," I started hesitantly. "You see, no one else knows that I'm... er... you know, going out with him," I said, mumbling the last part.

She smirked. "So the four musketeers don't know?"

I gulped and shook my head. "No, I can't tell them... At least, not yet... Sirius hates his brother, see... He thinks that all Regulus cares about is blood status and not disappointing his evil parents."

"It's not, though, right?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"No," I said. "Regulus told me all about that. He lets his parents think that he has the same beliefs as them, and he was a bit against Muggle-borns at first, but I don't think he cares anymore, seeing as he knows I'm not pure-blood and he's still with me... Anyway, that's why Sirius hates Regulus so much, and to be honest, I think that Sirius is a little jealous of him and all the attention he gets from their parents... He's been their favourite son from the very beginning."

"Poor Sirius."

"Actually, I hated Regulus when I first met him, too."

"You did?" Mum mused.

"Yeah."

"So it was a love-hate thing," she said.

I ignored her and clenched my fists. She made it so embarrassing for me to tell her things...

"He's, er... the Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team, so in the first game of the season I beat him. We argued a lot, but he still came to visit me in the Hospital Wing the day of the game for some reason... Remember when Rowle threw me off my broom and hit a Bludger at me? It was then."

She raised her eyebrows. "Is he a nice guy?" she asked. "He'd better be."

"Yes, he's nice," I said genuinely. "At first, he was really conflicted about the fact that I wasn't pure-blood... His parents had brainwashed him into thinking he could only be friends with and date pure-bloods... But he came around. He just... stopped caring about all of that and started to care about more important things..."

"When did you start dating?"

I bit my lip. "Er... just after Christmas break."

Mum's eyes widened. "What? You've been together for that long and you didn't tell me?!"

"Would you keep your voice down?" I shushed her.

We stayed silent for a while. She was still smiling. I was about to change the subject and ask her if we could have some tea, but she then she said at last: "Is Regulus as handsome as Sirius is?"

"Mum! That's creepy!"

We dissolved into hysterical laughter.

I finally picked the letter up off the table and opened the envelope. I was too anxious to wait and open it when I was alone, so I chanced a look at it. Mum had already revealed the invisible ink, probably by casting a spell.

Dear Bianca,

I miss you.

I wish I could see you so much, but unfortunately, my parents would never allow it, even if I pretended you were a Greengrass or a Malfoy; they'd find out the truth.

My parents won't let me out of their sight anymore ever since my brother ran away. They've been keeping an extra close watch on me because it would look quite bad for them if they lost another son... I don't believe it's because they really care about me, but instead for their reputation with their community of pure-bloods. Still, the only people I see are my cousins, Narcissa and Bellatrix, and the friends that my parents have chosen for me.

It's so boring without you. I wish I could see you, I wish I could talk to you and kiss you again... Waiting until school is too much for me, but I'm afraid we will have to wait until then to see each other again. I'm sorry, love. I really wish I could do something... perhaps sneak away and come visit you... For now, we may just continue writing to each other. At least Mother hasn't gone as far as to look through my mail, though if she did, at least the writing's invisible as a precaution.

Please, write to me soon, to save me from this boring summer... Tell me about yours.

Sincerely yours,

Regulus

Slightly pink in the face, I put the letter down and slid it back into the envelope, intending to go to my room a while later and write back to Regulus.

After another couple of minutes, Mum questioned me again, her lips turned up in a smirk. "Can I read it?"

"No."

"All right, I respect your privacy."