[Chapter Fifty]

The rest of the Christmas holidays remained relatively quiet and awkward inside the Grimmauld Place. Despite Victor surviving and recovering in St Mungo's, enough that he could go home, it didn't fix the obvious strain that had been suddenly placed on the families. It was clear that Heloise wanted some sort of justice for her husband's condition, even if it was at her own daughter's expense, but there was nothing to prove that Éponine had done anything. Regulus was a witness and he stood firm that his girlfriend didn't raise even a finger at her father.

And while Heloise called for Éponine to be punished for being disrespectful, Orion and Walburga didn't allow it. Under their household, it was their rules and they agreed with their son that Éponine had done nothing wrong. Instead, it was Walburga who finally spoke up, condemning her friend for being a bad mother and being neglectful towards her own daughter. Orion told the couple that they were not welcomed in his household if they were only going to cause trouble for  Éponine.

At first, Regulus had to admit that he was frightened by his parents threatening the Rosiers. He believed that at any point, Heloise and Victor would tell Éponine to collect her things and take her home. They would call off the marriage arrangement and that would be the end of that. However, it seemed they didn't even have the nerve to do that. They simply left Éponine at the Grimmauld Place and he wasn't sure if it hurt Éponine even more or if she was relieved.

Since the incident, she had hardly spoken and when she did, it only resulted in her apologising for causing a scene and her crying until he managed to get her to calm down. Regulus wasn't sure what he could say to convince her that it wasn't her fault. He still blamed himself for inviting the Rosiers in the first place, thinking that it would have made her happy. But finally, he just stopped himself from bringing it up, thinking if he just distracted Éponine it would make things better.

The morning that they were due to return to the Platform to catch the Hogwarts Express, Regulus heard the sound of the grand piano being played downstairs. He figured it was his father playing by the sound of it. Thinking he could ask Orion for some advice, he quickly made his way inside, only to find Éponine sitting on the bench, playing to herself.

She didn't even seem to notice his presence as she continued on playing and Regulus walked over and sat beside her. She still had yet to acknowledge him, although he was sure by then that she knew he was right there. So to gain her attention, he slowly reached up a finger and pressed a random key as she was playing. He could see her flinch at the sound of the off-key, but she didn't stop playing until he did it again.

Éponine was doing her best to ignore his attempts but it didn't last very long because as he slammed his hands onto the keys, she started to giggle. Within seconds, he was playing like a madman on the piano until they heard Walburga yell from the stairs about the noise. They tried to cover up their laughter but within seconds, it was over. Their laughs could be heard throughout the home, not that anyone was complaining.

It was the first time since Christmas that they had heard either of the children laugh. Orion took the opportunity to look up from his copy of the Daily Prophet that he had been scrutinizing, only to smile in relief at the sound.

It sounded like things were back on track, just as they were before Victor and Heloise had arrived.

Later on, when the two were dropped off at the platform, Éponine finally allowed herself to relax or at the very least, she didn't allow her mood to be weighed down with the guilt of the incident. She knew that she hadn't done anything to her father, but she still felt responsible for what had happened. To think if her father had ended up dying and the last exchange between them had been nothing more than yelling, she would have hated herself for all eternity.

Yes, she had been annoyed with them showing up by Regulus' invitation, but she had to remind herself that she had wanted them. She assumed the only difference was, she wanted them to want to be there on their own. And maybe they had just been waiting on a respectful invitation from the family she was staying with, but she hadn't bothered asking. She had just allowed her emotions to get the best of her. Probably because she was still feeling uneasy due to what Bellatrix had said during their last conversation together.

Unfortunately, her days of wavering thoughts had quickly come to an end. They had to for her own safety and security that was being held over her head. Éponine knew it had to be Severus that outed her relationship with Gian, as innocent as it was. There was no one else in contact with Bellatrix that knew about it and possibly knew about Gian's bloodlines. And Severus had a reason not to like her after she stepped on his toes to get him to back away from Regulus, Avery, and Mulciber.

But even if she had been backed into a corner, she still didn't want to lose the three of them, especially to the one called The Dark Lord.

There was nothing that Bellatrix said that made him sound like a hero to magical folk. He sounded obsessive and dangerous, a radical with too many followers and adding to the power would only make matters worse. And while she had seen the ugly side of Regulus, Avery, and Mulciber, over the past year, she had seen the best of them. They had gone from enemies to forming different bonds.

They were her boys.

Avery and Mulciber were the closest to brothers that she imagined having, and Regulus, well, she was going to marry him one day. She wanted to keep them safe, from the likes of Severus, from the likes of Bellatrix, and overall, from the likes of the Dark Lord. And the way to do that was remaining as an influence in their lives. She had to stay close to them and she couldn't do that if she was ostracised for her beliefs.

Which meant, in order to protect three, she had to give up protecting one.

But she didn't want to think about it until she had to. Instead, she wanted to enjoy the blissful moment of Regulus holding her hand through the train station with pride. She enjoyed Walburga and Orion giving them kisses and hugs before sending them off to the train with best wishes. And with Avery and Mulciber only meeting up with them in Hogsmeade, she and Regulus had a compartment to themselves for the entire train ride.

To think, if it was the beginning of the term, Éponine would have been fretting over such an idea, spending that amount of time alone with Regulus. However, it didn't bother her as they settled down with a book, reading together. It had become a little routine between them and something they looked forward to during the day.

But even though she was looking forward to their reading, it wasn't very long before Éponine fell asleep during the trip.

And her early nap left Regulus with a dilemma, did he put the book aside or did he continue reading to see what happened?

When Éponine woke a few hours later from a dreamless sleep, she looked across the way to see Regulus sitting there. Originally, he had been sitting beside her and she wondered if she had ended up leaning into him too much so that he decided to move. He wouldn't even look at her as she moved about, leaving her to sit up quickly and clear her throat to grab his attention.

"Sorry," she said, " I didn't mean to doze off earlier. I didn't think I was that tired."

Regulus muttered something along the lines of "it's fine" but still, he didn't make eye contact, leaving her to worry. Thinking she had done something wrong, Éponine could already feel her hands start to grow warm before they started to sweat. She assumed she didn't have any dreams because she didn't remember having any, but perhaps she was wrong. Suddenly, she started to wonder if she did have a dream, an embarrassing one that had caused Regulus to move away.

Her face was growing redder by the second, coming up with worse case scenarios within just a minute's time.

"I-"

"I'm sorry," Regulus interrupted her, " really, I...I didn't mean to do it. But you ended up falling asleep and there was nothing else to do."

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"Uh, Regulus, what did you do?"

Shamefully, Regulus looked out the window. "I finished the book without you."

It was almost instinct for her to gasp at any sort of bad news, clapping her hands over her mouth to hold in a cry of horror. But when Regulus' words finally registered in her head, Éponine realised just how overly dramatic her reaction had been in comparison to the actual situation. It sounded so silly that Regulus was holding himself in such a manner in finishing the book without her, she couldn't help but follow up the gasp with a laugh.

Immediately, Regulus glanced up at her, surprised that she wasn't upset.

"I reckon you're not upset then?"

"No, not at all," she chuckled, " truth be told, Reg, I finished the book a long time ago."

It was his turn to gasp at the news however, he held the look of betrayal. "You did...what? When?!"

"Years ago," Éponine confessed. "My parents bought me that book when I was younger and I finished it then. But you picked the book and seemed so excited over it that I pretended that I never read it so we could read it together. I'm glad you finished it, to be honest, knowing how it ended and watching you go along, was practically killing me. What did you think of the ending?"

Regulus was quiet, causing a grin to form on Éponine's lip.

"You cried, didn't you?"

"I did not!"

He didn't want to admit it, but Regulus would always know that he had cried at the ending of the book.

For the remainder of the trip, they shared in sweets from the trolley and talked about upcoming work in their classes. And finally, when they arrived at the Hogsmeade Station, Regulus offered his hand for her to take walking off the train. There was a sense of pride that filled her chest, she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the idea that Regulus was happy to be seen with her. She could catch some of the students glancing in their direction, whether it was just a quick look or some of them really taking in the moment.

It made Éponine think of the time where Emmerentia had mentioned something about people actually looking at her to be something desired. But, of course, she quickly shook her head of such ideas, not wishing to think of her former friend. She would rather find herself content with just the boys, then be pulled along for a crazed ride every time Emmerentia wanted to get a reaction out of someone for fun.

"You know, even after all those sweets on the train," Regulus began, " I'm still hungry."

Thinking back to when she heard all the women in their social circle complain about increased hunger when they were carrying, Éponine couldn't help but laugh.

"Maybe you're pregnant."

Regulus came to a halt, his face washed over in horror as if what she said could possibly be true. It was just in time for Avery and Mulciber to find them and question why their friend looked mortified.

"What the hell happen to you?" Avery asked first. "Looks like you've been caught out here with your pants around your ankles."

"I had to tell him that there was a possibility that he might be pregnant," Éponine informed them, " I don't think he's taking it very well."

"Oh, congratulations!" Mulciber cried out, rubbing Regulus' stomach. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a fist."

"A wh-oomph!"

Before Mulciber could jump away, Regulus ended up knocking the air out of him with a playful punch. And once he finally recovered, he went after Regulus to return the gesture. The two ran off towards the castle, leaving Avery and Éponine behind with grins on their faces.

"Glad to see Regulus had a good holiday," Avery told her before they started walking, " usually he comes back from Christmas looking miserable. He must have enjoyed himself this time around."

Upon entering the castle, they were greeted by the warmth coming from the Great Hall, paired with the smells that seemed to rise from the kitchens below. Regulus and Mulciber had already made their way inside and just as she was about to enter with Avery, Éponine stopped when her name was called. Taking a quick look over her shoulder, she saw Gian approaching her from the other end of the corridor.

Avery seemed to be waiting on her to go inside but she turned back to him. "It's alright, I'll be right there."

With a nod of his head, Avery left her side to enter, leaving Éponine alone until Gian caught up with her. The younger boy appeared to be in good spirits, a sign that his holiday time at the castle had gone well. It made her happy to see that nothing had gone terribly wrong for him as she had fretted before leaving.

"Hey, Éponine!" he greeted her. " Did you have a nice Christmas?"

"It was certainly eventful," she answered. "But thank you for asking. I take it that you had a nice Christmas here at the castle."

"It was amazing!" Gian exclaimed. "I woke up Christmas morning and there were presents at the bottom of my bed. We ate biscuits all morning and some of the sweets. I even got a Chocolate Frog! Although it did jump into the fireplace after a few hops."

"That's great, Gian. I'm glad you had a nice time-"

"Listen," he suddenly interjected, " I just wanted to say thank you."

Her brows nearly knitted together in confusion. "Thank you? For what? I didn't-"

"Well, it's just, I know that it's hard for you to talk to me because of how you were brought up. But you've still been really nice to me, helping me out around the castle. I think you're really nice deep down-"

"Oh, Gian, I-"

Éponine was just about to tell him that she wasn't as great as he was making her out to be at the time, but before she could argue, she found a little wrapped parcel before her. Gian held it out with a small smile, waiting for her to take it from him. She didn't take it right away, too caught off guard to even register that he had actually gotten her something. However, just as she went to reach for it out of curiosity, she spotted movement from down the corridor.

Unfortunately, from where she stood, she could clearly see the likes of Severus Snape making his way towards the Great Hall, which meant he could clearly see the scene between the two.

Éponine quickly retracted her hands, not taking the gift from the little boy. "I'm sorry, Gian, but I can't accept the gift from you."

"What? Of course you can, it's right in front of you, just take it."

"No, I can't really, just-"

"Why not?" he questioned, looking slightly offended for a moment. "Oh, are you one of those people that don't like accepting gifts? It's fine, really! I couldn't spend a lot of money to get you something-"

She could feel her heart racing as Gian listed off all the reasons as to why she should accept the gift, but her only focus was on the fact that Severus was getting closer to where they were. If he overheard the conversation or saw her accept anything from Gian, he would surely report it back to Bellatrix. It left her to visibly shiver at the idea of being left alone in the presence of Ernest Nott the next time she left the castle.

All the while she panicked, Gian was still trying to force the gift into her hands.

"Stop it!" Éponine finally snapped at Gian as Severus only stood a few lengths away. " I don't want the damn gift! Especially one coming from the likes of you. Just leave me alone!"

"But Éponine, I thought-"

"It doesn't matter what you thought because you were obviously wrong. I don't want the gift, I don't want anything from you-"

"Why are you acting like this? I thought...I thought...I thought you were trying to be my friend."

Éponine could feel her heart shatter in a million pieces as Gian looked on the verge of crying.

"As I said before," she began, trying to keep her voice steady," you thought wrong because I could never be friends with...with a mudblood."