Chapter Text
Waking up was something regina dreaded.
That and mirrors, but the mirror thing was a different situation entirely.
Regina groaned as she sat up, batting at her alarm clock until it fell to silence.
She swung her legs out of bed, and glanced out the window.
she had a nice view, some trees and the lake on the property.
She opened the window, letting the warm breeze into the big room, she could see a gardener flicking about, tending to flowers and shrubs below.
After two weeks of living in the new house, regina was in firm belief that the town was either haunted or irradiated.
Though she hadn’t been into town but once, it felt almost Lovecraftian.
As though the town was going to fill with colors unimaginable, and fish people would come crawling up from the depths to drag her down as a sacrifice because the most important man in town wanted riches and more support.
Maybe they resided in that lake.
Regina shook those morbid thoughts from her head, pushing back from the wall and starting to rummage though her wardrobe.
After getting dressed in a green sweater and one of the more tolerable dresses she was forced to own, she stepped out into the hallway and made her way downstairs. Aiming to get breakfast and eat in the large home library.
“good morning,” the chef greeted as regina walked into the large, mostly marble kitchen.
“to you as well,” regina responded, “What’s for breakfast?”
“Eggs and toast, by master Sirius’ request.” The chef looked at her with a smile.
“make me a plate, if you will,” regina requested, “and have kr- tom to bring it to me in the library, please.”
She turned and walked out of the kitchen with an air of importance she didn’t even realize was around her movement.
Sitting in the library was one of Reginas favorite forms of solace, it was quiet, and quite a few books had already been shelved.
That was her own doing.
She didn’t trust the movers to sort the books in any comprehendible way, so she had decided to roll her sleeves up and get her hands dirty, or dusty, more like.
A small, hand drawn map was weighted down with a cup, a small book, a 4” by 4” picture frame she had found in one of the boxes, and one of Regina’s shoes.
“there should be fiction in this half…” she muttered to herself as she wrote neat indicators of what went where on the map.
“hey nerd,” Sirius greeted, sitting down next to regina, “I'm going into town today, pere wants me to get school supplies, for whatever reason.”
“okay,” regina responded, without looking up from her map, “did I ask?”
“do you want to come with me?” Sirius asked, picking up the picture frame from where it was holding one of the maps corners down flat.
“hey-” regina pulled her hand back at light speed, trying not to get any extra ink on the paper.
“it’s a yes or no question, Kreacher’s driving.” Sirius set the picture frame back down after inspecting it.
“that’s a mean thing to call Mister Tom,” regina muttered, “but fine, I’ll go with you.”
Sirius rolled his eyes at his sisters defense of the butler, and stood up.
“so what if I’m mean to the help? He gets paid to look over the two best behaved children in England, i.e. you and I. He’s got a cushy job, don’t lie to yourself.” He looked down at the map below him.
“you’re such a looser, you know?”
After a short drive, Sirius and regina were let out of the car.
“I’m going to get some firecrackers,” Sirius informed, walking towards a brightly colored shop with an old sign atop proclaiming ‘Zonkos joke shop!’.
“father said we’re only to get stationary-” Regina started.
“I’m not using Père’s money, I’m using mothers,” Sirius interrupted, “if you want to be boring, do it away from me.”
“but-” regina said as Sirius disappeared into the shop.
She stayed there for a little while, just out of sight from the windows, mentally battling herself on if she should stay with her brother, or go find a book store/ office store.
Eventually she decided on the latter.
Regina walked down the sidewalk, rather nervously, glancing around the street compulsively.
She didn’t like to be in public without someone she knew, preferably someone who could scare off all the poor people who might abduct her for ransom, or worse.
She eventually calmed down a bit, and paid slightly less attention to the sounds and people around her, but that allowed her to almost get run over by a boy on a bike.
He seemed about her age, with short brown hair, and tanned skin, his eyes were a dark blue, but his sclerae were unsettlingly visible.
“sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” the boy said, he was wearing long jean shorts and a t-shirt.
“its fine.” Regina straightened her posture.
she supposed she would be going to school with this ruffian, and it best to make a good impression, for her family’s sake.
“I’m Barty Crouch,” the boy, Barty, introduced himself, with a slight smile as he shifted his weight to one foot. “Junior that is, my father is Barty Crouch Sr, I’m not him, he’s ancient.”
Regina had a bit of trouble comprehending his rapid fire words, but she nodded along politely, for appearances if nothing else.
“anyhow, what’s your name? I’ve never seen you so you must have moved here recently, “how old are you? Are you going to the junior high? What grade? What neighborhood do you live in? I live on Mayfield-” his non stop torrent of questions were jarring, so regina opted for nodding and shaking her head instead of attempting to get a word in.
“well?” Barty stopped the questions, looking at her expectantly for answers.
“my name is regina black, I moved here a few weeks ago, I am thirteen, going to junior high for eighth grade, and I don’t know what street I live on yet,” regina said, all in one breath.
Barty seemed mildly surprised, he blinked a few times, then grinned, “awesome! Where are you going? Do you want a ride?”
“is there a book shop close?” regina asked, “or anywhere I can get stationary?”
“about four blocks down there’s an office supply sore, and a block after that’s the library.” Barty pointed down the street, “hop on if you like.” He gestured to the back of his bike.
Regina took the offer, climbing rather awkwardly onto the bicycle, she held onto the seat as Barty started pedaling, slowly at first, but he sped up and regina almost fell backwards.
Before she wrapped her arms around the boy in front of her, just so she didn’t take a spill off the seat.
“here you go,” Barty said, the bike pulling to a stop, “do you have a ride home?” he helped her off, “if not I can give you one.”
“my butler will pick me up-” regina stopped when Barty looked at her funny, “what?”
“sorry, I didn’t realize you were so…” Barty looked regina up and down, “upper class.”
“and what's wrong with being upper class?” regina crossed her arms, speaking sharply.
“nothin’ highness.” Barty pushed regina back away from him. “I simply wouldn’t want to force you to converse with a commoner such as myself.” He gave an overdramatic bow. and put his leg over the bike again, starting to roll himself away before actually starting to petal.
Regina stayed standing on the sidewalk, watching as Barty rode off.
“Oh…” she said quietly, “what- did I do wrong?” she asked herself and looked down. Then walked into the office store.
She folded her hands in front of her and began to search for notebooks.
She silently thought about Barty.
What had happened? She had done everything right, she hadn’t been rude, she didn’t flaunt her wealth or actually imply that Barty was below her, she was polite and had been friendly.
why had he hated her as soon as she said tom was driving her home?
“crouch…” regina muttered “phone book, maybe…”
She grabbed a couple note books, and a fountain pen. Then made her way to the check out counter when she didn’t see any phone books.
“excuse me, ma’am, do you carry phone books?” regina asked.
The woman behind the counter glanced over at regina with a surprised look.
“why? Your grandparents haven figured out how to add contacts to their phones?” she turned to dig through a cabinet, and produced a dusty phone book.
“this is from a couple years ago, but it has most people in it,” the woman informed, setting the phone book on the counter with a small plume of dust.
“thank you.” regina reached into her perse and pulled out her fathers credit card.
“just tap to pay, kid-” the cashier instructed when regina seemed confused.
“sorry, thank you,” regina mumbled, tapping the card to the reader. “I’m sorry, do you have a landline that I could use?”
“you don’t have a cell?” the cashier raised a brow, “whatever, there’s a payphone down the block, I don’t know that it still works, but it takes quarters.”
“thank you, ma’am.” Regina took her notebooks and the phone book, and then left.
She found the phone booth a bit later and dialed the number to the limo.
“hello, tom, yes, I’d like you to pick me up please-” regina said into the crackling receiver.
Five minutes later, the car pulled up in front of regina.
Tom was an older man, a little bit older than Orion. A hunch back with crooked teeth, a hook nose and ears too big for his head.
That’s why Sirius called him kreacher, it came from Walburga calling him The Creature.
It was cruel, tom was almost reliant on the black family, he couldn’t find work anywhere else, other than maybe a kitchen.
And yet, Walburga was cruel on purpose to him, Sirius had learned that cruelty and didn’t know any better, Orion ignored him, and madiline acted down right disgusted of him.
Was regina the only one with the sense to see that he was sentient and human just as all of them.
She considered it a possibility.
“has Sirius come back from his childish escapades?” regina questioned once tom started driving.
“no,” tom responded, his raspy crackling voice was quiet enough that one had to strain to hear it.
“of course he hasn’t,” regina muttered, shaking her head.
As tom drove, regina started thinking about Barty Crouch again.
He seemed just as childish as Sirius in retrospect.
she shouldn’t have taken his offer in giving her a ride, and she shouldn’t have touched him, he was below her in ways abound.
A stuck up brat who didn’t even have the luxury of money to prove he was going somewhere in life.
Unless he did.
Maybe in this town his family was top dog. Maybe his father had power, perhaps he was the mayors son.
That would explain the obvious jealousy in his distaste.
Once the car was stopped, tom opened the door for regina to get out.
“thank you.” Regina was taller than tom, because of his hunch, and she was faster than him because of his limp.
So she slowed her gait so tom could overcome her, and so he could open the door for her. She had observed that he liked to feel useful constantly, other than just driving and cooking sometimes.
“thank you, mr. ker,” regina said politely, stepping into the house.
tom bowed away, and regina went up to her room with her new things.
“crouch… C-R-O-” regina flicked through the phone book while she sat on her bed, sipping tea out of a rather plain cup.
“there you are.” she found the name, “Bartimus Crouch, that’s an unfortunate name,” she muttered, looking at the address and contact information. Deciding to dial the business number.
She sat up and reached over to her phone, it was an older one, but she preferred the spinning dial to Sirius’ buttons, it looked nicer, in her opinion.
dialing the number, she put the speaker to her ear.
“hello, you have reached justice crouch, please hold,” an automated voice came through the line, followed by a dull instrumental song.
“a judge?” regina mumbled, frowning, she set the phone back down onto the stand. “that’s odd, his son was so… hmmm.”
She laid back on her bed, looking up. There were old glow in the dark stars on the high ceiling, painted over with a thin layer of white paint, presumably from the previous owner.
That was sad, in Reginas opinion, to paint over something that lit a scared child’s stormy nights. But it couldn’t be helped, her family had wanted this house, and regina much preferred no light when she slept.