Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 596 Good morning, Mr. Evans

September 1, a little after nine in the morning, Platform 9¾ at King's Cross Station.

This is the place with the highest density of wizards in all of Britain at this time of year.

Hundreds of robed wizards were crammed onto the same platform, their suitcases piled up like small mountains, owls flapped their wings in their cages, toads jumped out of pockets and scurried around on the ground, parents called out their children's names in the crowd, and children called out their parents' names in the crowd.

Puffs of steam billowed from the front of the Hogwarts Express, its scarlet body gleaming brightly in the morning light.

Penny Evans stood on the edge of the platform, a little distance from the crowd; this was her third time here.

She had come here when Lily was in first grade, standing in the same spot, watching Lily push her suitcase and run onto the train, then turning back to smile and wave at her.

She called her a freak, and immediately regretted it. She still remembers the expression on Lily's face at that moment.

She didn't come to school in second grade, making up an excuse to stay home, saying she had too much homework.

She came last year, and she's here again this year.

She told herself it was because her mother made her come, Lily wanted her to come, and Knox had no one to take care of him. She went through all sorts of reasons over and over, but she knew they were all just excuses. She just wanted to come.

She wore a dark gray woolen skirt, much thicker than what one would normally wear for the season, with the hem falling below her knees, and a beige knitted cardigan over it.

She knew it wasn't; no matter how similar it looked, it wasn't. It was just a Muggle dress bought in the town of Ecovacs, embroidered with lions and snakes—it was still a Muggle dress.

Someone walked past her, glanced at her, their gaze lingering on her skirt before sliding away.

She was used to it; that's how everyone in this place who wore robes looked at her, her family, and these Muggles who didn't wear robes.

She had been watching the scene around her for three years.

A little witch, about her age, ran past her, clutching a chocolate frog card in her hand. The old wizard on the card was waving at her from inside the frame.

Two boys followed behind, one of whom held a magic wand. With a flick of his wrist, a string of golden sparks shot out from the tip of the wand. The sparks landed on the other boy's hair, turning his hair from black to yellow. The two boys burst into laughter.

A nearby owl poked its head out from a gap in its cage, staring wide-eyed at the spectacle.

An older boy pushed a luggage cart past, the suitcases stacked higher than him, the top suitcase floating about half a foot off the cart, swaying as it walked.

A girl was squatting on the ground chasing a toad that was jumping around. After chasing it for a couple of steps, the toad jumped into another person's suitcase. The person opened the suitcase, took the toad out, and the toad puffed out its cheeks twice in his palm and then popped out a bubble.

At the train carriage door in the distance, a little girl was saying goodbye to her mother. Her mother bent down and kissed her on the forehead, and the little girl skipped and hopped onto the train.

The little girl turned around and waved to her mother, flicking her wand. A small flower emerged from the tip of the wand, its petals scattering in the air and turning into a shower of fine golden powder. Her mother below laughed and clapped.

Penny watched the flower unfold, then looked down at Knox in her arms.

The kitten nestled in her arms, its tail resting on her forearm. The tip of its tail flicked slightly, then it stopped moving.

The blue eyes were half-open, occasionally opening a crack to glance at the surrounding crowd before closing again.

She freed one hand and stroked Knox's back, from behind his ears all the way to the base of his tail.

Knox growled softly in his throat, curled his tail, and hooked it around her wrist.

This cat belongs to Lily; it was given to her by the person who gave her the handbag.

After Knox arrived, Lily would mention it every time she wrote home, describing its fur color, its eyes, and what it had stolen to eat that day.

Penny also sent it cat food and a mat.

She chose the most expensive cat food in the supermarket, washed the cat mat three times, folded it neatly, and wrapped it in brown paper.

Knox travels between the two worlds.

It slept on the windowsill in Lily's dorm room and spent the whole night nestled on Penny's bedside. It smelled of Lily's magic and Penny's laundry detergent.

It was the only thing from that world that Penny could hold in her arms, but it belonged to Lily.

In a little while, Lily will get on the bus, and Knox will follow. Then the little black cat will leave her arms and return to the world she can't enter.

Her gaze fell on a witch in a deep purple robe in the center of the platform. The witch was with two children, one in each hand, and a delicate owl cage floated behind them.

The owl held its head high in its cage, its chest puffed out, as if this place was beneath it.

Penny glanced at the owl, then looked down at Knox in her arms. Knox yawned and flicked his tail.

This cat will be leaving soon too.

She watched the little wizards running around on the platform, the suitcases floating in the air, the sparks coming out of the wands, the moving cards, and the owls, toads, and all sorts of things she couldn't name in cages, in pockets, and on people's shoulders.

The magic was right in front of her; one step forward would lead to that world. She had been standing just outside that step for three years, never having stepped inside.

During class, she would drift off, sitting in her classroom at Ecovacs High School, staring at the trees outside the window, thinking that if she could become a cat or a bird, she might be able to fly over that wall and land in that world.

I even dream about it at night. I dream that Dumbledore replied with another letter, saying, "Dear Miss Evans, we have reconsidered your application."

Then she sat up in bed, felt around the pillow and found nothing there, and sat in the dark until dawn.

She missed him so much that her heart ached.

She wanted to be like Lily, to wear a real wizard's robe, to pick up a wand and make things float by saying something, and to walk into the castle she had only seen in Lily's descriptions.

She wanted to be accepted by the world, to be one of these people, and to have the cat's head really fly towards her, its paws clutching a letter stamped with sealing wax.

But that letter will never come.

She tore up Dumbledore's reply, pieced it back together, tore it up again, and finally stuffed it into the bottom of the drawer, never to be taken out again.

Penny lowered her head and hugged Knox tightly in her arms.

She can't hold onto anything.

Mr. Evans stood next to Penny, wearing his old work jacket, carrying a duffel bag for Lily, with a coat slung over his shoulder.

Mrs. Evans was beside Lily, adjusting the collar of her robe.

"Eat well when you get to school, and don't eat too many sweets. You wrote in the last letter that you had a toothache, so eat less sugar if you have a toothache."

Remember to wear more clothes when it gets cold. I put two pairs of winter boots for you at the bottom of the suitcase. The longer pair goes with skirts, and the shorter pair goes with pants.

It's much colder in the Scottish Highlands than at home, so don't just focus on how pretty it looks.

Lily replied, "Okay, Mom."

"Pay attention in class and don't let your mind wander. You almost got a zero in one course last semester, so you need to stay focused this semester."

"Okay, okay."

"Also, don't get into arguments. That megalomaniac you mentioned, James Pott? Stay away from him."

Lily's lips curled down slightly: "He's the one who provoked me, so I won't be polite."

"Just ignore him, and he won't bother you." Mrs. Evans straightened her collar and reached out to touch her hair.

She paused for a moment, then tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Lily agreed verbally, but her gaze shifted from Mrs. Evans's face to sweep across the crowd.

This holiday is too long.

The day she heard the news in the Foley family garden, she wanted to rush out and do something, but Susan grabbed her arm.

Later, I spent the whole afternoon flipping through books in the library and found the entry for the family revenge contract. After reading it, I was even more scared than before.

Twenty-eight days later, the entire clan was wiped out.

She read the Daily Prophet every day, from the front page to the back, from the headlines to the illustrations. After she finished reading, she folded it up and stuffed it into a box under her bed, stacking it with the other newspapers she had read before.

She wouldn't show it to her parents, nor to Penny. She didn't know why she was hiding it; she just didn't want them to see it, didn't want them to know him from the newspaper, and didn't want them to know what he had done.

In the beginning, the newspapers were full of that name: Regulus Black.

A photo on the Gringotts steps, golden beams of light, Latin text in the sky.

Then came the war between Black and Roll, with a full-page photo on the front page showing spells falling from the sky, mushroom cloud-like explosions, and shattered manor and land.

She was worried, but dared not be too obvious about it, because she didn't know what she was worried about.

She wanted to write to Regulus, but she couldn't because she didn't know his address.

So I waited and waited all summer, and today has finally come.

Lily's green eyes suddenly lit up.

At the edge of the crowd, near the platform pillars, a slight distortion of the air had not yet completely dissipated.

A boy dressed in a black wizard's robe appeared there. He had black curly hair, gray eyes, and was a little taller and broader in the shoulders than when they last met. His facial features were also more refined.

Unlike the other young wizards around him, he didn't walk or run. Instead, he raised his hand to straighten the front of his robe, turned his head slightly, and glanced at the crowd on the platform.

Lily's face lit up, and she instinctively raised her hand to wave, but stopped halfway.

The rift between Gryffindor and Slytherin, with so many people around.

Her friendship with Regulus is between her and Regulus; it has nothing to do with factions, the Institute, or the labels of pure-blood, half-blood, and Muggle origin.

But he was the person deepest in that world, and she was an outsider who entered this world.

She knew this all along; she always had.

She lowered her hand, but her expression wasn't completely composed; the corners of her mouth were still upturned, and her eyes were already glaring.

She didn't write a letter for a whole holiday, but did such a big thing that was featured in the newspapers for two months straight, and she worried about it all summer.

He's quite something, not a single word, not even a note. Now that he's shown up, he acts like nothing happened.

Lily pouted, tilted her chin to the side, and raised her shoulders slightly, turning her body from facing him to the side, as if that would make her seem less concerned.

Her red hair swayed in the sunlight, and her green eyes shone brightly.

She felt she had managed her expression well, so she turned her head and pretended to look at the suitcase in her mother's hand.

Mr. Evans noticed the changes in his daughter.

Just moments ago, she was absentmindedly responding to her mother, her eyes darting around in the crowd, as if she had lost something.

Suddenly, his whole face lit up, then suddenly, his mouth puffed out, his eyes widened, and he started smiling again.

He went from being elated to pouting and glaring faster than he could turn a knob on a radio.

He had no idea his daughter had this ability.

Mr. Evans's gaze followed the direction Lily had been looking.

At the edge of the crowd, next to a pillar on the platform, stood a boy.

The robe looked expensive, the features were exquisite, and the person was a little shorter than him but had a strong presence. They didn't look like someone who came to study, but rather someone who came to do business.

He had been listening to Lily's fragmented words for over two years.

"He said it," "He taught me," "He felt it was wrong," "He knows everything."

That handbag, that cat.

That probably matches up.

Mrs. Evans also looked over.

A handsome, neatly dressed young man who remained calm even in a crowd.

She glanced at Lily, then looked up at the boy, then back at Lily, and a slight upturn of her lips.

Penny also looked up.

The boy on the edge of the crowd seemed more like someone from that world than anyone else on the platform, yet he didn't seem to be from that world.

She couldn't quite put her finger on what was different, but it just was different.

Regulus saw Lily and the family standing beside her.

A middle-aged man in an old jacket was carrying a suitcase. A middle-aged woman stood next to a red-haired girl, helping her straighten her collar. A girl of about fifteen or sixteen was holding a small black cat in her arms.

The whole family across the street is watching him, so he should go and say hello.

He raised his hand and tapped himself, ignoring the spell.

Now he's chatting with a Muggle family, and if others see him, it would only cause trouble for that family.

He strode forward, about thirty meters, through the crowd.

Baruch burrowed inside the bag, shifted his short legs to change position, and settled down again.

Regulus walked up to the Evans family.

Mr. Evans looked him over, his expression somewhat complicated, his brows slightly furrowed.

Just his face alone doesn't look like something an ordinary family could raise, and his demeanor is even more imposing than the thirty-something-year-old manager in his factory.

Regulus extended his hand first, speaking in a gentle tone: "Good morning, Mr. Evans."

"I am Regulus," he said, glancing sideways at the girl glaring at him, a smile playing on his lips, "Lily's friend."

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