Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 596 Standing Quietly

Mr. Evans extended his hand, shook it, and said hesitantly, "Hello, Regulus."

He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but he didn't know how to bring them up. Asking anything in front of his daughter and his wife seemed inappropriate.

When Lily saw Regulus walk over and shake hands with her father, her expression changed from pouting and glaring to beaming, her eyes curving into two crescent moons.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Regulus looked away from Mr. Evans's face, glanced at her, and then looked away again.

Lily narrowed her eyes and pouted again.

What does this guy mean?

Regulus released his grip, turned to the woman beside him, smiled, and extended his hand: "Hello, Mrs. Evans."

Mrs. Evans was much warmer than her husband. She looked Regulus up and down, a smile creeping onto her lips, and patted the back of his hand. "Hello, hello, it's so nice to finally meet you."

Regulus released his grip and turned his gaze back to Mr. Evans.

"Lily is so grateful for your care at school," Mr. Evans said, his tone tinged with an indescribable emotion. "The gifts you gave us before were so valuable; we've always wanted to thank you in person."

Regulus was relaxed and composed, his tone gentle: "Lily is the most talented little witch I know. She's doing very well in Potions. Actually, she's helped me a lot. Mr. Evans, you don't need to be so polite. It's just between friends." Lily covered her mouth beside him.

Here we go again, Regulus's antics are back.

Regulus caught a glimpse of Lily trying to suppress a laugh out of the corner of his eye and glanced at her.

The adults are talking, what are you laughing at?

Lily turned her face away, her shoulders trembled, then she turned back and began to glare at him.

Mr. Evans looked at Regulus, then at Lily, and sensed that something was amiss.

He cleared his throat and changed the subject: "Are you and Lily classmates?"

"We're not from the same academy," Regulus said with a smile, shaking his head. "But we often practice magic together."

Mr. Evans nodded to himself.

The boy didn't directly say which house he was from; sure enough, he was Slytherin.

Lily said that Gryffindor and Slytherin have been fighting each other since the school was founded.

"Lily says you've taught her a lot," Mr. Evans said casually. "How did you two meet?" Lily's ears perked up.

"First year, library," Regulus said sincerely, "I asked Lily a question."

Lily opened her mouth beside her.

What question? It was James Potter who provoked him on the train, and he took care of that arrogant guy without even taking out his wand.

But in front of her father, she chose to keep quiet, though her facial expression was quite vivid: she squinted and glared at Regulus, raising one eyebrow.

Mr. Evans caught a glimpse of Lily's strange expression out of the corner of his eye and nodded.

This statement is false.

But why?

Regulus turned his gaze to Penny.

Lily's practice of the Guardian Angel is anchored by her desire to not lose her sister.

"You must be Penny," Regulus said, looking at her gently. "Lily always mentions you."

Penny was stunned. The boy in front of her was unlike any wizard she had ever seen.

In fact, she only knew two wizards: Snape, the dark, skinny boy in Spider's End, and Dumbledore, whose name only existed in polite rejection letters.

The person in front of me is as beautiful as someone in a painting, with a gentle voice, and is polite, serious, and earnest.

"You..." She opened her mouth, then hesitated before finally saying, "You're better looking than Snape."

She was startled after saying that, and quickly shut her mouth, turning her neck to the side in a panic.

Regulus raised an eyebrow.

Being compared to Snape by a Muggle girl in terms of appearance doesn't feel offensive; on the contrary, it's quite amusing.

With Snape's appearance, he could probably beat any of these wizards if he stood in a fight.

He chuckled softly but didn't respond.

Lily, who was standing nearby, saw Regulus turn around and talk to Penny, and her heart softened.

He remembered everything she had said to him.

Then Penny said something that made her burst out laughing, covering her mouth with her hand and shaking uncontrollably. The scene was hilarious; Penny's words were funny, and Regulus's raised eyebrow was funny too.

Regulus finally turned his gaze to Lily.

Her red hair was tied in a ponytail, with a few wisps of hair falling across her forehead. Her green eyes curved into two crescent moons, and the corners of her eyes still held the moisture from her earlier laughter. Her cheeks were slightly flushed.

The lines of her shoulders are a little softer than before, she's a little taller than last semester, and she's grown out a bit more.

"Lily," Regulus's voice was much more amiable than before, "long time no see."

Lily pouted, snorted, and ignored him.

She glanced at Regulus, from his shoulder to his chest, and then from his chest to his inner pocket: "Where's Baruch? I haven't seen him in ages."

Baruch poked a spider's head out of his inner pocket. Its small amber eyes darted around, and when it saw Lily, it raised its chelicerae and waved them gently with a click.

Knox saw the little thing peeking out in Penny's arms, pulled his ears back, narrowed his pupils into slits, meowed, his fur stood on end, and he stretched out his paws to scratch it.

Baruch retreated.

Lily laughed and reached out to pat Knox on the head.

Penny looked down at the cat in her arms, then looked up at Regulus's chest, her expression even more bewildered. Lily finished laughing and looked at Regulus with her green eyes.

He had been standing there talking with her family for so long, and no one around was looking in their direction. She knew he had cast a spell on himself.

The heir to the purest-blooded family in the British wizarding world shakes hands and chats with a Muggle family, hiding himself so that others cannot see this scene.

He thought of everything very carefully.

Lily's lips curled up slightly, and her green eyes curved into a smile.

Regulus nodded slightly to Mr. Evans: "Mr. Evans, it's a pleasure to meet you."

He then turned to Mrs. Evans and nodded again: "Mrs. Evans."

He then turned to Penny and tapped her as well, but Penny just stared blankly and didn't react.

Finally, he looked at Lily and said, "See you when school starts."

Lily rolled her eyes at him, barely suppressing her joy.

He didn't write a letter all summer, and he did such a big thing without telling her, making her worry all summer. Now he just wants to get rid of her with a "see you when school starts".

Hmph! Her voice was soft: "See you when school starts."

Regulus turned around, walked into the crowd, and kept a distance of twenty or thirty meters from the Evans family before removing the ignore spell.

The first to react were the people closest to him.

An adult pure-blood wizard was chatting with someone next to him, gesturing with his hand, and his voice gradually lowered.

The witch next to him was still finishing her sentence when she realized he wasn't looking at her anymore, so she turned to follow his gaze.

A mother was squatting on the ground adjusting the collar of her child's robe. She looked up, stopped, and slowly stood up.

They recognized him; the heir to the Black family, whose name had been the talk of the entire British wizarding world for two months, had appeared before them.

Further out, someone noticed that the person next to them had suddenly fallen silent and looked over in that direction.

The parent of a mixed-race family, carrying a suitcase, glanced at the crowd and then fixed his gaze on Regulus, his mind racing.

In the summer edition of the Daily Prophet, the boy standing on the Gringotts steps, with black curly hair, gray eyes, and a golden beam of light shooting from the tip of his staff into the sky, matched up.

The young wizards on the station also underwent changes.

The purebloods were the first to quiet down. Regardless of academy or year, everyone knew Regulus, everyone knew what he had done, and everyone knew what it meant. The half-bloods reacted quickly too. Regulus Black was famous throughout the school, and his face was everywhere during the holidays.

Those born under the Muggle sign are slower to grasp the concept. They may have read the newspapers and seen the photos, knowing that this person won a war, but the image of the manor collapsing and the earth shattering is separated from them by a layer of paper, a distance between them and the reality.

They knew this person was capable, but they didn't have any benchmark in mind to see just how capable.

But they could see the reactions of those around them. The pure-blooded students fell silent, the mixed-race students also quieted down, and one by one, the people around them stopped moving.

They didn't fully understand, but since everyone around them was watching and keeping quiet, they also quieted down.

Finally, there were the Muggle parents, who knew nothing, or knew but didn't understand at all, only that the noisy standing there had gradually quieted down.

The sound began to fade away from the side, then from the distance, until finally only the hissing of the locomotive's steam remained for the entire month.

In a few seconds, hundreds of wizards took to the stage, starting from the few closest to Regulus, moving to the edge of the station, to the train carriage doors, and to behind the pillars at the far end of the station.

Regulus did nothing; he just kept walking forward.

The Evans family remained standing in the same spot, Mr. Evans looking at the moon in front of him.

The station, which had been filled with voices, laughter, and hooting owls just moments before, was now quiet. Everyone's eyes were fixed in the same direction: on the boy who had just shaken hands and chatted with him.

He'd been at this station for four years, and he knew all too well how these robed wizards looked at his family—at most, they'd pretend they didn't exist. He'd never seen these people with such expressions before, never seen things turn out like this this month, and never seen these wizards collectively fall silent because of anyone.

Those arrogant parents, those wizards who never gave them a second glance, were now all silent, even their movements had stopped.

He turned back and looked at Lily.

"Who was that boy just now?"

Lily covered her mouth; she was also shocked.

"I..." Her voice was a little weak, and she stammered, slowly lowering her finger from her lips: "I hid some newspapers under the bed. Go home and check."

Mr. Evans looked at his daughter's face, then at the figure in the moonlight still walking forward.

His daughter knew about the boy, but chose to keep it a secret. If it weren't for what happened, she would have continued to keep it a secret.

Why?

Mrs. Evans' mouth was slightly open, her gaze shifting back and forth between the crowd and Regulus.

Penny held Knox and stood next to her parents and sister.

The moon fell silent. She didn't know why, but she knew that the expressions on everyone's faces were completely different from when they used to look at her family. She saw Lily's gaze, which followed Regulus's back until the crowd swallowed him up and he could see nothing more, yet Lily was still watching.

Penny's gaze shifted from Lily's profile to the crowd around Yue.

In the corner, another boy stood.

He was wearing a new robe; the material looked quite nice, the collar was straight, and the hem reached down to his shoes. He looked much more presentable than before.

It was the same face, with greasy black hair hanging down on both sides, sallow skin, and a gloomy expression.

Snape.

His gaze swept across the crowd and landed in Lily's direction.

Penny looked at Snape, Snape looked at Lily, and Lily's gaze followed Regulus's long-disappeared figure.

Penny looked down at Knox in her arms; the little black cat's blue eyes were quietly watching her.