At the beginning of their last year at Hogwarts, Regulus Black and Ophelia Potter had been invited to join Professor Horace Slughorn's Slug Club, a social club made up of students who Slughorn felt had potential, talent, or special skills in magic. 

Pandora had already been in the club for a year, as she had a certain knack for potions. She had even skipped a year of the class, and was ahead of everyone else in her year. 

Well, Professor Slughorn thought Regulus and Ophelia should join her and a few other students in the club, and they gratefully accepted. 

It was now one of their first real meetings of the year, a dinner party just two weekends before Halloween. 

Pandora told them to dress nicely for the dinner. Regulus wore what one of the dinner suits that he would usually wear to a dinner back in twelve Grimmauld Place, and Ophelia wore a pine-coloured cocktail dress. 

She had done her hair in a partial updo, held together with an emerald hair pin, which of course matched with her dress and her favourite ring. 

Regulus waited for her, sitting on the common room couch until she walked out from her dorm room. When he saw her dressed up nicely, Regulus was practically speechless. He could barely muster the words to acknowledge her presence, let alone tell her how stunning he thought she looked. 

"What do you think?" She asked him, gracefully holding out her arms. 

He almost choked as he tried to come up with the words. He wanted to tell her that she was the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts, and in that moment, looked absolutely incredible in all her elegance. 

"You look wonderful." He said, using the best, and only words, he could summon in the moment. 

"Thanks." She said, smiling but fighting back a blush. "You look nice too."

Now Regulus was the one fighting back a blush. He hid his face, looking down at the ground for a moment. It was no longer than a second or two, but it felt like eternity to Ophelia, the girl waiting for Regulus Black to take her to dinner. 

"It's just about dinner time, should we leave now?" Regulus asked, looking back up at Ophelia. 

Ophelia smiled at him sweetly. "Yeah, let's go."

He held out his arm, and she held her hand in the crook of his elbow. As they stood with their arms intertwined, Regulus caught a scent of her perfume.

Ophelia never wore perfume, so Regulus found it odd; though, he liked it quite a lot. The perfume had a floral scent with touches of citrus, and he felt it was perfect for her.

From his face, Ophelia could tell Regulus could smell it, and she was afraid he didn't like it.

"I'm sorry about the scent." She told him. "It was a gift from my mother. She said to wear it at any fancy events."

"Don't apologise, it's nice. I think you should wear it more often." Regulus said.

"Oh." She smiled. "Well, thank you."

Regulus smiled back at Ophelia. A genuine smile; as genuine as you could get with a party to attend and a beautiful girl right next to you, holding onto your arm. They continued walking, thoughts racing through their heads about everything imaginable, but not much said. 

'One must not waste conversation before the dinner party.' They thought, an idea imprinted in their minds by their wealthy, pureblood families. 

----------

The Slug Club only had seven members, not including Professor Slughorn. The group was small, which let everyone, members and others, know that the club only entertained the students who one of the most respected professors thought to be the best and brightest in the school. 

'Best and brightest student'. Quite a pressing title to be placed on a teenager, but nevertheless, they enjoyed being part of the club. 

As they ate their dinner, a creamy risotto that was well-liked by everyone in the club, some students started asking Professor Slughorn about club members past. 

"Is the club always this size?" Ophelia asked first.

"Give or take. The size is only limited by the number of excellent students I observe in any particular year." Slughorn replied.

"Is there anyone we would know who was a Slug Club member in the past?"

Professor Slughorn paused for a moment, recounting any prominent members that the club has hosted. The club has been active for decades, so the instant of thinking was understandable.

"Some authors, travellers, and several members of the past and current Ministry of Magic." He stated. "I have pictures of all past years, so I can show you all the exact students later."

Once everyone finished their dinner, and a kind dessert course of poached peaches was being prepared, Professor Slughorn suggested he show the students pictures of all the different years the Slug Club has existed.

The pictures were in both photo albums and frames on the walls and furniture. They were all out of order, seemingly without any organisation, not even by date or importance.

Ophelia brought this up politely, and Slughorn said he would fix it, though Ophelia doubted he was speaking truly.

"This boy here," Regulus said, pointing to a student in a photo, clearly decades old. "I feel as though he's familiar to me. Who is he?"

Slughorn looked hesitant to answer the question, and the students took note of that. "His name is Tom. Tom Riddle."

He didn't say anything other than that, and for a moment, the entire room stood frozen in an awkward silence.

"Oh, I adore that ring!" Ophelia said, distracted by the jewelry of the boy in the photo rather than the mood and the tension of the party.

"Though, not more than my own, of course." She added, smiling at Regulus.

Regulus squeezed her hand amicably and smiled faintly, but otherwise failed to acknowledge her comment.

He turned back to face Slughorn. "So, what did he do after graduating?"

"From what I hear, I'm afraid it was nothing good." The man said, suppressing any emotion. "He was a wonderful student, though. He had straight O marks and was constantly trying to learn more. He would always ask about things barely covered in lessons, if at all, like special spells, Horcruxes—"

Slughorn stopped himself, obviously getting carried away in what he was saying and mentioning something he hadn't intended to bring up. 

"Horcruxes?" Pandora inquired. "What's that?"

Pandora's question had clearly been what Slughorn was trying to avoid, as he responded quickly and tried to dismiss the topic altogether. 

"An item used only in dark magic." He said, still lacking emotion. "A way for one to hide a piece of their soul."

Against his hopes, Horace Slughorn saying anything at all had seemed to pique the interest of all the students, at least a little bit. 

"I would say more, but it is actually a terribly annoying subject, and I would hate to bore you lot." The professor said, now feigning a merry smile. "Plus, it seems that dessert is ready."