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It was Orion who sent Sirius the letter, telling him that Regulus had died. It was stiff and formal, but the fact that he sent it at all was a welcome surprise. 'Welcome' in that if he hadn't written to Sirius, who knows when he would have heard the news. He told Sirius that Regulus had died, and that there was a funeral service that Saturday.
He probably should have known better than to show up, but Orion had invited him to the funeral and
Merlin
Sirius missed his brother. He'd frozen in shock when he read the letter, and he didn't know how long he sat there until James came up to him and pried the letter from his hands and wrapped him up in a blanket.
"You're going, right?" James asked quietly, holding him as they were sat on the couch. "Orion wouldn't have told you the time and place if he wasn't okay with you going."
"What about Walburga?" Sirius mumbled, wiping at his eyes even as he pretended that he wasn't crying.
"She just lost a son, she'll keep her mouth closed for an hour to grieve." James knew what a raving bitch she was, and he figured she would keep her mouth shut for the hour or so they were around each other.
"You'll come with me right?"
"If you want." Sirius nodded, and James kissed his head. "Okay." He never would have let Sirius go to the funeral if he'd thought Walburga would... do what she ended up doing.
She glared at them as soon as she saw them, looking for all the world like she wanted to put them in the ground right next to Regulus before he was buried. James was holding Sirius's hand tight, unsure if he was going for comfort right now or holding him back from meeting Walburga bite for bite.
Regulus's casket had just been set down next to the grave site when Walburga lost her temper. "What are you doing here boy?" she asked, leaving Orion's side to storm over to Sirius. "Haven't you done enough to ruin this family?"
"I don't think I'm the one ruining anything," he said, tone hard and eyes like steel.
Her face twisted, rage picking up in the air. "If you had been a better son, you could have protected him!" she shrieked.
"What about you? Why weren't you doing anything to protect him? He should've left, but he was trying to make you proud so he stuck around and look what happened!" Sirius screamed back. "If you hadn't decided to bow down to a murderer who doesn't care about anyone, he would still be alive!"
James closed his eyes in defeat. It would take a long time for Sirius to recover from this. He opened his eyes again and tugged on Sirius's hand, trying to get him to back off but knowing that it wouldn't do any good.
"You've always been an embarrassment to this family! If Regulus hadn't been picking up your slack, and if we weren't trying to recover from your actions, we wouldn't be involved at all! This is all your fault!"
Sirius yelled something back at her, the two of them flinging venom back and forth until finally, Sirius tightened his grip on James's hand and apparated them back to their flat. He was shaking-- either with rage or because he was crying, James couldn't tell-- but he didn't pull away from him like James had been afraid of.
"I'm so sorry," James said, turning and wrapping his free arm around Sirius in a hug. "Nothing she said was true, Si, don't listen to a word of it."
"She's right though," he said. His voice was rough and trembling, and filled with self loathing.
"No she's not."
He shook his head, and as he talked, he started to sob. "If I'd been there for him, he wouldn't have joined the Death Eaters. Merlin he was such an idiot! Our parents weren't going to be proud of him no matter what he did, and he should have known that. He shouldn't have spent any time trying to make them happy, and he sure as hell shouldn't have died for it! He- he was always- he--" he broke off and buried his face in James's shoulder, shaking.
There was nothing he could say to make him feel better, and he hated that. He couldn't say that it was okay because Regulus was dead and that was very clearly not okay. He couldn't say that it would get better because again, he was dead. He wasn't used to feeling so helpless, and he hated it. So he just did what his go to action was at any given time: holding Sirius close and waiting it out.
This time was going to be a very long wait, but that was okay. He had all the time in the world for Sirius.