Chapter Text
“You stupid, incompetent, foolish little boy!”
Sirius’s jaw twitched and his fists clenched with rage. Walburga stared down at her son with her lips pressed into an ugly snarl, a vein popped from her pale forehead and single curl had slipped from its hold in her usually perfect up-do. Her wand was raised at him and an unusual quiver seemed to run through her hand.
”Mother, I’m sure he didn’t-” Regulus pleaded as he stepped timidly towards the pair.
”Shut up Regulus”
”Be quiet son!”
His mouth snapped shut and he retreated backwards in haste. His neatly clipped nails dug harshly into his palms as Sirius reached behind his back for his wand, which was tucked into the waistband of his black dress pants. This, naturally for Sirius, was the wrong decision. Regulus already knew what was coming before the curse left their mother’s lips.
“Cru-”
“Expelliarmus!”
Walburga’s ebony wand flew to the other side of the dining room and the house fell silent in shock. Sirius turned to face his younger brother who now had his own wand raised, eyes watery and hand trembling. His mouth stuttered open, but for lack of anything better to say; and running on pure adrenaline, Sirius turned and fled. He ran and ran and didn’t look back until his chest hurt and his legs ached. He’d left his house, his things, his school supplies, his dignity. He’d left Regulus.
But right now he needed James.
Prongs will know what to do.
-
Delicate rain danced along the cobbled pavements and tapped the window panes of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. The sky was murky and the day was bleak, people hurried along the roads clad in black overcoats and holding large umbrellas. Car horns blared as the traffic started to pile up and a light fog had started to settle as the early evening set in.
It was, in all, a miserable day.
And that meant, for Regulus Black, it was a very normal day.
The summer holidays were drawing to a close and his fifth year at Hogwarts was ahead of him. He’d spent most of it holed up in the library, Kreacher coming to join him for afternoon tea every now and then, Sirius’s abrupt departure from the family home after the rather violet fight in the dining room had left Regulus feeling unexplainably empty, and with a visit from the ministry about underage magic- which his father had managed to have brushed under the rug after flashing the minister a fair amount of galleons. It wasn’t as if him and his brother had a decent relationship since they were sorted into separate houses right back in first year. They had quite the opposite actually. But Regulus felt throughly upset by his brothers disappearance.
And sore. After Sirius ran, Walburga turned her utmost rage on her youngest, and he was feeling the effects of the unforgivables being repeatedly fired at him. He didn’t try standing up to Walburga again, not since he cast expelliarmus to save Sirius.
For once, Regulus could hardly wait to step onto the Hogwarts express. Maybe he’d catch Sirius alone and he’d get to hug his brother, if he let him. Or maybe he’d punch him, scream at him for leaving him to suffer alone in the lowest circle of hell. Dwelling on it, however, was not helping Regulus pack his trunk so he shoved any remaining thoughts of his brother to the back of his head and stuffed his robes into the case with a frustrated sigh.
His nimble fingers pushed the falling raven curls being his ear. His hair was getting longer recently. It wasn’t as long as Sirius’s, who had had hair down to his shoulders since he was 10, but it fell into his eyes and brushed the base of his neck and while twirling the stands around his fingers Regulus began to think he looked strikingly similar to his older brother.
Fuck. His brain was completely swamped. Regulus looked at his half empty trunk, the stacks of books piled high on his bed waiting to packed and the random bits of parchment thrown haphazardly around the room as he tried to finish the last of his summer homework. He hadn’t been this much of a mess in a long time.
Flopping back onto the large bed with velvet, deep green covers and silk pillows, Regulus closed his eyes and bit down into his bottom lip harshly. He rolled onto his side and curled his legs up to chest, wrapping his own slender arms around his body imagining Sirius draping his arm over the younger boy and tapping patterns into his shoulder, telling him everything was going to be okay. Just like when they were kids.
Kreacher popped into Regulus’s room unexpectedly, but he didn’t flinch; only tilting his head up slightly to look at the house elf.
”Master Regulus is being called for supper”
”Thank you, Kreacher”
He untangled himself from his small cocoon and stood up to straighten his robes and shake out his hair. There was only a week left until he would be out of Walburga and Orion’s grasp. Until he was safe in his own private bubble full of potions, muggle romance novels and the old cassette player Sirius had brought back for him after his first year. ‘I got it from Remus, figured you needed something to listen to while you get lost in all those books you read’ He had said.
His nails found their way back into his palms as he descended the steep wooden staircase and plodded down the hallway to the dining room where he prepared himself for another tense family dinner filled with uncomfortable silence and missing a member.