Chapter Text
regulus. July, 1972.
A soft knock sounds from the landing. Regulus looks up, placing the book he was reading aside before standing up and opening the door.
“Hi,” Sirius says. Regulus smiles slightly, and moves away, allowing Sirius to enter. His brother plops down Regulus’ bed and snatches up the book he was reading, turning it over.
“The Sacred Twenty-Eight.” Sirius’s nose furrows as he looks at the book in distaste. A thin strand of his hair slips in front of his eyes, and he brushes it away distractedly. He came back from his first year at Hogwarts with his hair longer than ever, almost brushing his shoulders. Regulus is sure that their mother will make him cut it before the summer ends.
Regulus shrugs, moving past Sirius to pluck the book out of his hands. “Mother wants me to read it.”
“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t do everything Mother says.”
Regulus huffs, perching himself on the bed beside Sirius. “Don’t start with your mudblood-loving ideologies again. You know Mother doesn’t like it.”
“Don’t call them mudbloods,” Sirius snaps. “It’s offensive.”
Regulus rolls his eyes. “You go to Hogwarts for one year and come back full of ridiculous new ideas that your new best friend told you.”
“They’re not ridiculous,” Sirius says. “James is right.”
James. From the very first of the few letters Sirius sent Regulus, his name appeared every other sentence. James Potter, from a family of known blood traitors, Sirius’s best friend. Regulus can’t help but think of when he was Sirius’s best friend, hardly a year ago. It only took a couple weeks for him to be replaced.
Sirius sighs, letting the subject go. For now. “Excited for Hogwarts next year?” He nudges Regulus gently, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Even if James Potter has appeared and claimed the role of Sirius’s best friend, Regulus will always be his brother.
“I guess,” Regulus murmurs.
“What house do you reckon you’ll be in?” Sirius asks. When the news of Sirius’s Sorting arrived, Regulus instantly took it upon himself to hide away in his room for a few days. His mother was angry enough without having to see him.
“Mother wants me to be in Slytherin.” Regulus says. Sirius scoffs.
“Well, she wanted me to be in Slytherin, and look how that turned out. Okay, say you couldn’t be a Slytherin. What house would you want to be in?”
“Slytherin would be the best,” Regulus says. “It would make Mother happy. It would make the family happy. But if not, then . . . Ravenclaw, probably.”
Sirius laughs. “You’d fit right in. Always reading and writing.” He chews on his lip as he thinks, a habit that Regulus has had to stop him from doing at dinner parties before. Heirs to one of the most powerful wizarding families don’t show lacks of decorum like that in public. “It’ll be nice to have you around, though. I missed you.”
For a moment, Regulus desperately hopes that he’s placed in Gryffindor. Perhaps his brother would talk to him just as much as he did a year ago if they’re in the same house.
He quickly dismisses the thought. To have one son in Gryffindor already caused enough pain to their mother. Two would just be humiliation.
Sirius brightens. “Maybe Mother will let me go for Christmas with James this year!”
James. Again.
Regulus remembers when Sirius sent a letter home asking if he could go to the Potter’s for Christmas. Their mother had immediately paled and sent a sharp response back, telling him that he was required to return to Grimmauld Place for the holidays. Sirius had arrived with his long hair and strange clothes and stranger ideas, causing more trouble than ever before. Regulus had just wished that Sirius would have some common sense and shut up, but he had not. He never did. He had left with shorter hair and more scars than before, but with the same fire in his eyes, the same strange ideas.
“I doubt it.” Regulus says coldly. Sirius hardly seems to hear him and continues to chatter on.
“I met James’s parents when he broke his leg playing Quidditch. They came to visit him in the infirmary. They were nice.”
Regulus frowns. “Why? It’s not like they were needed there.”
“They were worried about him.” Sirius’s tone is quieter, more melancholy. “They just wanted to see if he was okay.”
Silence fills the room for a moment, and Regulus considers this. Parents going out of their way to visit their child over something as trivial as a broken bone. Regulus had had his bones broken before, and his parents had not been worried in the slightest.
At times they had been the ones who broke them.
“Oh!” Sirius exclaims, full of excitement. Regulus turns to look at him. “I can’t believe I haven’t told you! I didn’t send a letter because I wanted to tell you in person.”
“What?”
“So, you know James’s mum is a seer, right?” Regulus nods. Euphemia Potter is one of the most famed seers of this century. Her predictions are right almost every single time.
Sirius leans in, whispering in a conspiratorial tone. “She had a vision when she met me. She can’t control it, you see. Anyways, it’s about both of us, so I thought I’d let you know.”
“What was it?”
“She told me that you would die first between us. More than that, really. That your death would be what would quickly lead to mine.” He laughs. “I told her that I’d be immortal, because there’s no way you’re going to die on my watch.”
“Everyone dies eventually, Sirius.” Regulus tells him sensibly. Inside he’s warm. Sirius laughs again and wraps an arm around him.
“Well, we won’t die for a long while yet, will we Reggie?”
“Don’t call me Reggie.” Regulus mutters. He smiles a little as his brother pulls him a bit closer. He’ll go to Hogwarts in a few months with Sirius, and they’ll stay close and grow old together. They’ll bicker, they’ll fight, but they’ll always be brothers.
James may be Sirius’s best friend, but he’ll never be Sirius’s brother.
That’s Regulus.
Only Regulus.