Chapter Text
SIRIUS POV
"I can't okay?" I insist, "I just can't stay here. You shouldn't either, Reg, come with me!" Oh gods, I don't want to leave him here, sure he's the favourite child but that doesn't give you much sway in our house.
"But, but..." He stumbles over his words trying to answer me, "Mother and Father aren't so bad, Sirius..." He winced trying to say those words with a straight face, "Fine they're terrible but they accept me for who I am, and they said that they'll think about allowing me hormones. Don't you understand what that means to me?" I place a hand on his shoulder. Tears trickle down his face.
"But they don't accept me," I bite my lip before pressing on, "How long will it be before they turn on you as well? I can help you with the medical stuff. I don't want to see you get stabbed in the back by them." Regulus sniffles.
"Come with me and I'll make sure that you're safe. I'll sort everything out. Our parents won't be able to hex you or me anymore. Never again." I feel the blood clotted into my hair from the fight I had with Mother just minutes before; I feel the phantom pains of the cruciatus curse. I shiver. Reg, places his head in his hand, his shoulders curling protectively in the way he does when he knows the right answer for a hard decision.
"Okay," He whispers, he balls his hands into his shirt to stop them shaking, "Let's go, now."
"You can bring anything you want but I can't have mother or father catching to what we're doing."
"No, we should go now. I don't need anything that I don't have with me." I grasp his shaking hands.
"Follow me." We hurry down the stairs after I've cast a silencing charm. We make it to the door before Reg turns around suddenly. I hear him draw in a sharp breath.
"Sirius!" He murmurs. I spin around. Kreacher. "We're going for a walk." I say calmly by explanation, but I find my heart beating much faster than when I make an excuse for something at school.
"Now, now young masters Sirius and Regulus. Has Kreacher's mistress been told of your plan? You're not trying to..." He pauses and a sly grin spreads across his face maliciously, "Run away?"
"No nothing of the sort." I rush around to face Regulus and practically shove him face-first out the door as I do, I hear a loud crack: Kreacher has gone to inform our parents. I grab Reg's hand.
"Run." I pull his small frame behind me. I hear him crying weakly. We make it to end of the street and we make a sharp turn to the left. I know that there is a muggle train station there. We need to get as far away from here as we can. I need to think of a plan.
"Sirius," Regulus pants, "Sirius I can't breathe when will we get to where we're going?" I have no idea how to answer his question.
"The muggles have a train station just down this street." I can barely breathe myself, I don't know if it's the running or the terrible fear of my parents apparating right in front of us.
We reach the underground and jump the ticket gate, I trip over it but for once I don't care about how I look; my heart is beating too fast. We're shoved towards the nearest platform by the crowd. I feel Reg's hand tighten around my own and I squeeze it back to let him know that we'll be okay, though I don't really know anything for certain anymore, only that I can't live at number twelve ever again. The train pulls up at the station and yet again we are pushed aboard. I turn to Regulus in the cramped carriage.
"We'll get off this soon and then get on the night bus, this muggle transport is just to throw them off our tail. We'll go to James' place." Regulus makes a face.
"He's a bit full of himself don't you think?" I pull a face right back at him.
"You're a but full of yourself if you think we've got more options than that." Regulus snorts and then tears start falling freely again, "Anyway James is my best mate." My voice turns serious, "You better make sure that his parents like you, Reg, but I think they're great; saint-like compared to Mother and Father. At least everything James says about them is."
"Right," He replies though I think that he's more talking to himself, "I can do that. I can make a good impression."
"Anyway we'll be back to Hogwarts in a few weeks." Regulus squeezes my hand. "Thanks, Sirius."
We walk out of the underground. Several dodgy alleyways later I hail the knight bus.
"That'll be eleven sickles for the both of you." Says the wide eyed conductor who introduced himself as Ernie. I hand over the money, I took as much as I could find from home which wasn't much as our parents are the most paranoid bigots of all time. We sit down near the front and Reg looks out the window, an expression forms on his face that I've never seen before.
The knight bus lurches to a stop and Regulus bumps his head against the glass.
"Ow!" He yelps as we stand and leave the bus. We're waved off by Ernie before a pop sounds and the bus is gone.
I turn to my little brother. "Right, this is it or at least it should be. If James gave me the wrong address I'm going to..." I trail off leaving my feeble joke unfinished. It's got to be right. I knock on the door with Regulus trembling behind me. I hear some indistinct shout probably saying "I'm coming" and then the door swings open. It's a woman about my mother's age but she smiles in a pleasantly confused way at the sight of us on her doorstep instead of the constantly furious expression of my mother.
"Hello," She starts, "Can I help you two?"
"Err," I hadn't thought this bit through, just the getting here part, "I'm Sirius Black." I hold out my hand, "I'm a friend of James' and this is my brother Regulus." She smiles warmly at the introduction and shakes my hand.
"Oh! James has told us all about you, I'm Euphemia. Come on in!" She ushers us inside.
"Mum!" James calls from further inside the house, "Who is it?"
"You tell me James, it's one of your friends; Sirius and his brother." I hear the sound of racing foot falls and James flies at me. He hugs me tightly then pulls back.
" I wasn't expecting you Padfoot, anyway worries you can stay for dinner. I'm cooking tonight so you should definitely stay." I follow James and Regulus follows me, I glance back and see that his eyes are darting around the cosy interior of the house.
"Here." James hands me the placemats. "And Regulus you set the cutlery." He hands Reg the tarnished silverware. I get the sense that James is confused as to why I brought him since they really know each other. I'll explain the situation over dinner, I promise myself, when everyone is full of food and calm.
When we sit down to eat James' father gets a shock as he rushes in from work.
"And who might you two be?" He smiles at me and Regulus.
"Sirius Black." I extend my hand which he shakes. "And my brother." I incline my head towards an overly smiley Regulus.
"Regulus Black." They shake hands.
"Well I've certainly heard a lot about you, Sirius, so it's nice to meet you in the flesh and you too Regulus." He pauses, "Now... Black so you're not the children of Orion and Walburga Black are you?" He chuckles nervously and I bite my lip, "No well that can't be right anyway since I think they have a boy and a little girl too. Unrelated I suppose, muggle-born?" Regulus looks at me sideways, his eyes plead with me to explain the awkwardness out of the conversation.
"Err..." I'm off to a great start with that, "We are their children but they have two sons, Regulus is trans. And speaking of our parents..." I turn to James who I can tell by the look in his eye has worked out that we're not here just for dinner, "We're not going back to their house because they're..." I run a hand through my hair, an annoying habit ive picked up from James, and my hand comes back dark red with drying blood. It wasn't on purpose but I can tell that Euphemia and Fleamont are on our side and quite horrified by the ideas of what could have happened to me at the hand of my parents.
"Do you want to stay here for the rest of the summer, boys?" Fleamont asks, his forehead wrinkles and his eyebrows pitch inwards in concern. "Because you're more than welcome to especially if you're in danger or anything."
"Yes I completely agree," Euphemia chimes in, "You both seem like lovely young men. James has a pull out bed and I think that there is a spare mattress in the attic or otherwise we have some sofas in the living room too." She looks in concern across the table at us.
"Thank you." Regulus shrinks as he lets out an audible sigh of relief.
"Yeah this is great!" James laughs, "Sirius we'll be like brothers!" His parents share a look of exasperation at their son's obliviousness.
I grin at James. I turn to Regulus and smile. My eyes question him "Are you going to be happy here?" they ask. He smiles back at me and for the moment I feel that I could almost relax. Just almost.