Chapter 1: The Hole in the Tapestry

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Regulus Black sat on the edge of a large bed that was draped in red and gold blankets. The walls around him were decked in large banners of the same colors, all showing fierce lions or the words Gryffindor Pride. There were pin-ups of Muggle motorcycles and half clothed women all around. Photos of the same four laughing boys were scattered about in frames or stuck to the walls.

"So, this was your brother's room?" a male voice asked from the open doorway.

Regulus nodded and looked down into his hands where he held a small, framed photo that was covered in dust so thick the picture could not be seen. He rubbed his thumb across the glass to reveal a photo of two young boys; one was slightly taller than the other. The boys both had the same jet black, messy hair, the same light grey eyes and an identical crooked smile. The taller boy had his arm around the other and kept reaching over, prodding him in the side to force a smile. The shorter boy kept swatting at his hand and scowling at him. Once the shorter consented to the smile, the image began to replay itself.

"You two look so happy," the voice said, now standing before Regulus.

"We were. This was taken right after Sirius got his letter to Hogwarts. He was so excited." Regulus sighed and dragged his hand back through his hair. "If you ask me, that was when all the trouble started. If he'd just been a Slytherin like the rest of us -"

"You aren't actually trying to blame your brother for what's happening, are you?"

"No," Regulus snapped quickly and rubbed roughly at his face. "I'm not blaming him. I've accepted responsibility. I just..." He pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and bit down on it.

"You just miss him."

Regulus nodded. "I do. I just wish I could see him, talk to him... I wish I could tell him that I'm not that same idiot boy that I was before. I wish that I could tell him that I'm sorry."

"You go through with your plan and that'll be how you say you're sorry. It'll be how you say you're sorry to everyone that you've hurt."

Regulus looked up with no hesitation and met the eyes of the person in front of him. "Is it how I can say I'm sorry to you?" he whispered

"You've already said you're sorry to me and I've already forgiven you."

"How could you?" Regulus breathed out, his face twisted in distress. "How could you ever forgive me for what I did to you?"

"I can forgive you because I love you."

Regulus pressed his lips together tightly and looked back down at the photo in his hands. He took a deep breath to fight back the tears he could feel stinging his eyes. He put his right index finger over Sirius' face in the photo, then turned it over and looked down at the scar marring the tip of his finger.

"I got this scar the day that he left," Regulus mused. "It was three years ago, but sometimes...sometimes it feels like it just happened." The boy licked over his cracked lips and looked up at the person standing before him. "I should have gone. I should have packed my trunk and gone with him when he asked." He let out a long breath and pondered on the day in question. "I should have gone."

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**Three Years Earlier**

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Regulus stood in the doorway of his brother's room and watched as Sirius wildly threw clothes into his school trunk. "You can't just leave, you aren't of age. They'll just bring you home," the younger of the boy's pointed out.

Sirius slammed his trunk closed and gave an indignant snort. He tore across the room and stared down at his younger brother. "This place," he growled, waving his hands around to indicate he meant the house, "is not my home. I don't belong here, I never belonged here; I never will. I have to get away from those people."

"Those people are your parents. They're your family," Regulus spat.

Sirius shook his head and rubbed his fingers over his eyes. "They're only my parents by blood; it doesn't change anything. You see how I'm treated, Regulus, you see it everyday. You can't pretend like you don't know they hate me just as much as I hate them." He spun around and grabbed onto the handle of his trunk, then heaved it onto the floor.

"So you're just gonna leave?" Regulus asked, amazed at his brother's brash actions. "You're gonna take off...to where? Where do you have to go? You're only sixteen!"

"I'll go to James' house, just like over the holidays." The older boy pushed his brother from the doorway and dragged his trunk towards the staircase.

Regulus grabbed the other boy's arm, forcing Sirius to turn towards him. "What am I supposed to tell mum and dad when they get home? They're gonna lose it."

Sirius' body tensed for a moment, a temperamental outburst verging on release. He met his younger brother's eyes and took a slow breath before allowing a smirk to crawl across his lips. "Don't tell them anything. You can come with me." He dropped his trunk and grabbed onto Regulus' shoulders, eagerly steering the smaller boy towards his bedroom. "You can stay at James' house too. I'm sure it'll be okay, his parents are wonderful, they'll understand. I just know they will." He pushed open Regulus' door and forced the boy inside. "Come on, you're better than this. You're smarter than all this, you can come with me. Get your stuff!"

Regulus twisted away from his brother and took a step back from him. He eyed the older boy with a mix of shock and concern. "I'm not going anywhere," he hissed, taking another step back. "I happen to like it here, just fine. If anyone needs to be smarter, it's you. Just...just put this leaving rubbish out of your brain and go unpack your trunk."

A rumble built in Sirius' chest and an animalistic growl seeped past the boy's lips. "All of this is bullshit, Regulus. This whole family and their ideas...this...toujours pur crap, it's all wrong." He pointed dramatically at the large Black family crest that lay painted on the younger boy's wall and shook his head. "We aren't better than anyone else."

"Maybe you aren't," Regulus snorted as he pressed his hands into his brother's chest and attempted to be rid of the boy. "You're nothing more than a lousy blood traitor," he continued. "You're a disgrace to this family and you don't deserve the name Black."

"Can you even hear yourself?" Sirius cried out, a manic laugh teetering on the edge of his voice. "You're just repeating the same nonsense that you hear our mother scream at me all the time. Do you have a single thought of your own up here?" he laughed, rapping his finger on the side of his brother's head. "Or is that not allowed?"

Regulus gave his brother a harsh shove, knocking the boy back into the wall behind him. "Those are my thoughts, you jerk!" He scowled at his older brother and shoved him again. "Just because I have the same thoughts as our parents that doesn't mean they aren't my own. I just have enough sense to know what they tell us is true." He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at the older boy. "You don't have to leave. You can stop all this acting out and just start living a proper w-"

"Shut up!" Sirius shouted as he pushed his brother out of his way and stepped around him. "You are completely brainwashed," he muttered under his breath. "You can't actually believe all this, can you?"

"I do! I believe it because it's true!"

"Then you're an idiot just like the rest of them!" Sirius snapped up his trunk and began a noisy descent down the staircase.

Regulus rushed to the top of the stairs and stared down at his brother as the boy pulled open the door. "Sirius, you can't leave!" he cried out; the pleading undertone to the boy's words fell upon deaf ears as his brother was far too angry to care.

"Watch me!" Sirius called out. The older boy winced under the effort of lifting his trunk over the bottom of the door frame. He threw a glance back up the stairs and for a moment, identical grey eyes held each other. A flicker of hesitation moved across Sirius' gaze before he ducked his head and walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Regulus shouted a string of profanities at the spot where Sirius had been standing and leaned back against the wall. His hands clenched into fists; his nails dug into his palms so hard they almost broke the skin. A movement in the corner of his eye caught Regulus' attention and he released his hands. He glanced down and gave a weak smile to Kreacher, the Black family house-elf.

"Master Regulus did not want his brother to leave," Kreacher dared quietly, looking up at the boy.

"No, I didn't." Regulus turned away from the Elf and pushed down the hallway until he was back in his bedroom. His eyes momentarily fell over the Black family crest as he took a seat on the edge of his bed.

"Is there anything that Kreacher can do? Anything he can bring?" the Elf asked from the doorway.

Regulus shook his head. "No, I don't want anything, Kreacher." He laid back on his bed, putting his arms behind his head, and sighed heavily. "Mum is going to be really pissed off when I tell her."

"Would you like Kreacher to tell her, Sir?" the elf offered up with wide eyes.

"No, I'll tell her. You should go get dinner started.; she doesn't need two things to be screaming about."

Kreacher bowed and was out of the room in an instant.

The reaction from his mother was exactly what Regulus assumed it would be when he told her of Sirius' departure. He flinched and stared at the floor as his mother's words filled the air.

"That no good, unworthy, blood traitor filth!" Walburga shrieked. "What an ungrateful little sod." She picked up the sides of her robes, lifting the hem off the floor and headed up the stairs towards the drawing room. Her nose stayed in the air as her feet hit each step with an eerie lightness.

"Mum!" Regulus called out as he hurriedly followed the woman up the stairs and into the drawing room. "What are you doing?"

"That little ingrate wants to leave this family, then he is more than welcome to. He is nothing but a disgrace to our name." Walburga pointed her wand at Sirius' name on the family tapestry. A smirk crossed the woman's face as a bolt of light shot from the tip of her wand and there was instantly a smoking scorch mark where the boy's name had once been.

"What have you done?" Regulus cried out as he ran over to the tapestry and bent to look at the new blackened mar amongst the family images.

Walburga casually moved her wand to aim at Regulus' name and looked him in the eyes. "Would you like to join him?" she asked with a hiss.

Regulus stood up straight and shook his head. "No ma'am."

She lowered her wand and gave her son a sad attempt at a proper smile. "That's what I thought. You were always the good son, and now...you're the only one." She bunched up her cloak around her shoulders and lifted her nose back into the air. With a graceful, uncaring turn, she strolled from the room to leave her son behind.

Regulus stood motionless as he watched his mother leave the room. His eyes dropped to the still smoking mark that was once his brother. The smell was reaching his nostrils and becoming something of an irritant; rather than walk out as well, he pressed the tip of his right index finger to the scorch mark to stop its slow burn. Instantly, the pain of a burn shot through Regulus' finger and up his entire arm, causing his skin to prickle. A small smile pulled at the boy's lips as he withdrew his finger and looked down at it. He could already see the skin reddening and beginning to blister over.

"Master Regulus," came Kreacher's hesitant voice from the doorway. "Would you like something for that?" he continued as he took one slow step into the drawing room.

"No," Regulus answered, shoving his hand down into his pocket. "It's fine."

Kreacher nodded and let his eyes wander towards the new blemish on the tapestry. "Dinner is ready," he said, his head dropping to hide the pleased grin on his face.

Regulus twisted his lips and stepped around the elf to head for the kitchen. As he passed Sirius' room, he pulled the door closed and tapped the knob with his wand to lock it. Luckily, in a pure Wizarding household, underage magic was not able to be detected, especially such a simple spell. His mouth formed into a frown as he could hear Kreacher in the drawing room. The house-elf was alternating between celebrating the loss of Sirius and subsequently punishing himself for doing so.

The boy squeezed his hand around his burnt finger and sighed softly at the pain. "You're the idiot," he spat angrily at the closed door. "You always treated Potter like more of a brother anyways." He sneered at the door and turned away from it. "Jerk."

A Note From the Author: Hey, guys! I want to thank you for starting my story and I really hope that you all hang in for the ride. There is no surprise as to the "plan" of Regulus' that is mentioned here. Everyone knows what he did regarding the Horcrux and it will be no different here. There will be no "he is actually alive" moment. J.K. Rowling say he is dead and her word is law here, this story is not AU. I'm sure you are wondering who the guy is that he is talking to at the start of the story. 'Tis a mystery that will only be revealed in the end. Don't even ask, I won't tell anyone who it is. Don't be shy to leave a few words of review. Thanks! :D –Jenna

Now Beta'd by magic139 from the HPFF forums.