"Get out, we don't want you here."

Sirius stood very still for a moment and had James not been paying full attention to him, he might not have noticed. Sirius stood very still for a moment and stared, wide-eyed at Walburga and Orion Black, his parents. The two adult people in his life whom were supposed to love him until the day they died.

James turned his head to look at Sirius, and the shaking started. His eyes were still wide, so wide they could have fallen out of their sockets and dropped onto the floor. He thought maybe there was a break down coming for a moment, but no, he should have expected what happened. The wicked, shit-eating grin that spread across their son's face almost sent shivers down James' spine. It was disturbing and annoying, but it was so much more than that. It was painful and loud and lonely. Then the laughing. He laughed freely and hysterically and then it was almost deafening. Sirius Black laughed like a maniac.

"So that's it then?" He gasped, tears of mirth streaming down his face.

James watched in horror as Sirius' small body shook with laughter and an ache grew in his chest because he could see right through it. It wasn't a happy laugh, you see. It was terrible and sad.

"You're finally sick of me? Took you damn long enough!"

James' face went very white and with a fury he hadn't known existed in his short life, he glared at Mr. and Mrs. Black. They stared back unapprovingly as James cleared his throat and grinded his teeth shut as he clamped a strong hand down on Sirius' arm, just above the elbow. He pulled him of the house and down the sidewalk and that was when the boy drew in a fresh breath of air and pulled them to a stop.

"I have to go back, James. I have to go collect my things before they can burn them."

All signs of the previous fit were gone from Sirius' face. It was replaced with a solemn, broken, far off look that said he was only really half there with James. He was only standing there, not really seeing him.

"Of course," James sighed, squeezing his arm before letting him go. "Make it quick."

Sirius nodded and then ran back. His parents stopped talking when he walked through the threshold and stared at him as they would any intruder. Like he was an old soggy dog stepping in from the rain and he was dripping all over their floor. Once Sirius got up the carpeted stairs, he started dragging every belonging he had out onto his carpet and into his small leather suitcase. Not everything would fit, he realized with a curse under his breath, but he'd carry as much as he could.

"Siri-..." came a small voice from the doorway. Sirius froze. Oh lord... Regulus. He paused in thought for a moment and just looked at Regulus. His lip was bleeding under the tooth that bit it, digging further and further into the soft flesh as Sirius continued to gaze at his younger brother. They stared at each other, Regulus' face becoming paler and paler until he couldn't look anymore. Sirius went back to stuffing things into his suitcase. He'd gotten his school books, his robes, his notebook...

"Sirius, please..." Regulus whispered, his voice shaking.

Sirius tried hard to ignore the pleading in Regulus' voice.

"You can't go... you can't just LEAVE me here." He could have screamed it, but he only spoke softer than before, so that Sirius could hardly hear him. Sirius squeezed the last shirt into the suitcase and clamped it closed, standing to leave. It was only then, when he was about to walk out of this house for what he sincerely hoped was the last time that he saw his little brother, trying so desperately to swell and fill the door space. His jaw was clenched hard as he stood firm in Sirius' way. Sirius smiled weakly at him. He couldn't believe how much smaller Regulus was.

"Reg... they'll get pissed at you too. Don't do this to yourself," Sirius whispered back, scooting past Regulus' still form and ruffling the other boy's hair on his way out.

"They'll tell you I'm an idiot and they'll tell you I'm worthless, but don't you ever for a minute let them tell you that you're either of those things."

"Will you let me live with you?" He finally choked when Sirius reached the stairs. "Please..."

He was close to tears.

"I'll.. Regulus, I'll think about it. Really, I will. But not right now."

He still kept his voice low in case their parents might hear.

"Now get out! You've wasted enough of our time!" Walburga hollered as he jogged down the stairs.

"Feeling's mutual, bitch!" he spat in her face.

So broom in one hand, suitcase in the other, he left Regulus with, in his opinion, the most horrible people on the face of the planet.