A small one-shot about Regulus and Sirius when they were little, I love this story, so I hope you do too!

This story was inspired by 'Running' by Evermore.

Emmi x

Nine year old Sirius Black sat at the breakfast table with his family. Oh how he hated them all, staring back at him with hate. Even at the age of nine, Sirius knew he wasn't like them, any of them. For one, Sirius' favorite house at Hogwarts is Gryffindor, he wanted nothing more than to be different, to be better, and he knew he was. He was so much better than his family, he knew better, he treated people better.

"Boy, pass the butter will you? Bloody useless. " Barked his mother from the other side of the table, she really was a horrible woman. She never treated Sirius with respect, he was always 'boy' or 'whelp' or 'useless.' Sirius knew he was none of those things, he would go out of his way to annoy his parents by showing off that fact.

"Get it yourself, or you could always torture Kreature to make him pass you the damn butter. Or then again, you seem to love dear Regulus a lot more than I, order him around for a change!" Spat Sirius, burying his head back into his cereal bowl to hide the newly formed smirk on his face. When Sirius was younger, his parents would order him around and he would take it. However, ever since he met the young James Potter at the Quidditch world cup last year, Sirius had been taking James' advice, standing up for himself, and it worked!

"Don't you speak to your mother like that! And your brother is only three!" Roared Sirius' father, banging his fist on the table. 'Was that a threat?' thought Sirius, sipping his orange juice.

"I'll stop when she does. And by the way, YOU'VE BEEN ORDERING ME AROUND SINCE I WAS TWO! He'll bloody well learn soon." Smirked Sirius, dropping his fork (a lot harder than he normally would have) onto his plate with a loud crash and standing up, "I'm going for a walk"

"Good! Get out! I don't want to see you for the rest of the day, boy" Spat Mr Black, him too standing up, grabbing Sirius by the collar, pulling him to the door and throwing him out, slamming the door in his face, "AND STAY OUT THERE"

"GOOD RIDDANCE!" Screamed Sirius to the shut door. Sirius was used to being kicked out of the house, he wasn't frightened, he knew where to go.

After walking for a few minutes, Sirius reached a beautiful park, he sat down on the bottom of the slide and buried his head in his hands, thankful of the peace.. 'Not a Black family member in sight! I'm free...!' Well, at least.. he thought he was.

"Siri!"

"Regulus? What the hell are you doing here? Go home!"

"Siri!" Regulus called again. Regulus was wearing small red overalls and blue boots (Regulus would have been quite adorable to Sirius, if he wasn't one of his sworn enemies, yes thats right, a three year old..) with a small ice-cream in his hand, he looked very happy to have seen his older brother, the one member of the family Regulus really wanted to be around.

"Go on! Go away!" Sirius walked over to the infant, picked him up and took him to the edge of the park. After setting his brother down on the pathway, Sirius gave him a little push to show him the way home, before walking back to the slide. Sitting in peace for a few seconds, Sirius knew that someone was still watching him, so he opened one eye and looked into the direction he had set Regulus down. Sure enough, there was the little boy, his ice-cream remained un-eaten in his hand, melting all over his overalls. He was smiling at Sirius.

"Leave! Leave me!" Sirius yelled at the little boy, who mistook Sirius' plead for solitude as an invitation to come over. The little boy was now running as fast as his little blue boots would allow him to go towards his older brother, giggling madly. "No! No! That way! Go away!" Sirius waved his arms around, shooing, but little Regulus could see just one thing, his older brother holding his arms wide, welcoming him into his embrace. He was nearly there! So close.. until.. Regulus' boots had snagged a root, hiding in the concrete, tripping the three year old, sending him, and the ice-cream, to the ground.

"Yes! Go on! Go home and Mum will give you a band-aid!" Smirked Sirius, but Regulus sat there, unsure how to react. "Go home! Your hurt! Go home!" Sure enough, Regulus began to cry, a single tear fell off his cheek and into the pile of ice-cream on the ground.

"Siri! Ow.." Regulus cried, holding his hands up, signaling Sirius to pick him up and tell him everything was alright, but Sirius would not, he just looked at the three year old with pity. "Siri.." he said again, but Sirius refused to move from his slide.

"Go!" Yelled Sirius, shooing the little boy, but Regulus couldn't see Sirius' annoyance or hatred, he saw only love. Eventually, Sirius couldn't look at the little boy anymore, and moved across the park to another slide. Despite the nasty gash on Regulus' knee, Regulus got up, picked his ice-cream up off the floor, and followed his bog brother through the magical world that was, the park. Regulus knew nothing could hurt him as long as he followed in the footsteps of his big brother.

"STOP FOLLOWING ME! CAN'T YOU SEE I DON'T WANT YOU!" Sirius turned around and yelled into the three year old's face. Regulus' bottom lip gave the slightest of trembles, but he knew Siri didn't mean it! Siri must have been talking to someone else.. yes, that's right! Regulus was so busy watching his older brother, trying to copy exactly what he was doing, that he didn't notice the older kid come up behind Regulus, steal his ice-cream, and push him into a puddle of water.

"I'll be taking that!" Said the giant, laughing down at Regulus, poking him with a stick. Regulus remembered how Sirius acted with his parents.. Regulus knew what to do! After all, Sirius wouldn't let Regulus down.. would he?

"R-Reggy's ice-cream!" Said Regulus, getting up out of the puddle and trying to wipe the water off his bottom, but his arms were too small to reach.

"Oh yeah? Well it's Lucious' ice-cream now! What are you going to do about it baby? Cry?" Taunted the giant, pushing Regulus back into the water puddle.

"N-no!" Sniffed Regulus, wiping a small tear from his cheek and stepping out of the puddle (again), trying to be fearless like Siri.

"Yes you are! Get up baby, get up and reclaim your ice-cream! Oh wait, you can't reach can you?" Laughed the giant, poking one of the buttons on Regulus' overalls, sending him toppling over, this time, face first into the puddle.

"HEY! Get your filthy hands off my brother, Malfoy!" Yelled Sirius, getting up and walking towards Malfoy from his slide, unable to bear watching Lucious taunt his brother any longer.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it Black?" Laughed Malfoy

"This!" Smirked Sirius.. 'Right Sirius, you just have to concentrate.. I have to concentrate.. I did it the other day.. think.. think...' Sirius had his forefingers pressed hard to his temples, concentrating.. 'c'mon.. wheres that red light? Ha!'

All of a sudden, a jet of bright red light erupted out of nowhere, soaring towards Malfoy and knocking him back wards, sending him toppling over the swing set. 'James was right! Young wizards ARE capable of a lot...

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Yelled Malfoy, picking himself up off the ground.

"It was an accident!" Smirked Sirius, shrugging, before turning around to help his little brother out of the puddle, walking back to the slide with Regulus in his arms and sitting down, placing the three year old on his lap. "Now you listen to me little brother, the world is full of good and bad people, understand? You must stay away from these bad people, they will hurt you and they will hurt the people you love, keep away from them Regulus, do you hear me?"

"I dropped i-ice-cream"

"Listen! I won't always be around to protect you Regulus, it's a big world out there and god knows Mum and Dad won't protect you! One day you will understand little brother, I don't have to like you one little bit, but your blood is mine, so I will spare you one piece of advice, keep away from the dark, alright?"

"I-I always have a light on outside m-my door Siri! I swear" Nodded Regulus knowingly, which made Sirius smile

"Well, it's a start. Come, I'll buy you another ice-cream, it beats going home." Smirked Sirius, standing up and noticing Regulus' outstretched hand, "But I'm not holding your hand"

"Mmkay" Smiled Regulus, attempting to get a little more water off of his bottom before running off after his brother, who was walking over to the ice-cream stand.

"Siri!"

"Keep up, I'm not waiting for you."

Regulus was fast asleep, dreaming of a park, an ice-cream and his older brother, shooting a red jet of light at a giant..

Regulus was now nine years old, Sirius was fifteen and things between the family had gotten shockingly worse over the past six years.

Sirius crept down the hallway, a small bag in one hand and a broomstick in the other, he couldn't resist, he had to say goodbye. Nearing the end of the hall, Sirius noticed that Regulus' door was slightly open, allowing a streak of light to enter his room, what did that remind Sirius of..? Sirius walked into the room and scanned in quickly, before turning to his sleeping brother and sitting next to his bed. He wasn't going to wake him, but he had to say goodbye, even if Regulus didn't understand...

"Listen little brother, remember I told you I wont always be around to protect you? Well.. today is that day, I'm moving out to live with the Potters, I know you won't understand.. but I had to say goodbye.. whatever you become, I'll always be your older brother.. and you'll always be the little three year old freak who never gave me a moments peace.. goodbye Regg- Regulus." Sirius planted one small kiss on his little brother's forehead before he heard James call from the hall way.

"What are you doing Padfoot? Let's get out of here!"

"Coming.. just grabbing something my brother stole from me!" Replied Sirius, not wanting to show weakness, especially when it came to a member of the Black family. Before Sirius left the room of his little brother however, Sirius took a photo of himself at the age of nine, sitting next to his little brother with familiar red overalls and blue boots...

Sirius hurt him. Regulus knew Sirius was gone before he woke up.. and this painful realization was found to be true when Regulus checked Sirius' bed and found it empty..

This made Regulus remember something someone told him, who told him? He couldn't remember, but he felt the urge to listen to this voice of advice in his head...

"Now you listen to me, the world is full of good and bad people, understand? You must stay away from these bad people, they will hurt you and they will hurt the people you love, keep away from them Regulus, do you hear me?"

Sirius hurt me... he hurt my family... he is a bad person, I must stay away from him.. forever... I must keep away from the dark...

Regulus left Sirius' room, ran down the stairs, passed the kitchen, into the cellar where he found yesterdays paper, the headline read: THE DARK LORD RISES

Regulus cut the article out and ran upstairs into his bedroom. He ripped down all the posters in his room and put the one small newspaper article on the wall.

'Sirius would pay.. one day, my big brother will pay for hurting me.'

Regulus went to bed that night and rolled over... something was wrong.. but what? Regulus laid there for hours, staring at the ceiling.. finally, he found the problem. Regulus got up out of bed, walked into the corridor and turned the hallway light off, before shutting his door and going back to bed. Regulus would not dream about a park, an ice-cream or a big brother that night... after all, what big brother?

'Stay away from the dark Regulus...'

I felt like crying when I wrote this story.. I guess it shows what Regulus could have been with Sirius' love...

Thanks for reading! Reviews would be kind.

Emmi xx

P.S: You don't need a broken heart to know a heart can be broken, you just need to open your eyes...