Grey Painted Sky
A six year old Regulus stood before me. A flash of lightning illuminated the room. I saw his face go white with fear.
"Just go back to your room, Regulus. The lightning isn't going to get you there."
"It won't get me here either." He whispered, still hugging his rumpled old stuffed dog as if it could keep the lightning away.
"Just go back to your room, Regulus!" I hissed at him, surprising him, "Before Mother and Father wake and get mad." I fell back onto my bed and rolled over, facing away from him.
I couldn't really hear anything between the spattering rain and the thunder grumbling at my window. Footsteps were easily muffled. He most probably had left.
A sudden deafening clap of thunder that shocked even me shot through the house, and I felt a body jump on top of mine, frantically reaching for me. The following flash of lightning blinded the house's hallways with electric blue color. It died down after a few seconds, and I felt the body on top of mine still present.
"Get off!" I mumble-yelled. My head and body were shoved under the blankets as Regulus clung to me. I finally managed to roll him off and practically shouted at him. He fell of the bed, scrambling at the wooden floor and clutching his scruffy dog to his heart. What a wimp.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He looked up at me wide-eyed as I scolded him.
"But…but Sirius! I'm scared!" He cried tugging at my shirt and pulling me down to the floor with him—blankets and all. I let out a low growl without meaning to. I saw his eyes grow wider.
Suddenly we both felt something knocking on the floor beneath us. "What is going on up there? Do I have to come up there?!"
We both exchanged frantic gazes, "No, ma'am!" we called back in unison.
I glared back at Regulus, hissing "I told you they'd wake up. What do I have to do to make you go back to your room?" He looked at me and shrugged.
I motioned for him to follow me to the window. Cautiously he obeyed. He held back a foot or two, though. I grabbed his arm and pulled him up close. He resisted, but wasn't very strong. It really was pouring. The ground was composed purely of puddles. The sky was painted grey. A fork of lightning struck far in the distance, and I felt Regulus flinch in my grasp.
"What is there to possibly be afraid of?" I asked him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Hopefully this would make him leave, "Just a bunch of water, sound, and light. Think of it like a show. You need all three things to make a good one. It's nothing without the fireworks, and sound only makes it more enjoyable. Water's just added in for effects, it really just doesn't look as good without a dark and misty feel…"
He had calmed down a bit as the sound of my voice drifted in and out of his ears. He probably didn't understand what I was talking about. Hell, I hardly understood what I was talking about. Finally he leaned closer to the window and pressed his face against the foggy glass.
"It feels cold." He muttered, though I think he was talking to himself.
Suddenly a flash of forked lightning struck the ground below us, just yards away from the house. I think we both screamed – I couldn't be sure between the earsplitting thunder and the mad struggle for protection under the blankets.
After a few minutes I came back to my senses. It had just been a bit of light…nothing to be afraid of…but it definitely felt better hiding under the shelter of blankets. Regulus was curled up into a tight ball right beside me, hugging that stupid fluffy stuffed animal. How he'd even managed to keep that thing for all these years was beyond me. Father and Mother didn't approve of such sentimentals. In fact, our uncle had given it to him.
I poked him, but he continued to stare straight ahead, wide-eyed. "Hey, Reg." I continued to poke him. For some reason it calmed him a bit more, enough for him to fall into a fitful sleep at least. I looked out at the storm outside. It wouldn't hurt to have the little brat there, it got cold anyway.
I lay down next to him on the stone floor, not falling asleep until his ragged breaths turned to steady, quiet ones.
His face was white as a sheet. I glared at him and said nothing as he desperately tried to explain.
"I never wanted to! Not from the start, and not now." He told me, waiting for my response.
I looked at him a few moments, "Regulus, you better go back to your dormitory. It's getting stormy."
"Stop it Sirius!" He screamed, and the sky lit up brilliantly. "I want to quit…help me...please…"
That cracked it, "Help you? What makes you think I would help you?"
"Sirius…I'm scared." He whispered almost too quietly to hear. Then he pulled up his sleeve and showed me the mark that proved it all. The mark that told me a million words and only one story. The Dark Mark. I turned away from it in disgust. Quickly, he perched himself on the bench beside me, his sleeve still pulled up, revealing the horrid mark.
I pushed it away. "Don't show me that. I've seen it before. On many people. I just never thought I'd see it on you." He was silent after that. He didn't make a move to pull down his sleeve, and I didn't make a move to leave.
For a long time we both stayed silent. A sudden clap of deafening thunder broke through our silent walls. I knew we both had flinched. He gulped and finally lifted his head to meet my eyes. I looked at his face, white and frightened, and almost laughed at how much he looked like his younger self. When he was six and I was seven. I couldn't help but be reminded of the little raven-haired kid, hugging his stuffed dog desperately, staring at me with wide grey orbs.
Finally I put a hand on his arm, covering the mark, "Don't come to me for help again, Regulus." I said in a soft voice, croaky and weary. "You won't find any. But let me tell you something else. Rest assured, you won't find any there either." His grey-blue eyes were watery as he stared at me. I wondered if he understood.
Suddenly I felt a strange urge to show the poor, trembling wretch some sort of affection. Maybe it was some small brotherly love buried deep inside me that made me want to do so. Which was strange – for I still felt an anger for him bubbling inside me. I finally settled on pushing his long, raven hair from his face, where it clung. "You've to decide, Reg. You've already betrayed me." I murmured.
I stood, and he looked up at me desperately. A small part of me realized he hadn't seen any affection in a long time. Not from his family, the Death Eaters, nor any friends he might have had, not from that girlfriend he'd claimed to have loved who hated him now…not from me. Now his eyes screamed for compassion. Screamed for his brother. But I turned away from him. He'd betrayed me. He'd chosen his own stupid path – and now he had to walk it. If he wanted to quit, then fine. His own cowardice would betray him.
It was beginning to rain. I turned back to give Regulus one last glance. My last picture of my brother was of him standing against a grey painted sky, his hands hanging at his side limply, his hair falling about his face in that sort of elegance that only Blacks could procure, porcelain face broken – a cold deadness in his grey-blue eyes…
And the heavens were weeping for him. Weeping, for my brother.
End
Yeah, I know, overly dramatic. But I felt like writing this – so I did. Please review to help me make it better! Tell me if you loved it, liked it, hated it – whatever!
Love you all lots, thanks and bye!