This didn't feel right. No, this wasn't right at all. Surprise attacks made Regulus's stomach uneasy. He understood that they were a staple of warfare, but the Order didn't do anything to deserve this. It looked to him like they were just out to celebrate or something. Little did they know that Death Eaters were hiding in the shadows outside of the Hogs Head.
"There's your big brother and his dirty hooker, eh Reggie?" someone said next to him in a snide voice. He didn't know who it was, but he learned to ignore the jibes about his brother long ago. Regulus wasn't like his cousin, Bellatrix, who flared up when Andromeda was brought into discussion, nor like Narcissa who took the insults personally.
Sure enough, Sirius Black and his long time girlfriend were snogging in an alley off to the side as the rest of the Order flooded out of the pub. He knew who most of them were, which made it difficult to duel them. Luckily all of the Death Eaters wore masks.
Damn his brother. Every time that he wanted to just live his own life, his brother intervened, willingly or not. Actually, now that he thought about it, Sirius probably had no idea of the impact he had on his little brother. He just haunted Regulus, in a way.
"Now!" someone in the shadows whisper-shouted and the Death Eaters jumped out and pulled their wands on the Order. The Order reacted quickly, and soon everyone was dueling. Regulus decided to stay in the shadows and hex people from behind.
"Sneaky," a quiet voice said next to him suddenly. Startled, he turned quickly to face a smirking Frank Longbottom, who was Head Boy when Regulus was a third year.
"Expelliarmus!" Regulus shouted and Frank dodged the spell easily. Frank then proceeded to jinx Regulus, but Regulus blocked that spell. This went on for quite some time, until Regulus decided it would be easier to move past trivial spells. "Duratus!" Regulus whispered and watched as Frank winced from the pain, went very still, and fell over.
Regulus emerged from the shadows and aided the person near him who was struggling to fight off a very feisty Marlene McKinnon. A flash of blonde hair caught his eye. That same flash of blonde hair had caught his eyes many times over the years next to Sirius. He always saw them flirting, laughing, fighting, kissing, or cuddling. Regulus had always been fascinated by Marlene, the girl who had actually managed to tame Sirius Black.
"Stupefy!" she yelled out and Regulus was back in reality. The Death Eater Marlene shot at dodged it carefully and looked livid. He backed her into an alley and attempted to disarm her. Regulus followed and stood behind him, ready to defend his ally. Suddenly, he was very thankful that he was wearing a mask. Otherwise, Marlene McKinnon would have beaten the shit out of him, more so than she already was, firing curses and jinxes every which way and that.
"You're pureblood, little McKinnon whore. You can still join us before it's too late. You and your best customer and boy-toy," Regulus's fellow Death Eater taunted the girl in front of them who was putting on a brave face, but Regulus knew the girl was scared. How could she not be? Regulus definitely would be if faced with who he guessed was Mulciber.
"Excuse me, but my name is Marlene McKinnon, and you'll have to kill me," she said with a smile that was slightly eerie. It reminded Regulus of the time Sirius brought Marlene home to meet the family the summer before Sirius's fifth year.
Regulus had opened the door the find a smiling Marlene with a plate of cookies. The smile was devious as she thrust the cookies into Regulus's arms. The evening had not gone well. Marlene had gone on and on about new muggle inventions, which made Orion and Walburga Black more than a little flustered and uncomfortable. Regardless, Sirius egged her on, to the point where Walburga excused herself "to get some fresh air." To top it all off, Sirius got himself and his girlfriend both sloshingly drunk. The result: Sirius making crude comments, gestures, and references to what he and Marlene had been getting up to and a giggling Marlene who could barely keep her clothes on, let alone her hands and lips off of Sirius. At the end of the night, after Marlene had finally gone home and taken her damn chocolate cookies with her—although Regulus was convinced that Sirius hid quite a few in his room—their mother simply told Sirius that he "must end all contact with the blood traitor girl." Sirius ended the wonderful night with a, "Fuck you, you bloody old hang. I'll fuck a blood traitor if I want to fuck a blood traitor!" All in all, the night was a disaster.
"Oh, I have every intention of doing so," Mulciber said to Marlene. He succeeded in disarming her after a struggle, but was so enraged that he immediately put her under the cruciatus curse. Regulus flinched when Marlene's blood curdling scream filled his ears. Mulciber then silenced her to divert attention from the alley. Panic filled Regulus when Mulciber allowed the curse to affect Marlene for quite a long time. Marlene's body went limp and she was silently crying as he released the curse.
"She's all yours, Black. Kill her," Mulciber turned to him and grinned evilly. Regulus felt dread spread from his toes to his head. This was Sirius's girl. He couldn't kill his brother's girl, no matter how badly Sirius had hurt him that night. Brothers had an unspoken rule to always have each other's backs, no matter what.
"Come on, Black. Kill your filthy brother's whore," Mulciber continued to mock.
"Avada Kedavra!" he suddenly found himself saying. He closed his eyes. What had he just done?
When he opened his eyes, he saw Mulciber's still body on the ground. He ran over to Marlene's unconscious body and dragged her farther into the alley to hide both of them from sight. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was breathing heavily while clutching her stomach. Her heavy breathing reminded Regulus of one of the most awkward moments he had ever experienced in his life.
He had barged into Sirius's room the summer before fourth year to ask if a pair of his socks had perhaps ended up in Sirius's drawer. Upon entering, he was met with a shocking sight: Marlene and Sirius kissing on the bed and Sirius fondling the breasts of aforementioned girl. They broke apart and Sirius attempted to block her from Regulus's line of sight. "God, Reggie, you ruin everything!" Sirius had whined while glaring at his younger brother. "You won't tell, will you, Reggie?" Marlene said in a seductively pouty voice while emerging from behind Sirius just enough for Regulus to get a peek at, well, everything. Regulus found he couldn't keep his eyes off of her half-naked body and her perky little breasts and taut nipples. All he could do in that moment was shake his head and walk out silently. He kept his promise, he never did tell his parents of the countless times he heard sounds of sex coming from his brother's room.
After pulling off his Death Eater garb, Regulus knelt down besides Marlene. She was still clutching her stomach and moaning in pain. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and found his. Her normally bright blue eyes had a glassy look to them, as if she wasn't fully present.
"Siri. Oh, my Sirius. Are you okay?" she said in a hoarse voice. Regulus felt tears drip down his face and his throat felt too thick to respond adequately. He cleared his throat and searched his mind for the correct response.
"I'm fine, M-M-Marlene. Are you?"
"Oh, Sirius. It hurts. I see so much blood. I…I was going to tell you this, but… the baby. Is he okay? Tell me, Sirius. Tell me he's gonna be okay," she said in desperation while patting her stomach. Regulus looked down and noticed all of the blood between her legs. Oh, Merlin… His nephew was in there… He found himself reaching for her hand and grabbed it tightly. Something caught his eye. A crystal ring was placed on her left ring finger. Sirius and Marlene were engaged.
Regulus stayed with Marlene until darkness fell and it became far too quiet. Even Marlene's sobs fell silent as she slipped out of consciousness. In some twisted way, Reg felt that the only person he could trust was this woman in front of him, because she thought he was Sirius. He contemplated all of the mistakes he made to get him in this position. It was like a tidal wave of realization. When reaching Sirius's approval had become impossible, he sought out other men to be big brother figures for him. But they never made him feel the same way Sirius made Regulus feel when the brothers had played together by the lake when they were young boys.
Of course, he always knew that he and Sirius walked a fragile line. How could they not? They were so different. But Regulus still couldn't believe it when he saw the line break that night.
It had started out as something really stupid, honestly. Their mother asked Sirius to clean his room and he refused, saying something about how her opinions were stupid anyway. It escalated into the age old fight about blood purity. Regulus thought he had it figured out with his brother. He figured that Sirius had no issues with being around people with lesser blood, but still believed himself to be better than them. How wrong Regulus was.
"This is about that mudblood girl, isn't it? Well, heads up, Sirius! You aren't going to marry her!" their mother had screamed.
"Marlene is not a muggleborn! She's a pureblood, actually. But who cares if she is a muggleborn? I sure as hell don't! Now I'm going to marry her, just to prove you wrong!" Sirius had retorted. Sirius walked out of the house and turned back when their mother started screaming.
"You come back here this instant, Sirius Orion Black!"
All he said in response was, "You coming, Reggie? We could take on the world together. Us against the world, eh?" In the moment, Regulus shook his head quickly. He never had a choice, not like Sirius. Regulus will never forget the way Sirius's eyes went cold in reaction to Regulus's silent decision.
He knew something was terribly wrong when Sirius failed to return the next day. And the next week. Reggie knew the line between them had broken when he saw Marlene climb through the window of Sirius's room and leave with some of his things.
With Marlene unconscious in front of him, Regulus stood up and hid in the shadows when he heard footsteps approaching.
"My God, Marlene! Is she alive? Oh, no… What's all this blood? Miscarriage!? I didn't even know she was expecting!" Regulus heard Sirius shriek as Marlene was lifted onto a stretcher and it was being pushed away. Standing quietly in the shadows, Regulus watched his brother, his strong big brother, fall to the ground in a crumpled heap and sob. He continued to watch as Lily Evans approached him and held out her hand to him.
"Come on, Sirius, let's get you home," she said gently.
"I lost my son, Lily. I could have lost Marlene. I don't want to go home," he said in a frantic voice.
"Sirius. Come on. It isn't safe here, there could still be Death Eaters around," Lily begged Sirius and attempted to pick him up.
"You're right, Lily, James would kill me if I let anything happen to you," he said quietly and got up. Lily continued to hold his hand and comfort him as they walked away. Regulus watched Sirius walk away from him and from everything they had. But Regulus still meant every word he said to him. Sirius might have convinced himself otherwise, but Regulus knew the heartbreaking truth: they were still brothers, no matter what. Regulus also knew that there was no way he was going back to the dark side. He was haunted.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for giving this story a chance and reading it! Don't worry, Frank Longbottom doesn't die. Marlene doesn't die, either, not yet anyway. Marlene dies a couple of years after Regulus dies, so... I'd love reviews, by the way... hint.. hint...
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or Taylor Swift (this story was inspired by Haunted).