Disclaimer: Regulus, Sirius, Hogwarts, everything, belongs to JK Rowling. Arvie Bennett belongs to me!:)
I zipped up my last suitcase, but the sound was more like a pleading. "Help me!" It cried. "Don't let them take me to America!"
Or maybe that was just me. Don't get me wrong. I always wanted to travel the world. But Sirius had left two years earlier. At age sixteen, Sirius left. At age twenty, I was being shipped off to America to meet my future bride. Arranged bride. Some hag I had never met. A pureblood. She was twelve or something. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. The jest of it was that she was rich, pureblood and blonde. Like blonde automatically made her amazing. I had never liked a blonde in my life. What made it worse was that my parents wouldn't listen to me. Sirius's arranged wife still technically belonged to them. Even though Sirius was gone. And she was untouchable to me. Something about my fiancee's parents. But I would gladly marry Sirius's ex-fiancé. In fact, even if I wasn't forced to marry a pureblood, I'd still get down on one knee for her.
I threw my wallet at the door and galleons split out onto the floor. Fuck money. Fuck purebloods. But I couldn't tell them that. I wasn't brave like Sirius. Why couldn't I have just been sorted into Gryffindor like him? Then I just would have been able to get disowned like him and everything would be easy. Free to steal their arranged wife without a husband and run away with her. Get married and have beautiful blue eyed children with her. When she was ready of course. I hated that I couldn't. I hated all the money and I hated the privilege. Some days I just wanted to run out naked into the yard and yell, scream and run around, because I could. But in reality I couldn't.
I looked in the mirror and sighed. I retied my bow tie for about the trillionth time and sighed. I couldn't think of anything else to stall, so I pulled two of my bags downstairs, struggling on the stairs. I would just toss them down, but I knew that my cheek would be very sore if I did. So I struggled down and left my bags by the door, then came back up for another two. I noticed Sirius's door was closed. That worried me. I always left it open because it comforted me. I always felt my heart flutter, hoping he was in there and, just that time, I'd be able to see him. I didn't bother opening the door, I was too depressed to see that it was empty right now. I took the last bag downstairs and realized I forgot something very important. I went back up to my room and lifted up the bottom of the drawer. False bottom. Must have been there for generations because I found notes from my great-great grandfather when I was twelve in there. I pulled my two most precious belongings out and pocketed them. I took a deep breath, looking around. I retied my bow tie one more time and sighed, pocketing my Slytherin tie and scarf as well. I took one last look around my room and closed the door behind me. It wasn't like it was the last time I would see it. But I'd be gone for at least a couple months.
I sighed, turning back towards the stairs and Sirius's bedroom door opened behind me. I turned quickly, eyes wide and an excited grin moving to my face, though I couldn't explain why. But it wasn't Sirius who emerged. It was another very familiar face. She ran out, just in a robe and crying. She ran right into my chest and I stood, dazed, gently holding her.
"Please, Reggie! Please! Help me!" She cried, clutching onto me. She was so tiny. Her face was just creeping past my abs, and she was so young. I didn't know what to do. What was going on? I wanted to look around but nothing was registering to me. Had she just called me Reggie? I smiled a bit and bit my lip. She was so cute when she was flustered. But she was crying. I wondered what was wrong. She sobbed and kept whispering 'please' into my abs.
"Regulus darling?" My mother came up the stairs and gasped. "Poison! Poison is what you are!" She screamed at Arvie, grabbing her arm and yanking her away from me, making her scream in fear and pain. I moved forward to grab her back, but my mother's smack was so hard that I could hear the echoing from my position. I flinched back, momentarily afraid, and that was all she needed - a moment. She pushed the tiny fifteen year old and threw her back into the bedroom, making her crumble to her knees. I stepped forward to help her up, but my mother closed the door and locked the deadbolt from the hallway. An addition that was added when Sirius would sneak out to see the blood traitor Potter and the rest of his friends in the middle of the night. I swallowed hard. It was too quiet. But I knew there had also been a silencing spell over Sirius's room because he had decided to blast muggle rock music towards the end. I don't know, I kind of liked it.
My mother turned back to me with a fake smile and took my hand. Something was definitely up, she never showed me affection, even if I was her favourite child. She walked downstairs with me, just allowing me a glance at the locked door before it was out of sight.