AN: A short first chapter to what is intended to be a short multi-chap fic. For my regular fans I will apologise for the lack of updates on my other stories (whichever one's you're currently reading) I am suffering from a bad case of writers block at the moment and so I am attempting to write through it, hence this new short story. I do hope you can forgive me. Right, now for the meaning and inspiration for this fic: 'The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realisation; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.' You can read more at this site: www. Dragonfly -site. (remove spaces) Finally, please leave me reviews, I wilt and die without them like a plant without water. :p
Sirius Black and The Dragonfly
"REG!" Sirius flung the door to his brother's room open so violently it smashed into the wall, denting the fragile silk wall paper. Regulus jumped, almost falling off of his bed, the book he had been reading slipped to the floor with a muted thud.
"Sirius!" Regulus gasped as his brother stood there, his bare chest heaving and his wet hair dripping onto his broad shoulders, he glared at his little brother angrily. "What on earth is going on?"
"You've been in my fucking room!" Sirius growled, taking several steps towards Regulus' bed. "Give it back!"
"Give what back?" Regulus frowned.
"You know what you took, give it back to me you little snake."
"Sirius, why would I want anything that was yours?"
"Boys? What's all that noise for?" Their mother called up the stairs, Sirius snarled furiously down at his brother and watched his eyes dart in the direction of his desk.
"Regulus has been in my fucking bedroom again!" Sirius shouted back and heard an irritated huff from his mother.
"I highly doubt that Sirius, stop shouting and go to bed."
Sirius ignored his mother and went to Regulus' desk, he began opening draws and rummaging through them, heedlessly tossing his brother's possessions aside. "Hey! Oi! Sirius! Stop that!" Regulus jumped off of his bed and ran to his brother's side, he grabbed his arm but was thrown roughly backwards. "Stop it! You're ruining everything!"
"Like I care. If you hadn't gone in my room then we wouldn't have this problem-Ah-ha!" He cried in triumph and lifted out a tiny silver broach. "I knew it was you!" Sirius turned on his brother and stalked towards him menacingly, Regulus cringed backwards helplessly but his brother's hand fisted in his pyjama shirt and lifted him so that they were nose-to-nose. "You know Uncle Alphard gave this to me, you little shit! Why did you steal it?"
"I-I…" Regulus squirmed uncomfortably. "It was supposed to be a joke." He finally admitted, his eyes meeting Sirius' guiltily. "I was going to charm it so it…it attacked you so if you wore it at a family gathering you'd…you'd look like an idiot."
Sirius made a noise of disgust and threw his brother back onto the bed, he turned away and moved towards the door. "Next time think it through; I've got a complex system of alarm spells surrounding my bedroom and other places. Also, try and think of something actually funny, this was such a pathetic attempt at humour it's almost sad." Sirius shook his head in disappointment. "You really need help."
"Oh piss off!" Regulus snapped angrily. "Don't patronise me, I have a sense of humour too!"
"Yeah, course you do." Sirius muttered, his voice dripping sarcasm as he left his brother to stew in his anger.
Regulus sat down heavily on his bed, he threw himself backwards and sighed as he stared up at the ceiling. Sometimes he hated his brother, he was smarter, funnier, more popular at school than he could ever hope to be. He had worshipped him when they had been younger but at some point that worship had slowly been corrupted and warped until he began to resent him, he still loved him but even that felt as if it was slowly being crushed by the jealous anger that now sprang up in its place whenever he saw Sirius around school with his friends.
He wished, in the dead of night, that he could have what Sirius had. He wanted friends who loved him as much as Sirius' friends did, he wanted to have the confidence to talk to anyone and everyone, he wanted to be able to have utter faith in who he was and what he did. He wanted his brother's looks, even their own mother admitted -begrudgingly- that Sirius was the better looking of the two. Sirius had some of the best grades in his year, he was proficient in duelling and could reel off half the stars in the sky without consulting a single book. He could translate runes with almost eerie accuracy and he had a wicked sense of humour. If Sirius read a spell in a book he could use it straight away with barely any practice, he had a knack when it came to tricks and traps that astounded all of the Slytherin's in Regulus' dorms. He was respected by student and teacher alike and, most of all, he was comfortable enough within himself to openly date anyone, sex being absolutely no boundary. Regulus was fully aware that Sirius had had numerous boyfriends as well as girlfriends, and he was perfectly content to allow people to whisper and mutter behind their hands as he paraded around the school as if his sexuality wasn't controversial. Regulus frowned at the ceiling. "I wish I could walk in your shoes." He whispered softly into the dim light of his bedroom.
Sirius looked at the tiny broach in his fingers, it was an intricately designed Dragonfly enamelled in gorgeously exotic colours. Its wings were made from gossamer silver threads wrapped around a silver wire frame, its eyes were two glowing stones of aquamarine. He slowly turned it over as he lay on his bed with one arm behind his head, and considered his brother's failed attempt to trick him. Regulus had never had much of a sense of humour, he was always far too perfect for that. Their parents doted on him while leaving Sirius to fend for himself, he was always brought gifts, he was embraced and complimented while Sirius was forced to watch on from the sidelines. The family loved Regulus and Sirius was usually ignored, unless someone had an insult to throw in his face. He sighed heavily and rolled onto his side, he lifted his hand and put the Dragonfly down on his bedside table. For a while he stared at it silence before closing his eyes. "I wish I could be you." He muttered as he began drifting helplessly into a deep sleep.
On the table the broach began to glow a soft rose colour, as both boys slept on, oblivious to the magic swirling around their bedrooms.
Sirius groaned heavily, rolling over onto his side and pulling the duvet over his face. He heard his mother calling out for them to come down for breakfast, slowly he began opening his eyes. He yawned widely and slid out of bed, his mind still fogged by sleep as he scratched his chest absently and stood up. He frowned slightly as he realised that there was something wrong, he couldn't put his finger on it as he took a few steps towards what should have been the direction of his wardrobe. He froze and blinked. Where his wardrobe should have been was a desk, the draws stood open with random objects scattered haphazardly across the top and on the floor. Sirius blinked again. He should have been able to work out where he was but something in his head was preventing him from truly registering what it was he was seeing.
"Sirius! Regulus! Breakfast is ready! Get down here; we need to get you back to school!"
"Ok! I'll be down in a bloody minute, stop nagging me!" He shouted angrily, still not quite sure what was wrong with his situation. It was then that he heard a noise, it was like someone was slowly strangling a cat. He turned around and found himself staring at his double, it took him a long minute to realise that he was not looking at his reflection before he watched himself fly into the room and grab him by the shoulders.
"What have you done?!" He screamed at himself and Sirius felt his sense of reality slip, he stumbled sideways and tried to take a breath but his throat had apparently closed over. He made an odd whining noise in the back of his throat and felt the world blur, everything went grey and he slid to the floor with a painful thud.
Regulus gazed down in amazement at what he could only assume was his brother in his body. He had woken up in a state of utter confusion as he had realised he was in Sirius' room, he had gone to the bathroom assuming that it was some weird idea of a prank on his brother's part but the second the lights had come on he had seen his reflection. It had taken a great force of will not to faint just as Sirius had and it had taken him even longer to adjust to his situation, he had once again assumed it was some sort of prank but now that Sirius was lying unconscious on the floor in his body he knew that it hadn't been him. He stepped over Sirius and sat down on the bed while he waited for him to regain consciousness, he frowned at his desk and slowly an idea came to him.
Sirius groaned as consciousness returned to him at last, slowly he climbed to his knees and looked up into his own face. "Wha-What?" He muttered weakly and ran a hand through his hair. "What the fuck is going on?!"
Regulus sighed. "It's me, your brother." He said softly in Sirius' voice. Sirius gaped, the expression making Regulus' face look like a brainless monkey. "Stop that, you're making me look foolish!" He muttered irritably.
"B-But…but that means that…am I…am I y-you?!" Sirius' voice went up an octave and his eyes widened in his too-white face.
"Unfortunately yes." Regulus muttered tersely. "Apparently we somehow managed to swap bodies last night, I have an idea how as well." He dug into his pocket and withdrew Sirius' little broach. "I spotted this beside your bed, it was glowing."
"Alphard gave it to me…why would he do that?"
"Perhaps he didn't know it was cursed." Regulus said with a shrug. "But it doesn't matter now, we have to think of some way to reverse it. We're going back to Hogwarts today-"
"I can't go to school looking like-like well…like you! I have friends and-and things…" Sirius looked horrified by the mere prospect of it.
"Do you think I want to go looking like this?" Regulus snapped, he looked down at the broach in his hand and frowned. "Firstly I think we need to find out what curse is on the broach before we can reverse it-" He broke off as their mother called for them again, her voice bordering on angry.
"Come on, we can think of something after breakfast." Sirius muttered as he climbed to his feet. "Merlin, you're short!" He exclaimed as he looked down at himself.
"Thanks." Regulus replied with a frown as he pocketed the broach and watched his brother pulling out clothes and tossing them aside. "What on earth are you doing? That shirt's expensive…stop it!"
"You have awful taste in clothes, no one wears this stuff anymore." He lifted out a white silk shirt with a cravat in a pale grey colour. Sirius continued to carelessly toss clothes aside until he found a pair of plain black jeans and a green shirt. "This'll do." He said and began getting dressed, exposing Regulus' body without remorse. He took a moment to look down at his genitalia and lifted an eyebrow. "Looks like your body isn't the only small thing."
"Oi!" Regulus flushed pink and Sirius smirked evilly. "Just get dressed will you."
"Alright, alright." Sirius got dressed and began making his way towards the bedroom door, he was halted when Regulus put a hand on his arm.
"Remember that you're me…try and act like it." He said with desperate pleading in his voice.
Sirius grimaced and nodded. "Alright, I'll try."
The kitchen was full of the smell of cooking, Kreacher stood at the stove upon a stool and was frowning in concentration as bacon fried itself, eggs were scrambled by a spoon that hovered in the air and the kettle rose to pour hot water into a fine bone china tea pot. "Good morning boys." Walburga said from where she sat at the head of the table reading the Daily Prophet, she looked up and bestowed a bright smile on Sirius. "I do hope you're going to do as well this year as you did last year." She said and reached out to put a hand on what she assumed was her youngest son's shoulder, she pulled back when Sirius flinched violently, lifting an arm over his head as if she were about to hit him. The reaction was automated, he had no control over it and he hated himself for it. "Regulus, dear, are you alright?" Walburga asked in concern.
"Oh…oh yeah…sorry…I guess I'm still half asleep." Sirius said quickly, smiling to attempt to take the edge off the situation.
"Well, if you find yourself becoming ill later on you make sure you go straight to the Hospital Wing. You look ever so pale."
"I will mother." Sirius replied and took his seat while Kreacher served breakfast.
Regulus ate his breakfast methodically, hoping that Sirius wouldn't do anything stupid. He had no idea how his mother would react to the knowledge that they had swapped bodies and he didn't intend to find out. Once they were at school they could go straight to Pomfrey and ask her for help, he was sure she could sort them out, she had healed him numerous times when he had been injured in Quidditch matches.
"Sirius, I want you to be on your best behaviour this year, do you hear me?"
It took Regulus a moment to realise that he was Sirius for the day and he looked up guiltily. "Of course I will." He said with an uncertain smile, he felt Sirius kick him under the table and had to fight hard not to wince. Walburga frowned suspiciously at him and Regulus felt a pang of pain, the look was so full of hatred that it sent shivers down his spine.
"You had better." She said softly and put aside the paper, she stood up and looked down at her son's. "Now then, finish up and we will see you off to the station."
Sirius stood up, pushing his chair back and yawning widely, Regulus lifted an eyebrow at him and he quickly covered his mouth. Regulus gave him a small, surreptitious nod as they filed out of the kitchen and into the hall way where their luggage awaited them.