Title: Accession
By:
Amanda
Feedback: sweety167yahoo.ca
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JK owns the toys, I just play with them.
Timing: MWPP era
Pairing: Sirius- Regulus; James P.O.V.
Summary: The faces behind the masks were no longer faceless, twisted monsters; they were family.
Completed: July 19, 2007
Notes: I've never written as James. It's very…odd. I can't seem to find the original origin for that poem at the beginning. I hate quoting it from the movie. My apologies.


From the eternal sea he rises,
Creating armies on either shore,
Turning man against his brother
'Til man exists no more.
- The Omen

I found Sirius curled up on the floor of the darkened room, a fallen piece of parchment rumbled at his side. He looked small, sad and scared – nothing at all like the proud of-age wizard he strutted around as. It was first year all over again.

"Pads?" I whispered in from the doorway, carefully prodding into the bubble he had hidden himself away in, "You alright mate?"

"It's mum." He hadn't called Mrs. Black that since we were children – which seemed so long ago now. Lifetimes ago. They were different people now; it was a different world.
Sirius continued to stare off into he wall, intent on only seeing that solid, unchanged barrier, "She owled me this morning." An event that certainly hadn't happened since Sirius ran away. Ran here, to my place, with my family.

As carefully and quietly as I could, I lowered myself to the floor next to him. No need to ask, when he wanted to he would speak.
"She..." his voice cracked and he licked at his lips, "she wrote to tell me how proud she is. Proud of her son." He closed his eyes tightly, his whole body seemed to quiver – if it was rage or grief, I wasn't sure. When he opened his eyes again, they glistened with unshed tears. Unshed pain.

"Reg got the mark last night."

In that instant the room grew darker and colder, it shrunk around us. Young Regulus Black, the boy who used to drag his broom around after us had grown up over night, signing away his life – and soul – to evil. Sirius' baby brother was a Death Eater.
Somehow, the war got personal. The faces behind the masks were no longer faceless twisted monsters; they were family. They were the children we once knew, the children we once were. If they could be brothers, they could be anyone. Classmates, teachers, friends.

No one warned us about that.

I sat there, shocked still and silent, leaning ever so slightly into Sirius' shoulder. Offering him some type of allowance, permission, support. Something that told him he still had me, still had something to count on. Finally free, the tears slipped down Sirius' pale and smooth face. Unguarded, uncensored. He crumbled.

"I love Reg. I don't want to kill him."

But would we have to?

End.