"What are you doing out here, Black?"
Sirius stares at the figure sitting at the pond's edge with narrowed eyes.
When his brother turns to face him, however, his face softens.
"You okay?" Sirius asks Regulus stiffly.
Regulus gives a small hollow laugh, wiping the tears from his eyes before turning back to watch the lake. "Why don't you just piss off? There's no need for you to pretend you care about me."
Sirius hesitates, unsure whether to leave his younger brother outside crying, while he's clearly upset, or taking his brother's words and leaving him alone.
"I do," Sirius finally replies.
Regulus rounds on him. "You do, what?"
Sirius breaths in deeply before walking over to his brother and sitting down a few feet from him. "Care about you."
"Yeah," Regulus states, angrily nodding his head. "Sure."
"No," Sirius say, turning his head to look his brother in the eyes. "I'm serious. I didn't run away from you, Reggie. I ran away from our parents."
"You've got a funny way of showing it, then."
"I know," he agrees. "And it probably means bugger all to you right now, but I am sorry for shutting you out."
Regulus sits in silence, watching as the giant squid emerges. "Why'd you finally leave?"
"I just couldn't pretend any more," Sirius responds in an agitated voice. "You know my views. I couldn't go on pretending that the Dark Lord has things right and that Muggle-borns should be killed. I watched mum blast Andromeda off the tapestry and that was it. I just- I couldn't take them anymore."
"And you think I can?" Regulus exclaims, standing up quickly, beginning to pace. "Ever since I was sorted into Slytherin I've been their prized little pureblood!"
Sirius stands as well, looking at his brother in concern as he continues his rant.
"I had begged that sodding hat to put me in Gryffindor, and as soon as it didn't you never looked at me the same anymore. As if being on the path to being a Death Eater wasn't bad enough, I lost you!"
"You were the only one who understood what I was going through!" Regulus screams, pushing his older brother as hard as he could.
Sirius couldn't move, or act. He was transfixed on what Regulus was saying.
"I thought you of all people would stand by me!"
Sirius wasn't ready for the punch that was aimed at him, and as his brother's fist collides with his face he finds himself sprawled on his back, landing hard against the ground.
"I needed you," Regulus says softly, falling to his knees, beginning to sob.
Ignoring the throbbing in his head, Sirius pushing himself up and approaches his brother, kneeling down beside him and pulling his sobbing form into his chest. Sirius runs his hand through his brother's hair, attempting to calm him down.
"What's wrong, Regulus?"
Regulus pulls away, looking at his brother closely. "At the end of this week I'm to join his ranks."
"What!" Sirius exclaims. "You're just sixteen!"
"I assure you, it wasn't my idea," Regulus answers, his voice cracking with emotion. "I don't have a choice now. I'm in too deep. If I refuse, it means I'm against the Dark Lord. There's no middle anymore. If you're not with him, you're against him."
"I can help you!" Sirius argues. "We'll go talk to Dumbledore. I'm sure there's something that he can do."
Regulus shakes his head. "That would only assure a shorter life than I'd have at his side."
"There has to be something we can do." Sirius can't help the tears that begin falling for his younger brother. This was the path that their parents had set for him. He got away, but he should have helped his brother as well. If he hadn't been so blindsided by Regulus' house, he would have noticed that his views had never changed. Regulus was never a dark wizard.
"There isn't, Siri."
Sirius' falling tears are just as uncontrollable as his brothers had been as he pulls Regulus to him once more, holding him tighter than he ever had before. "You're wrong, Reggie," he states with determination through his crying. "You're wrong- I'll protect you. I promise."
With force, Sirius pushes Regulus from him by the shoulders, looking intensely into his eyes. "I promise."
Regulus can only nod, knowing that there is nothing his brother can do for him.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Sirius waits for his parents to apparate home before moving from behind the large Oak tree he had been watching from behind. Slowly, he approaches the neat rectangular hole, watching the man with the spade carefully.
"You mind leaving me alone for a bit?"
"I got me orders ter fill this grave immediately," the man replies, shoveling a spade full of earth upon the mahogany casket.
Sirius quickly draws his wand on the man. "I suggest you piss off unless you wish to be the one buried in this grave."
The man drops his spade and quickly runs off to where Sirius was hiding just moments before.
Slowly, Sirius kneels down beside the newly cut stone, leaning over to run his hand over the neatly etched name, Regulus Arcturus Black. The stone itself was elaborate, with the family crest taking up most of the stone, the epitaph short, most likely their mother's doing. "Here lies Regulus Arcturus Black, the only legitimate son of Orion and Walburga Black. He died a proud and honorable death for the correct cause."
Sirius gives a short and hollow laugh when he's finished reading it .Leave it to his mother to take his brother's death as a chance to denounce him.
He stands up, looking into the perfectly cut hole to the casket where his brothers dead body will forever remain.
Tears come to his eyes when he remembers the day that Regulus had told him he was to be a Death Eater.
"I never wanted this to happen," Sirius says, directed at his brothers. "Never," he repeats, his hands clenching by his side.
The loud crack of someone apparating close by sounds, and Sirius doesn't so much as blink from where he was gazing at the casket.
"Sirius?"
He turns around slowly meeting James' eyes, a fierce look on his face. "How'd you know I was here?"
"I know you," James says simply, walking towards his best friend. "You okay?"
"He's gone," Sirius states softly, his voice cracking.
"Oh, Siri," James says sadly, pulling his distraught friend into a tight embrace. As soon as James has his arms around him, Sirius breaks down in a rush of emotion that James had never seen in his friend before.
"I told him I'd protect him," Sirius says roughly through his sobs. "I promised him!"
"I know," James says, pulling his friend tighter against him. "I know, Siri."