Author's Note: Hopefully the intended plot will become clear as chapters progress, but this is centred around Regulus' conform with the Dark Side. Some is taken from implied canon, but most is engineered purely from my demonic genius.

THE PROLOGUE is taken from towards the end of where I hope the finished product will lead us. This short little entry is from the night before Regulus finally meets his future, and receives his dark mark. Anything that is a little blurred here will all be revealed later, I promise. This was intended just to give a little introduction to Sirius' worries for his brother, and Snape's possessive nature. When thinking out the plotline, the same image came to me, and that was of a suicide bomber, and how he is brain washed into dying for his God or country. These are the same blind steps the youngest Black will take, lead not by a Priest but by Severus.

The Title: Is Latin for 'False Path.' I had much trouble with the title, and many came to mind, but I think this fits. Forgotten ideas may come back as titles for later chapters, and when I can put it into coherent words, I may reveal why my choice of title. I must here credit a good friend of mine. Thanks!

The Rating: Is a T purely because I don't think anyone younger would understand my plotline, and I'd hate for such a complex idea to be misinterpreted as anything less. Plus I probably will end up with dubious content later on.

And now…

Reproba Semita Prologue

Regulus,

I feel now as I did the first time I saw Snape drape one heavy, useless arm across your bony shoulders. You severed ties, you would not speak to me, you would not answer the letters I slipped into your bag. I cannot help but try to throw away fourteen years as you have done so readily, but for me, it is so much harder. I watched you grow, I was there when your first word was my name. Now there is nothing. You, so determined to erase the memories, have erased my very existence. You use Mother's insults in the corridor, you have confided in fellow Slytherins my secrets. You use my misguided smiles against me, gazes gone astray. The same blood flows in our veins, that which you would have spilt over stone floors as if it were nothing, if only to receive a pardon from Snape. What does he offer you, Reggie? Courage? Belonging? Incorruptibility? Is that what he promises? These things are impossible, and he has blinded you to them. If only you would open your eyes and see the truth, suffer one moment of pain for a lifetime of understanding.

I did.

I would do anything for you, if only you would let me. Convenience has given you 'friends,' but ask them if they would put you before themselves. Ask them how much you truly mean, and look them square in the eye as they lie to you. I do not know what piece you play, but you are part of a grander, terrible puzzle. Of that alone I am sure. I could always tell when you were scared. As a child, you would touch your hair, screw up your hands in your clothes and cry until I came to hold you. I cannot wait forever, Reggie. My arms are only so long.

This is so much deeper than appearances. You feel accepted now, you feel proud to walk down a corridor surrounded my mindless drones, but how long will this last when they lead you to a shadowed corner? How long will it be before Snape asks you to break your own morals for him? Do you still even process any? When James jinxes him, he uses you as a weapon. He knows what I would do for you, and he uses you against me. I can no longer touch him for fear of inadvertently harming you. He has you for a shield, and he will send you to the ends of the Earth while you hang on his every word. He's not so special. The year you arrived at Hogwarts, he twisted upside down for the world to see his dignity. Don't you remember? You laughed at your tormentor, and you can laugh again if only you accept his weaknesses. The others he has as followers are merely pawns like you. They mean nothing.

Let me save you from your own demons. This is the last time my hand reaches out over the void. If I hear nothing more, I'll accept your fate as I accepted mine. I am the Blood Traitor, but I am unique. You are a clone. Please, Reggie. Let me save you.

Sirius.

A pair of clawed hands curled around the edges of the yellowing parchment, ropes twisting as fingers, pulled at with firelight. Severus Snape picked out his name in the copperplate, beautifully formed with a deep seated contempt that would surely never die. The envelope, unopened until he ripped away at the folded creases, lay beside him on an oak table. His upper lip curled as he lay back in the armchair, crossing one leg over the other beneath an eternity of black robes. The clock above the mantel reluctantly struck out the early hours of the next day, its soul observer crawling with the time. Snape caressed the paper below him, his thoughts somewhere just beyond the borders of normal speech.

"Let me save you." He re-read the last line over and over again, until the words carved themselves into the underside of his eyelids to be read when he closed his eyes. They were familiar. He'd used them before.

Turning slightly, he balled one fist and with it, the letter. He brought the hand up to his face, his senses bathed in a clean and comfortable glow, before finally flinging it forward toward the fire. As the flames licked at ink only he had seen, he looked up at the high ceiling, above which Regulus Black slept peacefully in his bed.