A/n: In case anyone who is reading this is wondering when in the world I'm going to update TH\e Christening of Michael Phrenic-soon! To everyone else-happy reading!

Ash Wednesday

Regulus walks cheerfully into his older brother's room. "Hi, Sirius!"

"Shut up, I'm working," Sirius responds angrily.

At his words the smile easily slides off Regulus' face, and he leaves Sirius' room fighting back tears. As he heads back to his own room, he hears his mother call him. She wants him to talk to some visitors, and he does. He sits among the guests, letting tears stream down his face, but no one notices but a young lady with a cross of ashes on her forehead who gently asks if he's alright.

"Fine," Regulus mutters, but he isn't. He thinks about when he was three, and he couldn't wait to be six like his older brother, about when Sirius taught him to fly, and play chess, and about when Sirius went to Hogwarts. Regulus had never had anything but admiration for Sirius, but Sirius was changing, and those four words stung him deep.

Sometime during the conversation, the lady who asked him if he was alright explains that she wears dirt on her forehead today, because she is a servant of God. Regulus decides that he doesn't want to be a dirty slave, and he doesn't want to be a faithful younger brother either. What Regulus wants is revenge.