Descent into Darkness

By Nephthys18 and Shashi

Disclaimer: We do not own the characters or world that is used in this story. They were created originally by J.K. Rowling. The authors did, however, take creative license with most of the characters and completely invented others. The story itself is entirely a fabrication of the authors' imaginations and is meant for entertainment only.

Okay so this is my second attempt to complete a story and this time I think I will be able to do it! My sister has kindly consented to help me by writing the parts of the story from Regulus' point of view.

I always liked Sirius Black and the fact that his brother had strayed so far from him had always intrigued me. What happened? So this is my explanation. I am trying to stay somewhat accurate to the information that J.K. Rowling has provided, but it won't be perfect so feel free to correct me! I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!

Chapter 1: The Peacemaker

Regulus Aneurin Black was lying on his bed listening to the shouts as they floated up the stairs. He glanced at his watch. 9:47 and they were already fighting. Knowing it was useless, he shoved a pillow over his head to try and block out the noise. 9:53, he could almost recite the whole argument along with them.

First his mother's screeching voice: "Sirius Black! You will do no such thing!"

Then his brother's rebuttal: "You can't tell me what to do anymore! If you haven't noticed, I'm 17 which means I can do whatever the hell I want!"

Oh wow. This time he used the word "hell"; that was really going out on a limb. Regulus rolled his eyes then rolled his body out of bed. Sirius had been 17 a grand total of four days; and ever since that fateful day he had been fighting to visit his friend, James Potter. Why the age made such a big difference was beyond Regulus, but at least now they had something in particular to fight about.

James Potter had been Sirius's best friend practically ever since they started school. James was a pure-blood, which—for some reason that neither of the Black boys really understood—was important; but he wasn't the typical pure-blooded wizard (i.e. he didn't hate muggles with a burning, undying passion). Regulus had never particularly cared for James, not because he wasn't the typical pure-blooded wizard, but because…well, there were a number of reasons.

"That also means I don't have to let you live in this house anymore!" Were they to that part already? Regulus must have really slept in this morning. He'd better go down for breakfast before they started throwing curses (which had never actually happened, but he wouldn't put it past them).

Regulus glanced at a mirror on his way down and stopped to run fingers through his hair and, well…stall a little bit. He was still on the scrawny side, but he'd bulked up a bit since school let out in the spring. His hair was as dark as his brother's, but his eyes weren't nearly so dark or so piercing. No, Regulus Black lacked the physical intensity of his sibling, but he made up for it in…well, he felt there must be something.

"Just because I don't agree with your pure-blood supremacism?" Sirius bellowed, interrupting Regulus's thoughts. "I don't want to live here anyway!" Regulus debated whether he should go downstairs; Sirius was bound to storm up any time now.

"Why can't you be more like your brother?" his mum sighed. "He would never…" she continued talking but Regulus stopped listening. Damn it! Why did she have to bring him into it?

Regulus raced downstairs just in time to hear his brother say, "Oh, yes, my baby brother, Regulus. Isn't he just the perfect little pure-blood you always hoped he would be? Well, I've got news for you, mother—"

"Good morning," Regulus broke in. Sirius turned around and gave him an apologetic look, which Regulus shrugged off. He knew Sirius hadn't meant it.

"Good morning," his mother said absently, still glaring at her eldest child.

"It's nice to see you two are up and fighting," Regulus continued, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "What's it about this time?" He would have punched himself to take back those last words.

"Fighting? We're not fighting," Sirius said, adopting a particularly provocative branch of sarcasm. "Mother was just about to explain why she's a tyrannical muggle-hater. Do go on, mother. We're on the edge of our seats."

"Oh that's cute!" their mother said, and the argument raged up again. She was a handsome woman, but one wouldn't call her beautiful, especially when she was in this state of mind, which she often was. One tended to forget her comparatively small size when she looked enraged and half-mad. Sirius, on the other hand, could never look diminutive; sometimes Regulus felt he consciously made use of his daunting figure.

"I don't know why I even bother," Regulus said to himself under their shouts. "Nobody ever listens. But god! If they would just shut up for two seconds! I would kill for some peace and quiet around here!"

"What are you muttering about?"

"Nothing!" Regulus said quickly. "I was just—"

"Don't talk to your brother in that tone!" his screeching mother interrupted. So much for favoritism; she didn't even let him get a sentence out!

Regulus began to wonder if he should just get up and walk out; that would make a statement…assuming of course they actually noticed. And if they did they would probably take their anger out on him, which might actually be a nice change. But then again, who wants to be yelled at? No, it was probably better to just wait it out. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be a ship captain in the middle of a hurricane. Not exactly, he reasoned, the middle would be the eye of the storm and that wouldn't really be bad at all; no, this was more like being somewhere along the rim of a hurricane, but not close enough to the edge to make it out. Regulus didn't know where he was going with this.

"Well fine, then I'm leaving!" Sirius yelled, throwing Regulus out of his stupor. Apparently the argument had gone on without him. "And good riddance to all of you!" He stormed out of the kitchen, slamming doors and stomping. The silence echoed.

Regulus cleared his throat. "Well, that was, er…"

"Your brother is the most stubborn human being on the face of this planet!" his mother declared angrily. She might have been right, but if it came down to it, Regulus would probably put money on her as being the most stubborn. She went off tearing around the room, picking up piles of paper and putting them somewhere else, making believe that she was tidying up. In the corner, Kreacher stared forlornly at the mess she was making. The whole time she was spewing out a monologue against all things Sirius.

Regulus waited for her to pause to catch her breath before he tried to speak, "But you don't really want him to leave, do you?" He prayed silently that she would at least say she didn't, whether or not it was true.

"It doesn't matter what I think!" she said, going back to shifting papers; this time with less ferocity. "He's 17. He's in charge of his own life now."

"You mean, you're just gonna let him leave!" Regulus exclaimed, jumping to his feet. She couldn't be serious. She was just angry; she wouldn't actually…when he thought about it Regulus realized that, in fact, she would just let him go.

"What do you want me to do, Regulus?" she demanded, throwing a stack of magazines to the ground. Regulus stared gloomily at the fallen papers. "Do you expect me to just go up there and tell him I'm sorry and I don't want him to go and I respect his delinquent friends and his feelings?"

"Yes!" Regulus said, looking up. "Yes, that's exactly what I expect you to do!"

"Oh, Regulus," she said, smiling and shaking her head at him like he was an agitated child that she had to console. "One day you'll understand that the world doesn't just work out for you like that."

Regulus wanted to shout at her and break something. He wanted to say: "Well this isn't 'one day', this is now! And right now I want to know exactly why you are just going to sit here on your ass and let your teenage son go off on some mad escapade by himself? What exactly do you plan on doing to fix this? How exactly do you hope to explain to your grandchildren why you refuse to be in the same room as their father? Tell me, mother! What the hell do you plan to do about this?"

But he didn't say that. Instead he lied: "You're right, mum. I'm sure that someday this will all make sense to me." She smiled and ruffled his hair.

"You go on now," she said warmly, looking at him like he was an adorable puppy who had just learned to play dead. "You don't have to sit around in this smelly old kitchen with your mother all day." Regulus forced a smile and went back upstairs, still feeling like a rat, and trying not to run. At least she was happy. Now what was he going to do with Sirius?

He got to Sirius's door with every intention of bursting in and demanding that he stay at Grimmauld Place and apologize to their mother (even if she didn't deserve it). But he hesitated, hand suspended above the door. Should he knock? He did so rather tentatively; then louder to make sure Sirius heard.

"What?" Sirius snapped on the other side of the wooden barrier. Regulus suddenly felt incredibly stupid for coming.

He felt increasingly stupid when he tried to explain his presence, "Er, it's Regulus. I was just wondering…I, uh…I didn't mean to—" Sirius threw the door open before he could finish, assuming he'd have been able to.

"No, it's okay. Come on in." He stepped aside and let Regulus in; then shut the door quickly behind him. Regulus felt his stomach twist like a slug in a boiling cauldron. Sirius's trunk was out and half-filled with wrinkled clothes. Half his drawers had been pulled out, and all sorts of miscellaneous crap was strewn across the floor and bed. Regulus had a pretty good feeling that Sirius wasn't cleaning out his closet.

"Thought you were mum," Sirius said, grinning. Regulus took a deep breath and forced another smile.

"So…you're really leaving then?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. Sitting on the bed, he felt unpleasantly warm and nauseous. Ignorant of his brother's feelings, Sirius shot a dirty look at the door and nodded.

"I'm sick of that bitch! She's done nothing but nag at me all summer. Actually, she's done nothing but nag at me my whole life! I can't take her pure-blood supremacism crap anymore." Glowering, Sirius stuffed more clothes into his trunk. If he folded them properly he probably could have fit more in there…but that wasn't important now.

"You know she doesn't know any better," Regulus tried. Sometimes showing Sirius the other side of the story worked. Sometimes it didn't. "She grew up in a different time, and er…back then being pure-blooded—"

Sirius laughed harshly. "Yeah, that's it. In case you haven't noticed, in this family, being pure-blooded is still a big deal! And it's just plain stupid!" 'Ridiculous' was the word he was looking for, but Regulus didn't say anything; it was ridiculous. But Sirius was also overreacting. "And if you think I'm just gonna sit around and listen to her—"

"Okay, I get it already!" Regulus snapped. Sirius could go on for half an hour on that subject; Regulus had heard him do it. "Sorry I brought it up!" A long silence followed. "So," said Regulus slowly, "you're staying with James then?" He needed to change the subject, but the words almost stuck in his throat.

"For now," said Sirius, slamming his trunk closed.

"Sounds like you have it all planned out then," Regulus said quietly. Sirius looked over at him and sighed.

"I know all this fighting is hard on you, Reg," Sirius began. He had no idea. "But I just can't stand her!" Apparently he thought that Regulus could. "But, hey, I'll make it up to you, okay?" Regulus nodded. He sincerely doubted that Sirius could ever make it up to him. It was all good and well for Sirius to leave, but what about Regulus? What was he supposed to do left alone with their parents for the three weeks until school began? Lia was on vacation in Africa somewhere, and Vlad was…where was Vlad? As if reading his thoughts, Sirius said, "Hey, send me an owl sometime and maybe we can hang."

"Okay," said Regulus, watching Sirius shake out some floo powder and walk over to the fireplace. He knew that even if he did send an owl, Sirius wouldn't bother to send one back; he was a notoriously bad pen pal. "Sirius—" he began, but Sirius had winked and was gone.

Regulus sighed and flopped back onto the bed. If only there was some way he could make things right. Sighing again, he shook away the thought; he would never be able to, so he should just stop dreaming. That's all he was, really: a dreamer. Sirius was a doer—he didn't like living here, so he left. Regulus was just…there to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess. He was a piece-picker-upper. No! Not this year! This year would be different. No more fixing other people's problems; they could figure it out themselves or just deal with it!

He glanced at the door. He should probably go down and see if he could comfort his mother. Deep down—really deep down—she was probably very upset that Sirius was gone. And Sirius really was gone. But it was only for a few weeks, Regulus reminded himself. What the hell was he going to do when Sirius left for good? He tried (and failed) not to think about it.

Regulus looked over at the crackling fire that had just engulfed his brother and taken him away. Sighing yet again, Regulus walked to the door. This was going to be a very long year.