Written for Song Fics. Title taken from the Imagine Dragons song, which was the prompt I was given.
Severus stared at Regulus, who had suddenly appeared in his fireplace, nearly frightening his mother half to death. Severus was glad his father was passed out drunk upstairs. If he had been awake and hungover (not sober, his father was never sober), there would have been hell to pay and Eileen would have been the recipient.
Severus was just about to yell at Regulus, when he noticed the boy (not a boy, Severus was only a year older than him, but he couldn't help but feel a bigger age difference than there was) seemed to be in a daze. His eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything and Severus was genuinely afraid the younger boy was going to faint. He managed to guide Regulus to a ratty old chair. His mother poured a cup of tea and forced into Regulus's hands. Severus ignored her questioning stare. His mother must have realized something, because she quickly left and went upstairs.
He wondered what happened to the boy, and why Regulus had come to him. He had never gotten the impression that they were particularly close.
"What's the matter?" he asked cautiously. Severus had never been good at comfort, the only one he really had an opportunity to comfort was Li- Evans, and she had never really needed much comforting as far as Severus could tell.
"My brother ran away," Regulus said, sounding almost shell-shocked. "He fought with my parent's and he left."
Severus stared at Regulus, his mouth opened in shock. "Black ran away?" Not that it was surprising. Everyone at Hogwarts knew that Sirius Black did not have a good relationship with his parent's. They sent him a Howler after he got Sorted into Gryffindor! But running away was permanent and could not be taken back. Severus had thought about it enough times to know it was never going to be an easy decision.
"Yeah," Regulus nodded. "He ran away. Why would he run away? No, don't answer that. I know why he would run away."
Severus sighed. "As do I. What I'm wondering is why you came here, to my house?"
Regulus looked at him, eyes clear for the first time that night. "Because you are the only one that hates James Potter as much as I do." His mouth twisted into an ugly grin as his words grew passionate and his tone grew ugly, bitter, and dark. "He's the brother I never could be, the man you never could be. He's perfect and wonderful and I want to send his world crashing down around him. I want to be him and destroy him and make him understand what it's like to never be good enough because he's always been the best. I'm just as good as him, but no one will ever realize that!"
Regulus was panting heavily by the end of his impromptu speech. "I hate him for being there because I can't be."
Severus licked his lips. "Sometimes . . . sometimes I would imagine what it would have been like if I had gotten Sorted into Gryffindor and Potter was in Slytherin. I tell myself that I would great, that I would have friends and Potter would be left alone for the first time in his life.
"But I know that everyone would still love him. Everyone would think that maybe Slytherins weren't all bad, that perhaps they were judging them too quickly, too harshly."
"You know what's sad," Regulus said. "No matter what we do, for the rest of our lives, everything we do will partly to prove ourselves to James Potter. Meanwhile, he won't give us a second thought."
Severus looked at Regulus, his throat feeling oddly dry. "I think you should go now," he chocked out. He didn't want to hear anymore.
Regulus nodded absentmindedly as he stood up shakily. "Yes. I should."
Severus didn't watch him go.
