To tell a long story short, my summer holiday was, well, bad.

My Hufflepuff mother, father, and brothers all shunned me-just because I had the bad luck to be in Slytherin. While my family was, as a whole, a bunch of blood traitors, I was unfortunately sorted in to Slytherin-"where all students are turned evil and manipulative and everything negative!" my mom said when I was only eleven.

Really. My family needs to get a life. A life that doesn't involve some stupid phobia of Slytherins.

That's why I was pretty happy to board the Hogwarts Express and get out of my family's sphere of control.

It was easy to find-and save-a seat in the prefects carriage. Mostly because nowadays, nobody from the other houses would ever use the same compartment as Slytherins.(Possibly with the exception of Lily Evans and Remus. They actually liked sitting with the gone-bad Macmillan and their best friend's rather normal brother.) Most houses claimed that all Slytherins were plotting to join the Death Eaters when they graduated(wrong, I wasn't), that they hated all houses(er, really? I actually like the Gryffindors! and Reg does, too. Probably.), and they were mean bastards that didn't give a shit about other people(maybe. maybe not.). Which meant that they kind of blocked us out-sitting by themselves even in the library and whatnot, whispering behind our backs, and doing stuffs that seemed quite mean to me, actually. Hypocrites. And Slytherins generally hated them back-which was bad, because most of them were planning to join the Death Eaters and kill people of The Dark Lord. That meant they wanted to kill people of the other houses, whether they were pureblood, half-blood, or the bloody muggleborns.

Talk about psychopaths.

Anyway, I had saved a seat for Reg in one of the compartments and was waiting for him when JAMES POTTER came. James Potter wasn't a prefect, nor a Slytherin-and there was zero chance that he was a Head Boy. I mean, look at the things he did-using magic daily in the corridors, always playing pranks on people like Snape, getting detention every day-not exactly befitting a future Head Boy, was it? The Head Boy was probably Remus-that boy was a goody two shoes if I ever saw one.(All right, he hangs out with Sirius Black and James Potter, but Remus is more of a caretaker than a prankster.) So, why did he come here?

"Hey, Zill!" he grinned, and mussed his already-mussed-up hair.

"Why are you here?" I asked, puzzled. James smiled smugly and exclaimed,

"I'M THE BLOODY HEAD BOY!"

"Maybe you should be louder, James, I'm sure the 's patients didn't hear-wait. WHAT?"

"I'm the head boy, you idiot." he said, beaming. "And you know what's better? LILY EVANS IS THE HEAD GIRL!"

"Yeah, Lily probably is but-wait, YOU are the Head Boy? Not Remus or that fool in Ravenclaw, what was his name again? or-"

"Yes!" he shouted. "Isn't it just lovely?"

"No, Potter," a familiar voice said. "Not lovely. Definitely not even close to my definition of lovely."

James beamed even more(was that actually possible at this state?) and hugged the boy standing in front of him. "Oh, Reg, dear, don't try to undermine your great joy at this statement! I know you are overjoyed by my appointment!"

Regulus kicked him, hit him, and struggled against James but was unable to free himself of the older boy's grasp. He was stupid to try-James was famous for being one of the physically strongest students of Hogwarts and an adept Quidditch player. Unfortunately, Regulus could only be described as thin.

"Let him go." I helped Regulus get free from his captor, his hair all disheveled from the fierce hug. "YOU EFFING IDIOT!" Regulus screamed at James, who was doubling up, probably from laughter. "WHAT? THIS WAS NOT FUNNY, POTTER! APOLOGIZE!"

I rolled my eyes as I took Regulus' baggage into our compartment. Regulus was shouting some other weird insults at James, while he tried not to die from laughter. "Oh god, Reg," he managed out. "You really, really need to learn new swear words. You talk like a 10 year old! Actually," he laughed again-"I was better at swearing than you when I was 10."

"Like that's something to brag about!"

"An 'effing idiot'?" James guffawed. "Aw, you are SO CUTE!"

Regulus kind of blushed, than shook his head. "Get away from me, you radioactive bastard."

"Now that sounds like a proper insult to me!"

Regulus promptly ignored James' 'awwwwww's and walked into the compartment. Then, he slammed the door shut right in front of Potter's frowning face and mouthed 'go away'. Honestly. I would probably have said 'piss off'. Regulus really does need to improve his swearing vocabulary.

"I hate him," Regulus complained as he sat on the seat in front of me. "I hate him, my brother, and the gaggle of morons they call 'friend'."

"Including Remus?" Regulus surprisingly got on pretty well with Remus-many of their interests, such as potions matched and they liked to hang out with each other, sharing potion making techniques or something. And complaining about Sirius. Always.

"Nah, Lupin's fine. It's just Potter and my retard brother and that ratty little kid."

"Peter's an year older than you," I pointed out.

"I don't care," Regulus snapped. "And I got much more important things to tell you than this."

"Huh?"

He looked around the compartment nervously. The train was starting to honk, signaling the start of the voyage(not really, but anyway) to Hogwarts. The corridors of the carriage were practically empty, so I had no idea why he was so tense. Finally, he sighed as if he were pleased, and muttered, "Muffliato."

"What's the matter, Reg?" I was slightly alarmed-I mean, he never used the spells Snape invented. (The Marauders once stole his book and scribbled down every single-I mean every single-spell that git created. Muffliato was one of the more useful ones. Regulus still doubted the Marauders' intention and tried his best never to use anything they taught us.) "What the hell are you going to tell me?"

"Something that must never be repeated to anyone else. Especially the second one. You shouldn't talk about that one at all-not the marauders, not your family, not your silly friends-never."

"Reg, what are you telling me?"

"Something important."

"Reg-"

"Swear that you'll never mention it again, and you get to know."

"I-"

"Swear it!" Reg shouted. "Swear it on your life, Macmillan."

"I-,"I faltered. Then I saw the look on his face, wild, uncontrolled, almost rabid. "I swear it."

"On your life," Reg insisted.

"I-I swear it on my-my-life," I finished.

"Good," he said. Then looked again, nervous. By now, the train had already started-so why was Regulus being so hysteric about security or whatever?

"Regulus, what are you going to tell me?"

Regulus barely met my eyes, then took a deep breath. "My brother left home."

"Your brother always leaves home."

"No. Not like that. Like, permanently. He left for the Potters."

"No way," I said, troubled. Sirius did have problems-big ones-with his family. When we talked(which wasn't often, compared to Lily or James or Peter or Remus), he would ask me if Reg never mentioned any fights or quarrels they had during break. I never said yes, but Reg did tell me about those-enough for me to get a gist of what was happening in the Black household. But this. This was different.

"Yes way," Regulus grimaced. "He had a huge fight with mum and dad about-you know, pureblood elitist stuff-and left. Mum bust a hole in the tapestry."

"God no." I knew that a hole in the tapestry was equal to getting kicked out. Even if Sirius wanted to return to his family-which I knew he didn't-he couldn't. He was officially disowned now.

"Then do you know what he said?" I shook my head. "He asked me if I wanted to come with him. To live a freer, better life." He rolled his eyes. "Said I was too cooped up, too brainwashed by our parents."

"Harsh, but the truth," I muttered.

"No, I'm not brainwashed. Anyway, he left the family. We're brothers only by technicality now."

"Oh my god, Reg...I am so sorry."

"For me or for him?"

"For both of you."

Reg shrugged. "I'm fine. And I'm sure Sirius is happier there-he loves the Potters."

I was speechless. I mean, I knew Sirius loved the Potters-but enough to go and live with them as a family? I wasn't really sure.

"That's not the only thing I wanted to tell you."

"Now what?"

Regulus looked around nervously-again. "Are you obsessed with security or something?"

Reg glared at me. Then suddenly, he lifted his left-arm robe.

I was puzzled for a moment-then gasped. On his left arm was the infamous Dark Mark-a skull with a snake, slithering in and out of the mouth. "What the fuck, Reg-"

"It isn't a prank, if that's what you mean."

"No, Reg, I meant-you didn't join the Death Eaters?"

"It was the only way to repay for my brother's doings-the only way to show that the Blacks hadn't changed the views-"

"So you, who are barely sixteen, joined them?" I hissed. Regulus lowered his robe again, making sure nobody had seen us. "Shut up, Zillah, everyone's going to hear!"

"You aren't even an adult, not even a full wizard right now! Joining them when you are actually grown up is one thing, this is another!"

"You're not my mum!" Regulus flared up. "You've no right to interfere with my actions-"

"I do have the right to advise my best friend when he's fucking his whole life up!"

"I'm not," he roared, "fucking my life up."

"You are, and you just want to avoid facing the consequences!"

He balled up his fists and relaxed slightly. "It was a mistake to tell you."

"Reg, I-"

"I didn't have a fucking choice! If I did, you think I would've actually joined them WHILE I WAS STILL A STUDENT? DO YOU THINK I'M THAT MUCH OF AN IDIOT?"

"Y-you were always a fan of them," I said. "You know, you always supported them and all that."

"I wanted to join them AFTER I became 17, to become a respectable Death Eater!"

"As if a respectable Death eater exists."

"You know what I mean. I wanted to become a Death Eater by my own accords-not as a token of my family's faith in The Dark Lord. I'm being used by my family-what could be a surer proof of our servitude than to have a child in his service?"

"Bloody hell."

"Yeah, whatever," he looked away.

I paused. There was still a question in my mind-why did James treat us like we were still friends if he knew Sirius and Regulus were barely families now? We only became-actually, we only met-because Sirius was Regulus' brother. Shouldn't the friendship end now?

"Wait," I said. "James knows-about Sirius, that is."

"Of course," Regulus said reluctantly.

"Then how come he treated you as usual? I mean, I thought the friendship between them and us was based on you and Sirius?"

"If you're worried about losing your boyfriend-"

"Remus isn't my boyfriend."

"Okay, hopefully-future-boyfriend," he smirked, "I'd say you don't need to worry."

"But if Sirius fought with you-"

"That estranges us," Regulus concluded. "And as you know, our relationship wasn't that strong to begin with."

"So I'm still friends with-you know, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily-huh?"

"I don't think Evans befriended you because of Sirius-she was never really a member of their group, was she? And to answer your question, yes, you are still friends with all of them."

"What about you?"

Regulus looked pained. "I guess my relationship to my dear brother becomes very, very awkward."