title: propriety
rating: pg
genre: drama/angst
summary: Regulus is not, but he does like a good Slytherin should.
note: ficlet, written in 20 minutes and not beta'd. x-posted in various places, including my journal.
Regulus does not play Quidditch, as he is secretly afraid of heights and abrupt movement, but he attends the games like a good Slytherin should. Regulus does not excel in studies, for he is not naturally a book learner and the knowledge trickles out his nose and ears between when he completes a paragraph and when turns to write his homework, but he goes to class to snub the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs like a good Slytherin should. Regulus does not like returning home for holiday, where his mother shrieks at his brother to be a proper Black and weaves spider webs of disillusioned mistrust, but he pretends to be eager to practice dark arts at home like a good Slytherin should. Regulus does not hate Sirius, who is intelligent and brave and, sometimes when the shadows lengthen to dissolve the walls in a dulled grayness like that of a Dementor's robe, presses his warm mouth to Regulus', but he pushes him away and calls him a blood traitor like a good Slytherin should.
Regulus does not contact his brother after he leaves for the Potters, for he is now heir to black nobility with all its inherent duty and it is dishonorable to communicate with those who Mother burnt off the family tapestry. Regulus does understand how he has earned something on the simple fact that he is not Sirius, yet his mother tells him that he is worthy of the demanding and exalting responsibility that comes with being the now only son.
But.
There was a time, an ache in his heart that grew and burned and gripped, which had longed to beg Sirius to take him with him. There was a time, one that seems distant and blurred and surreal as a recalled dream, that Regulus liked to feel his brother's lips against his own. There was a time, faded and two-dimensional like all silly childhood fancies, that he wished to remain a brother foremost, then a Slytherin, then a Black.
However, he is a Slytherin and a Black, and therefore keeps his silence like a good Death Eater should.