A/N: Written for the Dialogue Wheel. Prompt: "I don't have to put up with this. That's it - I quit."

Gone

There was commotion on a lower floor of the house. Regulus' stomach dropped when he heard it. There were only loud noises in Grimmauld Place when someone had incurred the wrath of their mother.

More often than not, it was Sirius who had made her angry, and Regulus dreaded the consequences of it more than Sirius did, if his incessant need to keep doing it was any indication.

Regulus knew the smart move would be to stay in his room, out of sight. If his parents noticed him, they'd paint him as Sirius' antithesis again, and Regulus would be on the receiving end of one of Sirius' glares that always made him feel like scum.

He didn't stay in his room though. He never did anymore.

Kreacher was parked outside the door from which the yelling was emanating. No surprise there. The house elf was drawn to Sirius' suffering as much as Sirius was drawn to his. Regulus wished the two of them could get along. Of all the inhabitants in the house, Regulus thought Sirius had the best chance of getting along with the house elf if he managed to put aside the house elf's unwavering devotion to their parents.

"Master Regulus," Kreacher greeted him with a nasty smirk. "Master Sirius is most angering Mistress. So ungrateful for all Master and Mistress Black do for him."

Regulus tuned out Kreacher's ramblings. He knew by now everything they would consist of, and though he had no desire to scold the elf he was so fond of, he didn't want to listen to it either. For all he knew that they were true, it pained Regulus to hear the rest of the family say such terrible things about his brother.

He wished Sirius could learn from it instead of barging on with his inadvisable behavior like a common half-blood. With every passing day, Regulus became less hopeful of that outcome. He had seen the boys Sirius chose to hang out with at school. It had been worse than he'd imagined from his parents' disgruntled comments over dinner after Sirius had started school and been sorted into Gryffindor.

Leaning into the door, Regulus listened to their mother's screeches. Her words were remarkably similar to Kreacher's. There was nothing new here. They'd been rehashing the same argument for more than five years.

Sirius' voice cut through the yelling, and Regulus' heart stopped.

"I don't have to put up with this. That's it—I quit."

Their mother fell silent, and Regulus wished he could have seen the shock on her face if only because it would have helped him believe what he had heard was real. Sirius spoke back to everyone except their mother.

He couldn't hear anything—even Kreacher had fallen silent—and his fingers itched to open the door and see the scene with his own eyes.

Before he could make a move, the door flung open with force, and he was face to face with his older brother, who held a fire in his eyes stronger than Regulus had ever seen it before.

Their eyes met, and Sirius' gaze didn't soften as it once had. For so long, he had been the one member of the family Sirius didn't go out of his way to antagonize, but that had changed when he'd started school and become a Slytherin.

Sirius stood frozen in the doorway for what felt like an eternity, looking at him with the same glare he had undoubtedly been directing at their mother seconds before.

Their mother broke the silence.

"Sirius Black get back—"

Her voice pulled Sirius back to reality, but instead of listening to her, Sirius pushed forward, his shoulder brushing past Regulus as he went.

Though he headed upstairs, Regulus knew that wasn't his final destination. He would be gone within the hour.