Sirius took one last look at the room he grew up in.

He was all packed and all the things making his individuality more pronounced were permanently stuck to the walls.

It was time for the inevitable. Saying goodbye to Regulus.

This would be the hardest thing for him, Regulus was his only brother and they had been close their entire lives. He was the one person in his immediate family that actually cared about him.

He stood outside Regulus' door. "It's now or never," he murmured to himself before leaving his suitcase in the hall and stepping into his brother's room.

"Reg? Come on, wake up." Sirius whispered into the darkness of the silent night.

Regulus' eyes opened sleepily and spotted his brother crouching by the side of his bed, "Sirius? What's going on?"

Sirius sighed unhappily, "I'm leaving. For good this time."

"What?!" Regulus sat straight up in his bed. "Why?"

"Reg, you know I don't belong here. I can't stand it anymore."

Regulus' eyes filled with tears, "Don't leave me here alone! What about Mum and Dad, what will they say?"

A sad smile appeared on Sirius' face, "You know I don't want to, but if I stay any longer who knows what could happen? I'm not the person they want me to be, now the fact that I'm disowned will just be official. You'll be fine, you can't deny that they both adore you. You're the perfect son I'll never be and I'm fine with that. But I need to be in a place where I'm wanted and where I actually feel like a part of the family." Sirius got a lump in his throat, "You're the only one I'll miss."

"I want you to stay. I think you're part of the family."

"I know, and I appreciate it. I know you could never really understand what it's like when your parents don't want you, but, let me tell you, it sucks."

There was a silence between the two brothers.

"Will I ever see you again?" Regulus asked.

"Well, yeah. At school. There's just one problem with that." Sirius hesitated. "You can't be nice to me, at all, and I can't be nice to you. You know how many spies our parents have at that school, just to check if you, the perfect son, is still perfect. I will officially be a blood traitor and no longer part of the family. How do you think they will react to that?" he asked rhetorically.

The tears in Regulus' eyes spilled over, "Then we can't ever be real brothers again!"

"We'll always be brothers. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, especially your mum."

"My mum? She's our mum."

Sirius sighed, "Not any more."

Regulus stood and hugged his only brother for the last time. "You're the best brother I could ever have. I'll miss you. A lot."

"You, too. You're gonna die a hero someday, Reg." Sirius murmured.

"Do you really think so?"

"I know so."

Regulus smiled through his tears. It was a hard thing to win Sirius' respect, and he had finally done it.

"Just one thing." Sirius said.

Regulus looked at him, "What?"

"No Death Eaters." Sirius said sternly.

"I can live with that."

"Goodbye," Sirius said, tears unashamedly running down his face.

"For now," Regulus replied.

Sirius smiled. "For now," he repeated.

And with one last look at his brother, he walked back into the hall.

Grabbing his things, he headed to the door. "Goodbye," he murmured quietly before he stepped into the cold of the night.

---

When James Potter opened his front door, he was hardly surprised at all to find Sirius with a suitcase.

He offered a small smile, noticing the tear stains on his friend's face, "Took you long enough."

Sirius sighed, "I know."

"Now come on, Mum's had a room for you since the day she met your mother."

Sirius let a half-smile appear on his face, "Thanks."

James shrugged it off, "No problem. You're the closest thing I'll ever have to a brother and you have been since first year."

Sirius smiled, but with a hint of sadness.

When they got to Sirius' new room, James looked at him. "Was it hard?"

"Harder than I expected. Now there's no one to stop her from brainwashing Reg."

James sighed, "I'm not going to tell you that it's going to be okay, because it won't. At least for a while. What I'm going to tell you is that Regulus has always looked up to you and, if he's learned anything in the past fifteen years, he'll know what decisions are right for him because he knows what you would've wanted him to choose. He wants you to be proud of him."

Sirius smiled, but when he talked his voice was choked up, "I am proud of him, I just hope he knows that."

"He does. Maybe just subconsciously, but he knows."

"Thanks. For everything." Sirius said.

"Again, no problem at all. Now you need to get to sleep. No worrying, got it?" James said.

"I can't make any promises."

"I know, but just try." James said before going to the room directly next to Sirius'.

And when later in the night, James heard crying, he knew that Sirius wouldn't want him to do anything.

And he knew when it was better to just ignore what Sirius wanted.