Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All the characters belong to J. along with settings, objects and anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series.

ENJOY! And please review.

I wrote this in about 30 minutes while half asleep. Sirus is 16/17 and in his sixth year at Hogwarts.

*Updated*

That Little Bit Braver

A single tear ran down the handsome boys face, half hidden by the dark mess of hair that fell forward as he hung his head in grief. He sat alone on his four poster bed in his dormitory, the dark red hangings decorated with gold thread and mess of red and black robes across the floor showed that he was a Gryffindor despite his clear Slytherin demur.

In his hand was a photo stained by the salty tears that dripped off his pale cheeks. The two handsome dark haired boys looked up at him hugging and laughing without a care in the world - they were young, the eldest of the two in picture not even 9 years of age. If only they could have stayed like that. If only they could be forever just eight and seven. But who was going to tell them what the later years will bring? Who will tell them what price they will have to pay to follow their their hearts and be true to themseves?

Who is going to tell them that one will lose his family and the other his life?

Would you?

But then again, they will gain things in return won't they?

A new family for one; a brother and a strong friendship that can never be broken, not even by death.

And the other?

Perhaps the knowledge that he was more like his elder brother than he realised - that he too could break from the rules and regulations.

But to gain what?

An eternity in the freezing water of a cave surrounded by the dead?

The boy wiped his face with the back of his hand and slipped the photo back under his pillow before lying back and resting his head on said pillow. It was so soft, so warm and comforting but nothing could block out what he knew. What he had seen.

He looked up at the canopy of his bed, his eyes stinging with tears. He wouldn't cry anymore, he had to be brave, he was Gryffindor. But he couldn't help but cry, not after seeing th-that... the black ink drawn on his brother's skin; the skull and the snake. It had scared him, it made him shake even now at the mere thought. It wasn't right that someone could hand their life over on a plate to another so easily. Regulus was so young, too young. But already he was gone - lost.

Guilt flowed through Sirius' body like wave of sickness and he had to hold his breath and concentrate very hard from actually being sick. It was his fault wasn't it? No matter how much he tried to blame it on his mother; on Bellatrix. It would always really be his fault; wouldn't it? He was the elder brother; he was the one that should have been there for Regulus, he was the one that should have supported him and guided him though everything. Not Bellatrix, not his mother. He could have saved him.

He should have saved him.

Sirius sighed and blinked away his tears, his head aching with painful thoughts. Thoughts of what he could have done to save Regulus from this terrible fate, how he could have made him realise the truth. How he could have made Regulus, like Andromeda, rebel against the ideas of those sorted into Slytherin. He could have been freed.

But Sirius hadn't been brave enough to return.

If only he'd been little bit braver...

Thank you for reading.

Just to classify, I mean that Sirius wasn't brave enough to return back to Grimmauld Place to try rescue Regulus.

Please review. It's not hard. All you have to do is press the little 'GO' button on the left hand side of your screen and the type. Clever eh?

GryffindorAtHeart