99 chapters of AitF, 99 chapters to go! Post one up, read it below, 98 chapters to go!
Okay, I'll stop now.
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Of all the things he could have landed on, it had to be a bag of dead rats. Peter got to land beside him on the desk. Remus got to stumble over his own feat and smack into Frank Longbottom, James got to bash his head on the doorknob. But no, he got the bag of dead rats!
Which about summed up his whole life experience of still being in this house! And this room in particular. He plucked a tiny little bone from his hair and scowled at the blood in his pants and wondered what he'd done to deserve all this. His eyes landed on the book, propped against the wall at the very bottom of the tapestry. He sighed in resignation but hauled himself up to grab it, anything to hurry up the process of getting them out of here! When he picked it up however, it fell from his slack fingers in shock at what he saw.
He knew this ruddy tapestry as well as Hogwarts castle, it had been imprinted in his mind from youth. In his youngest years, his time-out punishment had consisted of standing in front of this wall until he could recite every name, top to bottom. He knew exactly which two circles the book had been blocking, or rather, used to be. He wasn't there anymore, instead a black smudge was left in its place. Regulus's was marked as complete, the year of death as visible as his shoes.
It was the most jarring thing he ever could have seen in his life, as if his head had actually split in two. He'd done it? Surely he'd been blasted from the tree for doing something that would finally get him free of this place, permanently. But, then Regulus had also done it. He'd stayed here, and died a part of here, and a part of him wilted with that knowledge, he and his brother really never could go back to anything resembling civil, let alone normal. A quick glimpse moving up showed his brother hadn't even outlasted his parents, both had lived for several more years. What Sirius had said in the future was irrevocably true, he was truly the last of his line.
"Sirius?"
He looked up in surprise to see his three friends had moved much closer than he would have expected. He opened, then closed his mouth, and couldn't think of anything to say, so instead wordlessly flipped open the book. The tree said it all anyways, there wasn't anything left for him to say. He didn't want to see their faces when they realized the same, what would be better? Praise, or condolences?
"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," he managed to say like a turd had replaced his tongue.
Regulus wasn't sure what had Sirius in such a stuffy mood in particular as he decided to read, this was definitely one of the better rooms in the house. At least the history of their family had always been one of the more fascinating lessons their father taught. The four of them were blocking his favorite part of the tree, probably intentional on his brother's part as he liked to pretend his circle wasn't even there most days, so Regulus instead went over to one of the cupboards and opened it curiously to see if anything there had changed.
He mostly ignored the book as Molly Weasley continued infantilizing the teenagers by thinking they'd go straight off to bed without talking. Instead he smiled in surprise to still see the old dusty bottle of the very first Sirius Black's blood, his brother's namesake. There was an odd locket he didn't recognize and briefly wondered who added that and why, as well as his mother's music box she often used to get herself to go to sleep. It worked wonders, as she wouldn't wake until someone shut it.
Harry and Ron ignored Molly's orders of course, but even when the twins arrived and hashed things out not much was said that couldn't have reasonably been worked out. Regulus was actually quite disappointed in this older version of Sirius, had his brother gone tame?
A part of Regulus, even having witnessed all these changes himself, could hardly imagine the house in such disrepair, and all these virtual strangers in here trying to change it. There was something almost violating in the way they were callously throwing things out that they had no right to, even with Sirius being a more than willing participant. He ran his fingers over the odd locket once more and shut the door back firmly, and locked it. At least nobody was doing it right now and he could still pretend all of this had some bearable answer in the end.
At least Kreacher was still there! He smiled in delight at the idea of his house-elf still the same after all this time, not everyone had to be horribly different or dead in this future. Despite the intriguing information coming from the book, Regulus really just wanted to know what had become of himself. Had his death had something to do with Kreacher's attitude - he'd hardly ever seen him act in this way toward anyone but Sirius, though Regulus supposed he wasn't surprised that this extended to blood traitors and dark creatures and...Muggle-borns.
Frank rubbed nervously at the back of his neck when he found himself next to Lily and Alice having a comfortable chat about house-elves, and what little they both knew of them really, only for Alice to give him a small little frown and not immediately acknowledge his arrival. He'd unconsciously put himself as far away from Lupin, and by subsequence everyone else in the room was now in between them.
He at least tried his best to downplay it by watching the book attentively, and getting the smallest of chuckles when the bag of dead rats was explained as Buckbeak's breakfast. The knowledge that said hippogriff was staying in his own mother's room at least seemed to cause said reader great mirth.
Regulus sighed in exhaustion as Sirius ended up leaning against the wall to support his weight he was laughing too hard. Mum really wasn't that bad! Strict, especially on him for sure, but this just felt uncalled for! Had Sirius ever tried to bother to understand why they had raised them the way they had? Maybe Dad and Mum just didn't know any better about all this, like he was still figuring out?
Yeah, and maybe those doxies will fly out of the curtain and sing carols instead, he scoffed at his childishly clinging mind. His parents did feel what they'd taught their boys was right and he knew it, but that still didn't give him any answers as to why he didn't. Yet he still didn't find what Sirius did funny, there had to be some elusive third path somewhere.
To his delight, Peter came over as a distraction and Regulus welcomed that with a grin. "Those twins are really taking off with this joke shop idea huh?"
"It's really impressive," Peter agreed, "I can't say I'd have done anything near as ambitious with all that gold."
"What would you do with it?" Regulus asked, as the idea only just occurred to him he'd no idea what to do with his family money himself.
"Don't know," Peter looked surprised at the question. "Experiment what I'd want to do with it I guess, blow it all before I even figure it out," he finished with a general enough shrug, but a slight grimace.
Regulus thought he was selling himself short, and would have said so, before the bag of dead rats was mentioned again by Molly sitting on it and Peter made the exact same face. He couldn't help but wonder for the first time how that must feel, to have some part of you be used as a punchline, and a dead one at that. He still didn't know much more than the basics of what being an animagus was like, but surely hearing of the dead animal you could turn into, especially like this, wasn't pleasant.
He was sadly deterred by Kreacher entering the scene. The state his house-elf was described in was so sad. His house-elf was supposed to be a reflection of his home, and yet his companion of so many years seemed to have sunk even farther than the old rotting floorboards. Kreacher certainly didn't mutter like some closed ward patient! And the very idea he had to sneak around their home amongst these strangers to salvage old things that he had far more of a right to just caused a pit in his stomach. Then he winced, for the first time in his life feeling shame at the word Mudblood as Kreacher said it so carelessly, and he watched the very one it affected in this room flinch so openly. He realized for the first time how he'd feel if someone called Peter that, let alone laughing at the word as he once had.
Sirius, neither his brother reading nor the one coming in to break all this up, helped nothing of course as he ordered their house-elf about without even acknowledging he had a name, as usual. Regulus found himself shuffling uncomfortably and trying not to look at the tapestry himself now, he didn't know how he felt about any of it anymore, it made his stomach hurt just thinking about this stuff. So it was to his very great surprise when he caught Sirius's awkward face, and similar shuffling gait as he shot Regulus a rather odd look and read much more softly than he was before, like he was hoping the others had stopped listening.
Which of course only made Regulus focus on him all the more. Since when did he care about saying his visceral feelings for all of this as loudly as possible, what did it matter if he was saying it to Harry and everyone around them? Then his heart did a funny little thump in his chest as he realized Sirius was trying to hide the wrong thing. Not his words, but his placement, of being blown off the tree?!
He rushed forward and immediately tried to shove Sirius out of the way to confirm such a thing, but Sirius stood his ground now, frowning down at Regulus. "Yeah, alright, it's true," he sighed, even as Regulus tried to bend down behind his legs, Sirius raised one boot up and placed it purposely against the wall.
"How!?" Regulus gasped, still pulling fruitlessly at his leg it seemed.
"How should I know, Kreacher isn't muttering the story yet obviously," Sirius rolled his eyes, for all the world sounding as blissful as ever for such an awful thought!
Yet, the shock wasn't really there. Regulus was looking to see it for himself, but not because he didn't believe Sirius. Mum had been threatening it for ages now, and he had no doubts she'd go through with it. Just, the idea it had really happened...
Yet the following passages didn't give much in the way of details. He was sixteen when it happened? So it was likely to be, this very summer then? The much, much older version of his brother lingered mostly on the Potters, and how they'd taken him in, and his disgust with the whole place, as if this hadn't still been his home for sixteen years, like he'd left nothing behind.
Sirius stopped reading there though with a look Regulus didn't understand. He almost did look, guilty? That wasn't quite right, but whatever his eyes were lingering on in the words to come he didn't seem to want to share. Regulus started tapping his foot impatiently and began to scoff at Sirius to stop being dramatic, surely he didn't need to linger on this that much, when he jolted in surprise at Peter putting a hand on his too tense shoulder. Potter had to give Sirius a nudge to get him to spit out the next words, and they still rang in the silent air.
Sirius finally shuffled out of the way, where the glaring black spot shone like a beacon next to Regulus's tiny little circle, earmarking his death. Regulus hadn't needed proof to believe that either.
It had certainly been hinted at in the previous chapter, but even before that, since the Dark Lord's resurrection in the graveyard Regulus had been getting a creeping sensation this was where his life was headed. He just hadn't realized it was, so soon, in four years.
Sirius started reading at lighting speed then, as if the burn of the words wouldn't linger if he rushed through it fast enough. He'd joined the Death Eaters, and his parents had been proud of him. He'd died, because he'd become a coward in the future as well, just much slower than it was starting now apparently. An idle part of him wondered what it was he hadn't been able to do that led to this. Had his parents still been proud when he couldn't murder a Muggle-born on orders? Unable to torture someone while Death Eaters around him laughed?
He wished he could vanish from sight, it felt like a spotlight was on him and he didn't know what any of them expected him to do for the first time in his life, he didn't know what he expected himself to do? Was there even a way out?
"Reggie?" Sirius made to close the book and reach a hand out, and Regulus let him. If anyone knew how this felt, it was definitely him. The two of them just stood there looking at each other for a long time, it all felt so inevitable.
Sirius seemed to be waiting for something, so Regulus finally said the only thing he could. "I don't want that."
"Yeah," Sirius managed a tiny little grin, "at least we can finally agree on something."
Regulus took an uneasy breath before pushing the book back into Sirius's line of sight and stepping out from under his hand, but staying just as close.
Sirius felt like he should maybe apologize, but he had no idea if this was going to last in Regulus. The kid was scared right now sure, but how long until he shook it off and the bravado came back, that he'd find what he did wrong and make it right with the Dark Lord? After all, Sirius had made more than one snide remark over the years Death Eaters didn't exactly have the best mortality rate and nobody in this house had acknowledged him then, but if this was actually the first step in his kid brother finally seeing what he did in all of this, he wasn't going to break off this new line of thought. Nothing else needed to be said for now at least.
Then Molly came and interrupted everything anyway.
Lily carded her fingers through her hair as she watched the whole exchange, for the first time really seeing the Godfather Sirius would become, the little fourteen-year-old kid Regulus Black really was. Even with all the in-depth looks at their home she'd been getting, it hadn't really sunk into her what a number this place had done on these two until now, but it also raised an unpleasant awareness.
Guilt, firstly, as she realized her earlier assumption had been wrong. There was no silver spoon in Sirius Black's mouth like there was in Potter's, he clearly detested this house with every word he spoke of it, and had in fact been banished from his own family for refusing to be like them.
Sev's home life was far from ideal as well, yet he'd seemingly run to the Death Eaters at school no matter how often she begged him to stay away. Regulus was already making the first steps at trying to draw out of such a thing by just saying otherwise, what would it take for her best friend to do the same?
The rest of the chapter went by without incident as Harry and crew cleaned up the house over the passing summer, and then it was the night before his hearing to determine his fate at school. With Dumbledore a no-show in any way, quite the contrary as he'd apparently made an appearance specifically while Harry was asleep.
Was it really possible Harry wouldn't go back to school this year? That he'd remain shut up in here with Sirius for who knew how long? Sirius could barely swallow around the lump in his throat at the idea as he announced the end of the chapter approaching.