Sirius sighed and pressed his chin deeper into his palm as he carelessly rolled another gobstone across the desk. He watched, absent-mindedly, as the little glass ball rolled away, knocked into the last ball he had rolled and was sent tumbling over the edge of the desk, rolling away across the wooden floor.
Across the room, Regulus sat cross-legged on his bed, a book open in his lap which he made little effort to pretend to read. Each time he tried to focus on the words on the page, the sound of the gobstones clattering to the floor, or of Sirius's restless foot-tapping against the floorboards distracted him from his attempts to absorb anything he read. He sighed and set his book aside. It was hopeless.
Both boys had been banished to their shared bedroom in disgrace by their furious mother for the afternoon's chaotic events and forbidden to leave for the rest of the day, with no supper for good measure.
Sirius had put up a surprising lack of resistance to their punishment. Regulus had expected his brother to put up one of his trademark loud scenes of protest and had braced himself for one of their mother's trademark furious shouting fits in response. But neither had come to pass. Sirius had merely glared a surly look down at the ground and shuffled upstairs to their bedroom as ordered, Regulus trailing along behind him.
Regulus didn't know what their father had said to Sirius before they'd arrived back at the house, but his elder brother had looked uncharacteristically cowed as the pair entered the parlour where Regulus had been in the process of being thoroughly inspected by their mother for signs of dirt or damage to his clothes, both of which he was mercifully devoid of, thanks to his father's thoughtful order for Kreacher to clean him up before taking him to her.
Glancing up at Sirius, Regulus observed that his brother was looking much cleaner than he had before. No doubt he too had been given the once over with a cleaning charm. And a good thing, too. Mother would be angry enough once she was told of their misdemeanors with the crups, without adding their dishevelled state of dress to the mix.
Hours later, as the pale evening sunshine flooded through their bedroom window, the two boys sat in tense silence, each having withdrawn to their own means of attempting to make the hours standing between them and their release the following morning pass as quickly as possible.
Regulus glanced across the room to where Sirius sat at the desk, slouched over with his back to him, in a full-blown sulk.
The younger boy always hated it when his elder brother was in a sulk, but it was ten times worse when he was in a sulk with him. He'd known Sirius would be angry with him for not helping him chase after the runaway crups, but he just couldn't help it. Regulus didn't want to admit it, for fear of being teased, but the crups rather scared him, with their snapping teeth and sharp little claws that scraped against his clothes, threatening to mark or rip the material. He had no idea what it was about the vicious little creatures that so appealed to Sirius.
And so, when the family of dogs had come charging towards him, he'd hidden from them - cowered behind the flung-open door of the shed and stayed crouched there, hidden away in that exact same spot until Kreacher had found him there, what felt like hours later.
The price Regulus had paid for his safety was his brother's good mood.
Sirius could be particularly unpleasant to be around when he was in a sulk about something.
"Sirius?" Regulus called, hesitantly as his brother rolled another gobstone across the desk, sending it hurtling down onto the floor.
His brother did not reply.
"Sirius-"
"What?"
Regulus flinched at Sirius's snappy tone as the elder boy twisted round in his chair, his sharp, grey eyes glaring daggers at him.
He bit his lip nervously.
"I was… just going to say, if you want to play gobstones, I'll play with you?"
"I don't want to play gobstones," Sirius muttered, turning back around and slouched over the desk again.
The sound of yet another of the little glass balls being flicked across the desk and sliding onto the floor filled the tense silence between them.
"Or… exploding snap, perhaps?" Regulus tried again, shyly.
"No, Reg" Sirius grumbled back.
"Or we could-"
"Will you just give it a rest?"
Regulus swallowed hard, trying not to let his brother's irritation get to him.
"I was only wondering if you wanted to do something to pass the time" he mumbled, staring down at the bedclothes.
"Well I don't" Sirius grumbled, slouching over the desk and laying his head down in his arms.
He glared through the window at the meadow below, the long grass bathed in the golden glow of the warm, evening sun. The paradise from which they had been banished for the rest of the day. "So don't bother asking"
A moment of deafeningly loud silence passed between the two boys. Regulus couldn't help it. He had to try one more time.
"Sirius-"
"What?!"
The look the elder boy shot at Regulus from the desk was sharp and cold.
Sirius's persistent rudeness at last grated at Regulus, stirring within him the courage to finally speak up properly.
"Why are you angry with me?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Sirius glared at his little brother.
"What sort of a stupid question is that?" the elder boy snapped harshly. "You didn't even try to help me catch those crups! You just hid, like a pathetic little scaredy-cat, and left me to it!"
"I'm sorry, Sirius" Regulus mumbled, looking down at the bed, miserably. He fiddled with a loose piece of gold thread on the embroidery on the covers. "I- I couldn't help it. They scared me"
"They scared you?" Sirius laughed unkindly. He spun round in his chair and faced his brother head on. "Don't be so wet, Reg, they're only little dogs! They wouldn't hurt you, you're a wizard, not a muggle. And if you'd had just a crumb of bravery and helped me, we might have stood a chance at catching them before Papa and the others found us. And then, perhaps we might not be in this mess at all"
Regulus felt a familiar stinging sensation in his eyes, the same feeling that always seemed to materialise when his brother was angry with him.
"I couldn't help it," he murmured, quickly wiping his sleeve over his eyes to clear away the tears brimming within them. "I do try, really, but I just… can't seem to be as brave as you. I'm sorry"
He let out a choked sniff, one which he had tried and failed to hold back.
Sirius sighed and rolled his eyes. It was just like his soft little brother to turn on the waterworks at the slightest critique. Merlin only knew how many times Regulus had been reduced to tears. They could be brought on by anything - from being given a bad mark by their tutor on a subject he struggled with to one of their grandfather's many scathing remarks, much to the old man's annoyance.
But whereas Regulus's tears would only frustrate and annoy Arcturus further, Sirius could never bring himself to remain angry with his little brother when he was in such a state. Try as he might, sometimes.
"Look, just- Forget it, alright?" Sirius waved a hand in the air dismissively. "It's done now. It doesn't matter anymore"
He turned his back to Regulus once more, slumping back across the desk with a deep sigh.
As if the tense silence between him and his brother was not irritating enough, Sirius groaned as the rich smells of the adults' dinner began to waft through from the dining room downstairs, making his stomach growl hungrily, as it did each night. But, whereas usually his hunger would at least be satiated by whatever comparatively-dull fare their mother had seen fit to order to be brought up to them, tonight there would be no such relief.
Sirius sank his head deeper into his arms, burying his nose in his sleeve in an attempt to block out the rich aroma of roast beef in mushroom sauce that invaded his nostrils and cruelly teased his empty stomach. In that moment, he would happily take even horrid, plain, boiled mutton over the prospect of nothing at all to eat until breakfast.
Perhaps, if he closed his eyes and attempted to will himself to sleep to block out the scent-
"I'm hungry"
Regulus's small voice was heavy with misery.
Sirius glanced over his shoulder to see his brother slumped forward - a rare sight. Regulus was rarely one to allow himself to fall into a state of poor posture. The younger boy's eyes stared miserably down at the bed, one arm draped over his middle as if in an attempt to comfort his protesting stomach. He looked absolutely pathetic.
Sirius sighed. He never could bring himself to turn a blind eye when Regulus was in such a state.
"We'll give it another hour or so," he said. "By then they should all have moved to the drawing room. It'll be safe then"
Regulus lifted his head and stared questioningly up at Sirius.
"What for?" he asked, cocking his head to one side curiously, bearing a remarkable resemblance to the cruppies he so disliked.
"What do you think?" Sirius rolled his eyes. To sneak down to the kitchens to swipe some food, of course"
Regulus's eyes widened in alarm at the thought.
"We can't do that, Sirius!" he said in a hushed tone, glancing anxiously at the bedroom door as if their mother might be listening in right this minute.
Which, in all likelihood, was not an outlandish possibility. Walburga Black was not a woman who believed in privacy when it came to her children.
"Of course we can," said Sirius. "We'll take the servants' passageway, no one ever goes down there"
"Except the house elves"
"Nah, not at that time of night" Sirius shrugged dismissively. "They'll all be too busy down in the kitchens, cleaning up after the dinner. And besides, they won't mind. They like us. And we can always just order them to say they never saw us if anyone asks them"
He didn't say as much, but Regulus found the idea of the house elves lying to their parents, or worse, their grandfather, on the orders of two young boys highly doubtful. The elves were indeed fond of them, but fondness would only go so far in the face of sworn loyalty to their masters.
"I still don't know…"
"Oh come on, Reg! It'll be easy! The adults will be in the drawing room until late, and we'll only be gone for a few minutes. They'll never know a thing about it!" Sirius arched an eyebrow questioningly at his brother. "Or aren't you hungry after all?"
Regulus grimaced as his stomach gave another loud growl, as though it were answering Sirius's question for itself. His brother was right - he was hungry, and the thought of having to wait until breakfast for their next meal was not a pleasant one in the slightest.
And besides, he reasoned with himself, Sirius was already in a huff with him for today. He didn't relish the prospect of worsening his brother's mood with another failure to show so much as an ounce of bravery.
"Alright," he said, reluctantly. "We'll do it"
The change in Sirius was instant. His brother's scrutinising frown immediately widened into a Cheshire cat grin, his grey eyes bright and twinkling with excited anticipation.
"Brilliant!" said Sirius gleefully, jumping to his feet and bounding across the room to throw himself down on his brother's bed. "We'll have a feast tonight, Reg, you'll see"
Regulus had to admit, the prospect of a late-night bedroom picnic was a rather exciting one, even if the thought of journeying down to the kitchens to get it still filled his empty stomach with nervous butterflies.
"Now, since we've got time to kill…"
Sirius leaned over to the bedside table and pulled out a deck of cards from the drawer. He held them out to his brother with a grin.
"Exploding snap?"
Regulus couldn't help but smile back as he nodded.
He breathed an inner sigh of relief as Sirius began to spread out the cards, relieved that his elder brother was in a good mood once more.
Many games of cards later, long after the rich scents of dinner had drifted away, Sirius glanced across the room out of the window, where the sun was finally beginning to set over the horizon.
"It must have been long enough by now…" he said, gathering up his cards.
Regulus felt his already-aching stomach give a painful jolt as he watched Sirius leap up and run to grab their dressing gowns, hanging on their hooks on the back of the door.
The time had come at last. Oh no.
"Come on, Reg" said Sirius as he shrugged on his dressing gown. "Let's go!"
He tossed his brother's gown over to him.
"Are you really sure about this, Sirius?" Regulus asked hesitantly as he fumbled with the tie of his gown. "Suppose we get caught? We'll be in such awful trouble…"
"We won't, Reg" Sirius said firmly with a roll of his eyes. "Just trust me, alright? I told you, no one ever goes down the servants' passageway at this time. I've done it before"
Regulus stared, open-mouthed.
"When?!"
"Last night, of course. I told you, I went to get the leftover duck for the crups, remember? How did you think I got down there?"
In truth, Regulus had been far too busy wishing his brother would leave the snappy little beasts alone to consider the details of exactly how he had managed to procure the bits of meat in the first place. But it seemed he was about to discover them now - in far greater detail than he desired.
"Right, let's go"
Sirius attempted to ease the bedroom door open, but to his dismay, he found that the handle would not budge.
"Oh drat, it's locked" he huffed frustratedly.
"Oh no…" Regulus couldn't decide whether to be disappointed or relieved. It seemed he would be spared the dangerous escapade after all. But on the other hand, he was still hungry…
"I can unlock it," said Sirius firmly, narrowing his eyes at the brass handle as though he were about to challenge it to a duel.
"Can you really do that trick again?" Regulus recalled how Sirius had unlocked the cruppies' shed earlier that afternoon. His brother's command of his immature magic truly was impressive, even if his success meant that he wouldn't be escaping the dreaded journey downstairs - assuming Sirius could indeed pull it off again.
"Of course I can," Sirius replied, his tone indignant at his brother's lack of faith in his abilities. Privately, however, his heart pounded hard at the thought of failing in his endeavor. He couldn't fail. He'd done it before, hadn't he? Why shouldn't he be able to do it again now?
Sirius grasped the door handle tight in his hand, squeezing his eyes shut and taking a deep breath as he focused hard on summoning his wild, untamed magic. His powers resisted his command, buzzing about chaotically, childishly refusing to obey. But Sirius persisted, focusing harder still.
A sudden, sharp pain shot through his head, right behind his eyes. Sirius gasped and let go of the handle, his concentration broken. He felt his magic slip out of his feeble grip, disappearing into obscurity within him, like pebbles disappearing out of sight into deep water.
"Are you alright, Sirius?"
Regulus's wide eyes were full of concern. It irritated Sirius.
"I'm fine," he said, blinking hard as the pain subsided. "I can do it. Just- Don't look so hard, it puts me off"
"Um, okay. Sorry"
Regulus took a small step backwards and stared down at the floor. He was not quite sure how to not look so hard at someone, and so settled for simply not looking at all.
Sirius took another deep, determined breath and gripped the door handle again. Once more, he focused all of his energy towards summoning his magic, willing it to do as he bade. He felt the power within him rising up like an ocean wave, the dull, throbbing pain beginning to build behind his eyes once more. And just at the very moment in which he felt as though the magic might overpower him, there was a subtle clicking sound. Sirius opened his eyes and grinned triumphantly as the door handle submitted to his attempt to open it.
"There - you see?" he said proudly to his awestruck little brother. "Told you I could do it. Now, come on, let's go. We'll want to get to the kitchens before the elves decide to throw away any of the good stuff"
As Sirius carefully eased the bedroom door open, Regulus took a deep, encouraging breath and followed his brother out into the corridor.
The two boys tiptoed slowly along the thickly-carpeted corridor, Sirius leading the way, Regulus anxiously glancing behind him every few moments as though their mother might suddenly appear at any moment. He scarcely noticed they had reached the door to the servants' passageway until he bumped into Sirius's back, still staring behind him.
"Watch it, Reg!" Sirius whispered sharply with a glare.
"Sorry!" Regulus squeaked back.
"She's not going to find us" said Sirius, reading his brother's anxious face like a book. "She'll be downstairs in the drawing room with the others, like I said. Now, come on-"
Sirius eased open the shabby-looking door, wincing when the hinges creaked as it opened. He quickly shoved his hesitant brother into the dark corridor and closed them in.
"Why is it so… dreary?" Regulus asked nervously as they journeyed down the dimly-lit hallway. The floor was a plain, hard stone, the walls lacking in the rich wallpaper he was used to being surrounded by within the grand halls of Noire House. He shivered slightly at the cool draft in the air.
"Because the Muggles who used to own the house years ago didn't see any point in making the servants' areas as nice as their own" Sirius explained, his voice echoing along with their footsteps in the stone passage. "Makes sense, I suppose. I doubt the house elves care much, anyway"
The corridor's dark, drab corridor had a definite air of misery about it. Regulus privately thought to himself that he would certainly mind having to inhabit such creepy corridors every day, if he were a house elf.
As nervous as he felt, and as unpleasant as the servants' passageway was, Regulus couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of excitement sparking inside him at the thought of exploring parts of his grandfather's house that he had never seen before. What interesting discoveries one could make, if only for a bit of courage.
At the far end of the corridor, there sat a narrow, winding staircase with a rusting iron bannister winding downwards through the floors of the house. The faint sound of clattering pots echoed up towards them. Regulus realised that this must be the way down to the kitchens.
The two boys tiptoed down slowly, passing an identically plain passageway on the landing of each floor of the house, stepping lightly so that their footsteps would not echo through the floors. As the bottom of the stairs finally approached, the wondrous smells of cooked food saturated the air around them.
"Mmm!" Regulus couldn't help but sigh longingly as they reached the bottom of the stairs, arriving in the back corner of the basement kitchen.
The kitchens were warm - almost uncomfortably warm in the stifling heat of the still-hot ovens. The air was damp and heavy with steam, almost fog-like in its thickness. A large team of house elves hurried about carrying pots and pans, tall stacks of plates and platters of leftover food balanced in their spindly arms, freshly brought down from the dining room above.
They hadn't yet seemed to have noticed the two young wizards lurking in the corner by the stairs.
Regulus gasped as a sudden thought struck him at the sight of the elves.
"Sirius, what about Kreacher?" Regulus looked up at his brother, wide-eyed with worry. Their own family house elf always joined the throng of house elves at Noire House in their daily tasks during their holidays - suppose he should spot them down here and run to tell their mother?
"Don't worry, he always goes to turn down and warm the beds upstairs around this time" Sirius said dismissively. "Mama insists on him doing it every evening. She thinks he's the only elf who can do the job just right"
The elder boy nodded towards the far end of the kitchen.
"Come on, I know just the elf we need"
Regulus's instinct was to creep meekly across the vast kitchen, keeping well out of the way of the busy house elves who's territory they had so rudely invaded. By stark contrast, Sirius stood proud and upright with his head held high and marched across the floor with an air of authority suited to a boy who knew that this house and all within it would be his one day - and perhaps hadn't quite yet grasped the fact that there were still many more years to go before he actually inherited any such authority.
He walked up to a house elf busy loading stacks of clean plates into a cupboard and cleared his throat loudly, in a way which Regulus supposed Sirius intended to make him sound commanding, but which sounded more like he was in dire need of a cough drop.
The house elf's large, floppy ear twitched at the sound and he turned to face the two boys. Regulus recognised him as Swifty, the appointed leader of their grandfather's troupe of house elves and aptly named for his reputation for ensuring swift completion of ordered tasks.
"Master Sirius is back again" the elf squeaked curiously, giving a very slight bow - respectful, but nowhere near as deep as he almost certainly would have had the wizards before him had been adult members of the family. "Is his dinner not enough for him for a second night?"
"It's far worse than that, Swifty," said Sirius. "We didn't get any dinner at all, today"
The elf's orb-like eyes widened.
"Nothing at all?"
The elf's eyes narrowed again in bemused suspicion.
"Swifty wonders what the young master has done to deserve no dinner…"
"Nothing!" Sirius shot back, indignant. He paused. "Well, not much, anyway. Nothing bad enough to deserve to starve until morning, at least. And Reg here certainly didn't"
Regulus suddenly found himself being pulled forwards by his robe sleeve to stand beside Sirius.
"My poor brother here has been grumbling non-stop about how hungry he is. It was too awful to think of him having to starve all night until breakfast" said Sirius with a shake of his head, as though recounting a tragic tale.
Regulus furrowed his brow up at his brother, slightly annoyed. He hadn't complained that much, surely. Sirius was clearly attempting to play up their suffering in an effort to earn the sympathy of their grandfather's servants. Surely it wouldn't work. If Arcturus found out-
"The poor young masters, left with nothing until breakfast…" The elf shook his head sadly, his bat-like ears flapping comically. "Swifty will see what he can find…"
The elf padded off towards the storeroom, his bare feet pattering against the stone floor.
"Why is he so willing to help us?" Regulus asked. "Suppose Grandfather finds out he gave us food when Mama said we weren't to have any?"
Sirius shrugged.
"He knows an unjust decision when he sees one, I suppose" he said, vaguely.
Regulus wasn't fooled. The true answer, he knew deep down, was that Sirius could be terribly convincing with his stories and his natural charm, in a way which Regulus had never mastered. He had charmed many a bemused witch or wizard into giving him an extra sweet, with a hair ruffle thrown in for good measure - a lowly house elf was an easy target.
A few minutes later, Swifty returned, carrying a cloth bag which sagged under the weight of the food inside it.
"Thanks, Swifty!" Sirius grinned as he examined the contents of the bag.
Craning his neck to peer inside, Regulus could make out a full loaf of bread with a small pot of butter, a container of leftover cuts of meat and vegetables from the evening's dinner as well as several slices of leftover cake and a small parcel of cheese and crackers. The sight of the food sent his stomach growling anew in excitement at the thought of their feast.
"Master Sirius must be careful not to be caught by the Master" urged the elf as he handed over the bag, his ears folded back anxiously. "Swifty does not wish to have to press his fingers with the hot iron - it slows him down in his work"
Regulus winced at the thought.
"Don't worry, he won't find out," said Sirius with a mischievous smirk. "It'll all be eaten before any of them know a thing about it"
The elf gave both boys a fond smile and another slight bow before turning away to continue with his plate-stacking.
"Come on, let's go" Sirius pulled on Regulus's sleeve, leading him across the vast kitchen. "We'll go another way back up to our room - there's another old servants' corridor, over there," Sirius pointed to the far end of the kitchen. "That one's brilliant fun, you'll see!"
Years of experience had taught Regulus to be hesitant before agreeing on what his brother defined as "brilliant fun", but with the thought of their delicious-smelling picnic dinner in mind, he cheerfully followed his brother towards another winding staircase which led up through the levels of the house.
The two boys climbed the winding staircase, climbing further away from the kitchens below, the air becoming fresher, cooler and less steamy as they went. Regulus glanced back down at the kitchen one last time before it disappeared from view, still half-expecting Kreacher to appear and spot them, ready to go running off to inform their mother of their late-night adventure.
As they reached the top of the staircase, Regulus felt a sense of disappointment at what he saw. This corridor looked hardly any different to the servants' corridor they had journeyed to the kitchen through. The same drab, undecorated walls, the same cold, stone floor, the same eerie, unpleasant feeling.
"What's so special about this corridor, Sirius?" he asked.
"These, of course!"
Sirius dashed a little way along the corridor and crouched down on the stone floor beside a smal, rectangular hole at the bottom of the wall, covered by a brass covering with thin slats across it. Glancing further down the corridor, Regulus could see several similar little holes dotted along the walls.
"What are they?" Regulus asked, confused.
"I'm not too sure…" Sirius admitted. "But come over here and you'll see what I mean"
Sirius gestured for Regulus to join him on the floor.
Regulus crouched down and peered through the little metal slats. He was confused at first, staring into the empty blackness behind the hole. But suddenly, faint, echoing voices began to fill his ears.
"...significantly lower yield than last year. Most disappointing. I blame the warm winter"
"Oh I don't know, I'd say we've still topped the haul of '63's hunt"
"Ha! I'd hardly call that a great achievement"
Regulus gasped as he recognised the voices of his two grandfathers and lurched back from the hole, falling backwards onto the floor.
"What is that thing?!" he asked, alarmed.
"I told you, I don't really know what it is," said Sirius, still grinning excitedly in spite of his brother's obvious fear. "But it seems to be a small tunnel of some sort, behind the wall, and you can hear the voices of people in other rooms through it! Isn't it thrilling?"
To Regulus, the thought of voices travelling through a strange tunnel in a wall rather than through the far more logical means of a Floo seemed far too odd to be thrilling.
Sirius, on the other hand, clearly was not phased by the unusualness of the concept. To Regulus's horror, his brother had taken his place crouched directly in front of the hole and had his ear eagerly pressed to the metal slats.
"Sirius! You shouldn't do that"
"Oh let up, Reg" Sirius snapped."It's fun! Don't you want to hear what they talk about when we're not there?"
"Not really…"
It baffled Regulus as to why his brother was so keen to listen in on their family's conversations. Surely if they talked about anything worthy of their attention, they would say it in front of them?
"Well fine, suit yourself, spoilsport" Sirius snapped, fixing his brother with a dismissive scowl before turning back to the metal cover. "You'll just have to wait until I'm done, then. I want to listen"
He turned his attention back to the hole, focusing on trying to make out the echoing voices.
"...a shame your wife was unable to join us, Pollux"
Sirius's nose wrinkled as the gruff voice of Arcturus Black filled his ear.
"Indeed. Such a pity, she came down with a summer chill right before we were due to leave. Irma did wonder about coming along regardless but I warned against it - Flooing in such a fragile state. It didn't seem wise"
"Perhaps you and Mama ought to come and stay at Grimmauld Place for a few days, Papa? Once she is recovered"
Even here, safely hidden out of sight in a different part of the house, Sirius felt a jolt of nerves strike deep in the pit of his stomach at the sound of his mother's voice, which carried through the tunnel as strongly as if she were right around the corner, waiting to catch them…
"Oh yes, she would so enjoy that - your mother was so disappointed to have missed out on seeing the boys during this trip"
"Bah! She's hardly missed much in that respect! With the way those two have behaved, your wife is better off to have spared herself the displeasure of witnessing it"
Sirius scowled at the blackness through the brass slats. He wanted to stick out his tongue and will the gesture to somehow find its way to his spiteful old grandfather down in the drawing room.
"Oh come now, Arcturus, the boys didn't mean any real harm"
Sirius smiled at the sound of his uncle Alphard's voice.
"It was an accident, after all"
"Yes, it was" Sirius whispered triumphantly. "So stick that, Arcturus"
"Sirius, be quiet!" Regulus whispered back anxiously. "Suppose they can hear you the same way you can hear them?"
"Not from whispering, surely" Sirius shot back - but his confidence faltered, all the same. After all, he didn't know for certain that the adults couldn't hear him. And he was already in enough trouble for one day.
"Please can we go back to the bedroom now?" Regulus asked anxiously.
"Not yet, Reg" Sirius hissed, turning away from his brother and back to the adults' conversation.
"...an absolute disgrace! It's high time that boy was taught a proper lesson. He's spoiled, Orion, that's what he is. Goes about making trouble because he knows he won't get a decent thrashing for it!"
"Sirius is still young, cousin, he'll settle down soon enough"
"Indeed. Anyway, he'll be off to school soon enough, that ought to straighten him out"
Even when his voice was a vague echo through a tunnel in a wall, Sirius could still clearly detect the hint of sly satisfaction in his uncle Cygnus's voice.
"Hmph! I wouldn't be so certain. That insolent whelp thrives on causing mischief. It's a nasty habit, should have been beaten out of him years ago. Why else would he see fit to let loose my crups?"
"Sirius-"
"Be quiet, Reg!" Sirius whirled around, away from the brass grate and rounded on his brother, his irritation towards the remarks he'd heard about himself quickly being overtaken by annoyance at his brother's pestering. "You've waited this long for food, you can wait five minutes longer"
"It's not that" Regulus's stomach gave a defiant, audible grumble. "I just don't want us to get caught"
Sirius sighed.
"Why do you always have to be such a scaredy-cat? No one is going to catch us - and besides, they're talking about us. We've a right to know what they're saying about us. Now, be quiet and let me listen, if you're not going to yourself"
Sirius pressed his ear back to the grate.
"...seems to have taken rather a shine to the crups, Father" Sirius's ears pricked up at the sound of his father's voice, listening keenly to his input. "He mentioned one in particular, one of the pups. The one with the black and white tail"
A grin spread across Sirius's face. Papa had remembered what he'd said about his favourite cruppie! Perhaps he could persuade Arcturus…
"A black and white tail, you say?"
A loud huff followed, a clear sign that Sirius's grandfather was surely shaking his head in disappointment - the same way he always did when Regulus stuttered the answer to his questions.
"Well now, that won't do, that won't do at all. A crup's tail must be white-tipped on both sides. Anything less is a disqualifying breed fault. The whelp will have to be dealt with"
Sirius felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Dealt with, Father?"
"Drowned, of course, boy. Best to get it done with soon, whilst it's still too small to put up much of a struggle"
Sirius gasped, clapping his hand over his mouth as the noise echoed back on him slightly. His heart pounded heavily with panic, and he wasn't sure whether it was from the threat of having been heard listening or the fate of his favourite cruppie.
Thankfully, the adults seemed too caught by Arcturus's bold statement to listen for the faint giveaway sounds of eavesdroppers.
"Merlin's beard, cousin, is that really necessary?"
Pollux's voice sounded disapproving.
"Of course it is! You think I'll have my bloodline ruined with some mis-marked runt? Certainly not. Besides, it will never be able to show, not with a tail like that. And I'm not wasting good gold on feeding it for a year before finding out whether it's a decent hunter or not. No, it's best gotten rid of now. I'll get onto Stokes about it tomorrow. You know, I've a good mind to dismiss that old half-blood - he ought to have informed me of this sooner. But then, I've suspected his sight has been going for a while now. He's been getting sloppy - one suspects he failed to notice the runt at all"
"Or he just hasn't much taste for killing pups, perhaps"
"Don't you think of getting sentimental over it, Alphard. There's no room for it in pedigree breeding. The whelp a stain on my champion bloodline and I won't have it. It's a good thing you told me, Orion"
"Sirius? Are you alright?"
Sirius was breathing heavily, his arms trembling as the panic rose within him. Arcturus was going to kill his crup!
He shakily got to his feet.
"Come on, Reg" he said quietly.
"But I thought you wanted-"
"I said come on!"
Regulus clambered to his feet and hurried after his brother, clutching the bag of food which contained their picnic dinner.
Judging by the stormy look on his brother's face during their silent journey back to their bedroom, Regulus doubted miserably that their late-night feast would be quite as enjoyable as it might otherwise have been.
"What's wrong, Sirius?" Regulus asked the moment they were safely back inside their room once more. "What did you hear?"
"Grandfather is going to kill my cruppie!"
Regulus's face paled in horror.
"No, surely not! You must have heard wrong"
"No, I didn't!"
Regulus winced at the sharpness of his brother's voice.
"I heard it all - he called it… a- 'a stain on his bloodline'. He said he's going to have the old half-blood drown him - just one of his tail tips is black and not white like the other"
Sirius paced the length of the room restlessly, his face wrought with upset.
"Just imagine! He's going to kill that poor pup just because of a tiny detail like that! Just because he isn't as perfect as the others…"
The thought filled Regulus with sadness.
"How beastly," he murmured.
"We can't let it happen" Sirius's voice was hard with determination. "We have to save the cruppie, first thing tomorrow!"
Regulus's eyes widened.
"W-what?"
"We're going to save the cruppie before old Arcturus gets to him" Sirius clenched his fists hard. "We just have to-"
"We can't do that, Sirius"
There was a moment of silence between the two boys which seemed to last an age before Sirius, his eyes narrowed down at his brother, finally spoke.
"What do you mean, we can't do that?" he demanded. "Of course we can!"
"But we can't" Regulus felt his confidence waning, as it often did when he dared to disagree with his brother on an issue he was so sure on. "Papa and Mama told us we weren't to go near the crups again. We'll be in even worse trouble than we are now"
Sirius let out a noise somewhere between a frustrated huff and a growl.
"Don't you ever think of anything other than the risk of getting into trouble, Reg?" he asked, rounding on his brother. "That poor cruppie is going to die if we don't save it!"
"But it's stealing, Sirius" Regulus's voice quivered under the weight of his brother's gaze. "Stealing from Grandfather! He'll be so cross with us..."
The boy's voice tapered off at the thought of their grandfather's fits of anger at their misdeeds.
Sirius let out a dramatic sigh and rolled his eyes.
"Merlin, Reg, you have got to stop being so scared of Grandfather! You're not a baby anymore, you need to learn to be brave! It only makes him angrier when he knows you're scared of him. And besides - it is not stealing. Grandfather doesn't want the cruppie anyway, so it doesn't count"
Regulus wasn't convinced. He'd often allowed himself to be talked into Sirius's grand schemes and adventures - hadn't they just returned from one? But this went far beyond anything they had done before. This was a crime which would surely see them finally given the "damn good thrashing" that Grandfather so often said they deserved.
"I don't know, Sirius" Regulus's voice was quiet, unsure. "I just- I think it's going too far"
Sirius's grey eyes were alight with anger. Regulus looked down, unable to meet their fiery gaze.
"Fine" Sirius seethed, his hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles whitened. "I'll save my crup's life by myself, then"
The elder boy turned away and marched over to his bed, throwing himself into it and pulling the covers right over his head.
"But- what about our dinner?" Regulus called tentatively. The bag of food weighed down heavily in his grip.
"I'll wait 'til breakfast" Sirius shot back coldly, the covers doing little to muffle the venom in his voice. "I don't share meals with cowards"
Regulus felt wretched. He quickly wiped away the tears of shame stinging in his eyes with his free hand, the bag of food in his other hand suddenly feeling far too heavy. He set it down on the floor and stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do. Part of him wanted to crawl into his own bed and hide under his own covers, where he might safely let his sobs run freely.
But, as his stomach reminded him as he glanced down at the bag of food, he was still hungry. And breakfast was still so far away.
Moving slowly so as to avoid making the slightest noise which might rouse Sirius, Regulus sat himself down on the bedroom floor and fished out the loaf of bread from inside the bag. He tore off a chunk, anxiously glancing up at his brother's bed at the noise, and began to nibble on it, without even troubling to butter it first. It wasn't much - just enough to keep his stomach's grumbling at bay until breakfast. He didn't dare unpack any more of the food, for fear of the noise giving his brother any further reason to snap at him.
His meagre picnic dinner complete, Regulus placed the rest of the bread back inside the bag and slid it under his bed and out of sight before climbing into his own bed and falling into a miserable sleep.