Chapter 1
Warning: The characters may seem OOC. No hate comments about that please. Also, I don't have a beta.
Their eyes stopped at Sirius for a few moments, then flew Regulus. Without a word, his mother moved towards him and pointing her wand on his hurt leg, started muttering spells. Sirius bowed to his father whose eyes widened in surprise but he managed to compose himself and inclined his head in acknowledgement and stood beside him.
Sirius magically lighted the fire and the pair of father and son watched as the wound on Regulus' leg began healing and when it was almost healed, she took out a potion bottle from her robe. She applied the green paste on wound, Regulus hissed, "That hurts".
"You should have thought of that before galivanting off", his mother snapped, and Regulus audibly snapped his mouth shut, but started wrapping a bandage with gentler hands.
Sirius felt like snickering, it was just like when they hurt themselves as children but managed to hold it in. His mother was now muttering some incantations leading to Regulus being surrounded in lights that was gradually changing colour from a darker hue to golden.
"Did you give him a bezoar?", his father asked speaking for the first time.
"Yes", Sirius replied.
"One of your better decisions", his father said coolly.
"You'll say the same about my other decisions as well if I told you. You see the result of yours, don't you?", he gestured towards Regulus.
His father's lips thinned into a line and his jaw tensed. For any other person the expression could be said to be a mild one but for his father, that was the most you could get, Sirius knew this and understood that his father was doing some major thinking about their stance. Orion Black was known for his collected demeanor, his wife Walburga could screech and rave and many people were afraid of her, but one cold gaze from him was enough to make people obey him, even his wife.
Sirius turned from his observation of his father to see the light turn completely golden as Regulus took a potion showing that the poison was neutralized and Sirius started breathing more freely. Walburga gave her son a Dreamless Sleep potion and saw as he relaxed into the comfortable bed and let out an inaudible breath. She gently pulled up the comforter up to the boy's waist, the room was at a comfortable temperature because of the fire.
Her hand moved towards Regulus's forehead but paused as she always did, but today was not like always, she realized, and gave in moving her hand she brushed the hair from the boy's forehead.
She turned around to see her son and husband eyeing her curiously but neither questioned her. She inclined her head towards the door. The three moved out so they could talk without disturbing Regulus.
His parents looked around as Sirius led them out. The hall they entered quite wide, the floor was wooden, and had the staircase at one end and a large widow at the other. There were four comfortable looking sofas around a round table in front of the window and another similar set up in the centre, the hallway also had four, almost five feet tall candle stands.
Sirius cleared his throat to show them around the house, his manners kicking in, "There are nine rooms here, the master suite is the biggest with a sitting area and an en suite, four of the other rooms have an en suite, including the room Regulus is in and four don't. His room, as you see, is right next to mine."
"At least you still remember your manners", Walburga sniffed, speaking for the first time since entering the house. Sirius bit back a sharp retort, he and mother always knew how to drive each up the wall but he didn't want to cause a fight.
"I do mother", he replied, turning his head back to see his mother's eyes widen, and swiftly turned away to hide his smirk, while his mother scowled and his father tried to hide his amusement, and climbed down the stairs.
The stairs ended in the drawing room. Sirius showed them around, there was a small passage just inside the main door with cloak hangers in alcoves on each side, which led the way into the drawing room. Towards the left was a respectable sixed dining room with a small door to the kitchen, pantry and the house elf quarters.
Both the rooms were tastefully decorated in warm tones, Walburga's experienced eyes caught the handiwork of a woman, she knew her son, this wasn't his work. She decided to inquire about this. Another thing that caught her attention was that the house was a proper wizards' home, she half-expected to find her wayward son in some muggle hovel.
The drawing room led into a passage way, Sirius stopped at the door and put his palm on it, it recognized him and opened smoothly. It was a study, done in blue, grey and black, there were bookshelves and a table done in dark wood with a black marble top on the table. The chair was the same wood and had grey cushions. This was certainly Sirius' choice, these were his favourite colours, they knew he had decorated his room in Gryffindor colours just to spite them. They were impressed by his tastefulness but didn't show this.
Sirius moved to a bookcase behind the desk and taped it once, with his wand, it slid aside to reveal an entrance. He looked at them and tilted his head slightly towards it. They exchanged a look and entered. It was a reading room done similarly to the study. The far wall was entirely a window with window-seat and there were several bookcases as well as comfortable chairs, sofas and recliners.
They didn't know what to make of the fact that Sirius had brought them somewhere so personal so they waited for him to start talking.
"Take a seat, please", he said.
They settled on a three seater sofas and Sirius sat down after they had, again surprising them with his following of etiquettes.
He took a few seconds, organizing his thoughts, then placed the locket on the table in front of them. Orion, cautiously, levitated it; "Merlin! This really is Slytherin's locket", he whispered, "but it is also…". He trailed off, Walburga too was leaning in, both torn between fascination and disgust.
"Yeah", Sirius started, "Before anything else there are a few things I want to tell you. Please listen to the whole thing before deciding. I… actually we, my friends and I, we researched into this whole situation and what caused it. Lily, one you people looked down upon just because she is a muggle-born was the first to look into this. I won't go into the details of the research, but we came to the conclusion that the problem is extremism, both Light and Dark."
"The light faction thinks dark magic is automatically evil and the dark people think that light magic is weak, none of which is true. Magic is based on intent. Dumbledore is the leader of the light extremists and Voldemort is the leader of the dark extremists. We want to follow none. We have chosen the middle path, the one where we respect magic herself."
His parents had started listening not expecting to be as intrigued as they found themselves.
Sirius continued, "Lily was the one to explain to us that the Pure-bloods' dislike for muggle-borns started when they started changing the time-tested beliefs and customs in favour of muggle ones and the Ministry started bending to their every demand. I accept that it's wrong but so is ostracizing someone just because they are born to muggles. You just saw an example of a brilliant muggle-born. Who are we to question the decision of Mother Magic?
I am all for restoring the wizarding traditions but not at all for the discrimination. And the self-proclaimed 'Dark Lord' is not helping with it, the proof is in front of you, he only cares about himself. You decide what you want to do".
He stood up and went to sit at the window seat, a book in hand, leaving them to make their decision. Walburga and Orion sat deep in thought. The Blacks didn't like muggles and muggle borns but their main reason for supporting Voldemort was, like Sirius had said, the well being of Wizarding World. That's why they had agreed to let their children bow to someone. If that person wasn't going to do that very thing and could do something so vile as he had done, they weren't going to support that person.
"He has really grown up", Orion said, looking up at Sirius. Walburga nodded.
Orion went up to Sirius and put his hand on his shoulder. Sirius looked up. "We are with you", his father said. Sirius grinned so brightly at him that he couldn't help smiling back. He decided then and there that he wouldn't let anyone divide his family like before.
They decided to call it a night and talk about Regulus the next morning. The elder Blacks took the bedroom on the other side of Regulus. Sirius flopped down on his bed and tossed and turned for a few minutes. He got up and entered Regulus's room and watched him for some time. He slipped inside the covers of his brother's bed like Regulus used to do as a child.
Regulus rolled and instinctively shifted closer to his brother. Sirius smiled, glad that some things never change and whispered, "Good night and sweet dreams Reggie". Regulus muttered something sleepily in response and the two brothers slept together contently after a long time.
/pb/
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