"Siri Siri!" Three-year-old Regulus Black ran into his big brother's room in tears. "Siri!" He jumped on Sirius and shook him awake. "Reeeg! Get off me!" groaned Sirius. "Bella destroyed him! Bella destroyed my teddy!" sobbed Regulus. Sirius opened his eyes a crack. Ever since his cousin had been staying over, Sirius hardly got a quiet minute. She always had to destroy something, like Regulus' teddy, and that while the poor boy was sleeping. He was glad when she was gone again. Regulus was now sitting on Sirius' bed crying and holding the remains of his teddy in his small hands.
Sirius straightened up, yawning. Regulus would not rest until he was properly awake. So the older Black rubbed his eyes. "Take my teddy," he said, pulling it out from under his pillow.
Regulus's eyes widened. "Oh! May I have?" he asked, hugging Sirius' teddy. "Yes, and now get out of here. I want to sleep some more. I'll beat Bella up later," he muttered and lay back down. "Don't want to go out. Scared of Bella," Regulus whimpered.
"By Merlin! Come on then …" Sirius flipped back his blanket and let his little brother crawl under it. Regulus snuggled happily against Sirius and held his new teddy tightly in his arms. It wasn't long then before Regulus was asleep.
It had been a few years since then.
Regulus sat in the backyard of Grimmauld Place and watched the sky. He was careful where he sat down, because his parents always got very angry if he got dirty. Most of the time he kept to it. It wasn't so easy with a brother like Sirius, though … He didn't care if his parents got angry. He jumped through puddles and rolled in the dirt as it suited him. Sometimes Sirius pulled him along. Regulus had to hand it to him. He always protected him from the punishments and took all the blame.
His brother was always his protector.
Regulus was hanging on to his thoughts when Sirius came running up to him, waving an envelope in the air.
"Reg! Reg! The letter has finally come!" exclaimed Sirius, sitting down next to his brother.
"What letter?" asked Regulus.
"Well, the letter from Hogwarts! I finally get to go there, away from this house!" His older brother was quite excited. He unfolded the letter and showed it to Regulus.
Regulus took the letter from him. "Oh! You need so many things? Does this mean we're going to visit Diagon Alley?" he asked, the hint of a smile flitting across his lips. He thought it would be nice to get out of the house for a change. Sirius was more than happy. "Yes. And then I'll finally get my wand and I won't have to see this house again for a long time!"
Regulus lowered the letter in his hand and his smile disappeared entirely from his face. "I don't want you to go to Hogwarts now," he breathed softly.
Surprised, Sirius looked at his younger brother.
"Why not?" he wanted to know.
Regulus clutched the letter. "Well … if you go, I'll be all alone in the house, won't I? And what happens if I come to Hogwarts next year and we're not in the same house?" he asked gloomily.
Sirius took the letter from Regulus' hand and ruffled his hair. "Silly, I'm not going away forever. I'm coming here for the holidays. And even if we're not in the same house and maybe even become rivals at Quidditch, you'll always be my brother. I will never leave you," he affirmed.
Regulus could smile again now. He leaned towards Sirius.
"Promise?"
"Promise."