Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Regulus eyes searched for any sign of hope around here but he found absolutely nothing. Everything looked so dark and hopeless even though he was rather sure if would be around noon time now. He could imagine his mother complaining about him being late for lunch again and started moaning about how everyone has grown up and even little Reggy doesn't want to come home for lunch anymore.
That thought did not help his mood much as he glanced around the area. His eyes were now focused on the murky potion filling the basin. Once he gave the order to Kreacher, he was gone. Literally dead. He didn't like that thought at all. Regulus had never thought that he'd feel so frightened again. He felt eleven all over again!
Eleven... he remembered that day. It was the very first day of school and Reggy somehow ended up going to school all alone. He had sat in his own compartment on the train and even ended up on his own boat with no one else. Hagrid didn't seem to care. Reggy didn't expect him to. He was one of the 'good' people after all. Those that would never help a pureblood-ist family like that Blacks. He knew they all made Sirius an exception only after seeing what he was like.
Either way, he had gotten to school and they sorted him to Slytherin and of course, received a gigantic round of applause. But when he was there, Andy, Bella and Cissy were all talking to their own friends and Sirius was sitting at the Gryffindor table. Only one other guy got sorted into Slytherin in his years and he had been a half-blood so Bella had threw him a note to warn him not to get near his roommate. There were seven other girls but girls always stuck with each other only. He felt lonely. What if he wouldn't get any friends at all? Maybe he could befriend some Ravenclaw guys but what if they refused. He shuddered at the thought.
By nightfall, Reggy had gone the whole day not talking to a single soul and he had never felt so alone before. So it was natural instinct to sneak into Bella's dormitory that night. He had heard Andy teach Sirius the spell for guys to enter the girls dormitory and gave the instruction on how to get to Bella's room which only consist of Bella since no other girls got sorted to Slytherin that year.
The moment that he had stepped in, Bella sat up straight immediately. No one else ever enters her dorm (there was a password which consist of one of the Blacks' secrets which you don't need to know about) besides family. Family equals to important to all of them after all. Reggy had looked so disorganised and upset, stumbling into the room with no dignity or sophistication and anyone who knew him could tell something was definitely wrong.
Bella had murmured a soft "wait here" before she had dashed off to find the rest of their family and within two minutes, Cissy and Bella were back and Andy had ran off to wake Sirius (the rest hated entering the Gryffindor Common Room). Despite the fact of how silly it sounded, Reggy still ended up telling him why he was so upset.
This resulted in Andy and Sirius walking in to Cissy clutching her waist laughing the hardest they've seen her laugh and Bella was even at the extent of rolling on the floor. Reggy, meanwhile, sat on Bella's bed looking incredibly red and embarrassed. This cause both Andy and Sirius to raise their eyebrows.
"Friends..." Cissy managed to choke out as they continued laughing and Reggy refused to tell again what he had said.
After a long time, Bella had finally calmed down enough to tell them about Reggy's fear of being lonely. Sirius burst into a long stream of laughter, Bella and Cissy also joining him while Andy rolled her eyes annoyed. She sat down next to Reggy.
"Listen," she told him reassuringly. "Nothing like that will happen. Everybody has a friend sooner or later. You won't be lonely. Promise!" When he didn't look convinced, she had added in a fake whisper that they wouldn't dare offend him by not being his friend with him being a Black and all. A small smile appeared as she said this but he looked down, looking slightly abashed. If it wasn't for the close family relation, Andy honestly didn't think she would understand that look.
This time, she threw her head back and laughed, making Reggy all the more redder. "Don't worry about that!" she exclaimed loudly. "Bella came crying to me when she found out she was the only one in her dorm too! I had to remind her that she already had friends like Rodolphus and Lucius!" At the reminder of this event, Bella had shut up and turned to a colour as red as Reggy previously was.
Reggy was, however, a normal colour now and chuckling. Sirius and Cissy laughed some more instead and they were pink from laughter already. In fact, they looked a little out of breath at that time! They had spent the rest of the night together, laughing and cheering him up. In the end, they swore that they were the five Blacks of this generation. They would be the strongest and they would be together, forever.
Ironically, that statement that everyone of them had truly meant ended up this way. Andy had eloped. Sirius ran away. Cissy got married and rarely came home. Bella submerged herself in to the Dark Lord. She called him a weakling for not wanting to join the Death Eaters at first. All of them had shunted him in the end.
So here he was, sitting here alone in his bedroom in the very house where they lived together in the past and yet he was the only one among five who still lived here. He just turned seventeen five days ago. He shouldn't have to make this decision at all. But he made a mistake. Everyone turned away from him. He didn't know what to do. He made a mistake. One he was willing to pay with his life.
As he was finally dragged down the lake by the Inferies, the only thought that registered was that he was lonely. Dying lonely.