Hello! I'm back! I'm sooooo sorry for the long wait with the terrible cliff-hanger - I've had some of those ridiculous things that teachers seem to find important...You know, they're called exams or something. Anyway, I'm back and I've got three new chapters lined up for you - hope you enjoy!
Please review!:)
A.A.A.
In one of the stars, I shall be living.
In one of them, I shall be laughing.
And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing when you look at the sky at night.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
...Sirius's Story...
Sirius had never gotten on well with his brother. Regulus had been too easily pushed about, too willing to be the golden boy, too much like their father - quiet and thoughtful, yet arrogant in the knowledge of his pureblood. Too...well, everything. Everything Sirius despised anyway. So Sirius had never gotten on well with his brother.
No, that wasn't quite true.
If he was honest to himself, and sitting here alone, he was being honest, Regulus had once been a person he had cared for very deeply. Before the pure blood mania began. Before they were both ensnared in the suffocating web of politics and deceit. Before...
But Sirius had conveniently forgotten those moments. The ones where he had looked after his little brother. When he soothed him when he woke from nightmares. To protect him from the arguments that shook Nine Grimmauld Place to it's very foundations.
Or maybe he hadn't.
If he had, he wouldn't be here now.
Sirius didn't understand the spell Voldemort had used on them in the dungeons of Durmstrang. Somehow, it had catapulted him thirty years into the future and wrenched Arty from his sweaty grip. And he had no idea how to get back. So, for now at least, he just sat there, in the long grass, thinking.
The little clearing was deserted other than for the singing of the birds and rustling of the branches in the light wind over head. It was grassy and full of dappled sunlight. The headstone in front of him, covered in weeds and dirt, was so weather beaten that he couldn't make out the words. Even so, he just sat there, cross-legged in the grass, and stared at it.
It wasn't an ornate headstone. It wasn't even neatly carved. It was rough; the marks in the stone looked as though they had been gouged with a wand rather than a goblin's chisel and if he had not known the name as well as his own he would not have been able to distinguish it. The sun was high in the sky and the clearing was warm. Sirius closed his eyes and reached out a hand, tracing his fingers over the letters, reading them with his fingertips.
Regulus Arcturus Black.
1961-1979
We live as we die, and die as we live.
For the greater good.
He sat there, he didn't know how long for, but the sun never moved in the sky and the wind never stopped rustling and the birds never stopped singing. It was peaceful, just him, alone with his thoughts. He could stay there. Forever perhaps. And leave everything behind. Maybe Regulus had wanted to say goodbye. Maybe his brother had never truly been as distant as Sirius had pretended. Sometimes, blood is thick, and the bond they had had, maybe still could have, was worth fighting for. And peaceful as this place was, Sirius had never been one to sit behind while others fought his battles.
So he clambered to his feet and turned his back on the grave that had his brother's name carved into the stone.
We live as we die, and die as we live.
As he reached the edge of the clearing he turned back one last time, indecision written across his face. But then, he smiled and looked up. Above him, the stars had appeared.
"Goodbye brother." He whispered and walked away.
His words twisted through the night sky like a silver mist and high in the midnight blue, so high it was almost heaven, a star flickered and vanished, then reappeared...Almost as though it had winked.