Chapter 2: [Sirius POV] What are younger brothers for?

Summary:

When Sirius got his Hogwarts letter.

Reedited2023/2/19

July 24th, 1971

Sirius Black was in a particularly good mood on that morning and as soon as he had woken up, he heard a hoot. He looked across his room at an owl perched on his windowsill, now knocking with its claws as it caught the eyes of the bleary-eyed young boy.

He reached to change his clothes and stood up to rush over to his window, freeing the owl from its perch.

In his hands was a letter addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

Mr. S. Black

First bedroom topstairs

Number twelve, Grimmauld Place

London

The envelope was thick and heavy, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. Turning the envelope over, Sirius saw a purple wax seal bearing Hogwarts' coat of arms: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. In the back of his mind flashed the Black family's own coat of arms, with black as the bottom colour and engraved in silver with a mountain shaped between two stars as the main body.

He opened the letter and scanned through it.

He then ran to the door, flushed it open, and ran to the bedroom next to his, his brother's, his loud footsteps awaking the gloomy house. He could most certainly make out his mother's voice coming from downstairs, chastising him for being so noisy.

Arriving at his brother's door, he let himself in. Sitting on the bed of a still stirring Regulus, he said, "Hey, do you want to read my Hogwarts letter?"

Not getting the desired response, he then put his hands into the blankets and shook his sleepy brother.

"Of course." Regulus finally sat up from his bed, a hand stretching toward Sirius for the letter.

Sirius sat impatiently as his brother examined his letter, but just as Regulus was reading through it, brows creased into concentration, it suddenly burst into flames, leaving a pile of ashes on his bed.

Regulus blinked and looked up to find an equally shocked Sirius.

Sirius, schooling his features into what he hoped could come to pass as a mixture of disbelief, hurt, and horrification, said, "What did you do? Did you destroy it? How will I ever know what to buy for my school things?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sirius. I guess it must be because I want to go to Hogwarts with you too. I got excited, and I accidentally..." Regulus at once began to apologize.

He got up from his bed in a jolt, making Sirius slide off his side of the bed, and ran downstairs to their parents' bedroom, calling as he went, "Mother! Father! I think I accidentally destroyed Sirius' Hogwarts letter! "Sirius suspected that his brother was about to cry. And really, he had no time to put on a robe? Won't he be cold?

He sniggered to himself leisurely as he pulled open the wardrobe, plucking out a spare robe for Regulus, and finally, clucking the letter hidden in his own robes, he went down, following his brother.

In his parents' bedroom, his mother looked at him skeptically, while his father found his other faults: "You will knock before you enter." and "Shut the door, boy."

He paid them no mind while silently handing the robe to Regulus and raising an eyebrow at him.

Finally, his mother found what she was looking for; she reached into his robes and pulled out the letter he was hiding. Well, he wasn't really intentionally doing his job well there. Regulus' eyes widened at the letter in her hand, and he cast a furious look at Sirius, who had burst out laughing hysterically, before saying," If you will be so kind to excuse me, mother and father, I need to go back stairs."

"Reg, wait!" Before his mother's hands could pull him back, Sirius went after his brother.

But he didn't exactly go his way; he took a little detour, right across the great hall, sending the wall of elf-heads descending to the floor in a litter, before going the other way up to their bedrooms. He could hear his mother coming after him, but as usual, she was too slow for him. She must have heard the voices made by the scattering elf-heads, however, for she cried out, "What have you done now? You stop where you are this instant, Sirius Orion Black! You have no care for your mother's poor health!"

But Sirius was off, and he thought to himself that if his mother was robust enough to shout at him in this volume, it must be proof of her continuous success in living purely out of spite for him.

He was at Regulus' door and was relieved to find that he had not indeed locked it. He knocked and pushed through.

He saw his brother still brooding while sitting on his own bed in only his sleeping robes. If his earlier suspicions were anything to be taken seriously, they stood true now, as it was clear by the red around his brother's eyes that he had been crying.

"Hey, hey. I'm sorry." Sirius immediately sank down on one knee at the feet of his brother's bed. "I was joking, Reg."

"Yeah, and I was fooled into feeling terribly sorry for a brat like you."

"Language, young sir. And to your dear older brother, no less. " Sirius feigned a condescending tone.

Regulus paused a moment to glare up at him, but Sirius didn't find it convincing at all.

"Leave me alone, Sirius. I had an enough eventful morning."

"Yes, thank you for waking up mother and father for me. Still, hmm, not quite up to my standards. You see, I was hoping to cheer you up with this." and catching Regulus' eyes, Sirius smiled mischievously while slowly pulling out yet another letter from his pocket.

"That's not—but how thick can you be? I'm not even that surprised now." Regulus blurted out nonsensically before snatching the letter out of Sirius' hand, while both brothers broke into a unison laughter.

"Why did you do it?"

"Nobody sleeps in on my special day; where's the fun in that?"

He was answered by a shriek downstairs that was sure to pierce through walls and awaken anyone in a ten-mile radius," SIRIUS BLACK!"

"There, you got your wish."

"Nah, that's not happening any soon. I think that's just mother finding the elf-heads I set free."