3
The entire first year of Hogwarts, Regulus didn’t talk to Sirius.
He didn’t even want to call him his brother anymore.
In the first week, Sirius tried reaching out to him, stopping him at dinner or in the halls, but every time, Sirius only asked about why Regulus let it happen that he got sorted into Slytherin. “I don’t understand Reggie, you never agreed with any of their opinions. I thought we would make it through Hogwarts together. In the same house. I can’t believe you betrayed me like that and got yourself sorted into Slytherin.”
Sirius could never understand.
He was, before he went to Hogwarts, always their parents’ favourite, because he was older.
From the moment of his birth, Regulus always had to give twice as much as Sirius. He never told him, of course. He learned early how to conceal his true feelings, never letting his parents know what he was really feeling and as he got older it got harder to switch his feelings back on when he was alone with Sirius. He didn’t want to lie to him but it was just easier. It was easier to just stop showing his true emotions altogether than to hide them from his parents but show them to Sirius.
And then Sirius got sorted into Gryffindor and his parents’ world fell apart.
Their perfect son, heir of the Black family name, sorted into the house of their enemies.
So, no. He of course did not agree to his parents’ opinions about a lot of things.
Almost all of them if he was being honest but in the end it didn’t matter.
And Sirius could never understand that.
After a while Sirius stopped trying to talk to him. The only thing he got were disappointed eyes on him during dinner. Regulus stopped showing up for dinner after a while because of that. He sneaked into the kitchen and ate with the house elves, or he didn’t eat at all.
Barty was growing more and more suspicious of his behavior and Regulus feared that if he didn’t start behaving, Barty would talk to his parents.
But that never happened.
Regulus kept quiet.
Spent his whole free time studying.
Not for school because he already knew everything that they were teaching him.
But he prepared for the break.
He hoped that his parents wouldn’t treat him as bad as they did when Sirius was in his first year, because one, Regulus got sorted into Slytherin so they couldn’t be mad at him, could they? And second, Sirius was home this time.
They mostly ignored him during the last break, after Sirius came home but he was still scared.
So, he learned healing spells and potions. A few months after arriving at Hogwarts he discovered the room of requirements he read about in a book in his parents’ library. He wished for a room where he could train his dueling skills and he was rather proud of himself.
When he was sitting in the train back home after the school year was over, he was debating whether it was easier to just jump out of the window, but he quickly discarded that idea. His parents would find a way to bring him back and then they would just kill him again, in a way that would be way more painful than jumping out of a moving train.
When they arrived at home their parents weren’t there.
He was alone with Sirius for the first time in… he didn’t even know how long. He tried to flee to his room but Sirius was quicker.
“Are you just gonna ignore me for the whole holidays Reggie? It’s not my fault you got sorted into Slytherin; that’s not a reason to be mad at me.”
Regulus just stared at him in disbelief.
Did Sirius really think that was the reason he was mad at him?
Not the fact that it only took about two days for Sirius to completely forget about his little brother?
Not the fact that the only thing Sirius talked to him about while being at Hogwarts was how disappointed he was at Regulus?
How dense could a person be? How were they even related?
“I know Sirius. I’m sorry. I guess I was just mad at myself for landing in Slytherin. I’ll try not ignoring you. But now I’m really tired, Evan snores so loudly and I don’t think I’ve had a good sleep in a year. Good night.”
It was 4 pm but that didn’t really matter to Regulus.
He nearly sprinted towards his room before falling into his bed.
Maybe now that Sirius was home with him and their parents for a while he would start to understand why Regulus was behaving the way he did.
Maybe it would get better now.
It didn’t get better. Sirius stayed locked away in his room almost the whole holidays. Regulus thought his parents would maybe try to talk to him. Try to get him to change his mind about…well, everything.
Maybe they would try to convince Sirius to spy on the Gryffindors for him, or try to gain information that they could deliver to the dark lord.
But none of that happened.
Instead, their parents went on doing the same they did when Sirius first went to Hogwarts and Regulus was alone for a year.
They made sure that the two didn’t get a chance to talk to each other and focused on Regulus.
They were happy, of course, that Regulus was sorted into Slytherin but that happiness didn’t stop them from being cruel to Regulus.
It was almost worse than before. Maybe they thought that now they could do whatever they wanted to Regulus because he was already in Slytherin.
Before he went to Hogwarts it was like his parents feared that if they were too cruel to him that maybe he would also betray them and not want anything to do with them anymore.
But now, Regulus, who was now their heir, was in Slytherin. He was in the same house as the children of their friends (maybe friends was too nice a term for what his parents and Evan and Barty’s parents were).
They didn’t hold back anymore because they knew that Regulus couldn’t do anything stupid now.
He was always surrounded by people who could, at any time, report what he did back to his parents.
While he considered Evan and Barty his friends, he knew that they weren’t as repelled by the idea of pure-bloods ruling the earth as he was.
They grew up the same way he did, but they didn’t seem to question the things their parents thought them.
They weren’t stupid but Regulus knew that they didn’t spend as much time as he did reading books about the world as he did.
He always thought the hatred that their parents, and other followers of the dark lord, had of muggles and muggle-born wizards and witches strange. He couldn’t understand why they did not deserve to live.
So, he spent a lot of time reading muggle books and books about muggles.
And when he went to Hogwarts and met Lily Evans, a muggle-born witch, for the first time, his thoughts about muggles and muggle-borns became even more positive.