Chapter 1
District Two : Reaping day
Life in district two was almost cushy, well as far as district life could really go. Due to their fathers respectable job at The Nut and their mothers existence as a well regarded seamstress Sirius felt that out of all of the children who had to live outside of the capitol they were alright. He had lived an almost happy childhood where the Capitol surprisingly was not the cause of his anguish and thought of his best friend, James, who by this metric had the almost perfect life in Panem with loving parents and a childhood untarnished by the Capitol. However on days such as this one, that positivity was hard to muster in his gut as once they all gathered for reaping day there was almost nothing he could do to protect himself and his brother from the actions of the capitol.
Perhaps their status as a career district would usually settle his anxieties Sirius had thought absentmindedly as he helped his younger brother, Regulus, tie his tie for the reaping, but the presence of a quarter quell removed what little blissful normalcy from the equation. He tried to ignore the tickling panic in his gut, turning his mind instead to the duck that his mother was already starting to prepare for that evening, a special treat at the end of the worst day of the year.
"I'm fine, Sirius." Regulus batted him away causing Sirius to realise he had been flattening out the wrinkled shoulders of his best shirt like a concerned mother.
"Let me at least sort your hair," Sirius tried
"I said I'm fine, Sirius. You do know that if I go in this year, so do you? You can fuss all you want on the train to the capitol."
Sirius stepped back abruptly looking at his little brother in full.
Regulus was of a slight frame, a small boy for fifteen and far from the usual stature of the district two career that would enter into the games. His ivory skin contrasting with his sleek (yet not properly combed) dark hair gave him a pretty face. One that would probably entice sponsors Sirius thought darkly. What Regulus lacked in physicality he made up for in his character, Sirius thought he had never met such a calculated fifteen year old in his life. This was a skill that did sometimes benefit the younger, smaller tributes he couldn’t help but think. His mind returned to Marlene McKinnon, the girl who won last years games by climbing a tree and sniping the remaining tributes off one-by-one with a bow and arrow and removing the career back by poisoning their water supply. However she was an anomaly and the little ones did not win the Games often.
"Don’t talk like Regulus." Sirius dragged himself from his thoughts, "Come on, lets find mother for some lunch."
At one in the afternoon they walked to the town square where the reaping would take place. It was more of a town circle really, located at the bottom of a pathway that let up to the Nut, the centre of town was usually bustling with street vendors selling food to the workers and their children who played in small clusters. Today the square held the eerie silence that Sirius had learnt to associate with morning the not yet dead. Regulus stalked behind him as they walked up to sign in and stand in their designated pen although as he stood next to Sirius, he could feel his younger brother trembling slightly beside him, causing him to reach down between them and clasp his hand tightly. Regulus squeezed back and Sirius was more grateful than the would ever let on.
District two was the largest of Panem's twelve districts so the odds for them being reaped were less than if they were in one of the fringe communities. As he thought this, Sirius looked up to the screens that were currently showing the process in district twelve, sure enough the pen separated off of the Siblings consisted of only a handful of pairings. He felt suddenly sick for those children who were almost certainly expecting to be reaped. Sirius then turned to look at the crowd in the square at large, across the rope where the only children, or those who had siblings outside of reaping age stood. He couldn’t help but feel jealous of those abnormally exempt this year from reaping, it was so unfair that his brother's odds as well as his own were heightened simply due to the existence of the both of them. Sirius had thought that Regulus would only really face one year in which the capitol actually presented a threat for him entering the Games as whilst Sirius was still within the reaping bracket, there would not have been any chance in hell that he would have not volunteered to take his brother's place. The Quarter Quell had shattered that illusion and Sirius felt exposed in their spot in the pen, entirely helpless to his brother's fate should they be reaped. He tried to calm himself, neither had ever applied for tessarae, their names were in the draw the minimum legal number. But then again they were in district two where tessarae families were almost unheard of.
The mayor had started to read, it was the same speech that it had been every time Sirius had stood here: the Disasters of the rebellion and the diamond of the Capitol emerging victorious, the Games as a reminder to the districts that the power of the capitol would forever continue, unshaken and that those who partook were a part of the punishment that the twelve districts had to face. The mayor was then replaced by the Capitol delegate for two, Zephyr Hale, who begun a speech on the festivities.
Sirius zoned out, this was perhaps the most repulsive part of the games. To treat the murder of your peers across the country as some sort of joyous spectacle was something that truly made his gut lurch. He knew it was bad but he simply tried to ignore it, it was only three more years and then both Regulus and he would be free from ever competing. They only had to get that far.
"And now," Hale continued, "We will choose our tributes from district two."
He turned the handle that caused the stupid fish bowl looking contraption that held the ballots to turn, shuffling the names before he reached down and grabbed only one. Two fateful names would be on that, Sirius thought. Two names rang out across the square and to his horror not only Sirius had been called to his almost certain death, so had Regulus.
Sirius felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him as he fought hard to keep his knees from giving way. Regulus had been less successful as he swayed ominously into his brother's side. Sirius propped him upright, thinking of the importance of their image at this point in time they had to appear strong.
"Stand up Reg," Sirius whispered in his ear, "It's important."
Regulus mutely complied.
Was nobody going to volunteer for them? Sirius thought desperately whipping his head around to look at his peers as their last chance for this to be merely a bad dream flitted before his eyes. They were a career district after all, was this not supposed to happen. The young ones like Regulus never entered into the games, Sirius almost felt like pleading with the others that stood around him. They merely stepped back creating a pathway for the boys up to the stage and Sirius realised helplessly that it would be stupid for anyone to volunteer in this year when it was impossible for both of the pair to return home. No one was going to come to his aid, he could not fix this situation, they were both going to have to go into that arena and they were not both going to come out. With this crushing realisation, he pushed Regulus gently forwards and followed him up onto the scaffold that overlooked the district.
As Sirius followed Regulus up to the stage he looked past his brother and Hale to the collection of previous victors from two who sat on the front of the stage each year as a reminder of the success of the district. Perhaps if he played this right Sirius could add Regulus to that collection for next year he thought. His eyes landed on the two that had been named that year's mentor's, one for each of them.
Every district had a mentor for each year's tributes to prepare and guide them through the games as well as secure them sponsors once they were in the arena. The more successful districts such as one, two, four and eleven had two mentors, one for each tribute whereas the less favourable with no victors had no district mentors, relying instead on the donation of another district to provide a victor to help their tributes. This was not always provided leaving the most vulnerable of the tributes in a position of almost certain death that led them to wander right into the cornucopia bloodbath that begun the Hunger Games. Because of two's wealth of victor's, Sirius and Regulus would receive one each meaning they could have personalised, tailored support. The first of the pair was a lady in her late twenties named Poppy with a kind face, glittering and long brown hair twisted into a knot at the base of her neck. She had won the fourth games if he could recall correctly, before they had even become the spectacle that they were at the Quarter Quell. Back then the concept of 'Hunger' in the Games was much more present with the fourth being the least bloody of History, Poppy had won through her keen ability to keep herself warm and knowledge to purify water. She had used her time since to establish a fully functioning hospital for those who injured themselves whilst working in the Nut and was a figure famous amongst Panem for the glory the games can bring to it's victors and their districts. Even Sirius's father, who hardly had a kind word for anybody, admitted that she was one of the better people he had encountered during his work. The other man was young, freshly eighteen having won the games only two years ago and therefore embarking on his first year as a mentor. He was tall with a scarred face and hair that was already greying despite his youth, Sirius supposed the stress of the games had aged the boy. He was attractive, Sirius thought, but looked every inch the modern victor in his leather boots and large overcoat that only emphasized his almost rugged look. The most striking feature Sirius decided however was the fact that each of his finger nails was sharpened to a distinct deadly point as if he had five little daggers on the end of each hand. Sirius looked from the man's hands to his face to find that he had been caught staring. Sirius snapped his head back to the crowd where the last notes of the anthem were now dying into the air.
As soon as it finished Sirius and Regulus were taken from the stage, loosing sight of the people and into custody within the town hall.
The goodbyes had been swift, each speaking with their parents alone. He had waited anxiously with his ear to the wall trying to catch anything of their conversation with his brother to little avail before bidding them a final farewell himself. He had expected the visit to herald more emotion and Sirius was not sure if the curt visit was Capitol policy, or his parents lack of anything to say to him. Their goodbyes and good lucks had caused him to question whether or not they were scared and upset to see him go, or if they were more fearful of his bringing shame to the family name by committing the sin of dying in the arena. He thought it was all pathetic and scoffed at the thought. After Orion and Walpurga left, the door opened once more revealing the ever untidy hair of his best friend, James. He crossed the room in almost no steps and this time Sirius was actually knocked over by the force of his hug.
"Win it, please Sirius." James said inches from his face and with stars in his eyes, "We can live next to each other for the rest of our lives, Lupin isn't that scary when he's your neighbour."
James's father, Fleamont had won the third hunger games and James had grown up in the victor's village solidifying perhaps the most glamorous district life one could get. He had managed to achieve the benefits of a victor's existence without ever having to fight in the games and Sirius could not help but envy him a little bit.
Sirius rolled out from under James's hug and looked at him from where they both sat on the floor. He knew James could read his face as his too fell.
"Sirius, please."
"He's my brother, Jamie. He is not going to die in there. You can live next door to him." Sirius fought not to cry, "Let me say goodbye to you properly, because we both know you're never going to see me again."
"This is not fair."
James cried as they hugged again sat on the floor.
The peacekeepers entered then, pulling Sirius from James and marching him to the doorway. Sirius could only smile sadly, his own eyes brimming with tears as he was dragged out of the doorway, loosing sight of his best friend for the last time.