Chapter 4
Regulus spent a good long while considering how exactly he'd deliver the message. Four days to be exact.
Accompanied by a cruel remark maybe? Or with kind words, bordering on sympathy. Or maybe with both; he'd say 'Oh I'm so terribly sorry Sirius,' and he would mean it. 'I know what it's like to be betrayed,' and he'd mean that too.
But in the end he didn't really say anything. He just spotted his brother in an alcove in a broad corridor. His head bowed over a book, which was a rare sight and it filled Regulus with such hollow aching that he walked over and slammed the picture down in front of him.
Sirius went instantly rigid. Stared at the picture and didn't look up, his hands beginning to shake. It was then that Regulus realised he didn't have to say anything. He had won.
He'd finally repaid the pain bestowed upon him. He'd done his family proud. But the hollowness in him just expanded.
He took in the rigidness of his brother's shoulder's and for the first time in a long time felt a sparkle of hope. Maybe he'd done it ... Maybe Sirius would come back? If not to the family, maybe at least to him?
"Do with the picture whatever you want," he said, a practiced careless air in his tone and turned to leave.
He didn't even get three steps far before there was a quick scraping sound behind him and then a hand on his shoulder, whipping him around. Regulus let out a startled sound, not even at the pain of his back hitting the wall, but at the uncontained rage written all over Sirius's face.
It took him a moment to gather himself but then he was pushing back. "What the fuck Sirius?"
"Where did you get this?"
"Let go!" Regulus wasn't weak exactly, but his brother had height, muscles and apparently quite a bit of rage on him at the moment. Still he managed to struggle free, shoving Sirius a few steps back. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Where did you get that?" Sirius was seething but Regulus was quickly overcoming his shock, his brain scrambling to piece together what by Merlin was currently happening.
Sirius looked outraged. Not shocked. Not scared. Not disgusted. Outraged. And not about the image itself, but about the fact that it had been in Regulus's possession.
"So you know?" he asked, pushing all the disappointment down. To the place within himself where all his hopes lay buried.
"Of course I know. But I'm not going to ask again Reggie. Where?" Sirius advanced on him again and Regulus scraped together the last of his arrogance, of his Black pride, and drew his wand.
"Does it matter," he drawled.
"You gonna crucio me like mum?" asked Sirius, a cruel taunt in his voice and Regulus faltered. Only for a moment, but it was enough.
In the brief second where his mind couldn't block out his brother's screams from that dreadful night, Regulus's wand was knocked from his hand, not even with a spell but by sheer force.
His jaw snapped shut as Sirius was on him again. "You think I care? You think I care that he's a werewolf?" he snarled, close, way too close to Regulus' face. "You thought I'd bring him to the ministry, didn't you. You thought you could get me to turn on my friends!"
"You turned on your family bloody alright, what's the difference?"
Sirius laughed, dark and hollow. "The difference is that-" all of a sudden he was gone, his head snapping to the right and a body pushed itself in front of Regulus.
"Picking on your brother now, are we Black?" the figure said and Regulus recognised Barty's slightly hoarse voice.
"You want a real match?" Barty asked, his voice now even more low and menacing and Regulus was just about to say something, anything, when a murmured "easy there," had Barty's shoulders relaxing instantly. Evan, thank Merlin.
At Regulus's touch to a shoulder Barty stepped to the side, flanking Regulus just as Evan came to his left. Sirius wiped the blood from his mouth, unfazed.
"Fuck off Sirius," he said calmly, because they were three and Sirius was alone and there was not a chance for him. But somehow Regulus had forgotten that Sirius always drew blood. Like he couldn't stop himself.
If you fought with Sirius; you won or you died. No middle ground. No peace offer. It's everything or nothing. And so he shouldn't have been surprised when Sirius lowered his head. "Oh I don't think I will, brother dear. Or have you forgotten that Remus isn't the only one with a secret?"
Regulus's blood ran cold. He took a step forward. "Sirius don't," surprisingly his voice wasn't shaking.
"Do they know?" Sirius asked, "do your friends know Regulus? Do they know you-" Regulus leapt. There was nothing else for him to do he decided as he crashed into his brother.
They fell to the floor in a heap of limbs and robes. Pulling and pushing wherever they could reach, snarling with their teeth bared. Regulus didn't feel any pain. Not when he was trapped to the floor coughing without breath, not when he managed to pin Sirius down who pulled his knee up and into Regulus's back. He just needed him to shut up.
Their brawl didn't last all too long, suddenly there was a jerk from behind and then Regulus was pulled from his brother, his arms behind his back. Sirius too, being restrained by none other than that bloody werewolf. He was still spitting with rage.
"You snake, you little fucking snake! Thought I'd let you ruin everything did you? Walburga set you up to this, or are you just that rotten enough already to come up with it all by yourself?!"
"What's going on?" someone asked from behind. The person still holding Regulus. And not just someone. James bloody Potter.
Regulus still struggled against him, to do what exactly he wasn't sure but he had to shut his brother up. By all means necessary. He hadn't even realised he was crying until his voice came out in a broken sob. "You promised. You promised you'd never tell. You said you'd keep it forever!"
"That was before!" Sirius too was struggling against Lupin, but unsurprisingly he held Sirius back with ease, muttering something close to his ear.
"Before what, before you left?" Regulus voice was raspy but he stilled in Potter's arms who didn't let up even a little bit. "You're the traitor here Sirius, you-"
"You tried to expose Remus!"
"I just wanted you back!"
That shut everyone up. Even Sirius.
It wasn't as if any of the others could understand even half of what was going on, and they weren't stupid enough to ask. But as Sirius went quiet Regulus gave a indignant push at the arms still wrapped around him and after a moment of hesitation they let him go.
He took a deep breath in. It was all fucked now anyway, but he still didn't spare a glance at Sirius who had gone still in Lupin's arms.
He plucked the drawing from the table and pressed it into Potter's chest, careful to keep his eyes downcast in an attempt to hide his surely red eyes and blotched face. He should be laughing really. Sirius would rather interact with a literal monster, than him. Would keep that thing a secret but had threatened to expose his own.
Maybe he should be trying to do damage control now. Threaten him some more or offer something in exchange for his silence but Regulus didn't care anymore.
He was exhausted. Hurt. Done.
If Sirius wanted to tell everyone so be it. There was nothing he could do about it anyway.