The beginning
Christmas was just around the corner, and with its arrival, the temperature decreased. Colorful and bright lights painted the cities. The scent of cinnamon and ginger traveled through the icy night wind, small flakes threatening to descend from the dark clouds that blocked the brightness of the oblique star.
Inside a cozy building, similar to a castle, you could hear the lively chats of some teenagers and a couple of their friendly jokes. Everyone enjoyed the Christmas delights, both sweet and savory, that were spread out on the long tables in the Hogwarts' dining room, allowing everyone to taste their colorful and warm flavors. Everyone was dancing and rejoicing in the warm atmosphere of the party. Or so it seemed, despite leaving fighting and screaming, no one seemed to pay attention to the two boys who left the dining room.
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"Please, Black, talk to him. He's your brother!"
"He stopped being my brother as soon as he left the mansion, leaving me and the family behind, without even deigning to answer a single letter."
"He needs you... Remus doesn't talk to him, he needs his brother."
The youngest turned around, with an annoyed expression, and with the coldest voice in his repertoire he blurted out.
"He should have thought about that before making that tasteless joke to Prince, besides, you are already enough of a brother for him. Or what? Aren't you supposed to be the brother he always wanted?"
The latter sentence said it caused Regulus' heart to ache, but he was not going to go back on his word; after all, his brother had already made a choice not long ago, and unfortunately, he did not choose him.
"How do you know about the prank... It was snivellus right? that shitty snitch, when i find him he will regret having spoken" James said with an annoyed voice, to which Regulus only managed to stare at him confused.
"That's enough!" Regulus said with a firm voice "Prince didn't tell me, it was Lupin. We found him crying in the library, I couldn't care less tho- but Pandora forced me to ask him about it.” He paused as he rolled his eyes and pointed at James. ”If you agreed with that, then you are more of an idiot than I thought. But what can I say? Just as stupid as Sirius, he couldn't stand being in a place where there were people with functional brains and preferred to go to your house, maybe that was the reason, he found a place where he didn’t look like a complete idiot.."
James was furious, Black was insulting his best friend, his brother from another mom in his face. He blurted " Stop treating your brother like that because he chose freedom over you. Grow up a little and stop being so selfish, that's not going to get you anywhere" James pushed Regulus while talking, cornering him against the wall. Regulus, on the other hand, was fuming, and the last thing said by the opposite made him have an overwhelming overflow of emotions.
"Me? Selfish?" His tone was sardonic, James had just pushed him to his limit. "Why do you think my family let him go without any serious consequences other than disinheriting him!?" Regulus was holding back tears, pushing James and pinning him to the wall "You never thought about it, right? Your brain can't go that far, right? They didn't go after him because of me, they still had another person to make the heir! Or do you think they let him go because they want him to be free? Oh please! Don't be a delusional nerk." Regulus turned to leave, leaving a puzzled James pinned to the wall, while we started walking to the other way, he stopped and said with venom in his voice "Not all of us can do what we want, Potter. The world is not like your bubble where everything is fine." Regulus left, walking with his head held high and straight, as the proud pureblood he was supposed to be. However, as soon as he arrived at his common room, he bursted into tears, heading back to his room so anyone but his friends could see him in that state, or maybe not even them.
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Not long after Regulus locked himself in his room, there was a knock on his door.
"Reg, are you here?" Regulus recognized the soft voice of his best friend, Pandora Rosier. However, Black decided to remain silent, he did not want to be seen in that state.
"We know you're there... we saw your argument with Potter." This time it was another voice, Barty was also outside.
"Who else is with you...?" Black asked, forcing his voice not to sound broken.
"Everyone. Dorcas, Evan, Pandy and me" Barty said, casting an Alohomora to open the room, pushing all of the slytherin skittles in.
The newcomers looked at each other before saying anything to the young Black. Regulus had puffy red eyes from crying, every one of his friends knew that his family issues were a delicate topic to discuss.
"Hey..." Pandora placed her hands on Black's cheeks, from which a couple of tears were still running, wiping them with her thumbs. "You know we'll always be here for you if you need it, don't lock yourself up and cry alone."
The others nodded as they took seats around Pandora and Regulus.
"Actually... we only heard the latest, we found them just when you told Potter that life wasn't all rosy and happy, do you want to talk about whatever that brainless idiot told you?" Rosier talked this time, while giving Black a piece of paper. They all knew that when he was anxious or overwhelmed, he calmed himself down by folding pieces of paper and creating paper figures, which he would then cast with a silent spell so that they would move on their own. As predicted by rosier, Regulus started folding the piece of paper unconsciously as he let out a heavy sigh.
“He… told me I was being selfish by not being with my bro-.. with Sirius when he feels bad” everyone noticed how Black’s voice cracked when almost saying the word ‘brother’ and felt bad for him, placing a hand on his shoulders so that he could feel even a little comfort. ”even though he deserves the cold treatment their friends are giving to him because of one… tasteless prank he did to one of his classmates, in which one of his friends got affected.” Regulus wasn’t going to give all the context because Lupin told him and Pandora to not tell anybody, so he decided to say enough so that Pandy would get who he was talking about and his other friends wouldn’t be so lost. When he stopped talking, a small paper bunny was already hopping around his bed.
“How bad was the joke that his own friends turned their backs on him?" Dorcas asked, to which he received a look from the Rosier girl that indicated that it was not important, after this Dorcas and the rest decided that it wasn’t. appropriate to ask about it right now.
When tears threatened to fall from Regulus's eyes again, Pandy decided to change the subject drastically. “Reg, you won’t believe it” she waited ‘till the Black looked at her with an interested look. “Guess who invited me tomorrow to Honeydukes?” She took his hands in hers, giving him a warm smile.
Reg looked at her with interest, but Evan replied after seeing Regulus wasn’t going to “You didn't tell anyone, can we guess too?” Pandora nodded “maybe this guy who is always behind you? What was his name?”Xylophone?” Dorcas let out a short laugh, and Regulus smiled at the misspelled name.
“No idiot, it was xylophagus” Dorcas said with a laugh.
“Someone did not do their homework from caring for magical creatures” Barty mocked “That's a type of insect, the name was xerophthalmia.” Barty said proud,
“That’s not even a word, idiot” Evan started arguing, to which Pandora limited herself to just roll her eyes and sight.
“It is a word, actually, it's a muggle sickness in the eyes. But that's not his name, you bunch of idiots, it’s Xenophilus, but, no, he's not the one who invited me to a date, he is just a friend.” Pandora said calmly, ‘Sorry Phil, I let them make fun of your name, but it was for the greater good, at least Reg is laughing now, even if it's a little.’ Pandy thought while shaking her head. “The one who invited me on a date was Evans… I haven't told her yes or no tho- “ She looked embarrassed.
“Why not?” Regulus asked very interested in the topic ‘He is such a busybody, as soon as there was gossip the fool felt better’ everyone thought after his question, but that was the way they loved him anyway.
“I.. kinda got scared… and then Evan told me you were missing so yeah…” Her cheeks turned red while talking “And also I didn’t want to look desperate for a date with her, you know?” She started fidgeting with her hands, Playing with the paper bunny Regulus did minutes before.
“So you're telling me, it was kinda my fault you didn't answer her?” Regulus took her shoulders and started shaking her “We are going back to the great hall and you will talk to her in this moment” Black stood up and ran towards the door “What are you waiting for?” The other teenagers stood up and walked near the door. As soon as they left the room they began to walk decorously, straight, seriously and with their heads held high. Pretending to be the perfect heirs of the aristocratic, pureblood and powerful families from which they came.
They weren't supposed to be outside the hall so when they arrived at the entrance, they entered the most hidden way possible. When they were inside, they realized most of the students in the upper years who could drink alcohol, in a legal way, were already drunk. Shortly after they located the red-haired Evans girl, the boys, in a conspiratorial manner, pushed the only Ravenclaw of the group towards where Lily was, drinking some pumpkin juice while talking to Pettigrew.
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As dinner began, James went to sit next to Sirius, while Peter left with Lily and the girls and Remus was nowhere to be found. "I'm the worst person alive. First, my little brother hates me, and now my boyfriend (not so boyfriend anymore) hates me" Sirius said while drowning his sorrows in pumpkin juice. James, seeing the state his best friend was in, made a decision, he would do everything possible to fix his problems. Starting with the little egoist that Sirius had the misfortune of calling brother. No matter how much he hated him, if it was for Sirius, he would become his friend. So when he saw that the boy left the Great Hall he took the opportunity to go out and talk to him.
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"Not all of us can do what we want, Potter. The world is not like your bubble where everything is fine." The words of the little brother of his best friend echoed in his thoughts.
James was convinced, during his seventh year, that his best friend's younger brother was the most selfish person in the wizarding world for having turned his back on his older brother when he managed to flee from his family. James believed that little Black was a cold, heartless person and a faithful believer in blood supremacy, because of this James hated him. When he realized he had to talk to him to help Sirius stop feeling like the most horrible being on the planet, he wasn't happy. But for the happiness of his best friend, he would talk to the true most horrible being on the planet. In James's head, not even Voldemort was as cynical as Regulus Black. For this reason, when Regulus opened his eyes to how things were, the truth fell on him like a bucket of cold water, while his entire perception of the young Black fell apart, leaving him confused.
Moments after regaining his composure, James made his way back to the Great Hall, entering in a rather undisguised manner and receiving a scolding from McGonagall for leaving the Great Hall. Even though they had been told that they could not leave until dinner was over, unless they had to go to the bathroom, he took long enough so that she knew he wasn't at the bathroom.
He returned to his place next to Sirius, still hearing Regulus's voice in his head. Sirius realized that his best friend looked lost inside his head, but he didn't mention anything, so he decided to give him his space, and that he would ask him the next day if he didn't tell him the first one. A few minutes later Sirius decided to break the silence. "Hey, have you seen Remus?" Sirius asked, breaking James out of his thoughts.
"Huh?..." James came out from his thoughts, not really knowing what Sirius had asked. "What?"
"Remus, do you know where he is?" Sirius repeated the question, to which James just shook his head and shrugged. Sirius realized that James was lost enough that he wouldn't be able to give a good answer for a while, or at least that's what he thought...