Ribbons of ivory broke through the curtains of Regulus’ room, descending directly upon his face, allowing his eyelashes to cast a shadow on his cheek.
Regulus stirred, the light disrupting his dreamless sleep. He turned to the door in his sleep and felt a touch register in his half-asleep head. He cracked an eye open once he heard the almost silent creak of his bedroom floor and then the soft click of his door.
Regulus rose and rubbed his eyes, and sat up, his feet diving into the plush rug, silently following the person who entered his room, walking down the hall of the second floor of the Grimmauld place. His feet silently thumped against the wooden floor as he neared the staircase to follow the person down.
Regulus immediately stopped as the figure registered in his mind and all sleep disappeared from his head.
“…Sirius?”, Regulus calls out softly, leaning against the railing of the stairs, his soft, dark curls falling on his forehead. He was about to start trudging down the stairs when he froze.
Sirius was carrying a Reducio-d version of his trunk, the shrinked emblem of the black house shining against the moonlight.
“…Are…Are you leaving...?”, Regulus whispers, not quiet enough for Sirius not to hear but quiet enough to not wake their parents.
Sirius turns around and looks at his brother at the top of the staircase. He had been hoping that he wouldn’t accidentally awake his brother, but hope was not on his side.
“Are you going to tell on me?”, Sirius asks instead of answering Regulus’ question.
Regulus swallows, slightly hurt that the first thing Sirius asks is if he would tell on him.
“No…”, Regulus meekly replies, but his voice does not carry out.
It stays silent before Regulus speaks again, “Are you leaving to one of those friends of yours?”
Regulus’ voice was filled a bit with betrayal and more with spite, “Mother will find you, you know, she will punish you...”, Regulus mutters.
“The Potters will protect me. They are very powerful. Plus, mother and father have you to be the little Black heir. I can see that they have been training you”, Sirius snarls quietly.
“Wh- “
“Oh, don’t act clueless! You know what I am talking about! No brother that I have raised will ever go around calling muggleborns and half-bloods the slur and bend at our parents’ will”, Sirius exclaims, his voice still quiet enough to not wake their parents.
“I always protected you from punishment, what have you been doing? They have started to punish me harshly for every act of defiance, have you even tried to protect me!?”, Sirius asks, his voice harsh.
“I…”, Regulus’ voice dies out. He can’t defend himself. What Sirius said was all true. Sirius always tried to protect him, even if Regulus did something to get punished, Sirius would cause an even bigger trouble to take their parents’ attention from Regulus and get harsher punishments.
“Exactly. You can’t answer”, whispers Sirius in the silence of the night.
Regulus’ heart cracks as he hears his brother state the truth.
"My friends are very important to me", Sirius declares sternly, looking at his younger brother straight in the eye at the top of the staircase.
“...But blood runs thicker than water", replies Regulus, finally finding his voice, his eyes glazed over but his eyes unreadable to Sirius as it has been since Sirius started Hogwarts and left Regulus behind for a year.
“Both are the same when your eyes are closed.” Sirius finishes, shaking his head at Regulus.
“I will be more protected and finally loved with them”, Sirius adds, turning back to the door.
‘Stay...-’, Regulus tried to beg his voice to say, ‘Don’t leave me, take me with you’, but no sound escapes his lips.
‘Ask me to stay, ask me to take you too…’, Sirius wants to say.
But neither fulfill the want.
Sirius silently opens the door of the Grimmauld place and turns to look at his brother once last time, opening his mouth to say what he wanted…but he doesn’t and leaves.
The only last traces of Sirius Black while still being a part of the tree remains within Regulus Black’s memories.