Brothers

French south-west coast, june 1972

The car drove through the French coastal countryside. The fresh, salty air rushed into their nostrils and did them good. Sawyer had his hands running through Alphard's hair, gently, discreetly, as they always had. It didn't really suit them to be discreet, but it was better than being insulted, hit, attacked or worse, so they 'accepted' it. For the past month, they had been travelling around France in the Jaguar that Alphard had recently bought. A magnificent white Jaguar E-Type Series 1 roadster in which they raced along the roads, under the admiring eyes of some. They had left their hotel in La Rochelle that very morning, and after about thirty minutes in the car, they were on their way to the small village of Les Boucholeurs, a few minutes from where his family had a huge manor house, a little further on, towards the immense forest. By his family, he meant his elder sister, Walburga. She had inherited this holiday villa on the French coast from their parents and went there with her husband and three children from time to time. Alphard always felt a twinge of sadness when he thought of his nephews and niece. Especially his nephews, in fact. Young Sirius and Regulus had disappeared almost 6 years ago in the woods, for almost two months! It had been a tragedy for him, for the family, but his sister had seemed to give up very quickly. The search, the hopes of finding her two sons, the family heirs. She hadn't even told the police, and when Alphard found out, a huge row broke out. The next day, Walburga threw him out of the manor, claiming that it was her house and he, despite being her brother, was just a guest, a nuisance according to his sister. He firmly believed that his sister was overworked, the disappearance of her sons plus the suicide of one of the servants... He had managed to speak to Orion beforehand and made him promise that they would find the boys as soon as possible. Orion had promised and two months later, when he was at his flat in Kensington, London, he received a simple telegram from his sister and her husband.

The boys were found safe and sane,

They spent two months in the forest but all seems well.

We'll be back in London within the week,

Walburga Irma Black

The message was far too short and concise, but Alphard had been reassured. When he had first read the message, he had fallen to his knees with relief and the weight of stress suddenly lifted. During the week, he had gone to 12, Grimmauld Place but it was not his sister or his nephews who had opened the door for him, but the detestable and despicable Maurice Kreacher, the head butler of the house. He must have been the same age as Alphard, but he looked much more wrinkled, older and uglier. He had a sly, detestable voice, like chalk slid across a chalkboard. He had always given Alphard the creeps, even when they were children and Maurice was just following in his father's footsteps. So when Alphard asked to see his nephews, he was refused entry to the house.

"The young masters are still in shock, Mr Alphard. Madame wants to let them rest for the time being", Kreacher said in his abominable voice. 

It was to be expected, Walburga was still angry with him. They had never got on well together and she was taking her revenge. As the years went by, it got worse. They never got to see his nephews again, but he heard about them. He sometimes heard from Orion and Cygnus too. Walburga may have repudiated Alphard, but at least he knew from the reliable source that is his youngest brother that the children were growing up properly within the family and their home. That reassured him a little. Walburga was so angry with him that he hadn't been able to meet her third child either, a little girl called Vega Walburga Black. It had pained him but he had accepted his sister's decision.  

So he was in a car with Sawyer, his companion, his 'friend' in the eyes of the others, driving along the French west coast and they were passing through Les Boucholeurs, which brought back bad memories for Alphard, but Sawyer was absolutely determined to stop and look at the sea. So they did, right next to an oyster farm. Sawyer marvelled at everything, having lived in London all his life, and Alphard laughed, as he was used to it. Despite the fact that it was only midday, the sun was beating down pretty hard and Alphard was getting hot in his casual clothes.

"Oh, look Alphard! There are kids working with oyster farmers!" said Sawyer, curious about everything.

He looked over to where he was pointing, and indeed, two fairly young children were working. At first, Alphard thought they were young girls because of their long black hair, especially the taller of the two who had his hair down to below his shoulders. But when Alphard saw them walking back and forth to one of the huts on the dune, he realised they were two boys. They were wearing dirty tank tops that looked like new, and navy blue shorts that reached to the middle of their calves. Their resemblance was striking, even from a distance, when they were standing from the back, they must have been brothers. 

"Sir! Reg ! Hurry up! We're all hungry and waiting for you!" shouted one of the oyster farmers in French at the two boys, the oldest of the oyster farmers, who must have been the boss. But it wasn't the man who had awoken a strange feeling in Alphard's stomach, no. That was what he had called the two boys. Sir and Reg. Sir. And. Reg. And without thinking, his body began to move rapidly towards the oyster-farmers' hut as the children pulled up the last horse still on the beach. And as Alphard stopped in front of them, the children raised their heads and froze at the same time, in a perfect symbiosis. And then Alphard thought his jaw was going to drop. Opposite him on the beach, in their dirty, oversized clothes, were his nephews, Sirius and Regulus. He was certain it was them, there was no mistaking it. Jet-black hair that ended in curls; steel-blue, almost grey eyes; very pale skin, too white; little freckles on the younger boy's face; a thin face, with cheekbones that stood out enormously; a thin nose that could almost be sharp. But more than their looks, it's their behaviour. The two children froze as soon as they looked up at him. The younger one looked confused, lost. But the older one... His fists had clenched, his shoulders had pulled up as if in a defensive posture and his eyes were shooting daggers at him. They were terrified. And suddenly Sirius grabbed Regulus' arm and they took off running, without looking back. 

"Sirius! Regulus! Come back!" he had shouted, in English, to get a reaction from them. But nothing.

He tried to run a little along the dune but was quickly stopped by the older oyster farmer. He used his body to stop Alphard.

"Get out of the way!" shouted Alphard, this time in French. "I've got to catch up with them!"

"You're not going to do anything" growled the man. "What do you want with these kids?"

The children left Alphard's field of vision, forever, and Alphard thought his world was going to collapse. Walburga lying to him was not surprising. That Orion lied to him was no surprise, as the man had never worn the knickers in his relationship. But for Cygnus to do so? That was unbelievable.

"They're my nephews! I've got to get them back!"

The oyster farmer braced himself and in the distance some of his colleagues were beginning to stare.

"How am I supposed to believe you? How can I believe you? How do you know they're not my sons?"

Alphard let out a scornful laugh before staring at the man.

"Your sons, eh? Stop lying! You don't even know who they are, old man!"

The man frowned and his shoulders rose, as if to threaten him.

"They're Simeon and Reginald. They help me during the summer by working on the beach. What do YOU know about them?!"

Alphard bared his teeth too, unimpressed by the man in front of him.

"You're lying and you know it! These two boys are not affiliated to you! Their names are Sirius Orion Black, third of the name, and Regulus Arcturus Black, second of the name."

At this point, Alphard swore to himself that surprise filled the man's eyes for half a second. Alphard continued his diatribe.

"These are my nephews, heirs to one of the greatest noble families in the whole of England! And you make them work like common oyster farmers on a beach in a remote village! Are you mentally sane? Did they even go to school?!"

And the man in front of him flew into a monstrous fury. His eyes had gone dark, no longer showing the kindness that everyone knew him for. He had stretched out over Alphard like a Machiavellian shadow and Alphard realised that the man was much taller than he was, and that the manual labour he did every day had surely helped him to develop a more muscular build than Alphard.

"If ME, I'm sane?!!!! I should be asking you the same question, you arsehole! You think in two years I haven't watched them? You think that, don't you, that I haven't understood?! That we haven't ALL understood? You think we haven't seen the scars on their shoulders and calves? You think we didn't see their terror when it came to the adults?! Do you think we didn't hear their accents when they pronounced their first names? Do you think we never heard them speak English when they thought we couldn't hear them? You think I didn't see Reg cry when he broke a crate and how Sirius threw himself in front of him saying it was his fault and not his little brother's?  Do you think we didn't see them hiding for as long as possible as soon as they heard tourists speaking English? Do you think we didn't notice when they hid their wounds or pretended it was nothing? These two boys are 12 and 11 years old! Do you think it's normal for children that young to react like that?" the man growled angrily. Some of his colleagues had come up behind him, showing their support or because they were intrigued. Alphard could hear Sawyer shouting something at him in the distance but he didn't really understand. 

"But they're not YOUR children! They are MY SISTER'S SONS!"

"AND YOUR SISTER HATES THEM AND YOU KNOW IT VERY WELL LITTLE BASTARD!" the man shouted, pointing an accusing index finger at Alphard's chest.

"BUT THEY DESERVE AN EDUCATION THAT YOU CAN'T GIVE THEM HERE !!!!! THEY'RE HEIRS OF THE ENGLISH BOURGEOISIE, NOT VULGAR PROLETARIANS WHO WILL LIVE WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE OF PICKING UP FUCKING OYSTERS !!!!"

And as he shouted this back, he felt his body topple backwards as the man pushed him. Shocked and overdramatised, Alphard became angry again.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO THESE CHILDREN! YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE!!! THEIR NAMES ARE WORTH MORE THAN ALL THE MONEY YOU'LL EARN IN YOUR WHOLE MISERABLE LIFE! THEY CANNOT CONTINUE TO LIVE HERE ! THEY MUST GO BACK TO THEIR PARENTS IN LONDON AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

The man grabbed the collar of Alphard's shirt.

"As long as I'm alive, you're not to touch a hair on these boys' heads. Sirius and Regulus deserve guardians they won't be afraid of! I'D RATHER DIE THAN HAND THEM OVER TO YOUR ABUSIVE FAMILY!"

The oyster farmers formed a semi-circle around Alphard, supporting their boss's words. They stood around Alphard, who was sitting on the ground in the sand and dust.

"Go away now", said the oyster farm owner. "You're not welcome here. You never will be."

Alphard got slowly to his feet, his leg aching, and walked to his car, followed by Sawyer, who had not been paying attention to the situation. As they sped off in the opposite direction to where they were going, the only thing Alphard wanted to say was:

"We need to get back to London as soon as possible."

***

12 Grimmauld Place, London, the following day

After leaving Les Boucholeurs, Alphard and Sawyer drove to Calais, arriving at around 9pm. The situation had been complicated to explain to his companion, and even if Sawyer hadn't understood the full extent of the situation, he hadn't said anything to Alphard, not judging him in the slightest. They had taken a ferry from Calais first thing in the morning and arrived in Dover two hours later. Then they had driven to London, to be precise to 12 Grimmauld Place, in Islington. Sawyer had agreed to stay in the car while Alphard got out to ring the bell at the family home. When he knocked furiously, it was once again Maurice Kreacher who opened the door for him. Concealing his surprise, Kreacher used his usual jargon.

"Madame doesn't want to see you Mist-", but before Kreacher could finish his sentence, Alphard pushed him violently against the door and stormed into his childhood home.

"WALBURGA! SHOW YOURSELF, YOU OLD WITCH!" he shouted at his sister.

"What the hell are you doing here?" demanded his sister's voice, as she magically arrived at the bottom of the front stairs with her 4-year-old daughter in her arms. "What do you want?"

At the sight of her, Alphard thought he was going to go mad. But he tried to keep calm.

"I came by to see Regulus, you know, to please him."

"Why now?"

"Oh Walburga, you know very well. A fortnight ago was his eleventh birthday. I came to wish him."

"Without presents and two weeks late?" mocked his sister, setting her daughter down on the floor, but the girl wasn't going to play anywhere else, she stayed right behind her mother.

Alphard took a deep breath and looked around, running his finger over a piece of furniture to reveal a fine layer of dust, which he dissipated by rubbing his index finger and thumb together. He paused, not answering immediately.

"You know Walburga... I was in France with... a friend, and we were driving along the west coast. We passed through Saint-Malo, Brest, Quimper, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, Les Sables d'Olonne, La Rochelle and then I said to myself 'Why not go to Les Boucholeurs', so we did." he said, staring straight at his sister. But Walburga, high up in her ivory tower, didn't blink. Not even an incongruous look for half a second. Nothing. And that drove Alphard mad. "We went to look at the beach and we were surprised to see two wild children the same age as Sirius and Regulus working at the oyster park."

"So what?" asked his sister.

"So what? SO WHAT? Walburga your two sons disappeared six years ago and you did nothing to find them! And you lied to me!!! YOU TOLD ME YOU FOUND THEM!!! THAT THEY WERE SAFE AND SOUND! AND WHERE DO I FIND THEM ???? WORKING IN THE FUCKING CHARENTE ! LIKE WILD CHILDREN! YOUR OWN SONS, WALBURGA! I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUR NEPHEWS OR SOME UNKNOWN KIDS, I'M TALKING ABOUT SIRIUS AND REGULUS FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

Walburga was about to lose her temper when a small, thin, almost robotic and lifeless voice asked:

"Mother, what are Sirius and Regulus?"

And everyone, Walburga, Alphard and Kreacher, looked at the little girl, Vega, Sirius and Regulus' little sister. Anger flashed across Walburga's face and Alphard knew he had won.

"What do you think the public opinion will say about the family if I tell them that Sirius and Regulus have been missing for six years and you haven't tried to find them? What will they say about you? And Orion? There will be a trial, for sure. The great Walburga Black abandoned her children in a French forest for six years! I can already see them, all the press articles that will tell what a filthy bitch you are with no love for her children, not even her heir sons!"

"If you tell them that, I'll tell everyone that you're just a... just a... just a filthy faggot!" vociferated Walburga, her anger reaching into her eyes and all the horrifying decorum she loved to keep. "You'll be accused of everything and everyone will see you for the dirty pervert you are!"

"Perfect then! A faggot and an unworthy mother in the same sibship! We'll just have to incriminate Cygnus and everyone will take the blame!" shouted Alphard, as Kreacher began to push him towards the front door. But before he was completely on the stoop, Alphard grabbed hold of a piece of the wall and managed to whisper to his sister: "If you don't get your sons back by the end of the summer, Walburga, I promise I'll turn you in! And all the hate you'll get, I hope it will change you for the better!"

And the door was slammed in his face.

He went back to the car, where Sawyer was waiting for him, looking worried. He got in, rested his head on his partner's shoulder for a few minutes and, as he looked quickly round the building that was also his childhood home, he saw his sister staring at him from the right-hand window on the second floor, looking disgusted. He straightened up, put the keys in and started the car.

"Where are we going now?" shouted Sawyer so that Alphard could hear him over the wind.

"We're going to my brother's! I've got to teach dear little Cygnus that lying is bad!"