Matter of Time

The cold air bit Regulus’ toes. He grumbled and tucked his feet under the covers. Someone shook him lightly. “Wake up, Reg!” someone said excitedly. “Not now,” Regulus pulled his blanket over his head to block out the person’s voice. “No! You must get up. Right now!” the person shrieked. 

Sirius. “Ugh, what is it? You better be dying or something to be waking me up so early.” Regulus groaned in annoyance, rubbing his eyes. 

“But it's important! It's your birthday!” Sirius beamed. “Where is mother and father? And what time is it?” Regulus questioned, a yawn tearing through his mouth. The idiotic boy, who just so happened to be his brother, simply grinned. “Birthday time!” he wiggled his eyebrows.

 “Also, mother and father seemed to have forgotten about your birthday, so they’ve gone out. To a wedding or something. I dunno,” Sirius scoffed. Regulus rolled his eyes. Of course. It didn’t matter much anyway. Birthdays come around every year. Maybe one day they would remember. (But they wouldn’t. They’re Walburga and Orion Black after all.) 

“So, what’s your plan this year huh?” the younger boy asked. In return, for whatever reason, Sirius smacked his head in a playful manner. Regulus narrowed his eyes. The look alone got Sirius scrambling out of the room. His brother leapt out of bed and sprinted out of the room. “Bet you can’t catch me!” Sirius called, sticking his tongue out. Regulus smirked. For someone who was only 11 and quite small (He was not like the other boys, that’s why), Regulus was pretty quick. They raced up to the third floor.

At the last step, Regulus lunged forward and grabbed the hem of Sirius’ shirt, causing them to tumble down to the carpeted ground. “Who’s caught who, now?” he boasted. They both got up and brushed the invisible dirt from their trousers. (Of course, their house is squeaky clean) “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Sirius grumbled. Stupid kid. 

“Anyway, can we please, please, please, bake a cake for your birthday? You didn’t let me last year. We had a dumb cupcake instead.” the taller boy pleaded. Regulus did not know what spirit had possessed his body, but he agreed. His response hyped his brother up so much that it looked like he had an imaginary tail wagging behind him like a dog. 

The sound of something clicking open alerted Regulus. Was someone there? Sirius surprisingly noticed it too (that oblivious lad) and looked around cautiously. Their parents’ bedroom door was ajar. “Uhm, why is Mother and Father’s room open? Isn’t it supposed to be locked all the time?” Regulus furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah…” Sirius glanced at the doorknob.

“Let’s go in. We’ve never been there before. It might be fun!” he suggested with a grin lighting up his face. “No, we shouldn’t. What if they find out? We’re not allowed in there.” Regulus hesitated. “C’mon! Stop being such a party pooper!” Sirius dragged him by his hand and opened the door wider. 

They entered and closed the door softly. “Woah,” Sirius breathed out. Their parents’ room looked much more majestic than theirs. The bed looked like it was made for a king with its cream colour curtains and golden headboard. The marble floors were the perfect touch for the room. Making it look lavish. “We should try on their clothes! I bet Father has the perfect ones for us!” Sirius shrieked in excitement. Regulus rolled his eyes. He shoved his brother for his idiotic idea (because that’s what brothers do), causing the boy to stumble into a drawer. It jerked open and out of it fell letters. “What’s this?” Sirius picked one up. It was written to Sirius Black. “A letter for me? From whom?” he questioned. There was a red seal labeled with a “H”. 

Sirius tore the envelope open and took out the letter from inside. “Dear Sirius Orion Black, will you marry me, and elope with me?” he read out. “Oh my god, oh my god! See Reggie? People love me unlike you, you ungrateful twat!” he giggled. “You’re insufferable!” Regulus rolled his eyes hard and snatched the letter from his hands.

“Dear Mr Black, 

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than 31st July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress,” Regulus read. 

He felt as though his eyes would pop out of his head. Sirius’ jaw dropped to the ground. He scrambled to reach for another letter on the marble floor and so did Regulus. He wanted to see if he had gotten one too. All of them were addressed to Sirius. “Remus told me about this! Hah! See, they want me not you! I’m more magicky!” Sirius gloated. Regulus’ felt his heart drop to his stomach. 

Despite this, he searched through the letters one last time. When he saw the letter ‘R’, his eyes shined with joy and he hastily tore it open. It was the same letter but, this time, it was addressed to him. Regulus interrupted Sirius’ victory dance and showed him the letter, his chest swelling with pride. 

“I’m magical too!” he said. “Woah! Reggie, do you know what this means? It means we can meet Remus and James! Every single day! And, as a bonus, we can be far, far away from Mother and Father!” Sirius jumped around the room. Regulus furiously nodded his head, a ball of hope forming in him. 

He wanted to see James every day. With his dazzling smile and twinkling eyes. He wanted to see Remus everyday too. Remus with his kind gaze and his thousands of books. The mere thought of getting away from their parents excited him. 

“Maybe we should explore a bit more. See what we find,” Regulus suggested, glancing at the large bookshelf. “Maybe I am finally rubbing off on you, Reg.” Sirius smirked, making Regulus roll his eyes. At this point, he could roll his eyes so well that it was his talent. His signature move. 

He walked towards the bookshelf, brushing his fingers against the spine of the books. There were so many of them. Most of them were dusty. Clearly, somebody had not been reading often. Regulus pulled out a thin, red book and looked at the title. It was something about history, which did not intrigue his interest. He put it back on the shelf. As Regulus moved, he noticed that one of the books was not dusty at all. It looked old, but it was not dusty. He tried pulling it out, but the book did not budge. Regulus did not know why, but something occurred to him and made him push the book forward instead of trying to pull it backward. He heard a clicking sound, and suddenly, the bookshelf split itself into two and opened. The noise caused Sirius to turn around from whatever he was doing. Seeing the open bookshelf, both Regulus and Sirius were stunned. They did not move a muscle, scared of what might happen if they did.

Finally, Sirius broke the silence (as usual) and strided towards Regulus. He grabbed his hand, looked at the bookshelf for a moment before pulling Regulus inside it with him. It took Regulus another few seconds to recover from the shock and break away from his older brother’s grasp. There was a short tunnel, which led them to a strange room filled with jars containing weird stuff, potions, some sort of green powder, and even more books. Regulus went up to a molten golden potion and examined it. He had the urge to dip his fingers inside but knew better and did not. Sirius scanned the room. His face lit up when something caught his attention and he rushed towards it. Regulus followed him to make sure that he did not screw something up. There were two odd looking sticks placed upon a rack, fit just for them. Sirius gingerly picked them up and gave one to Regulus. “Woah, look at this stick. Remus showed me his. Oh wait– sorry, his magicky wand thing. Oh, yeah! It’s called a wand. You can use it for spells and stuff,” he explained. 

“Let’s try casting a spell. Maybe the lighting up spell? Lumos?” Sirius cocked an eyebrow. Regulus nodded and they both held the wands firmly. “Lumos,” they both spoke at the same time.  The wands crackled a bit before lighting up. “We are magical.” Regulus gasped. “Of course we are. The letters are proof, aren’t they?” Sirius said. The brothers grinned at each other. “Right. Maybe it’s time to go now.” Regulus placed the wands back on their rack. “Now? I don’t want to,” Sirius whined like the little kid that he was. “If we leave now, I’ll let you bake that cake for lunch.” Regulus negotiated. “Oh okay!” Sirius dashed out of the room after reaching out for a random book from a bookshelf. Regulus follows. 

They both pant as they shove the book that had opened the bookshelf back into its original spot. Sirius proceeds to leave the room. “Wait! We have to clean up.” Regulus stopped him. “Fine, fine.” Sirius sighed. They stuff the letters back into the drawer, carefully place the books back onto the shelves and tidy up the bed a bit in case their parents notice any signs that they had been there. 

“Okay, let’s go.” Regulus said after thoroughly checking the room for anything out of place. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Here’s your birthday present, Reg!” Sirius gave him the same book that he had taken from the shelf inside the strange room. Obviously, he cannot get him a real gift, so the book meant a lot to Regulus. “Thanks.” Regulus replied with a small smile. Regulus did not bother reading it. He would accept anything from his brother. Even if it were dirt.

They headed to the kitchen and told the maids that they could take a break for an hour or two. They happily left, tired from working all morning. “Do you even know how to bake a cake?” Regulus raised an eyebrow as he noticed Sirius taking out ingredients from the cabinets. (he had to tiptoe)

“No, but it shouldn't be too hard! …Right? It’s going to be a piece of cake!” Sirius winked. Regulus inwardly groaned. This was going to take forever. 

Their afternoon flew by as Sirius attempted to bake a cake (and almost burned down the house but his brother does not need to know that) and Regulus read the book that Sirius had given him to pass the time.

The book was called “Quidditch Through the Ages”. It seemed interesting enough. Quidditch happened to be a sport in the Wizarding World that was quite famous. A small, golden ball, a medium-sized red ball, hoops, broomsticks, that sort of thing. He vaguely remembered James telling him about Quidditch.

“Do you know what’s Quidditch?” James asked. Regulus shook his head. “Oh wait, of course you don't. You're a Muggle. Y’know sometimes I forget you're one.” James said. Muggle. It seemed such a foul thing to be. Regulus did not want to be a Muggle. He wanted to be a wizard. Like James. 

“Anyway, Quidditch is the best sport in the whole world! I want to join the school team. Although, I have to wait until next year, which is very sad. To be honest, I don't really care what position I get but if I had to pick, I would want to be a Chaser. Dad has been letting me practice in our backyard every weekend.” this information went through one ear and came out the other at that time for Regulus. He did not know anything about whatever James was talking about. 

“Do you know what? I really think you’d be good at Quidditch if you were a wizard. You're quite fast aren't you?” James grinned. For some reason, this made his heart do a flip. Oh, how Regulus yearned to be a magical person.

***

“REGGIE! I’M DONE!” came a shrill voice from Sirius that jolted Regulus out of his James daydream. He placed the book on the couch and glided over to the kitchen counter. Sirius stood there beaming at Regulus as he gestured to the cake in front of him. The cake was chocolate flavoured and did not have any decorations whatsoever except frosting that spelled out ‘HAPPY B'DAY REG UR FINALLY 11! ‘. The sight of it warmed the younger one's heart. He could feel his lips being tugged upwards. 

“EAT IT” Sirius exclaimed as he shoved some cake into Regulus’ mouth. Surprisingly, the cake was good. Just like whatever Sirius did. “Soo, how is it?” the older one queried. “Absolutely disgusting, revolting in every way.  I can't even put this in my mouth. I'm surprised how this is even edible.” Regulus replied. Sirius barked out a laugh and placed a piece of the cake in his own mouth. “Wowie!  This is delicious! I never knew I had such talent in baking!” Sirius squealed. Regulus wanted to smack him. Of course, he was good at baking. He was the Golden Child after all. This was just another thing that made Regulus second to Sirius. 

After a while (Sirius ate 3 quarters of the cake), both brothers headed up to the older one’s room. “We can have a sleepover! “Sirius suggested. Low and behold, they had a sleepover. They passed the time rambling about random things. Walburga and Orion only returned the next morning, so they didn't care. Around 7.30, Regulus heard a crash from his room, followed by a “Regulus? Sirius? Are you here? “. Sirius immediately perked up. The two had become close since they met (Regulus felt a bit jealous). “JAMES! Come to our room, we are here!” Sirius practically shouted to James. 

A few moments later, the tanned boy stumbled into Sirius’ room. He flashed Regulus his signature smile that always made him feel like melting into a puddle and staying like that for the rest of eternity. “Remus isn't here?” Sirius questioned, a disappointed look cast onto his face. “Yeah, he's sore from… yoga,” James replied sheepishly. What a likely story.