Prologue part 1
“Wake up, wake up!”
“Go away, Sirius, I'm trying to sleep,” Regina says as she pushes the other toddler onto the floor and off her bed.
“But Reggie, my brain is so awake, and the stars are out, so we need to be out,” Sirius whines as he pushes himself off the floor.
From where he now stood, Sirius squints his eyes at his sister's sleeping form. The top of his head barely reached the height of the bed, a conscious choice of their mothers that just resulted in climbing toddlers.
“Reggie, wake up,” Sirius badly whispers, whining as he reaches up to use her blankets to pull himself back up.
Gripping the duvet to hold his weight, he steps onto the bed frame before moving his hands up further on the blanket, under of which his sister continued to ignore him, to leverage himself all the way up onto the bed.
Regina, who had not moved at all during all her brother's activities, opened one eye to glare at her brother, who was now sitting on top of her blanketed form.
“It's cold out there.”
“You are never cold, Reggie. Come on,” Sirius rolled his eyes.
Regina closed her eyes and burrowed further into her pillow.
“Well, I'm cold now, so I’m going to sleep.”
Making a face, Sirius leaned down and got his face close enough to his sister that his nose brushed her cheek.
“If you come to play, I’ll sneak an extra dessert for you at dinner tomorrow,”
“Kreacher will give me one if I ask,” she said confidently.
Sirius rolled his eyes. He hopes his sister's new friendship with the house elf goes away soon because it was ruining his best bargaining chip.
Regina took a deep breath before sitting up quickly, nearly head-budding Sirius. Sirius hurried to the foot of the bed, not trying to hide the goofy grin on his face.
“Two desserts,” she said said.
Sirius nodded sincerely. Regina gave him a stern look, which wasn't quite as threatening as the four-year-old would like to believe, before unraveling herself from her blanket.
With a childish giggle, Sirius launched himself off the bed, grabbed his sister's hand, and slid off the bed, pulling her down with him.
“Sirius, stop. I can walk myself. I'm not a baby; I'm four,” Regina whined when he continued to hold her hand while he marched them across her room.
“You are my baby sister,” he replied like it was obvious.
Regina humghed and let him drag her to the door of their shared room.
The room wasn’t small by any means, nowhere near the size of their parent's room. It just had two beds on opposite sides of the room and a lot of bland paintings and wall decor. After Regina turned four, their mother thought the children were at the age where they should no longer waste their time on things like toys.
Even though the room was large, it wasn’t long before Sirius stopped abruptly at the door, causing Regina to almost slam into him.
“Ok, Reggie, remember, we have to be super duper quiet.”
Regina nodded grimly, causing her two tiny white braids to bounce on her shoulders.
Sirius smiled again before quietly opening the door and guiding his sister out by her hand. Like mice, they snuck down the long hallway that led to the stairs. The stairs, like pretty much all of their houses, were ridiculously old and creaked loudly if stepped on in the wrong place. Sirius had, after much experimentation, discovered the prime stepping spots. Regina could never remember them and always just followed where her brother stepped.
At the base of the stairs, they walked across the border of the living room and down another hallway to the door of their dining room.
The Blacks, like many of the pureblood families, came from old money, and their house showed their riches more than anything else they could ever do.
The long wooden dining table alone costs more than a typical flat in London would. If all the portraits on the wall or any of the fine china in cases around the room permitter were added in, the room would cost more than most families make in their entire lives.
That being said, the room was the best for the children to play in, primarily due to its nearly soundproof nature, a feature their mother used to her advantage often.
It was late enough that Kretcher had gone to do whatever he did in the wee hours of the morning, and with their parents fast asleep, they were almost sure not to get into trouble for their late-night endeavors.
The second the door closes behind the children, Sirius releases his sister's hand, taps her shoulder with a yell, and runs to the other side of the room as fast as his little legs can take him.
“Sirius! I wasn’t ready!” Regina shouted as she chased after her brother.
Trying to play tag in a room mostly taken up by a table proved very frustrating. Running in circles like guinea pigs, occasionally switching directions when Regina would try and pull a fast one on her brother and run the other way.
“Sirius, I'm tired,” Regina whined as she stopped running.
Sirius grinned from the other side of the table.
“Come on, Reggie, don't be a baby just cause you are losing.”
Regina scrunched her face.
“I’m not a baby,” she said.
Sirius groaned and hung his head.
“Then keep playing.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, not speaking.
“Reggie, it's been only like five seconds,”
“I don't care. I want to go back to bed,”
Sirius groaned loudly again.
“Then what do you want to play?” he asked exasperatedly.
“I don't want to play anything,” Regina yelled, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
“Why are you crying, I thought you said you weren’t a baby,”
“I am not a baby,” she said, slapping the dining room table out of frustration.
Where her hand had struck, a thin layer of ice erupted in a jagged circle around Regina’s hand. She ripped her hand off and stared at the ice in horror.
On the other side of the table, Sirius’s eyes kept darting back and forth between her and the ice, trying to figure out how the two connected.
Regina continued not to move, barely even blinking. The only thing that finally set Sirius into motion was the thought of how he would explain this to Mother.
He slowly went around the table, resembling someone trying not to spook a wild animal, to where his sister was frozen. He guided her by her shoulders and turned her around so that she was no longer facing the table but rather facing him.
“Reggie, go upstairs to bed, ok,” he said while walking her towards the door, “I’ll take care of this, don't worry.”
She nodded slightly and left the room in a slow trance.
Ok, Sirius thought, looking back at the table. Knowing Regina, she would have forgotten where to step on the stairs, and mother would be down briefly to investigate which of her children had the nerve to be wandering around at this time.
He ran to the kitchen which had a door connected to the dining room, grabbed a cup, and threw some water in it.
He then proceeded to go and dump the water on the table. Thankfully, the ice must not have been extra cold because it mostly disappeared under the water.
Not ten seconds after he had poured the water, he heard the familiar footsteps of his mothers coming closer to the dining room. He stood there, knowing he was doing this for his sister's safety. He didn't know what would have caused her to be able to do that, but he knew that nothing good could come from his parents knowing.
“Sirius, what the hell are you doing?” her loud voice boomed the second she opened the door to the sight of her eldest holding an empty cup over a wet table.
He looked over in panic at his mother. He had definitely underestimated how upset she would be.
“I was getting a glass because I was thirsty, and I tripped and spilled it on the table,” he replied, trying his best to look apologetic.
The look she gave him left no question in his mind about what was going to ensue. He took a deep breath, remembering that this was for his sister, before walking towards his beckoning mother.
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Every tiny movement hurt. Just the short walk across his room left Sirius feeling like he would collapse.
Even though every part of him wanted to go to sleep, he knew he had to talk to Regina.
He made his way over to her bed first, only to find it empty.
He sighed and went over to his bed, finding a toddler-sized lump under the comforter. He pulled himself onto the bed, similar to how he had only done an hour ago.
Sliding under the covers, he pulled his sister in a hug.
Her sobs, no longer muffed by the blanket, echoed throughout the room.
“I don’t know what's happening to me,” she sobbed. “It keeps happening, and I don't know why”
Sirius just lay there holding his sister.
“We will figure it out, Reggie, I promise,”