The day that Regulus found his brother in the library, all bloody and unconscious, something in his heart broke so violently that he wondered if it'll ever be fixed again. That night will haunt him forever, no matter how much he tried to push it out of his mind. That was only the first time.
Regulus was nine. Sirius has been sorted into Gryffindor, and was in his first year at Hogwarts. He came home for the holidays, and Regulus knew that their mother immediately took him to punish him. What he didn't know what she would do. He couldn't have imagined she would have gone so far.
Up until then, the worst punishment Regulus has gotten so far was a ruler or belt over the palms.
That night, he finally knew what his mother was capable of, as he approached his brother slowly and fearfully, Sirius wasn't moving an inch, and his chest was raising slowly but his breaths were deep and ragged as if it was painful to breathe.
He called out for his brother and got no response in return. His mother passed the library, and threw him a sharp look.
'That is what you'll get if you disobey us, Regulus! Let this be a warning.' she told him, and left without another word.
Regulus was crouched down next to his brother, slightly shaking him and pleading him to wake up.
'Sirius...please wake up..' his whispers could barely be heard despite the dark silence in the house. His voice was cracking and he was on the verge of tears.
'Master Regulus! Allow me.' Kreacher said as he came into the room, spotting the two boys. He put his hands on both Regulus and Sirius and with a crack they were upstairs in Sirius' room. Sirius was lying the bed and Regulus sat next to him. Kreacher was no longer with them, but in a short while he came back with a cloth and a bowl of water. He dipped the cloth in the water and went to try and clean Sirius but Regulus stopped him.
'Let me do it!' he said and took the cloth from Kreacher.
The elf looked at him.
'You can go now, Kreacher!' and the elf did.
Regulus started cleaning the blood from Sirius' face. He still didn't seem to be waking up.
Tears were streaming down Regulus' face.
A few minutes later, when Regulus got to Sirius' arms to clean them, a weak hand touched his, and Regulus looked up.
'Reggie...' Sirius said in a weak voice.
'Don't, Sirius! Let me clean you, you need to rest, we will talk after.' Regulus said, he had a lot of questions and a lot of things he wanted to say to his brother, but decided his health was more important, he could wait until Sirius felt a little better.
Sirius' eyes slowly closed, and his mind was going blank by each second, but a single thought when through his mind before he fell asleep.
'I will always protect you Reggie..'
Sirius didn't want his baby brother to go through this as well, he was so innocent, such a pure soul, yet he knew so much and he was so mature already. A nine year old shouldn't clean blood from his brothers wounds, he shouldn't know the curses their mother throws at his brother. He should be enjoying childhood, but they both knew that was impossible for each of them.
Regulus, a nine year old, shouldn't take care of him. He, Sirius, was the one who should be taking care of Reggie, his baby brother.
Little did they know, somewhere else, in the house of the Black Sisters, something similar was going on, except everything was so much louder.
The Black Sister residence was usually full of arguments, yelling, throwing curses. It was a terrifying loudness.
The Black Brothers Residence was quiet. Walburga silenced Sirius' screams each time, a grim quietness fell over the house.
'You cannot do this to us, Andromeda!' Druella yelled. Her second daughter was to marry a muggle-born, which was unacceptable coming from such a noble pureblood. Andromeda was a Black after all.
'I am done being your puppet! Why do you care? You didn't even want me in the first place, you didn't want any of us, you wanted a heir, and when you failed, you neglected us like we didn't exist, at least Walburga pays attention to her sons!' Andromeda said, unknowingly of course, about what was happening in her cousins home.
'This is a disgrace to our name! Toujours pur, Andromeda!' Cygnus said calmly, but you could feel the anger radiating off him.
'I love him! I don't care about blood supremacy, I-' Andromeda started but was cutoff by her mad older sister.
'Andy, come on now, don't be stupid, you could marry someone noble, and carry on the pure bloodline' Bellatrix said, twirling her hair and smirking.
'Andy, please, don't do this to us' the youngest, Narcissa, pleaded. Andromeda almost softened at her baby sister pleas, but didn't give in. She shook her head angrily.
'I'm marrying him whether you like it or not, I never wanted to live like this anyway'
'Then get out of my house!' Druella yelled suddenly, extending her wand to the wall, and burning Andromeda's face off their own Black Family tapestry.
Cygnus looked down, Narcissa had tears in her eyes, and Bellatrix was eyeing her sharply. Druella looked at her expectantly, and Andromeda, without a word, looked for the last time at her mother before turning and making her way to the door, not looking back.
That day, Andromeda's excruciating life ended, while Sirius' just started.