Magical object
The great hall was loud, to loud for Regulus sensitive senses at the moment, it happened every year when he comes back to school, from living in the dead quiet of Grimmauld place, where the only disturbances are the shouting matches between his mother and brother for the two months of summer vacation, to the boisterous and roaring energy that is Hogwart on the 1 of september. His summer had been awful to put it mildly, between his brother running away, to being the sole holder of his mothers attention, and therefore her rage, could be described as anything remotely positive. He is still not completely recovered from the injuries that she has been inflicting on him for the last month as she forbade Kreacher from helping him heal all the bruises, cuts and burns.
He had hoped that he´d be able to keep his injuries a secret from his protective and overbearing friends, but from the moment that he crossed the threshold of their usual compartment at the Hogwarts express that he and his friends occupied every year, they were on him.
“Alright, show us the damage.” Was the first words out of Bartys mouth, Regulus sent him a withering glare as he carefully crossed his arms over his chest, so as to not aggravate his bruised ribs any further, “Hello to you too Bartemius, how was your summer? mine was great, thank you for asking.” Barty rolled his eyes, even as a small relieved smile pulled at the corners of his mouth.
“Good to know you still have your charming personality.”
“Reg…” Evan murmured in a tense tone, looking at his thin frame. Regulus cut him a look that suggested that whatever he was about to say was something he should keep to himself, but because his friends have become immune to his icy-cold glares that could make grown men cry, Evan completely ignored his warning look. “You lost weight.” He said, a worried frown on his face as he pressed his lips together in an offended complexion.
“So what, I can't lose a little weight without you two being on my case?” Regulus huffed in a haughty tone, looking away from his two best friends that can somehow read him like an open book even when he tries to keep his feelings hidden. He doesn't want to see their worried expressions, he wants to forget but he knows that he'll cave and tell them the truth if he looks at them, he doesn't want to remember the fear, the pain or the complete terror that he has been feeling for the past month.
A gentle hand settles on his shoulder and he flinches back, he remembers a second to late that he is in fact not in that house, she isn't there and she cant hurt him. He is on the Hogwarts express and with his best friends, who are now looking at him with alarm, shit . Barty reaches over to the blinds on the compartment door and closes them to give him some privacy, not looking away from him for a second.
“I'm fine.” He says in a weak tone, praying that they will leave it alone, “You're not Reg, and that's fine, you don't need to be fine or even remotely okay, but we need to know if there is something that needs to be healed, okay?” Evan says, giving him a sad, knowing look. Barty looks him in the eyes, giving him a determined look, daring him to lie to them, Regulus huffs out a short breath and looks away, taking a seat next to the window.
“It can wait until we're back in the dorm.” He relents.
Evan and Barty share a quick glance, having a whole conversation with just their eyes that Regulus ignores altogether as he looks out the window, suddenly feeling completely drained. “Okay, but when we get back you will show us, so that we can help you, alright?”
“Fine.” He mumbled, closing his eyes as the train began to move, falling into a light slumber.
He is brought out of his thoughts as the heavy doors to the great hall opens and professor McGonagall leads a trail of scared looking first year students into the hall, he follows the first years with his eyes as they walks further into the hall when he suddenly catches silver eyes, a mirror of his own, looking at him. Sirius is looking at him and he sees his expression change from the easy smile that was there before to an angry glare, the bitterness and outrage clear on his face as he looks at his brother. It only lasts for a few seconds before Sirius looks away, and makes it a point to refuse to even look in Regulus' direction again.
Something in his chest twinges at that, that his brother doesn't even seem to care about him, he knows that they haven't really talked since he got sorted into slytherin but he thought that Sirius might at least make sure that he was fine after being alone in that house. But of course that was a childish wish.
Throughout the sorting process Regulus felt himself float away, everything felt like it was under water, it was muffled. It was nice, to just let go and not being able to feel anything and just breathe, he's not stupid he knows that he is dissociating and that it's a horrible way to cope but it takes everything overwhelming away so he continues.
BANG!
He is ripped from the calm and brought back to the present where a bright light is emitting, right before the teacher table, shrieks can be heard from around the room, panicked voices screaming, asking what's going on. Regulus shields his eyes from the bright light, trying to breath through the wave of pain that washes over him as he raises his arm too high for his hurt ribs. The light is suddenly gone and Dumbledore's voice is heard over the frenzy, “ Silence!”
The hall falls silent, all turning towards the front of the room to look at the headmaster, he has stood up from his chair with his wand pointed at his throat to amplify his voice. Ahead of him, on the other side of the table is…something, Regulus has honestly no idea what that is, it's floating in the air and looks like a golden sphere, not unlike the quidditch snitch but much bigger. Regulus can see Dubledor looking at the sphere but sees no recognition in his eyes, is the headmaster doesn't even know what it is, it can't be anything good
Dublemdore open his mouth to say something but before he can the sphere begins to puls with magic and sends out two gloves of light, Regulus can only blick before the light slams into his chest, knocking the breath of of him and leaves him coughing as he tries to suck in some air. In the back of his head he can hear someone else also coughing but he can't comprehend it, the light slams into him hard, right on his ribcage. After a few seconds the pain clears but then he notices that he is starting to float.
“What the fuck?!” Comes from his right, he turns his head and sees that Sirius is also flying. Sirius is already looking at him with those angry eyes once again.
“Qu'est-ce que tu as fait?!” (what the hell did you do?!) He screams at him, Regulus is taken aback for a second before rage blooms up in him.
“Putain pourquoi tu penses que j'ai fait quelque chose?!” (Why the fuck do you think I did something?!) He screams back at his idiot of a brother, fury vibration just under his skin. Before the older black brother can respond the sphere before them changes, catching their attention. It changes into a big flat white screen of some sort, it kinda looks like one of those muggle cinemas screens. The white of the screen starts to change and Regulus can feel his jaw drop as the inside of Grimmauld place is shown, he looks over at Sirius and sees that he too is shocked. Before he can say anything a small figure can be seen running down the corridor with an older male walking calmly behind him.
“Sirius, calm down and walk normally.” Came the stern voice of Orion black, the small figure that turns out to be a young Sirius Black turns around and looks up at his tall father.
“But Papa…” The toddler whined in a high pitched voice, turning his big silver eye on his father as he pouted. “Reggie, I want to see him.”
Orion rolled his eyes, an annoyed look passing over his face, “That does not mean you can behave like a peasant, walk normally or you´ll not see your brother today.”
Sirius pouted even more but listened to his father, slowing down and walking beside him at a slow pace.
“Are these my fucking memories!?” Regulus tore his eyes away from the screen to look at the teenaged Sirius besides him in the air, they were floating in the middle of the great hall, directly in front of the screen.
Sirius craned his neck to look at Dumbledor, “Can you make it disappear or what? I don't really fancy everyone seeing my memories.” He grunted out, annoyance clear on his face.
“I'm sorry my boy but I have never seen anything like this, I do not know what can happen if I try to get rid of it.” To give Dumbledor some credit he actually did sound sorry that he couldn't do anything.
“You gotta be kidding me…” Sirius mumbled in a sullen voice, looking remarkably similar to his younger self at that moment. At the thought Regulus let out a quiet snort, making Sirius whip his head around.
“What?!”
“Oh nothing, just that you look like your 2 when you do that.” He said tilting his head to the screen where little Sirius is still silently pouting, Sirius looks away from him but Regulus manages to catch the slight redness of his ears. “Shut your mouth.” He bit out.
They both look forward and notice that their father and little Sirius have made their way up to their mothers chambers.
Orin looked down on Sirius and said in a hard voice, “Now, you need to be quiet and careful, am i understood?”
“Yes Papa.” Sirius said in a whisper, looking at the door expectantly. Orion sighed but reached for the door handle and opened the door. Sirius carefully walked into the room and saw his mother in the bed, holding a little bundle in her arms.
“Mama?” He whispered, slowly walking towards the bed, his head only just came over the top so he couldn't see what was in his mothers arms, his father walked over and lifted him onto the bed next to his mother so that he could see better. And there, in his mothers arm was his little brother, so small with black hair that he could already see curling a little bit, a button nose that he desperately wanted to bop and small pink lips, he was adorable.
“Its Reggie?” Sirius said in an awed whisper.
“Yes, this is your little brother Sirius and you´ll take care of him, won´t you?”
“Uh-hu.” Sirius said in a distracted tone, not being able to take his eyes away from his new little brother.
“You remember the day I was born?” Regulus said in a low voice so that only Sirius would hear him, when he looked over his brother looked uncomfortable and wouldn't meet his eyes.
“Yeah…” He finally muttered.
“Reg, you were adorable!” Came the shout from Barty, who was smirking up at him, “What happened huh?” Regulus didn't bother giving his ass of a friend a response and just flipped him the bird, Barty clutched his heart like the dramatic bastard that he was, Regulus rolled his eyes as chuckles were heard across the room.
The screen started to change once again and both the brothers braced themself for what else the whole Hogwrts student body was about to see.