See you in the stars
Something is shaking him, quite insistently to be frank.
The more he´s shaken the more Regulus wakes up, and as he does he can now feel a small warm hand on his shoulder. He knows that hand like he knows his own, so he turns his back to his brother and pulls his cover over his head.
“Go away Siri” He grumbles, not even opening his eyes to look at the older boy that is crawling up on his bed.
“Reggie come on, get up!” His annoyance of an older brother whispers in his ear as he suddenly rips the warm cover from his grasp. Regulus whips his head around to glare at his brother while reaching for his cover, not having any energy for his mischief.
“Oh don't look at me like that Reg, i'm not planning anything,” Sirius says as he sees the look on his brothers face, rolling his eyes in found amusement because Regulus may think that he looks mean and threatening when he glares at people but the truth is that he just looks like an annoyed little kitten. Utterly adorable.
Regulus continues to glare at him and suddenly Sirius know just what to say to get his brother out of bed and join him, “Les étoiles sont de sortie∼” (The stars are out∼)
As soon as the words are out of his mother Regulus swings his legs over the edge of the bed and jumps down, stuffing his small feet in his slippers and starts gathering up his blankets and pillows in his arms. Sirius lets out a snicker at how easy his brother is, then snickers even more as he looks back at Regulus, or more correctly, he looks back at the mountain of blankets and pillows that covers him completely. He can only see the sleeves of Regulus sweatshirt and small tufts of black curly hair.
“He-Here let me help.” He says, all whilst sniggering under his breath. He reaches forwards and takes most of the pillows and the cover so that his little brother can see where he is putting his feet.
Regulus pouts up at him for a second, “I had it” he says stubbornly. Sirius only raises one eyebrow as he stares down at his little brother, Regulus huffed out a sharp breath that puffed out his soft cheeks. He turned on his heel and marched towards his window that has easy assets to the roof. Sirius chuckled at the younger boy's dramatic behavior but followed him out the window.
The trek up to the roof was easy and one the two of them had done hundreds of times, whenever they wanted to be away from their parents the roof was their secret hideaway because their mother and father would never lower themself to such standards that they would climb up on the roof.
The image would be hysterical though.
The two boys lay down the blankets and pillows on the hard roof so that they could lay back and look at the dark sky that is freckled with small shining dots. For a while they just lie there in the peaceful night, letting the cool breeze wash over them. A particular cold wind comes from nowhere, causing Regulus to shiver and scoots closer to his human furnace of a brother, Sirius lets out a chuckle and wraps his arm around his little brother's shoulders, holding him close and sharing his warmth.
“Vous devez partir?” (Do you have to leave?) Sirius heard Regulus mumble from where his face is burrowed in his chest, Sirius sighed, knowing that this would happen sometime.
“Oui, je le fais…” (Yeah, I do…) He said as he raised his hand to comb through his brother's soft curls, closing his eyes as a pained expression made its way onto his face.
“Je ne veux pas te quitter, mais tu sais que je dois le faire, n'est-ce pas ?” (I don't want to leave you, but you know I have to, don't you?) It tormented him, knowing that he would have to leave his baby brother with those monsters for a full year, alone. Who knows what they would do to him without Sirius there to protect him.
“Qui…” Regulus mumbled, voice so low that Sirius almost missed the response. They both stayed quiet for a little while, not knowing what to say so Sirius just continued to play with Regulus curls.
“Je ne veux pas être seul avec eux.” (I don't want to be alone with them.) Regulus finally said, his voice shaky and fear clinging to it. Sirius swallowed hard and tightened his hold on his brother, tears swelling in his eyes. The thought of what could happen when he is away is paralyzing, because he knew that just because he is away doesn't mean that their parents would stop being horrible human beings. They would just switch the direction that their hatred is pointed towards, meaning Regulus. His little brother, the only good thing that he has is this nightmare of a house. And the knowledge that his absence is going to hurt him, both physically and emotionally is breaking him.
“J'ai besoin que tu écoutes attentivement ce que je vais te dire, petite étoile.”(I need you to listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you, little star.) He said with a lump in his throat, trying desperately to hold back the tears, he doesn't want to cry in front of Reggie because it would only scare him more. Regulus gave a tiny nod against his shoulder, signaling that he is listening.
“Faites juste ce qu'ils vous disent de faire, ne répondez pas, ne soyez pas un malin.” (Just do what they tell you to do, don't talk back, don't be a smartass.) It hurt him to say it but it would probably be the only thing that could keep him alive all alone in that house. Regulus startled, shocked at his words, he lifted his head and looked at Sirius with wide, confused eyes.
"Mais-". (But-)
"Pas de mais." (No buts.) Sirius cut him off, his voice sounding more harsh than Regulus has ever heard him. He looks at his big brother, really looks at him and sees the panic hiding in his silver eyes, he sees the dread, the anxiety, the pure terror that he knows Sirius does his best to hide from him. It hits him then that he's not the only one that's afraid of what the future has in store. Suddenly Regulus feels stupid, of course his big brother is worried about him, he knows what their parents are capable of, even more than him because Sirius always, always plays the Big Brother card and protects him. He takes the blame, he takes the punches, the hexes, the curses.
The Unforgivables…
He does whatever he can so that Regulus is unharmed. He doesn't always succeed, Reguls has still taken his fair share of abuse, it's impossible not to when living with people that seemed to despise him for simply breathing. The thing is thought, whenever Walburga slaps him across the face, when Orion kicks him in the stomach, when he is cursed, pushed, hext, Sirius always does something to take the attention off of him. He breaks priced family heirlooms, says just the right thing to make their blood boil, or on one memorable occasion attack them.
He does whatever he can to protect him, because Regulus is the most important person in his world.
So as the tears that Sirius has been fighting wins and runs down his face Regulus hugs his brother tight, tighter than he ever has and mumbles out an okey, promising that he will try to keep his head down and not try to anger their parents. Sirius breathes out a quiet sigh of relief and continues to run his hand through his little brother's soft curls, he tilts his head back and searches for his brother's star. When he finds it he smiles and gently nudges Regulus.
"Votre étoile est sortie." (Your star´s out) He whispers, Regulus tilts his head back and a bright smile forms on his face as he immediately finds his star.
"Il ne faudra pas longtemps avant que nous puissions voir le vôtre aussi!" (It won't be long before we can see yours too!) He says with an excited gasp, Regulus has always loved astronomy, learning everything he could and telling interesting facts or stories to Sirius. He would miss that when he leaves for Hogwarts, an excited Regulus bouncing on the balls of his feet as he explains something new that he learned that day. The thought make Sirius thought the grip on his baby brother,
"Ouais, sachez que quand vous le regarderez, je ferai la même chose." (Yeah, know that when you look at it I'll do the same.)
The two brothers stayed out on the roof until the stars went away and the sun took their place. They watched the sunrise together for what would be the last time, not knowing it would be a long, long time before they would interact like this again.
Something during the memorie the grip that Sirius has on his arm has loosen considerably, still he would probably have some faint bruising as his brother had held on rather tight in the beginning.
Regulus is thankful the this memory didn't show any of their parents abuse, its still embarrassing that the whole fucking school has seen and emotional conversation that was supposed to just be between them. Out of the corner of his eyes he can see Sirius feels the same, he looks mad, tired and sad.
Regulus understands the two first emotions on his brother's face but why is he sad? Nothing really happened during the memory they just talked, is that something to be sad about?
Regulus huffed and looked away, not even wanting to know because he has a feeling that it would only hurt him.
“REGULUS YOU CAN ACTUALLY SMILE?!” The voice of Barty fucking Crouch jr echoed in the great hall, Regulus could hear the shiteating grin that he bastard had on his face. Regulus turned his head toward the Slytherin table with a murderous glare, and would you look at that, the fucker was grining ear from ear.
“You were adorable!”
“Fuck off, Bartemius!” As soon as he said it he heard gasps from around the room, people apparently didn't think that he cursed just because he was the heir to The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.
What bullshit.