Regulus Black - The marauders era

Chapter 13 - The quiet sibling

The two Black siblings were both gryffindor but they had vastly different personalities. For starters Sirius was outgoing, loud, confident and wanted to be the centre of attention whereas Regulus was the quiet, studious and non attention drawing brother. It was common knowledge that the two brothers were different but many who weren't their close friends couldn't see the difference as they based it off of looks and the Black looks very so defining. Both boys had rather aristocratic looks with their arched eyebrows, grey eyes and black hair. Regulus' cheekbones were slightly sharper and Sirius' hair was slightly on her but that was about it for appearance differences. The sibling resemblance was uncanny but as for personality if you asked their friends they would say that it was hard to believe they grew up in the same house. Regulus had always been slightly envious of Sirius' ability to make friends but he didn't mind only having a select few friends.
Regulus is 5 and Sirius is 7
Sirius bounded down the stairs and Regulus followed in his wake just a lot slower and a lot more cautious. It had been like this for a while with Sirius being reckless and Regulus being ridiculously risk adverse. Regulus had always been a lot quieter than Sirius preferring a book over friends and preferring to be unnoticed. Their parents had always complains that Sirius was overly loud and Regulus had tired to please them by being quieter but that only aggravated them more and they began to wonder if their youngest son was a bit slow.
"Mother, mother guess what ?" Sirius cried running into the living room to find their mother and tell her something completely random.
"Yes Sirius," Walburga drawled in an uninterested tone.
"I can do magic look," Sirius exclaimed and that caught their mother's attention as her head shot up and she thrust her wand at Sirius demanding he do some magic.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Sirius' voice only wavered slightly as he pointed the wand at a feather but the nervous look on his face disappeared as the feather was lifted off the ground.
Walburga simply nodded an appraising look on her face but then she turned to Regulus and a scowl formed on her features.
"You had better do magic soon," She barked and Regulus just nodded his head and looked down at his feet but Walburga put her wand under his neck and lifted his head up so he was staring at her.
"Answer me child," She growled and Regulus gulped hearing Sirius gasp and telling his mother to leave him alone.
"Yes mother," Regulus said and Walburga let him go but he was still a bit stunned that their mother would raise her wand to him.
While Walburga had never been a great mother he didn't think she would go that far but clearly the 5 year old was proven wrong.
Regulus is 11 and Sirius is 13
"Come along now boys we had better be on time and Regulus don't you dare think about being a gryffindor like your blood traitor brother," Walburga barked at the boys as they shuffled after her and towards platform 9 3/4.
Regulus had his head slightly bowed and was playing with hem of his robes desperately trying to relieve some of his nerves while he watched Sirius in awe as he held his head and aristocratic but also with an air of mischief as well. Regulus had never been this overly confident child and that been a cause of many arguments with his mother over the fact that he didn't talk properly to the guests at one of her stupid dinner parties. Sirius saw no problem on Regulus being quiet and often laughed with him about the fact that he could probably be a mouse if he tried. His father, Orion Black, couldn't care less about the fact that his son was quiet and focused more on trying to get him to look aristocratic and making him learn all the names on the family tree. Regulus gripped his rather heavy trunk even tighter making his knuckles go whit as he pushed some of his hair out of his eyes and ran at the barrier as he had seen Sirius do a couple of times. Once through the barrier Walburga seemed determined that the two brothers should keep up appearances, more so Regulus as apparently Sirius had already tarnished his reputation, and fussed over the fact that their collars weren't straight and how their robes needed to be adjusted ever so slightly.
Walburga grabbed Regulus by the shoulder and whispered harshly in his ear, " Now Regulus I know you're rather quiet but you must speak up and keep appearances up also be sorted into slyhterin."
Regulus gave a swift nod and looked at his mother giving her a swift hug and waving goodbye as he hurried off to find Sirius.
"Goodbye Mother," Regulus called and Walburga just nodded at him and he knew he shouldn't have been disappointed but he really did at least want a smile.
"Sirius," Regulus called after his brother and dragged his trunk to where his brother had just entered a compartment.
As soon as Regulus entered the compartment he found 3 new pairs of eyes staring at him and he cowered ever so slightly under their gaze.
"Alright boys meet Reggie my brother," Sirius announced and the first person to jump up was a boy with hazel eyes, that were crammed with glasses, and jet black messy hair and he held out his hand.
Regulus shook his hand quickly with a small smile and a nod as the boy introduced himself as James Potter. The other two introduced themselves as Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. After a few rounds of exploding snap James turned to him and studied him a curious look on his face and Regulus was suddenly extremely puzzled.
"Awfully quiet isn't he?" James said turning to Sirius and Sirius nodded grinning.
"Always has been young Reggie," Sirius said and Regulus scowled at him and Sirius ruffled his hair and Regulus attempted to bat his hand away, with little success that was.
A ginger haired girl passed the carriage and James' eyes lit up as he called out to her.
"Hey Evans, come meet mini Black,"
The girl, Evans, stopped in her tracks and opened the door to the carriage while looking at Regulus with a calculating stare in her face.
"Seeing as you're Sirius' brother I am really surprised by the lack of crude remarks but your physical features are virtually the same," Evans said and Regulus nodded in response.
"I'm Lily Evans," The girl said and Regulus shook hand before responding.
"I'm Regulus," He said and James looked vaguely shocked.
"Aaa ha he speaks!" James cried and Sirius rolled his eyes while Lily told him not to be mean and Regulus' cheeks coloured ever so slightly.
Maybe he really was quiet.
Regulus is 13 and Sirius is 15
An immediate difference that the teachers and fellow students had spotted between the two Black siblings is that Sirius was easily the more outgoing of the 2 and Regulus tended to stay in the shadows and study for upcoming exams.  Example of this difference occurred when the 2 brothers received howlers, these were a weekly occurrence as they were both in gryffindor.
Flashback
It was a cool, crisp morning and Regulus had gotten ready for breakfast and was walking down for breakfast with the marauders and as soon as they had sat down the owls had arrived and Regulus caught sight of Sirius' owl with a large red envelop in its beak and Sirius sighed rather loudly. As soon as the howler had hit the table Sirius stared at it rage present in his eyes as the howler begin to scream silencing the rest of the great hall.
"HOW DARE YOU ASSOCIATE WITH FILTHY MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS-" The rest of Walburgas screams were drowned out by Sirius' yells and anyone who hadn't been watching the howler scream now turned towards the gryffindor table.
"SHUT UP JUST SHUT UP!" Sirius yelled grabbing the howler off the table and chucking it on the floor and stamping on it.
James Potter looked shocked at Sirius' actions while Sirius sat down again look in perfectly normal as if nothing had happened and those around him stared in disbelief.
Flashback over
Regulus had received a howler not long after Sirius but he didn't yell like his brother had done he just sat there kind of  in a daze as he stared at the offending piece of paper before Sirius snatched it from in front of him and stamped it. Regulus didn't have the energy to stand up to their mother and really I didn't want to cause a scene as he didn't like being the centre of attention.
Regulus is 15 and Sirius is 17
Regulus and Sirius were both busy studying for their NEWTs and OWLs but they still made time for all of the marauders plus Lily and Marlene and Mary to meet up and just chat and do anything. James was now dating Lily and during these periods of fun they always sat as close together as possible and stole kisses when they thought no one was looking. While Regulus was comfortable around these people he hadn't really expressed a whole range of emotions and usually just reverted to deadpan sarcasm and no emotion at all. His friends had tried many a thing to get him to show the slightest bit of emotion but nothing really seemed to work apart from one thing and that wasn't even planned.
Flashback
Everyone had gathered round and was lounging lazily on the gryffindor common room sofas. Regulus was curled up, not unlike a cat, on a small armchair while Lily and James shared a love seat and Remus and Sirius were splayed rather haphazardly across a sofa. It had been small talk before and a couple of games of exploding snap were played before Sirius turned to James and Lily with a smirk on his face and Remus sat up observing what was about to happen with narrowed eyes. If Sirius had a smirk on it could be nothing good.
"Well well well lovebirds I found you a broom cupboard and I'm pretty sure I need some bleach to-," Sirius speech was cut ofd by Remus' hand and Regulus looked at Lily and James, who were both a little pink in the face.
"Alright we get it Sirius you're pretty eyes need some bleach but give it a ohhh eugh," Remus' sentence was cut off and Regulus raised his eyebrows as he watched Remus look at Sirius horrified as his brother just had a smug smile playing on his features.
"You licked me gross what are you a dog?" Remus cried waving his arms about and James snorted.
"As a matter of fact yes," Sirius explained puffing out his chest.
Regulus choked on air and he wheezed doubling over in his armchair and falling out of it while rolling on the ground with laughter. Tears soon gathered in his eyes and it seemed as if the entire common room had stopped to look at Regulus as his soft musical laugh came from his mouth.
"Emotion," James cried standing up the love seat and pointed dramatically at Regulus.
Regulus beamed slightly and couldn't find any place he would rather be and was suddenly glad he hadn't gone through with his mother's wishes to be slyhterin
Hey thanks for reading and I may not upload as much just as I have a couple of exams coming up for school.
~ Hazel