Jegulus: the escaping of a broken home

Join us

A knock on his door woke him up.

"Excuse me, Master Regulus." Kreacher's voice came through the door. He sat up quickly, in case his parents needed him. Failure to comply or respond would result in punishment.

"Yes, Kreacher?" He said sleepily, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Mistress Black has asked for you to get ready. You will be visited by cousins Bella and Cissy, as well as their husbands."

He was much more awake now, although his eyes were still shut with the exhaustion. "Alright, I will do so. Thank you Kreacher."

"Of course, Master Regulus."

He got up and felt his way to the bathroom. Stumbling quite a few times, he finally made it to the small room that led off from his bedroom. He squinted into the mirror and saw his own pale complexion facing him. He splashed his face with water and walked over to his closet. He picked out some black robes, which wasn't unusual for him as that was pretty much all he ever wore around his parents. This set was slightly nicer though. It looked good enough. Yes, it was decent. After one last look in the mirror, he went downstairs to meet the guests. It had been two weeks since the incident with the letter and his uncle... but that didn't make his mother any less formidable.

"You look presentable." Walburga said after giving him a brief glance.

"Thanks." He said dryly.

A knock interrupted them.

"You must be on your best behavior." She reprimanded him before plastering on a fake smile and answering the door.

He smiled so falsely he was sure it looked more like a grimace.

"Thank you!" A small, excited gasp from the same shrill voice. "And good to see you Regulus." Bellatrix said as she and her husband walked through the door, the former smiling at him as though he were a prize.

Narcissa nodded at his mother and then walked forward to embrace him. He had always liked Narcissa and had even liked Bellatrix, but that was before she had gotten all invested in the dark arts. Now all Bellatrix ever talked about was her kill count and how she would rise up to help the dark lord. It was horribly dull.

Narcissa seemed more dragged into it, like he would be if he didn't make a decision. She seemed to enjoy her husbands company but he was simply unbearable for Regulus. Money was all he had, not even half a brain. Unfortunately the blond, obnoxious, male-version of the muggle toy Barbie had decided to come with Narcissa anyways.

"Come, sit," his mother said welcomingly and gestured to the chairs surrounding the dining table. He and everyone else took a seat before he looked around the table for some sort of explanation. Narcissa did not meet his eyes.

"You are getting old enough to join the Dark Lord," Bellatrix said in her high-pitched voice. A chill ran through him. Was that what this was about?

He merely nodded, waiting for further explanation.

"Ha! We should do it when you come home for Christmas! That way you can be with us come summer and we can go on assignments together," Bellatrix said, clapping her hands, as though this was as simple as planning a vacation.

Winter break? That was this year. He wasn't sure of anything right now, but of course he had to give an answer.

Luckily, the years of training for social events had helped him somewhat keep his calm.

"That would be an honor," he said plainly, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

"Well then, that's settled. We can't stay long, important business," Bellatrix said, doing all the talking. Narcissa remained silent, looking at Regulus worriedly.

The rest of the goodbyes were a blur for Regulus. He recognized a familiar hug from Narcissa, and leaned into it, falling back into his thoughts after. Only once the door shut behind the guests, he was snapped out of his reverie. His mother walked past him wordlessly, acknowledging his presence with a tilt of her head.

He nodded as well and went upstairs. Closing the door to his room behind him, he tried to focus. But he just couldn't.

Regulus' note: I don't feel comfortable writing about what happened next in great detail, but all you need to know is I had a panic attack, hated everything for a bit, yeah.

12:00 pm, noon

He could run away. An image of Sirius popped up in his mind but he shoved it down. Probably not, he was underage and still had the Trace on him, plus he wasn't supposed to know how to apparate and the Ministry could see who did.

He wasn't sure he could make it without magic.

No, he was being paranoid, they didn't need him until Christmas. He could just stay back for the holidays. Maybe take it up with one of the teachers. That had to be a law or something, the child could stay behind rather than return to an abusive home and be forced into the role of a death eater?

Yeah, that's what he would do. Okay. That made sense. That was logical. Panic was no reason to lose his cool and pull a Sirius.

He felt better upon having a potential solution, and he walked over to the bed, taking a seat upon it. He stared at his walls, covered in articles of the Dark Lord's work. Had he really once worshipped this man? Did he still worship him?

I'm not going in Sirius' direction, he assured himself.

Yes, I still worship the Dark Lord.

Platform 9 3/4

He had come here alone. His mother wouldn't mind of course, so now he was on the platform waiting to get on the familiar scarlet train. After pushing his way through the crowd of families saying goodbye to their children for another year, he hauled his trunk up the steps. He stood for a split second, deciding whether to turn right and sit with his Slytherin 'friends' or to find an empty compartment. Thoughts of one person in particular came up, but he shook his head and turned left.

Find an empty compartment. Probably best if he started distancing himself now. After tripping a couple of times on nothing (he was wearing black skinny jeans with a brown jumper, an outfit his mother didn't like but wouldn't stop) he made his way to an empty compartment at the back of the train. He sat furthest from the door, looking out the window. He didn't want to think, but looking out of the window made it hard not to space out.

So he held up his wand in front of him and started making random shapes and animals come out in puffs or smoke. It was rather stupid and time-wasting, but it was something to do. In the middle of making a silver raven, the compartment door opened.

Ugh. People.

He turned to face them. Maybe if they were younger kids he could bully them and get them to sit somewhere else.

But no, of course the universe had to leave him facing the one and only Sirius Black.

His brother.