ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏᴜʀᴛʜ ᴡᴀʟʟ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀꜱ ᴇʀᴀ

xiii. letters

"It's because you were only meters apart," said Callie, not noticing the grim look that Sirius quickly masked.

"The point is, he didn't ask whether I'm fine or not. And I'm his brother. But you, a stranger, he constantly checks."

Callie realised that. But that didn't mean anything, she knew it. "It's just nothing. I mean, maybe he wanted a friend."

"Yeah, just nothing."

A short silence. And Sirius' words kept repeating in her head.

"Why do you think Regulus didn't check how you are before?" Callie asked, slowly to make sure that the topic was all right to talk about.

"I don't know," Sirius confessed, letting his mask off with a shrug. "But he seemed to hate me after I left him." I mean, he already hated me a few years before that but...since then, he seemed to never accept my existence."

"Why do you think he hated you?"

"I...don't know."

He abruptly remembered Regulus arguing with him days ago. That argument where his brother kept insisting that he didn't care about him since he met his friends, that argument where his brother said that he was the reason why he was a Death Eater. Those were the reasons. Because he didn't become the brother that he should be to Regulus. He failed to do his duty.

Callie sighed and patted his shoulder. "It's not too late, you know? You can still make up with your brother."

"I'm trying but I don't know what else should I do. He didn't believe me when I said I cared for him even if I do."

"Action speaks louder than words, Black. Show it, don't tell it."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"If you want to say I love you to him, don't say it. Think of how you can say it without using words. A gift can be a good idea or maybe just being by his side—literally—is another way to say 'I love you, brother'."

"Do you think that will work?"

"I'm not sure. But between the two of us, who knows Regulus the best?"

"You know that he has a Death Mark, so you tell me who."

Callie looked at him with a deadpan painted on her face.

"All right, all right. I'll find a way."

"Where are the others, anyway?" They had a long conversation already and yet she hadn't seen the three.

"Finding a place where we could play snowball building without being sighted."

"Snowball building?"

"Yeah. It's our tradition. We build whatever we want with snow and ask the professors which they think is the best. Whoever loses owes the winner favour."

"What favour?"

"It's for the winner to decide."

"That seems fun."

"Of course it is. It may sound childish but we're still teens. And besides, so what? The point is, we're having fun."

Callie smiled. He was right, as long as they're having fun, nothing else should matter.

"I'm heading out. One of us will come back to fetch you," said Sirius as he stood up, his hands in his pockets.

"Okay."

Sirius walked to the exit, not glancing back at her. Callie waited for him to be gone and a little more minute before she took Regulus' new letter underneath her pillow and opened it.