Chapter 44

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Regulus turned his head to see his brother standing in the library's doorway. Remus stood right beside him. Sirius was holding Remus for support as his blood poured out. 

"Now will you sit down," Remus scolded. Sirius had refused to stay seated no matter how much pain he endured, he had to make sure his brother and best friend were alive first, then he'd worry about himself. 

"Sirius, what happened?!" Regulus rushed over to his brother. 

Remus had forced Sirius to sit down and was putting pressure on the primary source of blood. 

"It's not as bad as it looks," Sirius said groggily. 

"Not as bad as it looks? You're pale as fuck!" James exclaimed. 

"What happened?" Regulus asked again. 

"I'm fine Regs, it's just a small wound," He mumbled. 

"Someone threw an axe at him," Remus explained as he attempted to put more pressure on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. 

"They threw an axe at you!?" Regulus repeated, he was looking pale but not as pale as his brother.

"I'm fine," Sirius assured. 

"Pads, you're not fine," James kneeled down in front of his best friend, ignoring the blood that was soaking his clean clothes.

"Kreacher!" Regulus called out into the manor but Kreacher didn't pop up immediately as he had earlier. 

"Kreacher!" Regulus cried out louder. -Minus Sirius grunts in pain, Remus' hushed whispers as he attempted to stop the beading and James worriedly digging through his mom bag attempting to find anything that can help- The house was silent. 

Regulus cried out Kreacher's name a few more times but he was back to being AWOL. He shouldn't have let Kreacher leave again, he should have stuck with Kreacher, they would have been safe if he had, and Sirius would have had proper medical care and would be alight if he had. 

James pulled some bandages from his bag that he had dug up from the bottom of his bag, there was a box of small bandages as well as two larger bandages. The box of bandages was Hello Kitty themed band-aids that Peter had jokingly gotten James for Christmas one year for him to add to his mom-bag and ever since then, James had kept them on him at all times. 

The bandages had come in handy on several occasions, whether they were used after the events of a full moon or for a small papercut that Sirius tended to overreact about. 

James handed Remus the bandages which he gently placed on the wound, applying as much pressure as he could without causing Sirius too much extra pain. 

Sirius looked close to losing consciousness but he played it off, telling his friends and brother he was fine so as to not cause them too much worry, even though they could see through the lies. Sirius had lost a lot of blood and needed to get to Saint Mungo's immediately before he ended up like the others. 

"What can we do to help?" James asked Remus.

"A damp or wet towel would be great but-" Sirius interrupted. 

"Don't risk it for me," He slurred before his eyes closed, not opening again until a few seconds later. 

"Right now we just need to keep him awake, make sure he keeps talking," Remus directed. 

"Right Sirius, what's your favourite thing about Remus," Regulus asked, knowing his brother could talk about his boyfriend for hours. 

"Mmm, he's smart and incredibly good-looking," He groaned in pain as Remus applied more pressure to the wound. 

"Continue," James spoke. 

"He's nice and selfless, brave..." Sirius started to doze off. 

"What about our pranks, which one was your favourite?" James rushed out. 

"Mm, the one where... the one with the portkeys," Sirius' voice was going faint and neither James nor Regulus could find their voices to speak. 

"Which one was that again?" Remus questioned, attempting to keep the conversation going.

"The one whe..." Sirius' eyes closed again.

"Sirius?" Regulus' voice was shaky. 

"Mhh? The one where... we turned the doorknobs and the mmh... the textbooks... and the..." There was some inaudible mumbling before he spoke up again. "-to portkeys," Sirius was slumped against the wall helplessly. It was only by luck that no unwanted guests barged into the library at this very moment.

"Where did the portkeys bring them again?" Remus spoke in a gentle voice.

"To... to Filtches office," Sirius mustered out.

"That was by far one of our best pranks yet," James agreed. 

"Speak for yourself, I was trying to enter the boy's lavatory and ended up being whisked away to Filtches office, I got a week's worth of detention from him," Regulus rolled his eyes but Sirius gave a weak smile. 

"Definitely our best prank,"

Sirius' eyes had soon closed again and his breathing worsened. Remus' breath hitched as he saw his boyfriend's condition. He was much paler and his body was cold. 

"Wake up, Sirius," Regulus pleaded. "Wake up," he said again but this time louder. 

"Come on Padfoot," James mumbled, looking at his friend's pale face. 

Remus stayed silent, looking at the closed eyes of his boyfriend. He was covered in the blood of the other and all he could smell was the metallic scent of his blood but they were all used to it by now. 

It was Christmas eve, Friday, December 24th and Sirius Orion Black was pronounced dead by his own friends and brother. 

Sirius had stopped breathing after lying in a pool of his owl blood, unconscious for a few minutes. Remus was holding the other boy in his arms, refusing tolet go. The room was completely silent, -as any library should- but this silence was painful. 

Usually, time with the marauders was full of laughter and jokes but there was no pun that could come out of the situation. Not when one of their own was now dead.

Remus had lost his boyfriend, James had lost his best friend, and Regulus had lost his brother. 

The three that were left sat around in a small huddle in eachother's comfort. 

The library doors were still open from when Sirius and Remus had re-entered the room but nobody bothered to close them. The doors could stay open and that wouldn't change the events that were to come, they would be found either way and there was nothing any of them could do about it. 

No one, not James, Remus or Regulus had been this distraught the past couple of days over any of the other deaths. Regulus had seen his best friend's dead body just over an hour before yet it wasn't as heartwrenching and didn't have the same dreadful effect that followed. 

Nothing could have prepared them for this moment. 

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