From Eden - Regulus Black (Complete)

Chapter Sixty-Six

BROTHERS

Regulus watched the child trip over nothing and fall face first on the grass with a blank face before hearing the laughs of his colleagues, but he looked away, pretending the Prefect badge on his chest didn't weight a bit more than usual as he pretended not to see anything. He didn't laugh, so if he pretended to be too distracted with his book then he wouldn't be scolded for being a kill-joy.

The Secrets of the Darkest Art was not discreet and he had struggled against the magic of the book itself to transfigure the cover to a normal and unassuming book, but the magic was running out and he could feel the cover turning from the red velvet to the black and purple hard cover. He had gotten the book from Rabastan, who was sitting beside him, laughing hard of the muggle-born first year that was crying because of the bloody knee.

Although he did think it was quite dramatic to cry about a scraped knee, his stomach only churned when he saw who it was. A first year of Gryffindor, who now was holding Remus Lupin's hand to get up and had Sirius Black right beside him with the angriest face Regulus had seen in quite a while.

Rabastan was too busy with his eyes tightly shut, laughing to notice the hex coming his way.

Regulus was fast, urging a shield before his colleague even knew what had happened, only looking up because of the loud whooshing noise the spell made as it was throw to another direction.

"You little shit!" Sirius screamed.

"It's not polite to attack someone who's distracted, Sirius," warned Regulus, dropping the book and getting up.

Sirius' eyes stopped on the book and narrowed back at Regulus.

"Tell that to your friend, you poor excuse of a Prefect!" he screamed. "I don't know why she trusts you," he added in a low voice. Rabastan was getting up and he didn't seem to listen. "You're nothing but dirt."

"If I'm a poor excuse of my job, then I ask nothing about what you feel over your boyfriend's title," Regulus answered, lip curling in disgust. "Day after day, he looked the other way as you attacked Severus!"

"Don't act like he didn't attack us, too!" Sirius said.

Rabastan leaned against the tree, noticing that he had no reason to fight. He had started, but Regulus was about to finish it. Besides, he understood quite quickly that was a family matter and he didn't want to be involved in it, much like Lupin, who was healing the boy's scraped knees and hand palms.

Sirius attacked once more with a non-verbal spell and Regulus was quick to defend himself against it, rolling his eyes over how easy it was.

"If that's the best you can do, there's no surprise in how terrified Anne is all the time," he mocked.

He didn't see the next one coming; he just felt his legs leaving the ground as his body rotate and feel hard against the earth once more, making him bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from making a noise. Still on the ground, he threw a hex against Sirius, who didn't have time to defend himself – the hair started to get shorter before it fell from its roots at once, blood appearing on the top of his bald head.

Sirius screamed in pain as Regulus tripped while getting up. He had hit his hip hard on the ground and now it was difficult to walk. Nothing was broken, but it certainly felt a little off, a bit more than just a bruise about to form, maybe a small problem with the muscle?

"Come on! MORE, YOU BASTARD!" Regulus screamed, throwing another hex.

It felt odd to use such a bad word, but it felt right when directed to Sirius.