INFERI (REGULUS BLACK)

35

"Hey little cousin," Bellatrix crooned. "So nice to see you live and whole. Much more fun to tear you down now."

Regulus stiffened. He quickly removed his wand from the box, holding it at the ready. The box fell innocently on the cobbled street.

"I don't think so," he said quietly.

Sirius too, removed his wand. He glanced at his brother. It amazed him how much Regulus had grown, how he'd turned from a little boy to an adept dueller, a brave person — who knew right and wrong.

"Oh hello blood traitor cousin," she sneered, locking eyes with Sirius. "Hasn't anyone taught you to not come in the way when two pure-bloods are talking?"

"Bella," Regulus said warningly, before Sirius could open him mouth.

"What happened Reg? Wanted to join your filthy blood traitor brother? Next thing we know you're cuddling with a muggle."

"Enough talk Lestrange," a hooded man, presumable Dolohov, cut in sharply. "The Dark Lord wants him dead. Boring him to death is not an option."

Another man deftly shot a curse at Regulus. He blocked it with ease. "What happened Lucius," he said. "Gotten old?"

"Kill him now," Bellatrix roared.

"No, not yet," Dolohov intervened. "The Dark Lord wants him alive."

"You said he wanted him dead!"

"Slip of tongue. The Dark Lord wants to finish him himself."

"We have him in our palm. We should finish him. The Dark Lord will reward us."

"Bella is right," Lucius intervened. "The Dark Lord wants to kill him, so either way, he's dead."

"Reg," Sirius whispered into his ear. "We need to go. Now."

Regulus cocked his head in a questioning manner, eyes locked on the quibbling Death Eaters.

"Reinforcements for the Death Eaters are coming. See there," he motioned towards the plumes of black smoke streaking through the sky. "And the Order will be here soon."

Regulus nodded, and grasped Sirius's hand. With a sharp twist, unnoticed by the preoccupied Death Eaters, both the brothers vanished into nothingness.

"Oi, where'd they go!" Lucius shouted, noticing their absence.

"You fool!" Bellatrix roared, advancing on Dolohov.

*****

Both the Black brothers collapsed onto a heather field.

"That was epic."

Regulus snorted, but cracked a slight smile.

"Hey Reg, where are we?"

"We're right now near Brighton. A few hours from it."

Sirius sat silently, contemplating what to say next. "You know Reg —,"

"I feel we should sleep now," Regulus said abruptly, standing up.

"Yeah," he resigned. After all there were plenty of days the broach the sensitive topic of 'why Sirius abandoned his brother.'

Quickly, they transfigured a few things for their comfort, as the visit to Diagon Alley yielded no purchase.

"G'night Reg," Sirius said hesitantly.

"... 'night Sirius."

Sirius fell asleep with a smile on his face.

*****

Regulus huffed in irritation. He did that a lot nowadays. Was this the affect of having Sirius near? He wasn't quite pleased.

"Sirius," he said loudly. "It's morning."

Sirius grunted.

"You need to wake up."

He rolled on his back.

He huffed again. It was bad enough to be stuck in such an inhabitable location, and what made it worse was his brother. And the constant feeling that someone — or something — was watching their every move.

"For Merlin's sake, just wake up!" Regulus almost kicked him.

After about half an hours calming walk, when Regulus came back to their campsite, Sirius was drooling on his sheets (originally leaves.)

Regulus raised his wand, and a loud gong echoed through the field.

Sirius was sound asleep.

Regulus tried the last tactic he could think of. "Sirius, James is here."

At those words, Sirius jumped out of his makeshift bed.

"Good morning brother," he said. "Time to hit the road."

"You tricked me!" Sirius pouted.

*****

"I'm dying Reg, dying!" Sirius moaned as they trudged down the road which led to Brighton.

"Will you shut up?" Regulus snapped irritably. "It's only half an hour more."

"I'll die of hunger till then. Can't we eat?"

"I haven't got muggle money. I have an — acquaintance at Brighton, we can eat there."

"Wow Reg, you've got friend scattered around the globe. First London, now Brighton..."

"Acquaintance, not friend. He owes me quite a lot of favours."

"Ah Reg, your Slytherin is showing."

Regulus just rolled his eyes, quickening his pace.

"Hey Reg, I just wanted to say —," Sirius trailed off, not sure how to broach the topic.

"If you want to talk about the day you left, no need. I'm the one who pushed you out. You deserved to run away," he paused. "I didn't."

"And why's that Reg?" Sirius asked, firing up. "You had as much right as me to run away."

"You know, there wasn't just one thing that stopped me that day. I'm sure you think my pride or whatnot, or maybe you thought I liked to be the perfect little boy, but I never was," Regulus took a deep breath. "You were their perfect little boy  Sirius, even after you got sorted into Gryffindor, the still harboured the hope that you could be 'salvaged.' You didn't hear Mother lamenting the loss of such a perfect son when you were sorted into Gryffindor. I did."

Sirius was dumbstruck. Who knew how many layers were to be peeled off his brother, but he was sure to renew their brotherly bond before the end of this trip.

Sirius opened his mouth to ask something, but Regulus quickly asked, "how did you know I was in Diagon Alley?"

Sirius knew Regulus was trying to change the topic, but was oddly buoyed by the fact his brother had willingly started up a conversation with him.

"You remember the Knockturn Alley witch? The old lady?" Sirius asked. Regulus nodded. "It was her. This time she was a brunette. Metamorphangi are cool."

Regulus made a non-committal noise. "What? Do you think I'm wrong?"

"No," but he scoffed slightly. "Think about it. You have no identity of your own. Some days, you don't even know how you actually look like. The isolation from the Wizarding World. No one likes unique, you know. A muggle-born metamorphangi faces worse. All the people who've known him from childhood think of him as a freak. An abomination of nature. You don't find muggles with self changing hair."

This shut Sirius up. Enough deep talk for years, he thought to himself. Who knew his brother would be so morbid?

They walked in silence rest of the way. Suddenly Regulus stopped. Sirius bumped into him.

"Welcome to Brighton."