England's Bloody Rose

Flashbacks Chapter #11

"Only three," she replies, "us and the person knocking."

"On guard," Sirius warns, before going to open the door. Lo and behold Regulus Black is standing there, with twenty pounds of papers. Sirius takes one look, and slams the door.

"So we're going to get to witness the meeting Sirius described at the wedding," Andromeda pointed out, "good. I want answers."

"Who was it?" Lydia asks, still in her nightgown.

"Regulus," Sirius snarls, "I wonder what he wants from me. He's made his love for you-know-who very clear."

"I say let him in," Lydia makes her opinion known, "He's too much of a pushover to come talk to you, so the world must literally be burning down. Or death eaters are trying to trap and eat us. Take your pick."

"It seems Sirius actually quoted Lydia there," Ted hummed, "interesting."

"Fine," Sirius opens the door, "come in. But don't expect me to be happy about this."

"Thank you," Regulus takes a seat, " I'll get straight to the point. The Dark Lord tried to kill my house elf, so here's all the evidence you need to take him down."

"That's a lot of papers," Bellatrix noted to her husband, "I wonder what little Regulus found."

"We must ensure the boy's plans never come to fruition," Antonin Dolohov smirks, "anyone up for a little fun?"

"You will do no such thing," Bellatrix snarls, "I will take care of the boy myself. It's a family matter."

"You're telling me," Sirius speaks slowly, "that you, my cowardly literal brother, the brother who's admired Voldemort since he was 8, and has a literal Voldemort scrapbook, is trying to take him down. Because of KREACHER!" 

"It's more complicated than that," Regulus rolls his eyes, "it's also because he's disgusting, a hypocrite, and broke the most fundamental law of magic that even the darkest of dark wizards don't dare to break."

"He always was," Lydia enters the fray, "what I want to know is, what happened for you to come to that conclusion?"

"She's asking the right question," Moody is impressed, "she needs to figure out if it's a trap or not. She can always interrogate the information out of him later."

"I've been disillusioned with him for a while now," Regulus confesses, "many aspects of his movement began to bother me. Previously, I was only told and shown that he was good. I was shown that he'd put those who were inferior in their places. That all the violence was a necessary wrong to reach the ends. We were raised together Sirius, and despite your new blood and identity, you can remember that I never was one for violence. That was always you and Bella. You two were far too much alike."

"You're comparing me to that madwoman?" Sirius asks, snarling the word madwoman out, "we couldn't be more different."

"It pains me to agree with a blood traitor," Bellatrix spits, "but in this matter, he is perfectly correct. We are nothing alike."

Regulus, calm and collected, simply answers, "When angered, the two of you immediately become violent. Both of you are horrible at accepting criticism. You both are extremely passionate. You both look down on those you deem beneath you. The thing that distinguishes the two of you from each other is motivation. Sirius believes in justice, equality, and protection. Bella believes in superiority, classism, and power."

The hall mulled over the young Black's surprisingly intelligent words. It seems that Sirius wasn't the only genius to come out of the House of Black.

"I'll agree on that," Sirius snarks, "but that's because you always were a coward."