The Losing One || Sirius Black

21. Midnight Waltz

At last, Sirius came back from the Pettigrews, thus began the mentioned start of chaos at the before the Christmas banquet family dinner.

The obligations Walburga and Orion put on the two of them weren't anything difficult in Regulus' opinion. All they had to do was greet the guests at the entrance and join the waltz at midnight, or better said, that was all Regulus had to do.

Besides those obligations, the Black heir had to speak with each important guest. He had to smile, nod and agree with whatever they said. Sirius immediately protested at this request, saying that he doesn't want to just blindly agree with everybody on everything.

Their dad threatened to punish Sirius if he continued to argue, but despite the threat, Sirius didn't stop. This resulted in Orion withdrawing his wand and casting a spell on the boy.

Regulus knew what that spell did, although he had experienced it only once, the memory was clear as day. Like suspected, a minute later Sirius was on his knees, but at least he looked better to Regulus compared to the incident in the library before the boy went to Hogwarts.

Orion screamed at Sirius to retreat to his bedroom and Regulus watched as his brother tried to pick himself up from the floor. Even this vulnerable, Sirius somehow looked powerful to him. The pure dedication of the boy to look adamant and proud could easily be seen even while he limped up the stairs and out of sight.

Regulus will never understand the boy's actions. In his mind, all of Sirius' rebellions were unnecessary. It was way easier to just listen to their parents and avoid punishments all together. After all, even if their ways were a bit brutal, Orion and Walburga just wanted him and Sirius to be strong and prepared for the real world. Maybe they showed it in wrong ways, but Regulus believed that the two wanted the best for their sons.

The dinner was finished shortly after and he immediately retreated to his bedroom. Regulus wanted to sneak out and check on Sirius, but he was scared that Kreacher would catch and report him to his dad. It was true that the house elf liked him more than the other Black child, but Regulus didn't want to test the limits of that likeness.

The preparations for the banquet began with the first rays of sunshine. While his parents and Kreacher's attention was fixated on preparing the ballroom, Regulus took his chance and snuck out of the bedroom.

His heart beat rapidly just at the thought of getting caught, but Regulus reassured himself that he could just make up an excuse and say he wanted to get some book from Sirius' bedroom. After knocking on the door, there was a muffled come in to which the boy obliged by quickly slipping inside the room.

Sirius was laying on the stomach on his bed, visibly still in slight pain, but when he saw Regulus, the boy turned and propped himself on the headboard gesturing to his little brother to come and join him. The previous pained expression was immediately replaced with a smile.

"How are you, S?", Regulus questioned not forgetting about the look on his brother's face seconds ago.

Sirius waved a dismissing hand at him, "Fine, don't worry. I have something I wanted to show to you. I wanted to show it to you yesterday, but I didn't get the chance.", he turned to his bedside table, but his movements were quite stiff. This brought concern to Regulus, but he stayed quiet on the matter. Knowing his brother, constant questioning about his wellbeing would just annoy him.

The boy turned back to Regulus with an interesting parchment in his hand which he held out. Regulus took it carefully and began the inspection while Sirius started explaining what the parchment actually was.

"William saw this machine back in his third year. It's called a polaroid camera. From what he told us it is similar to the wizarding ones, but the photographs don't move and you get them immediately after you take them."