Regulus Black- Drowning

To be a Spare.

The moment Sirius had been whisked away by the ever bubbly Andromeda, Regulus felt tense and uneasy. The room despite its vast size seemed too small, the air seemed a precious commodity.

His parents looked at him expectantly though Orion kept a firm eye on Sirius as his and Andy's giggles filled the hall. They seemed to inadvertently mock him with their mere happiness, jestingly pointing out his own loneliness.

"Regulus." The regal voice of his mother frowned at him.

Regulus looked up to her and saw the order clear on her face. Go.
"Ye-yes Mother" he managed, seemingly weakened by the simple lack of his brother. He lost the battle to keep his voice steady and felt Walburga's eyes bore into his as penance.

Stumbling quite ungracefully out of his parents scathing view, Regulus had zoned out for a moment, his feet seemed to walk as if independent from his body. He could only imagine what would happen to him when they returned to Grimmauld place for his unbecoming behaviour.

Regulus soon found himself in an unfamiliar corridor with a little door at the end. The lowly cobbled pathway and shrunken, tarnished ceilings seemed out of place in the otherwise ornate sanctuary of solitude.

It was almost as if in that very moment of decision an angel and devil had settled on his dainty shoulders. He felt an odd and unmistakable urge to pursue his curiosity and explore the wooden door.

Right when he was on the precipice of making a decision a voice called him from behind.

"Regulus?" It spoke, an even yet soft tone of questioning.

Stepping out of the dark corridor as much as he could, Regulus had seemed to be back in the main part of the manor. Or one main part and least, due to its immense size. Judging from the forest green walls and black crown molding, he was in one of the rooms leading to the main and most grand dinning room.

In the now well adjusted light he could make out the familiar features of one Narcissa Black.

"What were you doing done there?" She asked, this was seemingly more important than having a genuine conversation and Regulus couldn't help but let out a small smile at the insanity.

"Where am I exactly? It didn't quite match the other err... Decor here?" He responded allowing his face to hold an appropriate amount of curiosity he deemed Walburga and Orion would approve of.

Narcissa beckoned him closer and leaned down to his rather admittedly pathetic height. She put a gentle hand of each of his shoulders and spoke again, more softly yet oh so seriously.

"You are not to go there again. Okay Regulus?" She asked.

Only once he nodded, though he did so with slight hesitantion did Narcissa feel so inclined as to respond.

"That Regulus, is the House elves quarters." She responded, her tone holding an omitted emotion Regulus couldn't fully make out from her dutifully hidden features.

"Mother and Father always taught us not to visit our House Elf quarters and I expect the rules are similar here." She continued though this time a slight frown broke her soft face.

Regulus took but a second to admire his older cousins features. She was like most of their family undeniably stunning, though quite curiously she did not have the trade mark Black Family dark curls. In their place she had a head of truly remarkable almost white- blonde waves which spilled down her delicate frame like a water.

Her eyes were the tell tale blue that seemed unexcapable to the family. They however unlike her sisters held something more complex that Regulus once again couldn't quite place.

Bellatrix's eyes always held some sort of manic ambition which had worsened with age and resembled that of a wild animal.

Andromeda's eyes despite her looking so eerily similar to Bella in other aspects, were so full of life and hope it almost made Reg feel sick with the pure positivity they emitted. Regulus, quite frankly had never really understood what she had to be so unexplainably happy about, but he tended to shrug this off in favour of attempting to absorb her warm presence.

Narcissa's, however were so morbidly empty yet full at the same time that it made Regulus uneasy. He knew those eyes, they were the very same ones he had viewed in the mirror countless times before. The same faded blue grey that held a lifetime of stress and conflict they were never built to hold.

What he hadn't known is that infront of him Narcissa was having very similar thoughts. She was 15 and knew so much more about the life Regulus would soon lead, she led a similar one herself but to look at him now, his face young , round and rosy, eyes cold yet vulnerable she just couldn't find it in her destroy his innocence anymore than she suspected they already had. The Life of a spare.

"Regulus?" She said snapping them both out of their retrospective dazes as she once again took charge of the conversation.

"Hmm... Yes?" He said waking up as though from a trance.

"You were staring." She said though her face semi smiled at him and he admired her slight dimples and porcelain face.

"Oh!.. Sorry."

"It's alright Reg" she spoke, her force softening for him. Only him, she reminded herself.

"It's just... You're very pretty, you know that Cissa?" He said his gaze looking up at her. For a brief moment a star struck look overtook her beautiful features.

She mumbled for a moment, flustered. She truly was caught of guard by his earnest and honest comment. Such kindness was usually reserved only for her ambitious and stunning elder sisters.

Next to them she often felt like a mere stain on the canvas that was the Black Sisters. To be called pretty by a boy, who she knew was just as familiar with her sisters was something she never knew she could need, desire.

"I--uh... Thank you, really you're too kind" she softly said moving her hands so one cupped his cheek and the other stroked his little, delicate head affectionately. "You are very handsome also Regulus..."

He smiled at her compliment but she continued

"but you're also, and this is very important, extremely brave. You'll remember that Reg won't you?.." she asked her face full of emotion she so scarcely showed.

She moved her hand from his cheek to his chest. " You, Regulus Black, Are. Very. Brave" she broke up each word and gently prodded his neatly clothed chest which each syllable.

Deep down a part of her heart broke each day for him. She knew what it was like to be trapped in a life where your only true purpose is to rectify potential mistakes of siblings. To be not the Heir but a Spare.

Regulus truly had not been expecting her words to resonate with him quite as much as they did. He had always admired Narcissa, her quiet, docile personality had always intrigued him far more than her sisters bold and brazen ones.

Narcissa, no matter how much she could not see it truly did stand out from her sisters. Heck even if no one else noticed her for the rest of life, Regulus would and this he silently promised.

He did something neither of them anticipated and pulled her down and closer for a hug, he felt safe in her warm and comforting frame. He felt his cheeks grow damp, something he thought he would have grown out of. He didn't think he had ever hugged anyone that wasn't Sirius in years. He truly hadn't know what he'd been missing.

Narcissa's first honest and gut reaction was to pull away when she felt her small cousin embrace her. She knew she would have done so if it was anyone else. But here in a secluded corridor, with a boy who in her opinion had the purest heart she had ever known, it seemed right to hug him, to give him the figure she'd never had growing up. So she for the first time in forever Cissa allowed herself to do what was wrong but oh so right.

And in the corridor they weren't spares, they weren't weighed down by pressure or the desire to be needed.
In each others unlikely but welcome embrace, two halves, broken down by years of imperfection became just a little more whole.

Authors note: 1444 words.
Bit longer than usual, I got a bit carried away. If you can't tell I'm a major Narcissa fan!
Anyhoo I'm open to ideas or questions.