Love, Life, And Lies- Regulus Black

.constant fear.

"Why don't you ask him yourself."

I hit a nerve there. I could see a vein in his forehead pulse as anger ran through him.

"He doesn't want to talk to me."

"You might be right there."

"Just tell me." He yelled, slamming his hands down on the table. I just raised my eyebrows yet again at his second outburst.

"No." I said harshly, not moving an inch away from him. I wouldn't let him intimidate me. "It's not my business. If you want to know, take it up with him."

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. Because he seemed to understand he wasn't going to get any information out of me. Instead he straightened, his eyes turning cold.

"You know what, I want you to stay away from him." He hissed, and the look on his face made me want to flinch away from him. "If he isn't a Death Eater, then he will be soon if he keeps pining over you."

I let out a harsh laugh, the irony not lost on me.

"I'm serious. You will be the death of him, Cassiopeia. If you care about him even the slightest bit you will cut him out of your life."

"I don't think you have any right to tell me what to do."

My anger started to break through. He had no right to tell me how to live my life. Not when his choices were part of the reason why we were even having this conversation.

"I mean it. Stay away from him. I don't want you or your family corrupting him. You and I both know that you will get him killed. Let him go."

"I'm not going to sit here and let you talk to me like this." I spat at him, standing so abruptly that my chair fell backwards. I ignored his ranting, packed up my stuff and left, leaving him fuming behind me.

How dare he talk to me that way. Yes, I had been unpleasant to him. But I didn't deserve a verbal beating from him.

My mind was running wild, and I felt a headache start to develop from the yelling and from the stress.

I didn't want to admit it, but Sirius's warning got to me. When I really thought about it, I realized he was closer to the truth than he even realized.

Sure, Regulus was the Death Eater, not me. But I knew that I was the one with a higher stake in the game. The Dark Lord wanted me in his army. And he wanted me badly. He would use any method he could to control me.

And with how terribly he had been treating me, I didn't want to admit it. But I cared about Regulus more than anyone else in the world. There are things you can't go through with someone and not come out of it loving a piece of their soul.

The Dark Lord was already using my family as leverage to get ensure my cooperation. What would he do when he found out how deeply I cared for Regulus?

The simple fact was that even though I was upset with him, I loved him dearly. I would do anything that I could to protect him.

And as awful as he had acted, Sirius was right. Association with me could be a death sentence for Regulus. I wasn't willing to risk it. I couldn't risk it.

I wouldn't risk him.

The only fortunate thing to come out of Sirius's verbal beating was that it got me out of the library in time to make it to History of Magic.

The familiar feeling of dread had settled in the pit of my stomach. I didn't want to become a Death Eater, but the time was now at hand, and there was nothing I could do to prevent my fate.