TW: mental and physical abuse.
Yelling. That's all what Regulus heard.
His mother was screaming at his brother, Sirius, for being a blood traitor and befriending mudbloods, half-bloods and half-breeds. Sirius was yelling back, defending his friends. Regulus holed himself up in his room, not wanting to face the chaos downstairs, and he was trying to do literally anything to distract himself from it. Trying to drown out the yelling, but nothing seemed to be working. Even reading a book wasn't helping, which usually did. Then he froze when he heard a slap echoing through the house, then he heard something he never wished to hear again, but was sadly used to. Bone chilling shrieks. Tortured screams of pain. Sirius.
He knew those screams all too well. His mother was using the Cruciatus Curse on his brother, and her son, her own flesh and blood. But she didn't seems to care. She never seemed to care.
He could go down and help him somehow, but for one, he knew his mother would never listen to a word he'd say. And for two, he was too much of a coward, becuase he was scared he'd get hurt too. Next thing he heard was Sirius stomping up the stairs to his room and slamming the door so loudly, it shook the house. Getting up to check on Sirius seemed routine by now, he noted dejectedly. He knocked on his brother's door gently, he heard shuffling coming from inside the room then the door opened.
"Are you okay?" Regulus asked softly, concerned for his brother's health. Both mental and physical.
"Do I look okay?" Sirius snapped harshly, he was not in the mood to talk to anyone after the torture, his whole body was sweaty and trembling as the aftermath, courtesy of his mother.
Then, as if a lightbulb in his mind lit up, he started scrambling around his room grabbing a trunk, packing as much of his belongings he could get his hands on.
"Where are you going?" Regulus asked in a slightly apprehensive voice, hovering anxiously near the doorframe. But inside he already knows the answer. He wasn't naïve. And he didn't like the answer. At all. He didn't want his brother to leave him in this hellhole.
"The Potters." Sirius muttered blankly, still frantically shoving things in his trunk. He couldn't seem to grasp the bigger picture in this situation in his rush to get out of the Black's household.
That knocked the breath out of Regulus. He knew what his answer was gonna be, but it still shocked him. Sirius' answer pinched his heart slightly, before he quickly shoved his feelings down.
"So you're just gonna leave me in here?" Regulus snapped, eyes widening slightly in alarm. He hated this place, but at least he always had his brother by his side. Always.
Not anymore. Regulus thought to himself bitterly.
Sirius briefly stopped his speedy packing, and turned to look at Regulus.
"Come with me." Sirius suggested in distress. Although he and Regulus haven't been close for years, he didn't want to leave him here.
"I can't Sirius, you know they won't let me go if they know you're running away." Regulus' hushed voice broke the silence. Regulus knew this is a one time opportunity to leave this place, but something was pulling him back.
He wanted his stupid, undeserving, ungrateful family to proud of him. Just for once. He had tried everything to get on their good side. Getting straight O's in every subject, never disobeyed them, he never talked to muggle-borns or anyone of the sort. Nothing he ever did seemed like enough. And he's so tired of feeling like that.
Sirius' voice broke him out of his inner turmoil. "Please, Reg." Sirius begged him to come with him, to keep him safe, but it seemed like there was no changing the younger Black's mind.
"I can't Sirius, I don't even know the Potters. And do you really think that James Potter, the school's Gryffindor golden boy, would let a slimey Slytherin enter his home? Let alone stay until school started again? Have you finally lost it?" Regulus asked mockingly, as if the mere idea was absurd, leaning stiffly against the doorframe, crossing his arms.
Sirius ignored the mocking tone of his brother, but he knew he was right. James would never let a Slytherin wander around freely in his home.
Sirius stayed silent.
Regulus scoffed, rolling his eyes "That's what I thought." He spat bitterly, his face contouring in anger at the prejudice, he should be used to by now, but it still affected him.
"Just go." Regulus said grimly, managing to keep the tremble out of his voice, his hands dropped to his sides as he moved away from the doorframe to give Sirius the space to walk out on him.
Sirius' Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed back his tears "Reg, please think about this-" he was cut of by Regulus' now slightly shaky voice.
"I said go!" Regulus exclaimed harshly in agitation, his hands curling into fists, to stop them from shaking, turning his knuckles white from trying to force down the growing emotions in him. "Didn't you want to leave? Go right ahead, the door's open." He stated coldly, his eyes even colder, as he started a breathing exercise to calm himself down, his fists eventually uncurling, as he shoved everything down. Again. He knew it was unhealthy, but he did what he had to do in order to avoid his demons.
Sirius hesitated, not wanting to leave his brother, but the scathing look on Regulus' face made him make up his mind.
So, he reluctantly closed his packed trunk and got out of the room, sent a sad look at his brother who was glaring at the floor, as if hoping to dig a hole in it, and swiftly went down the stairs, being quite to not alert his sad excuse of parents.
He slowly walked over to the front door and twisted the doorknob, and ran out dragging his trunk behind him. Sirius cursed under his breath, knowing the heavy trunk made a loud noise, and ran again.
By now, his parents had ran after him, his mother screaming at him to get back inside the house, and his father throwing dark spells and curses at him. Somehow, he had managed to dodge them all, and ran like his life depended on it, which it did.
When he ran far away enough, he dropped the trunk and putting his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. He tried to process the crazy situation that just happened, before giving up. Run now, process later, Sirius thought to himself, as he transformed into his animagus, and carried his trunk in with his jaws, and went to the only place he knew he will be safe at. The Potters.
As for Regulus, as soon as he heard his parents screaming outside, he knew right then and there that Sirius was gone. For good. He stayed standing outside Sirius' room, stiff as a board, disbelieving of the predicament he has himself in.
He now knew that the family duties would fall onto his shoulders, now that Sirius isn't there to shield him from it. And the fact that he was truly and utterly alone in his so called home. His once strong and confident posture slumped into a tired one, as he slowly dragged himself to his room. When he was about to enter his room and wallow in his misery, he heard it for the first time.
The house was silent. Completely silent.
Regulus didn't know what to make of it, as he was so used to his mother's screeching, and his father's authoritive voice echoing through the house.
But, he just walked inside his room, closed the door, and slumped down tiredly on his bed, face up. He didn't know for how long he was staring at the ceiling when he felt tears trailing down the sides of his face.
When he made that realization, the tears just kept coming, no matter how much he wanted to push them back, it's as if a massive dam was finally broken. His grey eyes had a sad glint in them now.
He curled up in a ball, and wrapped his arms protectively around his torso, unconsciously summoning a shield of magic around himself, though he didn't seem to realize in his state of sorrow.
That night was the first time in years where Regulus cried himself to sleep, but then he finally felt so much lighter for letting out all those emotions that were weighing him down.
James was just sitting in the kitchen eating dinner with his parents, cheekily throwing peas at his father, Fleamont, who was acting like he was shot dramatically, immediately recovering, then throwing peas right back at his son, while Euphemia, his mother, looked like she was torn between fond amusement and disapproval at the mess they're making.
"Be ready to lose, son!" Fleamont grinned teasingly at James, from his place behind his chair, using it as a shield to protect himself from the peas.
James scoffed playfully at the prospect of losing. "Oh, please! You wish, old man!" James smirked, knowing it would rile up his father.
Fleamont gasps, an offended expression taking over his face, before getting up from behind the chair, putting himself in the line of fire without realizing, and James' smirk widened as his plan worked.
"You take that back, young man!" He pointed a disapproving finger at his fifteen year old as if he were five. Meanwhile, Euphemia was looking up at the ceiling with a 'lord give me the patience to not murder these two' look, from where she was seated next to Fleamont.
Just as Fleamont was about to scold James again, a handful of peas were launched at his face, causing him to almost choke on one as he stumbled back, almost falling over and tripping over the peas. James was in hysterics at the scene, and even Euphemia had an amused smile on her lips as she finally accepted the situation.
Fleamont gaped at them with a shocked expression, before it fell into a mock hurt one, as he wiped a fake tear from his eye as he sniffled, "My own son had betrayed me to the dark side." He dramatically cried, falling back in his chair, and his shoulders shook with fake sobs.
"Don't be so dramatic, Fleamont, if you didn't want to eat your greens that bad, just say so." Euphemia comments, as she casually took a sip from her wine glass.
Fleamont instantly stopped his antics, and his face fell into one of relief. "Oh, thank Merlin." He relaxed in his seat, but instantly tensed at the look Euphemia was giving him.
"What?" He said defensively, scared of the look his wife was giving him.
While James made popcorn, and slowly munched on it while watching his parents.
Euphemia sighed in fake disappointment, "Nothing, I just remembered that I had married a man-child." She flashed a sarcastic grin at her husband.
Fleamont just smirked, and leaned back in his chair, "You love this man-child, darling." He said confidently with a wink.
"That I do." Her sarcastic grin melted into a soft smile, full of love and adoration, and Fleamont's face mirrored her's.
James watched the looks on his parents faces, and couldn't help but smile softly in happiness, hoping that he, himself will find a love as amazing as his parents'. And he was fully confident that his love will be the one and only Lily Evans.
The sweet moment was abruptly interrupted by a knock on the door.
They all tensed, smiles dropping from their faces.
"Stay here. i'll get it." said Fleamont firmly, going from playful to dead serious in a second, and he got up walking towards the door and gripped his want tightly. They were in dark times so, better be safe than sorry.
As he got closer to the door, Euphemia also took out her wand, with a determined glint in her eye, ready to defend her son. James held his breath when Fleamont finally opened the door, with his wand pointed threateningly at the stranger, ready to attack if it's a threat to him, or his family.
"It's just me Mr. Potter!" a familiar voice spoke urgently, trying not to get blasted by the wand pointed at him.
Fleamont had his brows raised in shock, and his mouth agape -that seemed to be his theme today- "Sirius?" He asked, in confusion.
As soon as James heard his best mate's name, he barged past his parents, to see a tired, battered looking Sirius. He much preferred the dramatic cocky Sirius over this one.
"James!" Mia scolded her son, with her hands on her hips. "You can't just barge past us like that, what if there was an actual threat? Hm?" She asked rhetorically in disapproval. "And come in Sirius, dear." She said with a kind smile, hands dropping from her hips.
"I can be a threat when I want to be." Sirius tried to joke and lighten the tension by weakly chuckling, which came out as a small exhale. His eyes were starting to flutter.
"Sorry, mum." James said, looking sheepish, then his eyes snapped back to Sirius in worry as he swayed on the spot, "Come on, mate." He said softly, taking the luggage from him gently, and placing in aside, and put Sirius' arm over his shoulders, and half-walked him half-dragged him to the couch, and hauled him on it, causing his leather jacket to move, revealing a huge bleeding gash on Sirius' abdomen. His head was fighting to stay upright.
"Mum! Dad!" James shouted out in panic, now dreadfully worried for his friend, he sat next to him and tried to slap him awake "I can't heal him! I'm underage!" He yelled in panic.
Thankfully, Mia and Monty were trailing behind James the whole time after they closed and locked the door, so they were able to quickly step in, and start healing him. They cut his shirt down the middle to get a better look at the cut, but didn't cut the jacket knowing he adored the thing. And they paled at what they saw. His chest was full of scars. Some big, some small, some deep and jagged, some shallow and left a silvery line behind.
Mia started shaking in anger at the sight, while Monty (Fleamont) was trying to calm her down, while looking a little green himself, how dare anyone touch my child? I will tear them limb from limb. Mia thought angrily to herself, Sirius was like her own child.
Over the summers Sirius came over to James' house, he and Mia bonded quickly, so when he admitted to her that his mother would never do half the good things she did to him, and that she was the first woman in his life that had treated him kindly, Mia's heart broke slightly for the mistreated boy, and from then on promised to help him in any way she can. And from there formed a mother-son relationship.
She breathed a deep calming breath, and started to mutter a healing spell with amazing skill -she and Monty being Aurors- Monty quickly following her lead, stopping for half a second to gaze at his wife in awe.
Double the power was slowly but surely healing the gash. All of them sighed in relief.
The whole time, James was looking at the scene in apprehension, trying to interfere multiple times, but stopping from the scary glare his mother was giving him. He scowled in response, and sat down next to his friend anyways holding his hand in reassurance, for himself or for Sirius, he wasn't sure. He was just glad his friend was okay. He was starting to come around.
The huge cut having been healed now, Sirius slowly started to regain his consciousness, and looked around to remember where he was. Oh, right. The Potters. He thought to himself, then another thought came barreling through his hazy mind. Regulus.
That thought alone had him trying to stumble off the couch, but he was quickly stopped by Mia, while James watched in barley concealed worry. Monty was running off to get him a glass of water.
"Where do you think you're going, young man?" Mia asked rhetorically in a strict tone with an undertone of worry, and sat him back down, he was muttering incoherently about Melin knows what, and got back up again, he suppressed a hiss of pain to not worry the others. He headed for the front door.
Before he could, a glass of water was shoved in his face by Monty, and after he slowly looked up at Monty's reassuring expression, he drank the water.
He involuntarily stumbled on his way to the front door, and sat down on a nearby loveseat, which conveniently happened to be next to the front door.
James quickly followed his friend with his glass of water, and sat down next to him. Mia and Monty decided to give them some privacy seeing as Sirius was okay enough to walk, and went upstairs to get his room ready.
"Hey, mate, I think you should rest for the night." James said slowly, to make sure his hazy-minded friend understood, his hands offering the glass of water to his friend, who shook his head at the glass, making James put it down.
"No, no, I need to leave, I need to help him." Sirius muttered, the words barley getting out of him, and tried to get up again.
"Mate, why don't you just relax first, alright?" James pulled Sirius by his arm and sat him down again gently, to not re-open old wounds.
Sirius had his head in his hands, his eyes glassy, and was fighting the urge to pull his hair out. "I left him in that hellhole, James. I need to go back." His voice was quite and raspy form all his screaming from earlier, he was breathing heavily at the thought of what he did.
"Breath, Padfoot." James said soothingly, rubbing his friend's arm to comfort him, and it seemed to work as Sirius took a deep breath and composed himself. "Now, tell me. What happened?" James asked gently, looking at his friends with soft eyes.
And Sirius found himself telling his friend of what happened that night. He didn't tell him everything though, he kept the gruesome details to himself. He didn't want his best mate to pity him. He almost choked when he told James of where he left his brother. He didn't even know if his hands were trembling from the torture curse, or the re-telling of his trauma at this point.
When he finished, James just stared at him in silence, mournful of what one of his closest friends had to go through, he was sad Sirius didn't get a normal childhood, or the parents he deserved. It wasn't fair.
So then and there, James decided from now on, that he wasn't letting Sirius out of his sight till school started again, and promised to himself to cheer him up, and to never let him have that haunted look in his eyes again.
Sirius mistakes the silence for James pitying him, so when he looked up, he didn't expect James to have a determined glint in his eyes and a soft smile directed at him.
Before the confused Sirius could say anything, he was silenced when his friend's arms wrapped around him in a hug, "You can stay for as long as you need. I'm here for you, mate." James muttered into his friends shoulder, nothing but honest words coming out of him.
His words caused tears to prickle Sirius' eyes as he returned the hug, trying not to sniffle. "Thank you. So much." Sirius said thickly leaning on his friend's shoulder. After a few minutes, they pulled away from the comforting hug.
"But I'm leaving in the morning, I don't want to intrude or overstay my welcome-" before Sirius could continue, he gets smacked upside the head by James.
"Ow! What on earth was that for?" Sirius rubbed his now sore head, and glared at his friend receiving an even filthier glare.
"For spewing out nonsense, Pads." James said with a tone of finality, as if that explained everything. "You're staying here, and you're not going anywhere." He said it playfully, but he was dead serious. Sirius couldn't decide if his announcement was sweet or creepy.
Sirius stared at his friend in his bewilderment, opening and closing his mouth, not knowing what to say. Looks like the slap on the head made him forget the ability to speak.
James rolled his eyes playfully at the rare sight of a speechless Sirius. That almost never happened. But the couple of times it has, he was around his love, Remus Lupin.
James sighed in exasperation, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh my Merlin, I've broken him." He shook his head trying not to laugh at Sirius' still baffled expression.
A few seconds later, it seemed as if the words finally registered in his mind. "But-" Sirius was about to speak, when he was interrupted by James. Again.
But this time, before James could speak, Sirius screeched at James. "Stop interrupting me!"
James screeched back that him "Stop saying stupid shit, and I will!"
"I can't! It's a part of who I am!" Sirius screamed in his face, his hands flailing beside his head to prove a point.
"At least you admit you're stupid. It's a start." James shrugged casually, a taunting smile on his lips.
Sirius' eyes narrowed, then filled with mischief, and before James could do anything he found a pillow hurtling towards his face, his eyes widening before he got smacked in the face with a pillow.
Sirius was in guffaws at his friend's expression, his hands holding his aching stomach, "So much for the captain of the quidditch team." Sirius wheezed out, almost falling off the loveseat in laughter, but quickly pulling himself up at the last second, and laughing harder at the fact he almost fell on his arse.
James burst into laughter as he almost saw his friend falling off the loveseat, throwing his head back in laughter.
They were sure they alerted the whole block with their shrieking laughter.
"Stop," James wheezed, not being able to breath from laughing so hard, "My stomach hurts so bad, stop laughing." He managed to say to Sirius.
Sirius made an inhumane noise at his friend, laughing harder if that was possible, and in the process, actually managing to fall off the loveseat.
James damn near pissed himself at the sight.
And they ended the night with prank ideas, blissful laughter and hot chocolate.
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Author's note:
So, this is the first part of the updated version of the story. Enjoy, besties.
-T.H