"Bring him in." Walburga ordered with the raise of her hand, Kreacher disappearing from her side in the blink of an eye. She turned to Regulus, who already was on his feet and rounding the table "Take her to the living room and close the door. Now."
Regulus only gave a firm nod in her direction, moving your chair back for you.
"What?" you asked with a string of voice, looking at Walburga in confusion before you turned to Regulus "No, Reg." you pleaded, shaking your head repeatedly as you refused the hold of his hand.
"Now Regulus." Walburga snapped at his son.
He tilted his head as you continued to repeat the same words over and over again, his eyes warning as he took hold of your wrist. "Let's go." he murmured.
You fought him, pulling your arm as you also grasped his wrist, pushing him from you. "No, stop. He's not supposed to be here. He can't be here." Regulus didn't seem faced by your words, dragging you with him as your feet refused to move. You let go of his wrist, turning to Walburga instead. "Don't do anything to him. Don't you dare touch him!" you screamed, Regulus turning again as he held you back by your waist, lifting you against his chest. You kicked in the air, moving your arms back to try and loosen his grip on you. It didn't work.
By the time he carried you to the living room your throat was sore from screaming, a mix of threats and Sirius' name leaving your voice raspy as Regulus dropped you on the floor. You turned immediately to him, pushing him hard on the chest, making him stumble back subtly. "You must be really proud of yourself." you yelled in anger, rushing to the door as you fought to get it open.
Regulus got his wand out, moving it over his head as a light line fell all over the walls like a fine veil. "Stop, he can't hear you." he said flatly, dropping on the couch while throwing his head back, a groan soon leaving his lips.
"Sirius!" you kept screaming, your fists pounding on the dark wood of the door as it left a red mark all over the side of your hand.
"Y/N, he can't hear you. No one can." Regulus groaned, lifting his head lazily as you hopelessly kept punching the door. He sighed heavily, closing his eyes.
He had anticipated everything his mother had done, he had kept quiet by her side as she served Voldermort, observing. Not one thing had escaped his mind, not one had gone by without a walk through the library to know what it meant, how it could be used and if it could be used. He knew how his mother thought because until he met you he used to have the same thought process, then he started to question him and soon after, Walburga herself. He lived under the same roof where the unforgivable curses that the ministry of magic forbid wizards and witches from using were spoke like a song, he had seen the effects that they could have on people, witnessed the empowered grin of his mother's face as Kreacher carried the bodies from the same room he now found himself in. He never thought Walburga would use the curses on him. Not until he found himself in his bed, coming out of a dream where he had been able to write to you all his worries, all the things he deep down had wanted to say to you since he came back from winter break. The letter had been sent and there was nothing he could do, so he followed along his mother's plans. Brought you in while keeping her attention shifted from you.
"Would you please stop!?" he snapped, raising his voice like you had never heard him. You did as he asked, not because he asked in a kind manner but because of the surprise that struck your body, successfully slowing you and your movements.
"I'm sorry." you mocked, turning on your spot as you placed a hand over your chest, knitting your eyebrows together with a fake pout "Am I an inconvenience?" you asked, tilting your body slightly to the side to look for his face as he sharply turned to the side with curses falling smoothly from his lips. "Am I perhaps disturbing you?"
He was starting to rapidly lose his patience. His eyes held rage inside them, his body tense as he gave you one single warning look. He hated how much you had changed in the short time you had spent separately, how much your movements resembled James', how your words had Lupin's wit laced between them, and how you had taken Pettigrew's defensiveness as your own. Sirius had brought a more reckless version of yourself to the surface and he did not have the time for that.
"Maybe if you stopped screaming and started thinking we could get out of here sooner with our minds and bodies intact." he said, fisting his hands as he glared in your direction.
Your eyes widened in defiance, marching from the door right to where he was standing. Your hand connected with his cheek in a raw sound, his face turned to the side as he licked the inside of his cheek, blinking away the desperate anger surfacing him.
"Feel better now?" he asked in a growl.
Your face twitched, a rain of emotions contorting your features as you finally settled in a void look. "I'm getting tired of your threats. But I do feel better."
He finally turned to you with a sharp breath in, stopping himself as he ran his thumb over his lower lip, he glanced down to look at the pad of it, a drop of smeared blood there. "You have made us both bleed today, you need to stop."
"That's all you keep telling me." you screamed "Stop, stop, stop. I'm not stopping until I'm out of here with Sirius by my side, so you better open that door now before I kick it down myself."
"And then what?" he questioned "Mother is an experienced witch who won't hesitate to use any spell on you, she has Sirius as leverage-"
"Don't forget to mention an awfully loyal son who would betray his best friend and his brother just because mother said so."
"Just- listen to me." he said, dropping to the couch again. He sat on the edge of it, elbows over his knees as his hands desperately tugged on his head. "I don't know how much time we have until she comes to get you, or me, or both." he said, his voice low as it came from his lowered head in between his arms "We need a plan to get you out that will keep me here without mother suspecting any-"
"I'm not leaving without Sirius." you stopped him.
"Merlin," he murmured, lifting his head as he stared at you "For once in your life, could you be a little selfish?" Your face remained unfaced, as his. "Sirius has gotten out of here before, I'm sure he'll manage again." he argued, pointing a hand in the door direction.
"I'm not leaving without him." you repeated.
"Fuck." he whispered, his palm going to cover his mouth as he stared at the fireplace "None of you were supposed to be here."
"Funny you say that, as you're the reason we are here in the first place." you chuckled darkly, sinking on the couch just across from him. "I'm sure we ruined all your plans." you murmured for yourself, not expecting his answer at all.
"As a matter of fact, you did." he grumbled, grabbing a dried petal from the small table as he threw it into the fire. "I had every step I needed to take sorted out." he whispered, the dancing flames of the fire reflected on his eyes as he kept on thinking. "I thought you hated me, why did you listen to any of the words in that letter?"
Your jaw fell in a perfect round shape, making you lean forward in your seat "You must be joking." you said in disbelief, pressing your lips together as he avoided to look at you "You really are that stupid."
That captured his attention, his gaze shifting painfully slow to you "I can be anything but stupid, so you better watch you words."
You didn't answer. Better moving up from the couch with a permanent glare in your face "I don't know how it is for you, but for me, when your best friend asks for help you do everything you can do to help them. Even when you would rather drown than be in the same space as them."
"I'm sure this must be very painful for you." he said bitterly.
"It is," you cut in, turning your face to him from your pacing "It is and you know it because you know me. You know, Sirius tried to convince not to come here, not to come to you. I lied to him and then left in the middle of the night so he wouldn't notice and now he's followed me here." you blurted out, not once stopping to think as he gave you one raised eyebrow look, but you had turned from him to hold the charm in the necklace around your neck "It's all my fault." you whispered to yourself, looking up to the door with glossy eyes. You surged again for the door, pulling on the door for a chance to get it open.
"It's not your fault." a hand fell softly over your shoulder, what you thought must have tried to be a reassuring squeeze felt as you let your hands drop from the knob. Your eyes closed as your forehead touched the dark wood of the door, breathing in deeply. You let him guide you back to the couch, each sitting on different ends of the same couch, the same space.
"You're in this now and I need to get you back to safety." he said, his voice calm and even for the first time.
You ran your fingers on the side of your head, pulling at your hair as you heard his words "I don't understand you." you admitted with a breathy voice "You sent the letter that brought me here and now you want me out. What are you trying to do?"
"None of this is my doing."
"Isn't it?"
"Why would I want you or Sirius here?" he asked with genuine curiosity, leaning back on his corner of the couch looking back at you.
"Revenge?" you asked with a shrug, avoidant eyes dancing all over the room and past him. His head unconsciously drew back with narrowed eyes before they widened again in confusion. "Look, can you just give straight answers so we're on the same page?"
His face lit up instantly with a chuckle he could not hold back, fighting the muscles on his face as the corner of his mouth twitched upward "I don't think I can." he smiled softly, shaking his head "At least not the answer you want to hear."
He watched as your face fell, finger drumming just above your knee in thought. "Give me your wand." you muttered, looking up at him. "Open the door, give me your wand and I'll knock you in the head. I'll hex my way out of here."
He lowered his head slightly in question, eyes void as he realized you were serious. "As brave as that may be, you would be eliminating your only leverage in the situation. If you fail, your only accomplishments would be angering my mother and giving her two perfect targets to let it out on." He purposely let out the fact of the consequences he would face once he woke up, a shiver he resisted running down his spine.
"And if I succeed?" you asked in defiance, lifting up your chin.
"You can't be certain."
"I have to try."
"You have to be smart." he finished, setting the silence over them like it had never happened before that day. A silence they could not consider comfortable as they both felt the tingly energy between them, the contrast between opposites.
You raised both eyebrows shortly, letting your arms fall at your side "As you said, we are running out of time."
"We already ran out of time." he informed, his voice already down with defeat as his middle finger ran circles in the fabric of his trousers. "I never thought Sirius would be stupid enough to follow you here, of course he doesn't have a plan or any help. If it wasn't because it's our mother he would be as good as dead."
"How do you know he's alone?"
"Lupin knows better than to walk into the house of known supporters of the Dark Lord's ideas, and Pettigrew would listen to him out of fear because it's convenient for him. James is the only idiot enough to follow Sirius here but Kreacher would have caught him, even with that cloak of his."
You stared at him, shifting your weight "You really have thought of everything." you mumbled shyly.
"Except this." he muttered bitterly "I thought you would hate me enough to burn the letter on sight."
"Then why send the letter?!" you asked, arms flying in the air.
"I didn't." he answered simply, giving you one glance "Not consciously, at least."
"What?" you stuttered, going to sit again as you brazed yourself for his answer.
He took you in, hands fidgeting in your lap with shaky eyes on him. You tried to keep an unbothered look but your lip trembled with the disturbing feeling you always felt when you discovered you had been wrong. He knew it well, having seen it plenty of times before.
"You'll find that my mother has an easy way with curses. She must always have things her way or she'll find a way of making it happen." he explained, narrowing his eyes "I'm sure you've heard of the Imperius curse before." At your muffled gasp and the quick movement of your hand to your mouth he shook his head, facing you with a scoff "Don't look at me like that."
"Like what?" you asked, trying to move into a comfortable position that would conceal the tension in your body, biting the insides of your cheeks with wide eyes.
"With pity." Or care, concern, he didn't know what to call it. It was the same look you had when he would get a letter from home, or when he would see Sirius around school, you never noticed the cause but had always been perceptive to the change in his mood. You looked like you wanted to rush to him and engulf him in a hug, to wrap a blanket around him and place a warm cup of tea on his hands.
"Not doing it." you blurted out.
"Good," he nodded, leaning his body forward "because I have a plan."
*******
Sirius felt foreign in the hall that welcomed you inside his parents house, yet a familiarity set on his bones as he started to walk with silent steps and perked up ears, breathing through his mouth so the sound wouldn't give him away so soon.
Of course he couldn't escape Kreacher.
"Where is she, Kreacher?" he demanded, a poor imitation of what his father might sound like leaving him as the elf just stood there, hunched over as always. "Where is Y/N?"
Kreacher only turned in his spot, pointing his hand so Sirius would know to follow him "Kreacher will only take Master Sirius to our mistress."
Sirius huffed, turning back to the stairs "I'll go find her myself."
He only got a couple of steps away from Kreacher when he appeared on his path, blocking his way. "Master Sirius must talk with our mistress before Kreacher takes him to the half-blood."
"Don't call her like that." Sirius warned, "Fine." he gave in, motioning Kreacher to lead the way. He found himself surprised as they walked past the different rooms in the main entrance, past the different rooms where his mother was accustomed to spend her time while also leaving behind the closed doors of the main living room. There was no other place left but the kitchen as they reached the end of the hall, the warm room completely inviting as he entered it. A feast match to the ones served at Hogwarts was displayed on the long table.
At the end of it stood his mother, a grin stretching over her lips as she rounded her chair and walked to him. "Sirius." she breathed out.
It was instinctive for Sirius to back away, already turning his face to the side as he stumbled on the old floor. No cold hand ever met his skin, no tight grip grasped on his chin and no sudden force drove him off his feet. Instead soft hands cupped his cheeks, guiding his narrowed eyes into his mother's gaze.
"You're home." she whispered, her hands moving to press on his shoulders as she smoothed the wrinkles of his jacket. "Come, sit." she invited, moving back to the end of the table.
He swallowed hard, glancing shakily at the arranged table with even more seats prepared. He breathed out softly, taking slow steps as he ran his hand over the back of the chair at his side "Don't hold your breath, mother." he said, looking around "I will just take Y/N and leave."
Her face fell briefly, the icy woman Sirius knew breaking to the surface for a fraction of second before she put on the mask again "I'm afraid she won't be joining us tonight, dear." Sirius' distraught face didn't go unnoticed by her as she picked her glass up "She's already gone to sleep."
"At four in the afternoon?" Sirius asked.
"A nap." she explained simply, her smirk visible through glass as she said before taking a sip "She was exhausted after our little chat."
Sirius face hardened "If you dared to do anything to her-"
"Oh, please." she cut it, placing her cup down "I just got to know the girl. You can ask your brother, he'll be joining us shortly."
"That traitor." he muttered.
"Careful with your words, Sirius." she snapped, her hand gripping tight on the chair.
Sirius smiled bitterly, the urge to break havoc in that very same room pushed back by the knowledge you were somewhere in the house. "Drop the act already. What do you want?"
Walburga raised an eyebrow, side glancing at her son "Straight to the point? Very well. Tonight, a group of the most trusted wizards and witches who work for the Dark Lord will visit our home expecting to meet the heir of the Noble House of Black, as they do with every pure blood who has sworn allegiance to him." she explained, the unsettling warmth in her face completely gone as her usual sharp features took hold of her again.
With a look of disinterest, Sirius looked down to the dinner served before him "And here I thought this was for me." he said with the tilt of his head.
Walburga smiled bitterly, "It is." she pursed her lips, a look of disgust taking over her "They expect to meet the oldest of each family, someone who can be of use to the Dark Lord. Unfortunately for us, that is you."
"Use Regulus, I'm sure he'll be honored." Sirius offered with a shrug. When Walburga's face dropped he just stared, shaking his head "I'm not the perfect son Regulus is and the world knows it, everyone knows I ran." he pointed out, as if magically his mother would have forgotten all about it.
A humorless chuckle surfaced from Walburga, anger fueling her voice "Did you really think I would let you stain our name?" she asked, "I've worked to keep our name clean, we've had enough with your blood traitor cousin." she hissed, eyes filled with determination "I won't let you do that to our name, I won't let what happened to my dear sister happen to me."
"A tragedy," Sirius pitied, clapping his hands in front of him as he took one step back "But you're in no luck, Regulus will have to do. I'll be on my way now, just point me in Y/N's direction and we won't bother you anymore." he asked, pointing over his shoulder to the door.
"Regulus is in no shape right now," she admitted with a blank look "He's fragile." she hesitated on her words, not letting too much out of her mouth.
Sirius frowned, glancing down briefly "Is he- is he ill?"
Walburga grinned, blinking rapidly "He's suffered from the same illness as you, a parasite in his mind. Of course, he resisted. Fought like you never did."
"What are you talking about? I never-"
"We have controlled it, I'm sure you are familiar with them by now."
Then it dawned on Sirius what his mother referred to, making his jaw clench. "I'm here now, just like you asked." he said, voice hoarse "Let her go."
"Not just yet, dear." She smiled "You still have a dinner to attend and she will prove enough motivation for you to behave properly."
*******
Regulus had taken his post next to the tall door, leaning on the wall as you paced in front of him. You had settled on a plan, it wasn't great but it was the best you had come up with.
When Walburga walked in she would surely ask you to be moved somewhere else, then you would refuse, making Regulus have to force you to move. This time his grip would be loose, enough for you to be able to get free of it and attack him for a punch or two. After moving you to another room he would leave, keeping Walburga distracted long enough for you to get out of the room with the wand you stole while attacking him, finding Sirius and leaving before the guests arrived.
"It won't work." you repeated for the millionth time. "She'll see right through it."
"Keep acting like you have until now." he said, lifting his head from where he rested on the wall "But don't hold back on your punches, that slap was pathetic."
You stop dead in your tracks, turning to him with an offended look on your face "We'll never make it." you lamented, folding your body until you were hugging your knees.
Regulus straightened from his posture on the wall, moving to your back as he lifted you to your feet "All your anger will come back as soon as she walks in. Just remember to be quick in finding Sirius and getting out of here." You just nodded, waving a hand in the air "Listen to me." he said sternly, turning you by the shoulders to face him "Promise me you will get out of here if you can't find him."
You held his eyes, his gaze never quivering. "Promise me." he repeated, voice more pleading than commanding.
"Promise." you whispered, gulping as he nodded softly.
A thin line fell from the ceiling, a tingling sensation crossing your body as the world suddenly existed once again on the outside of the four walls you found yourselves in. The door vibrated with the movement outside, the knob twisting softly.
"Ready?" Regulus asked as he moved next to the door.
You nodded in his direction in sync with the door opening, Walburga standing on the frame as a taller form moved behind her and up the stairs. Your eyes widened as your jaw dropped, a dry call of his name leaving your lips as you surged to the door. "Sirius!"
Regulus eyes mirrored your own, his own legs jumping into movement as he watched you run. His arms held you back against his chest, his eyes meeting his brother as he too called your name.
"Get your hands off of her!" Sirius yelled at him as he turned on the spot.
Walburga looked over her shoulder "Take him away." she ordered Kreacher, who snapped his fingers in the air making him and Sirius disappear in the air.
You slumped in Regulus' arms, turning your shaky glossy eyes to Walburga.
"Can you behave for a minute, dear?" she asked.
You didn't answer but she told Regulus to let you go either way, seeing your state after seeing Sirius. Regulus moved to his mother's side, just one step behind her like a second hand.
"Leave us." she ordered, making Regulus immediately falter as he had started to move towards you.
"Mother?" he asked, looking at the side of her head as her main focus remained on you. "The guests will be here soon, should I take her to another room upstairs so they won't see her?"
"There's plenty of time." she said, her eyes narrowing on your feet as she lowered to your side, taking Regulus' wand out of your boot. She held it out for her son, his grip hesitant as he bit the inside of his cheeks.
"It's time I have a talk with her. Alone."