| CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE |
YOU'RE RIGHT.
CASSIOPEIA AVOIDED SIRIUS LIKE THE plague for the following few weeks. She still hung out with Remus, Peter and James, but whenever Sirius would come to join them, the black haired girl would slither away unnoticed. She was now seen almost always in the library, her head in her books as she and the rest of the girls all studied as hard as they possibly could for their end of year exams.
"You can't run away from me forever," Sirius' voice broke her from her work. He was standing near their table in the library, his arms crossed and a frown resting on his face.
"I'm sure I can," Cassiopeia replied, never once looking up from her school work.
"Cass..."
"Sirius, we have less than three months of school left..." Cassiopeia finally looked up at him, "I really don't have time for your drama right now."
"You're the one that's been ignoring me!" He exclaimed, causing Madam Pince to look over at them and put her finger to her mouth.
"For good reasons," Cass stated casually as the rest of the girls shared awkward looks. They knew that the siblings had their ups and downs, but frankly, they had never been in the middle of the downs; even Liv.
"Listen, I'm sorry for what I said but you know it's true."
Cassiopeia clenched her fist, "He's our brother, Sirius. How many times do I have to tell you that? What if that was me in his position? What would you do? Eh?"
Sirius suddenly went quiet as Cassiopeia nodded her head. By the look in his eyes she knew she had struck a cord in him, finally got him thinking differently.
He let out an annoyed huff, "Fine."
Cass smirked, "Fine what?"
Sirius clenched his jaw, "Fine, you're right."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you just say?"
"Cass..."
"Well, I can go back to acting as if I don't know you," She shrugged, smiling at him innocently as she picked up her quill and pretended to write something on her parchment.
Sirius let out a sigh, "You're right."
Cassiopeia grinned, "Oh, I know I am. Now go away, we're studying."
Sirius let out a huff but since he not only received a glare from Madam Pince but also from the girls sitting around his sister, he finally turned around and walked away, leaving the library with a slightly less guilty conscious. However, as he walked through the corridors of the magical school alone, he couldn't help but get lost in his thoughts.
Maybe Cassiopeia had been right all those years. Maybe he should've been there more for his brother, maybe if he had been, Regulus wouldn't be involved in things no sixteen year old boy should ever be involved with. Maybe the three of them would always hang out together rather than glare at one another whenever they walked past. Maybe if Sirius had been more thoughtful of his younger siblings when he lived at home, then things would've been completely different.
"Woah, watch where you're going!" The familiar voice finally snapped Sirius out of his thoughts. Muttering a quick apology his eyes widened when he spotted his younger brother standing right in front of him, an annoyed expression etched upon his face, "Oh, it's you," Regulus muttered bitterly, he was about to walk away when Sirius seized his arm, keeping him in that corridor, "What?"
"Can we...Can we talk?"
"What, so you can tell me to stay away from our sister?" Regulus hissed, crossing his arms over his chest.
Sirius refrained from lashing out, instead he took a deep breath, "No, it's not about that, can we talk?"
"Be quick. I've got Quidditch practise in fifteen minutes."
Sirius' eyes widened in surprise. He had been expecting the younger boy to just storm away maybe even punch him, but he certainly wasn't expecting him to stand there, awaiting whatever it was that Sirius needed to say.
"Are you going to stand here all day or are you going to speak?"
Sirius' snapped out of his daydream and cleared his throat, "I spoke to Cass not too long ago...And, erm.. she made me realise something."
Regulus raised an eyebrow.
"I've been a complete and utter dick--"
"You don't say."
"And I'm...I'm sorry."
"Okay."
"Okay? Is that all you've got to say?" Sirius couldn't hide his annoyed expression.
Regulus shrugged, "Well, what do you want me to say? That it's okay and everything is fine? Because it's not, Sirius. It never has been and it never will be. You can't change the past and so everything is still the same as it has been but now you just have a clean conscious," The Slytherin boy spoke in a firm voice, "No amount of sorry can change anything."
Sirius frowned. He hadn't expected Regulus to say any of that. If anything, he expected that the younger boy would either punch him or just storm off, and frankly, he didn't know if he preferred what he got or just to get punched.
"For Cass' sake we should get along," Sirius muttered, running his hand through his shoulder length hair.
Regulus rolled his eyes as he began to walk away, "For Cass' sake I'm not going to punch you."
AN- I think the next chapter will be the last one in Act : Three and then I will get on with the final act of this book which is quite bittersweet. I never expected to love Cass and Remus this much so I'm quite happy with how it's turned out so far, especially since I've actually felt inspired to write this book unlike some of my other older Marauder ones.