“Please, Regulus, you can’t!” The voice went calmer but no less pleading “Stop, let’s think this through”
Sirius stilled at the sound of his brother’s name, the girls voice sounding desperate to the point of hysteria.
“I have to do this” Regulus snapped, “It’s too late to back out now anyway”
Something was wrong, at first; Sirius assumed it was a messy breakup or something but he knew Regulus, he knew how to read his voice. Whatever was bothering him, or both of them, it was enough to shatter his careful mask of pureblooded disdain
“No, it’s not, we could think of something”
“Like what?” Challenged the Black
“We could run away; to my parents, abroad, anywhere” Sirius couldn’t see but heard Regulus’ scoff “Dumbledore then, let’s talk to him, he’ll help us “
Regulus’ voice went deathly “Me this isn’t your issue Ame, stay out of it”
Amelia MacFusty, Sirius had checked the Marauders map, began to bite back a protest but was interrupted
“-Besides, this is an honour, I get to serve the Dark Lord, Mudbloods need to die, for everyone’s sake” He voice was hard to read but, for certain, it lacked the passionate hatred which soaked other Slytherin’s words
Sirius wanted to slap him, hard, for his words but, more than that, he ached to play big brother again. Reggie, who woke him up at 4 in the morning to play quidditch, who made faces with him over dinner, who always tried to do exactly as he did but always ended up doing it his own way by the end.
How could the same person be a Death Eater? Sirius hadn’t spoken to him in months and even before that, his family and Slytherin in general had done all they could to remove his ‘traitorous taint’.
Sirius paused; maybe he was overreacting? Surely Voldemort wasn’t desperate enough to give a fourth year like Regulus the Dark Mark? Maybe He and this girl were arguing about some lesser thing, some pretentious Slytherin club or another. Maybe Regulus was exaggerating.
“You’ll die” The girl choked out “By the time you leave Hogwarts, who knows what it’ll be like? He doesn’t care about you; you’ll be just a foot soldier to him”
Sirius made a note to look up the MacFusty girl he was too preoccupied to think about it now but purebloods who would speak badly of the ‘Dark Lord’ were few and far between, outside of Gryffindor that is.
“Better that than be a blood traitor” Regulus spat bitterly, Sirius knew Reg was thinking of him then. A deep hopelessness fell in the pit of his stomach; he’d always wished that his little brother would somehow resist their parents’ influence, but that seemed foolish now. “Theres nothing else to say or do, Ame, and if you don’t let me go then I’ll-“ His voice hardened after a moment of waver “-I’ll make you”
There was a heavy silence before Sirius heard the Macfusty girl move closer to him, presumably to move out of Regulus’ way. “You’re right Reg, as long as you tell yourself this is the only option, what can I do? Just…be careful okay?”
Their eyes met, hooded with grim understanding and then Regulus turned and strode off down the dim-lit hallway. After he was sure Regulus was gone he left his hiding place around the corner
The girl had sunk to floor in tears, with her fingers knotted in her long, extremely scruffy looking dark brown hair. It covered her entire curled up body; she was like a large hairball, he might have laughed another time.
He paced over to her quietly but her head darted up nonetheless. Her face broke with an almost painfully relieved smile
“Reg” She cried “I-“ Her eyes focused and for the longest moment she just stared at him before it dawned on her and she sighed out an ‘oh’
She was standing up before he could even feel awkward; her face in a surprisingly good mask of composure though the still moist tear tracks spoiled the effect.
“I apologise, I mistook you for your brother” She dipped her head, staring at the floor
Over-Thinking It 