Chapter 281: Chapter 281: Sirius: I’m the Older Brother [bonus]
No one on Regulus’s side spoke. All eyes turned toward the far end of the bank.
The group approaching had a reputation, and the whole of Hogwarts knew it.
Pranks, bullying, poking wands at portraits of old men, enchanting suits of corridor armor to dance. The younger Gryffindors found it hilarious, egging them on, and the other Houses mostly watched from the sidelines as long as they weren’t targeted.
Slytherin hadn’t been so lucky. The stragglers caught the worst of it.
Walking down a corridor and tripping over nothing. Robes turning pink for no reason. Wands spitting out a pile of snails. It happened every few days, and eight times out of ten, it was them.
Regulus had never bothered with it. He wasn’t on their list. James didn’t dare touch him.
His circle was safe too. Avery’s family crest on his robes, Hermes’s face, those were enough deterrents.
As for Alex, he looked so harmless that bullying him would’ve come with guilt attached.
But Slytherin’s overall opinion of the Marauders couldn’t have sunk any lower.
Now the four of them were still distant specks, and Cuthbert’s lip was already curling.
"Them again." He muttered it with undisguised distaste.
Alex showed no reaction beyond tugging his scarf a fraction higher.
Hermes didn’t look their way at all, eyes fixed on the lake, apparently thinking about something else entirely.
Lina and Samuel stood at the outer edge. Lina’s chin was still buried in her scarf, Samuel’s hands in his pockets, head down.
The other group stopped about twenty meters out.
James stood to Sirius’s right, Lupin to his left, Peter shrinking behind the rest.
Then Sirius walked forward alone.
Cuthbert and Alex exchanged a glance and shrugged.
Clear enough. Two Blacks needed to talk. The rest of them probably shouldn’t be there.
But nobody moved.
Regulus tilted his head toward them. "Head back."
Nobody moved.
Cuthbert shuffled two steps sideways, not far, clearing a bit of space with the air of someone who had technically stepped back, then planted his feet and stayed.
Alex shifted the same distance, ending up roughly beside him.
Lina and Samuel looked at each other. Lina took a step, ready to leave.
This was obviously Black family business. They weren’t part of the inner circle. Staying would be out of place.
Alex’s arm came up, a small motion, crossing in front of Lina to stop her.
She looked up at him. His expression was relaxed, mouth carrying the faintest trace of amusement, as if he were settling in for a show.
A glance at Samuel. A tiny nod from him.
They pulled back without a word, falling in two steps behind Alex and standing just past his shoulder.
Hermes hadn’t budged from his spot.
Regulus turned to look at him. Hermes met his gaze, one corner of his mouth twitching. "Windy."
Then he drifted over to Alex’s cluster and joined them.
The space was cleared. Nobody had left.
They stood at a distance that was neither close nor far, wearing identical expressions of I’m definitely not watching but I’m absolutely watching, radiating the distinct energy of people ready to charge in at the first sign their man was being pushed around.
Regulus couldn’t be bothered. If they wanted to stand in the cold, they could stand in the cold.
His own body had long since stopped caring about temperature.
Star Guided Meditation had tempered his flesh layer by layer. Walking out in shirtsleeves in winter was nothing. The midnight wind of the Forbidden Forest couldn’t touch him. A lake breeze was beneath notice.
He brought his gaze back to Sirius.
Long stride, robes billowing, that same swaggering walk, chin up. The usual Sirius.
James Potter stood at the front.
Behind those round spectacles, the look in his eyes was anything but friendly. Regulus could read it even at this distance.
It wasn’t ordinary irritation. It was the anger of someone who believed he held the moral high ground.
Brows knotted, lips pressed into a thin line, jaw thrust forward.
His weight tipped onto his front foot, his whole body leaning in, coiled as if about to launch himself across the gap.
Lupin stood half a step behind, hand extended, resting on James’s arm, pulling back. His lips were moving. Talking him down, probably.
Peter hovered at the rear, half a head poking out to peer their way before ducking back, then poking out again.
Regulus took it in with a glance.
James looked like a man staring down a criminal who deserved to be tried.
In his mind, Regulus was some venomous little snake tormenting his brother, and Sirius walking over alone meant something terrible was about to happen to him.
Regulus looked away. He couldn’t spare a second glance.
Sirius stopped three paces in front of him.
"Sirius." Regulus gave a nod, tone the same as always.
"Regulus." Sirius returned it, matching the tone.
They stood in silence for a moment.
Regulus turned to face the Black Lake.
Sirius turned too, settling half a step to his left, shoulders level with his.
The two brothers stood side by side.
Regulus watched the lake. After a while, he spoke. "I thought you were coming for a fight."
His head tilted slightly toward James.
Sirius blinked, then followed the gesture.
James’s expression hadn’t changed. Furious, as though Regulus had just sold his brother out, brow knotted into a single ridge, still straining forward against Lupin’s grip on his arm.
Sirius looked for a couple of seconds, let out a helpless breath, and turned back.
"I wanted to come alone."
The corner of Regulus’s mouth lifted a fraction. "What, afraid I’d bully you?"
Sirius bared his teeth, lips pulling wide, brows pushing down.
He’d had that look since childhood, the face he made whenever his pride was stung, like a puppy whose tail had been stepped on.
His voice pitched higher, indignant but more insistent than angry. "Regulus, I’m the older brother."
The words came out, and he caught himself first.
That was what he’d said, but the conviction behind it was thin. The wind carried it off almost before it landed.
Older brother. The phrase sounded unfamiliar in his own mouth, the syllables clumsy, as if he hadn’t used them in a long time.
He could tell something about it wasn’t right, but he didn’t try to fix it.
Regulus glanced sideways at him.
Older brother?
Regulus turned back to the lake. "Oh."
Sirius went quiet again.
His mouth opened, nothing came out, and his expression cycled from defiance to resignation to something harder to name, a bottled-up frustration with no outlet.
Wind swept across the water and the surface creased. His reflection wavered, then settled.
Regulus didn’t ask why he’d come.
He could guess, but he didn’t want to ask. He wanted to watch Sirius wrestle with himself.
So he stood there. Watching the lake.
Sirius stood beside him, silent, scraping one foot against the ground, then scraping it again.
"I’m going home."
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