Astrophile [J.P]

Chapter 59

~ And you take care of me,

My blood brother, fight for me. ~

***

Felicity looked up to see the door open and Sirius stepped inside, his face drawn with guilt and sorrow. He looked absolutely broken such that she immediately approached, her hands reaching out to steady him.

"Siri, what happened?"

But he gave no reply though his face was whiter than that of a corpse, making her even more anxious.

"Sirius, where are you coming from?"

He breathed at last, the words leaving his tongue surprising her, "Grimmauld Place..."

"You went there? Why?"

"Mum called and... I had to..."

"Walburga Black called you?" Fel couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Sirius's mother who had herself disowned him and casted him out of the family could ever call him back to Grimmauld Place.

However, when he gave no further response, she made him sit down on the couch and fetched a glass of water.

Marlene who had gone to take a bath earlier had stepped out as well and seeing Sirius like that she too got worried, "all okay, Black?"

"No..."

"But what happened?"

He took in a deep breath as if even saying those words hurt, "Regulus... Regulus died..."

Fel froze in shock as she registered what he had just said. Regulus Arcturus Black, his younger brother who had joined the Death Eaters at the very young age of sixteen, was no more.

She still recalled the first time she had talked to him, an unexpected meeting between the two which she hadn't mentioned to any of her friends. Not even to Sirius, because Reg had asked her to keep it a secret.

Both of them had stumbled upon the same place in the Room of Requirement as both had been looking for some peace and quiet. It was back in the days Fel was still recovering from the sorrow of her father Alphard's death so she had found her way to the Room of Requirement, asking it to show her a place where she could be alone.

Apparently, Regulus had asked for the same thing so when she stepped into the room, she had come face to face with the young Black sibling who had already been there, his blue eyes mirroring her own. 

He had recognized her immediately to be his lost cousin, because he had attended his Uncle's funeral and seen her there as well. The two had talked a bit back then, all alone Reg seemed to be very different from the persona he held up in front of others. He had comforted her back then but asked her not to Sirius that she had met him.

And when she had asked him why he was there in the Room of Requirement, he had reluctantly showed her the Dark Mark and confided in her that he was still conflicted.

Felicity had never breathed a word of it to anyone else because she couldn't break is trust and had promised him not to tell. Over time, she even forgot about him altogether.

But right then hearing from Sirius that he had died brought back that memory from full force.

"How?" Felicity asked, unable to digest the fact that the boy was dead, "why?"

"Because he was an idiot that's why," the anger struck Siri at last as he clenched his fist, ramming it into the table in front of him. 

Marlene's eyes widened in alarm because she knew very well that Sirius's anger was self destructive, a trait that he had inherited from his mother even though he would never ever admit it.