Astronomy

Two: Regulus

    Regulus let go of mothers hand as they walked back in to the house. He took one last look outside as the big, dark door closed behind him. He wondered if Sirius was at Hogwarts yet, and if he was having fun.
    Mother pinched the top of her nose and sighed. "Well, he's gone." She looked at Regulus and pushed some of his hair out of his eyes. "Now we only have, you Regulus. Our good little boy."
    Regulus didn't say anything, just nodded. He never completely understood why his parents liked him so much more then his brother, but he did enjoy the attention. He liked it when his parents were happy with him.
    "May I go to my room, mother?"
    "Yes, you may."
    Regulus ran up the large, curving staircase to his bedroom. He approached the door and stopped. His room was at the end of a hallway, and to the side, right next to his, was Sirius' room. He slowly went to the door and opened it. He could already hear his parents downstairs, whispering and fighting with each other. Standing in the doorway, he looked in and suddenly became sad again. Hearing someone come up the stairs, he quickly slipped in to Sirius' room and closed the door behind him.     "I miss you, Sirius," he said quietly. He walked over to the desk in the corner of the room and sat down. He looked up at the wall and smiled. In front of the desk, Sirius had put up pictures of him with Regulus. Regulus looked over all of them until he saw his favorite one, taken on his birthday. Their parents never did much for either of their birthdays, but Sirius always did something for him. The picture was of the two of them sitting on one of the balcony's of their house, eating cake that Sirius had tried, and failed, to make. Regulus leaned over and grabbed the picture from the desk, stuffed it in his pocket, and sighed. He knew that Sirius wouldn't mind if he took it.
****
    "And that is why-" father coughed and took another bite of his food. "That is why it makes sense when..."
    Regulus sighed and continued eating his food. Family dinners had become incredibly boring ever since Sirius had left. Regulus frowned. Sirius left last week, and Regulus still hadn't gotten a letter.
    He pushed the chicken on his plate around with his fork.
    "Regulus, don't play with your food," father said.
    "Sorry, father."
    Just then, a large crash was heard through the house. Regulus turned to see an owl, with large white wings, flying above the dining room table. It made a lot of noise and continued flying before stopping in front of him long enough to drop a small, folded letter in front of him. It then flew over his parents and gave them a similar looking one. Regulus grinned, knowing it was from Sirius, while his parents screamed and tried to get the owl out of the house. He opened the letter.
    Dear Reggie,

    Sorry I haven't written you yet. Things have been happening so quickly here! I told you I would tell you everything, so here I go. When I first got on the train, the first person I met was a boy named James. I wasn't sure I would like him at first, because he seemed to be very dramatic and loud, which is my thing, but we talked a lot and became friends by the end of the train ride. Another boy named Remus also sat with us, but he was very shy and didn't say anything. After that, we got off the train and went in to the actual school. Here I met a boy named Peter. Reggie, your going to have so much fun when your here! I know your going to like it. We then went to this big room, where we were sorted in to our houses, and guess what? I got Gryffindor!

    Regulus dropped the letter and looked up with wide eyes. Gryffindor? How could Sirius be a Gryffindor? Almost everyone in the Black family was a Slytherin. He looked down and quickly read the rest of the letter, which was just Sirius talking about the school and about how much he missed Regulus. His parents had managed to chase the bird out and were just sitting back down.
    "Of course this was Sirius' fault," Mother said with anger in her voice. She picked up the letter that the owl had left for her and Father and ripped it open. Regulus tapped his fingers nervously along the table, knowing the news that they were about to hear was going to make them mad. Mother quickly read the letter out loud, and stopped when she got to the part.
    "What is it, Walburga? What has happened?" Father asked.
    Mother threw the letter on to the table. "He's a Gryffindor, that's what happened. Our son!"
    Father grabbed the letter and read, and then ripped it in half. "That boy..." he said, his cheeks turning red.
    Mother looked at Regulus. "Go to your room, Regulus."
    "Mother, I'm not done with my dinner," he said, pointing to the chicken.
    "You can finish later."
    Regulus nodded regretfully and walked up the stairs to his room. He could hear his parents already starting to fight as walked up. As soon as he reached the top of the stairs, he saw something moving towards him.
"Who's there?"
    A house elf slowly walked towards him, and Regulus sighed, recognizing him as Kreacher.
    "Hello, Kreacher," he said. "I wouldn't go downstairs right now if I were you. Mother and Father are having a fight."
    Kreacher just nodded and continued walking down the hall. Regulus watched, and then went in to his room.
    He wondered what Sirius was doing at Hogwarts.
****
    "Sit up, Regulus."
    "Yes, mother." Regulus cleared his throat and sat up. A servant came around and placed his food in front of him, and he started eating. It was already December, and Sirius had been gone for almost four months. Regulus didn't want to admit it, but he almost enjoyed being the only child in the house. His parents gave him all the attention he wanted, and he could honestly say he liked it.
    Father walked in the room, holding a wrinkled letter in his hand. He held it out for mother to read. She shook her head and folded the letter, hands shaking.
    "Regulus, please go to your room now."
    Regulus nodded and ran up the stairs, sitting at the top. He knew that whatever was going to happen was going to be interesting.
    "What are we going to do with that boy?!"
    "I don't know, Walburga, but we just do something! I have never in my life heard of Hogwarts sending a letter to let parents know there child has received detention."
    "No, not one detention, our boy has gotten fourteen! Fourteen!"
    "It could be worse. It's only a warning."
    "He is wild, absolutely wild!"
    Regulus could hear mother start to cry. Fourteen detentions? He shouldn't have been surprised, because that did sound a lot like Sirius, but still... fourteen was a lot.
    Maybe Sirius wasn't as great a kid as Regulus had thought. Regulus had grown to like being the favorite child, and he didn't want to ruin that by possibly following in the footsteps of his brother while he was at Hogwarts next year. He felt his view of Sirius slightly change, but of course, he still loved him. Sirius was his brother, and nothing was going to change that.
"We have one good one, remember? Regulus is going to go to Hogwarts next year, and he won't disgrace our name."
****June****
    Regulus stood on the platform, nervously looking around. It had been months since he'd last seen Sirius, who had not come home for Christmas, and he was excited to see him again. Hogwarts was being let out for summer, and Regulus waited with his parents for the train to drop Sirius off.
A lot had changed since Regulus had last seen his brother. He guessed that he had grown at least two inches, and he was more mature now, or at least he liked to think so. He didn't want to admit it, but he had enjoyed being the only child in the house. His parents gave him much more attention, and he began to enjoy doing as they said, because the reward for doing so was always more attention.
    The train pulled up, and steam blew out of the top. Mother and Father stood behind him while Regulus ran towards it. He waited as kids came out, and looked for Sirius.
    Suddenly, there was almost no more kids. Regulus looked around, but all he could see was a boy with long, dark hair, wearing a Gryffindor sweatshirt, standing next to three other boys. Two of them gave the other two hugs and left, and then it was just the boy with the long hair and one other boy. He had messy black hair and hazel eyes, and was wearing glasses.
    Regulus watched as the first boy looked over at him and dropped his bag, running over. "Reggie!"
    Regulus blinked, and the boy gave him a long hug. He pulled himself out from the boys hug and looked at him.
    "Sirius?!"