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VII. Days of Summer

The next morning, Regulus was awoken by Sirius once again. For a moment, he panicked, and he tried to scramble away from the person who he thought was only going to hurt him. But, when Sirius's voice had processed and his face had set in, Regulus was able to feel somewhat calm; at the very least, he was less afraid of being hurt.

Sirius sat down in the seat beside Regulus's bed after his brother had calmed, sighing quietly. "Hey, Reg. How'd you sleep?"

Regulus gave a thumbs up. Sure, he had fallen asleep under unfortunate circumstances, but he hadn't had a single nightmare in the unknown amount of hours that he had spent unconscious. Sirius smiled at this response and nodded. "That's good, I'm glad."

The corners of Regulus's mouth became even more downturned as he caught sight of the scratch that covered Sirius's arm. He pointed at it, questioning Sirius with a look on his face that transferred his message.

Sirius waved a dismissive hand, turning his arm so that the scratch was hidden. "S'nothing. Just something from... y'know, last night."

Regulus furrowed his brow and tilted his head a bit. He wondered what, exactly, had happened, but he didn't necessarily know how to ask. The scratch looked rather nasty, and he was wondering just what would happen if it had been from Remus; did scratches turn people, too, or just bites? He didn't necessarily fancy having a brother who turned into a bloodthirsty wolf every month, but he could deal with it; if Sirius had dealt with Regulus through all of this, then the least that he could do was deal with whatever would become of Sirius.

Of course, this could just be an irrational thought process; there was really no way of telling.

Sirius could see the question still clear on Regulus's face and he sighed quietly. "It was a branch. We were in the forest out back pretty much all night, and I got scratched by a branch."

Regulus tilted his head, eyes communicating his question: how?

Sirius sighed once again, but he had been doing that quite a lot recently. "It's not important, Reg. I'll just... I'll tell you another time, alright?"

Regulus's frown deepened even further, but he didn't make any other sort of gesture. Instead, he stared at his brother, and Sirius stared back, and the two were silent. Sirius suddenly remembered what he had come up for in the first place, and he cleared his throat to break the silence with something other than his voice.

"Hey, Reg, remember your promise from yesterday?" He raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips.

Regulus sighed quietly and nodded his head. He took this moment to focus on the feeling happening in his stomach, and it certainly was not hunger. It was almost like a small twisting of anxiety. But, he had been in a near-constant state of anxiousness since what had happened to him, so this was not a very odd feeling at all.

"Well, then, c'mon." He gestured for Regulus to stand up as he did the same. "Breakfast is ready downstairs. Pete's down there, I dunno if Remus is though. I think he's still sleeping, but I'm not sure."

Regulus sighed and shook his head. He tried to communicate the message with his eyes, but this time it seemed to be much harder than it usually was. Sirius tilted his head with a furrowed brow, and he looked at his brother trying to decipher his silent statement.

"Reg, you promised you'd eat breakfast. C'mon."

Regulus shook his head again. He didn't bother trying to communicate with his eyes again, and he instead stood up. It took him a moment to stop the world from spinning, and then he walked over to his desk with legs that were shaking beneath him. He sat down in his chair, and Sirius walked over to him (he kept his movements as loud as possible so as not to make his presence unknown to the boy who was prone to flinching away now), and he stood beside Regulus as he watched the boy over his shoulder. Regulus pulled a slip of parchment toward himself, and he grabbed a quill, and he wrote.