till death do us part -regulus black (the blacks, vol. 1)

chapter 1

The Order of the Phoenix was cleaning 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius was assigned his brother's, Regulus, room. The room was just how he remembered it to be: dark but lively, with books thrown around everywhere on the floor, some pictures hanging up on the walls - some of just Regulus alone, some from his Quidditch matches -, and the messy desk that Regulus could never keep tidy.

Sirius laughed as he looked at the only picture on the desk, a picture of him and Regulus from before either of them went to Hogwarts. He could recall that day as if it were yesterday. They were both dressed in formal clothing, patiently waiting to go to the annual Christmas party one of the pure-blooded families was hosting each year. Those were simpler times: times when Sirius's relationship with his parents consisted of mutual fondness, but still curses and fights, times when Sirius and Regulus could behave like a regular pair of brothers. He picked up the framed picture, carefully took it out of the frame, folded the picture and put it in his pocket.

When it was time for the desk drawer, Sirius opened it slowly. It had the same messiness as the rest of the room. There were some pictures in there from when the brothers were older, some of Regulus and his friends from Hogwarts that Sirius believed his younger brother did not have the time to hang before his sudden death, some of Regulus and a girl that looked unfamiliar to Sirius. The girl was petite, with grey eyes, and hair cascading just above her hips in a wavey whitey-blonde mess. In one of them, Regulus was hugging the girl from behind, a smile painted on both of their lips. He turned the photo around, on the back written 'Regulus & Eva, Narcissa's wedding, August 1977'. There was another one of Regulus and that girl Eva at a Christmas ball, on the back written in his mother's handwriting 'Regulus & Eva, Christmas 1977'.

'Sirius,' Remus Lupin's voice caught Sirius's attention. 'Are you alright?' the werewolf asked.

'Yes, just... cleaning Reg's messy room,' Sirius replied, not taking his eyes off the pile of photos of his brother and that girl, Eva.

'What do you have there?' Remus asked, now standing next to his best friend.

'Oh, just some pictures of Regulus and a girl I found in his drawer,' the Black answered.

'When are they from?' Lupin's curiosity got the best of him.

'They date from around 1975 till a couple of months before Reg's death,' Sirius explained. 'They seemed close,' the older man pointed out, giving Remus the picture from Narcissa's wedding. 'Funny thing, I don't recall seeing this girl before in my entire life.'

Remus inspected the photo himself. The girl looked slightly familiar. 'She looks a lot like a Malfoy. Maybe she is one of them,' Remus pointed out.

'I don't think so. And even were she, we would have seen her at Hogwarts before,' Sirius argued. 'My mother wrote on the back of those. We could ask her portrait about this Eva girl,' the Black explained.

'Padfoot,' Remus sighed.

Sirius rushed out of his brother's room and down the stairs to his mother's portrait. 'Mother!' Sirius yelled.

'TRAITOR! BLOOD-TRAITOR!' the portrait of Walburga Black screamed.

'Mother, calm down!' Sirius yelled. 'Who is Eva, and what was her relation to Regulus?' Sirius asked calmly.

'THE FILTHY MUGGLE!' she screamed. 'THAT FILTHY MUGGLE WHO LIED TO US ALL!'

'She was a Muggle?' he asked.

'YES, A FILTHY MUGGLE!'

Sirius was shocked. What was a Muggle doing with his family, celebrating with them? And how could that slip unnoticed to Regulus, to everyone else? 'What was she to him?' he asked.