COMFORT ZONE | Sirius Black [REWRITING]

34. Reparations

Sunday, 17th February 1974

Regulus could not believe his ears.

He had chosen to pay a visit to Gryffindor Tower to catch up with his friends and hear about how the previous night's ball had been for them, only to have found Maddi alone in the boys' dormitory, sitting on his brother's bed without a trace of humour on her face. That was when she told him everything.

Of course, Regulus had known Sirius was thoughtless on the best of days; it wasn't a hard connection to make when he had grown up with him. But hearing what Maddi had to say about his venture with the Olivia girl had given him reason to conclude that his brother was unbearably thick.

Over the past month, he hadn't missed Sirius' sudden friendship with the Ravenclaw, reaching to the point she was invited to sit with his friends at the Gryffindor table or set pranks with them even though it was a well-known fact that their group was seldom known to be comfortable with strangers in their midst.

Within the Slytherin stratosphere, he had heard people mention that the two were dating, but this had been very difficult to believe when he so was acutely aware of his brother's feelings for Maddi. Regulus had been even more inclined to outright reject the rumours because Sirius always played off Olivia as a friend to him, never giving direct answers when he asked, quite normally, about why the two were spending so much time together

Now it all made sense.

And the worst part of it all was that Maddi only knew the half of it; she did not have the slightest clue that Sirius had done all of this as part of some twisted attempt to get his mind off of her.

There were few things that made him shudder, but the very real possibility of Maddi clawing Sirius alive if she found out about how he had essentially used the girl sent a cold shiver down his spine.

"So, where is Sirius now?"

Maddi hugged a pillow to her chest.

"I sent him to talk to Olivia literally ten minutes before you came."

"To break things off?"

"I don't know, but I'd be surprised if they didn't," she covered her mouth through a yawn. "He obviously doesn't like her in that way, and I doubt she'd want to be with him after what he did. And anyway, were they even properly together to begin with?"

He really wanted to get his hands on Sirius and shake some sense into him.

The dormitory door flew open as James sauntered in, closely followed by Peter and then a very fatigued-looking Remus a few seconds later. Regulus didn't know if the others knew yet, but Remus bore every sign of a werewolf who was fast approaching the full moon.

"Hey, Reg. How come you're here today?" The werewolf asked before almost collapsing on to his bed.

Regulus looked at him concernedly, but Remus did not notice, or chose to ignore it.