𝑆𝐸𝐶𝑂𝑁𝐷 𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑁𝐶𝐸𝑆 // 𝐽𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑐

Chapter 1: Silence

Nobody tells you just how loud silence is. How you can feel the weight of hearing nothing and everything all at once. Or the sense that every person near you is pleading to break the silence, but no one, not one person can do it. So, you all suffer together in the tight bound of silence. But isn't that the best way to suffer?

In silence.

Not bothering anybody else.

Letting your own thoughts fill the missing words that should be in the air, passing through people's mouths and receiving into others ears.

Yeah, silence is better for everybody.

It was a tradition. To have a dinner party the night before summer ended. Invitations were sent out to the Blacks this year despite my mother's claims that they will not turn up.

They proved her wrong.

There, across the table, two seats away, sat Wulburga Black. Beside, Orion Black. Then, next to the girl, shoulder to shoulder, Regulus Black. But the seat next to the youngest, was empty, my mother had even taken it upon herself to remove the chair from the room all together.

They hadn't turned up last year, the girls mother says it was due to the embarrassment that he set up on their family. Her mother says she saw it from the very beginning. How he had not taken his role properly. How he was not going to make anyone proud, especially the Dark Lord. Her mother says she would've done it years ago — disowned him, that is. Her mother, Jules Dubois, says a lot of things.

Sirius had finally had it apparently, this summer he packed his things and ran. He's with the Potters now, being taken in and presumably spoiled rotten. Although that is not what Wulburga and Orion tell people, they claim they shooed him out, that they packed his bags, that they wanted him gone.

Regulus told the girl that's bull.

He isn't coming back, that's what Regulus had said once she saw him. He looked like a lost puppy. He looked hurt. He looked betrayed.

Well, he looked that way because he was betrayed —by his own brother.

A summer went by and Regulus and Sirius were no longer the two Black brothers, destined for greatness later on in life. There was now Regulus, who was now destined for all that greatness, Regulus who now had all eyes on him to become the Black Heir, Regulus who's having restless and sleepless nights, Regulus who's getting tired, Regulus who was left alone.

And then there was Sirius, the family disappointment, the blood traitor, the cocky gryfindoor who didn't care about leaving his own brother behind, Sirius who is now perfectly happy with his new family.

Yeah, maybe I am a bit spiteful.

You see, it's not that Sirius is missed at this dinner — oh, it's definitely not that. It's just that something is missing. There's a difference. There's not a hole where Sirius used to be, no one is gloom from not having his presence, or wishing he was here; not at all. It's that something is just off, there's no more smart remarks, or under the table kicking, or off-tune piano music.

The atmosphere has shifted. Sirius had always taken up so much room, so much attention, that now, all of that energy has been put into the air, and no one seems to know what to do with it.

And this is only one dinner. Only a few hours. How must be it like at home for Regulus?

I'm blessed to be an only child, she had thought.

"Evelyna," Finally, someone unties the tight knot of silence, "I see we have all finished our meals." Jules speaks, looking all round to make sure she is not mistaken — that everyone has indeed finished with dessert. "How about you play something on the piano?"