The funeral

28 0 0
                                    

Four people stand in front of a grave, one pair a little off from the other. All were tall, sharp featured and dark-haired, though one had their hair dyed platinum blonde. If anyone looked related, those four did, but it had been all long time since they'd seen one another. Even though upon a time, they'd been the closest family could be.
Each pair of cousins had their own dispositions that would lead them to argue:
Sirius shared Bella's infallible determination, Narcissa, Regulus and Andromeda all viewed that family should be held above everything. The things that most caused them arguing, however, was Narcissa and Regulus' soft and forgiving hearts (that the others often mistook as cowardice). But most of all Andromeda and Sirius's questioning of everything and anything, even as children.

But they had all loved each other.

At one point, at least.

The older girls had read the younger ones and chased them around their respective manors. When any of them felt as if they were alone, the rest of the Black family cousins were always there...before Hogwarts. But as much as all gathered there wished it was, no amount amount of being sorted into Gryffindor, marrying a muggle born, mean insults or even psychotic behavior, could erase all of that. It had erased a lot, some definitely irreversibly so. But not all.
Regulus had always been attached to the idea that the Black cousins would never break apart. Nothing broke him like than the realization that it had. They were his little family within his not-so-great one so even when he did, he still held onto it like a stubborn child about to have a tantrum.
Now it was Sirius who realized something.
They had been Regulus' pathetic excuse for Marauders. When they tore apart he was confused, wondering where all the love had gone and ran straight into the arms of the death-eaters. Desperately to trying make sure what family he had left, wouldn't break again.

That's when Sirius' shoulders began to shake. He hated it, he hated crying in front of Cissy and Bella. But Andie patted his back, eyes and face red from tears that wouldn't accept the reality, and fall.
Cissy was next to cry and in her true fashion, it was, a lot. She fell to her knees in front of the headstone, sobbing, strands of her blond sticking her face from snot and tears. She began wailing something incomprehensible that after a while turned into "He was our littlest, he was our LITTLEST, HE WAS OUR LITTLEST!"
He was. 1961-1979 It said. He had been 18 when he died.
Bella made a semi-disgusted noise, though her throat did seem a little stuffy, and pulled Cissy forcefully up to her feet. "C'mon, Cissy, recover yourself. We are pureblood and we will not embarrass ourselves, especially-" here she shot Sirius and Andromeda a nasty look, "-in front of the blood-traitors." Narcissa nodded her head like an obedient child, blowing her nose in the most dignified way possible.
Sirius let a coarse laugh, "Of course you would say that, Bellatrix."
Bellatrix whipped around to her opponent and raised her chin defiantly. Sirius and Bella had the most antagonist relationship out of any of the cousins. Sirius, being well-known for loathing Voldemort and all his followers and Bellatrix, well-known for being one of his most loyal. In fact, she was in love with him, a fact often spread around the Lestranges at school to get them angry. Everyone knew they could say nothing about it, lest their loyalty to the Dark Lord be questioned and had a lot of fun with it. Nothing about his cousin could disgust Sirius more.

"I beg your pardon, Sirius?"
"You should. Tell me, did you kill him?"

Narcissa gasped from behind Bellatrix and even Andromeda looked shocked by the suggestion.
Bella was absolutely fuming. "HOW DARE YOU! I LOVED HIM, UNLIKE YOU SO DON'T THINK I WON'T YOU KILL FOR THAT."
Sirius feigned nonchalance as he twirled his wand in between his fingers, "Funny that. I originally thought you couldn't love but then Voldy came around, and I had to revise my initial assessment. You love one person, and there's been a rumor Regulus tried to defect from your little club à la mass murder, and wouldn't you know how that one person deals with defectors."
The others went white and stared at the oldest Black there. Both now had doubt clouding their eyes but Bella spat in anger. "Cissy let you attend his funeral from the kindness of her heart and this is how you repay her? Slander our cousin on his own grave? He would never leave his master."
Sirius' laugh was outright maniacal now, his face and voice filled with anger and hate. "That's what you focus on?! Your cousin? He was my BROTHER, YOU BITCH!" And flung himself at her with his wand drawn.
Before either Andromeda or Narcissa could react he and Bellatrix were dueling and screaming at the top of their lungs. Sirius with angry tears streaming down his face, "YOU KILLED HIM, DIDN'T YOU? YOU FUCKING KILLED MY BABY BROTHER!"
Bellatrix, now in her element of flying curses and screamed accusations about the death of love ones, laughed crazily in her cousin's face. "I didn't. But if he had tried to desert our master, I would have been happy to prune the family tree myself!"
That was the point where Andromeda and Cissy broke and shared in the simultaneous action of aiming their wands at their older sister.
Bellatrix, though powerful, couldn't hold up against the combined powerful of three rage filled wizards. Glowing chains shot out of Andromeda's wand and wrapped around Bella's wrists and ankles, pulling her wand-arm back. Narcissa shot a a bright red silencing at her sister that hit her so hard in the chest that she would have fallen if not for Andy's chains. She stumbled back, still laughing maniacally at Sirius, as if he were the one who had cast the spells. Sirius bounded forward, snarling but didn't get very far as his cousin's glowing chains wrapped around his legs and yanked him back.
Sirius turned to her, tears streaming down his face, beating down and ripping at the chains that now bound him as well as Bellatrix. "LET ME GET AT HER!" Andromeda was crying too, seeing the last bit of their tenuous familial bond tearing at the accusation of their oldest cousin for their youngest's supposed murder. Her voice was shaky and full of guilt, "....no...I can't..."
"Because she's your sister." Sirius' voice was cold and unemotional and Andromeda closed her eyes tightly. Bellatrix cackled and shook her chains at Sirius, "How does it feel to know that Regulus only had you and you failed him." Sirius backed away, shaking off Andy's arm as she tried to reach out in apology, tears streaming down her face. "Sirius! Please!" Sirius turned to face her, eyes bright and face red, "He was my brother and I will never get the chance to defend him again." At this comparison Narcissa looked stricken and reached out to Sirius as well, quite involuntarily it seemed, only to have him disaparate in a swirl of colour.

That was the last time the cousins were ever in the same place together.

Regulus Black incorrect quotes and one shots (including other characters)Where stories live. Discover now