Rewriting destiny

Chapter three

𝐻𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ <3
𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼'𝑚 𝑡𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑚𝑎𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜．
𝑆𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑝𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒！
𝐼 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙， 𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ：）

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"Sirius?"
Harry took the stairs two at a time (not a particularly easy feat as he was only about 5'3), craning his ears for any sign of the man's presence.
He was beyond confused.

One moment Sirius had been his usual self, if understandably upset at the talk of his brother, and the next he'd gone quiet and strained. Muttering to himself as though Harry weren't even there.
It was so unlike Sirius, the only person in the world who actually gave a damn about Harry. Then he'd just up and disapperated without saying a word.

"Sirius!"
No answer.
In fact, the entire house was strangely quiet.
Not for the first time Harry wondered if his godfather had finally succumbed to the fabled Black madness.

"The Blacks, they've never been the most stable." Mrs. Weasley had told him conspiratorially the day Dumbledore gave him the green light to spend the last week of summer with his godfather.

"And small wonder, the way they interbreed to keep the bloodline 'pure'-" she'd shuddered delicately.

"The only surprise is how pretty they are.
The lot of them made quite a striking picture during our days at Hogwarts, all elegance and dark hair and those beautiful eyes.
Narcissa and Regulus, Merlin bless his soul, were always the best of them.
Studious and aloof for the most part but charming.
I never had the chance to know Andromeda and I stayed well clear of Sirius- no offense intended, dear- and Bellatrix.
Even then it was rumored they weren't all there."

At the time Harry had been furious, though he'd attempted to excuse himself politely from the conversation.
Sirius wasn't crazy.
Sirius was the only family he had left, had been his fathers best friend.

Harry wasn't about to sit there and listen to someone say these horrible things about his godfather.
Now he wished he'd given it a little more attention.
Asked her for the warning signs, maybe, the first indication a Black was losing it.

"Sirius!"
Of course, there was no answer.

——————————

"I'm sorry, Sirius." Regulus had fully believed those would be his last words when he uttered them, seconds before the inferi pulled his head under water for good.
Much to his shock, he was pulled back above with their taste still lingering in his mouth.
Along with water.

There was a fair amount of water in his mouth too.
He couldn't breathe.
He spluttered desperately.
Felt the water exiting his lungs harshly as he coughed.

It was extremely undignified and between wheezing for air Regulus found himself praying to the dark lord - no, to Merlin himself that no one was seeing this.
He'd never live down the embarrassment. Regulus shook his head in an attempt to clear his vision.

The cave was dark, darker than when he'd gone underwater.
Besides his rasping breath an eerie silence hung over the cave where seconds ago all had been chaos, his cries mixing with the splashing of the inferni and echoing off the walls.
He'd been fully prepared to die.
What had gone wrong?