O Beija-Flor - Regulus Black (Complete)

XXVIII -

IMPORTANT CHAPTER. DO LEAVE A COMMENT. I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE THIS ONE, EVEN IF IT'S A BIT HEAVY.

TW: SLIGHT SEXUAL CONTENT IN FORM OF TEXT BOOK (?)

Kreacher seemed to be a much better mood during the holidays and school-break due to Cecilia and Regulus' newly found friendship, even going as far as obeying orders from Sirius and Remus with no complaints to follow and no grumbling of cursing towards the other people in the house as he did what he was told. Cecilia was happy to see that, because that meant Sirius was no longer screaming and Molly was quite angry for the fact that there was nothing for her to do (or send the children to do).

But now that Christmas was over and Sirius was in an unstable mood as the day for the children to go back to school was coming closer, time passing by relentlessly. He was taciturn and complained about everything and, though Cecilia thought it was sad that Remus was back to work in a Muggle-factory and the children were to go back to school soon, she was certainly worried about Regulus being with his brother alone for the first time in quite a while – before, they had the Weasleys and Remus to mediate their shared living arrangements, but now there would be nothing separating them from killing each other with their bare hands. She, too, was worried about going back to Umbridge's tyranny now that she was already angry at Harry and his friends from leaving the school before she had been allowed to say anything.

Not even her mean comments about Snape when he came in the last day of the break or Arthur Weasley's return seemed to make Sirius any happier.

"... he has an abnormally large nose, you know. He looks like a hawk when he's on his side and – are you even listening? I'm trying to be funny here!" she said, poking him with her elbow.

"That man spends more time with him than I do, and he's my godson," Sirius complained.

"If you didn't 'retire' to watch the telly whenever you're angry, you'd have more time to talk to him," Cecilia said. "And don't worry, summer break will be here before you know and I assure you that he'll want to spend every day with you, to the point that you will wish for some time alone."

"I don't think that would even be possible," Sirius said.

"Regulus will be here and, if you try hard enough, you two can actually get along. I gave him a few films to watch when I'm away, so you can watch it with him – you can spend some time with him without having to talk, and you're not alone, what do you think?" she said.

"I think that Snape is going to use his little lessons of Occlumency with Harry to make his life a living hell," Sirius answered.

Cecilia pulled her legs against her chest in the sofa she had been sitting beside Sirius with the TV turned on, but neither paying complete attention to it. She sighed a bit too loudly in her exasperation.

"If I promise to keep an eye on him and Snape, will you, please, give your brother a chance?" Cecilia asked.

"I don't have to give him a chance. He was a Death Eater, Cecilia," Sirius complained. "I know that he's being nice to you and I'm glad that he turned away from him before he died, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a moment in his life that he truly believed those ideals, don't you think so? I know that it doesn't sound important to you, he's being kind to you – after all, you're a pureblood – but... I've seen the First War. I've seen how they treated those people, and I don't think that I could forgive him for believing that it was the right thing, not even for a second."

"I've read his thoughts, Sirius. If there was a day that he believed those things, than they were long gone before he died to make something in his life work," Cecilia said. "I won't get into details, it's not my place and I shouldn't even have read the things that I did read, but you don't know the complete reason that he did what he did and how public and how hard it was for him."