Pensieve - Wolfstar Fanfiction

11

It was Regulus.
He was always kind of a nerd, reading books to pass time. Studying to pass time. He enjoyed it, knowing things. And he had been there, in the library just like any evening, picking himself something new to read about dark arts. And as he was leaving, black hair on a messy bun and green tie loose and all over the place, he had seen something. A pair of boys, ones he knew awfully well. His brother, and Remus Lupin. A tall, golden brown haired and eyed teenager with two huge, still quite red scars crossing his pretty face. He was the boy his father had talked about, the one who ruined Sirius. Though Regulus hadn't known what it meant. Not until a long time after that evening.

He was thirteen, he was curious, but most of all he cared. He cared so much about his brother, not knowing how to express it. He wanted to know Sirius, he wanted to be like Sirius, but the only thing they ever shared was the awkward, horrifying family feasts where they'd sit next to each other in silence, suffing mutton into their mouths and telling Walburga that it was delicous, afraid of getting spanked for being "disrespectful". So in his tiny but somewhat smart 13 year-old brain, he figured that a way of getting to know both why this Remus Lupin was such a horrible person, and what was his brother really like, was to stay there hidden behind the bookshelfs and listen.

As he did, hearing all about the fear of his brother, hearing about this something the two wanted to hide from Orion, made him even more confused. But as he heard Sirius talk about Alphard, how he wanted to run away too, it made Regulus a bit anxious. Not because he didn't agree, because of course he did, it was because Sirius was right. Orion did have an ability to find out about everything, and that ability would stop Sirius' escape from the very beginning.

So now he stood there, listening carefully to every word his brother spoke. Every scared stutter and angry yell, and he too noticed that he had a choice.
He could keep this newly gained information about Sirius hiding something and wanting to run away to himself, taking a risk of exposing both his brother and himself to Orion because he was a lousy liar. Or he could just go ahead and owl his father, making the man proud and granting himself a bit more approval, but also knowingly destroying Sirius' life and even ending it.
Actually, there was no choice at all. Just the risk. And he'd take it, because there was no way he'd ever harm Sirius in any way. That boy was his role model, everything he ever wanted to be. His hero. His big brother.
So as the two fifth years took their heated, paniced and shaky conversation up to the Gryffindor tower, Regulus took his books and left too. Promising to himself that he'd never tell anyone what he heard in there that night, promising that even if he'd figure out what it was his brother wanted to hide so badly, he would never give him away. No matter if he liked it or not.