Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Twenty

[Chapter Twenty]

Regulus was plagued with dark thoughts throughout the night, he carried the weight of the guilt on his chest as if it were a heavy boulder, making it hard to breathe. He couldn't imagine what had possessed him at the time to say such a horrid thing to Éponine at the time. Laughing had been one matter, that's normally how he played off a lot of things, but to tell her that she was better off with her face being burned, it didn't sound like him. He tried to think back to the time where he had said it, what was going on around him? Then it struck him, it was shortly after Christmas, returning from the holiday. One would think it would be a joyous time, but it wasn't. 

Sirius was still at home and one of the family members had taken themselves to make an off comment about Gryffindor. It seemed to stir something within Sirius and from that point out, Christmas turned into a total disaster. Sirius decided to ruin the Christmas Roast, nearly taken the entire kitchen down with it. As Walburga screamed and yelled at him, Sirius screamed and yelled back. Orion tried to salvage the Christmas party but it was clearly over, there was nothing anyone could really do. 

One by one in a hurried fashion, everyone had left, leaving it to be just the four of them, along with the house-elves. Instead of opening presents, Walburga sent Sirius off to his room, but the boy had taken to slamming his door multiple times until Walburga threatened to take it. It grew worse as Regulus remained downstairs by the tree, listening to the scene further unfold. At one point, Walburga had entered the bedroom, maybe with the hopes of talking things over with Sirius, only to discover that the boy had placed up posters of bikini-clad Muggle women all over his walls. To add to it all, he had used permanent sticking charms, leaving them all in place, no matter what Walburga did. 

It was by far the worst Christmas to date, one that Regulus wanted to forget about and attempted to, but it seemed to come back with reminders every so often. That evening, Regulus remained downstairs, settling himself on one of the sofas of the home, only to hear his father cry in the next room over. Walburga eventually came back down the stairs, going to her husband to apologise for the scene, but Orion wanted to be left alone. Enough that the man gathered his coat and left the home for several hours, even though Walburga had begged him to stay. 

Sadness was quickly replaced with anger inside of Regulus as the Christmas had been ruined by the acts of his brother. He knew Sirius was growing tired of all the comments made about him in Gryffindor, for that, he actually sympathised with his older brother. However, his actions had gone above and beyond what called for the situation. It wasn't just taking a strain on the family anymore, it was taking a strain on their parents' marriage, having to deal with their oldest that insisted on causing trouble.

Sirius scoffed several times that Regulus had become the new favourite, that Regulus was the better son. But it wasn't solely on the fact that Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor, it was how he behaved before and afterwards. As Regulus had pointed out before, Sirius liked causing trouble, whether it was him being playful or not, many people weren't exactly fond of it. Regulus, while wanting to be like his older brother when he was younger, was very much his own person. He was quieter and when his parents told him something, they only had to tell him once.