Shoes To Fill

Sirius, Regulus, and Perseus got along just fine as children. None of them could really pinpoint when it stopped being so easy-when it stopped being about roughhousing through Grimmauld Place or getting into trouble whenever Mother and Father weren't around to scold them.

The twins were attached at the hip, always trailing after Sirius like a pair of lost pups. Sirius never minded. If anything, he adored it. He loved his younger brothers more than anything, and having two little shadows following him around was just part of the day.

Then he got his Hogwarts letter. Then he was sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. That was when the problems at home truly began.

Two years later, Regulus and Perseus were both sorted into Slytherin, and suddenly the attention shifted away from Sirius and onto the twins. Except it was never really shared equally.

Treating Perseus as the "spare" twin came naturally to their parents.

While Regulus was burdened with impossible expectations and raised to be the perfect heir, Perseus was only considered useful when Regulus couldn't be there. If a Black son was needed and Regulus was unavailable, Perseus would do. Otherwise, he was quietly pushed aside.

Perseus always wanted to stay close to his brother. If Regulus was studying, Perseus wanted to study beside him. If Regulus was being called somewhere, Perseus would instinctively follow. More often than not, their mother would stop him with a hand on his shoulder before he could.

"You have other things to do."

She said it so often that it became routine.

Walburga treated Perseus as though he were made of glass-something delicate, something that could crack under the weight of the Black name. It was as if she had already decided he wasn't capable of carrying the family's legacy the way Regulus could, leaving him to exist in the space beside his twin rather than alongside him.