Jegulus: the escaping of a broken home

Constellations

A knock sounded on the door.

"Come in!" The young boy called cautiously.

"Hey." The 10-year-old Sirius Black stumbled into the room. The young boy relaxed upon seeing who it was.

"Hi. Here." The young boy, Regulus, handed over a piece of chocolate. "Barty brought it over."

"Nice of him," Sirius observed before grabbing the chocolate and flopping down onto the bed. As he unwrapped it he watched his younger brother look back down at his thick book.

"What are you reading?" he asked absentmindedly.

"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

"How did you get it? It's a muggle book, right?" Sirius asked upon noticing the unmoving characters on the cover.

"Yeah. I- I found it."

"Where?" Sirius asked curiously. He looked at his fidgeting brother.

"I- well, I-" there was a pause as he looked around like he could find a sleeping potion somewhere and chuck it at his interrogator's face. " I stole it!" Regulus admitted, giving up under his brother's gaze.

Sirius' eyes widened as he leaned forward.

"I know, but I left some gold on the counter." Regulus tried to defend himself, sounding more like he was trying to reassure himself, which he kind of was.

"Not that I care, but that's pointless. Galleons don't work in the muggle world. Right?"

"Well, yeah, but I read somewhere that gold in any form is accepted anywhere and can be exchanged for money."

"Read?" Sirius asked in disbelief. Regulus went pale, realizing that had been the wrong thing to say.

"Reggie, how many books have you stolen?!?"

"Not all of them were stolen by me!!! Barty stole most of them for me!"

Sirius laughed at how nervous his brother looked. "Don't worry, I'm not mad."

Regulus nodded hesitantly and went back to his book.

Sirius ran a hand through his short black hair. He paused, sparing his brother another glance.

"Hey, why are you sitting on the floor?" he asked, looking at his younger brother curled up against the wall next to the black armchair.

"I dunno. It's homey," the boy shrugged and answered, not looking up from the page.

"Homey?" Sirius echoed skeptically.

"Yeah . . ." Regulus looked like he wanted to explain it further, but didn't seem to have a solid explanation. He simply shrugged again and turned back to his book.

"You know mother would hate that, right? 'It's unrefined and undignified,'" he quoted, putting on a haughty, fancy accent to match his mother's.

Regulus laughed uncomfortably. "You think so? Maybe we should lock the door."

Realizing what he had done, the older brother rolled off the bed and onto his knees to comfort Regulus. Putting a hand on his shoulder and looking into his eyes, he said in a heroic, much deeper voice, "Don't worry Reggie. I'll always be here to protect you. You're my younger brother, after all," he said, laughing at the silly voice, this time with the younger one, who was looking relieved at the short but comforting words of his older brother.