It takes two | Sirius Black

18.

An extra heavy weight rested on their shoulders after the Christmas attacks. Everyone felt guilty for thinking the wicked would rest. The Auror department upped their security, sending newly trained Aurors and members of the order on missions. The secrecy of the missions were pulling people apart. Remus, James and Sirius in particular had grown snappy with one another. Trust breaking between the friends.

Rumours of a spy within the order had circulated, nobody was trusting anybody these days. Sirius had grown increasingly twitchy around his son too, paranoid of who was near him especially as the Potters opened their home up for meetings. A number of people came and went throughout the day. It was the same every day. There was always new faces mixed in amongst the sea of old ones.

Remus had left. Nobody knew where he had gone or how long for. The friends prayed he hadn't been sent into a death trap. All they knew was it involved Greyback and werewolves.

"James. Sirius. We need to you to guard Diagon Alley with Alice Longbottom and Marlene McKinnon." Moody says, "We're short on people who can help.. obviously. Stay vigilant and alert and you'll survive."

"It's Diagon Alley." James said with a snort, "How dangerous can it be?"

They headed into diagon alley, the familiarity of the cobbled street and wonky buildings filling them with an excited buzz. It was exactly the same. A bit quieter than it would've been pre war but the hubbub of the crowd, the smell of freshly baked goods and the giddy anticipation of collecting school supplies were still present. Both Sirius and James, almost forgot the real reason they were there. They were laughing and pointing at shop windows together, not being vigilant at all.

Until a dozen deatheaters showed up, outnumbering the four of them. They swooped in, smashing the windows and setting buildings on fire, they laughed as they did it. Laughed at the fear they created as families fled the scene. They hadn't even noticed at first, the only four wizards not rushing off in terror. James stood heroically in front of the two girls, wand pointed readily. Sirius by his side, he noticed first, his face flickering with different emotions. James noticed second, glancing at Sirius nervously.

They both watched as Regulus, smashed a window with his wand and laughed with another deatheater as he did the same. Sirius inhaled and started towards him, his hand gripped tightly around his wand.

"FUCK." James muttered, keeping close behind him.

"I knew it." Sirius spat, shoving the wand against Regulus' throat, "I fucking knew it."

"You don't know shit." Regulus replied, his eyebrow raised at his older brother.

"You're one of them!" Sirius stressed, "What the fuck?!"

Regulus scoffed, "You didn't think Zion could change my fucking fate do you?"

"Fate?"Sirius frowned, "This ain't fucking fate Reg, this is a fucking choice. You made a choice."

"Going to kill me then?"

Sirius removed his wand from against his brothers throat, shaking his head angrily. James grabbed Sirius by the shoulder yanking him backwards.

"What the fuck are you doing?" James ask, pointing his wand in the direction of Reg and his friend.

"What are we doing? We going to kill them?" Reg's friend asks him confused.

"No Evan. We're not." Reg shakes his head, his eyes catching James' for a moment.

James heart hammers against his chest, his eyes clued to Regulus'. He knows that look. He'd seen it in Sirius' eyes before, only a few times but it was identical. The look of regret and fear.