The tears of thy innocence

Reg

Serious sends a little birthday invite card to Sirius and he burns it
———
It was currently the 25 of June, not many kids were still at Hogwarts as they've gone home for the summer, but there's enough who haven't left for home quite yet. That's why Regulus was sitting at the slytherin table, surrounded on all sides by his usual group of Barty, Pandora, Evan, and that other random kid they picked up a few days back. He hasn't really payed attention to his name.

He had written a short, perfectly curly cursive letter to invite his brother, Sirius Black, to join him and the friends who were currently chatting idly about gods know what for a small party in one of the dungeons many abandoned classrooms for his birthday. He even tucked a perfectly preserved flower he had asked Pandora to press in the wax seal for him.
He had chosen a dark red Striped Carnation as it symbolizes regret that love is not shared. It's a little sad but he hoped it would mean something.

Regulus had spent hours perfecting the letter, countless pieces of crumbled parchment littered his bed still, as he had run straight to the owlery to give his beautiful black owl, Noir, the instructions on when and how to deliver the letter.
She was instructed to wait until the morning, when all the other owls would be returning to fly in with them and deliver the letter straight to his brother, Sirius, without landing. He didn't want Sirius to realize that it was from him until he had opened it. He wanted it to be a surprise after all.

I mean, he hadn't told Regulus happy birthday yet... but that's okay. He's sure Sirius will speak with him after he's opened the letter. He has to.

They were brothers after all.

It only took another five minutes of anxiously glancing over at the gryffindor table for the owls to arrive. It was painfully easy to spot his unnaturally black owl in the flurry of white and light brown feathers but Sirius wasn't watching them anyways, so he was sure it would be fine.

Just as requested, Noir dropped the letter from the perfect hight, it fluttered down gently and landed lopsided beside Sirius' plate. Not a single feather displaced onto the table. Regulus' heart was beating so fast he was sure everyone around him could hear it. Speaking of them, they had all seen the owls and had gone silent as well as they glanced from Regulus to Sirius on the other side of the room. They had all witnessed Regulus crumbling up paper after paper, running through three bottles of ink and two whole feathers just to make this single note. It was sad how desperate he was for his brothers attention, going so far as to skip sleeping most nights just to do this.

Sirius looked down, a look of vague surprise on his face as he looked the letter over. The seal was the typical emblem of the House of Black, only disrupted by a tiny barely budded Striped Carnation flower. Strange, his mother and father didn't seem the type to do such a thing.

"What's that you got there Pads?" James looked over Sirius' shoulder and raised his eyebrow at the letter. "A letter from my mam and dad. I wonder what the hell they want this time." He replied, voice laced with bitterness, acutely unaware of the five pairs of eyes burning a hole in his back from across the great hall.

Sirius rolled his eyes, pulling out his wand and giving a muttered spell with a flick of the wrist, setting the letter aflame. "Doesn't matter now. I'm not their son anymore, right?He grinned and turned back to his friends, resuming their conversation.

Regulus wanted to cry.

He just set the letter on fire.

Why?

Why?!

Pandora let out a little gasp as it happened, quickly moving to put her arm around Regulus' shoulder as Evan and Barty shuffledto sit in his line of sight, blocking the gryffindor table from his view.

His head was leaning against pandora's shoulder, nose turned into her neck slightly. She smelled of fresh sage.
"Oh Reg, I'm so sorry.." Pandora muttered into his hair, her other hand coming up to brush gently through his black curls.

It only took that small gesture for his walls to break down just slightly. His eyes went glassy with unshed tears and his lips curled and started trembling.

He refused to cry. Mother would've been so disappointed if she saw him cry.