The Losing One || Sirius Black

21. Midnight Waltz

Regulus Black

Saturday, 25th December 1971.

12th Grimmauld Place

Sitting on the window seat in his bedroom, Regulus was currently thinking about the Black family's Christmas banquet. The celebration could not have gone any worse.

It all started when Sirius came back from the Pettigrews yesterday. Regulus was still kind of irritated by that action. It hasn't even been a week and his brother already left again. He tried to be reasonable, it was only for a day and for a birthday celebration, but the irritation didn't seem to leave him.

In his mind, Sirius should want to spend as much time as possible with him instead of wasting it on some friend who the boy will see in two weeks anyway. Their time was limited and should be more appreciated by Sirius. They haven't seen each other in four months after all while he was with the mentioned friend all that time at Hogwarts.

The first night when Sirius got back, they talked and talked. Regulus wanted to know everything about the castle, the classes the professors, even about Sirius' new friends. But the talk turned out to be only about the boy's friends which started the first spark of irritation within Regulus and since then it just grew with Sirius' actions.

Then, two days ago, during family dinner, Sirius asked Orion to visit the Pettigrews for the mentioned birthday celebration. This shocked Regulus for obvious reasons. Why did his brother want to spent time with anyone else but him when they haven't seen each other in such long time? Before Hogwarts, the two have never left each other's side, so these four months seemed way longer and lonelier than they should have been.

To his surprise, their dad agreed, even encouraged Sirius to go. Regulus couldn't hide the confusion on his face, but he saw that Sirius kept the mask he always wore in front of their parents. Orion told his big brother that the Pettigrews were a respected family in the pureblood community due to Mr. Pettigrew's skilled abilities when it came to portrait making so it will be useful for Sirius to stay friends with Mr. Pettigrew's son.

Orion instructed the boy that he must make a good impression on Mr. Pettigrew. As a Black heir, he will always need skillful people in every field of work.

The next part of the conversation was about the attendees at this birthday party. Sirius informed Orion that the only people there will be Peter, the friend, and his older brother William which seemed to satisfy their dad.

Soon after, the dinner was over and Regulus went straight to bed to try and explain to himself that this wasn't a big deal. That Sirius will leave only for a day, but the single word stuck in Regulus' head from that sentence was leave.

He spent the day before Christmas miserable, but the alone time gave him a chance to really think about everything. Regulus came to the conclusion that he was jealous, but what of was still a mystery to him.

There were two options. Either he was jealous because he didn't make any friends like Sirius had or the fact that he will have to share Sirius from now on sparked that feeling inside of him.

It has always been Sirius and Regulus, that was what he was used to. The Black brothers always had only each other. This new change scared him. Will his big brother replace him or forget about him? Regulus knew that it sounded stupid and insane but now it wasn't just him and Sirius, it was him, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter. Just the thought of the three extras made him irritated again.

Nonetheless, Regulus told himself that he was being insane and overdramatic, and that in time he will be used to all of this. After all, next year he will make friends too and some friendship could never replace the brotherly bond him and Sirius had.