The Losing One || Sirius Black

43. Unspoken Knowledge

Sirius Black

Thursday, 7th December 1972.

Hogwarts

Well... the conversation with Regulus, if you could even call it that, went way worse than Sirius expected. When he ran after his brother, he wanted to yell at him, to tell him how disappointed and disgusted he was because of the insult Regulus threw James' way.

But then, when Sirius finally caught up with him, just seeing Regulus' face was enough to change his mind. Sirius was still mad, but his brain told him that scolding could be done some other day. Regulus tried to hide behind the expressionless mask that Sirius was a master of, but he just wasn't quite as good as the Black heir.

Maybe it was because they were brothers or maybe because Sirius has had enough experience with that mask to be able to easily notice the cracks, but either way Sirius saw an equal disappointment and sadness in his brother that he felt.

Sirius caught up with him near the Dungeons entrance. Thankfully, most students were either in the Great Hall or on their way to classes. He called Regulus numerous of times, but it became quite clear that younger Black wasn't going to turn around. Sirius then grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into a hidden corridor Marauders found just a few weeks ago while mapping the castle.

There was a portrait of an old wizard who held a crystal ball. All you had to do was ask him to predict your future, which Sirius did as a joke on one of their map missions, and the portrait revealed a whole secret corridor. It looked out of use, like paintings were once hanging in there but someone decided that it was useless and blocked it. Granted, it did lead nowhere, so that someone was probably right.

Sirius saw Regulus' mask break slightly from shock as they entered the secret corridor, but it was back on before the portrait swung shut. Sirius turned to his brother in hopes to clear some things up, "First of all—"

"I don't want to hear it. You didn't even mention that you were planning on ditching me.", Regulus said very composed, like all the initial anger he felt upon finding out about everything disappeared. Sirius knew better though, he knew that this was just another layer of the mask. He was taught to always hide his weaknesses and emotions from everyone, just like Regulus was.

Sirius took a big breath in an attempt to keep his annoyance about Regulus jumping to conclusions at bay, "I didn't know that—"

Regulus cut him off again with a loud huff, "Sure you didn't. Like your precious little friend wouldn't mention it to you.", now the venom in the younger boy's voice made another appearance.

Needless to say, Sirius was done with being cut off, "I didn't! He didn't mention anything to me! He only said that he maybe had an idea on how to help me!", he was now yelling. He just wanted to get all the truthful facts into the thick head of Regulus Black.

Unfortunately, this was apparently the wrong thing to say since Regulus gave him another nasty glare, "Help you with what? Getting rid of me?!", it seemed like Regulus had reached the boiling point as well.

"No, you dimwit!", Sirius flicked him on the back of the head like he used to do when they were little. He hoped that Regulus would find this entertaining and that the tension would ease, "With not having to return to that house for Christmas break."

Regulus still didn't seem impressed, "You would rather spend Christmas with them than me?! I'm your brother! And your friend, you said it yourself! What more could you want?!", he pointed an accusing finger at Sirius.

Sirius returned the gesture with pointing his own finger at Regulus, he was done being nice. It was like Regulus wanted to spin his every word against him, "No! I want to spend Christmas with all of you, away from that devil's house!"