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Sirius had fucked up. They had had one of the Black family dinners, all posh and perfect. All talking about how they were perfect purebloods, how they had all the riches, how they were going to help said Dark Lord. Sirius just couldn’t take it. They were all being so insufferable.
Sirius couldn’t stand them all talking like this. Talking about how they were all so much better than muggles, and muggle borns, and blood traitors. It was all bullshit. All these people were such bullshit.
“I personally can’t wait until the Dark Lord shows himself!” One of his cousins said. “He’s already making the wizarding world so much better!”
Sirius had heard enough. He stood up so fast that his chair fell backwards. All the chatter stopped and everyone looked at him. His father was glaring at him, and his mother was giving him a death stare. Regulus was looking at him with horror. He didn’t care about any of them.
“What is wrong with all of you!” He yelled.
“Sirius. What do you think you are doing?” His father said shortly.
Sirius ignored him.
“Do you even hear yourselves! You’re all racist! Talking about how we’re better than people who are muggle-born or muggles! We’re all human! Do you honestly think that we’re better than them?!”
Silence.
Sirius chuckled. “You all can go and fuck yourselves.”
“Sirius. Upstairs. Drawing room. Now.” Walburga was seething.
Sirius turned and left.
And that was where he was right now. Pacing the drawing room while his parents tried to calm their guest from their son’s outburst. They were all a bunch of racist. He heard footsteps on the stairs, it wasn’t the controlled footsteps of his parents, and sure enough, the door opened to reveal Regulus.
“What are you doing here?” Sirius snapped.
“What the hell was that!?” Regulus yelled back.
“Oh come on Reg! You can’t honestly tell me that you believe all their bullshit!”
“Sirius. . .”
“No, Reg, tell me right now that you agree with it.”
“It doesn’t matter what we believe! Can you not be respectful for one night?! Is that too much to ask to picture perfect Sirius Black!?”
“They’re all a bunch of racist!”
“They’re family!”
“Not to me.”
Silence fell between the two brothers. Regulus had tears in his eyes, and Sirius was furious. At Regulus, at his parents, at every fucking person in the Black family tree.
“How about me,” Reg said icily. “Am I family?”
Sirius didn’t know what to say, yeah, he was furious at him. Yeah, he wished Reg could be more like him and actually stand up for human rights. He wished Reg wouldn’t just be a bystander. But he was his brother, and he always would be. Sirius honestly didn’t know what he would do without Reg.
“You’re my brother,” he said, but it came out more as a croak.
Regulus still had tears in his eyes, he looked at the ground and then the door. Sirius honestly thought that he was going to leave, but instead, Regulus ran up to Sirius and hugged him. Sirius stiffened for a minute. Of all the things he thought would happen, this was on the top one hundred things that would never happen. He was shocked. Regulus, his Reg, was hugging him. They had grown apart so much in the years since Sirius had gone to Hogwarts. He really never thought that this would happen again. When he got over his shock, he wrapped his arms around Reg, not knowing how long this was going to last and wanted to appreciate every second of it.
They did eventually pull apart. The sound of heels clicking up the stairs told them both everything they needed to know; Walburga was coming. Sirius knew that his mother would be furious. He didn’t know if he had ever seen her as mad as she was at the table. She was livid.
“Please don’t make her mad,” Reg told him.
“She’s a bitch, I honestly don’t give a fuck if she’s mad at me or not,” Sirius snapped back.
“She’ll hurt you.”
“She’d hurt me, anyways.”
Their quick conversation came to a halt as the door opened, and none other than their mother, Walburga Black, walked in. Sirius resisted the urge to roll his eyes, because she did look furious. This was not going to be a fun night for him.
She walked straight towards him and before Sirius could brace himself, she smacked him across the cheek. He stumbled to the side, face stinging. There would definitely be a mark. When he regained his composure, he stood up straight and glared at her. Her glare was a thousand times worse.
“You are the heir to the Noble and Most Ancient H—”
“Yes, yes, I am the heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and have responsibilities as such, like being racist and hypocti—”
He was cut off by yet another slap to his cheek. That wasn’t what hurt though, because this time he saw Reg wince. He gained his composure quicker this time and stared her straight in the eyes.
“You and all of your pureblood idiology can go and fuck off,” Sirius told her.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Regulus gasp and shake his head. Sirius didn’t care, he wanted to show Walburga exactly where he stood in what he believed.
“You would dare say that! You would do that to the House of Black! You are a disgrace! How dare you say that! How dare. . .” he blocked her voice out, instead moving his head to look at Regulus.
He looked like he was shutting down into himself, his hands folded around his torso as he looked anywhere but towards Sirius and his mother. It broke his heart, he didn’t want Regulus to be here and face their mother’s wrath. He was only brought back to his mother, when she grabbed his gryffindor tie from his neck and threw it across the room.
“Sirius, don’t look at him! Look at me!” she seethed.
When he didn’t rip his gaze away from Regulus, his brother met his gaze and just shook his head.
“SIRIUS!” she screeched. He finally broke his gaze from Regulus and stared at his mother as she took out her wand and pushed it against his throat.
“Look at ME!” she hissed, still pressing her wand against his neck.
Sirius risked another glance at his brother and said, “Reggie, I’ll be fine.”
He knew he probably wouldn’t. Walburga would make him pay for dinner, and what he said to her. But if Sirius could give Reg a bit of peace, then it would be worth it.
Walburga’s eyes drifted to her youngest son as she hissed, “Regulus, get out of the room.”
Fuck.
If she was asking Regulus to get out of the room that meant that she was going to do something really bad. For a second Regulus didn’t move. He just stood there frozen. For a second Sirius actually thought that Regulus would defend him. Then, Regulus nodded and exited the room.
That left the two of them in silence. Walburga glared at Sirius, then she moved her wand away from his throat, pointed it at him and uttered a spell.
“Crucio!”
Sirius’ world exploded into pain.