#regulusnetchallenge

One day while his parents were out for lunch, Regulus had grown tired of reading. It was his usual source of entertainment, but something felt off. Rather than climbing the stairs and going to his room, he left the sitting room. Ever since Sirius left, Grimmauld Place seemed ten times smaller, and he just needed to breathe. He just needed to get out. Without really thinking, he rushed through the front door.

He never spent much time wandering the streets of muggle London, but he found it oddly calming. As he was walking, Regulus was just another person. He wasn’t Regulus Arcturus Black, song of Orion and Walburga Black. He wasn’t rich pureblood. He was just Regulus. He had no expectations to live up to; he didn’t have anything to prove. For the first time since Sirius left, he was allowed to just be.

He ended up in a small park not far from home. As it was a hot summer day, Reg decided it would be nice to sit under the large tree at the park’s center. With the tree’s trunk for support, he closed his eye and leaned his back and head against it. Breathing. Listening. Feeling.

Breathing in the fresh air. Listening to the sound of the wind causing the leaves to rustle gently. Feeling the soft grass underneath him. Everything was so peaceful, until he felt something wet nudge his hand. His grey eyes shot open, only to meet a pair of almost identical grey eyes staring back at him. Eyes belonging to a large, black dog. As he looked at it, he noticed a distinct white dot on the dog’s left cheek just under his eye, and that it’s fur was long and shaggy, but too well kept for the dog to be a stray. As he stared at the dog, he noticed that there was something familiar about it.

Breaking him from his thoughts, the dog nudge his hand once again.

“What?” He asked, feeling silly for talking to a dog. “What do you want from me?”

Only earning him another nudge to the hand. Finally getting the point, Regulus picked up his hand and began to pet the dog’s head. Clearing enjoying the attention he was getting, the dog laid down next to him, then practically rolled on to his lap.

“You’re an annoying little fucker, aren’t you?” Regulus laughed.

He sat there with his new companion. Getting over his pride, he began telling him all the things that we’re bothering him. All the things that he needed to get off his chest. By the time he finished, he was feeling significantly less angry and slightly less bitter. 

It had been an hour since he had sat down, and he decided it would be best if he headed home, wanting to beat his parents home to avoid an interrogation. The dog kept him company all the way home. Upon reaching Grimmauld Place, Regulus knelt down in front of the dog and scratched under his chin, “I wish you understood me, you know. You seem smart, but I don’t think you’d understand if I were to say, ‘I’ll see you next week. Same place, same time.’”

He could have sworn that he saw the dog nod in response, but just decided that he was just desperate for one. With a small sigh, he stood and climbed the stairs to his front door. All the while, the dog stayed and watched until he had disappeared from view.

The entire time that he had been sitting with the dog, Regulus had been wishing it was Sirius who found him in that muggle park. That it was Sirius to whom he was confessing all his feelings to. That it was Sirius who was the one sitting next to him under that tree.

If only he knew. The night that Sirius showed up on the Potter’s doorstep asking for a place to stay, he was hysterical, crying, and unable to breathe. Not because he had been disowned or because he had been blasted off the family tree, but because he had left his little brother alone in that house. Because his brother thought he had given up on him. Because Regulus believed that his older brother had abandoned him.

When Sirius showed up at the Potter’s house the night he ran away from home, he vowed to himself that he wasn’t going to just leave his brother. He vowed that he would be there for him, in whatever capacity he could, because Regulus was right. Family should be there for you, no matter what. And Sirius knew it too.