Lunch with Family (G)

Regulus had been sitting up in his room, reading the latest Daily Profet articles talking about The Dark Lord when he realized it was already past noon, and he was starving. So he got up and left his room. He hesitated at his brother's old one out of habit-he always used to offer to ask Sirius if he wanted Regulus to ask Kreacher to make him lunch as well, since Sirius and the house-elf didn't exactly get along. This habit hadn't really died when his parents had told him to stop socializing with his brother, for he had a hard time ignoring any of his family. And he kept forgetting that Sirius didn't live there any longer. He sighed, and turned away from the door to head to the kitchen, looking rather deflated. He managed a smile, though, when Kreacher greeted him warmly and hurriedly prepared him some food.
Regulus sat down at a table and talked to the house-elf as he worked, until Kreacher handed him a plate of food, which promptly shut him up as he ate.

This was the last place Sirius ever wanted to be. He had thought when he took off last summer that he would never even have to see this wretched place again. Apparently he was wrong, he thought as he slowly opened the door to his old house. He had never intended on actually coming back, but now he was out of gold and he couldn't get into Gringotts due to the fact he might have temporarily misplaced his key. Technically it wasn't stealing any money because he was only planning on taking the stuff he hid in his room and the back up key to his vault. Sirius really didn't want to ask Mrs Potter for any money, even though she would give it to him without thinking twice, it made him feel horribly guilty. Sirius relaxed once the door was shut behind him, he couldn't hear his parents, he didn't think they were home, he was safe for now. Sirius looked around before climbing the old creaking staircase. He was planning on getting out of this place as soon as he could.

Regulus frowned when he heard the door open and close and then the stairs squeaking in protest under somebody's weight. He was pretty sure that everyone was home, but he could be wrong...He walked over to the stairs, figuring he'd at least say hi to whoever it was. However, he was rather taken aback when he found Sirius walking up the stairs. "Sirius?" He asked in surprise. He'd rather thought his brother would not be returning back home.

Sirius was halfway up the steps when he heard footsteps. They weren't heavy enough to be his parents, but yet too light to be Kreacher. He froze when he heard his brother's voice. He spun around and saw the shocked face of Regulus. "Hey Reg." he said smiling awkwardly as he stood in his spot. Panic ran through him for a moment. "Are mum and dad home too?" he asked frantically.

Regulus shrugged. "I think so, but if they are they're probably hiding in their room." He answered before his curiousity got the better of him and he asked, "What are you doing here? I mean...are you coming back?"

Sirius bit his lip nervously. He looked in the direction of his parents' room and listened. He didn't hear anything. "Okay, then I guess I'm good for now." He smiled at Regulus until he asked the question he was dreading. He frowned. "No, I'm not coming back. You know I can't Reg." he said his voice lowering. "I came to get my extra vault key for Gringotts. I lost my copy of it."

Regulus frowned. Though he'd expected the answer, it was still rather upsetting. He sighed and nodded. "Want me to go get it? I'm not sure, but I think Bella and Cissy are here also." He offered. He knew that an encounter with any member of the family (other than, perhaps, Dromeda) would wind up upsetting both them and Sirius.

Sirius frowned. It wasn't that he didn't trust Regulus, but he was kind of wary about his brother going in his room. It had always been his safe haven. He smiled, "Come up with me. I'm not positive where I left it to be honest." He hoped that none of his family would show up. "And Reg," he said turning and smiling, "Thanks for not hollering for mum and dad when I showed up. I really don't want a run-in with them. And certainly not Bellatrix or Narcissa either."

Regulus bit his lip. He knew his parents would be upset if they caught him with Sirius. All the same, there was no telling when he'd get a chance to talk to his brother again, so he nodded and followed behind him. He then acknowledge the thanks with a grin. "Trust me, they wouldn't either." He said honestly. He was probably the only member of the family who was neutral enough to still love both Sirius as well as his parents and cousins.

Sirius laughed quietly and walked up the rest of the steps to his old room. He held onto the handle and looked at Reg, "Thank you Reg. Seriously." he said sincerly as he smiled at his younger brother. He grinned and turned the handle leading into his bedroom. He laughed as he flicked on the lights. A thin layer of dust covered his red and gold bed. He looked at the walls that were covered in posters of muggle women, motorcycles, pictures of his friends and Gryffindor banners. He turned to see Reg's reacton to being inside his room. Sirius had always been the big brother that didn't let his little brother in his room. "Welcome to the lair of Sirius Black." he said laughing and grinning.

Regulus was fully intending to wait in the hall until Sirius had found his key, figuring he wouldn't want him in the room. He stood out there until he welcomed him to the room, making shock flicker over his features for a moment. However, he quickly recovered and steppped inside before looking around curiously. He couldn't help but laugh when he realized how differant it was from his own room...But then, he'd always known that he was very differant from his brother. "It's....Very Gryfifndory." He found himself saying out loud with a slightly sad and somewhat amused smile. "Mum and Dad must've hated it."

Sirius couldn't help but laugh at his brother's obvious statment. "You think? I tried very hard to make this all possible." he said pointing to the walls. He pointed at pictures of his friends, "I had to borrow a camera from a second year for those." then he pointed to the motorcycles and muggle women, "And you don't even want to know what I had to go through to get this." he said throwing his brother a wink. "So yes, they hated it very very much." Sirius found himself wandering around his own room and opening drawers and checking all the little places he used to hide things. He frowned when he couldn't find the key immediately. Instead he found a small pile of old Dungbombs. "Heads up!" he called as he chucked one at Regulus. He sighed sadly, he missed messing with Reg like he used to.

Regulus just barely managed to get out of the way of the dungbomb, thanks to his sneeker instincts. However, it exploded on the ground next to him and his wrinkled his nose at the smell. "Eeew! Gross, Sirius!" He exclaimed, and it felt almost like old times with the two of them goofing around together...until he factored in the fact that he was standing in Sirius' room, which had a thick coating of dust from having been uninhabited for so long.

Sirius laughed hysterically at Regulus. "Aw, I'm sorry Reggie." Sirius said ruffling Regulus' hair. He knew he hated when he did that. But Sirius didn't really care. "Merlin I've missed messing with you." Sirius said lightly although he meant every word sincerely. He didn't want his little brother to think he was a softie, but he really did miss Regulus. The Marauders were great, they were his best mates and his brothers, but the blood bond between Regulus and him was something unique that he would have with no one else.

Regulus feigned a glare at his brother-for he could not truly be mad with him at the moment-and ran his hand through his hair in an attempt to straighten it back out. "Um...Thanks...I think," Regulus said with a laugh, letting a grin slip onto his face to replace the glare.

Sirius grinned as his brother glared at him. He knew the glare was meaningless though. "Well would you rather me hate your existence?" he asked laughing. He was enjoying his time with Reg. It really had been too long since he had seen him. "So how have you been?" he asked curiously. Sirius paused and thought for a moment, he knew exactly where his gold was, but he didn't want to leave yet so he kept pretending to search for now.

Regulus shrugged. "Okay, I guess...." He hesitated a moment before adding. "I've missed you, though." He didn't want to sound like a wuss, but he hated having his family torn iapart, and not being able to see his brother anymore. He hurriedly tried to distract Sirius from his gooshy comment by returning the question, "You?"

Sirius frowned, "Only okay?" He wanted to hear that his little brother was happy. He nodded his head when he said that he missed him. He didn't even think about making fun of Reg for being a princess about it, he really missed Regulus too. Deep down he was wondering how the pure-blood mania things were going, but he held himself back from asking. "I've been alright. Making a life of my own." he said with a slight smile, "Got myself a beautiful girlfriend." he added with a chuckle. "Friends have been around, which is cool. But I worry about my little brother."

"Well, I guess it's been good. I mean, I've been hanging out here and visiting Diagon Alley a lot, which has been fun. Bella's not around much, though." He said with an envious frown-he wasn't allowed to join the Death Eaters yet since he was only 15. However, he grinned at the mention of a girlfriend. "Congratulations." He said, though he knew that Sirius almost always had some girlfriend or another. But, of course, he was to nice to tease him about it and always congratulated him when he got a new one.

Sirius winced at his brother's words. "You think you'll join when you come of age?" Sirius asked dreading the answer. He always knew deep down Regulus would join like their parents wanted him to, but he truly didn't want him to join the ranks of the Death Eaters. Sirius heard the slight teasing voice in his brother's voice. "I really like this one." he said smiling, knowing that his brother just assumed it to be a fling. "Her name is Katherine Miller, I don't know if you've met her before but she's in Gryffindor with me."

"Probably," Regulus admitted, looking down. He wasn't really emberassed of the fact that he wanted to join, but he knew it would upset Sirius. However, his face turned bright red when Sirius gave the name of his girlfriend, and admitted, "Actually, I did meet her the other day at Diagon Alley." And possibly flirted with her, a little. He added in his head but decided to keep that to himself.

Sirius nodded his head without saying anything. He knew what Regulus was planning on doing with his life. "I wish I could talk you out of it. I really wish I could." he said sadly. He didn't want his brother to be on the opposite side of the war from him, but he certainly wasn't switching. Sirius' curiosity perked up when Reg started blushing. "You met her? Really that's awesome!" he said smiling. He hoped they had a good encounter, he didn't want to hear Kat bad-mouthing Reg or Reg bad-mouthing Kat. "Why are you blushing?" he asked his curiosity spilling from his mouth. It was just a bit too odd for him not to ask.

Regulus decided not to say anything more on the topic of the war, not wanting for he and his brother to have an argument when he had no idea if he'd ever have the opportunity to talk to him again. However, he began to feel that might be a better topic than Kat, but said, "No reason. She seemed nice, though." He hoped that Sirius wouldn't push it, for he was throghouly humiliated that he'd flirted with his brother's girlfriend, and didn't want to upset Sirius about it.

Sirius dropped the topic of war just as quick as Regulus did. That was a messy topic for the two of them to get into. And he really didn't want to leave on a bad note with his brother. Sirius frowned when Reg just replied vaguely to him about Kat. He sighed, "Right because you always blush over no reason." Sirius said glaring slightly, as a joke of course. He made a mental note to keep a joking manner with all of his actions, but he really didn't like how odd Regulus reacted after hearing who his girlfriend was.

"Of course," Regulus agreed jokingly with a nod. However, he then tried to think of something else to talk about to change the subject. "So...Where've you been living?" He asked. He'd never really been told-possibly to make sure he didn't go visit Sirius, since his parents knew that the two were relatively close-and was curious were he'd gone.