Ten little drabbles (roughly 100 words, I couldn’t be bothered to make them exactly 100 words) about ten moments in the life of Regulus Black.

Brave

“Sirius, slow down! It’s so dark.”

“Don’t be a baby Reg,” he said impatiently, somewhere up ahead. It was too dark to see.

“Bella says it’s haunted here.”

“She’s just trying to scare you, can’t you tell she’s lying?”

“Sirius, I’m scared!”

There was a heavy sigh, and then Regulus heard him coming back, and his brother grabbed him firmly by the hand. Sirius was never afraid, he was eight, and the bravest person Reg knew. He would fly higher and jump farther and face down Bella and even Mother fearlessly. And when he was with Sirius, Reg wasn’t afraid either.

---

“Oh stop sulking,” Sirius said, throwing a rolled-up pair of socks so they hit him in the back of the head. He was trying to hide his broom in his trunk so no one would notice.

“Who wants to go to Hogwarts anyway? School is stupid,” Regulus said, knowing Sirius would never believe a word of that.

“You just scared to be here alone.”

“I am not!” he protested. He was, a bit, but he wouldn’t let Sirius think he was a baby and a coward. “But what if there’s a thunderstorm?”

“You’re too old to be afraid of thunderstorms, Reg.”

---

“Gryffindor!” shouted Mother. “Gryffindor!”

She flung the letter from Bellatrix (for Sirius wouldn’t dare to write) into the fire.

“No Black has ever been sorted anywhere but Slytherin,” she raged. “He’s disgraced this family.”

She looked severely at Regulus, as though daring him to argue. He wanted to, he wanted to defend Sirius. Gryffindor was the house of the brave. But Regulus was too afraid of Mother and her rages to argue, he stood there, trembling under her furious gaze, and then turned and fled the room. Back in his room, he sat at his desk with a sheet of parchment.

Dear Sirius…

---

At the Slytherin table, he could see his pretty cousins. At the Gryffindor table, he could see his brother, head bent whispering to the boy Mother called “that Potter brat.”

As the hat was placed on his head, he had never been so afraid in his life. If he was in Slytherin, Sirius would hate him. If he wasn’t, the rest of the family would.

He asked for Slytherin.

“Slytherin!”

Sirius’s face was unreadable, but as he took off the hat, Regulus didn’t even want to look at him. He wasn’t brave enough to defy the family, and Sirius hated cowards.

---

“Don’t you want to come Reggie?” purred his cousin. He didn’t want to, because Bella’s friends were faintly dangerous, older and a little too dark.

“Let up Bella, you’re scaring him,” said Sirius carelessly, from where he was lounging in the window seat. Regulus bit his lip. He was almost fourteen, and he didn’t want Bella to think he was afraid, or to tell other people at school he was. He pulled on his cloak, with the Slytherin crest. Slytherins could be brave, too.

“I’m not either,” he threw defiantly at Sirius, and then spun back to Bella. “I’m coming.”

---

He simply woke up at the wrong time. He stepped into the hall and saw Sirius, in muggle clothes, holding his broom.

“What…are you doing?” he whispered.

“I’ve had enough. Enough of all of this. I hate it here. I’m leaving.”

“But…you can’t.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand Reg. You’ve never stood up to them. You always do just what you’re told. You’re Mother and Father’s perfect son. Fine, you can have it, I don’t want all this. You’ll never disappoint. You’re too scared of them.”

“I’m not scared of them.”

Sirius shook his head sadly. “Then maybe you should be?”

---

He can feel Bella’s hand on his shoulder. She had a way of touching at people as though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss them or devour them. It had always frightened him a little, but he wouldn’t admit that.

“You are the heir of the Blacks now, Regulus. Are you ready?” she whispered.

Standing before him, the black cloaked man with eyes that glowed red.

“I’m ready.”

He would prove himself tonight. He would show them all he was no coward. His arm did not shake as he held it out, and he didn’t cry out when the mark burned into his skin.

---

They ran into each other. Literally, on the steps of Gringott’s. Regulus tried to brush past without a word, but Sirius grabbed him, hard, by the shoulder. He had always been stronger. Roughly, Sirius pushed up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo. Sirius pushed him away, disgusted.

“Bella was right,” he muttered. “You think that makes you brave Reg? You think that mark makes you a man? Being one of his little minions makes you strong?”

“You’ve chosen the wrong side. You never should have gone against the family.”

“At least I’m standing up for something other than my own self-preservation.”

---

Bella leaned back against the wall casually, too casually. Her grey eyes, identical to his own, were accusing. Rodolphus flanked her, and he knew it would be ridiculous to try to get away, they worked like a seamless team.

“Have you lost faith Reggie?” she asked, voice deceptively gentle. “Are you afraid?”

“Of course not,” he lied.

“Perhaps Sirius was right. You are a coward,” she said mockingly. She never spoke his brother’s name, unless she was trying to get a rise out of him. “Do you wish you’d listened to him now? Your brave older brother?”

Yes.

“No, Bella. I make my own choices.”

---

I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.

-R.A.B.

He signed his initials with a flourish, wanting the Dark Lord to know it was him. There was no point in hiding any longer. The locket, the Horcux he meant to destroy, was clutched in his hand. He was no longer afraid, not even of death. He had made his choice, and he would accept the consequences. He wasn’t a coward now. Now, he was as brave as his brother.