Sirius looked briefly at Remus as he reached for him, and he smiled again. He smiled as bravely as he could, and he tried to feel as brave as he could. He tried not to be scared of what was going to come up from the dungeon at any moment now. He touched the top of Remus' changing fingers, just barely, as Remus slipped off into the shadows, and then he returned his attention to Regulus, and the task of getting his troll of a mother to come out and play. "Again."
"Mum! It's Regulus! Are you in? Hello?" His voice was louder this time, a note more shrill. Regulus was starting to panic, and Sirius felt his own heart start to thump erratically against his ribs. This was all going to go to shit...
But then he heard the footsteps. Slow, taking their sweet time. He stood behind Regulus, hunched down and hiding, working his wand between his fingertips. His breath was coming in short little bursts that he couldn't control. He felt a fresh dose of sweat ooze from the pores of his forehead.
"Why are you carrying on like an over-excited mudblood?" The voice was cold, aloof, showing no real desire for the answer. "Like your presence in my home is some great, rare treat."
Walburga Black stepped into the front parlour of the house. When she saw Regulus' face, one eyebrow arched toward her hairline. Before she could react further, or say anything else, Sirius stood upright and shoved Regulus away, hard. Regulus tripped and staggered across the entryway before slamming into the far wall.
"Oh, look. The homosexual blood traitor." Walburga smirked. "I've spent all this time so cross with your father for letting you live. I really wanted to wake up the next day and find you fertilizing my lawn..." She smiled, a truly amused, happy sort of smile. "I could even see those eyes of yours, sunken in your skull, as the crows sucked the juices. And now you've come home...only, my dear, sweet boy...this isn't your home any longer. Your wand won't work here. I'm afraid you've made a rather large, rather fatal mistake."