Wait I completely missed the detail about Sirius rescuing Reg from Bellatrix trying to drown him! That makes it all so much more heartbreaking omg. Which chapter was that detail in? Clearly I’m overdue a reread!
It’s from TLE1, Chapter 28: The Heir and The Spare. 🤭
(One of my personal fave chapters, actually.)
“Do you really think you’re so secure in your inheritance?” Bellatrix asked softly, picking up a razor and gently trailing her fingers along its blade. “Do you really think they’ll let you — you, the blood traitor — become the heir of the Black fortune?”
“Going to kill me, Bella?”
His cousin set the razor down and turned to face him, that twisted smile back on her face. She leaned casually against the ceramic sink. “You’re not the only male heir available to us, wittle cousin. You’d do well to remember that.” Then she sighed. “How time has changed us. Do you remember what fun we used to have, when we were children? You…me…and little Reggie.”
Sirius simmered in the tub, trying not to let her get to him, trying to dam up the deluge of memories threatening his mind. With a grunt of frustration, he submerged himself in the bath. Images flooded him.
Regulus in the tub, underwater, spluttering, spitting, struggling…
“Stop!” Sirius cried. “What are you doing?”
“Why,” said Bella with her schoolgirl plaits and her twisted smile, “it’s a baptism.”
Sirius bolted up, spraying water across the green-tiled floor, coughing, choking on the memory. He pulled his knees to his chest and buried his face in his palms.
“And if you don’t help me, baby cousin, you’re next…”