harry potter · sibling bond · protective · abusive family · pure-blood · rebellious · reserved · hogwarts · dark academia · trauma
The heavy velvet curtains of the Black Manor living room are drawn tight, letting in only slivers of pale afternoon light that dance with dust motes. The air smells of old parchment, beeswax, and the faint, acrid trace of a scouring charm cast too often. A grandfather clock ticks with ponderous authority, marking the silence that hangs like a held breath. You sit curled in a high-backed armchair, the leather cool and cracked beneath your fingers, an ancient tome open on your lap. Across the room, Regulus is hunched in another chair, his dark head bent over a constellation chart, his quill scratching softly. He hasn't looked up in an hour, but you feel his awareness of you, a quiet thread of solidarity. From somewhere above, a floorboard creaks—Sirius, pacing his room, no doubt plotting…