CX. The Trial of Sirius Orion Black: Part II

                                    

                                          
CW: emetophobia, mentions of suicide, & unhealthy consumption of alcohol
                          
Five. 
                          
That's how many hands went up. 
                          
Only five people were in favor of clearing Sirius Black of the charges put against him. 
                          
Regulus felt his heart drop into his stomach when those five hands were raised into the air. He closed his eyes, not even wanting to see how many hands would go up when the next question was asked. 
                          
"All in favor of imprisoning the accused, raise your hands now." 
                          
He knew just by the sound of rustling robes and the creaking of benches as people raised their hands. He could hear it in Bartemius Crouch's voice as he started to speak the words that Regulus Black had never thought that he would need to hear. 
                          
"This court - as of 9:04 AM on the 20 February, 1967 - finds the accused - Sirius Orion Black - guilty of the following charges; accessory to the murder of Severus Tobias Snape. The catalyst for the event that led to the murder of Severus Tobias Snape. Knowingly leading someone to the location of a transformed werewolf with the intent to kill. We hereby sentence the accused to life in Azkaban." 
                          
Regulus had the sudden urge to throw up. There was bile steadily climbing its way up his throat, and he wasn't entirely sure that he would be able to swallow it back if it came down to it. The world started to spin around him, and he had to lean down and stick his head between his knees to be sure that he didn't spew up stomach acid and the water that he had managed to get into his body in the past few hours. 
                          
He could only barely make out the feeling of a comforting hand being placed on his back, but he didn't find it very comforting at all. In fact, at that moment, Regulus Black didn't know if he would ever find comfort in anything ever again. 
                          
There was faint ringing in his ears, and he could only just make out the sound of yelling. Who this yelling was directed at and who it was coming from, Regulus was unsure. However, he didn't care. He really, really did not care. Because his throat felt like it was closing, and his chest felt like it was being crushed, and it had suddenly become very, very hard to breathe. His hands started to shake and he just felt so hot all of a sudden. 
                          
Without even thinking or looking at who was around him, Regulus Black stood up from the bench and left the room. He couldn't be in that courtroom anymore - the courtroom that felt as though it were closing in on him. He walked hastily down the rows of benches, towards the door that led to the dark staircase, and he shut it firmly behind himself when he had stepped in. 
                          
He wasn't able to make it any more than four steps down before he keeled over and spewed hot stomach acid mixed with water into a puddle on the stairs. The vomit burned his throat on its way up, springing tears in his eyes and making it that much harder to breathe. 
                          
When his stomach had run out of contents to spill onto the floor, his body chose the tack of dry heaving until Regulus felt like he was going to pass out. Though, whether he was at risk of passing out from the dry heaving itself for his sudden inability to breathe, he did not know. 
                          
But, did he care? 
                          
Sirius Black - Regulus's older brother, the boy that he had grown up with, the boy who Regulus had always looked up to and wanted to be so much like - was going to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban for a mistake that he made when his protectiveness over Remus Lupin had just become too much. But, that had always been a risk, hadn't it? Sirius Black was protective of his friends to the point of self-destruction. 
                          
Regulus - in all honesty - wouldn't have been surprised if Sirius Black had ended up being sorted Hufflepuff. Not because of the kindness, or of the patience, but the loyalty. Sirius Black was just too loyal for his own good.