Sirius opened to the first page of the diary. The date was September 1970—the year Regulus had just learned that his older brother had been sorted into Gryffindor. In the diary, Regulus had secretly written that he wished he could be in the same House as his brother, yet was afraid of upsetting their mother.
Sirius quickly flipped through a few pages. The next entry shown was from May 1973: "My brother and Mother have been having a huge falling out lately. I want to ease the tension, but my brother scolded me for meddling in his business. It has been almost a full term since he last spoke to me. This conversation left me feeling both happy and sad."
A heavy, tight ache gripped Sirius's chest. He rapidly turned past the middle of the diary and started reading from there: July 1975. "My brother hasn't spoken to me in two years. This summer holiday, he cut ties with the family. Mother said she is going to strike his name from the Black family tree, and it will probably be very hard to ever speak to him again.
Chapter 44