A/N: Please excuse the terrible grammar, fragmented sentences, and shifting verb tenses. It's a rather old piece, and my writing has gotten better since this experiment (I promise!), but I figured that I might as well post it to keep it from cluttering my hard drive.

Title and song lyrics come from one of the most beautiful songs in the world, Boats and Birds by Gregory and the Hawk. Really, if you haven't listened to this song yet, just zip on over to youtube and search it right now. It's absolutely stunning, and is sure to break your heart in the best way possible :)

If you be my star

I'll be your sky

You can hide underneath me

And come out at night

.:.

All younger brothers look up to their siblings. But you loved him more than most. He was – is – your hero. Even his name was for the brightest star in the sky. When you were young and your parents would rage, he would take you outside and point out the constellations nestled in the cool night. Regulus, he would whisper, taking your hand and tracing the sky. Sirius, he would say, sweeping his own hand against the bright star for which he was named.

.:.

When I turn jet black

And you show off your light

I live to let you shine

I live to let you shine

.:.

He was the bright one. The shining star, another jewel in the Black family. He and Bellatrix and Andromeda dazzled, while you and Cissy were faded imitations of their stunning beauty. Cissy hated it, but you didn't care. You were happy to be the person to laugh at his jokes, to play along with his pranks, to listen to his stories. He would twinkle and sparkle and you were content to watch him. After all, doesn't every hero need someone to save?

.:.

But you can skyrocket away from me

And never come back if you find another galaxy

Far from here, with more room to fly

Just leave me your stardust to remember you by.

.:.

But now, looking back, you can see that you lost him when the Sorting Hat shouted out that fateful word. He had a new home, free from Mother and Father, free from Grimmauld Place. When he came back for Christmas, he was different. He still laughed and told you how all the girls loved him. You weren't surprised, of course, that he had become Hogwarts' new crown jewel. But in the night, he whispered to you of his new friends, how they were legends at Hogwarts, how they were brothers. Something within you died a little that night.

.:.

If you be my boat

I'll be your sea

A depth of pure blue

Just to probe curiousity

.:.

Before you were Sorted, he had dreams for you, hopes that you would defeat tyranny and join him in Gryffindor. You still had potential. You still were capable of great things. But as soon as the Sorting Hat shouted out the house of the silver snake, even from the Slytherin table, you saw something go cold in his eyes.

.:.

Ebbing and flowing

And pushed by a breeze

I live to make you free

I live to make you free

.:.

He had given up on you, but you never gave up on him. You bore the brunt of your parents' vicious remarks. You claimed that Sirius had ceased contact with the "pureblood traitor" and the "dirt-poor freak." When he snuck out to see James, you assured them that he had been hiding in your room the entire time. Did you approve of his friends? No. Did you think he was wrong? Yes. But when it came down to bare wands, it didn't matter, because he was your brother, and brothers protected their own.

.:.

But you can set sail to the west if you want to

And past the horizon till I can't even see you

Far from here where the beaches are wide

Just leave me your wake to remember me by.

.:.

He still left. He left you behind, and when you stood in his empty room, you knew that he would never come back. But really, you could never hate him. He was going to the right places, doing the right things. Before long, you would be nothing more than a blurry face in your brother's mind, erased by the hatred that he had for the color Black. But you would never forget.

Every night, you whisper yourself his name, reliving the memories you lived together, squeezing your eyes tightly as if that will be enough to keep them from seeping out. You never tell yourself you are an only child, even after your mother blasts his name off the tapestry, even after your father rips his pictures from the frames. Sirius surely hates you, but you will never hate him. Because even as time erases the past, the boy within you will never grow old. The little boy that looked up to his brother, who whispered the names of the stars in the sky.

.:.

Just leave me your stardust to remember you by

Stardust to remember you by