Sirius & Regulus. So who's the Black sheep?

Or should we say 'white' sheep? Either way, now that DH is out and every or amost every secret is spilled, we found out a lot more about the Black brothers than we might have even hoped.

From book 5 onwards, we lived with the thought that Sirius and Regulus couldn't be more opposite. A thought, which in fact, is rather far from the truth...

So were they more similar than they both would have liked to believe? Was any one of them more admirable than the other?

In a sense, they both rebelled. Indeed, Sirius was the one who disagreed with his family's ideas and morals and made it well-known. Regulus on the other hand rebelled in a more secret way, by not making everything public and by helping destroy Voldemort by retrieving the locket. I really don't think you can choose one over the other because Sirius had the strength and courage to move himself away from the evil side at an early age and not get involved with it. However, Regulus too found the strength and courage to get away from the evil side. It just took him longer and a dose of reality to figure things out.

I agree with you Chris and Sean.

I think Sirius rebelled at an older age because he knew what his parents were like and was able to stop the "brainwashing" effect from happening. Regulus on the other hand had to deal with the parents who were always saying how it's good to be pure blood, and Mudboloods are scum, yada yada yada. In an effort to please them he joined the ranks of the DE's not knowing what he was in store for. When he finally figured it out it was too late, but he did the right thing, well kinda and hid the locket from Voldemorts place, therefore showing his brother, who hated him at the time how good he could be. Of course he died for it, but in the end he did what he knew was right.

I probably didn't make sense there, but the point I'm trying to make is this; Sirius and Regulus were the same, abiet diffrent.

To me, before I read everyone's thoughts on this, is that Sirius and Regulus do have many simularities by far, but are opposite as well.

They are both Rebellious. Sirius was labeled a rebel not only by speaking his own mind and showing that he is the one that makes his own decisions but the fact that he owned a flying motorcycle. Guys that have motorcycles are labelled as rebels, or bad boys if you must. Rebels steal my heart.

Regulus was also a rebel in his own way in that he was a bad boy himself. Not only was he in Slytherin and one of the youngest Death Eaters but he was also on the Quidditch team, which means he is athletic.

Where they differ is not only by Hogwarts house but that Sirius is one who, as I stated before, only does what he wants to do. This was his outcasting cry to become something he did not believe in, Slytherin. He knew he was not one to fit in to such a house and wanted something more. He was brave by far in everything he did and was not afraid to stand up for what he believed in.

Regulus on the other hand did as he was told. He wanted to look good and be known as the best son. He just got in way over his head.

Hokayyyyy. I found this info on a webpage dedicated to the star of Regulus [completely not HP-related] & I thought this info is defo worth pasting in here:

Ok so religious comparisons aside. I thought the idea of Regulus as Sirius' 'lens' was quite fetching. It could defo be interpreted as the relationship that existed between the two brothers =)

Hmm...

Am I right in thinking Sirius is the younger brother?...I mean I know I should remember things like that, but its late, and I wanted to reply before I forgot my argument and my boyfriend is borrowing my books! If so...

Sirius would have perhaps been less controlled as a kid than Regulus, often parents have the highest expectations of the eldest child. This may have been particularly defined since Regulus was the typical Slytherin member of the Black family, so the the pride of the name was laid with him. Just by getting sorted into Gryffindor at Hogwarts, Sirius had rebelled, despite the fact he could not help this (though I guess he could have swayed the hat's decision like Harry did).

From this point on, it must have been harder for Regulus to go against the Black tradition. The focus must have always been on him, so any doubts about joining the Death Eaters must have been wiped away by the encouragement of his parents and fear of letting them down like his brother had seemingly done. Sirius had 'let down' the Black's from the age of 11, so anything after this was probably just put down to that fact, even if they did make life harder. So maybe that makes Regulus' turn around all the more spectacular...he rebelled against Voldemort, against his parents, his heritage. The sorting hat had kinda done this already for Sirius, who used the fact his parents hated him to taunt them almost. His bedroom shows that much.

I guess Sirius was wilder from a younger age...more regimented after Azkaban when needing to stay hidden, whereas Regulus was brave to attempt to break free from the pure blood regime, or at least save others from it. Sirius must have had far more fun though through his rebellious stage, and was probably far more conscious of his closest 'handpicked' familywho supported him through everything...Regulus' rebellion was almost a symbolic rebellion, alone with only his house elf to trust.

I find this amusing, that Regulus is the Heart of the Lion, and was in Slytherin, Lol. But he did have the heart of a lion, he was brave as any Gryffindor, if not more, because of his amazing sacrifice to destroy the locket.

The Black Brothers were alike in so many ways, more ways than they would like to admit to each other, I'm guessing. They were both Brave when they needed to be, Admirable in that fact, and Rebellious. Sirius was Rebellious in the fact that he went his own way as a Black, Gryffindor, fighting in the Order, etc. Regulus was a rebel in the fact that he turned against Voldemort and the death eaters with such severity that he died for this new rebellious streak. When it all comes down to it, there is no real way to say which Black brother was more admirable and which was "better" because they both lived amazing lives and fought for what they believed in.

Both are amazingly strong, Sirius being able to resist the pressure from family to join the dark side, and Regulus being able to leave the dark side behind when his family, friends, everything he'd ever lived by, and those that could control his destiny were all on the dark side. I <3 them both.

I only partly agree with you. Regulus had the heart of a Lion, but it was kind of blocked by blindness of his "tonjour pur" family blood line. He knew that he wanted to please his family and so he followed them into Slytherin; Regulus wanted to be a death eater because it was the "Black Family" thing to do. However, the way Kreacher talked about him, he also had a heart of gold in that he cared about the house elf. He was the best to Kreacher... and Kreacher thanked him for it. Which is why, when Voldemort tried to kill Kreacher, the thing that Regulus loved most, Regulus had no choice but to take action. He saw Voldemort's true colors and that's when he discovered the secret of the horcruxes too, and went after them to destroy them. And well, we all know what happened next...

But anyway, moral of the story is that Regulus originally just wanted to please his family, until the thing he loved most at the time was almost killed which brought about the change in 'heart'.


As Chris so gratefully founded, this quote is rather interesting. The character Sirius has a striking resemblance to his astrological star in that he is an embodiment of freedom and bravery to be able to stand up to his family for 16 years, and then just walk out on them. That takes a great deal of strength and courage to run away from your family and be independent, but Sirius did it.

So as for the question in the title, who's the black sheep, I really don't think either one is. Well, I mean that maybe they both were the black sheep in the family, in their own way. I guess Regulus a little more so, because I hate to say it, but I think that Sirius was more like his family than he would like to admit. Regulus was the one that stood up to Voldemort and found about his horcruxes; while Sirius stood up to Voldemort from the beginning, I never really saw any 'direct' blows from him besides in OotP when he went to help his godson. Yet he went because of Harry more than to fight Voldemort; and I think because of his best friend, James, whom he maybe felt guilty for by changing his secret keeper.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

I think that Sirius and Regulus were extremely similar. They both knew the difference between good and evil and simply refused to fall under the lure of evil, as their cousin Bellatrix and to some extent Narcissa had done. They had a mind of their own, very strong characters, and did not let anyone change them from doing what they knew was the right thing.