"I promise I'll come back."
Elena wanted to believe, but she noticed that he couldn't quite look her in the eye. She wanted to beg him not to go.
"Regulus, are you sure this is a good idea?'
"You don't understand! Everything he told me was a lie. The things he has planned … only I have any chance of defeating him, everyone else just bows and scrapes before him, they treat him like a king! But I know, Kreacher told me. This is the only way ."
She wiped away her tears and tried her best to keep her voice steady. "Go if you must. I'll be here when you return." She thought about sharing her secret with him, but that would only make him worry; he had enough on his mind already.
"I will come back to you, and we'll escape the Dark Lord, maybe go to France or somewhere that he can't find us. I love you forever." He took her in his arms and kissed her with gentle passion.
When she was able to breathe again, Elena looked deeply into his eyes. "I will always love you, Regulus."
She waited patiently for him, sitting outside her cottage each day until the sky grew dark. After a week she finally admitted to herself that he wasn't going to come.
A month after Regulus left for the last time, Elena moved to the village of Ottery St. Catchpole and opened a confectionary shop under the name of Mary Hastings, hoping that the deception would keep her safe.
Eight months after she last saw him, Elena gave birth to Regulus' daughter, alone in the small flat above her shop. In honor of the man she still loved, she named the child Regina.