A/N: Written for the Demigod Battles, Round 2. Main task: Write a fic about someone failing to complete a task given to them. Alternatively, write about someone failing an exam. Optional prompts used: locket, fireplace.


Kreacher's Failure

It was only Regulus' command that made it possible to tear Kreacher's gaze away from his master and apparate, locket clucked in a tiny fist.

It was only Regulus' command that made it possible for Kreacher to leave his precious master behind.

He didn't want to. Oh, how he wished he could defy that order. Drag his precious master away from those filthy hands, away from his death under that blanket of water –

He shuddered, thinking what agony his master had endured, would endure.

But the command, the promise, held him, and all he could do was try and fulfil it.

His death – even when Kreacher felt it and paused long enough to howl at the starless sky – was not enough to break that command.

Kreacher would fulfil the order his master had died to give, or die himself trying.

But it was impossible. Try as he might, he could not destroy the locket.

He tried to snap it by hand. He tried hurling it at the walls of the cellar. He tried throwing it into the fireplace hoping its lick of flame was strong enough. He tried hammering it with whatever he could get his hands on. He tried every branch of elf magic he knew. Nothing worked. The locket refused to break.

And, finally, he had to admit he'd been a bad elf and he had failed.

And if only joining Master Regulus in death was not more a boon than a punishment, he would have castrated himself for his failure.

Living though was the harsher punishment.