A/N: In honour of my little sister's twenty-sixth birthday, you guys are getting the chapter a day early :P

The events in this chapter take place after Nightly Conversations and A Not So Ordinary Day

chapter 3

After Harry's birthday party Remus waited in the library for Sirius to appear once everyone had gone to bed.

"Is he asleep?"

"Out like a light. I've set a ward to alert me should he wake up, but I'm hoping nightmares won't plague him for a change," Sirius closed the door behind him and Remus smiled at the outfit he still wore as the man placed a jar and a cage with a rat in it on the table.

He stepped forward to brush a hand over the faded red shirt. "I think we can call it a successful party, don't you?"

"There were a few tweaks, but overall I can't complain," Sirius agreed. "You think he truly enjoyed himself?"

"That he definitely did, it was nice that Moody joined for dinner, everyone enjoyed themselves," Remus laughed as he pulled Sirius into a hug. "You look good like this."

"So do you. Maybe we should look into getting some Muggle clothing when we go on holiday," Sirius returned his hug without hesitation and Remus smiled.

"That would be nice. So you are sure about taking Harry and me on a holiday for Christmas?" Remus asked once they separated.

"Yes, I don't care what Dumbledore might think once he finds out. Harry's only young once and he's never been on a vacation, so we're taking him."

"You don't think it will be too dangerous?"

"Quite frankly I think it will be a lot safer out of Britain than in it. Voldemort seems to be focusing his wrath here and if we'd be different people, I'd say we abandon the United Kingdom completely," Sirius admitted.

"But we're not. We are who we are so we can't simply get up and leave," Remus gave him a wry smile.

"No, we can't. Not for good anyway. But I am more than willing to abandon the Order for a few weeks in order to give us a break and Harry a holiday he'll never forget."

Nodding, Remus turned back to the table and eyed the jar.

"I figured you'd want to look into it before tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'd like to test my theory and see if we can truly do what we're hoping to accomplish before we involve Harry," Sirius nodded, using a cloth to remove the locket from the jar and place it on the table between them.

"Are you ready then?"

"Almost. I would first like to ask him a question about how this came to be here. Kreacher!"

There was a loud crack and the house-elf his friend hated so incredibly much appeared before them and Remus had to suppress his own revulsion at seeing the filthy creature.

"Master called," Kreacher croaked and he bowed low, muttering insults under his breath.

"Do keep your insults to yourself tonight, Kreacher, I don't want to see or hear anything. I've got a few questions for you and I want you to answer truthfully and without bending the truth, understood?"

"Yes, Master," Kreacher bowed again, his glare strengthening but no longer muttering under his breath.

"I want to know where you got this," Sirius indicated to the locket.

"I cannot tell you, Master. Young Master forbad me from telling anyone in the family."

Remus was surprised to see Kreacher glare at the locket even stronger than he'd ever done at Sirius and from Sirius' raised eyebrow, he hadn't missed it either.

"Regulus forbade you from telling anyone in the family?"

"Yes, Master."

"All right, then I order you to tell Remus here and answer any question he directs at you truthfully and completely. No lying and no withholding information and no hurting yourself without permission. That is a direct order."

The elf seemed to think this over before he nodded and turned to Remus, shooting him a disgusted glare, but Remus ignored it.

"Where did you get this locket?"

"It is Master Regulus' locket."

"Where did he get it?" Remus tried to remain patient.

"He stole it from the Dark Lord."

"He stole...tell us- me the complete story, Kreacher. And start at the beginning," Remus ordered him, feeling weird to do so but the elf immediately nodded.

"When Master Regulus was sixteen years old, he joined the Dark Lord. So proud and happy to serve his cause, making Mistress and Master happy. But one day, a year after he joined Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher and told Kreacher the Dark Lord required an elf."

Sirius and Remus shared a confused look but didn't interrupt.

"Master Regulus volunteered Kreacher, an honour he said it was, for Kreacher and Master Regulus. Told Kreacher to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do and then to come home."

A sob escaped Kreacher and Remus glanced at Sirius startled, but the other only indicated he should continue.

"So you went to see the Dark Lord?" the name fell off Remus' lips like a curse, but the elf didn't seem to notice as he nodded.

"Yes. The Dark Lord took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea and in the cavern was a great black lake and there was a boat that took Kreacher to an island," Kreacher's breathing hitched.

"There was a basin f-full of potion on the island that the Dark Lord made Kreacher drink..."

"Kreacher drank and he saw terrible things..." the elf trailed off, shooting a glance at Sirius as he trembled. "Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him but the Dark Lord only laughed. Kreacher had to drink all the potion and watched as the Dark Lord dropped a locket into the empty basin. He filled it with more potion and sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island."

"What happened then?" Remus was aware that Voldemort had left the elf to die, but still he couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for the despicable creature.

"Kreacher needed water and drank from the black lake. Dead hands came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under..."

"Inferi?" Sirius interrupted and Kreacher nodded, seemingly not thinking questions were part of his order not to tell.

"How did you escape?" a chill ran down Remus' spine at the thought of Inferi.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," Kreacher answered and Sirius nodded in understanding.

"A house-elf will always follow their Master's order, if Regulus ordered you to come home, you would, like the good little rule follower you are," there was resentment in Sirius' voice but Remus couldn't blame him. He knew what that house-elf had happily done to Sirius when he was little, all under the order of his Masters.

"What happened when you got back here?"

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. Then one night Master Regulus came to see Kreacher in his cupboard, he was disturbed and asked Kreacher to take him to the cave."

"And he drank the potion and you took the locket?" a flash of sadness crossed Sirius' face as he seemed to come to understand something.

"Exchanged it," Kreacher answered, though he kept his gaze at Remus, telling his story solemnly to him so he would not break his order even though he knew Sirius was listening.

Remus looked at Sirius, not quite understanding what his friend had realised.

"Master Regulus had a locket similar to the one the Dark Lord had and he told Kreacher to take it and switch the lockets when the basin was empty," large tears poured down his ugly face as he spoke.

"Why didn't you take Regulus back with you?"Sirius' voice was soft and Remus turned to him surprised.

"Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to go home and never tell my Mistress what he had done. Kreacher watched Master Regulus drink the potion and watched as Master Regulus was dragged beneath the water..."

"And Regulus was killed because he ordered you to go home. The stupid fool," Sirius shook his head.

"Why didn't he take him with him?" Remus asked confused, horrified by what he was hearing.

"Because the idiot ordered Kreacher to leave without him. He gave you a direct order, didn't he?"

"Yes, Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to go home, destroy the locket and never tell anyone in the family what had happened."

"You didn't destroy it, though," Sirius commented, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly.

"Kreacher tried everything, but nothing would work. Kreacher knew for sure he had to get inside, but it would not open..." Kreacher cried out but Sirius' earlier order kept him in place and from hurting himself.

"Mistress was mad with grief because Master Regulus had disappeared, but Kreacher could not tell her what had happened..." Kreacher began to sob even harder and Sirius sighed.

"So Regulus changed his mind after joining and it got him killed. Why am I not surprised? Stupid fool never was the brightest," but he sounded resigned to Remus.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Remus rested a hand on Sirius' biceps.

"Regulus was merely a relative; he's never been my brother. That title belongs to you and James."

"I know, but I am still sorry. He died in a horrible way," Remus knew that Regulus hadn't held a large place in Sirius' heart, not like he and James did.

But Remus knew that despite everything that had happened, Sirius did care about his brother. And Remus had been aware that James had always been on the lookout in case the younger Black would be involved in a raid, but luckily none of their paths had ever crossed.

"It's no use dwelling on done deeds, Kreacher, when Voldemort summoned you, were there any items that caught you attention? Anything at all while you were with him?" Sirius turned to the house-elf again.

"Kreacher saw Lucius Malfoy was entrusted with a diary and Miss Bella with a golden cup."

That caught Remus' attention. "You think..."

"Do you know where that cup is now?"

"No, Master."

"It was worth a try," Sirius shrugged. "All right, Kreacher, we are set out to destroy what's hidden inside that locket. But to do so, we need to experiment a bit or we won't be able to destroy it for good. Are you going to help us without complaint, or am I going to have to ask Dobby?"

"Master will destroy locket?"

"Eventually, yes. But first I need to see if the thing inside can be relocated to another vessel."

"Kreacher wants to help," the house-elf immediately replied. "Kreacher tried everything...needs to destroy locket."

"According to our research, house-elf magic isn't like human magic and would be able to do things we can't do. I'd like you to try and move the thing inside the locket to this rat."

Sirius relocated the rat cage to the front of the table so that it was next to the locket and Kreacher nodded, a look of concentration falling over him.

Remus and Sirius both blinked as the pulsing darkness almost immediately shifted from the locket to the rat and after sharing a glance, Sirius reached out with his bandaged hand to touch the rat.

"It's gone, but I can touch the rat so we bypassed the protections on the locket," Sirius grinned as he ran a finger over the rat's back, pulling back in time not to get bitten.

"Shame letting Buckbeak eat it won't work," Remus commented, laughing as he was swatted at by Sirius.

"Do you want to give him indigestion? What's the poor fellow done to you?"

"All right, all right. We'll just use the spells we found. But more importantly than being able to relocate it into a living creature, can we do the same visa versa?"

"Let's find out. Kreacher, can you move it into that bottle?"

The moment the pulsing darkness shifted again, Sirius cast several diagnostic spells on the rat to check its health.

"She's perfectly fine," he declared and Remus breathed out relieved.

"You want to try and move it between two animals before going for the real deal?"

"I'd like to be safe and indeed test it out a little more, preferably upgrading to bigger animals and seeing if there's a difference before we involve Harry," he transfigured a quill into a bunny and had Kreacher repeat the progress.

It didn't take long before they had relocated the Horcrux between various animals, the biggest being an ape, before relocating it to the jar and they experimented with distance.

"All right, seems like that's not a problem. We'll need your help again tomorrow when we go for the real deal. Once we've succeeded in that, we can destroy the locket for good," Sirius directed to Kreacher, who nodded.

"Yes, Master. Kreacher looks forward to it."

"You are not allowed to communicate in any way with anyone about what you've learned tonight and what we were doing. No one, without my vocal permission given to you directly, is to learn anything about what Remus and I, or Harry discuss, either in your presence or out of it."

"Understood, Master," Kreacher bowed, his glare surprisingly much less present as he looked back up to Sirius.

"Good. Thank you for your help, go to bed. I'll call you tomorrow when we are ready to continue," Sirius dismissed the house-elf, who immediately obeyed with a small bow and left the library.

"He was...nicer than usual," Remus commented as Sirius picked up the bottle and placed it into a bigger box for safekeeping.

"I noticed. Doesn't mean I like him more though. But if I'm able to work with Snape for Harry's sake, I can work with Kreacher. I actually prefer Kreacher," he seemed surprised as he corrected himself and Remus snorted in amusement.

"I admit it is rather scary to see Kreacher listen to you without argument," Remus rubbed his nose. "So we know the relocating works, as well as over long distance and Kreacher doesn't even have to know where it is to do so."

"I wonder if it ever occurred to Voldemort just what house-elves are capable of," Sirius mused as he cast several protective spells on the box before placing it in a drawer with the locket and magically locking it.

"Probably not or he'd never have left Kreacher to die."

"Biggest mistake he ever made."

"Because Kreacher lived to tell the tale?" Remus asked curiously.

"No, because if anything, that would have been the last straw to turn Regulus against him. The idiot didn't have a lot of values, but he saw Kreacher as a valuable part of the family and cared for him deeply. It wouldn't sit well with him that his master left his loyal house-elf to die like that."

"I'm surprised he was able to tell the story to me while you were in the room and he knew you were listening," Remus commented.

"Not unless Regulus has specifically stated not to tell it to anyone in the family or them hearing it. It is easy for house-elves to find loopholes in orders if they want to. So if you truly want something done and don't fully trust the elf in question, then you need to be very clear and cover every angle possible to ensure there are no loopholes."

"Like how you phrased your order just now," Remus realised.

"Exactly. It's how I often got away. My father was horrible at phrasing orders so when he'd order to keep me bound, I could transform a quill into a pair of handcuffs or rope and tie my hands. That way I was technically bound and Kreacher would be unable to stop me from getting away as his orders had been to ensure I was bound, which I was."

"While I really dislike hearing that bastard ordered you to be tied up, I get your point," Remus rose to his feet as well. "So you want to get Harry involved tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I believe we are ready," Sirius nodded. "But I think it is time for bed now or we won't be worth anything tomorrow. Did you realise it is already past two in the morning?"

"No, I hadn't. You are right though, we should get some rest so we are alert tomorrow. We'll need it."

"We were right about the locket and the cup, though. And I think I might know where it is hidden, too."

"Where?" Remus asked surprised.

"Gringotts. It is the safest place there is and if he truly gave it to Bellatrix for safekeeping, what are the odds she'll keep it in the Lestrange vault?"

"We'll never get it if it's truly in there," Remus groaned.

"That is where you are wrong, my friend," Sirius grinned. "The Lestranges married into the Black family, making me their Head of House and since they are all rotting away in prison I'm in charge of their vault. I can send you as my representative to go see if the cup is indeed in there as I suspect."

"Seems like luck is at our side for a change," a grin spread over Remus' face, too, and Sirius nodded.

"I'd say it is about time. But let's first get some sleep and prepare for telling Harry what we've been up to."

Remus winced, having no idea how Harry would react to learning there was a Horcrux stuck in his forehead.