Author's Note: First of all, I would like to apologize. I hardly even remember the last time I updated this, and I am incredibly sorry. Senior year has hit me like a brick wall, and I've been tested mentally and physically for the last few several months. Anyway, this is the second to last chapter of this story, and I'm still not exactly sure how I want to end it, but I leaning farther one way than I am the other. The point is, I'm now on winter break, so for the next three weeks, I'll be sitting at home doing nothing, and should have no problem with updating. Until the last chapter is up, please enjoy this one. I wrote it in a matter of about an hour, my fingers going maddeningly fast the entire time as the ideas rushed to me. I've been away for far too long. All credit for familiar plot/characters/etc goes to JK Rowling. Enjoy!
"What are you doing?" Hermione yelled as Regulus put a knife to his arm.
He looked back at her and smiled. "Earning our passage."
They had just apparated to a large rock in the middle of a cold, rainy inlet, and now Hermione was shivering behind Regulus Black as she watched his blood drip down his arm, off of his fingers, and onto the solid-looking rock in front of them. Ever since they had left 12 Grimmauld Place, he'd been acting strange, almost insane, his eyes flashing every which way with excitement.
"Come here," he said with a gesture of his uninjured arm, and Hermione was stunned as the cave wall before them crumbled beneath the blood and left an opening just large enough for the two of them as well as Kreacher to walk through.
When they had gone only a few steps, they were all plunged into complete darkness, and Hermione yelped and grabbed desperately for Regulus' arm.
"Calm down, we just have to find the boat. Lumos!," he whispered. His wand tip burst into white light, and they began walking carefully along the outer edge of a massive pool of glass-like water, so still that it looked as if it had never been and would never be disturbed.
The entire place was eerie beyond words, and Hermione was still shivering violently when Regulus stopped short and stared down into the water intently, almost as if listening for something.
"It's here," he finally said after what felt like hours of silence. Still without speaking, he drew his wand up slowly until it was waist-height, and a little boat emerged from the dark water as if rising from the dead. Regulus looked at the boat with a wide grin that quickly vanished as he looked around at Hermione and Kreacher.
"Kreacher, you'll have to take Hermione to the middle and meet me there while I take the boat. I'm pretty sure it's made for only one rider."
"Yessir! Right away, Master Regulus!" replied Kreacher, although the look on his face was quite the opposite, and was much more desperate and terrified-looking than his voice had sounded.
Regulus nodded curtly and carefully climbed into the boat, and Kreacher reached out to her with one of his small wrinkly hands and sucked her away into darkness once again.
When she first felt her feet hit solid ground, it was still so dark that Hermione thought they had apparated to the wrong place or maybe were still apparating. For all she knew, they could have been dead. But then she turned around and saw a light coming nearer and nearer, and soon it was close enough to tell that it was Regulus coming up to them in the boat.
When he was close enough, both Hermione and the house elf helped him up, and then watched as the little boat sank back down into the water.
"Now what?" Hermione asked.
"There's some kind of potion, right, Kreacher? Something that has to be drunk?"
Kreacher nodded, and Hermione noticed that he'd begun to practically sob with fear. However, Regulus could not have been happier as he spotted something and ran over to it.
"Lumos Maxima!" he said. The light illuminated a stone bowl on top of some sort of podium or table. The bowl was filled with clear liquid, and they could all see something long and glittering at the bottom that could only be a necklace. The horcrux.
Hermione knew that this was what they had been looking for. It really was a horcrux. It had to be. Voldemort would not have gone through all this trouble of protecting something that wasn't extremely valuable. This also meant that they were right: Tom Riddle was attempting to become immortal, or he already was.
Hermione looked over at Regulus, excited to finally share in his excitement, but the smile he'd had all evening was now gone. Instead, he looked scared. Terrified in fact. But when he noticed that Hermione was looking at him, his fear vanished and was replaced with only a completely emotionless gaze.
"Kreacher, I think you know what needs to happen."
Hermione looked down at the little elf, whose fear had only become more and more obvious the more time they'd spent in the cave, but either Regulus didn't notice, or just didn't care. However, the elf stood at attention all the same.
"I'm going to drink this potion, Kreacher. Do you understand me? I'm going to drink it, and you're going to make me, whether I want to or not. That's an order."
Kreacher nodded, even though the look on his face still said the opposite, and took up a position beside the bowl.
Regulus turned to Hermione. "You're going to hate me, but I need to do this. I've..we've…worked too hard to miss this opportunity. It needs to happen."
This was what Hermione had been afraid of: Regulus wanting to be the hero. Harry Potter, her best friend, had always done the same, and he'd very nearly gotten himself killed every single time. Did everything she touch destroy itself? It just wasn't fair.
"Please, Reg-" she began, but her words were silenced by Regulus' lips on her own, and she kissed him back as hard as she could for no other reason than the fact that she had no idea when she would next be able to do the same. Her tears streamed down her face, but she let him go. He took one final look at her and mouthed "I love you" before putting the little cup that had been beside the potion to his lips and drank.
At first, he was fine. Then, he began to writhe and Hermione could only watch as he collapsed to the ground and cried out in what must have been pain, or maybe longing, she couldn't tell. The tears came and Hermione found herself on all fours, crawling desperately toward the boy on the ground. He was still convulsing, begging for the pain to stop, for someone to help him, but no help would come. Not until he drank it all, and until then, she'd be there for him.
Meanwhile, Kreacher completely ignored Regulus' yells, even though Hermione knew it must have been killing the elf inside to hear the one person who was kind to him suffer and not be able to help him. It hurt Hermione too.
It began to feel as though she'd been listening to him crying for hours, but she also knew that they were only through about half of the potion. By now she'd pushed her face into Regulus' chest and was clutching him with both arms as Kreacher kept forcing the liquid own his throat. End. Just end, you fucking potion. She wanted to badly to give up, to order Kreacher to stop, but she knew it would only be worse if she did, and they had to be close now. They had to be. They had to.
"Wa…ter…" Regulus croaked. It sounded as if his throat was filled with sand, but either way, he was alive. It was over.
"We'll get you water," whispered Hermione. "I promise."
She looked around at Kreacher and saw him struggling to reach the necklace at the bottom of the now-empty potion bowl.
"I'll be back," she said quietly to Regulus with a kiss on his cheek before hurrying over to help the elf.
"Thank you Kreacher. I've got this." Hermione peeked into the bowl, and what she was surprised her. It was a huge locket made of gold with an "S" in green stones inlaid in the front, and when she picked it up by its long gold chain, it was much heavier than she had expected. She stood staring at it for a long time, for it was difficult to tear her eyes away from it. Never before had she beheld something that radiated so much power. It was like a magnet of the eye.
"Madame Granger! Come quickly, please!" came a shout from behind her. It took incredible strength to tear herself away from the necklace, but when she did, what she saw terrified her. Regulus was at the edge of the water, reaching a hand out to touch the glassy surface before him.
"NO!" she yelled, stuffing the necklace into her pocket and running forward but it was too late. Regulus' hand plunged beneath the surface and brought back up with it a handful of perfectly clear, freezing cold water, and that was all. At first, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the demons from beneath the water were only there that one time. Maybe they were lucky.
But then a white hand burst through the surface, and then another and another, and Hermione brought out her wand for the first time that night.
"Kreacher, grab Regulus!" she screamed before running toward the monsters, flinging spells blindly all the way.
The elf ran ahead and pulled Regulus away from the edge, but by then, there had to be hundreds of the creatures. Unfortunately, they seemed to be zombie-like, probably Inferi, and according to their reactions to her spells, Hermione concluded that they felt little to no pain, and instead kept advancing on the threesome, cornering them all together against the potion bowl. Considering the fact that Regulus seemed to still be passed out, or worse, and Kreacher didn't seem interested in helping as he was now crouched on the ground in the fetal position, Hermione had to find a way out on her own. So far, things did not look too promising.
Suddenly, all her fears were being realized as she felt Regulus' body being pulled out of her sweaty grasp, and she could no longer hold onto him and fight back at the same time. Instead, she tucked her wand away and flung herself around Regulus' limp body. Maybe, if they weren't separated, there would still be hope. She knew she was lying to herself, but it was better than completely giving up.
Hermione closed her eyes and prepared herself to be pulled under the water, but instead of the icy coldness she'd been expecting, she felt a hot wind blow into her face, and Regulus' body left her, and she opened her eyes wide to see the little island completely covered in flames. The cold, dead hands of the Inferi released her, and it took a few more moments of lying on the ground to realize what exactly was happening before her.
It appeared that Regulus had woken up after all, even though he looked nearly dead himself. His face was white and bony, and everything else about him was hollow, but he somehow managed to find the strength to produce one of the biggest fire charms she had ever seen.
As soon as she could no longer see and Inferi, and the fire subsided to a simple ring around the three of them, she rose to her feet and ran over to Regulus, who had fallen to his knees, and began kissing him all over his entire face.
"I thought we were all going to die," she said through her tears as she pulled him close, but Regulus responded only with a faint grunt before collapsing into Hermione's arms. The fire around them flickered, but remained where it was. Still, Hermione knew they did not have much time.
"Kreacher, can you get us out of here?"
The elf nodded and took both of their hands, but Hermione shouted "Wait!" and reached into Regulus' pocket, pulling out an old necklace from the cupboard at 12 Grimmaud Place that Regulus had brought to replace Voldemort's, in hopes that he wouldn't notice the original had gone missing, along with a note for him if he did. They're come up with the idea the night before, deciding that if the Dark Lord was to discover the fact that they were aware of his plans, he would do anything in his power to destroy them both.
Hermione ran back over to the elf and grabbed his other hand again, and they were all sucked back into darkness just as the fire went out, and no one had died.
Thank everyone for reading, and don't forget to review!