When the day turned to noon without the house elf Kreacher seeing either of the boys, it began to suspect that something was wrong in its young lord.

The house elf apparated upstairs and and barked in the bathroom using the excuse of bringing in clean towels. Regulus had been tending his sores by dozing off in a tube. Before he had a chance to cover himself or even fully understand, what was happening, the concerned elf already spotted the angry red mark in his upper arm.

Of course, the house elf immediately told Walburga and then all hell broke loose...

/

After Regulus´s even normally scary mother, Walburga, deduced, what had happened in Bellatrix´s party, she cursed all the males to the deepest hell and back using vocabulary that no-one had known her to be capable of.

She was raving mad at Orion and Regulus. The first thing she did, when she saw Orion, was to hit her pale and hangover husband with a fast row of vicious stinging hexes. She called him "imbecile" and with lots of much less flattering names, until the poor man managed to escape to kitchen.

After calming down slightly, Walburga turned to Regulus. She didn´t let him utter a single word of defense. "Regulus Arcturus Black." Her voice was icy. "Did you know, what kind of man is the one, whose mark you now bear, my son? Of course not. You, stupid boy!" She shook her head. "You think that I and your father are cold?" She gave out a bitter laugh. "Compared to him we are Hufflepuffs with bleeding hearts."

She lowered her voice and looked downwards. "I knew Riddle from the school and he is nothing but a monster. Clever and dangerous beast. But had I known that it would come to this... At least, I would never have let that filthy half-blood in! And I would have locked you into your room for the whole summer with the feeble wish that you would finally abandon your childish fantasies and grow up and became a man."

She turned to her son and claimed: "You, my son, have shamed me and the blood in your veins! How I wish that I could say that you are not my son!"

Regulus winced as if being hit, but his mother in her rage was beyond all mercy. "You willingly let that half-blood filth fool and manipulate you. It is surprising that you ever ended up in Slytherin with that kind of naivety! I am ashamed to share my name with you."

Regulus swallowed and blinked furiously to keep the tears inside. They would only anger his mother further. "Mom, It... It´s not Severus´s fault...", he began with broken voice but Walburga halted his intentions of defending his friend with one murderous look.

She grabbed his chin and looked him to the eyes. "Your Dark Lord is a result of clever manipulation and overactive imagination. He sure can be charismatic and when he wants his tongue is pure silken sweetness, but even basilisk poison would be healthier than him! And your dear friend offered my son to that beast on a platter! Don´t ask me to thank him for that!" Walburga growled. "I know you, Regulus. You joined in them because your tutor did. I have seen how disgustingly smitten you have become by that half-blood. You would do nearly anything if he asked. Alone you would never have gone this far."

Regulus paled. He looked silently as Walburga paced around wrinkling her hands in frustration. Then she grabbed a flower vase and threw it to a wall. She looked with obvious satisfaction, how the glass broke into bristles and water sloshed down the wall. Scattered blood red roses lay on the floor.

"You think that monster actually wanted you? An ignorant child? Sure the surname Black would weight something in his scale, but your Dark Lord chose you just to spite me and to bound our family to his poisonous will." Her sweet voice cut like a knife. "You and your idiot father! You do not even understand, what you have done!"

Then suddenly, she broke into sobs, which honestly scared Regulus more than all that screaming. She turned away covering her eyes, clearly embarrassed of her own reaction.

/

Although, Walburga was furious to Regulus and Orion, Severus was the one whom she really blamed for what had happened. She could not take her anger on the Dark Lord himself so she directed it towards the outsider in her house, who had irked her for a long time.

At that moment, she would have killed him if she had possessed even little of the reckless Gryffindor traits. Even as a full-blooded Slytherin with all the upbringing and experience she had in controlling her feelings, she came close. If she could have done that without getting caught, she probably would have. Nevertheless, she could not stand to see the half-blood under her roof for a second longer!