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38- Who's in Danger?
"No, Master Regulus, don't go in there," Kreacher grabbed Regulus' knee as he stood on the threshold to Raven's room, staring in horror at the abominable artefacts of Muggle culture. "What will poor mistress say? Mistress always relied on Kreacher to take good care of Master Regulus but now Kreacher thinks Kreacher is not doing her justice."
"Don't worry, Kreacher. Everything's fine," Regulus said in a low tone. "We just have to reconsider our ideology and our allegiance."
"Master wants to side with filthy half-breeds?"
"Kreacher!"
"Yes, Master Regulus. Bad, bad Kreacher. We will trust our nice new friends and-"
"Kreacher!" Regulus hissed as he stopped his loyal elf from banging his head against the door frame. "I forbade you to punish yourself, don't you remember?"
"Yes, Master Regulus," Kreacher glanced up to his master with pale, watery eyes, his bat-like ears hanging low, "Kreacher forgot. Kreacher is sorry. Kreacher will be good now and not cause dear Master Regulus more trouble. Kreacher caused too much trouble already."
"No, you didn't." To underline his words, Regulus got to his knees so that he was at eye level with the house-elf. "It's all my fault. I was foolish; I thought it was an honour and I never wanted that to happen to you-"
"Do you enjoy standing at the door or won't you come in?" Raven interrupted them. She had already poured four glasses of wine for them and was only waiting for Regulus and Kreacher to sit down, since she was badly in need of a drink.
Kreacher was almost in a state of shock when it became apparent to him that he was supposed to sit down with his master and the half-breeds. Although they were of low blood, they were nevertheless of the wizarding race and therefore superior to him. House-elves never sat at the same table with wizards.
He glanced at his master, hoping for a command to go and clean the kitchen or whatever. But that didn't happen, and besides, Kreacher didn't want to leave Master Regulus alone with his... friends. However, it was just as impossible for him to climb up onto the sofa and sit next to his master. So, Kreacher decided that crouching on the floor, close to Master Regulus' feet, was a much more appropriate place for a house-elf, and he only accepted a glass of wine from the half-blood's hand when Master Regulus shot him a pleading look.
-o-
"Now tell me, what's wrong with Sirius?" Regulus knew he was a tad too rash, but it had been a long day and he was tired of playing games.
"He's an annoying berk," Severus replied harshly and with a great amount of loathing in his voice.
"Well, I'm aware of that. After all, he's my older brother. But you wanted to tell me something else instead."
"Did I?"
"We had a deal!" Regulus insisted. "You were to tell me what you know of my brother, why you always refer to him in terms that remind of dogs, and I will tell you what I found out about the Dark Lord."
It wasn't more than a brief glance that Severus exchanged with Raven, and yet it seemed to Regulus as if there was so much more going on between the two of them... sort of a silent conversation, actually.
Then, Raven took a sip of wine, cleared her throat, and deigned to fill him in. "Well, your dear brother is an unregistered Animagus, just like his prodigious Marauder buddies, and his Animagus form is that of a dog. A black, shaggy stray to be more precise."
Regulus was strangely unsurprised. After all, Sirius was an ace at Transfiguration. And, thinking about it now, he certainly did have some canine character traits- he was very good at giving you the most innocent puppy-eyes, and no matter how mean Sirius had been, Regulus had never managed to hold a grudge against his brother for longer than a few hours. Even mother had forgiven him over and over again, until he had pushed it too far and she had blasted him off the family tree...
And yet, Regulus mused, she'll forgive him once more, if only he would give it a try. But that's just as futile a thing to hope for as it is to hoping she'll forgive me for turning against all of her ideals and. siding with half-bloods...
"How did you find out?" He wondered aloud.
Raven was pondering whether to tell him or not, when Severus cut in, "If I remember correctly, we had a deal and since we fulfilled our part, it's your turn now."
I shouldn't have come here, Regulus thought briefly, not knowing quite where to start and what to give away at all. On the other hand, he was very well aware of the fact that he couldn't have handled it all on his own, so it was the most sensible decision and probably the only solution anyway. He couldn't have possibly gone to Sirius, asking for his help- Regulus didn't want to hear any bloody patronizing phrases like, 'I told you so', or 'you should have known better' from his Gryffindork brother.
"Why don't you have a sip of wine and just start at the beginning?" Raven asked softly.
Regulus was grateful for her sympathy; she was trying to make it easier for him and he appreciated that, especially since he knew how very persistent she could be.
All of a sudden, Severus reached out and grabbed Regulus' left arm, pulling up the sleeve of his robe... to reveal pale, unblemished skin.
"Ah," Severus arched a knowing brow at him, drawing conclusions with a slightly arrogant drawl in his tone, "let me hazard a guess- once, you were so eager to join the Dark Lord because you wanted to please mummy and daddy, to prove that you're the good son. But you lacked the guts to actually comply to the Dark Lord's orders since you had finally come to realize that blood-supremacy isn't just an empty phrase or a political movement. Instead, it means you had to torture and kill to accomplish the rule of pure-blood wizards over Muggles and Muggleborns, and you didn't like that at all. So you volunteered your elf to the Dark Lord, foolishly hoping that that would be enough to make your master see you're not a complete failure. Alas, things didn't quite go as you planned, did they? The Dark Lord is even more ruthless than you expected and you're desperately looking for a way out. But you're in too deep already."
Regulus hung his head in shame.
"Sev, give him a chance," Raven said.
"He doesn't stand a chance, Lestrange. Just look at him! His face is like an open book; he does not know how to Occlude his mind. Even if he doesn't run to the Dark Lord to tattle on our conversation, the Dark Lord will find out anyway. It was a huge mistake to ever let him enter our home. We have to be more careful and not act as foolishly trusting as you are."
"I-" Regulus made an attempt to defend himself but Raven interrupted him, addressing Severus again.
"Do you really think Regulus would have survived that long if you were right? Considering his acceptance to Lord V's propaganda was dwindling, he couldn't have kept that a secret without some more than basic skills in Occlumency. I guess he's just trying to open up in order to make us see he's trustworthy."
She's dead-on, Regulus thought but he wished they wouldn't talk about him as though he wasn't there.
"Is that true?" Severus asked, still not being totally convinced. "Who taught you the fine art of Occlumency?"
"Cousin Bella did- she... she wanted to ascertain that I wouldn't pester the Dark Lord with my... um, adolescent feelings." Regulus blushed, which Raven found quite endearing. He really was a cutie, despite his background.
"Bellatrix," Severus hissed derogatorily, still feeling the chill creeping up his spine when thinking about that madwoman. It didn't sit well with him that the boy was actually related to her, but on the other hand, all of the pure-blood families where interrelated to some extent.
"I reckon you already made her acquaintance? Well, you're already in too deep, too- aren't you? But I won't pull up your sleeve to check just how deep you're actually in... although the Dark Lord speaks highly of his oh-so-modest potion master. It wouldn't even surprise me if it had been you who created the potion that almost killed Kreacher."
"You seem to be making quite a fuss about the well-being of your house-elf."
"Boys!" Raven cut in. "Let's not fight, alright? We have to stick together now." She turned to flash a winning smile at Regulus. "Now, Reg, why don't you tell us more? If I recall correctly, you mentioned earlier that the Dark Lord had asked for the service of a house-elf- but to what point and purpose?"
"I didn't know it then, otherwise I wouldn't have volunteered Kreacher." Regulus heaved a sigh. "You're right, I was foolish enough to believe that it would solve my problems within the fraternity. I considered it an honour to volunteer Kreacher, because Kreacher is the best house-elf ever. He's very loyal and attentive- aren't you, Kreacher?"
There came no response.
"Kreacher?"
Again, the very attentive house-elf did not reply. Everyone was glancing in his direction now, some of them with more amusement than others when it became apparent that Kreacher was staring in rapt fascination at Raven's lava-lamps. She couldn't help but burst out laughing at the sight of his head bobbing up and down with the tide of the colourful bubbles.
"Kreacher!" Regulus gave him a light shove to gain his attention, and finally the elf was looking at him with huge eyes, his old, wrinkled face glowing with rapture.
"Master Regulus see the strange candelabras? They make very weird candlelight in all colours and see these bubbles? They go up and down. Is that Muggle magic?"
"It's called electricity, " Raven threw in helpfully.
Kreacher eyed her from head to toe with a mixture of awe and animosity. "You make eppileptizzity hex, mistress half-breed scum?"
He's beginning to warm up to me, Raven concluded. After all, she wasn't just scum anymore but Mistress scum. Now what an improvement! And so she smiled encouragingly at the little ugliness when Regulus asked him to tell his story.
"It was an honour, dear Master." Kreacher remembered in his deep bullfrog voice. "Master Regulus asked me to do the Dark Lord's bidding and Kreacher was very proud to be of service.
"The Dark Lord took Kreacher to a cave beside the sea. The cave was huge, and beyond the cave there was a cavern with a great black lake. We sailed across the lake in a boat, until we reached an island, and on that island was a basin full of potion..."
The elf fell silent for a moment- long enough for Severus to recall that basin and how Voldemort had forced a poor, innocent Muggleborn prisoner to drink the poisonous potion he had created. He would never forget his screams, begging for water, for mercy, for-
"The D-dark Lord made Kreacher drink that potion, dear Master Regulus, and Kreacher obeyed. Cup after cup Kreacher had to drink and drink, and Kreacher was getting really thirsty although Kreacher was drinking and drinking. And when Kreacher had drunk all that was in the basin, the Dark Lord put a locket into the empty basin, and then it filled with nasty potion again."
Severus remembered that he had once seen something similar happening. He had given the Dark Lord only one phial of Liquid Thirst and yet it had seemed to replicate itself over again and again.
How did he do that?
"Then the Dark Lord sailed away... leaving Kreacher all miserable and aching, and Kreacher was frightened, but the Dark Lord just laughed and sailed away. Kreacher was all alone, then, and Kreacher was so very thirsty, so Kreacher tried to drink from the waters of the lake. But the lake wouldn't let poor Kreacher drink. There were hands coming out of the water and reaching for Kreacher... many, many hands. Cold and white, and they were dragging Kreacher under water and Kreacher was drowning- but Kreacher was not allowed to drown and die because Master Regulus had ordered Kreacher to come back, so Kreacher got back to dear Master Regulus."
"What was in the lake?" Severus inquired.
"Cold, white, dead hands... horrible hands... poor Kreacher."
"I think there are Inferi in the lake," Regulus interpreted the elf's words.
"Indeed," Severus said, pondering over what the Dark Lord had hidden in that cave for it seemed to be exceptionally well protected and therefore it must be something very precious to him. Nevertheless, Kreacher had managed to escape despite the Dark Lord's safety precaution. "How did you get away?"
"Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to come home."
"And the house-elf's highest law is his master's bidding," Raven concluded when Severus still appeared to be quite clueless. "You know, elf magic is different to ours. For instance, they can Apparate in and out of warded places- like Hogwarts- which no wizard can." She huffed. "It's just so typical for Lord V's arrogance to underestimate them and think their magic is inferior to his, when in fact house-elves are quite powerful little creatures."
"Mistress Scum knows about house-elves," Kreacher sounded surprised.
While Raven was wondering if she should tell him about Tweety, Severus asked astonished, "You mean that elf managed to evade all of the Dark Lord's measures of security simply because Black gave him the order to come back?"
"Yep," she said nonchalantly, and Kreacher nodded his agreement.
"Mistress Scum is right. Kreacher's highest law is his good Master Regulus' bidding."
"And I'm glad I remembered to tell you to come back. At least that was something I did right." Regulus sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
"Master Regulus always does right. Master Regulus is the pride of Master's dear parents."
"Hm," Regulus heaved another sigh, "I'm not certain if I am still their pride."
"Because dear Master Regulus is siding with filthy half-breed... friends?"
"No," Raven thought aloud, staking it all on one card since she was tired of beating around bushes, "no, it's more like dear Master Regulus has come up with a rather stupid plan to defy the Dark Lord."
Kreacher let out a startled noise, sounding like a hiccuping frog.
"Isn't it so, Blackie?"
Regulus chose to not reply and he averted his eyes so that neither Raven nor Severus could use Legilimency on him.
"What did you find out about the Dark Lord that you deem yourself capable of defying him?" Severus asked. "Has it something to do with that locket he was hiding in the cave?"
It's so typical for Snape to figure me out, Regulus thought gloomily. But albeit having been figured out, he was still reluctant to spill all his beans.
"So it is about the locket?" Raven inquired.
In the end, Regulus answered in the affirmative. There was no way of denying it. Perhaps he shouldn't have run to them in the first place, but now he was here and he would have to tell them everything. Do they even know how... convincing they are when they're acting together? It was beyond him why they still weren't an item since they would make a perfect couple, complementing each other in almost every aspect...
"Well, tell us about that locket..."
"...and what it means to the Dark Lord. Am I right to assume it is a very powerful Dark Arts artefact?"
"It is indeed. I think the Dark Lord created a Horcrux."
"A-what-crux?" Raven chimed in.
"A Horcrux is a magical object used to store part of a person's soul, so that in case the body of said person is destroyed, he or she will still live on," Severus said in a professional tone, giving her a lecture in the Dark Arts. "The Dark Lord seeks to conquer death."
"He wants to live eternally with that face?"
"When power comes into play, beauty doesn't matter, Lestrange."
"Well, at least one can say that vanity is not one of his sins. I think, however, that immortality is highly overrated and besides, history shows that there is no such thing as immortality. It always seems to come with a snag- I guess you've all heard of Achilles' heel?"
"That's just mythology," Regulus gave to consider.
"Ah, but there's a grain of truth in every myth, and if you hadn't slept through History of Magic all those years, you would know that." She turned to Severus. "How does that storing-one-part-of-your-soul thing work?"
"I don't know the precise procedure nor the required curse. It is very vile, very Dark magic."
"You have to commit a horrendous crime, such as killing someone," Regulus knew, and when his friends stared at him, he just shrugged. "We have a rather large collection of Dark Arts books at home. I already read about Horcruxes when I was younger. There was a story about a guy called Harpo the Foul-"
Raven started laughing. "Harpo is a Swedish Muggle singer who had a hit with 'Moviestar' some years ago." She started singing but since it was quite out of tune the Knut didn't drop. Well, she hadn't expected Regulus to know the song anyway. "You mean Herpo the Foul; the Ancient Greek Dark Wizard who first hatched a Basilisk. He invented many vile curses and he was a Parselmouth."
"True. I liked reading stories about him-"
"Why doesn't that surprise me? After all, you're of a very Slytherin background so naturally you must like stories about serpents."
"Well, I loved to read about Basilisks. Anyway, Herpo was also the first wizard who successfully created a Horcrux- perhaps he even invented the ritual himself. And according to him you have to kill someone to make a Horcrux."
"People get killed every day and I reckon a soul isn't split every time."
"Indeed," Severus agreed with a slightly arrogant sneer in Regulus' direction, "our young friend wasn't precise in his elaboration. You can only create a Horcrux by committing cold-blooded murder, and it also requires a certain ritual to actually split your soul."
"Ah, so you have to be a real cruel bastard with no heart at all." Raven nodded understandingly, then she glanced from one young wizard to the other. "And what object is to be used to store that split part of your soul?"
"As far as I know, it can be anything- whatever is at hand; it doesn't even have to be a magical artefact." Regulus explained, and this time Severus didn't correct him.
"So you could take any mundane object and turn it into a Horcrux."
"Basically, that's correct. I assume, though, that you would choose an object that holds a special meaning to you." Severus said.
"Hm," Raven mused, "even if that locket has a special meaning to Lord V, it's probably just a random object... and therefore it's not only his... key to immortality but also his Achilles' heel."
A glance in Regulus' direction told her she had guessed right. Objects could be destroyed and that was exactly what Blackie was up to, although his plan didn't contain his survival. Oh what a stupid, stupid boy! Whatever he'd had in mind, it was decidedly just as daft an action as could be expected from a Gryffindork.
Fortunately, they had figured him out just in time and his determination to carry out his foolish plan was dwindling with each minute they were talking..
"It's not that easy," Regulus said slowly. "You cannot try to fool the most powerful wizard of our times and hope to live and tell the tale. After all, the only wizard the Dark Lord fears is Dumbledore."
"And yet, we know about his Horcrux. We know where it is and we know of his precaution measures." Raven insisted stubbornly. "Why don't we just go and destroy his bloody Horcrux? I mean, we don't have to try and kill him... leave that to the oh-so-goody-two-shoes of the Order. After he lost his immortality."
"You're mad."
"It was your idea to destroy the Horcrux."
"It's not that easy," Regulus said again, furrowing his brows in obvious frustration. "I fear the Dark Lord created more than just one Horcrux."
"Merlin," Severus gasped, "is that even possible? Do you have any proof for your assumption, Black?"
"No. It's just... you know, the very day he asked for the service of a house-elf, he also handed something to Bella and Lucius- a golden cup and some sort of a journal- and he told them to take good care of it."
"I'm certain it was an... honour... to your dear cousin Bellatrix."
Regulus winced. Bella was family, after all. And he was just turning against everything they held sacred; he was betraying the ideals and the beliefs of his family. But he couldn't turn a blind eye to torture and murder either.
"Well, it certainly doesn't surprise me that Lord V killed more than once," Raven cut it. "But what does splitting your soul a couple of times do to your sanity? Oh, I forgot- we're talking about a megalomaniac lunatic anyway.. So how many times do you think he actually split his soul?"
"If I'm right assuming that the things he gave to Bella and Lucius are also Horcruxes, then there are at least three."
"I don't think the Dark Lord would choose to create any random number of Horcruxes," Severus gave to consider.
"All good things come in threes," Raven said in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"That's just a Muggle phrase. Seven would be a more... magical number-"
"Bugger! You mean Lord V split his soul in... seven pieces?" She glanced incredulously from Severus to Regulus, addressing the latter. "And you really thought him worth your admiration and even capable of ruling the wizarding world?"
"He's the most powerful wizard of our times," Regulus repeated what had long been his mantra.
"Bullshit! He's not the heaven-sent messiah of the wizarding world, Reg. Your wonderful and oh-so-almighty Dark Lord is just as lowly a half-blood as we are, Sev and I. His father was a Muggle by the name of Tom Riddle-"
"No!"
"But it's true, indeed," Severus confirmed. "Raven is right. She researched his background thoroughly, some years ago, and although she didn't find out every detail of his parentage, I can assure you that the Dark Lord is a half-blood, named after his Muggle father, Tom Riddle."
It sounded like blasphemy to Regulus and yet he knew that they had no reason to lie to him about that. After all, Lestrange was a history geek- and just the kind of person who'd check the Dark Lord's background, eager to find out more about him...
Suddenly he recalled a scene in the Slytherin common room... she had approached him while he was sorting through his newspaper clippings about the Dark Lord, and she had started to ask him questions... he knew she had lied to him about her parentage, but he'd paid no heed to that fact since he'd been much to busy staring at her... feminine attributes.
She had used him!
"But he IS the heir of Slytherin!" He insisted in a mixture of defiance and frustration. "The locket proves it!"
"Are we talking about the same locket now?" Severus inquired. "The locket that the Dark Lord hid in the cave and that contains one part of his soul? Is his Horcrux the very same locket that was once created by Salazar Slytherin?"
Regulus just nodded.
Severus glanced at Raven and explained quite smugly, "I knew he wouldn't pick any random object to store one piece of his soul; it had to be something which holds a special meaning to him, and since he is boasting with his maternal origin-"
"His mother was Merope Gaunt," she told Regulus. "You know that the Gaunts were the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin? They they used to live in the same little town as the Riddles at the time of Tom Riddle juniors conception, and Merope was the only witch available to have given birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle aka the Heir of Slytherin aka the Dark Lord. Interestingly, his second name is Marvolo, just like Merope's father-"
"She wouldn't have given herself to a Muggle!" Regulus protested, knowing that that sounded rather feeble and childish.
"Well," Raven sighed. "Ever seen a picture of Merope Gaunt? She definitely wasn't a looker... perhaps her ugliness was the result of generations of inbreeding. The idea of keeping the blood pure by producing children with a close relative has never gone well- take the last Habsburg King of Spain for example. Charles II was born physically and mentally disabled; he was disfigured- his tongue was so large that his speech could barely be understood; he couldn't chew properly and he was drooling all the time. But his blood was oh-so pure. Unfortunately, he was impotent so he couldn't pass on his precious pure blood …
"And no, I don't want to hear now that he was just a Muggle, because there really is not much difference between Muggles and the wizarding race except for our ability to use magic.
"I believe Merope would have given herself to anyone in desperate need of getting laid, and especially to someone who was as dashing as Tom Riddle senior. Perhaps she even used a love potion to sway him and get what she wanted."
Regulus looked so lost, so crestfallen and bereft of all of his illusions as if someone had just stolen his favourite plush basilisk. Raven's heart was aching for him. She reached out and took his hands in hers, giving them an encouraging squeeze. The poor boy had been imbibed with all of that pure-blood-supremacy nonsense from infantry on but now he was slowly beginning to understand just what a nonsense he had been made to believe. It was probably quite a hard lesson for him to learn.
Nevertheless, she was glad he had come to them for support (instead of running to his brother and therefore, irrevocably, to Dumbledore... call it mental, but she still failed to trust her former headmaster... probably due to too much bias on his part- she simply missed her penchant for different shades of grey in his black and white world.)
"Reg," she said, "before Lord V committed all those hideous crimes and split his soul in how-many-pieces whatever, he was handsome-looking fellow just like his father. But then he became Lord V, the tyrant, and I guess even your parents don't want to be ruled by a tyrant.
"Anyway, there's a big fat chance to stop him, so why don't we take it? Let's destroy his Horcrux- the one we know about for sure- and make him more... vulnerable..."
thanks to my wonderful betas, Alabaster Princess and hypnotic ink.