It was not like Regulus to disappear like that. And why hadn't he returned from his mother's yet? He went to her, for no reason, now, that they were a bit busy? Why was the necklace they had bought her still at the house? What was so important about seeing the hag now?

As if to irritate Severus on purpose, Kreacher was obviously going through something - yet another thing for Regulus to deal with, when he bothers to show himself - Severus did not know how to talk to Kreacher and Lily most certainly didn't.

"Kreacher, where is Regulus?" Severus asked the elf, when his patience finally ran out.

Kreacher gazed into Severus's eyes with such an intensity of misery that it made Severus uncomfortable, but said only: "at Master's and Mistress's".

A sinking feeling... he wants to tell me something but he can't.

"Take me to him right now."

"Kreacher can't!"

"Yes, you can, right now, do it!" Severus shouted, with a rising note of panic in his voice.

"Kreacher serves the House of Black," the elf replied. "I know I don't own you, you-"

Several more iterations of this followed.

Severus knew very little about the house elves' magic, but he knew that what could not be done with a single request could not be done at all.

"Either say something useful, or be quiet and let me think, Kreacher!" Severus ended up screaming at the elf, who showed him no deference.

"Kreacher serves the House of Black!" He answered, mutinously, almost disdainfully.

"Then we're going to the bleeding House of Black," Lily decided, suddenly.

It was she who had been on the receiving end of cryptic messages from somebody who had been silenced. She had gone over that conversation in her head a thousand times, and she remembered exactly how dismissive she had been.

Finally, Kreacher relaxed. In fact, he was elated.

"Where is Regulus," Severus demanded as he forced his way through the heavy oak doors, into the master bedroom, barely noticing that Walburga was in a nightgown.

By her appearance, Walburga had not been out of bed that day, and she had not been out of the house in a very long time. Her hair was matted, her face was puffy, her skin had an unhealthy shine to it, and she smelled nothing like her usual perfume.

Her tongue, however, was as sharp as it had ever been. "Well, if it isn't the part-Muggle, part-swindler," she greeted him smoothly, abandoning all pretense of manners, although even Severus could admit intruding on her in her bedroom wasn't him at his most cultured.

He walked closer to her, almost gliding. "Where is he," he asked again, his nose almost touching her forehead, in a near-growl.

"Finally decided to leave you, has he? You've made me very happy. So happy, I might not hex you out of the window," she said with a teeth-baring grin.

That's where Sirius gets it from , Lily thought.

Walburga's answer was so painfully irrelevant that Severus nearly tore his hair out in frustration.

"Are you Walburga?" Lily asked her.

"Mistress Black to you, you bit of filth that Regulus's former misguided attempt at living out a childish fantasy dragged in."

"It's Lily Potter, to you," Lily said coolly.

"I was friends with Sirius once," she continued, "and I'm pregnant."

What does that have to do with anything, Severus wondered.

"Kreacher brought us here because Regulus is in grave danger - and he swore Kreacher not to help him. Walburga, please, help us. Order Kreacher to take us to him - I know you want to!"

"What would people like you know about what I want?"

"I know what I would have wanted. I know I didn't want to be a nineteen year old pregnant widow or carry the child of someone I don't even like anymore, but I know I already love it and I would sooner die than let anything happen to it. You must love Regulus, at least as much, you can't want him to die."

Walburga seemed vulnerable for a brief moment before her face hardened again.

The futile attempt to scream Kreacher at Kreacher until he obeyed made Severus's voice hoarse when he said, "Please. Help us, and I will leave him, as soon as I see him, I will leave the flat, and I will return to Cokeworth, and you won't hear from me again."

"You are his mother," Lily pressed. "All we're asking is that you give Kreacher the order."

Walburga was lost in thought. Her children had been crashing disappointments. When Sirius had gotten sorted into Gryffindor, she hadn't left the bedroom for weeks. She knew that everybody else was just being polite to her, that they had been whispering behind her back, that she - she! - had raised a blood-traitor, the heir who would bring ruin. But Regulus... Regulus had always been sweet, disciplined, respectful of the old ways.

Until that - that awful, beady-eyed and hook-nosed part-Muggle scarecrow sunk his filthy claws into her Regulus, corrupted her Regulus, and made him break his mother's heart.

She would have made him take a vow to leave her son alone, but that would have involved touching the spawns of filth.

She looked at the redhead who had destroyed the Potter line, whose hand was on her stomach, caressing yet another half-blood. Dead or alive, Regulus could not be more of a disgrace. She relented.

"Kreacher, will you be so kind and take the mongrel from the Moors and his thief of magic friend to Regulus so that they would let Mistress rest?" she said, just as Lily began to ponder the merits of threatening to touch every single family heirloom in this house if Walburga doesn't help them.

Kreacher did not need telling twice. Under the cloak, the three of them materialized at what Severus recognized immediately as the cellar of the Malfoy Manor, to see Regulus bruised and battered, the Dark Lord himself saying to him: "Your Severus does not love you."

Severus looked like he was screaming, but no sound came. Regulus was obliviated before his eyes. It was worse than anything Severus had envisioned in his panic-fueled nightmares.

To take his memory? To steal his life, as punishment for loving someone else? He came to you , Severus thought. He came to you, he did not run away, what more can you ask for?

Lily signaled at him to be quiet. When they were children, she used to do that, before casting a spell on his father. Severus never told her he would be punished for that. What would have been the point? The Muggle would have found something to be angry with, anyway.

Watching Regulus lying feebly on the floor, his eyes glazed over, too weak to fight, himself powerless to do anything without incurring the wrath of the tyrant, was all sickeningly familiar. Was Severus imagining it, or was the belt that was coiled like a snake on the floor real?

Whether it was the fabled Gryffindor courage or just the fact that Lily had never witnessed a scene like that, or her training in the Order, she told Severus he had to be quiet, that he could cast spells through the cloak, that she knew what to do.

"You need to Imperius him, and make him walk out of here, and then we'll go to Dumbledore, he can fix him."

Severus whispered the incantation under the cloak.

Nothing happened. "You have to mean it," Lily reminded him, but he was in no state to mean anything.

"Come on, Sev, I don't know what to make him do!"

If Lily was telling him to use an unforgivable, it had to be right.

He pulled himself to the present.

Regulus stirred and the Dark Lord changed like a chameleon, from contemptuous to concerned. Lily rubbed her eyes in disbelief at You-Know-Who's transformation into someone who seemed genuinely kind.

"My Lord, what happened?" Severus made Regulus ask, praying that it was the right thing to do.

The Dark Lord gave a fond chuckle.

"You took a nasty blow or two," he said. "Nothing a fine young wizard such as yourself can't get over. I've done my best to heal you, and waited for you to regain consciousness. I am so relieved that you have."

Severus could feel an explosive energy building up in Lily, and knew she was struggling with all her might not to protest this sick lie.

"Thank you, My Lord," he had Regulus say.

"Go on home, Regulus. I want you to go home and rest. When you can, I would like to borrow your elf. I have - ah - unfinished business with the little darling. Do you understand?"

"I do, My Lord," Regulus stammered a little, his expression vacant under Severus's control.

Severus made him walk out and he and Lily followed. As soon as Severus let go of his control, Regulus collapsed on the ground. Of course, Severus's arm started to burn.

He had been summoned, surely to discuss Regulus, who was lying right there, and there was nothing to it but to go right back in and face the Dark Lord and pray that whatever had allowed Severus to lie before would manifest again.

Though the house in Spinner's End was best described as the furthest thing from the Malfoy Manor that could still be called a house, Severus felt as though he was going back home for the summer, back to the only place that was worse than Hogwarts. Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew never called themselves his family, after all, and he could at least threaten to use magic on them...

He answered the call of the greatest sorcerer, thinking only of the worst of the Muggles...

"If he wakes up, full-body bind," he told Lily. she nodded.

A comically short trip followed, and the Dark Lord was pleased at the promptness of his appearance. There was no trace of the violence that had happened there moments before.

Voldemort sat on his throne as though nothing had happened. How many times have I faced him, immediately after he had tortured someone, and did not know it? Severus wondered, and in his outrage, he nearly forgot to kneel. Self-loathing filled him - to kneel before him, after what he'd just done, and he doesn't even care ?

"Severus, this won't take long. I have summoned you here to tell you that I have been forced to modify Regulus's memory. He will not remember you. I hope this does not cause you any undue distress. It certainly oughtn't to."

Forced? Forced, was he?

But his anger was extinguished before he could speak, because his body knew, as it always had, that anger was futile, that nothing was more counterproductive than asking for justice.

All of his hatred had turned on the Muggle, who had set him on his path.

Lord Voldemort seemed pleased when he looked into his servant's eyes. He is thinking of his father, not of his Regulus - just as I'd expected. He is still the boy from Spinner's End.

"None, My Lord."

"You may part, Severus, and don't worry," he said, suddenly cheerful. "There are other wizards. Or witches. Stronger, more faithful. Your family will provide."

In Severus's limited experience, family had provided only heartache. He merely nodded.

"Go," Voldemort ordered him. "You will soon forget about your Regulus, I am sure of it. The strong of heart, like you, get over meaningless obstacles quickly."

Severus could not obey fast enough.

Back outside the Manor, Lily and Regulus were invisible, of course - until Lily whistled and alerted Severus to their location. Severus knew he had technically been fighting against the Dark Lord for weeks, but only now, looking at what the Dark Lord had done, looking at how quickly he changed his skin to hide it, did it feel like it was truly his war.

The Dark Lord's most bitter enemy was death, but Dumbledore was second. It did not occur to Severus for a second to try to think of another plan.

Kreacher was trembling under the cloak with them, terrified by the proximity to the man who had put him through such agony. "It's Kreacher's fault," he whimpered. "If Kreacher hadn't told Master -"

Severus and Lily looked at him and then at each other. There was no arguing with the elf, but Severus knew whose fault it was - his alone. Regulus joined for you, to be with you, and now look at him. The life he could have had, if only he'd have listened when you told him to leave you.

But the real Regulus was still unconscious, though moaning softly.

"Does he know we're coming?" Severus asked Lily, who seemed ashamed.

"I tried to cast a Patronus to tell him, but -"

"The memory of your wedding isn't happy anymore?"

"How did you know?"

"Wild guess."

"Lily will go first. Severus will bring Master Regulus after her - Kreacher must return to Mistress Black - Mistress Black ordered Kreacher," the elf explained, shifting his weight from leg to tiny leg.

"Tell her he's alive," Lily said. "We'll get him sorted, Kreacher."

With that, the elf disappeared.

They apparated to Hogsmeade, and Lily quickly led them in the direction of the Hog's Head, with Severus maintaining the Imperius curse on Regulus to make him walk with them. He would have been perplexed at the barkeep's nonchalance, at Lily's choice of such an unsavory place to go through, but that would come later. Right now, he sensed only profound unease and desperation, as he prepared to see Dumbledore. After he had waited for so long to never see Hogwarts again, after he had worked for days on end on a poison he had expected Dumbledore to drink. He knew he should be feeling extremely awkward, but panic drove it away.

Lily asked the barkeep to send a patronus to alert Dumbledore to their presence, and to allow them to floo in.

Lily came in first, and Severus sent Regulus after her, and then followed. He walked in on Lily explaining that Regulus had been obliviated, that this is all she knows, that he has to fix him.

"So these are your mystery friends," Dumbledore acknowledged.

"Fix him, please, fix him," Severus pleaded, cutting Dumbledore mid-sentence.

Such a combination of rudeness and politeness, Albus remarked to himself. That could only be the Slytherin Guttersnipe who had once told Albus what had been done to him, only to realize he would never speak of it again, who had ran out of his office without breath, with his hand on his throat.

So I have driven him straight to Voldemort . It was a small but necessary sacrifice, for the greater good. But that he was standing here now and putting his faith in Albus to help his friend was remarkable.

"We must assess the damage," Dumbledore explained. "Memory charms often have unpredictable effects. It is very curious, how the mind and spirit organize themselves around certain memories, and very curious what happens when you take them away."

"We've already got our NEWTs in Charms," Severus hissed. There was nothing he needed less than a trademark impromptu teaching session from Dumbledore.

Dumbledore leaned over Regulus, and when he pointed his wand and wordlessly cast ennervate . Regulus opened his eyes slowly, then pulled his head back, and pushed Severus away from him with all his considerable might.

"Don't touch me, half-blood!" He shouted, and when he saw Lily, he said to the ceiling: "Oh, and it gets better!"

The last thing Regulus remembered was being at home, and now he was at Dumbledore's office, with no idea how he got there. The half-blood he only knew as the laughing stock of the school, who was supposed to have graduated last year, stared at him as if he knew him, looking so concerned it was truly alarming. Regulus took mental inventory, and tried to figure out how worried he should be. His mother would not let him come to harm. He was a Death Eater, his brethren would protect him. The lowly half-blood was no threat - only a true idiot could lose to Sirius, of that he was sure. He knew who the mudblood was, too - the pompous, self-righteous symbol of Slughorn's self-serving "open-mindedness." She was no threat either - Regulus was not scared of being given a stern talking to.

Only then did Regulus realize that he was in pain, and that his master's enemy was pointing a wand at him. He started to laugh. "Kidnapped me for ransom, is it? Or just to retaliate? Do you think you'll get away with this, you old crackpot?"

"You don't know what you're talking about, half-wit!" Lily screamed. Severus stood as far away from Regulus as he could. It has been years since he'd looked so much like his brother, and Severus could not help but to fear him.

"You know what, Evans, I don't care what Slughorn says, and you know I'm right. Otherwise, why did you marry Potter and not another mudblood like you?"

It was the unlikeliest scene that had ever unfolded in this office, and the portraits all nearly poked their heads out of their frames, especially Phineas Nigellus Black.

"Listen to your Headmaster, boy!" Phineas shouted.

Severus rubbed his bruised arm.

"Regulus, listen to me, you've been obliviated. These are your friends, they brought you here to help you. I am going to try to set you right, but it will go by much easier if you allow me to work in peace."

"My friends? MY friends? Look at them, and look at me, you fool!"

Lily glared at Severus, and he could tell she wanted to ask him how the hell had he fallen in love with that - as if she had any right to judge anyone.

"Young man, I have seen you make a fool of yourself to defend this man's honor in front of your mother! I should hope that you did not do so for nothing!" Phineas scolded him.

But it was for naught - Regulus was like a caged lion.

"Ask Kreacher," Severus begged him.

"Summon him and ask him, he helped us bring you here!"

Regulus suddenly pulled something out of his breast pocket - a photo of Severus.

"Why did you put a picture of yourself on me, and how do you know about my elf, you creep?"

With a vicious smile, he added: "I thought you would know better than to mess with real wizards after what Potter did to you. I heard all about it, you know."

Hot tears run down Severus's face. Voldemort had truly done it, he had truly made Regulus forget. As Regulus spoke, taking pleasure in his gloating, the layers of respectability Severus had worked so hard to cultivate peeled off, and the dignity and love he had nearly died to hold on to were undone. Severus was shattered, and Snivellus, whom he had tried so hard to bury, returned, as pathetic and lonely as he'd ever been.

"Do it, and if the elf denies it, we will let you go," Dumbledore promised. "I am willing to make an unbreakable vow."

And let either of these bits of scum touch me? Regulus thought. However, there was no harm in accepting that offer.

"Kreacher, come here," he said in a condescending tone. The elf appeared, predictably, holding a rag and looking nervous.

"Kreacher, these lunatics and thieves say they're my friends, that I've been obliviated, that you helped them bring me here. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Master Regulus loves Severus," Kreacher wept. "Master Regulus told Kreacher that if he dies, Kreacher must make sure everything he owns goes to Severus, and he went to the Dark Lord and the Dark Lord hurt Regulus - all because of Kreacher!"

Kreacher's inconsolable weeping had intensified as he spoke, and the rest was unintelligible.

"Say I believe you," Regulus pondered aloud.

"What will happen to me if you're lying?"

"Nothing. It's possible that nothing will happen even though we're telling the truth, mind you, but I don't expect you to have learned about memory charms yet."

Regulus looked to his great great great grandfather's portrait, and Phineas nodded solemnly.

"Fine," he finally said.

"If Voldemort himself has used a memory charm on you, this will be very difficult," Dumbledore said, lost in thought.

"We are fortunate, very fortunate, that we have some relevant memories in your head, Severus, as well as this wand. I regret that I've been forced to demonstrate its strength to you before."

Again with the "forced" , Severus thought. He was indignant, but he knew he needed Dumbledore's help.

"Please," he croaked. He could not bear to look at Regulus looking at him with such disgust. Everything that had happened was gone, and the only thing that remained was Severus's enslavement to the man who had done this. Not even Severus's fate could be this cruel.

"Severus," he turned to him, and pointed at a large silver bowl.

"I shall need your memories, just in case the usual measures fail. The spell is Donum Veritatis ".

Severus drew memory after memory from his head into the silver bowl, vaguely noticing how curious this process looked and felt.

"Lily, go and get some memory-enhancing potion from Horace." Lily rushed off without a word.

Dumbledore next turned to Regulus and started casting non-verbal spells.

Regulus's eyes moved under his eyelids as though he was dreaming. Lily's return with an absurd quantity of phials did not disrupt either Dumbledore's concentration or Severus's.

Finally, Dumbledore lowered his wand, and after a few terrifying, breathless moments, Regulus opened his eyes.