Chapter 104
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"I don't know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! Now get out of here at once and don't let me catch you mentioning them again!"
While Snape gave her a job to complete, Dumbledore gave her the task of getting a memory out of Slughorn.
It was after a potions class that she walked up to him, asking to speak to him in private. Emperor swayed under her feet, sitting there as she and Slughorn began to speak.
"Sir," Rebekah said. "Headmaster Dumbledore showed me this… memory of Tom Riddle asking you about Horcruxes. He said that you might've tampered with the memories but I don't quite believe him so I came to you to see the truth."
"I'm glad you did!" He boasted. "Sometimes that old man has peculiar stories to tell. I know of Horcruxes but all good Wizards should. They are disgusting things that will turn any good man astray. I don't think you'd want to know about them, Miss Potter, because you would make them."
"No, no," She laughed politely. "I like my soul in one piece. I know of them and how they break the soul. That's all I need to know. I'm not the type to… deal with darkness to get my way."
"Good, good,"
"Thank you, sir. I just needed to confirm what Dumbledore told me. He seems a little loopy recently, wouldn't you say?"
He smiled sheepishly, "I wouldn't want to speak ill of him but I can agree on that remark."
"Of course. My lips are sealed, sir. Good afternoon."
"Yes, good afternoon. Off to your next lesson before you're late," He shooed her away with a shake of the head.
Rebekah grinned, seeing her future self behind Slughorn, her wand pointed at his head as she pulled out a memory. It wasn't that difficult when you knew exactly what you needed to get.
The future one left first before she slowly left the room, Emperor curling around her as she said good evening.
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Apparition lessons were going well and all of her friends were excelling at it. It wasn't any concern for them to fail it but Rebekah was more concerned about Draco and the cabinet than anything else.
Days passed too quickly. It turned from January to February to March before Rebekah could even tell.
Rebekah watched Slughorn's memory herself, already knowing what had happened due to the little Riddle in her dreams. Of course, she didn't tell Dumbledore about it just yet. There was a plan in place and she needed to make sure it went well.
She had to check on the work on the cabinets, going into the Room of Requirement when she knew Draco would be working too. It wasn't often he worked, taking a night or two a week to do some finishing touches on it but kept it just broken enough that nothing could go through it yet.
There wasn't much he could do now, he said as he worked, but Rebekah was welcome to check it. He was glad there was very little to do for it to work, proud of his achievements, but he didn't want to think of what was going to happen at the end of the year.
He had a duty, to both his lady and the dark lord.
He already knew which one he would choose but he didn't want to hurt his family either.
He'd do his best to please both.
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Teddy Lupin-Black was born early in April, making Rebekah a Godmother by the time she returned to Hogwarts later that month.
He was adorable, changing his hair to this and that even as a newborn. Tonks handed him straight over to Sirius and Remus after the birth, not being very maternal herself. She was just glad to help them start a family, and now was recovering to go work as an Auror again.
Rebekah held him after both Sirius and Remus, watching him open his beady little eyes. He frowned in his sleepy state, yawning and grumbling in her arms. Remus handed her a tiny baby bottle full of milk, letting her feed him in Tonks' hospital room as they all observed them.
The two children of the Lupin-Black, or Black-Lupin, it really didn't matter, family, sat there, one feeding the other as the adults just watched.
Teddy just gave her a reason to end this war, wanting him to not live through a war and see his parents killed like her own.
She couldn't watch him be brought up in a world full of war.
Rebekah promised him, as he lay in her arms and drank from the bottle, that he wouldn't ever have to.
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After giving the memory to Dumbledore in early June, the rest of the year went easily.
Slytherin won the House cup with ease.
She had been acing the extra teaching Snape gave her as the months went on, being able to get a certain physical form that would be useful later on.
Rebekah had all of these small photo and interview sessions with Ministry people, telling them there wasn't anything to worry about as she was working with the Ministry. Of course, it was a lie but they didn't know that.
It was easy to manipulate the public into thinking she was helping, and it just enraged Voldemort, she could feel it in her scar and the way the Dark marks were beginning to burn each time.
She was the poster girl, ready to smile and wave and say the right thing to get them to believe her. There were days that she was taken out of school just to have pictures taken in hospitals, in offices, and in the ministry where she was pretending to do things.
Almost too easy but she didn't care, she got what she needed out of it.
Only on the last day of June did things change.
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Rebekah had gotten a note from Dumbledore, asking her to join him in his office.
And she did, bringing her leather, enchanted jacket with her. She walked into the room, closing the door behind her as Dumbledore stood by the window with a travelling cloak in his arms.
"Well, I did promise you could come with me," Dumbledore said, turning around with a small smile to look at her. "You destroyed more than one Horcrux, I think it is your right to destroy the others too."
"You found another?"
"I believe so."
"Do you want me to bring my cloak?"
"Yes, if you please could," He said. "Please meet me in the entrance hall in five minutes."
She inclined her head, leaving the room silently.
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The cliff stood behind them, the drop dark as waves crashed against it. They were standing on a boulder, closer to the water than she wished but she wasn't scared. She had swum in the Black Lake with the squid, nothing in these waters could scare her.
"Our final destination lies a little farther on. Come," Dumbledore beckoned her along to the edge of the rock, going down the jagged foothold which led closer to the cliff's bottom.
It was a harsh descent but they made it down, moving slowly as the lower rocks were slippery with seawater. When they got to the bottom of it, Dumbledore lit his wand before telling her to jump into the dark water below. Rebekah had a clue of where this was going, as she had spoken with Tom Riddle since she opened the locket which sat within the confinements of her thin shirt.
The water could have been made of ice with how cold it was, soaking into her clothes straight away and with no remorse for her comfort. Luckily, her clothing was tight as her preference for them was and didn't waterlog her down as much as her school robes would have.
The small tunnel they went through was barely three feet wide and looked to be coated in wet war but it was just the light of Dumbledore's wand passing over them. It took a good few minutes of silent swimming, feeling the slow current under her but she was a strong swimmer.
They took a left as the tunnel direction changed and began to rise out of the water. Dumbledore stood in the middle of the cave as Rebekah dried herself off, lifting his wand to illuminate the whole cave.
"Yes," He mumbled. "This is the place. We need to get into the inner cave. Follow me."
Rebekah knew it was too, feeling the way the Magic vibrated off the walls in waves.
The inner cave held a strange tone of beauty for her, a vast black lake with a ceiling so far it couldn't be seen. A misty greenish light came from the middle of the far lake, reflecting against the walls as the only other light was the tips of their wands. Everything else was dark, denser than normal darkness and thus had been summoned by a powerful hand.
As they sailed on the boat across the lake, Rebekah looked down into the water and frowned.
Bodies were piled high in the depth, mostly intact but they weren't human.
Not anymore.
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When she dipped the goblet into the lake, trying to get some water for Dumbledore who was rolling on the ground in pain from drinking whatever it was in the basin, a white hand clasped onto her wrist.
It tried to pull her in as the surface of the lake rippled to life with Inferi trying to grab her. White hands and heads appeared, coming towards her as the sunken, sightless eyes brought their gaze onto her.
She clung to the island as more and more of them came, the Inferi which held her hand beginning to drag her closer to the lake. As soon as more of her arm touch the water, the Inferi all jumped forward. They grabbed her, pulling her into the depths of the cold and dark lake.
Merlin, it was cold as they brought her deeper into the lake's bottom, trying to drown her but she took a breath of air before plunging down with them. There was no point in fighting them physically as they were much stronger, and transforming into her Animagus form wouldn't help either. Her wand was tucked away in its charm form, useless as she couldn't move any of her body as the Inferi covered her in their bodies, trying to turn her into one of them.
Anything and everything that could have helped her went through her mind. She was within the water, she couldn't summon fire and let it work.
Another Inferi swam towards her, more composed in its forms as her leather jacket began to glow. The runes and talismans embedded into the leather worked their Magic as this new one touched her shoulder, shoving aside the other Inferi as they all swam away from the light.
It was still dark but the glowing runes lit bright and brighter until the white light killed many of the Inferi around her, letting the other one begin to drag her upwards.
It took a moment to realise that this wasn't an Inferi. It was an imitation of one, a copy, a doppelganger to survive in the lake.
The person lifted her out of the water, helping her out and onto the lake before they kneeled before her. She sputtered out the water in her mouth, coughing as they rubbed her back.
She swatted their hand away, taking deep breaths and watched as the figure still kneeled. They wore the black robes of the first Wizarding World Death Eaters, still pristine as their silver mask showed their rank.
He slowly took it off, revealing a familiar face she had only seen in pictures. It was aged, having felt time while still frozen in the lake.
"Please, please don't tell me Sirius is dead," His voice was hoarse from lack of use but she still heard the desperateness in it.
"No, no," She said. "He's alive. He has a two-month-old son."
He laughed, almost in relief as he watched her jacket slow its glow. He hugged her tight, "thank you. You're wearing his jacket so I was concerned. Why are you here? Why is Dumbledore here? Are you after the locket?"
"Yes, we are," Dumbledore said, standing a few feet away from them. "Good to see you, Regulus."
"I can't say the same," Regulus Black stood up. "Did Voldemort not die? What year is it?"
"Nineteen ninety-seven," She said, getting to her feet before drying herself off. "Voldemort was defeated in eighty but he was revived recently. Voldemort is rising again and we need the locket to destroy it and one of his Horcruxes."
Dumbledore held the locket in his hands, seeing the way Regulus scowled at it before pocketing it.
"You two take the boat," Rebekah said, shifting her feet before feeling Emperor wrap his tail around her ankle as he appeared. "I'll go with Emperor."
She twisted in place, using her arms to quickly pick him up and hug him as she closed her eyes. The shadows under her consumed her, taking her body and turning it into shadows too before the mist floated upwards and across the lake.
"Who is that?" Regulus asked. "She's wearing my brother's jacket but she wears too many rings."
Dumbledore watched her land on the other side of the lake, "That is Rebekah. Sirius' Goddaughter and the daughter of Lily and James Potter. She's destined to kill Voldemort."
"And get killed in the process,"
"She knows."
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