Adeline spent the next two months deep in work at Gringotts. It was eerie, being in the office without Fabian and Gideon; they hadn't hired anyone to replace them yet, and honestly Adeline doubted it was a high priority with everything going the way it was. People had started disappearing at an alarming rate. Walking down the street in Diagon Alley had started to seem like an extreme sport; people walked quickly, with their heads down, not making eye contact or conversation like they used to. High profile families had started to drain their accounts at Gringotts, preparing for international moves. Adeline doubted replaced two archaeologists was on the top of Gringotts to do list.
After work, Adeline would stop home, eat dinner with Sirius, before heading off to Hogwarts to roam the halls. Dumbledore had connected her and Sirius's fireplace directly to his, so she was able to floo in and out as she pleased. She left the invisibility cloak there and more than once, she noticed Dumbledore examining it closely before handing it over to her. She wondered what he needed it for; he didn't seem to need it to turn invisible.
So far, nothing had come from her time at Hogwarts. Sirius had even leant her the Marauder's Map, hoping she might be able to use it to help in her search. So far, it hadn't been so helpful. She spent her nights wandering the hallways, trying to see any changes in the magical signature of the walls, the ceilings, anything that might suggest a protective charm.
She was sitting at their kitchen table, looking over maps and some texts that she'd taken from work, when Sirius came home from work. He dropped his bag onto the table next to the door, kicked his shoes off, and walked over to press a kiss to Adeline's cheek.
"Hi, love," Adeline said, smiling up at him. "Did you eat?"
Sirius dropped down next to her, pulling one of the books over towards him. "Yeah, James ran out and grabbed something for us while I finished up writing some reports. Did you?"
Adeline pointed towards the leftover fish and chips she'd grabbed at the Leaky Cauldron on her way home from work. "I'm trying to find information on this symbol that I noticed on the Lestrange's vault this afternoon. I hadn't noticed it before and it's not a rune that I recognize." Adeline pushed the parchment over so Sirius could take a better look. "I only noticed it when I pulled up the signature of the spell work placed on the locks themselves. I swear I've never seen it before. Have you?"
Sirius picked the parchment up and brought it close to his face, studying it intently. The symbol was a vertical line and a circle enclosed in a triangle. It was unlike any rune Adeline had ever seen before. "It's not a rune," he said finally. "But I have seen it somewhere before…somewhere with my old Uncle Alphard. I can't quite remember…"
Adeline furrowed her brow. "Not a rune? Why would it be woven in to the protection of the vault then?"
"I'm not sure. Are you going to show Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, pushing the parchment back towards Adeline.
"I thought I would when I head over…" Adeline was cut off by an almighty "pop" that rang through their living room. She screamed, startled, grabbing instinctively onto Sirius's arm. He shook her hand off, reaching for his wand quickly, in a way that only his auror's training could have taught him.
A dirty, old house elf was standing in the middle of their living room, clutching the bottom of the disgusting rag he wore. He was blowing his nose in the dirty folds, tears running down his weathered face.
"What the fuck!" Adeline screamed at the same time that Sirius said, incredulously, "Kreacher?"
Adeline turned to her husband. "You know this house elf?"
"Kreacher, what are you doing here?" Sirius asked, standing up quickly. "How did you even get in here? I've warded it against you."
"Master Regulus…" Kreacher began through his sobs.
"What's the tosser done now?" Sirius interrupted him. He turned to Adeline. "This is my mother's pet house elf. I have no idea how he got past my wards; I specifically placed them to block her from sending him here to do her dirty work. I'll have to take them down and completely start over…that woman, I swear…"
"Sirius!" Adeline cut him off sharply. She gestured towards the house elf, who's eyes were bulging as he rocked back and forth in clear distress. "What is it? What's wrong with Regulus?"
"He's in trouble! In the cave! The Dark Lord took me there, and then Master Regulus made me take him back. The potion…the potion! And the lake…we must hurry!"
Without warning, Kreacher grabbed both Sirius and Adeline's hands, disappearing on the spot. The chaos that met them took Adeline completely by surprise. They landed on a small island, in the middle of a black lake, in the middle of a large, cold, dank cave. However, they were not alone.
Crawling onto the island from all angles were the creeping, ghostly pale corpses of the reanimated dead. Inferi. And there, in the center of it all, fighting with all of the strength he had left to not be dragged into the water, was Regulus.
In the split second it took Adeline to get her bearings, Sirius had already jumped into action, his wand illuminated with flames. Adeline followed suit. Fire – the only thing the inferi were afraid of.
"Kreacher!" Sirius screamed. "Take Regulus back to our flat. Then return. Immediately. And take me and Delle. Do you understand?"
Kreacher did not respond, but he did leap towards the fallen Regulus. They disappeared a moment later. Sirius reached a hand out to Adeline, pulling her towards him so that they stood back-to-back, fighting off the inferi from all angles.
The inferi were pushing forward, closing in on them. Sirius grunted, "Where is he? He should be back by now."
They were getting so close; it was all Adeline could do to keep pushing them back with fire. She was getting tired; it was tremendous work to fire spell after spell of flames. She screeched; one of the inferius had laid a cold, clammy hand on her. She flailed, kicking the inferius back by the ribs – or where the ribs used to be. It stumbled, taking one or two others down with it.
"Delle!" Sirius shouted. He turned his head briefly, making sure she was alright. He turned his head back after making sure she was still standing. "Fuck! Where is that damn house elf?"
Adeline pressed herself closer to Sirius, trying to put as much distance between herself and the inferi as possible. Her wand was trembling where she held it out in front of her. "Do you think he's coming back?"
"I gave him a direct order! I'm a Black!" Sirius shouted back, cursing as the inferi continued pressing in.
"Not according to your mother!" Adeline grunted. With another great push from the undead, the inferi were so close there was no avoiding them touching her or Sirius.
"I'll kill the fucker if he doesn't come back!"
"Not if we die here. Any ideas?"
"Not really."
They continued fighting in near silence for another moment, the only sound they could hear the beating of their own hearts over the shouts of their spells, the terror starting to creep in that there may be no way out. When it seemed that there was nothing more to be done, when there were too many inferi for them to continue fighting without risking burning themselves, a great pop echoed throughout the chamber.
"Master Regulus ordered me to come back and take the blood traitor and his blood traitor wife back home."
"Took you fucking long enough," Sirius spat, grabbing hold of the house elf's arm. He grabbed Adeline's hand roughly, and in an instant, the three were siphoned into dark space and out of the cave.
The moment they landed, back in their own flat's living room, Kreacher wrenched his arm out of Sirius's grip. He took several steps away, wiping his hands down the front of his dirty sack, as though wiping away something dirty. Sirius paid him no mind, turning on his heel to assess Adeline.
"Okay?" He asked quietly, stepping closer and taking her face in his hands.
She nodded. "You?" He nodded, pressing a quick kiss to her lips, before turning to look for his brother.
Regulus was in the fetal position, rocking back and forth on the floor. Sirius crouched down over him, and Regulus turned his face towards his brother, his eyes bloodshot and bulging. "Water," he demanded, his voice rasping.
Sirius didn't hesitate, summoning a glass from their kitchen and filling it with his wand. He handed it to Regulus, who drank from it greedily. When he'd finished, he held it out wordlessly for Sirius to refill. He did so two more times before his chest had stopped heaving from the effort it was taking him to breath.
"Thank you," he said finally, dropping the glass to the floor with a clatter as his arm strength let out.
Adeline took a step forward. "Come on, Sirius. Help me help him up." She grabbed under one of Regulus's arms, with Sirius stepping forward to grab the other, after only a moment's hesitation. Regulus winced as they pulled him to his feet. He leaned all of his weight onto Adeline as they carried him over towards their couch. He grimaced as they lowered him gently onto their couch, collapsing against the pillow with a grateful grimace.
Adeline and Sirius sat on the armchair that faced the couch. They sat for just a moment in silence, before Sirius snapped, "What the fuck is going on?"
Regulus groaned, clutching his side as he reached a hand out towards Kreacher. "Kreacher, the locket, please."
Kreacher hobbled forward, offering the locket to Regulus with a reverent bow. Regulus snatched it from him, offering it weakly to Sirius. Sirius took it, running the chain through his hands; he shuddered slightly, handing it over to Adeline. The weight of it was astonishing, Adeline could barely hold it in one hand.
"How did you find another horcrux?" Sirius asked, taking it back from Adeline. He examined it thoroughly, turning it over and over in his hands. "This is wild."
Regulus clutched his side as he adjusted himself on the couch. "Did you replace it with the fake?" He asked Kreacher, ignoring Sirius.
"Yes, Master Regulus. I refilled with the new potion, too," Kreacher said with another bow.
"Great, thank you. Can you please go back to Grimmauld Place? Let my mother know that I went out tonight. Do not offer any other details of what happened tonight, do you understand? She, my father, or anyone outside of this room should never know what happened. Even if they give you a direct order; as far as you're concerned, I told you that I was going out. You never saw Sirius – even in my mother specifically asked, you haven't seen him since he left home."
"Yes, Master Regulus," Kreacher croaked, before he disappeared from the room with a pop.
Regulus sat up, clearing his throat before speaking. "Last week, the Dark Lord asked to borrow Kreacher for a night. He had a task that he needed help with. I, of course, had no choice but to agree; I figured I might get some information out of it, at any rate. Well, Kreacher did return – he came right back to me, as I'd ordered, unable to speak. He was writhing on the floor in pain, begging me to kill him. I got him some water, and finally ordered him to calm down when nothing else seemed to be working. He told me that the Dark Lord had taken him to a cave, made him drink a potion that hurt, hid something in a basin, refilled it with potion and then left him there to die. I suppose, the Dark Lord didn't think that house elves can apparate in spaces that wizards can not. I had ordered Kreacher to return to me as soon as he was done serving the Dark Lord, and so, he did."
"He would never think that a mere house elf would have more powers than he did. You asked Kreacher to take you back?" Adeline asked. She grabbed the locket from Sirius, who hadn't moved.
Regulus nodded. "I figured if he was hiding something, it must be something important, if not a horcrux. The fact that he left Kreacher to die made me think it probably was one."
"That makes sense. Merlin, do you think this is…"
"Salazar Slytherin's locket? Yeah, I do."
"He killed for this, as a kid. I can't even imagine…"
"Why the fuck," Sirius interrupted, sharply, "didn't you bring someone with you? You went by yourself to a cave that you knew Lord Voldemort had enchanted in some way, and yet you didn't think to bring us with you? How incredibly pig-headed of you to assume that you could handle this by yourself. With just a house elf to protect you? You must be mental or delusion, because only an idiot would think that was a good idea."
"Oi, I got the locket, didn't I?" Regulus snapped, heated.
"Right, but you needed your big brother to bail you out! Not to mention, Adeline and I nearly died because we didn't have any idea what was going on. We had no time to prepare."
"Oh, right, I needed my big brother to bail me out AS I DELIVER A HORCRUX TO HIM. I notice you haven't found one, Sirius, unless you're hiding the sword of Gryffindor underneath your pillow!"
"Hey, Adeline is working really hard trying to find one at Hogwarts. It's not our fault that we don't have a direct line to Lord Voldemort himself; guess we really should be kicking ourselves for not becoming DEATH EATERS. We really dropped the ball, huh?"
"Well, this death eater has been trying to help too; so sorry that I wasn't strong enough to leave Mom and Dad like you were, but it's not exactly like I had the support to do so. I don't have someone to run to; I don't have a James. Where was I supposed to go? What was I supposed to do? In case you didn't realize, you basically abandoned me when you went to Hogwarts and then you left me there!" Regulus screamed, attempting to get up from the couch, despite how much pain it was obviously causing him. Tears welled behind his eyes, though he swiped a hand viciously against them, wiping them away. He fell back onto the couch, unable to support his weight.
Sirius's mouth gaped, taken-aback. "You could have come with me. I didn't…I didn't know that you wanted to."
Regulus sniffed. "You never asked."
Sirius took a moment, and then nodded with purpose. He stood, walking over towards Regulus and sitting down next to him. "Well, I'm asking now. Do you want out? Do you want to disappear? You can stay with us, or we can find you somewhere in the Order to hide out through the war. You can help us from the inside; I'm sure the information you have will be invaluable. We can make it seem like you died; like you went out tonight and never returned. Because I don't ever want you putting yourself in that position again; I don't ever want to worry that you might die because you're risking your life playing double agent. It's time for me to take care of you, like I should have been doing for the last ten years."
Adeline didn't wait for Regulus to answer; she burst into tears, running forward to throw herself onto the two brothers, wrapping them up in a big hug. "You two are idiots," she sobbed. She kissed each of them on the cheek sloppily. "I'll make up the guest room."
And just like that, it was decided. Regulus moved in with Sirius and Adeline. It took nearly three weeks for Mrs. Black to break, writing Sirius to see if he had any idea where his brother had gone. With glee, Sirius responded that he hadn't seen him.
"She must be freaking the fuck out," he snickered, tying the note to the black owl's leg.
Adeline didn't love the idea of lying to Mr. and Mrs. Black, though she had to admit she loved the idea of the two people who had caused Sirius so much pain being hurt in return. Still, she wished it wasn't necessary. However, she reasoned with herself, it was necessary to protect Regulus, and that was what mattered.
Sirius and Regulus did not magically mend things. There were arguments, fights, bickering – the works. But, they were talking. Every so often, Adeline would come home to find them ruminating on their childhood. They shared the good times, but more often, the bad. To avoid interrupting them, Adeline found herself over at the Potter's more often than not. Lily was just starting to show, just three months along. James was doting on her, barely allowing her to lift a plate without urging her to sit down.
Lily and James were the only two who knew about Regulus. Sirius didn't even want Peter or Remus to know; he insisted that since nobody knew who the traitor was, he didn't want anyone knowing his brother was alive except those he trusted absolutely. Of course, when Adeline had floo'd to Dumbledore to give him the locket, he'd already known that Regulus was staying with them, and had started spreading the rumor that Regulus had perished running from the Dark Lord.
Adeline was spending the night with Lily, helping her brew some potions for the Order. Sirius had come home early from work, and Adeline had made up the excuse that she'd made plans with Lily to leave him and Regulus alone to eat dinner. James was still stuck in the office, and so Lily had welcomed the help. She'd cut back her hours at the apothecary, with the support of her mentor, after telling him that the potion smells were triggering her morning sickness. Adeline thought he had just been happy to have an excuse to spend less time in Diagon Alley. Lily thought he was happy not to have to pretend to like children.
As they were wrapping up for the night, Adeline figuring it was safe to head home without interrupting anything, James came in the front door. He threw his stuff down onto a chair, then came over to kiss his wife hello.
"Hi, Adeline," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Not to be rude, but I need to borrow Lily."
"I was just leaving," Adeline promised. She collected her coat, pulling it on and heading towards the floo.
"Borrow? It's nearly 9PM, where could you possibly be taking me?" Lily asked, scrunching her nose.
James took a deep breath, then said solemnly, "Dumbledore has asked to see us."