Chapter 17: Saint Of The Sinners
Though Regulus clearly recalled Pandora saying vampires could only ingest blood without being sick, he was perfectly willing to become ill to keep Kreacher from having to do so again. Of course he simply tried to reach into the basin before drinking down the foul green concoction. His hand bounced off the water, though, unable to break the surface. He was deflected by whatever twisted spell Voldemort had laid in place to keep his hidden treasure safe. Dumping the basin hadn't worked either because the liquid simply would not spill out. Regulus hoped that Voldemort had only made Kreacher drink the potion to test its effects or to simply be cruel, but no. Drinking the potion was a direct necessity. A punishment for thieves, Regulus guessed. The creativity of that he could almost admire had it not been used to hurt his Kreacher. "I need you to force me to drink this no matter what. I promise I will be alright. Just use magic if I resist," he told Kreacher.
"Please, Master Regulus. Let Kreacher do it!" The elf's gaze was desperate as his eyes raised to meet Regulus's own. "He has done it before. HE knows what to expect and he can..."
Regulus touched Kreacher's lips with a finger. "Please, Kreacher. Allow me to do this, it is important to me. I understand that you wish to do it for me, but I won't stop feeling dreadful about volunteering you into Voldemort's service if you don't allow me to make it right."
"If Kreacher does this thing, will Master Regulus promise to stop feeling guilty about it? Because Kreacher has told him over and over that he does not blame him. Kreacher was eager to serve the Dark Lord as well, yet Master Regulus seems to constantly forget this."
Regulus nodded. "That sounds fair." Bending he brushed his lips across Kreacher's then straightened. One of their passionate exchanges would just feel too odd in this extremely disturbing cave. Later, Regulus would wish more than once that he'd kissed Kreacher longer.
Turning to the basin, Kreacher resolutely took it into his hands and Regulus sank down onto the cold stone floor of the cave. If the potion effected him as it had Kreacher, he'd be falling onto the floor anyway. If this new vampirism kept the potion from effecting him, then that would be brilliant, but at least he was prepared if not. "I want you to take the locket home, and wait for me there. Try to destroy it, and if you can't, we'll do more research," he told Kreacher, who nodded gravely.
"But why isn't Master Regulus returning with Kreacher," the elf asked, biting at his lower lip in concern.
"Because I want to try to get rid of the Inferi in this lake if I can," Regulus said.
"Why can't Kreacher help," the elf asked, confused. "If Master Regulus tells Kreacher how he plans to do it, he can use similar spells to help."
Normally this was how the two did anything, together as a team, so the question was reasonable as was Kreacher's perplexity. Regulus didn't want to say that he planned to use his vampiric abilities or to at least try. He doubted hypnosis would work on Inferi, but he would try that first simply because it was cleaner. If not, he'd simply tear them limb from limb. Dora spoke of how much stronger vampires were than humans, after all. Regulus had decided to make the fact he'd tainted his pure blood by becoming a vampire count for something. "Because I want the locket destroyed before he figures out that we've taken it. We're dismantling all of it together," he told Kreacher. That was actually true, which was why the elf's face relaxed, concern fading as he nodded. He knew Regulus like no one else, and could see that he wasn't lying. Regulus would tell him the rest of the truth later when Kreacher could process it without being in this awful place. For now, though, he wanted to get this over with.
Taking a deep breath, Regulus lifted the goblet and filled it with the disgusting and deadly looking green potion. "What is in this," he wondered with a shudder as he slowly raised it to his face. Did he really want to know? Probably not unless he could somehow use it against the Dark Lord.
"Is Master Regulus quite certain that he must..." Kreacher began but Regulus silenced the elf by beginning to drink. Gods it was dreadful! And his body was already rejecting it, throat resisting openly even as he tried to swallow it down. It quickly got worse. The taste was the least of the terrors the dread potion had in store. Feelings of misery and self loathing struck Regulus like a tidal wave. He was horrid, dreadful, and did not deserve to live. He had caused the ruin of his cousin and the Lestranges. He had caused the death of his father through his own stupidity and he had put Kreacher in the hands of the foulest of the foul simply because he was selfish and stupid. Because of Sirius he'd wanted to please the family. Because Sirius was such a blazing git, Regulus felt he deserved to inherit it all. He would be the pride of house Black! How small and stupid all of that seemed now. He felt his head forced back with magic, and only then realized that he was quite unaware of his body. His head was spinning, but he didn't care. He didn't care about anything. He threw the potion up all down the front of his robe as his body rebelled, jerking with spasms as it resisted. Distantly he could hear the sound of his own voice wailing in misery. The potion poured like green insidiousness down his throat as Kreacher, sobbing, did as Regulus had requested by making him drink it all. He was making Kreacher cry! Gods he hated himself, and he was crying too, but couldn't reach out to the elf, because he could not control his body. He couldn't even speak to tell Kreacher that he was sorry and that he loved him more than anything.
(Please, Kreacher...Forgive me.) HE wanted to say this ,and the words, only silent emotion, screamed through his mind, but Regulus's mouth would not move. With his newly enhanced hearing, he heard the scraping of the locket on the basin as Kreacher took it up. Then he heard the crack as Kreacher apparated away. He had no idea how long he lay on the floor of the cave. He could feel his body attempting to repair itself, and the sensation was both encouraging and disconcerting. When he was able to move again, he was still quite weak and shaky, but able to manage. Reaching into his pocket, Regulus placed the Black family locket into the basin and turned away, avoiding looking at the green glowing liquid as his stomach heaved. Now for the Inferi. Of course Regulus didn't feel up to doing anything at all by this point, but his need to disarm the Dark Lord as much as possible drove him on. Who knew what else Voldemort planned to use the lake of undead for, and the less the monster had to work with the better. Regulus turned determinedly toward the lake. When his gaze lit on the black water, the maddening, all consuming thirst hit him. He completely forgot how disgusting the inky water looked or that a vampire would not be satisfied by anything but blood. Not even the purest of water would do now and certainly not this foul concoction. All thought and reason was gone, and he merely reacted to the need to satisfy the thirst. Lunging for the water, hands desperately cupped to bring the liquid to his mouth much as Kreacher must have done when he was in Regulus's place, Regulus gave a startled cry when he was yanked in with surprising strength. As it turned out, the Inferi were stronger than humans too. He'd hoped to have an advantage but there were so very many of the slimy things, and they were piling onto him, dragging him down with a methodical determination that was frightening. There was no way he could meat their eyes to attempt his vampiric hypnotism as he was quite unable to get free of them enough to raise his head from the water. He managed to struggle through his shock enough to attempt to reach out to their minds with his, commanding them to stop. This particular vampiric ability had no effect on them what so ever. So much for the clean way of subduing the things. It would have been far nicer if he could've simply commanded them to refuse to serve Voldemort or to tear one another apart, but there was no commanding them at all for Regulus Black. He was only left with the original, and less clean plan of simply tearing them limb from limb with his vampiric strength and speed. Only there were far, far more of them than he'd expected and they were faster than he'd expected Inferi to be. He couldn't even get a hand free to tear off the arms that held his other hand down!
Regulus was beginning to doubt that he could fight them off if they never tired. If he could not break free, what would become of him down at the bottom of this disgusting lake? Panic shot through him, giving him more strength. It seemed that more Inferi arrived to counter that extra strength, though, because when he finally broke free of three hands there were seven more to drag him down even further.
Pushing and thrashing he kept trying, though. He tried and tried and struggled and struggled until his water logged limbs felt heavier and heavier. Finally he nearly found it impossible to move. What if he just gave up? He was in no condition to be of use to anyone, and he would only drag Kreacher down in life as the Inferi now dragged him down into this nightmare hell of a lake. Then he heard it. A scream of rage and a splash as something...no someone else disturbed the surface of the water. Then he felt a hand grasping his ankle and dragging him up and up and up until cold air hit the wet water slicked skin of his face. He probably did not need to breathe so much now, but he was choking and gasping for air nonetheless as he continued to rise up and up then out over the lake. A slender hand was grasping his ankle and as they passed through the air, an arm reached to drag him upright and hold him against a slender body. "Kreacher," he murmured faintly.
"Try again," Dora snapped angrily. Before he passed out, Regulus vaguely recalled her telling him, was it on their first meeting, that she could fly.