Prologue
Summary: Regulus escapes from the cave with Voldemort's locket horcrux and decides to go to his brother for help.
Warnings: Mild Dumbledore bashing; Dark but not evil Blacks.
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Regulus Black needed to find his brother and he needed to find him fast. The only problem was, he didn't know how to do that. His eyes fell on Kreacher who was holding him up and the solution flashed in his mind; his brother hadn't been officially disinherited, that meant he was still a Black and thus, their family elf could reach him. He addressed the elf, "Kreacher," who looked up at him eagerly, wanting to help him in any way he could, "take me to my brother".
"You be wanting to go to filthy blood traitor master?", Kreacher looked scandalised.
"Yes Kreacher, and you will obey me," Regulus ordered, he didn't like talking to the elf in that way but he didn't want to waste any more time and had to do that.
Kreacher, still looking distinctly uncomfortable, followed his order.
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Sirius Black had a day off and wanted to make the most of it, he entered the dining room of his apartment dressed in casual robes and sat down at the head of the table. A young elf in a uniform popped in and placed a cup of coffee and a plate of biscuits in front of him and wished him good morning.
"Good Morning, Trippy", Sirius answered pleasantly.
She smiled and popped away, he picked up the cup and had just taken a couple of sips when there was a pop and an all-too-familiar elf was sitting on the table, wearing the flower vase Sirius was sure wasn't supposed to be worn on the head, and with him was his little death eater of a brother. He had his wand pointed on them before they could even get their bearings together.
Kreacher, as soon as he realised this, took a protective stance in front of Regulus who wheezed, "Tell him Kreacher".
"Master Regulus stole this", Kreacher said brandishing the locket in front of Sirius, "from the Dark Lord, it is being a horcrux". Sirius' eyes widened in shock; Voldemort had made a horcrux! And Regulus had stolen it!
"He drank poison and was bitten by an inferi on his leg", he said gesturing wildly towards his brother, who was now, lying on the table taking deep breaths. He knew Kreacher couldn't lie to him, he had went to Gringotts with James to take the inheritance test, there he learnt that he hadn't been disowned (he still couldn't figure out why), and so was still technically Kreacher's master, he could also feel the evil radiating from the locket.
"Trippy", Sirius shouted and the elf appeared and immediately mirrored Kreacher, standing protectively in front of his master.
"Trippy, bring me a Beozar, quickly!"
Panic was evident in his voice and the elf, sensing this, popped away immediately. Sirius didn't know much about healing but he could at least stop the bleeding, he moved towards Regulus, removed his robes from his lower leg and winced when he saw the wound on his shin. Trippy came back with the Bezoar which he shoved down his brother's throat and performed the spell which stopped the bleeding.
Regulus looked better but certainly needed more than that to be totally healed. Sirius knew he couldn't go to St. Mungo's for obvious reasons, nor could he contact Madam Pomphrey because then, Dumbledore would know. He didn't doubt that the man's heart was in the right place but he was too used to everything going his way that he just couldn't accept when things didn't, not to mention that he considered anything dark as evil.
He and his friends had finally realised that Dumbledore was by no means perfect. He would want to use his brother in some way or the other even after what the boy had done. No, he would have to contact someone else. Someone he hadn't even seen in the last four years.
He ordered Kreacher to go, inform his parents and bring them there as soon as he could. Kreacher glanced at Regulus, and popped away on his nod but not before glaring at Sirius suspiciously.
Sirius picked up the offending locket, he had skived a book from the library to read once, there was a mention of the same evil that he could now, feel from the locket and hastily dropped it.
He gently levitated his brother up the stairs to a guest room and set him down on the bed and gave him a glass of water that he gulped hungrily. When the boy was done drinking, he rounded up on him and shouted, "What was going on in that head of yours? You should have told someone, gotten some help but nooo you had to go and get up to what you called my 'Gryffindor stupidity'. Where was your Slytherin cunning?"
"I didn't know what to do, okay? I did what I thought I should, after all in a way I helped in hiding it", Regulus argued.
"You didn't know what the thing is", Sirius countered exasperatedly.
"I…", Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the arrival of Kreacher with two regal, aristocratic looking people. Their faces still had the cold pureblood but underneath it, was worry if you knew where to look.
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