Severus proved to be a big help as Lord V was sure of his loyalty, seeing as he was the Death Eaters' best potioneer and thus ended up brewing most of the potions and salves they required. And as such things as the Wideye potion were frequently needed, due to the fact that most attacks took place at night and they had to be awake during the day (unless they fancied a one way trip to Azkaban). Lord V figured that if he were not loyal he would have started poisoning or otherwise sabotaging them ages ago.

Regulus made up with money what he lacked in enthusiasm (but unknown to most he donated almost double to the other sides). Once Lucius was arrested while attacking the Prewetts (who thankfully all survived), he was the biggest monetary contributor (as Narcissa preferred to sit out during her pregnancy - one of the only excuses Lord V would accept) which increased Lord V's trust in him immensely.

This especially became true when Lord V called the two of them for a personal 'audience'. Of course both were nervous that he had figured out they were the spies (even if neither of them knew who the other was), but their fears were unfunded.

"Severus, Regulus, how nice of you to arrive," Lord V drawled with his raspy voice. "I believe I summoned you ten minutes ago."

"I'm sorry, milord, but a meeting of the Order took longer than expected and leaving earlier would have been suspicious," Severus apologized, kneeling down and keeping his eyes on the floor.

Lord V stared at him for a moment before nodding. "You will tell me the results this evening. And you, Regulus?"

"My Lord, I was taking a bath and assumed you wished for me to be clothed first," the young Black apologized with a tinge of rose on his cheeks.

Lord V seemed to accept this too (which was reasonable seeing both excuses were true. This time), as he started began to monologue.

"You two have been chosen for a great honor. I am trusting you with very important items. They are of the kind that the house elf of Regulus tested the protections for. And they should be similarly well protected."

Regulus would later be very proud of the fact that he managed to hide his disgust and hope, only showing surprise and pride. Naturally Lord V assumed he was proud to be trusted to handle his horcrux which was true, depending on how you look at it. The young Black was proud he managed to be a spy and one of Lord V's most trusted at the same time.

"I am deeply honoured, milord, but I am wondering why I was chosen," Severus questioned once Lord V was finished. "Surely there must be others in a less risky position who could provide more protection for something as valuable? The Lestranges for example?"

"You are referring to your position as my spy in the Order of the Phoenix, I presume? While, yes, this presents additional risk, the two of you are some of the most devout members of our noble cause. The Lestranges have lost some of my trust by doubting this fact. I have no doubt you will be able to keep these objects safe."

"You'll never guess what happened!" Sirius yelled as soon as he arrived in Godric's Hollow where the Marauders and Maraudettes were assembled.

"You managed a triple loop-de-loop on your bike?" Remus guessed.

"Would be awesome, but no."

"You finally found someone to practise Greek with?" Marlene suggested.

"No. I still don't know why no one is replying to that ad…" he muttered under his breath,. "But no. Lord V just gave two Death Eaters horcruxes to look after. Now guess who these two were."

"Going by the smile on your face I'm going with Reggie and Sev," Emmeline assumed.

"No way," James protested. "They're good, sure, but they can't be that good. Can they?"

"Apparently they are. Regulus wants to drop by on Friday to destroy it. Snape will most likely write Lily."

"Yeah, mentioning it in an Order won't do much good," Dorcas piped up from her spot on the couch with her head in Remus' lap.

"This just reminded me," Lily spoke next. "Did you remember to destroy the locket after you got it?"

"We did," Remus confirmed while Emmeline just nodded. "Wasn't even that hard thanks to the goblin blade Dorcas organized us."

"I take credit where it is due. Besides it helped us get rid of V - I still refuse to call him Lord - and I finally got to prove my skill at goblin relations. But don't forget it's stained with Basilisk venom too. Made the whole thing way harder."

"This whole thing is still too easy", Marlene argued. "Something is going to happen."

James groaned. "Yes. Because you just had to say that sentence!"

The figurative other shoe did drop not too long after that.

Regulus had to go on a trip to France for his job as Unspeakable (and Lord V was of the opinion he'd recruit some people too which would not happen), so he couldn't inform them of the attack in advance.

Severus had not been informed of the attack in advance because Lord V feared the he might spill the beans so to say.

So when the attack happened, they were totally unprepared. Well, not totally, because these days everyone tried to be prepared for anything, but it was as close to it as it could get.

Which attack?

The one on Lily Evans Potter's parents.

Lord V was of the opinion that it was a good idea to try to lure the Potters out of hiding, as both them and the Longbottoms only turned up to Order meetings (to which they arrived via Floo with a stop at one of their friends houses), but were otherwise neither see nor heard.

Unfortunately - or fortunately depending on how they looked at it - it was Rose Rogers Evans' birthday, so Petunia, Vernon, James and Lily were already there when the ten Death Eaters showed up.

This was the only reason most of them survived.

When the Death Eaters showed up, Lily gripped Petunia and they went to call help, while James and amazingly Rose and Harold fought tooth and nail. The latter two of course did not use magic, but they were surprisingly good in various martial arts (and ducking).

With the help of the other Order members, they defeated the Death Eaters. But Harold Evans did not survive the attack, and Sirius lost his lower right leg.

"Your father was a great man, Lils. I'm sure little Harry will be honoured to be named after him."

Somewhere down the line, Dorcas got the idea to try to figure out Lord V's identity in an attempt to find the other horcruxes. At the end of April she finally got the desired results.

"But how can you be sure," Remus questioned, not quite daring to hope.

"Because it fits! Riddle disappears and not a month later V started his terror. And look!" she wrote TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE on a nearby parchment before flicking her wand. The letters changed too I AM LORD VOLDEMORT (and thank Merlin the taboo didn't cover writing).

"So Lord V's name is an anagram?" Emmeline still wasn't sure whether or not she believed her friend.

"Not only! It also means 'Flight from Death' in French," Sirius added, convinced by Dorcas' theory. "And I think we all know what Voldemort fears most."

"Puppies," Marlene joked.

Slowly but surely all Marauders (and Maraudettes but they had decided to join the two groups) became convinced of the theory and began to research important locations in Riddle's life.

Eventually they had a list of twelve possible locations and decided to look into every single one of them.

They managed to find and destroy the other two horcruxes (even if they only managed to do so in the middle of June) and in one final battle at the end of July - when Lord V arrived himself (due to the lack of Death Eaters he had at this point) - they completely and utterly destroyed him, leaving just a mortal, clearly dead, shell behind.