"It's a Horcrux."
His old headmaster fell into a stunned silence at Regulus' proclamation. Dumbledore stared at the locket with a mixture of shock, horror, and sadness that painted a picture of anguish on the elderly wizard's face.
"It's his Horcrux?"
"Yes."
"Oh, Tom, what have you done?" Dumbledore murmured. Regulus lowered the locket and put it back into his cloak.
"That is why I believe that he is still alive."
Suddenly Dumbledore looked up at Regulus, piercing him with such a severe stare that he had never seen on his face. "How did you discover this." Dumbledore quietly demanded. Regulus shrugged.
"About six months ago, The Dark Lord requested a house elf for use on some sort of project and someone proficient in necromancy." Regulus began. "Naturally, I volunteered, and my house elf was chosen."
"He took my house elf to a seaside cave in which was a small stone basin filled with a clear liquid that my house elf took to be water." Regulus shivered. "In truth, it was a potion, specifically something called the dementor's draught. It causes the drinker to see terrible things and become incredibly dehydrated."
"The Dark Lord placed this locket inside the basin and filled it back up before he left my elf for dead." Regulus scowled. "It seems he didn't realise that house elves could apparate from the cave."
Silence returned to the office as Dumbledore looked at him contemplatively. "Why did he need a wizard proficient in necromancy?" He asked, tone betraying nothing.
Regulus licked his lips and looked down, before sighing and looking back up with a determined stare. "He needed someone to create a small army of inferi to guard the cave." He whispered. Regulus dared to peek up at his old headmaster, who only gave him a look of sadness and disappointment. He cleared his throat and continued.
"After Kreacher, my house elf returned, I spent the next few months trying to understand what had happened in that cave. Eventually, I stumbled upon an old book on dark magic in our family library, which explained what Horcruxes were. It was the only explanation that made sense."
"Yesterday, I left with my house-elf to return to the cave. Fortunately, inferi are easy to deal with if one had a hand in creating them. The only difficult part of the process was the basin." Regulus spoke as if he was a soldier giving a debriefing, his face deadly neutral, but inside, he was a swirling storm of emotion." But we knew what was to come, so we were prepared for the potion's side effects."
Regulus suddenly stopped at this and stared back at Dumbledore. His headmaster's facial features were carefully school statue as he looked at Regulus. He shifted under Dumbledore's intense gaze but did not back down.
"Why?"
"Why what?" Regulus asked.
"I think you both know what I speak of." Dumbledore carefully said. Regulus looked away as his thoughts whirled inside his head, features tightening.
"Because he was a coward." It was barely a whisper, but it was like a shout in that silent office.
Dumbledore looked at him, eyebrows raised in surprise but said nothing. Regulus pressed on.
"When…" Regulus swallowed the lump that came up in his throat. "...Sirius…left for the last time. I swore that I would join The Dark Lord for my own reasons. That I wouldn't be blindly following my family's wishes like Sirius said I was doing. That I wouldn't blindly follow the wishes of anyone anymore unless I understood what I was doing. So I found a reason not to follow Sirius". Regulus tried to shrug again, but it came off as half-hearted.
"It was not so much the ideology that he was espousing that I was attracted to, it was The Dark Lord himself. Even you must admit that he has done great things, terrible, but great."
Dumbledore still remained silent.
"I wished to follow in the footsteps of a great man to learn his secrets myself, to follow his example, even if I would be reviled for it. I sought to be my own dark lord hoping to have freedom."
"Freedom from what?" Dumbledore suddenly asked.
"From bonds, from my own petty faults and desires, freedom to throw myself beyond myself."
Dumbledore nodded. "So what has changed your perspective on your master so drastically that you would steal a Horcrux under his nose?"
Regulus was silent and stared up at the ceiling of his headmaster's office. The room really was wonderful. Dumbledore had done an excellent job of furnishing it. "Because I realized he wasn't a great man, perhaps he has done great things, but he himself is not great." Regulus gestured to his pocket.
"When I found out about the Horcrux, I realised that in the end, all he was is a scared pathetic old man. There was no reason to create a Horcrux other than fear for his own petty mortal life." Regulus' face turned into an ugly sneer.
"It disgusted me. That there was truly nothing behind any of his actions other than fear, no great cause, not even a belief in his own greatness. That I spent over a year in service to yet another man who I misunderstood, infuriated me. That I committed countless sins in his name, and in the end, it was all for a child afraid of the dark, of what he did not understand, of dying."
A tense silence fell onto the room as Dumbledore studied his wayward student, his eyes flickering across his form as if Regulus was some sort of animal pinned to his desk for dissection.
"If." Dumbledore began. "Voldemort was this great man you spoke of, would you still be in his service? Would you still be loyal to his cause?"
Regulus looked him in the eye, defiant in the face of this line of questioning. "Yes, I suppose I would be."
The silence returned before Dumbledore nodded once more. "Very well," he said before standing up with a flick of his wand, a white phoenix burst from its tip. With a whisper, he sent it away out of one of the many windows of the room. Regulus eyed it suspiciously, his hand slowly trailing to the wand in his holster. Dumbledore waved his hand.
"No need to be worried, Regulus. It was merely informing someone to come to my office." He explained. "Throw yourself beyond yourself, you say?" Dumbledore stroked his beard in thought.
"Yes," Regulus replied, standing straighter now. He had expressed himself the very best he could. He would not apologise now.
"So you've betrayed your master and alerted his enemies. What will you do now?"
Regulus was silent for a moment, his eyes trailing to Dumbledore's desk, mind whirring with thought. He opened his mouth and closed it, then he chuckled.
"I'm not sure. I didn't think I would get this far. I suppose I'll move back to Grimmauld place when my death is reported and probably visit Sirius. I'll have to lay low for quite a while. I won't be able to hide from him forever."
"If that is the case, what will you do when he discovers you have deceived him?"
Regulus looked up at Dumbledore, "I suppose I'll have to fight him. No other way around it."
"Such a thing would mean certain death, would it not?"
"Not if I was working with others."
"I see."
Regulus gave Dumbledore an unimpressed stare, a single eyebrow raised imperiously under grey eyes. Dumbledore merely smiled innocently in response, eyes twinkling.
"Is the order still active?" Regulus pressed, finally becoming impatient.
"Of course it is. Though I believe that some are expecting me to disband it after the ordeal that happened last night."
"You shouldn't," Regulus responded. It was Dumbledore's turn to look unimpressed. Regulus continued. "Tell them about the Horcruxes. I think he has more."
His old headmaster's gaze sharpened. "What makes you think that?"
"It's a hunch."
Just then, the door opened behind Regulus, who turned to see a greasy-haired man with black billowing robes enter the room. "You wished to see me headmas-" He cut off, noticing Regulus, who had drawn his wand on the newcomer. The man pulled his face into a sneer. "Regulus."
"Severus."
Behind him, Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly. "I will not have you threatening my staff Regulus." He stated firmly. Regulus turned to hum, wand still pointed at Snape.
"Are you aware that he is a death eater?" He asked angrily.
"Perfectly, in fact, that's why I told him to come to us."
Regulus remembered the Patronus charm Dumbledore had sent. He looked back at Snape and lowered his wand.
"They told me you were dead," Snape said.
"Obviously, they were wrong." Regulus returned, gesturing to himself.
"They found your singed hand in that street."
He pulled off his cloak to show the stump of a left arm he still had. "Had to make it look realistic."
Snape looked at the ruined arm and back up at Regulus' face. "I suppose it doesn't take much to fool that Goyle." He said at last.
"I think many of the toilet seats at school have a brighter mind than him." Regulus agreed scathingly. Snape smirked at the comment, his dark eyes glittering with rude amusement.
"I'd have to agree with you there." He drawled.
"I take it you know each other?" Dumbledore interrupted the pair.
Of course, Regulus had known Severus. He had been in the same house as him, separated by only a few years. During his time as a death eater he had seen him occasionally but it seemed that Severus was always going somewhere or always busy, they had never spoken to each other except in passing.
"I'm afraid so," Regulus murmured, still staring at Snape, who said nothing.
"Severus, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to call for a meeting," Dumbledore said, addressing the potions master. Snape looked at him and back to Regulus. "Emergency, I'm afraid."
"Is this about last night?" Snape's voice sounded oddly brittle to Regulus.
"That and more," Dumbledore promised him.
Snape took one final look at Regulus before he swept out of the room, robes billowing under him. He closed the door to the office with a light slam that startled Dumbledore's phoenix in the corner, which squawked angrily at the noise. Regulus turned back to Dumbledore.
"When…?"
"Over a year ago," Dumbledore said with almost too much cheer in his voice. "He's been very useful to the order ever since."
Regulus was surprised by that, Severus had never struck him as a spy, but that's probably why he has never caught. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"Was it because of that Evans girl?" He asked Dumbledore. "The muggleborn one was friends with at school?"
Dumbledore looked at him, a sad expression in his eyes. "I'm afraid so." He said in a quiet voice.
Regulus looked down at the stone floor. He had no right to share with their sorrow. He had never known Potter or Evans very well. He had played against Potter many times in quidditch, and Severus spoke of Evans as a close friend when they were at school, but that was the extent of it. He knew Sirius and Potter had been best friends and Regulus knew that his brother would feel their loss deeply. He looked back up at Dumbledore.
"Will their boy be alright?" He asked. Dumbledore looked at him, surprised.
"Yes, I've placed him with his aunt and uncle. They're well protected by wards I've set up. He'll be famous, you know." Dumbledore said with an absent-minded tone. "The Boy Who Lived, they've already started calling him that."
Regulus stood as the pair looked at each other. "So what happens now?" he asked.
"The order will take possession of the locket you have there, and we will be searching for other likely candidates for Horcruxes. I will ask that your skills as an agent be put to use to search the underbelly of magical Britain, Severus is a spy, but we need a man who can keep his ear to the ground."
Regulus nodded. "I should be able to handle that."
"In return, we will keep your status a secret for as long as possible. Should you wish to walk away from the order, we will not stop you." Dumbledore finished.
"That's it?" Regulus pressed sceptically.
"That's it. Anything else you do is of your choosing. Isn't that what you want?" Dumbledore said.
Regulus shrugged. "I suppose I didn't think that when I stole that locket, I'd be free that time the day after."
HPHPHPHPHP
It had been years since Regulus had been in the Leaky Cauldron, longer still since he'd eaten there. As soon as he had stepped in there, he was ushered into a backroom by Dumbledore. As per the agreement, Regulus was allowed to wear a mask to conceal himself.
Suspicious glances were cast at him, but no one bothered him as he sat straight next to Dumbledore at an old long table. At the end of the room, there was a roaring fire on account of the bitter weather. The door slammed open, and what looked like a lumpen scar of a man with long blond hair limped into the room.
"Ah, Alastor." Dumbledore greeted the newcomer as the others greeted him as well.
Alastor Moody waved off the greetings but stopped dead in his tracks as his lone mad eye swivelled to Regulus' covered face. He turned to Dumbledore. "Who is he?" He growled though Regulus suspected that Moody knew exactly who he was.
"He is a guest, Alastor. He has come with my permission." Dumbledore patiently explained to his scowling comrade. Alastor grunted and nodded, but Regulus noticed that his eye had not been taken off of him.
Moody had always been a dangerous one. He was never feared by the death eaters like Dumbledore was, but they always gave him a wide berth whenever possible. He sat down opposite Dumbledore.
"Are there others coming?" Dumbledore inquired. Alastor shook his head.
"No, Frank and Alice are still holding out in hiding for the next few days, and I haven't been able to contact either Black or Pettigrew." At the mention of his brother Moody looked straight at Regulus, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat and placed his elbows on the table, hands entwined. Regulus looked around the room.
Snape was there, along with a few others he didn't recognize, though he did recognize Arthur Weasley and his wife sitting next to him. Next to Regulus, Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Well, if no one else is coming, I think we may begin." He proclaimed before standing up. "I'm sure by now you've all heard the news."
Indeed they had. It was all the Daily Prophet had been able to talk about for the last week was the defeat of The Dark Lord and The Boy Who Lived. At the mention of the news, the room's response was a mixture of relief, joy, and sadness.
"So it's true then?" Arthur spoke up before glancing over at his wife. "Lily and Jame are dead?" he finished in a whisper. Dumbledore gave the redhead a solemn nod of affirmation. Arthur's wife gave a quiet sob and covered her mouth. The room went silent as they honoured their fallen.
"And Voldemort?" Someone that Regulus didn't recognize piped up. "Is he really gone?"
"While he has been grievously wounded, Susan, to the point that he has lost his own body, I'm afraid that Voldemort is still alive." Dumbledore's eyes flickered to Regulus for a moment. The room erupted into questions and noise at Dumbledore's statement. It persisted for a moment before Moody slammed his hand on the table.
"QUIET" he yelled, quickly quelling the room before looking up at Dumbledore. "His own killing curse rebounded on him. How could he possibly still be alive." His tone sounded more like a statement than a question. Dumbledore looked to Regulus and nodded, who understood. It was time.
Regulus took out the locket and slid it to the middle of the table, the order members leaning in to get a better look at it. Moody was the most interested out of all of them, most likely sensing the magic in it with his eye.
"What is that?" The now named Susan questioned, looking at Regulus.
That is a Horcrux of the Dark Lord." His voice warbled out. He had used a charm to distort his voice.
Moody swore foully, but the rest of the table looked nonplussed at the item. "What's a Horcrux?" Someone asked. Moody answered him.
"Imagine one of the foulest forms of dark magic and make it worse." He snarled as he eyed the locket suspiciously. "That is a Horcrux." He swore again.
"A Horcrux is an object in which someone chooses to hide away a sliver of their soul," Dumbledore explained. "While that part of their soul still exists within a Horcrux, they may live on indefinitely."
At this, the temperature seemed to drop in the room as they fully realised what the locket was.
"So, he's in there?" Arthur's wife asked faintly. Dumbledore nodded. Moody looked up at Regulus.
"How did you get ahold of this." He demanded. Despite Moody's eyes boring into him, Regulus stared straight back.
"I stole it."
"How were you able to find it?"
"Because my house-elf helped him stow it away."
"That's impossible!" Susan erupted, standing up. "A house-elf can't do anything unl-"
"Unless their master orders them to, yes, I am aware," Regulus replied smoothly. He felt as if all the eyes that had been drawn to the Horcrux turned to him, burning a hole in his mask keeping him hidden.
Susan suddenly stood up and pointed at him. "You're a death eater!" She accused, cheeks red with anger. Regulus looked at her, refusing to back down.
"Until about a week ago, I was yes." He responded.
"Susan, please sit." Dumbledore calmly requested. Susan hesitated but slowly sat down without taking her angry eyes off Regulus. "About a week ago, he approached me with the locket and asked to join the order," Dumbledore explained to the curious room.
"So we're just going to let him in?" Someone asked incredulously, "Just like that?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I have sufficient reason to understand why he defected, and the way he did it has given us a supreme advantage over Voldemort."
"And what is that?" Moody asked Dumbledore.
"That we know about the Horcruxes, but that Voldemort is unaware that we know."
Everyone was silent for a moment before Arthur broke in. "So…what now?" He asked.
"I'll tell you 'what now,'" Moody growled, jabbing the locket with his wand. "We're going to find a way to destroy this thing and get rid of him once and for all!"
"There is a possibility that he may have created more," Dumbledore warned Moody. "It is small, but we have no way of truly knowing how many Horcruxes Voldemort created."
Moody growled. "You mean to tell me he might have made more?"
"There is a possibility," Dumbledore repeated. "For now, we will have to find a way to destroy the locket and be on the watch for potential Horcruxes. Pass the word on to the rest of the order but tell no one of this otherwise. This information remains of the utmost importance and secrecy. Am I understood?" Dumbledore looked around the table to see the flurry of nods and affirmations. "Good. Are there any questions?"
Only silence met him as an answer.
"Very well." He clapped his hands together. "I believe that is all. If there is nothing else anyone wishes to discuss, I think this meeting may be called to a close."
With a scraping of chairs and quiet goodbyes, most of the order members got up and left the room. Only Moody and Dumbledore stayed back with Regulus. Moody was staring at Regulus again.
"So, our newest member…Regulus Black. Wanted for the practice of dark arts and in particular of necromancy, forbidden wards, and breaking medical ethics."
The accused nodded his head. "That's right," Regulus responded cooly, voice still muffled by the charm.
"Quite the bounty on your head, I say. Only a few exceed it."
Regulus tilted his head. "Is it because I come from a noble family or because my crimes are particularly heinous?" He asked, ignoring the threat.
"A mixture of both," Moody growled. "You set a pack of inferi running through Diagon Alley, killing four and injuring twelve."
Regulus nodded again. "And then set up wards so that those caught in the alley couldn't apparate away without splinching. I believe it killed eight more." Regulus felt a twinge in his chest, but he shoved it down as his eyes bore into Moody as if daring him to contradict his claim. "I'm sure you could list the crimes of Snape as well for good measure if you wanted to."
Moody grunted but didn't answer him. He looked up at Dumbledore, who was still standing.
"What is it exactly that you want to do with the order?" Moody pressed. Regulus shrugged. He was annoyed that he had to go over this with two people.
"Protection." He stated. Moody looked back at him unconvinced.
"From Voldemort?" He asked.
"That's right."
"Why steal this from him in the first place?" Moody held the locket up between the two of them.
Regulus shook his head. "I don't believe that is any of your concern." He replied casually. "And for the record, Dumbledore knows why. You can ask him. I don't feel like repeating myself."
He knew he was pushing it, but Regulus was tired. He wanted to go home to Grimmauld place and sleep for a month. On Dumbledore's insistence, Regulus had been staying in Hogsmeade since his meeting with the headmaster. He missed his room. He missed Kreacher. He jumped when Dumbledore put a hand on his shoulder. Regulus looked up at his headmaster and scowled. Physical contact was sparse for him and even more so when it wasn't violent. Dumbledore gave him a pitying look.
"Go home, Regulus," Dumbledore murmured. "You've had a busy week like the rest of us."
"Isn't that the damn truth," Moody grumbled, interrogation apparently forgotten. "Been on my feet for the past eight days since the Potters died, but it's good to finally have a lead on that scum." He looked up at Regulus, a frown plastered on his scarred face. "Thank you," Moody said.
Regulus blinked. "Of course." He responded. Suddenly, he thought of something. "Barty Crouch Jr."
Moody's frown deepened. "What about him?" He asked.
"He's a death eater." One of the first, as he could remember, he was there when The Dark Lord gave Regulus his mark. He had always struck Regulus as a bit mad.
Moody leaned over the table and put his elbows on it, and spoke slowly. "Mr. Black, you are accusing the son of the Head of the DMLE, Barty Crouch Jr.?"
"Absolutely, he's one of the older ones, too," Regulus confirmed.
Moody shook his head and muttered something under his breath that Regulus couldn't quite make out before he looked back up. "I see. I'll have my department quietly launch an investigation as soon as possible." He said. "Barty bloody Crouch!" Moody swore once again.
Regulus stood up, ignoring Moody's mutterings. "If that is all, gentlemen, I think I'll take my leave." He said, bowing slightly. Dumbledore smiled lightly at his manners.
"We'll be in contact, I presume?" Dumbledore asked. Regulus nodded.
"I'll have to have some of your owl's blood. The wards around my house don't allow for public or unknown owls to enter it. I could try to remove them, but if it's all the same to you, I'd rather keep them up. Family wards are difficult to get off." Indeed the purpose of family wards was that they strengthened over time, and his family had been living at Grimmauld place for nearly four generations at this point. At this point, it would require quite the task to get off. Of course, they were nothing in comparison to the wards of Hogwarts, despite the founders' families long dying out.
Dumbledore nodded and looked out the window of the room into the bustling street of Diagon Alley. It was more lively than it had been in recent memory. The shroud of The Dark Lord had been lifted from London, at least for now. He sighed heavily.
"One war ends, and another one begins?" Dumbledore asked, eyes filled with a quiet sorrow. Neither Moody nor Regulus responded.
HPHPHPHPHP
Regulus was dead on his feet when he apparated back to Grimmauld place. He had stayed long enough to grab a copy of The Daily Prophet but had left as soon as he had.
He landed on the doorstep of his house, and when he opened to door, the scent of good food tickled his nose and made his mouth water.
"Kreacher!" Regulus called. With a crack, his ancient house elf appeared at his side and bowed deeply, his floppy ears nearly touching the floor.
"Master Regulus has returned. Oh yes, Kreacher has been preparing master food." Kreacher croaked as he helped Regulus take off his coat. "Kreacher knew master would be home soon. Kreacher is a good elf."
"Thank you, Kreacher." Regulus patted his house elf on the head, who looked up in quiet satisfaction at being praised. "Please set this on the table for when I eat. I'm going upstairs to change." Regulus handed Kreacher the newspaper that he had bought at the leaky cauldron and started up the creaking stairs. Behind him, he heard another crack as Kreacher disappeared into the kitchen.
Regulus was glad that he was alive, but it was incredibly humiliating to struggle with taking and putting on clothes. Even after five minutes, he was still struggling with his pants. Giving up, he kicked off his boots and socks and settled with changing into a clean black button-up shirt. He sighed as his feet hit the cool hardwood floor. It felt good after they were constricted by boots and socks.
So he'd finally gotten rid of the locket, no one but Snape, Moody, and Dumbledore knew that he was alive. Both his mother and his father had died nearly half a year ago. And he was alive. Regulus snorted in disbelief. What now? He looked down at his ruined arm, which was healing quite nicely. Dumbledore had insisted that Madam Pomfrey treat it, but nevertheless, Regulus felt frustration build up within his chest.
He knew the wound was too great that he would be able to grow it back in the same way he could grow back fingers and other small digits. But he knew there were ways to make certain prosthetics, and that would be what he did next. Research.
Nodding, he hopped off his bed and left his room just to be faced with Sirius' room across the hall from his. Regulus felt his chest constrict with regret as he saw the small Gryffindor crest at the top of the door. He remembered his mother screaming at Sirius for putting it there, but he refused to take it off. After a moment's hesitation, he crossed the hall and opened the door.
Regulus hadn't been in his brother's room since he left that night all those years ago. A mixture of pride, pain, and his mother's hatred had prevented him from doing so. From the looks of the room, it seemed like Kreacher had never touched it either.
A thin layer of dust covered the room from head to toe that made Regulus sneeze. On the floor, there were clothes thrown about, and his drawers were all pulled out. One of the walls was painted ruby red, and on the opposite wall, a golden yellow. Hanging on them were different wallpapers of wizard teams, bands he enjoyed, and a wide array of muggle girls, some scantily clad and others completely nude. Regulus snorted, thinking fondly of his brother, always the ladies' man.
On his bed, Regulus noticed an assortment of different magazines. Picking on up, he realised they were motorcycles. Regulus had forgotten about that particular obsession Sirius had. Regulus had always argued that brooms were faster, lighter, easier to transport, and just generally better. Sirius' immediate response would be that motorcycles were way cooler than brooms as much as he liked to play quidditch. Regulus smiled faintly.
He would find Sirius. Moody had mentioned that Sirius had been missing since the death of the Potters. Perhaps something had happened to Sirius, but it was more likely that Sirius wanted to be left alone. Regulus knew that it was hard to find him when he truly wanted to be found. But he would search nonetheless. He owed him that much.
Taking one of the motorcycle magazines with him, Regulus left Sirius' room and descended the stairs to the dining room. Kreacher had set his newspaper to the side of his utensils. Regulus had just pulled back his chair when Kreacher appeared with the food. His plate was filled with roast beef and mashed potatoes and another side of what looked to be greens. "Would master like anything to drink?" Kreacher asked.
"Water is fine, thank you, Kreacher." Regulus waved his hand as his house elf placed his food in front of him before snapping his fingers for a glass and a pitcher. Looking down, he noticed with equal parts humiliation and gratefulness that Kreacher had already sliced up his meat for everything.
"Is everything to master's liking? Kreacher questioned, eyes wide with expectation. Regulus nodded and smiled faintly.
"Everything looks wonderful." He responded, much to the pride of Kreacher. Hungry and tired, Regulus tucked into his food.
But despite his apparent exhaustion, Regulus found himself awake, staring up at his bedroom ceiling with half-lidded eyes, pondering all that had happened in the last week. He had stolen the Horcrux, the Potters were dead, the Dark Lord had disappeared, and so had Sirius. But most of all, he was free, freer than he had been in his life. Regulus softly chuckled; apparently, all he needed to sacrifice was his left arm!
His research would start with the family grimoire, he doubted that anything of use to him would be in there, but it would never hurt to check. Next would be the Black Library. Then he would look for Sirius. Of course, there was always a chance that he would come out of hiding of his own volition. But Regulus doubted it. He yawned widely and turned on his side, eyes drooping.
Of course, what would the order want him to do? He doubted there would be much to speak about the Dark Lord in the black markets. Regulus wouldn't be surprised if they had temporarily shut down and were waiting out the storm of arrests and sentences. Old Barty Crouch had had a field day since Halloween night.
No, it would be a while before Dumbledore needed anything of him.
With falling eyes and the comfort of his own room all around him, Regulus quietly drifted off to sleep.