I apologize for the slow updates, friends. I hope to do better- I'm back in the swing of writing, so we will see how it goes! Remember, Sirius hasn't explained what really happened all those years ago when the Dark Lord fell, so Grace still assumes that he is guilty for both Peter Pettigrew's murder and the betrayal of the Potters.

The next morning, the three of them sat together in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place, sharing a cup of tea. Remus and Sirius had spent the previous afternoon with Sirius' godson, Harry Potter. Grace had quickly made the connection, remembering Narcissa Malfoy's eyes gleaming with fear in the sitting room all those years ago when she had announced the Dark Lord's fall. She didn't understand why Sirius would want to spend time with the boy- after all, he was responsible for the deaths of the poor boy's parents- wasn't he? Perhaps the oldest Black brother had more Slytherin in him than anyone gave him credit for. Surely he was now simply trying to side with the strongest wizard of the age, enemy of his old master or not.

Grace stirred her tea absentmindedly with a silver spoon, her head in her hand, musing to herself. Sirius frowned at her. "Why are you so day dreamy this morning?" he asked bluntly.

Grace sat back in her chair, leveling him with a cold look. "I'm trying to figure out why the Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor at all."

"What are you talking about?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Remus merely turned the page of his newspaper, ignoring them. His expression said that he was tired of their constant squabbling.

"Pettigrew," Grace said simply. "The Potters. Convenient, isn't it, that you waited until the last minute to join the Dark Lord? Too bad that backfired, isn't it?" She shivered, remembering the keening cries she had heard from his bedroom that night several days ago.

"I beg your pardon?" Sirius' voice was tight. "How dare you even speak the Potters' names to me!"

"Sirius." Remus' head had jerked up at the mention of the Potters, and his newspaper now lay forgotten on the table. He spoke quietly, but his voice carried an authority that Grace couldn't help but respect. Sirius ignored him.

"Your precious pureblood husband was the one running around murdering people, if my memory serves me correctly," Sirius sneered.

Grace felt her blood begin to boil. "Reg never murdered anyone." She paused, trying to slow her breathing. "He did his duty by this family, becoming a Death Eater. And how dare you criticize him, you hypocrite!" She bunched her robes in her fists, digging her nails into the faded fabric.

"Reg was an idiot for joining up with that crowd in the first place," Sirius snarled, ignoring the insult. "Stop defending him all the time!"

Grace stood up so quickly her chair clattered over onto the flagstones. "How dare you judge him for the choices he made without knowing the context! His place was here, Sirius, with us- and the only way he could remain where he belonged was to play along with their stupid schemes. He never wanted to hurt anyone. He didn't know it would end the way it did!"

"What, with my best friend and his wife dead, and their son an orphan?" Sirius snapped back.

Remus let out a loud cough, but was ignored.

"Reg had nothing to do with that, and you- of all people- know it."

"But those are the kind of people he supported!"

"Please, stop this!" A wailing voice joined the conversation, the keening, desperate sound enough to effectively pause the argument. Sirius and Grace both turned to see Kreacher sitting by the door to the kitchen, his hands clapped over his abnormally large ears as he cried. "Master Regulus was a good man- Master Sirius should not talk about Master Regulus in such a way!"

Grace, whose opinion of Kreacher had changed for the better after he remained loyal to her for so many years (and as a result of Regulus' insistence that she treat him more fairly), hurried over to kneel beside the elf. She gently pulled his hands away from his head and drew him into her lap, like an oversized doll. She stroked his ugly head and whispered to him soothingly until his sobs slowed. Finally, Kreacher hiccupped and sat up, fixing Sirius with a deadly glare. "Master Sirius does not know how Master Regulus suffered! If only he knew what Master Regulus had done for all creatures and wizards- he would not speak of him with such anger!"

Grace's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about, Kreacher?" When the elf turned to give her a guilty look, she pressed, "What did Regulus do? What do you know that I don't?"

Kreacher curled up into a ball on her lap and started crying again. "Master Regulus made Kreacher promise that he would not tell! Master Regulus was afraid that Mistress Grace or Mistress Walburga would be in danger if Kreacher told!"

Sirius had risen to his feet, his face pale. His hands, curled into fists at his sides, were white at the knuckles. "Kreacher, I swear by all that's holy, if you have hidden something from her about my brother's whereabouts for all these years, I'll bash your stupid brains out on this floor!"

"Sirius!" Remus sounded scandalized. He, too, stood to his feet, and walked over to kneel beside Grace and Kreacher. "Kreacher, please," he said softly, extending a hand to the house elf. "Do you know where Grace's husband is?"

Kreacher sniffled and nodded. It was an expression of his deep loyalty to Grace that he didn't flinch away from the touch of a werewolf.

Grace's face had screwed up into an expression of grief. "Where is he, Kreacher? Is he alive?" Her voice shook as she exclaimed, "Please, God, tell me he's alright!"

Kreacher refused to respond. Remus gave Grace a serious look. "I think you'll have to be firm with him," he advised.

Grace picked up the little body she was holding and turned him around to face her. "Kreacher, I command you to tell me where Reg is." When the elf shook his head, she said coldly, "I don't care what he told you, I am mistress of this house now. You will do as I say."

Sirius remained surprisingly silent as Grace pressed her claim as Kreacher's rightful owner.

The little elf squirmed on Grace's lap for a moment before bursting out, "Kreacher does not know where the cave is! Kreacher can only Apparate there!"

"Cave?" Grace's face had gone blank. "What cave?"

"The cave of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" Kreacher's eyes were bugging out of his head. "The cave where Master Regulus made Kreacher take him!"

"Where is he now?" Grace was becoming frantic. "Kreacher, is he alive?"

Kreacher hung his head. "Kreacher is very sorry, Mistress! Master Regulus made Kreacher promise not to save him; Kreacher was supposed to go straight home and destroy the locket! Kreacher could not do it- Kreacher was not able to obey!" He began to wail again, punching himself with his fists.

"You're talking in riddles, elf," Sirius spat. He looked as upset as Grace felt. "Spit it out. What happened?"

The house elf reluctantly stopped hitting himself and told the group how he had gone with the Dark Lord to the cave the day before Regulus disappeared. He explained how upset Regulus had been when he told him what had happened- how he had been left to die. Finally, with a lot of hiccupping and false starts, Kreacher told them all the story of Regulus' last act- an act of complete sacrifice.

When he finished, Grace was sobbing, having finally understood what had happened to her husband all those years ago. Sirius was kneeling beside her, his arm wrapped around her shoulders in a comforting embrace as he cried silent tears into her hair. Remus simply looked astounded. "All over a locket?" he demanded. "Sirius' brother died for a piece of jewelry?"

Kreacher nodded miserably.

Suddenly, Grace struck out in her grief. "You stupid, useless elf, how could you? You let him die when there might have been a chance for you to save him! You chose a goddamn locket over your Master?" She began beating the little elf in her lap. Kreacher let out a series of yelps as Grace took her sorrow and anger out on him.

Sirius finally restrained her by grabbing her wrists and holding her hands high over her head. "Grace, stop! Killing the beast won't bring him back."

"He should die," she spat, her face streaked with tears. "He let Reg- he left him, Sirius!"

"Reg told him to," Sirius rejoined firmly. "It's what he wanted. We may not understand it, but that was his wish. And it was also his wish that Kreacher not tell you," he said quickly when he saw Grace open her mouth to argue.

Remus, the only one not paralyzed by grief or disbelief, spoke again to Kreacher. "Why was the locket so important?"

Grace stopped struggling against Sirius' grip and watched the elf expectantly.

Kreacher shook his head. "Kreacher does not know. Master Regulus told Kreacher to destroy it!" His large eyes filled with tears. "Kreacher was not able to obey!"

"Where is it?" Remus asked.

Sirius cut in, knowing how to deal with recalcitrant house elves. Kreacher had no choice but to obey an order from anyone in the Black family- including him. "Bring it to me, Kreacher, if you still have it."

Kreacher vanished with a pop. He reappeared moments later, handing Sirius a golden locket on a chain. Grace's breath caught. "That's Slytherin's locket," she whispered.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding." Shrugging, he handed it to Grace to examine with an air of nonchalance.

"How in the world did Regulus manage to find that?" Remus asked under his breath.

"And why did he die for it?" Grace murmured, turning the piece of jewelry over in her hand. She shivered. The necklace gave her the creeps for some reason.

Sirius was watching her, frowning. "Give that here," he ordered suddenly, and Grace obeyed. He flipped the locket over on his palm and tried to pry it open, with no success. His face darkened. "This is Dark magic," he said softly. "Moony," he said, his voice suddenly urgent, "take a look at this and tell me if it doesn't give you the heebie-jeebies."

Grace would have laughed at his choice of words if they hadn't exactly described what she had felt while holding the locket. "What's wrong with it?" she asked.

Remus was shaking his head fervently. "It can't be- no one knows how to do this. This is Dark, dangerous magic. It's been banned for centuries-"

"What is it, Moons?" Sirius bit out impatiently.

Remus glared at him sternly. "This," he said, brandishing the piece of jewelry in one hand, "is a Horcrux."

Grace and Sirius just stared at him, dumbfounded. Grace was the first one to find her voice. "So, Reg is-"

Sirius shot her a sharp look. "Reg wasn't that skilled at Charms, sweetheart, no matter how good he may have been to you. He was simply not capable of performing this kind of magic."

A small squeak escaped the house elf perched next to Grace's knee. The three humans jumped, having completely forgotten Kreacher's presence. "Master Regulus wanted to destroy the locket, Mistress," Kreacher reminded her softly. "The locket belonged to the Dark Lord."

Grace felt Sirius stiffen beside her. "This was Voldemort's?" he asked loudly, gesturing towards the locket, which Remus had brought up to his eyes and was examining closely.

Kreacher shivered. "The Dark Lord has no name!" he shrieked. "Master Sirius must not say his name!"

Sirius shook his head. "Fear of a name gives the thing more power," he said curtly. "And no one calls him the Dark Lord except for his followers, you stupid elf."

Grace glared at him. "Kreacher belonged to your parents," she reminded him. "Do you think they ever called him anything different?"

"Wait," Remus said slowly, his soft but serious voice carrying over the growing argument between the other two. "If this is a Horcrux, it belonged to Voldemort, and we know that Reg tried to destroy it- that means…"

The four of them stared down at the small, gold locket, dangling from Remus' fingers, Grace's earlier accusations against Sirius forgotten as they absorbed the truth. Just as Sirius had traces of Slytherin traits in his personality, so his little brother had echoes of Gryffindor courage in his soul. Regulus Black hadn't been a true Death Eater, after all.

I've already begun the next chapter, so I hope to have the next update posted very soon. Thanks for sticking with this story, chickadees! :)