"I can't believe the Potter Family hid that for so long," Regulus discussed as they appeared by a strange cave, "leave us Kreacher."
"Yes Master Regulus," Kreacher bowed, before giving one scornful look at Sirius. He disapparated quickly, and the trio approached the small entrance.
"Here we need a blood sacrifice," Regulus explained, slicing his hand, "the only way to open the door."
"Is it just me?" Barty Crouch asked, "or is Regulus completely different in the future?" I mean, yeah the information about the Dark Lord was a lot, but not enough to make someone's personality take a 360."
"It's in the future Barty," Regulus said to the friend that had, only an hour previously, completely deserted him, "it could have been gradual."
"And Reggie's always been a tenacious fellow," Sirius piped up, "although most of his efforts were in reporting me to Walburga."
"You were way too quick to do that," Sirius points out, "after this is all over, we need to have a serious conversation."
"Have our last 3 conversations not been serious enough?" Regulus answered back cheekily, "because I'm pretty sure taking down an egotistical, mad with power maniac is pretty serious."
"Laugh later," Lydia stilled, "we've arrived at a very sensitive area. Siri, help me command the inferi. There's a spell on this boat that prevents more than 1 person from entering, and we're trying not to alert you-know-who. We're going to have to swim."
"One issue," Sirius points out, "Regulus and I can't swim. The folks at the Big Bad House of Black thought it was too muggley. I personally thought they didn't want us to learn because it'd be an easy way to off us without too many questions."
"I agree with my future-self," Sirius proclaims, "they want to kill us and make it look like an accident."
"That's extremely worrisome," Ted turns to his wife, "can you swim? I don't want any accidents."
"Edward," Andromeda looked into her husband's eyes, "our honeymoon was in Greece. We swam in the Mediterranean. I swam in the Mediterranean. With you. You taught me."
"My bad," Ted rubs the back of his neck, "I'm just a little paranoid."
"Which I love you for," Andromeda kisses her husband, causing her nearby cousins to gag.
"One more reason to add to the 'Why Walburga and Orion were horrible parents and despicable human beings' list," Lydia scowled, "I can't believe they did that."
"Shouldn't I not count as a person?" Regulus asks, "I'm underage, the magic won't register on me."
"Out of context," Marlene said, "that's horribly depressing."
"I know," Mary agrees, "Regulus, you are a person."
"I'm aware," Regulus deadpanned, "but thanks for the reassurance."
"Good point," Lydia thought for a moment, "you and Sirius go on the boat. I'll swim."
"Let's command the inferi first," Sirius reminded Lydia right before she stepped in the water, "we need to get to the island safely."
Lydia and Sirius take deep breaths, before shouting, "Ω Ζωντανοί Νεκροί, υπάκουσε την ερωμένη σου. Ακολουθήστε υπάκουα. Μην επιτεθείς σε κανέναν. θα ξαπλώσεις ακίνητος και θα κοιμηθείς. Μην ξεχνάτε ποτέ αυτή την εντολή!"
(O Living Dead, obey your mistress. Obediently follow. Don't attack anyone. you will lie still and sleep. Never forget this commandment.) You know the drill at this point, only you guys can see this, not the people in the hall.
The inferi all die down, and Lydia begins to swim toward the island. Sirius and Regulus use the boat. Obviously, Sirius and Regulus arrive quite some time before Lydia, and get to talking.
"What are you going to do after this?" Sirius asks, "you're still technically in school."
"Honestly," Regulus fidgets, "I was never expecting to survive this. I was just expecting my death to appear on the tapestry, and Mother and Father to mourn. No one, save you and Potter, knows I was doing this."
"Well you can't go home," Sirius says as if it was obvious, "yes you're an excellent occlumens, but it's risky with you-know-who around. One peek in your mind, and you're done for."
"I didn't plan this far ahead," Regulus sighed frustratedly, "my original plan was simple. Apologize and then die. Now I have no clue. I'm still underage, so I have the trace on me. I can't go anywhere."
"We can fake your death," Sirius perks up, "then you'll hide out either with me or Lydia."
"Even if I'd try," Regulus points out, "it'd never work. The family tapestry is connected to our life forces. My fake death wouldn't show up, and everyone would know I'm alive. Also, any use of underage magic would get reported to the ministry. It's useless."
"I could get Mortem to disconnect your life force from the tapestry," Lydia finally arrived, panting and soaked to the bone. Sirius rushed over, and cast a warming charm on her, alongside a drying one. "Thanks Siri." Regulus looks on curiously. He'd never really seen a healthy relationship, let alone have one himself.
"They're so cute," Pandora gushed, "just look how caring Sirius is."
"I'm more interested in Regulus's face," Hestia Jones says, "he looks so puzzled."
"He does," Pandora observes, "as if functioning people are an anomaly to him."
"Have you seen his family?" Hestia rolls her eyes, "of course the poor kid feels that way."
"Creative idea," Regulus hums, "and then Walburga and Orion would report it to the ministry. Then the ministry would proclaim me dead. The only issue would be the trace."
"Which I could remove off of you," Lydia says smiling, "all resolved. And I'll speak to Benjy about you moving in with us at Potter Manor. I mean, it's my house, but he's going to be my husband. He should probably know."
"You're getting married?" Regulus asks, "congratulations I suppose. But you probably should inform your fiancè about the situation."
"Nah," Sirius said, "Benjy's chill. He's busy being an auror and stuff. Also, he's joined Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix. He doesn't need any more on his plate."
"We're aurors Sirius," Lydia reminds, "we're also busy. I'm not going to tell Benjy, mainly because we agreed to keep our involvement in the war separate. As one of Dumbledore's phoenix's, I don't need my information being given to a group that I'm pretty sure has a spy."
"Regulus and Lydia are getting along strangely well," Kingsley whispers to Benjy, "and you want to join up with Dumbledore?"
"It's the future Kingsley," the older friend responded, "I have no idea."
"Let's get a move on," Sirius cracks his knuckles, "I've been itching for a fight."
"You're not getting a fight," Regulus began walking to a small basin, "this basin matches Kreacher's description. He says that the Dark Lord forced him to drink it, meaning it must be drunk till the end."
"Who's drinking?" Lydia asks, beginning to step forward, "because I'm game. Pain and torture, here I come."
"Absolutely not," Regulus brushes her off, and conjures a goblet, "I'm doing it." Before any protests could be made, Regulus scooped up some potion, and left a warning, "Make sure I drink all of it. Through any means necessary." And Regulus downed the potion before the other two could stop him.
"That looks like the Potion of Despair," an eagle-eyed Slughorn pointed out worriedly, "it causes one to see their worst fears and nightmares. It also dehydrates, and weakens the body considerably."
"This is not looking good," Andy gripped Ted's arm, "not good at all."
Moments pass, and regulus suddenly starts screaming and fighting. "You don't understand!" he's shouting, "no stop! Stop!"
"What's going on?" Sirius yelps, trying to help, "what should we do?"
"I don't know," Lydia cries, "you try soothing him. I'll feed him the potion."
"I'm sorry," Regulus sobs, "don't leave! Come back!"
"Shh," Sirius creeps closer, "Reggie, drink the potion Lydia's giving you. It'll bring him back." Regulus gulps some more potion, before shouting more and more.
"This is horrifying," Barty Crouch is terrified. He didn't realize how bad the Dark Lord really was. He just thought if his father was against him, then he must be the good guy. His father, who cared more for work than his son. The father that had threatened to disown him if anything goes wrong at galas. But now, he could understand why his father hated dark magic so much. Looking at his classmate and friend writhe on screen managed to break the building bitter thoughts.
"NO MORE!" Regulus screams, "I don't want it anymore!" Lydia is crying as she force feeds Regulus the potion. Sirius held Regulus down, preventing him from hurting Lydia. Finally, the potion is completed, and the locket gleams from the bottom. Regulus, finally calming down a little, slips an identical locket into the basin. Sirius grabs the locket.
"Are you okay?" Lydia asks as she helps lift him off the floor, "Cricket!" Lydia summons her elf, "take us home." The three teleport to Potter Manor, and Regulus clamors for water.
"Merlin's beard!" Benjy cursed, "what's happening?"
"A little recon mission," Lydia smiles sweetly at her fiancè, "tell you about it after we get Regulus set up in a room."
"Why is Sirius's ex-brother here?" Benjy was trying hard not to panic.
"Clause 12," Sirius said, "that's you and Lydia's rule about not sharing war information. Prongs'll talk to you later. We're in the middle of faking Regulus's death."
"Well you're doing an excellent job of it," Benjy says looking at Regulus's ragged form.
"You're taking this remarkably well," Lydia grins, kissing him, "I'll reward you for that later. Now, I need to fake a death. Toodles." And with that, Lydia skipped off with Sirius and Regulus.
"Getting busy eh," Sirius smirks at his sister. Said sister only rubs her hands. She's shameless.
"Sorry about the room," Lydia says as they walk in, "we can change it later. My parents just went overboard. They got really bored during retirement, and we have over 50 bedrooms here."
"Thank you," Regulus smiles slightly, "it's better than I could have asked for."
"Here's the locket," Sirius hands it over to Lydia, who paled upon receiving it.
"What's wrong?" a nervous Regulus Black questions, "did something happen?"
"This isn't his full soul," Lydia blew on the locket, muttering under her breath, and a dirty piece of dark magic arose, "so far, he's made four other horcruxes, and there's the part that's himself."
Buckets suddenly appeared, as many people began losing their stomachs. Some of Voldemort's staunchest supporters began losing their faith. It was so completely wrong. It was disgusting.
"No," Regulus's eyes widened, "it can't be. We can't have gone all this way for him to still be immortal."
"Can you track the other pieces down?" Sirius begged.
"I think so," Lydia said, and muttered a few spells under her breath. Three minutes later, Lydia spoke again. "Get me a map of the world and the country. They should be in my father's office."
Sirius rushed into Monty's old office, and grabbed the globe from his desk. He quickly summoned the other map, matter being too urgent for a manual search.
"Here," he breathlessly threw the objects to Lydia. Lydia shouted a bunch of spells loudly, and the horcrux glowed blue. Suddenly, blue flashes appeared on spots of the globe. Lydia flicked her wand, and the corresponding flashes went on the map.
"That's the Gaunt Shack," Regulus pointed at one of the flashes, "and that one's Hogwarts."
"Easy enough," Lydia shrugged, "we'll go to Hogwarts and pick it up, then we'll raid Gaunt Shack. I'll have to go once or twice to figure out the protective enchantment, but it shouldn't be so hard."
"Uhm Prongs," Sirius gulped, "we have an issue."
"What?" Lydia looked at where Sirius was pointing, before paling herself.
"Gringotts," Regulus breathed, "how are we going to get that? No one's ever broken in before."
"The Dark Lord is certainly clever," Abraxas, still loyal, told his son, "Gringotts is exactly where I'd put something of that value."
"Well we'll have to be the first," Lydia looked at Regulus, grin on her face, "and with a legally dead man on our team, we should be able to do it."
"They're going to break into Gringotts?!" people shouted in a frenzy.
"That's my girl!" Newt shouted, "doing the impossible!"
"Thank goodness future us are already dead," Euphemia whispered to Fleamont, "Otherwise we'd have monstrous heart attacks."
"Huh?" Regulus looked at Lydia as if she was mad, "I'm still convinced you're a little crazy. Everyone knows Gringotts is impenetrable. You'd be a fool to try and break in."
"Exactly,"Lydia snapped her fingers.
"Exactly what?" Regulus pressed.
"Prongs is onto something," Sirius picked up on Lydia's train of thoughts, "everyone knows it's dumb to break into Gringotts. However, because of that, no one has really tried breaking in. It's too dumb a move."
"And Siri and I are well known for our reckless behavior," Lydia smiled, "and it seems you'll be joining us. We'll call ourselves the VoldyBusters."
"That's a horrible name," Regulus blanched, "and a horrible idea."
"We have Death on our side," Sirius pointed out, "we'll be fine."
"That's arrogant!"
"You're arrogant!"
"What are we going to do about Malfoy Manor?" Lydia said, "should we get the aurors to raid? Should we break in in the dead of night? Should we knock Malfoy out and polyjuice our way in? Because I'm just saying, I'm partial to the last one."
The scene ends with a smirking Regulus and Sirius, and transitions to The Yule Ball.