Note to MNFF Staff: A big thank you to Robin for her suggestions and for moderating my previous chapters. I’d like to request that she also review this submission.
Disclaimer: The usual, none of the characters are mine; they were created by Ms. J.K. Rowling. The only thing I can claim to own in all this is my imagination.
Harry didn’t notice the growling in his stomach, the sign that he had not had anything to eat since noon. He ignored the fact that he hadn’t slept very well in the last few days, which was causing his eyelids to feel as if they just had to obey the law of gravity. He sat and looked at this man sitting at the other end of the table at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. A man who claimed to be Regulus Black, brother of Sirius Black; supposedly an ex-Death Eater; and last but not least, a man believed to have been dead for seventeen years. And a man who was going to tell Harry the story of his life, in an attempt to get Harry to believe him. Harry could feel that this was going to be very interesting indeed, and he waited expectantly for the man to begin.
The man didn’t clear his throat like a practiced raconteur. He didn’t seem to be searching for the right words to say. He sat nursing his drink for a few moments before he looked at Harry.
“I don’t know how much Sirius told you about me?” he began.
“Erm… well not much, actually,” replied Harry, not wanting to repeat what Sirius had told him.
“He must have said that I was a spoilt little mama’s boy who was too weak to stand on his own two feet, am I right?” asked the man, grinning.
“Yup, that’s pretty much what he said,” affirmed Harry.
The man took another sip from his glass before replying. “Well, I won’t deny it, I was weak but I wasn’t a mama’s boy. The thing is, Harry, Sirius was always rebellious and argumentative with my mother and father. Since I was more docile, tending to keep my mouth shut even if my parents said something I didn’t agree with, I got tagged as a mama’s boy.”
“You see,” he continued, after a few moments of silence, “We were taught from a young age, that purity of blood was very important. Sirius wouldn’t listen to it because that’s the way he was; though for a while he was big on making the right kind of friends with pure blood and all that.”
“No, he wasn’t,” remarked Harry hotly.
“Oh he was,” said the man calmly, “But he changed, and you probably have your mother and Remus Lupin to thank for that. But me, I had no friends like that, so I grew up believing all the trash that my parents fed me.”
“The fact that my mother and father preferred me was enough for Sirius to club me along with them. There was no love lost between us and the fact that I joined the Death Eaters was just another reason for Sirius to hate me more,” the man continued, and then he looked straight at Harry,” What Sirius never knew is that he was the reason I joined the Death Eaters in the first place.”
“What?” yelled Harry, slamming his bottle down on the table and almost breaking it.
“Not in the way you think, Harry, it wasn’t because I hated Sirius. I had always, sort of, looked up to Sirius, always admired the fact that he could stand up to my parents when I didn’t have the guts to do so. And then in Hogwarts, I was always in Sirius’ shadow; always Sirius’ baby brother. Sirius was everything I wasn’t,” said the man, reminiscently, “He did well in tests, without seeming to study. He was good-looking, got all the girls. And thanks to great foresight on the part of the Sorting Hat, he was put in Gryffindor and I ended up in Slytherin.”
The man smiled slightly at Harry, “You probably know what that means. Gryffindors are the pride of the school and everyone looks up to them. Whereas the Slytherins, they rank along side Peeves and the Bloody Baron in terms of popularity.”
Harry smiled for the first time since he had met this man, a smile that quickly changed to a frown. “What does that have to do with you joining the Death Eaters?” he asked.
“Since I was never seen as an individual, I wanted to do something majestic to, you know, announce my presence, “ explained the man, “And at that time, joining the Death Eaters was the biggest thing you could do. Mind you, I was still underage when I asked to join.”
“Wait “ you joined when you were underage?” asked Harry quickly.
“Sure did, but you must understand, Harry, that I meant it to be a gesture, nothing more. I didn’t think I’d be accepted, but I thought that by just asking to join I’d show everyone else that I wasn’t to be taken lightly,” said the man.
Harry said nothing and the man continued. “You could have knocked me over with a feather when my dear cousin Bella,“ Harry noted the sneer that crossed the man’s face when he said this, “showed up at our house to escort me to the Dark Lord. I suppose the Dark Lord was looking to recruit as many pureblooded wizards as he could, irrespective of whether they were of age or not. Bella and her husband had been Death Eaters for quite some time and she hated both Sirius and me.”
“Why did she hate you?” asked Harry surprised, “I can understand why she hated Sirius, but why you?”
“Because she thought I was unworthy of being a Death Eater. She, too, considered me weak, and definitely a smudge on the pure blood that ran through my veins,” replied the man, sardonically, “But she had to do as she was told, I suppose, so she took me to the Dark Lord, muttering all the while. And then I was initiated into the ranks of the Death Eaters, and branded as one of them.” And the man lifted the sleeve of his cloak, revealing the Dark Mark burnt onto his skin.
Before Harry could make any comment, the man continued, “At first I was excited about this. I got to leave Hogwarts which I was getting sick of anyway…”
“Why were you sick of Hogwarts?”
“Haven’t you been listening, Harry?” asked the man, “I was a nobody there and if the news got out that I had been made a Death Eater, then my already non-existent popularity would have reached a new low.”
Harry nodded and the man went on, “So anyway, as I said, I was excited, naïve as I was, to be part of the movement which would restore the importance of the purebloods. It didn’t take me long, however, to realize that I had made the biggest, most stupid mistake of my life.”
The man stopped, staring into the bottle at his elbow, which was now only half-full. Harry sat looking at him, patiently waiting for him to continue. He could hear the noises that one associates with old houses; the odd creaks and rattles, the drip of a partially open tap. He could feel the passage of time but he didn’t really care, this man’s tale was fascinating him. But when the man did not speak for about five minutes, Harry began to grow restless.
“Err… Regulus?” he said, addressing the man.
The man looked up, surprised and then his face split into a grin. “So you’ve decided that I am Regulus Black, have you?” he asked.
“I didn’t say that,” said Harry quickly.
Regulus laughed but soon his face became somber again, and resumed his story. “Those were dark times, Harry, and the Death Eaters were repeatedly sent out on missions. I was part of a few of them. And to this day, I wish that I had just run away right then. You see, those missions mainly consisted of torturing or murdering muggles, muggle-born witches or wizards, or even pureblood wizards who stood against the Dark Lord.”
Regulus took a deep breath, and Harry noticed that all signs of laughter had vanished from his face. “I can still hear the screams in my dreams,” Regulus said slowly, “Of all the people that I helped torture or murder. After every mission, I would come home and lock myself in the bathroom, hands over my ears, trying to drown out the screams in my head. I would close my eyes, trying not to see their eyes looking at me accusingly. Several times, I nearly fainted on a mission. I was disillusioned; well, I guess that’s a euphemism, after all that I had done,” he corrected himself, “But I couldn’t go on; to do so would have resulted in me booking a bed in the ward on the fifth floor of St. Mungo’s.”
And slowly Regulus’ voice grew louder, “If this was what had to be done to restore the purity of blood, then I wanted no part of it. And again, it was because of Sirius that my mindset changed. Sirius had friends; friends would even give up their lives for him. And one of his really good friends, your mother, happened to be a muggle-born. But I had no one like that. That, finally, opened my eyes to what was really important in this world. Maybe this could be considered weakness, I didn’t know and I didn’t care, I just wanted to get out.”
He stopped and then poured out some more firewhiskey into his glass and emptied it down his throat. Harry looked at Regulus, wondering whether to feel revolted by him or sorry for him. After a few minutes, when Regulus seemed to have regained some measure of self-control, he looked up at Harry. Harry had never seen such pain in another person’s eyes, and he concluded that if this man was indeed lying then he was the best actor that he, Harry, had ever seen.
“That’s when I found out that I couldn’t get out,” Regulus went on, “I had signed on for a lifetime of service to the Dark Lord; I couldn’t just walk away. And all this while, complaints of my lack of loyalty to the purebloods began to make their way to the Dark Lord. Most of them by Bella, I’m sure. She had loads of fun, gloating to my mother that both her sons had disappointed her.”
Regulus heaved a deep sigh. Harry chanced a glance at the clock on the wall and was somewhat surprised to find that it was already two in the morning. He turned his attention to Regulus, who was absentmindedly swirling some of the firewhiskey in his glass before emptying it down his gullet too.
“I realized that I was now a marked man,” said Regulus, startling Harry whose mind had wandered, “Anytime now someone was going to come my house, I would open the door and see a flash of green light and it would all be over. Or so I thought. But nothing happened for quite a while; I even stopped being sent on missions.”
Regulus paused for a moment before going on, “And then it came; a summons to meet the Dark Lord. I must confess that I was rather surprised by this. I hadn’t expected to be killed by the Dark Lord himself. And I wasn’t.”
Regulus smiled bitterly as he relived that day, “He told me that I had disappointed him by my apparent lack of loyalty to the cause and that I had to be punished. I did take quite some time to recover from that Cruciatus. And then the Dark Lord smiled at me, almost kindly, and it was the most revolting thing I had ever seen. He told me that I had to prove my loyalty by following him and assisting him in a task that he had to perform.”
“Creating the horcrux,” breathed Harry, “But why choose you?”
“I think the Dark Lord had made up his mind to kill me,” said Regulus looking pensive, “Therefore, choosing me was the perfect solution. You see, if he had taken any of his regular Death Eaters, he could never be sure if they might try to capture the Horcrux and hold him to ransom. The Dark Lord never trusted any of his followers.”
Harry nodded; this did tie in with what he knew of Voldemort’s marked distrust of everything and everyone. It definitely made sense for him to have taken Regulus if he had decided to kill him. That did raise some new questions, but Harry held back for the moment.
“My life was precious to me then, Harry,” Regulus went on, “And in my naiveté, I believed that if assisting him would pacify the Dark Lord then I was all for it. He told me that I was to be ready and that he would call for me when it was time. I went home and waited. Thoughts of escape did cross my mind occasionally, but I discarded them. There was no point in running if the Dark Lord decided to kill you.”
Regulus paused and now Harry could see that it was costing Regulus quite an effort to go on. “He called for me about a week later,” said Regulus, after swallowing hard a couple of time, “Said we had a mission to go on and the locket was necessary for it. We traveled to Kent that day, to one particular family there. Husband was a muggle, wife was a witch, and she was strongly against the Dark Lord. We walked up to the door and the Dark Lord, he knocked on the door, cool as a cucumber.”
Regulus paused again, and Harry could see his adam’s apple bobbing vigorously as he tried to swallow a large lump in his throat. “The man opened the door; he was dead before he hit the ground. The woman, she got her wand and started sending every curse she could think of, at us. She was standing in front of a door, guarding it almost, when she, too, fell. Then the Dark Lord blew open the door and we were looking into a playroom, and there were two children there, cowering in fear.”
Regulus’ voice was now shaking as he looked Harry in the eye. “I swear I didn’t know there were children in the house. I watched in horror, as the Dark Lord lifted his wand again, and, and…” Regulus stopped, running a hand over his face, possibly to wipe away a stray tear.
“He killed them,” Harry finished softly, looking horrified.
Regulus nodded and continued, he voice, slightly steadier. “I have seen grown men and women tortured and murdered, but this… this was horrible. I almost fainted again; my legs were threatening to give way under me. Bile was rising in my throat as I looked at them lying there dead, I felt as if I was going to vomit right there on the bedroom floor. And he was just standing there, cool as you please, not a hint of remorse. If I hadn’t been thinking of leaving the Death Eaters till then, this would definitely have been the clincher.”
Regulus stopped and this time he had to take a couple of shots of firewhiskey before he could continue. “And then he asked for the locket and I watched as he tore his soul into two and put one part in the locket. It was, if possible, even more gruesome than what I had just seen. You see, Harry, to tear your soul into two requires not just a terrible crime of murder, but a murder so heinous that it defies imagination. Killing innocent children, the way he did, was something that qualified as heinous enough to allow him to create the Horcrux.”
The firewhiskey seemed to have the required calming effect on Regulus and he continued more steadily, “Splitting his soul made the Dark Lord pretty weak and so I had to help him back to headquarters. Once we got there, he asked me to stay, since there was something else he needed my assistance in. He got Bella to prepare a room for me at headquarters and there I stayed, a prisoner, nothing more. It was almost a fortnight before he recovered enough for the next part of the plan.”
Regulus stood up and began to pace the kitchen again, probably feeling stifled from having sat for so long. “You can, perhaps, guess at what happened next,” he asked Harry.
Harry nodded, it was quite obvious really; Voldemort must have taken Regulus to the cave to hide the Horcrux. Harry, however, couldn’t understand why Voldemort had needed Regulus for it, so he asked Regulus about it.
“It’s quite simple, Harry. The Dark Lord’s blood is too precious to be wasted on opening secret entrances in caves,” Regulus replied, sarcastically. Suddenly, Regulus paused, and Harry noted that Regulus was looking at him intently. What Harry didn’t realize was that he, Harry, had begun cradling his head in his hand and his eyes were starting to glaze over.
“I can continue this tomorrow after you’ve had some sleep,” he said, smiling at Harry, who quickly lowered his hand and forced his eyes to focus.
“Don’t worry, I’m listening,” Harry said, “This is all fascinating. Besides this is the interesting part, isn’t it?”
Regulus laughed and continued his narrative. “We entered the cave and it was much as you must have seen it; the lake full of Inferi, the island in the middle, and the basin filled to the brim with some strange potion. The Dark Lord dropped the locket into the basin and as he did, some of the Inferi began to get restless. It was the distraction I needed. You see, Harry, I had realized what the locket was now, though I didn’t know it was called a Horcrux; I knew what purpose it served. I decided that I would take it and destroy it to make it easier to destroy the Dark Lord himself. But as the Dark Lord turned to face the Inferi that was causing the disturbance, I found that I couldn’t put my hand into the potion. Mind you, this was more to ascertain what type of potion it was, rather than to take out the locket itself. Since I couldn’t put my hand into it, I scooped out a little into my hands and drank it.”
Regulus involuntarily shuddered as if he could still taste the potion. “It was like being hit with a Cruciatus curse, only it was ten times worse. And mind you, this happened with only a sip of the potion. Drinking the whole potion was almost guaranteed to kill you.”
“I know,” said Harry tonelessly, “Dumbledore drank the whole thing. He was in such pain, as I’ve never seen anyone in before. He even kept asking me to kill him.”
“I’m not surprised,” Regulus replied, horrified, “It must have been a terrible experience for him. Anyway, I drank some water from the lake and felt a little better. By the time I was steady on my feet, the Dark Lord had quelled the Inferi and we left the cave and returned to headquarters.”
“Hang on,” said Harry suspiciously, “Why didn’t he kill you as soon as you left the cave?”
“Good question, Harry,” answered Regulus still pacing, “And it’s one that I have asked myself countless times. The only solution I can come up with is that the Dark Lord wanted to kill me before all his Death Eaters, as an example of what would be done to Death Eaters who proved to be disloyal. Anyway, we returned to headquarters and I was back under virtual house arrest.”
Regulus ran a hand through his hair and yawned before continuing, “That’s when I met Hector Dashwood, another minor Death Eater. He came over to headquarters one day to report on one of the missions he had been involved in. Hector was a year older than me and he had been at Hogwarts. We knew each other reasonably well since he had been a Slytherin too. He wanted to know what I was doing at headquarters and I told him the whole story, using some rather colourful language. I figured that I was a dead man anyway so it wouldn’t really hurt. To my great surprise, he too seemed to be interested in ending the Dark Lord’s reign, so he pressed me for more information. My first impression was that this was a trap of sorts, so I asked him to help me escape as proof of his intentions to destroy the Dark Lord.”
Regulus stopped pacing, and stood facing Harry who seemed to have forgotten all about sleeping. “So he helped me escape,” Regulus said bluntly.
“How?” asked Harry, all agog for more details.
Regulus grinned, “It was the simplest thing, really. He came over to the headquarters again the next day on some pretext and when he was there, he lowered the wards around my room. Then he left me a timed portkey, which activated early the next morning, hours after he had left. That way, I escaped and he wasn’t suspected at all.”
Harry blinked, seemingly disappointed by this rather simplistic escape plan. He had expected Regulus to have escaped after fighting his way past fifty death eaters. Regulus smiled at his rather crestfallen expression. “You’d do well to remember, Harry, that, sometimes, keeping things simple is the best way of handling a problem.”
Harry nodded slowly, vowing to keep this in mind. “So what happened next?” he queried.
“I was portkeyed to Hector’s house in Hampshire. He was waiting for me, and the moment I turned up, we Apparated here. I grabbed as much of my stuff as I could and then we headed to a hideout that he had chosen for me. He sure seemed pretty keen on getting rid of the Dark Lord,” mused Regulus and then he continued. “As you can imagine, the Dark Lord wasn’t too pleased by my escape and soon the Death Eaters were out looking for me. This was just what we needed, since it gave Hector the opportunity to get into headquarters more often and get some of the books out.”
“Wait,” said Harry, “What books?”
“Books of dark magic, Harry,” explained Regulus, “The Dark Lord wanted to make sure that no one knew of his sources of power, so his death eaters were instructed to get their hands on as many dark arts books as they could and bring them to him. I guessed that some of those books might have had some information on Horcruxes so I asked Hector to get them. Oh, and also some books on potions since we needed to replicate the potion in the basin.”
“Why?” asked Harry.
“Because, Harry, if the Dark Lord were to return to the cave after we had obtained the horcrux; seeing the potion gone would have tipped him off that the Horcrux had been destroyed and then he’d have just made another. So we decided to put a fake locket in the basin in place of the real one, and filled it up with the potion again,” Regulus said.
“Where did you get the fake locket?” asked Harry, quickly.
“We got one which closely resembled the real locket at one of those cheap trinket shops in Diagon Alley,” Regulus answered, “We put in the note and went back to the cave.”
Something about the note rang a bell in Harry’s mind. It was a few moments before he managed to figure it out. “Regulus, why did you say that you’d be long dead before Voldemort found you, in the note?” he asked, anxious to know if Regulus could answer this one.
Regulus smiled sardonically, “Like I said, you don’t live long if the Dark Lord wants you dead. I didn’t think I’d be around after destroying the locket Horcrux, so I put that in the message.”
Harry wasn’t sure if the explanation was enough but he decided to set it aside for the moment, especially since he had thought of another question. “Where’s the real locket then?” he asked.
“I snuck in here a few days after my mother’s death and hid it in the cabinet in the drawing room,” Regulus replied, “I managed to blow off the ornate ‘S’ on top of the locket but there was another one inside which was rather more resistant. So I put a strong locking charm on it and hoped no one would guess that this had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin.”
Harry was kicking himself again for not realizing that the locket they had found in fifth year was the real Horcrux. It did, however, confirm Regulus’ story to an extent. But Harry wasn’t thinking of that; he was lamenting the fact that either Sirius had thrown out the real locket in their massive cleaning drive then, or else Mundungus had got his hands on it the next year. And then a light bulb went off in his head.
“Krea…” he began and then clapped his hand over his mouth. The last thing he needed was for the old house-elf to return and see Regulus there. Silently he walked over to the boiler in the back of the kitchen. Looking under it he found the remains of Kreacher’s old abode. He rummaged through all the junk that Kreacher seemed to have accumulated, until he found what he was looking for.
Regulus watched him curiously as Harry walked back to the table and threw the locket onto it. “Is this it?” he asked quietly.
Regulus nodded, and then he reached over and picked it up. He tapped the locket with his wand and said a charm, at which the locket seemed to gladly spring open. Regulus turned the locket towards Harry who could now see the elegant ‘S’ embossed inside, with emeralds at the tip to make it look like a snake. Harry reached into his pocket and taking out the fake locket, he placed it on the table. “So that’s another one down,” he said, looking at Regulus.
“Yes,” Regulus replied, “But there’s still a lot to tell in my story.”
Harry sat back down and reluctantly dragged his eyes away from the two lockets lying side by side on the table. “So you and Hector went back to the cave?” Harry asked, “When?”
“About a week after my escape,” replied Regulus, “We had to move fast so that the Dark Lord did not move the Horcrux. Luckily, he hadn’t and we got it.”
“You got it?” repeated Harry, wonderingly, “Just like that?”
“Well, not quite, just like that. Some of the Inferi almost got us on the way out. And I nearly passed out from the pain of drinking the potion. But yes, we got it and we returned to the hide-out,” said Regulus.
Slowly, Regulus returned to his seat at the table and poured himself another generous helping of firewhiskey. Harry deduced that what Regulus was going to speak of, wasn’t going to be very pleasant to hear, but he had to hear it.
“And then we made the most costly mistake. I had told Hector not to touch the locket, which is what the Dark Lord had told me when we were traveling to the cave the first time. But when we returned to the hideout, we had a party of sorts to celebrate our success. And in that heady celebration, Hector suddenly picked up the locket and pulled it over his head.”
Regulus took another swig and then looked at Harry. “Now Harry, since a Horcrux is a part of a person’s soul, it will essentially prefer to inhabit a living body rather than an inanimate object. Which means that if it is given a chance; it will try to move to a human or animal body, than stay in, say, a locket. And that is the time it is most vulnerable, and most easily destroyed. Do you understand what I’m saying, Harry?” he asked.
Harry nodded, it all fit. The piece of the soul in the diary had been attempting to possess Ginny when he had destroyed it. And the ring must have been trying to possess Dumbledore when he had destroyed it. But with this came the realization of what must have happened.
“So the Horcrux began to possess Hector?” he asked slowly, “Surely you could destroy it when it began to possess him?”
“I could have, only I hadn’t learnt how to destroy the Horcrux yet,” said Regulus sadly, “We hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
Harry stared at Regulus, aghast. “But that means… the Horcrux must have moved into Hector,” he cried, “Now there’s another living Horcrux?”
Regulus spoke again, sounding as if he hadn’t heard Harry. “It was terrible to witness. Hector looked as if he was having a fit. He began to shake vigorously, his eyes rolled up and he began to foam at the mouth. And then his body began to rise up in the air, surrounded by a strange glow. I just stood there, not knowing what to do, wondering if we had come so far only to fail. After about five minutes of hovering in the air, Hector’s body crashed to the ground.”
Regulus passed his hand over his face as he relived those horrible moments. “I thought that he had to be dead, but to my great surprise, he was breathing feebly. I had worked out about the Horcrux transfer, but I wasn’t sure. So I took hold of the locket and pulled it free off his head. Nothing happened, and that made me pretty sure that the Horcrux had moved into Hector.”
Regulus sat silently staring at the last dregs of the amber liquid nestling at the bottom of the bottle. Harry didn’t say a word, his mind taken up with the imagination of the Horcrux having moved into another human being.
“Wonderful thing, polyjuice potion,” said Regulus suddenly.
Harry’s head jerked up. He couldn’t be sure if he had heard right; had Regulus just mentioned polyjuice?
“Hector had given me a couple of bottles of it. It, at least, allowed me to move freely even while there were death eaters looking for me. And that’s where this story takes a bizarre turn,” said Regulus, suddenly looking very tired. Harry didn’t answer, he had an inkling of where the story was going but he couldn’t still believe that it could be true.
“There was still some of the juice left, so I gave him a bit with my hair in it; and I had some with his hair in it and we changed into each other. He was still unconscious and so I side-along Apparated with him to Bellatrix’s house. She seemed only to happy to see us; I get the feeling that the Dark Lord might perhaps have blamed her for my disappearance,” said Regulus, “She didn’t ask any questions; heck, she didn’t even wait. She just drew her wand and killed Hector, thinking he was me. And the Horcrux was destroyed.”
“Are you sure of that?” asked Harry, trying to sound as if he didn’t find this whole story nauseating in the extreme.
“Yes. Since the body, in which it was housed, was destroyed, so was the Horcrux. Bella didn’t even wait after she killed Hector, she just Disapparated after telling me to get rid of the body. No doubt, she wanted to report to the Dark Lord herself that Regulus Black was dead. This was, of course, what I had been hoping for, since, in death, Hector was beginning to change back into himself. I Apparated to a little, isolated bit of country near Cornwall, and there I buried him in an unmarked grave,” Regulus sighed, “It was almost insulting to do that to him, but I had no choice. And then I went into hiding “ until now.”
With that Regulus took hold of the bottle, and emptied the last few drops down his throat. Harry just sat there, idly staring at his empty bottle of butterbeer. He definitely felt like he needed a pensieve at that moment, it was just too much information to take in. Then out of his consciousness, a question surfaced. “You said you knew Dumbledore,” he asked Regulus.
“Yes, and that was thanks to my feelings of loneliness; just as yours helped me find you. One day, I happened to head out to just get some fresh air, hoping that doing so would ensure that I didn’t start climbing the walls of my hideout. And due to my carelessness, I got seen. Luckily for me, it was by a member of the Order of the Phoenix, who immediately reported to Dumbledore. Dumbledore got in touch with me and asked if I could help, by keeping track of the movements of some known Death Eaters. I agreed, and that’s what I have been doing since then.”
“But why didn’t you just come out of hiding when Voldemort disappeared?” asked Harry, feeling that this should have been the obvious thing to do.
“Come on, Harry, think about it. I was supposed to be dead. I was a Death Eater, wanted by the Ministry. If I had shown myself, either some of the remaining Death Eaters would have killed me, or else I would have ended up with life imprisonment in Azkaban,” said Regulus, impatiently, “Even Dumbledore couldn’t have saved me from that. Besides, my usefulness was in being unknown to those I spied on.”
“So you’ve been helping the Order?” asked Harry, feeling like his head would explode with all that he had heard.
“Don’t know how much I helped, but yeah. I learnt to…” here Regulus spread out his hands and said, “see without being seen, and hear without being heard. And I began to listen in on conversations of the Death Eaters who had managed to stay out of Azkaban. I frequented places similar to the Hog’s Head and managed to find out some interesting information now and then.”
Harry wasn’t listening; he had just thought of another question, a very important question. “Why didn’t you tell Dumbledore about the locket Horcrux,” he asked, his eyes glittering dangerously, “Dumbledore needn’t have died then.”
“I’m not so sure, Harry, I think Dumbledore might have died anyway,” said Regulus slowly, “But the answer to you question is in the house that I was put in. Do you know what quality the Sorting Hat looks for, to place someone in Slytherin?”
“Ambition,” answered Harry promptly, though his first instinct had been to say evil.
“Right you are. And so, once I got over Hector’s death I began to think. I had just helped destroy a Horcrux. I had made the Dark Lord a little less invincible. My ego began to bloat,” said Regulus sounding disgusted with his former self, “And I began to think that I could destroy the Dark Lord all by myself. Luckily, I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that the Dark Lord had made only one Horcrux. So I decided I would find all the Horcruxes, destroy them all, and then destroy the Dark Lord himself.”
Regulus definitely looked ready to drop now, but he ploughed on, determined to answer all of Harry’s questions. “I searched and searched for years. I knew that the Dark Lord’s disappearance was only temporary, that he’d be back. I told myself I could find all the Horcruxes and destroy them and then the Dark Lord would be mortal again. But as the years passed, I began to despair of ever finding them. Yet my ego would not let me give up so I kept searching, though I never managed to find a single one since then.”
“It is also unfortunate that Dumbledore never confided in anyone about his search for the Horcruxes. So no one told me, either, that Dumbledore was following the same path as I was,” Regulus continued, definite remorse in his voice now, “but my fault was more culpable as it was brought on by own large ego.”
Regulus could see the unspoken question in Harry’s eyes and he answered it, “When Dumbledore died, I realized that I had gone far enough without help. If Dumbledore, the only wizard that the Dark Lord feared, had died even before the war had begun in earnest, then I had to move fast. I knew I had wasted time in not seeking Dumbledore’s help so I decided to seek out the next best person, Dumbledore’s protégé “ you,” he finished, looking straight at Harry.
Harry put his face in his hands, then taking off his glasses he began to massage his eyes gently. He couldn’t deny that the evening had been interesting, to say the least. His mind was spinning, almost out of control, while trying to make a coherent decision. He still found it hard to believe that this person was Sirius’ brother, thought to be dead for seventeen years, and indirectly responsible for the deaths of a Hector Dashwood and Albus Dumbledore. Did he really want to trust him? Do you have a choice? You’re this close to giving up already. Maybe he could help after all, a small voice spoke up in the back of his mind.
Harry put his glasses back on. He looked up at Regulus who seemed to be studying him quietly. “When do we start?” Harry asked briskly.
A slow smile began to spread out over Regulus’ face. “Tomorrow,” he answered, “I’m exhausted. I’ll kip out in the attic; it’s the one of the places without a portrait in it. I don’t think any of the portraits in this house would be able to keep it quiet that I’ve come back from the dead, in a manner of speaking.”
Harry grinned and agreed. He began to get up to head up to his room when Regulus seemed to think of something and asked him to sit down again. “What’s up?” asked Harry, yawning widely now.
“Do you know what the other Horcruxes are?” asked Regulus, sounding a trifle embarrassed, or so Harry thought.
“Yup. One was a diary, which I destroyed in second year,” recited Harry, much to Regulus’ astonishment, “Then the Gaunt family ring, which Dumbledore destroyed, and Slytherin’s locket that you destroyed. That leaves Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, something of Gryffindor’s or Ravenclaw’s, Nagini and Voldemort himself.”
Regulus seemed lost in thought when Harry finished running down the list. He gave himself a shake when Harry cleared his throat, and then he smiled. “I think its best we concentrate on where we can find Hufflepuff’s cup first since it’s the easiest one of the list as of now.” Harry nodded in agreement.
Regulus’ face turned serious, reminding Harry forcefully of McGonagall before she ladled them homework. “Before we begin looking for Hufflepuff’s cup, you need to make sure you’re up to speed so that you’re ready for any challenge which we might face when we go looking for the remaining Horcruxes,” he told Harry.
“But I am up to speed,” burst out Harry indignantly, “We can’t afford to waste any more time, so let’s begin looking now.”
Regulus raised his eyebrows in amusement. “Alright, what spell would you use if you were to suddenly come across Inferi?” he asked.
Harry paused, stumped. Desperately he tried to remember the spell that Dumbledore had used in the cave, but to no avail. “Err… something that produces heat and light?” he mumbled.
“That is correct,” chuckled Regulus, “But you have a long way to go. That is why you need to study some more before we begin.”
“Study?” said Harry incredulously, “But if I wanted to study I would have gone back to Hogwarts.”
“True. But would you have had the same freedom at Hogwarts?” asked Regulus sensibly.
“Well no,” agreed Harry, “But when you say study, what do you mean?”
“I don’t think your books for seventh year will be very different from mine so I’ll get you those,” Regulus said, “I think Defense against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms and Transfiguration should about do it.”
“Why potions?” whined Harry, thinking that he had just got rid of potions only to have it foisted on him again.
“Because, Harry,” Regulus explained patiently, “Quite often when you’ve been on the receiving end of a particularly nasty curse, knowing the right potion would be the fastest way to get you back on your feet.”
“Well ok, I suppose I could do that,” Harry grumbled, “But I still think spending six months on this is a bit of a waste of time.”
Regulus laughed out loud. “Six months? I expect you to have finished all the four in a month.”
Harry gaped as if Regulus had just told him to go up against a dragon. “One month?” he squawked, “You must have me confused with Hermione.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Nothing,” mumbled Harry. Then when he saw Regulus grinning at him, he hastened to add, “She’s a friend of mine who’d read each years’ books in the month before term began.”
“She has the right idea,” said Regulus, “Anyway the reason I want you to finish them in a month is because I want to give you some books that deal with rather more advanced magic than what you’d have learnt at Hogwarts. So you need to know what Hogwarts can teach you, before you move on to the advanced stuff.”
Harry nodded in agreement. Regulus looked straight at him, right into his eyes and Harry began to feel slightly uncomfortable with his penetrating gaze. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
Regulus ignored the question and began to speak slowly and clearly, “Harry, some of those books would deal with very dark magic. I think you need to have some idea of what you’re against which is why I shall give them to you. Also, I’ll tell you how to get to the Black library. However, I must warn you, Harry; the Dark Arts can teach you as well as seduce you. It is easy to be corrupted by the power the Dark Arts can give you. But you must resist “ because if you give in, then you’d be no different from the Dark Lord.”
Harry gulped visibly when Regulus said this. Am I strong enough to resist the Dark Arts? I couldn’t even resist the Half-Blood Prince, he thought.
“Penny for your thoughts, Harry,” Regulus said suddenly, bringing Harry out of his reverie.
“Nothing,” said Harry, quickly, “I’m just really tired, I might even fall asleep right here at the table.”
“Well we can’t have that now, can we?” said Regulus with a laugh, “Off to bed then, and good night. Or rather, good morning,” he amended, glancing at the clock.
But as Harry trudged up to his room, he wasn’t sure if he was going to get to sleep at all. He had a lot to think about. Was he right in placing his trust in a former Death Eater, who was believed to be dead, and who was Sirius’ brother? Harry put his right hand to his forehead and rubbed it to ease the headache that he was beginning to feel. There was no doubt about it; he was definitely edging closer to ending up next to Lockhart at St. Mungo’s.
A/N: There, as promised I’ve got the next chapter up faster and I promise to update, maybe not as regularly as this, but still regularly enough to keep all my wonderful readers satisfied. I’d like to thank all those who read and reviewed, your support has been instrumental in getting this story up and running again. Thanks also to my wonderful beta whose encouragement and assistance has been vital in getting this chapter up.
Chow for now.
Scarhead Steve.