If You Leave Me Now // Marauders

Chapter Fifty-Seven

CW- Death, trauma, torture, Voldemort
Also if you're into that sort of thing, the playlist above greatly helped write this chapter

July 8th, 1978

The day seemed to drag slowly as Evangeline worried over the McKinnons, hoping that their plan would run smoothly. A knot had formed in her stomach since the moment her feet touched the floor that morning, and that usually only signified one thing.

It was when Regulus arrived on her doorstep, looking as if he had been personally victimized by a banshee that things began to go wrong.

"Whatever in this world happened to you?" She drug him quickly into her bedroom, shutting the door and throwing up a silencing charm.

"H-h-he took Kreacher. Last night."

Evangeline's face fell, "Please tell me he didn't kill him."

"No, no. But close. Worse, in some ways."

Regulus's body shook, thinking of what had happened.

"It's my fault, Evangeline," Regulus stressed, pulling his head into his hands on the edge of the bed, "I should have never volunteered him."

"Regulus, will you bloody tell me what happened?"

"He needed to borrow a house elf, so Kreacher was sent to do whatever he asked. He took him to this...cave. Somewhere in Ireland. He watched Voldemort sacrifice his blood by rubbing it on the wall, causing the opening to reveal itself. They crossed a small pond inside, Kreacher said. Then he made him-"

Regulus suddenly gasped for air, the sickness churning inside of him almost becoming too much.

"Regulus, breathe," Evangeline softly demanded, intertwining their arms and laying her head against his shoulder, "What happened then?"

"He ordered Kreacher to drink some sort of...potion. He said it was the foulest things he had ever tasted, and it made him see things."

"What kind of things?"

"His worst memories, over and over but twisted to make it seem as if it were never-ending. They played on a loop, Kreacher said, until he was exhausted and wanted to die. After The Dark Lord had forced the potion down his throat, he dropped a locket into the basin and refilled it with the same potion. He left Kreacher there, dying."

"How did he manage to get back?"

"I told him to come straight back to Grimmauld when Voldemort was done with him. If it weren't for the direct orders, he would have died. Alone in that cave."

"But Kreacher is fine now?"

Regulus nodded, "He's on the mend, at least. I told him to stay out of sight from everyone except Mother so the Dark Lord believes him to be dead."

 "This is brilliant, Regulus!"

Regulus looked baffled, "How in Merlin's name is this brilliant? He almost killed the elf that's been tending to me since I was a baby!"

"We know where the horcrux is, you ninny! Now all we have to do is plan accordingly, snatch the bugger up, and set it ablaze! One down, others to go."

Evangeline sprung from the bed, finding an empty notebook hidden away in the drawer of her desk, "Go back home and make sure Kreacher recovers. Once he has, get every single detail that he remembers, even if it doesn't seem important. We'll go over it together and plan a way to go retrieve it."