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....REGULUS HAD DREADED many things in his life. His N.E.W.T exams had been one. Family dinners in Grimmauld Place. The sight of Jude Devereaux's practiced scowl that was always followed by some sort of argument. But the thing that he dreaded most of all was an impromptu meeting around the Dark Lord's table.
He was a better liar than most and his Occlumency was second to none. He was good at fading into the background and becoming just another piece of the wallpaper. But there was always the threat of his quietness being taken as a point of suspicion. And he desperately didn't want to be the object of the Dark Lord's suspicion.
His meetings up until now had been fine. He had sat quietly and listened intently and that was exactly how he obtained all the knowledge that he had.
But on a cold Sunday night after the Malfoy Gala, when his Dark Mark burned for the first time in weeks, his heart dropped.
He knew exactly what this meeting would be about. He had barely slept all night after they returned home from Malfoy Manor. Rage had settled firmly into his bones, and buried underneath that, was worry. The Dark Lord was bound to find out eventually about his missing Horcrux. And while Regulus had thought he had covered his tracks well, a meeting the day after he had stolen it didn't sound like it would fare well for him.
He was worried about Jude too, as much as he tried to pretend he wasn't. As soon as they had arrived home, she had turned sickly pale and had begun to shake uncontrollably. It had scared him senseless, to see such a strong woman so stricken with fear. Pandora had carted her away immediately and he hadn't seen her since. He wanted to know how she was but he didn't have the courage to ask.
When he couldn't ignore the burning of his Dark Mark any longer, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst. He closed his eyes and Apparated to the Dolohov estate, a deep feeling of nausea settling in his stomach.
As soon as his feet hit solid ground, he was hit in the face with the stench and sound of death.
He had landed just outside the dining room, one of the last stragglers to arrive. So when he followed behind the others into the dimly lit room, the heavy air of sorrow only doubled.
