The Search Is Over

Chapter 53

The first half of the year felt to Regulus like a ball rolling down hill, rapidly speeding up as it went. January passed relatively quickly while February went by even faster. The only thing that stood out about that month was Valentine's day. It provided a meaningful opportunity to celebrate and revel in their love now that they finally could do so. Other than Regulus going out to feed, he and Kreacher spent the entire evening in their bedroom at Doge's with the door locked. Regulus fed Kreacher chocolates and wine in bed and Kreacher pleasantly shocked him with some inventive...tricks that took scentual pleasure to an entire new level.

By the end of March, Wolfgang and Adler finally worked out a connecting charm that linked Kreacher's listening charm to a scrying charm allowing Death Eaters to at last be tracked via their dark marks from Knockturn Alley. In early April, Regulus received a note from Severus that he was rather expecting as it asked he and Kreacher to attend a meeting at Wolfgang's to continue making plans for Snape's own survival. enclosed in Regulus's note was another that Severus asked be sent on to Albus at Durmstrang. The man was obviously concerned that his correspondences could be tracked, as he sent them with his own personal and obviously resentful owl.

Regulus sent Albus's note off via Mortis at once, and just as quickly released Severus's owl to return to him.

"He wishes us to meet late in the evening this Wednesday near midnight," Regulus told Kreacher, passing the note to the elf.

"That's logical," Kreacher murmured, nodding his understanding.

"With being Headmaster now, Severus Snape cannot just vanish after dinner without raising notice and questions."

Regulus and Kreacher knew better than most that one couldn't be too careful when it came to Voldemort and his followers, two of which now taught at Hogwarts. For Regulus this was still difficult to believe...Processing that things had actually gotten that far probably should not have been so challenging considering what Voldemort had already done to them, but it was.

Perhaps this stemmed from hoping the Ministry would finally man up and step in to do their job. Part of Regulus wondered if they were simply too inept and cowardly to do so or if they actually couldn't locate the man or track his followers. He was truly leaning toward the former, though. He believed the later was fully possible were the Ministry willing to be tougher and perhaps even more vicious to gain necessary information...To quote Gellert, for the greater good, but blast it, sometimes that was necessary! A bit of harshness to save many lives was necessary especially when the reluctance to do so got Voldemort in power and innocent people killed.

Regulus and Kreacher arrived at Wolfgang's that Wednesday, half an hour before midnight, because it was better to be late than early, or so Regulus's Mum had always said. Albus and Gellert were already present, having tea with Millicent and Wolfgang. The two did not seem to know what to say to one another, and both interacted more with everyone else. Though they were of the same generation, that didn't surprise Regulus in the least as the two were day and night. He still highly respected both and found admirable qualities in both despite their obvious differences.

As always, Regulus attempted to scan Grindelwald's impressively shielded mind, and as usual he failed. Well this time he did get the vague concept of Grindelwald missing Zabini and wishing he could be here with him along with the vague feeling of not being complete without the other even in social situations with wizards whose company he generally enjoyed. While that was more than usual, Regulus chalked this up to Zabini being the crack in Grindelwald's armor rather than Regulus actually making any progress on the blonde's shields.

Regulus found it both ironic and awe inspiring that three out of the six gathered in the room were supposed to be dead. He, Grindelwald and Albus were obviously harder to kill than people expected and that felt surprisingly empowering to contemplate even if it shouldn't have. It was all about planning and staying one step ahead for each of them, if in different ways, after all.