"But...He knew how fond you are of Kreacher...Everyone knew... How did he not think you'd have a problem when Kreacher didn't return home," Bellatrix exclaimed incredulously.
Her face was white with shock, her expression honestly aghast. Regulus supposed he couldn't call it Déjà Vu if he was fully aware of why he knew he'd been here before. In nineteen-seventy-nine he'd had nearly the same conversation with the Lestranges, only then Orion Black was present rather than Corvus Lestrange. At least Regulus would not be getting him killed with any foolish mistakes.
"Exactly," Regulus said.
"Now you see why I couldn't go on with things."
Bellatrix nodded.
"Kreacher, I am so sorry you went through that."
Kreacher swallowed the last of his drink and placed the empty glass down on the table beside Corvus's.
"Kreacher knows," he murmured, giving Bellatrix a fond if strained smile. The elf never grew fully accustomed to having conversations that involved his experience with Voldemort and Regulus understood this well. It felt as if that dreadful black lake got a hold on a person's mind and very soul.
"But why didn't you come to us with this back then rather than becoming a bloody vampire, Idiot," Bellatrix demanded.
"We would've believed you. Together we could've..."
"Could've what," Regulus demanded sharply.
"I'd have just put you in danger as well."
He couldn't bring himself to tell them that he had come to them and as a result had gotten their minds twisted. Oh sorry! He could stand the blame, because he deserved it. It wasn't that. He was simply afraid that telling them of their trauma while being unable to help them to remember it could do more mental damage than they'd already suffered.
What if it instead made things worse? The very thought was enough to cause his chest to tighten with panic as he exchanged another worried glance with Kreacher.
"There were six more Horcruxes, though," Rabastan asked and Regulus couldn't help giving him a grateful smile for inadvertently changing the focus up a bit. Fortunately Bellatrix was distracted by that and allowed him to answer.
"Yes. I only discovered the one myself, however. It was Albus Dumbledore who found the rest."
"Then he was fool enough to get himself killed," Bellatrix sneered contemptuously.
"A lot of good his genius mind did him in the end. He was unable to stop The Dark Lord...Unable to help anyone."
Her eyes flashed viciously, indicating to Regulus that on some level, she'd wanted help. Gods, Bella, I am so sorry! Keeping the thought wisely to himself, he closed his eyes for an instant to avoid what he saw lurking in hers because he knew that most of her suffering was his fault.
"Dumbledore isn't dead, actually," he said, then realized the former Headmaster of Hogwarts may not want that information out.
"But don't tell anyone, please," he added hastily.
"I don't know that he plans to return. I got the impression that he was rather fed up with it all, and who can blame him really?"
"Is that actually a serious question," Bellatrix demanded.
"Are the other six Horcruxes destroyed now or what," Rodolphus asked, and preferring that question, Regulus addressed it instead of Bellatrix's.
He didn't want to get into how Dumbledore had still helped against Voldemort because he didn't know how much the old man would appreciate being told.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
The Search Is Over
फैनफिक्शनThere was a very good reason that Regulus Black reacted hard enough to lose his own life when he discovered that Voldemort had nearly killed Kreacher to protect the hiding place of his Horcrux. Discover that reason and much more Voldemort related in...
