Squib - In the Noble House of Black

21- Dark Mark

July 8th, 1977

Regulus was planning to spend most of his summer in his room or sneaking out. He didn't get that chance. At first, it was fancy dinners at different pureblood mansions. But he was not stupid, there was a reason for these dinners. The conversation topics mostly surrounded the war. The war had been brewing since before he was born. Dumbledore took down Grindelwald in 1945, the same year a boy named Tom Riddle graduated from Hogwarts. During his time at Hogwarts, this Tom Riddle would create a group of followers, later called death eaters. For years, Tom would gain support to his side, as well as taking a new name, Lord Voldemort. The war officially started in 1970, but now eight years later, Voldemort had more followers than ever.

At the dinners, the various hosts and guests would discuss their allegiances to Lord Voldemort. Muggles, muggleborns, or what they called them mudbloods, squibs and half-breeds even blood traitors, half-bloods were considered below them. Regulus thought they must have an ego the size of the planet to believe all of that. But even then, Regulus often found himself caught between ideas. There were the ones he was raised with, ingrained into his head by his parents and the pure-bloods around him, or the ideas that he was exposed to in school or with his siblings, sometimes even his less extreme slytherin friends.

The only thing that mattered at this point was to protect the ones he loved. The moment he told Sirius to leave a year and a half ago, he knew everything was going to fall on him. And he would not give up because if he did, it meant Sirius was no longer safe. Maia was actively fighting against the death eaters, he knew this from the summer when she had broken into his house. By taking this place it even helped his friends. Barty Crouch Jr, and Evan Rosier, his dorm mates and wishful death eaters. Keep them out. Keep them safe. He repeated to himself.

So when he was brought in front of Lord Voldemort himself, he wasn't surprised. He wasn't scared, he knew it had to be done.

His face was stoic. He would not show emotion, it was better this way as the Dark Lord hovered over him. "Your arm, boy."

Boy. He was just a boy after all. Barely 16 and having just finished his fifth year at Hogwarts a week ago. He was a boy that was being forced into this war, not not forced. Because he chose this, he chose this to keep them all safe.

Regulus carefully rolled up the sleeve of his left arm to just above the elbow. "My lord," He nodded.

Regulus hadn't thought about the pain. He should've expected it. Why would the mark not be painful to take? So instead, Regulus grit his teeth, he would not let Voldemort see him as weak, he could take the pain, it wasn't something new to him.

What was new was the missions. They weren't dangerous, but every death eater was to do their part. He tried not to think too much about them, especially not about Li-.

No.

He would not finish that thought. Linda was a muggleborn who had just been promoted in the ministry in the department of magical law enforcement. She was his first mission, the one to prove he could get the mark. He didn't have to kill her, no he just had to incapacitate her and bring her to the Dark Lord likely for a fate worse than death.

But he completed the mission, because Regulus Black was not a good person. He only hoped his bad deeds would lead to getting information which could lead to winning? Losing? First he needed to figure out what side he was on. But for now he was only known as a death eater.