Bad Romance

Chapter 25

Chapter 25: We Belong Way Down Below

Though Bellatrix very much wanted to go home after such a long day of constantly performing complex magic, she wanted to speak to Regulus and Kreacher more. She'd intended to do so for days, but with their new hectic schedule, plus working through all these new unwanted emotional issues thanks to recalling what the Dark Lord had put them through, it just hadn't happened. It was nearly time for dinner as the day had run late, so Kreacher and Regulus should be awake. What with them having had a late lunch at the Ministry, they wouldn't be wanting to eat yet.

"I would like to stop at Grimmauld before we go home," she told Rabastan and Rodolphus as they prepared to depart.

"Are we trashing their place like your parents' dining room," Rabastan asked, and Bellatrix shot him a glare.

"Open your bloody mouth again, and your ass can go home," she snapped, and Rodolphus chuckled, slipping an arm around her waist. He and Bellatrix Apparated together to Grimmauld. Rabastan had joined them by the time Bellatrix lifted the snarling gargoyle door knocker and let it fall several times. A stressed looking elf wearing a simple black tunic opened the door and bowed. "Come in," he said, stepping back at once. "If Mistress Bella, and Masters Rodolphus and Rabastan would like to wait in the library, Stormy will inform his masters that you are here."

"Thank you," Bellatrix told the elf distractedly, and they showed themselves into the library. Kreacher and Regulus were family, so the Lestranges were quite familiar with Grimmauld Place and were always free to make themselves at home whenever they visited.

In the library, Bellatrix sat pensively on the sofa while Rodolphus wandered around peering at the spines of various books. For his part, Rabastan headed for the liquor cabinet in the corner and poured himself a tumbler of scotch. No one spoke until Kreacher and Regulus entered.

In her usual fashion, Bellatrix got right to the point. "Did Grindelwald see you after he fixed our heads?"

Regulus smirked. "I don't think fixing your heads is possible," he told his cousin.

Bellatrix scowled. "Your jokes were never funny, Regulus."

Rabastan chuckled and raised his glass to Black. "Perhaps not funny, but so fucking true!"

With a sigh, Bellatrix waited through the small talk, bored. Rodolphus continued to scan the books on the shelves, seemingly more interested in them than anything else that happened to be going on.

"Gellert did come to see us yesterday, yes," Regulus said, turning to Bellatrix. "He worked on unclouding what was done to our memories."

Bellatrix frowned at the use of the word unclouding for what Grindelwald had done, then nodded slowly. It made sense, though the concept was new. "So? Did you remember what Voldemort did to the two of you? We don't." She shuddered. "We remembered enough, though. Gods, Regulus, Uncle Orion!"

Regulus nodded. "Worst time of my life. It didn't get better until I returned to Kreacher nearly twenty years later."

Regulus hadn't died as most believed or even ended up in Azkaban as the Lestranges had, he hadn't escaped. Regulus had been extremely ill after ingesting too much of the water from the black lake while trying to destroy Voldemort's Horcrux. Although a newly made vampire at the time, the Infiri had still given him a struggle. Even though his vampiric maker had dragged him from the water, she hadn't known how to contact Kreacher so she took Regulus to her place in Rome where he could heal.

He took two weeks to recover from what the indescribably foul water had done to his body. By the time he could hold a quill to write Kreacher, Walburga Black had placed a charm on the house that misdirected all letters not from an address personally approved by her, in advance. With Orion, then Regulus, vanishing within less than a week of one another, she was afraid for her safety and rightfully so. Kreacher, believing that Regulus would return in person, never suspected that he'd attempted to write instead.