Love, Life, And Lies- Regulus Black

.fidelite a la mort.

.am i the villain in this story?.

I didn't even have a second to process anything that had happened before I was being whisked away out of the chamber by my mother. The second people had started to rise from the table, she latched onto my robes, and detached me from the sea of silver and black.

"The Dark Lord requested an individual meeting with you Cassiopeia, the honor that has been bestowed upon you is great." Her voice echoed as she pulled me along behind her through the corridors until we stopped at another set of massive black doors.

Before she sent me inside, she turned to me, her green eyes glowing with an emotion I couldn't quite place. "Fidélité à la mort." She said, repeating the motto of her own family. The one she had been raised with. Loyalty unto death. I had always liked it better than the Rosier family motto. It provided one with the opportunity to choose where their loyalties lay. Obviously she meant loyalty to the Dark Lord.

Before I could reply or even think about what words I wanted to say to her, she tore my wand from my hands and flicked her own. At her beckoning, the massive black doors flew open, signaling that it was my turn to enter. I squared my shoulders, grit my teeth, and entered the black abyss of the room without a glance toward my mother.

The doors slammed closed behind me with a thunderous crack, and I was plunged into darkness. Part of me wanted to panic at the thought of what lurked in the darkness, but I knew I was being watched, so I just stood, waiting for something to happen.

Was the Dark Lord in the room with me? Was he watching my every move? What kind of sick sadistic test was this? I didn't know what was expected of me, and I couldn't do any magic to alleviate the oppressive blackness. How it was possible to hide me from the trace, I had no idea. Yet it blew my mind that a way could be found to keep one room in a home free from the tracking powers the trace spell had. I wished it was possible to mask a whole home, if it were I could have alleviated the darkness with a flick of my wrist.

I don't know how long I had been there, alone with my thoughts when green flames roared to life in the fireplace. When they settled, I could finally see my surroundings. The chamber that I had been led into was ridiculously large, I couldn't see from one side to the other, but what surprised me the most was that it doubled as a library. I had never seen so many books in an estate library before. It was rather remarkable. The close proximity to them filled me with a feeling of power. However, as incredible as the many thousands of books were, there were artifacts that lined the shelves which caught my intrigue. Some odd-shaped and tiny, others looked extremely valuable. Some emitted odd colored steam and strange whirling noises. They reminded me of things I had seen in Dumbledore's office.

A glimmer caught my eye as the green glow of the firelight reflected off of a surface across the room. Curiously, I glanced around before I walked to the shelf that held the artifact I had caught sight of.

As I realized the treasure that the shelf held, a gasp echoed from my chest before I could stop it. The bright gold, with emeralds encrusted in the shape of an "S", was unmistakable to all who knew the legends of the Hogwarts founders. I was looking at the locket of Salazar Slytherin. I tentatively reached out to touch it but drew my hand back before my fingers made contact with the metal. Why was this here? It was said to have been lost for centuries, and I knew that the Black family was not descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Why would such an artifact be in the possession of Druella and Cygnus?

An odd tingling sensation made its way through my body as my senses pricked. I glanced around the room searching for any form of life. I appeared to be alone, but I could feel that I wasn't. Another presence lurked within, and I knew who it was.