Six (Under Re-Writing Process)
Regulus wiped the sweat dripping from his forehead with a small white towel, sword resting against the armrest of the green velvet arm chair he was sitting on.
Training with Grandfather Arcturus continues, it is now two weeks after their first meeting. They have advanced from combat to weapon usage and incorporating weaponry with combat. Regulus has pushed himself to his limits, he has also pushed his body by consuming small amounts of poison and potions to grow a tolerance to them.
It was less about picking up a new thing and more of picking it back up, considering he had been doing it since he was younger. That's right, Regulus Black has been consuming small amounts of poisons and potions since he was merely nine years old, he stopped after Sirius left. He started taking them after witnessing their mother forcing Veritaserum down Sirius' throat when he was sorted into Gryffindor, Regulus silently swore that he would keep his and Sirius' secrets with him as he watched Walburga pry answers out of Sirius.
He asked Kreacher to steal potions and poisons from his father's stashes, he took advantage of his grandmother's hobby of growing poisonous plants and asked her to give him some on visits and brewed them into tea, and other efforts of sneaking poison into his system. It starts with one or two Belladonna berries, and advances to brewing Foxglove flowers with his hot water for tea. He stopped after Sirius left when he reached his breaking point, overwhelmed with sadness and grief and loneliness, he started forgetting to take those poisons, then it stopped completely. Sirius was not there for Regulus to keep his secrets anymore, the only secrets he had left to keep was his own.
Picking the habit back up was surprisingly easy, his body has accommodated to the various poisons and potions over the years that his system could differentiate poisons and medicine, and now that he has direct access to his grandmother's gardens and greenhouses for him to take materials from it makes it easier.
But poison matter aside, he has more important things to talk about with his grandfather.
Regulus excused himself from the others and left to find his grandfather, whom Regulus correctly predicts was in his study. He felt the weight of the locket in his pocket as he knocked on the door, hearing his grandfather's voice allowing him in.
Regulus walked into the study and closed the door behind him, he walked towards his grandfather in his chair and took a hesitating breath. He sat in the chair in front of him and let the words spill out of his mouth. He told him everything, the Dark Lord's plans, his discovery, and everything leading up. He even lifted up his sleeves to show him the continuously bleeding wound he acquired from his journey, unwrapping the bandages and letting a drop of blood drip down on the marbled floor of the study, he even hovered his fingers above the lit candle to show his loss sense of touch in his fingertips, before wrapping his arm back up once more.
Arcturus listened, he stayed quiet as he listened to Regulus with a straight face, occasionally twitching with the mention of Voldemort and his effects on his grandson, and waited patiently until Regulus finished talking. Arcturus sighed, before getting up from his chair and walking towards his grandson.
He pulled out his wand from his sleeve and waved it, one of the drawers behind him opening and a white box levitated to the table, Arcturus used his wand to unwrap the bloodied bandages and pulled out a bottle from another cabinet, transfiguring a bucket on the floor and hovering Regulus' arms above it. Arcturus poured the liquid from the bottle on Regulus' wounds, Regulus hissing from pain but held himself, and wrapped the wounds with clean bandages. "This potion should slow the bleeding." was all he said at that moment, before walking back behind his desk and sitting back down.
"Now, do you have the locket in your possession right now?" Arcturus asked, Regulus nodded and fished the locket out of his pocket and set it down on the table. Arcturus eyed the locket for a few seconds, before once again waving his wand and pulling a few books from the shelf inside of the study. Regulus could tell from the various titles that these books are darker than even the ones in Grimmauld's library, giving more details about dark magic and artifacts.
Regulus' view on dark magic is like his soul, grey. Yes, dark magic is dangerous, but their bad reputation is mostly caused by the misapplies of them by wizards. Dark magic isn't necessarily bad, it's how they're used that contorts the meaning and intentions of them. If only Sirius could see it the same way as him. He just hopes that Sirius' views are altered with the ongoing war, and Regulus knows that Sirius is smart enough to figure out the other side of Dumbledore, he just needs a trigger of sorts.
Anyway,
Arcturus and Regulus spent hours reading through the pile of books, making occasional notes of something they might find useful. They come to a conclusion on the very few methods to destroy Horcruxes; Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre. As well as many theories as to what other items were made into Horcruxes.
The next day, the Pantheons walked up the hill behind the manor behind Lord Black. They stopped at a clearance at the end of the hill and Arcturus sets down the locket on the dried grass.
Regulus pointed his wand at the locket, Arcturus stood behind him if reinforcements were needed if the spell went disarray and Regulus lost control of the fire. Even though Regulus has an extraordinary control over his magic, the Fiendfyre spell was no easy spell, even for those who have great control of their magic. For one who could control the spell, they must have full control of the magic going through their bodies and through their wands and extreme focus, one distraction could easily lead to a forest fire.
Regulus closed his eyes and cleared his mind, he focused on his body the feeling of magic within him. His mind cleared, the sounds around him slowly stops and quieted.
"Fiendfyre"
Fire shot out of Regulus' wand, forming a serpent and slithering around the locket, surrounding it with its immense heat. The serpent opened its fiery jaws and swallowed the locket, the locket could be seen through the fire body of the serpent and made a sound that could only be described as pained screams, before dropping out of the serpent and back on the ground.
The serpent slithered upwards into the sky, before dissipating into ashes and Regulus withdrew his wand while breathing heavily.
The Pantheons rushed to their Lord of the Dead's side and lent him a body to lean on as he regained his composure, Arcturus stepped forward and analyzed the remains of the locket that is now nothing but a mere pile of melted metal.
One down, several more to go.
Back at Hogwarts,
Pandora and Regulus were walking through the halls of the castle, the other three unfortunately still stuck in potions class with Slughorn. So they opted to proceed with the next phase of the plan by themselves.
The Lord of the Dead and the Moon Goddess made their way up a set of stairs up to the Ravenclaw tower, and turned to a dark corner.
There, sitting on the windowsill, was a ghostly figure of a beautiful woman in gray, her dark hair gracefully cascading down her back.
It seems that Helena Revenclaw’s beauty never withered, even with death.
Pandora gave Regulus a questioning look, silently asking him if he wished to do this himself or if he would like her to accompany him. Regulus chose the former, and Pandora nodded and kissed him on the cheek, before walking down the stairs behind him.
He slowly walked towards the beautiful ghostly woman, trying to not startle her with his presence. “Lady Helena,” he quietly said, watching as the beautiful woman turned her head and attention to him.
He shivered slightly as the ghostly woman assessed him with her eyes, analyzing him and his intentions.
“Whom might thou be?” the ghostly woman asked. Her manner of speech reveals a lot about her, she was way older than others think, she was the daughter of one of the founders and most likely one of the first few students ever attending Hogwarts.
“My name is Regulus Black.”
“I knew a Black once.” She responded, Regulus thought that she must be talking about the past older generations of Black. “What is the intent of thy presence upon me?”
“I am here to ask you about the whereabouts of something, an item.” Helena frowned at his answer, already knowing what he wanted to know. “Thou desire to wot about mine mother's diadem” she claimed, confirming her speculation.
“Yes, I would appreciate your guidance, my Lady.” Regulus took a step forward.
“I apologize, yet I be afeard i canst not help thou” her voice turned raspy, as if she was reminiscing about an old grave mistake that she had made in the past.
“Wait, please my Lady. I wish to destroy it, it was altered by a horrible man, who is also the cause of the ongoing war. I believe the diadem is one of the keys to defeating him.” Regulus said with a slight plea to his tone.
“Another swore to confound it many years since…a strange sirrah with a strange name” Regulus perked up at the mention of “Sirrah”, a boy, possibly a young Voldemort. If he could find out the true name of the Dark Lord, it could be a huge step up into their plan.
“He tainted mine mother's diadem, he tainted it. He cursed it! he defiled it with the darkest magic known to man!” she yelled out in rage and agony, Regulus had to stop himself from flinching.
“I am aware of his doings, my Lady. I was regretfully one of his followers, all against my will, my mother forced that fate upon me.” Regulus admits in shame, but his shame is necessary to gain the woman’s trust. “But now I have the chance and choice to fight back, I have already destroyed one of them, I will destroy the others as well.”
Regulus fished out the charred remains of the locket, now deformed into a big pile of re-melted metal.
The ghostly woman looked at the deformity in his hand, and back at him, then nodded. “Tom riddle, that was his name.” Regulus straightened at that, and nodded for her to continue. “As for the diadem;it's hither ,'i the castle, 'i the place where all's is occulted. Should thee hast to bid , thou shall ne'r wot. Should thee wot, thou want only bid”
Regulus repeated the sentence over and over again in his head, branding it into the walls of his mind. He looked up at the beautiful ghost, and bowed as that of a man to a lady at a ball. “Thank you, my Lady.”
Pandora was waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase, she had also fetched the other three while he was talking. He relays the message to his Pantheons and they all collectively agree that the location which the diadem resides is the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor, also commonly known as the Come and Go Room to others.
They all climbed the staircase up to the seventh floor, and turned to the left, facing the blank wall opposite of the Troll tapestry. Regulus stepped forward, “Showeth me whither the diadem resides.” while the speech manner might be unnecessary, Regulus certainly liked saying it, it made him feel like the characters inside a Shakespeare play.
The bricks of the blank wall shifted, dispersing from the middle and forming a large wooden door in front of them. Regulus opens the door and was greeted by mountains and mountains of artifacts and items. Some he recognized, some he didn't. They most likely were lost and magically ended up here, Regulus wonders if any other artifacts here might be useful, but that’s a matter for another day.
The Pantheons walked through the pile of items, occasionally stopping the Evan and Barty from taking something they shouldn’t, until Regulus’ magic hummed with familiarity. Regulus looked up at one of the pile and saw an opened black velvet box, and inside it rested the cursed diadem.
Regulus waved his wand and carefully floated the box towards him, feeling the same dark wave that he felt with the locket.
They destroyed the diadem the following weekend at the same field.
Two down, few more to go.