Chapter 1
That was it. The breaking point. No more. He could no longer sit by and allow this to happen.
That man- Wrong, thing, for he was no man- had taken a defenseless creature, who basically had no will of his own and put him through unimaginable torture, only to leave him there to die.
Regulus supposed that was the breaking point. He'd already been having doubts, beginning to see just how right his brother had been about the Death Eaters, about all of it.
He supposed they began the night he watched as the Dark Lord completely obliterated a family. They hadn't done anything wrong, other than be of 'impure' blood. He still remembered the children's screams.
Now, he knew exactly what Voldemort did before he joined. How could he not have? He'd even actively praised it with his Slytherin friends, and put news articles about the things He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had done on his bedroom walls. But he'd only been sent after those who had spoken out against the Dark Lord's practices, or members of the Order. And killing innocents may have been something that Regulus supported when he was younger, but faced with actually doing so gave him a change of heart, and also made him realise that the others that he had targeted were innocent too. They were simply fighting for what they believed in, and what they were fighting for was a hell of a lot better than what he was.
So yes, that had been the beginning of the end of his reign as a Death Eater, but the event that made him wish to put his foot down now was when Voldemort decided to borrow his house elf, only to leave Kreacher half dead.
A house elf, one that had never been anything but loyal, and Voldemort just left him there to die.
He had to do something. He had to. He was ready to march up to Kreacher and demand that the house elf take him to the cave so he could get back at that bastard the best way he knew possible, destroying his precious horcrux (Kreacher had relayed the tale of where he'd gone and what he'd been there for after returning), but then he thought it through.
It would be unwise to go alone, and he'd likely be killed. Plus, he had more valuable information that could bring about the Dark Lord's defeat that he could share.
So, changing his mind at the last second, he apparated out of Grimauld Place, ready to call in some favours in order to find the person he knew could help him, would help him.
He needed to find his brother. He needed to find Sirius.