Regulus was standing outside the mahogany doors petrified. The atmosphere of the Malfoy manor was getting colder and colder and he forced himself to relax before knocking on the door, the knock echoing through the marble walls.
Putting his wand in his coat's pocket, he entered the room after hearing the sound of confirmation coming from the other end.
The long wooden table was the same as ever, the dark oak chairs surrounding it, and on the head of the table was the Dark Lord himself, with eyes a dark chocolate brown and a head full of dark brown curls, at fifty and something years old, Tom Riddle had the best appearance, someone, his age could have.
"Regulus, please join me."
His voice always had that quirk that send a chill down Regulus' spine. It was honestly amusing, Regulus was never the type of kid to shy away from something dangerous, much like his brother the younger Black had a nick for mischief, even though he did not show it as much.
But whenever he was at his parents' house or this very own room, the hairs on his arms raised, a feeling he had wished he could forget.
"My Lord," he said, his voice dripping with poison, Tom couldn't taste it but he could. The words rolled off his tongue familiarly.
And Merlin, he fucking hated it, so much that he would cut his tongue if it continued to sound so familiar.
"As you know Regulus, my boy, you have been a great asset to our army. Many of our own hold high respect for your family, as do I, and I think you are one of the most trusted men I have as y follower, with great ambition, skills in fighting, a good academic record, excellence in all your classes I heard? Congratulations."
Even if his tone was threatening, the compliments sounded sincere, almost kind.
Regulus was so familiar with manipulation that he could almost taste it as the words left Voldemort's mouth. Dark brown eyes stared back at Regulus, a crazed look in those eyes.
This was not going to be good, he knew that the decision he made at sixteen was going to cost him a lot, but fuck his sixteen-year-old self that wanted attention and validation from his parents. Damn his younger self that couldn't help but be a coward, a follower, as if he was a sheep.
"Thank you, I've been trying to keep up with my responsibilities, I sincerely hope I have reached your expectations."
Regulus Black knew how to charm people, how to sugar coat his words.
Regulus Black knew how to lie.
"More and more, Regulus, you seem to have already curved your path and it's the right one," Tom said, his lips quirking up, oh how wrong he was, he had no idea.
"What I want to talk to you about are Horcruxes, I'm sure you are aware of them, we talked about them last time, I'm expecting you have done your research?" Riddle's eyebrows shot up in question and the blood drained from Regulus' face.
He couldn't know, impossible.
If he did, Delilah would have known, she would have seen it in her visions.
"Of course, I'm aware of them, they are immortality objects, kill someone to get one more life, there is a book about them in our home library, I studied some material I could find but nothing too exclusive on them," he answered casually, relaxing a bit in his chair as he was familiar with the topic.
The confusion and wondering thought did not stop in his mind, questions ran at a lightning speed inside his brain but no answer could be found.
What more could he want from Regulus?
"Well, I'm in the process of creating some of them, if we want this dream of ours to keep going, you are going to need me in the future and I'm getting old now, so just taking precautions," he humored, though nothing was even equal to funny of that he said.
But being of course the fantastic actor he is, Regulus smiled, a forced chuckle leaving his mouth as he laughed with Satan.
"I need your helping in hiding them, we can't just have them laying around, so come with me I need to show them to you."
The Dark Lord got up from his chair and in a swift motion turned the other way, walking towards the exit doors from the room with Regulus following behind him, a stoic look on his face, as he didn't want to give anything away.
Regulus expected a secret room, the objects being kept to an incredibly high safety place, while they waited to be placed in their final hiding spot but no, the room they entered was the trophy room of the house of the Malfoys.
Abraxas Malfoy was a proud man, as was his son Lucius, who just last summer married his cousin Narcissa. The trophy room was filled with any achievement the Malfoy family had earned. Hogwarts graduation papers, OWL and NEWT results, Ministry promotions, articles in the Daily Prophet, and even replicas of Quidditch trophies the Slytherin house had won.
It was honestly ridiculous.
But at the end of the room, there were old dusty selves, but achievements and trophies and medals did not lie on them. The first thing Regulus recognized was a diadem, Helena Ravenclaw's Diadem to be exact, and beside it, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and besides that, Slytherin's locket.
At the top self laid a leather book, with a quill attached at the spine of it and beside it a ring, with a gold band and a black ruby on top. Six of them, there were five of them, and when the snake curled up around Tom Riddle's neck, Regulus realized that he had calculated wrong.
The Horcruxes were six.
"On the 15th of July, Regulus, that's when our history is going to be written."
***
On the day of her brother's wedding, Delilah had no intention of spending it behind a tree, secretly talking with Regulus Black about Horcruxes, but besides that, the wedding was beautiful, truly moving and the dose of happiness everyone needed.
Even Minerva McGonagall herself had attended, and even shed a few tears as the two lovebirds shared their vows.
It was a dream wedding.
Her brother cried while Lily walked down the aisle, they kissed before the Official even had the chance to say 'you may kiss the bride', their first dance was as romantic as ever and of course, Sirius had to add his touch and immediately switched to the Dancing Queen by ABBA afterward, as all the Marauders danced together, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, and Mary also joining them.
Delilah was quickly shoved into the heart of the party too as she enjoyed herself, they ate cake and drank and she danced with everyone in sight, but the Horcruxes couldn't wait and were here to ruin the fantastic evening she was having.
And yet again there they were. Six of them.
Six objects they had to find a way to destroy before things got too complicated to make sense.
"Regulus, I hope you realize how impossible that sounds," she heaved a sigh, shaking her head in disbelief. "We are going to need help. There is no way we can do this on our own."
The thought had passed Regulus' head too but he was not going to admit that. They needed the help, yes, from someone with experience, but the only available person that would take them seriously was Dumbledore but that was a big no.
"Dumbledore is out of the list, and so are my parents, and the Marauders, we could potentially trust the boys and Monica, but that would mean putting them in extreme danger and they are all desperately trying to lay low, so that would make us extremely bad friends," Delilah listed their option but Regulus' gazed was fixed on someone else, a certain Professor, with an intimidating expression and even more intimidating bun.
Delilah's eyes turned to where he was looking when she realized he wasn't listening to her and her eyes landed on the person he was watching.
"I think I have an idea."
And that stupid, yet incredibly brave, the idea was what had gotten them on the grounds of Hogwarts again two days after the wedding, not even a month after they had graduated, as they stood outside the office of Professor McGonagall.
And the moment they sat down at the red velvet chairs in front of her office, the Professor looked at her old students, patiently waiting for them to explain why they wanted a meeting with her on such short notice.
She wished she hadn't agreed to it after they had opened their mouths.
Professor McGonagall was staring at them with an indifferent look, hands clasped together on top of her desk and lips pulled into a thin line as she thought carefully.
"Okey, so we have the Horcruxes, which are six, and they are linked to You Know Who. and we have to destroy them first before we can kill him?" She asked one more time, making sure she had everything clear in her mind because that was indeed a lot of information that was dumped on her at once.
"Yes exactly, it's the ring, the diary, Hufflepuff's cup, Ravenclaw's diadem, Slytherin's locket, and his snake, Nagini. Look, Professor, we know it's a lot but we seriously need your assistance and for you to trust us as much as we trust you to keep this meeting and information a complete secret, no one can know, it will mess with the plan," Delilah almost pleaded the Professor, a vulnerable look in her eyes as she thought of the possible consequences they might face.
"And what do you need my help with?"
"Destroying the Horcruxes, ma'am. We need your knowledge on the Horcruxes, I saw a vision when we first started searching about them, it was a report, a report by no other than Tom Riddle, a young boy you attended school with. You read his reports when he dropped them on the floor at the end of his sixth year, there was crucial information there, anything you know could potentially make our mission a hundred times easier and save more lives than you can imagine, so please, whatever you may know you need to tell us," Delilah's tone had completely changed from pleading to authoritative, there was no place for an argument and Minerva seemed to notice that.
"You are going to get yourselves killed, no one should get in the middle of that stuff," she said harshly, a tone she rarely used but she couldn't bear another loss, she wouldn't allow it.
"I understand your concern Minerva, but if Dumbledore is too much of a coward to step in and continues to hide things from the others then someone has to, and it's not a decision we suddenly took, we have been working on it since halfway through the seventh year, learning what the Horcruxes are was one of the three main ending points we needed, find what they are, find how to destroy them, destroy them and kill him," said Regulus monotonously, not once exposing his emotions in front of the Professor.
Minerva McGonagall seemed to be in her head though, thought after thought passing by and Delilah was getting impatient enough that she wanted to dive into the older woman's brain, learn everything and leave, but she knew they needed her to trust them.
"He hadn't written much, it was half a page, maybe a few lines less than that, the only thing I can remember is that he had drawn a box that said, 'To Avoid', the only thing written in the box was 'Basilisk's Venom'," McGonagall muttered lowly, her eyes hazy as she tried to remember what was written in the report.
Smiles broke out on the couple's faces and sat opposite her, two steps down and two more to go.
"Thank you, Minerva, that's exactly what we needed," Delilah said rising from her seat and putting her jean jacket on, as she warmly smiled at the Professor who returned a concerned look in return.
"Be careful out there, and if you need anything, don't hesitate to contact me," she said surprising them both, but they were grateful to her nonetheless. And with that, they walked out of her office and headed for the exit of the castle.
"Now all we have to do is destroy them and kill him, how we are going to do that no idea, but we are going to figure something out, right?" Delilah said as they exited the big metal door of the castle.
"Of course, we will darlin', we always do," said Regulus and placed a kiss on her lips, before they linked hands and apparated to the Potter Manor.
Only if it was that simple...