One of Us | Jegulus

Fourty

The following night Regulus didn't sleep well. Slytherin's locket haunted him in his dreams.
He dreamt of a battle between the order and the death eaters, the Dark Lord pulling the locket out of his pockets, raising his hand and suddenly all of his enemies dropped to the ground, defeated. Then the scenario changed, it was another fight, the Dark Lord was being constantly attacked by spells and curses but there was a golden locket on a small chain around his neck, creating an impenetrable, magical protection wall around him.
Another scenario where the Dark Lord appeared out of nowhere, the locket in his fingers, smiling menacingly. "You cannot kill me..."

Regulus woke up with a start. Completely frustrated, he rolled over to his side. He couldn't shake the pictures of his dream. He sat up and run his hand through his hair.
It was early in the morning and he already continued thinking about the whole thing. It was exhausting. He wished he had someone to talk to. James would have probably known what to do. Then again, this was most likely about dark magic and he doubted James would have been willing help him with it.
It was even a waste of time thinking about this. James wasn't here and he wouldn't even want to be with Regulus. Things were like this now, he was alone and also had to figure out this situation on his own.

So he continued thinking. His dreams actually gave him an idea. What if the Dark Lord enchanted the locket into some form of super strong weapon? Or the opposite, a powerful defense that made him invincible or even...
No, that couldn't be it. He did remember the Dark Lord hinting to his followers that he found a way to become immortal but no one actually ever took that seriously. He was powerful, yes. Nearly invincible? Probably. But after all, he was still a human. And there was no magic that could make someone immortal.

At least no magic Regulus ever encountered with.

No, now he was reaching. This was too far fetched. But... would it hurt looking into it?

"Kreacher?" he called and immediately the house elf appeared.
"Hey, sorry to bother you this early... but could you help me find books on... immortality magic? It's just an idea... but I gotta start somewhere. I don't even know if that kind of magic exists... it's probably dark magic and hard to find. But if you could..."
"Of course, master Regulus. Kreacher will look through all the library books. And if he doesn't find anything there, he will look somewhere else, Kreacher will not disappoint."
"Of course you won't," Regulus smiled and slowly got up as the elf disappeared again.

He felt guilty for making Kreacher work so hard just because he was so obsessed with this secret. But this new idea was so unlikely and so vague that he couldn't waste too much time on it. He'd rather focus on his general research as he didn't expect Kreacher to find anything, anyway.

So after a small breakfast he made his way into the library again. If he'd find the right book he might at least get an overview on what ways there are to make a non magical object useful. Keeping the research general might be the wisest choice for now.

For hours he didn't make any progress. It was tiring and he started to doubt how he should be able to actually uncover the Dark Lord's secret with some plain, vague research.
He might find several possibilities for what it might be but without actually holding the locket in his own hands, how was he supposed to know which one of these options was actually true?

So in the early evening he gave up on it and joined his parents for dinner. Every now and then he glanced at one of them, considering to just ask them. What exactly, he didn't even know. He just desperately needed a hint, some clue, a direction for his research. Because every time he thought about letting it go and giving up, it haunted him even more. He felt responsible for this, he couldn't tell why but he felt as if this was his kind of redemption... to make up for what he did to James that night he left.
And he knew, deep down, a part of him hoped that there was still a chance of seeing James again. And if he ever did and James would find out about what Regulus had discovered... maybe he would even forgive him.