Faith in Fear | A Regulus Black Story.

Chapter 7 - Secrets & Spies

January 4th, 1980

Regulus had returned back to his parent's house the same night as the last meeting. They didn't often question him now when he'd return back hours later, just assuming it had something to do with the Dark Lord.

His parents didn't often attend the meetings anymore, but were kept in the loop by Regulus or Bellatrix who would inform them of what had happened.

Walburga had grown ill recently from the amount of stress she had put herself under all those years. It was no surprise that she had fallen ill, the Black family had a history (or rather a curse as Sirius put it) of family members never living past the age of 50. She'd often be bed ridden while Orion and a private healer looked after her since they no longer had their house elf.

Kreacher had stayed hidden at Sirius and Remus' flat under strict orders from Regulus that he was to not leave unless Regulus or Sirius called him. While the house elf was not thrilled by the idea of staying with Sirius and Remus in their small, London flat, he would do it for Regulus.

Now with his parents out of commission, Regulus was officially the head of the Black family for the Dark Lord and being his most trusted Death Eater, meant that he had a hell of a lot to lose if he screwed anything up. Fuck, maybe he was in over his head... But even if he was, it was too late to back out now.

There had only been one more meeting right at the end of December after the one where Regulus was made his most trusted. It was a relatively short meeting with very little information that would have had any importance. But Regulus did have one meeting coming up that was far more important. He and Sirius were privately meeting with Dumbledore.

Sirius had taken the liberty to write a very vague letter to Dumbledore that only said he urgently needed to meet with him in private. He didn't mention Regulus at all or what the nature of the meeting was because they couldn't risk any information getting out if the letter was intercepted.

That evening, Sirius and Regulus were to meet Dumbledore at the current Order's headquarters, the Potter residence. Sirius had insured Regulus that not a single person but him, Remus, and Dumbledore would know he was there. James was supposed to be out on another mission for the Order with Lily and Euphemia and Fleamont Potter, James' parents, only knew Sirius needed a private place to speak with Dumbledore and not to interrupt whatsoever. He was just going to have to trust that Sirius had it all planned and nothing would go wrong.

Walburga had already gone to sleep for the night and Orion had locked himself away in his office so Regulus knew if he left, neither would even notice. So, as he always did, he grabbed his cloak, left the house and apparated away without a goodbye. He landed just outside Sirius' building and as if on queue, Sirius stepped outside, letting the door slam behind him.

Sirius was dressed a little nicer than the last few times Regulus had seen him, but he still seemed inclined to wearing muggle clothes with his old, leather jacket and sturdy, black boots. It still wasn't the proper wizard attire they had been raised to wear which didn't surprise Regulus in the slightest, but something about the outfit was a little cool - though he would never admit that.

"Ready to go then?" Sirius asked.

Regulus nodded.

"Well then, to the Potter's."

Doing a quick look around that no one was watching, they both apparated together, feeling the familiar yank as they left London and landed on the path just outside of the large, brown-bricked, English home that was covered in vines on the right side.

Regulus had only ever been to the Potter residence one time before when he was 12 - the first time Sirius had run away. Walburga had been furious and dragged Regulus along with her to bring him home. He was sure she had only brought him to use as a weapon and it had unfortunately worked, forcing Sirius to go back to the Black residence. During that time, Regulus hadn't actually gone inside, everything happened so fast that Walburga was already dragging Sirius by the ear by the time he even thought to go in.