437. Third Horcrux

12 Grimmauld Place, A few hours ago,

*POP*

Kreacher returned home, looking tired and in pain. He had been taken away by Voldemort for something. Regulus allowed it. But when Kreacher returned, Regulus asked him what had happened.

"M-Master... he's bad... made me drink water... bad bad water. A very evil thing he tries to hide there, it has his soul in it." Kreacher told him.

"A Horcrux? Can you take me to that place?" Regulus asked him, feeling something was wrong.

Of course, Kreacher agreed, Regulus was his master. So he teleported with Regulus. They arrived inside a large cave. Standing on the small land in the middle of a giant lake. It was dark and cold, Regulus quickly cast a Lumos spell to look around. There were giant crystals on the walls and the ceiling of the cave.

"Where is it?" he asked.

Kreacher took him to the small basin filled with some kind of a potion, "Master, there is bad water in it. You can only drink it to take out the thing. I drank it, it hurt me, burnt me from inside and made me see terrible-terrible things."

Regulus looked at it, his resolve was firm, "I will drink the potion,"

"NO! I will do it, master," Kreacher pleaded, knowing the torment it causes.

"No, I must do it, It was I who is responsible for father death, I am the death eater. You are innocent." He didn't waste a second and filled the potion in a container to drink it.

He took one sip, immediately his body felt pain and fire burning inside. His eyes became blurry and scenes of unimaginable agony appeared in his eyes. The death of everything he cared about, destruction of the world, Voldemort winning, torturing him and whatnot.

Tears fell from his eyes, his face contorted, trying to tackle the pain. He didn't stop and kept on drinking more and more. He stumbled a few times, screaming in agony.

"AAAAA... Kreacher, help me drink it," he ordered.

Kreacher, too, cried, his master was very kind. He should have been the one to drink it, but Regulus didn't let him. "Master, I can drink it,"

"NO! Just feed it to me," he commanded.

The agony continued. Regulus fell down the steps but still took the water every time Kreacher gave it to him. "H-how much more?"

"One more, Master?" Kreacher replied, filling the container from the basing one last time.

Regulus was in his most vulnerable state ever. Crying, cursing and weakening. In pain, feeling like just killing himself and ending it. He took the last sip. "What's in there? S-show me,"

Kreacher handed him the locket. Upon checking, Regulus felt the presence of dark and evil Voldemort inside it. "This... this is as if his soul is in it. Brother Magnus told me about this once, it's a Horcrux... *cough cough* WATER... WATER!"

Kreacher quickly tried to take water from the lake. But the moment he created any disturbance in the lake, various hands erected out of them, followed by loud shrieks.

Kreacher was alarmed, "MASTER! Inferi!"

The Inferi started to crawl towards the two. Kreacher dragged Regulus away from them. "P-Put *cough* Put this fake locket inside the basin, Kreacher. And... And RUN! Destroy that locket, promise me."

"MASTER!" Kreacher rushed to help as he saw Regulus' leg being grabbed by an Inferi.

"GO! You can't fight them all, Kreacher... Leave me..." he pushed the elf away.

Kreacher's eyes were full of terror and fear, he looked left and right, thousands of Inferi were crawling towards him. He took one last glance at his master, "Y-You are the best master I've ever had, Master"

*POP*

Kreacher was gone. He could not have teleported with Regulus as that would also bring so many inferi together, it was another question if he could even bring so many beings with him.

Now all alone, growls of Inferi resounding in the cave. Regulus felt scared, he had always kept a tough look his whole life, even when he was small he never cried in front of anybody. When Sirius decided to leave home, he cried alone in his room.

Slowly, he came to realise that he was not as important to other people as he thought. He loved Narcissa, she left him. He loved Andromeda, she left too. Sirius was his only support, then he also left. Thankfully, in the school, there was Magnus who would help him even before he said anything.

But now, he was all alone, once again. Slowly the Inferi dragged him into the lake. They didn't bite him, just scratched him and tried to drown him. This did make him wonder, ~Am I going to be turned into an Inferi?~

This thought was scarier in his mind, to not be able to rest even after dying, your soul is stuck in a mindless body. He tried to kick and swim up towards the little light that was in the cave.

But as he drowned more and more, the lights started to diminish. His eyes stayed wide open. He wanted to scream and cry, but tears were just water and sounds were muffled.

~I... I don't wanna die,~

Just as he was about to lose his breath, he remembered something that his favourite person gave him. Quickly he tried to fiddle in his pocket, it was hard as thousands of Inferi tried to pull him. Still, after fighting them a little, without even taking the paper out, he simply tore it.

~I wonder if he will come... *Gah...*~ he finally lost his breath and the vision went blurry.

~Hmm? What's that?~ He noticed something.

All of a sudden multiple balls of fire entered the water and hit the Inferi. But that was not the end, all of a sudden a red fiery light illuminated the entire lake, from the top to the bottom.

...

Magnus in his Golden Dragon form appeared inside the cave and burned everything, all Inferi that was on the surface got turned to ashes in a second. Then he dived straight down, still spewing fire from his mouth, burning all of those creatures.

*BOOM*

He hit the bedrock. Then he pushed up and saw the drawing body of Regulus. Without wasting time he grabbed him in his jaws lightly and swam out. His dragon body was big enough to destroy any Inferi that even touched him, that's how warm he was.

He brought Regulus' body to the same platform where the basin was. After putting him there for Kreacher and Sirius to care for him, Magnus headed back into the lake. He spewed so much fire in it that by the end the water started to boil. It was hell on earth.

The Inferi could not feel the pain and slowly melted away. Their flesh left their body, the muscles melted, leaving only a skeleton without any magic as he burnt that away too. This was the Magic of Inferi, they were similar to zombies.

*WOOSH*

Magnus' human form jumped out of the water and landed on the platform. Regulus was lying in Sirius' arms, he was looking left and right, his face still pale and scared.

"It's okay, Regulus. Everything is fine now. Here, drink this potion." He handed a small vial.

Sirius was disappointed in himself as he talked to Regulus, "Why didn't you tell me, brother? You could have moved out of the house too. I-I... forgive me, I've been such a disappointment."

"Yes, repeat it a few hundred times. You were so busy having fun with your friends that you for not even once asked him if he was okay. He's your brother for god's sake." Magnus scolded him too.

He crouched down and patted Regulus' head, "Let's get you to Saint Mungo. Once you're good, we will get rid of the Dark Mark. God, I can't believe I didn't find out. You always acted so normally near me."

"N-no... mother!" Regulus whispered weakly.

At this, Sirius raged, "You still worry about that woman? That's not our mother, she's the devil. No better than these Inferi, these wanted to drown you to your death and she drowned you into the Dark Side."

"S-she's still our mother. What she is doing to us... happened to her too. This cycle of hate... we must break it." Regulus said.

Magnus had to agree, what he said was absolutely correct. "Fine, after this, I will force her to give up her ladyship. You two decide who wants to be Lord Black now."

"I don't want to. Too much work," Sirius shrugged quickly.

Magnus looked Regulus in the eyes. The boy was resolved, "Fine, you will get the Lordship. You're eighteen already. And one more thing, bring me the real Horcrux. Voldemort has made multiple ones. I already have 2 of them in possession."

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