18 Chapter 18: R A B and the Blacks

Two weeks later, I learned the identity of R.A.B. Handwriting comparison charms determined the maximum possible match: Regulus Arcturus Black, son of Walburga and Orion, younger brother of Sirius Black. The next best match was 86% to a wizard who died in 1947.

Regulus, then. I remembered marking him and seeing his admiring, eager thoughts. I only checked his mind once when he was 16, during the initiation. Unlike his brother, Regulus fully absorbed the family ideals of pureblood supremacy, especially that "Black is the most royal bloodline of all." He naturally followed his ancestors' steps into Slytherin. Regulus's parents sang him incessant praises, setting him as an example to his older brother in an attempt to sway Sirius back to "the right path."

Where to search for him now? He was likely long dead if not even the Blacks could find him. Riddle paid most Death Eater deaths no mind. Dark wizards died all the time. Maybe Regulus was killed by Aurors during a raid or by allies in a squabble over trophies. Maybe he had just enough strength to cast Fiendfyre but not enough to control it. Or went overboard with blood magic and drained himself dry.

I was thinking… I borrowed the Blacks' house elf to test the cave defenses against non-humans. Did he take offense at me for killing it? Laughable. House elves were easy to replace. I could only assume that the elf survived and told Regulus something momentous.

What had he seen? A lake full of dead people, and it clashed with his idea of a noble cause? Doubtful. It would scare muggleborns, but Blacks were the darkest family in England. Animating bodies of victims or enemies to guard something was right up their alley. Bellatrix laughed herself silly at James's corpse guarding Sirius Black. And the note contained no mention of my cruelty.

That only left a strange locket I went to great lengths to hide. Did Regulus turn on me because he figured out it was a horcrux? But it must mean the Blacks had books about horcruxes or Regulus heard something from his parents. I had to check with Sirius and Bellatrix. Unlike Riddle, I suspected that tearing your own soul may not be a good idea. Maybe the Blacks knew why.

I had another extensive legilimency session with Bellatrix. She lay unconscious, to keep from remember what I was seeking- anything for the Lord. She had never heard of horcruxes. I checked Sirius's mind, while he was still under the Draught of the Living Death - he did not know, either.

But I did learn something. Sirius steered clear of family books, and Bellatrix read all except for the ones locked in the Family Head's cabinet. When Sirius's behavior made him unworthy of the heir title, the Blacks started to groom Regulus to one day take over the family.

Then, the Blacks had secret books that prompted Regulus to cut ties with the Death Eaters. And I knew for a fact that they kept books with turning the opponent's skin inside out and feeding live humans to maggots in the "general" section. Therefore, it must have been the horcrux that scared him… Scared him so much that he decided to destroy it at the cost of his own life. Idiot. He could have easily put a random wizard under Imperius and send him to the cave with the house elf. Or told Sirius, who would be happy to die for the greater good… And why did he not tell Dumbledore? Afraid to draw attention to his family?

But it did not matter. I was only interested in the past insofar as it could affect the future. Where to search for my horcrux? Logically, in the Black ancestral home. But how could I get in?

Once more, I was flipping through books at the Lestranges' library. This time my secretarial charms floated around the "magical law" section in search of the harshest punishments and most stringent bans. So far, from modernity to 18th century, there was not a single reference to horcruxes. They found several tangentially curious things, like the Ritual of Stolen Faces, where the face was ripped off from a live victim, soaked in potions and worn over your own. Punished by the dementor's kiss. Could it fool Hogwarts wards and make me appear under the face's original name on the Marauder's Map? Could I sacrifice Sirius to gain access to the Black's manor? Unlikely. Of all people, the Blacks knew how to defend their home from Dark magic. And unfortunately, the face acted as strictly magical camouflage: to the naked eye, I would still look like myself wearing piece of skin.

It was time to get to work on modifying my body, as well. The Lestranges finally sorted out the information I gave them and delivered a report on creating a more perfect combat form. No, there were no basilisk eyes, manticore stingers or thestral wings- attempts to attach parts of magical creatures to a human body almost always resulted in painful rejection. Only the most unhinged chimerologists tried that, and never on themselves. My design was a simple humanoid figure. Much faster than a human, modified blood composition, remodeled joints, muscles and so on.

It also came with some negatives. The body was a purely physical change and won't make me any stronger. And it would drain part of magic regeneration just to maintain its form. And it would be disgusting in appearance, impossible to mistake for a human. Remarkably similar to the old reptilian look, actually…

I did not want to spend an eternity in a hideous body and was searching for a way to transform before battle, then back. The only lead was metamorphism. And the only known metamorphmagus in England was Nymphadora Tonks, the eight year old daughter of Andromeda and Ted Tonks. Her parents did not have enough sense between the two of them to hide the girl's talent. With a live metamorphmagus on hand, I should be able to copy something. A large range of changes was unlikely to work, but one extra appearance seemed realistic…

Riddle's memories recommended kidnapping the girl and attempting a sacrificial ritual. It might work. But I hesitated. No, I would sacrifice the kid if necessary. But what if it did not work? Unlike muggles, I only had one metamorphmagus. Find more? Where, abroad? This gift was usually kept under tight wraps- metamorphs were extremely valuable as spies and exotic sex slaves. Money alone couldn't buy one.

Changing appearance without polyjuice was too useful to pass up: hard to identify, not limited to copies of available people, no drinking revolting potion every hour. And in time, I could also gift the ability to my most trusted servants… I needed the girl alive, in case I failed on the first try. Besides, she was young enough to be re-educated by a proper family.

Next question, what to do with her parents? Memories kept insisting the same: kill everyone. Well, maybe not Andromeda… Although, how can I let her live when her husband was dead and daughter used for experiments?

But I was not Riddle. I had a plan. What was the Black family? At the moment, nothing. Narcissa and Bellatrix married off, Andromeda and Sirius disowned. But the masses believed Sirius Black was one of mine. No reason to dispute that. And if they believed Andromeda also supported me, it followed that the entire Black family was mine. A clear proof that all purebloods were on Voldemort's side, however hard they pretended to be "the good guys." It would make for a wonderful propaganda move to drive a wedge between the neutral purebloods and muggleborns. I may get more recruits. And the public could not hate me any more than they did already.

Therefore, the plan came down to putting all three Tonks' under house arrest. We will set up a house-like prison and put them in magic-draining shackles to prevent escapes. If they refused to behave, the artifacts could be implanted into the body.

I held no real hope to sway the parents to my side. This may work work with Lily, but Andromeda was older, a Slytherin, and grew up a Black. She knew all too well that Dark magic was first and foremost torture, murder and sacrifice. Usually of others, but the sickest zealots mutilated themselves. That was probably why she ran away from home in the first place. So, convincing her of my benevolence was a lost cause. Force? She very likely knew how to bypass vows and could eventually throw off the Imperius- going against own family clearly showed strong will…

Her husband. A slightly above average healer at St. Mungo's. No worth bending over backwards when I could get much better healers who would not dare put a wounded Death Eater back together without a spleen. And on his job, he saw the consequences of Death Eaters attacks first hand. Threatening their daughter or demonstrating my healing magic exercises could persuade them to sit tight in prison, but changing sides was a lost cause.

And the most important part: how to acquire them? Their house was surely hidden and protected, and storming it could attract the Order or even Albus. Our agents reported that Ted went to and from work via apparition or portkeys he made himself. An open attack St. Mungo's was not the best idea: he could have the time to escape, and we avoided harming neutral healers. Stun him while he was at work and portkey him here? Not guaranteed to work and would break cover of my people at Mungo's. And even if I had Ted… what to do with him? Imperio with an order to bring me his wife and daughter? His wife was a Black! If their wards did not raise an alarm, she would surely notice the unusual behavior and stun him… Have him write a letter, "come to this address or the Death Eaters will kill me"? Andromeda was no gullible child, she would go straight to the DMLE or Albus.

Then, the father was not the way. With him working, it was reasonable to assume Andromeda looked after their daughter. Finding one will get me both. I recently read a book on cursing someone through a body fragment. The principle behind the magic was not limited to curses. I had no need for blessings, but searching by blood was about to come handy. Hopefully, the Tonks' did not live under the Fidelius.

The simplest solution would be to get a sample from Ted and track him home… But obtaining his blood was almost as difficult as kidnapping him. And all more or less competent wizards regularly drank potions making their body parts unusable for spells or rituals.

Fortunately, the search could also be done with blood of a close relative, at the cost of less precise results. I was going to compensate for quality with quantity.

And so, the Lestranges and I were waking up still restrained Sirius Black. I stopped the opening stream of insults with a preventative Crucio and entered his mind.

"Do you have the ability to let me in the Black ancestral home?" I asked him.

"Go fu…"

He was interrupted by two simultaneous Crucios, mine and Bella's. I suddenly wondered: was double Cruciatus two or four times stronger than normal? Did it work synergetically?

"Bella, stop," I said and focused on Black's mind.

Interesting, Crucios did not stack like stunners. He only felt the stronger one, from Bellatrix. Was I losing my touch or did she get exceptionally angry? Or maybe torture was not my forte. I simply couldn't muster up the required hate. Anyone else attempting the Cruciatus while feeling indifference towards the target would have failed. But Riddle had this spell hardwired to the point of instinct, so mine only weakened. I was just glad the killing curse could not work partially and still downed my targets at once. And the Imperius was, of course, entirely mental and worked as well as before. Life without the Mind Arts would be dreary…

So, what about the Black ancestral home? As always, everything was complicated. Sirius got burned off the tapestry and cut off from the source. Still, the Blacks inherited family titles through the male line, and he was the last living heir. Their house defenses had certain algorithms. Protecting the family took precedence over everything else, and the wards should let the last heir Black through… If he came alone and free of mental influences. Which I will never allow could hide there indefinitely and contact Albus, even if I used Lily as a hostage…

"You will call on your house elf, Kreacher," I ordered Black.

We had set up the interrogation room with one a way ward against house elves, allowing them to apparate in but not leave. And even if five adult wizards somehow proved themselves idiots, no house elf could side-apparate Sirius when he was securely held by chains embedded in a solid rock wall.

At first, Black refused to call the house elf and lost consciousness after another Cruciatus from Bella. Her enthusiasm could easily drive him insane, so I stopped the process. We moved on to torturing muggles in front of him. Thirty minutes and three dementor kisses later, he agreed to call the house elf. But it didn't come! Blasted Kreacher, I'll burn him alive when I find him! Well, after interrogating him, of course. He did not come at Bellatrix's call, either. If the elf was still alive, he must have been ordered not to leave the house… Sirius was not his master, only the last candidate for the title.

Since the easy way failed, the next simplest idea was to kill Sirius. Who will become the Black heir then? Bellatrix? Narcissa? Narcissa's child? I dived back into Sirius's mind.

After his death, the Black fortune and properties would go to Harry Potter! He managed to write a magical will… Awful news… The prophecy words once again thundered in my mind. What if grown up Harry found the Blacks' books on horcruxes?

I drained some of Black's blood into a charmed vial, force-fed him the Draught and sent him back into his cell.

The modified ritual was ready. I held the blood from all the Blacks available: Sirius, Bellatrix and Narcissa (Lucius was strongly against it and had to be ordered). A little sacrifice amplified its power to compensate for inaccuracies caused by using the relatives' blood. We conveniently had three muggles on hand, and in this case lack of souls made no difference.

If Andromeda was not under wards and we used her own blood, the ritual would have pinpointed the exact location. With this, we received a circle around a hundred kilometers in diameter. Still very precise, considering the size of England. Albus must not bother raising top-notch defenses for everyone… We will have to repeat the ritual several times at later dates, in case we caught her outside her home. Then, it was a simple but tedious matter of searching for stationary wards in the indicated area. And I already knew who will do this: house elves. They should comb through the area in a month or two and report all magical anomalies for me to examine. The Lestranges and the Malfoys had plenty of elves to spare.

Just in case, I also talked to Narcissa and carefully searched her mind. She knew nothing of her other sister's whereabouts. I told her that Bellatrix asked me to save Andromeda from the horrors of civil war by putting her under house arrest. Warned about her "initiative" in advance, Bellatrix confirmed: yes, she really wanted to save their dear errant sister. And her husband and daughter? If Andromeda wanted her pets alive, she could have them.

And now I was back to pondering how to gain access to the Blacks' house. Initially, I only wanted to find my stolen horcrux. But now, the promise of their secret books captivated me. I kept poring over Sirius's will in my mind… And finally found a lead.

What could I say, Sirius.. You will have to get married and leave a male heir. And then die. And your widow with the baby will enter the house and adjust the defenses to let me in.

There were two types of marriage. The magical ceremony with connecting to the family source would not work. We had no access to the source, and Sirius was disconnected. But marriage through the Ministry would give the wife control over all Black properties just the same. I will find Ministry officials to conduct the marriage in secret. Black's consent will not be a problem, either: he is going to willingly sign the real document covered with an illusion. I just needed to take care not to torture him into insanity.

What qualities must my pocket Lord Black's mother possess? She must be loyal to me and conform to the Black family creed: pure blood is power, muggles are trash. The last thing I needed was a next generation Sirius… And she should be skilled enough in Dark magic to sort out the house defenses and let me in.

I knew exactly who it was going to be: Alecto Carrow. With their money problems, the Black fortune would be very alluring. Besides, it was one thing to be a Carrow, and a whole another a young rich widow, regent Black. She should be happy, if I framed everything right.

After a short wait, Alecto Carrow walked into my study. She was a short, stocky woman with a husky voice. Quite cruel and smarter than her brother. She should handle this just fine.

"Alecto, as a reward for your faithful service, you will soon become rich and famous. Prepare for a wedding."

However, Alecto reacted very badly… She paled and barely kept herself from falling. What did I say wrong? Arranged marriages were typical for purebloods… After thinking over the situation again, it hit me: my words could be interpreted as marriage to me, and I didn't look too attractive. Standing side by side in battle was a completely different matter than sleeping with me. I'll fix it.

"Sirius Black, my loyal servant, voiced a desire to make you his wife."

She immediately felt better.

"My Lord, I haven't traded two words with him in my entire life. And isn't he dead?"

"Sirius Black brought me information that allowed me to liquidate the Potters. He is a worthy Death Eater, although his deep cover required him not to have a Dark Mark and finish Gryffindor. He caught a deadly curse during his last battle. Not even I can save him. He was unable to express his feelings towards you without risking his cover. He now wants to marry you so that your child may continue his glorious mission of serving me."

"What is his condition?"

"His appearance and mind are undamaged. But he would hardly survive another year. Right now, he is curating a top-secret project for me, so you will not see each other very often. But he has enough strength to continue the Black line."

"Was he not disowned?"

"His role as a spy required him to play a muggle-lover. But his child will be a true Black in blood and magic. Sirius is young, handsome and wealthy. After his death, his child will inherit everything. Or more precisely, his child's mother will. He is not against you remarrying after his death."

"Can I see him?"

Do not fret, I will organize you a couple of dates under Imperius.

"Yes, but not right now. You agree, do you not?"

Of course she would. Marry a pretty boy and get paid for it. Say no and get many Crucios from the Lord.

"Yes."

"Excellent. The ceremony is going to be small, but you may invite your brother. Everything will be conducted here, at the Lestranges'. That is all, you are free to go. And, Alecto: not a word to anyone. Black is officially dead, his unveiling would upset my plans."

I will persuade Black. There was an even simpler route than the Imperius: love potions. The stronger the better. I was no specialist in non-lethal potions, but I'll manage something… "Madness of Lust" and "Birth of an Heir" for Sirius and some fertility potion for Alecto? I better brew everything myself, no need to involve more witnesses than absolutely necessary.

Speaking of potions… The duel with Rosier was coming up. I still needed to brew antidotes for poisons Rosier was planning to use. And potions to combat Veritaserum… Rodolphus found all the artifacts on my list, so I should start preparing…