Player fanfic
patreon
67. horrible place
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 02:47:13 +0000 UTC"You too, Lily." He walked back down to his quarters in the dungeon. He was no sooner seated behind his desk and had just dipped his quill into his bottle of red ink when the floo sounded. He looked up to see Mad-Eye's head sitting in the fire. "Severus, we've found reliable information on Slytherin's locket. Can you step through to 12 Grimmauld Place?"
"Yes," Severus answered. He capped his ink and got up. He threw the floo powder into the flames, turning them green and stepped in, saying clearly, "12 Grimmauld Place." When he stepped out into the dining room, he saw Mad-Eye, Orion, and Lucius with an elderly looking elf whose name Severus knew was Kreacher, and Reg, looking somewhat guilty sitting at the dining table.
"Kreacher, please tell Professor Snape what you've told us," Orion instructed. He turned back to Severus. "What Kreacher is going to tell you happened thirteen years ago."
Severus nodded and waited for Kreacher to begin.
"Years ago, Master Regulus sent Kreacher to Diagon Alley because his practice snitch had died and he needed a new one …"
Severus knew Reg had been a Seeker on the Slytherin team since his second year and he noticed Orion frowning at Regulus whose face was flushed.
"Kreacher was happy to do this for Master Regulus, but when Kreacher was coming out of Quality Quidditch Supplies; Mistress Bellatrix saw him and said she needed Kreacher so Kreacher went with her willingly. She took Kreacher to the Dark Lord who said he needed Kreacher's help and Mistress Bellatrix told Kreacher to do whatever the Dark Lord commanded. He took Kreacher to this seaside cave where he cut his hand and smeared blood on a wall. The wall opened into a room with a big lake. Kreacher and the Dark Lord took a small boat across the lake to a small island with a basin on it. The basin was filled with a potion and the Dark Lord forced Kreacher to drink it until Kreacher could see a locket with an 'S' in green stones on it at the bottom. The potion made Kreacher very thirsty with belly pains and he saw terrible things! The Dark Lord laughed and disappeared, leaving Kreacher alone. Kreacher was so thirsty and tried to get a drink of water from the lake, but these terrible creatures tried to pull Kreacher into the lake! Only because Master Regulus had told Kreacher to come back home could Kreacher leave that horrible place!"
"Kreacher, I'm sorry you had to go through that horrible experience and it's my fault for not making it clear to you that you needn't obey any orders given to you by Bellatrix, Rodolphus Lestrange, Cygnus or Druella Black. If you see any of them when you're doing errands for your Mistress; you're to immediately return home," Orion said and then fixed his son with a glare. "Regulus knew better than to send you out for an errand he could easily done for himself."
Regulus' face flushed again and he said, "I'm sorry, Kreacher. Dad's right; I shouldn't have been so lazy and gone myself. I'm sorry for what you had to suffer all those years ago."
"Kreacher was happy to be of service to Master Regulus." It was obvious Kreacher did not have any hard feelings about his experience.
"The potion Kreacher described sounds like the Drink of Despair, but I will need to do further research to verify this and to find if there is an antidote for it," Severus spoke up. "Kreacher can apparate us to the cave once I have found an antidote so we can retrieve the locket and destroy it." He turned to Kreacher. "You will need to apparate us there if you are willing."
"Kreacher is willing."
"You have helped us very much, Kreacher," Orion said. "You may return to your Mistress if you feel up to it."
Kreacher bowed and popped out.
Reg shook his head. "I thought Kreacher looked a bit off when he came back with my snitch, but I never imagined anything like this. He never said a word in all this time. How come You-Know-Who never worried about Kreacher knowing his secret?"
"Most likely because he assumed Kreacher died as the result of the potion," Lucius answered.
"But if this is a potion You-Know-Who invented, it won't be in any book," Moody pointed out.
Lucius shook his head. "It won't be because the Dark Lord never had a talent for inventing his own potions unlike Severus and that's why he tried to get Severus to become a Death Eater."
"He's also the reason I was in hiding for almost two years. He put a death sentence on my head when I refused his final offer to join him," Severus added.
"The creatures Kreacher mentioned," Orion said. "Could they be Inferi?"
Mad-Eye nodded and replied, "Merlin knows You-Know-Who created enough of them in the last war."
Severus agreed to contact them when he found out more about the Drink of Despair. It was best to find out as much information as they could before they attempted to retrieve the locket horcrux. Severus flooed back to his quarters and immediately went over to his wall of bookcases. He waved his wand at the very top shelf of one section which had previously appeared empty and a row of previously disillusioned books appeared. Severus kept them this way because they were dangerous books that he didn't want Harry to get hold of. He took one off the shelf with the title, Moste Evil Potions by Phineas Bourne who also had written another book entitled, Moste Potente Potions which was in the restricted section of the library.
