Though Bellatrix very much wanted to go home after such a long day of constantly performing complex magic, she wanted to speak to Regulus and Kreacher more. She'd intended to do so for days, but with their new hectic schedule, plus working through all these new unwanted emotional issues thanks to recalling what the Dark Lord had put them through, it just hadn't happened. It was nearly time for dinner as the day had run late, so Kreacher and Regulus should be awake. What with them having had a late lunch at the Ministry, they wouldn't be wanting to eat yet.
"I would like to stop at Grimmauld before we go home," she told Rabastan and Rodolphus as they prepared to depart.
"Are we trashing their place like your parents' dining room," Rabastan asked, and Bellatrix shot him a glare.
"Open your bloody mouth again, and your ass can go home," she snapped, and Rodolphus chuckled, slipping an arm around her waist. He and Bellatrix Apparated together to Grimmauld. Rabastan had joined them by the time Bellatrix lifted the snarling gargoyle door knocker and let it fall several times. A stressed looking elf wearing a simple black tunic opened the door and bowed. "Come in," he said, stepping back at once. "If Mistress Bella, and Masters Rodolphus and Rabastan would like to wait in the library, Stormy will inform his masters that you are here."
"Thank you," Bellatrix told the elf distractedly, and they showed themselves into the library. Kreacher and Regulus were family, so the Lestranges were quite familiar with Grimmauld Place and were always free to make themselves at home whenever they visited.
In the library, Bellatrix sat pensively on the sofa while Rodolphus wandered around peering at the spines of various books. For his part, Rabastan headed for the liquor cabinet in the corner and poured himself a tumbler of scotch. No one spoke until Kreacher and Regulus entered.
In her usual fashion, Bellatrix got right to the point. "Did Grindelwald see you after he fixed our heads?"
Regulus smirked. "I don't think fixing your heads is possible," he told his cousin.
Bellatrix scowled. "Your jokes were never funny, Regulus."
Rabastan chuckled and raised his glass to Black. "Perhaps not funny, but so fucking true!"
With a sigh, Bellatrix waited through the small talk, bored. Rodolphus continued to scan the books on the shelves, seemingly more interested in them than anything else that happened to be going on.
"Gellert did come to see us yesterday, yes," Regulus said, turning to Bellatrix. "He worked on unclouding what was done to our memories."
Bellatrix frowned at the use of the word unclouding for what Grindelwald had done, then nodded slowly. It made sense, though the concept was new. "So? Did you remember what Voldemort did to the two of you? We don't." She shuddered. "We remembered enough, though. Gods, Regulus, Uncle Orion!"
Regulus nodded. "Worst time of my life. It didn't get better until I returned to Kreacher nearly twenty years later."
Regulus hadn't died as most believed or even ended up in Azkaban as the Lestranges had, he hadn't escaped. Regulus had been extremely ill after ingesting too much of the water from the black lake while trying to destroy Voldemort's Horcrux. Although a newly made vampire at the time, the Infiri had still given him a struggle. Even though his vampiric maker had dragged him from the water, she hadn't known how to contact Kreacher so she took Regulus to her place in Rome where he could heal.
He took two weeks to recover from what the indescribably foul water had done to his body. By the time he could hold a quill to write Kreacher, Walburga Black had placed a charm on the house that misdirected all letters not from an address personally approved by her, in advance. With Orion, then Regulus, vanishing within less than a week of one another, she was afraid for her safety and rightfully so. Kreacher, believing that Regulus would return in person, never suspected that he'd attempted to write instead.
When Regulus never returned, Kreacher began to fear him dead, though the elf always held out hope. Regulus, believing that Kreacher wanted nothing to do with him for nearly getting him killed by Voldemort, stayed away when, to his mind, his letters were ignored.
Of course, Voldemort leaving Kreacher to drown in the lake of Inferi was not Regulus's fault, but Regulus was quite emo, as they said these days, and there was no telling him that it wasn't his fault even to this day.
When he discovered that Voldemort was still alive in nineteen ninety-seven, he secretly returned and, with Kreacher, helped as best he could behind the scenes. Of course, while the Lestranges had been warned by Regulus and his elf to play along at the end of the battle, they weren't truly aware of all the goings on until the day Voldemort died and they began working Shadow Ops for the Ministry. Now here they were, over twenty years later, still shoveling through Voldemort's shit.
"We remembered some things," Regulus replied carefully, exchanging a look with Kreacher. "Kreacher remembered a bit more about the time Voldemort took him to the cave for a start." Regulus moved across the room and settled into a gray armchair in the corner. Kreacher drifted over to perch on the arm, expression nearly as pensive as Bellatrix felt.
Bellatrix was more interested in what had happened the night they'd all attempted to kill the Dark Lord, but she was listening.
"Kreacher recalls something strange that happened once he and the Dark Lord were in the boat on the way to the dread cave," the elf began, linking long fingered hands together in obvious discomfort. "The Dark Lord struck up a conversation with Kreacher as they crossed the lake. He spoke of Kreacher's relationship with Master Regulus being similar to that of his with Nagini. Kreacher wondered if the Dark Lord understood exactly how close he and Master Regulus were... and in truth, he was alarmed. Kreacher agreed, though, saying that he was as faithful to Master Regulus as Nagini was to him. Before long, though, Kreacher got the strong impression that the Dark Lord was no longer speaking to him. He began to murmur and back then Kreacher thought he must have misheard."
The elf paused to shift nervously as his discomfort grew. "Kreacher thought he heard the Dark Lord say that he, in truth, did not have a special rapport with Delphini. Kreacher thought he had to have meant Nagini, but now... Now he thinks he must have heard correctly. Only Delphini was not born then in nineteen seventy-nine." The elf looked at once apologetic and embarrassed. "Kreacher has to have remembered that wrong," he said hastily. "As that particular memory did return to him when Grindelwald performed the mind clearing magic, he felt it best to share it, though."
"Of course," Regulus said, placing a reassuring hand on Kreacher's shoulder to soften the doubtful looks from the three Lestranges. "You recalled the name Delphini, and she does indeed exist now so it must mean something. He likely had future plans or...if Delphini is some spirit with whom he had dark dealings in the past and... and with whom he apparently did not have good rapport. If she is the one in that body...well, she said that she did not like Voldemort." Glancing at the Lestranges he added, "Kereston said she told you lot that when she came to see you in Azkaban."
Bellatrix nodded curtly, and Regulus went on. "It is unclear, but it still connects, and it means something. I believe Kreacher's memory should not be quickly disregarded by him or anyone else." He smiled reassuringly at Kreacher, who smiled back in relief.
"What else," Bellatrix asked. "That isn't particularly useful and makes no sense besides," she complained. "Did the two of you remember why he allowed you to live that night without twisting your minds as he did ours?"
"Somewhat," Regulus answered slowly. "We believe he had plans for us that never had an opportunity to be realized."
"What sort of plans?" Bellatrix demanded, and Regulus shook his head.
"We don't know, and we aren't sure we ever did. What we recall was that he made us perform some dark rights...disturbing and improper in nature, on one another."
Bellatrix snorted. "The two of you have done enough of that that I shouldn't think you'd be bothered."
Regulus frowned. "Not like that... He said he would allow us to do what we enjoyed the most, but he made us...with magic, not with commands, and it was as if we were puppets. He was studying the results while working magic over us." Man and elf both shuddered, reaching to clasp hands for support, and Bellatrix found herself looking away. Watching Voldemort inspire trauma on the faces of others she cared for was nearly as disconcerting as remembering her own.
"So just creepy shit that isn't directly useful," Rabastan asked, effectively summarizing.
"That's about the long and short of it, I am afraid," Regulus admitted with a sigh. "If we recall more, of course, you will be the first to know. It's only right and fair, after all we've gone through together at his twisted hands."
"So did Grindelwald tell you what happened to us, then? What we remembered," Bellatrix asked, suddenly realizing that Regulus and Kreacher seemed to already be aware. Were she not so exhausted, she would've caught that earlier, but if she put off the visit until work wasn't exhausting, it would never happen.
Regulus cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his chair, gaze sliding away from Bellatrix's. "Not exactly. We already knew."
"YOU WHAT?" Bellatrix howled. "AND YOU NEVER SAW FIT TO TELL US?"
At last Rodolphus turned away from the bookshelves to regard Regulus with a studied frown.
"I didn't want to do more damage to the three of your minds by telling you," Regulus said. "I did not know how to undo it. Neither did Kreacher. The Dark Lord did not make us forget as he did you, for whatever reason, and we still have no idea why other than that his plans for us were different. We saw what he did to you, though."
Regulus shook his head, horrified at the memory. "He told you all to go home and sleep. That Orion Black had died well in service to him, and that you should remember him proudly. Your faces changed so quickly from horrified to nearly blank automatons. Your eyes were staring and empty. They no longer even saw my father dead on the floor."
"We recall that now," Bellatrix snapped, and Regulus nodded.
"Yes, but I'm saying you didn't see from our side how your faces looked when they changed. He worked your minds over! I simply did not wish to cause more damage attempting to fix it. You believed me when I told you, for a second time, about the Horcrux situation, so what was the point? We were still close, you were free of him, he was dead, and you were out of Azkaban," Regulus reasoned. "So what was the point? I could see how unstable all of you were due to the Dementors and isolation of Azkaban, compounded with what the Dark Lord originally did. I just didn't want to make it worse." His blue gaze pleaded with them for understanding, and Bellatrix let out a breath as she relented, no longer seeing his years of silence as a betrayal.
"It's cool," Rodolphus assured with a small nod, and Rabastan shrugged. "Yeah, we're good."