February 14, 1976 it's been a year since Snape and I first, well, had sex. I think I have finally come to terms with what happened. Neither of us wanted it, but it didn't truly hurt us in the end. We haven't spoken much since his birthday and he refused to see me at all today. I think it's because he doesn't consider what we have a real relationship, and seeing each other on Valentine's day would somehow make what we have something more. I don't think I really mind, but I can't help but feeling a bit hurt. Gah! Writing in a journal and feeling hurt over a boy, why don't I just slip into a dress while I'm at it.

March 6, 1976 Damn that Flint, he just couldn't keep it in his pants. Got some sixth year Hufflepuff pregnant and now we all have to go through sex education. Sounds like something a muggle would come up with. Every pureblood gets "the talk" before we even go to Hogwarts. What an idiot.

March 12, 1976 Merlin's hairy balls, someone out there must really hate me. They brought all of us, fifth year and up, into the great hall and "randomly" paired us up. I got stuck with the mudblood Evans. We have to take care of a magically enhanced doll for a full week. I guess I should be grateful that I didn't get stuck with a guy. There is not an even number of boys to girls and Avery has to raise a bundle of joy with Pettigrew.

March 14, 1976 Four more days of this, I guess it could be worse; Evans is trying her hardest not to hex me so she doesn't fail. She even researched my family history to come up with an appropriate constellation name for the doll. She named it Lyra.

March 17, 1976 Snape has been around a lot more this past week, and I know it is not because of me. I am not sure that Evans has even noticed him lurking around when we have to take care of the doll. I wonder if he is always following her around or if it's just because the Marauders are off spending time with their own fake spawn. He looks at her with such longing. I hate to admit it, but I can understand why. After all the names and cruelty that I had offered her over the years, she still treats me with respect.

April 24, 1976 Spring Hols are over. It's been awhile since I've written. Just haven't much felt like it. The war is getting worse. Mother and I went to a party while I was home and I met Him, the Dark Lord. I told him that I was looking forward to graduation so that I could join his service. Mother looked very proud of me. The Dark Lord told me to keep to my studies, that he enjoys having well learned followers. I wonder why He keeps Goyle and Crabbie around then.

May 4, 1976 This will be my last entry until next term. I have been having problems with some of the seventh years trying to steal my locket and journal. There are too many secrets in here to risk it. I'll just have to wait it out until they are gone.

It was dark in the house when Harry finally put the journal down. Stressful would not even begin to describe the day he had; the looks everyone was giving him were full of pity and disappointment. They tried to hide it, but he could tell. Ron hadn't come back to their room that night. Harry didn't blame him; the whole situation was beyond insane. Harry climbed out of bed and quietly slipped out of the room. The entire house seemed to be asleep and he made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen. He found a plate of food with his name on it in the icebox. He hadn't felt like eating earlier and he silently thanked Mrs. Weasley for saving his dinner from her son's bottomless stomach.

"Harry." The voice startled him and plate he was carrying dropped towards the floor. It was caught at the last second by a floating charm.

"Sorry, seems I can only mess things up lately." Lyra was sitting at the table wand in one hand and a spoon in the other, eating from a container of Brownie Batter ice cream. She levitated the plate to the table and turned back to her ice cream. They sat there in an uncomfortable silence while they both ate. Harry had just finished his last bite of peas when she spoke.

"I'm so sorry Harry. I didn't think, I… I should have told you everything." Harry didn't know what to say, he sat quietly for a moment, looking at his empty plate. The food now sat heavily in his stomach and he was regretting eating so much. He could hear her crying now, but he held no desire to relieve her guilt. Harry put his plate in the sink and walked out of the kitchen.

The next morning was spent throwing up every bit of the food from the night before. The prenatal potion didn't seem to help and Harry felt so weak. Hermione came into the room and held a wet cloth to the back of his neck as he dry heaved. Her finger tips brushed lightly over his neck and that simple touch felt like a jolt of energy pouring into his spine. He felt almost instantly better, the nausea was subsiding replaced by a gnawing hunger.

"Magic transfer." Hermione had removed her hand from Harry's neck and was looking at it strangely before breaking into a beaming smile.

"Oh Harry, I'm going to be an Auntie. Your baby is draining my magic!"

That small touch lasted for six hours before he started feeling tired again, but that was fixed quickly by a hug from Mrs. Weasley. The jolt from that transfer left a warm glow in the pit of his stomach, her magic acted just like her cooking. Harry didn't see Sirius at all during the day, and it seemed most of the order members were out on assignments. Even Remus, who was supposed to be lying low since he was "executed", had left headquarters to try once again to influence the werewolf packs into not joining Voldemort. As night fell on the house Harry decided to find his godfather, if only to make sure that he was taking his potion. He found Sirius, or rather Padfoot curled up on the end of the bed dreaming doggy dreams. His paws were twitching as if he was running and his tail was wagging. Harry smiled and left the room, deciding that a nap sounded like a great idea at the moment.

"Dirty little brat, stealing my poor dead master's things." Kreacher was sitting on his bed, Regulus' journal in his hands. The house-elf looked as if he had been through a meat grinder. One of his ears was only handing by a small piece of skin and his overly large nose was broken and laying over the left side of his cheek.

"Give me the journal Kreacher." The house-elf clutched the book tighter to its chest and laughed.

"Don't have to listen to you anymore, the blood traitor is back. You can't read it anyway, not without the locket." Harry pulled the chain up from under his shirt and twirled the locket in front of him.

"My master's locket, where did you find it? Kreacher reached for the locket like a starving man reaching for food.

"I found it in a cave; do you know anything about that?" Kreacher bulbous eyes filled with tears as he left out an unearthly wail.

"My poor master! Kreacher failed in his orders….. Kreacher did wrong!" The already bruised house elf lunged for Harry's open trunk and began to slam his fingers repeatedly with the lid.

"Kreacher stop!" The house elf froze almost comically as he heard Sirius' order coming from the doorway.

"You know what happened to my brother?" The house elf eye Sirius with distain, which didn't have as much of an effect with the tears still dropping down his broken face.

"Yes Master" Harry had only seen Sirius' face so angry once before, at the shrieking shack when they had caught Pettigrew.

"Tell me what happened. Now." Kreacher began scratching his arms so hard they began to bleed.

"Kreacher cannot, Master Regulus said Kreacher could not tell." Sirius stormed past Harry, brushing off his Godson's attempts to stop him and grabbed the house elf by its filthy rag.

"Regulus is dead! He is not your master anymore and you are going to tell me what happened to him!" There was a loud bang as Kreacher's head hit the wall with enough force to cause a large dent in the plaster. Sirius cursed as he stalked over to body on the ground and cast inveterate. The noise from the altercation had Ron and Hermione running towards Harry's room.

"Sirius what have you done!" Hermione gasped as she caught sight Kreacher The elf had his face between his knees, rocking back and forth on the floor. She walked forward with her wand out intending to help the elf then give Sirius a piece of her mind, when a muffled but distinct voice stopped her.

"Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress's heart with his lawless ways." Sirius moved to kick Kreacher but Hermione's quick wand work had him petrified before his foot could connect.

"Now are you going to be quiet and sit down or do I have to keep you like that for the rest of the story." She released the spell and Sirius rolled his eyes and sat on the bed next to Harry. Hermione motioned to Kreacher to continue and got an ugly sneer in reply.

"Master Sirius is bad, but Master Regulus had proper pride. He knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns… And when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy too serve… And one day, a year after he had joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher, Master Regulus always liked Kreacher.

"Of course he liked you; you were always sucking up to him and giving him extra dessert." Hermione waved her wand menacingly in front of her and with a huff Sirius put his chin in his hand.

"Master Regulus said….he said…he said that the Dark Lord required an elf."

"Voldemort needed an elf?" Harry repeated, looking around at Ron and Hermione, who looked just as puzzled as he did.

"He wouldn't want an incompetent elf like you." Sirius raised his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender as Hermione wand went flashing in his direction.

"Harry was talking too." Sirius muttered under his breath as Kreacher continued as if he hadn't heard Sirius' first comment.

"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do… and then to c-come home." Kreacher was rocking faster now, his breath coming in quick sobs.

"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave there was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake…"

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. Kreacher's croaking voice seemed to come to him from across that dark water. He saw what had happened as clearly as though he had been present.

"…There was a boat…" Sirius sighing next to him broke him from his memories of the cave.

"There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it… Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things….Kreacher's insides burned….Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed… He made Kreacher drink all the potion… He dropped a Locket into the empty basin… He filled it with more potion. And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island…"

"What would be so important to him to have to hide it like that, why didn't he just put it in Gringotts? He certainly has enough followers with vaults in the extremely high security areas." Sirius grumbled to himself. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other quickly, silently decided to keep mum about the Horcrux for now.

"Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge, and he drank from the black lake… and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface…"

"How did you get away?" Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself whispering.

Kreacher raised his ugly head and look at Harry with his great bloodshot eyes.

'Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he said.

"I know- but how did you escape the Inferi?" Sirius gave Harry a strange look at his knowledge of what exactly was hiding beneath the black lake. Kreacher did not seem to understand.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he repeated.

"He disapparated Harry." Ron and Sirius said at the same time giving each other an amused look before Ron continued.

"Elf magic isn't like wizard's magic is it?" said Ron. "I mean the can Apperate and Disapperate in and out of Hogwarts when we can't."

There was silence as Harry digested this. How could Voldemort have made such a mistake? But even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy.

"Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house elves far beneath his notice, just like all the purebloods who treat them like animals. (Sirius got a cold stare at that sentence.) It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."

"I only treat him like he deserves, he is the bloody reason I almost died!" Sirius retaliated to Hermione's icy looks.

"If you hadn't been so mean to him growing up then maybe he would be nicer to you!" Hermione yelled, her magic manifesting slightly in her anger, wiping the ends of her hair around.

"You don't know what happened in this house, Kreacher always used to jump out at me and try to scare me, and he would poison my food with things that would make me sick for weeks. He killed the dog that I found on the road and had its head stuffed and put over my bed!" Sirius was up off the bed jabbing his finger Kreacher as he spoke.

"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding." Intoned Kreacher. "Mistress wanted Master Sirius to be a strong and noble Black. She ordered Kreacher to scare Master Sirius so when he grew older he would not jump at things he feared. Mistress made Kreacher poison Master Sirius' food a little at a time so he would work up a resistance. Mistress killed the dog and told Kreacher to get rid of the mangy mutt, but Kreacher saw it was loyal, a good dog. So Kreacher gave it the greatest honor a house-elf could have in the house of Black and stuffed its head." Sirius jaw dropped and his arm fell limply to the side.

"My mother made you do all those things to me?"

"Kreacher did not like his orders at first, Master Sirius was kind to Kreacher as a young child, but soon Kreacher began getting beatings from Master Sirius and he began to enjoy his jobs for his mistress." Sirius sat back down on the bed and looked at the old elf.

"Are you going to get to what happened to my brother anytime soon?" Kreacher nodded and began to rock again.

"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then… it was a little while later… Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard on night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell… and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord…"

"And he made you drink the potion?" Said Harry.

But Kreacher shook his head and wept. Sirius' face went pale and Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth.

"M-Master Regulus gave Kreacher his locket and told Kreacher when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets…." Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now; Harry had to concentrate hard to understand him.

"And he ordered- Kreacher to leave- without him. And he told Kreacher- to go home- and never to tell my Mistress- what he had done- but to destroy- the first locket. And he drank- all the potion- and Kreacher swapped the lockets- and watched …. as Master Regulus… was dragged beneath the water…and..."

"Why did you let him die! It should have been you to drink the potion! House elves are supposed to protect their masters, not let them die." Tears were falling down Sirius' face as he yelled.

"He was just following orders Sirius; don't besmirch your brother's memory by taking your anger out on Kreacher!" Tears were rolling down her cheeks as well.

"Where is it Kreacher? Where is the blasted piece of jewelry that my brother gave his life for?" At this Kreacher began to wail and hit himself over the head with one of Harry's shoes.

"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," Moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything that he knew, but nothing, nothing would work… So many powerful spells upon the casing. Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open… Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punish…"

"Kreacher! Where is the locket now?" Kreacher curled in on himself and covered his eyes.

"Gone."

"Gone?" Yelled Sirius. "You lost it!"

"Not lost, stolen. Mundungus Fletcher stole it all: Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class the..." The rest of the list was cut off as Sirius jumped off the bed and walked towards the door.

"Sirius, where are you going?" Harry yelled, following his godfather as he threw open the door and stormed down the stairs. Harry thought he saw a flash of black down the hall, but shook it off as he chased the older man.

"Where do you think I'm going, my brother died for that locket and I going to find Dung, get it back, and destroy the damn thing." Sirius was almost to the front door before Harry was able to grab his shoulder and turn him around. There was such a look of anger and despair on his face that it made Harry's heart ache.

"It's alright Sirius, we already have it, let's go back upstairs and I can explain."

September 1, 1976 I have a feeling that this year is going to change everything.