Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 210 Regulus Black (8000 words)
For the time being, the night attack is just a plan and Vivi has not put it into action yet.

After staying in the room for a while, Ron hurried over.

"Come on, Harry." Ron waved at Harry, "Look what I found?"

Harry thought Ron had discovered something remarkable, so he stood up and walked out with Ron.

Walking to Ron's room, he pointed in the direction of the door opposite and said, "Look, I didn't notice it just now, what do you see written on it?"

Looking in the direction Ron pointed, Harry noticed that there was a small sign on the door and deep scratches in the paint underneath.

He leaned forward, holding up his glasses, to get a closer look. It was an imposing little sign, written in neat handwriting, something Percy Weasley would have nailed to his bedroom door.

No entry without my express permission
Regulus Arcturus Black
"This is Sirius's brother, right?" Ron looked at Harry and asked, "I remember he said his brother was called Regulus and that he had defected to the You-Know-Who. But it turns out that Regulus actually betrayed the You-Know-Who. This was said by the You-Know-Who himself."

"Yes, he is my brother."

Sirius' voice came from behind Ron. When Ron turned around, he saw that Sirius looked a little sad.

"Kreacher is very loyal to my brother, so I have not assigned anyone to live in this room."

Perhaps this was also a kind of remembrance of Regulus, Harry thought to himself but did not say it out loud.

"Let's go in and take a look." Sirius seemed to be trying his best to keep his voice from trembling. "I haven't been to his room for a long time."

He pushed the door open and walked into Regulus's room, followed by Harry and Ron.

It should be said that the style of Regulus' room is completely opposite to Sirius's - Sirius is the kind of extremely rebellious person who wants to completely wash away the Slytherin stigma at home; while Regulus is just the opposite. As a good boy of the Black family and a good son of his mother, the silver and green of Slytherin can be seen everywhere in his room, covering the bed, walls and windows. The head of the bed is carefully painted with the Black family crest and the motto of "Forever Pure" written in French, and there are many yellowed clippings below, which are glued into irregular collages.

"They're all about Voldemort." Sirius looked at the newspaper clippings on the bedside with a complicated expression. "At that time, he was brainwashed by my mother. The only thing in his mind was to follow Voldemort. He didn't think about anything else at all. What a fool, this child. He later joined the Death Eaters."

Harry noticed that next to the clipping was a photo of what seemed to be the Slytherin Quidditch team. He recognized the one in it at a glance - he was sitting in the middle of the front row, with a proud look on his face, just like the second Sirius, but he was thinner, looked weaker, and not as handsome as Sirius.

"You can see that," Sirius murmured, "He's a seeker. As you can see, we brothers actually have a lot in common. For example, we both like Quidditch."

"Then why aren't you on the Quidditch team?" Harry asked curiously.

“My mother won’t buy me a broom.”

Sirius said this in a lighthearted way, but he overlooked the fact that it was not necessary for the family to pay for the broom to join the Quidditch team.

He quickly changed the subject and said, "In fact, your father James has always wanted to be a seeker. He likes adventure much more than you do, you know? He often steals the Golden Snitch from the Quidditch team and plays with it in his hands... Peter... the traitor likes to watch him play with the Golden Snitch very much. Sometimes I wonder if he is so happy that he pees."

While listening to Sirius speak, Harry also glanced at the book "Born Noble: A Family Tree of Wizards" lying on the bedside.

It can be seen that Regulus seems to be very confident in his pure-blood identity...

"It seems that Uncle Potter is really naughty." Ron commented sharply on James.

"Indeed, he is very naughty." Sirius was so excited when he mentioned James - Ron even suspected that if one of them was a girl, Lily would have no chance - he said again: "But Ron, you should know that James and old Snotlout have always been at odds. When they were in school, he was the old Snotlout's nemesis."

Ron said nothing, just nodded.

"Why don't you speak?" Sirius asked curiously, "I remember you didn't like old Snotlout very much. He liked to target you?"

"I can't speak." Ron said, "As soon as I say something bad about Professor Snape, he will appear behind me. This trick works every time. As long as I'm not in the Gryffindor common room, I will definitely be caught by him."

"How could that be? This is the Black family!" Sirius said in shock.

"No, we've just proven that the Blacks are useless and can't stop Professor Snape." Ron said breathlessly.

Just at this moment, Pappy suddenly popped his head out from under the floor.

"Oh, you are all here?" She said with a smile, "Dumbledore asked me to inform you that Kreacher has woken up...or should I say, old snot...Professor Snape's potion is indeed very effective. I think Kreacher is in much better condition."

You meant to say old snot, didn't you? You meant to say old snot, didn't you?

Even though Pappy is a Hufflepuff, her impression of Snape is completely negative.

Because Snape was prejudiced against Hufflepuffs.

Of course, this was also because Pappy had wrongly blamed Snape, because Snape was prejudiced against all colleges other than Slytherin, not just Hufflepuff.

Even if he was targeting them, it was not Hufflepuff's turn to speak out. Everyone in Hogwarts knew that Snape was only targeting every Gryffindor equally, and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were just incidental.

Hearing Pappy's name, Sirius became more and more satisfied with his daughter-in-law.

Even if James came back to life, he would probably be satisfied with this Hufflepuff girl, right?

But he knew that the girl just had a problem with her Animagus training and would recover after a while, which would not affect her relationship with Harry at all.

"Okay, let's go now." Sirius said to Pappy.

Several people walked out of Regulus' room and went downstairs along the stairs.

Everyone had arrived at the room where Kreacher was lying. When Snape saw Sirius walk in, he gave a sinister smile.

"Look, here comes the house-elf's dog owner..."

There is actually nothing wrong with this statement, after all, Sirius' Animagus is indeed a dog.

Look at the reaction. If one bites when being scolded, he is a wolf; if one snorts angrily, he is a dog.

"Old Snotlout!" Sirius pointed at Snape's nose and was speechless for a long time.

He thought again of Cassandra's extremely hurtful words.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Sirius held it in for a long time before finally saying, "Tell me, how is Kreacher now?"

"So we waited for you to come here. After all, you are Kreacher's master now." Dumbledore shook his head and said, "But his mental state is not bad. He can take some truth serum, what do you think?"

"Kreacher doesn't need to take truth serum." Kreacher hit his head and said, "Kreacher doesn't want to betray his beloved Master Regulus..."

As he said this, he wanted to bang his head against the wall.

"Wait a minute--"

Harry stopped Regulus's actions and said to Dumbledore, "Well, I remember that he respects Mrs. Black the most. How about... maybe we can ask Mrs. Black to order him to tell the truth? It's better than just feeding him a mouthful of truth serum, right?"

It's not that he had any unnecessary compassion, but he felt that the godfather was old and it would not be good for him to not have a little elf to serve him.

"Can you convince my mother?" Sirius looked at Harry suspiciously.

"I think Mrs. Black is very easy to talk to, she's very kind," Harry said with a shrug.

Sirius had a 'are you fucking kidding me' look on his face.

my mother?

Easy to talk to?
kind?

He raised his head and glanced at the calendar hanging next to him.

"What's wrong with you?" Dumbledore asked with concern.

"Let me confirm whether today is April Fool's Day." Sirius rubbed his head and said, "I'm sorry, I really can't associate the two adjectives "kind" and "easy to talk" with my mother--"

Harry didn't say anything, but walked out and asked the portrait of Mrs. Black hanging next to him: "Hello, Mrs. Black - can you order Kreacher to tell the truth about Regulus? I think we have to find him eventually...even if he has really..."

Walburga did not hesitate at all and ordered loudly: "I allow it! Kreacher! You must tell Harry Potter everything in detail! This is my order! I gave you the order!"

Harry didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that Walburga's words "These are my orders" had a German flavor.

Harry retracted his head, glanced at Vivi standing behind him, and asked in a low voice: "How do you say 'This is my order' in German?"

"Das war ein Befehl!" Vivi replied in a low voice.

Right.

Harry turned back to Kreacher and said, "Kreacher - did you hear that? Your mistress orders you to tell her everything you know about Regulus - don't hold back anything, understand?"

Finally, Harry felt that it was not enough, so he added again: "This is your mistress's order!"

Seeing that Kreacher was still in a daze, Harry added, "Only if you tell the truth can we rescue Regulus - maybe he is trapped somewhere, isn't he, Kreacher?"

Hearing these words, Kreacher was finally moved.

His two big ears, like bat wings, drooped down, and tears flowed from his sunken eye sockets.

After a while, his voice, like the croaking of a bullfrog, rang out.

"Master Regulus's locket. Kreacher made a mistake. Kreacher failed to carry out Master's orders!" he sobbed. "That locket - it should be some great treasure, at least that's what Master told Kreacher..."

"That locket, is it Slytherin's locket?" Snape suddenly asked.

Seeing everyone looking at him with puzzled eyes, Snape half-squinted his eyes and said, "When I was over there, I heard about this matter - about Slytherin's locket. Voldemort asked his confidants to hide several of his treasures. I only know about this Slytherin locket, and that crazy woman Bellatrix Lestrange also has something in her hands."

The 'over there' that Snape referred to was the days when he was undercover among the Death Eaters.

"It should be." Kreacher said shrilly, "But Kreacher doesn't know what it is, my poor Master Regulus..."

He sobbed twice, raised his head again, and stared at Sirius with big eyes indignantly.

"Master Sirius ran away, and it was good that he ran away, because he was a bad boy, and his unruly behavior broke my mistress's heart - but Master Regulus had self-esteem, and he knew what the Black surname and his pure blood meant. For many years he often talked about the Dark Lord, who wanted wizards to no longer have to hide, but to come out and rule over Muggles and their descendants... When Master Regulus was sixteen, he joined the Dark Lord's organization. He was so proud, so proud, so happy to be able to serve..."

"To be able to serve the Dark Lord, right?" Sirius sneered and said, "Do you really think this is an honorable thing, Kreacher? He is a demon who kills without blinking an eye..."

"Kreacher only knows that this is the mistress's wish." Kreacher muttered in a low voice, "This should have been your responsibility, Master Sirius..."

Hearing Kreacher's words, Sirius smiled disdainfully.

"Go on, Kreacher," interrupted Harry.

Kreacher nodded and suddenly shuddered.

"A year later, one day, Master Regulus came to the kitchen to visit Kreacher... Master Regulus has always liked Kreacher, but that day, Master Regulus said... he said..."

The old elf began to shake as if sifting chaff.

"...He said that the Dark Lord wants a house-elf." "Voldemort wants a house-elf?" Sirius asked in confusion, "Doesn't he look down on house-elves the most? I remember his point of view. He believes that the status of house-elves is not even as good as livestock. Why do we need house-elves?"

"Kreacher doesn't know either, but Kreacher knows that Master Sirius has evaded his responsibilities." Kreacher closed his eyes and covered his face in pain when he said this, "Master Regulus contributed Kreacher, which is an honor. Master Regulus said it was the honor of himself and Kreacher. Kreacher must do everything the Dark Lord wants him to do... and then go home."

Kreacher began to sob.

"So, Kreacher came to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what to do, but took Kreacher to a cave by the sea. It was a big cave with a big black lake in it..."

"... and a boat, and on the island there was a stone... a stone basin filled with potion, which the Dark-the Dark Lord made Kreacher drink..."

The elf seemed to have thought of something terrible and was trembling with fear.

"Kreacher drank it, and saw many horrible things while he was drinking it...Kreacher's internal organs were on fire...Kreacher called out to Master Regulus to save him, and to his mistress, but the Dark Lord just laughed...He made Kreacher drink the potion...He threw the locket into the empty basin...and then filled the basin with potion again."

"Then the Dark Lord boarded his ship and left, leaving Kreacher on the island..."

Kreacher knelt on the bed, buried his head in the sheets, and continued in a muffled voice: "Kreacher needed water, so he crawled to the edge of the island to drink the water in the Black Lake... Many hands, dead hands, stretched out from the water and dragged Kreacher down..."

"Is it an Inferi?!" Ron asked in astonishment.

After a useful year in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Ron did learn a lot of useful knowledge - at least he knew that this was an Inferi, and he also knew how to deal with the Inferi.

Even though he was only a third-grade student, he had nine spells to deal with the Inferi, nine!
"Then how did you escape?"

Hermione, who had a strong ability of empathy, grabbed her collar and asked in a hissing voice.

She had already imagined the horrific scene at that time, and even though Kreacher had said that to her before, she was still worried about what would happen to Kreacher.

Sirius was worried that Kreacher would suddenly scold Hermione, so he repeated, "Yes, how did you escape?"

Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked at Sirius with his huge bloodshot eyes.

"Master Regulus said he wanted Kreacher to come home," he said.

Sirius paused at the mention of Regulus' name.

He continued, "I know - but how did you get rid of the Inferi?"

Kreacher shook his head mechanically.

"Master Regulus said he wanted Kreacher to come home," he repeated.

"But how did you get away?" Sirius frowned and asked, "You know, that was a cave that even Voldemort was confident in - if he let you go, he must have been absolutely sure that you would not escape from it, right?"

"You should know, Sirius." Hermione sighed and said, "Voldemort looked down on house-elves the most, thinking that they were just lowly and despicable creatures, just as most wizards know - but I've read in books that elves have magic that many wizards can't master, just like the house-elves in Hogwarts can Apparate in Hogwarts. You know, even Headmaster Dumbledore can't do this, right? Professor?"

The last words she said were addressed to Dumbledore.

"Yes." Dumbledore nodded seriously, acknowledging Hermione's words.

"So Kreacher was following Regulus' orders, right?" Hermione asked Kreacher again.

"The supreme law of the house-elves is the master's order," Kreacher sang with joy when he heard Regulus' order. "The master told Kreacher to go home, and Kreacher went home."

"So, you did what you were told, didn't you?" Hermione asked gently, "and didn't disobey any orders at all?"

Kreacher nodded.

"And what happened after you returned?" Dumbledore asked. "And when you told your master what had happened, what did Regulus say?"

"Master Regulus is very worried, very worried," Kreacher screamed, "Regulus told Kreacher to hide and not leave the house." Then... after a while... one night, Master Regulus came to the cupboard and found Kreacher. Master Regulus looked strange, not like his usual self, and Kreacher could see that he was very confused... Master asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the same cave that Kreacher had been to with the Dark Lord..."

Sirius froze.

He frowned and asked coldly, "So, he made you drink the potion?"

Kreacher shook his head and burst into tears.

Sirius stood up suddenly. He already had a guess in his mind - he had guessed what would happen to Regulus...

"Master Re-Regulus pulled a locket out of his pocket, just like the Dark Lord's," said Kreacher, tears streaming down both sides of his long nose. "He told Kreacher to hold it, and when the basin was dry, to replace the locket..."

Kreacher's sobs became heavy and raspy, and Harry had to concentrate completely to understand what he was saying.

"He ordered - Kreacher to go - leave him alone. He told Kreacher - to go home - not to say anything to the mistress - what he had done - but to destroy - the first locket. Then He drank it—drank the potion—Kreacher replaced the locket—and watched... Master Regulus... being dragged underwater... and then..."

When Sirius heard Kreacher's words, how could he not understand what was happening?
He took two steps back, and seemed to have figured out what his brother had been through...

Lupin quickly caught him and prevented Sirius from falling to the ground.

"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, she cried and knelt beside the elf, trying to hug him and comfort him.

The elf immediately stood up and backed away with obvious disgust.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher! Stay away from Kreacher!"

Hermione stood there with her hands folded, at a loss as to what to do next.

She had shown her goodwill to the elf many times, but was ruthlessly rejected and insulted by the other party. Even Hermione, the iron saint, could not accept it.

"I told you! Don't call her that!"

Sirius came back to his senses and roared angrily.

"Kreacher is sorry Master Regulus! I'm sorry Mistress!"

Kreacher wailed, and lay on the bed, breathing heavily, trembling all over. There was shiny green mucus around his nose, which looked like his snot.

Sirius sighed. He paced back and forth anxiously, pulling his hair, and said sadly: "This child... he should have come to me... should have sought my help. Why was he so stupid as to choose to bear everything by himself? Merlin..."

"Because Master Sirius, you don't believe him." Kreacher was still in the mood to mock Sirius: "Master Regulus talked to Kreacher. He said that Master Sirius thought he was a die-hard Death Eater and didn't believe him..."

Hearing Kreacher say this, Sirius felt even more sad.

"Yes, yes, you are right..." Sirius pounded the bed angrily, "If only I could care about him a little more - damn it, damn it, why can't I care about my brother?"

After learning that his brother was not a sociopath who was determined to follow the Death Eaters, Sirius now felt extremely regretful.

At the same time, I feel a little proud.

"It's not your fault." Lupin stepped forward to comfort him at the right time, "Padfoot, no one knew that Regulus would oppose Voldemort... After all, we have never seen anyone betray the Dark Lord."

Snape cleared his throat, trying to tell Lupin that there was actually more than one person who betrayed the Dark Lord, and he was standing right in front of you.

"Now, I am not the only one in this house who is against the Dark Lord!" Sirius sniffed and said proudly, "Look, there is also Regulus - my brother, he also can't stand the Dark Lord's style. I know, I know that my brother is not the kind of person who is deceived by Voldemort!"

He held his head high, letting the tears flow freely, but his face was full of pride.

"So, you took the Slytherin locket home," Vivi asked, looking down, determined to know the whole story. "Did you try to destroy it?"

"Kreacher could not make a mark on it," said the elf sadly. "Kreacher tried everything, everything, but nothing, nothing worked... There was so much powerful magic on the box, Kreacher believed that it could only be destroyed from the inside, but it would not open... Kreacher punished himself and tried again, punished himself and tried again. Kreacher failed to carry out the order, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! The mistress was mad with grief because Master Regulus was missing, and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, could not, because Master Regulus forbade him to tell f-f-about what had happened in the grotto..."

"Please forgive me for disobeying your orders, Master Regulus..." Kreacher banged his head against the wall, but as soon as he made this move, he was tied up by Vivi's spell.

"But Kreacher really wanted you to come back safely!" Kreacher sobbed, "Then, the mistress died. Then, last year... a black mist suddenly rose from the locket. Kreacher knew nothing since then, until you showed up and saved Kreacher."

"Last year?" Harry thought for a moment and said to Kreacher, "Was it before Christmas?"

"Yes, your Excellency Master Potter," Kreacher said politely.

Even though he always acts like Sirius, Kreacher still has 100% respect for Harry.

After all, this is a wizard respected by both the old master and the mistress, and Kreacher must maintain the corresponding respect.

"That's right!" Harry pounded his palms and said to everyone, "Before Christmas last year, Pansy was controlled by the diary and went to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets to try to awaken the basilisk...but I stopped her."

"Are you trying to stop me?" Dumbledore's half-moon lenses flashed.

"Oh, I just had a little unpleasantness with him." Harry said nonchalantly: "Anyway, the diary was destroyed. Maybe Voldemort's consciousness came to Slytherin's locket..."

"But Horcruxes all have their own consciousness, right?" Hermione asked with a frown. The top student is always very sensitive about these things.

"We don't know anything about the Horcruxes either." Cassandra suddenly said, "But it's not impossible. Otherwise, nothing would make sense. Now at least we can be sure that Regulus Black, whom you are looking for, is in that cave. If we get there in time, we can still find his body."

"Then let's go now!" Harry said, standing up quickly.

"No!" Cassandra said suddenly. "If you let such a reckless idiot go, I'm really afraid that you will burn all the Inferi in the cave with fire. In this case, how can we tell which one of them is Regulus Black?"

Cassandra was talking about the fire that Harry had set on the Quidditch pitch - if that fire was really burning in the cave, then the Inferi inside would definitely be burned to ashes, just as Cassandra said.

"In addition, as Kreacher said." Dumbledore also said, "If you want to enter the cave, you must bring a sacrifice. Otherwise, you will not be able to take out the fake locket without drinking the poison inside..."

"Why do we need to take out the fake locket?" Weiwei asked curiously. "Since we already know it is a fake, there is no need to take it out - and Voldemort will definitely not leave the real locket there again. After all, he is not a fool."

"Our mission is to find Regulus Black," she added at last.

"Vivi is right." Pabbie never had any opinions of his own and just always agreed with Vivi.

"If nothing unexpected happens, Regulus should be mixed in with those Inferi." Lupin said regretfully: "He is a truly brave man."

"I have to go." Sirius sat down and said, "I want to bring him back myself. He can't stay in that cave... Merlin, when I think of my brother becoming a consciousnessless corpse in that cold cave, I feel..."

As he spoke, he beat his chest with his hands and looked heartbroken.

Snape made some noises, but said nothing.

He was really afraid of Cassandra. Miss Malfoy's mouth was... so powerful.

Even Snape, who always thought he had an advantage in sharp tongue, felt a little scared.

"Even if we don't need to drink the poison, we still have to be fully prepared." Dumbledore said softly, "You should know that it is the cave where Voldemort stored the Horcruxes. How could he not have cast other dark magic curses there? I think in addition to the corpses and poisons, there are many curses that we don't know about protecting the locket."

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(End of this chapter)