Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 262, Section 261: The True and False Horcruxes and Regulus's Corpse
"Well, at least this way he won't hurt himself, right?" Hermione smiled awkwardly when she saw the looks she was getting from the others and put down her wand.

“No problem, good girl, well done!” Sirius said readily, then looked at the locket in his hand, “So, it really is—a Horcrux?”

“I never imagined—why would a Horcrux be in the Black family? Was it a gift from Voldemort to Regulus?” Sirius quickly recalled. “It’s not impossible. Regulus has always admired the Dark Lord and joined the Death Eaters right after graduating from school. After all, after I was expelled, Regulus became the heir to the Black family, so it’s quite possible that Voldemort entrusted something like this to him… Well, he certainly wouldn’t let Regulus know what it was.”

"Young Master Regulus knew!! He knew everything!! He knew this was the Dark Lord's treasure! That's why Young Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to destroy it! But useless Kreacher couldn't destroy it no matter what he did! Bad Kreacher! Bad Kreacher!!"

If Hermione's spell hadn't still been in effect, the old house-elf would probably have been banging his head against the ground again.

“So this isn’t actually your locket, it’s Regulus’s locket,” Harry concluded, taking the locket directly from Sirius’s hand. “It’s not surprising that Regulus asked you to destroy it, but you didn’t. After all, this locket isn’t just Voldemort’s Horcrux; it’s also Slytherin’s locket, a Hogwarts legacy.”

Harry carefully examined the locket in his hand. It looked no different from the one he had seen in the divination. It was small, about the size of an egg, with a silver frame and a huge emerald set in it. The most eye-catching feature was the 'S' symbol that represented Slytherin.

“Slytherin’s locket?!” Fred and George exclaimed simultaneously. “It’s real?!”

“Of course it’s real, just like Ravenclaw’s crown, Gryffindor’s sword, and Hufflepuff’s cup.” Harry tossed the locket in his hand.

"Why would you put the Gryffindor sword behind the Ravenclaw crown?" Ron protested. "That's not what a real Gryffindor should do."

"Is this the time to worry about such trivial things?" Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron, annoyed. "So this is how we found a Horcrux?"

“We need to contact Dumbledore right away,” Mr. Weasley interjected. “Only he can handle this. I’ll send an owl with a message right now.”

“No need, Mr. Weasley,” Harry shook his head and said, “Even if Dumbledore gets his hands on this locket, what he can do is no different from what I can do: destroy it.”

As he spoke, Harry drew his warhammer from his waist, while Kreacher, who was lying limply on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes wide when he heard Harry's words. He stared at him, muttering something that was impossible to understand.

"Wait, you're going to destroy it with this hammer?" Sirius, who had been silent until now, suddenly stammered, "I mean—now? Is it really okay?"

“This is a warhammer forged from the fangs of the Basilisk. I’ve already used it to destroy a Horcrux,” Harry said, looking at Sirius. “Are you affected by it? You can’t bear to destroy it?”

"What? You can't bear to destroy it?" Sirius paused for a moment before angrily saying, "Of course not! I absolutely don't want anything related to Voldemort left behind, I just—I just—damn it, get up! Tell me everything about this locket! How did Regulus die?!"

“No… Kreacher can’t… Master Regulus told Kreacher not to tell anyone… He told Kreacher to destroy the locket… That scoundrel Potter said he could destroy the locket? Impossible… Impossible…”

Obeying Sirius's orders, Kreacher staggered to his feet, but he didn't say anything nice—which clearly further enraged Sirius, who kicked him.

"I told you! Harry is your master too!! Now! Right now! Tell me exactly how Regulus died! And why it was him and not you who died!!"

"Oh my god, Sirius! Calm down!" Hermione exclaimed immediately. "He's already pitiful enough!"

As she said this, Hermione rushed over to help Kreacher up, but Kreacher's reaction was much more intense than she had expected. The house-elf even scrambled away from Hermione in a rolling and crawling manner.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher! Kreacher won't allow it! What will the mistress say?!"

"I forbid you to call her a Mudblood! Kreacher!" Sirius roared like a rabid dog. "Now! Answer my question!! I command you in the name of my master!!"

“If Sirius Black asks Kreacher to answer, then Kreacher must answer… Although he is a bad boy, and his unruly behavior has broken his mistress’s heart, thankfully there is still Master Regulus, who knows what the Black name and pure blood mean…”

"Young Master Regulus often spoke of the Dark Lord, who wanted to free wizards from hiding and allow them to rule over Muggles and their descendants... So when Young Master Regulus was sixteen, he joined the Dark Lord's organization. He was so proud, so happy, to be able to serve..."

"Want to rule Muggles... Ha, I'm not surprised at all," Sirius Black sneered, arms crossed.

It's clear that although Sirius Black harbors a deep dislike for the surname Black and feels no nostalgia for most of his family, he still feels a tenderness for his younger brother, the one he grew up with.

"...Then a year later, young master Regulus said that the Dark Lord needed a house-elf..."

"Young Master Regulus offered Kreacher, and so Kreacher went to the Dark Lord, who took him to a cave..."

Kreacher spoke slowly and haltingly, accompanied by sobs.

Many years ago, Voldemort obtained a house-elf from the Black family, and then he stored his Horcrux in a basin filled with a torturous potion. Only by drinking the potion could the contents be taken, but the person who drank it would suffer unbearable pain and lose all ability to resist. At the same time, Voldemort filled the cave with Inferi, which are dark magic creatures made from murdered people.

Voldemort thought that Kreacher, after drinking the potion, would die on the island and become one of the Inferi, but he did not expect that Kreacher would use Apparition to return to Black's old house under Regulus's remote command. The proud Voldemort never considered that the Anti-Apparition Charm, which works on wizards, could not prevent house-elves from Apparating.

Thus, Regulus learned of Voldemort's secret. After a period of inner struggle, Regulus ultimately betrayed Voldemort. He had Kreacher take him back to the island, but unlike Voldemort, Regulus did not choose to have Kreacher drink the potion. Instead, he chose to drink the potion himself, which was used to torture people and render them unable to resist. He then ordered Kreacher to take Voldemort's Horcrux and put a fake one inside.

And so Regulus died in that cave and became a new Infernal, while Kreacher returned home with the order to destroy the locket, only to find that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't destroy it.

After Kreacher finished speaking, only his sobbing filled the kitchen; everyone else remained silent. Sirius, in particular, leaned against the cabinet behind him, speechless for a long time.

“This is just…unlike him…” After a long silence, Sirius Black finally said softly, “He’s such a coward, so—I never imagined he would have the courage to do something like this—without a doubt, he betrayed Voldemort, stabbing Voldemort in the back…I never imagined…”

“Could you take me to that cave, Kreacher?” Harry said to Kreacher, putting the locket into his dragon-skin pouch for the moment. “I need to go there to check on things and bring back Regulus’s body while I’m at it.”

“I’ll go with you, Harry,” Sirius, who had been standing there blankly, looked over as if suddenly awakened. “I have to go—I have to go and bring him back—”

“…Alright,” Harry thought for a moment and agreed. “Then I’ll leave the house to you, Mr. Weasley, to continue cleaning with them. Sirius and I will be right back.”

“Okay, I understand. Be careful,” Mr. Weasley said seriously. “If you are not back by tonight, I will inform Dumbledore.”

“Of course,” Harry nodded slightly, then said to Kreacher, who was standing there dumbfounded, “Come on, Kreacher, don’t you want to take Regulus home?”

Harry's words were like a wake-up call, jolting Kreacher into a frenzy.

"Of course! Young Master Potter! Of course!!"

After finally realizing what Harry wanted to do, Harry was no longer the scoundrel Potter, but the young master Potter.

With a burst of sound characteristic of Apparition, Kreacher led Harry and Sirius to a small island inside a cave.

The water surrounding the island was almost black, but upon closer inspection, one could see numerous corpses faintly visible within it. A thick aura of dark magic clung to their bodies, suggesting that Voldemort had killed countless people to create so many incarnations.

Sirius Black rushed to the lake as soon as he landed. He didn't touch the water directly, but instead tried his best to widen his eyes and find Regulus's face among the corpses.

Harry turned to look at the stone basin Kreacher had described, which was filled with green potions, and at the bottom of the potions lay another Slytherin locket.

“That’s it.” Kreacher gripped the side of the stone basin, gazing sadly at the locket inside. “Young Master Regulus put it in there… Kreacher failed to fulfill Young Master Regulus’s orders…”

"I found it!!"

Sirius's sudden shout caused Kreacher to let out a short shriek. The house-elf ran to Sirius's location as fast as he could, and the master and servant lay down on the lakeside in the same position, staring wide-eyed in one direction.

"It's him! Regulus! He has the Black family crest on his clothes! It's him!!" Sirius shouted, turning sharply to look at Harry.

Without saying much, Harry called upon the water elementals in the cave to gently part, revealing the dense, seaweed-like corpses at the bottom of the lake.

Perhaps because they were freed from the water's embrace, these undead quickly showed signs of awakening. But before they could move around, a current of water wrapped around Regulus's corpse and swept it to the shore. Immediately afterward, a flame ignited, which in an instant turned into a raging fire, burning all the exposed undead to ashes.

Meanwhile, Sirius stared blankly at Regulus's corpse, watching his younger brother now baring his fangs and claws, trying to attack him, but unable to do so because of the water's restraint.

"Regulus..." Sirius muttered in a barely audible voice.

The Infernal is a curse, said to be the soul of the murdered being bound to the corpse and tormented. Harry cleansed Regulus's body, and when the dark magic was dispelled, Regulus's body finally became peaceful, lying quietly on the ground.

“Let’s go, Regulus,” Sirius said calmly, picking up Regulus’s body. “I’ll take you home.”

Voldemort's magic was based on the entire cavern as a whole. Harry directly destroyed this seaside cavern, turned it upside down, and tore it apart. As a result, the magic that protected it around the stone basin naturally lost its effect, and the flowing potion no longer replenished automatically, revealing the locket at the bottom.

A copy.

To be honest, Regulus's forgery skills were rather poor. Compared to the real Slytherin's locket that was put in the small bag, the locket Regulus made was a size smaller, lacked patterns and markings, and did not have the iconic 'S' symbol. Inside, there was nothing but a folded piece of parchment tightly stuffed into the place where the portrait was placed.

Harry opened the parchment:

To the Dark Lord:

I'll be dead long before you read this.
But I want you to know that I discovered your secret.

I stole the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as possible.

I'm willing to risk my life so that when you encounter an opponent...
It can be killed.

RAB
(End of this chapter)