Regulus Black

For the time being, the night raid is still just a plan, and Veratia has not yet put it into action.

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

"Come here, Harry!" Ron beckoned to Harry. "Look what I found!"

Harry thought Ron had discovered something amazing, so he stood up and went outside with Ron.

He walked all the way to Ron's room, pointed towards the opposite door, and said, "Look, I didn't notice before, see what's written on it?"

Following Ron's pointing finger, Harry noticed a small sign on the door with deep scratches on the paint underneath.

He adjusted his glasses and leaned closer to examine it. It was a rather impressive little sign with neat handwriting, much like the kind of thing Percy Weasley would nail to his bedroom door.

Entry is prohibited without the express permission of the person in question.

Regulus Arcturus Black

"This is Sirius's brother, right?" Ron asked Harry. "I remember he said his brother's name was Regulus, and that he had joined the Dark Lord's side—but it turns out that Regulus actually betrayed the Dark Lord, and the Dark Lord himself said so."

"Yes, he is my younger brother."

Sirius's voice came from behind Ron. When Ron turned around, he saw that Sirius's expression was somewhat sad.

"Kritcher was very loyal to my brother, so I didn't assign anyone to stay in this room."

Perhaps this was also a way of remembering Regulus, Harry thought to himself, but didn't say it aloud.

"Let's go in and take a look." Sirius seemed to be trying his best not to let his voice tremble. "I haven't been in his room for a long time either."

He pushed open the door and went into Regulus's room, with Harry and Ron following closely behind.

It should be said that Regulus's room style is the complete opposite of Sirius's — Sirius is the extremely rebellious type, desperately wanting to completely shed the Slytherin influence from his family; while Regulus is the exact opposite. As the Black family home's obedient son and his mother's good boy, his room is filled with Slytherin silver and green, covering his bed, walls, and windows. The headboard is meticulously decorated with the Black family crest and the motto "Always Pure" written in French, below which are many yellowed newspaper clippings pasted together in an irregular collage.

"They're all about Voldemort." Sirius looked at the clippings on the bedside table with a complicated expression. "Back then, he was brainwashed by my mother. All he could think about was following Voldemort. He didn't think about anything else—how stupid of him. He later joined the Death Eater."

Harry noticed a photograph next to the clipping, which appeared to be of the Slytherin Quidditch team. He immediately recognized Regulus in the picture—he was sitting in the middle of the front row, and his haughty expression was just like Sirius's, but he was smaller and looked more frail, and not as handsome as Sirius.

"You noticed too, didn't you?" Sirius murmured. "He's a Seeker. As you can see, we brothers have a lot in common, like we both really like Quidditch."

"Then why didn't you join the Quidditch team?" Harry asked curiously.

"My mom won't buy me a broom."

Sirius pretended to be casual, but he overlooked the fact that joining Quidditch team didn't necessarily require his family to pay for brooms.

He quickly changed the subject, saying, "Actually, your dad James always wanted to be a Seeker. He's much more adventurous than you, you know? He often steals the Golden Snitch from the Quidditch team and plays with it... Peter... that traitor, really enjoys watching him play with the Golden Snitch. Sometimes I wonder if he'd pee his pants with excitement."

While listening to Sirius speak, Harry also caught a glimpse of the book "Born Noble: The Wizarding Genealogy" on the bedside table.

It's clear that Regulus seems to accept his Pure-blood status quite well...

"Looks like Uncle Potter is really mischievous," Ron commented on James.

"Indeed, he's quite mischievous." Sirius was practically beaming when he mentioned James — Ron even suspected that if one of them were a girl, Lily wouldn't stand a chance—he added, "But Ron, you should know that James and old Snivellus have always been at odds. Back in school, he was old Snivellus's nemesis."

Ron remained silent, only nodding repeatedly.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Sirius asked curiously. "I remember you really disliked old Snivellus; he really liked to target you, didn't he?"

"I can't speak," Ron said. "If I say anything bad about Professor Snape, he'll appear behind me. It always works. As long as we're not in the Gryffindor Common Room, he'll definitely catch me."

"How could this be? This is the Black family home!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No, it has just been proven that the Black family home is no match for Professor Snape either," Ron said, panting.

Just then, Pabbie suddenly popped his head out from under the floor.

"Oh, you're all here?" she said with a smile. "Dumbledore asked me to let you know that Kritcher has woken up... well, I should say, Old Snot... Professor Snape's Potions really works. Kritcher seems to be doing much better."

You were just trying to say "old Snivellus," right? You were trying to say "old Snivellus," right?

Despite being Hufflepuff, Pabbie's feelings for Snape are practically negative.

Because Snape was prejudiced against Hufflepuff.

Of course, this is also Pabbie's mistake in blaming Snape, because Snape was prejudiced against all houses except Slytherin, not just Hufflepuff.

Even if it was targeted, it wasn't Hufflepuff's place to speak up. Everyone at Hogwarts knew that Snape was targeting every Gryffindor equally, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were just incidental.

Hearing Pabbie's nickname, Sirius became increasingly satisfied with his daughter-in-law.

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

He knew that the girl had only misbehaved while practicing Animagus and would recover in a while, which wouldn't interfere with her dating Harry at all.

"Okay, we'll go right now," Sirius said to Pabbie.

The group left Regulus's room and went down the stairs.

Everyone had arrived in the room where Kritcher was lying. When Sirius walked in, Snape gave a sinister smile.

"Look, the owner of this House Elf's dog is here..."

There's nothing wrong with that statement, since Sirius's Animagus is indeed a dog.

Judging by their reactions, if they bite back after being scolded, they're like wolves; if they growl in anger, they're like dogs.

"Old Snivellus!" Sirius pointed at Snape's nose, speechless for a long time.

He then thought of Cassandra's extremely damaging words.

"Stop beating around the bush!" Sirius finally managed to utter this one sentence after a long pause. "Tell me, how's Kritcher doing now?"

"So we've been waiting for you to come here, after all, you're now Kritcher's master," Dumbledore said, shaking his head. "But his mental state is quite good; he can take a little Truth Serum, what do you think?"

"Kritcher doesn't need to take Truth Serum," Kritcher said, pounding his head. "Kritcher doesn't want to betray his beloved Young Master Regulus..."

As he spoke, he tried to bang his head against the wall.

"Wait a minute—"

Harry stopped Regulus and said to Dumbledore, "How about this, I remember he respects Mrs. Black the most, so... perhaps we could have Mrs. Black order him to tell the truth? It's better than just giving him a Truth Serum, isn't it?"

It wasn't that he had any unnecessary pity; he just felt that the Godfather was getting old and it wouldn't be good for him to be without Elf to serve him.

"You can persuade 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 look on his face that said, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

My mom?

Easy to talk to?

kind?

He looked up and glanced at the calendar hanging to the side.

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

"Let me check, is today April Fools' Day?" Sirius said, rubbing his head. "Sorry, I really can't associate the adjectives 'kind' and 'easy to talk to' with my mom—"

Harry didn't say anything, but walked out and asked the Mrs. Black's portrait hanging nearby, "Hello, Mrs. Black —may I ask you to order Kritcher to tell us the truth about Regulus? I think we'll have to find him eventually...even if he really is..."

Without the slightest hesitation, Walburga shouted, "I give permission! Kritcher! You must tell Harry Potter everything! This is my order! I gave you this order!"

Harry wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he always felt that Walburga's "This is my command" had a German flavor to it.

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

"Das war ein Befehl!" Veratia replied softly.

That's just right.

Harry turned to Kritcher and said, "Kritcher —did you hear that? Your mistress has ordered you to tell her everything you know about Regulus —without holding anything back, understand?"

Finally, Harry felt it wasn't quite right and added, "This is your mistress's order!"

Seeing that Kritcher was still lost in thought, Harry added, "Only if you tell the truth can we get Regulus out—perhaps he's trapped somewhere, isn't he, Kritcher?"

Upon hearing this, Kritcher was finally moved.

His two large, bat-wing-like ears drooped down, and tears streamed from his sunken eye sockets.

After a while, his voice, which sounded like a bullfrog croaking, rang out.

"Young Master Regulus's locket... Kritcher made a mistake! Kritcher failed to carry out the young master's orders!" he sobbed. "That locket—it must have been some extraordinary treasure, at least that's what the young master told Kritcher..."

"Is that locket Slytherin's Locket?" Snape suddenly asked.

Seeing the puzzled looks on everyone's faces, Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "When I was over there, I heard about this—about Slytherin's Locket. Voldemort had his confidants hide several of his treasures. All I know is that there's this Slytherin's Locket, and that madwoman Bellatrix Lestrange also has something."

The "over there" that Snape was referring to was the time he spent infiltrating the Death Eater.

"It should be," Kritcher said in a shrill voice, "But Kritcher doesn't know what it is, my poor Young Master Regulus..."

He sobbed twice, then looked up again, his big eyes glaring indignantly at Sirius.

"Sirius young master away, which is good, because he was a bad boy, and his unruly behavior broke my mistress's heart—but Young Master Regulus had pride, and he knew what the Black name and his pure blood meant. For many years he often spoke of the Dark Lord Dark Lord, who wanted wizards to no longer have to hide, but to come out and rule over Muggle and Muggle descendants... When Young Master Regulus was sixteen, he joined the Dark Lord's organization, and he was so proud, so very proud, so happy to be able to serve..."

"Serving the Dark Lord, is that all?" Sirius scoffed. "You really think that's something to be proud of, Kritcher? That's a ruthless killer..."

"All Kritcher knows is that this is the mistress's wish," Kritcher muttered in protest. "This should have been Sirius 'young master responsibility..."

Sirius smiled disdainfully upon hearing Kritcher's words.

"Go on, Kritcher," Harry interrupted.

Kritcher nodded, then suddenly shuddered.

"A year later, one day, Young Master Regulus came to visit Kritcher in the Kitchen... Young Master Regulus had always liked Kritcher, but that day, Young Master Regulus said... he said..."

The elderly Elf trembled like a leaf.

"... He said the Dark Lord wanted a House Elf."

"Voldemort wants a House Elf?" Sirius asked, puzzled. "Isn't he the one who looks down on House Elf the most? I remember his opinion; he thought House Elf were even lower in status than livestock. Why would he need House Elf?"

"Kritcher didn't know either, but Kritcher knew young master Sirius had shirked his responsibilities." Kritcher said, closing his eyes and covering his face in anguish, "Young Master Regulus sacrificed Kritcher, it's an honor, Young Master Regulus said it was his own honor and Kritcher's honor, Kritcher must do everything the Dark Lord wants him to do... and then go home."

Kritcher began to sob.

"So Kritcher went to the Dark Lord, Dark Lord didn't tell Kritcher what to do, but instead led Kritcher to a cave by the sea. It was a large cave, and inside it was a large, black lake..."

"... and there was a ship, and on the island there was a stone... stone basin, filled with Potions, which the Dark Lord— the Dark Lord —made Kritcher drink..."

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

"Kritcher drank it, and while he was drinking it, he saw many horrific sights... Kritcher's internal organs were on fire... Kritcher cried out to Young Master Regulus to save him, and to the mistress, but the Dark Lord just laughed... He forced Kritcher to drink the Potions... He threw the locket into the empty basin... and then filled the basin with the Potions."

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

Kritcher knelt on the bed, burying his head in the sheets, and continued in a muffled voice, "Kritcher needed water, so he crawled to the edge of the Islet to drink from the Black Lake... Many hands, dead hands, reached out from the water and dragged Kritcher down..."

"It's Inferi?!" Ron asked in astonishment.

After a year of learning useful things in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Ron did learn a lot of useful knowledge—at least he knew that these were Inferi and how to deal with Inferi.

Even though he was only a third-year student, he had nine Charms to deal with the Inferi, nine of them!

"So how did you escape?"

Hermione, with her exceptional empathy, grabbed her collar and asked in a hoarse voice.

She could already picture the horrific scene, and even though Kritcher had said those things to her before, she was still worried about what might have happened to Kritcher.

Sirius, worried that Kritcher might suddenly yell at Hermione, repeated, "Yes, how did you escape?"

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

"Young Master Regulus said he wanted Kritcher to come home," he said.

Sirius paused for a moment upon hearing the name Regulus.

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

Kritcher shook his head mechanically.

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

"But how did you escape?" Sirius asked, frowning. "You know, that's a cave Voldemort trusted—if he let you go there, he must have been absolutely certain you wouldn't escape, right?"

"You should know, Sirius," Hermione said with a sigh, "Voldemort looked down on House Elf, considering them lowly and contemptible creatures, as most wizards know—but I've read in the books that Elf possess magic that many wizards cannot master. For example, Hogwarts House Elf can Apparition within Hogwarts, something even Headmaster Dumbledore couldn't do, right, Professor?"

Her last words were spoken to Dumbledore.

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

"So Kritcher was carrying out Regulus's orders, right?" Hermione asked Kritcher again.

"The highest law for House Elf is the command of their master," Kritcher said with a swaying, singing voice upon hearing Regulus's order. "When the master tells Kritcher to go home, Kritcher goes home."

"So, you did what you were ordered to do, didn't you?" Hermione asked gently, "Without disobeying orders at all?"

Kritcher nodded.

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

"Young Master Regulus is very worried, very worried," Kritcher hissed. "Regulus told Kritcher to hide and not leave the house." Then... after a while... one night, Young Master Regulus found Kritcher at the cupboard. Young Master Regulus seemed strange, unlike usual; Kritcher could tell he was very troubled... The young master asked Kritcher to take him to the cave, the very cave Kritcher had been to with the Dark Lord...

Sirius was stunned.

He frowned and asked in a cold voice, "So, he made you drink Potions?"

Kritcher shook his head and burst into tears.

Sirius abruptly stood up; he already had a guess in his mind—he had already guessed Regulus's fate...

"Young Master Regulus pulled a locket from his pocket, just like the Dark Lord's," Kritcher said, tears streaming down his long nose. "He told Kritcher to hold onto it and, once the stone basin was dry, to switch the locket with it..."

Kritcher's sobs became heavy and piercing, and Harry had to concentrate fully to understand him.

"He ordered— Kritcher to leave—ignore him. He told Kritcher —to go home—and not to tell the mistress—what he had done—but to destroy—the first locket. Then he drank it—drank the Potions — Kritcher replaced the locket—and watched helplessly... Young Master Regulus ...being dragged underwater...and then..."

Sirius understood what was happening as soon as he heard Kritcher's words.

He took two steps back, as if he had already figured out what his younger brother had gone through...

Lupin reacted quickly and caught him, preventing Sirius from falling to the ground.

"Oh, Kritcher!" Hermione cried out, weeping as she knelt beside the Elf, wanting to embrace and comfort him.

The Elf immediately stood up and hid behind her, clearly showing disgust.

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

Hermione stood frozen, her hands clasped in her hands. She was at a loss, unsure of what to do next.

Hermione, usually so strong-willed, was starting to feel overwhelmed by the repeated attempts to win over the Elf, only to be met with cold rejection and insults.

"I told you! You're not allowed to call her that!"

Sirius came to his senses and roared angrily.

"Kritcher is so sorry, Young Master Regulus! So sorry, Mistress!"

Kritcher let out a wail, lay on the bed, breathing heavily, trembling all over, his nose glistening with green mucus, which looked like his snot.

Sirius sighed, pacing anxiously back and forth, clutching his hair, and said sadly, "This child... he should have come to me... he should have sought my help. Why was he so foolish to choose to bear everything alone? Merlin..."

"Because young master Sirius, don't trust him." Kritcher even had the nerve to mock Sirius: "Young Master Regulus told Kritcher that Sirius considers him a die-hard Death Eater young master doesn't trust him..."

Sirius was even more upset when he heard what Kritcher said.

"Yes, yes, you're right..." Sirius pounded the bed in frustration. "If only I had cared about him a little more—I'm so damn damn it, so damn it, why can't I care about my own brother?"

Sirius is now filled with regret after learning that his younger brother is not a socially antisocial follower of the Death Eater.

At the same time, there was a sense of pride.

"It's not your fault," Lupin said, stepping forward to comfort her. "Padfoot, no one could have known Regulus would turn against Voldemort... After all, we've never seen anyone betray the Dark Lord."

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

"Now, I'm not the only one in this house who opposes the Dark Lord!" Sirius sniffed and said proudly, "Look, there's Regulus —my brother. He also disapproves of the Dark Lord's ways. I knew it! I knew my brother wasn't one of those people who were blinded by Voldemort!"

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

"So, you brought that Slytherin's Locket home," Veratia asked, head bowed, determined to know the whole story, "And tried to destroy it?"

"Kritcher couldn't leave a single mark on it," the Elf said sadly. "Kritcher tried everything, everything, but none of them worked... There's so much powerful magic on the box; Kritcher believed it could only be destroyed from the inside, but it wouldn't open... Kritcher punished himself, trying again, punishing himself again, trying again. Kritcher failed to carry out the command; Kritcher couldn't destroy the locket! The mistress is going mad with grief because Young Master Regulus has disappeared, and Kritcher can't tell her what happened, he can't, because Young Master Regulus forbids—forbids him from telling his family—his family about the cave..."

"Please forgive me for disobeying your orders, Young Master Regulus..." Kritcher pounded his head on the wall, but was immediately bound by Veratia's Charms as soon as he made the move.

"But Kritcher really wanted you to come back safely!" Kritcher sobbed. "Then, the mistress passed away, and then, last year... a black mist suddenly rose from the locket, and Kritcher has known nothing since then, until you appeared and saved Kritcher."

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

"Yes, esteemed Young Master Potter," Kritcher said politely.

Despite his ambivalent attitude towards Sirius, Kritcher holds Harry in the highest regard.

After all, this was a wizard respected by both the old master and the mistress, so Kritcher had to maintain the same level of respect.

"That makes sense!" Harry slapped his hand and said to everyone, "Last Christmas, Pansy was controlled by that diary and went to the Chamber of Secrets to try to Awakening the Basilisk... but I stopped her."

"Is that what you call stopping me?" A glint flashed on Dumbledore's half-moon spectacles.

"Oh, it was just a little unpleasantness with him," Harry said nonchalantly. "Anyway, the diary was destroyed, and who knows, Voldemort's consciousness might have ended up in Slytherin's Locket..."

"But Horcrux all have their own consciousness, right?" Hermione asked, frowning. The Academic Bully was always very sensitive to these kinds of things.

"We don't know anything about Horcrux either," Cassandra suddenly said. "But it's not impossible, otherwise nothing makes sense—at least we can be sure that Regulus Black, whom you're looking for, is in that cave, and if we get there in time, we can still find his body."

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

"No!" Cassandra suddenly said, "If I send a reckless Potter like you, I'm afraid you'll burn all the Inferi in the cave to ashes—and then how will we be able to tell which one is Regulus Black?"

Cassandra was referring to the fire Harry set on the Quidditch pitch —if that fire had actually been burning inside the cave, it would probably have been just as Cassandra said, burning the Inferi inside to ashes.

"Furthermore, as Kritcher said," Dumbledore added, "If we want to enter that cave, we must bring a sacrifice; otherwise, we won't be able to retrieve the fake locket without drinking the poison inside..."

"Why should we take out that fake locket?" Veratia asked curiously. "Now that we know it's fake, there's no need to take it out—and Voldemort would never leave the real locket there again; after all, he's not stupid."

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

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

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

"I have to go," Sirius said, sitting down. "I have to bring him back myself. He can't stay in that cave... Merlin, the thought of my brother becoming a mindless Inferi in that cold cave makes me feel..."

As he spoke, he pounded his chest with his fist, looking utterly grief-stricken.

Snape twitched his lips, but said nothing.

He was genuinely afraid of Cassandra; Young Lady Malfoy's mouth... was just too sharp.

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

"Even if we don't need to drink those poisons, we still need to be fully prepared," Dumbledore said softly. "You should know that that's the cave Voldemort used to store Horcrux. How could he not have laid other Dark Magic Curse there? I think besides those Inferi and the poisons, there are many other curses that we don't know about protecting that locket."

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