Speaking Frankly, Changing One's Thinking / A Child with Seniority, Another Plot Afoot

"Sirius, you forgot to inscribe the motto as well. The Black family forever pure. You haven't squandered the family fortune to the point where you can't even afford a bottle of Everlasting Ink, have you?"

"That family motto is hereby abolished!" Sirius confronted Narcissa without fear. "My brother gave his life to fight Voldemort; he was a true hero, and I will follow in his footsteps of repentance!"

"The Black family will shine with new pride, but this pride will absolutely not be tainted by the decadent glory of Pure-blood!!"

"You... Humph!"

Narcissa seemed too angry to speak. She glared at Sirius with hatred, then glanced subtly in Harry's direction before turning and leaving without a backward glance.

Harry, meanwhile, frowned slightly as he looked at Sirius, whose face was beaming with pride.

It seems that he, as the godfather, never really understood himself.

Regulus Arcturus Black, he rebelled against Voldemort...

But he was just Voldemort.

Chapter 527 Openness and Honesty, Changing Mindset

Regulus's funeral was over; though simple, it was nonetheless solemn.

The older Dumbledore and Andromeda laid lilies at the grave, followed by a moment of silence from everyone, completing this farewell ceremony that was more than a decade overdue.

By the time Sirius left the cemetery, his emotions had gradually calmed down. He had already released most of his grief the moment he saw Regulus's body, and now, apart from feeling that he was a stupid older brother, he no longer felt as regretful as before.

On the contrary, Kreacher was clearly unable to let go, not only looking back repeatedly as he left, but also shedding large tears continuously.

Upon seeing this, Harry pondered for a moment and took out the genuine Slytherin's Locket.

He hasn't started researching this yet. Rowena once said that the locket might contain something very important, but if he opens it rashly, Harry might waste the opportunity.

I wonder if Voldemort ever opened it...

"Kreacher, look at this." Harry held the locket up to Kreacher. "Regulus's dying wish for you was to destroy it, right?"

"That's right! That's what Master Regulus said, but this... um! But Mr. Granger took it away, leaving poor Kreacher unable to fulfill his master's wish!"

Kreacher glared at Harry through gritted teeth. For a fleeting moment, he had almost cursed, but in the end, he slapped himself hard across the face.

Harry helped him find Regulus's body and also obtained Regulus's belongings and last words, for which Kreacher was extremely grateful to Harry; however, it was also because of Harry that Kreacher was unable to fulfill Regulus's literal dying wish, so he still harbored a resentment towards Harry.

This is Kreacher's dilemma, and also his constant torment.

Now that things have come to this, Harry feels it's time to unravel the mystery.

"Kreacher, I hope you understand now," Harry said, shaking the locket in his hand, "That the true meaning of Regulus's dying wish wasn't simply for you to destroy this thing."

"You're talking nonsense..."

"Let me finish!" Harry interrupted Kreacher before he could object, his voice carrying a hint of magic that even made Kreacher stiffen.

After Kreacher calmed down, Harry continued, "You saw Regulus's last words. Voldemort turned this thing into an evil Horcrux. Therefore, what Regulus truly wanted to destroy was Voldemort's soul, the one that made it evil, not the thing itself. Now I'm telling you, I've already destroyed Voldemort's soul on it, so Regulus's last wish has, in fact, been fulfilled."

"You... what did you say?! Mr. Granger... you really fulfilled Master Regulus's last wish?!"

Out of gratitude towards Harry, Kreacher was finally willing to listen patiently to Harry's explanation. The shocking news made his body tremble uncontrollably, and he was completely unsure whether he should choose to believe it.

He looked around blankly, trying to find someone to ask, but his gaze just wouldn't focus.

Outsiders, beasts, Mudblood, the second young lady who betrayed her family for the Mudblood, and the bastard child she gave birth to...

In the end, Kreacher realized with dismay that only the rebellious eldest son was trustworthy... at least he was the current head of the Pure-blood Black family.

"Believe Harry, he's telling the truth! He really helped you and me, fulfilling Regulus's last wish!"

Meeting Kreacher's yearning gaze, Sirius nodded firmly, and his words finally brought a sparkle to the House-elf's eyes.

"Praise be to you! Great Harry Granger, thank you for fulfilling Master Regulus's wish! Oh... This is so wonderful, Kreacher... Kreacher would have no regrets even if he died right now!!"

"Indeed... Regulus's last wish has been fulfilled. He once admired Voldemort so much, but the latter deceived him, and also deceived all the Death Eater, all the Pure-blood Family..."

Looking at Kreacher, who was laughing and crying and gesticulating wildly in front of him, Harry sighed softly.

His words were addressed to Kreacher, but also served as a warning to another person present.

Regulus had believed that Voldemort could lead the Pure-blood Wizard to overthrow the mortal regime and rule the world, allowing the Pure-blood Wizard to reclaim what they had lost. But in reality, Voldemort had deceived Regulus; he was merely using the Death Eater to achieve his own ambition of immortality!

"This... Harry, you mean..." Sirius finally began to understand Harry's unspoken meaning.

"Godfather, you must always try to guide Kreacher and change his mindset," Harry whispered to Sirius while the House-elf was still absorbed in his own thoughts. "Regulus rebelled against Voldemort only because he discovered the secret of the Horcrux and believed that Voldemort had deceived all the Pure-blood Family. He didn't begin to rebel against the glory of Pure-blood as you think... at least he didn't begin a firm rebellion."

"That's why Kreacher, who inherited his ideals, still leans towards the Pure-blood Family. From now on, he may be grateful to us, but he still can't align with us on the same principles."

"Yes, I understand," Sirius replied solemnly. "I will make him change from now on, even if it means forcing him..."

"No, I think you should treat him better and be nicer to him." Harry shook his head slightly. "Or, you could just send him to work at my nursing home for a while."

"That works... I'll talk to him about it later."

After careful consideration, Sirius clearly felt that letting Kreacher leave the Black family for a while might be a good option.

"Harry, may I call you that?" Just as the godfather and godson were discussing the issue of House-elf, Andromeda and her daughter joined in. "I never expected you to see things so clearly."

"This is, after all, my godfather's business, so I naturally have to be more concerned about it."

Harry's words made Sirius beam with joy. Indeed, the situation seemed to have reversed; he, the godfather, was now being taken care of by his godson.

However, Sirius no longer felt ashamed as he had at the beginning; instead, he was very proud that his friend had such an outstanding child.

"You are truly a wonderful child. Thanks to you, Sirius was able to truly escape the pain he suffered back then," Andromeda said approvingly. "I also really want to thank you. You gave Dora a lot of help during her retraining."

"Dora?" Harry was taken aback when he heard this.

"It's me! My name isn't nice, you can only call me Tonks!" Tonks protested. "Besides, Mom, I didn't go back to school to relearn magic, I just went back to learn some powerful magic. What's more, it was Remus who taught me the Patronus Charm, and that guy not only refused to help me with anything, but he was also incredibly rude, he didn't even acknowledge me as his older cousin!"

"Heh... you're still thinking about that?" Harry raised an eyebrow with amusement upon hearing this...

"But if we're being serious... Tonks, you have to call me uncle, you know that~"

Chapter 528 Children and Elders, Another Conspiracy Unfolds

"You... you're talking nonsense!"

Seeing that Harry not only showed no remorse but also openly took advantage of his seniority, Tonks screamed angrily, his hair turning a chili pepper color from rage.

However, the other two parties involved did not raise any objections.

"Tonks, Harry is telling the truth," Sirius said with a chuckle and a shrug. "Although I'm his godfather, if we go by the family tree, Harry, your mother, and I are really from the same generation."

"What did you say?"

Tonks was completely dumbfounded when he heard Sirius admit it to him.

That said, Sirius wasn't showing favoritism towards his godson, because Harry really was a child in his own eyes.

Compared to ordinary people, wizards are extremely rare, and intermarriage between the Pure-blood Family families is inevitable to ensure the purity of the wizard bloodline.

If you look at the genealogies of the Black and Potter families, you'll discover some very interesting things.

Sirius's grandfather, Doria Black, was married to Charles Potter of the Potter Family; Charles and Harry's grandfather, Fleamont Potter Potter, were brothers of the same generation.

Therefore, starting from their lineage, even if Harry and Sirius are not close, they are definitely grandchildren, distant cousins.

However, because Harry's grandfather had him late in life, James Potter was much younger than his peers, which indirectly affected Harry.

So now it's clear: Draco Malfoy is actually Harry's distant nephew, and all his followers are like sons to Harry.

When Harry was a first-year student, he cracked Malfoy's skull open on the playground. In some people's parlance, that's like "spare the rod and spoil the child"—it's an elder disciplining a child, purely for educational purposes...

After all, in their view, the older generation is always right to do whatever they want.

Hehe, tui~

"How... how can there be such a saying?"

To be honest, Tonks was now on the verge of tears. She had hoped to take advantage of her mother's presence to gain some small advantage, but unexpectedly, after calculating, she found that her seniority was getting lower and lower!

Hey, isn't this guy the youngest one? He's several months younger Hermione, so how did he suddenly become an elder?!

Of course, some people are even more devastated Tonks.

Lupin, lagging behind, glanced furtively at Tonks' mother, Andromeda, then at Sirius and Harry, and suddenly realized that achieving certain things would be incredibly difficult.

Well, if Harry had heard his voiceover, he would probably have patted Lupin on the shoulder earnestly and told him...

It's alright, let's each talk about our own things.

After you get married, I'll call you "brother," and you'll call me "uncle." Perfect!

As darkness fell completely, the group of people who had attended the funeral dispersed. Harry declined Sirius's invitation for him and Hermione to stay at 12 Grimmauld Place and decided to head home instead.

They didn't go home yesterday, so they can't stay out overnight again today.

Andromeda, on the other hand, expressed great interest in Harry's upcoming nursing home, saying she wanted to visit it under the cover of night...

Well, Harry thinks what she really wants to check out might not be the nursing home. Good luck to her.

Dumbledore also left, and he remained relatively silent throughout the funeral, perhaps because he had nothing to say.

It's easy for Centaur to be lost in the mystical world of countless stars, twinkling quietly in the night sky. On the last stretch of street before heading home, Harry and Hermione strolled hand in hand.

The streetlights flickered dimly, and the sounds of televisions and radios from residents drifted through the quiet streets. It was the tail end of the evening news, and the content was nothing more than cases of theft and robbery, reminding people to be more vigilant.

There have even been strange incidents in the nearby neighborhoods, such as pedestrians mysteriously fainting and becoming mentally unstable at night.

Harry and Hermione, engrossed in their own world, initially paid no attention to this, since the Britain media were known for influencing public sentiment by reporting bad news and suppressing good news, thereby using public opinion to spur the government on.

While London's safety has always been criticized, it's important to analyze each case individually. At least in some wealthy areas with extremely high municipal taxes and fees, the safety is quite good.

The area where the Granger family lives is certainly not bad either; the probability of encountering crime there throughout the year is probably lower than the probability of trouble caused by people from the Wizarding World...

"Regulus actually left behind a spirit; something seems amiss."

After learning about the previous situation from Hermione, Harry admitted that he had acted rashly; he hadn't expected that the fake locket actually contained Regulus's spirit.

I should have checked it carefully before handing it over to Sirius.

But why did Regulus's spirit seek out Dumbledore specifically, and not someone else?

Hermione's account puzzled Harry greatly, because Dumbledore had said that Regulus, apart from being slightly moved by Kreacher, acted as if he didn't know Sirius at all.

In that situation, the spirit's decision to seek out Dumbledore was either instinctive, or it was a search for the most powerful wizard present at the time...

Otherwise, it's being controlled by someone else!

If we follow this line of reasoning, the fact that Dumbledore inexplicably triggered Inferi riot after stepping into the lake is quite intriguing.

The spirit hidden in the fake locket, the lake water mysteriously shielded from elemental control, and Regulus's remarkably well-preserved corpse that hadn't turned into Inferi...

All of this seems to point to one possibility.

Hidden within that lake is some kind of special power, and Dumbledore must have at least come into contact with that power...

"Hiss... Harry, do you feel like it's getting colder around here?"

As the two were about to reach the alleyway of the block, Hermione suddenly shivered involuntarily.

"Cold? That doesn't sound right..."

Harry looked around and found that the once deep blue sky was now pitch black, with not a single ray of light in sight, as if even the streetlights had been deprived of their light source.

The deep darkness brought with it a biting chill, and the once mild night suddenly turned into an icebox, which quickly invaded Harry and Hermione's bodies!

"It's Dementor!" Harry realized immediately, wondering what disgusting creature had come to cause trouble.

"It's them? But... why are Dementor here?!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise, instinctively drawing her Holly Wand.

At this moment, she also saw two eerie, three-meter-tall figures floating towards her from the street corners and alleyways on both sides!

"Prayer of God..."

"Hermione, don't use a spell!" But just as Hermione was about to strike back, Harry raised his hand to stop her.

"This must be a conspiracy. If we use the spell, we'll face serious trouble afterwards!"

Chapter 529 Punching Demons and Strike Ghosts with Lightning