The Key

Sirius Black always thought that Kyle was a rare good student.

She has excellent grades, is far more capable than her peers, and knows how to be flexible and not be bound by rigid rules.

More importantly, Snape hated him... and he firmly believed that only truly good children deserved this honor.

In private, he and Lupin had also discussed Kyle, and they both agreed that they wouldn't be surprised if Kyle became the headmaster of Hogwarts one day.

But Sirius overturned that idea in just one night.

Putting aside Kyle's threat to beat up Harry, what good student could use the Blasting Curse so skillfully...?

It's been almost half an hour, and it sounds like fireworks are going off in the reception room; the crackling and popping sounds have been almost nonstop.

Moreover, among the Blasting Curse was a spell that looked very familiar to him.

Sirius watched as the magnificent round table inexplicably broke in half, the cut smooth and neat, as if it had always been in two.

He had seen Snape use this spell before, back when Snape was Death Eaters, and the two had clashed quite a few times.

But he didn't understand why Kyle knew it too; surely Snape couldn't have taught him...

Sirius shook his head, immediately dismissing the idea. Both Harry and Lupin had said that Snape disliked Kyle, and that was beyond doubt.

Sirius thought for a long time but still couldn't figure it out, so he finally shook his head and gave up...

Perhaps the spell was recorded in one of the books in the library, and it just so happened that both Snape and Kyle had seen it.

On the other side, after using spells to bombard the area for so long, Kyle also put down the spells in his hand, panting, and sat down on a chair next to him.

The box was much harder than he had imagined. Neither the Blasting Curse nor the Split Curse could leave any mark on it. Even the Sectumsempra could only leave a shallow white mark.

While Kyle rested, Lupin and Sirius also tried it, but it didn't work either.

The explosion also attracted Kreacher.

It pushed open the door, looked at the living room which looked like ruins, its eyes filled with anger and fear, and immediately started muttering to itself, repeatedly saying things like "spendthrift... scoundrel... brat..."

Sirius felt a headache coming on and turned around, yelling, "Shut up!"

Kreacher obediently shut his mouth, but less than a minute later, he started chattering again, this time giving Sirius a venomous look. "The young master actually wants to destroy this place! If my mistress knew, oh, how heartbroken she would be! And this good-for-nothing even conspired with outsiders to try and open Miss Bellatrix's..."

At this point, Kreacher suddenly fell silent.

But the three of them keenly heard its last sentence and turned around...

"Kreacher!" Sirius asked immediately, "You know what this box is? You've seen it before, haven't you!"

"Kreacher doesn't know," the House-elf said shrilly, shaking his ears. "Kreacher would never betray Miss Bellatrix!"

"Tell me, this is an order!" Sirius shouted.

Kreacher's expression suddenly turned ferocious, but he still bowed deeply and said, "This is a box left to Miss Bellatrix by the old master. Only those of the ancient and noble Black bloodline can open it!"

Black frowned. Kreacher usually addressed his mother as "Mistress," while only his grandfather could be called "Old Master."

But none of that matters anymore; he already knows how to open that box...

"Incarcerous!"

Just as he was thinking these things, a spell suddenly flew past his ear and landed on Kreacher was about to bang his head against the door.

He probably wanted to punish himself for failing to keep the secret, but that was no longer an option; he was tightly bound by a rope and couldn't move.

"I command you not to inflict those foolish punishments on yourself, Kreacher," Sirius said, frowning.

The House-elf stopped, but kept muttering curses under its breath.

Sirius didn't care at all. He turned around and said excitedly, "Haha, what were we doing before!"

Or, he drew a line on his hand with his wand, and a few drops of bright red blood fell onto the box.

In the blink of an eye, those few drops of blood quickly formed bright red magic patterns along the lines on the box.

"Click!"

With a crisp sound, the box split open in the middle, revealing a uniquely shaped golden key inside.

Black recognized it immediately; it was the key to Gringotts, because he had one that looked almost exactly the same.

"We'll split it in half when we meet!"

Kyle, quick as a flash, grabbed the keys and tossed the box to Sirius.

"Since this belongs to your House of Black, I'll return it to you. Although it has some scratches, it obviously doesn't affect its use."

"Etc..."

Before Sirius could even speak, Kyle had already tossed the key into the box.

"I have no interest in the Lestrange family's vault."

Sirius, realizing what was happening, frowned slightly and said, "But I must warn you, those greedy Goblin won't let you into the vault just because you have the key."

"It's alright, you're here, aren't you?" Kyle laughed. "Once you've cleared your name, you can openly and legitimately take the key to Gringotts as Bellatrix's cousin and a relative of the Lestrange family."

"That won't work either..." Sirius shook his head and said, "The Lestrange family must own one of the top-ranked treasuries, and if they want to transfer the assets of these treasuries on a large scale, they can only do it themselves, either Bellatrix Lestrange or Rodolphus Lestrange."

"The only other option is to wait until they are all dead."

"No, I think you've misunderstood," Kyle said. "The gold is secondary; what I want is something from her vault."

"If it's just one thing, then no problem," Sirius. "What do you want? Their property deeds in Diagon Alley?... Let me tell you, these are the most valuable ones. Any one of them is worth tens of thousands of Galleon."

"...No..." Kyle shook his head slightly with great willpower.

"No?"

Sirius was puzzled; he couldn't think of anything more valuable than property in Diagon Alley.

"That very old object." Kyle tried to avoid thinking about the image of tens of thousands of Galleon piled up together. "It's hard to say now, but I think it's probably in her vault."

Although Sirius didn't know what Kyle wanted, he nodded and didn't ask any further questions after hearing what he said.