Bab 682: Chapter 682: Who said heroes are in the light? (Edited)
Sirius approached his brother's desk and yanked open a drawer, revealing quills, old textbooks, ink bottles, and various other items inside.
"Speaking of which, I don't know why you came to investigate my brother's past," he asked curiously. "You even took a special leave from Hogwarts to come."
Tom shared his "speculations" with Sirius.
"Maybe he was keeping something important for Voldemort?" Sirius pondered for a moment. "I think it's unlikely, as he was quite weak, and I doubt he garnered the attention of Lucius and Bellatrix."
Although he thought it was unlikely, Sirius wasn't just going through the motions. He began to search earnestly among his brother's belongings.
"If we want to investigate Regulus's mental state before he died, we can try to find if he left a diary or something," he placed the items on the desk, stirring up a cloud of dust.
"Is it possible that Mrs. Black took the diary?" Hermione suddenly asked, thinking from the perspective of Sirius's mother. If her son had disappeared, she would likely want to find his diary to learn more about his mental state.
"That's impossible; my dear mother wouldn't do something like that," Sirius said, pounding his chest to assert that no one knew his mother and his brother better than he did.
"That brat almost fooled me too," he muttered as he handed Hermione an old textbook on "Advanced Potion Making."
"What do you think of this book?"
"Uh..." Hermione looked at the old textbook and finally said, "Is it a practical book?"
Sirius laughed.
Tom took the book and examined it closely but found nothing unusual.
"I thought you might uncover the inner workings," Sirius said, looking disappointedly at the two.
"This is clearly on par with the map I made," Sirius looked at the two, drew his wand, and touched the book's cover, reciting, "Always pure."
Before Tom and Hermione's eyes, the words on the book's cover slowly disappeared, revealing another phrase in the same font as the door plaque.
[Reading prohibited without the owner's permission]
Sirius snorted, "I taught him this spell too..."
As if he had guessed Sirius's reaction, another line of smaller letters appeared below the phrase:
[I hope my brother, with his keen sense of smell, won't use his scent to pry into his younger brother's privacy]
Sirius's head veins throbbed; now he could understand a bit how Snape felt.
"Damn brat, learning the wrong things instead of the right ones," he muttered as he opened Regulus's diary.
The diary started from Regulus's fifth-year holidays. Sirius ignored the earlier years and went straight to the last pages.
After graduating, Regulus couldn't guarantee writing in his diary every day, and the length of his entries varied considerably, sometimes just saying "Nothing interesting today," while other times they were lengthy essays.
Sirius, Tom, Hermione, and Lupin were cramped together, carefully examining Regulus's diary for any clues that could help them.
From the words and lines in the diary, one could clearly see the subtle shift in Regulus's attitude towards Voldemort. Before his graduation, he greatly admired Voldemort and agreed with his beliefs about pure-blood purity. In his eyes, Voldemort was the only savior of the wizarding world.
"Lord Voldemort is undoubtedly the savior of the wizarding world."
The four present: ...
"Clearly, your family's education had serious issues," Lupin commented while patting Sirius on the shoulder.
"Exactly what my parents believed," Sirius said expressionlessly. Like the Black family and other pure-blood families, they were loyal followers of Voldemort. This meant that the way Regulus thought wasn't just a lack of family education but a deep-rooted family tradition.
At sixteen, Regulus joined the Death Eaters and was marked with the Dark Mark, and his parents considered him "a brave little hero."
After graduating, Regulus gradually lost his innocence. He realized that Voldemort wasn't the savior he had imagined and began to doubt the Death Eaters' path, although he still wasn't willing to rebel against Voldemort and the other Death Eaters. However, he felt repulsion towards many of the Death Eaters' actions and wrote:
[How can one save the wizarding world by following this gang of insects?]
On the last pages of the diary, Sirius and Tom found something that interested them.
[...I'm reserving judgment on some of their actions, but I can't stop them. So, we'll just hang out. Anyway, they don't dare tell me much—Bellatrix is my cousin! Today, the Lord asked me for Kreacher; I feel honored, so I lent Kreacher to him.]
[I wonder what a house-elf is needed for.]
...
[Kreacher suddenly returned; he was in terrible shape. Merlin! What happened to him? He was very thirsty, as if he could drink the entire Black Lake at Hogwarts.]
The next day, the entries in the diary were more careless, showing the owner's anxiety.
[Kreacher has recovered a bit. I managed to ask him about what happened to him. By Merlin! He must be crazy! Turns out he achieved the so-called 'immortality' this way. Hehe, Horcruxes, hehe. First, I must get Kreacher to hide; I can't let anyone know...]
...
For a while after that, the diary's content became chaotic and messy, with many parts erased and crossed out. Only one sentence was clear:
[I've made a decision; I'm very likely to die, but I don't regret it.]
This was the last entry in his diary, and from then on, all the pages were blank.
"He decided to rebel against Voldemort and carried out some plan," Hermione frowned, "but he didn't write exactly what he did."
"There are code names inside, right?" Lupin pointed to the name in the diary.
Sirius nodded, "Exactly." He raised his voice and called out, "Kreacher!"
With a snap, Kreacher, the house-elf inherited along with the mansion by Sirius, reluctantly appeared.
Seeing where he was, Kreacher displayed an angry expression on his face and then lowered his head, muttering, "Kreacher was preparing lunch for the young master and his guests, but he didn't expect the young master to summon me to the young Regulus's room. Young Regulus has already passed away, but his room still can't find peace... "
"You don't need to say so much," Kreacher's words angered Sirius, interrupting his complaints. "Just tell me what Voldemort did to you back then and what Regulus did."
Upon hearing those two names, Kreacher trembled slightly and showed fear in his eyes. Then, he shook his head, not daring to look Sirius in the eyes.
"Regulus didn't let me speak," Kreacher said.
"You!" Sirius frowned, preparing to force Kreacher to talk, but Hermione stopped him.
She knelt in front of Kreacher, trying to take his hand. However, Kreacher resisted strongly, jerking back abruptly and showing disgust on his face. If it weren't for Sirius's strict order, Kreacher would probably have already started insulting.
Seeing Kreacher's intense reaction, Hermione sighed and decided not to insist.
"I respect your choice," she looked into Kreacher's face and said seriously, "But I guess young Regulus asked you to keep the secret to protect his family, right?"
"Yes, the young master said that," Kreacher avoided eye contact with Hermione and finally began to answer her questions.
Thanks to Sirius's order, otherwise Kreacher wouldn't have bothered talking to this Mudblood witch, even if she had good intentions.
"But now, even if Sirius is a nuisance to Voldemort, even if he doesn't know Mr. Regulus's secret, Voldemort has already decided to eliminate him once and for all. The prerequisite no longer exists," Hermione pointed out, not caring about Kreacher's dislike. She analyzed the small house-elf seriously in front of her.
"So, why don't you tell us Mr. Regulus's story? Let us know what happened back then. I'm sure Mr. Regulus was a brave hero who did things most people wouldn't dare to, but now his feat is unknown, isn't it regrettable?"
Kreacher lowered his eyes and seriously considered her words. Then, he realized the girl was right. It was a perfect opportunity to spread young Regulus's heroic achievements. As for the consequences of divulging information... Kreacher truly didn't care. Both young Regulus and his mistress had already passed away. Even if he disclosed this information, it would have no impact. But there was one last obstacle.
"But that was young Regulus's order," he murmured quietly.
Sirius immediately understood the situation and said seriously, "I am your master now, and I command you to answer truthfully."
"Yes, sir," Kreacher responded immediately, standing at attention and showing respect.
Then, in his low and subdued voice, he recounted a chilling story to everyone present.
It happened one day in 1979 when Regulus found Kreacher and brought him before Voldemort. Voldemort took Kreacher to a cave where he subjected him to a test with the protective spell he had placed on the Horcrux. According to Voldemort's plan, Kreacher would die there, but he underestimated the cunning of the house-elf.
Voldemort was too arrogant and never considered house-elves, magical creatures regarded as inferior beasts. Therefore, he overlooked a fact: house-elf magic is different from that of wizards; they can Disapparate in places where wizards can't.
Voldemort never imagined that these creatures he considered contemptible could perform magic that he himself couldn't.
Kreacher continued in a voice that sounded like a chant, "The supreme law of house-elves is to obey their master's orders. If the master orders Kreacher to go home, Kreacher will go home."
Hermione asked gently, "What happened next?"
At that moment, Kreacher began to cry.
"Young Regulus brought me back to that cave," he said with a choked voice.
Through Kreacher's words, everyone gained a complete understanding of what had happened.
When she heard that Regulus had chosen to sacrifice himself, Hermione exclaimed in surprise, and two tears rolled down her cheeks.
She cried.
Hermione wanted to hug the poor house-elf, but she held back. Lupin looked down, fixing his gaze on the carpet pattern. As for Sirius, he seemed moved. Before this, he had never considered Kreacher as a creature with human emotions, but today that belief had cracked slightly.
"He's a hero," Tom commented from the side, earning approval from everyone.
Yes, Regulus was a brave hero. Perhaps he wasn't in the spotlight, receiving flowers and applause like members of the Order of the Phoenix, but he was undoubtedly courageous.
"The locket, where is it?" Sirius asked with a hoarse voice, "Give it to me; I'll take care of it."
"Young Regulus wanted you to destroy it..."
"I'll destroy it, I promise you."
Kreacher stopped crying and stood up shakily, disappearing with a snap. After about ten seconds, he returned holding an oval-shaped silver locket.
When Tom saw the locket, he was extremely excited: this was Voldemort's last Horcrux.
The other three also became serious. From the previous conversation, they already knew this was Voldemort's Horcrux.
Today, having this Horcrux in their hands would be a great achievement! It would be a devastating blow to Voldemort. The locket looked valuable: the chain was made of pure gold, and on the surface of the locket was a letter "S" formed with emeralds, giving it a sense of nobility and mystery. At first glance, they were all convinced that this was the precious possession Voldemort wanted to hide.
"Very well, very well," Sirius exclaimed excitedly as he snatched the locket from Kreacher's hands, "we should give this to Dumbledore!"
"Yes, when we return to school, we'll take this locket with us," Tom said as he took the locket from Sirius's hands and carefully examined the Horcrux and Slytherin's locket.
Although apart from its luxurious appearance, the locket didn't seem to have anything special, holding it in his hands, Tom felt a dark emotion brewing in his chest.
He had a hunch that if he wore the locket constantly, it might have a subtle but constant negative impact on his mood.
"Mission accomplished," Sirius exclaimed excitedly, "let's have something to eat here before we go!"
He invited Tom and Hermione to stay and have a meal before returning, and Tom and Hermione couldn't refuse.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
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