A broken Hogwarts

"...Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord's organization when he was sixteen. He is very proud to serve the Dark Lord."

"He is so happy and able to devote himself to the Dark Lord's great cause, so that wizards no longer have to hide and can come out to rule Muggles and their descendants."

Sirius sneered: "Only an idiot would believe such nonsense."

Kreacher stared at him with bloodshot eyes: "Master Regulus has self-respect. He knows what the name Black and his pure blood mean. This is something that Master Sirius, a bad boy who does not follow the rules, will never do. I can’t understand…”

"Then why is he thinking about escaping from his Dark Lord? Is this his pride?" Sirius snorted coldly.

Kreacher said nothing and stared at him with hatred, as if he wanted to pounce on him and bite him.

"Okay, Sirius..." Harry tugged on Sirius's robe, hoping that the other party would be quiet and listen. At the same time, he couldn't help but think of some contents of the history of magic, the war started by Grindelwald and Voldemort...

In fact, he thinks the current wizarding world is quite good, and hopes that it can continue to be peaceful in the future. However, under Dumbledore's guidance, he read a lot of books on the history of modern magic, and gained his own ignorant but heartfelt understanding of history.

After being influenced and nurtured by his friends around him, Harry had to admit that the Wizarding Secrecy Act had indeed caused too much dissatisfaction in modern times and had become the trigger of many conflicts. Perhaps it was really out of date. . But how to solve this problem, he felt at a loss.

He doesn't think wizards are any more noble than Muggles, nor does he think there's anything good about wizards ruling Muggles. He hopes that wizards and Muggles can coexist peacefully. But something that seemed so simple turned out to be so complicated that it brought the shadow of two wars to the wizarding world, which made Harry feel inexplicably frustrated.

Sure enough, he was not suitable to think about this. It would be better to leave this kind of problem to Owen or Hermione. Harry shook his head and shook the messy thoughts out of his mind.

At this time, he heard Owen's words: "It's because Regulus has seen through the ruthless nature of the Dark Lord. The so-called maintenance of the purity of wizard blood and making wizards masters of Muggles is nothing but the Dark Lord." It’s just a slogan shouted to seize power.”

Owen held his chin in his hand and spoke out his cold opinions with a smile: "He saw that the Dark Lord only cares about himself and will do whatever it takes to gain greater power and power, so he wants to quit..."

Sirius opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just twitched the corners of his mouth and turned his head away looking a little angry.

"Master Regulus is not quitting!" Kreacher shouted, his dry body swaying slightly as he continued his story: "A year later, one day, Master Regulus came to visit Kreacher. He had been They all like Kreacher. Master Regulus said... he said... he said the Dark Lord wanted an elf."

The old elf shook even harder, his expression distorted with pain, and his ugly features huddled together: "Master Regulus contributed to Kreacher. He said it was an honor, and Kreacher must do it. Everything the Dark Lord wants him to do..."

"Ah, dedicate you to Voldemort, he really likes you." Sirius couldn't help but sneered in a low voice when he heard this.

Kreacher didn't pay attention to what he said and started to talk: "...The Dark Lord took Kreacher to a cave on the seaside. There was a big black lake in the cave... and there was a boat..."

Harry was horrified as he remembered the cave that Dumbledore had taken him to that day. A boat, a wizard and a victim, the island in the middle of the lake, the Inferi in the lake, and the pot of potion that brings extreme pain and thirst to people...

"The Dark Lord took Kreacher on a boat to the island. There was a stone... stone basin on the island, filled with magic potion... The Dark Lord asked Kreacher to drink it..." The elf was trembling all over.

In Klee's intermittent narration, scenes from the past gradually emerged before everyone's eyes.

The Dark Lord ignored the elf's wails of pain, forced the elf to drink up the potion in the stone basin, threw a locket into the empty basin, and filled the basin with potion. Then, he got on the boat and left alone, leaving the elf on the island who was writhing in pain due to the magic potion.

The extremely thirsty elf climbed to the edge of the island to drink water from the black lake. The Inferi at the bottom of the lake stretched out their dead white hands and dragged the elf into the cold lake water...

"Then, Kreacher heard Master Regulus asking Kreacher to go home, so Kreacher went home..." Kreacher blew his nose and said hoarsely.

Sirius was fascinated by what he heard and asked: "Then what?"

"Master Regulus was very worried. He asked Kreacher to hide and not leave the house... After a while, Master Regulus came to find Kreacher and asked Kreacher to take him to the cave..." Kreacher Suddenly he wailed.

"Kreacher took Master Regulus to the island in the middle of the lake. Kreacher remembered how to get there..." The elf gasped, tears flowing out of his sunken eye sockets and flowing down his length. His nose was dripping. "Master Regulus took out a locket. He asked Kreacher to hold it. After the stone basin was dry, he would change the locket..."

Kreacher cried bitterly, and his voice suddenly became sharp and harsh: "He ordered Kreacher to leave and leave him alone... He told Kreacher to go home and not to tell the hostess what he had done... He told Kreacher to destroy... ...destroyed the first locket...and then he drank...drank the potion..."

Harry's mouth dropped open, reminding him of Dumbledore. Dumbledore drank the potion for him, and Regulus chose the same approach as Dumbledore, even though the other party was a house elf.

"No one is a victim." Harry thought, feeling sad but also feeling something warm in his heart, "We are no different."

Sirius paced anxiously and asked sternly: "Did Regulus drink the potion himself?"

"Yes...yes...Kreacher could not disobey Master Regulus's order...Kreacher switched the locket and watched...Master Regulus...being dragged underwater...and then... ..." Kreacher staggered to his knees, shivering and whimpering and curling up into a ball.

"Kreacher failed to carry out the order...Kreacher tried everything, but he couldn't destroy the locket! The mistress went crazy with grief because Master Regulus was missing, and Kreacher couldn't tell her what happened, couldn't , because Master Regulus forbade him to say anything to the mistress..."

The elf's red, swollen and bloodshot eyes were filled with tears, and there was shiny green snot hanging under his nose. He began to mutter something incomprehensible. Harry couldn't help but pulled Kreacher to sit up. He felt that he should be nicer to this unpleasant elf in the future. RAB's story made him feel heavy, and his chest felt like a lump of cotton filled with water.

Owen, who had known this story for a long time, just sighed in his heart, then put this deplorable story aside and began to think about the elf's magic. House elves' magic is very special, especially their ability to Apparate in places like Hogwarts and Voldemort's Grotto, which is useful.

If you can figure out the principle, you may be able to create an elf version of the Apparition spell, which can be very effective in many cases.

Well, here’s another interesting research topic.

"Regulus is a coward! A complete idiot!" Sirius strode back and forth and suddenly shouted, looking like a volcano about to erupt.

Seeing Sirius' sudden outburst, Harry looked up at him blankly, not knowing how to react for a moment.

Kreacher forcefully broke away from Harry's hand and shouted in a rough and sharp voice: "Master Regulus is not a coward! He is the noblest, bravest, and smartest person Kreacher has ever seen!"

"If he was really brave and really smart, he wouldn't let himself die in a useless place like that!" Sirius shouted tit for tat, his cheeks and neck turning red.

He took a big breath for a while and continued to say angrily: "He has countless ways to get out with all his hair and tail! He wants to die!"

Harry opened his mouth. Is that so? He instinctively glanced at Owen, who seemed to be in a daze.

Owen winked at him and shrugged slightly. He even believed that Regulus died voluntarily because of the collapse of his faith and frustration, and perhaps some kind of search for relief and atonement. But only the person involved knows this kind of thing, and for the living people, this issue is not important.

Sirius was still venting his emotions: "...it would be better if he died. Once and for all, there is no need to care about anything. He has been the same since he was a child. When he encounters some setbacks, he shrinks into his turtle shell. Leaving a mess..."

"Young Master Sirius, who left his family behind and ran away alone, has no right to say that!" Kreacher's bullfrog-like cry also rumbled, "Young Master Sirius broke the mistress's heart... He is the one who is annoying. , ungrateful coward!"

Sirius stood still for a moment, staring at the house elf sitting on the ground, looking as if he was about to get violent and hit him. Just when Harry was about to stop him, Sirius slumped down on a chair nearby, his expression extremely decadent and his brows furrowed tightly.

The gorgeous and spacious living room suddenly fell silent, and the roar of the fire could be heard clearly. Sirius and Kreacher were both breathing heavily, like two balloons that had been popped.

Harry looked left and right, wanting to say something, but not knowing how. He scratched his head, slowly moved to Sirius, and leaned against the wall silently.

Owen glanced at him, playing with a colored ball nimbly in his hand.

After a while, the person involved calmed down. Kreacher got up from the ground, bowed deeply, his long nose flattened on the thick carpet, and then dragged his feet out the door.

"Wait, bring me that locket." Sirius' voice was hoarse.

"That's Master Regulus's thing!" Kreacher said reluctantly, scratching his neck.

"Isn't it impossible for you to destroy it?" Sirius's expression and tone were unexpectedly calm, like a swamp with hidden dangers, "I can give it a try."

Kreacher blinked his big red and bloodshot eyes, bowed deeply again, and walked out with his back arched.

"Sirius, you..." Harry said carefully.

"I'm fine, Harry, don't worry about me." Sirius shook his head. He raised his hand to push the hair back from his forehead and said with a wry smile: "I have to thank you, otherwise I might not know about this until I die."

"Well, that locket..." Harry wondered what to say.

Jingle Bell--

There was a jingling of the doorbell downstairs, and then the deafening shrill howl of Mrs. Black's portrait echoed throughout the house again: "The scum of the family, the filthy bastard, get out of my ancestral home!"

"Don't let me know who it is..." Sirius stood up angrily, hurried out of the living room, and ran downstairs with heavy steps.

Harry shrugged at Owen: "See, this is why Sirius doesn't want to live here. There are always people coming to disturb him."

"Who will come to visit in the middle of the night?" Owen raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, that's right, this time is indeed..." Harry suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

He heard the portrait's piercing scream turn into a bloodcurdling laugh. (End of chapter)