Chapter 5: The House-Elf's Tale

The four decide to go to 12 Grimmauld Place, as they are going to need Sirius's help on finding where the locket is. They arrived at the house and as they entered inside, the house felt empty given that there was no sign of anybody inside. "Hello…Sirius…Shizune…" Harry called out, hoping that one of them could at least enter. "There's nobody here," Hermione stated, as the others went to check the house. Despite its residents not being here, the place hasn't caught any dust at all. Naruto was walking around the room, when he came across a note lying on the table. "Hey guys, check this out," Naruto said, as the others arrived to see what was up. "It's a note from Sirius and it's addressed to you Harry," he explained, giving the note to Harry. Harry reads the note and from what is said, Sirius was alive as he is currently helping out the order in a safe location. He also mentioned that Shizune was sent somewhere safe, as she is currently pregnant with their unborn child and is at risk. "What does it say?" Ron asked. Harry explained everything and everybody sighed in relief, but at the same time there was a slight problem. "So how are we going to find the locket, if we can't find Sirius?" Naruto asked. "Let's look around the house, there is bound to be some clues," Harry stated. However, as they split up and looked for clues, something or rather someone was watching them in the shadows.

With Harry

The scar-headed boy was walking down one of the halls in the house. He stumbles upon his godfather's room, so he decides to enter the room. Sirius's room was anything much as it was only just a simple bedroom with a bed, closet, nightstand, and a window. Harry lingers on a photograph that shows the four marauders in their younger days, as they stood next to the Whomping Willow. Harry also came across a book, A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, but that wasn't the only thing he found as he encountered a letter from none other than his deceased mother, Lily Potter. He begins to read the letter and from that letter addressed to Sirius, Lily talks about how she and James were at Godric's Hollow with Bathilda Bagshot given that they were currently in hiding. Harry was so invested in the letter that he didn't even notice his friends calling him.

"Harry! Harry!" Hermione called out, as Harry snapped back to reality. "Huh, oh it's you guys, what's wrong?" he asked. "Dude, we've been calling for you, yet you're not responding, so we came by to check up on you," Naruto stated. "What's that in your hand?" Hermione asked, pointing at the letter. Harry hands her the letter, as she begins to read over it. "It's from your Mum. To Sirius. Bathilda Bagshot...?" she stated, looking surprised. "Yeah. They knew her. She wrote A History of Magic, you know," Harry said, as if it wasn't obvious. "Did she know…" Hermione sarcastically asked, as Naruto snickered. "I'm thinking maybe we should go talk to her. She still lives in Godric's Hollow. I'm thinking maybe she could help us," Harry suggested. "I don't know about this man. Like I get that you want to see your old family house, but I don't think Bathilda would know where Voldemort's Horcruxes are located," Naruto stated. "But it's worth a shot," Harry said, as he frowned.

"Hey guys, I think you should come down here, like right now!" Ron called. The three looked at each other, before heading downstairs to see what the fuss was all about. "What's the matter Ron?" Naruto asked. "You should take a look outside," he said, as they all look outside the window. It was night time, so the street lamps were on, but outside two dark figures were hiding in the trees, while the other figure was sitting on a bench. "Those two figures hiding in the trees are definitely Death Eaters, but I don't know about the other guy though," Ron explained, closing the curtains. "Can't see us, of course. But we'll have to be careful coming and going. C'mon. There's something else you need to see," Ron mentioned, as they followed him.

They followed him to a room, with the walls covered in eerie scrawlings and symbols indicating dark magic. "This is Regulus's room, Sirius told me to never go in there," Harry explained. "Let's check it out, maybe we could find a clue to the missing locket," Naruto stated. They entered the room, to see that it hadn't been cleaned out for years. "Sheesh, this Regulus guy seems like a full on edgelord if he really likes putting up stuff about dark magic," Naruto claimed, as the others agreed. Anyways, the group reread the note carefully in order to see if there were any hints as to the location of the locket, but they haven't found anything. "This raises a question, did Regulus actually destroy the real locket?" Hermione asked, as the group thought about it.

But as they were looking around, the group was being watched from the shadows. Naruto senses this, "Guys I think we aren't alone here, someone is watching us," he whispered. They turned around to see a shadow who was about to get away. "Stop! I order you to stop!" Harry shouted, as he and Naruto chased after the shadow. Soon they found the person spying on them, as Harry dragged Kreacher the house-elf by one ear, while Naruto points his wand at Kreacher if he tries anything funny.

"So it was Kreacher…" Ron asked, as they nodded. "Been spying on us, have you?" Harry asked, as Kreacher was mumbling something. "Kreacher has been... watching. Kreacher always watches," Kreacher stated. "Lets get him to talk, maybe he knows something," Naruto mentioned. So they began to interrogate the house-elf, as Harry showed the locket to Kreacher who eyed the locket carefully. "Ever seen this locket before?" he asked, but Kreacher grumbled some nonsense. "I'm one of the owners of this house, which means I own you as well, so talk," Harry threatened. Soon the house-elf gave in, revealing that the locket once belonged to Regulus. "Right, but there were two, weren't there?" Harry asked, as Kreacher nodded. "Where is the other one? I know you know," Naruto stated. "Kreacher doesn't know where the other locket is," the house-elf stated.

"But was it here? Did you ever see it?" Hermione asked, as Kreacher sneered. "Filthy Mudblood- The Death Eaters will soon be coming for you!" Kreacher claimed, before Ron grabbed the house-elf and strangled him. "Ron! That's enough, let him go!" Naruto orders, as Ron reluctantly releases him. "It would be wise to answer her or else…" Naruto stated, hitting Kreacher with killing intent, which scared Kreacher enough to talk. Kreacher reveals that before Regulus died, he ordered him to destroy the locket, but he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried to. "Where is the locket now? Did someone take it?" Harry asked, as Kreacher nodded. "He came in the night after Master Sirius and his wife left. He took many things, including the locket," Kreacher explained. "Who, Kreacher? Who took it?" Harry asked. "Mundungus. Mundungus Fletcher," Kreacher stated. The group was quiet, before Naruto stood up. "Where are you going, Naruto?" Hermione asked. "I'm going to hunt myself a 2 bit thief, come on Kreacher. Let's find this bastard," Naruto said, putting on his face mask. Kreacher nodded and the two left to find Mundungus.

Timeskip

Ever since Pius Thicknesse became the new Minister of Magic, the Death Eaters have been making a heavy presence in the Ministry even going as far as to question or rather torture some of the Ministry people who are suspected of anything they see as a challenge to their power. Both Harry's and Naruto's faces are on wanted posters indicating that a bounty is placed on these two and are wanted for questioning. It's a good thing some of the people who were against Voldemort and his forces such as Cedric, Kingsley, and pretty much the rest of the order are in hiding and are taking the fight into their own hands. For Itachi, he's currently helping out the order, while also keeping in touch with Naruto and his group. As for the group's other friends, they were about to start the new school year when the Death Eaters halted the train in search for both Naruto and Harry, but luckily both Neville and Daphne defied the Death Eaters and told them that the people they were looking for aren't here.

While the people who are against Voldemort are fighting in their own way, others are taking the more cowardly approach. One such example is Mundungus Fletcher who is currently in Diagon Alley making a sale with someone. As he counted his money, he soon had to leave quickly as the Snatchers were making their territory in Diagon Alley. Fletcher makes his escape into an alleyway, when he is caught from behind and is placed in a chokehold before being knocked out. That person who knocked him out was none other than Naruto, as he looked around to see if anyone was watching. "We're in the clear, let's get out of here," he said to Kreacher as the house-elf teleports them back to the house.

12 Grimmauld Place-Night Time

Harry and the others were just waiting for Naruto and Kreacher to bring back Mundungus. While they waited, Harry was fiddling around with the snitch he was given as a gift. From what Hermione told him about the snitch, it contains a flesh memory as it can only be opened by the one who caught it first. Just then Dobby arrives and greets the group and soon Naruto and Kreacher arrive with a knocked out Mundungus in tow. "Let's tie up this 2 bit thief and get him to talk. I'm sure he has a lot to say," Naruto stated, as he placed Mundungus on a chair, while the house elves placed a chain bind on Mundungus so that he couldn't break out. A few minutes later, Mundungus wakes up to see himself chained to a chair. "What the hell?!" he exclaimed, trying to break out, when Naruto and the others arrived. "Ah, you're finally awake. Good, cause you have a lot of questions needing to be answered," Naruto stated, as he was polishing his dagger. Mundungus gulped in fear, as he thought about what he had gotten himself into.