Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins
Spent some time with Reggie today. Managed to convince him to meet up in Hogsmeade via the Knight Bus and we both brought our brooms so we could fly around outside of town for a bit... There was a moment when my powers acted up a bit and I was frozen to my broom. After a moment of panic, I managed to thaw myself out but wasn't able to enjoy the outing much after that.
Leo and Harry traipsed up to their room that night, both of them strangely silent. Before they had left, Cas had extracted a promise from the two that they wouldn't discuss what they had been told with anyone – even their friends. They had tried to argue against this but were quickly and calmly silenced when Cas informed them that they'd be putting their friends in enormous amounts of danger if they were told. They wisely decided to keep their mouths shut after that as neither wanted the Weasleys, Hermione, or Draco to get hurt.
Thankfully, by the time they reached their room, both Draco and Ron were asleep on the bottom bunks, leaving Harry and Leo to the top. Leo stared up at the ceiling for some time, wondering what exactly was in the prophecy and when they'd find out. The hearing also briefly sprang to mind, but he wasn't too worried about that given he was confident that his dad would be able to handle everything. With a sigh and a smile, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next thing he knew, he was curled in a warm ball under his bedclothes, and George's loud voice was filling the room.
"Mum says get up, your breakfast is in the kitchen and then she needs you in the drawing-room, there are loads more doxies than she thought and she's found a nest of dead puffskeins under the sofa."
"I thought Kreacher got rid of the doxies," Leo replied drowsily as he perked his head up.
"Apparently, he put them back after you left," George shrugged before leaving the room.
Half an hour later, Leo, Draco, Harry, and Ron, who had dressed and breakfasted quickly, entered the familiar drawing-room, a long, high-ceilinged room on the first floor with olive-green walls covered in dirty tapestries. Leo glanced over at the long, moss-green velvet curtains that were buzzing as though swarming with invisible bees. It was around these that Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George were grouped, all looking rather peculiar, as they had tied cloths over their noses and mouths. Each of them was also holding a large bottle of black liquid with a nozzle at the end.
"Cover your faces and take a spray," Mrs. Weasley said to the newest arrivals the moment she saw them, pointing to two more bottles of black liquid standing on a spindle-legged table. "It's Doxycide. I've never seen an infestation this bad — what that house-elf's been doing for the last few years —"
"Wallowing in self-pity and depression," Leo rolled his eyes as he took the Doxycide. "Got too lazy to do his job, I reckon."
"Kreacher's really old, he probably couldn't manage —" Hermione argued hotly.
"You'd be surprised what Kreacher can manage when he wants to, Hermione," said Sirius, who had just entered the room with Cas behind him, who was looking around disdainfully. "Anyway... this writing desk..."
He bent over to examine the locked cabinet which, Leo now noticed for the first time, was shaking slightly. Huh. That wasn't there before. He frowned, tilting his head to the side.
"Well, Molly, I'm pretty sure this is a boggart," said Sirius, peering through the keyhole, "but perhaps we ought to let Mad-Eye have a shifty at it before we let it out. Unless you'd like to give it a go, Cas?"
"No thanks, I'd like to keep my fears where I can't see or acknowledge them," Castor replied, throwing himself into an armchair.
A loud, clanging bell sounded from downstairs, followed at once by the cacophony of screams and wails that had been triggered the previous night by Tonks tripping.
"I keep telling them not to ring the doorbell!" said Sirius exasperatedly, hurrying back out of the room with his brother on his heels. They heard them thundering down the stairs as Mrs. Black's screeches echoed up through the house once more: "Stains of dishonor, filthy half-breeds, blood traitors, children of filth..."
"Close the door, please, Leo," said Mrs. Weasley.
Leo took as much time as he dared to close the drawing-room door; he wanted to listen to what was going on downstairs. Sirius and his father had obviously managed to shut the curtains over their mother's portrait because she had stopped screaming. He heard them walking down the hall, then the clattering of the chain on the front door, and then a deep voice saying, "Hestia's just relieved me, so she's got Moody's cloak now, thought I'd leave a report for Dumbledore..."
Feeling Mrs. Weasley's eyes on the back of his head, Leo regretfully closed the drawing-room door and rejoined the doxy party.
Mrs. Weasley was bending over to check the page on doxies in Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests, which was lying open on the sofa. Leo wrinkled his nose in distaste and resisted the urge to set the book on fire.
"Mrs. Weasley," Leo began in an even tone. "You do realize that Lockhart turned out to be a right old fraud and any books ever written by him should be taken with a grain of salt, right?"
Mrs. Weasley turned bright red.
"How would you recommend going about it then, Leo?" she questioned in a slightly miffed tone.
"Spray the hell out of them and try not to get bit," he shrugged, traipsing over to the curtain and preparing himself alongside the others. He paused before looking at Mrs. Weasley. "You do realize we can all do magic here without alerting the Trace, right? It's too well hidden for the Ministry to keep an eye on us."
"Oh, well, in that case," Mrs. Weasley beamed slightly, taking out her wand. "All we have to do is Stun them and toss them in this bucket."
Leo flicked out his own wand, grinning broadly as everyone did the same and pointed them at the curtains. Knowing that they'd need to do something to shake the doxies out first, he cast a quick Flipendo at the curtains and the doxies came flying out.
A fully grown doxy came soaring out of a fold in the material, shiny beetle-like wings whirring, tiny needle-sharp teeth bared, its fairy-like body covered with thick black hair, and its four tiny fists clenched with fury. Leo quickly Stunned it, watching as it froze in midair and fell, with a surprisingly loud thunk, onto the worn carpet below. Not really wanting to touch it, he instead levitated it into the bucket before preparing to turn to his next opponent.
"Fred, what are you doing?" said Mrs. Weasley sharply. "Stun that at once and throw it away!"
Leo looked around. Fred was holding a struggling doxy between his forefinger and thumb.
"Right-o," Fred said brightly, Stunning the doxy so that it fainted, but the moment Mrs. Weasley's back was turned he pocketed it with a wink.
"We want to experiment with doxy venom for our Skiving Snackboxes," George told Leo under his breath.
Deftly Stunning the next doxy with his wand, he approached George and whispered in a low voice, "Oh, do tell."
"It's candy that'll make you sick," Draco snickered from beside him, having listened in to their conversation.
"Not seriously ill, mind, just ill enough to get you out of a class when you feel like it. Draco, Fred, and I have been developing them this summer. They're double-ended, color-coded chews. If you eat the orange half of the Puking Pastilles, you throw up. The moment you've been rushed out of the lesson for the hospital wing, you swallow the purple half —" George continued.
"'— which restores you to full fitness, enabling you to pursue the leisure activity of your own choice during an hour that would otherwise have been devoted to unprofitable boredom.' That's what we're putting in the adverts, anyway," whispered Fred, who had edged over out of Mrs. Weasley's line of vision and was now sweeping a few stray doxies from the floor and adding them to his pocket. "But they still need a bit of work. At the moment our testers are having a bit of trouble stopping puking long enough to swallow the purple end."
"The testers being you two?" Leo assumed, tapping his chin in thought as they both nodded. "I'm guessing you're using some sort of potion for the snacks?"
"Yeah," Draco nodded. "We're trying to find alternative ingredients to reduce the rate of vomiting, but we're not having much luck."
"Could reduce the number of certain ingredients instead of changing them altogether," Leo suggested. "It might reduce the frequency and severity while still giving you the reaction you need."
"Brilliant," the twins beamed when Draco nodded in approval of the statement.
"We'd like your thoughts on some of our other Snacks, like the Fainting Fancies..." Fred trailed off as Mrs. Weasley walked by.
They decided to table their conversation for when they were alone. The de-doxying of the curtains took most of the morning. It was past midday when Mrs. Weasley finally removed her protective scarf and sank into a sagging armchair. The curtains were no longer buzzing; they hung limp and damp from the intensive spraying; unconscious doxies lay crammed in the bucket at the foot of them beside a bowl of their black eggs, at which Crookshanks was now sniffing and Fred and George were shooting covetous looks.
"I think we'll tackle those after lunch."
Mrs. Weasley pointed at the dusty glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantelpiece. They were crammed with an odd assortment of objects: a selection of rusty daggers, claws, a coiled snakeskin, a number of tarnished silver boxes inscribed with languages Leo could not understand and, least pleasant of all, an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of what Leo was quite sure was blood. Leo had never taken the time to examine the contents of the cabinets before, not wanting to risk something trying to kill him.
The clanging doorbell rang again. Everyone looked at Mrs. Weasley.
"Stay here," she said firmly, snatching up the bag of rats as Mrs. Black's screeches started up again from down below. "I'll bring up some sandwiches."
She left the room, closing the door carefully behind her. At once, everyone dashed over to the window to look down onto the doorstep. They could see the top of an unkempt gingery head and a stack of precariously balanced cauldrons.
"Mundungus!" said Hermione. "What's he brought all those cauldrons for?"
"Probably looking for a safe place to keep them," said Harry.
"Don't reckon Castor will be too pleased," Draco remarked. "Should've seen what happened the last time Fletcher tried to bring in stolen goods."
"Let me guess: my dad froze him to something?" Leo rolled his eyes.
"Even better," Fred snorted.
"Turned Dung into a raccoon he did -" George added.
"Had him bouncing around the house until Lupin stepped in and told him it would cause Dung serious harm if he continued," Fred laughed.
"Wish I could've seen that," Leo pouted, upset at having missed the show.
"Might get the chance," Ron said, glancing out the door. "Castor's coming down the stairs now. Wait – he's stopping, Mum's walking over now..."
"WE ARE NOT RUNNING A HIDEOUT FOR STOLEN GOODS!" Mrs. Weasley's voice carried over throughout the house.
"I love hearing Mum shouting at someone else," said Fred, with a satisfied smile on his face as he opened the door an inch or so to allow Mrs. Weasley's voice to permeate the room better. "It makes such a nice change."
"— COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE, AS IF WE HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITHOUT YOU DRAGGING STOLEN CAULDRONS INTO THE HOUSE —"
"The idiots are letting her get into her stride," said George, shaking his head. "You've got to head her off early, otherwise she builds up a head of steam and goes on for hours. And she's been dying to have a go at Mundungus — and there goes your grandmum again, Leo —"
Mrs. Weasley's voice was lost amid fresh shrieks and screams from the portraits in the hall. George made to shut the door to drown the noise, but before he could do so, a house-elf edged into the room. Leo gave a small squeal of delight when he saw it was Kreacher.
Kreacher took absolutely no notice of Leo and the rest. Acting as though it could not see them, it shuffled hunchbacked, slowly and doggedly, toward the far end of the room, muttering under its breath all the while in a hoarse, deep voice like a bullfrog's, "... Smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my Mistress's house, oh my poor Mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh the shame of it, Mudbloods -"
"Kreacher," Leo suddenly barked in an irritated tone. "What have I said about using that word in my house?"
The house-elf froze in his tracks, stopped muttering, and then gave a very pronounced start of surprise before turning and bowing lowly to Leo, whose irate expression didn't change.
"Kreacher is quite pleased to have Young Master Leo home -" the house-elf croaked.
"Kreacher, I asked a question," Leo replied in a curt tone. "What have I said about using that word?"
"Leo, it's fine, he doesn't know what he's saying -" Hermione began.
"Don't kid yourself, Hermione, he knows exactly what he's saying," said Fred, eyeing Kreacher with great dislike.
"What do you want anyway?" George asked.
Kreacher's huge eyes darted onto George, seeming relieved to have an excuse to avoid Leo's question.
"Kreacher is cleaning," he said evasively.
"That story's about as likely as the idea of Voldy adopting bunnies," Cas's voice remarked dryly.
He and Sirius had come back; they were glowering at the elf from the doorway. Cas seemed especially irate at seeing the elf – Leo had never seen so much loathing in another's eyes, even Snape's. At the sight of them both, Kreacher flung himself into a ridiculously low bow that flattened his snoutlike nose on the floor.
"Stand up straight," said Sirius impatiently. "Now, what are you up to?"
"Kreacher is cleaning," the elf repeated. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black —"
"— and it's getting blacker every day, it's filthy," said Sirius.
"Master always liked his little joke," said Kreacher, bowing again, and continuing in an undertone, "Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart —"
"You have to have a heart first in order for it to be broken," Cas stated with a roll of his eyes.
"I asked you what you were up to," said Sirius coldly. "Every time you show up pretending to be cleaning, you sneak something off to your room so we can't throw it out."
"Kreacher would never move anything from its proper place in Master's house," said the elf, then muttered very fast, "Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out, seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it, Kreacher will not let Master and the blood traitors and the brats destroy it —"
"Figured as much," Cas sighed, glancing at the tapestry with disdain before looking at his brother. "What d'you reckon?"
"She'll have put another Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of it, I don't doubt," Sirius groused before turning back to the house-elf. "Now go away, Kreacher."
It seemed that Kreacher did not dare disobey a direct order; nevertheless, the look he gave Sirius as he shuffled out past him was redolent of deepest loathing and he muttered all the way out of the room.
"— comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he's back, they say he's a murderer too —"
"Keep muttering and I will be a murderer!" said Sirius irritably, and he slammed the door shut on the elf.
"Sirius, he's not right in the head," said Hermione pleadingly, "I don't think he realizes we can hear him."
"Oh, no, trust me, Hermione," Cas rolled his eyes as he sank into an armchair. "He knows we can hear him. The fact that he's coherent is a miracle, though."
"You and Kreacher used to get on well enough," Sirius remarked. "Whatever happened to that?"
Cas didn't respond, though his eyes took on a distant, haunted look as he stared at the tapestry, unseeing. Everyone stared at him, unnerved by this sudden change before Sirius reached forward and lightly shook his shoulder. He jumped slightly, relaxing when he noticed that it was Sirius and not whatever nightmare his mind had been conjuring.
"Let's just say..." Cas began slowly, rubbing his face. "That when he was needed most, he wasn't there."
Sirius let the subject drop as he clapped his brother on the shoulder and walked across the room, where the tapestry Kreacher had been trying to protect hung the length of the wall. Leo and the others followed. The blonde only briefly looked at it, having already seen it before and not particularly interested in what was on it anymore.
"You're not on here!" Harry said suddenly after scanning the bottom of the tree.
"I used to be there," said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. "My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home — Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."
"You ran away from home?"
"Cas and I both did when we were about fifteen," said Sirius. "We'd had enough."
"Where did you go?" asked Harry, staring at him.
"Your dad's place," said Sirius. "Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted us as their kids. Yeah, we camped out at your dad's during the school holidays, and then when we were seventeen we got a place of our own, our Uncle Alphard had left us a decent bit of gold — he's been wiped off here too, that's probably why — anyway, after that, we looked after ourselves - at least until Cas got married and moved out. We were always welcome at Mr. and Mrs. Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."
"But... why did you two...?"
"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly and ran a hand through his long, unkempt hair. "Because we hated the whole lot of them: our parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal... our idiot brother, soft enough to believe them... that's him."
Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name Regulus Black. A date of death (some fifteen years previously) followed the date of birth.
"He was younger than us," said Sirius, "and a much better son, as we were constantly reminded."
"But he died," said Harry.
"Yeah," said Sirius. "Stupid idiot... he joined the Death Eaters."
Cas tensed up slightly, watching them warily.
"You're kidding!"
"Come on, Harry, they wanted my dad to take the Mark – not that big a surprise that they'd want one of their other kids to as well," Leo rolled his eyes.
"Our parents thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the Wizarding race, getting rid of Muggleborns and having pure-bloods in charge. They weren't alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things... They got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first," Sirius snorted.
"Was he killed by an Auror?" Harry asked tentatively.
"Oh no," said Sirius. "No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely, I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death."
"I think that's enough, Sirius," Cas said in a warning tone. "There's no need to bring up the past or – or Reggie."
Sirius stared at him for a moment before inclining his head and letting the matter drop. Thankfully, Mrs. Weasley came in, holding her wand high in front of her, balancing a huge tray loaded with sandwiches and cake on its tip. She was very red in the face and still looked angry. The others moved over to her, eager for some food, but Leo stayed beside his uncle, now curious to learn more about their family. He was glad when his father didn't interrupt.
"I haven't looked at this for years. There's Phineas Nigellus... my great-great-grandfather, see? Suppose he'd be your three times great grandfather - least popular headmaster Hogwarts ever had... and Araminta Meliflua... cousin of my mother's... tried to force through a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal... and dear Aunt Elladora... she started the family tradition of beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays... quite glad they were removed when we got here... of course, anytime the family produced someone halfway decent they were disowned. I see Tonks isn't on here. Maybe that's why Kreacher won't take orders from her — he's supposed to do whatever anyone in the family asks him..."
"Why's my dad still on here then?" Leo questioned, staring at his name. "He had the same beliefs you do and he ran away from home -"
"Because there's one thing that the Blacks craved for which they were able to overlook anything: Power. And Cas has loads of it," Sirius informed him, looking over at his brother, who was nibbling on a sandwich. "It's why they were able to overlook him marrying a Muggleborn and why they let you stay on the tapestry."
"They were hoping I'd be as strong as him," Leo surmised with a frown.
"That and I think my mother believed you were the only one left to carry on the Black family name," Sirius smiled slightly at him. "Think she might've been right. Cas isn't remarrying anytime soon and the ladies aren't exactly lining up to date someone who's supposed to be a mass murderer."
"Doesn't help that your nose is slightly off-center."
"It is not!" Sirius said indignantly before crossing his arms over his chest and giving his nephew a half-hearted glare. "Must you always be so mean to me?"
"I find it brightens up the mood, Uncle Siri," Leo grinned brightly.
Sirius couldn't help but return it as he laughed and escorted him over to where the sandwiches were. After they had finished, they set about emptying the glass cabinets. It proved to be every bit as dangerous as Leo had thought it would be. Sirius sustained a bad bite from a silver snuffbox; within seconds, his bitten hand had developed an unpleasant crusty covering like a tough brown glove.
"It's okay," he said, examining the hand with interest before tapping it lightly with his wand and restoring its skin to normal, "must be Wartcap powder in there."
He threw the box aside into the sack where they were depositing the debris from the cabinets; Leo saw George wrap his own hand carefully in a cloth moments later and sneak the box into his already doxy-filled pocket.
They found an unpleasant-looking silver instrument, something like a many-legged pair of tweezers, which scuttled up Harry's arm like a spider when he picked it up and attempted to puncture his skin; Sirius seized it and smashed it with a heavy book entitled Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. There was a musical box that emitted a faintly sinister, tinkling tune when wound, and they all found themselves becoming curiously weak and sleepy until Ginny had the sense to slam the lid shut; also a heavy locket that none of them could open – Cas had frozen at the sight of it before snatching it from Sirius's hand and dashing out of the room. They all stared after him in bewilderment.
Several times, Kreacher sidled into the room and attempted to smuggle things away under his loincloth, muttering horrible curses every time they caught him at it. When Sirius wrested a large golden ring bearing the Black crest from his grip Kreacher actually burst into furious tears and left the room sobbing under his breath and calling Sirius names Leo had never heard before. He made a mental note to write them down later.
"It was my father's," said Sirius, throwing the ring into the sack. "Kreacher wasn't quite as devoted to him as to my mother, but I still caught him snogging a pair of my father's old trousers last week."
Mrs. Weasley kept them all working very hard over the next few days. The drawing-room took three days to decontaminate; finally, the only undesirable things left in it were the tapestry of the Black family tree, which resisted all their attempts to remove it from the wall, and the rattling writing desk; Moody had not dropped by headquarters yet, so they could not be sure what was inside it.
They moved from the drawing-room to a dining room on the ground floor where they found spiders large as saucers lurking in the dresser (Ron left the room hurriedly to make a cup of tea and did not return for an hour and a half). The china, which bore the Black crest and motto, was all thrown unceremoniously into a sack by Sirius or tossed in the air to be used as target practice for the Hogwarts students.
Cas remained holed up in his room ever since the locket incident and only ventured out on the morning of the tenth of August, the day Leo, Draco, and Harry were supposed to finish their Animagus potion and finally remove the mandrake leaves from their mouths. He had come down for breakfast, at which point everyone turned to stare at him curiously. He ignored them all, instead striding over to Draco to whisper something in his ear before turning to everyone else.
"Harry, Leo, and Draco are coming to my place for a bit with Remy and Sirius," Cas stated. "I'd like a few days with my family before I have to parade two of my boys in front of the Ministry and give the whole werewolf and hippogriff show."
"Are you sure that's wise, Castor?" Mrs. Weasley replied, sparing a nervous glance at Remus, who was looking quite peaky. "The full moon is tonight -"
"I'm well aware, Molly. Remus has been taking his potion so he'll be fine – not to mention we've got a werewolf tamer on our side," Cas smiled, giving Leo a small wink before looking around at everyone else. "We'll be Portkeying at noon, so get your things ready by then."
He strode out of the room without another word as Harry, Draco, and Leo exchanged looks of excitement as they rapidly finished their breakfast before running upstairs and packing quickly. Time seemed to fly by until, before they knew it, it was noon and they were running down the stairs to the drawing-room. The three adults were already waiting and Cas wordlessly held out the cushion that he, Leo, and Harry had used to get to Grimmauld. Everyone grabbed hold of the cushion as he tapped it with his wand.
"Portus."
The cushion glowed blue for a moment before there was a jerk behind Leo's navel and they were all pulled away. They landed in front of a familiar two-story cottage surrounded by a sprawling lawn and a forest of trees behind it. Cas looked at the house thoughtfully for a moment before gesturing for everyone to follow him inside. They did so, walking past the living room before settling themselves at the large table in the kitchen. He was quiet for a moment, staring at his hands as though debating something.
"I think it's time you know the truth about fifteen years ago," he finally said. "About - about my disappearance... and Reggie's involvement."
The tone in the room went from excited to tense in an instant. Sirius scowled.
"So, the rumors were true – Regulus was the reason you left," he growled.
"In a manner of speaking," Cas inclined his head. "He came to me one night, terrified and upset. It took some time before I finally managed to get him to actually talk to me. When he did, he told me that Voldemort had asked to borrow his house-elf – to borrow Kreacher. Naturally eager to please, Reggie agreed and, well... Voldemort took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave, there was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake..."
He paused, his gaze distant before he gave a great shudder and continued.
"There was a boat that led to an island...there was a basin full of potion on the island and Voldemort made Kreacher drink it..." he trailed off, his hands clenching tightly on the table. "When he was done, Voldemort hid something in the basin, refilled it, and abandoned Kreacher there... There were Inferius under the lake – Kreacher only escaped because Reggie had ordered him to come back..."
"You got curious as to what Voldemort was hiding and wanted to investigate," Remus surmised.
"Reggie and I looked into it and we discovered what it was Voldemort was trying to hide – one of the keys to ending the war," Cas reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the locket they had seen a week ago. "A Horcrux."
Sirius and Remus paled at once but the three teens looked at each other in confusion.
"What's a Horcrux?" Leo finally asked.
"A bit of your soul preserved in an object usually of great significance," Cas explained. "They can only be created after you've killed someone – a trifle, really, to someone like Voldemort. He was so desperate to escape death that he split his soul into several parts – Reggie and I finally agreed that he was shooting for seven. It is the most powerfully magical number, after all."
"So, what? Voldemort can't be killed until we've destroyed all seven pieces of his soul?" Leo asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"... That's the most ridiculous side quest I've ever heard of," Leo scoffed. "How're we supposed to find them all? We've only got one now!"
"Well, two others have already been destroyed, thanks to you two," Cas gave a proud smile. "Riddle's diary and Voldy's snake -"
"You can turn animals into Horcruxes?!" Harry exclaimed.
"It's not recommended since they have a soul of their own – but yes," Cas inclined his head before holding up the locket. "And once we destroy this, we'll only have four left."
"Cas," Sirius said quietly. "How did the locket wind up in our house?"
Castor was quiet for a moment.
"We asked Kreacher to take us to where the locket was – tried everything to get it out of the basin without having to drink the potion but we couldn't. We took turns drinking it..." a haunted look entered his eyes. "I drank, and as I drank, I saw terrible things... my insides burned... every horrible memory – every regret, every pain, every failure – came rushing back all at once... but we had to persevere. We drank the lot and took the locket, putting a fake one in its place... we were so thirsty... Reggie - Reggie tried to drink from the lake and that's when -"
He broke off and put his face in his hands.
"The Inferius came," Sirius said softly.
Cas nodded.
"They started to pull him under and I – I ordered Kreacher to take Reggie and the locket and run but he wouldn't listen – why wouldn't he listen?" he said hoarsely as tears leaked past his hands and dripped onto the table. "Reggie kept telling – ordering Kreacher to take me instead. I tried to fight him but... the potion... I was too weak... Kreacher took me to Grimmauld where I... I couldn't take the pain of losing my brother... so I turned... I left you all behind – Lily, James, and Rose are all dead because of me -"
"No, they're not," Remus said in a firm voice. "They're dead because of Peter and Voldemort – not because of you. You and Regulus risked your lives to strike a blow against Voldemort – and you both paid the price for it. Regulus paid with his life and you... you paid with your sanity."
"Can't pay with what you never had," Leo said lightly, trying to brighten the mood.
It worked somewhat, Cas gave a wet chuckle before he rubbed his face and lowered his hands. His eyes were now red-rimmed and tired, but very, very determined. He turned to look at Sirius.
"Reggie may have joined the Death Eaters, but he saw what they were doing was wrong and he tried to make up for it. He tried to do the right thing and help take out Voldemort -"
"He was a hero," Sirius finished for him, rubbing his hand over his face and giving a humorless laugh. "All this time, I thought he was a coward who was in over his head – all this time I thought he had gotten you killed. But... he was a hero in the end... I feel like a bloody git now..."
"We were all idiots, Padfoot," Remus stated, clapping him on the shoulder. "We trusted the wrong people and didn't trust the right ones. All we can do is learn from our mistakes and move on."
Sirius nodded and they were all quiet for a moment.
"How do you destroy a Horcrux?" Draco finally asked.
"Whatever's containing the soul has to be damaged beyond all physical or magical repair," Remus said after a second of thought. "Such as with basilisk venom." He frowned before glancing at Leo. "Not quite sure how you managed to destroy the snake if she was a Horcrux."
"I may have an answer to that," Cas interjected, also looking at his son. "When you killed Nagini, what were you feeling?"
"You mean besides unbearable agony and pain?" Leo questioned in a dry tone before frowning in thought. "Anger, hatred, rage -"
"In short: negative emotions, correct?" Cas clarified as Leo nodded. "Negative emotions are the fuel for Dark spells – such as the Cruciatus Curse or the Killing Curse. They're opposite to spells that require positive emotions, like the Patronus Charm."
"So... you're saying I used Dark magic to kill the snake?" Leo raised an eyebrow, not overly fond of the thought.
"That's drastically oversimplifying it, but yes," Cas inclined his head. "More specifically, I believe you used Fiendfyre."
Remus, Sirius, and Draco all looked at Cas incredulously before staring at Leo, who did his best to look as though he knew what they were talking about.
"What's Fiendfyre?" Harry finally asked when no one seemed to want to explain.
"A very powerful Dark spell," Draco stated. "It conjures fire that's incredibly difficult – almost impossible – to control. It destroys anything and everything in its path. It's no wonder it's able to destroy something like a Horcrux."
Cas nodded.
"The fact that you didn't burn the whole bloody graveyard to the ground is a miracle in and of itself," the man remarked. "I wager it'll take some time to fully master the ability."
"You want me to learn how to use one of the darkest spells ever created?" Leo asked incredulously.
"Could be the only way to destroy these things, Leo," Cas held up the locket. "However, the choice, as always, is yours."
"I'll do it," he said at once. "If it's the only way to stop Moldy, I'll do it."