Chapter 13:

Alicia's dreams were filled with the house of Grimmauld place as well as the crash of wedding that night, being back within the house she remembered how Mrs Weasley had tried to get her to help out and how she'd pushed herself to work out her connection with Harry.

She awoke the next morning before the others and she looked around the drawing room as she sat up. It was weird waking up here, she'd always had her room in Grummauld Place. Coming to think about it, she hadn't been in the drawing room much before now. Of course there was the long day when they'd cleaned it out.

Alicia chuckled and she got to her feet, ignoring Harry, Hermione and Ron who were all still asleep, and moved over to the tapestry of the Black Family tree. She remembered Sirius leaning over it and talking to her and Harry about it. That was before Fred and George's business took off, back then she'd been subjected as a test subject for their merchandise. She remembered Fred and George pocketing doxies to experiment with their venom with.

Even though they were cleaning that'd been an interesting day. Order members flowed in and out, Mundungus brought cauldrons to hide, Sirius threw out a heap of things while Kreacher stole some of them back to hide in his cupboard. She remembered how Sirius had thrown out an Order of Merlin, claiming his family had earned it by giving a lot of money over to them. He's chuckled out a music box too, but that held music that hypnotised them all. Alicia remembered taking Sirius' father's ring with the family cast on it so Mungundus couldn't sell it, right after they'd—

Alicia froze.

"Oh my god." she said and suddenly her arm was flailing out beside her. She moved backwards towards the three and she hit Harry. "Oh my god!" she shouted it this time and Hermione and Ron were awoken by her making so much noise.

"Wasgoinon?" Ron slurred

Alicia was rummaging through her bag and she pulled out the pensieve. Harry was yawning as Hermione rubbed her eyes, though becoming more awake as Alicia put her wand to her temple and pulled out a memory. She out it in the pensieve and tapped it with her wand. An image rose from the surface and Alicia looked at it, gapping.

"I can't believe it." she whispered "Harry… Harry the letter from the locket." she said

"Alicia what is it?" Hermione asked

"Look." Alicia turned the pensieve and everyone looked to see a locket and risen out of the misty substance.

"So?" Ron asked.

Alicia raged, almost sounding like she was growling.

"Everyone up. Now!" she demanded and she poked the pensieve so the locket fell back away. The tone in her voice said no one was to argue with her and all three got up and followed her, in their pyjamas out of the Drawing Room. Alicia moved up the stairs and continued right to the top landing.

"I can't believe I forgot about it! I knew it ringed a bell. How stupid we were!" she said

"Alicia what's going on?" Harry demanded

"Every time some said R.A.B I felt like the answer was right o the tip of my tongue and it was! I know who R.A.B is but I only just remembered." They reached the top landing were there were two doors. One went to SIrius' bedroom and the other, Alicia knew, to Sirius' brother's room.

"Gosh and it fits to absolutely perfectly too!"

"Alicia!" Hermione demanded

"You're doing Hermione!" Ron complained, earning a look.

Alicia simply stopped at Regulas' bedroom door and hit it, right above her hand was a little sign and the three looked at it.

Do Not Enter

Without the Express Permission of

Regulus Arcturus Black

The three read it before looking at Alicia.

"For god's sake, Regulus Arcurus Black. R.A.B you morons." she said, angered by their slowness.

The three all expressed looked of understanding. "He was a Death Eater." Alicia said

"Sirius told us about him," Harry remembered and Alicia nodded "He joined up when he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave — so they killed him."

"That fits!" gasped Hermione. "If he was a Death Eater he had access to Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring Voldemort down!"

"The locket — you don't reckon — ?" Ron said

"Let's find out," said Harry. He pushed the door. Hermione pointed her wand at the handle and said, "Alohomora." There was a click, and the door swung open.

They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus's bedroom was slightly smaller than Alicia remembered Sirius's being, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas Sirius had sought to advertise his difference from the rest of the family, having Gryffindor colours and muggle posters and pictures of his friends on the walls, Regulus had striven to emphasise the opposite. The Slytherin colours of emerald and silver were everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was painstakingly painted over the bed, along with its motto, Toujours Pur. Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.

"They're all about Voldemort," she said. "Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters. . . ."

A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings. Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph and was staring at it.

"He played Seeker," said Harry.

"What?" said Hermione vaguely; she was still immersed in Voldemort's press clippings.

"He's sitting in the middle of the front row, that's where the Seeker… Never mind," said Harry, realising that nobody was listening: Ron was on his hands and knees, searching under the wardrobe.

"Ron, what are you doing?" Alicia asked

"I'm looking for the locket!" he said obviously. Alicia groaned again and Harry looked up at her.

"Why am I friends with you people." she said and they looked confused. "The locket isn't in here."

"How do you know?" Ron demanded

"Remember!" she said "When we were cleaning out the drawing room, back in the summer, before Harry and I turned fifteen. We found all sorts of things and Sirius was chucking out a heap of stuff, that music box that hypnotised—"

"That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle Ron," Hermione added and Alicia nodded

"We all also passed around a locket. It was heavy and none of us could get it open!" she said looking at them, her face alight "It was in the drawing room!" The three stared at her.

"You're right, why didn't you remember this earlier?" Ron said

"We were all there!" Alicia snapped

"But your brain works faster, I'm surprised you didn't remember the second you saw the locket in the memories."

"Or remembered this when we read R.A.B." Harry agreed, pointing at the door.

"Well if Regulus had written R.A.B on the door rather than his full name, I would have." she snapped back "Honestly, it's like I'm the only one who can think about here."

"But the locket went into the sack of things to be thrown out." Harry said and Alicia could feel his devastation.

"Don't give up until we've thought of every aspect." Alicia said

"Every aspect? It was chucked out." Ron said also looking annoyed

"You are again, forgetting, this time, about Kreacher." Alicia said to him.

Harry understood. "Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us," and Alicia nodded "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C'mon."

They ran down the stairs, Harry in front and taking them two at a time. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius's mother as they passed through the hall.

"Filth! Mudbloods! Scum!" she screamed after them. Alicia waved her wand as they passed and the curtains shut with a bang as they continued down to the basement kitchen.

Harry ran the length of the room, skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher's cupboard, and wrenched it open. There was the nest of dirty old blankets in which the house-elf had once slept, but they were no longer glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. The only thing there was an old copy of Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy.

"Kreacher hasn't been here, he wouldn't have been able to get rid of it all…" Alicia said thinking as Harry, who seemed to refuse to believe what he was seeing, snatched up the blankets and shook them. A dead mouse fell out and rolled dismally across the floor. Ron groaned as he threw himself into a kitchen chair; Hermione closed her eyes.

"How could it have gotten out of…" Alicia stopped and then she became angry. "I'm going to throttle him!" she raged before she turned around.

"Kreacher!" she demanded.

There was a loud crack and the house-elf that Harry and Alicia had so reluctantly inherited from Sirius appeared out of nowhere in front of the cold and empty fireplace: tiny, half human-sized, his pale skin hanging off him in folds, white hair sprouting copiously from his batlike ears. He was still wearing the filthy rag in which they had first met him. He ignored the others including Harry and bowed to Alicia as she kneeled before him.

"Mistress!" he said to her, muttering to his knees. "back in my Mistress's old house with the blood-traitor Weasley and the Mudblood —"

"I forbid you to call anyone 'blood traitor' or 'Mudblood,'" growled Harry, butting in.

"Shh." Alicia ordered of Harry who was glaring down at the elf. He'd never forgiven Kreacher for betraying Sirius to Voldemort.

"Kreacher, I have a question for you and it is fundamentally important that you answer truthfully, you understand?" she said to him as he stood up and looked at her.

"Two years ago," said Harry, "there was a big gold locket in the drawing room upstairs. We threw it out. Did you steal it back?"

There was a moment's silence, during which Kreacher straightened up to look Harry full in the face. Then he turned to Alicia and said, "Yes."

"Where is it now?" asked Harry jubilantly as Ron and Hermione looked gleeful.

Kreacher closed his eyes as though he could not bear to see their reactions to his next word.

"Gone."

"Gone?" echoed Harry, elation flooding out of him. "What do you mean, it's gone?"

The elf shivered. He swayed.

"Kreacher," said Harry fiercely "I order you —" Alicia looked at him angry ready to snap but Kreacher spoke first.

"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. "Mundungus Fletcher stole it all: Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and — and —"

Kreacher was gulping for air: His hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.

"— and the locket, Master Regulus's locket, Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed in his orders!"

Harry reacted instinctively: As Kreacher lunged for the poker standing in the grate, he launched himself upon the elf, flattening him. Alicia gasped and fell backwards from her couch as Harry flew past her and Hermione's scream mingled with Kreacher's. Harry bellowed louder than both of them: "Kreacher, I order you to stay still!"

The elf froze and Alicia looked stunned as Harry got up, Kreacher laying flat on the cold stone floor, tears gushing from his sagging eyes.

"Harry, let him up!" Hermione whispered.

"So he can beat himself up with the poker?" snorted Harry, kneeling beside the elf. "I don't think so. Right, Kreacher, I want the truth: How do you know Mundungus Fletcher stole the locket?"

"Kreacher saw him!" gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his mouth full of graying teeth. "Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher's cupboard with his hands full of Kreacher's treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but Mundungus Fletcher laughed and r-ran…"

"You called the locket 'Master Regulus's,'" said Harry. "Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!"

The elf sat up, curled into a ball, placed his wet face between his knees, and began to rock backward and forward.

"Hold on." Alicia said and she kneeled beside Harry. "Kreacher, take a breath, then can you please tell us where you got the locket from?" Alicia said.

Kreacher sniffed and when he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.

"Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress's heart with his lawless ways. But Master Regulus had proper pride; he knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns… and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve…

"And one day, a year after he had joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said… he said…"

The old elf rocked faster than ever.

"… he said that the Dark Lord required an elf."

"Voldemort needed an elf ?" Harry repeated, looking around at Ron and Hermione, who looked just as puzzled as he did. Alicia however had head head tipped to the side. Voldemort needed and elf… what had that to do with the locket?

"He was hiding the locket." Alicia realised "But the potion was in the way."

"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honour, said Master Regulus, an honour for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do… and then to c-come home."

Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs.

"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but 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… There was a boat…" Alicia pursed her lips as she remembered the ghostly green but tiny boat, bewitched so as to carry one wizard and one victim toward the island in the centre.

"There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it…"

The elf quaked from head to foot.

"Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things… Kreacher's insides burned… Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed… He made Kreacher drink all the potion… He dropped a locket into the empty basin… He filled it with more potion.

"And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island…"

Alicia looked down at Kreacher pitifully.

"Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake… and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface…"

"How did you get away?" Harry asked, his voice just a whisper.

Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked at Harry with his great, bloodshot eyes.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he said.

"I know — but how did you escape the Inferi?"

Kreacher did not seem to understand.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he repeated.

"I know, but —"

"Oh come on Harry." Alicia said and he looked at her.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it, Harry?" said Ron. "He Disapparated!"

"But… you couldn't Apparate in and out of that cave," said Harry, "otherwise Dumbledore —"

"Elf magic isn't like wizard's magic, is it?" said Ron. "I mean, they can Apparate and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can't."

"It's hard to put up spells to block a house elf." Alicia admitted

"Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice, just like all the purebloods who treat them like animals… It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."

"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," intoned Kreacher. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home…"

"Well, then, you did what you were told, didn't you?" said Hermione kindly. "You didn't disobey orders at all!"

Kreacher shook his head, rocking as fast as ever.

"Kreacher, what happened when you returned?" Alicia asked

"What did Regulus say when you told him what had happened?"

"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then… it was a little while later… Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell… and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord…"

Voldemort had shown Kreacher everything, where the cave was, how to get through the entrance, where the boat was and to not touch the water. They knew everything to get in, even about the potion.

"And he made you drink the potion?" said Harry, disgusted.

But Kreacher shook his head and wept. Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth: She seemed to have understood something. Alicia's eyes widened.

"M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snoutlike nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets…"

Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now.

"And he ordered — Kreacher to leave — without him. And he told Kreacher — to go home — and never to tell my Mistress — what he had done — but to destroy — the first locket. And he drank — all the potion — and Kreacher swapped the lockets — and watched… as Master Regulus… was dragged beneath the water… and…"

"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, who was crying. She dropped to her knees beside the elf and tried to hug him. At once he was on his feet, cringing away from her, quite obviously repulsed.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would his Mistress say?"

"I told you not to call her 'Mudblood'!" snarled Harry, but the elf was already punishing himself: He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.

"Kreacher, stop." the elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his snout, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Alicia's voice hadn't risen at all but the elf had heard and the elf obeyed.

"Please don't hurt yourself, it's alright." she responded simply.

"Oh, don't you see now how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?" Hermione said.

"So you brought the locket home," Harry said relentlessly, "And you tried to destroy it?"

"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work… So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open… Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his Mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared, and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave…"

Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words. Tears flowed down Hermione's cheeks as she watched Kreacher, but she did not dare touch him again. Even Ron, who was no fan of Kreacher's, looked troubled. Harry sat back on his heels and shook his head, trying to clear it.

"I don't understand you, Kreacher," he said finally. "Voldemort tried to kill you, Regulus died to bring Voldemort down, but you were still happy to betray Sirius to Voldemort? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information to Voldemort through them…"

"For got sake Harry, you can really be blind." Alicia said

"Harry, Kreacher doesn't think like that," said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "He's a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn't that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He's loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs. I know what you're going to say," she went on as Harry began to protest, "that Regulus changed his mind… but he doesn't seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus's family were all safer if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all."

"Sirius —"

"Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it's no good looking like that, you know it's true. Kreacher had been alone for a long time when Sirius came to live here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I'm sure 'Miss Cissy' and 'Miss Bella' were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up, so he did them a favour and told them everything they wanted to know. I've said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat house-elves. Well, Voldemort did… and so did Sirius."

"Dumbledore said the exact same thing." Alicia said "A house elf may not be human, but they have feelings, and if you were treated how Sirius treated Kreacher would you be reserved to help someone else, even if it was against them?"

"Have you ever noticed that Alicia asks instead of demands, the last two times we've seen Kreacher he's gone straight to her, not you, because she's nicer to him." Hermione said and as she did Alicia got up to grab a rag and a glass of water.

"Kreacher," said Harry after a while, "when you feel up to it, er… please sit up."

It was several minutes before Kreacher hiccuped himself into silence. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a small child.

Alicia handed him the rag and the water and he took them from her, blowing his snout nose and gulping the liquid.

"Kreacher, I am going to ask you to do something," said Harry. He glanced at Hermione for assistance, but his tone was calmer now as Alicia's had been and it caused Hermione to smile encouragingly.

"Kreacher, I want you, please, to go and find Mundungus Fletcher. We need to find out where the locket — where Master Regulus's locket is. It's really important. We want to finish the work Master Regulus started, we want to — er — ensure that he didn't die in vain."

Kreacher dropped his fists and looked up at Harry.

"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" he croaked.

"And bring him here, to Grimmauld Place," said Harry. "Do you think you could do that for us?"

"And Kreacher, no ones to know what you're doing." Alicia added "Or why you're doing it, do you understand?" Kreacher looked at her and then to Harry before he nodded and got to his feet.

Harry it seemed had an inspiration, for he pulled out Hagrid's purse and took out the fake Horcrux, the substitute locket in which Regulus had placed the note to Voldemort.

"Kreacher, I'd, er, like you to have this," he said, pressing the locket into the elf's hand. "This belonged to Regulus and I'm sure he'd want you to have it as a token of gratitude for what you —"

"Overkill, mate," said Ron as the elf took one look at the locket, let out a howl of shock and misery, and threw himself back onto the ground.

"He deserves to have it." Alicia said "He had to go through the torture of that potion and the inferi. Don't worry, he'll collect himself eventually." she assured.

It took them nearly half an hour to calm down Kreacher, who was so overcome to be presented with a Black family heirloom for his very own that he was too weak at the knees to stand properly. When finally he was able to totter a few steps they all accompanied him to his cupboard, watched him tuck up the locket safely in his dirty blankets, and assured him that they would make its protection their first priority while he was away. He then made three low bows to Alicia, Harry and Ron, and even gave a funny little spasm in Hermione's direction that might have been an attempt at a respectful salute, before Disapparating with the usual loud crack.