Hello everyone, so here is another chapter. I was not able to edit this twice, so if there is a few mistakes then I am sorry and I will edit them later. IF THAT BOTHERS YOU THEN DO NOT READ TILL I EDIT. Also please review and let me know what you think
"Who should read next?" She turned the page and read the title "Um never mind I think Sirius should read the next chapter"
"Me?" Sirius asked "Why me? What's the chapter called?"
"Kreacher's tale" Tonks said grimly.
Sirius shook his head quickly
"No! I don't want to read" He said stubbornly. "He's a stupid elf, and I hate him and this stupid chapter" Remus sighed
"Ill read Dora" Tonks nodded and handed her husband the book. She looked at Sirius who had his arms crossed and his face set as stone.
Harry woke early next morning, wrapped in a sleeping bag on the drawing room floor. A chink of sky was visible between the heavy curtains. It was the cool, clear blue of watered ink, somewhere between night and dawn, and everything was quiet except for Ron and Hermione's slow, deep breathing.
"He better wake them up if he leaves" Mrs. Weasley said slowly.
Harry glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside him. Ron had had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Hermione sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his.
Lily and Molly smiled. That was thoughtful of Ron to do. Ginny seemed to be thinking the same thing, though she and her brothers thought it funny.
Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron's. Harry wondered whether they had fallen asleep holding hands. The idea made him feel strangely lonely
"You don't think they did fall asleep holding hands do you?" Fred asked his twin. George smirked.
"Most defiantly"
"Your not going to let them live this down are you?" Sirius asked making sure Mrs. Weasley couldn't hear them. Fred and George shook there heads.
He looked up at the shadowy ceiling, the cobwebbed chandelier. Less than twenty—four house ago, he had been standing in the sunlight at the entrance to the marquee, waiting to show in wedding guests. It seemed a lifetime away. What was going to happen now? He lay on the floor and he thought of the Horcruxes, of the daunting complex mission Dumbledore had left him. . . . Dumbledore
"The poor boy" McGonagall suddenly said "He misses him so much and the awful Seeker woman is making him so confused."
Remus' face scrunched up at the word horcux as if he should know what the term meant. He decided to keep his curiosity and the term in the back of his mind, after all he was sure the book would define what it meant sooner or later.
The grief that had possessed him since Dumbledore's death felt different now. The accusations he had heard from Muriel at the wedding seemed to have nested in his brain like diseased things, infecting his memories of the wizard he had idolized.
"Aunt Muriel is just as bad as Rita" Molly huffed.
Could Dumbledore have let such things happen? Had he been like Dudley, content to watch neglect and abuse as long as it did not affect him?
"No Harry No" Lily whispered. "Why is he thinking like this?" Lily asked her husband who only shrugged his shoulders.
Could he have turned his back on a sister who was being imprisoned and hidden? Harry thought of Godric's Hollow, of graves Dumbledore had never mentioned there; he thought of mysterious objects left without explanation in Dumbledore's will, and resentment swelled in the darkness. Why hadn't Dumbledore told him? Why hadn't he explained? Had Dumbledore actually cared about Harry at all? Or had Harry been nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed, but not trusted, never confided in?
Lily, Molly, McGonagall and Ginny growled.
"What the hell is wrong with him? Why is he thinking like a git?" Ginny asked the room. No one had an answer for the young red headed witch.
Harry could not stand lying there with nothing but bitter thoughts for company. Desperate for something to do, for distraction, he slipped out of his sleeping bag, picked up his wand, and crept out of the room.
"He left alone!" Molly yelled "He left alone in Sirius' old house" Now Sirius looked uneasy as well. He hoped his godson wouldn't get cursed or something in that evil house.
On the landing he whispered, "Lumos," and started to climb the stairs by wandlight. On the second landing was the bedroom in which he and Ron had slept last time they had been here; he glanced into it. The wardrobe doors stood open and the bedclothes had been ripped back.
"Some ones been in the house?" Bill asked "I mean other then Mundungus?" The Order members shook their heads.
Harry remembered the overturned troll leg downstairs. Somebody had searched the house since the Order had left. Snape? Or perhaps Mundungus, who had pilfered plenty from this house both before and after Sirius died?
Sirius growled. He didn't care about the stuff, but still it was still stealing from him.
Harry's gaze wandered to the portrait that sometimes contained Phineas Nigellus Black, Sirius's great-great-grandfather, but it was empty, showing nothing but a stretch of muddy backdrop. Phineas Nigellus was evidently spending the night in the headmaster's study at Hogwarts.
Harry continued up the stairs until he reached the topmost landing where there were only two doors. The one facing him bore a nameplate reading Sirius.
Sirius shifted in his chair uneasily. He knew his room had things that he knew Lily, Mrs. Weasley, and McGonagall would not approve of.
Harry had never entered his godfather's bedroom before.
"Its okay to go in" Sirius whispered, no one heard him but James who sent him a sad smile. James knew Sirius loved Harry just as much as he did.
He pushed open the door, holding his wand high to cast light as widely as possible. The room was spacious and must once have been handsome.
"It was" Sirius sighed
There was a large bed with a carved wooden headboard, a tall window obscured by long velvet curtains and a chandelier thickly coated in dust with candle scrubs still resting in its sockets, solid wax banging in frostlike drips. A fine film of dust covered the pictures on the walls and the bed's headboard; a spiders web stretched between the chandelier and the top of the large wooden wardrobe, and as Harry moved deeper into the room, he head a scurrying of disturbed mice.
"Sounds like your room hasn't changed" Remus said playfully. Sirius growled at him lightly.
"Shut up Moony, my room was always clean" Remus snorted.. Before Sirius could reply Remus began reading again.
The teenage Sirius had plastered the walls with so many posters and pictures that little of the walls silvery-gray silk was visible. Harry could only assume that Sirius's parents had been unable to remove the Permanent Sticking Charm that kept them on the wall because he was sure they would not have appreciated their eldest son's taste in decoration.
Sirius laughed "They didn't! Mother had a fit about it but she couldn't get it off the wall." Sirius smiled at the memory of his angry mother. James saw mischief in his best friends eyes and knew what he must have been remembering.
Sirius seemed to have lone gone out of his way to annoy his parents. There were several large Gryffindor banners, faded scarlet and hold just to underline his difference from all the rest of the Slytherin family.
"And proud of it" Sirius yelled and all the Gryffindor's in the room clapped. Sirius stood up and took a small bow, making the room laugh. Molly let it go on for a bit but soon reminded them that they should get back to reading.
There were many pictures of Muggle motorcycles, and also (Harry had to admire Sirius's nerve) several posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls.
"SIRIUS" The girls in the room yelled. Sirius smiled sheepishly and then pointed out that Harry admired his nerve.
Harry could tell that they were Muggles because they remained quite stationary within their pictures, faded smiles and glazed eyes frozen on the paper. This was in contrast the only Wizarding photograph on the walls which was a picture of four Hogwarts students standing arm in arm, laughing at the camera.
Sirius stiffened, as did James and Remus.
"Is that-?" James asked. Sirius nodded quickly.
With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognized his father, his untidy black hair stuck up at the back like Harry's, and he too wore glasses.
James grinned happily.
Beside him was Sirius, carelessly handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger and happier than Harry had ever seen it alive.
"Carelessly Handsome?" Sirius asked "Please i'm down right sexy!"
"Sirius" Lily said "Please James is way sexier then you" Sirius looked hurt as James kissed his wife on the cheek then smirked at him.
To Sirius's right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much admired rebels that James and Sirius had been.
The Marauder's growled as did the rest of the room. Peter did not deserve to be in that photo. James spat on the floor as Sirius used some of his favorite curse words. Remus just continued to read and ignored ever reading about his once friend but his tone had changed and everyone in the room could tell that the mention of said friend opened wounds that never really healed for the old werewolf.
On James's left was Lupin, even then a little shabbylooking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and included or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he saw these things in the picture?
Remus smiled fondly at what he had just read.
"Harry is really observant" He told James and Lily who just smiled proudly.
He tried to take it from the wall; it was his now, after all, Sirius had left him everything, but it would not budge.
"Sorry pup" Sirius said "Only I can take it off the wall" Now looking back he wished he had given it to Harry. This, like many other things, was something he wished he had done. It was foolish of him to think he would always be there for Harry, after all hadn't he thought James would always be there with him as well?
James noticed his friend had stopped listening to the story. He let out a sigh, he wished he could take all the feelings that Sirius felt about leaving Harry away, but he knew he couldn't, and that the only one who could was Sirius himself. After all he should know, he had to go through the exact same feelings his best mate was going through a mere 16 years ago. Even till this day, he fought with his emotions on leaving Harry, never getting over them but learning to live with them or not live with them or whatever since he was dead and not living.
Sirius had taken no chances in preventing his parents from redecorating his room. Harry looked around at the floor. The sky outside was growing brightest. A shaft of light revealed bits of paper, books, and small objects scattered over the carpet. Evidently Sirius's bedroom had been searched too, although its contents seemed to have been judged mostly, if not entirely, worthless.
"THAT SNEAK WAS IN MY ROOM" Sirius yelled. He had died for goodness sake and Mundungus fucken searched his room for treasures? Sirius couldn't stop himself from growling over and over again.
A few of the books had been shaken roughly enough to part company with the covers and sundry pages littered the floor. Harry bent down, picked up a few of the pieces of paper, and examined them. He recognized one as a part of an old edition of A History of Magic, by Barhilda Bagshot, and another as belonging to a motorcycle maintenance manual. The third was handwritten and crumpled. He smoothed it out.
Sirius stiffened. Was that-?
Dear Padfoot,
Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself. I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground but
he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course James thought it was so funny, says he's going to be a great Quidditch player
"And he sure as hell was!" James interrupted proudly.
"What is this?" Charlie asked
"A letter I wrote Sirius" Lily said with a ghostly smile, it seemed so long ago.
but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going. We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda who has always been sweet to us and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell
James smiled at his wife, she knew him so well. Lily kissed him lightly on the cheek. The room watched the happy couple that had died too young. Ginny watched them hungrily but not for herself, no after this was done and over and when Harry, yes Harry would survive this, she would show him her memories and show him his mother and father being happy. Hopefully after the book ended, she could get his mum and dad to leave him a message, even if he would only receive it through her memories.
also Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend.
Sirius, James and Remus growled. Lily was angry as well but she didn't let it show.
I thought he seemed down
"Bloody seemed down did he!? Wonder why" Sirius said sarcastically. James just glared at the book. It was one thing to betray friends but another to betray family. Guess Wormy was to stupid to see what he had right in front of him, James thought bitterly.
but that was probably the next about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when I heard. Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore. I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually because it seems incredible that Dumbledore
"Dumbledore what?" Neville asked.
"Doesn't say" Remus said as he read the last paragraph again but found nothing.
"Oh"
Harry's extremities seemed to have gone numb. He stood quite still, holding the miraculous paper in his nerveless fingers while inside him a kind of quiet eruptions sent joy and grief thundering its equal measure through his veins.
"Oh Harry" Lily said softly.
Lurching to the bed, he sat down. He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her "g"s the same way he did.
Lily smiled as tears once again streamed down her face. Even Fred and George did not have the heart to make fun of the fact that Harry wrote like a girl. No, even they knew that in the book Harry was having a moment, a connection or sorts with his mother. The same mother who seemed to be having a connection with her son, in the very same room as them.
He searched through the letter for every one of them, and each felt like a friendly little wave glimpsed from behind a veil. The letter was an incredible treasure, proof that Lily Potter had lived, really lived, that her warm hand had once moved across this parchment, tracing ink into these letters, these words, words about him, Harry, her son.
Lily couldn't take it anymore as she broke down completely. She cryed into James shoulder as she asked him repeatedly why they were taken from their son. She wanted Harry, she wanted her son. James held her wishing nothing more then to give her what she wanted, what he wanted as well.
Impatiently brushing away the wetness in his eyes, he reread the letter, this time concentrating on the meaning. It was like listening to a half-remembered voice.
They had a cat . . . perhaps it had perished, like his parents at Godric's Hollow. . . or else fled when there was nobody left to feed it. . . Sirius had bought him his first broomstick . . . His parents had known Bathilda Bagshot; had Dumbledore introduced them? Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak. . . there was something funny there . . . Harry paused, pondering his mother's words.
"Dawn" Lily whispered.
"What?" Ginny asked as the room stopped reading and turned to Lily.
"Dawn" Lily said again "Our cats name was Dawn. She loved Harry, I don't know what happened to her. James?" James shrugged he didn't know what was the fate of their beloved cat Dawn.
Why had Dumbledore taken James's Invisibility Cloak? Harry distinctly remembered his headmaster telling him years before, "I don't need a cloak to become invisible" Perhaps some less gifted Order member had needed its assistance, and Dumbledore had acted as a carrier?
James frowned "No, he just said he wanted to look at it"
"Dumbledore just wanted to look at your cloak?" Bill asked. James nodded as the thought back to the day Dumbledore had asked him for it.
Harry passed on. . . .Wormy was here . . .Pettigrew, the traitor, had seemed "down" had he? Was he aware that he was seeing James and Lily alive for the last time?
"Bloody damn rat" Sirius growled out "When he dies i'm going to kill him again." James snorted. Sirius looked at him oddly.
"What?" James asked "You think Pettigrew will make it to heaven? No the rat is going to damn hell. I don't even want to see him" James began to turn red as he thought of the traitor who had turned in him and his wife. He hoped Pettigrew went to him, and if by some odd fate, he made it to heaven, well then he and Sirius would gladly make sure he wished he was in hell. After all, there is only so much to do in heaven and getting some revenge seemed like a great way to spend it.
And finally Bathilda again, who told incredible stories about Dumbledore. It seems incredible that Dumbledore—That Dumbledore what? But there were any number of things that would seem incredible about Dumbledore; that he had once received bottom marks in
a Transfiguration test, for instance or had taken up goat charming like Aberforth. . .Harry got to his feet and scanned the floor: Perhaps the rest of the letter was here somewhere. He seized papers, treating them in his eagerness, with as little consideration as the original searcher, he pulled open drawers, shook out books, stood on a chair to run his hand over the top of the wardrobe, and crawled under the bed and armchair.
"Its okay" Sirius laughed "Just make more mess, I don't mind" No one said a word to the mutts crazy sense of humor, though as Remus read, everyone could easily tell that the corners of his lips were turned up.
Tonks, like everyone else, noticed that Remus was smiling as he read. She sighed lightly, her husband hadn't smiled as much as he was right now. She was scared to think how he would be when the book ended and his life long friends, the ones he missed so much, would end and leave with the book.
At last, lying facedown on the floor, he spotted what looked like a torn piece of paper under the chest of drawers. When he pulled it out, it proved to be most of the photograph that Lily had described in her letter. A black-haired baby was zooming in and out of the picture on a tiny broom, roaring with laughter, and a pair of legs that must have belonged to James was chasing after him.
"That's odd" Sirius commented his face looking puzzled.
"Wait that's the picture you should me the summer before you...you know. Wasn't it whole?" Remus asked. Sirius nodded
"Yeah it had James in it laughing and chasing Harry. Who would tare him out of it?" Remus shrugged but non the less continued reading.
Harry tucked the photograph into his pocket with Lily's letter and continued to look for the second sheet. After another quarter of an hour, however he was forced to conclude that the rest of his mother's letter was gone. Had it simply been lost in the sixteen years that had elapsed since it had been written, or had it been taken by whoever had searched the room? Harry read the first sheet again, this time looking for clues as to what might have made the second sheet valuable. His toy broomstick could hardly be considered interesting to the Death Eaters . . . The only potentially useful thing he could see her was possible information on Dumbledore. It seems incredible that Dumbledore—what?
"Harry? Harry? Harry!"
"Told him he should have woken them up" Molly said "Now he got them all worried"
"Mom you do know this is a book right?" Charlie asked with a smirk.
"Yes I do" Molly said though she couldn't hide the blush that had crept upon her face.
"I'm here!" he called, "What's happened?"
There was a clatter of footsteps outside the door, and Hermione burst inside. "We woke up and didn't know where you were!" she said breathlessly. She turned and shouted over her shoulder, "Ron! I've found him"
Ron's annoyed voice echoed distantly from several floors below. "Good! Tell him from me he's a git!"
The room laughed, Fred, George, Fabian, and Gideon the loudest.
"Harry don't just disappear, please, we were terrified! Why did you come up here anyway?" She gazed around the ransacked room. "What have you been doing?"
"Look what I've just found" He held out his mother's letter. Hermione took it out and read it while Harry watched her. When she reached the end of the page she looked up at him.
"Oh Harry . . . "
Lily smiled. She had said the same thing. Hermione really was the mother influence of the group, and Lily was glad she was looking after her Harry.
"And there's this too." He handed her the torn photograph, and Hermione smiled at the baby zooming in and out of sight on the toy broom.
Ginny smiled at the image in her head as well. She only wished she could see it for her self.
"I've been looking for the rest of the letter," Harry said, "but it's not here" Hermione glanced around.
"Did you make all this mess, or was some of it done when you got here?"
"Someone had searched before me," said Harry.
"I thought so. Every room I looked into on the way up had been disturbed. What were they after, do you think?"
"Information on the Order, if it was Snape"
"Git" Sirius said his voice filling with hatred as James nodded.
"But you'd think he'd already have all he needed. I mean was in the Order, wasn't he?"
"Well then," said Harry, keen to discuss his theory, "what about information on Dumbledore? The second page of the letter, for instance. You know this Bathilda my mum mentions, you know who she is?"
"Who?"
"Bathilda Bagshot, the author of—"
"A History of Magic," said Hermione, looking interested.
"I'm surprised Harry knew that" Ginny joked. The room laughed though James pouted
"My son was smart" Ginny shook her head.
"Your son was and is brilliant" James smiled at the young red head.
"So your parents knew her? She was an incredible magic historian."
"And she's still alive," said Harry, "and she lives in Godric's Hollow. Ron's Auntie Muriel was talking about her at the wedding. She knew Dumbledore's family too. Be pretty interesting to talk to, wouldn't she?"
There was a little too much understanding in the smile Hermione gave him for Harry's liking. He took back the letter and the photograph and tucked them inside the pouch around his neck, so as not to have to look at her and give himself away.
"I understand why you'd love to talk to her about, and Dumbledore too," said Hermione. "But that wouldn't really help us in our search for the Horcruxes,
would it?"
"How does she know that?" Fred asked "I mean she doesn't for all they know she could have information for them and that's the second time they mention horcruxes, what is it?"
The others in the room said nothing, only because they new nothing. However Kingsley did say "There is not much known about horcrux is so I cant give you a definition of what they are. All I know is they they are very dark magic and Dumbledore himself got rid of every book that ever mentioned them."
Harry did not answer, and she rushed on, "Harry, I know you really want to go to Godric's Hollow, but I'm scared. I'm scared at how easily those Death Eaters found us yesterday. It just makes me feel more than ever that we ought to avoid the place where your parents are buried, I'm sure they'd be expecting you to visit it."
"It's true" James said "Sad. But true" He wondered briefly if he would know that his son visited his grave. Something inside him told him that yes he would know and feel that his son was next to the last remains that he had on the earth of himself.
"It's not just that," Harry said, still avoiding looking at her, "Muriel said stuff about Dumbledore at the wedding. I want to know the truth. . . . "
He told Hermione everything that Muriel had told him. When he had finished, Hermione said, "Of course, I can see why that's upset you, Harry-"
"I'm not upset," he lied, "I'd just like to know whether or not it's true or-"
"He really is a bad liar. Like one time when we went to the Slytherin...common room...umm never mind" Fred and George stopped as McGonagall and their mother shot them glares.
"Harry do you really think you'll get the truth from a malicious old woman like Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter? How can you believe them? You knew Dumbledore!"
"I thought I did," he muttered.
"He's also stubborn" Ginny said with a shake of her head. James grinned and turned to Lily.
"Don't even say anything James" Lily glared at her husband who grinned sheepishly at her.
"I wont" He waited a few seconds before he said "He gets it from his mother" and then laughed. Lily growled as the room laughed at the couple.
"I wouldn't talk" Lily shot back "I wasn't the one who chased after a girl for seven years and wouldn't take no for an answer! Now that's stubborn"
"No my lily-flower, that is not being stubborn" James said with the widest of smiles Lily had ever seen.
"Oh?" She said with one elegant eyebrow raised "then what would you call it Potter" she asked referring to him by the name she had called him all those years he had chased her.
"Being in love" James said simple but the meaning behind those words hit Lily hard. She did not fight him anymore because there was no use, her husband was right.
The couple were not aware that the others were watching them nor that Ginny was watching them hungrily. Not for herself, no she watched them for Harry. For when he saw her memories he would love this moment. Tears trickled down her faces at the thought.
This was definitely a memory she was going to show him after the war.
"But you know how much truth there was in everything Rita wrote about you! Doge is right, how can you let these people tarnish your memories of Dumbledore?"
He looked away, trying not to betray the resentment he felt. There it was again: Choose what to believe. He wanted the truth.
Why was everybody so determined that he should not get it?
"Shall we go down to the kitchen?" Hermione suggested after a little pause.
"Find something for breakfast?"
"Doubt there's food in the house" Sirius muttered.
He agreed, but grudgingly, and followed her out onto the landing and past the second door that led off it. There were deep scratch marks in the paintwork below a small sign that he had not noticed in the dark. He passed at the top of the stairs to read it. It was a porapous little sign, neatly lettered by hand the sort of thing that Percy Weasley might have stuck on his bedroom door.
Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of
Regulus Arcturus Black
"Gits" Ginny, Fred, George, and Sirius said at the same time.
Excitement trickled through Harry, but he was not immediately sure why. He read the sign again. Hermione was already a flight of stairs below him.
"Hermione," he said, and he was surprised that his voice was so calm.
"That happens to me too" James said with a smile remebering all the prabks he had gotteb sest with becausehe was able to keep his voice under control and not give away the fact that
he was excited. It was a trait the Peter and Remus did not have and because of it, they got more detentions. Sirius did not have to worry because he was a natural just like him.
"Come back up here."
"What's the matter?"
"R.A.B. I think I've found him."
"Why would they care about my brother?" Sirius asked curiously. The others just shrugged.
There was a gasp, and then Hermione ran back up the stairs.
"In your mum's letter? But I didn't see-"
Harry shook his head, pointing at Regulus's sign. She read it, then clutched Harry's arm so tightly that he winced.
"Sirius's brother?" she whispered.
"He was a Death Eater," said Harry. "Sirius told me about him, he joined up when he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave—so they killed him."
Sirius glared at the book but didn't say anything. After all it wasn't their fault that his brother was a good for nothing death eater kissing ass.
"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!"
Sirius gasped in shock. Could his brother actually be good?
"It cant be" Sirius was shaking his head as James tried to calm him down.
"Its okay Pads lets just hear the rest and see what happens."
She released Harry, leaned over the banister, and screamed, "Ron! RON! Get up here, quick!"
Ron appeared, panting, a minute later, his wand ready in his hand.
"What's up? If it's massive spiders again I want breakfast before I-"
Fred and George laughed, but soon stopped when their mother hit them on the side of the head.
He frowned at the sign on Regulus's door, in which Hermione was silently pointing.
"What? That was Sirius's brother, wasn't it? Regulus Arcturus . . . Regulus. . . R.A.B.! The locket—you don't reckon—?"
"Wow" Ginny laughed "He's slow" Luna giggled as Neville just smirked.
"Let's find out," said Harry. He pushed the door: It was locked. Hermione pointed her wand at the handle and said, "Alohamora." There was a click, and the door swung open.
"Be careful" Sirius whispered "Reg didn't like people in his room"
They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus's bedroom was slightly smaller than Sirius's, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas Sirius had sought to advertise his diffidence from the rest of the family, Regulus had striven to emphasize the opposite. The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were everywhere, draping the bead, 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 . . . "
Sirius returned to glaring at the room as Fred and George pretended to be sick at the image of a Slytherin room.
A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings. Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph: a Hogwarts Quidditch team was smiling and waving out of the frame. He moved closer and saw the snakes emblazoned on their chests: Slytherins. Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.
Sirius laughed making everyone jump. "I am sexier see James!" James glared at his best friend and shook his didn't comment back because he knew that even though Sirius was joking, he was hurting inside and was trying tI mask it with hunor. It worjed for others but nit for him, no never for him.
"He played Seeker," said Harry.
"Why does that matter?" McGonagall asked. Ginny laughed
"It doesn't just Harry is crazy about Quidditch" James couldn't stop smiling after hearing that.
"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, realizing that nobody was listening. Ron was on his hands and knees, searching under the wardrobe. Harry looked around the room for likely hiding places and approached the desk. Yet again, somebody had searched before them. The drawers' contents had been turned over recently, the dust disturbed, but there was nothing of value there: old quills, out-of-date textbooks that bore evidence of being roughly handled, a recently smashed ink bottle, its sticky residue covering the contents of the drawer.
"There's an easier way," said Hermione, as Harry wiped his inky fingers on his jeans. She raised her wand and said, "Accio Locket!"
"I don't think it could be summoned by magic" McGonagall said in her teacher voice.
Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains, looked disappointed.
"Is that it, then? It's not here?"
"Oh, it could still be here, but under counter enchantments," said Hermione. "Charms to prevent it from being summoned magically, you know."
"Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave," said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.
Lily frowned, she hated the things her son had already faced at such a young age.
"How are we supposed to find it then?" asked Ron.
"We search manually," said Hermione.
"That's a good idea," said Ron, rolling his eyes, and he resumed his examination of the curtains.
"Why is-"
"Icky Ronnikins-"
"So interested-"
"In the curtins?" The twins asked together.
They combed every inch of the room for more than an hour, but were forced, finally, to conclude that the locket was not there. The sun had risen now; its light dazzled them even through the grimy landing
windows.
"It could be somewhere else in the house, though," said Hermione in a rallying tone as they walked back downstairs. As Harry and Ron had become more discouraged, she seemed to have become more determined.
"Whether he'd manage to destroy it or not, he'd want to keep it hidden from Voldemort, wouldn't he? Remember all those awful things we had to get rid of when we were here last time? That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robe that tried to strangle Ron; Regulus might have put them there to protect the
locket's hiding place, even though we didn't realize it at . . . at . . ."
"NO" Sirius yelled
"What?" Lily yelled back shocked at the out burst.
"There was a locket! A locket we couldn't open! We threw it out" Sirius yelled angrily. How could they have been so stupid?
Harry and Ron looked at her. She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of focus.
". . . at the time," she finished in a whisper.
"Something wrong?" asked Ron.
"There was a locket."
"What?" said Harry and Ron together.
"In the cabinet in the drawing room. Nobody could open it. And we . . . we. . ."
Harry felt as though a brick had slid down through his chest into his stomach. He remembered. He had even handled the thing as they passed it around, each trying in turn to pry it open. It had been tossed into a sack of rubbish, along with the snuffbox of Wartcap powder and the music box that had made everyone sleepy . . . "
"KREACHER" Sirius yelled again making everyone jump.
"Sirius! Stop yelling" McGonagall said with a glare with one hand over her chest.
"Sorry" Sirius said sheepishly "Kreacher always took thinks from the trash maybe he took it!"
Everyone now looked excited, and motioned for Remus to continue reading.
"Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us," said Harry. It was the only chance, the only slender hope left to them, and he was going to cling to it until forced to let go. "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C'mon."
Sirius was bouncing in his seat with excitement.
"Sirius sit still!" Lily scowled. Sirius did as he was told and sat quickly.
He ran down the stairs taking two steps at a time, the other two thundering along in his wake. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius's mother as they passed through the hall.
"SHUT UP YOU HAG" Sirius yelled out. He didn't have time to think about her, not when his godson was so close!
"Filth! Mudbloods! Scum!" she screamed after them as they dashed down into the basement kitchen and slammed the door behind them. 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 not longer glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. The only thing there was an old copy of Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy.
The room groaned as Sirius looked at the book with disappointment.
"So close" He muttered.
Refusing to believe his eyes, Harry 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.
"It's not over yet," said Harry, and he raised his voice and called, "Kreacher!"
"Good thinking Harry" Sirius said already on the edge of his seat again.
There was a loud crack and the house elf that Harry 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, and the contemptuous look he bent upon Harry showed that his attitude to his change of ownership had altered no more than his outfit.
Sirius growled piece of shit deserved nothing but a good beating! However he hoped Harry would take care of that later as the locket was more important at th moment.
"Master," croaked Kreacher in his bullfrog's voice, and he bowed low; 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.
"Good thinking Harry" Sirius nodded "Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because your not smart like my son" Lily gloated.
"I am too Right James?" Sirius said turning to his mate.
"Have to agree with Lils on this Padfoot." Sirius pouted at them as he listened to the story.
He would have found Kreacher, with his snoutlike nose and bloodshot eyes, a distinctively unlovable object even if the elf had not betrayed Sirius to Voldemort.
The room heard a loud hiss and when they turned to the source they found a very angry James and Remus.
Sirius ducked his head. He knew that his friends cared for him very much but still after years and years of being with them it's still hurt to think of how much they cared for him. He guessed he could understand how they felt when they read about him being betrayed because if the roles were reversed he would hiss at them being betrayed as well come to think of it he did.
"I've got a question for you," said Harry, his heart beating rather fast as he looked down at the elf, "and I order you to answer it truthfully. Understand?"
"Yes, Master," said Kreacher, bowing low again. Harry saw his lips moving soundlessly, undoubtedly framing the insults he was now forbidden to utter.
"Two years ago," said Harry, his heart now hammering against his ribs, "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 said, "Yes."
"YES!" Everyone in the room yelled. Finally something good was happening to them.
"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."
"What?" Bill yelled "Dammit"
"Gone?" echoed Harry, elation floating out of him, "What do you mean, it's gone?" The elf shivered. He swayed.
"Kreacher," said Harry fiercely, "I order you-"
"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut.
"I told you" Molly yelled turning to Sirius "I told you not to let him in the house! Now look"
For once Sirius had no word as he looked down at the floor. James glared at Mrs. Weasley.
"It wasn't his fault" James said his voice tight. "You shouldn't blame serious for something that was out of his control and for one if I recall correctly Dumbledore asked for money Dunkas to be there so don't point your finger at serious" James all but growled at her.
"Yeah Molly Dumbledore wanted him there as well" Kingsley butted in. Molly glared at them but did not apoligues to Sirius.
Because she did not apologize to serious James intern glared at her no matter what she did to Harry no matter how much she took care of him she wasn't going to hurt his best mate who was already hurting on his own. The way James sees it why kick a puppy or a scrappy mutt in Sirius' case, while it's down?
"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!"
"His orders?" Sirius asked faintly. What could Regulus have ordered Kreacher to keep from his beloved parents?
Harry reacted instinctively: As Kreacher lunged for the poker standing in the grate, he launched himself upon the elf, flattening him. Hermione's scream mingled with Kreacher's but Harry bellowed louder than both of them:
"Kreacher, I order you to stay still!"
He felt the elf freeze and released him. Kreacher lay flat on the cold stone floor, tears gushing from his sagging eyes.
"Have you ever seen him cry?" George whispered to Sirius who shook his head his own eyes wide. Never had he seen Kreacher show any other emotion besides hatred towards him.
"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.
"He must have really loved that locket" Luna said quietly.
"No, he loved Regulus" Sirius corrected the young witch. No matter what can be said and done about the elf of the house of Black one thing that is true is that the elf loved his family and he loves his brother.
"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. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.
Sirius got ready to hear what he had been waiting to hear. What had really happened to his brother.
of course he said he didn't care but that's what set him apart from his family was that he cared he was not heartless like they were so in the end the matter how much he denied it he loved his brother and he loved his parents but that love turned to hatred for his mother and father and he thought for his brother too but maybe he was wrong
"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 order; 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 . . .
"Nothing to be proud of" Kingsley said darkly.
"Yeah what's so great about killing innocent people?" Tonks muttered.
And one day, a year after he 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."
"What?" The Order members yelled "Why would Voldemort need an elf?"
"Voldemort needed an elf?" Harry repeated, looking around at Ron and Hermione, who looked just as puzzled as he did.
"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor 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.
Sirius laughed softly "Regulus was always smart" When the room looked at him strangly he just said "You'll see"
"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 was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake . . ."
The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. Kreacher's croaking voice seemed to come to him from across the dark water. He saw what had happened as clearly as though he had been present.
" . . . There was a boat . . . "
Of course there had been a boat; Harry knew the boat, ghostly green and tiny, bewitched so as to carry one wizard and one victim toward the island in the center. This, then, was how Voldemort had tested the defenses surrounding the Horcrux, by borrowing a disposable creature, a house-elf . . .
"That's that's just" Sirius didn't like Kreacher but still to die like that? For now Sirius was glad Regulus had told him to come home.
"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 thing . . . 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 . . ."
"Bastard" Lily hissed out. Sirius didn't know what to think. Didn't know if he should feel bad for the elf that had as good as killed him.
Harry could see it happening. He watched Voldemort's white, snakelike face vanishing into darkness, those red eyes fixed pitilessly on the thrashing elf whose death would occur within minutes, whenever he succumbed to the desperate thirst that the burning poison caused its victim . . . But here, Harry's imagination could go no further, for he could not see how Kreacher had escaped.
"I really don't like our sons imagination" Lily whispered to James. James nodded, he didn't like it either.
"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 . . ."
Silence. No one said a word. How could someone leave an elf to that fate?
"How did he get away?" Ginny whispered
"Magic" Luna answered. Ginny was about to talk back but Remus continued.
"How did you get away?" Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself whispering.
Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked 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-"
"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."
"Never thought Ron could use logic" Fabian said trying to lighten to mood. It didn't work completely but he did see the corners of his twin and his twin nephews lips curve up.
There was a silence as Harry digested this. How could Voldemort have made such a mistake? But even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy.
"Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice . . . It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."
"I stand by what I said" Kingsley's voice boomed though the silence "She is a very smart witch"
"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.
"So what happened when you got back?" Harry asked. "What did Regulus say when you told him what 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. . . ."
"No" Sirius whispered.
And so they had set off. Harry could visualize them quite clearly, the frightened old elf and the thin, dark Seeker who had so resembled Sirius. . . .Kreacher knew how to open the concealed entrance to the underground cavern, knew how to raise the tiny boat; this time it was his beloved Regulus who sailed with him to the island with its basin of poison. . . .
"And he made you drink the poison?" said Harry, disgusted. But Kreacher shook his head and wept.
The room gasped as Sirius began to shake.
"No" Sirius repeatedly whispered.
he could not hold back the motions he was feeling his baby brother… His brother… He just didn't know what to think.
Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth: She seemed to have understood something.
"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 . . . "
The girls in the room had tears in there eyes as the men looked at the book in shock. Only Sirius out of the boys had tears in his eyes though they had yet to spill. James watched his friend and he waited until those tears feel because when they did he would be there to help him and he'd be damned if he let anyone make fun of his best mate atthat moment.
Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now; Harry had to concentrate hard to understand him.
"And he order—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 God" Sirius yelled as he broke. Tears streamed down his face for his lost brother. His lost, brave, baby brother.
"Sirius" Lily whispered. Sirius shook as he cried, he didn't want Lily's comfort. James grabbed his shaking best friend.
"Padfoot" James whispered. Sirius flew into James arms and held him tightly as he cried. James too had tears in his eyes as Sirius did.
"Im so sorry" Remus said to Sirius. He wished he could hug him, hold him but he knew he couldn't. It took a little over ten minutes before Sirius and most of the girls had calmed down enough to countinue reading but not before Kingsley spoke up.
"Sirius I promise when this war is over, I will get him an Order of Merlin." Sirius smiled gratefully.
"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.
Sirius laughed lightly.
"Only Reg could hug him" He told the group with a ghostly smile on his face.
"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
"Stop him—stop him!" Hermione cried. "Oh, don't you see now how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?"
"Kreacher—stop, stop!" shouted Harry. The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening
around his snot, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Harry had never seen anything so pitiful.
The room shuddered at the image.
"So you brought the locket home," he said relentlessly, for he was determined to know the full story. "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 . . . "
"Poor Kreacher" Lily moaned sadly. Sirius for once in his life nodded. He too felt bad for the elf.
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 . . ."
"I don't understand either" Sirius said as well.
"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?"
"So its my fault?" Sirius finally said "My fault I died"
"No! Its not-" Remus and James began but Sirius cut them off.
"Yes it is. I was mean to him because he reminded me of my life when I lived there. I was way to horrid to him no wonder he betrayed me." Sirius whispered.
"No Pads" James said sternly. "You may have made a mistake but we all make mistakes" Sirius smiled graefully at James.
And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus's family were all safest if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all."
"He should have been in Gryffindor" McGonagall said from her seat. Sirius shook his head.
"It doesn't matter." He told the room.
"What do you mean Pads?" James asked.
"Houses. I know I was all about Slytherin's are evil but I was wrong" At the rooms shocked looks he continued. "Reg was a Slytherin and he died to bring down Voldemort. Pettigrew was a Gryffindor and he became a traitor. Cedric Diggory from what Harry told me was brave and smart. Huffelpuffs are known to be weak and geeks. Ravenclaws are known to be stuck up. Luna from what I can tell is no where near being stuck up. We were wrong houses don't matter." The room was looking at the man who always joked, always laughed and smiled, but this man was now looking at the world differently.
"Well said Sirius" Remus said smiling proudly. Sirius smiled at him.
"Im proud to have been able to say you were once my lion" McGonagall said fondly.
Sirius laughed. "I still think snakes are below Lions." The room laughed well not everything has changed about the Marauder.
"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 such 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 favor 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."
"She's right" Sirius said with a fond smile "But I know better now."
Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius's death: I do not think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human's. . . .
"I didn't" Sirius answered honestly "But I do know. I only wish I could say sorry to Kreacher."
"Kreacher," said Harry after a while, "when you feel up to it, er. . . . please sit up."
Lily smiled proudly at her son. James was watching Sirius to make sure he was fine. When Sirius smiled at him James smiled back and returned to listening to the book.
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.
"Aww" Ginny and Luna said making the room laugh. Both girls blushed as they laughed with them.
"Kreacher, I am going to ask you to do something," said Harry. He glanced at Hermione for assistance. He wanted to give the order kindly, but at the same time, he could not pretend that it was not an order. However, the change in his tone seemed to have gained her approval: She smiled 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 it. 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."
"Thank you Harry" Sirius said happily.
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?" As Kreacher nodded and got to his feet, Harry had a sudden inspiration. 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.
"Oh Harry" Lily smile was from ear to ear. He son was such a kind person. Sirius grinned at the book happy his godson could be the better man.
"This belonged to Regulus and I'm sure he'd want you to have it as a token of gratitude for what you-"
"Okay to much" Sirius laughed. The room laughed and smiled as they heard the familiar bark like laugh.
"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.
The room laughed lightly again. They didn't fully understand what had changed but they knew that something did. Whether it was Sirius himself or the fact that titles don't mean anything that was fully understood but something did change in the book and in the small Weasley house.
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 two low bows to 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
"Wow even kind of sort of nice to Hermione" Fred said making the room laugh again.
"That was a long chapter" Remus commented
"But we learned a lot. I hope they get the horcrux."
"Yeah me too Remus." Gideon said. "Can I read?" He asked. Remus frowned.
"Can you?" He asked. Gideon growled lightly.
"Yes Remus I can read." Remus blushed as the room laughed.
"No I mean wont the book go right threw you?" Gideon shook his head.
"No I think I can hand it over" Remus did as told and handed over the book. He expected it to fall to the floor but to his surprise Gideon grabbed it and opened it to the next chapter.
Before he even began to read the title Fred, George, Sirius, James, and Fabian's stomach growled loudly.
"Wow" Remus said with a laugh. Sirius grinned at him.
"What great minds think alike" Sirius smirked.
"Yeah-" Fred said
"So when-" George continued
"One is-" Fabian added.
"Hungry then-" James continued
"Were all-" Sirius said with a smirk
"Hungry" They finished together. They laughed as the room groaned.
"That is very VERY annoying" Ginny said. "But im hungry too"
"Yeah same here" Charlie said as Bill nodded.
"Very well then ill go make some food" Molly said as she stood up and walked to the kitchen.
"So Gideon whats the next chapter called?" Tonks asked.
"The Bribe" Gideon said his voice sounding curious.
So what did you think? Did you like it? What did you think about Sirius in this chapter? Let me know what you thought over all. What was your favorite part of this chapter (:
I will update a new chapter in a few days but reviews always get me motivated, so you know what to do!