Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 197: The Black Family’s Devotion

“Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to leave… to leave him alone. No matter what happened to him, Kreacher couldn’t intervene.”

Kreacher’s voice was sharp and twisted. He sobbed and said intermittently with a sorrowful tone: “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…”

Everyone looked at Kreacher, waiting for him to continue; even Evan was no exception.

Although he already knew that Regulus had finally drunk the potion and died in the cave, it was completely another feeling to listen to the house-elf retelling the scene at the time.

Evan was almost able to see it in the dark cave; surrounded by the Inferi, Sirius’s younger brother looking hesitantly at the potion in the stone altar, with his heart constantly struggling.

He knew what he was going to do next. He also knew the consequences of doing it. If it was discovered by Voldemort, the Black family would be devastated. But he had to do it, even if he died.

Because of his pure blood ideals, Regulus was one of the first to support Voldemort. Black, the most ancient and noble house of wizards, made him “lucky” enough to become a Death Eater at the age of sixteen. Like other evil Death Eaters, he thought that serving the Dark Lord was the ultimate glory.

However, this teenager was not the same as the rest of the Death Eaters.

When Voldemort gradually revealed his true face, when he discovered that Voldemort was not pursuing wizarding blood purity, but using brutal means to rule others, when Voldemort tried to kill the innocent Kreacher, Regulus finally realized the difference between the real, cruel world and his fantasies.

The hot blood of youth finally cooled down, and his beautiful dreams were shattered.

From that moment on, although he still identified as a Death Eater, his innate sense of justice drifted him away from Voldemort.

Even in the end, he preferred giving his life to resist, and to get rid of Voldemort’s dirty lies.

There is no doubt that Regulus was clever. If Evan remembered correctly, he was the first to discover that Voldemort was making a Horcrux, even earlier than Dumbledore, despite the fact that he did not get any help besides Kreacher’s vague description. It was entirely through his own efforts that he made a thorough investigation of this matter.

At the same time, he is also brave.

Knowing Voldemort’s true face, when he was determined to prepare to fight against him, that was in the era in which the Dark Lord was at his peak.

In the face of such a powerful and evil Voldemort, besides an elderly house-elf, Regulus did not even have a decent helper. But still, he chose to destroy the myth of the Dark Lord’s immortality with his own life.

Undoubtedly, he was also kind.

As it could be seen from Kreacher’s words, Regulus was very friendly to the house-elves, unlike most wizards.

Until the last moment, he did not have the idea of sacrificing Kreacher.

The man who once worshipped the Dark Lord fanatically, did not take the elf’s death for granted. He chose to drink the deadly potions and told him to go home. That was the last order he issued before his death.

He preferred dying in obscurity over getting his family into trouble.

He was using his own ways to protect Kreacher and protect the Black family.

Evan suddenly realized that there seemed to be an innate sense of devotion in the blood of the Black family members.

This was probably the most distinctive quality of this most ancient and most noble family of pure blood wizards.

With this devotion, Sirius threw all he had away, just to chase freedom.

His cousin Nymphadora Tonks was devoted to following love, disregarding the world’s judgments, and eventually ended up with the werewolf, Lupin.

Voldemort’s most fanatical Death Eater, Bellatrix was devoted to getting power, becoming the most dangerous and the cruelest of Voldemort’s followers.

Lucius Malfoy’s wife, Narcissa, was devoted to protect her family. In the last battle, for Draco’s sake, she preferred betraying Voldemort and made a huge risk by helping Harry to hide the fact that he was alive, thus determining the fate of the final battle.

As for Regulus Black, this devotion drove him to protect his entire family.

He chose to pay silently. Besides the house-elf, no one ever knew what he had done. No one knew that his thoughts had changed.

In Sirius’s mind, his stupid brother became a Death Eater because of his worship of Voldemort and his upholding of pure blood ideals.

In his opinion, Regulus did not even know what this identity meant.

Then, because of his weakness and timidity, he died in the shadows, not even leaving a corpse behind. It was ironic to the extreme.

However, the truth couldn’t be further from that.

Like Sirius, he was also a hero, an unknown hero.

He was different from Sirius. The devotion within the depths of his heart and the rebellion buried in his bones had not erupted until the last moments of his life.

Regulus grew up under the care of Sirius and the protection of his mother. When his brother fled the house to pursue freedom, in order not to worry his old mother, he accepted the family’s arrangement and accepted to bear the fate he should not have undertaken.

He wanted to protect the Black family, guarding the pure wizarding ancestry of the millennia, and getting it to regain its former glory.

However, the unique treats of a Black made his final death an inevitable outcome, and everything was destined to happen as it did.

Although his methods were different and the events went differently, he ended up following the path of his brother.

Standing in the dim basement, looking at the decoration of the Black family surrounded by historical traces, Evan had a vague realization.

He finally understood that perhaps, this was the power brought by blood.

The experience of the two brothers Sirius and Regulus made Evan have a deeper understanding of Black’s ancient surname.

“Then, the young Master Regulus…he…” Kreacher sobbed.

“Then what happened? What did Regulus do?” Sirius asked aloud.

“Then he drank … all the potion … and Kreacher swapped the lockets … and watched… as Master Regulus … was dragged beneath the water, by the hands of the Inferi…”

“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 Sirius, but the voice was weak as never before.

It was not until this moment that he knew how his brother died.

He rubbed his eyes, and while Hermione cried, his tears flowed out of control, but he didn’t want them to be seen.