HP Shavings Wizard

The morning after Christmas.

Dumbledore received a very strict and polite visiting letter in the headmaster's office. It came from the Black family - not from Sirius, but from Walburga, the acting head of the family who was currently seriously ill and struggling to hold on.

Out of caution, the letter contained only a few simple sentences that vaguely explained the tragedy that happened to her youngest son Regulus, and the indestructible dark magic item that had been kept in Kreacher's hands and that Regulus had exchanged his life for.

Dumbledore was silent for a long time after reading this unexpected, brief letter of visit.

This ancient Black family has indeed had its share of problems, but Regulus... is an exception.

Looking back now, the old principal had a very vague impression of this child.

Regulus was gentle, quiet, and even a little shy at school. He had excellent grades, but was not very noticeable in Slytherin, which was completely opposite to his brother Sirius who loved to make noises in Gryffindor.

People pay more attention to Regulus as Sirius's good younger brother, the beloved youngest son of the Black family, and the new heir, rather than Regulus himself.

The life trajectory of this obedient and excellent child is so boring that outsiders can predict the end at a glance and there will be no surprises at all.

At the age of 16, he did obey the family's arrangement. At a young age, he followed Voldemort, whom his family believed in, and became a Death Eater. As a symbol of the Black family, he spoke out in that camp and safeguarded the interests of pure bloods.

But before he could grow up among the Death Eaters and play a greater role, he disappeared, leaving his parents to struggle to support the Black family.

The disappearance of a Death Eater was not a big deal - in the eyes of outsiders who knew Voldemort's cruelty.

The Death Eaters were not an organization where one could hand in their resignation notice and abandon everything and run away if they found something wrong after joining. Just like the dark magic they were good at, they gradually lost their bottom line, and most people would end up going down this path.

A year later, Voldemort failed to kill the Boy-Who-Lived and disappeared from the wizarding world. Everyone celebrated and tried a large number of Death Eaters and threw those evil people into Azkaban.

No one cared about a child who turned to Voldemort and disappeared, except for his equally "black" family.

However, no one, including Dumbledore and Regulus' parents, had expected that the child who looked gentle and well-behaved, completely different from his brother, would make such a choice.

He discovered Tom's Horcrux so early and realized Tom's cruelty. After his ideals were shattered, he did not hesitate to exchange his life for one of Tom's Horcruxes in order to destroy the immortal myth of the Dark Lord.

He didn't even have a decent helper around him. He would rather die in obscurity and not be buried in the ancestral tomb than bring trouble to his family.

Even though the letter contained only a few words from a mother, it was enough for the attentive old principal to piece together the whole picture.

Dumbledore actually had no good impression of the Black family, including Sirius, even though he had personally helped the Ministry of Magic to prove that Peter was the traitor who betrayed the Potters and Sirius was innocent, overturning the verdict.

Blake only cares about the people and things they care about, and gives everything for them, but he is indifferent to other people's feelings and even lives to the point of cruelty and callousness.

Like Sirius, when they were younger, the Marauders and Severus at the Shrieking Shack.

Dumbledore did take the side of the Marauders in the aftermath.

After all, at that time, compared to the Marauder who concealed Lupin's werewolf identity and saved him trouble, Snape, a typical Slytherin who was obsessed with dark magic and had contact with the Death Eaters, was of little value to him, and he did not have a family background that could cause him trouble.

Dumbledore dealt with the matter and strictly prohibited Severus, who came to him for help at that time, from telling anyone about it. But at the same time, he also clearly felt the common characteristics of Sirius or Black's madness and indifference.

- Sirius was not innocent, he was murdering a hated classmate with a clear purpose and full of malice. He didn't care about Snape's death, Lupin after the murder, and the future of Hogwarts.

In the history of Hogwarts, the only person who dared to kill someone while at school, besides Tom, who Dumbledore was sure was related to the Chamber of Secrets, was Sirius - if James hadn't regretted his decision and stopped him at the last minute, Sirius would have been completely successful.

This more or less left some shadow in the old headmaster's heart, so much so that when the Potters were later betrayed by the Secret-Keeper, Dumbledore could not make up his mind and was not sure whether Black, who did not trust him, had really betrayed him.

In comparison, Regulus is really...

"…Regulus…Regulus…"

Dumbledore muttered to himself with a complicated expression and sighed constantly, with a hint of water in his deep blue eyes.

Such courage and spirit of sacrifice are truly admirable.

Such a young child is braver and more righteous than many Gryffindors.

Headmaster Black, who was hanging on the wall, was looking at the letter quietly, his eyes full of sadness and regret. He had lost his former cunning and liveliness, and at first glance, he looked so dull that he looked like a portrait of a Muggle.

Grindelwald sat on the sofa, holding a book in his hand, but his mind was obviously not on the book. He looked at Dumbledore quietly, took the visiting letter, read it, and put it back on the table.

After a while, Headmaster Dumbledore finally spoke.

"…Gail, what do you think of Regulus?"

Grindelwald closed the book calmly.

"...just a foolish victim."

Alison blinked, surprise flashing across her eyes. She was smiling as usual, and was obviously unmoved, but she tentatively mentioned the views of most people on this behavior.

"I thought Daddy would say he was a great warrior or something..."

Grindelwald sneered, "He is more of a fool than a warrior."

"Is it because he is too kind and doesn't want to live?"

Alison tilted her head.

She could also see that Regulus could have lived, that he had died not just to protect his house-elves, not just to protect his family from Voldemort finding out that he had destroyed the Horcruxes.

——Voldemort didn’t take a young boy seriously at that time, and he was always proud of his ability to hide the Horcruxes.

If Regulus had even a glimmer of desire to survive, he might have been able to try to order Kreacher to take him away, or at least he could have struggled.

But he didn't.

The destruction of the boy's childhood idolization and faith, his inescapable identity as a Death Eater, his protection of his family, along with the pot of poison and the corpses in the lake, completely killed him.

Maybe it was also love and protection for his brother? After all, Sirius and his good brother James were working for the Order of the Phoenix at that time.

Grindelwald remained noncommittal: "Only a fool would go down a dead end knowing it is a dead end."