Harriet Potter

According to the experience of previous years, students and teachers will return to school one after another after Christmas.The more people there are, the greater the risk of being discovered, so like Ron said, we have less than a week to prepare for our infiltration into Hogwarts.The looming goal kept us busy, temporarily forgetting the previous rift.I contacted Aberforth with the lens, and learned that the passage between the Pig's Head Bar and Hogwarts is currently safe, but there are more and more illegal transactions happening there, and any time you directly apparate into it, you may hit the food hall. Dead Apostles.After repeatedly confirming the coverage of the Screaming Curse with Aberforth, we decided to Apparate to a cave some distance away from the village, transform with Polyjuice Potion during the day, and then walk into the village on the main road.This is actually safer. Hogsmeade's business has always been prosperous, and there are many outsiders who come and go every day. With a little preparation, they can pass the inspection.

But we still need someone to help us open the way from the Room of Requirement, it's too risky to send a message to Professor McGonagall or use DA coins to contact Dumbledore's Army members, and either choice will likely result in us being questioned A whole bunch of questions.After some debate, we were still more inclined to choose Professor McGonagall, but Hermione slapped her forehead suddenly.

"Kreacher!" she called.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You can ask Kreacher to do this! You are his owner now..." She said with an extremely uncomfortable expression, obviously still aggrieved by the "slavery" represented by this fact, "You can Summon him anywhere!"

"Kreacher betrayed Sirius! You still want us to hand over our lives to him?" I asked in disbelief.

"That's..." Hermione snapped, as I was staring at her to see if she dared to comment on Sirius' treatment of Kreacher, "He didn't reveal anything about the Order of the Phoenix, because Sirius came down ordered. All he revealed was..."

"Sirius and I would risk our lives for such insignificant things as each other, yes, thank you for the reminder." I said coldly.

"Obeying orders and keeping secrets are the rules of the elves." Ron smoothed things over, "As long as the master gives the correct order, they can't tell others anything."

"They can. Dobby did that, and he came out from the Malfoys to find me, though he had to punish himself afterwards," I said, adding maliciously, "Though I don't mind Kreacher ironing himself hand, but if we got caught, it wouldn't matter if he did it, would it? I bet he'd laugh about it afterwards."

Hermione shuddered. "Don't be so vicious, Harry."

"Then what do you think I should do to the person who killed Sirius?" I asked back, "I haven't strangled him only because Dumbledore stood by me the only time it appeared in front of me after that." beside."

"What are you attacking us for?" Ron said angrily. "We have to solve the problem at hand! Even if you ordered Kreacher to jump off the top of the tower, Sirius wouldn't come back to life!"

Hermione gasped, and I let out a piercing laugh, "Of course, since that's how you solve problems, it would be a great idea for Kreacher to send us all to him!"

"Enough!" Hermione snapped, looking at me with a look of terror and strange pity, "We'll find other ways."

We fell silent, and for a while there was only the sound of dead branches falling on the tent.Staring at the corner of the Marauder's Map on the table, I wrung my fingers and swallowed.

"I'm sorry for overreacting," I said.

They didn't speak.

"We can try this method, I also have something to ask Kreacher." I continued.

"About Regulus Black?" I was relieved by Hermione's cooperation.

I nod. "Perhaps he has other Horcruxes hidden."

"So you want Sirius...?" Ron asked.

"I will ask his opinion, if he wants to know, he should have that right," I said.

"We have to come up with a narrative first, to make sure that Kreacher can't pick a loophole from any angle," Hermione said.

This was no difficult task for Hermione. After 10 minutes, I took the stone out of the tent and turned it three times in my hand.Sirius appeared, still with his hands in his pockets, his expression hidden in the night.For a moment I considered whether to say good evening, and finally decided to get straight to the point.

"Do you want to know?" I asked.

"Since you've already called me, do you think I might refuse?" Sirius' tone was casual and slightly mocking, almost like he was in Snape's memory.

"Sorry," I said.

"Stop doing it." He sounded a little harsh now, "I have nothing against you blaming Voldemort or my cousin for this, but don't blame yourself or anyone else for me. "

It's such a cliché that I'm too lazy to deny it. "You know I can't stop."

"You're not as James as I thought," Sirius said.

"Yes, you did."

"I didn't say it was great."

I froze for a few seconds, "Let's go in."

Warmth rushed in as I opened the tent door, I nodded to Ron and Hermione, and motioned in Sirius' direction.They both murmured hello to Sirius despite being out of sight, and Sirius responded briskly, clearly glad I was back with my companions.

I closed the door, walked to the center of the tent, took a deep breath, "Kreacher!"

With a snap, the house-elf I'd reluctantly inherited from Sirius appeared.Standing next to a cluster of bluebell-colored flames that Hermione had conjured up, he was tiny, barely half a man tall, with pale skin hanging down in folds, and white fur protruding from his bat-like ears.He was still wearing the same dirty dishcloth we had worn when we first met him, and his disdainful glance at me suggested that his attitude towards changing masters hadn't changed, as had his clothes.Of course, I am the same on this point. I never liked this foul-mouthed elf. Before Kreacher betrayed Sirius to Voldemort, I already found his long nose and bloodshot eyes extremely unlovable.

"Master," Kreacher said hoarsely in his bullfrog voice, bowed low, and murmured what he really wanted to say, head to knee, "being chased into hiding with scum Weasleys and Mudbloods— —”

"I forbid you to call anyone a 'scum' or a 'mudblood'," I growled, and Kreacher fell silent.

Sirius sneered behind me.

"I have something to ask you. I order you to answer it truthfully, understand?" I said.

"Yes, Master." Kreacher said, bowing low again, his lips moving silently, no doubt muttering the insulting words I forbid him to say.

I pinched the chain and let the fake locket that was on the table fall before his eyes, "Do you know anything about this thing?"

Apparently, Kreacher shuddered violently at the sight of it, and then - should I be surprised? —and plunged headfirst into the nearby fire.But Hermione had already adjusted the flames we could directly touch to be harmless, and he figured it out right away, and I threw myself over him, just in time to stop him from poking his long fingers in the eye.

"Kreacher made a mistake, Kreacher failed to carry out the master's order!" His cry was mixed with Hermione's scream.

"Kreacher, I order you to hold still!" I yelled.

The elf froze, and I made sure he obeyed the order, slowly straightened up, and checked his hands.During the scuffle just now, I had been holding on to the resurrection stone, and my knuckles were scraped on the ground.Sirius whistled, and I didn't even want to turn my head to see his expression.

Kreacher lay stretched out on the carpet, tears pouring from his sunken eye sockets.

"Harry, get him up!" said Hermione softly.

"So that he can gouge out his eyeballs?" I said disapprovingly, squatting down beside Kreacher, "Okay, Kreacher, I want to hear the truth: what's the matter with this locket?"

The first half of the story is not surprising.Proud of his family name and bloodlines, Regulus Black joined the Death Eaters at the age of 16, and when the Dark Lord said he needed an elf, he gave Kreacher with honor.Voldemort would of course test the defenses of the Horcruxes in this way: a magically powerful individual, and a comparatively insignificant being, sailed across a dark lake.He ordered Kreacher to drink the potion, watched with satisfaction as the elf cried out his master's name in agony, then refilled the stone basin and left.I could see that scene, the boat galloping away, leaving the elf still screaming and writhing on the island in the green light of the potion.Voldemort didn't even bother to make up the last blow, anyway, Kreacher only had a few minutes to live, and he would soon die of thirst without help...

But Kreacher didn't. He crawled to the edge of the island to drink the water in the Black Lake, and then somehow escaped from the Inferi and returned to the ancestral home of the Black family where he had lived all his life.

"The supreme law of house-elves is the order of the master," said Kreacher, as if it was all perfectly logical, and he couldn't understand why we had doubts, "Master Regulus told Kreacher to go home, and Kreacher went home It's..."

"So, you did what you were ordered to do, didn't you?" Hermione asked gently. "No disobedience at all?"

Kreacher nodded, trembling all over.I sneaked a glance at Sirius, he looked down at the elf that he hated so much during his lifetime, without saying a word.

"Then what happened after you came back?" I asked, "What did Regulus say when you told the master?"

"Master Regulus is very worried, very worried." Kreacher hissed, "Regulus told Kreacher to hide and not leave the house." Then... After a while... One night, Regulus Master Les went to the cupboard and found Kreacher.Master Regulus looked weird, unlike usual, Kreacher could see that he was in a state of confusion... The master asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the same cave that Kreacher and the Dark Lord had been to... "

"He made you drink the potion?" I asked in disgust.

Kreacher shook his head, crying bitterly.Hermione covered her mouth, as if guessing something.

"Master Ray—Master Regulus pulled out a locket from his pocket, the same as the Dark Lord's," Kreacher said, tears streaming down the sides of his long nose. "His name was Kreacher. Hold it, and when the stone basin is dry, replace the locket..."

Kreacher's sobs became rough and piercing, and I had to concentrate to understand him.

"He ordered - Kreacher leave - leave him alone. He called Kreacher - go home - not to say to the mistress - what he did - but must destroy - the first locket. Then He just drank - drank the potion - Kreacher swapped the locket - and watched... Master Regulus... being dragged underwater... and..."

"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, weeping, kneeling beside the elf, trying to hug him.Immediately the elf stood up and ducked back in obvious disgust.

"Mudblood touched Kreacher, Kreacher won't allow it, what would the mistress say?"

"I told you not to call her a 'Mudblood'!" I said automatically, but the elf was already punishing himself: he rolled over, banging his head on the floor.

"Stop him—stop him!" cried Hermione. "Oh, don't we see how cruel this is, they have to obey!"

"Kreacher - stop, stop!" I yelled.

The elf lay on the ground, panting, trembling all over, the shiny green mucus around the nose, a large swelling on the pale forehead, red, swollen and congested eyes, tearful.I have never seen such a pitiful sight.The three of us raised our heads and looked at each other in bewilderment. Hermione's eyes were still full of tears.

"Enough, Harry, let me go back." Sirius whispered, his voice was not hoarse, because it was not a human voice.I can't hear anything from it. "Just... get me out of here."

I let go, and the resurrection stone fell to the ground.

"He...?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Going away." I didn't need to look to be sure of that.

Kreacher was still lying there sobbing, not caring what we were saying, all three of us were looking at him, and even Ron, who was always the least caring about Kreacher, seemed a little disturbed.

"Kreacher," I said after a while, "when you think you can, uh... please sit up."

It took several minutes before Kreacher hiccupped and fell silent.He sat up propped up, rubbing his eyes with his fists like a child.

"Did Regulus mention anything else about You-Know-Who's hiding?" I asked.

Kreacher shook his head, sniffling.

"Kreacher, I want to ask you to do something," I said, looking at Hermione for support.I couldn't pretend it wasn't an order, but the change in my tone won her over, and she smiled encouragingly.

"Christmas, which is four nights from now, we'll be back at Hogwarts," I said, "I'll summon you until then, but don't Apparate directly to me when summoned..."

I explained to him what we needed him to do, and I recited the order we had drawn up to ensure that he couldn't leak information, but it didn't feel as necessary as before.Kreacher nodded and stood up. I gave him Regulus' locket. He should have at least this little remembrance of his old master.

It's not the first time I've discovered how easy house elves can be, and it took us half an hour to calm his excitement.Kreacher had hated me two hours before, but as he left with the locket on, he bowed to me and Ron with apparent willingness, and even twitched comically at Hermione, trying to get over the deep-seated His disgust saluted her.

The author has something to say: Harry: The slap in the face comes too fast like a tornado...