Chapter 235

"Let's not talk about this for now," Harry said. "If the final battle is lost, saying anything is useless."

"That's true, you should have a good rest first," Zhang Qiu said.

From the second day after Sirius sent them back to Beauxbatons, Harry indeed spent a relatively carefree period of time. He took various classes at Beauxbatons based on his interests, learned any knowledge he wanted to learn, and occasionally gathered with Hermione or Ailina to gossip about the progress between Fleur and Cedric. On weekends, if Donna didn't go to the market to look at marble, they would find an opportunity to go do some bad things together, such as digging bird nests or casting nets to catch fish.

Such days lasted until before the Easter holiday. Beauxbatons once again demonstrated a teaching level far exceeding Hogwarts in terms of holiday length, leading Luo En to exclaim that they had "lost completely." What made them feel even more ashamed was that Deng Buliduo actually suggested they not go back and spend the holiday on the spot on the grounds that "the holiday is too short."

"Fleur and Cedric went to Marseille, Donald took Hermione to Bordeaux to see the winery, and I have to come and hang out with you guys again," Ailina knocked on the train door with a helpless face. "I hope you have some fun plans."

"Well, given that Donna has also disappeared without a trace," Harry scratched his head. "Either we look for a secret room or the Room of Requirement in the deserted school, or we write a letter to Sirius and then go to Gilneas to play."

"I vote for Gilneas," Luo En's voice came from behind.

Harry sent the letter in the morning, and Sirius came in person in the afternoon.

"I really didn't expect you to have such an early holiday," Sirius said. "I was still thinking about whether I should write to invite you to spend Easter in a few days."

When they arrived at Gilneas, Harry was surprised to find that the pink-haired Auror was also here. It took him three seconds to remember her name was Tonks, so he led everyone to greet her.

"Children, I have a very good idea," Lupin announced. "How about we hold an Easter egg hunting competition on Easter day? You are responsible for helping me paint the eggs in advance, and then use your imagination to hide them in every corner of Gilneas."

Nominally, Lupin was talking about Gilneas, but in reality, this was just a small town, just right for four children to disperse and hide things.

"That's great, why doesn't Deng Buliduo have your imagination," Tonks praised. "Everyone follow me, this room is prepared with paint and a large number of chocolate eggs."

"Oh, you guys go ahead first, I want to have a few words with Sirius first," Harry said with a smile.

As soon as he walked into the room, Harry's originally bright smile instantly faded a lot, but before he could speak, Sirius said first: "You are right, Harry, that woman is very likely the Dire Wolf."

"I found her later; she is a Muggle clerk at a department store in London, and at first glance, it seems there is nothing worth paying attention to," Sirius said. "But she has been under the Imperius Curse, and more than once. Clearly, the Dire Wolf communicates with Barty Jr. by controlling her."

"The result of doing this is that neither she nor Barty Jr. knows what kind of person the Dire Wolf is," Sirius's tone carried some wariness. "However, under my coercion and inducement, she tried hard to recall all the instructions the Dire Wolf gave to Barty Jr., and these instructions make me feel very strange."

"What are they?" Harry asked.

"Barty Jr.'s task is to do everything possible to help you, advance that plan, and persuade the doctors to provide you with assistance in the final battle," Sirius's mouth twitched. "It's completely impossible to see any conspiracy in this."

"Maybe, this is just the first step?" Harry was also a bit puzzled. "They want to gain my trust first?"

"It's possible," Sirius nodded. "I will continue to remain vigilant, but you can breathe a sigh of relief first."

"Oh right, why is Tonks here?" Harry asked. "Did Deng Buliduo assign a new task?"

"Not entirely," Sirius said. "It's because I discovered some things when I was tidying up the old house."

"My brother, Regulus, he didn't join any organization; he made the decision to oppose the Dark Lord on his own," Sirius said slowly. "During that time when the Dark Lord was at the height of his power, he needed a house-elf to conduct experiments, and Regulus at the time, as his fanatical follower, recommended our family's Kreacher."

"He demanded that Kreacher fulfill all the Dark Lord's requirements and then return home as soon as possible. And the Dark Lord took it to that cave; he had just completed all the defensive measures, so he intended to borrow an insignificant creature to conduct tests. I don't know why he didn't choose to find an innocent Muggle, but in short, Kreacher unfortunately became that test subject."

"You can imagine what happened next; Kreacher was forced to drink the potion in the cave, dying and thirsty, it crawled to the lake to drink water, but was pulled under the water by the hands of the Inferi."

Speaking of this, Sirius sighed. "No wonder it looks older than other house-elves; I have no idea how it escaped."

"Didn't he say?" Harry asked.

"It said... he said, Regulus demanded it return home as soon as possible, so it went home," Sirius looked a bit confused. "Perhaps extreme loyalty created a miracle."

"Then, Regulus certainly noticed Kreacher's strangeness; he asked Kreacher what happened, and then instructed Kreacher never to go out," Sirius said. "Clearly, if the Dark Lord let Kreacher know it was still alive, the entire Black family would likely be implicated."

"Next, Kreacher told me that when Regulus found it again, his mental state was not very stable; he demanded Kreacher take him to that cave and took out a fake locket. He instructed Kreacher to swap the locket, then find a way to destroy the swapped locket, and never tell anyone in the family about these things."

"You should be able to imagine what happened next; Kreacher told me while crying, saying Regulus drank all the potion, struggled to let Kreacher fulfill his requirements, and then, he was dragged under the water by the Inferi. And after Kreacher returned, it had no way to destroy the locket; there was very clever protective magic on it. My mother was heartbroken and fell into madness, and Kreacher has lived in sorrow and regret like this until now."

"But I don't understand," Harry said. "If Kreacher could escape from the cave once, he should be able to escape a second time; why did Regulus choose to sacrifice himself? And, didn't Regulus tell him not to tell anyone in the family? How did you know?"

"Ah, regarding the second question," Sirius looked a bit embarrassed. "When I was rebellious before, my mother announced that she would expel me from the Black family, so I told Kreacher that I don't count as 'anyone in the family'."

Harry blinked; he didn't expect there to be such an operation.

"As for the first question, I have a guess," Sirius said in a somewhat heavy tone. "Perhaps Regulus never identified with the Dark Lord; he was just stubbornly wanting to preserve this family."

"When I and James, or rather, when I joined the Order of the Phoenix, he chose to join the Death Eaters, so that there would always be someone in the Black family who could survive. But the Dark Lord was very harsh on his subordinates; even if you don't treat Kreacher as a living life, just treat it as the Black family's property, the Dark Lord's approach was also wrong."

"And when he felt fear about what he was going to do and knew he couldn't exit so easily, he chose to bet all his hope on the Order of the Phoenix, hoping Deng Buliduo could defeat the Dark Lord and leave me to continue the Black family, so he took the risk to destroy the Horcrux."

"Working for the Dark Lord does not allow for exiting; if he didn't die, sooner or later he would be punished by the Dark Lord for leaking secrets or failing to handle things well, and then the entire Black family would be held accountable. Regulus didn't want to see this scene, so he chose to commit suicide. If the Dark Lord found that one of his subordinates died accidentally, he wouldn't specifically go to trouble the dead." Sirius paused and said through gritted teeth, "Because there are still Bellatrix and Narcissa; although they have married into other families, they still know the situation of the Black family. Regulus couldn't guarantee he could always deceive them."

"But what are you saying now?" Harry agreed with Sirius's reasoning, but he suddenly thought that the person in front of him was actually named Regulus on the Death Eater side.

"I told the Death Eaters that I had been executing the Dark Lord's secret mission, and in front of the Dark Lord, I said I was avoiding the pursuit of the Aurors," Sirius said. "Perhaps the Dark Lord didn't have that much energy to investigate where an insignificant person went; he might have even forgotten Kreacher."

"Most importantly, at that time he came to my office in Northern Ireland and discovered and participated in those people's torture of Muggles, which directly confirmed my stance and loyalty in his heart," Sirius shrugged. "No matter what 'Regulus' was doing before, the important thing is that he is still on the Death Eater side."

"Phew... so that means you got the Horcrux from Kreacher?" Harry recovered from the story and tried to talk about some positive topics.

"Yes, I properly sealed it in the safe in the old house and told Kreacher it is not allowed to approach it. I told him I still need some time to find a way to destroy it," Sirius said. "Unless we have collected all the Horcruxes and can kill the Dark Lord at any time, destroying it in advance has no meaning and might instead alert the enemy."

"Yes..." Harry calculated. "Diary, diadem, locket, we have already mastered three Horcruxes, and the Dark Lord still knows nothing about it; this is heartening good news."

"Then why is Tonks still staying here?" Harry asked next.

"Oh, her, I'm preparing to ask her for help to find Regulus's body and bury it," Sirius's tone was much more relaxed. "But there are too many Inferi in that lake; it's not that easy. She said she decided to stay here and think of a way."

"Are you preparing to ask the werewolf wizards for help?" Harry asked subconsciously.

"No, to be precise, just looking at her dawdling appearance," Sirius looked around mysteriously. "I suspect she has fallen for Lupin."

"That's also good news," Harry nodded. "But what about you? I see you don't seem to have a female companion?"

"I think you should care about other things, you little brat," Sirius laughed and scolded. "Go paint the eggs now, hurry up!"