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Chapter 196: The Story of Regulus

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.

“It was fifteen years ago. Unlike Master Sirius who ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress’s heart with his lawless ways, 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.” Kreacher sobbed, “And when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. Master Regulus knew!” Kreacher argued, “He was so proud, so proud, so happy to serve…”

“Just cut to the chase, Kreacher! I don’t want to hear about my idiot young brother becoming a Death Eater!” Sirius brutally interrupted him, and it was as if the blue veins on his forehead were about to burst up.

The last time he looked like this, he was facing Peter Pettigrew.

Kreacher was afraid to look at Sirius, his head rocking faster. He said intermittently, “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… ”

“What did he say?” Everyone was looking at the old house-elf.

“He said that the Dark Lord required an elf.”

“Voldemort needed an elf?” Sirius repeated, and Harry and Hermione looked just as puzzled as he did. It sounded absurd.

How could the mighty Voldemort need a house-elf? Everyone did not understand. Only Evan knew what was going on.

“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.

“So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what he was 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 … “

Sirius did not speak.

Evan, Harry, and Hermione also listened to Kreacher’s narrative.

In the gloomy basement, Kreacher’s croaking voice was particularly terrifying. It seemed to come from across the dark water, and the hairs on the back of everybody’s neck stood up.

“There was a boat beside the Great Lake. The lake was full of dead bodies. 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 things … Kreacher’s insides burned … Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress, 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?”

“And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island … “

Evan could see it happening, he could see Voldemort’s white, snakelike face vanishing into darkness, those red eyes fixed pitilessly on the agonized elf.

He probably thought that the elf’s death would occur within minutes, whenever he succumbed to the desperate thirst that the burning poison caused its victim.

However, Kreacher escaped and Evan didn’t know how he did it.

“Kreacher still remembers how it was at the time. 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 …”

“How did you get away?” Sirius asked, and found himself unusually whispering.

Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked at Harry with his great, bloodshot eyes. “Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,” he said.

“But?!” No one knew how Kreacher came back. Voldemort could have never left him alive.

“Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,” he repeated.

“I know – but how did you escape the Inferi?”

“Well, it’s obvious, he Apparated! Elf magic isn’t like wizard’s magic, Voldemort probably neglected this.” Evan explained, “Or, he would have considered the ways of house-elves so far beneath his notice… it would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn’t.”

“Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,” The house elf repeated it again and intonated, “The house-elf’s highest law is his Master’s command, Kreacher was told to return home, so Kreacher returned home … “

“So what happened when you got back?” Sirius continued to ask. “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, his mind was disturbed, Kreacher could tell … and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord … “

And so, under Regulus’s orders, they had set off. Evan could visualize them quite clearly; the frightened old elf and the thin Death Eater who had resembled Sirius, coming to the place where Voldemort hid the Horcrux.

Kreacher went there and he knew how to get in.

“Regulus?!” Sirius coldly asked with a hint of disgust in his voice, “He made you drink the potion again?”

Kreacher shook his head, crying and crying.

Everyone looked at him with surprise! If Kreacher didn’t drink the potions, they guessed what happened next.

“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 snout-like nose. “And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets …”

Kreacher’s sobs came in great rasps now; Evan had to concentrate hard to understand what he was going to say next.