The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 364 Locket

After Ryan and the other two cleaned up in the living room for a while, Lupin went upstairs to join them. With the help of the former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, the cleaning progress was greatly accelerated.

In the process, Ryan also got a few good things, such as a silver tool similar to multi-legged tweezers that can crawl like a spider. Because Ryan thought that this thing could be modified into something useful, he used a rune to make it quiet and asked Sirius to take it away. (Sirius: I told you that you can take whatever you like.)
"What's in this?" Lupin took out a souvenir box and pried it open with force. "Why can't I open this thing?"

Sirius also took the box and tried it, then said curiously: "Why don't I remember putting this thing in the cabinet? Was it put back in after I was kicked out?"

"You actually remember the origin of every item in the cabinet? How did you do that? I can't even remember where some of the things in my decorative cabinet came from." Hermione said in surprise after hearing what Sirius said.

"I hate this." Sirius smiled bitterly. "But since I was five years old, my parents often brought me here to tell me the stories behind each item. Sometimes they even made me eat only rusks and drink water for a meal because I didn't tell them the glory behind a certain item. In this case, I still remember everything even after I left here for many years."

"Can I take a look?" Ryan said after Sirius finished speaking. When they said they couldn't open it, Ryan suddenly woke up because he thought of something important.

Taking the souvenir box, Ryan found that the so-called souvenir box was an octagonal gold pendant the size of an egg. There was a gorgeous letter S on the lid, inlaid with emeralds. More importantly, when Ryan sensed the box through magic, he found that the complexity of the magic runes on the box was far beyond other things.

"Black." Ryan turned around and looked at Sirius seriously. "If I'm not mistaken, this thing should be a relic of Slytherin, one of the four great masters of Hogwarts. It is very precious. You can even say that the things in your glass cabinet are not as valuable as the locket. According to your family's habits, it is impossible to put it here without any records."

"Then it could only have been put here after I was kicked out of the house." Sirius's face turned serious after hearing this. "In that case, I think only Kreacher knows where this thing came from."

After saying that, he shouted "Kreacher" into the air. With a snap, the house-elf appeared in the living room.

"Oh, that annoying young master is bossing poor old Kreacher around again. It's as if everything here really belongs to him." He looked up at the decorative cabinet and said, "He even took out things that carry family honor, like a robber who broke into this house--"

"Shut up!" Sirius interrupted Kreacher's chatter, and then took out the locket. "Tell me where this thing came from, I require you to answer truthfully. There must be no concealment or lies."

Kreacher was originally just looking at his feet, but under Sirius's insistence, he raised his head to look at Sirius's hands. At the first glance, Kreacher's expression froze. Then he suddenly gasped for air, his shriveled chest rose and fell sharply, and then he opened his eyes and let out a blood-curdling scream.

"——And the locket, Master Regulus' locket, Kreacher made a mistake, Kreacher failed to follow the master's order!" As he said that, he picked up a heavy silver box and prepared to smash it on his head. Ryan and Hermione quickly caught him on the left and right, and then shouted to Sirius: "Quick, make him stop."

"I order you to stop." Sirius, who was a little dazed by what the house-elf said, quickly came to his senses after Ryan's shouting, and then ordered Kreacher.

As soon as the command was given, Kreacher froze. As soon as Ryan and the others let go of him, Kreacher lay straight on the cold stone floor, tears pouring from his sunken eye sockets. At this time, even the most obtuse person could see that this locket must be related to something very important. "You just said that the locket was 'Master Regulus's'," Sirius said, "Then why does my brother have such a thing? What orders did he give you that you didn't complete? Kreacher, sit there and tell me everything you know about the locket and my brother's relationship with it!"

Kreacher sat up, curled up, put his tear-stained face between his knees, and began to rock back and forth. When he spoke, his voice was muffled, but it was very clear in the empty and quiet living room.

"Master Sirius ran away. It was a good thing that he ran away, because he was a bad boy. His unruly behavior broke my mistress's heart. But Master Regulus had self-esteem. He knew what the Black surname and his pure blood meant. When he was sixteen, he joined the Dark Lord's organization. He was so proud, so proud, so happy to be able to serve..."

"Ah, my brother is too weak and lacks his own opinion. He was instigated by my parents to follow the dark lord. But the job of a Death Eater is really not suitable for him." Sirius said in a very low voice. "If he had left home like me, maybe he would be a chaser of the Tornado team now. I kept hearing him talking about this before I left home."

After listening to Sirius's memories, Kreacher's tears flowed even harder. Tears flowed down his long nose into his grinning mouth, revealing a mouthful of gray teeth. "A year later, one day, Master Regulus came to the kitchen to visit Kreacher. Master Regulus has always liked Kreacher. Master Regulus said...he said..."

The old elf sobbed hard, shaking faster.

"…He said the Dark Lord wanted an elf. Master Regulus offered Kreacher. It was an honor, Master Regulus said, an honor for himself and Kreacher. Kreacher had to do whatever the Dark Lord asked of him… and then go back—home."

Having said that, painful memories caused Kreacher's answers to become intermittent, but the four wizards sitting here still listened attentively.

"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord didn't tell Kreacher what to do. Instead, he took Kreacher to a cave by the sea. It was a big cave with a big black lake in the middle of it… and there was a boat by the lake… and the boat took me to an island in the lake—and there was a stone-stone basin on it, full of potion. The Dark Lord made Kreacher drink…"

Kreacher drank it, and saw many horrible things as he drank it... Kreacher's insides were on fire... Kreacher called out to Master Regulus to save him, and to his mistress, but the Dark Lord just laughed... He made Kreacher drink the potion... He dropped a locket into the empty basin... and filled the basin with potion again."

"Then the Dark Lord boarded his ship and left Kreacher on the island... Kreacher needed water, so he crawled to the edge of the island to drink from the Black Lake... Hands, dead hands, reached out of the water and dragged Kreacher under..."

The hoarse voice made everyone feel a chill rising from behind. Hermione subconsciously grabbed Ryan's hand when she heard this, and Ryan used his other hand to gently pat the back of her hand to calm her emotions.

"Then, what happened?" Sirius asked.

"Master Regulus said he wanted Kreacher to go home." Kreacher smiled strangely. "The supreme law of house-elves is the master's order. The master told Kreacher to go home, so Kreacher went home..."

(End of this chapter)