From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

William couldn't understand it, but his hands continued to steadily cast spells, refreezing those unidentified corpses.

"Attention, Sirius..."

He raised his wand again, releasing a horde of undead.

The flames controlled by Lupin and Moody held them firmly in place, awaiting Sirius's identification.

When his gaze fell upon a face, Sirius, who had been silent and resolute, suddenly panicked. "Don't hurt him, don't hurt him, Professor Moody..."

William shook his head and waved his wand again. Ice slowly reappeared, covering all the Infernals and freezing the remains of the young man whom Sirius had identified as Regulus.

Sirius ran excitedly over and hugged the deathly cold corpse tightly. Tiny frosty fragments of ice slowly spread from where they embraced, but Sirius seemed oblivious…

"Let's go break the curse..."

William spoke in a slightly hoarse voice—without the aid of the tools, refreezing the undead wasn't easy for him, and with such a huge number, he was starting to feel dizzy…

Lupin and Moody walked ahead of him, and together they began to cast a spell to remove the necrosis from Regulus's remains—this was not a simple spell, but fortunately it wasn't too difficult for them.

After William dispelled his freezing magic to the maximum extent possible, Lupin and Moody finally removed the dark magic that had caused Regulus to turn into a corpse after nearly ten minutes of casting spells. William also cleaned up the ice shards that had begun to spread on Sirius's body.

However, Sirius no longer had the energy to pay attention to his own problems. He took off his robe and wrapped it tightly around his brother, then used magic to remove the last trace of water from his body before trying to carry him on his back.

Lupin hurriedly helped him hold him back, even trying to cast a spell on himself, before he was able to help Sirius lift Regulus's remains.

With one carrying the other on their back and the other supporting them, the two walked shakily to the other side of the lake. William and Moody exchanged a glance, reinforced the frozen lake surface, and hurriedly followed.

They walked along the damaged rock face until they reached the pavilion with steps, where they stopped.

"Make him a stone coffin; he certainly wouldn't want to be immersed in cold water again."

William suggested in a low voice. Sirius didn't speak, but nodded silently, and then began to try to deform the damaged stone wall with his wand.

“Let’s… go and deal with that damned place down there, Professor Lupin—you come down with me, and let Professor Moody watch over Sirius.”

Lupin was pulled down by William without explanation, and then they walked towards the lake below.

“I should stay with him, Professor William.”

“No, he needs quiet, and besides, I don’t feel comfortable leaving the two of you up there… Professor Moody is more vigilant; this isn’t the grassy area of ​​Hogwarts…”

William spoke as he quickly walked ahead, "Although it seems the Dark Lord shouldn't be able to detect us now, it's still better to be cautious."

"Okay... I didn't think it through..."

Lupin nodded. In this situation, leaving him and Sirius up there was practically the same as being completely unguarded. He knew Regulus, Sirius's younger brother, a staunch Slytherin, and one of the few Slytherins who wasn't particularly aggressive...

"How could he..."

“Because he doesn’t intend to live anymore…” Lupin didn’t finish, but William already knew what he was going to say, “From what I know, he’s a Death Eater, and many of his relatives are Death Eaters too—if he intends to betray the Dark Lord, then the punishment his family will receive…”

"But Sirius..."

“They are different. Sirius drew a line when he was in school, and his opposition wouldn't enrage the Dark Lord. But Regulus is different; his betrayal would involve his cherished family… That's why he even planned to take the blame with his life after betraying them…”

William shook his head. "Professor Lupin, let me tell you, even someone who doesn't recognize the potion, once they figure out it can be drunk, can definitely think of finding someone or something to drink it in their place—the only reason he willingly drank the potion is that he was already prepared for death..."

He looked with disgust at the lake surface that had now appeared before him. "These wraiths are terrifying creatures, they sound scary, and they look scary, but in reality, a single ball of fire is enough to keep them from ever approaching again... As long as a well-trained wizard is not troubled by them..."

As William spoke, he circled the lake, observing its surface. After about half a circle, he found the best spot to set the fire. He gently tapped his wand on the ice, and instantly, Fiendfyre began to greedily devour everything around it.

Everything instantly became its fuel, and the flames shot into the sky in no time, but William forcibly suppressed them. He slightly stirred up the wind, and the flames spread in the direction he expected.

William easily extinguished the Fiendfire that was spreading to the other side. He and Lupin continued along the path of the burning Fiendfire, constantly waving their wands to confine the greedy Fiendfire within the lake.

The ice he had frozen melted in just a few seconds under the onslaught of the raging flames, becoming new fuel for the fire. The lake water evaporated, and along with the frozen corpses, vanished silently into the flames without a trace.

The floating ice re-condensed beneath his feet, and he and Lupin extinguished some of the raging flames on the lake water, which had sunk more than a meter below the surface. The rest were driven forward by the wind and magic, and the flames soared into the sky.

As the last wisp of dark magic was consumed and became nourishment for the Fiendfire, William and Lupin began to fight the Fiendfire with all their might. After the land on the shore was burned down by a meter, the flames were finally extinguished.

When he and Lupin returned to shore, Sirius had mostly calmed down, and Regulus was lying in an exquisite stone coffin.

"Go through the passage above, and then we'll fly to the top of the cliff... Professor Moody, could you please Apparate back and tell Dumbledore what happened? Professor Lupin, Sirius, and I will stay here and wait for your message."

"it is good."

"The three of us flew, using magic to lift the sarcophagus up, and then waited for Dumbledore to arrive, and then..."

"I want to take him home."

Sirius abruptly interrupted William.

"Sure, anywhere is fine, we'll help you."

-

Once they left the rift, the anti-apparition restrictions disappeared.

Moody quickly Apparated away and returned to Hogsmeade, preparing to go to the school to summon Dumbledore—the Dark Lord's traps, the so-called Horcruxes, the alarms that hadn't been triggered… there was too much information to report.

William and his companions quickly used magic to lift the sarcophagus onto the cliff, creating a concealment spell, and began waiting for Dumbledore's arrival, while also keeping watch over the scene.

Sirius was in a bad mood and had no intention of communicating. William and Lupin were also unable to discuss the matter, so the three of them could only remain silent in the area.

'Someone's here…'

As the warning spell was activated, William's wand pointed in the direction of the approaching person, but he quickly withdrew its aggression.

It was Dumbledore and Professor Moody—it seems Moody and they were both quite lucky.

Dumbledore didn't say anything. He quickly walked over to Sirius and patted him on the shoulder—Black, who had been so strong the whole way, suddenly lost the strength to stand, and his eyes became a little red.

"I'm alright...I'm alright, Dumbledore..."

"You know I've never gotten along well with Regulus..."

“I’m just a little sad… I’ve known he was dead for a long time. The Death Eaters talked about it in Azkaban. They said he was inexplicably declared dead…”

"Actually, I'm fine..."

His voice grew increasingly choked with sobs, and in the end, he couldn't stop the tears from flowing...

“Let’s take him back first and then talk…” Dumbledore patted Sirius on the head. “Where do you want him to go?”

"But, here..."

"It's alright, it's always the same. Let's send him away first."

“Hmm…I want to take him back…to number 12 Grimmauld Place…”

“You Apparate…” Dumbledore said softly, “I will follow…”

Sirius nodded and instantly Apparated away. Dumbledore, with one hand on the sarcophagus and the other holding his wand, disappeared almost simultaneously with him.

-

"Let's take a break..."

Once Dumbledore left, William finally felt relieved. He used Transfiguration to conjure a chair, sat down, and then, without any restraint, stuffed an entire chocolate frog into his mouth.

Only now did he have the energy to feel fear, to be afraid of the beings he had just encountered... especially the lake full of corpses.

The other two didn't look too good either. No one could get used to being surrounded by dark magic, not even a seasoned veteran like Moody.

After waiting a few minutes without Dumbledore and Sirius returning, they realized that Sirius did not intend for the others to participate in Regulus's funeral.

A funeral is an affirmation of a person's deeds and a way for friends and relatives to mourn—but Regulus's friends were all purebloods from back then, and if they knew about Regulus's betrayal, probably few of them would feel sad.

Needless to say, as for his relatives—aside from Sirius Black, probably very few people would consider Regulus, who betrayed the Dark Lord, to be a family member…

'Really…'

William waved the Dumbledore he had eaten, feeling a deep sense of irony—Regulr had sacrificed himself mostly to protect his loved ones, but probably few of those he protected would consider his sacrifice worthwhile…

-

About an hour later, the two figures reappeared on the cliff, but Dumbledore simply greeted William and the others before leaving, leaving only Sirius with a somewhat composed expression.

Moody hugged his former comrade Sirius before leaving with Dumbledore, leaving William, Lupin, and Sirius behind.

"Have something to drink with me..."

Xiao Tian forced a smile and said to William and Lupin.

About ten minutes later, they sat together in Sirius's office and bought a lot of alcohol from a nearby store.

"It's...an end...I never thought he would do something like that."

After a few drinks, Sirius finally spoke.

“I still have James and Lupin. That kid, he's been keeping it all bottled up, only able to confide his worries to that old bastard Kreacher… Everyone else is crazy, he's the only normal one…”

He gulped down another large glass of wine.

“Okay, I admit, I misunderstood Kreacher in some ways… He wasn’t always such a jerk; he liked Regulus, even going so far as to lie to my mother for him…”

Sirius Black started rambling on and on, saying things that amazed the other two.

That was an adventure from another perspective—information gleaned from the house-elf named Kreacher…

Voldemort thought he had done everything perfectly... but he didn't notice at all that Kreacher had escaped and was surviving under the child's care...

Sirius Black downed another mouthful of wine.

"That bastard Kreacher said that because I betrayed him, the kid felt he should bear that damn glory, so he trusted Voldemort even more and regarded everything as an honor..."

"He was completely fooled by those bad guys... He didn't realize something was wrong until Kreacher was asked to carry out that dangerous mission..."

"He actually stupidly drank the potion himself and handed that locket, that Horcrux, to that idiot Kreacher—that guy never fulfilled the order to destroy it in his entire life!"

He downed another bottle of wine. "Well, it actually cleverly deceived my mother, hiding the secret of the locket from everyone. If it hadn't excitedly revealed it..."

Another big cup.

"He was determined to die. The kid felt burdened by all that messy glory, and didn't know how to get rid of it... and didn't want to drag others down with him..."

"But with Kreacher looking after the cemetery, the kid should be happy, right..."

"It shouldn't be as dilapidated as that damn old house, right?"

"That child..."

Sirius took another big gulp of wine, then slumped onto the table and fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 487 The Time Before the Final Match