A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Kreacher stared, his bat-like ears twitching nervously. He didn't even have a decent set of clothes, but someone had told him that he was superior to the Black Demon feared by countless people.

"Are you willing, Kreacher, to do your part for Regulus?"

"Of course! Kreacher is willing!"

Kreacher reached out his hand tremblingly, and Felix took it. Then the old, wrinkled house-elf looked at Sirius with expectant eyes, and Sirius reached out his hand in return.

The next second, the three disappeared in front of the rock wall.

Chapter 309 Return

Felix saw a hazy green light. He squinted. The emerald green light was coming from a stone basin that resembled a meditation basin, with a base attached to the bottom.

Beneath his feet were clusters of crystal-like stones, haphazardly stuck upside down in the ground, reflecting a faint light. Felix's gaze swept around; all around him was an impenetrable, heavy darkness, deathly still.

Sirius helped Kreacher up and raised his wand high. The light from the tip of his wand could only illuminate a small area, and even half of his face was hidden in darkness, making it impossible to see his features.

"We're deep in Voldemort's heart," Sirius said quickly, his tone filled with excitement and the thrill of revenge. "But the effects are greater here, and magic isn't working very well."

“Some magic just wouldn’t work,” Felix tilted his head, gesturing for him to look at Kreacher beside him, the house-elf’s fingertips glowing even brighter. “That gave me some inspiration…”

Felix extinguished the light from his wand and merged completely into the darkness. They were only a few feet apart, but Sirius couldn't see a trace of him. The silence was unsettling, and a sense of danger drew ever closer.

He heard Felix make strange sounds, like some kind of language, with peculiar rhythms and cadences. Then, he saw light. A vast expanse of soft, milky-white light burst forth before his eyes, leaving a tiny, insignificant dot in his vision. But in an instant, the light poured down, covering the earth, the air, and filling every inch of space within his sight.

The light wasn't dazzling; Sirius could even see beyond Felix and into the view behind him. He couldn't help but gape—it was an endless, smooth, mirror-like lake. He had subconsciously overlooked this place before. The lake was hidden in darkness, calm and still, without a ripple or a sound, just like a flat, open space.

But what was most surprising was what was in the lake: corpses! One corpse after another floated on the mirror-like surface of the lake. He looked around, and the nearest corpse was only three or four feet away from him, as if he could reach out and touch his feet.

Sirius could even make out the corpse's pale face, as white as marble, dressed in a brown shirt and blue or black trousers... A chill ran through Sirius; perhaps Regulus had been dragged into the water like this...

"Splash!"

The dark lake water rippled, and a hand reached out. "Watch out! These aren't corpses, they're Voldemort's army of Infernos!" Sirius shouted, backing away. "And many of them are Muggles... Damn it, it's that village! He destroyed a village to get manpower!"

Sirius Black didn't have time to curse; he raised his wand, ready to retaliate. Being restricted in his own abilities and also careful not to accidentally harm Regulus's remains was no easy task.

But Felix calmly said, "It seems they don't intend to attack us." Sure enough, the undead didn't climb onto the small island in the lake, but instead kept moving away from them, or more precisely, away from the light source in Felix's hand.

"Fear of light and fire are characteristics of the Infernal, and Voldemort will definitely restrict these two types of magic. In addition, they cannot Apparate, which is truly a brilliant move..."

Felix said, "But just as he didn't consider the magic of house-elves, Voldemort didn't consider ancient magic cast using runes, or perhaps he did but couldn't restrict it."

Felix raised his hands, causing a round white sphere of light to slowly rise. The cave they were in was very high, and they couldn't see the top of the cave when they looked up. So the white sphere of light simply rose to the highest point, like the sun, casting down warm light.

Voldemort's dark trap failed. Light and darkness intertwined, eventually dispelling the darkness and illuminating the entire cave as if it were daytime.

At this moment, they could see everything around them clearly—they were standing on a small island in the middle of a lake, surrounded by a large expanse of black lake water, which had been made transparent and shiny by the light.

Hundreds of corpses hid at the bottom of the lake, but they had nowhere to escape and could only hide themselves by instinct.

Felix said to Sirius and Kreacher, "Now you can go find someone. I want to examine this stone platform." After a few seconds, he looked at the man and the elf and asked in surprise, "Do I need to put a Bubble Charm on you?"

The Bubble Head Charm creates a bubble-like shape above the caster's head, similar to an inverted fishbowl, allowing the wizard to explore underwater or avoid unpleasant odors. It's not exactly obscure magic. As far as Felix knows, the Weasley twins are quite proficient with this spell.

"You can't expect me to look for him too, can you? I don't even know Regulus..."

Sirius waved his hand, then, after expending considerable effort to cast the Bubble Head Charm on himself and Kreacher, said in a deep voice, "Are you sure these Infernals won't suddenly attack?"

“As long as they’re still undead.” Felix scanned the area with his black-and-white vision. “I didn’t see any hidden magic, don’t worry.”

Kreacher immediately jumped into the lake and swam nimbly. Sirius muttered something and then jumped in after him.

Sirius endured the icy lake water, his vision unaffected. He first found a shadowy corpse hiding behind a rock, pried open the corpse's hand covering its face, and tried to make out its appearance—and was not attacked until Sirius began searching for his next target.

"Abnormal magic," Sirius said from the lake. Corpses are afraid of light, but ordinary light doesn't have this effect.

What followed became tedious—Sirius spent twenty minutes in the Black Lake, feeling stiff all over, his clothes soaked through, dragging him deeper and deeper. Kreacher wasn't much better off, perhaps even worse, and Sirius had to pull Kreacher up with him to regain his strength.

The icy lake water gushed down Sirius's robes as he climbed the steps, trembling all over.

Kreacher's teeth chattered from the cold, and he could barely speak, but he still tried to persist: "Kreacher has already seen 47, no, 48..."

Sirius Black said with a dark face, "You want me to take care of you because you're sick? Come and eat something. He even started a whole fire, it's just... just..."

Sirius found it a bit absurd. Around the campfire, various foods were scattered about, and he even saw two bottles of butterbeer. This was no camping trip! He didn't know how he managed to eat them, but he still managed to replenish his energy.

“You can use a warming spell; it will make you feel better,” Felix suggested without looking up.

……

One hundred, two hundred—Sirius had seen one corpse after another's face, and two hours had passed.

But the Black Lake was simply too vast, and because of Felix's magic, all the undead were almost instinctively seeking out dark corners, spreading out widely, which further increased the difficulty of the search. Although all of this was in vain—the lakebed was no darker than the surface.

Meanwhile, Felix kept observing the stone basin and the green potion inside.

For Voldemort, Horcruxes should be his most important possessions, and the protective measures surrounding them should be the strongest magic he could think of and control.

Felix could glimpse a corner of Voldemort's power through this.

From a black-and-white perspective, ripples of magic spread outwards from him. Felix scanned the area, imprinting everything around him firmly in his memory. Then, he finally moved. His hand reached into the stone basin, but when it was an inch or two away from the potion, he could no longer descend.

Felix tried different methods, but none of them worked.

"Unless it's a brute-force attack... but that doesn't accurately measure Voldemort's power, and he certainly considered that..."

Felix called out to Kreacher, who was coming up for the third time, "Do me a favor and get the ring I left outside. If it's too much trouble, then forget it."

"Yes, Mr. Hyp."

Kreacher disappeared, and a few seconds later he reappeared, holding a ring in his hand.

"Is this ring a burden to you?" Felix asked curiously. He had previously worried that Kreacher wouldn't be able to carry him, Sirius, and the dozen or so Dementors, but perhaps that was a misconception.

“It’s a bit strenuous… but it’s still not as much as it is for you alone, Mr. Hepburn. You are a truly powerful wizard, more powerful than anyone Kreacher has ever seen.”

"Uh, okay, thank you, Kreacher."

Felix scratched his head. So, Sirius's exhaustion before was due to his own fault? But Sirius had covered a long distance, while Kreacher had only made a simple round trip; the two couldn't be compared.

Kreacher bowed deeply, pressed his nose to the ground, and backed away.

Felix took a cup from his ring and tossed it into the stone basin. This time, without any magical obstruction, the cup sank into the liquid. Felix reached in, retrieved the cup, examined it for a while, and then poured it out.

A vibrant green potion flowed from the rim of the cup, forming a winding stream, but then abruptly vanished in mid-air. Felix emptied the cup; not a single drop remained on the ground. He turned around, and the liquid in the stone basin had unknowingly returned to its original level.

"Interesting... Do I really have to drink it?"

Felix retrieved another potion and attempted to analyze its ingredients using Skaping's Current Charm. Blurry images appeared above the potion, making it impossible to see clearly. Felix had to rummage through his memory, searching for obscure spells, some of which he had never even used before, but which he had simply categorized and stored in his memory.

Fortunately, he learns quickly. With the help of the Mind Hut and his current understanding of magic, he can quickly master most spells.

"A mixture of snake venom... venom from an unknown creature... slime from the Frober caterpillar... liquid from the horn of the poisonous horn... and rotten blood grass, which can cause irritability and recklessness, and has a deceptive effect... illusion grass, a rare use..."

Felix looked up and muttered to himself, "The potion's effects don't seem to kill, but rather exacerbate pain and induce powerful hallucinations? That matches Kreacher's experience, no, there's also the effect of chaotic magic, making it difficult to use magic... In this way, even a powerful wizard could be dragged to the bottom of the lake in despair."

Half an hour later, when Sirius came up, he saw Felix choking a Dementor by the neck and feeding it a potion. Sirius's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Where did this thing come from?

Before he could ask, he heard Kreacher's tearful cry: "Found him—Master Regulus—" The house-elf's voice echoed through the cave, over and over again.

Sirius flipped over and jumped into the water. Following the sound, he suddenly realized that he hadn't put on the Bubble Head Charm yet, but he didn't have time to think about it. He held his breath and quickly swam to Kreacher's side.

He saw a familiar person, not much different from his memory, except that his face was a little paler, and his black curly hair, just like his, was floating in the water.

Sirius mumbled something, the pungent smell of salt mixed with the rotting lake water choking him and causing him to shiver and cough violently.

He swam back to shore with Regulus's body, panting heavily and making hoarse noises. He was soaking wet, and lake water streamed down his hair and into his eyes. No one cared whether he shed tears.

Once he calmed down, Sirius picked up Regulus and walked to Felix's side. The Dementors had disappeared. He glanced at them and saw that only a shallow layer of potion remained in the stone basin, with a locket faintly visible at the bottom.

But he knew it was fake and had no interest in it whatsoever. All he wanted now was to take Regulus back, settle him properly, and preferably hold a funeral for him.

“Sirius, Kreacher, you two wait for me outside. I have something else to do,” Felix said.

"what are you up to?"

"To put it bluntly, I want to cause some destruction..."

So Kreacher appeared outside the rock wall with the remains of Sirius and Regulus. After a while, the rock wall in front of them began to peel away layer by layer and turn to sand. They took a few steps back and watched as the rock wall shone with layers of light, which then quickly dimmed and decayed. The solid rock turned into fine powder and fell away in a flurry, eventually forming a wide opening.

Felix came out, and Sirius glanced at the light behind him. The island in the middle of the lake had disappeared, and a small boat was rocking by the lake.

“Let’s go,” Felix said calmly.

"You destroyed this place?"

"It wouldn't be good to let the next person who comes in do useless work."

"Then that glowing magic of yours, that big ball of light..."

"Don't worry about it, it'll be gone in a week or two at most."

Felix, along with Sirius and Kreacher, and Regulus's body, vanished into the cave in an instant.

"Boom!"

Large chunks of rock crashed down, completely burying everything inside.

Chapter 310 The Evil of Horcruxes

Blake's old house.

Sirius, Felix, and Dumbledore sat in three separate seats, and the atmosphere in the room was very heavy.

“He needs a funeral,” Sirius insisted.

“I completely agree. Regulus is a hero—he saved an innocent life and has a heart of gold… He fully deserves this honor,” Dumbledore said gently. “However, we cannot reveal the existence of Horcruxes; that would cause a lot of trouble.”

His gaze, peering through his half-moon-shaped glasses, fell upon the long sofa. Beside Sirius, a young man lay quietly, his hands folded across his chest, his black curly hair flowing freely, as if he were asleep.

Regulus looks a lot like his brother, especially in profile. He looks like a young Sirius who hasn't experienced twelve years in prison. His age is forever frozen at eighteen, but he has accomplished things that many people can't do in their entire lives.

"Why—I don't understand!"

Sirius felt his brother's honor had been stolen; he deserved more, such as a grand funeral. A white marble coffin, wreaths, and green grass—before all present, the life and glory of Regulus Arcturus Black were read aloud, and everyone praised his outstanding contributions…

His feat of resisting Voldemort and risking his life to retrieve the Horcrux was a crucial part of his accomplishments, and he wanted everyone to know it.

“Sirius,” Dumbledore said in a deep voice, “I have been doing everything I can to prevent this evil magic from spreading, even just its name. Imagine, when people know that such magic exists, and all it takes is simple killing—excuse my wording, but for some it truly is simple—they can attain immortality. What a bargain that would be!”

I don't think so—

"That's you, Sirius. No one can deny your courage and conviction. If Voldemort were to return, would you pick up your wand again?"