Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

"I believe you," Regulus said slowly, "but my colleagues won't believe you so easily. You must provide sufficient evidence to prove yourself."

"Colleagues?" Sirius grasped the key to Regulus's words. "Who are you working for now?"

"You don't need to know." Regulus said coldly, "You are my prisoner now. You must find evidence to prove that you are not a Death Eater, otherwise I will not let you go!"

"Then what kind of evidence do you want me to produce?" Sirius grinned self-deprecatingly. "Go find a Death Eater and kill him right in front of you?"

Lycos: “…”

As a Death Eater, he always found Sirius's words a bit offensive.

"Alright, alright, stop chatting away," Lycos interrupted the brothers. "We've been talking for a long time and haven't made any progress. Can you please get to the point?"

"What's the point? Isn't that the point I asked just now?" Regulus asked with a frown.

"Obviously not. You're clearly overly concerned... What's the point of asking Sirius Black to prove that he's not a Death Eater?" Lycos asked, "Isn't our ultimate goal... to prevent Sirius from returning to the Black mansion?"

"Why did you just say this?" Regulus' expression was a little stiff.

He glanced at Sirius, wondering what the person who heard this would think.

"The Black Mansion?" Sirius was obviously confused. "What does this have to do with me? With my usual performance, would those two old guys leave the Black Mansion to me?"

"Although I don't want to admit it, you are indeed the eldest son of our Black family." Regulus said through gritted teeth, "Don't you realize that you also have half the control of the Black Mansion?"

"Not interested." Blake snorted. "If you want it, just take it."

He wasn't even interested in knowing what Regulus was going to do with the Black Mansion.

For Sirius, the old Black house where he grew up was filled with unpleasant memories.

His parents' stubborn and decadent pure-blood ideology, the criticism from various relatives for him being in Gryffindor, and the various arguments with Regulus due to their different ideologies...

In his eyes, the Black mansion had no special significance at all. Only the room covered with Gryffindor banners and Muggle beauty posters with a permanent sticking spell had some value. The rest was just a dilapidated house.

"You... just agree to it?" Regulus' pupils shrank. He didn't expect that things would develop so simply.

"What else? What use would I have for that rotten, moldy house?" Sirius said with a double meaning, "But before officially transferring the ownership of the house, I have one condition -"

His gaze turned to Lycos.

The Polyjuice Potion only takes effect for one hour, but the time from when Sirius first saw Lycos to now has already exceeded one hour.

And Sirius was already a prisoner, so there was no need for the other party to continue deceiving him with the illusion of Polyjuice Potion...

So Sirius came to a conclusion that even he found incredible -

This Lecos Hayden is indeed a little wizard, a little wizard whose black magic skills are simply unfair!

"You said before that you could let me meet Dumbledore. Are you sure you didn't lie to me?" Sirius stared at Lycos and asked in a deep voice.

"Of course, there's no need for me to lie to you about such a small matter." Lycos nodded casually, "And as a friend who knows Harry quite well, I can let you see him at any time."

"Deal!" Sirius said crisply.

Lycos's last words hit Sirius' soft spot... After losing James, Sirius had almost nothing to care about in this magical world, and his godson was the softest spot in his heart.

"I, Sirius Black III, declare as the heir of the Black family that I will transfer all my rights to the Black ancestral home to Regulus Arcturus Black!"

Following Sirius's swift words, Regulus felt as if he had gained a greater control over the Black house.

He nodded to Lycos.

"In that case, happy business!" Lycos smiled and untied the ropes on Sirius. "In that case, can you tell us... what exactly happened at that time?"

Sirius fell into a long silence.

After a long moment, he sighed deeply and looked at Regulus.

"Regulus, you should know that I have three very good friends during my school years."

"Yes, I know." A smile played on Regulus's face. "You've been hanging around with those three Gryffindors, driving your stubborn parents crazy."

"Yes, that was such a happy time." Sirius' eyes also showed a trace of nostalgia, "But who would have thought that now there are only three left of the four inseparable companions... and they can only hide from each other."

"Wait, you said... there are three left?" Regulus frowned, "Does that mean you didn't kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"Yes, not killing him is the biggest regret of my first half of life!" Sirius said bitterly, "That sinister and cunning villain blew up an entire street with a 'Confringo'..."

"Then he cut off one of his fingers, leading me to believe he had died in the explosion."

As he spoke, Sirius's eyes became more and more fierce.

"Oh, who would have thought that Peter, that coward, could live as a pet rat for ten years just to stay alive!"

……

Chapter 181 Peter Pettigrew's Capture Plan

"I don't quite understand." Regulus frowned. "You said... Peter Pettigrew survived as a pet rat, but how is that possible?"

"Peter is an Animagus," Sirius said coldly. "When I was in school, I followed the tips in our family library and studied this most advanced form of human transfiguration with James..."

"Although James and I both have a pretty good talent for Transfiguration, it still took us nearly three years to achieve this... We were lucky that we didn't go astray and make some serious mistakes while practicing Animagus Transfiguration."

There was also a hint of surprise in Regulus' eyes.

"You are too modest, Sirius," he said. "Even with the help of the classics passed down by the family, there are only a handful of wizards in the entire Black family who can learn Animagus... You and James Potter were indeed the smartest students in the school at that time."

"But what's the use?" Sirius laughed at himself. "We made a mistake and mistook Peter, that sinister villain, for a trustworthy friend."

"Wait, Peter Pettigrew has also learned Animagus transformation?" Regulus was stunned.

He suddenly realized that Peter Pettigrew's ability at the time was not enough to learn this most difficult Transfiguration...

"No, he can't. How could he possibly become an Animagus on his own?" Sirius sneered. "Peter only learned this transformation after James and I had practiced it, with our hands-on assistance, from scratch."

"He turned into a rat, which now seems to fit his image... It was such a rat who betrayed James in the end just because he was afraid of those Death Eaters!"

"But everyone thought you were James Potter's Secret-Keeper," Regulus said. "If you hadn't betrayed James Potter, how could Voldemort have entered his safe house? Did Peter Pettigrew become the Secret-Keeper in the end..."

"You guessed right." Sirius tried hard to keep his expression unchanged, but his tone became trembling. "In fact, even before that incident, there was already an insider in the Order of the Phoenix..."

He glanced at Regulus again, "You had already disappeared inexplicably by then, so you probably didn't hear about it from within the Death Eaters."

Regulus nodded slowly.

In 1979, when the Wizarding War started by the Death Eaters just broke out, Voldemort found Regulus, wanting to find a place to protect his Horcrux, the Slytherin locket.

In other words, since 1979, Regulus has awakened his rebellious consciousness because of the house-elf Kreacher and decided to steal Voldemort's Horcrux.

It was from the moment he was about to sink into the water and become an Infernal corpse that he met Mr. Bareben of the Witch Party. Then he officially changed his name and joined the Witch Party...

Voldemort sneaked into Godric's Hollow and killed the Potter family in 1981, and Regulus really didn't know what happened after that.

"Because everyone knows that I am James' best friend..." Sirius continued, "and I was so arrogant at the time that I thought those Death Eaters would find ways to target me."

"So I made a decision that I would regret for the rest of my life - I secretly persuaded James to let Peter be his secret keeper..."

"Are you a fool?" Regulus couldn't help but interrupt. "There's clearly a traitor among you. It's obvious that anyone besides you could be that traitor! How dare you give up the position of Secret-Keeper?"

"But I trusted our seven-year friendship so much that I never imagined Peter would be the traitor." Sirius closed his eyes in pain. "I thought... Peter was so timid and had such an insignificant sense of existence. No one would have thought he would be James's secret keeper."

"I see." Regulus nodded. "So Peter Pettigrew betrayed James Potter, and then you went after him, but he escaped?"

"Well, the night James and Lily died, I went to see Peter to make sure he was okay... but by the time I got to where he was hiding, he was gone."

Sirius's voice dropped to a whisper, almost inaudible.

"But there were no signs of a struggle. I felt something was wrong, so I went straight to Godric's Hollow... But when I saw their house, it was destroyed, and I saw their bodies... I knew Peter must have done something bad."

"Later, when I went after Peter and cornered him, he yelled that I had betrayed James and Lily, so loud that the whole street could hear him."

"And then, before I could hex him, he cast a blasting curse from his wand, which he hid behind his back, and blew up the whole street, killing every Muggle within twenty feet of him, and then he took off into the gutter with the other rats..."

"Tsk, I didn't expect that rat to be so smart." Regulus had completely believed Sirius's words. "Unlike you, you let him get away, but when the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic came to arrest you, you didn't even say a word of rebuttal."

"I just want to know, are you a pig?"

He glared at Sirius, his tone full of disappointment.

"If you had explained a little more, you might not have been locked up in Azkaban for over a decade! James Potter's true enemy wouldn't have survived that long!"

"No, you don't understand." Sirius shook his head and muttered, "My final decision to change the Secret-Keeper was almost equivalent to killing James and Lily, killing my best friends..."

"So you locked yourself up in Azkaban to atone for your sins?" Regulus sneered. "Tell me, what good did that do? You even helped that sinner Peter Pettigrew get the Order of Merlin, First Class."

"What?" Sirius' eyes suddenly widened. "Damn it! How can that sinister villain deserve this title!"

"So I want to ask you, is hiding in Azkaban any use?" Regulus demanded. "You call that repentance and atonement, but to me, it's just a cowardly act of avoiding the truth!"

"I'm telling you clearly, Sirius, you're a coward! Do you know how your mother spent her later years? She stayed alone in the empty, dilapidated ancestral home, with no one to take care of her or provide for her!"

"Then what are you?" Sirius stood up from his chair angrily and strode to Regulus. "You've been pretending to be dead since 1979... Aren't you close to that woman? Why didn't you take care of her?"

"You don't understand, I'm doing this for the greater good!" Regulus looked at Sirius with equal anger.

Sparks seemed to fly between the two pairs of dark gray eyes.

Lycos already knew the story of Sirius's past and had no interest in the lengthy narration... He was dozing off while sitting there, but the sudden conflict between the two brothers woke him up all of a sudden.

"Why are you guys suddenly arguing?" Lycos jumped up from his seat, looking like he was enjoying the fun. "How about this, I'll be the referee, and you two can have a wizard duel?"

Lycos' words calmed Sirius and Regulus down.

They then realized that there were more than just the two of them here, and it would be embarrassing to start a fight like this...

Regulus thought that Lycos was his junior, so he had to give some respect to his elder brother in the Wiccan Party; while Sirius wanted to maintain some image because Lycos was Harry's friend...

"Ahem...we were just joking." Sirius coughed twice. "Um, when are we going to see Dumbledore?"

"It's the holidays now, and I don't know where Dumbledore will be." Lycos shrugged, "But we can go and arrest Peter Pettigrew in advance. If we have evidence, wouldn't it be easier for you to prove your innocence?"

"What did you say?" Sirius' eyes suddenly lit up. "Can you catch Peter Pettigrew?"

"That's something I need to ask you," Lycos said. "Since you can tell that Peter Pettigrew is still alive, you must have discovered something... How did you know that?"

Although Lycos knew exactly where Peter Pettigrew was, he couldn't tell it on his own initiative. He had to guide Sirius to tell it, otherwise it would be difficult to explain.

Sirius said nothing, but reached his hand, which was as thin as a bird's claw, into his dirty and tattered robe and took out a crumpled piece of paper.

It can be seen that he has been holding this inconspicuous piece of paper for some time and has not thrown it away, as if it is some kind of treasure.

Sirius smoothed the paper carefully against the wall and held it over to Lycos and Regulus.

On the paper was a photo of the Weasley family, the same photo that appeared in the Daily Prophet's issue about "Ministry of Magic Official Wins Big Prize." After winning the prize, the Weasley family went on a trip to Egypt together.