Chapter 288

"Who can tell me how the house elf respected Maka so much?"

Harry looked blankly at the others, but found that everyone had a "I want to know" expression and scratched his scalp in wonder.

At this time, a sound of footsteps came from the corner of the corridor on the first floor, followed by a familiar sound.

"... I think there's always a reason."

"Sirius?" Harry quickly turned and looked over.

"Ignore Kreacher. He's been alone too long," said Sirius absentmindedly as he walked quickly. "... he received a lot of crazy orders from my mother's portrait and talked to himself when he was free, but he used to be an evil little --"

"What if you could set him free?" Hermione remained hopeful. "Maybe -"

"We can't set him free. He knows too much about the order of the Phoenix," Sirius said rudely, passing by the children. "And aren't you angry that he called you mud seed?"

"Never mind," whispered Hermione. "He's not in his right mind. He doesn't know what he's talking about --"

"Don't deceive yourself, Hermione. He obviously knows what he's talking about." Fred said angrily.

At this time, Sirius had reached the corner of the stairs. He suddenly turned back and left his last word.

"Anyway, that scare will definitely kill him - if you don't believe it, you can try to ask him to leave the house and see how he will react."

Hermione, who is familiar with the history of magic, certainly knows what will happen. For domestic elves, it is tantamount to depriving them of the meaning of survival.

Compared with the elves in ancient times, there may be no difference in appearance between them, but their hearts have long been two completely different creatures.

From the moment when sensibility and rationality began to struggle, Hermione was no longer the naive little girl who had only "black" and "white" in her eyes.

"I'm stupid!" Hermione took a deep breath and stamped her foot hard.

Harry and they all looked at her in surprise, but she just shook her head and went to the kitchen first.

"What's the matter with her?" Harry said strangely.

Ron shrugged blankly, pondered for a moment, and then guessed, "is Hermione really going to find a way to set Kreacher free?"

"Oh --" said Harry, nodding immediately. "With her character, it's really possible."

……

While Harry and his family went to the kitchen for breakfast, Sirius had knocked on the door of the study.

"Please come in."

The door was opened, and Sirius strode in, looking directly at Marca, as if to see something from his face.

"What's the matter?" Maka looked up from behind the pile of books on the desk and said in doubt.

Sirius was silent for a while, then frowned and said, "are you hiding something from me?"

The atmosphere became a little serious. Lenny, who was lying on the other side of the sofa copying books, glanced curiously at this side, and then quickly lowered her head.

"There are a lot of things to hide from you," Marca thought and stood up again. "Let's go! Let's have a good chat in another suitable place... Kretcher!"

Before the voice fell, the space in the middle of the study was slightly distorted, and the old domestic elf appeared with his back arched.

"Dear Mr. McLean, your name is old kretcher. May I help you?"

The faithful house elf of the Black family, with his back to Sirius, was very respectful to Marca.

"Clencher! What the hell is going on? Why are you --"

"I'm sorry, young master..." when kliche heard the voice, he immediately turned his head and bowed deeply, "old kliche didn't see the young master here just now..."

Although he said so, his expression was disgust, as if he saw something dirty.

"The young master is a nasty, ungrateful bastard who broke his mother's heart -" Kreacher lowered his voice again, as if he really thought that no one else could hear him.

"My mother has no heart, clencher," said Sirius coldly. "She lives entirely on resentment."

Clencher then bowed again, observing the unique rules of the Black family, which the house elf must bow when talking to his master.

"No matter what the young master says," Kreacher murmured angrily, "the young master is not worthy to suck his mother's heel. Oh, my poor hostess, if -"

"All right, clencher." Maka interrupted him and reached for the door again. "Sirius, let's go to the living room on the second floor and talk..."

In this old house, only the living room and another room have not been moved.

Although Maka doesn't think she has to let Sirius know some facts, it's meaningless to cover it. What she says can also reduce Sirius's resentment towards herself

This is a long, high ceiling room on the second floor, with dirty tapestries hanging on olive green walls.

When they put their feet on the carpet, they would raise a small dust, and the long yellow green velvet curtains hummed, as if there were many invisible bees flying inside.

"The curtain is full of foxes. You can collect them as potion materials later." as she passed the curtain, Maka smiled.

But Sirius had no time to ignore this little joke.

Maka didn't care. He went straight to the other end of the room and looked carefully at the huge tapestry covering the whole wall.

The tapestry looked very old and faded. It seemed that foxes had bitten several places.

However, the gold thread embroidered on it is still shining, and there is a family tree with luxuriant branches and leaves embroidered on it, which is extremely detailed.

On the top of the tapestry was embroidered a few big words: noble, the oldest Black family is always pure.

Maka didn't say any more nonsense. He just stretched out his hand and pointed to the bottom Name: Regulus black.

After the date of birth, there is a clear date of death, which was about 15 years ago.

"This is your brother," Marca stated the fact in a gentle tone.

"Yes, so what?" said Sirius. "What do you want to say?"

"He joined the death eaters," Marca added.

"Yes... Yes!" they think Voldemort's claim is very correct. They all agree to maintain the purity of wizard blood, eliminate Muggle people and let the real pure blood control power. "

"Hum - I think 'they' must think that Regulus joined it from the beginning and can be regarded as a brave little hero?"

Sirius said irritably, and the "they" in his mouth refers not only to other people in the Black family, but also to his parents.

"... so?" he looked at the genealogy and said, "what's the matter with Regulus?"

"Do you remember what he was like in the end?" Marca asked. "I mean, after Voldemort showed that he did everything to gain power."

Under Marca's question, Sirius gradually showed a look of memory.

"... at that time, he was in deep trouble, and then... He was afraid of what others asked him to do and wanted to quit... Hum, my stupid brother, his magic talent is really good, but it's far less than you..."

He paused, shook his head and said, "he can't hand over a resignation report to Voldemort. Even if it's finished, if he doesn't have the strength to break free, he can either sell his life or die!"

"Yes! He has only one way to go," Marca nodded, but in the middle of the conversation, her voice turned again, "... But he didn't choose to wait for death."

"What do you mean?" Sirius suddenly turned his head and stared brightly at Marca's side face.

"Your brother Regulus, he -"

"Can't say!"

For the first time, clenche, a domestic elf who always spoke only in a low voice, shouted out like a hoarse scream, but only to prevent Maka from telling a truth that should have been buried.

"Obey master Regulus' orders, and don't tell anyone in the noble Black family that this is master Regulus's last order!"

Clencher's sharp, rough voice seemed to rub Sirius's nerves.

"Clencher, I command --" Sirius. "

Maka waved to Sirius and then said, "clencher, it's your business to keep a secret for your master. You don't have to say it - but it's obviously no problem for me to say it."

Clencher took a hard swallow of the air, and his bony chest fluctuated rapidly. Then he suddenly closed his eyes and made no more sound.

"Sirius, it's a secret about Voldemort," Marca said calmly. "So far, only Dumbledore and I know it. It's not appropriate to disclose it for the time being... So I can only tell you a part of it about your brother."

Sirius took a deep breath, reorganized his mood, and nodded.

In fact, since Marca has said this, he actually has some premonitions. I'm afraid his brother has done something that everyone didn't expect.

But whether it is a good thing or a bad thing makes people hesitate.

"Say it!" said Sirius.

Maka reached out and touched the name on the tapestry. The uneven embroidery marks seemed to tell everything about that year.

"At that time... About a year after your brother joined the ranks of death eaters, Voldemort told his death eaters that he needed a house elf. So your brother took the initiative to recommend kreiche to Voldemort..."

"At that time, it should still be in the period when Voldemort did not expose his ambition."

"Really?" Sirius narrowed his eyes and said, "it's really warm-hearted... My stupid brother..."