Chapter 287: The History of the Black Family

"Who can tell me why that house elf treats Maca with such respect?"

Harry looked at the others blankly, but found that everyone had expressions of "I want to know too", and they scratched their heads in wonder.

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

"...I suppose there's always a reason for that."

"Sirius?" Harry hurriedly turned his head to look over there.

"Don't mind Kreacher, he's been alone too long," said Sirius absent-mindedly as he walked briskly, "...taking some crazy orders from my mother's portrait, talking to himself, But he used to be a nasty little--"

"What if you set him free?" said Hermione hopefully. "Maybe—"

"We can't set him free, he knows too much about the Order of the Phoenix." Sirius said gruffly, passing the children, "Also, aren't you mad that he called you a Mudblood? "

"It's all right," whispered Hermione, "he's out of his mind and doesn't know he's talking—"

"Don't kid yourself, Hermione, he knows exactly what he's talking about," Fred said angrily.

At this time, Sirius had already reached the corner of the stairs, he suddenly turned around and dropped the last sentence.

"Anyway, just that fright will kill him - if you don't believe me, you can try asking him to leave this house and see how he reacts."

Hermione, who is familiar with the history of magic, of course knows what will happen if she does this. For house elves, it is tantamount to depriving them of the meaning of life.

Compared with the elves in ancient times, perhaps there is no difference in appearance between them, but their hearts are already two completely different creatures.

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

"I'm so stupid!" Hermione took a deep breath and stomped her feet vigorously.

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

"What happened to her?" Harry asked strangely.

Ron shrugged blankly, and after pondering for a while, he guessed: "Could Hermione really plan to find a way to set Kreacher free?"

"Oh—" Harry nodded immediately, "With her personality, it's really possible."

...

When Harry and the others went to the kitchen for breakfast, Sirius had already knocked on the door of the study.

"Please come in."

The door was opened, and Sirius strode in, looking directly at Maca, as if to read something in his face.

"What's wrong?" Maca looked up from behind the pile of books on the desk, wondering.

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

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

"There are a lot of things that are hidden from you." Maca thought for a while, then stood up and said, "Let's go! Change to a suitable place, let's have a good chat... Kreacher!"

Before the words were finished, the space in the middle of the study was slightly distorted, and an elderly house elf appeared with a hunched back.

"Honorable Mr. McLean, may I ask what you call old Kreacher?"

The faithful house-elf of House Black, with his back to Sirius,

But respectful to Maca.

"Kreacher! What's going on? Why did you—"

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

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

"Master is a nasty, ungrateful bastard who broke his mother's heart—" Kreacher murmured again in a low voice, as if he really thought no one else could hear him.

"My mother has no heart, Kreacher," Sirius said coldly, "she lives entirely on resentment."

Kreacher bowed again at this point, adhering to the unique Black rule that house-elves must bow when speaking to their masters.

"No matter what the master says," Kreacher muttered indignantly again, "the master is not worthy to suck his mother's heel, oh, my poor mistress, if—"

"Okay, Kreacher." Maca interrupted him, and gestured towards the door again, "Sirius, let's go to the living room on the second floor to talk..."

In this old house, only the living room and one other room have not been touched.

Although Maca feels that it is not necessary to let Sirius know certain facts, but it is not interesting to hold this kind of thing, and what he said can also make Sirius less jealous towards him...

It was a long, high-ceilinged room on the second floor, with dirty tapestries on olive-green walls.

When they stamped their feet on the carpet they raised a little puff of dust, and the long, chartreuse velvet curtains buzzed as though they were filled with unseen bees.

"The curtain is full of vixen, which can be collected later and used as potion ingredients." Maca smiled and said as he passed the curtain.

But Sirius didn't have time to pay attention to such small jokes.

Maca didn't care either, he went straight to the other end of the room and carefully looked at the giant tapestry covering the entire wall.

The tapestry looked very old and worn, its color was dull, and it seemed that foxes had bitten it to pieces in several places.

However, the gold thread embroidered on it still shines brightly, and it is embroidered with a genealogy map with lush branches, branches and leaves scattered in incomparable detail.

Embroidered on the top of the tapestry were large letters: Noble and Oldest of the House of Black Forever Pure.

Maca didn't say any more nonsense, he directly stretched out his hand, and pointed to a name at the bottom: Regulus Black.

Behind the date of birth, there is a definite date of death, which was about fifteen years ago.

"This is your brother." Maca stated the fact in a calm tone.

"Yes, so what?" said Sirius. "What are you trying to say?"

"He joined the Death Eaters," Maca said again.

"Yeah... yeah! 'They' think Voldemort's proposition is correct, 'they' are all in favor of maintaining the purity of wizarding blood, getting rid of Muggle-borns, and letting pure-bloods take power."

"Hmph—I think 'they' must think that Regulus joined in from the very beginning, so he can be regarded as a brave little hero?"

Sirius spoke irritably, and the "they" he mentioned not only refers to the other members of the Black family, but also refers to his parents in particular!

"...So?" He looked at the family tree and said, "What happened to Regulus?"

"Do you remember what kind of state he was in at the end?" Maca asked, "I mean, after Voldemort showed that he would do anything to gain power."

Under Maca's question, Sirius gradually showed an expression of reminiscence.

"...he was already in deep trouble, and then... he was afraid of what others wanted him to do, so he wanted to quit... Well, my stupid brother is really good at magic, but not as good as you..."

He paused, then shook his head and said, "It's impossible for him to hand over a resignation report to Voldemort and the job will be over. If he doesn't have the strength to break free, he will either die for the rest of his life, or die!"

"That's right! He has only one way to die," Maca said, nodding his head, but his voice changed in the middle of speaking, "...But he didn't choose to just wait for death."

"What do you mean?" Sirius turned his head suddenly, staring at Maca's side face with piercing eyes.

"Your brother Regulus—"

"can not say!"

Kreacher, the house-elf who always spoke in a low voice, yelled out for the first time, a hoarse yell, but only to stop Maca from telling a truth that should have been buried.

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

Kreacher's sharp and rough voice seemed to be rubbing Sirius' nerves.

"Kreacher, I order—" "Sirius."

Maca waved his hand at Sirius, and then continued: "Kreacher, it's your business to keep a secret for the master, you don't need to say it—but it's obviously no problem for me to say it."

Kreacher swallowed hard, his bony chest rose and fell rapidly, then he closed his eyes suddenly, and didn't make any sound anymore.

"Sirius, this matter is a secret about Voldemort," Maca said calmly, "so far, only Dumbledore and I know about it, and it is not appropriate to reveal it for the time being...so I can only share the part about your brother." Tell you to listen."

Sirius took a deep breath, regained his composure, and then nodded.

In fact, since Maca has already mentioned this, he already has some premonitions. I'm afraid that my younger brother has done some things that no one expected.

But whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, people can't help but hesitate.

"Go ahead!" said Sirius.

Maca 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 Kreacher to Voldemort..."

"At that time, it should be in the period when Voldemort did not reveal his ambition.") !!