Chapter 192: Slytherin’s Locket (Patreon)
Content
"I won’t do anything, and no one wants to have anything to do with that mouldy tapestry." Sirius shouted, "Enough Kreacher! Before I can't help but kill you, go away, now!"
Kreacher dragged his feet and moved to the side. He did not dare to disobey a direct order.
Sirius, Harry, Hermione, and Evan passed by Kreacher one by one. It felt terrible. He stood there, staring at them with bloodshot eyes. His look was redolent of deepest loathing.
His stares felt like a curse being put upon them.
“Sirius, he’s not right in the head,” said Hermione pleadingly, “I don’t think he realizes we can hear him.”
"That guy understands everything, but he’s been alone too long. Since my mother died, he has never been in touch with anyone else." Sirius said, "I suspect that he’s been taking mad orders from my mother’s portrait and talking to himself, but he was always a foul little..."
"If you just set him free!" Hermione said hopefully, "maybe..."
"The fright… the shock would kill him." Black explained, "You don't know house-elves, Hermione. They have to serve the wizard family for generations, and the history of Kreacher's ancestors serving the Black family can be traced through the centuries. He cannot leave. If you don't believe it, you can give it a try and suggest to him that he should leave this house, see how he takes it."
Sirius, Harry, and Hermione were talking, and their figures disappeared into the dark way.
Evan hesitated for a moment and stayed. He wanted to ask Kreacher about the Slytherin’s Locket.
He looked closely at him, and Kreacher was quietly looking back.
Kreacher didn't talk. If it wasn't for his chest that went up and down as he breathed, Evan wouldn't have a way to know that he was alive.
"Kreacher, I have a question for you, about..."
"The nasty little brat wants to talk to Kreacher. It's a shame. The young Master took the other two brats to see the Black family’s collection. Kreacher must tell the Mistress about it.”
Kreacher once again bowed to Evan, his face full of disdain and disgust.
Then he took the thick, dusty green tapestry and turned away from the basement as if to go to the portrait of Mrs. Black in the upper hall.
Evan’s eyes followed him until he left the basement.
He sighed. In the current situation, it was very hard to communicate with Kreacher. Even normal communication was out of the question, let alone asking him about the Slytherin's Locket. This was impossible.
The house was so big, and Evan wanted to find it by himself.
In his mind, he tried to remember the details related to that Horcrux. After Slytherin’s Locket was made into a Horcrux by Voldemort, it was hidden in a cave on an isolated island far from Hogwarts, where he put the locket in the bottom of a bowl, and then used a spell to fill the bowl with potions that made who ever tried to drink them feel like hell. And it was made so that one could only get access to the Locket after drinking the bowl empty.
Voldemort borrowed Kreacher from Sirius's younger brother, Regulus Black, and used the house-elf to test the Locket’s defences.
Through Kreacher, Regulus went to the cave to take the Locket.
He turned against Voldemort and prepared to stop his plans. He drank the potions and put a fake locket back into the container. Then, he ordered Kreacher to take the Locket and escape without him and find a way to destroy the Horcrux. When he tried to get water from the lake to quench his thirst, he was dragged to his death by the Inferi, and his corpse remained there forever.
The Locket was taken away by Kreacher, but he couldn't destroy it.
One could make a very ordinary item into a Horcrux. But once it is injected with a part of the user’s soul and made into a one, that item becomes the most evil black magic item in the world. The incredible power of the evil magic used to make it renders the Horcrux almost indestructible.
Now, Slytherin’s Locket is hidden in the house by the house-elf Kreacher.
Evan thought carefully and recalled other details.
Kreacher couldn't destroy this Horcrux, and then Mundungus Fletcher stole it from him and sold it to Umbridge. Harry sneaked into the Ministry of Magic and found Umbridge wearing the Locket. Ron finally destroyed it with Gryffindor’s sword.
Further details, the most important ones, like the Locket’s placement in the Black’s place at that moment were unknown to Evan.
He thought about it carefully and never recalled anything else.
But he shouldn’t be too eager. He needs to be careful. This matter is not too frustrating. He just needed to tell Dumbledore that the Locket in the cave was fake. With that, the Headmaster would no longer need to risk his life drinking those wicked potions.
Evan immerged from his trip in thoughts, and started preparing to go down with Sirius, Harry and Hermione. But right then, he stopped.
God, what did he see?!
He suddenly saw what he had been looking for, Voldemort's Horcrux, Slytherin’s Locket. The gold pendant was quietly placed in the cupboard in front of him, one that was particularly ugly. Silverware and the Locket were placed all over it, less than two meters away from him.
It was absolutely the one. When Evan went back in time, he saw this locket on Slytherin’s neck.
On top of the golden pendant was a serpentine S, inlaid with glittering, green stones. It was the characteristic emblem of the Slytherin House.
Evan couldn’t hold himself from jumping on it. He couldn’t help but clench his fists. He should have thought of where a house-elf would hide things!
He looked around, and found no one looking…
Evan gulped. It was as if he expected such a thing to happen, as he had always carried around the Basilisk’s fang.
This was his opportunity to destroy this Horcrux once and for all.
He walked over, his hands sweating from the tension.
He slowly opened the cupboards rusty door and reached for the Locket.
Next to Slytherin’s Locket was a spider-like tweezers with plenty of legs.
Right when Evan stepped over, it seemed like the tweezers had sensed something. It came to life all of a sudden and jumped on his arm, crawling on it like a spider and wanting to puncture his skin.