Chapter 194: The Black Family Tree

Just as Ivan destroyed the Horcrux, Sirius, Harry and Hermione were walking down the stairs in the dark.

"Where did Ivan go, didn't he keep up?" Hermione asked worriedly, looking back and forth every now and then, there was nothing but darkness.

"He might want to say a few words with Kreacher, or visit the house. Don't worry, there's no danger except for my old mother's portrait. I'll go and see him later." Sirius said lightly, "We'll be there soon."

Ten seconds later, they arrived in a spacious room underground.

The scene in front of them was quite spectacular. The room was like a large library. Rows of bookshelves were filled with books, all of them precious magical books.

On the surrounding walls were green tapestries with black family insignia and Black family ornaments. Although many places on the tapestries were as if gnawed by dust, the gold thread with which they were embroidered still shone.

Most striking was the tapestry facing the staircase, which was very large and covered almost the entire wall.

Sirius approached and Harry and Hermione hurried to follow him.

The further they went, the more they could discover the magnificence of this tapestry. Harry clearly saw a family tree with branches and tendrils, dating back to the Middle Ages.

And that wasn't all, he went on and on to the top of the wall.

On the right side of the tapestry, from top to bottom, embroidered with some large golden lettering: THE NOBLE AND ANCIENT HOUSE OF THE BLACK "TOUJOURS PUR"

"This is the Black family tree!" said Sirius quietly. "In addition to this one, there is another piece kept in my mother's room. She considers these two family trees to be her most beloved baby. They are the most direct proof that the family is pure blood, when she was alive, no one but her could touch them!"

"You're not here!" said Harry, after scanning the bottom of the tree.

"I used to be there," Sirius said, pointing to a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like burned by a cigarette. "My sweet old mother sent me away after I ran away from home. I guess it was the same in her room, it was no accident, with my understanding of her, she would definitely do this."

"You ran away from home?" Harry said.

"Yes, When I was about sixteen," Sirius said in a simple tone. "I've had enough."

"Where did you go?" asked Harry, staring at him.

"Your father's house," said Sirius. "Your grandparents were very good about that; they adopted me as their second son. Yes, I camped out at your father's house during school vacations, and when I was seventeen I got a house of my own, my Uncle Alphard had left me a decent amount of gold, he's been cleaned out of here too, probably why."

Sirius pointed to another small round hole in the tapestry and continued, "Anyway, after that I took care of myself. I was always welcome at Mr. and Mrs. Potter's for Sunday lunch. They were all good people."

"But... why...?" asked Hermione.

"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly. "Because I hated them all. You don't know them, Harry: my parents, with their pureblood mania, convinced that being Black made you practically the one...my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them...that's him."

Sirius held out a finger and pointed to a name at the bottom of the family tree chart - Regulus Black.

There was a death date after the birth date, about 13 years ago. That's a year before Voldemort's fall and Sirius' imprisonment.

"He was younger than me," Sirius said, with a trace of disdain at the corner of his mouth, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded."

"But he died," Harry said.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised at all," Sirius said. "Stupid idiot... he joined the Death Eaters."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Harry and Hermione said in unison.

"Come on, haven't you seen enough of this house to tell what kind of wizards my family was?" said Sirius impatiently.

"Were your parents Death Eaters too?" Harry hesitated.

"No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for purifying the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggles and having purebloods in charge." Hearing Sirius, Harry and Hermione had even paler faces.

"They weren't alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things... Some pureblood wizarding families believed him and thought he could lead them back to past glory. But they chickened out when they saw what he was willing to do to gain power. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a hero for enlisting in the beginning," Sirius said disdainfully.

"Was he killed by an Auror?" asked Harry sheepishly.

"Oh, no," Sirius said, and the sneer at the corner of his mouth grew stronger. "No, he was killed by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders more likely, I doubt Regulus was important enough to be killed by Voldemort himself. From what I found out after his death, he joined their ranks, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you can't hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a life of service or death."

You could tell that even though Sirius' tone was full of mockery, there was still a trace of hurt. He was deeply affected by his brother's death.

Otherwise, Sirius wouldn't bother to investigate his death.

Harry wanted to say something to comfort Sirius, but his scar suddenly hurt.

He couldn't help but cry out and cover his forehead with his hand.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Sirius asked worriedly. "Are you..."

He didn't finish his words, on the stairs, there was a sudden deafening scream, the scream of a dying man.

Sirius stared for a moment and ran to the top. Harry and Hermione followed him too, Ivan was still there, had he had some kind of accident?!

They didn't know what was going on, especially Harry, who had an unusually sinister hunch, as if something was coming.

This feeling he had had twice, namely when he had faced Voldemort in first year and Tom Riddle in second year, the voice sounded like Voldemort's. As soon as he thought that Voldemort might be in this house, Harry nearly choked and was afraid to even imagine it.

With all the strength in their bodies, they ran to the top of the stairs as fast as they could, and then collided with something on the stairs.

They all fell, and Sirius jumped up with his wand.

Through the light of his wand, he saw that Ivan was untouched in front of him, looking calm and not at all like someone in danger.