Chapter 197: The Devotion of the Black Family

"Master Regulus ordered Kreacher out.... to leave him alone. No matter what happened to him, Kreacher could not intervene. "Kreacher's voice was sharp and twisted. He sobbed and said intermittently in a sad tone, "He ordered Kreacher to leave...without him. And he told Kreacher... to go home... and never to tell my mistress... he had ordered... to destroy the locket..... And he..."

Everyone looked at Kreacher, waiting for him to continue; even Ivan was no exception.

Although he already knew that Regulus had finally drunk the potion and died in the cave, it was another feeling entirely to hear the house elf himself recount the scene at that moment.

Ivan could almost see him in the dark cave; surrounded by the Inferi, Sirius' younger brother hesitantly stared at the potion on the stone altar, his heart in constant struggle.

He knew what he was going to do next. He also knew the consequences of doing so. If Voldemort found out, the Black family would be devastated. But he had to do it, even if he died.

Because of his pureblood ideals, Regulus was one of the first to support Voldemort. Black, the oldest and noblest house of wizards, made him "lucky" enough to become a Death Eater at the age of sixteen. Like other evil Death Eaters, he thought that serving the Dark Lord was the ultimate glory.

However, this teenager was not the same as the rest of the Death Eaters.

When Voldemort gradually revealed his true face, when he discovered that Voldemort did not pursue purity of blood, but used brutal means to rule others, when Voldemort tried to kill the innocent Kreacher, Regulus finally realized the difference between the real, cruel world and his fantasies.

The hot blood of youth finally cooled, and his beautiful dreams were shattered.

From that point on, although he still identified himself as a Death Eater, his innate sense of justice drove him away from Voldemort.

Even in the end, he preferred to give his life to resist and get rid of Voldemort's filthy lies.

There is no doubt that Regulus was intelligent. If Ivan remembered correctly, he was the first to discover that Voldemort was making a Horcrux, even before Dumbledore, even though he received no help apart from Kreacher's vague description. It was entirely through his own efforts that he made a thorough investigation of this matter.

At the same time, he was also brave.

To know the true face of Voldemort, when he was determined to prepare to fight him, was at the time when the Dark Lord was at his peak.

Faced with such a powerful and evil Voldemort, as well as an ancestral house, Regulus didn't even have a decent assistant. But still, he chose to destroy the horcrux that gave the Dark Lord immortality with his own life.

Undoubtedly, he was also kind.

As could be seen in Kreacher's words, Regulus was very house elf friendly, unlike most wizards.

Until the last moment, he had no idea of sacrificing Kreacher.

The man who once fanatically worshipped the Dark Lord did not take the elf's death for granted. He chose to drink the deadly potion and told him to go home. That was the last order he issued before his death.

He would rather die in the dark than get his family in trouble.

He used his own methods to protect Kreacher and the Black family.

Suddenly, Ivan realized that there seemed to be an innate sense of devotion in the blood of the Black family members.

This was probably the most distinctive quality of this family, of the oldest and noblest of pure-blooded wizards.

With this devotion, Sirius threw away everything he had, just to pursue freedom.

His cousin, Nymphadora Tonks dedicated herself to following love, disregarding the judgments of the world, and eventually ended up with the werewolf, Lupin.

Bellatrix, Voldemort's most fanatical, dedicated herself to gaining power, becoming the most dangerous and cruel of Voldemort's followers.

Lucius Malfoy's wife, Narcissa, dedicated herself to protecting her family. In the last battle, for Draco's sake, she chose to betray Voldemort and took a great risk in helping Harry hide the fact that he was alive, thus determining the fate of the final battle.

As for Regulus Black, this devotion led him to protect his entire family.

He chose to pay in silence. Besides the house elf himself, no one knew what he had done. No one knew that his thoughts had changed.

In Sirius' mind, his stupid brother became a Death Eater because of his worship of Voldemort and his defense of pureblood ideals.

In his opinion, Regulus didn't even know what that identity meant.

Then, due to his weakness and cowardice, he died in the shadows, without even leaving a corpse. It was ironic to the extreme.

However, the truth could not be further from that.

Like Sirius, he was also a hero, an unsung hero.

He was different from Sirius. The devotion in the depths of his heart and the rebellion buried in his bones had not erupted until the last moments of his life.

Regulus grew up under Sirius' care and his mother's protection. When his brother ran away from home to seek freedom, so as not to worry his old mother, he accepted the family's arrangement and agreed to endure the fate he should not have taken on.

He wanted to protect the Black family, protecting the pure wizarding ancestry of millennia ago, and get it back to its former glory.

However, the Black's singularities made his ultimate demise an inevitable outcome, and everything was destined to happen as it did.

Although his methods were different and the events were different, he ended up following his brother's path.

Standing in the dark basement, looking at the Black family decor surrounded by historical traces, Ivan had a vague realization.

He finally understood that perhaps, this was the power brought by blood.

The experience of the two brothers Sirius and Regulus made Ivan have a deeper understanding of the ancient Black family name.

"So, young Master Regulus.... he..." sobbed Kreacher.

"So, what happened? what did Regulus do?" asked Sirius aloud.

"Then he drank... all the potion...and Kreacher switched the lockets...and watched...as Master Regulus.... was dragged under the water, by the hands of the Inferi..." sobbed Kreacher.

"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, who was in tears.

She knelt down next to the elf and tried to hug him.

But the house elf immediately stood up, pulling away from her, obviously repulsed. "The dirty blood touched Kreacher, she won't allow it! What would his mistress say?"

"I told you not to call her a dirty blood'!" snarled Sirius, but his voice was weaker than ever.

It wasn't until this moment that he knew how his brother died.

He rubbed his eyes, and as Hermione cried, his tears flowed out of control, but he didn't want them to be seen.