Chapter 217: A Humble Funeral

Witnessing this touching scene, Harry couldn't help but cry.

In front of him, Sirius held Regulus' body in tears. He wept sadly and kept murmuring. "Let's go home, Regulus, let's go home..."

In Sirius' arms, Regulus was oblivious to it all.

His open eyes were misty, and there seemed to be a cobweb inside them. He reached out his pale, dry hands and hugged Sirius tightly. Not a normal hug, but one filled with malice, to drag Sirius into the lake and drown him.

"Be careful, Sirius...," Harry shouted in a rush, but his voice stopped abruptly.

He felt arms enclose him from behind, thin, fleshless, cold as death, and his feet left the ground as they lifted him up and began to carry him, slowly and surely, back into the water.

Harry struggled to escape, but to no avail. The Inferi were much stronger than he was, and he was dragged and moved slowly toward the lake.

The wand in his hand cast a few spells to no avail and he relapsed into silence.

Harry was desperate. He knew there would be no escape, that he would drown, and become, like Regulus, one more dead guardian of a fragment of Voldemort's shattered soul....

But then, through the darkness, fire burst forth, which was much stronger than Ivan and Hermione's red flames.

A bright golden-red ring of fire surrounded the rocks, so that the Inferi holding Harry stumbled and wavered wildly.

They did not dare pass through the flames to reach the water. They dropped Harry.

Harry fell to the ground, his feet slipping on the rocks and scraping his arms, but he scrambled to get up when he saw Dumbledore, Ivan and Hermione emerge from the flame. Ivan and Hermione were pale, but looked fine. In front of them, Dumbledore looked grave and golden fire danced in his pale blue eyes.

His wand was held up like a torch and from its tip the flames emanated, like a vast ribbon, surrounding them all with heat.

The power of these flames was awesome. The Inferi who encountered it were instantly turned to ashes. The remaining Inferi ran into each other trying to blindly escape from the fire they were enclosed in.....

"Professor, Ivan, Hermione," Harry shouted with delight.

He ran forward two steps and stopped immediately.

He heard Sirius' shouts, and hurried over to see that Sirius and Regulus were fighting at the edge of the flames, and Kreacher stood back without moving.

Because of the fire, Regulus struggled fiercely and wanted to escape into the lake, but Sirius clung to him and wouldn't let go. He blushed from too much effort.

Harry rushed to help, and Ivan and Hermione hurriedly followed.

The three of them worked together to help Sirius hold Regulus down, and Ivan even conjured up a few ropes to tie him up.

But Regulus' strength was astounding, completely beyond the reach of the humans, and they would not stand against him.

Just as everyone was about to give up, Dumbledore approached.

Without flashy magic, he struck Regulus on the head with his wand in his hand, and Regulus immediately calmed down and became a normal corpse again.

In the dark cave, Ivan gasped, taking in the horrifying and eerie sights around him, and the silent Regulus. He knew it was all over, and they finally released Regulus from his endless torture.

They fulfilled Regulus' wishes, destroyed the locket and found his body, freeing him from the evil dark magic.

At that moment, his soul could finally rest in peace.

..........

At dusk, in a cemetery near Grimmauld Square.

It was the Black family cemetery, with a tall, imposing dark marble monument carved with the Black family crest and a remarkable phrase made of jadeite beside it, "The noble and ancient house of Black: Toujours Pur."

Around the monument, there were many gravestones of different ages, of different shapes, but they had one thing in common: they were extremely exquisite.

To the right of the graveyard were the three tall yew trees and the black silhouette of a chapel; to the left of the graveyard, the exquisite old house of 12 Grimmauld Place could be seen.

Like 12 Grimmauld Place, everything here, due to neglect, could only vaguely show the glory of the past.

There were weeds in the graveyard, and from time to time crows fell upon the tombstones, watching the intruders in front of them.

Under the ruthless destruction brought by the years, most of the tall and exquisite tombstones had been damaged. They stood there in silence, silently recounting the history and loneliness of the Blacks.

In the innermost corner of the graveyard, Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin, Ivan, Harry, Hermione and Kreacher stood solemnly in front of a very narrow and ordinary gravestone, which was not very consistent with the surrounding style. They gathered there for Regulus' final farewell.

Lupin arrived after receiving the news. He was waiting for everyone in the Leaky Cauldron, preparing to spend a perfect Christmas with them. He had not expected to receive such news.

There was no one but Lupin.

In fact, they had planned to invite more people to Regulus' funeral, but Sirius thought and didn't know who to invite.

Regulus had worshipped Voldemort madly before his death. He wanted to be a Death Eater, and most of his old relatives and friends were such people. Almost all of them were students of Slytherin House, and eventually became Death Eaters, now dead or locked up in Azkaban, and could not be invited at all.

So, in the end, there were only a few.

Kreacher's stern, dry cries sounded intermittently, like someone playing a violin that was out of tune.

Ivan had never attended a funeral before, and he didn't know what the normal funeral must have been like, but Regulus's funeral was undoubtedly humble, and everything had been hastily prepared.

On the headstone, it was written in brief: Regulus Arcturus Black, a kind Death Eater. He defended his dignity and justice with his own life. He sacrificed his life against Voldemort, he was a worthy hero and the eternal source of pride of the Black family.

Before that, Ivan never thought that the words "kind-hearted" and "Mortician" could be related to each other.

That might be very ironic to other Death Eaters, but it was actually the truest assessment for Regulus.

As will be mentioned later, Regulus stood up for justice with his own life and resisted Voldemort. He was a true hero.

By the gravestone, Sirius looked haggard, tearless, staring silently at his younger brother's coffin.

After a long while, Lupin stepped forward and patted Sirius on the shoulder, and then they slowly filled the grave with earth and laid Regulus to rest.