Kreacher’s Tale
Harry woke early next morning, wrapped in a sleeping bag on the drawing room
floor. A chink of sky was visible between the heavy curtains. It was the cool, clear blue
of watered ink, somewhere between night and dawn, and everything was quiet except for
Ron and Hermione’s slow, deep breathing. Harry glanced over at the dark shapes they
made on the floor beside him. Ron had had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Hermione
sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his. Her arm
curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron’s. Harry wondered whether they had
fallen asleep holding hands. The idea made him feel strangely lonely.
He looked up at the shadowy ceiling, the cobwebbed chandelier. Less than
twenty-four house ago, he had been standing in the sunlight at the entrance to the
marquee, waiting to show in wedding guests. It seemed a lifetime away. What was going
to happen now? He lay on the floor and he thought of the Horcruxes, of the daunting
complex mission Dumbledore had left him… Dumbledore…
The grief that had possessed him since Dumbledore’s death felt different now.
The accusations he had heard from Muriel at the wedding seemed to have nested in his
brain like diseased things, infecting his memories of the wizard he had idolized. Could
Dumbledore have let such things happen? Had he been like Dudley, content to watch
neglect and abuse as long as it did not affect him? Could he have turned his back on a
sister who was being imprisoned and hidden?
Harry thought of Godric’s Hollow, of graves Dumbledore had never mentioned
there; he thought of mysterious objects left without explanation in Dumbledore’s will,
and resentment swelled in the darkness. Why hadn’t Dumbledore told him? Why hadn’t
he explained? Had Dumbledore actually cared about Harry at all? Or had Harry been
nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed, but not trusted, never confided in?
Harry could not stand lying there with nothing but bitter thoughts for company.
Desperate for something to do, for distraction, he slipped out of his sleeping bad, picked
up his wand, and crept out of the room. On the landing he whispered, “Lumos,” and
started to climb the stairs by wandlight.
On the second landing was the bedroom in which he and Ron had slept last time
they had been here; he glanced into it. The wardrobe doors stood open and the bedclothes
had been ripped back. Harry remembered the overturned troll leg downstairs. Somebody
had searched the house since the Order had left. Snape? Or perhaps Mundungus, who had
pilfered plenty from this house both before and after Sirius died? Harry’s gaze wandered
to the portrait that sometimes contained Phineas Nigellus Black, Sirius’s great-great
grandfather, but it was empty, showing nothing but a stretch of muddy backdrop. Phineas
Nigellus was evidently spending the night in the headmaster’s study at Hogwarts.
Harry continued up the stairs until he reached the topmost landing where there
were only two doors. The one facing him bore a nameplate reading Sirius. Harry had
never entered his godfather’s bedroom before. He pushed open the door, holding his
wand high to cast light as widely as possible. The room was spacious and must once have
been handsome. There was a large bed with a carved wooden headboard, a tall window
obscured by long velvet curtains and a chandelier thickly coated in dust with candle
scrubs still resting in its sockets, solid wax banging in frostlike drips. A fine film of dust
covered the pictures on the walls and the bed’s headboard; a spiders web stretched
between the chandelier and the top of the large wooden wardrobe, and as Harry moved
deeper into the room, he head a scurrying of disturbed mice.
The teenage Sirius had plastered the walls with so many posters and pictures that
little of the wall’s silvery-gray silk was visible. Harry could only assume that Sirius’s
parents had been unable to remove the Permanent Sticking Charm that kept them on the
wall because he was sure they would not have appreciated their eldest son’s taste in
decoration. Sirius seemed to have long gone out of his way to annoy his parents. There
were several large Gryffindor banners, faded scarlet and gold just to underline his
difference from all the rest of the Slytherin family. There were many pictures of Muggle
motorcycles, and also (Harry had to admire Sirius’s nerve) several posters of bikini-clad
Muggle girls. Harry could tell that they were Muggles because they remained quite
stationary within their pictures, faded smiles and glazed eyes frozen on the paper. This
was in contrast the only Wizarding photograph on the walls which was a picture of four
Hogwarts students standing arm in arm, laughing at the camera.
With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognized his father, his untidy black hair stuck
up at the back like Harry’s, and he too wore glasses. Beside him was Sirius, carelessly
handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger and happier than Harry had ever
seen it alive. To Sirius’s right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and
watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the
much-admired rebels that James and Sirius had been. On James’s left was Lupin, even
then a little shabby-looking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding
himself liked and included or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he
saw these things in the picture? He tried to take it from the wall; it was his now, after all,
Sirius had left him everything, but it would not budge. Sirius had taken no chances in
preventing his parents from redecorating his room.
Harry looked around at the floor. The sky outside was growing brightest. A shaft
of light revealed bits of paper, books, and small objects scattered over the carpet.
Evidently Sirius’s bedroom had been reached too, although its contents seemed to have
been judged mostly, if not entirely, worthless. A few of the books had been shaken
roughly enough to part company with the covers and sundry pages littered the floor.
Harry bent down, picked up a few of the pieces of paper, and examined them. He
recognized one as a part of an old edition of A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot,
and another as belonging to a motorcycle maintenance manual. The third was
handwritten and crumpled. He smoothed it out.
Dear Padfoot,
Thank you, thank you, for Harry’s birthday present! It was his favorite by
far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased
with himself. I’m enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet
off the ground but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent
me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course James thought it was so funny, says
he’s going to be a great Quidditch player but we’ve had to pack away all the ornaments
and make sure we don’t take our eyes off him when he gets going.
We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda who has always been
sweet to us and who dotes on Garry. We were so sorry you couldn’t come, but the
Order’s got to come first, and Harry’s not old enough to know it’s his birthday anyway!
James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell – also
Dumbledore’s still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you
could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend. I thought he
seemed down, but that was probably the next about the McKinnons; I cried all evening
when I heard.
Bathilda drops in most days, she’s a fascinating old thing with the most amazing
stories about Dumbledore. I’m not sure he’d be pleased if he knew! I don’t know how
much to believe, actually because it seems incredible that Dumbledore
Harry’s extremities seemed to have gone numb. He stood quite still, holding the
miraculous paper in his nerveless fingers while inside him a kind of quiet eruptions sent
joy and grief thundering its equal measure through his veins. Lurching to the bed, he sat
down.
He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done
the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her “g”s
the same way he did. He searched through the letter for every one of them, and each felt
like a friendly little wave glimpsed from behind a veil. The letter was an incredible
treasure, proof that Lily Potter had lived, really lived, that her warm hand had once
moved across this parchment, tracing ink into these letters, these words, words about him,
Harry, her son.
Impatiently brushing away the wetness in his eyes, he reread the letter, this time
concentrating on the meaning. It was like listening to a half-remembered voice.
They had a cat… perhaps it had perished, like his parents at Godric’s Hollow… or
else fled when there was nobody left to feed it… Sirius had bought him his first
broomstick… His parents had known Bathilda Bagshot; had Dumbledore introduced
them? Dumbledore’s still got his Invisibility Cloak… there was something funny there…
Harry paused, pondering his mother’s words. Why had Dumbledore taken
James’s Invisibility Cloak? Harry distinctly remembered his headmaster telling him years
before, “I don’t need a cloak to become invisible” Perhaps some less gifted Order
member had needed its assistance, and Dumbledore had acted as a carrier? Harry passed
on…
Wormy was here… Pettigrew, the traitor, had seemed “down” had he? Was he
aware that he was seeing James and Lily alive for the last time?
And finally Bathilda again, who told incredible stories about Dumbledore. It
seems incredible that Dumbledore ---
That Dumbledore what? But there were any number of things that would seem
incredible about Dumbledore; that he had once received bottom marks in a
Transfiguration test, for instance or had taken up goat charming like Aberforth…
Harry got to his feet and scanned the floor: Perhaps the rest of the letter was here
somewhere. He seized papers, treating them in his eagerness, with as little consideration
as the original searcher, he pulled open drawers, shook out books, stood on a chair to run
his hand over the top of the wardrobe, and crawled under the bed and armchair.
At last, lying facedown on the floor, he spotted what looked like a torn piece of
paper under the chest of drawers. When he pulled it out, it proved to be most of the
photograph that Lily had described in her letter. A black-haired baby was zooming in and
out of the picture on a tiny broom, roaring with laughter, and a pair of legs that must have
belonged to James was chasing after him. Harry tucked the photograph into his pocket
with Lily’s letter and continued to look for the second sheet.
After another quarter of an hour, however he was forced to conclude that the rest
of his mother’s letter was gone. Had it simply been lost in the sixteen years that had
elapsed since it had been written, or had it been taken by whoever had searched the
room? Harry read the first sheet again, this time looking for clues as to what might have
made the second sheet valuable. His toy broomstick could hardly be considered
interesting to the Death Eaters… The only potentially useful thing he could see her was
possible information on Dumbledore. It seems incredible that Dumbledore – what?
“Harry? Harry? Harry!”
“I’m here!” he called, “What’s happened?”
There was a clatter of footsteps outside the door, and Hermione burst inside.
“We woke up and didn’t know where you were!” she said breathlessly. She turned
and shouted over her shoulder, “Ron! I’ve found him”
Ron’s annoyed voice echoed distantly from several floors below.
“Good! Tell him from me he’s a git!”
“Harry don’t just disappear, please, we were terrified! Why did you come up here
anyway?” She gazed around the ransacked room. “What have you been doing?”
“Look what I’ve just found”
He held out his mother’s letter. Hermione took it out and read it while Harry
watched her. When she reached the end of the page she looked up at him.
“Oh Harry…”
“And there’s this too”
He handed her the torn photograph, and Hermione smiled at the baby zooming in
and out of sight on the toy broom.
“I’ve been looking for the rest of the letter,” Harry said, “but it’s not here.”
Hermione glanced around.
“Did you make all this mess, or was some of it done when you got here?”
“Someone had searched before me,” said Harry.
“I thought so. Every room I looked into on the way up had been disturbed. What
were they after, do you think?”
“Information on the Order, if it was Snape.”
“But you’d think he’d already have all he needed. I mean was in the Order, wasn’t
he?”
“Well then,” said Harry, keen to discuss his theory, “what about information on
Dumbledore? The second page of the letter, for instance. You know this Bathilda my
mum mentions, you know who she is?”
“Who?”
“Bathilda Bagshot, the author of –“
“A History of Magic,” said Hermione, looking interested. “So your parents knew
her? She was an incredible magic historian.”
“And she’s still alive,” said Harry, “and she lives in Godric’s Hollow. Ron’s
Auntie Muriel was talking about her at the wedding. She knew Dumbledore’s family too.
Be pretty interesting to talk to, wouldn’t she?” There was a little too much understanding
in the smile Hermione gave him for Harry’s liking. He took back the letter and the
photograph and tucked them inside the pouch around his neck, so as not to have to look at
her and give himself away. “I understand why you’d love to talk to her about your mum
and dad, and Dumbledore too,” said Hermione. “But that wouldn’t really help us in our
search for the Horcruxes, would it?” Harry did not answer, and she rushed on, “Harry, I
know you really want to go to Godric’s Hollow, but I’m scared. I’m scared at how easily
those Death Eaters found us yesterday. It just makes me feel more than ever that we
ought to avoid the place where your parents are buried, I’m sure they’d be expecting you
to visit it.”
“It’s not just that,” Harry said, still avoiding looking at her, “Muriel said stuff
about Dumbledore at the wedding. I want to know the truth…”
He told Hermione everything that Muriel had told him. When he had finished,
Hermione said, “Of course, I can see why that’s upset you, Harry –“
“I’m not upset,” he lied, “I’d just like to know whether or not it’s true or –“
“Harry do you really think you’ll get the truth from a malicious old woman like
Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter? How can you believe them? You knew Dumbledore!”
“I thought I did,” he muttered.
“But you know how much truth there was in everything Rita wrote about you!
Doge is right, how can you let these people tarnish your memories of Dumbledore?”
He looked away, trying not to betray the resentment he felt. There it was again:
Choose what to believe. He wanted the truth. Why was everybody so determined that he
should not get it?
“Shall we go down to the kitchen?” Hermione suggested after a little pause. “Find
something for breakfast?”
He agreed, but grudgingly, and followed her out onto the landing and past the
second door that led off it. There were deep scratch marks in the paintwork below a small
sign that he had not noticed in the dark. He passed at the top of the stairs to read it. It was
a pompous little sign, neatly lettered by hand the sort of thing that Percy Weasley might
have stuck on his bedroom door.
Do Not Enter
Without the Express Permission of
Regulus Arcturus Black
Excitement trickled through Harry, but he was not immediately sure why. He read the
sign again. Hermione was already a flight of stairs below him.
“Hermione,” he said, and he was surprised that his voice was so calm. “Come
back up here.”
“What’s the matter?”
“R.A.B. I think I’ve found him.”
There was a gasp, and then Hermione ran back up the stairs.
“In your mum’s letter? But I didn’t see –“
Harry shook his head, pointing at Regulus’s sign. She read it, then clutched
Harry’s arm so tightly that he winced.
“Sirius’s brother?” she whispered.
“He was a Death Eater,” said Harry. “Sirius told me about him, he joined up when
he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave – so they killed him.”
“That fits!” gasped Hermione. “If he was a Death Eater he had access to
Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring
Voldemort down!”
She released Harry, leaned over the banister, and screamed, “Ron! RON! Get up
here, quick!”
Ron appeared, panting, a minute later, his wand ready in his hand.
“What’s up? If it’s massive spiders again I want breakfast before I –“
He frowned at the sign on Regulus’s door, in which Hermione was silently
pointing.
“What? That was Sirius’s brother, wasn’t it? Regulus Arcturus … Regulus …
R.A.B.! The locket – you don’t reckon -- ?”
“Let’s find out,” said Harry. He pushed the door: It was locked. Hermione pointed
her wand at the handle and said, “Alohamora.” There was a click, and the door swung
open.
They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus’s bedroom was
slightly smaller than Sirius’s, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas
Sirius had sought to advertise his diffidence from the rest of the family, Regulus had
striven to emphasize the opposite. The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were
everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was
painstakingly painted over the bed, along with its motto, TOUJOURS PUR. Beneath this
was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged
collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.
“They’re all about Voldemort,” she said. “Regulus seems to have been a fan for a
few years before he joined the Death Eaters …”
A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings.
Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph: a Hogwarts Quidditch team was
smiling and waving out of the frame. He moved closer and saw the snakes emblazoned
on their chests: Slytherins. Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the
middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his
brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.
“He played Seeker,” said Harry.
“What?” said Hermione vaguely; she was still immersed in Voldemort’s press
clippings.
“He’s sitting in the middle of the front row, that’s where the Seeker … Never
mind,” said Harry, realizing that nobody was listening. Ron was on his hands and knees,
searching under the wardrobe. Harry looked around the room for likely hiding places and
approached the desk. Yet again, somebody had searched before them. The drawers’
contents had been turned over recently, the dust disturbed, but there was nothing of value
there: old quills, out-of-date textbooks that bore evidence of being roughly handled, a
recently smashed ink bottle, its sticky residue covering the contents of the drawer.
“There’s an easier way,” said Hermione, as Harry wiped his inky fingers on his
jeans. She raised her wand and said, “Accio Locket!”
Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains,
looked disappointed.
“Is that it, then? It’s not here?”
“Oh, it could still be here, but under counter-enchantments,” said Hermione.
“Charms to prevent it from being summoned magically, you know.”
“Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave,” said Harry, remembering
how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.
“How are we supposed to find it then?” asked Ron.
“We search manually,” said Hermione.
“That’s a good idea,” said Ron, rolling his eyes, and he resumed his examination
of the curtains.
They combed every inch of the room for more than an hour, but were forced,
finally, to conclude that the locket was not there.
The sun had risen now; its light dazzled them even through the grimy landing
windows.
“It could be somewhere else in the house, though,” said Hermione in a rallying
tone as they walked back downstairs. As Harry and Ron had become more discouraged,
she seemed to have become more determined. “Whether he’d manage to destroy it or not,
he’d want to keep it hidden from Voldemort, wouldn’t he? Remember all those awful
things we had to get rid of when we were here last time? That clock that shot bolts at
everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle Ron; Regulus might have put them
there to protect the locket’s hiding place, even though we didn’t realize it at … at … “
Harry and Ron looked at her. She was standing with one foot in midair, with the
dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of
focus.
“… at the time,” she finished in a whisper.
“Something wrong?” asked Ron.
“There was a locket.”
“What?” said Harry and Ron together.
“In the cabinet in the drawing room. Nobody could open it. And we … we … “
Harry felt as though a brick had slid down through his chest into his stomach. He
remembered. He had even handled the thing as they passed it around, each trying in turn
to pry it open. It had been tossed into a sack of rubbish, along with the snuffbox of
Wartcap powder and the music box that had made everyone sleepy …”
“Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us,” said Harry. It was the only
chance, the only slender hope left to them, and he was going to cling to it until forced to
let go. “He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C’mon.”
He ran down the stairs taking two steps at a time, the other two thundering along
in his wake. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius’s mother as
they passed through the hall.
“Filth! Mudbloods! Scum!” she screamed after them as they dashed down into the
basement kitchen and slammed the door behind them. Harry ran the length of the room,
skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher’s cupboard, and wrenched it open. There was the
nest of dirty old blankets in which the house-elf had once slept, but they were not longer
glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. The only thing there was an old copy
of Nature’s Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. Refusing to believe his eyes, Harry
snatched up the blankets and shook them. A dead mouse fell out and rolled dismally
across the floor. Ron groaned as he threw himself into a kitchen chair; Hermione closed
her eyes.
“It’s not over yet,” said Harry, and he raised his voice and called, “Kreacher!”
There was a loud crack and the house elf that Harry had so reluctantly inherited
from Sirius appeared out of nowhere in front of the cold and empty fireplace: tiny, half
human-sized, his pale skin hanging off him in folds, white hair sprouting copiously from
his batlike ears. He was still wearing the filthy rag in which they had first met him, and
the contemptuous look he bent upon Harry showed that his attitude to his change of
ownership had altered no more than his outfit.
“Master,” croaked Kreacher in his bullfrog’s voice, and he bowed low; muttering
to his knees, “back in my Mistress’s old house with the blood-traitor Weasley and the
Mudblood –“
“I forbid you to call anyone ‘blood traitor’ or ‘Mudblood,’” growled Harry. He
would have found Kreacher, with his snoutlike nose and bloodshot eyes, a distinctively
unlovable object even if the elf had not betrayed Sirius to Voldemort.
“I’ve got a question for you,” said Harry, his heart beating rather fast as he looked
down at the elf, “and I order you to answer it truthfully. Understand?”
“Yes, Master,” said Kreacher, bowing low again. Harry saw his lips moving
soundlessly, undoubtedly framing the insults he was now forbidden to utter.
“Two years ago,” said Harry, his heart now hammering against his ribs, “there
was a big gold locket in the drawing room upstairs. We threw it out. Did you steal it
back?”
There was a moment’s silence, during which Kreacher straightened up to look
Harry full in the face. Then he said, “Yes.”
“Where is it now?” asked Harry jubilantly as Ron and Hermione looked gleeful.
Kreacher closed his eyes as though he could not bear to see their reactions to his
next word.
“Gone.”
“Gone?” echoed Harry, elation floating out of him, “What do you mean, it’s
gone?”
The elf shivered. He swayed.
“Kreacher,” said Harry fiercely, “I order you –“
“Mundungus Fletcher,” croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. “Mundungus
Fletcher stole it all; Miss Bella’s and Miss Cissy’s pictures, my Mistress’s gloves, the
Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and – and – “
Kreacher was gulping for air: His hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then
his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.
“—and the locket, Master Regulus’s locket. Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed
in his orders!”
Harry reacted instinctively: As Kreacher lunged for the poker standing in the grate,
he launched himself upon the elf, flattening him. Hermione’s scream mingled with
Kreacher’s but Harry bellowed louder than both of them: “Kreacher, I order you to stay
still!”
He felt the elf freeze and released him. Kreacher lay flat on the cold stone floor,
tears gushing from his sagging eyes.
“Harry, let him up!” Hermione whispered.
“So he can beat himself up with the poker?” snorted Harry, kneeling beside the elf.
“I don’t think so. Right. Kreacher, I want the truth: How do you know Mundungus
Fletcher stole the locket?”
“Kreacher saw him!” gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his
mouth full of graying teeth. “Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher’s cupboard with
his hands full of Kreacher’s treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but
Mundungus Fletcher laughed and r-ran … “
“You called the locket ‘Master Regulus’s,’” said Harry. “Why? Where did it
come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything
you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!”
The elf sat up, curled into a ball, placed his wet face between his knees, and began
to rock backward and forward. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct
in the silent, echoing kitchen.
“Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my
Mistress’s heart with his lawless ways. But Master Regulus had proper order; he knew
what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked
of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles
and the Muggle-borns … and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the
Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve …
And one day, a year after he joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to
see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said … he
said …”
The old elf rocked faster than ever.
“… he said that the Dark Lord required an elf.”
“Voldemort needed an elf?” Harry repeated, looking around at Ron and Hermione,
who looked just as puzzled as he did.
“Oh yes,” moaned Kreacher. “And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It
was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure
to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do … and then to c-come home.”
Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs.
“So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what
they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the
cave was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake … “
The hairs on the back of Harry’s neck stood up. Kreacher’s croaking voice
seemed to come to him from across the dark water. He saw what had happened as clearly
as though he had been present.
“… There was a boat …”
Of course there had been a boat; Harry knew the boat, ghostly green and tiny,
bewitched so as to carry one wizard and one victim toward the island in the center. This,
then, was how Voldemort had tested the defenses surrounding the Horcrux, by borrowing
a disposable creature, a house-elf…
“There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made
Kreacher drink it …”
The elf quaked from head to foot.
“Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible thing … Kreacher’s insides
burned … Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black,
but the Dark Lord only laughed … He made Kreacher drink all the potion … He dropped
a locket into the empty basin … He filled it with more potion.”
“And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island … “
Harry could see it happening. He watched Voldemort’s white, snakelike face
vanishing into darkness, those red eyes fixed pitilessly on the thrashing elf whose death
would occur within minutes, whenever he succumbed to the desperate thirst that the
burning poison caused its victim … But here, Harry’s imagination could go no further,
for he could not see how Kreacher had escaped.
“Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island’s edge and he drank from the
black lake … and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under
the surface … “
“How did you get away?” Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself
whispering.
Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked Harry with his great, bloodshot eyes.
“Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,” he said.
“I know – but how did you escape the Inferi?”
Kreacher did not seem to understand.
“Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,” he repeated.
“I know, but – “
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it, Harry?” said Ron. “He Disapparated!”
“But … you couldn’t Apparate in and out of that cave,” said Harry, “otherwise
Dumbledore – “
“Elf magic isn’t like wizard’s magic, is it?” said Ron, “I mean, they can Apparate
and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can’t.”
There was a silence as Harry digested this. How could Voldemort have made such
a mistake? But even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy.
“Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far
beneath his notice … It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic
that he didn’t.”
“The house-elf’s highest law is his Master’s bidding,” intoned Kreacher.
“Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home … “
“Well, then, you did what you were told, didn’t you?” said Hermione kindly.
“You didn’t disobey orders at all!”
Kreacher shook his head, rocking as fast as ever.
“So what happened when you got back?” Harry asked. “What did Regulus say
when you told him what happened?”
“Master Regulus was very worried, very worried,” croaked Kreacher. “Master
Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then … it was a
little while later … Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and
Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could
tell … and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone
with the Dark Lord … “
And so they had set off. Harry could visualize them quite clearly, the frightened
old elf and the thin, dark Seeker who had so resembled Sirius … Kreacher knew how to
open the concealed entrance to the underground cavern, knew how to raise the tiny boat:
this time it was his beloved Regulus who sailed with him to the island with its basin of
poison …
“And he made you drink the poison?” said Harry, disgusted.
But Kreacher shook his head and wept. Hermione’s hands leapt to her mouth: She
seemed to have understood something.
“M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord
had,” said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snoutlike nose. “And he told
Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets …”
Kreacher’s sobs came in great rasps now; Harry had to concentrate hard to
understand him.
“And he order – Kreacher to leave – without him. And he told Kreacher – to go
home – and never to tell my Mistress – what he had done – but to destroy – the first
locket. And he drank – all the potion – and Kreacher swapped the lockets – and watched
… as Master Regulus … was dragged beneath the water … and … “
“Oh, Kreacher!” wailed Hermione, who was crying. She dropped to her knees
beside the elf and tried to hug him. At once he was on his feet, cringing away from her,
quite obviously repulsed.
“The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would his Mistress
say?”
“I told you not to call her ‘Mudblood’!” snarled Harry, but the elf was already
punishing himself. He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.
“Stop him – stop him!” Hermione cried. “Oh, don’t you see now how sick it is,
the way they’ve got to obey?”
“Kreacher – stop, stop!” shouted Harry.
The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his
snot, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his
eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Harry had never seen anything so
pitiful.
“So you brought the locket home,” he said relentlessly, for he was determined to
know the full story. “And you tried to destroy it?”
“Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it,” moaned the elf. “Kreacher tried
everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work … So many powerful
spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it
would not open … Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he
tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And
his mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher
could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him
to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave …”
Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words. Tears
flowed down Hermione’s cheeks as she watched Kreacher, but she did not dare touch
him again. Even Ron, who was no fan of Kreacher’s, looked troubled. Harry sat back on
his heels and shook his head, trying to clear it.
“I don’t understand you, Kreacher,” he said finally. “Voldemort tried to kill you,
Regulus died to bring Voldemort down, but you were still happy to betray Sirius to
Voldemort? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information to
Voldemort through them … “
“Harry, Kreacher doesn’t think like that,” said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the
back of her hand. “He’s a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what
Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn’t that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars
mean to an elf like Kreacher? He’s loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black
must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted
their beliefs. I know what you’re going to say,” she went on as Harry began to protest,
“that Regulus changed his mind … but he doesn’t seem to have explained that to
Kreacher, does he?” And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus’s family were all
safest if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all.”
“Sirius – “
“Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it’s no good looking like that, you
know it’s true. Kreacher had been alone for such a long time when Sirius came to live
here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I’m sure ‘Miss Cissy’ and ‘Miss
Bella’ were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up, so he did them a favor and
told them everything they wanted to know. I’ve said all along that wizards would pay for
how they treat house-elves. Well, Voldemort did … and so did Sirius.”
Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he
remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius’s death: I do not
think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human’s …
“Kreacher,” said Harry after a while, “when you feel up to it, er … please sit up.”
It was several minutes before Kreacher hiccupped himself into silence. Then he
pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a
small child.
“Kreacher, I am going to ask you to do something,” said Harry. He glanced at
Hermione for assistance. He wanted to give the order kindly, but at the same time, he
could not pretend that it was not an order. However, the change in his tone seemed to
have gained her approval: She smiled encouragingly.
“Kreacher, I want you, please, to go and find Mundungus Fletcher. We need to
find out where the locket – where Master Regulus’s locket it. It’s really important. We
want to finish the work Master Regulus started, we want to – er – ensure that he didn’t
die in vain.”
Kreacher dropped his fists and looked up at Harry.
“Find Mundungus Fletcher?” he croaked.
And bring him here, to Grimmauld Place,” said Harry. “Do you think you could
do that for us?”
As Kreacher nodded and got to his feet, Harry had a sudden inspiration. He pulled
out Hagrid’s purse and took out the fake Horcrux, the substitute locket in which Regulus
had placed the note to Voldemort.
“Kreacher, I’d, er, like you to have this,” he said, pressing the locket into the elf’s
hand. “This belonged to Regulus and I’m sure he’d want you to have it as a token of
gratitude for what you—“
“Overkill, mate,” said Ron as the elf took one look at the locket, let out a howl of
shock and misery, and threw himself back onto the ground.
It took them nearly half an hour to calm down Kreacher, who was so overcome to
be presented with a Black family heirloom for his very own that he was too weak at the
knees to stand properly. When finally he was able to totter a few steps they all
accompanied him to his cupboard, watched him tuck up the locket safely in his dirty
blankets, and assured him that they would make its protection their first priority while he
was away. He then made two low bows to Harry and Ron, and even gave a funny little
spasm in Hermione’s direction that might have been an attempt at a respectful salute,
before Disapparating with the usual loud crack.