Hogwarts becomes host

Finally, Kreacher drank the potion in the stone basin.

"Kreacher wants to drink the potion!" the old elf cried, "Kreacher should have done this in the first place! This is what the Dark Lord asked Kreacher to do, but Master Regulus disagreed. He let Kreacher go home alive and drank those potions himself. How kind and merciful he is..."

Sirius forbade Kreacher from punishing him, so Kreacher could only hold on to Sirius's robe while crying and begging. He had always regretted that day fourteen years ago, and looked at the regret of the death of his beloved master. And the pain of helplessness tortured it all the time.

Not even Hermione could dissuade Kreacher, Sirius remained silent, and Dumbledore thought it was time to let Kreacher make up for it, as long as they treated him afterwards.

After getting the permission, the elf desperately picked up the potion and poured it into his mouth like a madman. He didn't need anyone to help him at all. Even when the effect of the potion started to take effect and his body lost control, he still showed his strong willpower. Forced myself to drink up all those potions.

Seeing it like this, Sirius sighed deeply, while Hermione sniffed sadly.

Slughorn gently held the fainted Kreacher and began to treat him; Elaine retrieved Regulus's fake locket, put it into Kreacher's hands, and put the prepared makeup box Throw it into an empty stone basin.

In just such a short time, a small amount of green potion had already overflowed from the stone basin.

Although Elaine still wanted to stay and decorate the cave, leave some settings to make Voldemort angry, and free the frozen victims, others no longer wanted to stay in this lifeless cave.

Anyway, Voldemort hasn't been resurrected yet, so there will be plenty of time to do it later.

So everyone returned to Shafik's house with the unconscious Kreacher and Regulus' body.

***

After thinking about it for a long time, Sirius decided to take Regulus' body back to the Black Mansion to report to his mother's portrait.

The portraits in the wizarding world are specially made. The wizard invites people to draw the portraits, and then adds his own thoughts and wisdom to the paintings.

Most of them are left to guide future generations, and some are left to comfort the living.

The more things given, the more difficult the production process will be, and the magic power consumption and maintenance will also increase.

Therefore, portraits mostly contain only the wizard's most notable traits.

Lockhart's portrait, for example, just looks in the mirror like a nymphomaniac.

The portraits of the Black family are different. An ancient wizarding family like them who is not short of money will leave portraits with a certain degree of thinking ability, and they can even treat the portraits as half real people.

Although it is not difficult to instill the magic of intellectual wisdom, it is not easy to find a wizard who is good at painting. Most wizards cannot tolerate an ugly portrait claiming to be themselves.

Therefore, Regulus did not have a portrait of himself. He died too young and had no time to prepare.

If there had been, perhaps his mother, Mrs. Black, would not have gone mad with grief and died.

Declining Harry's suggestion to accompany him, Sirius insisted on setting off alone.

Therefore, Harry and Ron could only stay and help Elaine write letters to others, inviting them to attend Regulus's funeral.

"Why do you want me to write to Malfoy?" Harry looked at the letter in his hand with disgust. "Why did you invite them here! They are Death Eaters!"

"Because Mrs. Malfoy is Regulus's cousin." Elaine said calmly. "She is one of the few Black people still alive, so it would be unreasonable not to invite them."

"Can't I switch with Ron? I also want to write to Tonks─"

"No."

"...Elaine, who are you writing to?"

"Fudge."

Elaine sealed the envelope skillfully, then took out her wand and tapped on the written letter. The white envelope suddenly turned into a red roaring letter.

Harry stared at her dumbfounded, and Elaine could only explain to him.

"That guy sent someone to secretly follow Dumbledore. Although he didn't find anything about us, he was very annoyed. I wrote to the police... to persuade him not to do stupid things. Do you want to change with me?"

"...I'm going to write to Malfoy."

Under this hasty preparation, Regulus's funeral was held three days later at the Black family cemetery.

Kreacher attended with Mrs. Black's picture frame in his arms, and Sirius stood quietly beside him. Mrs. Black did not say bad words to her son, and Sirius did not scold his mother.

Elaine didn't know what Sirius had done, but Regulus's body must have given Mrs. Black and Sirius a great shock.

Perhaps, they hoped to create an illusion of peaceful coexistence to say goodbye to Regulus, who valued his family, so that he could leave with peace of mind.

Harry and Ron carried Regulus' coffin into the cemetery.

There were many people present, including Greengrass, Tonks, and the Malfoy family. Everyone was wearing black wizard robes. Lucius and Draco frowned slightly when they saw Elaine and Dumbledore. But they didn't say anything─or they wanted to say something, but they swallowed it back.

In front of the tombstone, everyone put aside their grudges for the time being and quietly bid farewell to the deceased.

This is a Western custom. On the way to the funeral and during the burial, relatives and friends are not allowed to cry loudly, which means not to disturb the soul of the deceased.

Since the elder of the Black family has passed away, two professors, Dumbledore and Slughorn, are responsible for presiding over the funeral.

Dumbledore read the eulogy beside the tombstone, and Slughorn erected Regulus's tombstone himself.

Regulus Arcturus Black (1961-1979)

He is a noble, proud and brave Slytherin

Kreacher sobbed as he placed Regulus' favorite Seeker's gloves, the Black family crest, and the suicide note in the fake locket into the coffin.

After he stepped away, Sirius picked up the shovel, dug up the soil one shovel after another, and threw it into the grave.

He didn't want to use magic, and he dug the tomb alone last night.

For a wizard who doesn't often get hands-on, this job was too unfamiliar and caused him to get a lot of blisters on his hands.

But he was willing to do this, and this was the only thing he could do for his dead brother.

No one spoke, just stood waiting silently.

Harry heard crying and turned around to see that it was Mrs. Malfoy crying quietly.

Mrs. Tonks, who looked somewhat similar to her, gently let her lean on her shoulder.

Even though the relationship between the two families was not good and the two sisters had broken up, after knowing the cause of Regulus' death, the things they had insisted on in the past seemed to be unimportant.

At least for now.

Elaine sang softly.

Because it is customary to sing hymns at the end of a Western-style funeral, and since she belongs to the Shafiq family, it is not too out of the ordinary.