This Hogwarts is not normal

After a brief moment of sadness, Sirius raised his head again and looked at Kreacher who was curled up on the ground crying.

"Where is the locket... the locket that Regulus paid for his life with?"

Kreacher was sobbing so hard that he could only barely hear a few words, "In... in the living room... in the cupboard..."

Sirius clenched his fists again, "Watch out for me Regulus."

Then he turned to the three of them, "Come on, let's go destroy that damn thing!"

On the other side of the porch full of snake-shaped decorations is the dining room. At the end of the porch, you will see a staircase leading upstairs. The decorative panel on the wall next to it is particularly scary, with a row of wrinkled house-elf heads stuck on it.

Frightened, Harry took a closer look and discovered that they all had the same ugly pig nose as Kreacher's.

"Hiss——" He took a deep breath as he thought of something.

Sirius turned around and saw Vincent also looking at the plaque curiously.

He explained to the two with disgust on his face: "The Kreacher family has served the Black family for generations. Our family will cut off the heads of dead elves and glue them on. This is a supreme honor for them."

Harry shuddered. "Do all pure-blood wizard families have such... such cruel rules?"

The disgust on Sirius's face deepened. "It's long gone. Only our family still retains many of these crappy rules."

Harry could see that he hated the Black family from the bottom of his heart and hated everything about this family.

"The living room is upstairs, let's go over there."

Climbing the dim stairs, the four of them came to a gorgeous and exquisite living room.

The living room had a particularly large window that looked out onto the Muggle street outside the house.

There was an ornate cabinet on each side of the prominent fireplace. The wall on the right was covered with a long tapestry with many portraits and names painted densely in the shape of a tree, but many of them had scorched marks as if they had been burned.

"This is our family tree." Sirius said and walked to the cupboard on the left to look through it.

Vincent looked at the French sentence at the top of the tapestry.

"Toujours Pur ..."

Harry asked curiously, "What language is this?"

"In French, this means 'forever pure'."

"You actually know French?"

Vincent smiled and said, "My teacher is French, and I have several friends in France."

Harry looked a little sad. "I envy you for being able to travel around the world. You must have a lot of friends abroad, right?"

There are Rin, Kenny and the others, as well as the Delacour sisters. If we add Sam and the others from the Magical Congress of the United States, then that is indeed not a small number.

"It's okay." Vincent comforted, "Harry, you will definitely meet more and more new friends in the future, just like me."

This Quidditch World Cup was Harry's first time traveling abroad since he was a child, and then the Dark Mark and the Death Eaters revived.

The British Ministry of Magic has not issued any explicit restrictions, but it will probably be much more difficult to go abroad again than before.

Harry thanked him expectantly, then looked towards the cupboard beneath the tapestry.

Just one glance made him feel a little creepy.

The cupboards are filled with strange black magic objects.

Rusty daggers, animal claws, coiled snake skins, crystal bottles filled with blood, silver snuff boxes, multi-legged tweezer-like tools...

The items reminded Harry of Borgin and Burke's.

The same weirdness, the same chilling feeling.

Vincent didn't feel much when he looked at them.

Every year he would receive many more bizarre alchemical items, and he was no longer surprised by them.

"Found it!" Sirius on the left shouted excitedly.

Dumbledore, who was studying the family tree tapestry, walked over quickly.

On the third shelf of the cupboard quietly lay a locket exactly the same as the one in his memory, placed between the shriveled fingers and the wine glass made of the spine.

"Yes, that's it." Dumbledore turned to look at Vincent beside him, "Be careful, there may be a curse against wizards on it."

Vincent nodded solemnly, then moved closer to the cupboard.

Compared to Regulus's fake, the real Slytherin locket is undoubtedly much more exquisite.

Under the golden gem is an "S"-shaped emerald that looks like a snake, and the tiny patterns engraved on the side seem to be some profound magical text.

Vincent opened the glass door of the cupboard, and countless unique auras belonging to dark magic items instantly surged out.

The cold and evil aura did not make him feel uncomfortable. Instead, he sensed a very unique magical power in it.

This feeling is wonderful, indescribable.

He reached for the source of the magic, the Slytherin locket.

Sirius and Harry held their breath, and Dumbledore tightened his grip on the Elder Wand.

Vincent's fingertips gently touched the locket, and something unexpected happened. The unique magic completely disappeared. Apart from the cool touch of metal and gemstones, he could feel nothing else.

He picked up the locket and still felt nothing.

"It seems there is no curse against wizards."

Sirius and Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but Dumbledore looked thoughtful.

Vincent held the locket up to his eyes and examined it carefully.

I have to say, the workmanship is really beautiful.

In medieval Europe, gold and silver jewelry were symbols of identity and status for the royal nobility and the church. They monopolized a series of precious materials and prohibited civilians from wearing or even owning gold and silver jewelry.

The Hogwarts Big Four are clearly unfettered, but the texture of Slytherin's locket and the sword of Gryffindor are very similar, and they should be made of similar materials, which means they come from the goblins' exquisite craftsmanship.

Vincent looked at the Flamel ring on his hand.

There seems to be a vague connection between the three, which is probably because they are all produced by fairies.

"Vincent? Are you okay?"

"Sorry, I was distracted for a moment." He moved the locket away from his eyes.

"Kreacher said that in order to destroy it, we must open it first. Salazar Slytherin places too much emphasis on bloodline. Perhaps only Parseltongue can successfully open it."

The Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk, and the Caduceus all require Parseltongue to activate, and the locket should be the same as well.

But now that I have it, there is no reason not to try it.

Under the gaze of three pairs of unblinking eyes, Vincent gently pushed the small gap on the frame of the locket with his thumb, trying to open it.

A surprising thing happened. The locket was opened successfully.

Including Dumbledore, the four of them were all stunned as if petrified.

After a long while, the silent living room was suddenly filled with the sound of someone swallowing saliva.

Vincent turned his neck stiffly, looking away from the textured green velvet inside the locket.

"Maybe I guessed wrong?"

Sirius and Harry nodded subconsciously, but Dumbledore looked at Vincent with a strange look.

……

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