HP Cronos

The door swung open, followed by a loud bang.The house elf appeared in front of Nora out of nowhere, reached out to stop her, and cursed in a hoarse voice: "Dirty bastard! Scumbag! How dare you break into Master Regulus' room!"

"Hey, I'm not breaking in, I just want to go in and take a look." Nora argued.

Kreacher ignored her explanation, and cursed to himself: "Mudblood! Thief! Robber! With Kreacher around, you can't even step in!"

At this moment, his cloudy eyes were bloodshot, and his slack muscles were tense.

The movement upstairs was too loud, disturbing Sirius downstairs.He hurried up and glared at Kreacher: "What are you doing?"

In front of his titular master, Kreacher had to bow his head, but he still stood firmly at the door, not moving a step.He muttered in a low voice: "Master allowed a lowly robber to break into Master Regulus' room. Kreacher has no choice but to block here, unless the master orders Kreacher to die..."

Sirius said coldly, "If you can disappear with just one command, that would be great."

Nora quickly said: "Don't say that, he might take it seriously."

Kreacher was still rambling: "The hypocritical Mudblood is begging for Kreacher... Does she think Kreacher will appreciate her? Kreacher has long seen through her hypocrisy and selfishness..."

Nora: "..."

She really wanted to beat him up.

"I just wanted to ask, where did Regulus Black go?" Nora said as calmly as possible.

Kreacher flinched.Sirius asked, "What are you asking about him?"

"How to say... I just want to know how he is. I have met him a few times, and he is still a friend." Nora said.

If you want to talk about how they met, it can only be said to be a long story.

Kreacher murmured: "A Mudblood dares to claim to be Master Regulus' friend. If Madam heard this, how sad she would be..."

Sirius leaned against the door and replied coldly, "He's dead."

"Dead? How—how did he die? When?"

Kreacher trembled even more, and he said in a low trembling voice, "If there is nothing else, Kreacher will back off first. But Kreacher warned the dirty Mudblood that she must never set foot in Master Regulus room, or Kreacher would have—”

"Shut up!" Sirius yelled.He tugged at his hair irritably.After Kreacher disappeared, he turned to look at Nora.

"He died more than ten years ago," Sirius said. "He joined the Death Eaters, but was too scared to quit. But Voldemort was not a patron who would allow his men to hand in their resignations. He disappeared for a long time, and finally my dear My mother also had to believe that he would never come back."

Nora didn't know what to say.

Obviously not long ago Regulus Black was fine.They sat in this room eating the onion and beef soup made by Kreacher, and discussed how to destroy the Horcrux.In the blink of an eye, he has been dead for more than ten years, and no one has even found his body.

"No." Nora shook her head. "He's not someone who would run away from Death Eaters out of fear."

"Who knows. At that time, many young mindless young people joined the Death Eaters, thinking that it would be such a bright future." Sirius said nonchalantly.His eyelashes drooped, casting a shadow on the lying silkworm.

The news of Regulus' death made Nora feel depressed, and she nestled in bed early.

Tom came into the room and sat down beside her.

"Why don't you read a book?" Nora forced himself to ask him.

Tom shook his head.

"Just reading books will never make me really learn magic."

Nora thought for a while and said, "Come here."

Tom moved closer.

Nora drew her wand, and she spoke slowly, "Ro-seVi-de-tur."

A rose appeared on the tip of the wand, and Norah plucked it.Tom took the dewy rose and looked at it carefully: "This is a real rose."

"of course it's true."

"But where did it come from?"

"Who knows?" Nora shrugged.She handed Tom her wand, "Try it."

Tom flicked his wand like her: "Rose Videtur."

A cluster of rose petals erupted from the tip of the wand.

"Failed," said Tom, clutching his wand.

"You've done a pretty good job." Nora praised sincerely, "Imagine the appearance of the rose you want in your heart, and the clearer the outline, the better, and try again."

Tom waved his wand again: "Rose Videtur."

There was a flash of red light, and Nora was drowned in a sea of ​​roses—fortunately, none of them had thorns.

Was he really casting the spell for the first time?Or hold someone else's wand?Nora was rather skeptical.

"Did I screw up?"

"No." Nora struggled to get out of the sea of ​​roses, "You just need to pay more attention to the control of magic power - among the underage wizards, you have already done quite well."

"Rose Videtur." Tom swung his wand a third time.A rose, intact, appeared on the tip of the staff.He plucked the rose and handed the wand back to Nora.

"You're a quick learner," said Nora. "By the time you're 11, there's no wizard your age at Hogwarts who can match you."

"I read in books that some wizards can use wandless magic. Like wizards in Brazil and China ... and goblins," said Tom.

Nora had never cared about this, and she was surprised when she heard the words: "Really? Why did the goblin lose to the wizard?"

"Because they don't understand the mysteries of wands." Tom said, "It is rumored that ancient wizards also used wandless magic, but when wands appeared, those magics were gradually lost, and only items with residual magic remained."

"Sounds amazing."

"We can travel together in the future. Go to places other than Europe." Tom said, he looked at Nora seriously, his black eyes were like two black pearls, "Would you like to go with me?"

Nora smiled. "Of course—if you pay for it."

"you swear."

"Okay, I swear, we will travel around the world together in the future." Nora swore with two fingers.

Tom got a satisfactory answer, and finally smiled a little.It was the first time in days that Nora had seen him smile—real smiles, she said, not counting polite ones.Tom suddenly asked again: "In the future, are we married?"

Nora was caught off guard by the sudden question.She faltered and said: "Marry? Why do you think so? Of course it's impossible. I'm only 17 years old. Do you understand that 17 years old? It's not the legal age for marriage."

Tom sighed, looking very sorry.

Nora couldn't help knocking his head: "Hey, little Jack Gray who is only 10 years old, wait until you grow taller than me."

In fact, that is not far away.After attending Hogwarts, Tom Riddle's height increased suddenly like a bamboo shoot, and he could even grow a few inches a year, and soon reached a height that Nora couldn't match.

But there was no need to tell him these things just yet.

This night Nora still suffered from insomnia as expected.

Tom was still sleeping, curled up in a ball under the blanket, his sleepy face looked innocent under the moonlight, who would have thought that this seemingly harmless little boy would become a big monster that would scare wizards after many years?Nora closed the door and walked out softly, so as not to wake him.

Nora illuminated with her wand and walked to the top floor.

She came to the door with the small door plate, hesitated for a moment, and pushed the door open.

This time the house-elf didn't show up.

The two brothers of the Black family are quite rebellious in their bones, but one is on the surface, and the other is quietly hiding in the bottom of their hearts.Would Regulus Black, a man who dared to plot against Voldemort, be willing to just disappear so quietly?Nora didn't believe it.Even if he were to defect from the Death Eaters, it would be an unforgettable farewell to Voldemort.

This is probably the best preserved room in the whole house.Someone cleaned here every day, and wiped the silver and green decorations and family crests spotless.It's as if its owner never left.

Voldemort's newspaper clippings were not taped to the wall but kept under the bed.There were very few pictures of the Dark Lord in the newspapers, only a few blurry profiles.It seems that the editor of the newspaper also felt that the face that looked like a severely burned patient would scare readers away.

I fumbled around the room for a while, but still couldn't find anything more valuable.There was only one picture of the Quidditch team, with Regulus sitting in the middle, with black hair and dark eyes, and a haughty expression.She stared at the picture for a long time, then carefully put it back in place.

It seems that the clue is not here, Nora sighed softly.She turned around, only to meet Tom in his pajamas.

"Why are you here?" Nora asked.

"I didn't see you when I woke up," said Tom.

He pursed his lips, and that pitiful expression made Nora unable to refuse.

In a completely unfamiliar and even unbelievable environment, he behaved so calmly that it was often forgotten that he was just a ten-year-old child.

"Do you know him? Regulus Atanos Black." Tom asked, pointing to the door plate.

"Yes, we are friends." Nora paused, "He is a good man."

She could only say this to Tom.

Although she hadn't known him for long, she knew that Regulus was a good man, upright, kind and brave.But in the eyes of everyone else, he was just a young man who impulsively joined the Death Eaters and failed to escape and died tragically.There is no sympathy for him, no pity for him, and few people even remember him.

It couldn't be blamed on Sirius, or the Order of the Phoenix, or anyone else.If there was really one person to blame, it could only be the man who called himself Lord Voldmort.

"They said he was a Death Eater."

"Not all Death Eaters are bad."

"I know," said Tom, "the only real villain is Voldemort."

"Do you know why people are so afraid of Voldemort?" Nora asked, and she answered herself: "Because he always brings out the worst in people. Greed, selfishness, cruelty... But there is good in everyone Part. Voldemort was no exception, he just deliberately stripped that part out of his body. He thought he was invincible from now on, but in fact this is why he must lose - a crippled soul cannot win for long."

Tom listened in silence.Nora wondered how much he had listened.She held out her hand to him: "let's go back."

Tom took her hand, and they walked in tandem.The old stairs creaked oppressively.

"What if—" Tom said suddenly, "—what if the Dark Lord didn't strip the good parts on purpose, but never had them?"

Nora's footsteps paused for a moment.After a while, she replied, "Then, we'll fill in the Dark Lord's missing parts."