Regulus Black the Potions Master

Capítulo 27

Regulus Black

Regulus was irritated, perhaps this was inherent in anyone who spent a lot of time with Dumbledore. You only have to look at Minerva to see that, Regulus was sure she'd be a lot less stressed if she were a teacher anywhere else.

Living with Lockhart was helping to worsen her mood as if a petrified child wasn't enough for that.

This whole Secret Chamber thing is such a nightmare. Regulus remembers that moment at the teachers' meeting at the end of July when he thought that nothing could be worse than Lockhart. He missed that time terribly.

The morning after they found little Creevey petrified, he went down to the greenhouses so that he could talk to Sprout alone and see the mandrakes. Unfortunately, although they were healthy, the plants were still too small to make the tonic, and remembering how slowly they grew, he calculated that it would be many weeks before he could have peace again.

Even though he tried to distract himself with his work, the students themselves wouldn't let him forget that something was very wrong.

In the corridors of Hogwarts, many students - mainly from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw - were calling Harry Potter the Heir of Slytherin. This went on for several days, to the point of clearly making the boy uncomfortable.

However, who would feel comfortable being practically called a murderer?

At some point the twins, Fred and George, began to walk alongside Harry and his friends, loudly announcing that the heir was approaching. This alienated the students and made them stop talking about it openly in front of the boy.

Regulus tried to veto this, but it worked in his class most of the time. But he was more concerned with other things.

While he waited for the mandrakes to grow big enough, he spent his free time - which wasn't that much - trying to find out what was going on and who was doing it.

He dug up everything he knew about the Secret Chamber, and nothing he found improved his mood.

The legend was basically that Salazar was pissed off because he was a blood purist scumbag who got into a fight with the other founders of Hogwarts and decided to leave. And for some reason beyond logic, he decided to put some kind of monster in a chamber that no one else knew where it was.

"What did you mean again?" Regulus asked Dumbledore during his fortnightly meeting with the old principal, "When you spoke of the Chamber of Secrets being opened?

"Many years ago," Dumbledore replied, scratching his bearded chin, "before I was even Headmaster. The Chamber of Secrets was opened, some students fell victim to petrification like Creevey and... well, one poor student was a fatal victim."

Put a lot of years on that. Regulus thought to himself.

Something clicked in his mind, he remembered something. A long time ago his mother was in some conversation that he wasn't paying attention to.

Walburga, his mother's bitter old hag, had commented with disdain and derision on the death of a muggle-born in his school days. Something about the Heir of Salazar trying to do his ancestor's bidding and purge the bad blood from Hogwarts. Regulus couldn't remember exactly what his mother had said about it, it wasn't even him she was talking to at the time.

There was only one Salazar Slytherin heir that Regulus had the misfortune of meeting.

"When was this? " he asked "Specifically."

"It was 1942," Dumbledore replied, "Hagrid was convicted of it."

"That half-giant can only kill ants because he can't see them properly," Regulus replied, ignoring that fact.