lyra | harry potter

twenty-eight | flesh memories

HARRY, HERMIONE AND LYRA WERE STILL TALKING in Sirius's room when Ron's voice called out for them to come and look at something. They followed the direction it came from, going up another story and down a long hall that Lyra had never been to before. This part of the house hadn't been used when she stayed there with Sirius, and she'd never even seen him go up there either. She had always just assumed it was used for storage of old family heirlooms or something.

Not that there was an abandoned bedroom there.

Ron was standing in its doorway, and they all bunched up beside him to peek into the room. It had been ransacked, it seemed, objects and clothing strewn about the room haphazardly. There was a thick layer of dust coating almost everything, and the walls were covered with strange drawings and symbols of Dark Magic. Lyra recognized most of the symbols from objects sold at her family's store, though never learned what most of them had meant.

"Regulus Arcturus Black," Hermione read aloud, looking at the name etched into the wood of the door.

"R.A.B.," Ron told them, thinking back to the letter Harry had found inside the fake necklace he and Dumbledore had retrieved.

Moments later, the four of them sat at the dining room table after Lyra pulled Harry's rucksack out of her bag and he dug through it for the object in question. "To the Dark Lord," he read aloud. "I know I will be dead long before you read this... I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it..."

"R.A.B. was Sirius's brother?"

"Yes."

"How do we know if he actually destroyed the real Horcrux?" Lyra asked, her eyebrows furrowed together in thought. 

Harry, Ron and Hermione glanced at her, but a sudden thump from the closet to the side of the room had them all jumping from their seats. Harry pushed his way in front of his friends as they crept over to the door; then, quickly, he opened it and dragged Kreacher out of there as soon as he saw him. "You've been spying on us, have you?" He spat at him distastefully.

Kreacher scowled at him. "Kreacher has been... watching."

"Maybe he knows," Hermione suggested, exchanging a glance with Lyra as they both thought the same thing.

Harry held up the fake necklace. "Ever seen this before?"

Despite clearly not wanting to answer Harry, Kreacher had to. Sirius had left everything behind to Harry, which meant he was the one Kreacher technically had to serve. "That was Master Regulus's locket," he said through gritted teeth.

"That's right. But there were two, weren't there?" They watched as the house elf's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't been expecting them to know anything about the necklaces. "Where's the other one?"

"Kreacher doesn't know where the other locket is."

"But was it here?" Hermione asked him. "Did you ever see it?"

He spun to look at her, a deep-set scowl on his face. "Filthy Mudblood," he spat hatefully. "The Death Eaters will soon be coming for you!" Ron snatched him up by the neck, instantly angry at his words of contempt toward Hermione. "Blood-traitor Weasley—"

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, trying to get the redhead to let Kreacher go. "Ron!"

"Stop it!" Lyra said, grabbing Ron's wrist with one hand and pushing Kreacher away with the other.

"Blood-traitor Burke! Disgraceful witch! How dare you—"

"Don't talk to her like that!" Harry ordered the house-elf angrily, stepping between he and Lyra. "Don't talk to any of them like that. Now, answer Hermione's question."