Elektra Black II

Chapter 37 | A Shared Warmth

But the Horcrux was indeed missing.

"Do you think it's possible that someone knew it was here?" El worriedly asked Harry, who stared down at the boxes, deep in thought as he ran a hand through his messy black hair. "There's a chance. But we need to speak to Kreature." He gently grabbed her hand, pulling her up as she stopped him with her hand on his chest. "Give me the fake one; we need to show him to scare him into telling us. He doesn't talk to you." Harry huffed, obliging with her as he rustled through his open jacket, pulling it off around his neck and handing it over.

Downstairs in the dining room,  Kreature had finished tidying up the majority of the floor at Sirius' request when El and Harry burst in, scanning the room's base for the Elf. Tonks jumped from around the corner, "Wotcher! Are you two alright?" She asked as El ignored her and leapt forward to where Kreature was sulking by the cabinet with his broom. Sirius and Remus shot their heads up, examining El's hungry eyes.

"I know what you did those years ago, and I realise why you don't want to tell anyone relating to Sirius who was in here, but you have to." She half shouted, yet half-whispered to the taken aback Elf, wanting nothing more than to scream at him for being so utterly disloyal but understanding why. Sirius spoke up, "What are you on about, darling?" She ignored him as Kreature murmured something unrecognisable as he carried on sweeping. El groaned, slamming her fist onto the table, "Kreature!" She shouted, getting his attention again. "Recognise this?" She angrily spoke as El's hand rose straight up into the air, revealing the fake locket.

Kreature's eyes widened for a split second before his mouth curved into a snarl, "Why you-" He began to cuss, but Sirius' booming voice stopped him in his tracks, "KREATURE. Do as she says." El looked back to her father, appreciating his effort to go along with her plan, not knowing the full extent of it. She looked back as she watched the Elf's face go from anger to pain, a pain she had never seen from him before. "You recognise this, don't you?" She asked him as he carefully nodded his head. "It's not real. This is the one-" She began, but Kreature spoke over her in a low voice, "The one Master placed in the cave, yes. I was there." El looked back to Harry, who was watching with a pair of hungry eyes of his own, stepping forward to hear better. "-And this is why you need to be as honest as you can about who was here. If you helped to swap them, then you know that you placed it in my attic closet all those years ago." She began as Kreature nodded his head, slowly coming to terms with what El was trying to get across. "Whoever was here, they stole it. They stole the real one." She whispered again as Kreature's face stood shocked for a moment as his broom dropped to the side of his crooked body.

"Mun-" He immediately stuttered warily, "Mun- Mundungus... Fletcher." He gradually snarled out just as Harry stepped forward, looking him dead in the eye as his voice became stern, "Find him." Without a second thought, the house Elf apparated out of the dining room with an expression of murder written on his face, mixed with endless masses of guilt.

"It was Mundungus? That bloody moron!" Sirius snapped, feeling increasingly angered as that someone was in the Order. "What was all that about?" Remus asked as Tonks walked over to them, pointing her wand at the locket in El's hand, "What is that? What is the real one?" El breathed out, sitting down at the messy dining table, just as Harry joined her. She ran a hand through her hair as she looked at her father, "This is a fake Horcrux. Regulus swapped the Horcrux before he died and instructed Kreature to hide the real one here." Harry joined in, "It's been in this house for the past two decades. Sirius, your brother didn't die being a Death Eater; he died trying to destroy a part of Voldemort." Sirius' jaw clenched as he swallowed hard, his hand clasped around his mug, "What?" He snapped as Remus' hand discreetly moved under the table to touch his leg. "Regulus was coming back to you, dad. But he died in the cave. Here, look for yourself." El unclasped the locket, sliding the crumbled piece of paper over to him as his hands quickly took it, unravelling it and reading it as swiftly as he could.