Chapter 318: The Collection

Ultimately, under the trio's insistence, Kreacher revealed the hiding place of the locket.

Afterwards, Alaric sought out Black.

"Are there any items among the Black family's collection that we need?" Alaric asked.

Black, after a brief pause, readily agreed, "Follow me. The Black family's 'proud' collection is right here.

I've been meaning to clear it out. Feel free to take whatever you want."

Black led them to a glass-fronted cabinet.

This was one of the places where the Black family's centuries-old collection was stored.

The cabinet was filled with a variety of items, many of which were magical.

The trio quickly noticed that a significant portion of these items were magical artifacts.

However, Black, who had a strong disdain for his family's pure-blood history, seemed indifferent to these items.

They were haphazardly piled together, making the search for the locket quite challenging. They had to sift through these items one by one.

The task proved more difficult than anticipated, as many of the items in the cabinet seemed reluctant to be moved from their dusty shelves.

Sirius was bitten by a silver snuffbox, and within seconds, the bitten hand developed an unsightly hard shell, resembling a rough brown glove.

"It's nothing," he said, inspecting his hand with interest, then used his wand to heal it.

They discovered an exceptionally ugly silver object, resembling a multi-legged pair of tweezers.

As soon as Fleur picked it up, it began to crawl up her arm like a spider, trying to pierce her skin.

Alaric grabbed it and crushed it with a book titled "Born Noble: The Wizarding Family Tree."

There was also a music box that, when wound, emitted an ominous tune, causing them to feel inexplicably weak and drowsy. Hermione quickly closed the lid to stop the effect.

Another heavy commemorative box was found, which none of them could open.

There were also a pile of antique stamps.

Among a dusty box, they found medals that Alaric and Hermione recognized: a First-Class Merlin Medal awarded to Sirius's grandfather for his "contributions to the Ministry of Magic."

"Meaning he gave them a lot of gold," Sirius said disdainfully, tossing the valuable medal into the corner.

Kreacher attempted several times to sneak into the room to hide some items under his tattered cloak, and each time he was caught, he used some very foul language.

When Sirius forcibly took a large gold ring engraved with the Black family crest from him, Kreacher actually cried, muttering curses under his breath as he left the room.

"This belonged to my father," Sirius said.

"Kreacher wasn't as loyal to him as he was to my mother, but I saw him kiss my father's old trousers just last week."

Finally, Fleur discovered the locket at the very bottom of the pile of items.

The locket was the size of an egg, adorned with a lavish "S" made of small emeralds, and it glimmered faintly in the dim light filtering through the canvas tent.

Surprisingly, although it was a Horcrux, the locket itself was not very dangerous—at least compared to the diary and ring. It had no dangerous enchantments on it.

It seemed that Voldemort trusted the protections in the cave and did not bother to add dangerous magic to his Horcrux.

Nevertheless, the locket gave off an unsettling feeling.

Even though Fleur had gone through great trouble to find it, she felt an intense urge to throw the locket away as soon as she had it in her hands.

She restrained herself, trying to pry open the locket and then using the unlocking charm, but to no avail.

She handed the locket to Alaric and Hermione, who also tried everything they could, but with no success.

"Did you feel that?" Fleur asked softly, holding the locket tightly.

"Feel what?"

Fleur handed the Horcrux to Alaric.

After a moment, Alaric understood what Fleur meant.

He felt a pulsation, as if something inside the locket was beating, like a tiny metal heart.

In any case, after obtaining the locket, the trio was finally satisfied.

Before leaving Grimmauld Place, at Hermione's request, they found Kreacher again.

The girl took out the fake Horcrux, the replica locket that contained Regulus's note to Voldemort.

"Kreacher, I, um, hope you accept this," she said, handing the locket to the house-elf.

"This belonged to Regulus, and I believe he would want you to have it as a thank you—"

Upon seeing the locket, Kreacher let out a cry of shock and pain, collapsing to the floor.

It took almost half an hour to calm Kreacher down.

The little elf was overwhelmed with emotion at receiving a Black family heirloom and was so weak with excitement that he could barely stand.

When he could finally stagger a few steps, he went to the cupboard and carefully hid the locket in a dirty blanket.

Unexpectedly, before they left Grimmauld Place, the elf gave a low bow to Alaric and Hermione, and even made a comical twitch towards Fleur, perhaps trying to show a gesture of respect.

Back at home, Alaric took out the locket, preparing to destroy it.

When Alaric drew the Infinity Blade, Hermione was holding the locket, but it began to exhibit strange movements, as if it sensed danger.

It trembled constantly in Hermione's hands, and its chain started to flail through the air, as if trying to escape.

Hermione cast a binding spell, but it was repelled.

Indeed, no Horcrux should be underestimated.

Unfortunately, no matter how much the locket struggled, it was still just a locket.

Soon, Hermione found a way to contain it by placing heavy books on top of it with a gravity charm.

Alaric then swung the sword down with force.

However, the ever-reliable Infinity Blade only severed the locket's golden chain but didn't harm the locket itself.

"Perhaps we should open it to destroy it," Hermione suggested.

"The core of the Horcrux is clearly hidden inside."

"But we can't open it," Fleur complained. "No magic seems to work on this locket."

"If it's Parseltongue, it might work," Hermione pondered.

"After all, it's Slytherin's locket. The method to open it might be one of Slytherin's specialties."

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