Just as Evan destroyed the Horcrux, Sirius, Harry, and Hermione were hovering down the stairs in the dark way.

  “Where did Evan go, he didn’t keep up?” Hermione asked worriedly, looking back and forth from time to time, there was nothing but darkness.

  “He may want to say a few words with Kreacher, or visit the house. Don’t worry, there is no danger except for the portrait of my old mother. I will go to him later.” Sirius said lightly, “We will be there soon.”


  Ten seconds later, they came to a wide room deep underground.

  The scene in front of them was very spectacular. The room was like a huge library. The rows of bookshelves were full of books, all precious magic books.

  On the surrounding walls, there were green tapestries with black family badges and ornamentation. Although many places on the tapestries were as if gnawed by doxies, the golden thread with which they were embroidered still glinted brightly.

  The most striking thing was the tapestry facing the stairs, which was very large covering almost the entire wall.

  Sirius walked over and Harry and Hermione hurried to follow.

  The more they moved forward, the more they could discover the magnificence of this tapestry. Harry clearly saw a family tree with branches and tendrils, dating back to the Middle Ages.

  And that wasn’t all, it went on and on till the top of the wall.

  On the right side of the tapestry, from top to down, embroidered with a few big golden characters: THE NOBLE AND MOST ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK “TOUJOURS PUR”


  “This is the Black family tree!” Sirius said softly. “In addition to this one, there is another piece stored in my mother’s room. She regards these two family trees as the most beloved baby. They are the most direct proof that the family is pure blood. When she was alive, nobody else but her could touch them!”


  “You’re not on here!” said Harry, after scanning the bottom of the tree.

  “I used to be there,” said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. “My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home. I guess that was the same thing in her room, no accident, with my understanding of her, she would definitely do this.”


  “You ran away from home?” Harry said.

  “Yes, “When I was about sixteen,” said Sirius in a plain tone. “I’d had enough.”


  “Where did you go?” asked Harry, staring at him.

  “Your dad’s place,” said Sirius. “Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at your dad’s during the school holidays, and then when I was seventeen I got a place of my own, my Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold, he’s been wiped off here too, that’s probably why.”


  Sirius pointed to another small round hole on the tapestry and continued, “Anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr. and Mrs. Potter’s for Sunday lunch, though. They were all good people.”


  “But … why did you …?”


  “Leave?” Sirius smiled bitterly. “Because I hated the whole lot of them. You don’t know them, Harry: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal … my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them … that’s him.”


  Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name REGULUS BLACK.

  There was a date of death after the date of birth, about 13 years ago. That is one year prior to Voldemort’s fall and Black’s imprisonment.

  “He was younger than me,” said Sirius, with a trace of disdain in the corner of his mouth, “and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded.”


  “But he died,” said Harry.

  “Yeah, I don’t feel a bit surprised about it.” said Sirius. “Stupid idiot … he joined the Death Eaters.”


  “You’re kidding!” Harry and Hermione said in unison.

  “Come on, haven’t you seen enough of this house to tell what kind of wizards my family were?” said Sirius testily.

  “Were… were your parents Death Eaters as well?”Harry hesitated.

  “No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the Wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having purebloods in charge.”


  Hearing Sirius, Harry and Hermione’s faces were even paler.

  “They weren’t alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things… Some pure blood wizard families believed him and thought he could lead them back to the glory of the past. But they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first.”


  “Was he killed by an Auror?” Harry asked tentatively.

  “Oh no,” said Sirius, and the disdainful smile on the corner of his mouth grew stronger. “No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort’s orders, more likely, I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don’t just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It’s a lifetime of service or death.”


  It could be seen that although Sirius’s tone was full of mockery, there was still a trace of grief. He was very concerned about his brother’s death.

  Otherwise, Sirius would not bother to investigate his death.

  Harry wanted to say something to comfort Sirius, but his scar suddenly hurt.

  He couldn’t help but scream and cover his forehead with his hand.

  “What’s wrong, Harry?” Sirius asked worriedly. “Are you…”


  He did not finish his words, on the stairs, there was a sudden deafening scream, a scream of a dying man.

  Sirius stared for a moment and hurried to the top. Harry and Hermione also followed, and Evan was still there. Did he encounter any accident?!

  They didn’t know what was going on, especially Harry, who had an unusual ominous hunch, as if something was approaching.

  This feeling he had had twice, that was, when facing Voldemort in the first year and Tom Riddle in the second year, the voice just sounded like Voldemort’s. As soon as he thought that Voldemort might be in this house, Harry was almost suffocated and was afraid to even imagine it.

  With all the strength in their bodies, they rushed to the top of the stairs as fast as possible, and then bumped into something on the stairs.

  They all fell, and Sirius jumped up with his wand.

  Through the light of his wand, he saw that Evan was standing intact in front of him, he looked calm and not at all like someone in danger.