vanished, and Kreacher couldn't tell her what had happened, no, because my master Regulus had f-forbidden Kreacher from telling the f-family what had happened in the c-cave. Lady Noctua never knew the truth, young mistress Cassiopeia grew up without her father." Kreacher started sobbing so much that his words became unintelligible.

Cassiopeia was crying so much she couldn't see clearly anymore.

Ron and Hermione were also tearful, hugging her from both sides and holding the small hand of the elf.

"I don't understand you, Kreacher," Harry said. "Voldemort tried to kill you. Regulus sacrificed himself to bring Voldemort down, and yet you were happy to give Sirius over to Voldemort? You were happy to fetch Narcissa and pass information to Voldemort through them..."

"What?" Cassi stood up abruptly. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Harry looked at her confused. "At Christmas. What you experienced with the Malfoys. Narcissa instructed Kreacher to deny that Sirius was at home so that we would go to the Department of Mysteries."

Cassiopeia fell back into the chair abruptly.
No, Narcissa wouldn't... No, no.

"Lies! LIER!" She stood up angrily, pointing her wand at Harry.

"It's true! Dumbledore told me!"

"And since when did Dumblefuck tell you the truth?!" She yelled in fury.

Harry also had his wand pointed at her, both of them glaring at each other with anger. But it was Kreacher who stopped them.

"It wasn't Mistress Cissy," he said softly, a bit embarrassed.

"What?!" Harry asked in astonishment.

"It wasn't Mistress Cissy," Kreacher repeated more slowly. "It was Master Lucius."

"Either way!" Harry shouted.

Cassiopeia was still trying to process the information. Lucius... He-- By Merlin's beard, she summoned Kreacher to the mansion that day. She's the culprit.

"Harry, that's not how Kreacher thinks," Hermione said, wiping tears away with the back of her hand. "He's a slave; house-elves are used to being mistreated and even brutalized; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn't much different from that. What do the wizarding wars mean to a house-elf like Kreacher? He's loyal to those who are kind to him, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and repeated their beliefs. I know what you're going to say," she continued when Harry started to protest, that Regulus changed his mind... Probably because of Cassi's mother, but apparently he didn't explain that to Kreacher, did he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus's family would be safer if they remained loyal to the old concept of pure-blood. Regulus was trying to protect everyone."

"Sirius..."

"Sirius was very cruel to Kreacher, Harry, and don't give me that look, you know it's true."

"It was my fault..." Cassi murmured, her eyes fixed on the ground. "I summoned him to deliver a gift... I didn't know that- no..."

Hermione stopped her from continuing. "It wasn't your fault, Cassie!"

"It's not your fault," Ron whispered, sitting down next to her. He held one of her hands gently.

Harry was staring at the sobbing Kreacher on the floor, still crying compulsively.

"Kreacher," Harry said softly. "Oh... please, sit down."

He didn't obey, so Cassi spoke, trying to regain her composure. "Please, dear Kreacher. Sit down."

Several minutes passed before Kreacher quieted his sobs. He sat down, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles, like a young child.

"Kreacher, I'm going to ask you to do something," she said gently, her voice still hoarse from crying. "I want you to please find Mundungo Fletcher. We need to find out where the locket, my father's locket, is. It's really important. We want to finish the task he started, we want to... make sure he didn't die in vain."

Kreacher lowered his fists and looked up at them.

"Find Mundungo Fletcher?" he repeated hoarsely. "And bring him here, to Grimmauld Place," Harry added.

"Do you think you could do that for us?" Cassi asked hopefully.

Seeing Kreacher nod and stand up, Harry picked up the fake locket.

"Kreacher, I... ah... would like you to have this," he said, placing the locket in the elf's hands.

"This belonged to Regulus, and I'm sure he would want to give it to you as a token of gratitude for what you..."

"Destroyed, mate," Ron interjected when the elf, glancing at the locket, let out a howl of shock and despair and threw himself to the ground again.

Cassi felt a lot of sympathy for him. Poor creature took almost half an hour to calm Kreacher down, who was so moved to receive a family Black heirloom as a gift that his knees felt too weak to stand.

When he could finally take a few steps, he handed it over to Cassiopeia, then disappeared into his quarters at Malfoy Manor to keep it safe.

Cassi promised to protect the object until he returned, and then Kreacher bowed to all of them and gave a slightly awkward one to Hermione before disapparating.

She held her father's note for a long time, a few tears falling onto the parchment.

She would come back for it. Her father didn't die in vain.