Kreacher admits that he did steal the locket after it
was thrown out two years ago, but he says that it’s now gone—stolen
by Mundungus Fletcher. Kreacher refers to the locket as “Master
Regulus’s,” and Harry demands to know why, ordering Kreacher to
tell them everything he knows about the locket.
Kreacher explains that after Sirius ran away from home
and deserted his parents, Sirius’s younger brother Regulus (who
had always been fond of Kreacher) became more and more involved
in the Dark Arts. At the age of sixteen, Regulus joined Lord Voldemort.
A year later, Regulus informed Kreacher that Lord Voldemort needed
the services of a house-elf, and that Regulus had volunteered Kreacher,
who then went to Voldemort to do his bidding.
What Voldemort needed Kreacher for was to test the defenses that
he had set up to guard the locket Horcrux in the underground cavern—the
defenses Harry and Dumbledore had encountered at the end of Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Voldemort made Kreacher
drink the potion in the basin until it was all drunk, then he put
the locket Horcrux in it and refilled it. Then Voldemort left Kreacher
to die as the potion overpowered Kreacher with thirst, Kreacher
went to drink from the lake, and the dead hands of the Inferi dragged
him under the water.
But Voldemort seriously miscalculated by not taking into
consideration the nature and ways of house elves. Kreacher had been ordered
by his master Regulus to come back after helping Voldemort, so he
was bound to return. More important, though no witch or wizard could
Disapparate into or out of the cavern, house-elf magic works differently
than wizard’s magic, so Kreacher was able to simply Disapparate
from under the water, going back to his master Regulus.
Apparently, Regulus soon after had a change of heart about
serving Voldemort, and he made Kreacher take him back to the underground
cavern and show him the basin with the locket. Regulus drank the
potion himself, stole the locket, and replaced it with the false
one signed “R.A.B.” that Harry found. He ordered Kreacher to return
home, never to reveal to Regulus’s family what had happened to him,
and to destroy the locket, after which Kreacher saw Regulus dragged
beneath the lake and killed. Kreacher returned to Grimmauld Place,
unable ever to tell Mistress Black what had happened to her son,
and unable to destroy the locket as ordered because of the powerful
enchantments protecting it.
Though Harry nurses a grudge against Kreacher for betraying Sirius
previously, Hermione forces Harry to see that Kreacher’s behavior
has been both consistent and loyal, because Regulus never explicitly
explained to Kreacher that he had changed his loyalties, and Sirius
seemed to have betrayed his own family and household in leaving.
Harry orders Kreacher to find Mundungus Fletcher and bring him
back to Grimmauld Place, but before Kreacher leaves, Harry presents
him with Regulus’s false locket as a token for Kreacher to remember
his former master by. Overcome with gratitude, Kreacher leaves to
carry out Harry’s orders.
Summary: Chapter Eleven: The Bribe
Kreacher does not return as fast as Harry hopes he will.
He does not return that afternoon, or the next day, or the day after.
Through the windows, Harry can see that Death Eaters are posted
outside of the house, presumably watching for anyone entering or
exiting.
The Death Eaters know the house is there, and that Harry
owns it, because the Ministry of Magic has copies of every wizard’s
will, but they can’t see it or enter it because of the enchantments
on it.
Lupin arrives with news of the outside world. Harry is
wanted for questioning by the Ministry. Wizards are being ordered
to submit to interviews to prove they have wizarding parents. Anyone practicing
magic who does not have wizarding parents (i.e., so-called “Mudbloods”
like Hermione) will be presumed to have stolen magical secrets and
will be liable for prosecution.
Lupin offers to accompany the three friends on their quest
and provide protection, even if they are unable to tell him exactly
what they are up to. He reveals that his wife Tonks is pregnant
and staying at her parents’ house for safety, and admits that he
regrets marrying her and bringing a half-werewolf child into the
house, as the child will likely be an outcast.
Harry rejects Lupin’s offer angrily, calling Lupin a coward
for seeking to abandon his own child. Lupin departs.
Still shaking with anger, Harry reads a newspaper Lupin
left behind that contains an extract from Rita Skeeter’s biography
of Dumbledore. Bathilda Bagshot is quoted, describing how Dumbledore’s
mother, Kendra, shunned contact with other wizards when she relocated
to Godric’s Hollow, and kept Ariana, Dumbledore’s sister, well out
of sight. According to Bathilda, no one ever saw Ariana manifest
any magical ability, so presumably she must have been a Squib.
Kreacher arrives with Mundungus Fletcher. Under forceful
questioning, Mundungus admits that he stole the locket and was trying to
sell it in Diagon Alley, when it was confiscated by a toadlike woman
from the Ministry of Magic wearing a bow on her head—clearly Dolores
Umbridge.
Analysis: Chapters Nine–Eleven
Chapters Nine–Eleven move the quest plot forward by unraveling the
mystery of the locket in a vivid and highly dramatic fashion. The fake
locket signed “R.A.B.” was the biggest mystery (and biggest frustration)
of the year before, when Harry and Dumbledore went through the harrowing
ordeal of getting to the locket only to find that someone had been
there before them. In finding out what actually happened to the
locket, we are treated to the fascinating story of Regulus Black,
a Death Eater and Slytherin who turned out to be much more than
he seemed. With this information, they have at last picked up the
trail of a Horcrux and can pursue the trail to find the actual locket.
The characters did not have to do a lot of detective work
in order to solve the locket mystery. They simply stumbled on a
sign with a name that matched the initials. What they did that was
significant was to change their attitudes toward Kreacher, the house-elf.
Harry had previously been repulsed by Kreacher because of his appearance and
because of his apparently bigoted and pureblood viewpoint, whereas
Hermione, as early as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, had
pursued a misguided agenda of treating house elves like humans and
promoting giving them rights to pay, vacation, benefits, and so on.
What both Harry and Hermione together manage to do in these chapters
is to see Kreacher clearly, as someone who is not a human being
with a point of view of his own, but a creature whose very nature
is defined by his loyalty and service to his master. When they see
Kreacher for what he is and respect him for it, the door is unlocked,
and Kreacher becomes extremely helpful to them.
The plot developments of these chapters come along with
a general meditation on loss and mourning. The entire house is a
memorial to Sirius, who left it to Harry and whose room is exactly
as it was during Sirius’s Hogwarts days. The traces of Harry’s other
friends and the time they spent there are everywhere. The photograph
and letter that Harry finds, relics of his own parents, do nothing
to advance the quest plot but do much to promote Harry’s sense that dead
loved ones can reach out from the grave to communicate. This time
that Harry spends pondering the loss of loved ones primes him to
become furious with Lupin for what Harry perceives to be Lupin’s
abandonment of his own unborn child. For Harry, nothing is more
important than the loved ones he has lost.
As soon as Lupin leaves, Harry is once again plunged into
doubt and torment about Dumbledore when he reads the excerpts of Skeeter’s
book. Where the letter from his mother seemed to speak to him in
her voice from beyond the grave, Dumbledore is communicating no
clear message on his own behalf, instead causing doubts and frustrations.
And Skeeter’s book, while adding no fresh rumors to those he heard
from Aunt Muriel, only keeps Harry’s doubts alive. Harry isn’t just
grieved by Dumbledore’s loss. Without actually admitting it to himself,
he feels abandoned and betrayed by Dumbledore, just as Lupin is
abandoning and betraying his wife and child.
