"I found this in the attic."
About two or three hours later, the two men and the dog reconvened in the ground-floor drawing room.
Lockhart first showed Severus and the others his discovery: an old wooden chest with a lock on it.
"This lock has a special charm on it. A regular Unlocking Charm won't open it."
Hearing Lockhart's words, Sirius just gave him a sidelong glance and sneered,
"You actually know how to use an Unlocking Charm?"
The dramatic ups and downs of recent days had long since accustomed Lockhart to this level of sarcasm.
"I've had plenty of opportunities to brush up on spells from my student days while working with the Memory Modification Squad at the Ministry," He shrugged. "Or maybe my Unlocking Charm is just truly mediocre."
Severus temporarily placed the letters he found in the study on the coffee table. He examined the wooden chest for a moment, then tapped the keyhole with his wand.
"It's indeed reinforced with a special Anti-Alohomora Charm."
"Can you undo it?" Lockhart asked.
Severus smiled.
"Why do we have to pick the lock at all? The reason a door is locked is because it's weaker than the wall, designed specifically for entry. But if the wall's strength falls below the door's, we can simply make a new door elsewhere."
As he spoke, the wand pointed at the wooden chest already glowed with a red light.
The chest shook violently under the spell. Soon, countless spiderweb-like cracks appeared on its surface.
Finally, Severus just gave the chest a light tap with his finger. Apart from the brass lock itself, which remained intact, the rest of the chest shattered into countless pieces!
"That's not 'making a new door in the wall'! That's demolishing the entire wall until only the door frame is left!" Lockhart complained.
Sirius was also full of doubt.
"If someone really wanted to hide something in this chest, no one would be stupid enough not to consider that the chest itself is more fragile than the lock."
"Because initially, the chest and the lock were equally sturdy. It's just that the protective charms on the chest were cast earlier and succumbed to the erosion of time before the lock did."
As he spoke, Severus rummaged through the chest fragments to retrieve what was stored inside.
There was a robe, a beautifully crafted quill, and a badge that looked exactly like the Dark Mark.
Sirius spotted the Dark Mark badge immediately and couldn't help but let out a snort.
"Of course. If both parents were Death Eaters, what good could the child possibly be!"
Severus, of course, understood this was a jab at Meilia.
That Dark Mark badge couldn't possibly be proof of being a Death Eater. Those scoundrels all had the Mark tattooed on them by Voldemort. Badges like this were symbols of a group formed naturally by students at Hogwarts who sympathized with Voldemort during that time.
They hadn't graduated from magic school yet, so they couldn't be recruited as Death Eaters. Thus, they formed such student club-like organizations.
Lockhart glanced at Sirius. He felt such words were inappropriate. Regardless of the past, Meilia's parents ultimately died resisting Voldemort.
But his relationship with Sirius was already strained, so he didn't say anything more.
Severus ignored him. This foolish dog was just that brainless. Even though he had looked ashamed and regretful that morning after hearing about Regulus, by the afternoon, he had reverted to this rigid, stereotypical attitude.
After a brief inspection of the Dark Mark badge, Severus picked up the robe.
The school crest on the robe identified it as a Hogwarts school uniform. The size was large, likely belonging to an older student.
The uniform itself wasn't remarkable. Severus turned it over several times but only found an embroidered patch in the shape of a grey wolf on the hem.
"What's the significance of this?"
Not only Severus, but Sirius and Lockhart were also puzzled.
Lockhart then showed them the quill.
"This is a Dismal's Self-Answering Quill. It was quite popular among certain groups at Hogwarts back in our day."
At Hogwarts back then, anyone who took out this quill would be mocked by a crowd.
As for why Sirius remembered this so clearly, it was because Regulus had been tricked into buying one back then, and Sirius had mocked him relentlessly for it at home.
"This probably belongs to Meilia herself."
Whether it was the uniform style or the quill's release date, reaching this conclusion wasn't difficult. But arriving at this result alone wasn't very useful.
It didn't provide them with any substantial clues.
Finally, Severus turned to Sirius.
"What did you find on the ground floor?"
Sirius shook his head.
This couldn't help but disappoint Severus. All the letters he found in the study were unsigned. They only revealed that the writer was very close to Meilia's parents and likely to Meilia herself.
However, Sirius then spoke up again.
"But precisely because I found nothing, that itself is another kind of discovery!"
His words successfully captured the attention of Severus and Lockhart. Both men looked down, shifting their gaze to the only legitimate pure-blood family heir among them.
"The Fawleys are an old pure-blood family, just like the Blacks. And such wizarding families, no matter what, would absolutely not lack a wine cellar at home."
Sirius's voice held a hint of pride. Of course, he wasn't proud of his lineage, but proud that some discoveries weren't about an individual's intelligence or talent.
Severus understood his meaning.
"You didn't find the Fawleys' wine cellar?"
"Since it's established that a pure-blood family must have a wine cellar, but I couldn't find it no matter how I searched, that means the wine cellar must have been hidden by some special means!"
Sirius declared.
"That hidden wine cellar must contain the key clue! As long as we can find it, we're bound to uncover the key to why Meilia Fawley's memories were erased!"
It was rare for Sirius to be reliable, and even rarer for him to use his brain. This greatly pleased Severus.
"Excellent, Sirius. I hope you remember this feeling… the feeling of engaging your brain!"
Soon, the two men and the dog spread out through the Fawley ancestral home. They began searching the ground floor, trying to locate the entrance to the Fawley wine cellar.