Kreacher couldn't disobey Sirius's command, and he also desperately wanted to bring Regulus's body back.
But Harry felt it was very dangerous – Inferi, poison, it sounded like it was full of Voldemort's traps.
"Hold on." Cohen suddenly had an idea and stopped Sirius, who was about to leave immediately. "I'll go with you – you're not planning to charge into an army of Inferi by yourself and just pull your brother out, are you?"
"I want to go too –" Harry said, following suit.
"You're staying home," Sirius and Cohen said in unison.
"Why not!" Harry protested, unhappy.
"Because I know the counter-charm to the summoning spell," Cohen said. "Voldemort taught me a bunch of spells when he was trying to recruit me."
"You learned them all?" Sirius asked warily.
"Well, I don't know them now."
Cohen turned his head and said proudly,
"Never learned them, don't know them, can't use them. Now you go deal with the Inferi army yourself. When you're dead, Harry can go back to being abused at the Dursleys', and you can lie at the bottom of the lake with Regulus's Inferi counting stones..."
"..."" Sirius had calmed down – in the past, he might have impulsively stormed into the cave alone, not caring if he died as long as he didn't lose face.
But now there was Harry – he had to consider Harry's future life.
Damn it!
"Fine," Sirius grumbled.
"You sound very reluctant."
"We'll go together, please, okay?" Sirius said in a coaxing tone, then sighed. "I never noticed Edward and Rose being as pushy as you..."
"They will be in the future, they take after me," Cohen said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Cohen turned back to his room and returned to the living room a moment later with a box.
"You're bringing the box...?" Harry felt like he might have guessed something. "You're not going to let the Basilisk or the Chimera..."
"I want my brother back in one piece," Sirius frowned.
After some time to cool down, he also realised the probability of his brother still being alive was zero.
"What are you guessing wildly about? Sisoco doesn't eat rotten meat," Cohen said, shaking his head. "Lions don't like to eat people either – hurry up, hurry up, we'll be eating soon."
At Cohen's urging, Kreacher took hold of Cohen and Sirius, and with a pop, the two vanished from the spot.
After a moment of spinning and twisting, Cohen and Sirius landed steadily on the ground.
The air around them was filled with the smell of decay and sea salt. They were standing at the edge of a dark cavern, and towards the center, they could see a small island emitting a green glow.
It looked quite eerie, especially the surface of the lake, which appeared black and deep in the light of the eerie green glow, as if some terrifying creature was lurking beneath, ready to lunge out of the water at any moment.
"Tha-that's the place..." Kreacher said, trembling, pointing to the small island in the center of the lake. "That's where Master Regulus was dragged down..."
"Dragged down?" Although Sirius had already accepted the fact that Regulus was dead, Kreacher's words clearly shattered the last sliver of unrealistic hope he had left.
"There are many Inferi in the lake," Cohen had already approached the lake's edge, observing the magical fluctuations below. "About two thousand or more – mostly Muggles, I'd guess."
"Can we find Regulus...?" Sirius gazed blankly at the lake's surface, his fists clenched tightly.
He had always thought Regulus was a weak, stupid fool...
Damn it, what if Regulus had just left him a note?
"He could have told me..."
"Master Regulus said you would rather kiss a Muggle than retrieve the body of a Death Eater brother," Kreacher said. "Master Regulus forbade Kreacher from telling anyone..."
"That was just me talking nonsense out of anger!" Sirius punched his own thigh. "Couldn't he tell I was trying to persuade him not to join the Death Eaters?"
"Or maybe he didn't have a choice at the time," Cohen said to himself, stirring the lake water with his wand. "Think about it, out of your large family, there were just you and Regulus as heirs, and the rest of the family was old and infirm – now Voldemort is in power, but your family, as a pure-blood family, hadn't had anyone join him..."
Sirius fell silent.
Cohen was right – most pure-blood families at that time had taken a side, either with the Ministry like the Crouches, or by having family members join Voldemort directly.
The Black family had wavered for too long – so long that Sirius ran away from home, and so long that Regulus was almost graduating from Hogwarts.
Regulus had no choice; it was his brother who ran away, leaving him alone to bear the responsibility.
"Alright, stop being emotional," Cohen pulled the tip of his wand from the water. "I've found them. I'll haul them up from below in a bit. You keep an eye out and distinguish which one is your brother – I don't know what Regulus looks like."
"I actually don't either..." Sirius was about to say that he hadn't seen him in fourteen years – but then he suddenly remembered that Regulus had died fourteen years ago.
"I'll recognise him."
---
Under Cohen's control, the Inferi began to climb out of the lake in batches, lining up.
Thanks to Cohen's studiousness in his first year and Voldemort's efforts in trying to recruit Cohen, the similarity in spell-casting habits meant Cohen could easily take control of Voldemort's Inferi.
Most of the bodies here were dressed in Muggle clothing, and it was clear Voldemort killed them in the summer, as they were dressed quite lightly.
A few robed wizard bodies could be seen. Sirius would rush over quickly to check their faces, but then shake his head and walk away – Cohen directly controlled them to jump into the box one by one to prevent the shore from getting too crowded.
[Dad, can I eat these?] The little Basilisk's voice came from the mouth of the box.
[No!] Cohen replied sternly in Parseltongue. [If you upset your stomach, you can wait for Sisoco to whip you!]
Eating just anything will only harm you, little stupid snake!
"You're really planning to put these people's bodies in your box?" Sirius had slumped down next to Cohen's box. There were too many Inferi; if he had to run back and forth, he'd probably tire himself out before he even found a trace of Regulus. "Wouldn't it be better to let them rest in peace..."
"I'll find a place to bury them in a few months, I'm very kind-hearted."
Cohen said,
"But before that, I need to make a little use of them – anyway, if I hadn't come, these bodies would still be desecrated. So being desecrated by me is better than being desecrated by Voldemort. I'm short on manpower for building my castle right now; working is better than being a killing machine."