Sirius and Regulus Black's Deaths Were Connected, And You Never Noticed

The Black family, despite its massive wealth and fame, had a pretty sad fate. Out of the last two generations, only two sisters — Andromeda and Narcissa — survived.

Their parents died; the third sister, Bellatrix, was killed by Molly Weasley; and the two brothers, Sirius and Regulus, also lost their lives. By the end of Harry Potter, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was no more.

We got to see how Sirius Black died — in fact, we witnessed it in real-time through Harry's eyes. Later, the Blacks' house elf revealed the story of Regulus's death, too.

However, most readers never realized what connected these two events that happened many years apart for seemingly different reasons.

Sure, both brothers died fighting Voldemort, but that's not all.

Regulus Black was the younger brother and a true heir to the Black family. He was a Slytherin who obeyed his parents, supported their hate towards the Muggles and the Mudbloods, and joined the Death Eaters.

In the end, he came to realize how inhumane and psychotic Lord Voldemort's ideas were and decided to put an end to Dark Lord.

Regulus was a talented wizard and he used to be close to Voldemort, so he learned about the Horcruxes. The younger brother managed to find one of them but he died before destroying it.

When dying, he ordered Kreacher, the Blacks' house elf, to hide the Slytherin's Locket and try to destroy it himself.

Sirius Black, on the other hand, was a rebel. In spite of his family's desires, he joined Gryffindor; he despised his parents' hateful attitude towards the Muggles and the Midbloods and protested it; eventually, he ran off and was forgotten by his family.

As soon as the war began, Sirius joined the Order of the Phoenix and fought against the Death Eaters.

After many years of wrongful imprisonment, Sirius died trying to protect his godson, Harry Potter. His own cousin, Bellatrix, killed him in a duel during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

However, this battle — and this duel — would've never happened if not for one character we already mentioned: Kreacher.

Both Sirius and Regulus had strong feelings toward the Blacks' house elf. While Sirius hated Kreacher, Regulus cared about him — and both brothers died because of the way they treated the elf.

Due to this, their deaths allow us to see their deeper personalities, and you may not like what we say next.

Sirius, who's always associated with the "good" side (Gryffindor, Dumbledore, Order of the Phoenix), treated Kreacher horribly.

He was cruel to the house elf, and their mutual hate resulted in Kreacher purposely relaying crucial information to the Death Eaters which ultimately led to Sirius's death.

Regulus, on the other hand, grew up to be a "baddie": a Slytherin who admired Lord Voldemort and joined the Death Eaters as soon as he could.

However, not only did he switch sides, but he was also so much more humane towards the poor house elf than his brother.

Regulus died defending Kreacher: first, he saved him from Voldemort's cave, and then he refused to let the elf drink the Emerald Potion.

Instead, he decided to drink the Potion himself — and this led to him joining Voldemort's army of Inferi.

Kreacher is the key character that ties together both the Black brothers' deaths… And allows us to see the worst in the "good" guy and the best in the "bad" one.