AN - ok first thing. PLEASE FORGIVE ANY SPELLING ERRORS! I plan on going back and revamping the whole fic, but since I am still Beta less, I will need to fend for myself. So please, just point them out to me if you find them, and let that be the end of it. I want to get my idea out, and I feel that my spelling is failing some…Again, anyone who wants to be my QUICK beta, please Email me. (sgasperino[at]hotmail[dot]com)
Hope you all enjoy the chap!!!
Chapter Five: Sharing the news, and planning the next move…
To say the least, Harry and Hermione were ecstatic about their new `development'. Ron didn't seem to mind either way. From what Harry could tell (he didn't have the guts to talk to him about it yet.) Ron had realized that he only loved Hermione in the same way that Harry had loved Ginny. In a very brotherly and protective manner. Ron genuinely seemed happy for the two of them, and that really made it easier for all three. None of the dynamics changed thankfully. Harry would have been very upset if they had, and he would have questioned if he had done the right thing. But it was all turning out right, and all three were happy.
In the living room, now there was a large map that was marked "Definite Locations of Remaining Horcruxes." Harry would have just writing "Kill me here", or something of the like, but Hermione would have none of that. "Harry we need to label everything accordingly so that way we don't get ourselves confused!" Hermione's voice trilled in his mind. Of course, Harry just shrugged it off. She had been the same way for seven years, and he wouldn't want her any other way.
When they had first moved in, Hermione had tried to write them all up shower schedules and the like complete with color coordination. Harry and Ron had looked at her for a full minute after she had finished explaining them. They had just stared at her like she had lobsters crawling out of her ears. Then, as if some cue had set them up, they both laughed. Hysterical laughter which had lasted for over five minutes. Hermione had not brought up the subject again.
That was Hermione for you. Something about her would never change.
"What are you grinning at loverboy?" she asked him looking at him sideways from over one of her maps.
His grin grew. "I was just thinking about those shower schedules again." Harry said smirking.
She gave him a withering look, and turned back to the map. "Don't you think it is high time you cut me some slack on that one? Besides," She said gaining a wicked grin of her own. "I can play take away now." Harry's grin vanished quicker than the snitch did at a Quidditch game.
"Now Hermione, you know I am only joking!" Harry tried to explain. This feeble attempt made Hermione cackle with laughter as she slapped her knee.
"Don't worry Potter. I wouldn't do that to you. Nor me…." She said looking thoughtful.
Ron came down the stairs. "What did I miss this time?" He asked grinning.
"Ron I just had a thought, why are you always up there in my parents room? You haven't let either of us in there yet…." Harry asked, determined to figure out what Ron was up to. He had noticed it this past week. Ron for periods of varying times would disappear up stairs and into Lilly and James room. At first Harry didn't think anything about it, but soon he became curious.
"Not yet my friend. I will show you soon, but I want to talk to you about this Hogwarts Horcrux first. I have my hunches." Ron said looking contemplative.
"Really? Like how are we going to find it, if it is there?" Harry asked Ron, now interested in this new development.
"Yeah, I had an idea of how we can test it, and how we can find it if it is there." Ron said looking proud of himself. He had been taking all of this very seriously since he had seen the memory of Harry's parents. Ron pulled a familiar piece of parchment out of his pocket. "This is the key. I think using the Marauders map, we can find if there is on there, and where it is." He said, beaming.
"How? The map only shows people…." Hermione said trailing off.
"It does feel good to get the better of Hermione for once!" Ron said punching the air.
"Shut up and get on with it." Hermione said good naturedly.
"Well, the way the map works is with a number of enchantments. The enchantments make the different people in the set area visible. It works by tapping into the echo that one's soul makes on the environment, and the reverberations on the enchantments that were set to begin with." Ron said sounding like Hermione more and more.
"So by changing the enchantment on the map, we should be able to set it and make it show partial souls. If it shows fragments of the souls, then we should be able to see a Horcrux if one is there. Because it would register as still part of Tom." Ron finished with a very smug look on his face.
Harry had his mouth open. He was just sitting there staring at Ron's proud face. It was an amazingly well thought out idea, and it seemed flawless.
"Ron…how?" Hermione stared at Ron the same way that Harry was. For once in her life, Hermione had been totally beaten out by Ron. Especially in something like this. This was Hermione's thing, this was her forte, how had Ron come up with this, and not Hermione? It was amazing. Harry could see the gained respect for Ron immediate on her face.
"Well, I was just thinking on everything, and the map came to mind. And I got to thinking that maybe possibly I could tap it into Tom's soul. The other part about how the map works took some research. But…well, I suppose I can show you now. C'mon." Ron turned and walked up stairs.
The only reason that Harry hadn't spent much time in his parent's room was because it was very hard for him emotionally. He had been in his room once, and that had taken a lot. Since he had to repair his own crib. He didn't let Hermione do it, like he had the other things. He had wanted to do this himself. It had taken a lot out of him, but he had placed his own room back together more or less. He hadn't been back upstairs since. He couldn't force himself to do it. That's why when he found out that Ron was spending time in his parent's room, it had surprised him. But hopefully he was about to find out why.
Ron led the way, and opened a door on the side of the hall way. Harry assumed that it would be small like the rest of the rooms in the cottage. But he was wrong. The room was huge. Book shelves lined the walls, and the four poster bed looked like it could fit eight people. A couple of desks were over in one corner, and at the moment they were both covered with papers, and notes, and parchment. It was amazing to think that Ron had done all this work on his own more or less.
"Wow." Harry breathed, and he could Hermione gasp behind him as she caught sight of the bookshelves.
"Your mom was apparently the one who charmed all the enchantments onto the Map. We should have guessed that James and Sirius wouldn't have done it all themselves. I will have to ask Lupin about it later. Lilly was an amazing potion maker, and apparently her skill in Charms was also unbeatable. School record I believe. But that's not the point. She left detailed notes on how the map works, and what the enchantments do." Ron explained as he gestured to the desks.
"It wasn't hard for me to read up more about it, and try to find out if I could alter the enchantments. The spell work is WAY above me, and I didn't want to destroy what we already have. So that's why I wanted Hermione to do it." He pushed a piece of parchment to her. "That's the spell. I think you can do it." Ron said, knowing entirely that she could.
"Ron, you did an amazing job. Lets just see if this is going to work." Harry said, still in a awe of the room, and the work that his friend had put into this.
"Hermione, can you do it?" Harry asked, knowing full well the answer.
The look of determination, and confidence on her face was enough to give Harry his answer.
"I sure can." She whipped out her wand, and placed the map on the desk.
With a few complex movements, and some words that Harry couldn't pronounce for the life of him. She tapped the piece of parchment. It glowed for a moment, and then returned to normal.
"There, that should do it." She said, handing it back to Harry.
Harry smiled, and took out his own wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He said.
The ink spiraled out from his wand tip like normal, and he reveled in the intricacy of what had once been his school. The walls spread out, and the castle formed itself. But for once, the black dots didn't appear. Then Harry noticed a small arrow on the map. It seemed to be pointing farther down. Right under that, there was a small green dot. The arrow and the dot seemed to be hovering over one specific spot on the map. And when Harry recognized where it was, he let out a snort of laughter.
"I should have known Tom…you are so predictable." Harry said wryly. For the green dot was apparently directly under the girls bathroom on the second floor.
Three pops echoed outside of Hogsmead station. Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't wasted any time in grabbing their stuff, and heading to Hogwarts. If there was a possibility that they could destroy one more Horcrux, then Harry wanted to do it as soon as possible. The walk up to Hogwarts was much shorter than Harry remembered it to be from the night of the attack. All the same, they arrived at the empty castle.
"It makes sense that he would place it in the Chamber. I mean, where else would the heir of Slytherin place a piece of his soul?" Harry commented as they climbed the steps.
The castle was cold and dark. Harry had never been here during the summer, but apparently the teachers didn't even stick around. The only movement, or sign of life was the flickering portraits. That was the only thing that seemed alive, but other than that it was a desolate building.
Walking to the bathroom was easy, and when they entered they were greeted by Moaning Myrtle sitting on the high window.
"Oh are you here to see me Harry?" She asked hopefully. "Or are you going to nearly kill someone again? That would have been nice, I would have liked him as a ghost. He was nice to me." She said in her whimpering voice.
"No, sorry. We have something we need to take care of…." Harry said evasively.
"Where is the entrance?" Hermione asked. Harry then remembered that it had only been himself and Ron all those years ago when they had entered.
"Right here." Harry said crouching down. He leaned over, and made the small light in the room catch the eyes. They seemed to flicker and that's when Harry spoke.
"Open." He said in Parseltongue. The pipe immediately widened and Harry prepared to jump in. No fear of a Bastalisk in here this time. As he jumped down the chute, he distinctly heard Hermione comment on the amazingly wonderful complexity of the hidden opening.
They walked down the hallway and Harry remembered the blockage that had been there previously. This time however it was no trouble because they merely used a few `reducto' charms, and it was gone. The hall stretched on and on. The dankness hadn't changed, and again Harry contemplated that it might be under the lake. The lit wands shed some light but when they came to the second door, the torches flared to life, and Harry spoke again. The door opened and they were inside.
Harry was thankful that the walk hadn't been anything special. He didn't exactly want to be back in this particular part of the castle, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to. The columns around him still showed signs of where he had fought those years ago, and the walls still had cracks in them. Unfortunatly though, the statue of Salazar was still intact, and still very ugly. The mouth had never really closed after the Bastalisk had been summoned out of it, but Harry wasn't worried. The skeleton the snake was still curled where it had died.
"Nasty place isn't it Hermione?" Harry asked good-naturedly.
"I concur." Ron said from behind.
"Ron I think you need to lay off of my moms books. Your sounding very smart." Harry joked.
"Shut it. I like being more than just a silly red haired companion." He said, explaining his true beliefs.
"Your doing a fine job mate." Harry said placating him.
Harry looked around, and tried to find something that he had missed the first time. There didn't seem to be a whole lot more to the room than what Harry had seen back in Second Year. But then again, Tom wouldn't have wanted them to know where it was right off of the bat right?
Then Harry remembered how he and Dumbledore had found the Locket. He walked over to the wall, and closed his eyes. Walking along it. Trying to sense some difference in the way he felt. Trying to feel some difference in his magical energy and the way it resonated. He walked around the whole room, and when Hermione spoke up to ask him what he was doing, he just waved his arm and indicated that he needed to concentrate. Finally as he came around to the base of Salazar's statue, Harry felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, and he felt like his hands had gone to sleep. This was the spot. But how was he going to get in? What was the key?
Harry wracked his mind. Still in complete silence. If any of the three was going to figure this one out, he was going to do it. He had seen the last time. He had been there. After this they would know what to expect, but this time he needed to do it himself.
Tom liked to be different. He didn't like to be the same…. Harry thought to himself as he stared at the wall where he knew a door was hidden. Well the whole chamber had been opened on the premise of one thing. Parslemouth…Tom would want to be different.
"Open." Harry said in plain English. Sure enough the white gateway glowed, and the door opened.
"How did you?" Hermione stuttered behind him.
"Never mind now, I will explain later." Harry said as he stepped into the antechamber. Sure enough, just like last time, there was a pedestal. And a basin sitting atop it.
"Tom my friend, you underestimate me." Harry growled and stepped forward towards the next Horcrux.
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