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Chapter 6: Horcrux Number Three
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A/n: I decided that since it was so long between updates that I'd post two chapters, hope you enjoy!!
Grimmauld Place was dark and dusty, as it hadn't been occupied in a year. Harry gazed at the hallway and was instantly reminded of Sirius. This was one of the last places Harry ever wanted to visit, because it was a reminder of the way Sirius spent the last year of his life; cooped up in a house that he'd hated since he was young. Nothing had changed. The old troll leg umbrella stand still stood by the steps; the violet curtains were still pulled over what Harry knew was Mrs. Black's portrait. The house elf heads were still on the wall, and all of the Black artifacts still stood or hung in their places. Hermione looked at the entrance hall with disgust.
"Well, do you have any idea where we should begin to look?" Hermione said quietly, just in case any loud noises would awaken Mrs. Black.
"No idea. Do you remember where that locket got thrown? I remember Sirius finding it, but I don't remember what happened to it?"
"Oh, I hope it didn't get thrown away, because there's no telling where it might be."
"You know, remember when Kreacher was stealing things out of the bins we were throwing them into? What if he just happened to take the locket?"
"We should check his little den." Harry nodded in agreement, and they headed for the kitchen, but Hermione's foot caught the troll leg umbrella holder and she almost fell over, but Harry caught her, and the stand fell over with a loud clunk. The violet curtains flew apart and Mrs. Black started screaming.
"WHO DARES ENTER MY HOUSE!!!" She spotted Harry and Hermione and her huge eyes widened.
"YOUUUUUUU!!! FILTHY MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS!!! HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY HOUSE!!!! HOW DARE YOU DEFILE THE HOUSE OF MY ANCESTORS…"
"SHUT UP!!!!" Harry and Hermione both shouted at the same time, but it wouldn't stop Mrs. Black's ranting and raving. At the same time in one fluid motion, Harry and Hermione whipped their wands out and shouted,
"SILENCIO!!" The combination of the two voices shouting the same spell made it twice as strong, and the jet of light hit the painting, and Mrs. Black was rendered silent. Hermione lowered her wand and pointed at the picture of the woman.
"Now, you will shut up, or I swear, I'll find a blasting charm sufficient enough to blast you off the wall, and mark my words, I will find one," Hermione said in a deadly voice. Mrs. Black glared back at the young witch, just wishing to scream out at her. Hermione put her wand away, and Harry followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. They made their way down to Kreacher's home by the boiler. Old ratty clothes and blankets littered the floor, and Hermione searched through them, hopefully finding Kreacher's stash. Harry looked by the boiler, and noticed a loose stone in the floor when he put his foot there. He shifted it a little, and carefully lifted it from its place in the floor. The hole the stone left was just big enough for Kreacher to shimmy down it and into the hole underneath. Harry pulled out his wand and muttered, "Lumos." He stuck his wand down the hole for the light and his jaw dropped at what was down there.
"Hermione, come here." Hermione stopped rummaging through the cloth and moved over to where Harry was kneeling. Harry pointed at the hole.
"Look." Below, in a space about twenty feet long and six feet deep, everything that Kreacher had saved was in boxes stacked to the ceiling. There was just enough room left for two people to crawl in. Hermione's face lit up and she laughed.
"Well, now that we've found all of this, the next question is, how do we get down there?" Hermione pulled out her wand and transfigured the loose stone into something sharp that could cut stone. She cut a hole big enough for them to slide into, and lighting the tip of her wand, she did like Luna Lovegood always did and put it behind her ear, and swinging her feet down the hole, she grabbed the other side of the hole and slid into the hole. Harry heard her shoes softly hit the stone floor below, and he slid down beside her. He stood up straight and hit his head on the ceiling. His hand went to his head and he glared up at the ceiling.
"Ow! Son of a…"
"Careful Harry," Hermione interrupted him before he could finish his sentence, "You're not as short as you used to be." Harry rubbed the bump on his head and glared at Hermione, who laughed.
"So," Hermione said, looking over the boxes and crates full of junk, "Where do we start?" Harry shrugged and grabbed a box.
"First of all, we can move everything out of this hole, so one, we can see it all better, and two…"
"So you don't have to worry about hitting your head, right?" She said, with another grin.
"Exactly." Harry lifted a box up and slid it onto the floor above them, and Hermione handed him another one, and he slid that one onto the floor too, and they repeated the process until the last box was out of the hole. After all the boxes were out, Harry pulled himself out of the hole, and offered his hands to Hermione to help her out. Once they both were out, they stopped when they heard someone in the house. They looked at each other, fearful that someone had found them. It wasn't until they heard Ron's voice say, "Harry? Hermione? Where are you?" that they breathed a sigh of relief.
"We're in Kreacher's den, through the kitchen!" Harry called out to Ron. They heard him open the door and when he saw the boxes and crates scattered all over, he grinned.
"Well, we've got a start." They all three started sorting through everything, looking in every fold, small box, and envelope they could find.
"So, how did you get away from your mum, Ron?" Hermione asked, not taking her attention off the box of random junk that filled it.
"She told me to go upstairs and get my cloak to measure, and I just never came back. But don't worry, Hermione," Hermione opened her mouth to interrupt. "I left a note for her, so she doesn't worry."
"Ron, all the notes in the world wouldn't keep your mother from worrying about you." They went through more boxes and when Harry got to the bottom of a crate, he moved it out of the way, but stopped when he heard something move, and there was a sound of metal hitting wood. Ron and Hermione both stopped and looked at it.
"The bottom of the inside of the crate doesn't fit with the outside. It's shallower than it looks," Harry said, after examining it. He felt around in the box to see if there was a way to get to what was underneath.
"Turn it upside down," Ron suggested. "Maybe it'll fall out." Harry did so, but it didn't work. He smacked it, but the bottom wouldn't budge.
"Know any spells for getting the bottom off of a crate, Hermione?" Harry said, half joking, half expecting her to come up with something. She pointed her wand at two pieces of silver and transfigured them into an ordinary muggle hammer and crow bar. She handed both to Harry.
"Sometimes the muggle way is simpler." Harry nodded in agreement and slid the crow bar under on of the lath pieces and hit the end of the bar with the hammer to get better leverage underneath. He then bent the crow bar back, and the nail popped out of the hole, and the lath snapped off. Harry put the hammer and crow bar down, and Ron picked them up, looking at them with awe.
"Amazing. Amazing that a simple muggle thing-a-ma-bob could do that." Both Harry and Hermione smiled at each other as Harry felt around for whatever was rattling around. He first pulled out an envelope and handed it to Hermione, and reached around for the metal object.
"This envelope is addressed to Sirius," Hermione said when she read the name.
"What does it say?" Hermione slit it open, and pulled out the note. She read, "Dear Sirius, I need you to hold on to something for me. NEVER let anyone find it. It involves a way to defeat Voldemort. Keep it safe, again, NEVER let anyone find it. I don't know what's going to happen to me now that I've tried to back out, but I can guarantee it's not something I'll live through. I know things have never been great between us, but please, do this for me. As one last wish from your baby brother. Regulus." Hermione and Ron looked up as Harry lifted a locket on a gold chain with a small serpent in the shape of an `S' engraved on it. They all looked at it in shock. Shock that it had been so easy to find, and that they had actually found the Horcrux.
"So now what do we do?" Ron asked.
"I think we should leave it in the house for right now. It's a safe place; no one will come here except us, since it belongs to Harry. We'll decide when to destroy it, and…who's blood we need." So, leaving the locket and the letter in a safe spot in Ron and Harry's old bedroom, the trio went back to the Burrow. After sitting through one of Mrs. Weasley's lectures on leaving without telling anyone during dangerous times, Harry, Hermione, and Ron sat outside on the back porch, just like they did the day of Bill and Fleur's wedding. Harry and Hermione sat rocking back and forth on the swing, and Ron sat on the porch railing. They sat in silence until Hermione spoke up.
"Ok, we need to discuss this coming year."
"What about it?"
"Well, since Mrs. Weasley didn't take us and Ginny to Diagon Ally today, she's talking about going tomorrow. We need to go on like we're going back to school this year. We need to go through with buying the books, robes, whatever we need, so we don't raise suspicion. So then on September 1st, we'll be on the train to Hogwarts, go through all the ceremony, and then we'll talk later. How's that sound?" Harry and Ron nodded, glad that Hermione was the brains of the operation, because she had it all figured out, while they didn't really have a clue of what to do next. It worried Harry what they were all getting themselves into. He knew he had to do it; he had to destroy the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort. But it didn't settle the feeling of dread that constantly sat in the pit of his stomach, he had no idea what the future held for all of them, and that was what mostly worried him.
"You know what I wish?" Ron and Hermione turned they're heads to Harry to show they were listening.
"I wish that I knew how this would all turn out. I wish I could see the future, and know whether we all live or die through this."
"You'll live, Harry," Hermione said, her eyes drooping with exhaustion. "I'm sure of it. You'll go on, and live the life that most people only ever dreamt about, a life without the threat of Voldemort."
"But you don't know that I will, Hermione. What about you? And Ron?" Ron waved the thought away with his hand.
"We'll live, Harry. We're tough, we'll make it," Ron said, trying to sound reassuring, but in the back of his mind, and in his two friends beside him, they didn't know if he was right, there was no way to find out until that day.
A/n: Ok, I'm going to have to stop the chapter here, because I'm at a writer's block right now, I have no idea where to go from here without going into the next chapter's idea. Again, my apologies for not updating in MONTHS, but y'all know how it is, work, school, homework, it sucks. But today is a snow day, about seven or eight inches of the fluffy stuff and it's still snowing. I'm off work for tonight because of the snow and there wasn't any school today, so it's a great time to write!!! Please review!!!
Husker_fan_2006
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