Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, unfortunately, as many things of HBP would have been different if I did…
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Chapter Three
"Slytherin's Locket"
Once in London, Harry led them to the Ministry. He needed to collect some information on Regulus and the only person from which he could have them was Tonks, who, being Sirius's cousin, was Regulus's one too.
"Wotcher, guys. What are you doing here?"
"Hi, Tonks. We're here to collect some information on Regulus, your cousin" Harry said.
"Strange man, he was. Never liked him in the first place, and Sirius didn't too" she commented. "In fact he became a Death Eater, honouring the Black family name. Well, considering this, the strange ones should be Sirius and me" she added amusedly.
"However, he was not an evil man. Soon he understood the wrongness of his choice, so he tried to step back from them. But you can't resign from being a Death Eater…" she continued sadly. "And so he was killed"
That much Harry and the others already knew, so he asked again.
"Do you know where he lived once he left the Black household? Once he left Grimmauld Place?"
"Well, I didn't hear a lot from him, no one did, but last I checked he lived in a small house in the suburbs of Manchester. It was a wooden one, painted in dark blue on the sides, while dark red for the roof. Nothing really recognizable, as he was trying to keep a low profile and avoid being found by Voldemort's followers" she explained. "Sorry I can't tell you more, but that's all what I know"
"Ok, thanks all the same. This information will be useful" Harry said, then he and the others turned to go away, leaving the Auror behind, wondering why they were so interested in Regulus. Accompanying them to the lifts, Tonks managed to trip over the carpet of her office, making her paperwork fly everywhere in the room.
Harry and the others kept walking after her reassurance that she was ok, sharing a small smile. Tonks would never change and will always be that clumsy.
Harry couldn't avoid wondering how she passed the Auror admittance tests, as secrecy wasn't exactly her best feature.
Once they were out of there, the three of them Apparated to Manchester. Ron knew a Wizarding pub in there, so they would not have to fear about Apparating in the middle of the Muggle city. Then they searched for a small wooden house like Tonks had described Regulus's one, and when they finally found it, not more than 30 minutes away from Manchester most fashionable area, it was by now just ruins.
From what they could see it had been made of cherry wood, and it was still painted in dark blue, while the roof was in normal dark red just as she had said. It seemed time had not ruined the colours, or it had been repainted not long before being destroyed.
Once they managed to get it standing again with lots of Reparo charms, they searched the rest of the ruins for signs of the Horcrux.
But they found nothing, apart from blood stains on the wood planks.
"He must have tried to put up a good fight" Ron commented, touching one of them.
"Yeah, but that's doesn't tell us if he had already destroyed it or not" Harry said, kneeling to examine something on the floor.
"No, he didn't" Hermione said.
Both the boys turned toward her.
In her hand was a parchment. They rushed to her sides.
There were signs they did not understand.
"Those are ancient runes, that's why you can't read them. It says, more or less "With wings it vanished from me, and now where the white rock and the sea are meeting it you should see""
"Well, that's easy. We just have to search every white rock near the sea…" Ron said, rolling his eyes. "Couldn't he be more precise?"
"Of course he couldn't, Ronald. Every one would have known where to search if he was, so he could have spared the trouble to hide it" Hermione retorted, rolling her eyes at him.
"Guys, now, don't start fighting. We need to concentrate on the task at hand" Harry chastised them.
"Yeah, right. Sorry, Harry" both of them said, grinning sheepishly.
They remained that way for some time, thinking, till Harry stood up.
"It's not one random white rock he's talking about. I think I know about which place he's written that small riddle about"
"How can you? There are no hints at where in the country it could be…" Ron protested.
"Ron, I'm not saying I know for sure. But look, it says "with wings" then "white rock". So what if he's talking about a white rock with wings?" he said.
The other two looked at each other, wondering where that theory came from. Ron was sure Harry had lost it. How could a rock have wings?
However, they agreed to follow him.
So he made them grip his arm, as he didn't know the name of the place, so he couldn't tell them where to Apparate and they did it together to the coast near Dover, where from the high rocks above the sea they looked upon the water, till their gaze met, not far from the shore, a white rock with a shape slightly resembling a seagull.
Harry had thought of this rock because he had remembered that Regulus's Patronus was a seagull, as Sirius had told him once, so he thought maybe the man had wanted someone knowing him to think about it and make the connection. Someone outside of the Death Eaters circle, as probably they didn't even know that particular.
The words of the riddle seemed to confirm that.
The problem now was to reach the rock and check if the theory was right. Apparating there was risky as it was really little. You could easily end in the ocean instead, and that wouldn't be pretty as it was in that day thoroughly agitated.
For hours they sat staring at the rock, wondering just how to reach it, when Hermione had, as usual, a brilliant idea.
"First of all there's no need for us to go all there. One of us will do to retrieve the thing, then we can work on it here, where we have space. And since I'm the thinnest, maybe it's better I go there…"
"But this is my task, Hermione. If you got hurt in doing it, I would not forgive myself" Harry said.
"Hey, I'm just going to take it and bring it back here…"
"Ok. So how are you going there?" the boys asked. She grinned.
"That's for me to know and for you to see" she said, walking toward the edge of the rocks, and then throwing herself down.
"Hermione!" both Harry and Ron cried, running to see what was happened to her. And they saw her hovering few feet off the sea surface.
"Come on, guys, just a little Hovering charm…" she said, chuckling, then they saw her moving toward the isle. The wind was making her float there.
"I swear, that girl is a genius" Harry said, in awe.
"Couldn't have said it better myself" Ron agreed. "Lucky me she's my girlfriend"
At these words Harry's inner monster didn't seem too pleased. He shrugged it off, although he scowled.
"It's just I'm not used to think of them as a couple" he thought, while looking her land on the rock.
Once there, Hermione started searching everywhere, but it seemed the small rock didn't have caves or secret entrances.
"What if Harry is mistaken?" she thought in anguish. "Or am I not able to find it?"
Just then, turning, she tripped on her shoelace, and fell in the water, barely managing to keep herself attached to the rock with her hands.
What she saw while trying to get back on surprised her. In the side of the rock, just below the water surface, a small entrance was conceived. She could sense magic being used on it.
Not being able to use her wand to open it, having to hold on the rock for dear life if she didn't want to be brought away from the waves, she tried pushing on the rock with her hands and feet, but to no avail.
Finally the tide started to change and even if the sea was still agitated, she was soon out of the water apart for her feet. She pulled on the rock and pushed on the side with her feet too, to help herself, so she was back on top of it, took her wand and tried every unlocking charm she knew on the side, that was now in the open, out of the water.
Harry and Ron kept watching her struggle, till in the end they noticed a crack opening in the rock.
"Hermione! It's open!" they cried together.
She, who had been with her eyes close to concentrate better, suddenly opened them and grinned, pushing one hand into the cavity. She grabbed the necklace, and pulled it out of its hiding place, but suddenly fangs appeared on the crack borders, closing swiftly on her hand. They were going to chop it off if she did not do something quickly.
"Hermione! Apparate here!" Harry shouted, but she couldn't if she wanted her hand, and the necklace, to exit the small cavity.
Finally, after many attempts and her hand already being injured by the fangs, she managed to hit them with a Tickling Charm. That did the magic, as the fangs sprung open, moving wildly around, and she extracted hand and locket. Then she Apparated to her friends.
"Wow! That was brilliant!" both of them commented, hugging her.
She smiled, pleased with herself.
"But you're hurt!" Harry said, then, noticing lots of blood dripping from her hand.
"Oh, it's nothing" she said, and with a quick Healing charm her hand was fixed. However, hearing Harry once again so worried for her had made her feel strangely giddy. "Now, the hard work. We need to figure out a way to destroy it" she continued, trying to ignore it.
So they sat with the heavy golden locket with the S of Slytherin in the middle, trying at turns hexes and spells to make it break.
"Impedimenta!" Ron cried.
"Reducto!" Harry said.
"Deflagro!" Hermione shouted, but to no avail. If it had worked the locket would have exploded in a thousand pieces.
After everyone of their attempts, the necklace glowed a sick green, and remained the same. Plus, if everyone but Harry touched it in the middle, it burned their skin. Ron and Hermione got two nasty bruises with that.
Harry thought about simply smashing it on the rocks, but it didn't work. The object was unscathed.
Finally the night came, so they resigned to leave it like it was for the day. They prepared a small camp, Harry cooked some dinner for all of them, and they ate still discussing a way to destroy the thing.
"Wonder what you've to do to open it" Ron said, munching on his meat, that earned him a swat on the head from Hermione.
"I am at a loss for it" Harry admitted.
"Well, we'll figure out something tomorrow. For now let's be content with having taken it from its hiding place" Hermione reasoned.
Later, after some relaxing chat, they went to bed.
Since Harry was the most knackered, he immediately fell asleep. But his one was not a pleasant slumber, tormented by nightmares of Voldemort sneering, telling him he had almost done it, but since he couldn't break his Horcruxes, finding them was useless.
Finally he woke up with a start, his scar burning.
Nor Hermione or Ron noticed though, as they were sweetly lying one on top of the other, snogging their brains out of each other.
Harry's monster rose once again, just like when he saw Ginny kissing Dean.
"But how can it be? It's Hermione we're talking about! It has to be that I'm not used to them being together" he thought, and in few minutes was sleeping again. Now, however, the nightmares involved Hermione kissing someone he could not see, and then following him into darkness, out of his view and reach.
Next morning he was still shaken.
"Harry, you all right mate?" Ron asked, while sipping the coffee Hermione had prepared.
"Yeah, just some bad dreams" he said, adding in his mind "involving your girlfriend".
After a quick breakfast they started once again to try and break the thing.
For two more hours their attempts failed, till Harry had one idea.
"Why not? After all this thing is Slytherin's, the other owner was Voldemort…"
"What are you talking about, Harry?"
He did not respond, but started concentrating, his eyes shut, and hissings came from his mouth.
"Open to your Master. Let me see what you contain" he said in Parseltongue.
And a soft click was heard. The locket opened, but it was empty.
"Not that I expected it to contain something important, but at least we know it reacts to Parseltongue" Harry said, proud of himself.
"That's genial, Harry! I hadn't thought of that!" Hermione squealed, hugging him.
"Now, for the last test…" Harry started, ignoring her touch, or at least trying to, after the dream he had had and the reaction to her and Ron snogging.
Excited but also afraid of what could happen, "Reducto!" he shouted in Parseltongue.
They say hexes told in that language are more powerful.
It seemed true, as the locket broke in two.
Harry did it times and times again till just powder was in front of them.
"I guess this one is done, then" Harry said, pumping his fist in triumph, while Ron and Hermione complimented him, the girl giving him a kiss on the cheek that made him blush a little. "Now, we need to search Hufflepuff's cup."
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