A/N: Just a few replies, and one quick little note. I, again, did some research before writing this chapter as I had with the London chapter to make sure that places and bus routes and whatnot were accurate. Every method discovered to destroy gold is real, as is the Muggle biography of Nicholas Flamel, which came from Wikipedia. I paraphrased to take out the less important parts, but credit must be given where credit is due. I like to stick to the facts. ;) I also got the Thomas Edison quote from the movie National Treasure, where Ben is telling Riley that there may be a thousand ways NOT to steal the Declaration of Independence, but there is one way that definitely will work. (The Preservation Room, which, by the way, is not for delicious jams and jellies. ;)) No idea who invented Aqua Regia, but it was discovered by alchemists in approx. 1100AD. Eurochem also exists, at 1 Dukes Road in London.
Not much H/Hr fluff in this chapter, but I'll make up for it later. Promise. :D
Disclaimer: Honestly, if I owned Harry Potter, would I have just busted my arse working from 6am-3pm without any breaks in a really bloody hot bakery? I think not. And if JKR tries to sue, she'll be waiting a long time to get her money.
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Harry and Hermione sat in the library, staring at the shield on the coffee table in front of them. Hermione had flipped through several books that may have suggested ways to destroy the precious metal, but not one of them contained the information they were seeking. Hermione moved from her chair to the floor, craning her neck sideways to read the book titles.
Harry continued to focus on the shield. He noticed the intricate design of the lion, its mane twisting and flying about as though it were blowing in the wind. "'Mione?"
She looked up from her position on the floor. "What, Harry?"
"What if we melt it?"
Hermione considered the idea. "If I remember any of the science I ever learned in schools at home, we'd have to get the metal to one thousand and sixty-three degrees Centigrade for that to work. I don't know how we'd manage to get a fire going that hot without risking burning down the house."
"But the charm is on the house so that it will rebuild itself if something happens," Harry reminded her.
"True, but do we really want to have to go through that?" she asked him.
Harry shook his head.
Instead of answering, Hermione went back to the books. She found one with a simple enough title and removed it from the shelf. Alchemy and Sir Nicholas Flamel.
The Life and Times of Sir Nicholas Flamel (Chapter 1)
Sir Nicholas Flamel was a French alchemist, living in the era of 1400AD. He built a house in 1407 in Paris, France, which still stands today (though it has been transformed into a restaurant). Flamel was said to have been one of the most accomplished alchemists in Europe. Not only did he discover a method to create the Philosopher's Stone, he and his wife, Perenelle, discovered a way to become immortal. This is where the similarity in his story between the Muggle and the Wizarding world ends. Though Flamel did discover a way to turn lead into gold, he also discovered something else. Thomas Edison had spent years attempting to create the filament that is the key to a Muggle light bulb. When someone asked him about it, he said, "I didn't fail. I found two thousand ways how not to make a light bulb." Edison only needed to find one way to make it work.
While Flamel was spending years translating the Hebrew scripture in the book of Abraham to understand the methods to create the Philosopher's Stone, he discovered several ways not to go about it. While Flamel was trying to create the Philosopher's Stone, he came upon one method to destroy gold rather than create it. It was an ancient belief of alchemists that, if one could find a way to destroy the item, they would become one step closer to creating it. Flamel created a chemical mixture known as Aqua Regia, a Muggle combination of nitric and hydrochloric acids, which is more than capable of eating away at gold metal. Shortly after Flamel's discovery of a way to destroy what he was attempting to create, he finally deciphered the instructions to create the Philosopher's Stone, and therefore the one way to make it work.
Sir Nicholas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, had begun to brew the Elixir of Life…
Hermione stopped reading at that point. "Aqua regia," she whispered.
Harry looked at her. "Royal water?" he translated the Latin in his head.
"I can't believe I didn't remember that! We learned about it in grade school. Gold, silver, and copper were considered to be royal metals in ancient times, and aqua regia, or royal water, was the only method of dissolving them as melting them just changed their shape."
His eyes brightening, Harry took the book from her and scanned the paragraph. "So all we need to do is find nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, mix them together, and it'll eat away at the shield?"
Hermione nodded. "And then, while the metal is dissolving, we use the incantation the Dark Magicks book mentioned, and the piece of Voldemort's soul will be destroyed as well as it tries to escape from the shield."
"So where do we get these acids?" Harry asked.
Hermione frowned. "They're not something ordinary wizards would use, I'm afraid. They're Muggle chemical components." She got up and left the library, heading back into the kitchen. "If your parents kept a telephone book anywhere, it'll be in here. It might be outdated, but it'll still help."
Discovering that the Potters had, indeed, owned a telephone, Hermione found the Yellow Pages resting underneath the receiver. She flipped through until she found the Chemical Manufacturers and Suppliers category, and began to dial numbers.
The first three companies she tried were no longer in business, as their numbers were apparently disconnected. Hermione got lucky on her fourth try.
"Eurochem front desk, Laura speaking, how may I help you?" came the clipped British accent over the phone.
"Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me whether or not you supply chemicals directly to the public?" Hermione asked, attempting to make her voice sound older.
"One just can't walk in off of the street and buy chemicals, but if you have the necessary permits we do sell chemicals, yes." Laura said, sounding somewhat annoyed.
"Perfect. I am a chemistry school teacher, and I thought that it might be interesting to cover aqua regia in one of my lessons. Would you happen to have nitric and hydrochloric acid on hand?" Hermione was lying through her teeth, but she knew that she could magically create or summon any permit necessary to purchase the chemicals.
"How much do you need?" the lady asked.
Hermione paused for a moment. She remembered that the chemical composition of aqua regia required one part nitric acid to four parts hydrochloric acid. The shield was fairly large, and as far as she knew Hufflepuff's cup was also made of gold. "One quart of nitric acid and one gallon of hydrochloric acid," she said confidently. At leas they would have more than enough to destroy any more gold Horcruxes that came along after the shield. Before the secretary could reply, Hermione silently summoned a chemical purchasing permit. She had a feeling she might need it before driving to London to pick up the acids.
"And your permit number is…?" Laura questioned.
Hermione was glad she had the good sense to get it before she was asked. "Zero-one-nine-three-eight-five-five-five-seven-five-four," she recited, glancing at the paper in her hand. She could hear Laura's fingers typing the number into the computer.
"Your total will be one hundred and fourteen pounds. Will you be paying with cash?"
"Yes, I'll be by to pick it up very shortly. Thank you kindly," Hermione said, hanging up the phone.
Harry entered the kitchen. "What was that all about?"
"I rang a chemical company in London, and ordered what we need. I'm going to take the car to Dukes Road and then I'll be back as soon as I'm done." Hermione smiled, grabbing the car keys from Harry's pocket.
Harry was uneasy. "I don't want you to go by yourself, 'Mione," he said, remembering what had happened the last time she left on her own.
Hermione knew what he was referring to, and pushed the memories of that horrific incident back into the recesses of her mind. "I'll be fine," she insisted. "If anything happens, I'll Apparate back here. If you're worried about me, just think about me. I'll answer you, I promise." She kissed him on the cheek and headed out the front door, not giving Harry a chance to argue. He followed her just in time to see the rear lights of the BMW roadster as she turned onto the main drive.
Slumping his shoulders, Harry headed back toward the house when he spotted something close to the foundation of the house. The charm on the house apparently didn't apply to the yard, as the grass and weeds were incredibly overgrown. He headed towards it, clearing the brush out of his path.
Immediately Harry was stricken with grief. He had planned to do this all along; it had been his original intention for visiting Godric's Hollow after Dumbledore's funeral, but he hadn't realized how much it would hurt to see it right in front of his face.
He was staring at the headstones atop his parents' graves.
Lily Potter
Loving Mother, Wife, and Daughter
James Potter
Loving Husband, Father, and Marauder
Harry wiped a tear from his eye as he sank to his knees in front of the graves. They were here. Right here, in front of him, the two things he'd wanted most of all in life: his parents. His tears were flowing freely now, as he collapsed in the overgrown grass. He lay there crying for quite some time, mourning the loss of his parents, Sirius, and Dumbledore. He cried for all of the people who had died because of him, and those that would continue to die in the war until he finally killed Voldemort.
Hermione found him like this when she returned from London with the chemicals two hours later. She had been about to step into the house when she heard sniffling coming from the unkempt lawn, and decided to follow it. She knelt on the ground next to him, carefully resting the chemicals a safe distance from one another.
"Harry," she whispered, pulling him to a sitting position. She wrapped her arms around him and wiped away his tears, laying gentle kisses on his forehead. "It's okay," she soothed, rocking him back and forth like a small child.
"It's not fair," he muttered through his tears. They didn't deserve to die. None of them did… he thought, clinging to Hermione.
Instead of pushing him to back off from the graves and calm down, Hermione stayed there with him until he couldn't cry any more. He had carried the burden of his parents' deaths inside of him for so many years, and it was time for him to come face to face with it. They were gone, and there was nothing that he could do to bring them back.
Harry wiped away his last tear, and stood up, leaving Hermione on the ground. "Got the chemicals?" he asked, putting on a brave façade.
"More than enough for the shield. When we find Hufflepuff's cup we'll have enough to destroy that, too," she confirmed, lifting the chemicals from the grass as she stood up.
"Good. Let's get it over with, then," Harry said firmly, ushering her into the house to retrieve the shield. They had decided earlier to destroy the shield outside, just in case any of the chemical fumes were too much in the house. He didn't want either of them getting sick in the process. Hermione returned with it moments later, to find Harry standing with his arms cross over his chest, his jaw set in a determined manner. He had resolved that Voldemort had to be stopped, and soon. They weren't going to take any more time fooling around and casually researching when they saw fit. They were going to train harder and longer, find all of the remaining Horcruxes, and destroy the Dark Lord. "No one else is going to get hurt," he declared, startling Hermione. She had settled the shield into the grass and was carefully mixing the correct ratio of chemicals in a beaker she had picked up at Eurochem.
Taking his wand from its wrist holster, Harry aimed at the shield, prepared to chant the incantation to destroy the soul fragment. Hermione had finished blending the chemicals together. She looked at him, and he nodded.
"When I pour this on the shield, it's going to disintegrate the metal," she warned him. "You need to be ready. As soon as you see the bit of soul escaping, use the spell and destroy it. Your scar might hurt, but it's nothing you can't handle." Hermione reached for his hand and gave him a reassuring squeeze.
Steadying her hand, Hermione raised the beaker of acid over the shield. She carefully tilted it on an angle, letting the acid spill over onto the precious metal. The gold began to hiss and sizzle, as it appeared to bubble over and melt away into itself. The teens watched in fascination as the acid ate away at the gold, when Harry spotted the smallest black wisp rising out of the shield. He aimed his wand as the wisp began to scream a sound more terrible than that of the merpeople in the Hogwarts Lake. Quickly casting a Silencing charm on the wispy bit of Voldemort's soul, he took careful aim and yelled, "Destrucrux!"
The Silencing Charm broke as the soul fragment began to writhe in a manner similar to someone under the Cruciatus curse. It began to scream as it faded away, the black wispiness dissipating into the afternoon sunlight. Harry and Hermione had thrown their hands over their ears in an attempt to save their hearing. They looked down as the final bits of the golden metal evaporated into thin air.
"It's done," Hermione whispered, looking at Harry. His eyes were focused on hers.
"Your eyes are completely green," he commented, staring at her.
Hermione looked at him, confused. "I thought they'd stopped changing?"
"Apparently not," Harry replied, helping her up from the grass. They gathered the remaining chemicals, the beaker, and went back inside the house. The young couple headed straight for the library, determined to discover the location of Hufflepuff's cup, and the Ravenclaw Horcrux.
"Harry," Hermione attempted to get his attention, "Why do you suppose my eyes have turned the same colour as yours?"
He shrugged. "Maybe it's another thing with the rings. I'm not sure, exactly."
Hermione wasn't satisfied with his answer, but she knew that he was as clueless as her when it came to her changing eye colour. She hoped that maybe, during their search for the remaining Horcruxes, she might find her answer.
"This seems too easy," Harry said abruptly. Hermione raised her head to look at him. "The Horcrux being right here, in my parents' house. No poisonous potions around it like the locket, no enchantments like the diary, nothing."
"There was nothing guarding the Gaunt ring except for a Concealment Charm," she reminded Harry. "I don't know how Dumbledore destroyed the soul fragment in the ring, but he said it was in the ruins of the Gaunt home, did he not? Voldemort wouldn't have known about the charm on your parents' house and probably concealed the shield in the same manner, but the repairing charm would have restored the physical location of everything in the house back to where it was before the attack."
Harry still felt a touch uneasy about the simplicity of the destruction of the shield. When he had destroyed the diary in his second year he had been stabbed with a basilisk fang, and the venom from the fang was what destroyed the diary. The ring had taken Dumbledore's hand, and the locket, his life. Why was the shield so easy?
Sensing his thoughts, Hermione felt she owed him an explanation. "Maybe it was the fact that we used Muggle methods to destroy the shield," Hermione said. "Voldemort wouldn't expect something like that. He's probably never even heard of hydrochloric acid, let alone being aware of the fact that, when combined with nitric acid, it can destroy gold. I bet if Dumbledore had attempted to use a similar solution on the ring it would've been much less likely to burn his hand like that."
Harry pondered this idea for a minute. "Voldemort expects magical spells and charms to be used to destroy the Horcruxes, and therefore he probably expects the same to be used in a battle against him, wouldn't he? He didn't expect a Muggle method to destroy the shield, and he wouldn't expect it to destroy him either," he thought out loud.
Hermione left him to his thoughts while she continued to research places of interest to Helga Hufflepuff, and places that would hold significance for Lord Voldemort. She was determined to find the cup for Harry, as he was determined to find a new method of fighting Voldemort. The two of them were absorbed in numerous books in the Potter Family Library for the remainder of the day.
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"The target is free, my Lord," Alecto bowed low, not looking Lord Voldemort in the eyes.
"Excellent," the snake-like man proclaimed, leaning back in his chair. "Is our operation prepared to begin?"
Alecto nodded, motioning for Severus Snape to join him.
"The potion I gave to you for safe-keeping, my Lord, is what you will need to use for success. It is more than capable of convincing the target to do your bidding." Snape genuflected, showing his respect.
The Dark Lord gave an evil laugh. "This should be like taking candy from a baby," he remarked. "After all, it won't be the first time the target has succumbed to the Dark Side. I think that, with a little help from your potion, Snape, the target will be right at home here with us."
Alecto and Snape bowed as they left the Dark Lord's chamber, his maniacal laugh echoing down the hallways of Riddle Manor.