Chapter Seven
The Three Wise Men?
Harry did not relax his defensive position, especially as he was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. The man sitting calmly at the table in front of him was supposedly dead or at least taken by the Death Eaters over twelve months ago, yet here he was as large as life, and just as strange as he ever was. Harry held his wand tightly and risked a quick glance to Hermione who had her wand trained on the second robed wizard; she looked just as tense as he felt. He was frantically trying to think of what to do when the second robed figure pulled back his hood, and gave Harry another shock on a very peculiar evening.
He was thinner than Harry remembered, but then a year with out ice cream is bound to take its toll. Mr Ollivander and Fortean Fortescue sat now unmoving under the wands of Harry and Hermione; it was something of a standoff. Then as if on cue both men reached forward and pulled up the left sleeves of their robes to show unmarked forearms. Harry breathed a sigh of relief but Hermione showed no sign of relaxing.
"Other arm!" she barked, flicking the end of her wand which sparked dangerously. Harry was immediately on guard again. The two elderly wizards smiled and repeated their former action but with the other arm, again there was no mark.
"I assure you young lady," said Fortescue with an appreciative nod in her direction, "that should you get us to disrobe completely you will find no dark mark on either of us. I trust you have similarly checked my good friend Langdon here," turning to smile at the tall skinny wizard. Langdon Long gave a little shriek, that any second year girl would have been proud of, and immediately bared both his forearms.
"Now we have that out of the way," said Ollivander, "we ought to tell you what all this is about, Mr. Potter."
Harry put out his hand and laid it on Hermione's arm which still held her wand at the ready. She slowly responded and with only a little resistance allowed him to push it down.
"Sit please, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger," the old wand maker entreated.
"Harry, call me Harry," he said as he sat pulling Hermione next to him, "and this is Hermione."
"Fyrsil," said Ollivander.
"Sorry?" said Harry and Hermione almost together.
"Fyrsil," repeated the old man, "Fyrsil Ollivander," he smiled whimsically at long forgotten memories, "my mother was always enamoured of the welsh tongue."
"Really," said Hermione.
"Indeed, but enough of this," he said brushing such trivia aside, "we are here to help you in your quest, and to pass onto you such knowledge that we have which may help."
"Bit like before Harry," put in Fortean, "we'll help you with your homework."
"Where have you been?" Hermione asked. "Everyone thought you were dead."
"Or in the hands of Voldemort," added Harry, noticing that none of the three wizards flinched at the name.
"All Dumbledore's doing," piped up the wand maker, "putting us in cold storage, well that's what he called it. Hid us away he did, in appalling accommodation I might add, with instructions to look you out if he became unavailable."
"Well, he's certainly that," said Harry morosely.
Fortean Fortescue cleared his throat, "Look Harry, Albus told us what he and now you are looking for, and the thing is that the two of us, …well we have our specialities. If you remember I have this talent with history, in particular I have an interest in powerful magical objects of the past. Fyrsil here fairly obviously can teach you things about wands and what can be done with them that nobody else knows. We hope we can be useful to you."
"I shall keep my ear to the ground," squeaked Langdon Long, "lots of loose talk in the bar, some of it's even true," he giggled.
"Thank you gentlemen, you know I… ," Hermione poked Harry in the ribs with her wand, "…sorry, we have four more Horcruxes to find, any help we can get in that direction will be very useful."
They sat and talked for another hour or so, Langdon supplied them with refreshment and Harry noticed that none drank anything stronger than butterbeer, even the weird barman. No one was prepared to lose the edge that being sober gave them. Ollivander and Fortescue described to Harry and Hermione how Dumbledore had come to them the June before last and asked them to drop out of sight. A common practice used in the past to fool the dark forces, because they were usually so disorganised that they would never know that a disappearance had not been carried out by one of their fellows, and they never bothered to check.
"I am afraid that your disappearance Harry will not be taken in the same light," Fortean remarked, "Voldemort will attempt to find you."
"That's what we were hoping," Hermione admitted, "you know, divide his forces."
"Yes to some extent he will, but you ought to remember he knows you have friends and those friends may know where you are," warned Fortescue. "It could put them in some danger."
Now Harry was worried, it was an effect of his disappearance he hadn't considered, but fortunately Hermione had. "Fidelius Charm Harry, even those who know where we are will not be able to tell anyone, the secret is well kept," she said.
Harry looked at her in surprise, "We have a secret keeper?"
She smiled, "Yeh, the best." and then she laughed at a joke known only to herself and would say no more.
* * *
Harry woke the next morning to the scent of Hermione's perfume and the sight of her sitting on the edge of his bed. They had returned late to the Shack and tumbled into their own beds, Harry was asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. Today they were going to tackle the large pile of parchment that had been given to them by the two wizards just before they apparated away to their undisclosed accommodation. Harry reached to his girlfriend and pulled her down for a good morning kiss.
"I wish you had used this perfume more often," he chided gently, "it might have saved a lot of trouble."
"Yeh, might have caused a lot as well," was the slightly muffled reply. "Ginny used so much of it I couldn't go into competition with her. Besides you might have lost control and ravished me or something."
Harry went a little red at the thoughts that were flashing through his brain. "Oh no," he managed eventually, "I would never have done anything like that."
"Oh Really?" Hermione whispered, and Harry thought she sounded disappointed.
Harry's face was bright red now and he decided that they should change the topic of the conversation.
"You mentioned a secret keeper last night, but you wouldn't say who," he said hastily.
"That's right," she evaded.
Harry gave Hermione a very hard look. "So who?"
Hermione's face was unreadable, but Harry knew she didn't want to tell him, not because she didn't trust him with the information but because she didn't think he would believe her. She shrugged her shoulders with the inevitability of answering. "Ron." she said.
"RON!" Harry's voice almost cracked as it went up. "With all the things you said about him and you trusted him with that?"
Hermione considered her answer carefully, "I may have no faith in him as far as controlling his hormonal responses, and Ron and love don't go well in the same sentence, but well, …." and then she turned the tables on Harry, "… who would you have chosen?"
He froze as he considered the question and his answer, then he took a deep breath. "You're right there isn't anyone else, well that's not entirely accurate, I could have picked two more," Harry's expression darkened, "But neither of them are around to take that responsibility." He shook his head sadly. "When did you ask him? He said nothing to me."
"That first afternoon, when we had our 'little' chat," she supplied the air quotation marks. "It was because he said nothing to you or acted any differently I knew I was right in my choice."
"You know," he said clambering out of bed and giving her a passing peck on the cheek, "you might just be one of the smartest witches of your age."
Hermione watched as Harry sauntered off to the bathroom, she thought he looked very cute in his pyjamas. "Umm, never heard that one before." she murmured quietly to herself.
They spent the rest of that day and the following few days that led up to the start of the new school term studying the parchments Fortescue had given them, and were dismayed to discover how many magical artefacts fitted the description that Dumbledore had placed on those that Tom Riddle, and then later as Voldemort, would have deemed acceptable receptacles for sections of his soul. There were several hundred, but then Ollivander and Fortescue had concentrated on producing this list for over twelve months, it was clear to Harry and Hermione that if they did not whittle the numbers down they would be hunting Horcruxes until they were old and grey themselves. They eventually decided to discount all those items not at present in the country, and those that as far as they could see had no direct or indirect connection to the original founders of the school, that still left them with a list of about twenty, and they had locations for only ten of them. Harry decided that it would be best to show the list to Professor McGonagall even if not the full reason for their quest, for if Ron was going to help them they would need good excuses for him to slip away from school, and she may have some ideas of her own. But that would have to wait a day or two for the first of September had arrived and the school was open for business again.
* * *
The journey from platform 9¾ had never seemed so long for Ron. He sat in a compartment with Neville, Seamus and Dean, and as he was no longer concerned with prefect duties, only fifth and sixth years carried out those tasks, there was nothing to occupy him but small talk. Unfortunately the small talk always ended on the subject that caused him the most pain the absence of Harry and Hermione.
"My mum said that he's run away," said Seamus, whose thick Irish brogue was beginning to make Ron very agitated. "It was in the Prophet that he's taken everything he had out of Gringotts and done a bunk."
"You believe everything you read in that rag?" said Ron coldly.
"No, but he's not here is he?" Seamus replied defensively, "and you would tell us if you knew where he was." Ron said nothing. "Besides where's Granger, I thought you and her were tight at the end of last term."
"Trouble with you Finnegan is that you think too much," said Ron, his face as red as his hair. He leapt to his feet and headed for the door, "See you lot later," he said to the others, and trying hard to slam the sliding door behind him, left the compartment.
Dean turned his dark features to his friend, "Sometimes Seamus you are about as subtle as a brick. Isn't it obvious that Harry and Hermione have run off together and left Ron feeling like a real prat."
The thoughts slowly clicked together in Seamus' head and he gave a wicked smile. Neville sat and buried himself in his Herbology book, but he was not reading it, the conversation of his travelling companions, apart from getting rather mired in detailed speculation of the depth of Harry and Hermione's supposed relationship, had him worried. If Harry had run who was going to stand up to Voldemort, with Dumbledore gone things were beginning to look very black.
Ron wandered down the train narrowly avoiding entering the compartment that held Lavender Brown and some of her friends, that was a meeting he wasn't looking forward to. He saw someone at the end of the carriage leaning on the door with her head out of the window. 'Nice legs,' thought Ron, then the image of a bushy haired head that was no longer bushy, effectively suppressed his hormonal thoughts. Then the head that belonged to the body that was supported by those 'nice legs' was pulled back into the passageway, and Ron saw that despite the fact that her eyes were streaming and her face all covered with soot from the engine pulling the train, Luna Lovegood was really rather pretty. She gave him a vague look and then as if a light had been turned on in her brain, her expression changed entirely and she beamed at him.
"Hello Ronald," she began, and then in her dizzy way she chatted on at nineteen to the dozen about nothing that made any sense to Ron. As he listened to the nonsense that dribbled out of her mouth he began to smile, he was not sure what he was smiling about, but she was certainly lightening the load he felt he was carrying. Within ten minutes he was chuckling at her trying to describe some utterly fantastic animal that her father was determined to photograph for his paper.
Luna for her part was watching the red headed boy with one part of her mind whilst the other part prattled on. She knew very well what was troubling him; he was worried about how was he going to manage without Harry and Hermione, maybe she could help to fill that gap; she would have to see.
Luna Lovegood had a remarkable ability that only Dumbledore had known about, she could think on several levels at the same time, and when her mind was so involved the speaking part tended to dive off into flights of fantasy of it own making. This was why she had her reputation of being a bit on the daft side; in fact she was very clever, and sensitive to the needs of others. It was only as she saw the first tear of mirth in Ron's eye that she stopped talking and smiled at him. Ron returned the smile and looked into her pale blue eyes that were smiling at him as well. "Thanks," he said simply. Luna reached up on her tip toes and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Ron put his hand to the spot,
"What was that for?" he asked quietly.
"Oh for being you and for doing what you're doing for your friends," she replied mysteriously. "See you later," and she headed off to find her compartment, leaving Ron standing in the gale coming in the open window as the scarlet steam engine rushed through the countryside on its way to Hogsmead Station.
Ron's first summons to visit Hagrid arrived on the breakfast table with Pig two days after the start of term. The note simply said 'Hagrid's 7.30' and was written in a heavily disguised hand, that Ron reckoned was probably Hermione's. That evening he slipped out of dinner early and headed off in the direction of the Quidditch pitch, his broom slung casually over his shoulder. To all intents and purposes the Gryffindor Quidditch captain was off to study his game and consider his team for the year, but once away from the castle and sure that no one was following him, he cut across the lawns and down the narrow path that led to the game keeper's hut. As he picked his way through the pumpkin patch he saw the outside hut for the first time in the light since the end of last term. Like the inside all the damage caused by the fire was gone; in fact if he hadn't seen the bare blackened roof beams for himself he would never have believed that one had happened. The small single roomed dwelling looked just has it had the first time he had seen it all those years ago. His quiet tap on the door was instantly answered by Hagrid opening it.
"Come in Ron," the half giant whispered, "'arry an' 'ermione ain't here yet, best sit an' wait, won't be long I don't re'kon. So they waited and sure enough within five minutes there was another quiet knock on the door.
Harry and Hermione piled in over the threshold looking a little dishevelled about the head but with their dull black coats as spotless as ever.
Harry gave Ron a grin, "Hi mate how's it going, school OK?" He grabbed Ron's hand and thumped him on the shoulder.
"Oh fine," said Ron with a little sarcasm, "if you don't mind the ministry bods questioning everything that happens, the fact that I am as lonely as sin, and fighting off the insinuations that my best friends have deserted wizard kind and are having a whale of a time off somewhere snogging each other silly."
"What?" said Hermione.
"Really?" said Harry.
"Yeh," said Ron. "…well sort of. …Oh I suppose its OK, there are only two committee members in the school and Umbridge hasn't dared to show her face as yet. So that's not too bad, and Seamus is the main one with the fixation on your love life." Then Ron looked imploringly at his friends. "But it is very, very lonely and just so strange not having the two of you around."
Hagrid got up and left saying he was going to check on Witherwings, aka Beaky, but Harry secretly thought it was to leave the three of them alone to make up for lost time. They spent the hour that Hagrid was absent doing just that even Hermione now seemed able to put her animosity toward Ron to one side, for there were far more pressing concerns than personal disagreements. They told Ron about Ollivander and Fortescue and the reason for the leaves and twigs in their hair. They had attempted to follow one of the leads to a possible Horcrux, and only their lighting reflexes had saved them.
"It was only a small house, and right in the middle of a muggle village," said Harry still shocked by the memory of it, "but the old chap had a bloody dragon chained in his back garden."
"It was really scary, and he breathed fire at us," added Hermione, "but fortunately our coats protected us, and we beat a hasty retreat through the hedge."
"So did you get to check the Horcrux?" asked Ron.
"No, never even got close," said Harry resignedly, "but at least old Jeremiah Lamplighter, he's the chap that owns the glass, didn't see us. So we can always have another go."
"What sort of glass?" asked Ron.
"Well the link is sort of tenuous," said Hermione getting into lecturing mode, "but it is a goblet, rather like your mum's posh wine glasses, and it is made of blue glass."
"The blue is significant I take it?" Ron surmised.
"Yes, of course," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Blue is Ravenclaw's colour, this glass may be the one that was her most favourite, and that could make it a powerful enough object for Voldemort to consider using it."
"OK, so when do we have another crack at it," said Ron cheerfully. "Get this one done then we can have a go at all the others."
Harry gave Hermione a very steady look. She had told him that Ron would charge around like a bull in a china shop, without thinking things through, but he argued that if they gave Ron one expedition so that he could see what they were up against then he would calm down. Well one to the smart witch so far, Harry hoped he was right as well.
"Saturday evening," Harry said, mentally crossing his fingers. "Come to the Shack in the afternoon, you should be able to slip away. Just make sure no one sees you."
"That's great," the enthusiasm was unabated, "I'm doing Quidditch trials in the morning they should finish after lunch. I can store my gear in the changing rooms."
"Quidditch trials this early?" Harry was surprised.
"Yeh, well no seeker, down on chasers, almost starting from scratch….."
The conversation then drifted into the realms of the finer points of the game and Hermione indulged Harry his passion but lost interest herself very quickly. She stood and walked over to the window, she could see Hagrid sitting outside with Fang by his side staring up at the stars, it all looked so peaceful, it was hard to imagine all the horrors that were occurring almost daily now as Voldemort gained power. Her reverie was broken by a pair of arms snaking around her neck from behind, and the presence of a body pulled close to hers.
"Ron said cheerio but I don't think you heard him," Harry whispered in her ear, his breath on her neck sending a tingle down her spine. Harry peered out of the window over her shoulder, "Quiet out there isn't it, and beautiful," he kissed her on the neck, "almost as beautiful as you." Hermione spun in his arms, now facing him and her lips connected with his.
"Err…Umm…" and the loud clearing of Hagrid's throat, made them leap apart. "Sorry, didn' mean t' disturb you, but it's time yer wer off ter yer beds," he said his cheeks glowing slightly.
* * *
Ron however was not the first visitor to the Shack, Minerva McGonagall stood patiently at the ward boundary in the tunnel waiting to be let in. It was Friday morning and Harry and Hermione were already up and ploughing through the piles of information the 'Wise Men', as they had taken to calling the Hogshead wizards, had presented them with. As usual they were making very little progress for they had no means of cross reference for the material, it was very frustrating. The arrival of the Headmistress at least gave them a break from one set of work but plunged them into another. She immediately started on brushing up their transfiguration skills, and in a few hours of close tuition had stretched them further than ever before. Well pleased with their efforts she departed at lunchtime, but just before leaving dug into the pocket of her robes and produced three more scrolls.
"I found these in my office," she said, "I am sure Albus would have passed them onto you eventually. They are the private papers of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, not all of them obviously, but they allude to the time of the dissolution of the founders. You may find them useful."
"We'll read through them right away Professor," Hermione said with her normal enthusiasm for delving through unseen information.
"No you won't Miss Granger," the Scot's words were firm, "you will have some lunch then Remus Lupin will be here to help you with your defence work, and after tea Fyrsil Ollivander needs to see you. Not at the Hogshead, it will still be light, he will be at the little cave, …understand?"
"Err… yes Professor," said Harry and Hermione almost together.
She swept out of the room and headed to the stairs, then hiding a smile said. "It's just as well you not officially at school otherwise I would have to say something about your accommodation arrangements." Harry and Hermione still felt student enough to worry where this was going. "As it is, you are both adults, and I rather like the way it is decorated." Her remarks were offhand and light but despite that both Harry and Hermione found themselves blushing furiously.
Remus arrived an hour later and did not seem keen to linger in the Shack, he dragged them back out through the mirror and into the nearest part of the forbidden forest. Tonks was waiting for them, Harry thought she looked much more like her old self and she greeted them both with a kiss and a hug.
Defence Against the Dark Arts, this may be, but a lesson in the traditional sense it was not, it was much more like a running battle. Remus insisted on them using silent spell work. It was hard to start with and both Harry and Hermione lapsed into whispering or the even the occasional shout out loud, but once they discovered that any tip off to their opponent meant a swift retaliation they soon got the hang of it. The afternoon also showed them how useful their dragon hide coats were. Hermione was hit by a well aimed stunner when she mouthed a levitating spell at Tonks, there was no way she could avoid the red streak and it hit her full in the chest, she was lifted off her feet to crash back into the relatively soft ground. Her breath rushed out in a whoosh as she landed, but she remained conscious and was able to regain her feet even though she was a little unsteady. This allowed her to block the second stunner that came her way with her shield, and send a reductor into the tree Tonks was standing next to so that the Auror was showered with wood chippings and dead leaves.
By tea time they were hot, sweaty and ached all over, but they still had to meet with the old wand maker, so they had no choice but to walk out of the school grounds and then apparate to the cave high above Hogsmead. Ollivander had not arrived as yet, so they sat together on the boulder outside the entrance and looked down into the valley with the lake and the castle beyond. It was a very peaceful scene the light breeze ruffled the surface of the dark waters of the lake making the sun sparkle as if the lake was filled with diamonds rather than water. The trees below them sighed and swayed back and forth in the same light wind. The castle in the distance looked magnificent, but the sun suddenly caught on the brilliant white of Dumbledore's tomb and Harry frowned at the sight of it. Without a sound Ollivander appeared next to them and cleared his throat to gain their attention. They both jumped up and for a few moments Harry's heart raced with the shock of Ollivander's sudden appearance.
"How do you manage to do that?" said Hermione, her heart was pumping no less than Harry's.
"Do what my dear?" the old wizard asked, his mind obviously on something else.
"Apparate without a sound," she replied, "Albus Dumbledore could do it as well, but everyone else I have ever seen makes a noise."
"Oh that," he said as if it was of no importance, "think quietly when you consider your three D's and add a silencing charm at the end."
"Is that all?" asked Harry incredulously, expecting a far more complicated answer.
"Yes, yes, that is all, it becomes second nature after a while, couldn't do it any other way now if I tried," he mused. Then he was all business again. "Enough of this foolishness," he waved the subject away, "Harry you will need to know how to recognise Voldemort's Horcruxes when you find them and because of your wand I think I have found a way." Ollivander mumbled to himself for a moment as if he were sorting out the thoughts in his head. "Yes, yes it should work." Then he looked at Harry properly for the first time since he arrived. "Yew," he said, "thirteen inches long phoenix feather as the magical core. Voldemort's wand," he added unnecessarily. "Holly," he motioned for Harry to get his wand from his pocket and then took it and stroked it as if an old friend. "Eleven inches long and a feather from the same phoenix to power it, their magical signatures are very similar, you locked in a Priori Incantatem I understand?"
Harry nodded, "Yes, in my fourth year, after the Triwizard tournament."
"Good, good, splendid," the wand maker was almost gloating. "Now has Voldemort ever given you anything," Harry looked at him blankly; Voldemort and Harry were not on swapping gift terms. Then Hermione reached over and swept back his fringe, exposing his forehead.
"I don't know if this counts Harry, but he did give you your scar." she smiled encouragingly.
"Umm… well if you have nothing better," Ollivander seemed disappointed, Harry thought he would rather have preferred it if he had a pair of his cufflinks or something similar. "All you need to do is touch your umm… scar with one hand, concentrate on the phoenix feather at your wand's core, and touch the suspected Horcrux with the tip of your wand. The feather will do the rest and the Horcrux will be made known to you."
"Why?" said Harry.
"Because the Horcrux will think you're Voldemort," said Hermione.
"Err… essentially, though it is a little more complex than that," Ollivander seemed a bit put out with Hermione's simplified answer, though it suited Harry fine. "It would help if you knew the phoenix concerned."
"But I do," said Harry remembering every inch of that wonderful bird, "Fawkes was Dumbledore's."
"Yes, yes, of course, of course." Ollivander gave Harry a grin which made him look stranger than ever, "sign of old age, my boy, getting forgetful. This should work well then."
Hermione leaned close to Harry and whispered; "Now all we have to do is get at a suspected Horcrux to test it on."
"Yeh" said Harry remembering their failure at their one and only attempt.
* * *
Ron actually arrived on time the following day, and while they waited for evening to set in Harry and Hermione brought Ron up to speed on everything they had learned. He tried apparating from one end of the room to the other as quietly as possible and by the sixth try a quiet click was all he produced as he disappeared. By eight o'clock dusk had crept up on them, and Harry decided it was time to go. From the garage they apparated to a quiet alley on the outskirts of Stanford Dingley, this small muggle village straddled the River Pang and concealed the abode of Jeremiah Lamplighter, their target for tonight. Ron and Hermione followed Harry as he retraced his steps to the large green hedge that surrounded the garden at the back of the house. They could hear the dragon as it moved about, its chain clanking in the gathering gloom, and a deep rumble from its throat that made the ground vibrate.
"Here," said Ron as he thrust a paper bag into Harry's hand, "from Fred and George."
"What is it?" said Harry nervously, knowing only too well the sort of concoction the twins were wont to produce.
"Sleeping powder, extra strong, they gave me a couple of bags before the end of the holidays," he said, "It's a new product, I'm not sure if it will work on a dragon but this seemed a good opportunity to test it."
"I don't know Harry," cautioned Hermione, "might be better if we stick with the sommulus charm." She was even more suspicious of the twins' products than Harry.
Harry considered the alternatives, "Well we can always try this," he said tossing the bag from one hand to the other, which made Ron squeak in alarm and prepare to catch it if Harry failed, "and if it doesn't work we'll fall back on the spells."
They pushed through the hedge to emerge in the garden as far away from the house as they could. Despite the darkness and their black clothing the dragon saw them immediately, and it moved surprisingly fast for its size as it turned and rushed toward them. The dragon thundered over the lawn then reached the end if its chain and was pulled to an abrupt halt. It thrashed its tail in fury as it realised it could not reach them and tear them apart with its talons, but there was nothing to stop it from using its other weapon and burning them to a cinder. Harry waited until he saw the beast begin to draw in its breath to launch its fire at them and then he threw the bag. It arched through the air and struck the dragon on the side of its muzzle, the bag burst apart and bright orange powder flew everywhere. The dragon inhaled most of it and he froze, his mouth full of the most alarming set of teeth was a gaping maw, then his eyes opened wide in surprise and he shook his head as if trying to clear it. The dragon drew in a massive stuttering breath and then produced the most enormous sneeze. A bright gout of flame shot out of the dragons throat and only cleared the top of Harry's head by two feet making him flinch away. When Harry opened his eyes again the dragon was stretched out on the lawn fast asleep and snoring fit to bust.
Even Hermione had to admit she was impressed, but had to ask how long it would work for, Ron told her he didn't know and suggested that they ought to get a move on. They edged around the sleeping dragon and crossed the lawn, there were no lights showing at the windows of the house and the absence of sound or movement from within suggested that there was no one at home to witness the collapse of the guardian. The dragon had guarded the only door to the house and Harry was convinced that the owner would have considered it a sufficient deterrent so they hoped there would be no additional wards protecting it, but Hermione cast a revealing charm just in case. She found nothing and a quiet "Alohomora" gained them access to the darkened house.
The first room they entered was the kitchen and it wasn't very tidy, the same could have been said for the other rooms they examined, furniture placed haphazardly made it difficult to move around in the dark but three faint renditions of "Lumos" gave them some light to work by. The wizard's study was the only room that had any semblance of organisation, and there on the wall was a glass fronted cabinet containing a dozen or so objects. Harry, Hermione and Ron peered through the front of the cabinet, their breath steaming up the small panes of glass that made up the doors. A shrunken head, hung by its hair, hovered over the top shelf which it shared with a crystal ball and something which looked suspiciously like a hand of glory. It was the lower shelf which held the prize they were seeking, flanked by a very old stuffed teddy bear, and the eye tooth of a dragon set on a golden plinth, was a long stemmed goblet made of blue glass and etched into the surface of the bowl was an eagle.
"That must be it Harry," Hermione whispered. "It's even got the Ravenclaw eagle on it." She reached for the knob on the cabinet door only to have Harry grab her hand and hold her back.
"Check first," he chided her gently, and watched as her revealing charm showed a rather nasty hex on the door ready to trap the unwary. Harry used a disabling charm and the yellow filaments of the hex burned brightly for a moment then faded away.
They stood in front of the open cabinet and what could possibly be the first of the four Horcruxes they needed to find. Ron and Hermione held their breaths as Harry touched his scar with his left hand and stretched out his wand in his right. He pictured in his mind the phoenix that had provided the feather for his wand and sent that thought down his arm to his wand. For an instant he heard the wonderful sound of the song of the phoenix and then the tip of his wand made contact with the glass. There was a rich tone like the ringing of a church bell, as the glass recognised something, but no part of the soul of Tom Riddle burst forth to rejoin its fellows, Harry sighed with disappointment. Ravenclaw's glass it certainly was but a Horcrux it was not.
The angry cry of "ENERVATE" and the bellow of the reawakened dragon from outside made all three of them jump. Harry quickly closed the cabinet doors as the other extinguished their wands. To the sound of hurried footsteps reaching the kitchen door all three, with hardly any noise, concentrated on home and vanished from the study.
* * *