Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
The Time Meddlers
Chapter Seventeen - Sirius Horcrux Hunting
Double Murder at Hogwarts
By Rita Skeeter
Yesterday morning, the Hogwarts Express brought the Hogwarts students home for the summer, and it appears that they left just in time. The reason is that last night, while the children were settling in their homes, an elderly couple that had been visiting their friend, Headmaster Dumbledore, was robbed and murdered at the gates of Hogwarts. It wasn't just any couple, either. It was the famed Alchemist Nicolas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle.
While Dumbledore refused to divulge what item he believes was stolen, he said that it was a priceless magical artifact that he had just returned to them after they had lent it to him. He also said that he believes this double murder was the work of Bellatrix Lestrange, recently escaped from Azkaban….
"What…how?" said Harry eloquently as he crumbled up the newspaper in frustration. He was at the Grangers' house with Hermione, having arrived through the vanishing cabinet shortly after her parents left for work. She had shown him the article since she had a subscription but he didn't.
Hermione took a deep breath. "Well, we know it wasn't Bellatrix who stole the Stone, but that doesn't mean Voldemort wasn't responsible for this."
"Instead of trying to sneak into the castle, he decided to bide his time until it was removed," said Harry, looking angry. "We should've known he'd pull off something like this once I got Quirrel killed! He'll probably be resurrected in a week! Dammit!"
"We don't know for sure that it was him," said Hermione, trying to calm her boyfriend down.
"Then who was it?" he snapped at her.
"Don't yell at me!" she screamed back. "I'm not the one who killed the Flamels!"
Harry took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I just don't want things to get worse than they were before."
"You're forgiven. Now, to answer your question, I don't know. There are other possibilities. It could be Snape. He knew about the stone being there."
"If it was him, then Voldemort has it now." Harry paused. "What if it was Dumbledore?"
Hermione looked at him as though he'd grown a second head. "Dumbledore? Why…"
"He could've killed them himself and claimed someone else did it so he could keep the Stone."
"I don't think…"
"Anyone capable of leaving a baby at the Dursleys' doorstep," interrupted Harry, "anyone who would subject children to Snape, is capable of anything if he thinks it serves his greater good."
"While I agree with you about the Headmaster's questionable morality, I don't think Professor Dumbledore did this," argued Hermione. "It doesn't make sense. Even if he were going to kill them, which I doubt, he wouldn't do it on Hogwarts' grounds, nor would he tell the Daily Prophet or Ministry that they'd been robbed. It would only bring attention to the fact the Stone is missing."
Sighing, Harry conceded, "I suppose you're right. I just don't have any other suspects."
"There could've been someone who had planned to do this in the original timeline, but didn't get the opportunity because of what we did the first time around."
Harry grinned for a moment. "I suppose so." He shrugged his shoulders. "It could even have been a Goblin who knew about the Philosopher's Stone and planned this so he could make unlimited gold."
"You never know," replied Hermione doubtfully. She sighed. "I'm sure that whoever did steal it will reveal himself eventually."
"Unfortunately," agreed Harry. "What we've got to do now is plan our quest for the Horcruxes."
--TM--
It was the first Friday of the summer vacation. The previous day, Hermione had mentioned to her parents that she might go to the library that day, so that they wouldn't be worried if they called the house and didn't reach her. She and Harry decided to try to stop being so dependant on their Time-Turner as they had been during the school year because they didn't really need to always use it - only when they'd need an alibi. The Dursleys didn't know when Harry was or wasn't in his room, and Harry figured there was nothing odd about him leaving Privet Drive for the day if Dumbledore did detect he wasn't there. He had checked himself for tracking charms and found one, but simply moved it to his bed.
Harry and Hermione had met up with Sirius, who was staying in the now Fidelius-protected Number Twelve Grimmauld Place with Hermione (the least likely suspect) as Secret-Keeper.
"It's good to see you two," he happily greeted when they arrived. Motioning to Harry's watch, he added, "I'm about ready to move back into your apartment. Even with the place redecorated, it brings back a lot of bad memories."
"I know," said Harry sympathetically. "You'll be able to claim your new identity soon and won't have to live here anymore, but it would still be a good Headquarters…if we need it."
Hermione added, "We just don't want you to suddenly appear just before or just after Gringotts is robbed. It would be too suspicious."
"And we don't want you to have your new face until after the robbery, so that no matter what happens, your alter-ego won't be a suspect," interjected Harry.
"But I'll be able to establish my new identity in a month - tops - right?" Sirius asked, sounding almost desperate.
"Yes."
"So, we're going to the Gaunt house, then?" asked Padfoot.
"Yeah," said Harry. "I suppose we'd better get it over with." He took a deep breath. "If you'll hold onto me, I can guide you to the nearby cemetery, where we should modify certain graves while we're there."
--TM--
With three small pops, a group of three, hiding under two invisibility cloaks, arrived at a location that frequently visited Harry Potter's nightmares. He and Hermione were under his cloak, while Sirius was under the other one they'd obtained from the Crouch family (while holding onto Harry through the cloak). The Boy-Who-Lived couldn't help but feel a bit tense here, at the place where he'd seen Voldemort resurrect in another life. They all looked around to see no one in the area.
"It looks like the coast is clear," whispered Harry, before examining the gravestones with his eyes. "This way to the Riddle family." The three invisible figures silently walked in the indicated direction until they arrived. "Hermione, if you will?"
The smartest witch of her ages pointed her wand down at the dirt in front of Tom Riddle Senior's headstone and performed a special spell she'd found in an old tome at Black Manor. It searched for the casket below and vanished both it and the contents so that nothing was left in that plot but dirt and a hole where the casket was. It wouldn't take long at all for the hole to fill itself up so that someone digging for the casket wouldn't realize that it had been moved away and would keep digging further down. She then performed the same spell on the other Riddle family members' graves. In all, the process took less than fifteen minutes. Now there were no bones of Voldemort's father, grandfather or grandmother for him to find.
The group then carefully walked out of the cemetery onto the road, where Harry looked for the remains of the Gaunt house he'd visited in Dumbledore's Pensieve. They followed the hedge on the side of the road downhill until they reached a very small gap in the hedge.
"This should be it," Harry said, "Although this gap is even smaller than it was fifty years ago." They managed to walk down the narrow dirt track that was being overrun with weeds, getting past the potholes and such until the track opened up at the copse, and found their destination. It was a wooden shack, rotted almost to the core, and nearly hidden behind a tangle of trees. The walls were covered in moss and the rafters were completely visible, due to the many tiles that had fallen off over the years. There was a broken window at the front of the shack, and looking through it, various small animals could be seen nesting inside.
"So this is where Slytherin's descendents ended up living?" commented Sirius.
"Yes," replied Harry as he approached the door, which had the skeleton of a snake nailed to it. Not wanting to touch anything with his bare hands, he put on a pair of gloves and gripped the door handle. When he tried to open the door, it fell from the small cottage, causing a great cloud of dust to form around them. While Harry was coughing, the small animals that had been inside scurried out past the trio, some on foot and some by air, depending on the species.
The inside of the building was disgusting. The floor was mostly covered in various animal droppings and every piece of furniture was rotted through. Due to the stench, Harry decided to use a bubblehead charm, and noted that his companions did the same.
Not wanting to step in the mess, he began scourgifying a section of the floor so that the three of them could enter. Finally, when they were inside, Harry said, "I wish Dumbledore had actually shown me his memory of finding the Horcrux, even if he hid his mistake of putting the ring on."
"Yes," agreed Hermione, "It would've been helpful to know exactly where Voldemort hid the ring, but there's no point in crying about it." She pulled out her wand and performed a Dark Magic detection spell while the others did the same, scanning every surface in the house, scourgifying more of the floor as they slowly moved forward.
After about twenty minutes, Sirius announced, "I think I've found it."
Harry and Hermione made their way to his position and each of them performed the charm, with the same result of the wood glowing blood red. Stating the obvious, Harry declared, "It's under the floor."
"Really?" questioned Hermione sarcastically.
"So what should we do?" asked Sirius with a grin. "Blow a whole through the floor?"
"NO!" shouted both Harry and Hermione.
"I know. I know. I was just kidding. I know we've got to be careful."
"Just making sure," said Hermione as she began running a few spells over that area of the floor. "It's some sort of trap door, but I can't find the edges or see how to open it."
Harry sighed. "Do you think it needs a drop of blood?"
"Possibly," she replied after running another detection spell.
"I'll do it," announced Sirius as he pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket. "I'm the adult."
"Mentally, we're both of age," argued Hermione.
"Then I'm still the oldest," he argued as he cut his thumb a bit and let himself bleed a few drops onto the appropriate section of the floor. While Padfoot was healing his small cut, the blood absorbed into the floor, disappearing before the edges of the trap door showed themselves, revealing that it was about one foot by one foot. The face of a snake also appeared.
"Parseltongue?" muttered Harry, shaking his head. "Tommy sure is thorough."
He took off his watch and set it on a clean part of the floor while Hermione said, "We're not sure of that, or if you'll have the right words recorded."
While the trunk was expanding, Harry replied, "I am sure that Parseltongue is required, and that memory orb is the best chance we have of success, although you are right that it's just as likely that we don't have the password." He took a deep breath as he opened his trunk and stepped inside. "It's our only option."
Five minutes later, Harry's watch was back on his wrist and the thought sphere was next to the trap door. The trio was as far away as possible when Harry used his wand to activate the sphere to show his image hissing, "Open up," in snake language.
The edge of the trapdoor glowed red and it floated up about two inches before the image of the snake hissed something that none of them understood. Harry shrugged his shoulders and had the sphere repeat the first phrase. The snake image hissed again and a green beam of light shot from that through the orb, shattering it, and into the wall. Luckily, none of the companions was in the way of that spell. Obviously that hadn't been the right password.
The trap door began sinking down again, and Harry knew they couldn't let that happen. He sent an, "Infligo!" aimed perfectly at the piece of wood, which was like punching it. This caused the trap door's cover to be knocked off that part of the floor and slide to the wall. The result was that the trapdoor was finally open. All three companions walked toward the hole in the floor and looked down to see a small, black velvet jewelry box in the center. The hole itself was only a few inches deep.
Hermione performed another detection spell before floating the box up and into Harry's waiting hands. "It should be safe, but be careful," she warned.
Harry opened it with his gloved hands and saw the ring he had seen before in another life. The ring that had caused so much harm to Dumbledore. He looked carefully at the small black stone, as well as what Marvolo Gaunt had identified as the Peverell coat of arms. Something about that ring seemed to be drawing him. He reached for it, only wanting to…
"HARRY!" shouted Hermione a moment before she forcefully shut the ring box. He blinked and shook his head.
"What happened?"
"You blanked out there for a second and then reached for the ring. It looked like you were going to…"
"Put it on," finished Harry, shuddering at the thought. "There's something about that ring that just seemed to…call me." He took a deep breath. "We'd better get this destroyed."
"Then we should head back to Headquarters," said Sirius. "There's no point in wasting the basilisk venom when we can burn it in my oven."
"Yeah," he agreed, and all three Apparated back to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, where the ring was melted down by Fiendfyre.
They waited, standing around the oven, around ten minutes before they finally heard the screams associated with a Horcrux being destroyed.
"That took a long time," commented Sirius as they waited a few extra minutes, just in case.
When he finally put out the Fiendfyre and opened the oven, he said, "This is a bit odd."
"What's that, Sirius?" asked Hermione.
"Usually, all we have left are ashes."
"We know," said Harry.
"Well, with this, there are some ashes, but mostly slag. It's as though the stone melted down, but couldn't be actually destroyed. It could theoretically be remolded into a ring stone again."
"Wow," said Hermione as she moved to take a look at it. "I've never heard of a substance that could survive Fiendfyre before. We should keep it for later study."
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "If you want, Hermione. I'd just as soon put it in the rubbish bin."
--TM--
A few days later, Sirius Black walked into Gringotts. Although he couldn't see them, he knew that Harry and Hermione were under invisibility cloaks following him into the bank so they were nearby if needed. However, this was his mission. He didn't look like himself at all. He'd obtained a hair sample of a random man in Diagon Alley and used it in Polyjuice Potion that he'd drunk just before entering the bank. The man was about his height, so his robes still fit, but that was the only similarity he had with the balding, brown-eyed man with a scarred-up face and a crooked nose that had obviously been broken at least twice and not properly healed. He walked up to the counter and said, "I'd like to visit my vault."
The goblin he'd spoken to looked bored as he asked, "Do you have your key, sir?"
Sirius reached into his pocket and took one of the biggest risks of this mission. He pulled out the key to the Black vault. When he, Harry and Hermione discussed the plan, they concluded that the Goblins would be able to tell a fake key immediately and would probably execute the wizard who showed it to them without delay. Therefore, they had to use a real Gringotts key. Internally trembling but appearing calm on the outside, he handed the tiny golden key to the banker. He knew that at the same time, Harry would be pointing his wand and putting the teller under a Confundus charm so that he wouldn't realize that a man gave him the key to a vault that was not his own.
"Very well," said the banker. "I will have someone take you down to the vault. Slaykill!"
This goblin looked about the same as the others except that he had a distinctive scar below his eye. Sirius couldn't tell if it had come from a sword or a spell and realized that it would be foolish to ask the goblin about it.
Once they were in the cart, Sirius pulled out his wand and pointed it to the goblin. "Imperio!" Slaykill's eyes went unfocused as Padfoot directed him to take them to the Lestrange vault. The route had to be changed, but the goblin had no trouble doing so. However, what Sirius didn't know was that changing a cart from the planned route automatically sounded an alarm upstairs.
--TM--
Harry and Hermione were just beginning to relax when a loud BEEP filled the room. Harry muttered an expletive, eliciting a, "Harry, language!" from his girlfriend. They knew what to do in this situation and were prepared as both sent a spell to seal the entrance to the mines before the goblins reached those doors. They started moving away, but the goblins had figured out that someone invisible was in the lobby and were walking around, swinging their swords at the air.
"Shall we?" asked Harry while pulling a vial out of his pocket.
"No choice, really. Not if we want the ability to fight back without revealing ourselves."
Both of them drank a dose of Polyjuice potion to transform into random inhabitants of Diagon Alley whose hair they'd nicked a sample of the day before. They quickly put the vials in their pockets so they wouldn't drop them, revealing their location while painfully changing form. Once the transformation was over, the couple pulled out their special wands.
"Reveal yourselves, thieves!" shouted the largest goblin in the room, who was swinging an axe around. All the wizards and witches who were in the lobby (which wasn't many since the trio had chosen a slow business time to do this robbery) were instructed to line up along one wall if they didn't wish to be decapitated. Knowing that the most important thing was to delay the goblins from interfering with Sirius, the couple kept slowly backing away, while staying ready to fight once it was necessary. The longer the goblins searched for the two of them, the more time Padfoot had to rob Bellatrix's vault.
--TM--
Sirius was looking like himself and drenched, but had the sense to fire a cushioning charm before roughly landing. He and the Slaykill had just passed through `The Thief's Downfall,' a liquid that seemed like water, but undid all magical enchantments and disguises as a cart passes under it. It also causes the cart to crash and shatter, which is why Sirius and Slaykill were on the ground. This was part of Gringotts' normal defenses when the alarm is sounded.
Sirius didn't need the full explanation of this to see that his goblin companion was no longer under the Imperius curse, so he quickly cast it again while Slaykill was running toward him. "Lead me to the Lestrange vault, quickly!" Padfoot demanded of the enchanted goblin, who answered affirmatively by beginning to march.
While the goblin was doing that, Sirius downed another dose of Polyjuice - a very special one just for this occasion. In the event that the goblins found out they'd been robbed, it was decided to frame Bellatrix for it. So, they used one of the many hairs that Harry had taken from the crazy jailbird before he'd killed her in Azkaban.
Padfoot was very nervous as they walked past a dragon. The beast's scales had turned pale and flaky during its confinement underground; its eyes were milkily pink; both rear legs bore heavy cuffs from which chains led to enormous pegs driven deep into the rocky floor. "Get us past the dragon!" Sirius commanded, which caused the captive goblin to pull out two knives from his pockets and begin clanging them together, which caused the dragon to back off in fear. Padfoot could only imagine the kind of abuse it would take to make a dragon afraid of that noise. "Open the Lestrange vault, quickly!"
Slaykill pressed his palm to the door, causing it to melt away, revealing a cave like opening crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins and goblets, among many other assorted treasures. Sirius had obviously watched the Pensieve memory of Hufflepuff's cup, so he was hoping to find that as he looked around. Since they'd already found Ravenclaw's Tiara, he knew that this Horcrux had to be that. He lit his wand as he searched until finally, he saw it.
Grinning, he put his hand around the jeweled goblet, he screamed in pain. His hand was burning, but he managed to hold his grip while pushing it into a bag he'd brought. The whole time, more replica goblets were forming around him, but since he hadn't dropped the cup, he didn't get confused. He forced his way out of the vault just in time to see the Imperius Curse had lifted from Slaykill, and the goblin was running toward him with a dagger.
"Stupefy!" Padfoot shouted in Bellatrix's voice, hitting the goblin in the chest and sending him to the ground. He didn't want to hurt Slaykill for doing his job. He quickly Obliviated the goblin so he wouldn't remember it was Sirius Black who'd robbed the vault. Realizing that he couldn't ride a cart back to the lobby since they knew the vault was being robbed, he came up with a mad plan that would make Harry proud.
He sprinted toward the dragon, pointing his wand at its chains and shouting, "Relashio!" before jumping on its back. It only took the beast a few moments to realize it was unfettered. It roared and spread its wings as Sirius/Bellatrix held on tightly.
--TM--
"Reducto!" Harry shouted while pulling off his cloak. He appeared to be a tall man with light brown hair as the blast hit the goblin's axe, shattering it in pieces. Hermione, who appeared as a straight-black-haired woman, stupefied another goblin. As these weren't Death Eaters, and were actually doing their job of protecting Gringotts, the couple didn't want to kill them unless they had no choice. They were counting on the fact that goblins don't have wands with which to cast spells like Enervate.
Another goblin charged Hermione, swinging a sword. She moved away quickly, but the sword hit her wand, which fell out of her hand. She dived for it while another goblin shot an arrow at Harry, sticking it into his shoulder.
"Ow!" he shouted while Hermione grabbed her wand and blasted a goblin across the lobby. She turned toward the one with a crossbow and with a, "Reducto!" it lost its head.
At that moment, there was a loud CRASH as the strangest sight in Gringotts' history occurred. A dragon had just busted into the lobby from below with Bellatrix Lestrange wearing a mad grin riding it with her wand pointed at the walls of the bank, blasting a larger exit from the bank.
Harry pulled the arrow out of his shoulder before his world turned dark and he passed out. Sirius/Bellatrix saw that and summoned him (recognizing the disguise) onto the dragon while Hermione ran toward them. Once Harry was secure, Sirius summoned Hermione up onto the flying dragon's back before they were too far away. Soon, they were far above Diagon Alley and headed who-knows-where.
Hermione immediately got to work on Harry, easily closing the wound from the arrow. Since the wound closed with no problems and no scar, she deduced that it wasn't a cursed wound, but that he'd been poisoned. Knowing the goblins, it was likely to be fatal, so she immediately pulled a bezoar from her purse and stuffed it into her pale boyfriend's mouth, then forced him to swallow. A bit of color returned to his face, and within a minute, his eyes opened, although his face was full of sweat.
He gasped for air before asking, "Did we do it?"
Hermione looked to Sirius, who replied, "Yes. I've got Hufflepuff's Cup," without turning around. "Are you alright, Harry?"
"I think so," he sighed.
"I'm just glad it wasn't a worse poison," said Hermione. "Harry, you've got to pay more attention."
"I'll remember that next time we rob Gringotts."
"I think this dragon's going to land soon, and when it does, we'll be its first meal," interrupted Sirius.
"How did you…" asked Harry.
"I'll explain later, but now we'll have to get ready to jump. It's flying over water and it should be low enough…"
They got ready to do just that and soon jumped, landing in a river hard, plunging like stones into the water. Harry was weakened, but managed to kick toward the surface while his companions did the same. Once they were all on land, they Apparated, although Hermione side-alonged Harry since he was still weak.
--TM--
Azkaban Escapee Bellatrix Lestrange Visits Her Gringotts Vault, Leaving on a Dragon
By Rita Skeeter
Yesterday, Bellatrix Lestrange, no doubt using Polyjuice Potion, snuck into Gringotts to visit her vault, with two accomplices who were under an invisibility cloak, at first. Lestrange Imperius'd a goblin to take her to her vault and Obliviated him so he wouldn't remember what she'd taken. During that time, she reverted to her natural form. Then, she rode out on a stolen dragon, picking up her two accomplices, who'd managed to murder two goblins in the lobby.
Gringotts goblins insisted that no vault had been robbed, citing that Mrs. Lestrange merely made a withdrawal from her own vault. However, the goblin nation does charge her with stealing a dragon, which was guarding the vault, and the deaths of the two goblin clerks. They also commented that they'd realized a security risk and would be making sure that their dragons are no longer capable of flight.
An evil laughter filled the room as someone read the account of the bank robbery and looked at the picture of Bellatrix Lestrange on a dragon. On the desk was a large book on alchemy and the legend of the Philosopher's Stone, while next to it was the Stone itself. In a corner was a dead man lying in the center of a pentagram. He'd recently been used in a ritual which enhanced his captor's magical core.
"Well, well, well, Bellatrix. You have been busy. I do hope to meet up with you soon so that you can serve me."
--TM--
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