Hello. Thanks for selecting my fan fiction among the many others out there. Hope you like my newest story. It takes place days after the events of Half-Blood Prince.

My previous readers might wonder why I am not continuing my other story. It's because I started that story before Half-Blood Prince came out. Now, the things I put into that story are not consistent with the world JK Rowling created from the point of reference of book 6. Sorry for this but not to worry, I'm starting this story.

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HARRY POTTER and the SEARCH FOR THE HORCRUXES

CHAPTER ONE

THE REAL HORCRUX

Harry stood by his room in number four Privet Drive with zero appetite and energy. All he wanted to do was to go to his room and lay on his unwashed, rickety bed and sleep. All the things that had happened in Hogwarts was too much to think about. His problems were piling up, one after the other, and he didn't know how to manage all of it now that Dumbledore was no more. It was too hard for him, for a seventeen year-old kid.

He climbed up the stairs of the empty house as the sun was beginning to set. Apparently, the Dursleys were out, so he stepped into his bedroom, ready for bed. As he changed to his night clothes, he noticed a piece of parchment lying atop his bed. He approached it and held it up against the light given off by his lamp. It was from the Weasleys.

"Dear Harry,

We know this is a difficult time for you, what with Dumbledore and all, so we think that staying with us here, in the Burrow, would be good for you. Also, the new headmaster, Minerva McGonagall, asked me to tell you to go visit your godfather's home to collect whatever it is that you could get since all of them is yours.

Send us an answer soon!

Mrs. Weasley"

Harry didn't feel anything as he read the letter. He just kept it in his drawer and turned the light out. That night, he slept deeply with dreams of longing and moaning. The night crept into daylight and surely, by six in the morning, Harry opened his eyes and woke up. He could still hear the Dursleys' snores from the next room as Harry slipped on his slippers and changed into his day clothes. He knew that he had to go to Grimmauld Place so without even telling the Dursleys where he was to go, he Apparated and appeared outside Grimmauld Place.

He knew that as a student, he wasn't supposed to have apparated but nothing mattered any more, not even what the Ministry or what their policies say. He just went inside his godfather's house and closed the door behind him.

The dust was thick as he approached the dark hallway of Grimmauld Place. He looked around, searching for something he could collect as memory of Sirius Black. He went into the kitchen and found old pots and pans which he decided to leave behind. Nothing seemed to interest Harry since most of the contents of the house were either dark and dangerous or dysfunctional and useless. He searched drawers, straining his eye on the dim light to see the things the drawers kept.

Minutes later, he ended up in a strange cabinet which he remembered distantly from his stay in this house years before. He opened it and lit his wand to cast some light into the insides of this cabinet. Inside, he saw something shiny. He reached his arm towards it and grabbed this object, pointing his wand to shed some light into what he held.

He saw that it was a locket. He remembered this locket from almost two years ago. It was a locket they couldn't open (for reference, check out book 5). He pocketed it and walked around, looking for other things to keep. Once convinced that he had looked enough, he apparated once again towards his room in Privet Drive.

Once he arrived, he saw another letter lying on his bed. It was from the Ministry of Magic. He didn't mind the letter, containing a note on how he was caught using magic in a muggle populated area when he apparated, for he had no trust towards the Ministry of Magic anymore. He looked at the locket he held and stared at its glinting brown stone. It was beautiful yet it emanated a dark energy that for Harry, felt familiar.

He pocketed the locket and got a scrap of parchment and a quill. He quickly wrote "I'd love to stay with you guys, I'll be arriving shortly" on the paper and tied it on Hedwig's right leg.

"Hedwig, listen," said Harry to a silent Hedwig. "Get this to the Weasley's okay."

Hedwig cooed at him and took off into the sky. Harry began gathering his things and checking if he missed anything. He was now going to the Weasleys for the summer. He knew he shouldn't do so since the protection that lingered in the Dursleys' home was not present in the Weasleys' but he was convinced that he couldnt stay with his aunt and uncle. He even reasoned to himself that the protection was obsolete now that Voldemort used his blood to gain a body using Flesh, Blood, and Bond back when he was fourteen. That blood that Voldemort used was the same blood that presently gives protection in the Dursleys's household, making the Dark Lord immune to the magic number four Privet Drive possessed.

With a crack, Harry apparated towards the burrow with his luggage.

"Harry!" said Ron. "You're spending the summer here?" Ron was walking in the living room when Harry appeared out of thin air.

"Yeah" replied Harry. "I sent a note just minutes ago. So, is Hermione here?"

"Uh... She's coming tomorrow. So, have you eaten lunch already? What's all that stuff on your clothes?"

"Oh, nothing. Just dust from Grimmauld Place."

"O, ok. Lets go eat. I'm starving. Everyone's in the dining room"

Sure enough, as Harry went to the dining room, the rest of the Weaslyes welcomed him warmly. Ginny eyed him momentarily for Harry had recently just broken up with her. Harry then took his place in the table and started to dig in.

Lunch ended soon and nighttime came hours later. Harry was to share a room with Ron and as they both were talking, the topic of the locket came up.

"Wow, that's from Grimmauld Place isn't it?" asked Ron about the locket.

"Yeah. I can't open it still. Its jammed or something," said Harry. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know. Something dark. It doesn't feel right, that thing. It's as if its evil."

"I know what you mean. Well, I'll guess Hermione might know. Let's just ask her tomorrow. For now, I'm beat. Let's just turn in, okay. Good night."

Harry drifted to sleep in no time. He started to dream of the events that so recently happened. He dreamed of being in a stone island in the middle of a cold, still, black lake. He was now in the familiar cave he was just in days ago. He was letting Dumbledore drink a fluid from a Pensieve-like structure. Dumbledore was shrieking but Harry still let the headmaster ingest all of the liquid within the pensieve.

"No more!" wailed Dumbledore. "Make it stop!"

"This will make it stop" said Harry as he let Dumbledore drink the rest of the liquid.

Finally, the liquid was all gone. Harry saw Dumbledore asking him for water but then, everything started to fade. He was like getting out of a dream and entering another. He was now holding the locket he acquired from the pensieve-like structure in the cave days ago. He looked on the note clipped in it and saw the initials of the person who wrote the note. "R.A.B." (for reference, check out book six)

Suddenly, he woke up, sweating profusely. It was still dark outside and Ron was snoring on the opposite side of the dark room. He didn't know what to do about what he realized regarding the locket he was just discussing with Ron earlier before going to bed. He started waking Ron up.

"Ron, Ron!" hissed Harry. "Wake up!"

"Umm" said Ron sleepily. "What Harry, it's still dark outside. Go back to sleep."

"It's important!"

"Fine, fine. What is it?"

"Remember about the Horcruxes?"

"Yeah?"

"You remember how Dumbledore and I ended up with a fake locket Horcrux? I think I found the real one!"

"Where?"

"It's this locket," said Harry as he held the locket he found in Grimmauld Place. "The note from the fake locket was written by an R.A.B. R.A.B. must be Sirius' brother, Regulus Black. This must be his. He must've stolen it before Dumbledore and I got to it in the cave. He must have hid this Horcrux in Grimmauld Place before he died."

"Well, that makes sense" said Ron, now fully, awake. "But Regulus became a Death Eater so why would he want to steal the Horcrux and endanger his master's life?"

"We haven't heard the full story, Ron." answered Harry with an unreadable expression in his face.

END OF CHAPTER ONE