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The Hand
Albus Dumbledore was sitting inside his office watching Bob Ogden's memory. The behavior of Gaunt and Morfin was disgusting and wrong, he could see where Voldemort had gotten some of his behavior from. He wasn't watching to learn about that though, he was watching this memory to help him find the Horcruxes. He knew Voldemort must have hidden them in somewhere that had a purpose or value to Voldemort himself.
Then he got to the part when Gaunt showed his families treasures. That was it, that is what Voldemort would use. Now all he had to do was find out where Voldemort was keeping these treasures. Dumbledore decided to start by going to Gaunts home back in Little Hangleton. He had a feeling he could find a clue there. So Dumbledore walked out of his office and out of the school. He smiled as he walked through the cool peaceful grounds, the always seemed to be able to clear his head. Then he reach the gates he opened them and walked through. He took one last look at the school and then he disappeared.
So Dumbledore Apparated into the town. It was a small town in the middle of the country. Dumbledore doubted that it could ever even be found on a map, but even though it was small it was a nice town. Dumbledore frowned, it was hard for him to believe that this very town had been the place in which Voldemort had been reborn. Then he started to walked. He knew that he would get nothing done from just sitting and thinking.
Gaunt's house was further away from the town. When Dumbledore approached it he was disgusted. The high grass could not disguise the ugliness of the house. The house itself looked like it was about to fall down. The paint was chipping off of it and the wood the house was made of looked like it was rotting. All the windows in the house were broken. Vines were taking over the face of the house cutting through the dead rotting wood. Dumbledore looked around trying to find a door to go through. When he finally found the door he really did not want to touch it because the door itself was covered in blood.
Dumbledore closed his eyes and reached for the rusty door knob and through open the door, and to his surprise it opened. He took a deep breath he had been expecting anti intrusion spells to be surrounding the house, but to his surprise there were none. With his Gryffindor bravery in his head Dumbledore opened the door and walked into the house. The inside of the house was even more disgusting. Dust covered the floor and all of the furniture inside. There were brown and yellow stains all over the walls and the ceiling. Dumbledore smiled to himself thinking of how hard the Order of Phoenix had to work just to get Sirius' house in order, this would be at least ten times worse than that.
Dumbledore moved to get a better look at the house, all of a sudden something shiny caught his eye. It was laying on a dust covered table in the corner of what Dumbledore thought to be the living room. Dumbledore walked toward it. When he was about half way there he realized what it was. It was Gaunt's ring. Dumbledore was thrilled but in his head he knew this was way to easy. Just as that thought passed through his he Dumbledore heard the boards he was standing on start to crack underneath him.
Dumbledore smiled as he casted a levitating spell. Breaking boards were not going to stop him from getting what he wanted. In his head he knew there would be worse things than that in his way very soon, but for now he was safe. Or at least that is what he thought. He was now flying toward the ring and right when he was about to grab it a huge blue light surrounded it. The blue light started at the table and reached up until it touched the ceiling.
Dumbledore reached back into his robes and pulled out his wand. He cast every disarming spell he could think of at the moment at that blue light but nothing seemed to make it go away. Nothing seemed to effect it at all. Then in anger and frustration Dumbledore stuck his hand through the light then he reached down and grabbed the ring. He was in so much pain, the sink on his hand felt like it was on fire. He felt like his whole hand was going to fall off. Once the ring was safe in his grip he ripped his hand from the light, but the pain did not go away. The pain did not matter at the moment though he had the ring and all he had to do was get out the house and get back to Hogwarts. There he could worry about his hand.
Dumbledore was still in the air because the floors were not safe so all he had to do was get out of the house. It seemed easy enough to move until he got to the door. The moment he reached for the door knob his whole body froze in midair. The whole time he was frozen all he thought about was that he needed to destroy the Horcrux. At that moment he did not care if he died the only thing that mattered to him was that a part of Voldemort died first. Dumbledore knew that he could stay frozen forever. He had told no one where he was going so there was a chance that no one would find him. He had to move, he just had to.
He realized then he still had his mind. His wand was in his hand very much frozen, but he could still think. Mental magic was one of Albus Dumbledore's many talents and it was going to help him through his problem. He used all of his concentration to focus on the one spell he knew could unfreeze him. He said nothing, but instead he thought of it over and over again until he fell out of the air onto the floor. Now he could move, but he had no time to celebrate because at that moment the floor boards gave way causing Ablus to fall into a very large hole. Before he could fall all the way he grabbed a hold of the remaining boards with his good hand, and pulled himself back up onto the remaining floor. He knew that it was a miracle that Gaunt's ring was still in his hand. Then not wanting to make the same mistake twice Dumbledore casted a spell and the door swung open.
He ran from the house to the lawn. There he Disapparated to the gates in front of Hogwarts. He opened the gates and rushed toward the school. It was getting harder for him to breathe and the pain in his arm was unbearable. He stumbled at least three times on his way. When he finally reached the school he was exhausted but he knew there was still work to be done.
He opened the front doors of the school to find Poppy and Professor Minerva McGonagall waiting for him. They both looked very worried. "Where have you been Albus." Minerva said looking almost scared. Dumbledore smiled at her, not wanting to answer the question. Then she saw his hand when she did she gasped and fainted. Poppy caught her before she hit the ground. Seeing that Minerva was going to be alright Dumbledore walked passed both women to his office. Once inside he laid the ring on his desk, he walked to a shelf where he picked up a small dagger. Then he walked back to the desk. When he reached his desk he took the dagger and slammed it into the ring. The ring his and a little bit a of black smoke came out of the ring.
At this point Dumbledore's body could take no more he collapsed on the floor in front of his desk. At that very moment Poppy and Minerva rushed into his office. Poppy rushed down to help him but he shook his head. "Get Severus." He said in a very weak voice. Minerva did not waste another minute. She rushed down into the dungeons and slammed her fists into Severus Snape's door. "What is it." He said grumpily as he opened the door looking very irritated. "It is Albus something is not right." Minerva said in a small voice. Snape didn't need to hear anymore, he quickly followed her to Albus' office. Inside they found Albus still lying on the floor. Poppy was next to him looking very scared. Snape looked down and saw Dumbledore's hand it was mangled and disfigured. Blood was pouring out of it and it was starting to turn black.
Severus bent over Dumbledores body, he pulled out his wand and mumble a quiet spell, red sparks went from his wand and landed on Dumbledore's hand. Then Snape stood up and rush back to his office to grab a healing potion that he had made. He hurried back up to the office with potion in his hand. Once he got there he knelt down and started pouring the silvery potion on Dumbledore's hand. The hand still was disfigured and black but the bleeding had stopped and the look on Dumbledore's face told him the pain had to. "Thank you Severus." Dumbledore said quietly. "Your welcome master." Snape replied. Dumbledore looked up at him and whispered. "you are your own master Severus." Snape did not hear him though he was to busy looking at the ring on the table. Curiosity was in his eyes when he looked back at Dumbledore. "What..." Snape was about to ask about it but Dumbledore who was now standing up held out a finger to stop the question. "In time I will tell you my friend, but not now." Dumbledore said.
Then Dumbledore walked to the desk and picked up the ring and put it on. He looked at the the people standing before him and smiled Poppy, Minerva, and Severus stood before him looking stunned. They did not know what happened to him but they did know it had something to do with that ring, and for him to put it on seemed foolish to them, but to Albus it was a symbol of victory and strength. He looked at his friends for a moment ad then he smiled. "Well my friends, it has been a rather interesting night for all of us. I think it is time for all of us to go to bed."
They left his office quietly. Once they were gone Albus sat down behind his desk, savoring a moment of peace and knowing that it was going to be hard to find these small moments in the future, but he would try. Then his mind traveled to Harry. He wondered if the boy was alright. The new minister was going to try to use Harry and Albus knew he could not allow it. In the morning he would send a letter to Harry telling him that he did not have to endure the Dursleys much longer. Dumbledore closed his eyes for a moment and then he smiled. He had to go to bed now though because he was so tired. After all it had been a very eventful day.