Chapter 2: The Hunt for the Horcruxes

An assembly was taking place in the Great Hall and the participants were sitting oddly quiet in a semi-circular fashion facing three chairs that were placed on a small dais, which made them more prominent than any of the other seats placed. You could hear a few muffled whispers here and there but everyone was waiting for "The Golden Trio" and as the Great Hall doors opened, the Hall fell eerily silent.

After the meeting with Professor McGonagall and Minister Shacklebolt the list of people that would be attending the gathering had grown a little larger than Harry, Hermione and Ron had originally planned. Sitting amongst the crowd were the Hogwarts Professors, the Weasley's, the remaining Order of the Phoenix and the members of Dumbledore's Army.

Ginny Weasley was sitting in between her mother and Charlie curious and nervous to hear about the plight of the Trio the previous year. Would she still see them (mainly Harry) in the same light? Ginny knew that at one point she had loved Harry Potter and she thought that she still did… But would she love him after this? The arduous journey undertaken by the Trio was enough to make grown witches and wizards fear for their lives, would she understand what they had went through? Could she go back to dating Harry after everything that they had both been through?

The slamming of the doors and footsteps were the only thing that could be heard permeating the Great Hall. The Trio quickly took their places and faced the crowd of onlookers. Hermione stood and addressed the assembly as one, "You all know why we are here today. You have all agreed to keep the details of this discussion amongst only the people in this room, everything that we are about to disclose to you is highly confidential. So, we ask that you keep all questions or comments for after we have finished. Thank you!"

Harry stood in the newly abandoned place at the head of the dais and closed his eyes. When he opened them he opened with a question. "How many of you know what a horcrux is?" There were a few gasps throughout the room but it was clear that most of the people in the meeting had no idea what he was talking about. Harry looked back at Hermione and Ron, shrugged his shoulders and turned back around.

"A horcrux is very dark magic where you rip your soul into two separate pieces and then implant a piece of your soul into an object which basically, in essence allows you to cheat death by surviving even if your body dies." As he surveyed the crowd he could see that some of the people in attendance looked rather nauseated.

"Dumbledore started teaching me everything that he could about Voldemort and his past, who he was and most importantly, how he became Lord Voldemort. This all started in my 6th year, we had private sessions dedicated to understanding Tom Riddle and Dumbledore imparted his wisdom to me and he told me everything that he believed to be true… And in the end, we, Hermione, Ron and I discovered that it was indeed accurate. Voldemort created 7 horcruxes."

Harry detailed his adventures with Dumbledore leading up to the end of his 6th year at Hogwarts. As Harry finished with Dumbledore being killed by Snape, Ron stood up and took over the story. Ron talked about Dumbledore's funeral, Bill and Fleur's wedding, the escape, the Ministry Break-In and how he eventually left Harry and Hermione alone in the woods.

Hermione tapped Ron on the shoulder indicating that she would take over and explained to the group about how she and Harry had gone to Godric's Hollow to see Harry's parents and how they had planned to search for any sign that Dumbledore may have left behind that would have worked as a clue as to finding the next horcrux. She told them about being invited into Bathilda's house, how Harry was attacked by Nagini, and how they narrowly escaped with their lives.

As Hermione broke out into tears, Ron enveloped her in his strong and inviting arms, leading her to her chair. Harry walked up and continued on with the trials and tribulations of attempting to discover the location of another horcrux. He then told them the story of how he had seen the doe on a snowy night and followed it to a pond in the forest, how Ron had come and rescued him, and how Ron had ultimately destroyed the locket.

Harry mustered up the remaining courage from his drained body and talked about being captured by the Snatchers, being brought to Malfoy Manor, everything that happened including rescuing Luna, Mr. Ollivander and the Goblin. He described his and Ron's anguish at the sound of Hermione being tortured and how they had been rescued by Dobby the house elf.

Footsteps approached and Harry turned and went back to his seat. He could hear Hermione talking but he wasn't really listening, he was exhausted. He caught snippets of her voice specifying the deal that they had made with the Goblin, breaking in to Gringotts, escaping on the back of a dragon and discovering the last location of the horcruxes that they had discovered.

She continued talking about how they had returned to Hogwarts and were rescued by Aberforth who gave them a way into the school, Ariana's passageway. She talked about Harry leaving to find the diadem of Ravenclaw while her and Ron thought of how to destroy Hufflepuff's cup, how they went into the Chamber of Secrets to retrieve a basilisks fang and the ultimate destruction of the next horcrux.

Everyone in the crowd could tell that the Trio were both mentally and physically drained but they were so intrigued by what they were hearing that no one mustered up the courage to have them stop and continue at another time. Harry started filling them in on finding Ravenclaw's diadem and his conversation with the Grey Lady, discovering that Voldemort had hid the diadem in the Room of Requirement and his passage throughout the castle to tell Hermione and Ron.

He continued with finding the diadem and being attacked by Goyle who set Fiendfyre and how they had saved Draco Malfoy from a sure death as they escaped and the diadem was destroyed, devoured by the Fiendfyre. Then Harry explained telling Neville that if he had the chance to kill Voldemort's snake Nagini at all costs because it was imperative to their mission.

Harry then approached the topic that he knew he would have to talk about but it was so private, personal and in a small way intimate that he really just didn't want to talk about it. He closed his eyes and meticulously explained every step of his arduous journey into the Forbidden Forest, using the Stone of Resurrection and walking to his doom with his parents and dearest friends.

Harry told them about how he died, waking up and conversing with his mentor Dumbledore and his decision to return to this world to finish what had been started. He talked about Narcissa Malfoy lying to Voldemort, saving his life.

He spoke about being carried back by Hagrid and pretending to be dead while Voldemort boasted about his defeat. He detailed coming back from the dead, and his final duel with Voldemort. When he finished, he slowly backed away from the dais and returned to his seat, letting the onlookers absorb the tremendous amount of details that had just been presented to them.

After about ten minutes or so, once everybody had absorbed the information, Harry, Hermione and Ron all returned to the front of the dais and announced that they would each take a couple of questions from the crowd. "How the hell did you all survive?" screamed an immensely irate Mrs. Weasley.

Ron and Harry looked at each other then turned together and said simply, "Hermione."

"I thought that you said that Voldemort managed to make 7 horcruxes… you only told us that you managed to destroy 4," said McGonagall.

Harry looked directly at her as he spoke, willing her to understand his pain. "The first horcrux that was destroyed was Tom Riddle's diary in my second year. The second was Gaunt's ring which was destroyed by Dumbledore. The third was Slytherin's locket, the fourth was Hufflepuff's cup, the fifth was Ravenclaw's diadem, the sixth was the snake Nagini, and lastly, I was the final horcrux." A gasp went through the crowd.

"How do you know that Snape was on our side all along?" asked Percy.

"Snape gave me his memories, which were extremely personal, and it helped lead to the direct downfall of Voldemort. He was a hero and shall be remembered as such," Harry let out with an angry breath.

"Why did you leave them in the woods? Why were you such a coward?" Every face turned to hear the bitterness in Ginny's voice. "How could you do that to them Ron?"

Ron gulped, he knew that this question would be coming and he gave as truthful of an answer as he could. "Slytherin's locket fed off of our despair. Every day when we were no closer to destroying it, it fed off my fear and pervaded these negative thoughts through my head, day in and day out. I allowed it to get to me. I allowed it to let me believe things that I knew weren't real because I am insecure. I left because I thought that they didn't need me and that I wasn't important. But, I did come back and that is what is important. They have both forgiven me so please, don't make this into a bigger issue than it already is."

Hermione gave Ron a hug and said, "I think that this is enough for now. It was a very traumatic experience for all of us and we all need to deal with it in our own way. When we are ready to talk about this again, we will but please don't ask us any more questions about it until we tell you that we are ready. Professor McGonagall, Minister Shackelbolt can we speak with you both alone please?"

Everyone else in attendance took the hint and all you could hear was the scraping of chairs on the floor of the Great Hall as everyone stood up to leave. The Golden Trio followed McGonagall and Minister Shacklebolt up to the Headmistresses office where they decided on what would be allowed to be released to the press and what should remain confidential.

Professor McGonagall looked at the three of them with pity and honor in her eyes, "I want to once again thank you three for everything that you have done for each and every one of us. The Minister and I will discuss everything and we will write up a transcript of what can be discussed at the press meeting. Go get some rest, we could all use some!"

The Trio nodded at her and took their leave making their way back up to Gryffindor Tower to get some well needed rest.