Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul
By: Krystal Lily Potter
Chapter Two: A Curious Question
Rating: T
Summary: My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince. Now that Dumbledore is gone the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure, Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the six items that Voldemort placed pieces of his soul into. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least dangerous ones of all that he must face. Can he bring back the light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape?
Warning: There will be physical violence, this might include gory images, I'm not sure yet. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes such as death (no this story does not contain any sex so if people are looking for that then I'm sorry to disappoint you)
"Life isten percent of what you make it and 90 percentof how you take it"
Hermione twisted a lock of her brown, curly hair around her finger as she sat on a swing in the park reading a book. There was a frustrated look on her face, one that caused Harry and Ron (who were sitting on the ground) keep a good distance from her kicking range. While she was reading a book with a blank black cover they were looking at maps.
Harry was searching the map for several places in particular, but he was having a lot of trouble because some of the places he needed to find were in the magical world, and he only had a muggle map at the moment.
"When we get a magical map," Ron had said, "there won't be any of these muggle places on it so we have to keep them both." This annoyed Harry to no end, why couldn't there be a map with both muggle and magical places on it?
In his mind he knew why, because the two worlds were too separate from each other, something that made him angrier and angrier as he got older. Growing up as a muggle child and living in the muggle world as a teenager he knew very well the problems of racism in the muggle world between different nationalities, religions, colors and everything else like that. As a wizard he was all too aware of the hatred many purebloods had against muggleborns and half-bloods.
It was ironic really, he thought for the millionth time over, that the leader of the activists most against muggleborns and half-bloods was a half-blood himself, something which he concealed with his fake name. Very few, if any, of Voldemort's modern day followers knew of his past life as Tom Riddle, for if they did they would all wonder why his name wasn't one of the old Pureblood ones.
Then again Severus Snape had hid his half-blood heritage from everyone with as much ease as Tom had. As thoughts of his former potions professor assaulted Harry's mind a dark feeling started creeping into his blood: hate. He hated Snape for all the deception that the man had put not only him through but Dumbledore as well. Dumbledore had trusted Snape with his life yet Snape had killed him when he was defenseless.
"It's something only a coward does," Hermione had said to him when he explained everything to her.
Harry had to agree, Snape was a coward, but, even Harry had to admit that he was a sly and intelligent coward.
In a dream he had seen the scene where Snape and Narcissa Malfoy had made the Unbreakable Vow and he had seen the place where Snape lived. It had taken forever but he finally found Spinner's End on the map, and after reading up on the area it was located Harry was surprised that he had found it at all.
He focused his thoughts back on the map in front of him, not wanting to think about Snape or Malfoy or anyone else at the moment; he had a job to do.
Circled on the map were the places in the muggle world where he knew Voldemort went at one point of time: Little Hangleton where the Riddle manor and Gaunt house were, the town where the orphanage that Voldemort grew up in, the beach where the cave was, and places like that. There were very few places marked on the muggle map, but the wizarding one was covered in red marks and x's to the significant places that Voldemort had been seen over the years.
Currently Harry was gazing over the muggle map while Ron was looking at the wizard map with an equal look of frustration.
"I give up!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly and stopped her book onto the dirt beneath her feet, "I can't find anything on how to destroy a horcrux!"
Harry sighed at her and said, "Maybe we're not looking in the right place. I suppose if a person wanted to hide what a horcrux was, so that a person would never want to make one they'd hide ANY information on it."
"Yes, including how to destroy one," Hermione agreed with a wince, "this is going to be impossible."
"You know," Harry said suddenly, "I think we have to make one more stop this summer. We're going to the wedding, then to Godric's Hallow, but I have one more place I definitely want to go."
"Where's that?" Ron asked.
"Grimmauld Place," Harry said.
Ron looked at him with confusion and said, "Harry mate, are you…er…sure you want to do that?"
"There will be some risk," Harry said, "because…well…Dumbledore (he said his name hesitantly) is dead the charm won't be on the house to hide it anymore so Death Eaters could get in as well but…"
Harry trailed off because Hermione had made an odd sound. Looking at her he saw understanding and excitement plastured on her face. "Of course Harry! It's brilliant!"
"What is?" Ron asked, still confused.
"Oh Ronald," Hermione said with a soft sigh, "we're going to Grimmauld place to go to the library."
"What?" he asked again.
"The Blacks were some of the darkest wizards in history, where better to look for books on pure evil magic, then in the library of a family where nearly everyone worshiped the dark arts?" Hermione explained to him.
"That…" Ron trailed off, "Is the best idea I've heard all day."
"So it's settled, location number three is Grimmauld Place," Harry said.
Dudley Dursley grinned when he saw young thirteen year old Mark Evans run away from him in fright; the boy was one of his favorite punching bags. He had always had a favorite person to beat up on in his life. When he was fifteen Mark Evans became his newest one, before that had been a boy named Randy Valenne and before that had been his cousin, Harry Potter.
The thought of his cousin made him shiver from fear. Yes after years of harassing Harry Potter it was now he who held the upper hand. Dudley was no fool; he had been warned by his father time and time again that Potter would be able to do magic outside of his creepy school soon.
Dudley had hoped that he would at least be able to get in a little bit of time without fear of Harry in the summer; his school year did end first, but apparently fate wasn't so kind to him. His father had picked him up from the train station with a grim look on his face; Vernon gave him a simple warning: Harry was home early and he had two friends with him.
Dudley hadn't believed it until he saw the red head that had been with the two to mutate his tongue three year prior. He remembered turning an ugly purple color at the sight of the young man and had nearly run out of the room when Potter entered the room with the girl.
He had to admit, the girl was pretty with her simple looks, and it had been a shock to the entire family when they learned that her parents were two prominent dentists in London. This made her the preferred one of the three magic people.
In general when he was with his friends Dudley would avoid his cousin. He didn't want to be put in a position where he would have to confront Harry because he knew he couldn't stand up to his cousin without a terrified look on his face and with the reputation Dudley had that would not do at all.
His best friend Piers Polkiss led the way through the park and Dudley had a sense of foreboding in him. On his first day back he had tracked Potter and his two friends (Granger and Weasley, if he remembered right) and he had found that they either stayed up in Harry's room or hung around the park. This had been a relief to his parents, since they were rarely ever seen when up in Potter's room and when they were in the park it was easy to deny any connection they had to the Dursleys. Now though, Dudley was praying that they had decided to stay in the house today but it was oddly nice out (it had been a very cold summer that year) he knew they'd most likely be outside.
Piers' girlfriend, Veronica West, hung off his arm and giggled at anything anyone said. She was a skinny girl that looked like a drown rat. Potter had been the one to make that claim and, for the first time in his life, Dudley had to agree with him. Of course he never told Harry this to his face, but his mother had mentioned that his cousin did have a good sense in when a human resembled an animal.
Pier had told Veronica about all the stories where they had harassed Harry when they were younger and she eagerly said she'd like to see the small, pathetic looking boy for herself, hence the reason they were scouting the park for Potter.
Dudley felt a lump form in his throat as they turned the corner and he saw Potter sitting on the ground with his two friends only a few meters away.
Hepzibah Smith had owned the Locket of Slytherin and the Chalice of Hufflepuff at one point in her life, before being deceived and murdered by Tom Riddle. Once in his possession Tom had put pieces of his soul into them and separated them. Still, Hermione thought it was a good idea to perhaps search the places where the items had originally been.
They had looked up information on her and the murder, but it hadn't been easy. Hermione had been getting incredibly frustrated by their lack of findings until she found a single newspaper article. This article was from the Smith family, who mentioned Hepzibah in memorial, and they also mentioned their new son that had been born: Zacharias Smith.
This had sent all three of them into a fit of relief and irony, none of them particularly like Zacharias but now they'd have to try and pry information out of him without letting on as to what they were doing.
Harry was packing away all his maps and books into his knapsack when a groan escaped his lips. Ron and Hermione looked up to see what he was staring at. A group of teenagers were coming their way, and ones of the ones in the lead was Dudley Dursley.
"This should be interesting," Harry said with a weak grin on his face, "Very interesting."
"Potter!" Piers called out to him, "Long time no see, old friend." All the people around him laughed when he said friend.
Hermione looked at them, visibly unimpressed with them. One of the other boys in Dudley's group noticed her and said, "Hey Big D, who's the chick hanging with Potter and this…other loser (Ron's ears slowly turned a brilliant shade of red). Does he actually have friends now?"
Harry glared at this boy with a look of utter disgust, worse then the looks he had given Dudley before. This was Tyson Bryce, and, although Dudley had been the one to physically beat Harry the most it was Tyson who mentally harassed Harry the most as a child.
Hermione jumped off the swing and marched over to the group. Her bright brown eyes flashed dangerously at the group before she turned to Dudley and said, "You're awfully quite Dursley. What's wrong, are you afraid of us?"
"I hope you do know who you're talking to," Veronica piped up.
"What do you guys like to call him…Double D is it?" Hermione asked sarcastically.
"Who do you think you are?" Tyson asked coldly, "The great Potter defender?"
Before anyone could say anything else Harry was up beside Hermione. He glared down at Tyson and said, "She, unlike you, is a good person with real friends. Now what do you want?"
"I wanted to show my girlfriend (he gave Veronica a smile) one of our old…friends…that's all," Piers sad with a nasty grin, "You know, show her all the old good times we used to have."
"Oh, you mean beating up people younger or smaller than yourself?" Harry asked venomously.
Dudley made an odd sound, causing all of them to stare at him. His eyes were resting on the tip of Harry's wand, which was sticking out of his pocket. Quickly he looked up at his friends and said, "They're nothing but pathetic weaklings, not even worth our time."
"Come on Dud," Piers said suddenly, "Don't tell me that you're afraid of Potter."
Dudley sent Piers a death glare before saying, "Of course not! I'm a boxing champion! He couldn't beat me!"
"Yeah and I'm the bloody boy who lived," Harry snapped, "But you don't hear me saying that I'm invincible."
An odd look passed over Veronica's face but everyone else just laughed and stared at Harry as if he was prey begging for mercy.
"The boy who lived?" Tyson said slowly, "What kind of name is that Potter?"
"You hear a lot of odd names like that, you know…the boy who lived…you-know-who…he who must not be named…and so on," Ron said with a small grin. He had come up and stood at Harry's other side.
"What kind of school do you go to?" another boy asked.
"Piers," Veronica said suddenly, "can we leave? These people don't seem like much and I don't want to be seen with them."
"I—"
"Please?"
"Fine," Dudley grunted, "I'll deal with you at home Potter. Let's go."
As the gang walked away Harry called out, "Looking forward to it Dudley!"
"That was pointless," Hermione said after a moment.
Harry shrugged and said, "Piers was just showing off for his girlfriend."
"What do you think Dudley's going to do later?" Ron asked as they grabbed their stuff and headed towards Privet Drive.
"In all honesty? Absolutely nothing," he replied without worry.
"Boy!" Vernon Dursley roared from downstairs, "Come here!"
Harry let out a groan and pushed himself up off of the floor of his bedroom and out of the door. Slowly he walked down the stairs, avoiding the stair that creaked. He reached the ground floor and walked into the living room. All the Dursley's were sitting in the living room, Vernon looking livid as always, Dudley looked about ready to wet himself and Petunia looking neutral.
"Yes?" Harry asked suspiciously, staring at each one of them in turn.
Vernon stared at him before speaking in a dark tone, "Petunia tells us that your birthday (he said that word as if witches and wizards couldn't have something as normal as a birthday) is next week, correct?"
"Good job, after sixteen years you've finally got it right," Harry said sarcastically.
Vernon ignored him and said, "I expect you and your friends to be out of my house nice and early that day."
"Like we'd want to stay here longer than we have to," Harry interjected.
"So I want you to start packing your stuff up now…"
"I didn't unpack my stuff; there isn't enough room in that small room."
Vernon glared at him and said, "Don't be so ungrateful! We let those…freaks stay here out of the kindness of our hearts."
Harry snorted and said, "You mean the same kindness that made me live in a cupboard for the first 10 years of my life here? Or the kindness that gave me only Dudley's hand-me-downs for clothes (aside from underwear but Harry didn't mention that)? Or is it the kindness of calling me a freak, trying to lie to me about what I really am, letting Dudley and his friends terrorize me as a child or letting Marge be a complete bitch to me? Well Vernon? Which one is it?"
Vernon's face turned a nasty shade of purple and he stuttered, "I-we-you-we---WE GAVE YOU A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD! WE FED YOU! WE—"
Finally Harry lost his temper as he too started yelling, "YOU TOOK ME IN BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID OF DUMBLEDORE! YOU NEVER TOOK CARE OF ME PROPERLY! TO YOU I WAS A SLAVE! NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS!"
Everything went silent until Petunia made an odd sound. All three males in the room looked at her to see she had a hand over her mouth and tears streaking down her cheeks.
Harry's anger started to dissipate at the sight of his normally tough aunt break down. He had seen her angry before, and terrified, but never once had he seen her cry. No one said anything, they just waited to see what she had to say.
"He's right," she finally choked out, "he's right and there's nothing we can do about it. If something had happened…and Lily was alive while Vernon, you and I had died, I wouldn't want her or Potter to treat Dudley like we did Harry."
"If something ever happened to us he would have went to Marge," Vernon soothed.
"I don't care! Who Dudley would have went to is not the point!" she screamed, "Lily trusted us to take care of him and…we kept him alive…but just that…"
The silence that hung around them made Harry uncomfortable as a question weighed down on him. He still remembered the first rule he had come to learn while living with the Dursley's: never ask questions. That rule hung over his head but he just had to know... "What do you mean my mom trusted you to take care of me? She probably expected Sirius to take care of me."
"She died with the killing curse didn't she?" Petunia said, surprising Harry to no end, "That Avada Kedavra one right? You shouldn't have lived when it hit you but you did. Harry, one thing you have to know about your mother is she wasn't…normal…even for your kind. She was a muggleborn witch with powers that some purebloods only wished they had. She knew ancient magic…she understood the old texts…and she knew many old rituals…and wasn't afraid to use it."
"How do you know all those wizard terms?" Harry asked, "Avada Kedavra, muggleborn and pureblood?"
"Lily told me. She told me so much about your world…" Petunia trailed off. She seemed to stare at Harry as if she suddenly realized something, "Didn't you ever wonder how Dumbledore knew your mother had used ancient magic and that being with her blood would keep you safe? Voldemort didn't know, other wise he wouldn't have attack you, would he?"
Harry stared at her with wide eyes. That was true, how did Dumbledore know that ancient blood magic was what saved Harry from death?
He purposely ignored the question for now and asked, "Why are you telling me all of this now?"
"Because we'll never get the chance to tell you later, will we?" Petunia explained calmly.
Suddenly Harry felt different about the family of three sitting in front of him. They were ignorant to no end, but they weren't evil people and they deserved a chance to live. He bit his lip then said, "When I leave here I want you to leave too."
"Why should we listen to you?" Dudley said, speaking for the first time.
"Because on my seventeenth birthday the magic that protects this house…including all of you…will fade. You'll be open targets to anyone who wants to kill you…anyone who wants the family of Harry Potter dead…which would be a lot of people in my world," he explained before turning around and leaving the room.
As he walked up the stairs back to his room his mind went over that one question that Petunia had asked. How did Dumbledore know? Harry thought back to the cave, how had Dumbledore known were the entrance was and how had he known that they needed blood to get in?
It was all based on blood, Harry decided as he pushed the door to his room open, that was the key. His eyes glanced in the direction of Ron and Hermione, both who had nervously snapped the books they were looking at shut and hid them away. He didn't even bother trying to figure out what they had been doing, he was too interested in blood now.
"We never did find out exactly HOW to create a horcrux, did we?" Harry said suddenly.
"No," Hermione replied with a slight surprised look on her face.
"We need to find out," was all Harry said before sitting on his bed. He continued to think to himself, and neither Ron nor Hermione said anything to him, it was obvious that something important was on his mind.
Author's Note
Yes it's going a little slow and his confrontation with the Dursley's probably doesn't make much sense to a lot of people…like why Petunia is being nice and all. Well she isn't being a completely nice but I figure if anyone did know Lily it would be her.
Also the thing with Dumbledore…that's always made me wonder how he knew about the magic when Voldemort didn't. I know Dumbledore says that Voldemort underestimated love and all but still...yeah anyways...the story picks up more in the next chapter! Promise!
Haha and people got my wrong…I didn't expect any suggestions for a plot line…especially since no one knows how this is going yet! I was pointing out that I don't mind if people suggest things later on. I might use some suggestions…I might not. See with Half Blood Prince AU and Scars of Time I had the stories planned out for a long time before I actually finished them. Actually I planned out SoT when I was writing HBP AU. With those ones I had a small summary of each chapter…which went though a lot of editing as I wrote the story. This one however I know where I want to go…different things I want to happen but I don't have an actual story plan written out.
So yes later on if you have an idea I don't mind if you share it (I know some authors just tell people to back off because it's their story but I only do that when people start arguing with something that I was 100 percent sure I wanted to happen).
Thank you to everyone who reviewed! If you have any questions, suggestions, concerns or anything like that just ask…I'll give a reply in the next chapter! Or even send you a reply...
I'm not going to reply to all the reviews like I used to, because some are a little hard to reply to but if there are good questions or points that are good I will reply to them! Promise!
Krystal Lily Potter
