And on we go with the story. Happy reading.
Bringing Horcruxes Down
Over the next three months Hadrian was really busy. To his great joy his NEWT results had been really good. He had got O's in Charms, DADA, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy and Transfiguration and E's in COMC, Potions and Herbology. Eight NEWTs with the highest ever recorded DADA score. That kind of thing happened when you baffled the proctors with a corporeal patronus, instant high level shield charms, all defensive spells the proctor could think of, demonstrated how to take out banshees and vampires and presented a completely unheard of method to secure hiding places. If he had learned one thing last year it was hiding from Death Eaters.
While he had strictly cheated a bit on the theory parts and had known which spells would be tested, if he couldn't perform them he wouldn't have got the results he did. And he had only had three months of preparation time thanks to sacrificing his last school year to the horcrux hunt and defeating Voldemort. He deserved a little bit leeway for that. Others would have needed to repeat the whole year to take their exams. And Hadrian hadn't simply memorized the answers; he really understood the concepts behind them. After all, he didn't want to be caught out red-handed if somebody asked more questions during the practicals. So he had learned the theory as properly as he could. He was proud of his results. And those scores opened many doors for him.
He got an invitation from the auror corps, which he accepted. Being an auror had been his dream, even if it had been an idea of a disguised Death Eater. The real Moody and Sirius had supported him in his endeavour. For now it was the perfect position for him. Thanks to the war the trainees were put through shortened intensive training. Hadrian loved it. He learned so much and quickly got noticed by his trainers who in turn informed the leading aurors of his talent. It built a really good reputation for him inside the DMLE. Next to being an auror trainee he made the business investments he knew would become the most valuable in the future. There were some that were dirt cheap right now, but would shoot up in value after a few discoveries by their researchers in about one or two years.
His investment banker had asked him if he didn't want to reconsider and invest in more stable and established companies, but Hadrian had only smirked and refused. He said he had a really good feeling about those companies. As the banker couldn't force him to do anything Hadrian had bought majority shares of the four most profitable companies in the world. He knew which kinds of technology would become really popular in a few years. Computers for example and mobile phones. The pioneers in those areas would make fortunes as nothing was as good as the original and patents protected your technology for about ten years after the development. With the right investor pushing the companies there was a lot that could be won. And Hadrian simply had the money.
He did the same with businesses in the wizarding world. Under the cover of MoD Enterprises he bought small enterprises that held promise and which he knew would either become cash cows for the Death Eaters or some of the few not falling to them until the second rise of Voldemort. Those he mostly only supported with capital to make more profit. He left the original owners in charge and only presented them with the means to operate successfully. He was of the opinion the more economic power he held, the less the Death Eaters could get and the less dangerous Voldemort was. After all, if your money was limited the old pureblood lords would hesitate to pump all their gold into the dark cause. Sure, they would donate a lot, but not as much as if they had those businesses backing them and bringing in more gold constantly.
On 30th November Hadrian took a grindylow with him to the cave. The grindylow was quickly put under the imperius curse and made to drink the vile potion. Hadrian took the locket and left a stone for Voldemort. Now he only needed to prevent that Regulus came here.
Five days before Christmas Hogwarts let out for the break and Hadrian saw his chance to sneak in. He took the passage through the Honeydukes basement. Hidden under his invisibility cloak he went to the seventh floor and the Room of Requirement. Now that he knew what to look for he walked past the wall and called for the Room of Hidden Things. After having taken the way to the diadem twice before now he found it easily. It was a lot nicer to get it without having to dodge fiendfire. He put it into a sack of acromantula silk, really knowing that little detail earlier on would have made the cursed hunt so much easier. Dumbledore was a real bastard for keeping so much information that could have saved lives for himself.
He used the chance to have a good look around. There were so many useful things in here and this would probably be the one chance he had to explore it undisturbed. He spent three hours going through the room. He found some blades of goblin origin, which he of course took with him, some precious stones in a treasure box, it looked as if they had been here for over two centuries regarding the way the jewellery was styled, some old books of spells, some about ancient wards and potions and one was a real find as it described the possibilities of parseltongue and was written by Salazar Slytherin's disinherited grandson Finias Slytherin.
His next stop was Hagrid's where he borrowed a rooster. He put it under the imperius curse to not be in danger of having it refuse to crow when confronted with the basilisk. There was no way he would be bit by the basilisk again. Under his cloak he went to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Thankfully the corridors were deserted. The teachers were probably in the staff room before they left for the holidays if they left. That was an interesting idea. He could go to the Potions classroom and get Snape's old book. While the man was a bastard, his skills in Potions were incredible, as much as Hadrian loathed admitting that. When Hadrian arrived at the bathroom Myrtle was thankfully not there. It was easier to not be caught opening the Chamber of Secrets. He hissed 'open' and took his broom from the trunk which he had enlarged again before shrinking the trunk back to matchbox size for easier storage in a pocket. He took off and hovered slightly below the entrance. He hissed 'close' and the entrance was hidden again. No way would he risk somebody, worst of all Dumbledore, to find out what he was doing.
A light crystal hovering in front of him allowed him to see where he was flying. Taking the broom to fly down into the Chamber was much nicer than sliding down the dirty pipe. Not to mention that getting to the Chamber without having the ceiling cave in on you was a lot better too. He quickly reached the massive door that separated the corridor from the main chamber. He hissed to open it and then flew inside the main chamber, where he climbed from his broom after landing. The Chamber was like he remembered it to be. Huge, surrounded by creepy snake statues and crossed by water pathways on the ground. And you couldn't overlook Slytherin's statue.
He took position next to the statue so that when the basilisk came out of the mouth again, he would be behind it and not in danger of accidentally meeting its stare.
"Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." Hadrian hissed in parseltongue.
The mouth of the statue opened and he heard the basilisk slithering out. Once he saw the head poking out of the hole he made the rooster crow with all its might. It echoed from the Chamber walls and obviously hurt the basilisk. It was thrashing around in pain immediately. Finally it fell from the mouth to the ground, dead.
"And this ends the horror of the Chamber of Secrets before it has even begun. Much better result than last time too." Hadrian commented happily.
He quickly set to work. He plunged a goblin made dagger, which he had found among the Black family heirlooms at Grimmauld Place in his time, into a venom sack, having looked up snake anatomy to be prepared for this task. After all, a dagger was much handier than a sword and easier to hide not to mention handle, and he needed a horcrux destroying tool that he could carry on his person if he managed to find one of the others. He put a canister under the venom sack before pulling out the dagger. The remaining venom dropped from the hole the dagger had made into the canister. He repeated the process one more time with the second venom sack. It would be a shame to waste the immense wealth the basilisk corpse represented. The diadem and the locket met a fast end by the blade of the newly enhanced dagger. Two horcruxes gone, three to go
Another spell found in the Black library let him render the rest of the corpse for useable parts. It had been designed for dragons, but it worked on the basilisk as well. It was no surprise that the Blacks had known such a spell. The vast family fortune had to have come from somewhere and you didn't get that much with just working normally. Not even after five generations of Blacks saving every galleon they could spare. No, they had to find sources that others would buy from them for lots of money and as dragons were sought after for their blood, their hide and heartstrings especially, the Blacks had created spells to safely bring a dragon down and then render it for valuable parts.
The basilisk would bring Hadrian a nice amount of money. Something that Dumbledore had never even mentioned to Hadrian. By law Hadrian as the one to kill the basilisk had been entitled to the profit that rendering the basilisk would have brought. All the useable things were now stored in a backpack that he had charmed like Hermione had done with her bag. He had two big rolls of the hide, the fangs, several litres of venom and in closed containers the eyes. Who knew when he would find a use for them? The meat was poisonous too as he knew, so it was also packed in impenetrable boxes. It wasn't suited for potions as far as he knew, but he had heard that some magical races considered basilisk meat a delicacy. He would have to see if the goblins were interested.
He searched the Chamber for more things, but he didn't find any more hidden parts. Perhaps it would take a more thorough search, but he didn't have the time for that. So he contented himself with getting the book from the Potions classroom. Slughorn was absent and so it was easy to take it out of the cupboard. After he had finished with everything he had wanted to do he went to the Astronomy Tower and flew away hidden under his cloak to get to a place from where he could apparate undisturbed.
Hadrian sat in his seat at the auror class listening to his trainer telling them that thanks to the war the Ministry had decided to give the best of them the graduation test early. They would have ten days free from normal training in the mornings to prepare. Instead they would have to study for the written part. In the afternoons mock battle scenarios would be held to give them the chance to prepare for the practical part of the exams and the following training on the job for those that passed. It had just been four months since Hadrian had started his training; normally auror training took two years at the academy and one year following an experienced auror on the job. Now they let the young cadets take their test after four months of being at the academy if they thought they were ready. It told everybody how bad things were if the cadets weren't even given a year to learn what they needed.
Well, Hadrian was called up with nine others that were the best of their class and would be given the chance to graduate early. He knew that if they passed they would enter the training on the job for at least half a year. And they would have to take some classes next to the job to learn things that would normally be covered at the academy, but weren't vital for the current climate. Meaning everything that didn't deal with dark wizards would be neglected. Thieves were delegated to the normal magical law enforcement patrol, though they didn't have much success with the really clever thieves. Criminality was sky-rocketing. No wonder with how things were going in Voldemort's favour.
Hadrian asked James to train with him for the test and his 'cousin' was happy to help Hadrian prepare. He had come to easier think of James as his cousin than his father. Probably no wonder when he was only slightly older than him. Sirius and Remus also eagerly jumped at the chance to help Hadrian train. Lily chipped in by helping to practice brewing certain potions with Hadrian while baby Harry was sleeping in his room. The test wouldn't have Hadrian brew long-term potions like polyjuice, but the Draught of Living Death would certainly come up. Not that Hadrian had any problems with that as he by now had memorized Snape's old Potions book.
He had tested all spells that were in that book and now knew what they all did. Some were harmless but useful like the muffliato and levicorpus, some downright nasty like sectumsempra. He knew now which were dark magic and he was very careful with those. He didn't want a repeat of the incident with Malfoy in the bathroom.
The test was like he had expected brutal. He had to brew seven different potions that were used by aurors regularly, had to identify five poisons and name their antidotes, had to heal common injuries that appeared regularly in their line of work and perform apparition under pressure, meaning the proctors shooting stunners at him in quick succession. He was only allowed to apparate inside the testing area, which limited the possibilities to get away massively. Thankfully he had found a little trick to make the apparition noiseless, which gave him more chances to get away. The most common mistake rookies made was apparating noisily. It gave away your landing point and an opponent could use that.
Hadrian managed to hold his own while only being allowed to shield and apparate for ten minutes, then he was hit. He still had bested all other cadets by four minutes at least. The trainers were massively impressed by that achievement. The record lay at twelve minutes and forty three seconds which had been done by Alastor Moody when he had designed this test and had been an auror for ten years already.
The written exam covered laws, reactions to certain scenarios and spells that were legal for aurors to use. They were also asked to describe creative use of five self-chosen spells and why they thought they could be especially useful in their line of work. It was much more practical oriented than the Ministry had been in Hadrian's time.
Next were demonstrations of spells, defensive and offensive and sparring fights against fully fledged aurors. It unnerved some aurors when Hadrian took down four of them before he had to really show his skill against Moody himself who wanted to see what the young cadet could really do. To say Moody was impressed was an understatement. In the end Moody took Hadrian out, but not before Hadrian had put him through one of the hardest fights he had had in some time. Moody laughed heartily and declared that he would personally train Hadrian from now on and that he had passed the test with flying colours. The Death Eaters should start worrying because when he was through with Hadrian they would meet their new nightmare. Hadrian completely agreed with that sentiment.
Hadrian went through four hellish months as the personal apprentice of Alastor Moody. He could now fully appreciate why Moody had been a legend in his time. That man was incredible. He had the power and the reaction time to take on all the highest ranking Death Eaters and would even give Voldemort problems, even if he wouldn't be able to take him down. The auror was hard as nails. Hadrian went through the most rigorous fitness program possible with working out for six hours each day. That was followed by six hours of magical training. But it worked. His speed, endurance and accuracy shot up to incredible heights and his knowledge of spells increased a lot. Moody let Hadrian go through several mock scenarios, not holding back a bit. After all, if the Death Eaters came after him they wouldn't hold back either.
Hadrian was part of the auror unit that was doing the raid at Malfoy Manor. After having survived three months under Moody he had been cleared to work with teams in the field. He would still train three and a half days of the week with the master auror, but now he had three days where he could go on missions with other aurors. He was known in the office as the new shooting star, Moody's protégée. All aurors knew how Moody was and respected Hadrian Potter a lot for getting through that training with his sanity intact. He had next to no free time, but Hadrian knew that it would pay off in the end and that he really needed this kind of training to get to the level to be able to face Voldemort himself in the end.
Today his team leader was Frank Longbottom. The raid was seen as fairly low risk, so they had sent the newbie with the team. Even if he was Moody's student, there were things you only learned with experience and the Ministry had too few aurors to burn the young ones in assignments that were too dangerous for them too early on. When they arrived at the Manor Lucius made a big show of being indignant over his treatment and swore to take legal recourse. Though that stopped when Frank demanded to see Lucius' left forearm bare.
It had been added to the standard auror procedures. When Lucius refused Frank stunned him before he could draw his wand. He did the check himself and found the Dark Mark.
"Cuff him with the magic suppressors." Frank ordered. "Seems our anonymous hint was true. He is a Death Eater. Let's see what we can find and if his wife and father are also with Voldemort."
Frank was one of the few aurors that used the name and scoffed at the fear it normally caused. It was one reason why Hadrian was more than happy to be on his team.
Narcissa did have the mark as did Abraxas Malfoy. They were cuffed after being stunned too and brought to the Ministry holding cells. Another auror took the crying baby of Lucius and Narcissa with him and after checking the records Andromeda Tonks was contacted as the boy's aunt. She agreed to take him in after she had proven that she wasn't part of the Death Eaters.
Hadrian 'found' the secret room under the living room floor and was praised by Frank. Some of the things in there were revolting. While searching Hadrian found the diary. He bagged it with other things, though the diary went into a sack of acromantula silk that Hadrian managed to hide under his robes without anybody noticing. No wonder in the dark of the room and the swiftness with which Hadrian moved. He would destroy it later in a secure location.
Barty Crouch was really happy with the success of the raid. He could present three newly caught Death Eaters to the press. It showed that the new processes that had been implemented since James Potter had found out about the Dark Mark on the Death Eaters' arms from his cousin Hadrian worked. And speaking of Hadrian Potter, the young man was growing into a very fine auror. He quickly learned the things he needed for the job and he was really powerful. Quick on his feet and with a good mind to back that power up. No wonder that Alastor Moody had personally taken to train him. The DMLE could only hope that they had enough time to train him fully. He would become invaluable in fighting the Death Eaters.
Hadrian was happy that Voldemort had lost one of his main financers. The Malfoy fortune was frozen until Draco came of age in a bit over sixteen years. Lucius, Narcissa and Abraxas were convicted of belonging to a terrorist organisation, murder, use of the unforgivable curses and many more crimes in the name of Voldemort.
Perhaps, just perhaps Hadrian would find out how it was to have a real family. Only two more horcruxes remained. The ring and the cup.
It was nearly too easy. Bellatrix Lestrange appeared at the Ministry to demand custody over her nephew Draco Malfoy. She had documents signed by her sister from the day Draco was born that in case anything happened to her her sister Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus were to get custody of Draco. The guard nodded seeing the paper and told her to go to the DMLE as the aurors had been the ones to give the baby to Andromeda Tonks as Narcissa Malfoy's sister. If the document was legal they would have to confirm it for Bellatrix to get custody.
Bellatrix didn't seem to know about the new security measures though. It was mandatory that everybody inside the Ministry was checked for the Dark Mark. While Minister Bagnold had tried to protest that action, Barty Crouch as chief of the inland defence had called out martial law, which gave him and the aurors the right to put up the security measures they thought necessary. There was nothing the Minister could do. It led to Bellatrix being the next one going to the holding cells and soon after getting a one-way-ticket to Azkaban.
Hadrian sat in Crouch's office to discuss a paper with suggestions to make the fight against the Death Eaters more efficient. Crouch was obviously very impressed.
"You are suggesting many ways that would certainly make things easier for us, but I would like to hear your reasons with your own words and not the technicalities you wrote in your report, Hadrian." Crouch said.
"Well, Mr Crouch, I have read all the reports about the fight against Voldemort and the Death Eaters I could find. We have now been at war for nearly eleven years and we didn't really have success with hitting them hard enough for them to get weary of us. We may arrest some lower links, but thanks to Voldemort organising his army in small cells that operated independently we never managed to catch the big fishes. On top they attack masked which makes identifying anybody futile. If we simply question them, they will lie, fearing retaliation from Voldemort or the other Death Eaters or because they think they won't stay in prison for long.
"That's why I suggested using veritaserum. First, we take away their ability to lie and second we get all the information we can use against them. If we try long enough we might find somebody who is higher up in their ranks and knows more about plans and the members. The cells wouldn't work as well as they do if Voldemort was the only one commanding them. He must have some kinds of generals that we don't know. Probably powerful witches and wizards absolutely loyal to his cause. But we won't be able to find them if we don't search. That's why I think that we should let our auror patrols do random checks for the dark mark in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. We won't be able to keep our knowledge of the dark mark a secret for much longer anyway, so we can as well use it offensively. The public will be on their guard and the Death Eaters lose mobility if they fear being asked to show their arms." Hadrian explained.
Crouch nodded. That was sound reasoning.
"We also need to make sure that we are absolutely following our laws. If we start arresting people randomly the people will be upset and it could lead to them going over to Voldemort because he promised them more personal freedom. We can't be seen as oppressors. But if we give everybody we catch a fair trial, nobody will be able to complain. The accusation of being a Death Eater comes with murder, torture and other crimes which justify having all of them testify under veritaserum before he Wizengamot. Feeble excuses like imperius curse would shatter for those that lie. True victims will be cleared and compensated." Hadrian said.
"I understand. Those measures would indeed be able to help us a lot. I will inform the head auror and the master aurors that they can start using them from next week on. As you have given us a lot of good suggestions, would you be interested to be the one interrogating Bellatrix Lestrange? See it as a test of how useful your plans can be." Crouch said.
Hadrian understood that the DMLE head was testing him and nodded. It couldn't have gone better.
In the holding cells block Bellatrix was chained to a chair in one of the interrogation rooms. She looked furious that she had been discovered as a Death Eater. The Dark Lord would punish those stupid aurors soon enough. She wouldn't be a prisoner for long. And all of that because the aurors had given Narcissa's son to Andromeda the bloodtraitor. The Dark Lord had ordered her to get the boy as her ward to get back control over the Malfoy gold. She saw the door opening and a young man in auror robes entering with a small vial in is hand.
"Are they now sending babies to do auror work?" Bellatrix mocked. "You can't be older than eighteen."
"Oh, I am, but that doesn't say anything about my skill, Mrs Lestrange." Hadrian replied calmly. "You see, we will have a little talk about your actions as a Death Eater and your companions."
"I won't tell you anything, the Dark Lord will rescue me soon." Bellatrix spat.
"I know that you won't talk willingly, Mrs Lestrange." Hadrian said calmly.
"As if you could make me talk." She scoffed, but her eyes widened seeing him holding up the vial with the clear substance. "No, that's illegal."
"Not anymore. You see under martial law Mr Crouch is able to pass all measures he thinks necessary to restore order. And the main problem is that you and your little Death Eater friends are really hard to sniff out. Therefore when we find one of you we will make sure to get all information we want." Hadrian declared cheerfully unnerving Bellatrix a lot.
But her feeble struggling in the chair was futile as Hadrian forced her mouth open and dropped three clear drops of the potion into her mouth.
"Interrogation of Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange on 25th March 1981. Interrogator Hadrian Potter." Hadrian dictated and a quill wrote everything he said down. "Means of interrogation three drops of veritaserum given orally. The suspect has been found with the Dark Mark on her left forearm, which activates article three of the martial law concerning terrorist activities. What is your name?"
"Bellatrix Lestrange." She answered dully.
"Have you become a Death Eater willingly?"
"Yes, you can only take the mark of the Dark Lord willingly."
That was really valuable information as it condemned everybody having it.
"Describe the actions you had to take to earn the mark."
"I was part of a group that was tasked to prove their loyalty to the Dark Lord. We caught a family of mudbloods and tortured them in front of the Dark Lord with the cruciatus curse. Once he was satisfied Rastaban and I killed the older ones while Igor raped the girl until she was bloody. He killed her afterwards."
Hadrian was disgusted with that information. He would so make sure that no Death Eater escaped this time.
"Name all Death Eaters that you know of."
And Bellatrix started listing names, some they knew already, some they didn't. Hadrian was shocked at how long the list was. She named twenty one of them. Three cells of five she had been responsible for and five inner circle members, two of them being Lucius and Narcissa, the others Rodolphus, Rastaban and Snape.
"Have any of the Death Eaters been entrusted with things that were important for Voldemort's plans or him personally?" Hadrian asked knowing that this would offer him the chance to get into the Lestrange vault if everything worked out well.
"Yes, I got a golden cup that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff from the Dark Lord. I was told to make sure it was safe and couldn't be stolen. Lucius too got something, though I don't know what it was." She answered.
Hadrian then asked about other plans she knew about, though she told them that the Death Eaters weren't told much, only when a new raid was planned they were informed shortly in advance to mobilize their cells.
"Are there any other things we should know before you are sent to Azkaban?" Hadrian asked.
"My unborn child will die if you sent me there now." She answered shocking Hadrian.
He hadn't known that Bellatrix had been pregnant at this point in time.
"How far along are you?" He asked.
"Three months. I was told to stay away from raids after the next one to not endanger my unborn child." She replied.
That had to be the reason. On that raid she must have been hit by a curse that made her lose the child. She would be kept in an isolated cell, but well-cared for until the baby was born. After that she would be sent to Azkaban for life while her child would be given to a foster family.
Outside the room Hadrian was complimented by the other aurors who had watched the interrogation through the enchanted mirror. Barty Crouch was especially pleased and issued arrest warrants for all those that Bellatrix had named.
Hadrian soon was part of another team that was sent to confiscate the Lestrange vault. The goblins had tried to protest, but a new law that was confirm with the treaties allowed the DMLE to confiscate the possessions of people belonging to terrorist organisations for investigation. Everything that wasn't cursed or generally dark had to be given back to the vault owners or their heirs. So the team got everything that was identified as dark or cursed from the vault. Hadrian managed to drop a bit of basilisk venom on the cup in a corner as it was really loud with three aurors casting detection spells and or putting cursed items into bags. After the shrieking was over and the cup blackened it went into the bag for the DMLE. The important part was done. Now only one horcrux remained.
It was April now and Hadrian was satisfied with his success rate so far. The Malfoys, the Lestranges, McNair, Dolohov and Rosier were either dead or in Azkaban with the exception of Bellatrix who was held in a high security facility under fidelius until her child was born. She was still convinced that Voldemort would come and rescue her and nobody bothered correcting her. She was kept in a single room with enclosed bathroom. She got food three times a day and a bowl of fruit was in her room for her to eat at her leisure. Nobody wanted to be responsible for the death of an unborn child, even if the parents were Death Eaters.
From the reactions Voldemort wasn't happy at all. He had done three raids last month in person. Though the Order, which Hadrian had now joined just to get more information on the things going on, had managed to stop them before they got too much out of hand. And only one horcrux remained. Hadrian had inspected the place, though the wards were beyond his capabilities. While he could disable the parseltongue barrier, the rest was based on runes and he had never taken that class. So this time Dumbledore would do the deed for him. And if he didn't survive, bad luck. Hadrian wouldn't actively kill. He tried to hold it like Moody. Bring them in alive. But nobody said anything about saving people from dying whom he thought deserved it. His, how Hermione had dubbed it, saving-people-thing had been weakened considerably now that he had really experienced war.
It may only be a small difference, but in his eyes it was important. Many people deserved death, but he didn't want to be the one to kill them. If they got in situations where they would die without help, well, he didn't need to help them and nobody would mourn them.
He also had caught Regulus Black in early January. He had declared that it had been a huge coincidence as he had just graduated from the auror academy when he had found Sirius' younger brother. Hadrian had convinced Moody that Regulus might have had important information. It led to Moody putting him under veritaserum and getting the full truth. Regulus had been deeply disturbed by the things Voldemort demanded of his Death Eaters and what he himself did to his victims. As he hadn't killed anybody yet, his initiation had consisted of bringing Voldemort something of value and as Walburga and Orion Black had been all for Regulus joining the Death Eaters they had allowed him to present Voldemort with a rare book that had been in the Black library for centuries. As a raid had come up and Voldemort needed more manpower that had been all for Regulus' test and he had got the mark.
He didn't know of any others that had got away that lightly though. Probably because Voldemort wanted the power of the Blacks and their fortune to back his cause. As Regulus didn't kill anybody yet, Crouch let him go with six months in Azkaban for a good amount of information against Voldemort. So now the DMLE knew about Voldemort's horcruxes. Though they hadn't found any, even after searching the things that had been confiscated during the Malfoy and Lestrange raids. Though a blackened cup in the Lestrange things made them curious as Bellatrix had said that Voldemort had entrusted her with Hufflepuff's cup.
Well, it was no wonder. Only Hadrian and Voldemort knew where all the horcruxes were hidden. And now the hunt for little Harry and Neville had really started. Voldemort had determined them as potential threats to him. James and Lily had already moved once. Though now it seemed that they would soon have to move again. There was a spy in the Order. Hadrian knew it was Pettigrew, but how to prove it?
Okay, cut for now, tomorrow you will find out more.
