Chapter 3, Hogwarts, 3 May 1998, 1300 hours. Day 1 Part 2

After a light lunch and some more alone time with Ginny, Harry led the group of students, Weasleys and staff and faculty up to the Transfiguration Classroom. The Golden trio were then introduced to Head Auror Gawain Robards and the Head Unspeakable Hyram Croaker.

After assuring that all of those invited were present, Harry asked Hermione to set up the security wards around the classroom. As he watched Hermione cast a few spells, Professor Flitwick congratulated Hermione on her charm work.

"If this was still class work, I would award 50 points to Miss Granger on her wonderful secrecy charms and the wards she installed on this room." Professor Flitwick announced.

Harry then stood up and started the story by welcoming everyone and that this included the portraits of Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape. Both portraits were awake and while Professor Dumbledore knew most of the story, Professor Snape was going to hear things he didn't know about.

"I find it helpful to go back to the beginning when telling this story, But first I want to remind everyone here that only Minister Shacklebolt has the authority to release to the public what is said here today. He will be the final authority to decide what parts of this story is released to the press and what part will remain hidden. " Harry paused to allow his words to sink in to everyone.

"First, before I was born in 1980 a prophecy was made by a young witch interviewing for the job of Divination Professor. The prophecy was worded as follows: The one with the power to vanquish the- Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."

"This prophecy could only apply to two students born within hours of each other at the end of July 1980. Those two are Neville Longbottom and Myself."

"But the prophecy was destroyed in the battle at the Department of Mysteries," Neville stated.

"Yes," replied Harry, "But the prophecy was made to Albus Dumbledore and he had a memory of it in his office. The witch in question was Professor Trelawney. That is why he would not let her leave Hogwarts Castle after Umbridge fired her as Divination Professor.. When she made the prophecy, she was overheard partially by a death eater who passed on to Voldemort the portion he had heard." Once Neville and I were born, both of us were targeted to be killed to prevent the prophecy from becoming real. Voldemort attacked my parents and me first. This scar became the mark that made me the chosen one." The death eater who overheard the prophecy was shocked to find out who the prophecy referred to. He was a good friend of my mother and when she was targeted he went to Professor Dumbledore to ask him to save her. The death eater then turned from Voldemort and started working for the Order of the Phoenix as a spy. That death eater was Severus Snape."

"Professor Dumbledore told me of the prophecy at the end of my fifth year at Hogwarts. During the sixth year, he gave me special lessons into the history of Tom Riddle who later came to be known as Voldemort. During my sixth year, along with the special lessons, Professor Dumbledore gave me two missions. First to get a memory from Professor Slughorn, and secondly to join him on a hunt for an object that Voldemort had hidden."

At the mention of the memory, Professor Slughorn turned his head and acted all embarrassed. Harry saw this and told Professor Slughorn that he should not worry about it. Riddle had already made a horcrux and was only asking for your verification as to the quantities he should make.

"You see, Voldemort wanted to be immortal. Therefore he made horcruxes to attempt to save portions of his soul. Hermione, do you want to explain ?"

Hermione now stood and gave the background of what a horcrux was.

"A horcrux is the container that a dark wizard uses to store a portion of his/her soul so that if his or her body is ever destroyed, the person does not die because the soul lives on. To make a horcrux, the dark wizard has to split his/her soul by committing a murder. Once the soul is split, one portion can be stored into a horcrux or soul container."

Unspeakable Croaker then stood and asked, "Miss Granger, How did you discover what a horcrux was ? "

Hermione opened her beaded bag and a spell later passed a book over to the Unspeakable. "After Professor Dumbledore's death, I accioed his private library and found this book - Secrets of the Darkest Arts. In here is a complete discussion of horcruxes. I would recommend that copies of this book be tracked to find out who else has this knowledge."

Unspeakable Croaker agreed with her recommendation.

"Before Professor Dumbledore's death," Harry continued, "He gave me and Ron and Hermione the mission of finding the remainder of Voldemort's horcruxes and destroying them to make the man, Tom Riddle, mortal again and able to be killed."

"With the help of the memory of Professor Slughorn, we learned that Riddle was planning to split his soul into seven pieces. Six horcruxes and one piece left in his body. Because he thought seven was the most magic number. Before Professor Dumbledore's death we had found and destroyed two of them."

.Harry continued his briefing. "The first horcrux that was made and later found and destroyed was a diary that Tom Riddle made fifty-five years ago." The diary was destroyed by me by stabbing it with a basilisk's tooth."

Harry looked over at where the Weasleys were sitting and realized that they all knew what he was talking about. Ginny actually shivered and got almost sick to her stomach as she found out what was possessing her during her first year.

"Once the destroyed diary was turned over to Professor Dumbledore, he realized what we were up against. He also came to the correct conclusion that since the diary was not protected as it should have been, Voldemort must have made others that were more protected."

"The second horcrux that was found and destroyed was a ring that was from the Gaunt family. Riddle's mother's family name was Gaunt. It was thought to be an heirloom originally from Slytherin. Professor Dumbledore destroyed the ring, but not before becoming a victim to the protective curse Voldemort had placed on the ring. That curse infected Professor Dumbledore's hand and was slowly killing him. Professor Snape assisted the Headmaster in slowing the progress of the curse, but still the curse would eventually kill him within a year."

Harry paused for a minute to allow everyone to realize what he was saying, then continued. "Once Professor Dumbledore realized that the curse would kill him, he asked Professor Snape to kill him rather than allow Draco Malfoy, who had been tasked by Voldemort to murder Dumbledore, to perform the task.

"How did you discover this?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"During the battle yesterday, as Professor Snape lay dying, he gave me some of his memories. I took those memories up to the pensieve in the Headmaster's office. Other of his memories later helped me finish finding the horcruxes and killing Riddle," Harry replied.

"After we are done here, I will allow the Minister and Head Mistress to view those pensieve memories so that you can clear the good name of Severus Snape. As I said to Riddle last night as we dueled, Snape was always on Dumbledore's side."

"On the night that Professor Dumbledore died, he had taken me with him to try and recover another horcrux. We went to a cave on the coast of northern England where Riddle had once travelled while residing in an orphanage. Upon reaching the cave, Professor Dumbledore had to drink a magical potion to reach the locket that was in the bottom of the bowl. While we succeeded in retrieving the locket from the cave, the potion that Professor Dumbledore had drank made him very weak. I had to side-along apparate us both back to Hogsmeade. I had never apparated before."

"When we reached Hogsmeade, we found out the Dark Mark had been set over Hogwarts. Borrowing two brooms from Madam Rosemerta, We flew back to the Astronomy Tower. Professor Dumbledore told me to get under my invisibility cloak and he then cast a petrificus charm on me to keep me from fighting. Then Draco Malfoy came up the stairs of the Astronomy Tower and disarmed Professor Dumbledore. Draco however could not bring himself to kill Professor Dumbledore. As other death eaters arrived up on the Tower, they yelled at Draco to complete his tasking. Finally Professor Dumbledore pleaded with Severus Snape to perform the action. Once Professor Dumbledore was killed, my petrification was released. I initially ran after Professor Snape, but after they got away, I went back to Professor Dumbledore's body and took the supposed horcrux out of his cloak."

"After Professor Dumbledore's funeral," Harry continued, "I took the locket and opened it. Inside the locket was a note from a R.A.B. stating that he had taken the horcrux and replaced it with this fake, and that he would destroy the horcrux as soon as he could. We had no idea who RAB was or where the original horcrux was or if it had been destroyed."

"That was where we stood at the end of our sixth year. Out of seven planned horcruxes, we had destroyed two and identified a third as being the missing locket. The three of us then decided our mission was to find and destroy the five believed missing horcruxes so that Voldemort or Tim Riddle would no longer be immortal.

Harry called for a five minute break to allow the people in the room to stand and relax. Harry went over to Ginny and wrapped his arms around her. He could tell that she was still upset about the diary being a horcrux and her being possessed by Voldemort's soul fragment. Ginny hugged Harry back and thanked him for noticing her discomfort.

Molly Weasley came over next and added a hug to Harry.

"you poor boy," Molly stated, "You should have never had to go through all of the horrors you have."

Harry replied with a smile on his face, "Mrs. Weasley we have not even got to the bad stuff yet. The next portion of the story begins at Bill's and Fleur's wedding."

Hermione came over to talk to Harry.

"Harry, " she whispered, "You keep talking about seven horcruxes but we only should mention the six, not his part of his soul."

"Hermione," Harry replied, "There is another that you did not know about. Wait and see."

Hermione gasped, realizing what Harry was suggesting. Harry grimaced back at her and nodded yes it is what you think.

Harry then called everyone back to take their seats, and had Hermione reapply the security charms on the classroom, as several people had taken the break time to use the loo.

"The next part of this story starts at Bill and Fleur Weasley's wedding. When we received Kingsley Shacklebolt's patronus announcing that the ministry had fallen, Hermione and Ron and I apparated out of the Burrow to Tottenham Court Road in downtown London. Once we found a vacant alley, we changed clothes and stopped into a small café to talk. While we were talking, we said the word Voldemort triggering the taboo, even though we didn't know about it at the time. Within a minute two death eaters showed up and a fight ensued. After stunning both of them and wiping their memory of us, we then apparated to Grimmauld Place."

"while we were at Grimmauld Place, we realized that all of the wards and charms protecting the house were still in place, so we could relax a little and continue our research into the other horcruxes. As we explored the house we found a room we had never used before. It was Regulus Black's room. Sirius' brother, Regulus Arcturus Black. RAB."

Hermione picked up the story. "When we found RAB we remembered that back in our stays at Grimmauld before fifth year as we were cleaning the house, we had come across a locket that no one was able to open. Now that locket was missing from the cabinet where we had seen it before. So we called Kreacher to ask where the locket had gone. Kreacher then identified the locket as Master Regulus' and started crying. We then asked Kreacher to explain what he knew about the locket."

Hermione then continued to tell Kreacher's tale. How Regulus had told Kreacher to help the Dark Lord plant the locket horcrux in the cave. How later a disenchanted Regulus asked Kreacher to help him switch the horcrux for the fake locket, and how Regulus Black died being drowned by the inferi in the cave. Finally Kreacher had identified Mundungus Fletcher as the person who stole the real horcrux locket from Grimmauld Place.

"Harry told Kreacher to find Mundungus and bring him to Grimmauld Place. A couple of days later Kreacher returned with Mundungus Fletcher Under questioning, Mundungus told us the locket was taken from him by a woman in the Ministry. Seeing her picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet, he pointed out the woman – Delores Umbridge."

"After almost a month of planning, the three of us taking turns under my invisibility cloak, apparating to outside the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, we finally kidnapped three ministry employees and using polyjuice portion, infiltrated the Ministry. We ran into Delores Umbridge down in Courtroom 10 where she was questioning and convicting muggle Borns. She was wearing the locket. After stunning Delores, fighting off a half-dozen dementors, rescuing ten muggle Borns, and grabbing the locket we ran out of the Ministry. We tried to apparate back to Grimmauld Place but Yaxley grabbed ahold of Hermione as we apparated. He side-along apparated with us to Grimmauld Place, so we dumped him as soon as we could and apparated out into a forest where the Quidditch World Cup had been. When we reached the forest, Ron had splinched his shoulder and Hermione had to heal him. Now we had the locket but no way to destroy it yet."

"We took to wearing the locket to protect it from being lost again. Unfortunately wearing a horcrux starts to affect you. The locket tried to possess us each as we traded wearing it. We all became depressed over the fact that while we had a horcrux, we didn't know where the others were and we couldn't destroy the one we had. Ron left Hermione and me for a period near Christmas. He went to search out other information, while Hermione and I went to Godric's Hallow to see if Dumbledore had left us the Sword of Gryffindor. We had figured out that the sword, being Goblin made, would have infused the basilisk venom when I killed the snake. That would make the Sword of Gryffindor able to destroy a horcrux."

"While we were at Godric's Hallow, we visited my parents' grave, stopped by the house where they had died, and met up with Bathilda Bagshot. Or we thought it was her. Actually it was her dead body being possessed by Riddle's snake Nagini. Nagini attacked me, but luckily Hermione helped me fight it off and we were able to apparate away to the Forest of Dean."

"Once we were in the forest, Hermione and I set up the tent and charmed the perimeter so we were hidden as much as possible. That night, while I was standing guard, I saw a patronus walking through the forest. The patronus was a doe. I thought it was a sign from my parents, so I followed it. The patronus led me to a small iced-over pond then it disappeared. I scraped the ice away from the top of the water and saw the reflection of the Sword of Gryffindor at the bottom of the pond. Using Hermione's wand because mine was broken in Godric's Hallow, I blasted a hole in the ice so I could jump in and grab the sword. When I jumped in, I forgot that I was wearing the locket. As I got close to the sword, the locket realized that the sword could destroy it, so it fought me and tried to drown me. Then I felt a hand pull me up out of the water. Ron had returned, saw me follow the patronus, and saved my life. He then returned to the water and retrieved the Sword of Gryffindor.

"Ron, where were you all of that time?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

Ron replied telling everyone about getting caught by snatchers, escaping and trying to find where Harry and Hermione had moved to, and then spending Christmas at Bill's.

"While I was there I discovered how Professor Dumbledore's deluminator works. I had to think about the people I wanted to be with and the deluminator would allow me to apparate to them. When I arrived at the Forest of Dean, I saw the patronus and Harry following it."

"After I retrieved the sword from the pond," Ron continued, "Harry told me to destroy the horcrux. He whispered OPEN in parsletongue and the locket opened. The locket tried to talk to me to stop me from hitting it with the sword, but finally I swung down striking it and destroying the horcrux."

Hermione then opened her beaded bag and took out what was left of the locket and placed it on a table in front of the classroom.

"When the horcrux was destroyed, we all gathered back into the tent to discuss what had happened and what I had went through while I was gone. I told Hermione and Harry about the snatchers, and about the radio program ""Potterwatch"" that I had listened to while I was at Bill and Fleur's. I also told everyone about the taboo on Voldemort's name."

"We were in the tent discussing where to go next to look for the other horcruxes when we picked up the reception of one Potterwatch broadcast. It was the one where you guys announced the death of Ted Tonks, Gornuk the Goblin, and Bathilda Bagshot. After the broadcast was over, we continued to talk about our plans when we mistakenly mentioned Voldemort's name. We were immediately attacked by snatchers. While trying to run away, Hermione sent a hex at Harry's face making it puff up and hiding his identity."

"The snatchers," Ron continued, "captured us. We told them we were all half-bloods and older so we were not skipping school. They didn't completely believe us so they took us to Malfoy Manor. This group of snatchers were led by Scabior and Greyback. Once at the Malfoys', we were further questioned, and Bellatrix asked Draco if he could identify us. He reported that he wasn't certain who we were."

Harry took over. "Bellatrix discovered that we had the Sword of Gryffindor in our possession. She was scared at seeing the sword and started asking how we had got into her vault. They took Ron and I down to the dungeon while Bellatrix kept Hermione upstairs to torture her. When we got into the dungeon, we discovered we were not alone. Luna, Mister Ollivander, and the Goblin Griphook were there along with Dean Thomas. From where we were in the dungeon, we could still hear Hermione screaming as Bellatrix continued to asked her about the sword and being in her vault."

"I was getting very frustrated. Ron was screaming at Bellatrix to let Hermione go. I was yelling for anyone to help us,, when with a pop, Dobby the Elf appeared in the dungeon. Dobby being an elf, could pass through the wards at Malfoy Manor and take people with him. I asked Dobby to take Luna, Mister Ollivander and Dean to Bill's house – Shell Cottage. And then to come back to save Griphook and us. Ron and I broke out of the dungeon when Peter Pettigrew came down to check on us. When Dobby returned, we were able to disarm the Malfoys and Bellatrix, grab the sword, and rescue Hermione and Griphook and Dobby apparated us out. Unfortunately as we were apparating, Bellatrix threw a dagger at Dobby. When we reached Shell Cottage, Dobby died.

"I buried Dobby right there at Shell Cottage. His actions saved all of our lives. Bill and Fleur began healing Hermione and Griphook. Already they had taken Mister Ollivander to a guest room to allow him to sleep. The next day, after a great meal, we started to plan our next move. From Bellatrix's reactions at Malfoy Manor, we were certain that there was a horcrux stored in Bellatrix's vault. After staying a Shell Cottage for a week recovering, we planned our adventure to break-in Gringotts to get the horcrux from Bellatrix's vault."

"Griphook, having watched me bury Dobby, made a deal to help us get into the vault in return for us giving him the Sword of Gryffindor after we had gotten the horcrux. Using polyjuice potion and Hermione having Bellatrix's wand, Hermione impersonated her, while Ron was disguised as a death eater and Griphook and I were under my invisibility cloak. We entered the bank, confounded a Goblin teller, and took the cart to Bellatrix's vault. When we reached the vault, the Thief's Downfall cancelled our disguises, but Griphook helped open the vault. Inside we found Hufflepuff's Cup. The alarms in Gringotts were sounding, We had to leave. Griphook grabbed the sword before we were able to use it to destroy the Cup. Goblins were racing toward us to catch the thieves. Our only way out of Gringotts was blocked except to hop on the back of the blind dragon guarding the vaults and ride way. The dragon broke through the roof of the bank and started flying away from London. As the dragon later flew low over a lake North of London, We dropped off into the water and swam to the shore."

"As we were drying ourselves my mind linked again with Voldemort's. He now knew that we were attempting to gather his horcruxes and he started thinking about each one and their location. From the link I learned that the two horcruxes left were Nagini who was with Voldemort and the other one we needed was at Hogwarts. It was the Diadem of Ravenclaw. So after we were dry we apparated to Hogsmeade."