The Best Made Plans…
It was not until a week later that Hermione found the first alarming reference to what a Horcrux was. She found Harry giving their one and only broom a service in the kitchen – the various parts all in little groups as he stripped it down and then put it back together again.
"You look" Harry said dryly, "Like a girl with a problem"
"I found a mention of the Horcruxes" Hermione said. Harry froze before wiping his hands from the oil and following Hermione into the sitting room.
"So, Mione, what did you find out?" he asked.
"According to this" Hermione tapped the large, heavy and old looking tome, "A Horcrux is an object that is used for some of the darkest of all magic. It is so secret, that only three people should know what they truly are. The Minister of the day, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the head of the Unspeakables. Only on the day they leave office do they inform their successors of the nature of the things. Rumours exist, of course, but this book says it all"
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"A Horcrux is the name given to an object that stores a part of your soul"
"You're joking!"
"I wish that I was" Hermione sighed, flipping over the old parchment pages. "It goes on in great detail about the origin of the things and such like, but I'll give you the shorthand version. Back in the old days of wars and Dark Lords, Horcruxes were made to ensure that, if one was defeated and killed, you could still come back to life. You can split your soul six times – with the seventh piece residing in the original body"
"And Voldemort has these?" Harry asked whilst skimming through the parts Hermione pointed at.
"I'm certain of it" Hermione said. "It is the only way that he could have come back alive again"
"How do you make them?" Harry looked up. "And, more importantly, how do you destroy them?"
"I don't know how you can destroy them, but it does mention how you make them. In order to make a Horcrux, you have to have performed a great piece of magic – like killing somebody. Then, when the very magic is excited, you perform a complex spell and place one seventh of your soul into the object of your choosing"
"Like what?"
"Anything" Hermione replied. "It could be a cup, plate, tiara, a pair of your Aunt's knickers – Anything"
"I doubt that Voldemort is that desperate as to get into my Aunt's knickers" Harry said dryly. "Does it say how you can find them?" he asked.
"The book says that the Horcruxes are immune to summoning and tracking spells" Hermione said, flipping another page and speed reading it. "But you will be able to find it by hearing it"
"Hearing it?" Harry frowned.
"I don't understand it all" Hermione admitted, "But it makes some kind of noise that is audible to magical and muggles alike"
"Any idea what Voldemort would have used for these Horcruxes?" Harry asked, but Hermione simply shrugged in reply.
"Something that would have meant a lot to him" Hermione frowned before looking at him with an unspoken apology. "The entry simply stops there. It is as if even the very thought of this was covered up and all teaching banned"
"I guess that we had better start making a list of things this snake is…" Harry stopped before breaking into a wide grin. "That bloody great snake of his! I bet that must be one of these Horcrux thingies…"
"A living being holding the soul of another?" Hermione frowned. "Is that evening possible?"
"Ginny had it happen to her back in her first year – our second" and Harry's grin got wider. "Voldemort's diary! The ghost of what was Tom Riddle said he was merely but a fragment – a piece of the soul…"
"Of course…!" Hermione went for some paper and a pencil before starting to make a list of possible items with Harry – then crossing off ones they later thought of as not possible. "Two in as many minutes" she said.
"Next thing we'll know, you'll be able to cook better"
"Magic can only do so much…" Hermione wagged her finger and mock glared at him in best school teacher expression.
"What do you think is going to happen to the others?" asked Harry, putting down the pieces of the broom down on the table.
"You said it yourself, Harry – We have to be away from them" said Hermione gently.
"I know… I know… Doesn't make it any more easier" Harry sighed. Hermione wondered if all the stress was finally getting to him. She herself was only coping for the simple reason of actually taking Calming Draughts. It was only when Harry was safely asleep that the girl allowed herself to feel the emotions she denied herself in order to keep Harry strong.
"I was wondering if you'd like to go over some of our year texts" said Hermione, coming up with something to take Harry's mind off the fighting.
"Typical Hermione" Harry shook his head. "We've got all kinds of fighting going on and she wants to do homework… Oh, alright, then…" he left the stripped down broom and followed Hermione to the library in the tent.
# # # # #
"Gone?" Voldemort asked.
"Indeed, My Lord" Snape replied. "Seems as if somebody broke into Azkaban before releasing all of the prisoners of any value"
"Do you have any ideas as to whom this might be?"
"We tried speaking to the House Elves there, but we were unable to find out anything because they were all doing other things at the time"
"I assume, Severus, that you have an idea as to who it might be…?"
"If it pleases My Lord"
"I doubt that it will please me, but please go on"
"I suspect Potter, My Lord, this is just the sort of thing that he will be doing in order to give his followers false hope"
"Potter…" Voldemort tried the name like a food he hadn't tried before. "Mmm… It would be like him to make such a rash move. Have we heard from our spy yet?" the thought occurred to him.
"Not yet, My Lord, but I assume that he has been delayed in getting out to meet at the designated place" Snape replied.
"Very well" Voldemort leant back in his chair. "You have a school to run, Severus. As you leave, please have my most loyal and trusted servants attend me"
"But I am already here, My Lord"
"Few could get away with that, Severus, and you are one of them. However, be careful that you do not use up all of my good nature. Be gone" and Snape bowed low to the ground before Voldemort and headed out of the hall.
# # # # #
"You alright in there?" asked Harry. It was several weeks after the breakout and Hermione had started having morning sickness. Her bump was also starting to show by quite a bit and Harry was just getting to the point where he would have to put his foot down and forbid her from going on the dangerous of all of their missions. In the time since they had found out about Horcruxes, the pair had tracked down two of them – putting them in a strong metal box and the whole lot placed under heavy protection and security charms. They would stay that way until they had figured out a way to destroy them.
"No" came a faint reply.
"You want to take a lie down or something?" Harry suggested. "You have been working so hard on searching for ways to destroy the Horcruxes"
"If I ever agree to have another of your children, would you mind awfully shooting me?" Hermione groaned. She looked up to see Harry pushing his bowl away from his place at the table. "What is it? Are you feeling ill?" the girl asked before vomiting again.
"No, Mione, but I have suddenly lost my appetite for porridge" Harry replied. He flicked his wand and levitated Hermione back to her bedroom where he put her in pyjamas and ensured that she was well before leaving to do some tidying up. As he worked around the tent, Hedwig and Crookshanks helping out, Harry wondered what sort of a father he would be like. Growing up, he'd not known that much love or affection from the Dursleys, and he knew that he would be a much better father then Vernon was. He wondered if he was going to have a boy or a girl – but either was alright so long as they were healthy and just generally alright. "Feels funny to be becoming a father" he muttered.
"I am sure that you will do fine" Hedwig said.
"Thanks" Harry shook his head.
#
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Hermione said, bouncing into the room as Harry blinked and rubbed his eyes.
"If you don't get off my bed and stop being so bloody cheerful" he replied, "I'll hand you to Voldemort myself" and hit her in the bottom with a little stinging hex. Hermione shuddered in pleasure before handing Harry some presents that she, Hedwig and Crookshanks had spent days working on. "You look as if you could do with another lie down" Harry looked up from opening a card from Hedwig.
"I wanted to make sure that breakfast was ready for you" Hermione said. "I got it under a warming and preservation charm" she added. "All you have to do is – YAHHHHH!" she screamed as Harry flipped her up and into bed. "Let me out you fiend" she cried.
"Nope" Harry grinned and started to touch and feel Hermione's soft skin. "I think I'll unwrap this one first…" he gave a muffled laugh because he and Hermione were kissing the other and going into a whole lot more. The lovemaking was passionate but also careful as Harry didn't want to harm the baby – something Hermione found both cute and typically Harry-like. She felt the luckiest girl on the planet and was in a complete state of bliss and contentment.
She had no idea that it would all come crashing down a few months later…
#
"Accio Cheese Crisps"
"HEY!" Harry protested as the bag flew out of his hands and went towards Hermione.
"My need is greater then yours" she replied – munching on the spoils she had just gained. With Hermione's pregnancy now reaching the last stages, her craving for food was getting slightly out of hand. Normally, she would have given birth sometime in September, but Hermione had been using careful applications of a Time Turner that the pair had stolen in their early raids on Death Eater homes. By doing this, she had been able to gain three months on the normal period of gestation – allowing for the baby to be born relatively quicker than normal. The pair had poured over every single text they had concerning time travel on an unborn child and discovered that it had little to no effect at all.
"I'm going to have to get the remainder of my stock put under lock and key" Harry said, getting up to retrieve another packet.
"In the small blue box?"
"Yes…?"
"I ate them" said Hermione.
"If you were not carrying my child, Hermione Potter, I'd use the AK on you" Harry growled before setting off for the kitchen. He was halfway there when Hedwig came zooming into the tent with a letter tied to one leg. "Hey" Harry stroked his owl and was surprised when Hedwig shoved the letter holding leg at him. "Something up?" he wondered and he took the piece of parchment and started to read it. "Oh fuck…!" he muttered.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Read this" Harry handed her the note which his wife of three months read.
Harry and Hermione
Voldemort has moved all of his prisoners to Hogwarts and is holding them in the dungeons and will execute them in one week. We're getting together to work out a rescue plan and maybe kill Voldemort – you want to join us?
Love
Luna
PS: Please bring Cupcakes
"Do you think this is genuine?" asked Hermione.
"Has to be" said Harry. "She used the correct code at the bottom"
"That could have been forced out of her"
"Maybe"
"Why now?" Hermione frowned as she re-read the message.
"Because in a week, it will be the anniversary of his greatest victory" Harry said, trying to remember things he had been taught in History of Magic as well as things he had picked up now and again.
"But I thought he would think killing your parents as his greatest victory" Hermione said, puzzled by more than a little.
"He was also defeated that day, so I think we can count that one out" Harry replied. "If he is going for the greatest victory angle, he'd be thinking of the time he managed to kill nearly all of the Aurors stationed in every single magical locale at a single blow – it nearly crippled the Ministry"
"And he is going to kill them then?"
"Makes a sick kind of sense" Harry replied. "A lot of his prisoners are captured Aurors, and the death of their parents would make the students that never managed to escape feel they have nothing to lose by joining the Death Eaters"
"What are you going to do?"
"Fight him" Harry replied. "Fight him on our own terms" and he hurried to send a reply message back to Luna.
Luna,
I believe we are doing the same aim and it would be a good idea to get everyone together for a big party
Harry
PS: Can not bring cupcakes – oven has gone on strike
# # # # #
Harry and Hermione had met in the normal place before portkeying back to where the resistance had set up a massive camp – the old nuclear bunker at Warwne, just outside the city of Hull on the East Coast. It had been the idea of Dean's after reading about it during the previous summer holiday. The huge metal doors, designed to withstand nuclear radiation, could easily take several thousand impacts from spells and had enough space to house several hundred in the massive underground complex.
"Nice place" Hermione said, and had promptly begun sneezing.
"Makes sense after all the living in tents and caves and such like" said Neville. "Would you like to sit down?" he asked Hermione, eyeing the bump she could not now hide.
"I'll be alright" she replied. There had been a large ripple of interest when Hermione had been revealed as pregnant – and even more so when the pair revealed that they had married.
"You better come to the Ops Room" said Neville. "We've charmed the map to look like the layout of the inside of Hogwarts" and led the way. Harry and Hermione were welcomed by friends and strangers alike, and both were given a run down of the situation as they knew it.
"Four days ago, one of the elves we have spying for us was told to burn several pieces of parchment that turned out to contain transfer orders. It took us another day to look into it, but we've discovered it was true and we've set up our plans accordingly" Dean said, showing the map spread out on the old area plotting table. "We don't think that You-Know-Who knows about some of the secret passages that run in and out of the school. We've thought about Portkeying into Honeydukes and then using the secret passage you told us about to get into the castle. By the time You-Know-Who realises that something is up, we hope to have a hundred and fifty people inside"
"How many people do you have?" asked Harry.
"A hundred and fifty" Dean replied dryly.
"Has anybody been captured that knows about the secret tunnel?" Hermione asked.
"We've not heard from the Weasley Twins in a couple of days" Seamus replied. "We tried looking for them at the normal meeting point, but they never showed up the whole time we were there. Then again, if they have been forced to move locations…"
"Has anybody even got close to Hogwarts to see what the situation is like?" Harry enquired.
"Not up close, but we know that You-Know-Who has groups of Giants roaming the grounds at night. During the day time he has squads of Death Eaters and supporters patrolling" Dean pointed at several places on the map. "The only place that is not that heavily guarded is the part of the grounds leading up from the lake. There is nothing but open ground there, and anybody trying to get into the Castle would be cut down before they reached the halfway point" and various options were pointed out and explained in great detail.
"If Voldemort does know about the secret passages into the Castle" Hermione said, "We'll have to knock that on the head. What about trying a different approach?" she asked.
"When we raided that big potion supply place the other month, we got a load of Gillyweed" Hermione said. "If we can get halfway over the lake – to a point nobody can see us approaching, we could get inside the castle via the water pipes" and Harry mulled this over in his mind.
"We don't even know where the pipes are" he said.
"They should be about here" Dean tapped a finger on a point close to the shore.
"So we know where they are, but we'd never be able to fit up them" Hannah said.
"Perhaps we can" Harry said, remembering all that he had seen during the 2nd Task of the Tri-Wizard. "When I had to swim to get my hostage, I remember passing what looked like oversized pipes"
"I know those" said Hermione suddenly. "They were put there for when the Castle held more students than it does now. When numbers dropped to a lower figure, several of them were placed out of use. If we can find out which ones are out of use and still connected, we'd be able to get inside the castle without anybody knowing it"
"We should try and aim for the pipes running along the corridor for the Honeydukes passage" Harry indicated where he was talking about. "If we can get a small force into the place and secure the area, we'd have a safe staging area to launch the main attack" he looked up at the others. "I think" he said, "We'd better get everybody together" and Dean, Seamus and Neville nodded and hurried to send the word out.
"Can we really win?" asked Hannah. "I mean… really win…?"
"We shall, or we shall die trying" Harry replied. "We're done running from these bastards"
#
Two days later, and everyone that had remained free gathered at the Bunker to hear the plan. Aurors, Shopkeepers, Students and the general public all stood together to hear Harry outline the plan they had worked on for some time. With not enough room around the plotting table in the Ops room, they had to stand on top of tables, chairs and around the upper gallery and observation areas.
"… and that is it. You've all heard the plan, so if anybody has any objections or wishes to raise any issues, please do so now" Harry finished.
"I was thinking about making them think it was all a ruse" said one of the Muggleborns.
"What do you mean?"
"If we charm the boats to go all the way to the other side of the lake, we could set up dummies wearing wizarding clothes. We charm them to move around and cast a few stunners and such…"
"Good idea" Harry said. "You organise that for us. Now, regarding the prisoners that Voldemort still has" he continued, "We're not sure who he has and where exactly they are in the dungeons. There is also the matter of having a large number of wounded – so a team will go to St Mungos and secure it from enemy attack. Before I leave you to get on with preparations, there is one thing I want to say more on. When most of us attack the Death Eaters, we only stop them – take them down and take them down hard. What use is us simply stunning them if they get revived by their comrades? If you know how to lob somebody's head off, then you'd better do it. We have to try everything that takes out as many as possible. Nobody is to go after Voldemort except for me and my wife – pin him down if at all possible"
"And if we can not?" asked a voice.
"Then hope there is an afterlife" Hermione said dryly.
#
The assault on the castle was held up by a day because they found that they had not enough Gillyweed – and so hard to raid a few places to gather supplies. It would begin in the darkness in order to give them the most cover, and they had also picked out both the best swimmers and the best fighters. All was ready to go, and yet Harry and Hermione were still bugged by the fact they had no idea where the prisoners where in the dungeons. As they sat together in the bunker's dining area, the pair were approached by Hannah and Susan.
"Want a drink?" asked Harry.
"Thanks" Susan said, and took a glass of Firewhiskey from him. The pair sat down and faced the other two.
"Is there something that we can do for you?" asked Hermione.
"You need to know information about stuff inside Hogwarts" Hannah said. "I think we can help you out"
"Oh?" Harry raised an eyebrow. He and Hermione watched as Susan placed a small, cloth covered object on the metal table. She unwrapped it to reveal a round item made out of gold.
"What is it?" asked Hermione.
"Something Susan got from the Department of Mysteries before she managed to escape" Hannah said. "It's an aletheometer" she added.
"A what?"
"A Golden Compass" Susan said.
"I thought those were destroyed years ago by the Ministry" Harry said, touching the gold lid gently.
"Maybe they have had this there for years, or maybe it was only recently confiscated" Hermione said. "How does it work?" she asked.
"There are three dials that correspond to three needles. Turn these to three symbols and then think of your question" Hannah said. "The black needle will point to a symbol that represents a part of your answer"
"Can it be used to find the prisoners?" asked Harry.
"Not be either of us" said Susan. "The art was jealously guarded by the Ministry. I only know what it is from looking through Hannah's family texts years ago"
"But if all the writings were banned…?" Hermione said, feeling a little pain in her stomach.
"The books were ancient" said Hannah, "And my family library has many old books – some of them banned for hundreds of years"
"So how do we read it?" Hermione looked at the aletheometer with curiosity evident in her eyes.
"We need a Seer" said Susan, checking to see if anyone was passing them by. "Nobody has the talent or the ability to even try it except you" the Hufflepuffs both looked at the
"What about Luna?" Harry asked.
"She can only read strong emotions or thoughts, and she has to actually touch the person concerned to get any reading" Hannah said. "We thought that maybe you could try and read it – given your connections to You-Know-Who"
"I'll give it a try" said Harry.
"One thing we do know is that you must treat the question gently" Susan cautioned him. "You should ask for something that is easy to discover"
# # # # #
Harry's reading was not much good, but he did find out that the prisoners were being held in the part of the dungeons once used for storing potions equipment and supplies. With heavy locks and wards still in place, it made the ideal place for somewhere to keep a load of people.
"Time to become Aqua-Man" muttered Harry, setting up a dummy in the boat, taking some of the Gillyweed and slipping under the water. Along with a number of good fighters – mainly from the DA, Harry swam to the pipes and worked his way up to the required floor. The pipes he and the others went up led only to the bathrooms prefects bathroom. The only way to get out was to blast the bottom of the bath apart, and Harry and the others did so with just enough time before the effects of the weed wore off. After a quick drying spell, they hurried up to the corridor with the one eyed witch and waited for the others to arrive.
If he had known then what he knew later, Harry would have got the hell out of there with Hermione and left the country…
