Chapter 7 – Expostra Dementa

In the Gryffindor Tower at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a girl with fiery red hair was smiling contentedly as she stared into space. Ginny still was revelling following the previous evening's DA meeting. Nearly every student at the school had attended and even a couple of teachers had come to watch. As Ginny lay in her bed waiting for daylight (she was the only person in her dormitory who had returned to Hogwarts, thus always managed a good night's sleep), she remembered how everyone above fifth year had successfully produced a Patronus, even though a couple of them were rather weak, and all the first years had had a go at banishing the Boggart provided by Obeah. Ginny knew that everyone would be passing his or her Defence against the Dark Arts exams well this year; she had got an Outstanding OWL thanks to Harry's help, and she wanted to do the same for the rest of the students. After all, with Voldemort in full power, what was more important than learning defence?


Harry got dressed quickly and quietly the next morning. Ron was snoring soundly and Hermione was silent, so Harry assumed they would not be awake for a while. He crept outside the house and gulped down a lungful of fresh morning air. Though it was bitterly cold and every single static object was coated with frost, the sun was trying to shine so everywhere sparkled prettily in the misty morning light. Harry thrust his hands in his pockets and took a walk to clear his head. Since he awoke, he had been thinking about his dream, and what it meant. The mansion on the hill, he was pretty sure, was where Voldemort's father had lived. Though he had never visited the building himself, Harry had seen it before, both in his dreams and in memories in Dumbledore's Pensieve. The second building in the uninviting street was Snape's former residence, from whence they had recently collected the potions ingredients. The final building was the dreadful shack in the ocean where Vernon Dursley had taken his family and Harry to escape the thousands of admissions letters from Hogwarts, and where Harry had first learned he was a wizard. Harry puzzled over why he was having repetitive dreams involving all three of these locations. He still couldn't work out exactly what was happening in the dreams, or why he felt angry in them. He was quite sure now that the dreams weren't being planted by Voldemort, as how would Voldemort have known about the hut in the sea? The only other person in the wizarding world who knew about Harry's stay in the shack was Hagrid, and Harry was sure that Hagrid had never visited the Riddle house. He chewed his lip as he walked briskly against the cold, and was so lost in his thoughts he nearly collided with a man walking the other direction down the street. Harry mumbled an apology to the long grey overcoat now retreating from him, and shivered involuntarily as a particularly chilly breeze swept past him. None the wiser about his dreams, Harry thought it best to return to the warmth of the house before Ron and Hermione woke to find him gone. He turned on his heel and retraced his footsteps back to number fifty-seven.

Over a breakfast of omelettes, Harry told his friends about the dream. Neither of them was able to help with interpretation, though. "Maybe it's just symbolic," Ron offered.

"How do you mean?" Harry asked, interested in any explanation they could offer.

"I dunno. Maybe it's progression, or something." He smirked as he continued, "You're a good wizard and you got a tiny hut, Snape was playing both so got a bigger house, albeit a grotty one, and Voldemort, being evil, got this huge mansion!"

"Yeah, thanks Ron, I'm sure that's exactly it," Harry replied sarcastically.

"Can you tell us anything else about them, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I've only been to Snape's twice, and I was only in the shack for a few hours… I've never even been to the mansion," Harry said. He searched his brain for any information that might be relevant. "We were hiding out when I went to the little house with the Dursleys," he ventured, "And Voldemort was hiding out in his father's house last year… Hey! I wonder if he's still there?" Hermione looked perplexed.

"Harry, you can't go looking for Voldemort yet. If he finds you he'll kill you, and that won't be much use, will it?" Harry couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"Yeah, but you two know the plan, so you'd be able to finish what we started," Harry reassured her. "But seriously, it can't hurt to find out where he is, can it?"

"It would save time when we're ready," Ron agreed, "Not to mention giving us an advantage. I mean, when he's ready to kill Harry, he'll have to find him first."

"He's probably already looking," Hermione reminded him.

"When you've finished discussing my death," Harry interrupted. Hermione and Ron, who both had their mouths open ready to retort, bit their tongues and let Harry continue. "I think we should check out the manor anyway. If he's not there, maybe I can have a look around and see if I can find any clues about my dream."

"I agree that it might help with your dream, but it seems a bit risky. Imagine if you walk straight into Voldemort's hands! Perhaps Ron and I should look first to see if anyone is staying there."

"And what if you two get killed?" Harry demanded.

"We can take care of ourselves. We'll be careful, mate. Better us than you, right?" Harry looked between the two of them, reluctant to agree because by telling them about the dream he might have jeopardised their safety. However, he knew them too well to underestimate their determination. Harry sighed.

"Alright," he conceded, "but I'm going to visit the shack, agreed?" Hermione and Ron both agreed, so each of them helped themselves to more breakfast to prepare them for their adventures.

Only an hour or so later, Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione as they set off to visit the derelict Riddle house. When they had left, Harry added a few extra layers for warmth, took up his broom and invisibility cloak, and apparated to an enclosed wood just outside of Little Whinging. Checking that nobody had seen him, Harry then disillusioned himself with a tap of his wand. He mounted his broom, rose high above the trees and sped off towards the ocean.

It was wonderful to Harry to be so free, soaring over the countryside without anybody knowing where he was, or ordering him when to return. Having missed flying, Harry took a chance to loop-the-loop, and practiced a few Quidditch dives just to check he was still able. After over an hour of flying, though, he was getting very cold; his fingers felt as though they were frozen to the broom. It was therefore with great delight that he first glimpsed the inky expanse beyond rolling hills. Now freezing cold, Harry eagerly scoured the waves for some sign of the little hut: having only been there once before, Harry didn't know its exact location. After several minutes searching he had still found nothing. Frustrated, Harry paused his flight and blew onto his hands for warmth. He was sure it had been around here somewhere. Grinding his teeth, Harry turned and began searching the area again. After what felt like another hour, Harry was so cold that he couldn't feel his toes, and all that he had seen was the ocean, stony grey and endless beneath him. Heading back towards the land, Harry closed his eyes to rest them from their fruitless searching. Then he stopped suddenly, and snapped his eyes back open. Harry could feel something. Not a physical something, but more of a tingling sensation somewhere near his stomach. It was familiar; he'd felt it before. Harry tried to focus his mind on when he'd felt like this. Hogwarts, he knew. Every time he entered Hogwarts… and the Burrow… and Snape's house… and when he approached the Ministry of Magic, and St Mungo's. Harry realised with a jolt that it was magic – he could feel the presence of magic! He had always attributed the sensation to his excitement or nervousness at entering any of these places, but now it made sense to him that he could simply sense the marks left by magic. Harry closed his eyes and let the tingling feeling lead him. He headed a little farther out to sea before he stopped again and opened his eyes. Looking down, Harry could see nothing but rolling waves. Curious, he took out his wand and aimed it at the ocean directly below him. Revelio he thought, and watched in amazement as a small stone building flickered momentarily into sight before vanishing as if it had never been there. Harry's heart leapt, then sank like a stone in the same moment. Why was this hut so well protected? What was here that some witch or wizard had tried so hard to hide? Did it have something to do with Harry's dream? Perplexed but determined, Harry took his invisibility cloak from his pocket and threw it over his already disillusioned self. Now completely invisible (even to Moody), Harry dropped gradually lower, until the spray caught his feet and he believed he was next to the shack. He reached his hand out and felt stone wall under his fingertips. Harry needed to know if there was anyone inside. He aimed his wand at the wall and whispered "interio sonorus". Immediately, Harry could hear voices as though he was in the room with them.

"I can't see anyone and I'm looking right out the window."

"Maybe they're above us? The alarm wouldn't have gone off if no-one's here."

"Maybe it was a seagull. Or maybe the alarm's faulty. Maybe the charm's wearing off."

"Hush, Draco!"

Harry froze. He'd been so surprised to hear the voice of his school nemesis, Draco Malfoy, that he'd actually gasped out loud earning him a mouthful of salty sea spray, which made him splutter. It seemed that he'd been heard. As the sounds inside the house vanished, Harry dropped yet lower so his toes were getting wet, and pushed himself right up against the wall. Hardly daring to breathe, Harry repeated the incantation non-verbally, and heard Draco reassuring his mother that there was nobody there. Harry stayed to listen for a short while longer, but the Malfoys had ceased conversation. Eventually, Harry took his leave. He flew back to shore and landed on the nearest patch of dry land. He dismounted from his broom, removed his cloak, lifted the disillusionment charm and disappeared.

Still shaken from his discovery, Harry arrived back in Manchester to find Ron and Hermione sitting at the table each clutching a mug of hot chocolate. When Harry appeared, Hermione hiccoughed on her drink and Ron sloshed his all over the table. Hastily clearing it with his wand, he said, "So we know where Voldemort lives." Having recovered herself, Hermione conjured a chair onto which Harry sank, still damp with ocean spray, dropping his broom to the floor.

"Tell me about it," Harry demanded. For once, Hermione let Ron explain.

"It was horrible," he began. "At first, we couldn't tell if there was anyone there or not. There was a shed at the end of the garden, so we went in there. Hermione cast this weird charm on her eyes so they were like telescopes, and she could see in the windows properly. She said she could see Wormtail, which we knew wasn't a good sign. We waited there for a bit, formulating our brilliant plan. Hermione conjured a bird, a raven, and I did that dopple-vision charm that was on our OWL paper, remember? Anyway, we sent the bird off round the house so we could see in every window. Well everything the bird saw, I saw, and I'm telling you I saw Voldemort and at least five Death Eaters in there, including Snape." Harry was horrified, but hardly surprised.

"So he's not bothering to hide himself then."

"Not really, no," Ron agreed. "But who'd go there anyway, if they knew what they'd find?"

"You did," Harry pointed out. Before Ron could reply, Hermione started speaking.

"So what did you find, Harry? A house full of Death Eaters?"

"No," Harry replied, "just one Death Eater." Hermione spluttered again and Ron looked incredulous. "Do you have a beacon or something? Voldemort supporters, this way, Harry Potter's over here!" Ron mocked him.

"I told you, trouble just follows me. And it was Draco Malfoy I found." His friends fell silent. "Yeah, I know," Harry said. "That hut's a bit different to the home he's used to, I reckon." Ron was making goldfish-like movements with his mouth.

"Did he see you?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think so. He's there with his mother. Apparently I set off some sort of intruder alarm so they knew someone was there, but I was disillusioned and wearing my cloak, and out of eyesight."

"His mother's there too? Harry, you could have finished them off!"

"Ron, don't be ridiculous. Harry doesn't want to kill anyone, do you Harry?" Harry hesitated awkwardly before opening his mouth to answer. Sensing dangerous territory, Ron hastily steered the conversation to question why the Malfoys were hiding out in the ocean.

"They must be hiding from Voldemort," Harry sounded confident. "It said in the prophet that Voldemort said he had no use for the Malfoy family anymore before he killed Lucius. I'd bet anything that Lucius messed up so many times, then Draco didn't manage to kill Dumbledore, so that they're more trouble than they're worth and better off out of the way."

"You'd have thought that Voldemort would be able to find them though," Ron said reasonably. "Locate their Dark Mark or something."

"This place wasn't easy to find," Harry told him. "I couldn't find it for ages. It's only because I knew where to look, and then I could feel the magic there, that I…" but what Harry did, he didn't manage to say as Hermione stood and started shrieking at him.

"You could feel the magic there? What do you mean you could feel the magic? Have you any idea what this means? Harry!" Harry had started backing away as Hermione was like a tempest coming towards him.

"Hermione! It's a good thing!" he ventured, as Ron held Hermione back.

"Harry, hardly any witches or wizards can do that! Why didn't you tell us before?" Hermione's voice was still about an octave higher than usual and more than twice its normal volume.

"Hermione, calm down," Ron said soothingly, as he forced her back into her chair. Then he turned to Harry. "So you can tell where magic is? You can tell if someone's cast a spell?"

"I don't know about the spell thing," Harry said, "but at Hogwarts and your house, I can tell something's different. When I was looking for the hut, I couldn't see it, but I could feel where it was because of the charms cast on it, I guess."

"That's really rare, mate. Even really powerful wizards have trouble with that."

"Dumbledore didn't," Harry remembered, "when we were searching for the first Horcrux, he found his way into the cave by feeling the walls for traces of magic." Ron looked impressed, Hermione looked aghast.

"Harry, about the Horcruxes…" she said, now much quieter. Ron and Harry stood closer to listen to her. "When we were at Snape's, I found a book that I think could help us." Harry watched, puzzled, as Hermione walked to the sofa. She reached behind it and pulled out a heavy book that Harry recognised because once again it was pulsing crimson in time with his breathing.

"You brought that here?" Harry wrinkled his nose. Hermione brought the book back to the table and opened it near the back. Cautiously, she turned the pages. When she reached the correct page, the book moaned in a manner that suggested it had just survived painful torture.

"Shut up," Hermione told the book. "Aha! This is it." She read clearly from the book. "The Horcrux, most wicked creation of wizardkind, contains the half of the soul scarified by said wizard who has committed murder. A Horcrux can be any object, and remains unchanged when the soul is concealed within. The only way to detect a Horcrux is with the incantation expostra dementa. If the said object is a true Horcrux, this incantation will force the soul segment to reveal itself. The soul can then be destroyed with either the salvation charm or the eradication curse."

"The what or the what?" Ron asked.

"Salvation charm or eradication curse," Hermione repeated. "I've never heard of either of them, and the book doesn't explain them at all."

"Salvation or eradication? I know which one we'll use," Harry said, and Ron smirked appreciatively. "Let's try it," Harry said. He took out the green teapot from the kitchen cupboard, placed it one the side and transfigured it back into Slytherin's locket. He pointed he wand at the gold jewellery, and said in a clear, steady voice, "Expostra Dementa!" As they watched, a silvery streak emerged vertically from the locket, curling like solid smoke into the air, where it hovered for only a moment before rushing suddenly back into the locket. Harry held his breath but nothing else happened; the locket remained unremarkable.

"Wow," Ron whispered, "So that was part of his soul."

"So now we have to find out how to destroy it, then when we've found the others, we can destroy them, too. Ron, I want you back searching for traces of that Hufflepuff goblet. Hermione, keep reading that book for anything else that might be helpful. We need to find out what those spells are… and I know just the person to ask."