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Chapter 7


Molly stared at the man for a moment, not quite knowing what to say. Instead, she became consciously aware of the burdens she was carrying and whipped them behind her back, as if doing so would mask their presence, as if the man hadn't already seen the bundle and the sword.

"Nothing," she replied, putting as much certainty as she could into her tone and making it sound matter-of-fact, to his question of what happened.

"Nothing," he scoffed. He took Harry into his arms and stood up. He walked over to her and pointed a finger right in her face. "You, Molly Weasley, are a liar. A horrible one, in fact."

She swatted the finger away. "Don't you dare say anything about it to anyone. You'll ruin everything, no doubt, if you do."

"And what is there to say?"

"Exactly," and she straightened the Sorting Hat that was still on her head after the flight up. She walked out of the bathroom with as much aplomb as she could muster. She knew he would follow.

She was right.

Sirius scampered after her. Without looking behind her and actually seeing it, she could tell he was practically dancing with inner joy at the thought of some adventure within Hogwarts, adventures that he undoubtedly thought he had to leave behind when his seventh year was over. Ever still a Marauder.

"Why didn't you follow?" she asked out of curiosity, slowing to walk beside him, and hoping she already knew the answer.

"What? Jump into some unknown pit with Harry? What sort of godfather do you take me for?" The indignation in his voice was covered with the love he put into pulling Harry closer to him still.

"A good one," she replied. For all the man's awful faults, he gave his life to protect the boy, once upon a time. "Why did you wait around?" Because he had waited. He hadn't gone scampering off to find someone to tell. He had simply waited.

He grinned sheepishly. "Can't blame a man for being curious, can you?"

"I absolutely can! Hmph, there was a basilisk down there. What if it had come up and eaten you and Harry?"

Sirius paled at the thought. He hadn't realized. After all, it was a humorous sight that she had left with: a hat, a phoenix, and a taunting poltergeist. He hadn't heard her scream about the basilisk. Or rather, he heard the scream, but couldn't understand the words through the shriek.

"Basilisk?"

"It's dead now."

"Dead."

"Mmhm," she replied, glancing at him in exasperation, sympathy, and a ting of guilt at seeing the man off balance in this way. She reigned it in, remembering she didn't come to the castle for a basilisk venom imbued sword but for a diadem. "Well, shall you accompany me to my original destination, then?"

"Dead basilisk."

"Still stuck on that, are you?" She patted his cheek. "It's alright. It bothers me, too." Then, in equal measure, she gently pinched and smoothed Harry's cheek, eliciting a giggle. She then began walking back to the general area she knew the room of requirement would be.

"If it's dead now, that means it wasn't before," he shot, regaining whatever sense he lost before, and walked after her.

"Yes. I killed it."

"You did," he replied disbelievingly.

"Mmhm. Rather terrifying it was." Still is, if she were honest with herself, but putting up a front of nonchalance was actually helping to calm her.

"Fawkes helped. Anyway, we really are dawdling." They weren't really. She had them going at a decent pace.

Sirius had enough and grabbed Molly's arm, stopping her from going further. "What is going on, Molly Weasley?"

He sounded like a sane Black—demanding and subtly dangerous with a hint that he had the upper hand, whether or not he really did. Molly took in a deep breath, knowing she was being unfair, especially as she needed his help. She looked around. "Let's get to where we're going and I'll tell you what you need to know." She turned foot, yanked her arm out of his slackened grip, and moved on.

Sirius was a help in finding the room as she had no idea where a tapestry of ballet dancing trolls could possibly reside, even with instruction that it was on the seventh floor. She closed her eyes and paced, thinking of exactly what she needed, while hoping she recalled the instructions to the room correctly.

When she opened her eyes, the entrance was there. Sirius beat her to opening the door. And though he was not looking at her, she could just make out the awe he had. She could imagine, sort of. He was part of a group of boys that made it their mission to explore every nook and cranny of this castle and now, in one day, he was introduced to two new secrets it held.

She walked in after him.

"A storage closet?" he looked at her in askance, even if it was rather large to be a closet.

"The room of lost things," she retorted, and marveled at what she could see of its depth.

"Alright, you told me you would say what is going on. And make no mistake, there is something going on."

She put the stash of fangs near the door to free herself of some burden, and the Sorting Hat, too. It grumbled, but seemed to be mostly asleep now that it had accomplished the task it set out to do.

"Oh hush, I'll be back for you."

She kept the sword on her person, just in case, and started looking around, wondering if she'd even find the blasted thing.

"We're looking for a diadem," and seeing his blank expression, "a tiara. Ravenclaw's, actually."

"And here I thought it was something of yours. Explain." It was that damned Black tone in his voice again.

"Just look while I explain, or we'll be here forever." She dreaded to think what would have happened had You-Know-Who actually stashed the blasted thing within one of the piles, rather than on a simple table somewhere, however immersed in this room. Small favors, she told herself.

She saw Sirius start to poke through some things, however halfheartedly. Harry was being absurdly good, but saw the boy start to nod off and fuss just a bit.

"It's not the whole story, mind you, but for simplicity sake, I will tell you the most important bits. This past summer, I was given knowledge that You-Know-Who has performed the most foul of magic to make himself as close to immortal as possible. These items are called horcruxes, an item that stores a piece of a person's soul so they cannot fully die. Have you heard of them?"

Sirius shivered, understanding the implications of exactly what the dark lord did, but shook his head negatively. He'd not heard of them. "Why haven't you shared this with Dumbledore?"

"The headmaster would be a powerful person to tell, but telling him is not without repercussions of its own." She moved on to another pile, poking around it. "The more people who know a secret, the less of a secret it is. And this one needs to remain as much a secret as possible. The only other person I've told is my husband," then she amended, "and now you."

"But why tell me? You haven't told me because I asked or because I was asked to accompany you. And what has this got to do with a tiara?"

"The diadem," she corrected unnecessarily, "is one of the horcruxes. I am telling you because I believe you can help me get to another of the horcruxes."

"How can I help you if I don't"—realization came—"my family." He sounded resigned, knowing how entrenched his relations were with You-Know-Who.

"Yes," she responded kindly. "Your brother, more specifically."

"My brother's been missing for several months," bitter.

"I believe he stole a horcrux from under You-Know-Who's nose. I have reason to think it might be within Grimmauld Place."

He responded with an indecipherable look, one that cleverly hid whatever he was thinking.

"How many of these things were made?"

"Too many," she responded.

There was silence for a while as they went deeper and deeper in their search. Every once in a while, Sirius would pause and rock Harry as he seemed to want to come out of slumber.

Then Molly caught sight of a cache of brooms and knew they were close, her childrens' stories coming to the fore of her thoughts. It was a remembrance of an admission on how they escaped the room.

There, something within her whispered, as she caught sight of the shape of a box, buried under something. She immediately went over, clearing the offending items away, and opened the box. "I've found it," she spoke. It had the same feel as the other horcruxes she'd come across. She closed the box. "Apparently just in time, too." She noticed Harry waking up, the boy had slept for a while.

"He'll be hungry. I should get him back to James and Lily." He looked curiously at the box, but didn't say anything.

They walked back to the entrance. "Thank you for your help," she said, more out of a lack of anything else to say.

"What is it I should look for at my mother's house?" he asked stiffly.

"A locket of Slytherin's."

He nodded. She gathered up the Sorting hat and fangs that she had put aside earlier.

After they left the room and closed the door, the door melded into the wall, disappearing altogether.

"Do you have somewhere safe for that thing? Are you going to destroy it?"

Molly nodded. She wasn't going to destroy it yet. She had no idea whether or not You-Know-Who would be able to tell if they were destroyed or not. The corner space in her attic was merely safe from the little terrors she called her children and safe only because no one else knew where they were. There was nothing else to be done about it, though.

She stopped him as they reached the doors to the Great Hall. "Please, say nothing of this to anyone, Black. Not Dumbledore, not your friends. I know you will want to. It's alright when this is all over, but not before then. Thank the headmaster for allowing me to collect what I needed, but that I saw myself out. And thank you, Sirius, for helping me."

"I didn't do much," he protested.

"You helped," she gave. She leaned in and kissed his cheek and then kissed Harry's. "Owl me when you have a chance. Bye. Bye!" Her second bye was in a tone reserved for small children and was done with a small wave at Harry.

She made a quick retreat, knowing she could not be seen with sword or diadem or fangs by Dumbledore, or the man would interfere where she didn't want him to.

"Ahem, aren't you forgetting something?"

She looked down at her hands and the Sorting Hat, who had been kindly silent since helping her with the basilisk, spoke up.

"Oh!"

"Yes," he responded wryly.

"Umm…"

"Don't bother. My ride is here."

"Your ride?"

Flames popped up in front of her. Fawkes. "Oh. Err, well, here you are." And she handed the hat to Fawkes. "Thank you for both of your help."

The response she got was another burst of flames and both of them were gone.

"Now that that's sorted," she spoke to herself, and then hurried out the door to get back to her family, happy. She'd accomplished more than she thought with the visit and now had the tools needed to destroy the horcruxes. It was that much less a burden. Thank goodness.