Chapter Nine

It was Friday evening and Hermione watched as Draco dragged his feet as he carried his bag to the fireplace. The blond had already said goodbye to her parents and his father had found a counter spell to the one Draco had placed on Hermione's dad.

Her mother was out in the conservatory once again working with Neville to remove the last of the cactus plants. She had been impressed with Neville's skill and dedication. Looking at the blond, she bit her lip knowing that she was going to have fulfill her part in the bet between Draco and herself.

"Don't look so serious, Granger." Draco said as he leaned against the back of a chair in the parlor. "You know, I heard somewhere that honesty is the best policy."

"How did you know?" She asked looking his way and ignoring the obvious chance to poke him regarding his statement. "About Ron?"

"I have been watching the three of you; a few of the Slytherins figured it out." He said. "You tend to lean into Harry when it is just the two of you, but when it is just Ron and yourself, you look bored or annoyed, never like you are enjoying his company. You know, he sees himself as better than you when it comes to his being a pureblood, he just hides it better."

With a slight bite of her lip, she admitted "I have seen it. I also know that it isn't about magic, more like a sort of Ron thing."

"You hate me for it, for believing I thought I was better than you, but you befriend him." Draco quietly said. "Why?"

"Harry doesn't see it, not yet." She admitted her eyes on her feet. "Ron was his first friend, ever. He doesn't see that Ron feels superior to him. Ron wanted someone to be better than after growing up with all of his brothers."

"Have you told him?" Draco asked.

"I don't want to hurt him. Unfortunately I have learned of some other things I can't avoid telling him. When I tell him those things, he will learn the truth about a lot of other stuff." she said feeling sad. If Harry didn't believe her, she would lose him and that was almost beyond her ability to accept.

There was the sound of someone apparating outside and they saw Lucius entering her house and walking over to Draco. "Miss Granger."

"Mr. Malfoy." she replied. "My father will be right back. He is helping out our next door neighbor."

"I wanted to thank your mother as well if she is home." The blond replied politely.

"She is in the conservatory with Neville Longbottom transferring cactus plants." Hermione replied while Draco offered to show him the way.

Lucius followed his son across the large back garden, past the well landscaped pool and into the glass enclosed room. He could hear the voice of the young Longbottom heir as he discussed grafting between fruit trees with Ms. Granger's mother.

A half hour later, Draco followed his father through the floo after thanking the Grangers for hosting him. He went to his room and after placing his own bag inside, sauntered downstairs to join his family for dinner.

Greeting Potter who was already eating, he soon was seated at the table and listening to his mother and father talking about her meeting that day with her fellow Vesta initiates.

"So Potter, how is the revising going?" Draco asked as he struggled to find something to talk about that would be considered polite dinner conversation. In truth a small part of him, the part that still felt the snub on what happened on the train first year wanted to rub it into Harry's face that Ron was a git.

"Fine, I just wish I had taken the Runes and Arithmancy classes this year instead of Divination." He replied sounding astonished that Draco could make polite conversation. "I should have done more research before choosing my electives."

"Rune is okay but I do enjoy Arithmancy." Draco admitted. "I only wish I could drop History."

"You and every other witch and wizard." Harry replied. "I don't understand how we are to learn history from someone who died over a hundred years ago. It's not like history just froze because Binns died. In the last hundred years a lot of history has been made but we aren't taught it because our teacher is stuck on teaching us about Goblin wars
that happened in the sixteenth century. We end up missing a lot of important facts. It's one of Hermione's favorite laments."

"True, but you must remember, your Headmaster was taught by Professor Binns when he was still alive." Narcissa said as Lucius and she heard what they are talking about.

Harry sat down his fork and looked at Mrs. Malfoy and said "That sort of proves my point, Mrs. Malfoy. If this man was teaching when the Headmaster was a student and we all know he hasn't changed his curriculum, clearly things are not up to date and no one has noticed."

"Ah, but Mr. Potter people have noticed." Lucius replied. "However, out of I would charitably call nostalgia, the Headmaster has fought against the Board of Governors from updating History of Magic."

"Great, so until this changes, History stays a free nap time for most of the student body." Draco retorted.

"Unfortunately it was the same way when we were students." Narcissa said smirking at her husband as she recalled him sleeping in class. She had had history of magic after him her first year and he had frequently looked half awake as he exited the class.

VESTA

Early the next morning, Harry went through the floo to join Hermione in a walk to the park near her home in Crawley. The two teenagers had realized that they had so much to tell each other and that they had had very little chance to do so thanks to the changes in their lives.

Finding an empty park bench, Hermione offered Harry two of the orange juices from her bag while he offered her two of his muffins, he said "Mr. Malfoy was on the only one up when I left. I wrote a note for everyone."

"Mom wants to go shopping later on today." Hermione said as she looked down at the muggle clothes, it was the first time in days she had had a chance to wear khaki shorts and t-shirt. Looking at Harry she asked. "Have you written to Ron?"

"Last night. It's awkward because I don't know what to tell him about my living situation and my godfathers. You know he is going to flip when he hears about Snape." Harry said with a weak grin. "I did tell him that I might not be able to attend the Quidditch Cup with his family. I didn't go into details though."

"Ginny wrote me a note about his mom wanting to host a surprise birthday party for you." She warned.

Groaning, Harry said "Remus and Sirius want to have a party for me and invite all of our school friends. I heard from Remus that the house Sirius inherited and that Mrs. Malfoy and you remodeled is ready. They don't want to move me from the manor however in case the headmaster finds out."

"You know, I have an idea. Why don't we host your party at my house?" Hermione said getting excited. "That way we can hide where you really live and no one will get their feelings hurt."

"Its a disaster in the making, Mione." Harry pointed out. "On one hand we have the Weasleys, who have been great to me. Mrs. Weasley didn't even know me when she sent me Christmas presents that first year. On the other hand, we have my godfathers. Something tells me that Snape might not exactly enjoy being around all of us but he would insist on being there because he is my godfather. Then we have the Malfoys who we both now have connections to. I couldn't have a birthday party and not invited them."

"That is why my idea is perfect." Hermione said with a smug grin on her face. "Let me talk to my mom, she will know what to do."

Harry knew that face, it was Hermione's I am in charge face so Harry shrugged and let her do just that. "I have so much to tell you."

"Oh, before we get into that, the news last night said that your aunt and uncle went to their broker yesterday and withdrew a huge sum of money and that they are on the run." Hermione filled Harry in on all of the details of who the broker was and how much money they had gotten before they had escaped the police yet again.

After eating their breakfast, Harry began to fill Hermione in on all he had learned over the last two weeks. "Mr. Malfoy spoke to the Board of Governors along with Neville's grams and they are requesting an inventory be done and delivered this week on all of the books in the library at Hogwarts including which are in the restricted section."

"I had seen the plaque at the magical library in Diagon Alley, and their own library so maybe the Malfoys might be able to get our school library updated." Hermione said in a hopeful tone and then giggled. Seeing Harry looking her way, she said "I never thought I would ever be thinking that way about anyone with the Malfoy name."

They were quiet for a few minutes then Harry told her about the Headmaster sealing his birth certificate. "It's why we did the blood ritual to increase the protections on me. The Headmaster somehow misunderstood what my mom did and he weakened the protection on me."

"So it was tied to your godfathers?" Hermione asked rather curious as to what this meant to protect her friend.

"Sirius and Snape were already blood protecting me already before we did the ritual. Now it adds Remus into it." Harry replied. "I wish I could tell you about it, but something happened and they swore me to secrecy."

"What else have I missed?" She asked

Harry told Hermione about the Headmasters attempted manipulation and how he had known about Harry's inheritance and how he could have lived someplace other than the Dursleys.

Harry told her about the nutrient potions and Hermione nodded adding "I am not surprised you need them. We burn more calories than non magicals and if we don't listen to our bodies, we can burn out our magical core."

"I have a house elf that appears every morning when I eat breakfast who let's Snape know if I don't eat what he considers enough. The elf also sends me away with snacks. While we have been studying, Remus and he have made me take snack breaks every hour." Harry said grinning a bit as he thought about the house elf who stood over him to be sure he obeyed Snape. "I'm going to be fat pretty soon."

"Harry!" Hermione laughed as he held his breath and tried to make himself look bloated. Looking around park which other than a few joggers was pretty quiet, she asked him if there was another else?

"I overheard a conversation between Snape and Lucius Malfoy." He said as he told her what the two men had been talking about. When Hermione bit her lip, he asked "What is it?"

"I overheard Mr. Weasley telling his wife that the Headmaster had suggested the homes to be raided. At the time, I just figured it was part of his job as Chief Wizard but after my summer reading I learned that normally he wouldn't have any connections to cases until they went before the Wizengamot."

"Sirius told me that those devices that whirl and emit smoke in the headmaster's office are probably all tied to me in some fashion or another. He wants to look them over but he knows that at least one of them was a Potter heirloom that is tied to the health of the heir, meaning me." Harry said feeling miserable at the knowledge. "Part of me doesn't want to believe it."

Hermione rested her head on his shoulder, feeling bad that she was about to give him even more bad news about people he trusted. When she felt Harry's hands fold into hers, she looked up at her friend who had a rather serious expression on his face. "What is it?"

"A-after what happened on Halloween first year, I swore to myself to always do what I knew was right over what is easy when it came to Ron and you, I betrayed that this year." He said feeling sick at how he had let her down yet again by choosing Ron's side over hers. "The broom, you were right to go to McGonagall. I overreacted and I am sorry, Hermione."

"I should have talked to you first, but I was so scared you would go flying and would end up hurt, I went behind your back." she said.

"I wish you had spoken to me first but I understand why you didn't." He said. "I let Ron's attitude guide my own."

"He is a little Quidditch obsessed isn't he." Hermione said with a sigh as she realized she would have to wait to tell him about her own impressions of Ron. Hopefully she would work up the courage before fulfilling her bet with Malfoy. "Though, I think that Oliver Wood would have reacted the same way."

"Hermione, want to know a secret?" He asked and then before she could even answer he said "I like Quidditch and even playing seeker but what I really love is flying. I love the wind in my hair, the freedom it gives me."

VESTA

Bill exited the house to talk to a sullen Ron who was in the garden. His brother had been upset since his father had told the family about the ticket offer from Lucius Malfoy. Finding Ron lying on the grass, staring up at the sky, he sat down next to him and asked "How are you doing?"

Ron looked over at Bill and admitted. "It's hard sticking to my principals. I know that it is wrong but at the same time, it's the Quidditch cup. Plus Hermione and Harry will be there, it just sucks."

"I know." He replied. Looking down at Ron, he said "Last week something set you off and it wasn't just not being able to attend the Quidditch Cup."

Sitting up a bit, so that he was leaning on his elbows, Ron said. "I hate being poor. It's not just the Quidditch cup, it's second hand books. My wand got broke second year and it wasn't until last summer I got a new one which only happened because Mom and Dad won that contest. If most of my classmates had broken their wand, they could just go buy a new one. My owl was given to me, my rat was a hand me down that was an death eater."

"I started Hogwarts with a second hand cauldron, my wand was our Uncle's and my books, at least most of them were used, Ron." Bill stated. "I still managed to be head boy, it's not impossible to achieve your goals no matter how much money you have."

"Still it sucks being poor." Ron said.

"Ron, if you don't want to be poor, do something about it." Bill said. Seeing his brother frowning, he sighed and said "Get a job next summer. It's what both Charlie and I did. I know that the twins have spent the summer keeping busy working on their own futures. Percy has often spent summers at the Ministry with dad. Why do you think he did that?"

"Percy is a ass kissing berk, that's why." Ron muttered, still angry about the Quidditch cup situation. "Besides, why should I have to work? It's not like Malfoy, Harry or even Neville Longbottom has to work during the summer."

"Ron, the difference is that all three of those boys are the sole heirs to large family fortunes. Even if we had been comfortably off, dad would have split it between all of us so you would have had to work."

"That's not fair." Ron cried out.

"Ron have you ever once thought of the trade off those three did for all that money?" Bill asked sharply.

His mind still on new racing brooms and nice clothes, the teenager muttered "It would be worth it. I hate being poor.

"So in exchange for your friend Harry's large vault, you would be willing to live with people who hate you?" He asked.

"Yes, because in the end I would be richer than them and can rub it in their face." Ron said.

"What about the fact that to inherit your entire family would have to die? Or did you forget that small fact?" Bill asked in a sharp tone. "All of your brothers and Ginny gone, no parents to hug you, to tell you that they love you? You would exchange all of that for money?"

Ron's mouth was moving but no words came out as he looked at Bill stunned as he struggled to understand. "Harry would still be rich and famous even if his parent's were alive. Besides, Neville's parents are alive."

"Alice and Frank Longbottom are in a hospital and have been for years and frankly that Malfoy boy lives with knowledge that everyone believes he is evil because of a mistake his father made. I know from your letters that the kid is a pain in the rear, but Ron, if you had to trade lives with him for a week, you just might realize that his life is not easy." Bill replied thinking about how when he had first started Hogwarts, the comments about his mum.

"Still, it's not fair." Ron muttered as if it was the most important part of their discussion.

"Ronald, you had better get used to understanding that life isn't fair and learn that if you want to change things, it takes hard work as much as determination." Bill replied as he stood to go back inside.

VESTA

Hermione began catching Harry up on the various things she had begun learning as a Vesta apprentice, her visit with the magical hairdresser had him chuckling as she confessed while blushing that she had enjoyed learning his charms. Next she told him about her meeting with the Minister and his rather interesting outfit. "It was strange learning that Professor Snape and your mom were friends."

"Mom and Dad sent him a letter and he let me read it. It was hard to read that my dad had been a bully." He said with a frown. "Worse still when we found out about the curse on Snape."

Shivering at the thought of Voldemort still having the ability to affect someone from his grave, Hermione said "Is it strange having him as a godfather?"

Harry looked over at her and then admitted "No, what is strange is how normal it feels."

When Hermione told him about Narcissa Malfoy's intentions to cook, he let out out a small chuckle and said "Well maybe, I can help with that. After all I can cook."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Hermione looked at him and said "I was hoping you would offer to do that. I really don't want to burn down Malfoy Manor. Draco enjoyed his time here and he might want to move back."

That statement had them both laughing.

"The second assignment, when Narcissa told me about it, she mentioned that she blamed Sirius for something that happened there." Hermione told him again.

"I know that it happened after Sirius ran away from home and moved in with my parents. I know that Dobby was involved too."

"That might explain why he was so angry at Mrs. Malfoy." Hermione said telling him the entire story of her first trip to the house on Grimmauld including Dobby calling her Harry Potter's Miss Grangy. "The third assignment assigned to her was to rescue you and help you be placed with a family who would care for you. I think she pretty much succeeded in that one."

"She did." Harry said with a grin that faded for a second as he looked at Hermione and told her. "Though, when Remus and Sirius heard the story of our first three years, I was lucky that I wasn't smothered in hugs or strangled. Snape however is forcing me to write an essay about what happened regarding each event and how I should have done things differently."

"I live in fear of them telling my parents." Hermione admitted.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." He said with a guilty expression on his face. "They agreed to not tell the Weasleys the entire story and the same with your parents as long as I promise to think before acting in the future. You have more to worry about Mr. Malfoy telling them. He was pretty pissed that they made that deal with me."

"He is different than I expected him to be." Hermione said. "Draco too. When Narcissa Malfoy told me why he took Care of Magical Creatures I did feel a bit bad for him in spite of what he did to Buckbeak."

Harry bit his lip and said "I looked at the textbook that the previous teacher used from my dad's days. Hagrid started with too big of a creature. Sirius and Remus both blame him as much as Draco for what happened. Mr. Malfoy also confessed that he wasn't trying to get the hippogriff killed but Hagrid fired. I don't like that, either."

"I still don't like that he tried to take it out on Buckbeak." Hermione said in a huffy tone. "Harry, still, I hate to admit it, but Hagrid shouldn't be teaching. He is my friend too, but I have to admit..."

"I know." Harry quietly said as they sat there silent for a few minutes as the sun rose higher into the sky.

When Hermione told Harry about how Snape had looked at her memories and said she wanted to learn how to do that, he looked sideways at her and said "I don't."

"Harry, we might need to learn how to block someone from reading ours and there is a book about it. If only because of how many people are so interested in your life." She pointed out.

"I will ask Snape about it along with Sirius." He said with a sigh. "I hate how people treat me different."

"I know." She told Harry about seeing Tracy Davis and how she had reacted to seeing Hermione. "It made me understand how you feel all of the time. Oh, I knew I forgot to tell you something."

With that Hermione told Harry about what had been done to his mom regarding her wedding. "Mrs. Malfoy didn't say who it was but I figured that Sirius might know."

She saw Harry's clenched fists and reached down to place her hand over his and said "Ask Sirius about it, Harry."

"I will, still who on earth could possibly think or even use that phrase, scarlet woman?" Harry said shaking his head to clear away his anger. "I hate how I know nothing about my parents. How I have to learn it from others."

Hermione skipped telling Harry about her bet with Draco, wanting to put that off as long as possible as she discussed explaining muggle culture to the blond.

Harry glared at a nearby tree when he heard that she had worn a bikini around Draco until he head how the other boy had just ignored how Hermione was a girl. "I wanted to drown him by the end of the first day."

VESTA

Bill saw his father exiting his shed and walked out to join him needing once again to his escape his mother and the chaos of the Burrow. He had been spending time with his father and was now seeing him through adult eyes after a trip this week to the pub. Looking at his father, Bill asked. "What is it?"

Arthur told his son about Ludo Bagman, Albus and the tickets for the Quidditch cup. "I just don't know what to do about the man."

"I hate to say it, but the Headmaster is way too interested in Harry Potter, dad. Ron and the twins told me a bit about their last couple of years and frankly what I told Mum and you about thinking there is something wrong at Hogwarts is even more true."

"I have been thinking the same thing this summer." Arthur admitted. "The story of Sirius Black not having a trial, Crouch's suicide, the wanting to host the TriWizard tournament. There have been so many questions about it at the Ministry that I just can't help wondering if you are right."

Bill looked at his father, wishing he could tell him about what he had learned on the assignment to the Black London home. His supervisor had sent a request to the Unspeakables after a meeting with a goblin he hadn't know and there had been whispers all week at the bank regarding Dumbledore.

VESTA

In a conference room at Gringotts, Lucius looked over at Harry Potter's godfathers and then at the two Goblins and the Unspeakable before glancing over at Amelia Bones who was conferring with the auror she had brought with her.

He was bemused to notice that the goblin was in standard dress, the Unspeakable in a gray robe, the aurors in their brightly colored uniform and those who were closest to Harry were wearing black lightweight summer robes.

When Croaker stood and requested everyone's attention, he said "I received a visit from the Head of Gringotts this week regarding an artifact that was found at your family home, Mr. Black."

"What did my insane family do now?" He asked with a weary sigh.

"You should know that this object was found in the hands of a house elf named Kreachure. He was given an assignment by your late brother to destroy said object but he didn't succeed. Now, while we don't often share our finds with the public, in this case we have no choice especially regarding the events at Hogwarts during the 92/93 school year."

Lucius turned a interesting shade of green as they placed the journal he had given to the Weasley girl on the table.

"Mr. Malfoy, would you please tell us about how you were affected by this book?"

Blanching at being so open with so many people in the room and at first attempting to lie only to realize he couldn't, Lucius filled in the others about how he had been led around by the book.

Croaker saw the frown on Madam Bones' face and said "He isn't lying, he was truly affected by this book. We need to hear about the true nature of it's effects."

"Why is this important?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked.

"This book was a successful horcrux." Croaker stated and saw that only Snape, Black and Malfoy seemed to understand what he was saying. Not that that was a total surprise, after all they were the three most exposed to dark magic. Looking at Bones, he explained "A horcrux is the darkest of dark magic and is created by a ritual in which the person creating one murders an innocent and then seals part of his soul into an inanimate object. It's done with the intention of bringing that wizard or witch back to life."

"HOLY MERLIN." Kingsley said as he sank into a nearby chair. "How?"

"Who?" Amelia Bones asked wanting the wizard to confirm what she was already thinking.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle AKA Lord Voldemort." Croaker replied. Seeing everyone in the room shuddering, he said "The good news, I think he tried to create more than one."

"How on earth could that be good news?" Snape demanded.

"Simply put, it won't work. You will believe it worked, you will lose part of your soul each time you did this, but it splits your soul in half. First time leaving one half of your original soul, the second time one fourth, the third time one eight etc."

Croaker saw their confusion in the silence and said "Riddle, if he had stopped after creating the journal would have been able to use it to anchor his soul to earth and to retrieve himself using it at a later date."

"So he can't use it?" Amelia Bones asked.

"He could have used the journal but it wouldn't have returned him completely, more like made him exist for hours, no longer." Croaker said. Croaker pulled out the second object and laid it on the table. "From what we have extrapolated, this contains one sixty-fourth of Riddle's soul and is pretty much the equivalent of a muggle paper weight. It might affect someone if they were to wear it, allowing him to torment them, but anchor his soul, no."

"How many?" Amelia Bones asked. "How many did he create?"

Croaker pulled out a third object and laid it on the table. "This was found by the Goblins in the vault of one Bellatrix Black Lestrange. It contained one eighth of his soul. Like the locket, it has had it removed by a ritual. Mr. Black willing revoked her marriage and the Goblins seized her vault to repay her bride price."

"How many?" Bones repeated her demand.

"I believe six, with one being accidental." Croaker said with a smug grin on his face. Seeing the glares directed his way, he chuckled and said "You are all missing the big picture."

"WHAT DO YOU FIND IN THIS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT?" Bones snarled.

"We have accounted for all of them." Croaker answered.

"Wait, how do you know six?" Lucius asked.

"We found the sixth at the home of the Potters in Godric's Hollow. It was in the nursery and thankfully it landed under the floor board when he blew up the room." Croaker answered. "It's magical signature shows it to have been created by the death of Lily Potter and it is thanks to her that his reign of terror ended and that it is unlikely he will be able to ever regain corporal form."

"Begin at the beginning." Sirius demanded.

"One, the journal, created by the death of one student at Hogwarts who is now a ghost." Croaker answered. "Destroyed by Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets. Albus Dumbledore tried to cover up the facts but thanks to a student the truth was outed."

"Two is a ring, we located it and are intending on destroying it when we have removed the curse on it. It was created by the death of Tom Riddle Sr. We found it thanks to having the cup, it acted light a guiding rod."

"Three was the cup, my guess would be the death of the previous owner and it has been destroyed." Croaker said pointing to the cup. "Four was tiara owned by Rowena Ravenclaw, found at Hogwarts by an unnamed source via the Goblins, it was destroyed immediately. No idea who was killed. The person who helped use the cup to locate it."

"Fifth was the locket, once owned by Salazar Slytherin and his heir, the young Guant girl, Riddle's mother sold it to a pawnbroker. It's why it is so late in the list of items. Located at the Grimmauld estate of Mr. Black by a cursebreaker, he destroyed it and will be receiving a huge bonus from his bosses."

"Six is the last item created, does the rune on it look familiar, Mr. Black?" Croaker asked as he laid down the object on the table. Hearing everyone gasp at the rune in the shape of a lightning bolt.

"That's a potion's knife." Severus said.

"More specifically it is the potion's knife that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. It was lost centuries ago. The lightning bolt shaped rune is the letter S for Slytherin. It was Goblin made which added to Riddle's downfall." Croaker said.

"Harry's scar?" Remus asked worried about his godson.

"When Riddle killed Lily Potter, her love for her son and the blood ritual sent a large magical backlash at him. When I heard about his wraith form I was curious so I did a little research." Croaker said. "Basically Lily Potter tapped into her magical core and drained Riddle's life force even as she died. The knife in his hand heated up and Riddle in his determination to fight, tried to kill Harry Potter."

"The blood protection, it was what caused the scar?" Remus said as he began to understand.

"Yes, the knife couldn't penetrate her protections on her son. Riddle managed to stab the boy in the head, but before the knife went in too deep, he was vaporized. Why we have to talk about things is this, this knife contains the one sixty-fourth of Riddle's soul, but it also contains a part of Lily Potter's."

There was again silence as they looked at the knife.

Shacklebolt who hadn't known the Potters asked "Does that mean she can be revived?"

"No, because Lily Potter didn't attempt to create the horcrux, but what we can do is find out if there is a portrait of Lily Potter and return the memories in it to a portrait for her son." Croaker said.

"They had them made but in spite of looking at the inventories for all of the Potter estates and their vaults, we can't find them. The magical inventory shows them having been removed by Albus Dumbledore from the family keep immediately after James and Lily died." Sirius said.

Snape was seated next to Remus and the werewolf saw the tight grip the man had on his chair and looking over asked "What is it?"

"Petunia Dursley destroyed them. I saw it in her memories. I don't know if they were the same ones but I saw that bastard of a husband of hers burning them." Snape said sounding like he was in pain.

"They still exist, Severus." Lucius replied. Seeing the trio looking at him, he pointed out. "If they are on the inventory as existing they must be someplace. If they were destroyed..."

"It wouldn't list them." The goblin announced in his harsh tone. "As the keepers of the Potter estate, young Potter's guardian's may call for anything that has been removed from the estate without permission. You must fill out the appropriate form in triplicate and we will retrieve the Potter heir's property."

"We will." Remus replied and then looking at Croaker said "You didn't bring us here simply to tell us about the horcrux. If this had just been about them, you would have kept it a secret."

"It's not. We have been watching and believe from the questioning he has been doing, Albus Dumbledore has known about the possibility of the existence of the horcrux and that he believes Harry to be one." Croaker announced.

There were denials at first then Snape turned to Lucius and said "When?"

"When did I figure it out?" Lucius rephrased the question. "When I heard about them from the Goblins after Ms. Granger's rather interesting transfiguration of Pettigrew. The Goblins sent me a report of all that was found at the house. Regarding Mr. Potter, I have been curious about the man's obsession with a young teenage boy. At first I believed it might have to do with his sexual preference for powerful wizards, after all even as a child the boy was a strong wizard."

"However, once I read Potter's medical history and how long Dumbledore has been interfering in his life as well as learning there was a prophecy, it wasn't hard to figure out that something was off." Lucius said. "Now that we know what it is, we need to deal with the man."

VESTA

Harry was returning to Malfoy manor at the end of the day spent at the park with Hermione then dinner and a game of mini golf with her parents. As he walked down the hallway towards his room, he saw a strange sight. Draco sitting on the bottom of the stairs, staring off into space with a bottle of fire whiskey in his hands while he kept murmuring something about not being able to see.

"Draco?" He stopped near the blond and called out his name. "What are you doing?"

The blond looked up at Harry and then at the raven haired wizard's watch and said "Where have you been?"

"At the Grangers, your parents and my godfathers knew about it." He replied as he noticed it was only nine thirty and he had promised to be back by ten. "Now answer my question."

"Nightmare." Draco replied shuddering.

"Want to talk?" Harry asked while inwardly reminding himself that it was Draco and why would he care about gave Malfoy nightmares? To his surprise, the blond shuddered again and this time drained the bottle he had in his hands.

"No, never. I never want to talk to anyone, ever again." He replied, his face now so red that Harry was worried he had a fever. "Oh god, please I so don't want to 'talk'."

"Okay." Harry said as he maneuvered around the blond with the intention of going up to bed. His foot was on the second stair when Draco suddenly began laughing hysterically and stood on shaky feet. "Malfoy, are you sure you don't want me to get your parents?"

"NO!" Draco shouted and reached out to prevent Potter from going up the stairs. "Trust me, you don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I am never going to be able to look my mother in the eyes again and it is all HIS FAULT."

Harry looked at Draco whose voice had gone from fairly loud to almost hissing when he said it was someone's fault. Returning to the base step, he said "Draco have you been drinking?"

"Duh!" The blond snapped as he held up the almost empty bottle. "Though it was only halfway full to begin with."

"Why?" He asked confused. When he had left the manor that day, Draco had been planning on flying on the pitch and then asking his godfather about help with his transfiguration assignment.

The blond began laughing and said "The TALK."

"The talk?" Harry repeated. "What talk?"

"You know, the talk." Draco said with a shuddering. "I was having such a good day. I had a great breakfast, it was a perfect day for flying, mother and I had lunch on the terrace while father was at some meeting and then it all went to hell. This time it wasn't even your fault."

"That's good to know." Harry said as he began to wonder just how drunk Draco was.

"No, it's his fault." Draco hissed. "He came home and he said we had to talk. My mother just left me with him and then my father insisted on going to the library. I should have known when we didn't go to the study, but no, not the study, it had to be the library. That is where it happened."

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"The talk, though first he made me read this book which was horrifying enough to do with my father sitting there watching me, then we had to talk about it. He insisted on going into detail and showing me instructional pictures." Draco said his eyes staring off into space again. When he tried to take a drink and found the bottle empty, he placed it on the step and pulled Harry with him into the parlor where he poured Harry a glass and then drank straight from the bottle.

"Of what?" Harry asked.

"The talk." Draco replied as if that should be explanation enough. "He said that I was now fourteen and that it was time we had the talk."

"So whatever this talk was about, drove you to drinking?" Harry asked confused.

Draco drank some more and then said "No, I was embarrassed and wanted to avoid my father the rest of the day, but it didn't drive me to drinking. It was what happened later that did that."

"What happened later." Harry asked as he sat across from Draco in the rather ornate parlor and stared at the other boy.

"None of your business." Draco harshly snapped. When Harry went to stand as if to leave, Draco threw the bottle of fire whiskey at the fireplace and then began stuttering. "It was bad enough that my father knew that stuff, it was worse when I realized that if he knew about it, he had to have done it, but then, then to..."

Draco gagged and Harry looked around for a container in case he threw up. Locating a brass bowl with nothing in it, he handed it to the blond who hugged it tightly to his chest and leaned forward as he said "What is worse is knowing that he did this with my mother. I saw them, I saw them and now I am never going to be able to look my mother in the face again."

"Saw them doing what, Draco?" Harry asked rather sure he didn't want the answer as his rather active imagination had the elder Malfoy's torturing house elves, muggles, murdering innocents. When Draco muttered a reply, Harry thought he had heard him wrong so he asked "Draco, what did you say?"

"M-my parent, they were...t-they were doing it." Draco said.

"What is it?" Harry asked totally confused by now.

"They were naked and father was..." At that point, Draco passed out and Harry was now officially worried. Heading towards the upper floor, trying to recall which bedroom he was looking for, he heard strange sounds and the slightly open door.

When he heard Lucius moaning, Harry stopped dead in his tracks as Draco's words came back to him. Now hearing Narcissa Malfoy joining her husband in the moaning, he backed away and returned as quietly as possible back down the stairs and detoured to the library.

Sure enough, sitting on the coffee table, he saw the same back that Oliver Wood had forced him to read that year after a fifth year Ravenclaw had tried to sneak into the Gryffindor locker room after a match, Harry began to put the picture together.

Returning to where Draco was regaining consciousness, Harry offered him his full shot glass which Draco finished off. The two wizards sat there, staring at the book Harry had brought into the room with him and placed on the sofa next to them.

Not a word was said as they opened another bottle of fire whiskey and this time using glasses actually drank the bottle, both now trying to forget what they had heard and seen.

Up Next:

Hangover city, population 2

Harry FINALLY teaches cooking lessons.

Molly, Mrs. Granger and Neville plan birthday parties

Dursleys get what is coming to them.