Horcruxes
Dumbledore didn't know what to do.
He'd been so sure he could find the Ring there, and... nothing! It had already been gone when he came.
And Harry... Harry had switched sides. Maybe, this war was truly over.
Harry smiled. He'd gotten the ring right before the old coot could. The more time he spent with Tom, the more he learnt about him, the more he understood that Dumbledore's attitude towards him had helped shape him into Lord Voldemort more than either of them would ever admit.
Two horcruxes down, another four to go. Diary, check, Ring, check.
Cup, Locket, Diadem, Snake missing.
He went home.
Morge was on the sofa, cuddling with Nagini, both of them hissing back and forth, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
And for Morgan, he thought, it just might be.
Breaking into Grimmauld Place and stealing the locket hadn't been difficult, in comparison to the wrong track with the cave. Tom still didn't know that.
Harry owned the place, and he didn't have any intention of helping him find it, so that was alright with Harry. He might have been a traitor, but not that much of one.
He would make sure Morgan could grow up happy and safe. And if he'd have to sabotage and kill her beloved grandfather for that, then, good riddance.
He slowly crept to the kitchens, where Kreacher kept his things.
The locket was in his sleeping place.
Bingo.
Basilisk fangs had been easy to get.
Bye-bye, locket.
Creeping out of Grimmauld place, he saw Remus and Tonks, side by side, arm in arm.
He felt a pang. Tonks was pregnant. For a fleeting second, he thought of those he had left behind, Ron and Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny...
Morgan.
He did all of this for Morgan.
Diary, check, Ring, check, Locket, check.
He took the Locket with him. It would be a nice spoil for Morge, should they ever escape. After all, the blood of Salazar Slytherin did flow in her veins.
When he came home, Tom had been roped into another one of Morgan's games. He already knew how it would end, it always ended the same way:
The dragon ate the grandmother, roasted the knight, and flew off with the priness in his claws. In Morgan's terms, that was the happiest ending possible. She liked dragons.
Which was why she made sure he played him all the time. Though flying off with Lucy in his claws had some rather disturbing implications.
Morgan was sitting on Nagini, who didn't dare move out of fear of being squeezed. It was a familiar scene: Dark Lord, giant snake and little girl, all happily playing together. Well, the little girl was happy, the Dark Lord was annoyed, and the giant snake was fearing for its life, but those were just some unimportant details.
Draco was close to going insane. At the moment, he was mainly held up by Snape.
Weasley and Granger were so ANNOYING!
Neville was fine, though, something that had surprised Draco.
He hadn't told them why he'd really come, who had set him on this path.
Po-, no, Harry had helped him. And he felt free now, better than he ever did as a Death Eater.
And some facts didn't add up. True, the other boy tortured, but always beside the Dark Lord, as if he was as much a prisoner as an ally. He hadn't killed anyone he knew of, and sometimes seemed to hinder his own forces as much as he helped them. And he hadn't betrayed any secrets that could change the war effort.
There was some other story there, Draco knew. But he didn't tell them. He could blow Potter's cover, ruin him, if he did so without having even an inkling what this was about.
Ginny was in her seventh year now. It was odd, being so close to finishing school. It was even odder going there without Hermione, Ron or Harry. She wondered what had happened to Harry, sometimes. He had to have a reason. He simply had to. After all, it wasn't like Harry to betray his friends.
Still, it wasn't like she didn't have anything else to worry about.
For instance, NEWTs.
She wished Hermione would be here, to nag about her studies so she'd actually not put them off all the time. She'd never imagined how much she could miss nagging. Of course, Hermione was much more occupied with snogging her brother in their last year at Hogwarts and didn't nag as much asin the past, but still.
Of course, she also didn't like feeling left out. Everyone but her and Luna was grown-up now, off to see the world.
She wasn't.
She was still stuck here, in a place where most of her friends had left, where there were so many memories, good and bad... without anyone she could discuss them with.
Just Luna for company was a bit lonely. Her room-mates didn't count. Giggling idiots.
Ginny wandered around, neither knowing or caring where her feet carried her to.
She was standing in front of the Room of Requirement now.
Someone was in there. She didn't know who. Luna maybe?
She opened the door, and went in.
There was a giant room full of... stuff. Garbage and diamonds lay beside each other, everything forgotten to the world, as it seems.
She heard an ear-piecing scream, and before she knew what she was doing, she ran to its source.
There... was Harry. With a basilisk fang in his hand, standing over a diadem that seemed to be bleeding black.
He hadn't noticed her. Not yet, anyway. She thought.
He looked up, straight into her eyes. Emerald green.
She swallowed.
"Ginny." His voice was cool, detached.
"H-harry." Hers wasn't, but she sure wished for it.
He tossed her the diadem.
"Give this to Professor Dumbledore. Say you found it, and that the person who destroyed it knew what it was. Don't mention me, whatever you do,don't mention you met me. Don't give the tiniest indication to anyone you met me. Okay?"
She didn't quite trust her voice. The last time she'd seen him, he'd cast the Cruciatus at her.
"Okay", she finally managed.
He turned to go.
"Harry? I... I have a question."
"What is it?" He turned around again.
"Why?" She didn't have to formulate it. She could see that he understood.
"Morgan."
Then, he took off.
Morgan? Who the hell was Morgan? It was a female name. Blackmail was the most likely scenario. A girl he was in love with?
She felt jealousy rising, and squashed it mercilessly. Harry deserved someone good for him, and she didn't even know the full story. She had no idea who this Morgan was, or even whether it was blackmail.
The only problem was that her curiousity had been piqued.
Legilimency wouldn't be one, luckily for her. First year had been good for something after all.
She wanted to know what was going on, and it grilled her to have no way to get more information.
Harry went through his list again.
Diary, check. Ring, check. Locket, check. Diadem, check.
Missing: Cup and Snake.
He'd destroy the snake last. Morgan liked her, although the feeling wasn't quite reciprocated. Nagini's most common line in Morgan's presence was
"Rescue me! Please! Help! Anybody! Stop squeezing so hard!"
Naturally, Morgan ignored it, opting instead for a parselmouth monologue of "Cute little snakey-snakey! Cute little snakey-snakey snake! My little snakey! Whoopee!"
Whenever Tom decided to do something, one pout of Morgan held him back. It was strange. Really, really strange.
Sometimes it felt almost as if... as if Morgan actually wanted to throttle Nagini.
He went through the door behind the Throne Room to his and Morgan's rooms.
"Morge! I'm home!"
She didn't answer.
Harry started to worry. What if someone had found Morgan? Most Death Eaters didn't know about her, and they weren't above hurting her...
He stormed into the bedroom.
Morgan was sitting there, alone, sobbing quietly. Immediately, part of his worry was replaced with concern.
"Morge?"
She didn't react.
Harry came closer, put his arms around her. She turned to him.
"Morgan Elisabeth", he said softly, "what is it?"
She put his arms around him, still crying. His shirt was starting to get soaked.
"I-", she started.
"I saw into Gra-ampas memories..."
That wasn't good, Harry knew. Anything in there could have set Morgan off. Anything.
She didn't stop crying that evening, and Harry resolved to wait until morning to get the whole story out of her.
