AN: So here I am with the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy it and leave a comment. I ended up beasting this one out to distract myself from trying to write an Elder Scrolls/ Percy Jackson story, as seriously I need to focus haha.

Thanks for reading, make sure to leave a review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter etc.

( - )

(Last Time)

Harry didn't reply to that, as he instead concentrated, extending his fingers so the tips were just hovering over the mercury filled channels of the circle. The silvery liquid turning a dark, bloody red colour as Harry began to channel his magic into it, with what looked like red lightning crackling along his fingertips, the glowing red colour spreading across the entirety of the circle within moments, including Harry's body as the daubed runes began to glow as well.

It was as this was happened, that the small piles of magical creature components dotted around the intricately drawn circle, all bursting into fire.

Watching on from the side, Dobby could only look away as he saw the fire turn red before it spread outwards, flowing along the carved channels that made up the circle, and closing in on Harry who was lying in the centre. His Master's body soon disappearing from view as it was consumed by what looked like red fire, a loud screaming sound filling the Chamber of Secrets as it did so.

( - )

Chapter 10

( - )

(In the Chamber of Secrets, a few days later)

Opening his eyes and taking a deep breath, Harry found himself sprawled out on his large, four poster bed, his sweat covered body only loosely covered by his quilt, which made him feel quite cold and uncomfortable actually as the sweat cooled down, making him feel clammy.

Shifting in his bed as he did this, Harry moved his head to the side, looking through the open curtains of his four poster bed and out at his workshop, his bed having recently been set up in the centre of the large, cavernous Chamber of Secrets, a couple of dozen feet from the charred runic circle that he had used only a few days previously.

The reason of course being that he had been pretty much unable to move for the last few days, as his body had been wracked with pain, and his magic had been sluggish and unresponsive. Which considering the nature and complexity of the blood ritual he had just been through, perhaps wasn't all that surprising. In fact it had gotten so bad that the two Dobby's, the older and the younger, had had to take turns, or rather fight over, feeding him as his own limbs had been too shaky and weak to do so.

Suffice to say it was an embarrassing and humiliating positon to be in.

Still it had been all been worth it in the end, after all now, after a few days of recovery, he felt stronger than ever and could feel the potent magic flowing through the highly condensed muscles in his body, flowing through an entire new, artificial circulatory system that had had created for himself, allowing his magic to suffuse his body completely, empowering it far beyond normal.

Pushing himself up, Harry's arms only shook slightly now as he managed to get himself up into a sitting positon. It had been a couple of days now, a couple of day of doing nothing but lying in bed being read to and looked after by one or other of the Dobby's. More than that though it meant he had been absent from school for a number of days too, enough to draw suspicion from those watching, and with the Yule Ball only days away his absence was probably even more noticeable, and would continue to become more and more noticeable the longer he was away.

Which is why he was making a move now, as after a few moments of preparation he pushed himself up, and then shifted his hips so his legs were dangling over the side of the bed, his feet brushing the cold stone floor.

"Dobby." Harry called out his voice slightly hoarse from lack of use as he did so.

"You're up Master Harry." Dobby stated simply moments after he arrived in the chamber with a crack, handing a now familiar red vial over to Harry, one he knew to be a pain relieving potion. A short term solution to his aches and pains, but a welcome one none the less, as long as he didn't overdose himself and become addicted, like a number of other witches and wizards he had known.

"Only just." Harry replied with a grumble, down the vial, before he pushed himself up onto his feet stumbling for a moment as he did, before he caught himself. "I underestimated the backlash of the rituals."

Dobby hummed at that, before nodding, the little creature heading over to a dresser at the side of the room a she did so. After which he then began rootling about, pulling out some clothes. "I've never seen you act like this before, the couple of times you did this ritual before you were in pain, but only for a couple of hours, a day at most."

"Yes, well I suspected it would have been slightly worse this time, what with my current body being younger than the ones I've used before, and not artificial like the last couple. On top of that I'm more compatible with it, meaning that I am not as disassociated from the nervous system and what not whilst I'm using it." Harry replied, raising his arms as he did, even as he allowed Dobby to help him pull on a baggy red T-shirt, a blue long-sleeved jumper, a pair of grey jeans, a pair of brown leather boot, with him then tugging on a black parka coat with a fur lined hood over the top.

"You're just guessing now aren't you?" Dobby shot back at him, his large green eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I prefer to think of them as educated guesses." Harry replied sarcastically before he began to stretch, his back and arms cracking as he did so, even as he felt the strength and power flowing just below his skin, he felt stronger, much more so than he had been, but his limbs were still aching slightly, in spite of the potion. "It makes me wish I had used another Homunculus body."

"But your original one is a lot stronger, and far more compatible. Surely dealing with some aches and pains for a few days is worth that." Dobby said, his tone slightly bored as he heard Harry's whining, more than used to it after all these decades.

Whenever his Master got himself injured, or met with failure in his research, which happened quite regularly, he would mope about for a few days, moaning and complaining, just generally bitching about life. Thankfully though he quickly got over his disappointment or irritation very swiftly, and moved on to the next project. But still it could be annoying, especially when he had to humour his Master.

"I know, I know." Harry returned as he stopped stretching, and instead wandering over to his worktable, ignoring the scorched runic circle that covered the ground, as he instead wandered over to one of his worktables, his eyes flicking to the assortment of knickknacks on it. Including his Holly wand, his Ebony Wand, the Horcrux free Diadem, his Resurrection Stone ring and his other ring, the one forged out of a rare, silvery metal called mithril, with the crest of a golden sun resplendent on it, his Coven Ring.

Rolling his shoulders, Harry quickly grabbed his most precious items, strapping the Elder Wand onto the wand holster on his right forearm, even as he put the Resurrection Stone onto his right ring finger, and the Coven Ring onto the finger next to that one, with him then slipping his Holly wand into a holster on his left forearm, both of them hidden from view by his jumper and coat, but still reachable with just a flick of his wrist.

With that done, Harry then looking down at the ring on his right hand, the Gaunt Family ring, he knew where it was at this time, and more importantly he knew what it was. He would need to get it sooner rather than later, after which he could then burn it in Fiendfyre, destroying the Horcrux and the ancient Peverell artefact, after all the ring was too dangerous for there to be two of them. Plus the last thing he wanted was Dumbledore getting it, and then noticing that there were two of them. That would be distinctly problematic.

Still that was a problem for another time, at present he had more immediate things on his mind. His plots for dealing Voldemort and his minions could wait for a day or two, he still had time, besides they weren't his priority, nor were they the reason he came back to the past. Instead they were just a persistent nuisance he would need to take steps to keep off his back at some point, or at least before they became stronger and more problematic.

With that said Harry turned back to Dobby, rolling his shoulders again as he did so, before he eyed the diminutive elf. "Can you give me a lift up top, I'm pretty hungry?"

Dobby rolled his eyes in response to that, a common action for the elf, before he then walked forward and grabbed Harry's arm, before moments later he disappeared with a crack, taking Harry with him as he slipped through the anti-apparition wards around Hogwart's with ease.

( - )

(In the Great Hall, a few minutes later)

It was a few minutes later that Harry walked stiffly into the great hall, noticing as he did that there were still several dozen students hanging around having a late breakfast, all of them out of uniform and wearing their own clothing, as oppose to school uniform. Which wasn't surprising considering it currently the Christmas holidays, which meant classes were over and they were no longer required to wear their stuffy, and uncomfortable uniforms.

Looking around the room as he entered Harry noted he was getting a few curious looks from some of the students present, but only for a moment before they turned back to what they were doing previously.

Obviously his several day absence had not caused as much of disturbance as he had feared, no doubt that was because it was the holidays and all the other students were more interested in the upcoming Yule Ball than wondering why they hadn't seen Harry in the great hall for a couple of days.

"There you are!" Dean Thomas said loudly as he saw Harry, catching his attention as he looked to the side of the large room and saw that Dean, Seamus, Parvati and Lavender were all hanging about at the Gryffindor House table, all of them in the midst of a leisurely breakfast. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Been busy." Harry replied easily as he rolled his shoulders again before sitting down at the table, shrugging his coat off as he did so before he started dishing out his breakfast, quickly piling up a massive mound of food upon his plate. "Had the Second Task to think about didn't I?"

"Suppose so, so does that mean that you solved the clue in the golden egg, you know all that wailing?" Dean replied with a nonchalant, shrug, eying Harry's mound of food as he did so.

"Yep, wasn't that difficult." Harry nodded as he finished his task and started to eat, pausing as he did so, his eyes flickering around the partially filled great hall before adding on. "I'll tell you about it later on, when there's not so many people around."

"Yeah that's fair, you don't want one of the foreign students to hear and tell their champion." Seamus nodded along sagely even as Harry once again dug into his breakfast.

"I'm sure they wouldn't, not when there are more interesting things going on." Lavender interrupted with a smirk, getting a several bemused looks from Harry, Dean and Seamus as she did so.

"The Yule Ball…" Lavender continued, her tone bordering on patronizing. "It's only like two days away…"

"Oh yeah," Dean nodded. "I almost forgot about that."

"How could you forget about it, it's the most important event of the year?" Lavender asked completely scandalized.

"I like your priorities Lavender." Harry spoke up dryly, before he eyed the grinning Seamus and Dean. "Besides you know as well as I that they both know about it, they're just pretending not to as neither of them have a date."

"Hey I have a date!" Seamus said loudly, before flushing as he saw the others looking at him.

"Really who?" Lavender asked in surprise.

"Sophie Roper…" Seamus replied uncomfortably after a few moments of silence, mentioning one of the other girls in their year in Gryffindor, a pleasant girl but one who faded into the background due to her meek, wallflower like, personality, and commitment to the many clubs and societies she was a member of in the school.

"Really you and Sophie?" Lavender asked a shark like grin on her face.

"Yeah, well Dean's going with that Hufflepuff girl, Lily Moon!" The now red faced Seamus deflected, his gaze flickering over to Dean, who also went a little red in the cheeks at the attention.

"So Dean's dating a Puff." Parvati said gleefully as she looked over at the tall, dark-skinned boy.

"We're not dating," Dean grumbled, before he went even redder. "We're both in the school choir, and well she mentioned nobody had asked her, and so, well, so I kind of did…" He then trailed off lamely.

"Of course you did…" Lavender replied sarcastically, before throwing him an exaggerated wink.

"Wait, you're in the school choir?" Seamus asked Dean, his best mate, incredulously.

"Fuck off, it's actually pretty fun!" Dean replied defensively, before the two of them began to bicker as Seamus tried to mock him and Dean tried to deflect attention away from himself, or defend himself.

Watching all of this Harry could not help but smile, it was all so normal. He had missed out on this friendly bantering the first time around, as he had somewhat isolated himself by only hanging out with Ron and Hermione, never really giving the other students in his year a chance. It was a pity really, as they all had their own quirks and peculiarities, and were all actually pretty easy to get on with if you put in the effort to befriend them.

Plus none of them had betrayed him, like Ron and Hermione, though that might have be because three of them were killed in the lead up to, or during the first battle of Hogwarts, whilst Parvati fled the country before any of the fighting really took place with her family, heading out of Europe entirely, before later settling out there quite happily, or at least that was what he had heard. Still that was in a future that never happened, this time around Harry would put a little effort into making sure they all had happier lives this time around.

"Hey what are you grinning about Potter?" Dean suddenly said, looking over to the Fourth Hogwart's Champion. "You're starting off the dance with the other Champions aren't you? Who are you taking?"

"I bet that's what he's really been doing the last couple of days, working up the balls to ask someone." Seamus added on with a grin.

"Oh please compared to you two he's a catch." Lavender spoke up in Harry's defence, before she flushed as she realised what she had just said.

"So are you going with anyone?" Parvati asked, ignoring Lavender's red face as she instead focused on Harry, trying to tease out some gossip worthy material from him.

Harry paused as he heard that, his gaze flicking around to the others on the table in amusement, before he shrugged. "Yeah, I asked Cho Chang to go with me, and she said yes."

"Cho Chang, nice." Dean nodded sagely, sending Harry a conspiratorial grin as he did so. "She's hot."

Harry rolled his eyes as he heard that, but didn't deny the fact that Cho was in fact very hot. Instead he just looked over to Lavender and Parvati, both of whom were giggling and whispering to each other, no doubt already planning on spreading the gossip. It was all so very high school, but then again they were all teenagers at school, including Harry, at least biologically speaking, if not mentally.

( - )

(About half an hour later)

"But anyway, ladies, gents, I think that's me done for breakfast." Harry said about half an hour later, finishing off his meal and occasionally chipping into the conversation as the group of fourth years continued to chatter amongst each other, whiling away the morning talking about their plans for the week, the upcoming Yule Ball and the future Tasks.

With Harry having decided to make his move when he noticed that Cho had wandered into the great hall now, grabbing a few pieces of food from the table as she did so, before she looked over to the Gryffindor table, catching Harry's eye. Something told Harry that she had been told he was here, and was here probably by one of the Ravenclaws that had left the room after he arrived, and had come down to speak with him.

"See you later Potter!" Seamus nodded at him, before he smirked when he saw Cho waiting by the main doors. "Have a good time, don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"You say that like you've done anything with a girl before." Harry retorted easily, getting a loud "oi!" from Seamus and a snort of laughter from Dean, even as the dark skinned boy began mocking the Irish wizard, seizing the opportunity Harry had given him to get some pay back.

"I'll catch you later." Harry nodded once more, pulling on his coat and ignoring Parvati and Lavender's giggling as he instead headed over to where Cho was standing, his gaze trailing over the rest of the hall as he did so. Noticing as he did that there were nowhere near as many 'Support Cedric Diggory/ Potter stinks' badges as there had been, and that the Hufflepuff table was surprisingly subdued. Though considering that Cedric was still in St Mungo's suffering from horrific burns, courtesy of his dragon, maybe that wasn't surprising.

In fact from what Lavender had mentioned at breakfast he probably wouldn't be making it to the Yule Ball and might not be out until mid-January at the earliest.

Not that Harry gave that much of a damn, he barely knew Cedric, certainly not enough to be agonising over his injuries. Besides he would live, and who knew maybe he would be forced to withdraw from the tournament because of his injuries. That would definitely stop him from being murdered.

Harry paused at that thought, he really should probably start getting about implementing his plan to deal with the situation. After all he might have come back for two specific individuals, but he very much doubted Voldemort would leave him alone.

That being said, he might not know the location of all of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes, the Goblet of Helena Hufflepuff, being the only one he never found, even in the future, but he did have a pretty good plan in mind for dealing with the Dark Lord, one that would hopefully avoid direct confrontation with the older and more powerful wizard.

And yes Harry could admit to himself that Voldemort was more powerful than him magically speaking, and had more experience than him and was also more naturally talent with Dark Magic too. Now Harry was no weakling, not by a long shot, but wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore, they were on a whole other level. They were once in several generation prodigies, and Harry, for all of his ability, was not on the same level. Not all people were born equal after all, not in the sense of magic and talent that is.

Shaking these thoughts off, Harry brushed his concerns away for the moment as he instead approached Cho, a brilliant smile on his face at the familiar sight of the girl.

"Hey you, I've not seen you in a while. I thought you might have done a runner." Cho smiled at him.

"Ha, as if." Harry shook his head, before he chuckled, still walking a little stiffly, but not as much as before as he sidled next to Cho, even as they began to head out of the hall and away from prying eyes of the many nosey students that were still in the hall. "I was just a little busy preparing for the trials ahead."

"You mean the Second Task? Did you work out the clue?" Cho asked brightly, her smile widening as they headed for the classroom they usually used for Harry's tutoring sessions.

"Yeah," Harry replied easily, not lying but not telling the whole truth either. "It's pretty interesting really."

"And?" Cho asked as they headed upstairs, her eyes burning with typical Ravenclaw curiousity. "You're not going to leave me hanging are you?"

"Maybe." Harry laughed, loving the way her face cutely scrunched up, partly in irritation and partly in amusement.

That being said his smile did waver slightly when he saw the familiar figure of Mad-Eye Moody, or rather Barty Crouch Junior stump past him, a glower on his face, even as he sent Harry a suspicious look, his spinning, magical eye once again roving over Harry's body before it came to a rest on his chest.

"That man always gives me the creeps." Cho muttered as the two of them passed by Moody, with her waiting until they were out of hearing range.

"For good reason." Harry muttered, that was another thing he would need to deal with. Though not yet, for his plan to work he needed the imposter Moody to stay where he was for now, and to carry on what he was doing. Though considering how dangerous the man was, Harry was so very tempted just to kill him, especially since he found himself getting more and more uncomfortable around Moody, especially that magical eye of his, the full abilities of which Harry had never fully worked out. After all the divisions between Harry and Dumbledore meant that he never really got to know the man on a personal level, or at all really, save in passing.

"Hmm." Cho hummed, her dark eyes on Harry's face as she noticed the tightening muscles on his face, only for her to smile a few moments later. "But anyway, you were telling me about the next task?"

"You're insatiable, I hope you know that?" Harry laughed, bumping Cho's hip with his own, which made Cho laugh in turn, even as they made it to the familiar classroom and headed inside.

"Well if you think that, then maybe I shouldn't share my breakfast with you." Cho hummed, even as she lay the pilfered food out on one of the scattered tables, the mid-morning sunshine streaming in through the windows, lighting up the room, whilst also giving them a glorious view of the snowy school grounds and frozen lake. "Because I was thinking we could have a picnic, sort of?"

Harry smiled at that, glad that he was still hungry, in spite of the large meal he had just had, something for which he had the ritual to thank for. "Sounds wonderful."

Cho rolled her eyes at that, though she did smile widely, even as she took a seat opposite to the one Harry took. "But first, the Second Task, you were about to tell me about it?"

"Fine." Harry mock sighed, before he began to tell her about the merpeople's song, and how they would take what he 'sorely missed' into the depths and he would have to get it back within an hour. "It's all a ruse of course, basically they are going to put someone in stasis and stick them under the water, I doubt it would be an object or something that arbitrary after all, and then I'll have to find a way down there to free them, and then get back to the surface before the time is up. And if I don't, well then the merpeople will drag them to the surface and I'll get docked points, not that that'll happen of course."

"Sounds intense." Cho muttered thoughtfully, before she looked up at Harry her eyes sparkling. "Have you thought of a way to do it yet? Because off the top of my head I remember that there is a spell called the Bubble Head charm that can allow you to breath under water? Or if you're feeling bold you could do some minor Human Transfiguration to give yourself gills, webbed feet, or webbed toes. There is even a plant we learned about in Herbology this year called Gilly Weed, but it's foreign and not easy to come by."

Harry smiled as he heard this, his green eyes twinkling as he saw the clever Ravenclaw come up with a number of workable solutions within minutes. Then again his future wife was a brilliant witch, and was truly deserving of being in the House of the clever.

"Or maybe some kind of submersible that you enchant to propel you through the water, but that might have an issue with air, unless you use one of your runes to create some controlled wind, and then devise some sort of circulation system…" Cho trailed off, before her cheeks went a little red when she saw Harry smiling at her. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just I forgot how brilliant you can be." Harry replied with a smile, which just made Cho go even more red faced as she looked away.

"S-so, have you got any idea of what you're going to do yet?" Cho said a few moments later, still a little pink, but otherwise quite happy.

"Human Transfiguration, I was going to give myself gills and webbed hands and feet, then propel myself through the water with magic." Harry shrugged easily, having already thought of this and what he would do. It was just a pity his Animagus form wasn't one that thrived in the water, then again he wasn't sure he wanted to go advertising his form around, especially since a person Animagus form reflect the nature of that person's soul and their personality, and suffice to say Harry wasn't proud of his form, or what it represented about him.

"So you're a bold one then." Cho replied with a smile, before her lips curled upwards and her soft smile turned wicked. "And what about this person that you'll sorely miss?"

Harry hummed as he heard that, before he sent her a smile. "I don't know, maybe your friend Mariette isn't it?"

"Harry!" Cho laughed, slapping him on the arm.

Harry laughed again at that, before he looked at her straight in the eye. "Fine, then I suppose it will be you."

Cho stopped laughing as she heard that, though she still smiled. "But we've only known each other properly for just over a month."

"And yet you're still important to me." Harry replied, holding off on saying the most important, as he held her in the same ultimately high regard as he did Daphne, even if his relationship with her was thus far just lukewarm. Not that he was going to give up until it was as red hot as before.

Though, he was still yet to come up with an idea as to how to make his relationship with both girl's work. Not that that was going to stop him from trying, he was a greedy soul after all.

"You're sweet." Cho muttered before she leant forwards, pressing herself to Harry, even as she slowly, nervously brought her lips to his, her hands trailing softly around his shoulders, before moving up into his messy black hair.

With Harry happily reciprocating as he fully stood up, both his arms around her lithe form as he pulled her into him, even as he began to trail them up and down her body, slipping in a little tongue as he deepened their kiss.

( - )

(The Next Day)

"Yep this is it." Harry said cheerfully as he looked around at his surroundings, his emerald green eyes trailing over the unnervingly familiar snow covered graveyard, and the many mismatched tombstones that were dotted around it. The sight painfully familiar to Harry, even after all these years, not that he let this get to him, not when he was here of his own volition. "This is the Little Hangleton graveyard."

"Looks cheery Master." Dobby, the older one, said from beside Harry, his own large eyes inspecting the old, poorly maintained graveyard too, before he looked over to Harry.

"Yes it does." Harry nodded, smiling as he did so, though not at the view, but rather at the ease with which he had gotten away from Hogwarts. Honestly wizards and witches truly underestimated just how useful House Elves were, they were not just as handy as free servants after all, but also incredibly useful modes of transport.

With the House Elves' unique magic, and the general disregard people had for them, meaning that they could slip through wizarding wards undetected. It was how Dobby had originally gotten into Hogwarts in Harry's second year, and how Kreature had gotten to his Master, Regulus's, when he was in trouble. All Harry had needed to do was to use the most basic of Legilimency to convey the area he wanted to go into the willing elf's mind and then ask Dobby to teleport him there. It was literally that simple.

"Now come on." Harry said with a nod to Dobby as he began scanning the graveyards. "Let's get to it, I don't want to be here any longer than I have too. So give me a hand and see whether you can find the tombstone of Tom Riddle Senior."

Dobby nodded at that, before a few moments later the both of them began to search the snow covered graveyard.

"Found it." Dobby called out a few moments later, attracting Harry's attention as he headed in his direction.

"Good." Harry muttered as he came to a stop in front of Tom Riddle Senior's simple tombstone, his gaze trailing over the frozen, snow covered ground, looking for any signs of disturbance. When he didn't find any though, he then pulled out his wand, before with a flick he cast a powerful summoning charm.

In response to which the frozen ground below him seemed to quiver and then bulge, before moments later a whole host of yellowish bones erupted from the ground, forming into a skeletal ball in front of Harry as he eyed it with distaste, before with another flick of his wand and a slight bit of exertion he summoned a gout of Fiendfyre, enough to incinerate the bones, but not enough that it would require his full concentration to control.

"Ah, there's nothing like despoiling a grave in the morning." Harry sighed a few moments later as he supressed the Fiendfyre, before with another flick of his wrist he transfigured the earth below him, reverting it back to how it was before he messed with it, with him adding an extra layer of snow to make sure. "Now a missing key ingredient for his ritual should slow old snake face down."

Dobby hummed as he heard that, before he looked up at Harry. "It would Master, but I thought you had plans for how you were going to deal with the Voldemort issue."

"I do," Harry replied nonchalantly as he turned around and began to head off, his true appearance currently covered by a strong glamour charm he had put over himself before he left Hogwarts, a charm which had turned his black hair blonde, his green eyes blue and changed the shape of his face, making it almost 'Durlseyish' in appearance. "But I like to think of this as a contingency. I might not have come back to deal with Riddle, but I'm not going to let him fuck up my future."

Dobby nodded as he heard that, even as he followed Harry, the two of them quickly leaving the graveyard before they then began to head up a nearby track, travelling in the opposite direction of Little Hangleton.

"What is the plan if you don't mind me asking Master?" Dobby queried as the two of them continued on up the hill, Harry keeping an eye out as he looked through the trees on the side of the road, clearly searching for something as he did so.

"It's pretty simplistic." Harry replied a few moments later, after casting a silencing charm around the two. "I am going to let things happen how they did in the past, only I am going to be prepared for it. I'm going to turn the trap back on itself, and then kill Riddle's wraith, after which I'll use a bit of magic, parseltongue and Wormtail's Dark Mark to draw the rest of the freed Death Eaters to me, after which I will kill them all too. Simple, brutal and efficient."

"What of the Dark Lord's other Horcuxes and the imprisoned Death Eaters?" Dobby asked a few moments later, the two of them still travelling down the track.

"I'll destroy the ones I know of, and leave the Death Eaters to rot." Harry shrugged easily, not too perturbed about it. "That or I'll interrogate the imprisoned Death Eaters and try and find the missing Horcrux. It really depends on whether I can be bothered with the hassle."

"Better safe than sorry." Dobby prompted, used to Harry's laziness and eccentricities by this point in their friendship.

"That's fair." Harry nodded in reply, before he suddenly came to a stop, his gaze on a rickety looking shack set some fifty metres off of the track and hidden behind a host of trees, all of which had shed their leaves for the winter, leaving the shack quite visible.

"The Gaunt Shack?" Dobby asked as the two of them headed for the dilapidated shack.

"Yup." Harry responded as he slowly began to approach the shack, his wand in hand as he trailed it through the air, checking for enchantments and wards. Most of which he found were aimed at keeping away muggles, and were inherent in all wizarding constructs, tied to the structures and imbued into the land.

"Hmm, now let's see." Harry muttered to himself as he made it to the door, still not detecting any nasty spells. "Can you sense anything Dobby?"

"No Master, but House Elf magic is very different to wizarding magic." Dobby replied as he stayed close to Harry.

Harry nodded at that, but didn't reply as he pushed the door open and walked into the musty smelling building, one that hadn't been lived in since Morphin Gaunt had been carted off to Azkaban some fifty odd years ago, framed for the murder of Tom Riddle Senior and his family by his own nephew, Tom Riddle.

"Seems clean." Harry whispered into the silence, only to notice the incredulous look Dobby was sending him. "Magic wise that is."

Smiling as he saw Dobby's resolute nod, Harry rolled his eyes before he continued to scan the building, flicking his wand as he did so and forcing the floor tiles to disintegrate around him, which in turn revealed a small rune engraved box tucked away in one corner of the room.

"There it is." Harry muttered as he carefully made his way over to it. "You stay at the door Dobby, from what I remember Dumbledore saying this thing had a powerful compulsion charm on it which tried to get you to wear it, and a particularly nasty withering curse on the ring for anyone stupid enough to wear it."

"By which you mean the Headmaster." Dobby said in amusement.

Harry didn't reply to that, instead he inspected the rune inscribed box, analysing the runes on it as he did so, before he pushed magic into his wand and then began to unlock the box, a not too difficult thing to do for a talented person. Then again considering the curse on the ring, maybe the simple wooden lockbox wasn't the real defence.

Ignoring that though Harry succeeded in open the box, revealing the simple golden ring within, upon which was set perhaps the most powerful and deadly of the three Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone.

"Well there it is." Harry muttered as he used his Occlumency shields, and the fact that he already possessed an identical ring, to resist the sudden compulsion he felt to try the ring on. "Such a beautiful little thing."

"Master?" Dobby asked cautiously from where he was still standing in the door way.

"Hmm?" Harry hummed as he looked back at the elf, before nodding after which he pointed his wand at the ring and cast another controlled Fiendfyre spell, incinerating the ring and the soul fragment within, the fragment shrieking as it was enveloped and destroyed by the golden coloured, cursed fire.

"Were you not tempted to just expel the soul and keep it?" Dobby asked into the slight silence that followed.

"No," Harry replied easily as he looked down at the identical ring on his own hand. "There can be only one. I wouldn't want to risk there being two of them out there."

Dobby nodded at that.

"Right." Harry said standing up again. "Jobs done, let's get out of here and back to the castle. I have the Yule Ball to prepare for after all!"

"At least you've got your priorities right." Dobby grumbled as he approached Harry, grabbing the wizards arm as he did, before moments later he teleported them both away and back to the Chamber of Secrets.

( - )

AN: So that's it, what did you all think? I hope you enjoyed it and leave a review!?

Also sorry about the wait, I was pretty busy recently with my other stories, and also had to sort out the plot for this story, editing bits of it and strengthening other parts. Trust me the HP verse is actually pretty hard to write for, especially when you consider the number of plot holes in it. Seriously it is very complicated, especially when you really get into depth and bring about your own changes.

Still I persevered and got this chapter out, even if I was demotivated recently by some truly terrible Harry Potter stories I read, all of which were really cringey as they fell back on old clichés like lordship, sealed memories and magic, and just bizarre characterisations.

But yeah, this was the chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it, and if you have time, please do try and read some of my other stories, I have a lot of them, probably too many actually.

Thanks a lot for reading, and I'll catch you all later.

Greed720.