Number Two

Harry stood next to a pit that was at least twenty foot deep and ten foot across. It was currently housing one of Voldemort's Horcrux. The night was bright at Hogwarts. The moon was out and the stars shone and the grounds were lit up with a colourless light. Harry did not know what to do with the bronze statue now that he had it, or what to do with the sword that was stuck point first into the ground not far away. He needed to destroy it, but just how he was supposed to do that, he did not know. It was pacing in circles scowling upwards for a way out; Harry leant over the edge and shot ropes down to bind the monster. Without the sword, which was stuck in the ground behind Harry at the moment, it was stuck; it could not break the ropes. Well that was a start at least. He was going to have to move it before the attack came, but he did not know where, or how.

"Wha' is it Harry?" Asked Hagrid, stepping up beside him.

Harry knew that he would be asked this repeatedly, and that he would be quizzed on what he had been doing there. But so far the best excuse that he had come up with was that this was something that Voldemort needed for a spell and that he, Ron and Hermione had been there to thwart him, but this excuse would mean more questions. 'How did you know?' 'What spell?' 'Why does You Know Who need the spell?' Having nothing better Harry simply said, "I'm sorry Hagrid but I can't tell you."

"Ah." He said. "Ah, that's alrigh' Harry."

"Thank you Hagrid," said Harry looking up at him. "For coming when you did. I don't know what we would have done without you."

Hagrid shrugged but looked incredibly proud. "Bah. It were nothin' Harry. Me and Grawpy were just 'ere at the righ' time."

Harry looked around but could not see Grawp, Hagrid's little brother. "Can you thank him for me too please? I think I'd better find Ron. You might want to come too. We'll need to find McGonagall. There's going to be an attack on Hogwarts."

Hagrid's mouth fell open. "Nah. Hogwart's? Attacked? Nah, by who?"

Harry started walking up to the castle. "Death Eaters." He said. "And Dementors."

"Blimey." Said Hagrid as they walked. "Hold up a sec." He said and ran back to his hut as quick as he could. He emerged a couple of seconds later with a pink umbrella under his arm. "Betta be ready I reckon." He said when he caught back up.

"The attack's not going to happen until Monday at sunset, but you're right, we need to be ready."

They reached the hospital wing and walked in to find Ron sitting next to Hermione's bed with his head lolled to the side and his mouth hanging open like a fish. Harry shook him awake. Ron shook his head to clear it and looked grumpy at having been woken up.

"How is she?" Whispered Harry.

"She's fine. She's just sleeping now; Madam Pomfrey said that she'll be able to go by the morning. Hello Hagrid."

"'Ello Ron."

"That's good to hear. I think we should go and find McGonagall and tell her what's going on." Said Harry.

"Well… maybe." Ron looked towards Hermione.

"Come on she'll be fine, you said so yourself." Harry grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him up. He reluctantly complied.

They found McGonagall in her office with Mad-Eye Moody and the tied up Rookwood. They stopped their conversation when the three of them knocked on the door. Harry heard it unlatch and swing open on its own.

"Minerva tells me that you lot caught him." Moody cut across the introductions. They were both sat in the office in dressing gowns with steaming cups of tea in front of them.

"Yeah we did." Said Ron proudly. Dumbledore's portrait on the wall beamed.

"I'm impressed, he's a bad one. The ministry'll be very happy to have him back."

"To tell you the truth he wasn't really that hard to get. There were three of us and only one of him." Said Harry.

"Still, well done." Said Moody, his magical eye, locked onto the captured Death Eater.

"What brings you to my office Mr Potter?" Asked Professor McGonagall.

"We over heard something that Rookwood said before we captured him, we think that there is going to be an attack on Hogwarts this Monday, at sunset."

McGonagall's eyes became wide and fearful. "Dear Merlin." She sat back heavily in her high backed chair.

"I was actually wondering if you still had Dumbledore's Pensieve lying around. I could put my memory into it and we might be able to listen to the whole conversation rather than just the snippets that I heard."

"It is still in the cabinet that I used to keep it in Harry." Answered the portrait for McGonagall.

"Thank you." Said Harry, walking over to the cabinet and removing Dumbledore's stone basin. He placed in on the office desk and drew his wand. He drew away a long strand of memory from his temple and placed in firmly into the basin. He turned to look at McGonagall. "After you."

She glanced at him with her customary frown, showing that she really was not looking forward to this. Harry waited until everyone had plummeted headfirst into his memory before he too plunged his head into the silvery substance.

They stood at the front of one of the stands where Harry had been leaning just a few hours ago. They noticed Harry flick his head sideways as though he had just heard something.

"Come on," Said the real Harry, and lead them straight through his memory, between the stalls and out behind them where the two Death Eaters were. If this many people had actually tried to fit in this space it would have been cramped indeed.

"They have put a hat on it." Said the other Death Eater, to Rookwood, flicking his hand in the direction of the bronze Gryffindor, which was still standing in the middle of the high street with tinsel hair and a witch's hat on its head. "What do you think the Dark Lord would think of that ey?"

"I think you forget who you are speaking to." He rasped back with contempt. "There is nothing wrong; they're muggles, what am I supposed to do? Take it off? Tell them all they can't dress it up? Don't be stupid."

"Fine, this is your station, and it's your head, but I've not come about that. I've come to tell you that you will only be here for a couple more days."

"And why is that?"

"Because we are attacking Hogwarts." The other man, who Harry did not recognise was getting excited. "The dementors will move in as the sun sets on Monday, we wait for five minutes to let them weaken everybody, and then we attack, we will have one of two missions; there is a girl, a red head, in Gryffindor, a Weasley, we have to capture her alive, and then, once we have her, the dementors will be allowed to feast to their fill."

"And what is the second mission?" Asked Rookwood, seemingly unimpressed by the new task he had been set. "How many other Death Eaters will be there?"

"You do not need to know that. Just be by the side of the Gates to Hogwarts at sunset. With Dumbledore gone this should be a walk over."

"Don't you tell me what I do and do not need to know!" Said Rookwood menacingly, with a slightly mad look in his eyes. He paused for a second. "This is about Potter isn't it?"

"Yes."

That seemed to make up Rookwood's mind for him. "I'll be there." He said with an evil grin. "Did the Dark Lord say in what condition the Weasley girl had to be in?"

"Only alive."

Rookwood's eyes lit up, "Good."

Harry felt him self spinning backwards as the memory faded and landed with a thump on the floor in the Head office. His eyes were wide in fear. He had tried, wanted more than anything, to make Ginny safe, and he had failed. He did not know how long he stood there staring at nothing before McGonagall spoke.

"Hagrid?" She said. "I would like you to go and rouse the teachers and bring them all here."

"Of course Professor." He said, and hurried out.

"We have to evacuate the school." Said McGonagall to no body in particular.

"What?" Growled Moody. "If we evacuate now you can sure as hell bet that You-Know-Who will know about it before tomorrow's out. If he finds out we know, he'll call off the attack before you can say Death Eater and it's all over. We could be passing up one of the best opportunities we've ever had to capture his Death Eaters. And if a man as close to You-Know-Who as Rookwood is rumoured to be, was sent to do this, then other high up Death Eater's will be here too. We can't evacuate yet."

"Moody. The safety of my students is paramount. I will not allow them to be used as bait."

"They'll be perfectly safe." Said Moody standing up. "They can get out Monday afternoon before the attack through secret passages and then portkey to a safe zone. We can have the Order of the Phoenix left right and centre and Auror divisions at the ready to send them to Azkaban. No lick of danger will ever brush their cheeks."

"We can have as many Aurors as you like, every member of the Order of the Phoenix and the entire Magical Law Enforcement department here for all I care, as long as my students are not-" McGonagall broke off because at that moment the other Professors began to file in. "Moody. I don't want to have to explain this twice. Would you be so kind as to summon the Order?" Moody nodded and left through the fire place. Soon chairs had been summoned up and the teachers were all seated comfortably in their night clothes, robes and slippers. They all gave a curious glance in Harry's direction except for Slughorn, who came up and welcomed him back thoroughly, and the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. A man Harry knew from a long time ago.

"Hello Harry." Said Victor Krum stepping up, still a little duck footed, and shaking his hand. "It has been a long time has it not."

"Yes." Said Harry, a little shocked. "Yes it has."

Krum smiled and took a chair himself.

Harry suddenly remembered something that he had to do. The tingling that he had felt when near to Voldemort's Horcrux had been felt before. In the hall way of Grimmauld Place. "Professor," he said turning to McGonagall.

"Yes Harry."

"Can I use your fire place quickly? I need to get something."

McGonagall frowned but agreed. "Come on Ron." They took some floo powder an arrived in Grimmauld place in a very short amount of time. The kitchen was busy. People, looking as though they had just been woken, which they had, were grumbling and rubbing their eyes.

"Harry, Ron." Called out Bill Weasley. "What are you doing here?"

Ron shrugged, not truly knowing himself. "We need to collect something," said Harry, not stopping. They left the kitchen and walked into the hall where more people were gathered. Harry felt nothing, no tingling, no prickling up his back, no hairs on his neck standing on end. He felt his stomach plummet. He knew now that he had been mere feet away from a Horcrux, or at least something of Voldemorts, months ago, and had missed it. He racked his brains trying for the very life of him to remember what had been in that room that day. There had been the horrible coat stand, Dedalus Diggle, the portrait of Sirius' mother, and… and a bag full of stuff that Mundungus had stolen. Where had the bag gone? "Where's Moody?" Harry asked the closest person to him, a man he did not recognise. "Err." Was all he got out before Harry realised that he did not know and he sped off to find someone else. Tonks was only a few feet away and he asked her next. No luck. He dodged back into the kitchen, followed by Ron who looked incredibly confused. The room was full of people milling around, Harry spotted Mrs Weasley not far away and rushed to her, she did not know where Moody was either. But some people had seen that he was looking for Moody and were asking others who in turn asked others until, "HARRY! OVER HEAR." The Weasley twins were stood on the table by the fire waving their arms. Harry rushed over to find Moody leaning on his staff looking worried.

"What is it? Has something happened at Hogwarts?" He asked harshly. Harry was so caught up in trying to find the bag of stolen items that it took him a second to figure out what Moody was on about. "Wha- No, no Hogwarts is fine. No listen, Moody, when I came here a couple of months ago there was a bag of stuff that you'd got off of Mundungus and wanted me to do something with it. Where's the bag gone?"

Moody looked relieved and then confused and then angry. "Potter I don't know what you're doing but I don't have time for this." He went to stomp away but Harry caught his arm, realising as he did so that most of the people in the room were watching him.

"Moody, please I need that bag." He said stressing each syllable.

"I put it in your room. Now get off me." He growled threateningly. But Harry barely heard, he was off, running through the house and weaving between Order members followed closely by Ron. Harry reached his room and threw open then door. "Harry," said Ron coming through the door behind him. "What's going on?"

"You know I said I felt a tingling every time I was walked past the statue tonight?" Asked Harry while he found the bag.

"Err. Not really, a lot was going on, but I'll take your word for it."

"That wasn't the first time I'd felt it. I'd felt it when we were here, ages ago, and I can feel it now, right now." He stopped rummaging and tipped the bag upside down scattering the contents on the ground. He glanced around searching, scouring the contents for a cup or a locket, and there it was. He froze as he saw it, he reached down slowly and lifted Slytherins locket and held it up for Ron to see. He took out the fake, the one that he had carried around with him since Dumbledore's death. This was it; this was what Dumbledore had sacrificed his life for. He dropped the fake and thrust the real Horcrux into the air. "YES." He cried. He felt relief, excitement, and satisfaction. He had found it.

A/N: I was planning on having the battle take place in this chapter but I think it will have to wait until next time. Thank you for your reviews. Keep them coming. Any criticism is welcome, but it's always nice to get good stuff too. Thanks.