A/N: I usually hate recaps but it will help my mind think a little better and you won't have to flip back to see how the last chapter ended if you're picking this up with this being newly posted. I would love to see some more reviews with your thoughts on the story even if you aren't signed in, I would love feedback. There are 80 some odd people following the story so I'm guessing you enjoy it, but it would be nice to hear. ;) Posting this early than expected because I just realized this has almost as many views as a story that is two or three times longer than this story. I thought it was funny.
Story time!
Harry steeled himself and gathered up his courage, "Listen Kelsi, there was a reason I picked that second song tonight, and I was wondering if—"
A soft pop interrupted him as a small voice called out, "Great Mr. Harry Potter sirs! Dobby has found something you must see!" A small voice squeaked as Kelsi mimicked the noise before fainting dead away after seeing Dobby appear. Harry was able to catch her before she dropped to the ground and laid her gently on the ground while Harry muttered to himself. 'Great, I was kind of hoping to put this conversation off for a while longer… What the heck am I going to do now?" The feeling of dark magic close by was mostly ignored as Harry tried to figure out how he was going to explain he was a wizard.
Figuring it would be easiest if Dobby wasn't seen shortly after Kelsi woke up, Harry told Dobby to come back later that evening, but explained that he and any other house elves that may come needed to be sure he was alone before appearing out of nowhere. Thanking his accelerated lessons from Flitwick and McGonagall since he was catching on to the spells so easily, Harry decided to make the best of the situation and charge forward with the explanation. He cast an enervate charm on Kelsi and brought her back around while cradling her head softly, stroking her cheek lightly.
"H-Harry? What happened, how did I wind up on the floor?" She asked softly. While Harry hated doing it, he lightly skimmed her mind with legilimency to see what she remembered while asking her what she remembered. A few images flashed through her mind as she answered, "We were talking and you were about to ask me something, but I don't remember anything after that." Harry could see it was the truth, and while he had been ready to explain everything right then and there if needed, he wanted to wait a little longer before he brought it up. Because of this he quickly covered and gave a plausible answer.
"I think you were really tired, the adrenaline and excitement taking a lot out of you and you just now had time to really crash from it." He lifted her up gently and let her put a decent amount of her weight on him as he maneuvered her towards where their entourage was still waiting for them. "Let's get you home and I will talk with you tomorrow. Alright? I promise I won't forget the question between now and then." Harry stated and Kelsi nodded, now half asleep, 'Maybe what I said was more true than I thought, she seems dead on her feet.' Harry mused to himself.
It reached the point that Harry opted to pick up Kelsi and carry her back to where the group of family and friends were standing. Upon seeing their daughter wrapped up in Harry's arms, Terrence and Kathy rushed over to where Harry was standing. Harry smiled reassuringly at them, "Don't worry, she just got tired all of the sudden as we were getting our things packed up, I'll get her to your car if someone wouldn't mind grabbing my guitar case. It's harder than I thought it would be to carry her and the case." Harry said laughing softly. "I know I speak for the both of us when I say thank you for coming to support us. It means a lot to us both and we hope you enjoyed your time here tonight. I have to admit though that I'm am about as tired as Kelsi looks so how about we all get together in a few days and hang out again. I had fun tonight."
Most of those standing around them agreed to find a time to get together again, namely the Evans and Nielsen family along with Harry's friends from London while the rest (friends from school) politely declined. Harry had mostly just wanted his family and close friends to come talk anyways as the added six or so people would have increased their group size quite a bit more, making it hard to talk with everybody.
Harry carried Kelsi out to her parents' car while Ron had picked up his guitar case and carried it to the Evans' vehicle. Harry settled Kelsi into the car and gave her a light kiss on the forehead as he buckled her seatbelt. He shook Terrence's hand and gave Kathy, Kevin and Macy a hug before walking in the direction of the Evans' car, waving to Hermione, Ron, Ginny and the Grangers. "Give me a call tomorrow guys, I need to talk to you about something." Harry said, and Hermione seemed to catch onto the slight amount of tension in his voice as she nodded seriously before climbing into the car with her family and Ron and Ginny as they made their way back to their hotel room.
The ride back to the Evans' home was filled with conversation about everything from the fashion of people who resented that evening, the different favorite pieces and then a few minutes of praising Harry and Kelsi's songs together. Even Ryan and Sharpay gave high praise to the songs and Harry's heart was warmed. Once more, the two of them knew music, when Harry thought about the two of them and him in relation to music; it was like they were Dumbledore and he was first year with magic. They just knew more and so their opinion and praise was greatly regarded and coveted by Harry.
Harry's mind drifted back to the conversation he was trying to have with Kelsi before Dobby interrupted and he smiled. He knew it was what he needed and wanted to do. He had been attracted to Kelsi the first day he had seen her. There were plenty of other girls around that people said were gorgeous or hot or sexy, but when he looked at Kelsi, he saw pure beauty. In her personality, actions, temperament as well as her looks. It was the first few things that really brought to life his attraction to her.
Harry was shaken from his thoughts, and truthfully his dreams, as a hand shook his shoulder, "Harry, we're home." Sharpay said softly with a kind smile on her face. Harry nodded and swung himself out of the limo before heading up the steps to the front door and ultimately his room where he crashed on the bed without changing out of his clothes. He did manage to kick off his shoes before Morpheus claimed his consciousness.
Harry woke the next morning to the feel of Dark Magic and he rolled out of his bed, summoning his wand to his hand halfway through the roll and landing on the far side of the bed from there the Dark Magic was radiating with his wand pointed in its direction with a spell already on his lips. A soft squeak caused him to pause. His eyes adjusted to being awake and in use for the first time of the day and the small form of Dobby holding a necklace of some kind caused him to relax, "Sorry Dobby, you surprised me. Why does it feel like there is Dark Magic around here?" Harry asked while standing up from the floor and rubbing his eyes clear of their sleepiness.
"Mr. Harry Potter, sirs!" Dobby exclaimed before covering his mouth and beginning to talk quieter though with no less enthusiasm, "Dobby has found something Mr. Harry Potter must see! Kreature shows it to Dobby and Dobby thought about your scar. So Dobby brings it to you to show you." Dobby explained, jumping in place as he explained.
Harry looked at Dobby for a few moments, "Dobby, why would Kreature show you something?" He asked.
Dobby looked bashful for a moment before answering, "Dobby was helping Mr. Dumblydore clean a home and Dobby found it. Kreature came and took it from Dobby, muttering about destroying it, but it felt like it was a part of Mr. Harry Potter's scar, so Dobby brings it to him." Dobby explains.
A pop sound followed by a screeching voice followed shortly after, "You steals it!" the house elf known as Kreature says after he appears and Harry quickly casts a silencing charm over the room, hoping the American magical government doesn't pick up on it and send someone to investigate.
Kreature dives for Dobby, but the second elf moves quickly out of the way. "Kreature, stop for a moment." Harry commands and the elf turns to look at him, "Why do you need to destroy this locket?" Harry asked and Kreature stops moving all together, dropping to his knees and starting to cry, "Master Regulus asks Kreature to take the locket and destroy it. Master Regulus drank a potion to get it and told Kreature to take the locket from the basin and destroy it. Kreature has tried and tried to destroy it, but nothing works. Not knives, not elf magic, not anything. Kreature has failed Master Regulus!" The house elf wailed as he began to beat his head on the floor in front of him.
Harry was trying to process the information he had just been given and so didn't tell Kreature to stop punishing himself for a few seconds. The house elf continued to weep though he stopped punishing himself when Harry told him to stop. His mind whirling, "Dobby, you said my scar feels a little like this necklace?" Harry asked, trying to understand what Dobby was trying to say and how his scar could feel similar to the locket when the locket reeked of Dark Magic.
"Yes, Harry Potter, sir. Your diary felt the same too. Much like the locket, much like the scar. Both—" Dobby went to continue but Harry cut him off, "What do you mean my dia—Wait, you mean the diary I gave to Lucius that he freed you with?" Harry asked, dropping back onto the bed as his mind began twisting into knots even worse than before.
"Yes Mr. Harry Potter sir. When Dobby first felt it, Dobby remembered the shivers Dobby got from being near it. Same shivers with this locket, and Harry Potter's scar, though not as strong from Harry Potter's scar." Dobby replied.
Harry sat dumbfounded, "Do you know what this feeling is from Dobby? I know it is Dark Magic, but do you know what it is?" Harry asked and Dobby shook his head. Kreature's head lifted from the floor and his with his voice rough from his crying softly said, "Kreature believes they is horcruxes, Mr. Harry Potter. Pieces of soul, foul magics, even for Blacks." He coughed lightly and Harry conjured a glass before casting Aguamenti to fill it with water and handing it to Kreature, there was something different about the house elf that called out to Harry. Kreature hesitated for a moment before taking the offered glass of water and taking a small sip before following it with a large gulp of the much desired and needed liquid after his bout of harsh crying.
'Pieces of soul…but whose…Voldemort, of course, it's how you survived isn't it. What a twisted route to immortality. So we must do away with these pieces before we can truly do away with you…my work is definitely cut out for me with this kind of information hanging over my head. Add this all to the Prophecy…I wonder if Dumbledore knew…most likely, this would be the kind of information he would have to have to really be Dumbledore. At the very least, he had guesses about how Voldemort stayed in this realm of existence.'
Harry sat and thought for a few more moments before asking, "Dobby, do you think you could go get me a fang from the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets? Make sure you don't hurt yourself or get poked by a fang, but would you bring back one fore me, I want to try something." Harry asked softly. Dobby nodded before popping away leaving Kreature still lying on Harry's floor. "Kreature, I am going to try to help you complete Regulus' task that he gave you." Kreature nodded and stood up with better posture than Harry had ever seen from the old elf.
Dobby popped back shortly after, a large fang floating in the air behind him. Harry carefully grabbed the fang from the air and handed it to Kreature, "I will open it, as there seems to be spell on the outside for protection. There is a snake etched within the gem which means it was probably linked to someone in Slytherin, if not Salazar himself. Get ready, Kreature, you will have to stab it once I get it open." Harry spoke to the house elf and received a nod in return.
"Open" Harry spoke in parceltounge to the locket and a dark mist billowed from the opening doors of the locket, a voice speaking but muffled to Harry's ears. Rage and pain burned across Kreature's eyes before the house elf sprung forward and brought the fang down in the middle of the locket, resulting in a long scream from the locket as the dark mist slowly dissipated. Kreature sunk to the ground, letting the fang drop freely from his hand and his face was graced with a smile, once again it was a first for Harry to see from the old elf though it seemed he lost a few years from his body and movements. "Kreature thanks Master Harry Potter for his help. Kreature could not do it alone no matter what he tried. Kreature will go back to clean again. Master should call if he ever has a need." Kreature gave a small bow and popped away, Dobby giving Harry a large smile before following the other house elf's actions and disappearing.
Harry dropped back onto his bed looking at the now destroyed locket he was holding above himself for a few moments before his face paled. The locket responded the same as the diary when it was pierced with the basilisk fang, and Dobby said he felt the same feeling from his scar on his head…if he is thinking about this all correctly, this is not good.
Harry's mirror started vibrating softly from within the dresser drawer he had placed it in and Harry had to smile slightly, though it may have been more of a grimace, Hermione always seemed to have perfect timing. He slipped off his bed and pulled out the drawer.
"Hey Hermione. Is Ron there with you?" Harry asked after opening the connection between the mirrors.
"Yeah, we had a few minutes this morning away from the family and we think Ginny is reading a book right now. Do you want us to go get her?" Hermione asked.
"No, don't worry about it. Look, Dobby showed up last night to show me something. The only problem is that Kelsi was there with me when he popped in and she fainted from it. Thankfully she didn't clearly remember it enough when I cast an enervate on her, but I am probably going to have to talk to her about it at some point. I…I want to tell her the truth." Harry said after a couple seconds, Hermione's face turned contemplative but Ron looked on in confusion, "Why, mate? You won't be in the muggle world much longer, you will probably only be there till the end of next summer and then you'll be back with us at Hogwarts. Right? What about the Statute of Secrecy that is protecting us? Do you remember how much trouble we got in second year for being seen in a flying car by the muggles? You can't tell her." Ron stated emphatically while Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder, "Ron, why don't you go get your sister and have her come back with you so she can say hello to Harry again." She asked him softly. Ron looked at her in confusion before shrugging and leaving the room to get Ginny.
"Harry, listen, Ron probably won't understand why you want to tell her so I need to say this fast before he and Ginny come back. You should tell her, if the way you two were looking at each other was any indication…she deserves to know." Hermione stated softly, she was still lost in her thoughts somewhat but she knew that Harry needed to do this. "Remember, this is Ron we are dealing with. I think I said it best last year, emotional range of a teaspoon. He doesn't understand your reasons for wanting and needing to tell her. She seems to be a strong kind of girl so I don't think you have to worry about her running away screaming. But you are going to really regret it and be upset with yourself if you put it off too much longer. You shouldn't ask her out before telling her, or at least you should ask her and then let her know what is going on. I'll look round for some spells that you could ask her permission to cast on her so that she can't talk about it if you would like." Hermione offered.
Harry waved her off, "That is fine but save that for later I have one that should work well enough for now, we may have a bigger issue though. Are Ron and Ginny almost back?" Harry asked. Hermione looked away from the mirror and then nodded back at him. Harry nodded and continued, "I woke up this morning to find Dobby here again, but he had brought something with him like he had last night. It was a locket, I think it may have belonged to Slytherin—"
"How did he get ahold of that?" Ron interrupted. Hermione's arm swung off screen and Harry heard an 'Ow' from Ron and chuckled, "How about you let me tell you the rest of the story and you will find out Ron. He was cleaning at the home of the Order for Dumbledore and found it. Kreature tried to take it from him but Dobby thought I needed to see it. Dobby said that…it felt like my s—…the diary from second year that I stabbed with the basilisk fang. Kreature came and explained that Regulus had ordered him to destroy it before he died. Kreature literally wept while talking about it." Ron made to interrupt again but Harry charged on, "I had Dobby go get another fang and bring it here. I told the locket to open and had Kreature stab it since he had been told by his master to destroy it. Now the scary part is it reacted a lot like Riddle's diary did when I stabbed it. Hermione, I need you to see what you can find about soul pieces and how to destroy them. If you could possibly look around the Black library they may have some books on it in there, though the way Kreature spoke it didn't sound very likely. He said it was such foul magic that not even the Blacks did it, but they may know about them. He used the word Horcruxes so hopefully that will help us out some."
Harry took a deep breath, "The bits that I caught from Kreature gave me the thought that Voldemort was trying to become immortal, which would make his statement about traveling down the path to immortality understandable and his ability to return would be explained. His soul couldn't leave this plane of existence, which allowed him to posses Quirrel and then gain back a body. I'm thinking the diary and locket were both horcruxes…" Harry trailed off, not sure if he should tell the three on the other side of the mirror that Dobby felt the same Dark Magic coming from Harry's scar or stay quiet about it. He decided that for the time being, there was no need to worry them. He trusted Hermione to find everything that she could no matter what so there was no reason to add worry about finding something that would not result in death or pain for him. Harry took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That's all I have for now guys. Thanks again for coming over to visit. When do you guys head back?" He asked, trying to move away from their previous topic
"We go back tomorrow, we are getting to sight see some today with an international portkey and a magical tour guide. We will all be back at Headquarters when we get back so we'll look around the library there for you when we get the chance. You are planning on coming to see us off at the airport when we leave though right?" Hermione asked.
"Of course. It will be a while before I'll get to see you guys again. Have fun sight seeing today, oh, and don't mention this to any of the adults. Questions about horcruxes and such may not be the best thing in the world to ask from the way Kreature was talking." Harry said cautiously. There was a fine line between getting the parents involved so that they could help, which Mad-Eye Moody probably could, but there was also the possibility that the parents would get defensive of them and try to keep them from making any progress.
Hermione looked unsure for a few moments before she came to the same realization that Harry had, until they knew more, it would probably be best to keep it under the radar. Hermione nodded before she and the other two on her side of the mirror said their goodbyes and ended the connection.
Harry gently placed the mirror back in the drawer and closed it before moving out of his room. He made his way down to the kitchen and found Mrs. Cordeaux wiping the table down, and starting to set out the plates for breakfast. She looked up as Harry walked in, "Where you the one making all that racquet upstairs Harry? It sounded like someone screaming for a couple seconds before it became completely silent." The maid asked.
Harry took in a breath as he thought about how to explain before he felt his phone buzzing and start to go off as his wake up alarm went off and he grasped onto that for a reason, "One of my friends apparently thought it would be funny to get a ringtone of someone screaming set up as an alarm on my phone for me this morning. Sorry about that. I hope it didn't disturb anyone else this morning." Harry said, sounding contrite and embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it, dear. About the only thing they will wake up for most mornings is the smell of food or a personal call for breakfast." Mrs. Cordeaux joked lightly before motioning to the plates on the corner of the table, "Help me get breakfast ready?" She offered and Harry nodded enthusiastically. She smiled at his excitement and walked back to the kitchen shaking her head slightly at the strange young man who seemed to enjoy working.
The rest of the day passed easily for Harry and the Evans and while Harry hadn't gotten a text from Kelsi today, he figured it was because her brother and sister were keeping her busy. Her and her family usually went and did things for the first half of the day on Saturdays and then did their own thing in the evenings. Figuring he may as well read a little farther ahead since there wasn't much else for him to do for the time being, Harry pulled out one of his supplementary texts for transfiguration that McGonagall had sent him that detailed the process of becoming an animagus. The stipulation she had placed on sending him the book in the first place however was that he not try it until he returned, stating that even though his father and friends had thought they pulled one over her, she knew about their transformations and watched them the whole time to make sure nothing happened.
Harry was a good portion of the way through the book when he got a telephone call. Pulling the ringing device from his pocket, he saw that Kelsi was calling him, " Hey Kelsi." Harry said into the phone as he answered the call.
"Harry," Harry could hear as her voice shuddered, "Can I talk to you? Like, now? I…I'm not going crazy am I? Please tell me I'm not going crazy…" Kelsi stated weakly, a twinge of desperation to her voice as she trailed off. Harry could hear her deep breaths in the background as she tried to keep calm.
Harry let out a sigh and resigned himself to the fact that he was going to have to tell her, tonight, "Kelsi, I will be over in a couple minutes. You are not going crazy, you're just realizing the world isn't as sane as it seems. I'll explain everything when I get there. I'll see you in a minute." Harry said and hung up the phone after hearing an 'ok' from Kelsi.
Harry lightly jogged downstairs and let Phillip know as he passed that he was going for a walk and would be back in a couple hours. Phillip nodded as Harry walked out the front doors. Harry half ran to the end of the driveway before looking around, closing his eyes and hoping he learned the lesson Moody had slipped in with his other lessons, claiming that he needed a way to escape on the minor off chance the death eaters found him in New Mexico. Harry fixed the area of the Nielsen's house in his mind and turned to the side, feeling his body crushed inwards before landing outside the house with very little sound.
Harry checked himself over for any missing parts and found everything where it should be and smiled at the fact he had been able to arrive quietly. Moody had given him several tips on how to apparate better which definitely came in handy. He would have to copy this memory and send it back to moody to show he had been able to do it with no ill results. Harry walked up to the door and knocked on it gently. The door opened a few seconds later and he found a disheveled Kelsi standing before him dried, but red eyes with a confused look on her face. "I'm so confused, what in the world is going on?" She asked desperately.