Chapter ten: Where It All Started.
The four of them span around, each drawing their wands. The voice was horribly familiar to Harry, but it wasn't the sneer of Snape nor the high cold voice of Voldemort. It sounded almost like that of, "Dumbledore?"
"Quite correct, but I don't think I am the Dumbledore you were hoping to meet," said the voice from somewhere behind a tree.
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked quickly. "Are you Professor Dumbledore or not?"
"Professor? No. I am no Professor" the voice said, as its owner stepped from behind the closest tree. The figure was tall and thin but the long hair and beard were not the silver of Albus Dumbledore, they were a much duller grey and there were no half moon spectacles resting on the man's nose. "My name is Aberforth."
"Aberforth, wasn't that Dumbledore's brother, the one he said couldn't read? But you're the barman at the Hog's Head?"
"Ron!" Hermione hissed and there was the noise of her foot connecting with his shin.
"It's quite alright, Ms Granger. Yes, Mr Weasley, I am the brother of the late headmaster, and it is also true that I was, until recently, owner of the Hog's Head. But as for being able to read, I guarantee you I am perfectly literate. Albus could be quite harsh when he wanted to be. Interesting, nowadays most respectable people won't hear a word against him, but when we were younger he was just like every other extremely talented youth, arrogant and foolhardy." Harry felt hot anger rise up inside him, howdare this man make such comments about the greatest wizard of all time.
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here… Mr Dumbledore?" Hermione asked
"I just thought I might come to say 'hello'."
"How did you know where we would be?"
"Hagrid told me about the key that Albus left to Harry so I thought that you would come here."
"You've been coming here every day just to meet us, wouldn't it just be easier to come and see us at my parent's house? Didn't you have to open the Hog's Head?"
The old man smiled ruefully, "I am afraid there is no point anymore in opening the Hog's Head. The only customers I have had since the day my brother died were those who needed a place to stay so they could go to the funeral, since the funeral no one has come to my bar. As for visiting you at your parents' house, I did. I was present at your eldest brothers wedding but I thought we might be able to have a more… private conversation somewhere away from the ears of the other members of the Order."
"And why would you want to have a conversation with us where the order members could not hear?" Harry asked, suddenly suspicious.
"Well, word has reached my ears that there are certain subjects that have been unwilling to discus with any of my colleges, such as where you and my brother went when he was apparently coming to have a drink with me."
"And what makes you think that I would be willing to talk about it with you?"
"I did not believe that you will be willing to divulge the information to me, I simply wanted a reason that you would not."
"Well, for one, we have no proof that you are who you say you are, and even if you are that you are faithful to the order. And two, your brother made me promise that I would not tell anyone about what has he told me or where he took me."
"Very well, if that is the case I am satisfied."
He turned on the spot as if about to disapparate when Hermione said, "Wait." He stoped and looked back at the four of them.
"Was there anything you wanted Ms Granger?"
"Ummm yes. Could you tell us… I mean do you know…what happened here?"
"What happened here?" he said pointing at the ruined house, "Why, I would have thought that you four of all people…"
"No, I mean, what happened in the village? Why there aren't any people there."
"Ah… Well, yes, as a matter of fact I do." He sighed very deeply, "Do you know why this village was called Godric's Hollow?"
"No."
"This village was named after the founder of the house of Hogwarts that all of you, my brother and myself were members of, Godric Gryffindor." He paused, "Godric Gryffindor was the namesake of this village because this was where he was killed."
"Gryffindor was killed? Here?" Harry asked.
"Yes, killed by Salazar Slytherin. Sad really for once they were the best of friends but slowly a rift grew between them, mostly over the education of Muggle born wizards. What had started out as a mere professional difference turned into an outright battle when, returning from a council between the four founders where the topic of restricting Muggle admittance had just been once more been crushed by Gryffindor, Salazar spoke of his anger to the snake he kept as a pet. Seeing how angry its master was the snake wanted to do something to help him, so he went to the room of Godric Gryffindor and attempted to murder the man in his sleep. Gryffindor however managed to repel the beast and eventually slew it with the sword that now hangs in the Head Master's office.
Slytherin saw this as an attack on him, and would not listen to Gryffindor's explanations. He then left the school and journeyed on his own. That is where the story would end if it was not for the pride of Gryffindor, he was determined that Salazar should be punished for what he saw as an attempt at his murder. Two years after Slytherin's departure Gryffindor left himself to try and track his adversary down. He did so, where this village now stands. Details about the battle are very hard to come by but it is known that the two were very well matched. Slytherin fighting with his wand and calling for the aid of serpents and Gryffindor wielding sword and wand. One detail that is known for sure is that somehow Godric's wand was snapped in half. And so the two once best friends faced each other, sword to wand. It is believed that Gryffindor put up a courageous fight even though he was out matched, but of course a sword is no weapon when compared to a wand. He was killed and, as was the tradition of the time when it came to great warriors he was buried where he fell, in the hollow that was the approximate centre of this town. And Gryffindor's banner was placed over the grave sight.
People flocked to see the spot and to pay respects to the fallen champion. Slowly a village grew up around the grave sight and even some Muggles came to live and work here. And slowly but surely a legend was created that the people would only be able to live in the village as long as the banner was still flying high."
"I'm sorry, but I don't see were this is going, what does this have to do with the fact that all the building were destroyed and there aren't any people here?" Ginny said rather impatiently.
"I'm coming to that Ms Weasley. Now as you know, sixteen years ago on Halloween night You-Know-Who was torn from his body fled into the night, a day later however, the village was ablaze. Death Eaters maddened by the loss of their master were causing compete havoc. Killing Muggles and wizards indiscriminately. The Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix were of course called to the spot. It was one of the only times that Albus insisted that I help. When I arrived in the city I was surrounded by complete devastation, Muggles running for their lives, wizards trying to distinguish friend from foe in the heavy smoke that was coming from the burning houses and bodies. It was all I could do to stop myself from vomiting. I joined the fight. But the Death Eaters had nothing to lose. They fought to the death and made sure every last breath was used to kill or cause damage. Over two hundred people died that day, most of them innocents. Finally we fought the Death Eaters down, there had been more of them than us but they were crazed and unorganised and the battle ended with all of them dead, none had chosen to surrender"
"But the banner was destroyed?" Hermione asked quietly. Aberforth nodded.
"So people stayed away from the village just because of some old myth that someone had probably made up to attract tourists?" Harry asked.
"No, no. The Ministry of Magic sent in people to repair the buildings but for some reason the magic wouldn't fix them, nor would it bring them down. Eventually they just left it, assuming that the legend must have been true."
"So magic won't work here? I mean, I can't fix this house?" Harry asked tentatively.
"I don't know. But even if magic would work it would take far more than your average repairing charm to fix the damage done to this house, it would take a very powerful wizard to undo what was done."
Something seemed to stir in Harry's memory. Powerful? Then he remembered what Hagrid had said after Dumbledore's will had been read "Your mum and dad were damn powerful so maybe they will have done something about the house, I doubt Dumbledore would give you a useless gift." Harry subconsciously reached a hand into his robes and pulled out the small box that had been bequeathed to him. He opened it and flipped over the lid, on the underside was a small leather pouch. With trembling fingers Harry opened the pouch and tipped it upside down. A small golden key fell into his hand. Harry stared at the key for a second then turned to the ruined house. He marched, very slowly up the lawn.
"Ah, Harry?" Ron said from behind him, but Hermione made a shushing noise and he fell silent.
When Harry reached the door he lifted it so that it was sitting in its frame, then hand trembling worse than ever he inserted the key into the lock and turned it. For half a second Harry thought nothing had happened, that Hagrid had been wrong, that the key was a useless bit of metal. Rage and disappointment flooded Harry. He didn't know how it would help, but he was going to grab the key and throw it into the woods. But even as he held out his hand to grab the key, something happened. Slowly the key was changing from gold to silver, as if the gold was being drained out of it and towards the lock.
The gold didn't stop at the keyhole however, it formed a golden circle that was slowly expanding, and when it passed over the tarnished golden handle, the gold of the handle was shining like it had been polished yesterday. Still the ring of gold continued to grow, covering each inch of the door for a second then passing on. It washed over the door like a wave, renewing everything it touched; the hole that had been blown through the door was repaired. Once it had completed the door the wave flowed on over the rest of the house. Boards from the pile in the centre were being sucked back to their original location. Burnt edges came up like new again.
A shard of glass flew narrowly past Harry's right ear as it zoomed to return to its original window. Harry took this as a sign that he should retreat, throwing his hands over his head for fear of being hit with any more flying debris, he ran back to where the others were standing all completely dumbstruck. He turned around again to watch what was happening. The entire house was almost completely restored by now, but the wave of gold wasn't done yet, it continued flowing down over the ground and when it passed a thick gravel path lay in its wake and the grass was trimmed and perfect where seconds before it had been overgrown and filled with weeds.
Now the wave was getting faster it flowed under Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Aberforth and was gone in a second.
There was a stunned pause, fittingly broken by Ron, "Wow!"
Then Aberforth began to laugh, the other four looked curiously at him, "Just like James, could never do anything by half measures, had to go for the grand effect."
"You knew my dad?" Harry asked keenly.
"I don't think anyone who lived in Hogsmeade didn't know your father and his friends. Especially if you were willing to sell them butterbeer and not report them to the teachers." He said with a reminiscent smile, but then it faded, "But I did like James," he went on more soberly, "He reminded me a lot of Albus, he was just the same at that age, hugely talented, full of himself and no regard for the rules. It was a great loss when he died." Harry wasn't sure if Aberforth was talking about Albus or James, but the sentiment was true for both of them. "But why are we standing out here talking? Don't you want to go and have a look around your old house?"
Harry froze for a second. It seemed to have only just dawned on him that the house had been repaired. He turned around to face it. Now that he looked at it he saw that it wasn't just a normal house, it was huge, three stories high at least. Harry stepped forward with some trepidation, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see what was inside or not, half of him was scared of touching anything in the house, of moving it from it's proper place, but the other half was bursting to explore all of his old home as fast as possible. He stood there for a long minute trying to decide what to do. He was only roused when he felt Ginny's small hand touch him on the shoulder.
"It's your's now," She said simply. Harry nodded, it was true, this was his house. He set off, crunching up the newly formed path. Harry paused at the door but then put his hand out and turned the handle. It clicked open.
Harry walked cautiously over the threshold. What he found made his heart stop for a second. They were standing in an entrance hall four metres square, and tiled with an odd pattern that Harry could not quite decipher. Harry looked up and saw that the hall opened up to a sky light, three floors above. Harry dragged his eyes down and looked around straight ahead of him were a pair of mahogany double doors, to his left a smaller door, and to his right a set of stairs with a magnificently carved oak railing.
Harry wasn't sure which way to go first, he was tempted to turn to and go into the room on his right but the same intuition that had sent Harry along the thin grass carpeted road towards his parents house was telling him that that room should be left for later. So instead he marched forwards and opened the double doors. Within he found a grand dinning room. Two chandeliers hovered, unsupported, over the polished table. A set of fine silver plates and goblets were set, as if ready for a meal. Behind him Ron let out a low whistle
Harry looked round, he saw Ron with his mouth hanging open staring around the room and Ginny walking slowly holding her hand out as if to stoke the nearest silver goblet. But suddenly Harry was gripped by a desire, not to take in every little detail of the house but to explore it as fast as he could. There was another door at the end of the dinning room and Harry broke into a run past the table, knocking over the closest chair in his hast. The doors led into the kitchen, not as big as the one in Grimmauld Place, but still it could have once been the home to a half dozen house elves without difficulty.
He turned and headed back through the dinning room, through the entrance hall, and up the spiral staircase that lead to the second level. He took the stairs two at a time, and could just here Hermione running in his wake, Ron and Ginny behind her. Harry paused on the landing for just enough time to take in the thick cream carpet and to select a door to go through.
He walked on and opened the door directly in front of him. Within he found rows and rows of book cases all crammed full of books. He turned, unable to keep the smile from his face in expectation of Hermione's expression. He turned just as Hermione walked through the open door, the look on her face was not unexpected. She stopped and stared around, eyes wide, mouth slightly open.
"You happy?" Harry asked, smirking.
"It's amazing." Hermione replied just as Ginny came in behind her.
"Well, I think we've found Hermione's new home." She said. Hermione threw her a hurt look but did not reply, Harry thought she might not be able to think of anything to say in reply. Then Ron entered. He didn't say anything but he did look around appreciatively. There was a pause, where Hermione seemed to be bursting to ask a question. After a second Harry thought he should put her out of her pain.
"You want to have a quick look around before we move on?"
"Yes!" She replied rather too quickly and eagerly. Ron snorted behind her back but luckily Hermione didn't notice.
"Go on then." Harry said with a shadow of a smile.
Hermione almost ran to the closest set of shelves.
"We might as well have a look too." Harry said to Ginny and Ron. So the three of them dispersed around the large room. Harry headed over to a set of shelves and glanced at the titles. The Chasers Companion, The Sport of Warlocks, Advanced Quidditch Tactics, Harry paused when he reached this title. He pulled it from it's shelf and let it fall open in his hands, It opened to a map of a Quidditch pitch that was covered in little wiggly lines that were wriggling all over the pitch reminding him forcibly of some of Oliver Wood's pre-training lectures. He looked through the book, remembering with a pang that he would not be able to introduce any of these moves to the Gryffindor team.
Harry was jerked out of his reading when he heard Ron from somewhere further back in the library.
"Harry, I think you might want to come and have a look at this." Harry closed the book, and returned it to its place on the shelf then moved off to find Ron. He found him standing in front of a door leading into a room that appeared to have been cut out of the far corner of the library.
"So, it's a door." Harry said
"No! Look closer." Ron said pointing, not at the door but at the gap between the door and the frame. Harry bent closer, then he saw it, a flickering silver light that was emulating from the crack. "What do you think it is?" Ron asked.
"I don't know, but I've got an idea."
"Do you think it's safe?"
"Ron! This was my parents' house."
"Oh yeah. Sorry." But despite Harry's indignant words he was not wholly convinced, he pulled his wand from his pocket. He paused for a second then carefully shot sparks at the door which burst open.
Harry and Ron were drenched in dancing silver light, Harry felt half blinded for a second, but walked slowly into the room, wand still raised. Within he found a low round table and on this was the source of the light. A Pensive. But this was not made of stone like the one that now belonged to McGonagall. It was a small wooden basin, with strange runes and pictures carved all over it.
"What is it?" Ron asked from over Harry's shoulder.
"A Pensive."
"What one of those memory things, like Dumbledore had?"
"Yeah."
"Whoa, Harry your parents must have been even richer that we thought. Those things are really hard to come by."
"I doubt it was just bought for my parents."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, look around. The dinning hall there were about thirty places set, and look at the size of the library. I think that this might have been one of the Order meeting places, last time, you know."
"Yeah. I hadn't thought of that."
Then from out in the main library they heard Ginny, "Come on, let's go look at the rest of the house."
"Yeah, let's. We can come back and have a better look later." So together they headed out of the library, pausing just long enough to wait for Hermione to mark her page of Gryffindor's Legacy: the history and legends of Godric's Hollow, that she was already deeply immersed, in and return it to its shelf.
There were only two other doors on this floor, both led into sparsely furnished spare bedrooms. There was nothing to cause them to linger here so they continued on and up the stairs to the top floor. When they reached the top floor Harry walked to the railings, and looked down, onto the entrance hall. When he was standing on them he had been unable to tell how the tiles were arranged, but now he could see clearly that it was a snitch with the letters L & J in elaborate script in the centre. Harry looked down and smiled at the picture below him. After a second Harry felt Ginny come and stand next to him, leaning over the railings. Together they looked over the railing then they looked up and into each others eyes. Harry couldn't help it, his smile broadened. His arm moved with out him really meaning it to and was around Ginny's shoulders and slowly he moved in to kiss her.
"Eh hem." Ginny jumped when she heard Ron's fake cough. Harry was faintly embarrassed but he tried to hide it and turned to the other two, Hermione was shaking her head slightly disbelievingly. "Shall we move on then?" Ron said as though he hadn't just interrupted a very private moment.
"Yeah, we might as well." Harry replied as evenly as he could manage.
Harry looked around; there were six rooms on this floor. Harry headed towards the largest of the doors, upon which there was a finely carved stag. This must have been Harry's parents' room. Harry paused for a second with his hand on the handle, wondering wether he should go in or not and what he would see in there if he did. Eventually he decided that he might as well look in the room, even if he didn't touch anything. Harry opened the door slowly. There was absolutely nothing unusual inside. Just a king sized, four-poster, bed, several cupboards and a chest of draws. Harry left, none of the others had come into the room with him.
Harry smiled at each of them in thanks for allowing then to look in that room alone.
"There was nothing important in there," He said quietly. So together they moved up the hall to the next room, which, to Harry's slight surprise also had a carving on it, this one of a large dog. This room must have been Sirius' guest room. Inside there was a collection of things that Harry assumed must have belonged to Sirius before the house was destroyed, several sets of black robes in the wardrobe, a collection of quills and inc in the draws, a small pouch of galleons and a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey.
After persuading Ron to leave the Firewhiskey where it was Harry and the other's headed back out onto the landing. When Harry first approached the third door he though there was no carving on this one, but then he saw the wolf, mostly faded but still slightly visible. Harry turned the handle but the door was locked.
"What do you recon?" he asked the other three.
"No idea mate," Ron replied.
"You think we should go in?" Harry asked
"I don't see why not." Hermione replied.
So Harry pulled his wand from his robes and muttered "Alohomora." The room they found was completely bland. There was nothing in the wardrobe, or the draws. The bed didn't have sheets on it and there was the definite impression that it had been stripped.
"What's gone on here?" Ron asked after a second.
"They've got rid of all his stuff." Hermione replied.
"Why?" Ginny asked.
"They thought he was the spy. Sirius told us, the night we met him." Harry explained quietly.
Harry walked slowly up to the next door. He was fairly sure what he would find and braced himself. But he still felt anger well up inside him when he saw the caved rat on the door. Harry threw the door violently open and marched inside. He didn't know if he would find anything but he was determined to find something. After a quick search it showed that there was nothing for Harry to find. The room was bland, nothing more remarkable than a photo of a small woman, who was probably Pettigrew's mother.
But, thought Harry, the door had been open, there were sheets on the bed and there were robes in the wardrobe. The pool of emotion that had been floating in Harry's chest ever since he arrived in Godric's Hollow suddenly formed into a blazing fireball of anger. Without realising it Harry had his wand in his hand. He slashed violently through the air. The uncontrolled magic tore the bedcovers to shreds, another swing caused the bedside cabinet to fly across the room and smash against a wall. A third brandish of his wand was only prevented by Ron catching his wrist violently.
"Calm down, mate," Ron said forcefully. Harry stood for a moment, muscles tensed against Ron's grip, trying to feed his destructive rage. It was only when he saw the two girls huddled in a corner, both looking shocked to see him in such a temper that he relaxed.
"I'm sorry, it's just… I don't know, it's being here, seeing what it was like."
"It's OK mate, blimey if I was going through this sort of thing…." Ron tailed off, then presumably deciding that Harry was unlikely to continue his rampage he released his wrist.
Harry looked around the room; it was completely covered in a thin layer of stuffing from mattress, and in one corner lay the pile of splintered wood that had been the bed side cabinet. Harry conjured the stuffing back into its original place then repaired the torn bed and blankets. Harry turned to the cabinet but Hermione had already repaired it and was levitating it back to its proper place in the room. That just left the small amount of wood and glass that had once been the picture frame.
Harry had raised his wand to fix that when Ginny said, "Hey, look at this" she bent down and pulled out the picture and examined the back of it, there was clearly something written on it but Harry could not make it out from where he was standing.
"What is it?" Harry asked. Ginny mutely passed Harry the photo, written on the back in a hand that ominously reminded Harry of Tom Riddles writing in the diary, was: If you love her, you will not fail.
Hermione and Ron walked over and read the message over his shoulder.
"Oh my, he was threatening his mother. That poor man," Hermione gasped.
"It still doesn't forgive what he did though" Ron said, quickly before Harry could reply.
"Come on Ron, what would you do, if Voldemort told you to betray Harry or you whole family would die?"
"I'd… I'd…" for a moment Harry could have hit Ron then he thought: What if I was given the option to have my family back, alive, if I sacrificed a friend. What would I do? Harry wasn't sure he liked the answer to that question so he dropped the photo and headed out of the room.
Harry didn't bother to check the other to rooms and headed downstairs, only stoping when he reached the ground floor, when he realised something. He turned to the other three who had followed him down the spiral staircase, "What happened to Aberforth?"
"I don't know, I don't think he came into the house with us though." Hermione answered.
Ron strode to the door and looked outside. "He's not outside, he must have gone. Weird bloke wasn't he."
"He was a bit," agreed Harry.
They all stood there lost in their musing about Aberforth Dumbledore until Ginny broke the silence "So what do we do now?" The question caught Harry off guard, in truth he had no idea what they should do now, his plans had only ever reached as far as coming to Godric's Hollow, apart from the vague plan of finding and destroying the Horcruxes, but Harry had no idea where he should even start with that.
"I think the first thing we should do," Hermione said, "Is get our luggage and bring it here, assuming you want to stay here for the moment Harry?"
"Why wouldn't we stay here, this place is great, it's got everything we need." Ron said quickly and Harry nodded his agreement.
"Well then, I'll go and get the luggage."
"Oh, uh… I'll probably have to come with you then, so that you can get into the master bedroom." Harry said, rather reluctantly, not wanting to once more have to go through the painful memories that that house carried.
"You don't have to come if you don't want to Harry, I'm sure if you gave me verbal permission that would be enough, after all the house elves must have been able to get in without their master there every time."
"If you think so, Ok. I give you permission to enter the master bedroom of number twelve Grimmauld Place."
Hermione gave them all a swift smile before heading outside of the house and disapparating.
Ron then voiced something that he had been obviously thinking about for some time, "Uh Harry, what are we going to do about food?" Once again Harry had not thought of this, there were no Hogwarts house elves to cook for them now, nor did they have Mrs Weasley to prepare their meals any more.
"I can cook, by magic I mean. I've helped mum loads of times, and there's bound to be some cook books up in the library. You can come and give me a hand Ron." From the steely look in Ginny's eyes Harry was sure she was about to tell Ron off for interrupting them earlier. Harry wondered briefly if he should go with them to try to prevent some major argument, but his attention was caught by the door on the left of the entrance hall that he had passed by earlier.
So Ginny and Ron returned up the stairs and Harry turned and followed the path that Voldemort had sixteen years ago. Through the door he found the exact room that he had imagined Voldemort killing his parents in. "It was real." He said under his breath, "It must have been." But then Harry realised there was one difference between the vision and what was surrounding Harry. Where in the vision there had been a door that his mother had been trying to escape through, in the room where Harry was, there was only a blank wall.
Did this mean that the vision had been wrong, or had the house been built without this additional door? Harry turned, disappointed, to leave, but as he turned something caught his eye. Harry leaned closer and saw that it was minuscule writing, scratched on the wall. MessrsMoony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, present the marauders' own secret tunnel.
Harry was gripped by a sudden idea; he pulled his wand from his pocket and tapped the writing. Nothing happened. Harry cursed and thought for a second.
He tapped it again this time muttering "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
The writing subtly changed, seeming to flow into new words: nice try, give it another go.
Harry smiled, he was on the right track, what else to try. "Dissendium?" he said somewhat half heartedly.
The writing changed again: come on, what do you take us for, a bunch of one eyed old crones.
Right something more marauder-ish, Harry thought, and something to do with a secret tunnel.
"I solemnly swear I need to escape"
A marauder never runs away.
Harry's smile broadened as an idea occurred to him.
"I solemnly swear I need to get out and cause trouble"
Bingo!
Harry looked up and saw that the wall had turned into a door.
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Harry opened the magically created door, it lead to a much dingier passage, without any windows and with a much lower ceiling. Harry intended to only take a few steps inside the passage to look around, but then the tunnel sloped suddenly downwards to the point where Harry could not keep his feet and he slid down for what seemed forever. Suddenly the ground levelled out and Harry hit the floor hard.
He struggled to his feet, nursing his bruised elbow. It was now completely dark in the tunnel. "Lumos," Harry grunted. He pointed his wand back up the slope that he had recently come down, it was nearly vertical and Harry's beam of light did not reach the top of it. There was no getting back up there, Harry's only option was to follow the passage.
So Harry set off up the passage, travelling in a southerly direction according to the Four-Point spell. It was only about ten minutes of walking before Harry's wand light fell on a set of stone steps. Twenty steps, fifty steps, Harry lost count as he climbed to the top until he found his path had ended. His wand light found a handle on the wall ahead of him, he turned it and stepped out of the door. He found himself in the middle of the woods he had seen earlier, and turned to see that the door he had come from was in fact part of the trunk of a particularly thick tree.
The trees around him were so thick that it would be possible for someone to pass within stones throw of the tunnel exit and not see someone who had just emerged from it. Harry sighed, if only his mother had been able to escape into that tunnel, she could have got away with her life. But this was not the time to dwell on what might have been.
Suddenly off to Harry's right, he distinctively heard something move. In a flash Harry had his wand raised, ready for the attack. But there was silence, "Hello, is anyone there?" Harry called, deciding that if it was someone dangerous they would have already attacked by now. There was no reply, but instead a girlish giggle came from the woods. "Who's there?" Nothing, just another girlish giggle and the sound of crunching undergrowth heading away from Harry. Without really knowing why Harry ran after the noise, but his progress was hampered by the fallen branches and thick grass between the trees. Harry thought he must be catching up though; his quarry sounded like it was only walking. Then suddenly the crunching stopped, Harry slowed, wary of an ambush. But before Harry could take two cautious steps there was one last high pitched, slightly nervous laugh and then a crack that meant who ever it was that he had been following, had disapparated.
Mystified, Harry looked around, wondering where exactly he was. There was nothing though, to indicate where he was in relation to the house or even how far into the woods he was. Harry was just starting to seriously worry about how he would get back when he remembered that he could now legally apparate. So concentrating hard on the exterior of his new house he turned on the spot and disapparated too.
Harry arrived at the front of the house just in time to hear Ginny calling his name from round the side. "I'm here Ginny," he called back.
"Where have you been?" she exclaimed as she came around the side of the house, followed by Hermione, "We had no idea where you were, Ron was convinced you'd been kidnapped by Aberforth Dumbledore."
"If you wanted to explore the village Harry, you should have at least let Ron or Ginny know." Hermione scolded.
"I didn't want to explore the village, I just…" And Harry explained the tunnel and hearing the disembodied giggle in the forest.
"It giggled?" Ginny asked incredulously.
"And you followed it Harry," Hermione asked despairingly, "Didn't you think it might be a trap? You could have been captured or killed or Merlin only knows what."
"I did think about that actually Hermione, but it sounded like a little girl to be honest, I mean how would anyone dangerous find us here?" Then Harry realised how redundant this statement was, Aberforth Dumbledore had found them easily, what happened if he wasn't the only one.
"You've got to be more careful, Harry. We all have to be come to that, I mean Ginny and I were just standing out here shouting for you, if anyone had been searching the forest for anything…."
Realising that Hermione was completely right and his actions had been stupid he quickly sort a change of subject, "What about that vision thing though, I mean how can I have imagined something, and it just happened to be in one of the exact rooms that actually exist in the house. I mean, the chances of that are ridiculously small."
"I doubt it was coincidence Harry. It sounds like magically extended memory to me. Sometimes when the brain is provided with certain stimulus, like this place, a wizard or witch's magic can cause them to remember things that were far too early for them to normally remember."
"But I saw Voldemort, outside, I can't have possibly seen that, so how do I remember it."
"It works a bit like a pensive according to Magical Anomalies: A guide to the unexpected benefits of magic. Meaning you can remember things you didn't see or hear."
At this point Ron showed up and Harry was forced to explain again where he had been as the four of them walked into the house. Once he had finished his explanation and showed them all where the door was and told them all how to open it they went and sat down in the dinning hall. "I've got all our stuff Harry." Hermione informed him, "It's just, where you think we should put it. We could share the two spare bedrooms on the first floor if you want."
"No" Harry said seriously, "We'll use the main rooms on the second floor."
"Are you sure Harry?" Hermione asked cautiously.
"Yes, there's no point in not using them."
"Ok, well, why don't you take our stuff upstairs and I'll get us some lunch," Ginny said opening a large book as she did so.
Having emptied out the rooms and placed the trunks away, the four of them sat down to a strangely subdued lunch of sandwiches and orange juice. After which they continued to sit, without talking at the table, until Ginny finally spoke up, "Well that brings us back to the question, what do we do now?"
Harry took deep breath, "We start trying to find out where Voldemort hid his Horcruxes and then we find and destroy them," it felt rather surreal, true he had known for weeks what he was going to do, but it had always seemed like something in the distant future, but suddenly it was happening now.
"Well then," Hermione said in a business like tone, "I think we should do this systematically. We come up with a list of places where Voldemort might have hidden his Horcruxes and we go through and search them all compressively."
"Are you serious Hermione, they could be hidden in any one of a hundred places, half of which we probably don't even know exist."
"Still I think this is our best chance of finding them. Hang on," Hermione jumped out of her seat and ran upstairs, returning a minute later with several scrolls of parchment and quill and ink.
"Ok, where might Voldemort have hidden his Horcruxes?" Hermione said as if she were simply drawing up their revision timetables. In answer Ron simply let his head fall onto the table. "Oh come on Ron, do you want to help Harry or not?"
"Yes, but think about what you're doing. The first place I would say would be Hogwarts." Hermione keenly started writing and then seemed to realise what she was doing.
"Oh."
"Yeah, are you suggesting that we search every inch of Hogwarts for a Horcrux, I mean Dumbledore himself said he didn't know everything about the castle. Assuming there's even a Horcrux there we'd have to be incredibly lucky to find it."
Harry had remained silent though out this discourse, thinking that both of them had a point, but Ron's last sentence gave Harry an idea. "That's it!" he said and jumped up and ran out of the room, leaving three confused looks in his wake.
Harry bolted up the stairs and into the room he had claimed as his own (previously his parents) and unlocked the fourth cabinet of the trunk and quickly found what he was looking for, the bottle of Felix Felicis. With it clutched in his hand he ran back downstairs.
"This is it." Harry said holding the little bottle up to show the others.
"The Felix Felicis? But that doesn't make you know everything," Hermione reminded him.
"I know, but if I'm lucky I'll put all the information we have together, and with a lucky guess to help, we'll know where they've been hidden."
"Are you sure about this Harry, we're going to need that potion a lot." Hermione reasoned.
"I know, but we're only going to need fifteen minutes, tops and there's five days worth in here."
"Well if you say so, but you should only take a few drops." Harry gave Hermione an exasperated look as a reply and sat down and took the stopper out of the bottle and carefully poured a few drops into his mouth. After a second Harry felt the familiar swoop of confidence, somehow knowing that everything would go right as long as the tiny dose lasted.
"Did it work?" Ginny asked carefully
"I'm pretty sure it did."
"Well then, where do you think they are?" Ron said impatiently
"Ok, umm, I doubt there's one a Hogwarts, Riddle didn't actually create a Horcrux until after he left school, Dumbledore told me that he lost some of his human appearance when ever he lost part of his soul, and I saw him, he still looked the same when he worked at Borgin and Burk's. Then Dumbledore turned him down when he applied to be a teacher."
"So if there's nothing at Hogwarts, then where?"
"I've got a good feeling about the orphanage where Tom grew up."
"Which Horcrux is it?" Ron asked quickly.
"I'm guessing it's the cup."
"What about the other one, the one we don't know about?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know."
"That big old house you saw…him in, in you dreams, where his grandparents lived?" Ron suggested.
"No, it's too close to the House of Gaunt, where Dumbledore found the ring. Voldemort wouldn't want them too close together."
"Hmmm, what about Albania? Voldemort fled there after he fell, maybe he was going there to be close to a Horcrux, just so he could guard one of them so that he would remain, well not alive, but existent," Hermione suggested.
"No, I don't think we know enough, if I knew about it, then I'd think of it, and I'd be confident where it was, but the potion can't give me information I don't have."
"Ok, but at least we know where one of them is. That's a start," Ginny said confidently.
"Yeah, you're right Ginny. So," He looked around at the three of them, "What are we waiting for?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, sounding as if she both knew and dreaded the answer.
"Let's go and find the cup."
"Now?" Ron asked slightly nervously.
"Look I know it's a big thing, and it's scary, you think I'm not scared? But the sooner we do this the better."
"I'm with Harry I say we get started." Ginny said stoutly.
"Ok Harry we'll go now, but we should get ready first." Hermione said after a long pause.
"Get ready? What do we need?" Harry asked exasperated at this delay.
"Well, I think you should take your invisibility cloak and your shield cloak, and maybe the Sneakoscope."
"I think we should all take a dose of Felix, it was really helpful in the battle at the tower. If we took some of that we'd be fine no matter what." Ron said.
"No!" Harry replied "There will be bigger battles. We can't afford to use it all up now." Ron looked a little downcast, but did not argue. No one else had anything to say, so Harry ran upstairs and grabbed everything Hermione had mentioned, he had just locked his trunk and was on the verge of putting the keys back on his bed side cabinet when he remembered the unknown person in the woods, and what Hermione had said about being more careful, so he placed the keys carefully in a pocket.
When Harry returned downstairs he found the other three all waiting in the entrance hall. Hermione was twisting her hands behind her back, and Ron was starting to go slightly green. The sight of his two friends looking so worried really brought home to Harry what they were about to do and his stomach gave a painful lurch.
Hermione looked up when she heard him retune, "How are we going to get there? We can't apparate or use a Portkey because none of us have been there."
"I have."
"What? When?" Ron asked.
"In the Pensieve, so I at least know what it looks like, that should be enough to make a Portkey to get us there."
Hermione nodded and stopped twisting her hands, and held her arms straight at her sides and balled her fists, "Let's go then," despite her strong stance Harry couldn't help notice the quaver in her voice.
They left the house and Harry picked up a stray rock, "Portus" he muttered concentrating on the memory of that dingy orphanage. "Right then, touch it and we'll go." The other three all stepped in close to Harry and placed a hand on the rock. "Three. Two. One." Harry felt the pull of the Portkey that told him he was travelling towards the one of the pieces of Lord Voldemort's soul.
A/N Long time no see peeps. I hope you hadn't forgotten me and my little story. I must apologise for the long hiatus, but I had other things to handle (my final year at school being foremost amongst them) but now I have finished my exams and am free to write when ever I want, for as long as I want.
Sorry to return on such a bland chapter, but as you can guess the next instalment will be a whole lot of fun, and I promise I have a very cool Horcrux search planned out.
Please prove to me that you have once more found this fic by giving me a review, constructive criticism always welcome.