Draco woke up to Fawkes pecking at his head. How the phoenix even got into the dormitories confounded Draco, but clearly, Dumbledore must have sent the bird the retrieve Draco. Yawning as quietly as he could, he slipped out of bed and put on his robe. He got ready to follow the bird, but it just hovered above him. Reaching for it, he whispered, "Fawkes!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Crabbe stir. Looking back up, Draco realized that Fawkes had flown a bit higher. Draco jumped for him again, but the bird just flew higher. Making one more leap, Draco lifted both arms and caught Fawkes's tail.

Suddenly, he and the bird disappeared through a vortex of fire and appeared in Dumbledore's office. Draco landed on the floor and the bird happily flew to its owner, who was hunched over his desk, scanning through a very ancient looking book.

"Mister Malfoy," the headmaster acknowledged without raising his head.

Draco stood up and made his way over to Dumbledore's desk, taking a seat across from him. Clearing his throat, he asked, "So why did you need me? Oh, and how did Fawkes do that whole transportation thing?"

"Do you recall several weeks ago when I told you about Horcruxes?"

Draco nodded, but decided that a verbal affirmation was better since Dumbledore was still looking at his book.

"Well," the old man continued, "I seem to have found another one, or at least an excellent location for one."

"What? Really?"

Dumbledore lifted his head and passed the book to Draco. The page showed a map of the Gaunt family home, which seemed to be quite small.

"Who are the Gaunts?" Draco asked.

"Tom Riddle's mother was Merope Gaunt, daughter of Marvolo Gaunt," Dumbledore explained. "This home was been around for quite some time, but not as long as you might think. You see, I created this book to contain all the information I have found on Voldemort's Horcruxes. That is why the following pages are empty. However, that is beside the point."

"You think the next Horcrux is here," Draco realized.

"It wouldn't hurt to take a look. Voldemort was quite taken with his heritage. He may have been half-Muggle, but he was also half wizard, and through that lineage was connected to Slytherin himself. His mother's childhood home must have some meaning to him."

"So you're thinking of checking it out?"

"We won't be needing that map since the Gaunt shack is in ruins."

"What do you mean by 'we,' Professor?"

When Dumbledore didn't answer, Draco concluded that "we" meant he and Draco.

"I hope you feel better from your Quidditch game," Dumbledore said, rising from his seat.

"That was a week ago."

"Good." Without warning, the Headmaster grabbed Draco's arm and they disapparated from the office.

I've got to learn how to apparate soon, Draco thought.

They arrived in front of what was supposed to be the Gaunt shack.

Dumbledore began to speak. "I was in Azkaban recently and I spoke to Tom's uncle, Morfin. He was the last person to live here, actually."

"Why was he in Azkaban?" Draco wondered aloud.

"He was there for the murder of Voldemort's muggle father and muggle grandparents."

"But Voldemort killed them."

"Yes," Dumbledore said, "he did. It was too late for Morfin when I finally discovered the real memory buried deep in his mind. I will show it to you when we return if you would like, but the main thing is this: whatever Morfin Gaunt was, he did not deserve to die as he did; blamed for a crime he didn't commit."

"So is that how you even got here?" Draco inquired. "You saw the place in his memory." He had read that in order to apparate somewhere, a wizard had to know what his destination looked like exactly.

"Precisely."

"Where is it, then?"

"Why, hidden amongst all these weeds and brush, of course!" Dumbledore exclaimed, oddly cheerful.

"There must be some sort of protective enchantment around the shack," Draco said, "seeing how Voldemort wouldn't want a piece of his soul to be so easily found."

"And for this, we must exercise great caution."

Dumbledore stepped forward, and with a wave of his wand, he brushed the vegetation away, revealing a small wooden home that had nearly fallen apart. He beckoned for Draco to follow him as he edged towards the remains. Draco could sense the magic that shielded the old Gaunt house, but for good measure, he sent a Penetration charm towards it. Just as he had expected, it bounced off.

"Do you know what sort of protection that is?" asked Draco.

Dumbledore merely nodded and sent a few spells toward the shield. Draco could feel the magic dissolving quite quickly. Surely Voldemort would have tried something more concealing and more difficult to break through.

As if sensing his question, Dumbledore said, "Tom Riddle was quite young the last time he was here, and at my age, I can break through whatever spell a young adult like Tom could put into place."

Dumbledore carefully shoved open the door that looked like it was barely hanging on by its weak hinges.

"I can't believe a family lived here," Draco stated once he'd entered. Then again, he was used to the mansion that was Malfoy Manor. There wasn't a single discernible object in sight. Everything was covered in a mound of dust. At first, he thought there was no way neither he nor Dumbledore could find the Horcrux in this midst, especially if they didn't know what they were looking for.

"We're looking for a ring," Dumbledore told him. "In Morfin's memory, Tom took Marvolo Gaunt's ring from him. I suspect that the ring is a Horcrux."

Now Draco knew what they were looking for and he realized that he could feel the dark magic calling to him. He wasn't sure if that was because he was Merlin's heir, a Death Eater, or because the Horcrux was just that powerful.

"Can you feel that?" Draco asked Dumbledore.

"Yes. Magic always leaves a trail, especially dark magic."

So it had nothing to do with Draco in particular. That was a relief. It seemed that becoming a Death Eater truly had no magical components other than vaporization at will...wait. He could vaporize at will! He had completely forgotten that so he didn't really need to learn how to apparate. But should he indulge in the dark magic? Maybe the vaporization wasn't so much dark as was the Voldemort supporting part. All he knew was that since he had unburdened himself by sharing everything with Hermione, he had felt loads better. He could consult her about his problem.

As he reached into his left pocket, Draco realized that Hermione was probably asleep, seeing how Fawkes had woken him up in the middle of the night. He also realized that Dumbledore had already begun looking around so maybe he did have time to at least send Hermione the message.

I can vaporize. Should I?

To his surprise, he received a reply almost second later.

Is this a DE power?

Did I wake you? Draco asked.

Charmed coin in case of emergency.

So she had actually charmed the coin to wake her up because Draco was important enough to her.

Well, it is a DE power.

You could always learn to apparate, came the answer.

But now I don't have to.

There was a long pause for a few moments.

Want to talk about this? she finally said.

Can't right now.

Why, where are you?

"Where exactly are we, sir?" Draco asked Dumbledore as they both lifted up a floorboard.

"Little Hangleton."

Little Hangleton.

What? Why?

Draco hesitated before sending Will explain later.

Just be careful.

Okay and good night.

After lifting up a few more floorboards, they found one that was just emitting magic. They hadn't seen it before because it was under a topple over chair, but once they had, they knew it was the one.

"More enchantments," Dumbledore said.

However, these weren't as powerful as the ones protecting the shack so Draco was able to send a few wandless spells at the invisible shield, crumbling it and its hexes.

"Well done," came Dumbledore's approval. "We must beware now."

Draco nodded his understanding and together, they lifted the board. Under it was a small golden box, shaking vehemently. Without thinking, Draco reached for it, but for some reason, Voldemort had failed to put up any enchantments around it.

"One question," Draco said once he had gotten hold of the box. "How are we going to destroy this thing?"

"There are very few forces powerful enough to destroy a Horcrux. One of them is basilisk venom."

"The basilisk is dead."

Dumbledore just smiled as he took off his hat. Upon examining it more closely, Draco saw that it was the Sorting Hat. Dumbledore reached into the hat and pulled out the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

"This," Dumbledore told him, holding up the sword, "was what you used to stab the snake in your second year. What you did not know then was that this sword has the power to absorb everything its blade comes into contact with."

"The sword is now imbued with the basilisk venom," Draco concluded. "So it can be used to destroy the ring, or whatever we find in this box."

"I surmise that destroying the Horcrux won't be so easy."

"Potter destroyed one in second year so-"

"But not until it had tried to kill him, if you remember."

Draco did remember and he braced himself for the worst. "I'll open it, you kill it." Ever so carefully, Draco undid the lock with a swift hand motion and the top swung back. He flinched as if a great light were to emerge, but nothing. Dumbledore leaned forward and picked up the ring by the stone.

"I recognize this symbol," he commented, showing it to Draco. It was a line splitting in half a circle that was inscribed in a triangle.

"The Deathly Hallows," Draco said.

"You know of them?"

"Of course. Mother read me the tales of Beedle the Bard as a child and she also explained the historical context. But I didn't think they were real."

"I believe the stone this ring was made from is the Resurrection Stone." Dumbledore went into deep thought and Draco wondered if the old man was contemplating using the ring.

"Don't wear it," Draco warned. "Remember what happened to Cadmus Peverell."

But Dumbledore didn't acknowledge Draco's words. "Arianna..." he whispered.

Draco had no clue who that was, but he had every notion that Dumbledore was about to put on the ring.

"No, Professor, it's probably got a curse!" he exclaimed. He sprang forward and knocked the ring out of Dumbledore's hand just as the professor was about to put it on. However, Draco's landing was unfortunate and he was in the perfect position for the ring to slip onto his finger...which it did.

A/N: Don't think Draco's safe. I could easily kill him off at the end of the series by making Snape slow his curse significantly. But I hope you liked that chapter.