disclaimer, I don't own Harry Potter
A.N. Sorry this chapter isn't has long has they have been, but the next one will be longer
Chapter 13
Like the summer and Christmas holiday, the Easter Holiday had went by too fast for Ginny and Harry, before long they found themselves snuggled together on the Hogwarts Express on their way back to school. Neither was saying anything, but they didn't have to, they were comfortable just sitting in silence.
It was dark and raining when they made it to the castle, and most students hurried inside trying not to get too wet, but Harry and Ginny didn't care, and walked at a normal speed, but because of a charm Ginny had used neither one was wet, as they sat down at the Ravenclaw and greeted their friends, Harry talked while Ginny ate, and when they were allowed the leave the hall they held hands as they headed for the marble stair case, but stopped when someone called out to them.
"Hey, Sassy, Lightning-bolt, wait up." Harry and Ginny turned around to see their two best friends, Rigel and Teddy hurried up the stairs to them, big smiles on their faces, yes, even on Rigel's.
"Hey, guys, whats up." Harry said, Teddy and Rigel looked at each other smiling even more, then turned back to their two friends.
"Rigel got it." Teddy grinned wider. Harry frowned as Rigel reached in his robes pocket and pulled out a vial full of a silvery memory
Harry frowned confused for a moment, until Ginny gasped.
"That's not-"
"Slughorn's memory?" Rigel smirked. "Yep, I have been carrying this around with me for the last two weeks, waiting for you two to get back." He held it out to Harry who too it.
"Hey, babe, I think you should take that to Dumbledore now." Ginny said. "No reason to wait."
"Yeah, go see what's so freaking important about that memory, and Teddy and I will wait in the Room of Requirement with Ginny."
"Yeah, we all want to know what it is the moment you see it." Teddy added.
"Alright." Harry said. "I'll be back once I see it." After giving Ginny a kiss, Harry turned and hurried away, and up the stairs. Hoping Dumbledore was even here. Within seconds he had already given the pass word and was on the spiral staircase leading to Dumbldore's office. Harry knocked on Dumbledore's door a little too hard, making it shake a little.
"Enter." Dumbledore called, he sounded exhausted, like he had just got back from a long trip.
Harry pushed open the door. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, looking curious up at Harry.
"Good, gracious, Harry," said Dumbledore. "To what do I owe this very late pleasure?"
"Sir-I've got it. I've got Slughorn's memory."
Harry pulled out the glass bottle and held it up to show Dumbledore. For a moment or two, the headmaster looked stunned. Then his face split into a wide smile.
"Harry, this is spectacular news!" very well done indeed! May I ask how you did it?"
"It wasn't me, sir." Harry said. "My friend Rigel got it while I was on break, he just now gave it to me, and I thought best to bring it to you right away."
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, good idea, I knew one of you would be able to do it."
Dumbledore stood and hurried around his desk, took the bottle with Slughorn's memory in his uninjured hand, and strode over to the cabinet where he kept the pensive.
"And now," said Dumbledore, placing the stone basin upon his desk and emptying the contents of the bottle into it. "Now at last, we shall see, Harry.."
Harry bowed over the pensive and felt his feet leave the floor...Once again he fell through darkness and landed in Slughorn's office many years before.
It looked pretty much like it had before, a much younger Slughorn sitting behind his desk, surrounded by Voldemort and a few of his future Death Eaters. Marvolo's gold and black ring gleaming on his young Tom Riddle's finger.
"Sir, is it true Professor Merrythought is retiring?" He asked, like he did once before.
"Tom, Tom, if I knew I couldn't tell you." Was once again Slughorn's answer, but instead of getting smart with Riddle, like he did in the last dream Slughorn said. "I must say, I'd like to know where you get your information, boy, more knowledgeable than half the staff you are. With your uncanny ability to know things you shouldn't and your careful flattery of people who matter. I confidently expect you to rise to Ministry of Magic within twenty years."
Tom Riddle merely smiled as the others laughed. Harry noitced he was by no meaned the eldset of the group of boys, but that didn't stop them from looking at him as their leader.
Harry toned out the next conversion in which Tom Riddle said he didn't have the right back ground for politics, and Slughorn made Harry want to throw up, but giving Riddle all kinds of complements and praises. Harry turned back and paid attention again when it came to the part where Voldemort asked Slughorn about the Horcruxes.
"Well, " said Slughorn, when Voldemort asked about the Horcrux. "I guess it can't hurt to explain it to you, a Horcrux is the word uses for an object in wich a person has concealed part of their soul."
"I don't understand how that works, though, sir." Riddle said.
"Well, you split your soul, you see." Slughorn explained, "and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But of course, existence in such a form..." Slughorn's face crumbled..."Few would want it, Tom, very few, Death would be preferable."
By now Riddle's hunger was now apparent; his expression was greedy, he could no longer hide his longing.
"How do you split your soul?"
"Well," Slughorn uncomfortably, "you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Spiltting it is an act of violation, it is against nature."
"But how do you do it?"
"By an act of evil-the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage to his advantage: He would encase the torn portion-"
"Encase? But how-?"
"There is a spell, do not ask me, I don't know it." Said Slughorn. "Do I look like as though I have tried it-do I look like a killer?"
"No, sir of course not." Riddle quickly said. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to offend..."
"Not at all, not at all, not offended," said Slughorn. "It's natural to feel some curiosity about these things...Wizards of a certain caliber have always been drawn to that aspect of magic..."
Harry wondered what kind of wizards Slughorn knows, being curious about magic was normal for young wizard, even some old ones, that might come across a spell they never heard of, but Harry didn't find anything normal or natrul for someone to want to kill and rip their soul apart.
"What I don't understand though, sir, out of curiosity I mean." Riddle went on. "Would on Horcrux be enough. Can you only split your should once? Wouldn't it be better to, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces, I mean, for instance, isn't seven the most powerful magical number, wouldn't seven-"
"Merlin's beard, Tom." Slughorn yelped. "Seven! Isn't it bad enough to think of killing one person? And any case...bad enough to divide your soul...but to rip it into seven pieces.."
Slughorn looked deeply troubled now: He was gazing at Riddle as though he had never seen him plainly before, and Harry could tell that he was regretting entering into the conversation at all.
"Of course," Slughron mumbled. "This is all hypothetical what we're discussing, isn't it? All academic..."
"Yes, sir, of course." said Riddle quickly.
"But all the same, Tom...keep it quiet, what I've told you-that's to say, what we've discussed. People wouldn't like to think we've been chatting about Hrocrux. It's banned subject at Hogwarts."
"I won't say a word, sir." Tom said, and he left, but not before Harry glimpsed his face, which was full of that same wild happiness it had worn when he had first found out that he was a wizard, the sort of happiness that did not enhance his handsome features but somehow made them less human."
"Hypothetical my..."
"Thank you, Harry," Dumbledore cut in. "Let us go.."
When Harry landed back on the office floor Dumbldore was already sitting down behind his desk. Harry sat too, and waited Dumbledore to speak.
"I have been hoping for this piece of evidence for a very long time," said Dumbledore at last. "It confirms the theory on which I have been working, it tells me that I am right, and also how very far there is still to go..." Dumbledore broke off, suddenly looking older than he already did, if that was even possible.
"Well, Harry," Dumbledore went on. "I am sure you understood the significance of what we just heard. At the same age you are now, or should be, that is, if had not been turned. But at the age of sixteen, Tom Riddle was already doing all he could to find out how to make himself immortal."
"Seven, he made seven." Was all Harry could say, he ran a hand through his hair, feeling sick. "How...why would..." He shook his head.
"You heard Voldemort: What he particularly wanted from Horace was an opinion on what would happen to a wizard so determined to evade death the he would prepared to murder many times, rip his soul repeatedly, so as to store it in many, separately concealed Horcruxes. No book would have given him that information. As far as I know-as far, I am sure, as Voldemort knew- no wizard had ever done more than tear his soul in two."
"But...that's just..." Harry shook his head again, unable to say just what it was.
"Four years ago I, I received what I considered certain proof Voldemort had split his soul."
"Where?" Harry demanded. "How?"
"You handed it to me, Harry," Dumbldore said. "The diary, Riddle's dairy, the one giving instructions on how to reopen the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry sat staring at Dumbledore stunned. Rigel had been right, Riddle's diary had been one. Ginny wasn't going to like that one bit.
"Although I did not see the Riddle who came out of the diary, what you described to me was phenomenon I had never witnesses. A mere memory starting to act and think for itself. No something much sinister lived inside that book."
"So, does that mean he only has six left?" Harry asked. "Do you know what are they or where are they?"
"Just hang on a moment there, Harry, you are forgetting one thing." Dumbldore said. "The seventh piece of his soul would have had to stay inside of him."
"So, that means there is only five." Harry said.
"Slow down, Harry, let me finish." Yes, there would have only been six object holding Dumbledore's soul, and only five remained after you and your friends destroyed Riddle's dairy. And I have destroyed another." Harry's head snapped up and he looked into Dumbldore's blue eyes.
"You have?" Harry asked. Dumbledore gave a nod.
"The ring," Dumbldore said. "Marvllo's ring," He raised his injured hand. "A nasty curse it had on it too." Harry frowned at the blackened hand. "No matter," Dumbledore lowered it. "The important thing is, the ring is no longer and Hrocrux."
"How did you find it?" Harry asked.
"Well, as you know, for many years I have made it my business to discover as much as I can about Voldemort's past life. I have traveled widely, visiting places he once knew. I stumbled across the ring hidden in the ruin of the Gaunt's house. It seems that once Voldemort had succeeded in sealing a piece of his soul inside it, he did not want to wear it anymore. He hid it, protected by many powerful enchantments, in the shack where his ancestors had once lived, never guessing that I might one day take the trouble to visit the ruin, or that I might be keeping an eye open for traces of magical concealment." Dumbledore took a breath then went on.
"However, we should not congratulate ourselves too heartily. You destroyed the diary and I the ring, but if we are right in our theory of the seven-part soul, four Horcruxes remains."
"And they could be anything." Harry said. "They could be old tin cans or, I dunno, empty potion bottles..."
"You are thinking of Portkeys, Harry, which must be ordinary objects, easy to overlook. But would Lord Voldemort use tin cans or old potion bottles to guard his own precious soul? You are forgetting what I have shown you. Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies, and he preferred objects with a powerful magical history. His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve himself a startling place in magical history; these things suggest to me that Voldemort would have chosen his Horcruxes with some care, favoring objects worthy of the honor."
"The diary wasn't the special." Harry argued.
"The diary, as you have said yourself, was proof that he was the Heir of Slytherin; I am sure that Voldemort considered it of stupendous importance."
"So, the other Horcruxes?" Said Harry. "Do you think you know what they are?"
"I can only guess," Said Dumbledore. "For the reasons I have already given, I believe that Lord Voldemort would prefer objects that, in themselves, have certain grandeur. I have therefore trawled back through Voldemort's past to see if I can find evidence that such artifacts have disappeared around him."
"The locket!" Harry cried. "Hufflepuff's cup!"
"Yes," said Dumbledore, smiling. "I would be prepared to bet-perhaps not my other hand, but a few fingers, that they became Horcruxes three and four. The remaining two, assuming again that he created a total of six, are more of a problem, but I will hazard a guess that, having secured objects from Hufflepuff and Slytherin, he set out to track down objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Four objects from four founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over Voldemort's imagination. I cannot answer for whether he ever managed to find anything of Ravenclaw's. I am confident, however, that the only known relic of Gryffindor's remain safe."
Dumbledore pointed his blackened fingers to the wall behind him, where a ruby-encrusted sword reposed within a glass case.
"So, in order for Voldemort to be killed, we have to destroy his Horcrux." Harry said.
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded. "Without his Horcruxes, Voldemort will be a mortal with a maimed soul. But be warned, his soul may be damaged, but his brain and magical powers are still all intact."
"So, if he has four, and only three things from Hogwarts founders, then what is the fourth?" Harry frowned in confused.
"Ah, yes, I was hoping you would catch that bit." Dumbledore smiled. "I believe in his need to have one more Horcrux and was unable to find an object of Gryffindor's, so he turned to the only thing he thought he could. Nagini."
Harry frowned, "His snake, you can put your soul in a living thing."
"I believe so." Dumbledore nodded. "That brings me to something else, we were calling this theory of ours, the seven-part soul theory, when we should be calling it the eight-part soul theory."
"Bloody hell, there is another I have to find?" Harry demanded.
"No, that one had already been destroyed, I believe." Dumbledore said.
"Good," Harry nodded. "Did you destroy it like to you did the ring? What was is?"
"No, I did not destroy it." Dumbleodore answered.
"Then who-?"
"Your sister." Dumbledore said.
"Sophia, but she doesn't know about the Horcruxes does she?" Harry demanded.
"No, she does not." Dumbledore said. "But this Horcrux happened to be destroyed to save you."
"What, I don't understand." Harry said. "And what was it?"
"It was you." Dumbledore said. Harry's jaw dropped.
"Me?" He said.
"Yes, you." Dumbledore said. "I believe that is why you had that connection with Voldemort, why you could see his thoughts, why your scar hurt when he was near, and why you could speak to snakes. And when you were attacked by that Hybrid at the Ministry, and Sophia was forces to turn you in order to save you the-"
"The vampire venom killed the part of his soul that was inside me." Harry finished. ''That's way I had that reaction when turned that no one else ever did, with that scream and light, that was his soul part being destroyed by Sophia's vampire venom."
"Yes, and that is why you no longer can speak with snakes or have that connection with Voldemort." Dumbledore said.
"Is that's why you've been leaving the school?" Harry asked. "To find these Horcruxes or clues to where they might be?"
"Yes." Dumbledore nodded. "That is why."
Harry sat in silence for a moment, looking down at his hands, taking all this in, before he looked back up at Dumbledore.
"I want to go." Harry said. "When you find where one is, I want to go and help destroy it."
Dumbledore looked into Harry's eyes a long moment, before he slowly nodded. "I believe that can be arranged."
'Really." Harry asked, a little stunned, thinking he would have to argue to go.
"Yes, I believe you have proved you are more than ready." Dumbledore said. "After all you did already destroy one."
Ten minutes later Harry left Dumbleodore's office and made his way up to the Room of Requirement, he opened the door and went on in to find Ginny sitting in the middle of the bed, and Rigel and Teddy sitting in chairs on the other side of the room. All three looked up when he entered.
"Eight." Harry said. "They were eight of them, six he made on purpose, the part of the soul that had to stay in his body, and one he never knew was made. Three were destroyed, four is still hidden away."
"Merlin." Teddy mumbled, he split his own soul seven times."
"Yeah." Harry mumbled, running his hand through his hair. Ginny frowned and stood up and walked over to Harry.
"What is it?" She demanded, looking Harry right in the eyes. "What are you not telling us."
Harry sighed, then in a very low voice said. "It was me, the Horcrux he never meant to make was me."
The next few days Harry couldn't get the fact he was a Horcrux out of his head, it was even starting to affect his school work, in Charms class, instead of turning a vinegar into Wine, he turned it to ice, which made Teddy laugh he made his flask explode. And Harry started laughing at him. All week-long Harry would mess up on his work, for his mind was on Horcruxes and the fact that he was one, Ginny and his friends was beginning to worry, and one thing Harry had kept from them, but he though Rigel knew or at least excepted, was if Sophia had not turned Harry and called the par of Voldemort's soul that was inside him, then he would have had to die, before Voldemort could be killed, he was thankfull more now than ever that Sophia had turned him.
Something else that had Harry in bad-mood, his last visit to Dumbledore's office he showed Harry the memory he had of Trelawney of all people giving the prophecy about him and Voldemort, the one that made Voldemort go after Harry and his family, he had never listened to the little glass orb he had from the ministry and Dumbledore had thought it time Harry knew it. But he also told Harry, Voldemort had found out because some eavesdropping Death Eater heard part of it and after getting into a fight some years later with his dad over something Dumbledore would not tell Harry, the Death Eater, who had lost the fight told what he knew to Voldemort, and that was way Harry and his family had to go into hiding, and that's way he had no parents today, because of a eavesdropping, sore losing Death Eater, and Dumbledore refused to tell Harry who it was, only that he was now sorry for his actions and was no longer one of Voldemort's puppets, that only made Harry snort.
A week later Teddy was walking down the hall, by himself, Harry and Ginny was off somewhere, and Rigel was doing a detention with McGonagall and Luna was waiting for him in the Library.
He was in a pretty good mood, today, he had no reason not to be, it hadn't been a bad day. But on his way to the Library to study with Luna, he was walking passed a corridor when he heard someone cry out, he stopped and looked, and what he saw mad his blood boil; there halfway down the hall was his baby sister, she was down on the floor block her head with his hands while Nott was standing over her with a couple of his Slytherin buddies, wand pointed at her.
"Hey!" Teddy cried out, "Live my baby sister alone!" He pulled out his wand and rushed forward.
Nott, and his buddies looked up and laughed. "This doesn't concern you, Lupin, so your best bet is to walk away and mind your own business, or you'll get what I am going to give her." Nott nodded his head toward Britney as his friends laughed again.
"I would rather you curse me." Teddy said, narrowing his eyes, almost looking like a wolf himself. He took a step, so that he was standing in front of Britney, blocking her from harm.
"I will give you just one more warning, Lupin." Nott said. "Move or we'll move-"
"SECTUMSEMPRA." He cried, yelling out a spell he saw in the Half-blood potion book, it hit Nott, in the chest knocking him to the ground, the spell ripped open his robes, shirt, and all, putting a big gash across his chest, Teddy was so shocked he just stood there staring at Nott, Britney gasped and covered her mouth as she stood up next to her brother, and Nott's friends went running down the hall only to come back minutes later with Snape himself. Who with the help of Nott's friends, had picked him up to carry to the hospital wing, Snape glance back at Teddy only once, to tell him not to move and to stay standing.
"Teddy, how could you-"
"I didn't know that was that spell okay?" Teddy snapped. "I...it just came out, they made me so mad, it just came out."
"You're going to be in a lot of trouble." Britney said. "And when Mum and dad find out."
"I know, Britney." Teddy snapped, again he looked back at her. She looked down with a hurt look on her face, making Teddy feel bad. "They didn't hurt you did they?"
She shook her head. "They saw me walking alone and was trying to get back at me."
"For what?" Teddy demanded, with a frown.
Britney's face suddenly turned red and she mumbled something Teddy didn't hear.
"What?"
"I blacked Nott's eye the other when I threw my school book at him."
"You're the one that did that?" Teddy demanded. Britney nodded. Teddy stared at her in shock for a moment, before he started laughing. "I'll have to tell Rigel he owes you some flowers." Before Britney could as what Teddy was talking about Snape appeared back.
"I see nothing funny here." he said. Teddy and Britney went quiet and turned o him. Snape stared Teddy in the eye for a long hard moment, before glancing to Britney. " Get to your common room, Now." Britney without a word turned and headed that way, and Snape looked back to Teddy, and before he could even try to explain what was going on, Snape spoke.
"I hear you have suddenly become very good in potions." he said, which shocked Teddy, he had excepted to be told off or giving detentions, and before he could answer Snape said. "Where did you learn that spell?"
"The Slythrins." Teddy lied. "They go around shouting it all the time."
"Liar." Snape snapped. "I admit, I have had to take a point or two from my house for the use of that spell, but you don't except me to believe, you the son of a werewolf and Auror, Gryffindor to the bone, pays any attention to the spells done by the Slytherins." Teddy just crossed his arms and glared. "Go get me your potions book I wish to see it."
"Why?" Teddy demanded. "It has nothing to do-"
"NOW!"
Teddy knew better than to disobey an order from Snape, and he turned and ran up to the Gryffindor common room, upon entering he saw Rigel sitting in front of the fireplace doing his homework, and a he ran that way.
"Give me your potion book." Teddy demanded, without so much of a hey Rigel how you doing. Rigel looked up at him with a frown.
"Why, lose faith in the almighty prince?"
"Just let me see it I'll explain in a minute." Teddy demanded. Rigel frowned, then shrugged and tossed Teddy his potion book, before going back to his homework, as Teddy fled back out the common room and back down to where Snape stood waiting for him. he tossed Snape the book, it almost slipped through his fingers. Snape frowned suspiciously at it, and flipped through it then snapped it shout and looked up at Teddy.
"This is not your book." He said.
"Yes it is." Teddy said. Snape opened it back up and held it up showing the front page.
"Then way, under this belongs to does it have written Trouble." Snape raised his eyebrow.
"That's me." Teddy tried to lie, my friends call me Trouble."
"Really?" Snape sneered, snapping the book shut. "You four must think I am stupid." He tossed the book at Teddy's feet. "After calling each other those silly nicknames for the last seven years, you should know I have learned that you are Morph." he made a face at the name. "And Trouble happens to be Black." After looking Teddy over a moment he sneered. "For attacking a student in such an awful matter detention for the rest of the year with me, starting this Saturday, report to me first thing and I shall show you want you'll have to do."
"But...Saturday is the last Qudditct Match of the year, we take on Ravencalw for the-"
"Ask me if I care." Snape snapped. "Show up or else." he turned to walk away, before turning back with another sneer. "And by the way...I will be owling your parents about this." He turned and walked on.
"I still can't believe you even did that curse." Ginny said. It was Saturday night, they were all in the Gryffidor common room, Ginny and Harry had waited in there to see what Snape had made Teddy do, he didn't have to worry about Qudditch after all, earlier that day the game had been canceled do to threat made toward Hogsmeade of an attack, it never happened, but Dumbledore had canceled the match, not wanting to risk, if one did, a stray spell or curse hit a player and knock them off their broom.
"For the billionth time, I didn't know it was that spell or I wouldn't have used it." Teddy said. "I knew it looked a little familiar when I read it in my book, but I never paid that much to the Slytherins when they throw spells at us, too busy trying to fight back to listen."
"I could have told you what it was." Rigel said. "If you would have asked or showed me what it was." Teddy glared at him.
"I told you all along that book was trouble." Ginny said. Teddy turned his glare to her. He was not in a very good mood, Snape had made him, by hand with no magic rewrite the old faded detention flies and he will be doing that ever Saturday and Sunday till the end of the year.
"No, Trouble is sitting over there." Harry nodded toward Rigel with a smirk trying to lightned the mood, Ginny just rolled her eyes, and Teddy smiled a little.
"Where is that book anyway?" Rigel asked. "I haven't seen you with it since you cured Nott."
"Hid it." Teddy said. "You think I want to be caught with that book? Who knows what other dark spells it written in it, besides wouldn't want it to fall into the wrong hands."
"Good thinking." Harry nodded. "I would have destroyed the thing, but hiding is good enough, where'd you hid it?"
"I tried to destroy it." Teddy said, "I just couldn't bring myself to, it did help me good in potions, anyway, I hid it in the Room of Requirement, under a bust of some ugly bloke with a girly crown on its head." Rigel snorted at that.
"Hey, Harry." Ron came up to Harry holding a not. "I was told by Dumbledore to give you this."
"Thanks." Harry said, he took the note and opened it and once Ron walked away he jumped to his feet. "It's from Dumbledore, he wants to see me right away."
"Blimey." Teddy said. "You don't think he's find one do you?"
"You better go and find out." Ginny said. Harry gave her a quick kiss and ran out the door, heading toward Dumbledore's.
A.N. I am ending it there. The next chapter will have Harry and Dumbledore going to the cave. Sorry it wasn't very long, but I just wanted to get all that out of the way, before the big stuff happens