AN: I would like to apologize for how long between updates it has been. I lost my job earlier in the year and it took a while to find a new one, one I really don't like but need to survive. Do to that I haven't felt like being creative until lately. I can promise when the next chapter will be out or if I will go into the next year when this one is finished, but I know I want to. I hope you enjoy. Thank you for reading. Since you're no longer allowed to respond to all your reviews at the end of a chapter I just wanted to say thank you to all the wonderful reviewers.
Authors Note: You may need this.
Parseltounge
"Speech"
Thoughts/Telepathy
/flashback/
Map writing
Chapter 14:
Kira became aware of soft light beyond her eyelids at the same time she became aware of her brother. Her senses were honed on him, the scent of fear and chaos, the beat of a slow pulse counter-pointing her own, and the feel of clammy hands holding her cold fingers tightly. His voice was no longer loud within her mind; he was once again a soft presence within the dark. She noticed the hard surface on which she sat.
Harry felt a jump in the pulse beneath his fingers and his heart moved to match it. He noticed light, the scent of hope, and the sound of breathing. His eyes fluttered open slowly to reveal his sister's calm visage. She was seated across from him, lotus style as he was, with her eyes moving beneath pale skin. He realized he was no longer bombarded by the loudness of her mind; she was the quiet heartbeat within his magic. Her eyes opened and Harry held in a gasp, her eyes were dark almost violet blue and ringed with silver.
Kira opened her eyes slowly and met eyes of gold rimmed jade, serpent eyes. It took her but a moment to realize they belonged to her brother. She reached with her mind, a soft caress and felt him reaching for her. The mental hug was familiar, safe, welcome. She smiled a curving of the lips so slight Harry would have missed it had he not been looking. He responded in kind.
Tom had noticed the awakening of his children and began to slowly disengage the magical linking. The other members of the family stirred, noticing what Tom had already sensed. As the adults finished un-linking their magic, they watched Harry lift a hand to touch Kira's cheek gently. Kira lifted her hand and placed it over Harry's heart. Harry placed his other hand over Kira's heart which prompted Kira to place her other hand on Harry's cheek.
"Heart to heart, mind to mind, soul to soul, magic to magic, this I pledge to cherish and protect. May I never loose my way again," Kira and Harry's voices blended. The Dark Family felt the force of the pledge as the dome of white, dimmed but not yet gone, which had been cast the night before fell as glittering shards of light. The illumination faded leaving the Chamber cast in pale twilight.
The heirs turned toward their fathers and mother. "We're back," said Harry softly.
"And stranger then ever," finished Kira as her smile widened.
"What happened?" asked Tom as the others began to sweep up the salt and clean the circle.
Lilly moved to sweep the two children into a bone crushing hug before they had a chance to respond. Her eyes were moist and her breath caught in a near sob. The heirs held tightly as their mother crushed them to her. They could feel the relief, the undercurrent of lingering fear. "We really are okay, mum," whispered Harry. She backed away with a teary smile and helped them off the altar.
Kira groaned as she stretched her arms, back and legs. She couldn't remember being so stiff ever. Harry was stretching quietly beside her. They both noticed the entire Family was present and efficiently clearing what looked to be a coven cast circle. The heirs could feel curiosity and acceptance flowing throughout their family. The heirs knew they would have to explain. "When we've finished cleaning the circle, Kira and I will tell you what happened." The adults nodded and within a few more minutes the circle was cleared and the adults took seats on the couches.
Tom and Lilly left room between them for Kira and Harry to sit. The children accepted the not too subtle request and snuggled between their parents. Harry reached into his robes and pulled out a book. Tom recognized his diary and wondered how he had not sensed its presence the day before. "Here is the Horcrux," Harry said as he handed it to Tom. "What happened begins with that."
Tom took the book from his son and felt the binding spells on it. His children had wrapped it in so many wards he wondered how he would ever be able to open it. "The person it was controlling has been freed; you endangered yourselves to do so," Tom said calmly, anger simmering now that the danger was past.
"The Horcrux was already in near complete control," said Kira.
"An apparition of your fifteen year old self was forming from Ginny Weasley's magic and soul," continued Harry.
"We did not have time to wait. The Marauders' Map registered her as Voldemort, not Tom Riddle and not Ginny Weasley," clarified Kira.
"When we arrived in the statue corridor we saw that Weasley's core was gone from her body; her life force was a few breaths from death," Harry spoke with quiet horror.
"We didn't have time to think, plan or debate. If we hadn't acted we would have allowed a pure soul to be destroyed. We were taught better than that," Kira said with conviction.
"When our killing curse and Cruciatus curse went through the Horcrux's shade we knew we had to sever the connection to Weasley. We knew the only way to do that was to be in physical contact with the Diary," Harry explained.
"Unfortunately Harry was closer and since his shadows did not include the Dementors he did not have the same soul magic I did. He entered the Horcrux with me as an anchor but…"
Kira had trailed off in remembered fear. Harry squeezed her hand and gave her a mental hug as he picked the thread back up. "I was in a nightmare landscape. It was cracked and terrifying yet when I found the first pieces of Ginny Weasley's magic I knew I wouldn't leave without her entire core. I couldn't leave such innocence in that place."
"I felt Harry's pain as he touched the fractured Order Magic. It burned, froze and cut all at once. It was more painful then the first moments of a threshold event yet completely non-physical," Kira's voice was calm, the forced calm of too much emotion.
"I felt as if I was being torn apart and just when I was about to give myself to the raw magic that is always waiting, I felt Kira like a balm to my soul. Her magic soothed me. There was a point where we could have stopped. I point where I was unraveling, but I… we couldn't let the Horcrux win. We are the legacy and no corrupted piece of twisted Order Magic was going to defeat us."
"We joined, blended into one. I cannot describe what it felt like; I can barely remember. I only know there was pain afterward," Kira's soft tones held the same confirmation of strength that Harry's had.
"We were a perfect being for just long enough to save Ginny Weasley, but when the crisis was past we were…" Harry trailed off again.
"Light and shadow trying to exist as a blend without becoming twilight," offered Kira.
"You beheld the legacy before it was time," murmured Regulus.
Harry nodded, "That feels true."
"Why are your eyes different?" asked Sirius. James tilted his head, with a look on his face which asked the same question.
"We had to rebuild ourselves," replied Harry. "I know we have changed certain aspects of ourselves; our eyes are a side affect."
Tom remembered when his eyes had changed from light silvery blue to violet to blood red and then finally to sky blue once all of the changes had been wrought to his body. He asked with deep concern, "What of all the threshold events and changes? Will you have to go through them all again?"
"I don't think so, father," Kira responded.
"In fact we theorize that the threshold events may stop altogether," modified Harry.
"We gained each other's shadows," finished Kira.
Tom looked at them with mystic sight. He could see no difference between what he remembered of their cores and what he saw now. "I don't see any changes," he enquired with care.
"Do you remember the exact flow of our channels? Do you remember the configuration of our core structure? Even we couldn't remember that. What we built is different from what it was before. I can feel the difference," Harry argued. Kira placed a calming hand on his shoulder; his temper was flaring more than it should.
"Why are you so angry?" asked Narcissa softly.
"I'm not used to first hand empathy, especially when it's as strong as it is right now," explained Harry.
"There is fear, excitement and confusion emanating from the student body," expanded Kira. The emotions were rubbing her wrong as well because she could sense Dumbledore as the focus of the emotions.
"Can you tell why they are feeling such emotions?" asked Lucius.
"They just found out Dumbledore has recovered," spat Harry.
"I should go then," said Lucius, "I will need to call the other governors so that we can determine the sanity of the recovered headmaster." He stood.
Tom nodded to him as Harry informed him, "The Horcrux confirmed that Dumbledore is the one who gave Weasley the diary."
"We are ninety-nine percent certain he knew what it was," added Kira.
"I shall keep that in mind. Perhaps we should plan to have someone approach the Weasleys?" Lucius paused on his way to the apparation star.
"We will discuss that possibility, but for now you should return to your manor. You need to Floo the other governors for an overdue evaluation." Tom thought the idea had merit; perhaps the Longbottoms would be willing to help.
After Lucius left the rest of the Family discussed the changes they could expect from the heirs. The sharing of powers was no longer a sharing; instead they had identical shadows and abilities. The other change was the twin bond itself. The dependency was gone yet much deeper. Physical separation would cause them no harm and they suspected that their twin telepathy would have no boundaries based on distance. They would be rediscovering themselves in the coming months, but they were confident that they had retained the most important aspects of themselves.
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Dumbledore's recovery was front page of the Prophet. Draco sneered, disgusted that the world so loved the bastard. Hermione and Neville joined Blaise and him. Hermione asked after Harry and Kira. They told her that the heirs had never made it back to the dorms and were not in the hospital wing. Hermione looked over the paper after Draco was done; she too was disappointed that Dumbledore was well enough to return.
The four friends looked up at the sound of a glass being tapped as McGonagall stood. Her voice announced what the paper already told many. She informed them that their headmaster would be returning soon and wished them a good day. She sat back down and the whispers began. There was much speculation about the headmaster. Some Ravenclaws actually wondered about his sanity.
Breakfast ended and the four friends headed to Transfiguration class. The class was rather boring until the door opened around thirty-five minutes into class. McGonagall looked sharply at the door and her eyes widened in surprise and fear. The class turned to see who had startled their teacher. The students recognized Harry and Kira, but the man was a stranger. His dark hair was liberally sprinkled with gray and his eyes were blue. There was nothing overly remarkable although the Slytherins suspected they knew who he was. The Gryffindors were curious but only Ron suspected. The four friends recognized Tom Riddle, as did Minerva.
"It is normally customary for the headmistress to inform parents when their children are endangered by powerful magic," Tom's voice was silken and deadly. "Is there a reason I was not sent an owl the night before last?"
Minerva nervously said, "Mr. Riddle, there was no indication that your daughter was unwell."
He tapped his children on their shoulders, letting them know to sit. The two children obeyed. He stalked between the desks and stopped only one meter from Minerva. "Kira and Harry saved one of your precious little cubs' soul and you have the audacity to tell me there was nothing wrong with them?" His voice was a soft dangerous growl. Just then an owl flew in the window and landed beside Tom. He glanced at it and removed the letter. After reading it, during which time Minerva began to really fear for her life, Tom looked her in the eyes and said, "At least their head of house felt it prudent to inform me that they were ill yesterday. But as acting headmistress it was your responsibility to inform me immediately after the fact."
"Neither child indicated they were hurt," Minerva choked out.
"They were bleeding when you found them. Your pathetic cub was taken to the hospital wing, why weren't they?"
Minerva bristled under the insulting tone but valued her life too much to rise to the bait. Ron however was furious. "How dare you! My sister was possessed by your evil!"
Tom turned toward the red head, "You have a very discourteous tongue little weasel. The only reason I am not going to remove it permanently is because of your age." He whipped his wand at Ron and the boy fell back in fear and pain.
"Mr. Riddle! That was not necessary." Minerva stepped into his personal space, defensive of her lion cubs. "There was no reason to curse a child."
"Perhaps I should curse you instead. You after all are responsible for your charges aren't you?" The Slytherins were quivering with suppressed glee at the prospect of seeing the head of Gryffindor in pain while the lions were scared.
"Let her be," said a soft voice. Harry continued, "She is teaching me advanced transfiguration and I really don't want to see one of my favorite teachers tortured."
Tom glanced at his son. "Very well," he turned back to Minerva, "You had best teach your cubs to curb their impetuousness. I won't be as forgiving of insults in the future." He looked at Kira and Harry as he turned, "Send an owl if you need anything." Then he stalked from the room.
A few moments of silence followed before Minerva sank against her desk and sighed, "Class dismissed. Mr. Weasley, go see if Madame Pomfrey can fix your tongue." The class rose and the Slytherins left with flare while the Gryffindors fearfully filed out.
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Severus Snape looked up as the door opened to his class room. The dark lord stood in the door way. Severus said, "Stop where ever you are, clean and put away your cauldrons; class is dismissed. McDowell, you are in charge; make sure nothing blows up." He looked at the dark lord again, "Please come into my office so that we may speak." He walked to the side door which lead into his office and held it open. Tom Riddle went in first and sat down after carelessly transfiguring the chair into something more comfortable.
Severus entered and cast five warding spells, two anti eavesdropping spells, and one locking charm before sitting behind his desk. "My lord," he said softly while bowing his head. This was the man behind the monster. This was the man who gave a half-blood a chance to make something of himself. Severus made sure his shields were firmly placed with the appropriate memories around and just below the surface.
"I received your owl. Thank you for informing me of your fears; although you should have sent it immediately after dropping the children off in their common room."
"Your heirs made it sound as though they were going to contact you themselves."
Tom nodded, yes that was what Harry and Kira had told him. "Then why did you send the owl?"
"When they failed to show for class and Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Zabini indicated they were ill I was uncertain as to whether they had reached you yet or not. I choose to err on the side of caution."
"You did correctly. I wish to know what you witnessed in the catacombs."
Severus knew it was not a request. "Your heirs were holding a book while glowing with many colors, bleeding from ears, eyes, nose and mouth, and there was a young nearly see-through version of you which popped out of existence as we arrived. I do not think the other teachers saw the shade. Then your heirs held a glowing sphere between them and replaced it within Ms. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley called and cried until her child woke up. Minerva conjured a damp cloth for your children to clean up with. After that Minerva and Madame Pomfrey took mother and child away and were followed by Sprout and Flitwick. I asked if they needed medical aid and they said you would help them. I escorted them to the common room and retired for the evening."
His story corresponded to the heirs so Tom didn't bother to check with Legilimens. "You have done a better job of protecting them this year. From what I have been told you even helped look for the possessed child. For that I will reward you." He reached into his robe and removed a piece of parchment. "This is a potion formula for Wolf's-Friend. This potion will work for the werewolves who are unable to use Wolf's-Bane. It would be an interesting potion for you to research and publish. After all you have not been able to explain why your Wolf's-Bane potion does not work for everyone."
Severus took the parchment with a steady hand. Opened it to glance at the ingredients and procedures, he noticed that only two ingredients had been substituted. The steps associated with those ingredients were almost identical, but there were three additional steps as well. "I will study this potion. May I ask where you got it?"
Tom smirked enigmatically and said, "My wife and I have been working on recreating it for years. It existed over a thousand years ago."
Severus nodded his thanks, "Is there anything else you wish to ask, my Lord?"
Tom stood, "No." He turned and with a negligent wave of his wand dismantled Severus' spells. He left the room, seeming to glide. Severus watched him go and as Tom's presence faded he sighed in relief. He did not need the Dark Lord in Hogwarts checking up on him. He was however intrigued with the potion.
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Hermione and Neville hugged the heirs as soon as they were away from the Transfiguration's classroom. As Hermione drew back from squishing Harry she asked, "What was Tom going on about?"
"It's a bit complicated," said Kira making sure Hermione was looking her directly in the eyes.
Hermione was a very observant bookworm and while she had not noticed the heirs' eye color change during class, she couldn't help but notice it now. The eyes which had always reminded Hermione of amethysts were now royal blue ringed in glittering silver with darker violet spiraling from the pupils. Hermione blinked in surprise, "What happened to your eyes?"
"Lets head to the secret dungeon room and we'll tell you," said Harry. Hermione turned toward him and noticed his eyes had changed as well. They were no longer bright emerald jewels, rather now they were darker jade with swirling veins of gold which connected to a luminescent ring of gold along the edge.
Neville, Draco and Blaise had all attempted to see the change Hermione was talking about. Draco and Blaise were far more discreet than Neville but the heirs sensed their curiosity. The heirs made sure that their dearest friends could see the changes by meeting everyone's eyes before turning toward the dungeons. The six re-united friends walked confidently through the corridors.
The secret dungeon room had far more red and gold in it than the six friends remembered. Looks like the Weasley twins have been busy. Harry's thought was amused. Kira agreed with him and opened her mouth to hiss in parsel tongue.
What came out of Kira's mouth startled everyone. The sounds were soft chirps and whistles, like a bird. Harry heard the bird sounds, they were oddly familiar, but he also understood the words behind the chirps. Kira stuttered to a stop, eyes wide and said, "What the bloody hell is that?"
Harry looked at her, "I don't know, but I understood you."
Draco deadpanned, "You got a lot explaining to do Lucy."
Blaise, the heirs and Hermione couldn't help but burst out laughing. The odd muggle reference was just what was needed to calm the fear the heirs felt and relieve the tension in the room. Neville didn't get the joke but smiled at the lessoning of tensions. Draco quietly preened that his comment helped the way he hoped. The laughter quieted and the six friends made their way to the couches.
There was silence for a few moments and then Hermione said, "So your eyes are changed and instead of Parseltounge Kira was chirping. What happened?"
Harry sighed, "Long story short… we sort of screwed up our Magical Cores when we saved Weaslette and spent yesterday fixing them."
"That doesn't explain why your eyes would change?" said Hermione.
"Yes it does," defended Blaise. "The eyes of a witch or wizard reflect their magic to an extent. When something changes your magic drastically enough, your eyes change."
"Take my mother, for example," said Draco, "She underwent the Black Family ritual for fertility and her nearly black eyes became a very light sky blue. I've seen pictures of her as a child and her eyes look nothing like they do now."
"My father's eyes have been red and violet before becoming the blue you see today," said Kira.
"Nearly every muggle who has taken the magic inducing potion has had a slight change to their eye color, normally their eyes got darker," added Harry.
Hermione's mouth made a small 'O' in understanding, "So why would Kira start chirping?"
"My guess is somehow we've unlocked the true gift of the Slytherin line and since we shared all of our gifts during the rebuilding process I've gained the gift as well," explained Harry.
"True gift?" asked Hermione.
"You mean the gift of Tongues?" clarified Draco.
"That makes the most sense," mused Kira.
"Gift of Tongues?" asked Hermione.
"Is that even possible?" asked Neville at the same time.
"The gift of Tongues is the ability to understand and speak all magical languages," explained Blaise.
"Parseltounge is a very minor aspect of the gift and was passed through all branches of the Slytherin family, including squib lines," expanded Kira.
"The true gift died with Brianna Lithmore. Her children had Parseltounge rather than the full gift," reflected Harry quietly.
"The gift hasn't fully manifested in the blood line before this, not even father developed it after his various rituals," added Kira.
"It's said the gift of Tongues was a mark of a Light Mage," said Neville, "and it's believed to be something from the Ravenclaw line."
"Rubbish," said Blaise while Draco scoffed softly at him. "The Ravenclaw line didn't gain the gift until Meerlinda Slytherin married Withen Ravenclaw and two of their three children had the gift."
"How do you know that?" asked Hermione.
"The Winterset family descended from Meerlinda and Withen's daughter Melody who married a bastard of the Darvon line and decided to create the new family name of Winterset rather than confuse the Ravenclaw line more. The family book of blood stays with the eldest of each generation rather than simply going to the male heir of the line. My maternal grandmother was the eldest while her only brother was the male heir." Blaise explained this to Hermione without sounding too condescending. She really didn't like being questioned about her family.
Hermione frowned, "That seems very confusing."
"Wizarding relations are very confusing Hermione," said Neville. "While many official records are missing about various families, many of them have personal records which are accessible only to certain members."
"How in the world do you prevent bad inbreeding if only a few have the knowledge of close relations?" Hermione was very curious. She knew they had strayed off topic but this had bothered her for awhile now.
"A Book of Blood may only be with one member of the family but there is a simple blood rite which will reveal all relations within five generations of you. This prevents the horrible inbreeding that happened with muggles in the dark ages," Draco clarified.
"It has become much harder to prevent in the last few generations." Kira told them, "This generation of purebloods would have an awful time finding someone not related in five generations or less within the British Isles. Even looking beyond the Isles they would find a relation to nearly every other pureblood within the last ten generations."
"Its one of the reasons there are only about two hundred truly pure families within Great Britain. And only fifty can claim no muggle-born marriages within the last ten generations. This won't matter once Tom manages to reform things," said Draco.
"The Malfoys are one of those fifty," stated Hermione knowing this to be true simply from the family's reputation.
"As are the Lestranges, until last generation the Blacks and Potters were as well; the Dumbledore family, Notts, Parkinsons, Wintersets, Zabinis, McGonagalls, and Diggorys are a well, just to name some you might recognize," said Blaise.
"The Longbottoms…" began Neville.
"Lucinda Longbottom married Desmond Johansson who was a halfblooded Prewett and their daughter Dorothy married a muggle-born named Brendan Vincenti and their only magical child, Clarissa, married Marcus Pettigrew. The only child of their union was one Peter Pettigrew who is currently married to a muggle-born named Jasmine." Harry interrupted Neville.
"How did you learn all that?" asked Neville.
"I met Peter and Jasmine over the summer while I was with Sirius and asked Peter about his family. I wanted to know if/how I was related to him."
"The interconnectivity of the pureblood families is very fascinating as you can see Hermione," said Kira, "but I don't think blood line histories is what you are interested in."
"Right… the gift of Tongues… how did you…" she let the question trail off.
"The gift exists as a possibility within anyone descended from the Slytherin family. Somehow while we were reconstructing our cores one of us activated the gift. Since we now share all gifts we both have it," explained Harry.
"What… I don't understand. How did you damage your cores to the point of needing to reconstruct them and how could you do that?" Hermione was confused and fascinated.
"Have you learned more about what a Horcrux is?" asked Kira. Hermione shook her head. Kira sighed, "The simplest explanation of a Horcrux is that it is a fragment of the creator's soul trapped within an object. A more accurate description is that it is a piece of their Magical core wrapped in the most inhuman aspects of their personality locked inside an object yearning to live and fulfill the twisted desires of the personality."
Hermione and Neville shuddered. Blaise and Draco understood what a Horcrux was but hearing it explained that way made it seem both less and more evil. Harry added to Kira's explanation, "The Horcrux's fragment and personality are also very flawed in comparison of a normal Core or personality."
"Do you know what a fractal is?" asked Kira of Hermione. The question seemed to come from nowhere and Hermione could only shake her head wondering at the question. Kira sighed, "A fractal is a visual representation of a mathematical equation. The image is a pattern which has a certain shape that is repeated over and over again. The shape gets smaller as it is placed on top of the shape created before it. The pattern repeats over and over out toward infinity. A magical core looks much like a three dimensional fractal. It is formed by magic cutting through an unformed mass of energy. The magic shapes the raw magic of the core into shapes and then patterns them into channels. The channel walls are basically fractals while the overall shape of the core is a crystalline three dimensional maze. That is what a healthy core would sort of look like."
"Now imagine that crystalline structure was hit with a hammer," said Harry. "The broken and cracked pieces would be what a Horcrux looks like. When I was retrieving Weasley's magic core from the Horcrux the cracks and jagged edges cut my core."
"Since neither Harry nor I have reached magical maturity our cores are malleable. When the jagged edges of the Horcrux interacted with Harry's core it was like snagging a sweater on a nail. It pulled a strand of his core away from the rest and caused the structure to start breaking down. In order to prevent his core from shattering I pulled the pieces inside myself."
"That gave me the strength the finish pulling Weaselette's core, her soul from the Horcrux. Unfortunately as we withdrew from the Horcrux Kira's core was snagged as well. During the night our cores basically became their component pieces. We spent all day and night trying to fix them. We essentially rebuilt our magical cores."
Draco, Blaise and Neville had a good idea what that meant but Hermione didn't and asked, "So what happens to you now?"
"We learn and grow," said Kira.
"We prepare for instability and disaster and hope for the best possible outcome," added Harry.
"What happened to us has never happened before. We have soul-magic rituals which can help us try to understand the changes we have and will undergo, but these are uncharted theoretical aspects of magic."
"In the end we have to trust that we will be strong enough to survive and be stronger after what has happened," concluded Harry.
"So what can we do to help?" asked Neville.
"Keep an eye on us and if we seem to be…" Harry wondered what would be a good word.
"Going crazy, physically becoming ill, getting violent without cause, if you see things like that contact my father," finished Kira.
"What about Sirius Black?" asked Hermione.
"Let him know but send an owl to Father first," said Harry. The friends agreed.
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Alice Longbottom read the letter from her son a second time. The words hadn't changed, nor the horror of what he told her. The conversation he had with Kira, Harry, Draco and Blaise after Hermione left to research soul-magics had been horrifying. He had told her most of it in his letter mailed late in the night, just before he slept.
Dear Mother (it feels wonderful to write that)
Kira and Harry were gone most of the day and all of yesterday. They had to heal from what happened a couple nights ago. Sometime this past year a Horcrux was given to Ginny Weasley. She is Arthur and Molly's youngest and only girl. She was possessed by it and would have died two nights ago if not for Harry and Kira. The Horcrux isn't the real horror of this event; the real evil is who gave the Horcrux to her. She received the item (a diary) anonymously but we know who gave it to her. He is the highest ranking member of the staff here at Hogwarts and he was cursed with the symptoms for Spider-Locks. Please be careful, I can't loose you and Father again. Also please talk with Lucius Malfoy if he comes to see you.
I love you and father very much
Neville
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Lucius finished a letter to Alice and Frank Longbottom. He sealed it and set it aside. He would send it with the other missives which would go out in the morning. He called out the word which dimmed the lights in his study. Lucius stopped by his daughter's room. A soft smile touched his lips as he looked at her pale head sticking out of the covers. He turned in, lying beside the already sleeping Narcissa. She curled into him and he slipped gently into the land of dreams.
In a small village called Ottery St Chapel a red headed couple held tightly to each other. They feared for their daughter's safety. Neither trusted Dumbledore not to hurt her when he got back. They also couldn't afford to pull her from the school. Silently they prayed to be given guidance and an answer soon.
In Gryffindor tower Ginny was welcomed by Fred and George with bone crushing hugs. Percival held back but his smile was genuine. Ron's insincerity hurt more than Ginny would ever be able to put into words. The rest of the house was mixed on enthusiasm but glad she wasn't dead. Only the Weasleys, Hermione and Neville actually knew what had happened to her. The others speculated and a few were close to aspects of truth.
In the serpent's common room the heirs were welcomed with restrained exuberance. The heirs let the serpents know that the thing terrorizing Hogwarts was gone and would not return. Many serpents were curious for the full truth but they would learn the truth the Slytherin way, by being sneaky. But they felt that all was back to normal.
In the other tower dorm, the tower where the ravens roosted, a small blond gazed up at the slight moon. The pale silver light caressed Luna's up-turned face. A small smile graced her lips and she closed her eyes. She started to sway to her own inner music. Had anyone else been awake and listening intently they would have heard a whisper of sound. The sound was soft phoenix song and violin music, and Luna seemed to sway in time to its melody.