Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, as such all rights, royalties, characters, and settings belong to her.

The Son of Prongs and the Snitch and Stone

Chapter 14: Unspeakable

Harry sat nervously, feeling cold seeping through him. The massive bear shaped patronus Tonks had conjured before paced before the door to the drawing room. The dark magic within made a chill run down his back.

There was a brisk knock at the door and Andromeda hurriedly opened the door. A rather round man that wore shimmering dark green robes stepped inside. As he lowered his cowl, his bald head reflected the light of one of the small lamps in the foyer and he adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses that sat atop the bridge of his nose before glancing around the room.

"Charlie Croaker, this is Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Harry Potter." Andromeda said as she gestured to the three of them. Immediately Croaker's expression broke into an enormous grin and he reached out to shake Harry's hand.

Harry shook it and felt the man's grip tighten on his forearm, "An honor to meet you Mr. Potter... I must say your survival has always intrigued me and my office."

"Charlie is an Unspeakable, he works in the Department of Mysteries." Andromeda said.

"Yes, yes... I am currently the liaison between the Department and the DMLE." He glanced around for a moment. "I say, is it cold in here?"

Tonks shuddered. "Not exactly... That's partly why we called you. Harry found something in the drawing room as we were cleaning it out. He found a silver locket with an amber face. We couldn't get it open until Harry told it to open in parseltongue... accidentally. Then it smashed open and an enormous black column of energy shout out. A figure came out and started taunting Harry and then Sirius... I have no idea what it was but it felt almost like a Dementor."

"Mr. Potter is a paselmouth? Fascinating..." Croaker said after a moment before drawing a wand from his pocket. He walked through Tonk's patronus and opened the door.

He stared, his eyes going wide and entire expression turning pale. He lifted his wand. "Cognosco..." When nothing happened he swallowed. "Obscurum Finite... Tenebrarum Revelio... Animum Revelio..." With the last spell a blood red haze filled the room as Harry watched and the Locket itself seemed to glow with a malevolent red light.

"You cannot destroy me, Unspeakable..." The shadowy figure spoke from the midst of the column of darkness.

Croaker stepped back, his wand shaking in his hand and shut the doors. Then he gasped for breath. "In all my years..."

"What is it?" Tonks asked.

"It is... I... I am not sure." Croaker said quietly and glanced around the room. "Y-Your reference to a Dementor is close, but I... I'm not sure what it is. I... it was almost like... No, no one is that foolish or that demented."

"What?" Sirius asked.

"You may not know but the Dementor is... a creation of dark magic, there is an ancient curse long outlawed that would attack, corrupt, and shatter it's target's very soul, in the process it would summon a demonic wraith composed of the corrupted soul's fragments, the Dementor. Dementors hunger for soul energy, and latch onto emotions and souls for food... Some say they are trying to reassemble the souls that formed them." Croaker pulled out a handkerchief from his robes and dabbed at the sweat which was pouring from his brow. "What is in there is something very similar... a Wraith apparently attached to the locket."

"Someone's soul was cursed to a locket?" Remus asked, his mouth gaping.

"Possibly... I have heard of something similar, the problem with that theory is that there amount of soul energy present isn't enough for it to be someone's whole soul. Moreover even half a soul tends to have a human like appearance... for it to assume such a demonic looking form suggests that only a small fragment of a soul is attached to the locket." He took a deep breath and pulled out a large block of chocolate and snapped it in two then snapped one of the halves in twain. He stared at it for a moment. "Damn... that might be it."

"What?" Sirius snapped.

"Sirius, I want you to go to the library of this house and look for a book: The Secrets of the Darkest Art. As this is the Black Library, I would not be surprised if there is a copy there." Croaker stated. "I think I know what that... thing is, and if I'm right, this is a far more serious matter then I thought."

Sirius clambered up the stairs after Croaker finished. Harry studied the man as he stood up and ate a bit of chocolate. "What's all this about souls anyway?"

Croaker chuckled. "Ahh... Let us just say that my Department deals with the Great Mysteries... Magic, Love, Life, Death, Souls, Time, Destiny, Prophecy, Good, and Evil are among our subjects. We are part philosopher and part... scientist I would say. In fact I've tried to get the Department to recruit more heavily from the muggleborns, their world view gives them a unique perspective." Croaker sighed. "Of course, that may have been why Rookwood betrayed us... may he rot in Azkaban."

"So you have proof the soul exists, then what about the afterlife or..." Harry stopped as Croaker held up a hand.

"We are called Unspeakables for a reason Mr. Potter. We are not allowed to discuss what we know. Surely you can think of knowledge that could be dangerous if given freely to the world... The existence of magic told to the muggle public, the secret to immortal life to dark wizards, or nuclear weapons to politicians?" Croaker smiled faintly. "If you are interested in those questions perhaps you should try and ace your examines and apply to work with us."

"Consider for example... Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in existence, while you cannot truly brew love, the potion has a most interesting side effect... its fumes have a unique odor to each who smells them. We thought little of it until a married pair of researchers smelled them and realized that amongst what they smelled was their partner's scent. We brought in children and asked them what they smelled... wrote down the results and then brought them back twenty years later and you know what we found? They smelled the exact same thing, brought back fifty years or a hundred years afterward it was the same, and every one of them said so. If the scent never changes, does the person change? Are we destined for one single person...? All these questions were brought up from that one experiment."

"Okay..." Harry said carefully.

"Yes, and now I have spoken only of the experiment, not our conclusions... for those are the portion of our work that must remain, secret..." Croaker said with a chuckle before Sirius scrambled down the stairs with an ancient tome. As he handed it to Croaker the old Unspeakable swallowed nervously. "I do hope that I am wrong." He opened the tome and flipped through it for several moments before stopping. He stared down through his glasses and swallowed. "I forgot how disgusting this book was..." Then he snapped it shut.

He walked into the drawing room and lifted his wand. "Casscrux Montrer." There was a bright white flash of light from the tip of his wand. Slowly he lowered it to the floor and backed away. When the doors shut he closed his eyes. "Bollocks."

"What?" Tonks asked.

"It's a Horcrux..." Croaker said as he turned toward them. "A bloody soul anchor created by a Dark Wizard. So long as it exists, and others like it, whoever created it cannot truly die even if their body is destroyed in battle."

Gasps filled the air and Harry felt his heart hammer in his chest. There was only one question now. "Who?"

"I do not know... Mr. Potter, would you come with me... If you opened it you should be able to close it as well so I can transport it." Croaker stopped. "Parseltongue... a parselmouth must have created it and..." He grew frightfully pale and his mouth fell open in shock. Slowly he turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter, do you know who the last known Parselmouth in Britain was?"

"Voldemort." Harry said quietly. "Wait... Oh Merlin."

"Yes Mr. Potter... Oh Merlin, indeed." Croaker said as the others in the room turned deathly pale and Remus's already fair complexion achieved that of cold porridge. "And it is worse... There's only about a quarter of a soul in that locket..."

"What's that matter?" Harry asked.

"You see, each time a wizard creates a horcrux they effectively snap their soul in two... If there was only one horcrux, half his soul would be in that vessel... Instead we have only a quarter." Croaker swallowed. "He made two, at the very least, with a third piece in his body until he met you that fateful night. Three is an arthimatically significant value. It would appeal to him... I hope I'm right that he only made two... if he made more, then..."

Andromeda spoke up at that moment. "The next arthimatically significant number is seven."

"What would happen to the part that had been in his body?" Harry asked. "Is it on the loose?"

"I don't know Mr. Potter..." Croaker said. "Souls usually require a vessel to survive unless they have passed on... perhaps he found one, if not he is probably long withered into little more than a particularly decrepit spirit unable to harm anyone."

"Could he return to a body?" Sirius asked.

"Possibly, the soul fragment inside a horcrux could certainly take control of another body... It is an exceptionally dark ritual to create a body so the most likely means would be possession." Croaker said.

"But, in order for Voldemort to be gone for good, these things have to be destroyed?" Remus asked. When Croaker nodded, Remus continued. "How?"

"Unfortunately, I know of only two means that have been reported to have success against horcruxes. Fiendfyre and basilisk venom, it is possible there are others but I do not know of them. It would not surprise me if the killing curse would function against them as well." Croaker pursed his lips. "I can have a small supply of basilisk venom shipped from Egypt, but it will be expensive. We could use fiendfyre immediately to destroy the horcrux."

"Sirius, is there anything you want inside that room?" Remus asked. When Sirius shook his head Remus smirked, "Fiendfyre sounds good, if there's a way to contain the results."

"I can ward the room... that should be enough to contain the results." Croaker stated. "Miss Tonks, I believe fiendfyre is often taught to Aurors, if only to allow them to control it if cast against them."

"That's right..." Tonks short hair seemed to grow shorter and she paled. "I... I guess you want me to do it?"

"If you do not feel up to it, I can control the flames." Croaker stated. "But it will be more difficult for me as I must also erect the wards."

"Fine, I'll do it." Tonks said before straightening up to her full height.

After a few minutes, Harry and the rest retreated from the drawing room door while the elf Kreacher watched wide eyed from a side room. Croaker began to mutter under his breath waving the wand in a complex series of movements before the air seemed to shimmer and wave as a ward of magic rose like a shield isolating the room.

"I hate this bloody curse..." Tonks said quietly as stepped up to the door and lifted her wand. As it opened with a click, she yelled. "Infernus!"

With a roar, a flaming bear shot from the tip of her wand and rushed inside. It charged the towering black figure, which recoiled from the fire, its red eyes flashing with fear. Tonks's forehead dripped with perspiration, her eyes hardened as she held a second hand beside her wand, curling her fingers like a claw, directing the burning bear toward locket.

"You're nothing but a freak! No one will ever claim you, no one will ever love you changeling! You think this will prove your worth, this is nothing!" The shadow screamed as it seemed to try to heave itself from her bear's path. "No one will care that you're an Auror, you're nothing but a worthless half-blooded bastard Nymphadora Tonks!"

The taunting didn't faze her, she glared maliciously at the shadow as sweat ran down her cheeks. "Never call me Nymphadora!" Then with a final thrust of her hand, she directed the burning bear and it roared before snapping its flaming jaws around the locket. With a scream, the black magic exploded outward and tore the fiendfyre from Tonks control. The bear turned into a host of burning raptors, dragons, serpents, and others as Tonks swore and scrambled back past the wards.

Now it was Croaker's turn to sweat as the fiendfyre hammered against the shield he'd erected. "Can you try and extinguish it?"

"Deflammo!" Nymphadora shouted and a single one of the fiery figures disappeared but instantly it was replaced. "Damn it! I hate this bloody curse!" Then she proceeded to fight against the summoned flames, extinguishing them as they threatened to breach the ward.

Harry stared, stunned by the display of raw magic as flaming figures hammered against the wall of magic after burning through the drawing room's wall. Slowly the flames began to die down as the demonic fire consumed all that remained within the wards. Slowly Tonks gained the upper hand, vanishing the flames with a wave of her wand while Remus and Sirius moved up to help. After fifteen minutes, the fire was out leaving behind smoldering debris, which they began to vanish.

Kreacher crept past Sirius looking wide-eyed at the burned remains. Slowly he walked to where the locket had sat. He lifted a twisted hunk of metal and amber up and gaped. "Kreacher... Kreacher could not fulfill Master Regulus's last command to Kreacher, Master Harry and Mistress Nymphadora has done as Kreacher couldn't..."

"Kreacher, what are you talking about?" Sirius asked.

"Master Regulus stole the locket, Master Regulus died to get his vengeance upon the Dark Lord... Kreacher could not save him, could not finish the command given Kreacher. Kreacher was told to destroy the locket, Kreacher tried and tried but Kreacher could not." Kreacher said and Sirius gaped as tears fell from the elf's eyes.

"Reggie... Reggie stole the locket?" Sirius muttered in shock. "He... he turned against the Dark Lord?"

"Mistress would be so angry if she knew, Kreacher did not tell her." The elf said quietly before looking up at Tonks. "Kreacher wishes to apologize for his treatment of Mistress Nymphadora."

"Oh..." Tonks swallowed. "Please don't call me that?"

"Oh lord. You just gave him a weapon of mockery Tonks." Sirius groaned as the old elf grinned. "He's never called me anything but Master Sirius, or Reggie, Master Regulus."

Croaker wiped his forehead of sweat and sighed. "That's the hardest work I've done in ten years."

Harry smiled faintly as Sirius glanced around. "Well, I think after that... I guess we should call it a day."

"Yes well..." Andromeda smiled faintly. "Would you like to have dinner with us?"

"Perhaps some other time Andy..." Sirius said. "Maybe I should have just told the Ministry they could raid this place." He wiped his brow as Harry watched the adults slowly relax. "Right now, I want to go home and shower."

"Some other time then," Ted said with a faint smile. "Coming Dora?"

"Sure... you lot cook better than I do." Tonks said with a faint grin. "I'll see you some time."

"Mr. Black... A word," Croaker said before waving him to a small alcove. Harry sat down on a chair nearby and closed his eyes. He listened in, curiously while Remus stood across the hall looking nervous.

"Thanks for your help Croaker." Sirius said after a moment. He watched his only decent relatives apparated out of the house. "So..."

"You know this means it isn't over, there has to be another horcrux of his out there, until it's found there's a chance he could return." Croaker said quietly.

"I know, and if he does come back... Harry will be in the middle of it." Sirius said after a few moments. "I think, we've always figured he might not be gone for good."

"True..." Croaker said. "I'll do some research, hopefully we can dig up the location of the second horcrux and make sure another reign of terror doesn't begin."

"Good." Sirius sighed.

"I am curious about Harry though, how could he be a parselmouth? I thought the trait was hereditary and neither the Potter family or his wife had it." Croaker said.

Sirius sighed loud enough for Harry to hear it out in the hall. "We've been going under the assumption that Harry picked up the power somehow when he defeated Voldemort."

"I see... well, that may be possible." Croaker's boots clattered against the flooring. "I'm heading out. Have a Happy Christmas."

Then the Unspeakable was gone, disapparating with a crack in the center of the room.

"Harry, let's go home... Kreacher!" Sirius called as he stepped out into the foyer.

"Master Sirius?" The elf asked as he appeared.

"Do try and clean this place up a bit while we're gone." He said before taking Harry's hand. "Come on Remus... You're cooking tonight."

The old werewolf chuckled. "Of course, you still haven't bothered to learn."

Then the three marauders disapparated home with a crack. They arrived in the foyer of the Wolf's Lair a moment later and dispersed to clean themselves up.

The rest of the day was quiet. Remus fixed supper for them as Harry sat down in the kitchen. Suddenly a sob came from Sirius's spot as he slumped back in his seat. Remus froze and Harry turned to see his Godfather with tears running down his cheeks. "I... I hated him all this time and... it turns out he fought him."

"Sirius?" Harry choked out.

"My brother, the Slytherin, the Death Eater, the..." Sirius cracked and gasped for breath. "He went and gave his life to grab one of those things... He took bloody Kreacher along for the ride too."

"Sirius... You didn't know." Harry said quietly as Remus straightened and stared out at the snow covered hills. "No one knew."

"I know... it doesn't make it right though." Sirius said. "I happily danced on his grave."

"Padfoot, you didn't know... stop blaming yourself." Remus said quietly. "Who knows, maybe it means some of those snakes can be redeemed."

"Maybe... Andy was in Slytherin, you know?" Sirius said. "And she even dated Ted while she was at Hogwarts with Voldemort starting up and all that shite going down. I guess maybe you can be good, brave, and a snake..."

"Severus kind of proves that point." Remus said as he set a bowl of chips on the table. "Quirrell and now this... guess I just might have to start writing about your real adventures Harry." Remus ran a hand through Harry's hair before shaking his head. "Or maybe not... I doubt Croaker would appreciate us spreading talk of horcruxes around."

Harry nodded as Sirius rubbed his eyes. "Tonks seemed really cool." Harry said. "How's she able to change like that anyway?"

"She's a metamorphmagus, it's a rare ability." Sirius said quietly. "She was such a cute kid, didn't expect her to grow up to be an Auror though."

"I was impressed. I wonder if she's got her mastery in Defense yet?" Remus said with a faint smile as he finished setting the table. "Harry... I figured after that bit of excitement, you'd like a chance to do something normal?"

Harry blinked. "Normal?"

"Yeah... what is normal Remus?" Sirius asked with a faint smirk. "Pranking? Snowball fights maybe?"

"Actually, I was going to suggest that we invite Miss Granger over." Remus said.

"Really?" Harry gasped. "But... how?"

"Well, I could send Hedwig out with a letter and an invitation." Remus said with a faint smirk. "We should also find time to visit Diagon Alley, I'm sure you've got some friends you'd like to give Christmas presents too."

"That sounds great Remus." Harry almost shouted. "Blimey, actually having a friend over..."

Remus and Sirius looked at each other for a moment before Sirius started grinning. "Well, I guess that appeals to you Harry. I suppose we could arrange for a sleepover sometime during the summer for Ron... People get a little nervous with boys and girls doing that together though."

"We could stay in separate rooms or in the hall so you could keep an eye on us." Harry said quickly. "Come on Remus, Sirius?"

"We have to wait for what her parents say." Remus said with a laugh. "I think they'll let her come over for an afternoon at least."

Harry immediately hugged his guardians and grinned. "This is going to be great!" He almost cheered as the two adults burst into laughter.

That night Harry slept fitfully thanks to his busy day and the excitement of possibly having a friend in the Wolf's Lair. The next morning Harry was almost giddy, the horcrux and what he'd overheard between Sirius and Croaker largely forgotten, which was exactly why Remus had suggested it.

Hedwig was out the window with a letter before Remus had started breakfast and was back by noon with an answer from Hermione's parents and an address for them. That afternoon, Harry started pacing as Sirius disapparated to the village of Weston Farm, near Winchester to pickup Hermione. When they returned Harry was out the door almost the moment he heard the crack of disapparation.

Hermione looked green from the trip but brightened as she saw Harry hurrying to meet her. "Harry!" She said with a surprise as he pulled her into a hug. "It's only been a few days... did you miss me that much?"

"Maybe." Harry said before giving her a cheeky grin. "But it's been a very busy couple of days."

She stared at the hunting lodge with its statues of a stag, a wolf, a werewolf, and a large black dog and smirked faintly. "You live here? It looks like a hunting lodge."

"That's because it was..." Sirius said with a slight smile. "Come on, we'll give you the grand tour."

Remus laughed and waved his arm to the lodge. "Miss Granger, welcome to the Wolf's Lair."