Three week late chapter is three weeks late. Boo. ):

Chapter Twenty One

Anger. Fury. His eyesight turned a brilliant red in his uncontrollable blinding rage. He wanted to lash out at everything within his sight, but knew better and calmed himself.

"Surely," Voldemort said unnervingly calmly, "you are not suggesting to me, Lucius, that half my inner circle—my best Death Eaters—were defeated and turned over to the ministry by two people, no more than mere children?' His eyes narrowed into slits.

Lucius Malfoy stayed in a deep bow, not daring to look up as he spoke. "Y-yes, my lord; that is precisely what happened." He winced as his master hissed in anger.

"Crucio!" He managed to hiss out in his fury, pointing his wand lazily at the incompetent Death Eater before him. After a few minutes, he grew bored of his servant's screams and dismissed the spell. "Lucius, I kindly and generously over looked your failure at the Ministry and obtaining the prophecy for me, but this: two mere children taking out my Death Eaters for this one, small little raid? No, this will not be so easily over looked."

Voldemort tapped his child thoughtfully. He pondered what punishment would suffice for his servant as his faithful sidekick, Nagini, slithered around his shoulders. "Ah, Malfoy, I've got the perfect thing!" He said in a maliciously joyful tone. "There will be a meeting tomorrow to discuss; just I, what's left of my inner circle, and your son."

After his small moment of malicious glee, he ordered his Death Eater out of his sight before he ended his pathetic life and then strode to the room adjacent to his throne room and started blasting it apart. Once the room was in ruins and his anger sedated for now, he called for a house elf to have the room cleaned in an hour, or else it would end in the same state as the room currently was. He strode regally from the room, his cloak billowing behind him, not sparing a second glance at the pathetic creature he left the dirty work for.

~xXx~

Albus Dumbledore Apparated nearby the small town of Little Hangleton away from the prying eyes of the resident muggles and quickly made his way to the path that would lead directly to the town.

He was walking faster than one would think someone of his age could walk; fast, but not so fast as to arouse suspicion had anyone glanced out their window and seen him. As he walked, he was thinking to himself. Once he had heard that the attack had taken place at Little Hangleton, he knew there was indeed a good reason to send the Death Eaters to the ministry instead of making them fetch the incapacitated bodies.

He was about halfway down the path when he saw the entrance he was looking for. It was an overgrow path that led to a small rundown old shack. This shack was his destination.

Sure, he knew he could be wrong about this, about everything really. But his intuition just knew that these Fire and Ice characters were really Harry and Cecilia Potter. It all fit, so how could it not be true. Besides, how could two other people, at the same as the Potter twins' disappearances, discover the secret behind Voldemort's immortality?

But there was still an upside to this trip if everything turned out to be wrong. He had been meaning to visit this place since the beginning of the summer but never had a chance what with Harry and Cecilia going missing and trying to cover it and all that had happened. He needed to inspect the Gaunt shack for a horcrux, and if it hadn't already been found, that was his plan.

Right after he turned the corner on the path, he saw two figures fall to the ground, and a black cloaked man bending down next to them. The man pointed his wand at the two.

Thinking this was a Death Eater and the two he was looking for, he hurried down the path, making sure the occupied man didn't hear his footsteps. When he reached close enough that he could point his wand and make contact, he finally saw the silver mask on the ground and the curtain of black hair around his face and at once knew that this man was a Death Eater, but also a spy for the Order.

He listened to Severus Snape whisper 'Finite Incantatem' and watched as the disguises melted away from the two before them. The wand he had pushed into Snape's neck fell away as the two he had been searching for appeared. Even though he had been expecting them, his breath caught in her throat and he dropped his wand. He fell to his knees, not knowing if he was relived or shocked. He couldn't take his eyes off the prone forms of Harry and Cecilia Potter.

~xXx~

Previously:

"Common Harry, it's over here. I can feel it." Cecilia Potter shouted to her brother and motioned to him to follow her. She led him to a suspiciously dust free section of the hardwood floor. Harry nodded in agreement.

They both bent down on their knees and studied the floor although there wasn't much to look at. After casting several dark magic detection spells and coming up positive each time, they knew their suspicions were correct. They started testing the protections around the area, but their search came up relativity clear. "It can't be that easy. He's too paranoid to let it be that easy." Cici said, standing again, scratching her head in wonder.

"I remember once Dumbledore told me he suspected that Voldemort never thought anyone would make the connection between hi middle name and his father's name. Voldemort never planned for anyone to come here, therefore thought it wouldn't need to be as protected." Harry said, tapping his chin in thought. "He probably never expected anyone to get past the door."

"This is true…" Cici whispered. "Well, there's only one way to find out." Without giving Harry a chance to process what she said, she strode to floor they had been kneeling by earlier and waved her wand to pry the floorboards up. She reached in and pulled out a small wooden box. Engraved on this box was a green serpent in the shape of an S.

'Yes,' Cici thought as she lifted the lid slowly and revealed the small ring glittering in the faint light, 'this is exactly what we're looking for.'

A/N: Sorry this was soo late. I had a lot of band and school things going on the last three weeks. Three hour band rehearsals, band auditions for next year, the tests we had to take in order to graduate were last week, we had district band competitions, two research papers due, a new research project assigned, and three tests I HAD to study for. And a talent show. Plus my basement was flooded so I'm out my bedroom (it was in the basement) until we get that fixed. Busy three weeks, like I said.

Also, the earthquake/tsunami in Japan hit my family and me hard. Not only are we part Japanese with family there, but also someone I grew up with, who is like an older brother to me, in the air force was stationed in Japan due to come home in less than a month and we didn't hear from him until three days after. We were worried sick. But it's all good in that department, he's set to be home in fourteen days still and family is all okay and for that, I am beyond thankful.

WD

3/19/11