[Saturday, Sept 2]

While the Headmaster had been at the Welcoming Feast, he was absent from breakfast and lunch the next day. When he did make it down for dinner, he kept his right hand hidden in his sleeve at all times. Harry was not the only one that noticed both his absence during meals, and his use of his left hand. He looked around the hall during dinner and noticed that quite a few people were looking at the Headmaster during the meal.

After the meal was finished Professor McGonagall gave Harry a note.

"What's up mate?" asked Ron.

"The Headmaster wants to see me." He answered. None of his friends commented since this was a usual event.

During his meeting with the old wizard, Harry could tell the man was quite exhausted. He sat in his chair and barely moved. Most unusual for the Headmaster was that he did not beat around the bush when Harry arrived.

"Harry, my boy, I fear I have little time left in this world and I have much that I need to tell you." He began.

For the next hour Harry listened as Dumbledore explained about a young orphaned student named Tom Riddle. How the student evolved into Voldemort. He told Harry that Voldemort created six horcruxes in order to try to become immortal.

"I fear I am too tired to continue tonight, Harry. Perhaps you can return another night to hear more?" The old Headmaster asked.

"Yes sir. Feel better. Good night, sir." Harry said as he left.

Harry had listened silently. He already knew much of what Dumbledore had related. There were already three destroyed horcruxes, but the news that there were three more, four including Harry's own scar, was disheartening.

[Monday, Sept 4]

As usual, Harry managed to get in trouble with Snape the very first day of classes. The only difference between this and other years, was this time, Harry earned the detention on purpose. The detention had given Severus and Harry an opportunity to talk, it was the first time in a week that they were able to, and there was a lot to catch up on. The most important matter was removing Harry's horcrux. It was decided that the coming Friday night they would perform the ritual. This way, Harry could use the weekend to recover if need be.

Professor Snape told Harry that Lupin had taken over researching the mystery from his birthday. There was no news yet, but Lupin was quickly finishing with the books, being that headquarters was now empty. There was a certain amount of tension concerning this, if the answer was not in the books that Snape had borrowed from his Middle-Eastern friend, then there was little chance of finding what they were looking for.

Harry explained to Snape how they found the symbol from the stone that came off the ring. He also laid out the theory that Dumbledore's wand was the Elder Wand from the story. Snape was still in possession of the stone, and he wondered out loud if Harry would be able to defeat the Dark Lord if he were in possession of all three hallows. Harry was a bit creeped out by the concept.

Snape told Harry about his vow to Narcissa, to help Draco bring Death Eaters into the school. Harry was upset for Snape's sake that he had to make such a vow. Snape, while flattered at the boy's concern, was not worried at all. He knew how to work the vow without risk to himself. Both were concerned about what would happen to the students when Draco did succeed in bringing Voldemort's minions into the school. Hopefully, with Snape on the inside of the planning, there would not be any students injured.

It was already getting late when Harry told his professor about the meeting he had with Dumbledore the previous night.

"There are three more?" Snape asked. "Does the old man know what they are?"

"We didn't get that far, he was too tired to continue." Harry answered. "Sometimes I think we know more about it than he does." The boy griped.

"You will do well to get all the information that you can from the Headmaster. He was able to find and retrieve the ring, hopefully he knows where the rest are. Once we know where they are, we can destroy them."

Harry was used to being set up by the Headmaster to do things on his own, or only with his friends to help. Retrieving the Philosopher's Stone, rescuing Ginny from the Chamber - Harry now knew that all those had been tests set up by Dumbledore. He assumed the Headmaster was trying to set up the hunt for the horcruxes as another test for Harry. He was relieved though that this time he had adults to help him.

[Friday Sept 8]

After curfew Harry sneaked out of Gryffindor tower, with his broom in hand, hiding under his invisibility cloak. He silently made his way to Myrtle's bathroom. Inside, he met with Snape, who was also holding a broom. Harry accessed the Chamber and they both slid down the tunnel and walked to Slytherin's lair.

Snape had been very busy harvesting the usable parts of the giant snake. He was introducing them into the market slowly, so the price would not drop too much. The cool chamber was the perfect place to warehouse the parts before they were put on the market. The farthest side of the Chamber held piles of basilisk parts. On the near side of the Chamber Snape had put a small table, to be used during the ceremony, and a cot. It was unknown what affect removing the horcrux would have on Harry, so the cot was there as a precautionary measure. Snape had also loaded many of his pockets with healing potions.

Harry was well informed about the ritual that he had to perform. Snape had given him detentions during the week that were used to teach Harry all about it. They were going to use a simple glass vial as the horcrux. The container used had to be in its original form, not conjured or transfigured. There were five steps to making a horcrux. First, the container had to be prepared before it could accept the soul piece, Then the soul must be prepared for extraction. Both of these were considered Dark Arts because blood was used in the ritual. The actual transfer of the soul to the container was a simple spell, though it would not work if the preparations were not done. The soul then had to be sealed, with a potion (that Snape had prepared) and secured with the Dark Arts. If the magic used to secure the horcrux wasn't Dark, then the soul would return to its former location. Snape did not want to teach Harry any Dark curses to apply to the horcrux. It was decided that Harry would set a ward on the horcrux, using a parseltongue password. Parseltongue is itself considered dark, so that would be enough. Snape recorded Harry's password, in case the extraction removed his ability to speak the language of snakes.

Harry placed a nickel bowl on the table, and in the bowl placed the vial. He lanced his finger with a needle and said -para habeo anima- before letting a drop of his blood spill onto the vial. The container was ready. To prepare his soul piece for extraction, his blood had to be spilled while he uttered the incantation. The book clearly stated that the smallest soul fragment would be the one extracted. It was Magic's way of protecting the wizard. Still, Harry was worried that his whole soul would come out instead of Vodemort's. He briefly looked at Snape. His professor had a stony look on his face, but his jaw was clenched in tension. Harry took a fortifying breath and cut his palm with a dagger. While his blood was freely spilling onto the floor he incanted -para substantia captus-. Harry did not feel any different yet, but he was not finished.

After another deep breath he said the third phrase -iunctum pro ego sum infinitio- to transfer the soul fragment to the vial. Harry felt a little bit light headed after this. He supposed if he whole soul was gone that it would be worse. He smiled a bit at the thought and pressed on. He took the potion from Snape and poured it on into the bowl. The vial instantly absorbed it. Finally he cast the warding spell. Snape was ready with his wand to replay the recorded version of the password he chose, but it was not needed. Harry spoke the password 'fluffy bunnies', clearly in parseltongue. A smile lit up Harry's face for an instant, before he passed out.

Harry had completed the ritual at 10:38 PM. At 2:13 AM, Snape, under a disillusionment spell, deposited a still unconscious Harry onto his dorm bed.

Harry slept until dinner time Saturday. When he came down to the common room, after a long, hot shower, all of his friends burst out in questions. Harry was grinning like an idiot. He thought it was wonderful that his friends were so concerned about him sleeping the day away. He felt like a new man, lighter and happier than he could ever remember. His friends did not seem to believe that he was OK, because he had been in bed all day, so to convince them he lifted Hermione off the floor and twirled her around. When Ginny giggled he did the same to her, and then to four other Gryffindor girls. When Ron told him he was weird, Harry lifted him up too, All the friends were laughing on their way down to dinner.

Snape saw Harry enter the Great Hall. The boy was laughing with his friends. More than the laughter though, Snape could see his eyes sparkling. Harry looked younger than he had the day before. He was glad to see Harry at the meal, eating like a normal teenage boy (or two), seemingly none the worse for wear.

Later that night Lupin came through from headquarters to Snape's room, carrying with him the books that Snape had borrowed from Khalil.

"I found it." was all Lupin said, and opened one of the books for Snape to read. The page that Lupin had opened had three Phoenician letters on each side of the title. They were the exact six letters that they had been searching for during the last month.

The Nimrod Curse/The Six Coercions

This scarcely used, ancient curse is one of the most subtle known to wizardkind. The curse itself is preformed in two parts. First, the curse is inflicted upon a minor child. The child is considered the 'object' of the curse. Second, the 'enablers' of the curse are inflicted with coercions. There can be any number of 'enablers' who are influenced by any combination of The Six Coercions - fury (yod), hate (cof), envy (ayin), torment (peh), shame (resh) and terror (shin). The emotions behind The Coercions must exist in the each 'enabler' before the curse is inflicted upon the 'object', else The Coercions will not affect them. The Coercions are generally stabilized by the runes associated with them but may also be reinforced verbally, by Compelling charms.

Created by the cruel king, Nimrod the Patient, when he was still just a senior advisor to King Gomer. Nimrod had ascended in the ranks of the king's advisors, and by the young age of thirty was his second in command. It was assumed that Nimrod would inherit the kingdom to the childless, aged king. On the king's 100th birthday, he took a bride and a child was born the same year. Prince Ryfat was doted on by the king. Nimrod used this curse to sow discourse against the prince. King Gomer died in his 105th year and the young prince was crowned. By the time Ryfat was twenty, there were enough people in the kingdom against him for Nimrod to start a civil war. The young king was defeated and Nimrod ruled.

Severus read through the twisted history of the curse. The curse's purpose was to turn people against a child. Even he, Severus Snape - Master of potions and poisons and ex-Deatheater saw this as a true perversion of Magic. It took people's existing negative or weak emotions and twisted and exaggerated them into something evil. According to the book, the few recorded incidents of the curse breaking occurred on the object's birthday of majority, when it occurred on the new moon. Apparently if the child's magic was stronger than the caster's the curse would break. The theory of the author was that since the curse reflected the negative emotions of the enablers, in the same way that the moon reflects the sun's light, that when the moon is new there is no reflection. This happening at the same time as magical maturity snaps the curse.

Both Lupin and Snape still had questions. Between the two of them - and a bottle of whiskey - they were able to work through most of their major issues. Lupin's grasp of Magical Theory, partnered with Snape's highly analytical mind was able to tackle most of the questions.

Wizards reached their majority at 17 in Great Britain. They believed that the curse was broken on the night of Harry's 16th birthday, and not his 17th, because the age of majority was a random legal declaration, while 16 must be Magic's. After all, muggles reach majority at 18 or 21, depending on the location. Some religions determine majority to be 12, 13 or 16. It was not out of line to believe that Magic determined majority to be at 16.

The letter that the Dursley's kept, Snape's apple tray and Lupin's pendant were all charging the Coercions. Harry's (and their own) dreams included all of the conversations where the Headmaster had Compelled them to act against Harry. In Snape's case Dumbledore would frequently remind him how much he hated the senior Potter, his sorrow at losing Lily and his shame of having been involved in their deaths. With Lupin, Dumbledore reminded him of his sorrow at losing his best friends, his anger at Sirius' (supposed) betrayal and the fear he had of his condition and how because of that he couldn't care for Harry. They both assumed that Petunia was jealous of Lily and both Dursleys feared and hated magic. They figured that these emotions were enough to carry over to Harry. Sirius was certainly emotional enough to be compelled to run after Pettigrew instead of taking care of Harry after the Potter's deaths.

While all these questions seemed settled in their minds, the major question that wasn't settled was Why? Why would Dumbledore do this? The man was not stupid and obviously did not think he would get caught. He either believed himself stronger than Harry, or misunderstood which birthday to check for a new moon. Even so, the two wizards did not understand what could have motivated their mentor, the supposed 'Leader of the Light', to curse a child in such a way. They did not believe that Dumbledore would act against Harry directly, nor did they think he had any way of knowing the curse was broken. Harry and them would be safe, as long as they did not confront the man about his actions. Which meant that the question of Why would likely never be answered.

[A/N - Latin spells were made up and while based on Latin words, probably don't really mean anything. Nimrod is also made up but named after the Biblical character.]