Author's Note: If you haven't read Elen's Sorting, go back one chapter. I'm sorry; I had a fight with the website and it's taking a few chapters to resolve. Next chapter - hopefully - should be the last time I have to write an Author's Note along these lines.

Chapter Twenty

Minerva

Please don't destroy this letter. Somebody has to know this. I had hoped to speak with Harry but the Aurors won't allow it without his guardian's permission. I then tried writing to Sirius, but I can only assume that he destroyed my letter without reading it because he told me to sod off and never to write again. The Aurors are enforcing this ban, so I turn to you.

I have just realised that the diary Harry destroyed in second year was also a Horcrux. I hope against hope that Voldemort only made two and has been entirely destroyed, but I do not know. I'm inclined to doubt it. Be on your guard; if Harry's curse scar hurts again it will be a danger sign.

Albus

PS. Don't tell Sirius this bit came from me – he won't listen to it if he knows. Elen's mother and stepfather are buried in Kilburn and his grandfather, whom he lived with for two years after his stepfather died from illness, in Scarborough. I can't bring them back, but I can at least tell Elen who they were and where they are via you, in case he wants to visit their graves. Eileen Sinclair – whom Robert named him for when she died in childbirth – Robert Sinclair, and Elen's maternal grandfather Edward Carlyle. It was a small family and there were no other relatives. Not even cousins.

I promise I will never try to contact Elen directly. If he ever wishes to write to me I will respond, but don't tell him. I don't want him to be pressured into writing or feel like I am trying to manipulate him. He has nothing to fear from me, not any more. I am truly, truly sorry. Please believe this.

"You have got to be joking," Kingsley said weakly as Minerva finished telling them about the possibility that Voldemort still wasn't going to stay dead. "Please tell me that this is a profoundly failed attempt at a joke." Rufus Scrimgeour looked furious and Amelia Bones had closed her eyes. Sirius had gone white with fear for both Harry and Elen. That was what he wanted to talk to Harry about? This is a disaster! One of those things took a whole team out without even breaking a sweat, and if it weren't for it overlooking Kreacher we'd all be dead or worse. If he comes back, both my children will have enormous targets on their backs... Harry for being his sworn enemy – and Elen for betraying him in the worst way possible by never being on his side in the first place. Heck, he'd probably murder Elen just for the ignominy of his being Sorted to Hufflepuff, never mind about all the rest of it!

Minerva sighed. I wish it was a joke, Kingsley. "No. No, I'm afraid not." She put still more sugar in her tea. It was up to five teaspoons now. I finally understand how Dumbledore could be so hooked on those awful lemon drops. It's the stress.

"I didn't think so," Kingsley said. "But I just wanted to make sure. Just in case."

"Merlin," Amelia Bones breathed. "One Horcrux is bad enough. Two is worse. And how many did you say there were?"

"I didn't," Minerva replied. "Because I don't know, and nor does Dumbledore – that geas would have forced him to tell us everything he knew, because holding anything back would put children in danger."

Scrimgeour drummed his fingers on the table. "A Horcrux is made by shattering your soul..." He trailed off, then his eyes lit up and he smiled like a cat that had sneaked into the pantry and scoffed a gigantic dishful of mackerel-infused cream, and then heard its owner blaming the neighbour's dog.

"What's your point?" Sirius bit out. If nobody knows how many there are, then he could come back at any time and my children will have to be on their guard for the rest of their lives. That's no way to live.

"Think, Black." Scrimgeour's voice was disgusted, but the amusement was also audible. Sirius was just about ready to start hexing him and forget about the consequences. I knew his sense of humour was as bizarre as the Keeper catching the Snitch, but after twelve years away from him my ability to follow what he's getting at when he's being funny has atrophied...

Scrimgeour leant back and clasped his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers and looking incredibly amused. "What is the Department of Mysteries working on at the moment? It could be a quite remarkable trial run... it's a pity your house-elf destroyed that Horcrux, in a way –"

Sirius stiffened, nettled. "And I suppose you would have kept it for Voldemort to use?"

Amelia Bones grabbed Sirius' wrist before he could draw his wand. "Enough, Sirius. Rufus, please explain what you're talking about right now or I will hex you myself and I don't care how much paperwork I have to fill out afterwards."

Rufus Scrimgeour leant forward with his elbows on the desk. "Dementors are shattered souls held prisoner by Dark Magic, yes? Basically?"

"You can let go my wrist now," Sirius said in an aside to Amelia. I won't hex him before he's finished explaining, at least... "You'd have to ask Elen if you need detail, but... yes, I guess so. And?"

"What is a Horcrux but exactly that very thing done willingly?" Scrimgeour clapped his hands, just once, and smiled. "So I think this could be a brilliant small-scale trial run for the Dementor thing. One shattered soul is going to be a hang of a lot easier to deal with than goodness knows how many hundreds of them..."

A small-scale trial run? "Are you seriously suggesting that we're going to experiment with destroying Voldemort as practice for something else?" Sirius shook his head in wonder and started to laugh. Now I understand why Rufus was amused. It's hilarious. "If this works, and it gets out, nobody's going to take Voldemort seriously ever again."

"I hate to have to be the voice of reason here," Minerva said dryly over the slightly-hysterical laughter (which had spread to the rest of the room), "but exactly how similar are they? Really? We don't want another near-disaster like the last time somebody destroyed a Horcrux. The whole team almost died. How is Rajah, by the way?"

Amelia sighed and smiled wryly. "As recovered as he's going to get. He's never going to walk again and he's in constant pain, but he simply won't let the Dementor project rest, and that wheelchair of his is a menace. Particularly around stairs. Or anybody else's feet. I have it on good authority that half the Unspeakables have taken to climbing onto desks whenever he whirrs by."

"Well, any one of the team – or all of us – can provide the memory of what the Horcrux was like so we can try to find anything similar," Kingsley said.

Sirius nodded and raised his wand to his head. "No sense waiting. I was conscious for longest – admittedly only by about half a second – so my memory's probably going to be most complete. Memoriam partum."

"Memoriam partum," Kingsley echoed, withdrawing his own memory and placing it in a vial. "I'll get Dawlish to give his on my way through. Sirius, could you do Kreacher?"

Sirius' eyes widened. "Merlin, I'm a moron – I never even thought of him! Yes, I can do that. And tell you what – I'll even try to talk him into giving a little more." He smirked. "I for one would happily watch him jumping up and down on the obliterated remains of Voldemort's soul fragment. Heck, he might even agree to have that bit of it broadcast…"

Amelia Bones tried to keep her amusement under control as she scribbled a note to herself to inform Rajah of all of this. "Who's going to face down Molly Weasley to get Bill's memory?"

Most of the people at the table looked at Minerva, who shook her head. "Wouldn't it be better coming from someone who was there?"

Kingsley sighed, then nodded. "All right. I've dealt with Dark Wizards without flinching; I'll brave Molly Weasley."

"I'll set up a group to dowse for Horcruxes once we have information on what exactly we're looking for," Scrimgeour said. "Sirius, Elen was highly sensitised to the one in Grimmauld; when you get Kreacher's memory make sure to get his memory as well. That sensitisation to the dormant Horcrux may be crucial to set the parameters of the dowse–"

Sirius interrupted him, blurting out exactly what he was thinking. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that when he's hypersensitive to mental invasion? There's no way. He'll think I'm attacking him; he's only had one fit since the Healing and there's no way I'm breaking that run by forcing his mind! The Sorting Hat almost pushed him into a second fit and it's more practiced than anyone at viewing memories! I don't care that I'm immune to his magic; I don't care how much you need it; you can just bloody well forget it!" He took a deep breath to continue berating Scrimgeour, but this time Scrimgeour interrupted him, holding up his hands in surrender.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I take it back." Scrimgeour took a deep breath himself and let it out on his next word. "Damn it. I'd completely forgotten about how savage that blasted Legilimency can be, and you're right, forcing your way into his mind to get the memory out would be... well, it just wouldn't work. Not to mention it'd be dangerous – your immunity may not even hold if you're touching his mind, and I can't blame you for not wanting to risk it..." A thought suddenly came to mind. "Sirius, maybe you could persuade Elen to accept Rajah? He's got a light touch and an interesting perspective – comes from being Slytherin, I guess. He might be able to figure out a way to get at what we need without sending Elen over the edge, and he's got enough expertise in dealing with highly dangerous and delicate situations to know when he's out of his depth and to back off. If we can't get what we need from Elen, then we can't get it... but I think you should at least give Rajah a chance to try."

Sirius grimaced. "Fine," he snapped. "I'll introduce him to the idea of meeting Rajah, but you tell Rajah that if he tries to touch Elen's mind I'll defend him to the death and that's assuming that Elen doesn't inadvertently tear him to pieces first. And if I don't think Rajah's alternative method will get at those memories without triggering a fit, the deal's off. Non-negotiable."

"Agreed," Scrimgeour said, because he couldn't really say anything else. Merlin help us. Rajah, you'd better come through...

"I'm meeting with Rajah today," Amelia said. "Apparently Dumbledore has come up with a useful idea for dealing with the Dementors, but he says it won't work for anyone but Rajah. So we have to go through the official visiting procedure and permissions and all. I'll tell him about all of this – including your conditions, Sirius – and he can arrange a time with you after Ravenhold to try to get at those memories." She smiled tiredly at Sirius. "I never wanted to hear the word 'Horcrux' again, but at least we won't be taken by surprise."

"Hear hear," Sirius muttered. "And may we not be taken by surprise. I've had just about enough of The Most Monumentally Irritating Dark Wizard Ever! Anything else?"

Minerva opened her mouth and then thought better of it. I'll investigate the graves myself first. Make sure Elen's family are there before I tell Sirius what Dumbledore told me. And there's no reason to bring it up in front of everybody anyway. She shook her head. "Nothing that needs to be talked about right now."

"Good," Scrimgeour said. "Why are we all still here? We know what we need to do, so get moving!" He Apparated out.

Minerva stood up. Hogwarts for Muggle clothes, Kilburn, then Scarborough. She Apparated back to the gates and began to walk. And may they be easy to find.

Two hours later, Minerva was knocking at the door of Grimmauld Place. They're there, and there were no nasty surprises... like Elen's name also being listed on a headstone as deceased. I made sure to check the entire cemetery. Both of them.

"Minerva." Sirius blinked at her. "What are you doing here?"

Minerva smiled. "I know where Elen's family is buried."

Sirius blinked again. "You're joking. How did you find out who they were, how did you find them, how –"

Minerva put her hand on his. "It doesn't matter. The point is that now we know."

Sirius thought for a second and came up with an answer to his own questions. "Dumbledore. He told you. Didn't he." His voice was flat.

Minerva looked down briefly. Sirius, sometimes you're too intelligent for your own good. "Yes. He did."

Anger tightened Sirius' face briefly, and he folded his arms. "Who and where?" I won't tell him yet. After Rajah's been, I'll go and check it out myself. And if it's all clear, I'll take Harry to his parents' graves as well, and we'll make a day of it.

Sirius

Rajah here. I'd like to arrange a time to meet with Elen, and I also need to explain to you what we need from him. Don't worry – I do in fact plan to use an alternate method to access his memories, and it won't activate his defences. I can almost promise. But it's possible that we'll need not just the memory of the Horcrux, but also his impressions of the Dementors. Please don't throw this in the fire; I swear on my magic that I'm not asking gratuitously. If there was any other way, we'd take it. If Dumbledore used Legilimency on the Dementors – and given his curious mind he may have done just that – he might be able to provide the memory we need and I plan to ask him to do just that, but if he can't then I'm afraid it's going to have to be Elen if our spell to destroy them is going to have any hope of working...

Author's Note: Would you believe that BOTH Elen's parents' first names mean "light"? I chose them randomly just to get names in there, and then looked up the meanings with a view to changing them… well, they didn't get changed because the meanings were just perfect. And of course, since I chose the name "Eileen" to make it so that Elen was named for his mother, his name also means "light". I also found out recently that the Latin word lenis means "gentle/mild/kind" (among other things), so let's just pretend I did that deliberately.

Incidentally, I say it "EE-len" – "len" to rhyme with "Ben". Just in case anyone's interested.