Another horcrux found?

The second half of the year had been rather quiet. Gryffindor had surprisingly won their next quidditch match, no thanks to their seeker of course. But between the chasers scoring like madwomen, Oliver Wood making some spectacular saves and the Weasley twins acting like devils the Gryffindors had managed a one hundred and seventy points lead before the Hufflepuff seeker grabbed the snitch. Of course, they still did not stand a chance to actually win the cup. But at least they had one win now.

Classes had steadily become more and more complicated. And Harry and his friends noticed that they could not rely that much on their Lionfire Hall training anymore, although the basic magical exercises around occlumency and animagus training still came in handy every now and then. But they were expanding upon it, learning more spells and potions every week.

Several weeks ago Hermione had suddenly started colour-coding her notes and drafting up study schedules for the exams. Harry and the others had asked her if she was out of her mind, but it quickly became clear that most teachers agreed with their bushy haired friend. Still, all three of them had sometimes complained to each other when they saw other Gryffindors having fun at night. At least they still had the DA meetings to have fun, and Susan had told Hermione that they would have every Sunday off until the exams started. Hermione had objected, but when Susan gave no ground the two boys had quickly joined with the redhead and eventually Hermione had surrendered. Still, they spent four evenings and most of the Saturday of each week studying, beside the preparations for the DA sessions of course. Once Harry had tried to argue that they should just ignore history of magic since it was hardly useful, but when he saw Hermione's shocked look he had quickly dropped the point.

He guessed that at least his mother was going to be proud of him this summer. Dad would probably also be proud but a bit disappointed at the lack of pranks. At least he could discuss pranks with the Weasley twins, if their parents would allow them to visit Lionfire Hall. Although even those two had quietened down a bit with the pranks. They were thrilled by the idea of meeting the marauders, and they seemed to be afraid that their mother would have them grounded during the summer if she received too many notes about their activities. They had actually scored some points with Hermione when they assured her they just did not want to disturb revision time, although Harry was sure she was the only one to think that a reasonable explanation. Most others, who did not know about the twins' summer plans, just assumed that the Hogwarts staff had finally gotten the twins under control. Which, now that Harry thought of it, was even more unlikely than the excuse the twins gave to Hermione. So it was unusually calm in Hogwarts, or at least, as long as you could avoid Peeves.

And of course, Thursday evenings like tonight made for huge chaos in the great hall. Dumbledore had visited one of the first DA meetings after the Christmas break. He had been so enthusiastic about it that he allowed them to use the great hall from half past seven to half past eleven each Thursday night. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, had objected quite loudly that the DA members would break curfew that way, but Dumbledore had quickly overruled him. Somehow this little fact had brought in ten more members, mostly Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, but also two more Slytherins and the last two third year Gryffindors. For some reason no student from fourth year or higher had joined them, it was like they felt it was beneath them somehow. Although Hermione had once mentioned that the fourth years had astronomy on Thursday evening.

Harry was not sure if he really minded. After all, it was clear during their mock duels that the second and third years had much more spells and power at their disposal. And although it was a great learning experience for the younger years he figured fourth years might be a bit too much. Of course, in most of their sessions they focused on practising two or three spells before they released all restrictions for the last hour and everybody could work in small groups on whatever they wanted.

The first two hours they worked on regular duelling spells. By now everybody had more or less mastered the protego charm and so one student would fire hexes at another student who would try to shield and dodge. Today they had worked on the disarming spell; expelliarmus. Harry felt this was one of the most useful spells they covered until now and he had argued with the other three that they would use the full two hours for it. The four of them had used the first thirty minutes to shoot at each other before they had moved between the other pairs and gave help were needed.

Since Dumbledore's offer had given them an extra hour they used that for 'experimentation' now. During the hour they would take a random spell and try to think of combat uses for it. Especially the Weasley twins were brilliant at this part. Today they had worked with the softening charm; spongify. The spell would transform an object or a small area into a soft rubbery, bouncy thing. They had a lot of fun by using softened books in a large fight, but had found relatively few uses for the spell. Only distracting your opponent by softening the ground below him had been somewhat useful, but a bit too complicated to use in real fights. Some others had suggested softening the ground around themselves so diving away from spell fire would be more comfortable. But the duration of the spell was too short to make it really work. Beside that, Harry did not really see the use. Sure, it was more comfortable, but in a real fight that would hardly be your first priority.

Now during the last 'free' hour Harry and Hermione had joined with Daphne and Tracey, who had been trying to adapt some magical children's game into something useful for DA training. It vaguely resembled quidditch with two floating dark blue balls and one larger bright yellow one. They were not allowed to touch the balls but had to use their wands to shoot them around. Shooting the yellow ball through a floating hoop in the middle of the area that they claimed for themselves gave five points, shooting a blue ball against an opponent counted for one point. An interesting detail was that the yellow ball could be intercepted by well aimed spells from the opponent, and you had to pass it between team mates three times before trying to score. It was a bit too much when they played two versus two, but when six others joined and made it a five versus five with two more dark blue balls it was great fun. Especially Ron Weasley had been very fanatic. It looked promising, and a nice change from the usual free style fights and extra training during the last hour, but needed a bit of polishing still.

At half past eleven a loud gong sounded through the great hall. And quickly everybody moved towards the exit. Dumbledore had told them that the house elves would clear up after them, and they all felt they should not abuse their rights to ignore curfew too much. So within a minute the great hall was empty.

Harry was walking on the front of the mob of Gryffindors, debating the game that they had just played with Hermione. They barely paid attention to where they were going, instead they automatically walked towards the seventh floor and the Gryffindor common room. Once on the seventh floor, their discussion was interrupted by a loud scream from Lavender Brown. Startled, they looked up, wand in hand.

A body lay stretched out on the floor. Quickly the whole Gryffindor host charged forward, all had their wands in hand and were looking around for possible dangers. Harry quickly realised that the body was professor Quirrell's. The pale skin and the half burned turban on his head were proof enough. When they reached the man Hermione knelt down and put a hand on his neck. A short time later she stood up, shook her head and said: 'He is dead. And cold as well, so I think he has been here for a while.'

Harry was a bit surprised when everyone looked at him for instructions. He was tempted to tell them that the DA was over and that one of the third years should take command, but he realized it would be useless to start that discussion right now. So instead he said: 'I think we should get the headmaster and madam Pomfrey. But I do not want to split up, his killer might still be around.'

'You think we should all go to the headmaster's office?' Susan suggested.

'I am not sure if we should leave the body behind.' Hermione argued.

Harry nodded in agreement. 'Can't we send a message somehow?' His eyes drifted to the Weasley twins. Who looked at each other for a few seconds before Fred said: 'We can get the teachers to here if you want.'

'But I am not sure if they would appreciate our method.' George clarified.

Somewhat doubtful Harry said: 'Well, as long as it works. This is an emergency after all… go for it.'

The twins nodded and pointed their wands away from the group. Suddenly two silver beams shot out of their wand tips and flew into the hallway. After some fifty feet the two beams connected with each other and a huge explosion sounded. Several students cursed, but Harry had just noticed that they were standing in front of a painting. He stepped to it and asked the wizard depicted on it: 'Excuse me, but did you see what happened to professor Quirrell?'

The wizard shook his head and waved to the three tutu-wearing trolls: 'I was just trying to explain those buffoons how to do a pas de bourree. And then when I looked back suddenly I saw the body. I tried to tell someone, but this is my only portrait in Hogwarts.'

Harry nodded, he knew from the paintings in Lionfire Hall that they could move between their own portraits. But he should have realised that a wizard that was apparently trying to teach trolls to dance would not have anything useful to say anyway. He was trying to think of what to do next when a stern voice sounded from his left: 'What is the reason for all this ruckus?'

As usual, Hermione was the first to answer a teachers question. 'Professor McGonagall, we found professor Quirrell, and this was the only way that we could think of to alarm the other professors.'

'Professor Quirrell?' McGonagall asked while the tiny professor Flitwick suddenly appeared on her side. Apparently she had not seen the body yet, because when several students moved away a bit she suddenly shrieked: 'Oh my. What on earth happened?'

Flitwick immediately jumped towards the fallen teacher, but after a few quick charms he stood up and shook his head. Since nobody had replied to McGonagalls question Harry spoke up: 'We do not know what happened professor. We were just heading back to the dormitory when we found him.'

'I see.' McGonagall slowly replied, then she gasped when Flitwick moved away the remains of the turban a bit and revealed a large black spot on the back of Quirrell's head. She shook her head a few times to regain her nerves before she raised a wand and suddenly a silver white cat shot out of it and ran away. All the students watched it go in wonder while McGonagall said: 'Filius? Can you watch the body until the headmaster arrives while I bring my students to their dormitories?'

'Of course Minerva.' The small man nodded.

McGonagall nodded and immediately motioned for the students to follow her, which they did, many of them asking questions. But it was clear that their head of house had no answers available, or at least she did not want to give them to the students. Once they arrived at the fat lady she led them inside and shortly talked with one of the prefects to learn that the tower had been quiet tonight. She turned back to the DA members: 'I will not tell you to go to bed and forget about it, because you won't. But try to remain calm, I am sure the headmaster will address the student body at breakfast.'

With that, she quickly left the common room. Of course this meant that the few older students that had still been awake started to question the newcomers about what happened. Harry, Neville, Susan and Hermione somehow managed to slip away to the boys dormitory. Once there, Harry immediately pulled his mirror forward, enlarged it and called: 'Mask!'

Remus was on guard duty, he noticed their expressions and immediately asked: 'What happened?'

'We just found professor Quirrell's body.' Harry replied.

Remus looked alarmed: 'Professor Quirrell died? And who is we?'

'All of the Gryffindor DA members.' Hermione replied at the same time that Harry said: 'Yeah, we do not know how it happened tough.'

Remus nodded and calmed down a bit, apparently he had understood both simultaneous answers. 'You are in your dormitory now?'

'Yes.' All four of them agreed.

'Ok, you should be fine for now then, I will alert the others. I want one of you to stay in contact with me all night, call my on my own mirror instead of mask. Take shifts for that, two hours each and by last name order. Understood?' Remus replied.

They all nodded, although Harry felt a bit guilty that he had one of the easiest watches this way. He would be able to sleep six hours and just had to wake up a bit early. However, before he could voice any objections Remus continued: 'Good. We will try and get permission to enter Hogwarts as extra security. But if we can not reach Dumbledore we might be unable to enter until the morning. Still, if there is any danger give us a sign. We have enough ward-breakers to disrupt even the Hogwarts wards long enough for us six to slip in, but I'd rather not show the world how we use illegal devices. Beside that, they represent a small fortune.'

'Are you sure that we will be safe here?' Neville asked.

Remus hesitated for a few seconds: 'No Neville, I am not sure about that. But I am sure that McGonagall, Dumbledore and the other teachers will not allow harm to come to you without causing a lot of chaos and noise. As long as one of you is awake he or she can wake the others and inform us. But you guys will need your energy, so try and sleep a bit anyway.'

They all reluctantly agreed, well aware that there was not much they could do anyway. Susan and Hermione quickly left for their own room and Harry waited until Remus said that Susan had connected with him. Meanwhile he had seen how Remus summoned Timmy and asked him to wake James and Lily and contact the others as well.

He said his goodbyes to Remus and then had a short chat with Neville before both of them changed into their night clothing and tried to get some sleep. He was still wide awake when Ron, Dean and Seamus finally entered the dormitory. And even after that it took him a long time to fall asleep.

It felt like he had only just fallen asleep when Neville shook him away. Although he knew it had to be more than two hours ago since he had totally missed Neville's own guard duty. His friend explained that his mother had taken over from Remus. Harry nodded and gave him a few seconds to say goodbye to his mother, then he enlarged his mirror and said: 'Alice.'

Immediately the friendly face of Neville's mother appeared and she looked at Harry: 'Are you alright Harry?'

'More or less.' Harry shrugged, 'Did not get too much sleep, but it is okay. Any news?'

Alice frowned: 'Not really, there were no traces of any attacker. A while ago Amelia and a few aurors left Hogwarts after asking a lot of questions and doing some magical tests. Now your parents and Remus are talking with the headmaster. Sirius, Frank and I are standing guard outside Gryffindor tower.'

'Oh great.' Harry replied, he had not really recognised the background behind Alice yet, but now that she said it he saw the familiar Hogwarts walls, 'The headmaster let you in then?'

'Oh yeah, he was more than happy with a few more wands.' Alice smiled, 'Although we did not even have to use them, and by now the castle is crawling with aurors.'

Harry nodded: 'But they still do not know what happened to professor Quirrell?'

Alice shook her head and started to explain a few of the theories that went around the castle. None of them sounded really plausible. After some fifteen minutes she stopped talking and looked away from the mirror. When she turned back towards Harry she said: 'Can you wake the others and meet us outside the common room?'

'Sure.' Harry replied before walking towards Neville who was still half awake. Then he used his mirror to wake the girls, which took a bit more time, but it was the only option he had since he could not enter their dormitory. Some ten minutes later four sleepy kids met six tired looking adults.

After a brief round of hugs, in which the adults made sure to include Hermione as well, Remus led them to a nearby classroom. Once inside Harry's mother turned to the door and quickly cast a lot of wards. As soon as she was done his father said: 'We have just talked with Dumbledore, and we believe we know what has happened.'

'Which is?' Harry impatiently asked.

His father smiled: 'Dumbledore would probably want me to say that these are only theories-'

'He would not want you to tell the children anything.' Mum snorted.

'True enough.' Dad admitted, before he grinned: 'So do not tell him we did. Anyway, I do not know how much of the prophecy and William's viewings you remember?'

The kids looked at each other but when no one replied James continued: 'Basically, it was foretold that Voldemort would possess a teacher this year and try to steal the philosopher's stone.'

'But when we removed the stone from the equation and Dumbledore could not discover any signs of possession we believed that Voldemort had chosen not to come to Hogwarts.' Remus added before he dryly continued: 'Obviously we were mistaken.'

'Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort?' Harry asked. He blinked a few times when he realised how stupid that question had been. Nobody replied to it and Hermione asked: 'How could professor Dumbledore miss that Quirrell was possessed?'

Harry was not surprised when his mother was the one to reply: 'Possession is not really the most common form of magic. He did the right magical checkups, but apparently Quirrell, or rather Voldemort, had some protection against those kind of spells. Beside that Dumbledore asked some students to report to him if any professor acted confused or forgetful, sure signs of possession. But none of them ever mentioned Quirrell.' Harry and the other kids exchanged a few looks. None of them had ever noticed anything off with Quirrell, beside the annoying stutter of course. His mother continued: 'Most likely it did not help that this was a unique way of possession. Judging by the wound on Quirrells head Voldemort was physically attached to him somehow. I never heard of a similar situation, but it might be part of the reason why he slipped through normal tests.' She was silent for a few seconds before she concluded: 'I often criticize Dumbledore, but I'm not sure if he could not have avoided this.'

'But why did Voldemort leave now?' Susan wanted to know.

'Again, it is only a theory.' Remus slowly replied, 'But we believe that he removed the horcrux that was hidden in Hogwarts, although we still have no idea where it would have been hidden. We could not find any hidden rooms near the body.'

'But… If Voldemort got one of his horcruxes, he can destroy it to regain his own body… Right?' A suddenly worried Harry wanted to know.

His father grimly nodded: 'Yes, he only has to perform a simple ritual. He has to wait for the right moon phase, which will be next week. But still…'

'Dumbledore seems to think that he might delay his return a bit. According to him Voldemort should be reluctant to sacrifice one of his horcruxes.' Remus added.

'But then, why remove it?' Sirius asked simply.

Dad nodded again: 'That is what we thought as well. Lionfire Hall will be in full defensive mode from now on at least… Which reminds me, do you have a list of names from the DA?'

Hermione immediately withdrew a list from one of her pockets and handed it to Harry's father. He quickly looked over it before he said thanks and pocketed it himself. For a few seconds Harry wondered what his father needed the list for, but he forgot about it when Neville asked: 'So, what is going to happen now?'

It was Frank, Neville's father, who replied: 'I am sure that Dumbledore will try to warn the ministry, but without proof that might be difficult. Beside that, he will try to find allies.'

Remus nodded and said: 'Voldemort will realise this as well, so it is likely that he will first build up his strength before he makes his presence known to all the world. Things should remain peaceful for a while, but be on your guard.'

'And keep training.' Harry dryly added, those two sentences had been central in their education for years.

'Exactly.' Remus smiled.

'Sirius?' Susan asked, and when he turned to her she continued: 'Where is auntie?'

'She is at the ministry.' Sirius replied, 'Trying to make sense out of what happened tonight no doubt.'

Susan blinked, 'Doesn't she know all this?'

'Most of it yeah.' Sirius nodded, 'But she needs to create a story with 'proof'. At the ministry she can not work with reasoning based on prophecies. Officially she does not know about it after all.'

'Oh, of course.' Susan agreed.

Hermione was the next to ask a question: 'What is going to happen with the defence classes now?'

Now Harry's father actually chuckled: 'They are going to be interesting…' he paused for effect: 'Dumbledore decided to cover the few remaining classes until the exams himself.'

Hermione's eyes widened: 'The headmaster is going to teach us? But I thought he used to teach transfiguration?'

It was Alice who replied: 'I think Dumbledore knows enough about defence as well.'

'Oh, yeah sure… I did not mean that.' Hermione stammered.

Harry's mother came to her rescue: 'He also decided to cancel all classes of today. And on Monday as well, since Quirrells funeral will be on that day. So you guys might as well go get some sleep. Us too by the way. We can talk later.'

Reluctantly everybody agreed. Harry would have liked to talk a bit more, but as soon as he started to climb the stairs towards his dormitory he suddenly felt very tired and he was glad when he stumbled into his bed.

A/N: Bit of a timejump in this chapter. I guess that if I had finished this story before publishing it I would have spread events a bit better throughout first year. But that's what you get for writing it as you go ;) Ah well, in a way I guess it is more realistic that some periods see less action than others. Anyway, we just saw the first time that Voldemorts actions were very different from the original timeline… Let me know what you think of it!

So, to reviews again.

Man_of_faith: Of course not, Neville's gift had totally nothing to do with that! The very idea! *whistles innocently* Anyway, I loved the Ron and Hermione bickering in canon as well, and originally I planned to get Ron into the group, but it just not really worked out so far I guess. Blame my poor writing ;) To be honest, I am not quite sure if Ron or any of the other Weasley's will grow into a main character in my story, although at least the four youngest ones will play important parts… But between James and company, Harry and company and the attention I will have to give the eventual boyfriends/girlfriends of Harry and company it will be quite busy already. Although I guess it is still possible that one or more Weasley's end up as boyfriends/ girlfriends ;)

Ladywatertiger: The more sleep part did not really work out in this chapter;) And snaps?

Sirius009: Well, something happened alright. As to the pacing, I like slow moving stories, so I guess I'll write slowly as well :D Although I hope to spent less time on second year, now that some basic things like the DA are running… Not sure if that will really work out for me though.

Michaeldavidgeng, Jbfritz, ILikeComps, Happylady, Sanbeegoldiewhitey, Rori Potter, MAFITA : Thanks!

Anime Princess: The poor boy will most likely abstain from girls if he gets that talk from the marauders… I guess you are right and it will have to happen sometime, although I guess eleven is a bit young (Dumbledore would agree :P), not sure if I will write it out in detail though, might be fun…

TsukiyoTenshi: The marauders not playing pranks would be totally unrealistic I think. I am not sure about a full our prank war though…

Taeniaea: Thanks, Sirius is a cool character, but sometimes it is hard to come up with ridiculous things for him to do ;)

RRW: I guess Lily (and Timmy and Jenny) were glad those two stayed at Hogwarts then…