Severus, Alexander and Hermione spent 2 hours delicately emptying the library of everything it held, including the various hidden portions that the only Parselmouth was able to find. They didn't let those boxes from their sight, not trusting the Aurors one bit, as they went back to the corpse. It was 5 long, hard hours of work to harvest everything perfectly from the Basilisk, and soon there was nothing left of the snake, even the bones were useful for various things. Allowing the Aurors to only touch the boxes that held the items destined for the goblins to sell, the proceeds going to the two women, the trio were grateful that the house elves were able to get into the chamber and move everything else to Severus' quarters.
Even with their protective clothing, the trio were bloody, sweaty and covered with dirt, but they were satisfied and pleased beyond belief, the haul they had would allow them to create many powerful and useful potions as well as create a supply of armour. When they finally ascended from the chamber, and Lex closed it, they were caught by Minerva, "Excellent, you're finished. We have a situation with that book."
Gross as they were, three tired souls followed behind the witch as she cut her way through to Tonks' office. The Metamorph was sitting nervously at her desk, her hair flipping colours too fast to get a catch on what the colour was. When she saw them arrive, she breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank Merlin. Do you have any idea what this is?"
"A diary?"
"It's a vessel for another's soul, a Horcrux. Only the most evil of people can create one, it literally tears away a portion of your soul and plants it into the vessel. With one, a person can become immortal," the Auror was scared, "Where did you get this?"
"Ginny Weasley, she had it but I'll bet you anything that it once belonged to Malfoy's father and the soul it holds is Voldemort's."
Severus shuddered, "What did I say…"
"Anyway, can it control a person? Because if so, you should have Ginny looked over, she's been writing in that thing ever since she started Hogwarts and probably beforehand too," Hermione said, concerned for her fellow Gryffindor.
"I'll have Poppy look her over," Minerva was also concerned, this was one of her cubs they were talking about.
"Is there any way to prove who this belonged to?"
Tonks shook her head, "Not unless they were to claim responsibility. Can I have your permission to get the Unspeakables to dispose of this? Bloody thing is screwing with my magic."
"Professor Tonks, we would prefer it if a member of the goblin nation was present during any disposal of the artefact. It is nothing against the members of the Unspeakables, it is just that we have met the goblins before and have not an Unspeakable," Lex requested.
"I will have it organised, but until what do we do with it?"
Hermione was thinking quickly and smiled evilly, "We use it to help an innocent and someone who had been helping us."
The three adults had no idea what the younger pair were talking about so just sat back and listened, "Dobby is the house elf for the Malfoy family and he needs to be rescued. He risked his life to warn me about an impending danger within these walls, and that is bravery that cannot be forgotten quickly. As a house elf, he can only be released from his servitude by his master giving him clothes, but we all know that Malfoy will never do that as Dobby is privy to his secrets; so we fool him into doing so."
"Professor Snape can request his presence here, stating that belongings rumoured to belong to him have been found, and when he arrives, we pass him over a duplicate of the diary, one that contains a hidden piece of clothing. Harry and I can make certain that Dobby is present and is the one to catch the diary should Malfoy throw it; if he doesn't then it means he is claiming ownership to a dark artefact, so is a win-win situation. Meanwhile the real diary can be given to the goblins for safety, no one in their right mind messes with them and they will honour our request to hold onto it."
All three professors were speechless, that was a very good plan, "Okay, we will organise it for tomorrow, and be sure that some more Aurors are off on the side should Lucius take ownership of the diary. Right, I think you two and Severus are in desperate need of showers and sleep; we will handle things for now. Off you go."
The weary trio did as ordered, Severus hugging his young friends before sleep-walking towards his quarters. Lex and Mia, realising how bad they looked, chose to go to the ROR as to not startle their housemates, they looked like they had just stepped out of a horror movie.
