Harry

I can't help but drop a tear as he watches his friends mourn. He didn't knlw Jason well, but he was still his friends. His death will always be apart of me now, haunting me.

I see Hermione wipe away tears.

"Harry!" She yells, "it's 7:00, your meeting!" I completly forgot about that. I walk up to Percy and pat him on the back.

"Dumbledore." I whisper gently, calmly. I lead him away from the others and towards rhe headmasters tower. By the time we got to the gargoyle he had managed to control the tears.

"Be strong Percy." I say, then knock on the door.

"Come in." I open the door and walk into the office

"Percy, what is wrong?"

"I-I" Percy struggle to not break down into tears.

"He lost a close friend, a brother." I say to Dumbledore.

"I am sorry for your loss. That give us more of a reason to continue this lesson, to protect our love ones. Did you bring the memory?"

I nod my head and pas him the vile of liquid.

"Sir, what happened to your hand?"

"Never mind that now," he hods up the memory. "This is more important." We walk towards the pensive and place the memory in it. Wwe all dunk our heads in.

I feel my feet leave the office and land on the floor. Percy and Dumbledore landed beside me just as Riddle asked, 'Sir, is it true thatProfessor Merrythought is retiring?'

'Tom, Tom, if I knew I couldn't tell you,' said Slughorn, wagging his fingerreprovingly at Riddle, though winking at the same time. 'I must say, I'd like toknow where you get your information, boy; more knowledgeable than half the staff, you are.'

Riddle smiled; the other boys laughed and cast him admiring looks.

'What with your uncanny ability to know things you shouldn't, and your carefulflattery of the people who matter – thank you for the pineapple, by the way, you're quite right, it is my favourite –'

Several of the boys tittered again.

'– I confidently expect you to rise to Minister for Magic within twenty , if you keep sending me pineapple. I have excellent contacts at theMinistry.'

Tom Riddle merely smiled as the others laughed again. I noticed that hewas by no means the eldest of the group of boys, but that they all seemed to look to him as their leader.

'I don't know that politics would suit me, sir,' he said when the laughter had died away. 'I don't have the right kind of background, for one thing.'

A couple of the boys around him smirked at each other. I was sure they were enjoying a private joke: undoubtedly about what they knew, or suspected, regarding their gang leader's famous ancestor.

'Nonsense,' said Slughorn briskly, 'couldn't be plainer you come from decentwizarding stock, abilities like yours. No, you'll go far, Tom, I've never been wrongabout a student yet.'
The small golden clock standing upon Slughorn's desk chimed eleven o'clockbehind him and he looked round.
'Good gracious, is it that time already? You'd better get going, boys, or we'll all bein trouble. Lestrange, I want your essay by tomorrow or it's detention. Samegoes for you, Avery.'

One by one the boys filed out of the room. Slughorn heaved himself out of hisarmchair and carried his empty glass over to his desk. A movement behind himmade him look round; Riddle was still standing there.

'Look sharp, Tom, you don't want to be caught out of bed out of hours, and youa prefect ...'

'Sir, I wanted to ask you something.'

'Ask away, then, m'boy, ask away ...'

'Sir, I wondered what you know about ... about Horcruxes?'

Slughorn stared at him, his thick fingers absent-mindedly caressing the stem ofhis wine glass.
'Project for Defence Against the Dark Arts, is it?'

But I could tell that Slughorn knew perfectly well that this was not school work.

'Not exactly, sir,' said Riddle. 'I came across the term while reading and I didn'tfully understand it.'

'No ... well ... you'd be hard-pushed to find a book at Hogwarts that'll give you details on Horcruxes, Tom. That's very Dark stuff, very Dark indeed,' said Slughorn.

'But you obviously know all about them, sir? I mean, a wizard like you – sorry, Imean, if you can't tell me, obviously – I just knew if anyone could tell me, youcould – so I just thought I'd ask –'

It was very well done, I thought, the hesitancy, the casual tone, the carefulflattery, none of it overdone. I, had had too much experience of tryingt o wheedle information out of reluctant people not to recognise a master atwork. I could tell that Riddle wanted the information very, very much; perhaps had been working towards this moment for weeks.

'Well,' said Slughorn, not looking at Riddle, but fiddling with the ribbon on top ofhis box of crystallised pineapple, 'well, it can't hurt to give you an overview, ofcourse. Just so that you understand the term. A Horcrux is the word used for anobject in which a person has concealed part of their soul.'

'I don't quite understand how that works, though, sir,' said Riddle.

His voice was carefully controlled, but I could sense his excitement.

'Well, you split your soul, you see,' said Slughorn, 'and hide part of it in an objectoutside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But, of course, existence in such a form ...'

Slughorn's face crumpled and I found myself remembering words I had heard nearly two years before.

'I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost ... but still, I was alive.'

'... few would want it, Tom, very few. Death would be preferable.'

But Riddle's hunger was now apparent; his expression was greedy, he could nolonger hide his longing.
'How do you split your soul?'

'Well,' said Slughorn uncomfortably, 'you must understand that the soul issupposed to remain intact and whole.

Splitting it is an act of violation, it isagainst nature.'

'But how do you do it?'

'By an act of evil – the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips thesoul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage tohis advantage: he would encase the torn portion –'

'Encase? But how –?'

'There is a spell, do not ask me, I don't know!' said Slughorn, shaking his headlike an old elephant bothered by mosquitoes. 'Do I look as though I have tried it– do I look like a killer?'

'No, sir, of course not,' said Riddle quickly. 'I'm sorry ... I didn't mean to offend ...'

'Not at all, not at all, not offended,' said Slughorn gruffly. 'It's natural to feel somecuriosity about these things ... wizards of a certain calibre have always been drawn to that aspect of magic ...'

'Yes, sir,' said Riddle. 'What I don't understand, though – just out of curiosity – Imean, would one Horcrux be much use? Can you only split your soul once?Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces? Imean, for instance, isn't seven the most powerfully magical number, wouldn't seven –?'

'Merlin's beard, Tom!' yelped Slughorn. 'Seven! Isn't it bad enough to think ofkilling one person? And in any case ... bad enough to divide the soul ... but to rip it into seven pieces ...'

Slughorn looked deeply troubled now: he was gazing at Riddle as though he hadnever seen him plainly before and Harry could tell that he was regrettingentering into the conversation at all.

'Of course,' he muttered, 'this is all hypothetical, what we're discussing, isn't it?

All academic ...'

'Yes, sir, of course,' said Riddle quickly.

'But all the same, Tom ... keep it quiet, what I've told – that's to say, what we'vediscussed.

People wouldn't like to think we've been chatting about Horcruxes.

It's a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know ... Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it ...'

'I won't say a word, sir,' said Riddle and he left, but not before Harry hadglimpsed his face, which was full of that same wild happiness it had worn whenhe had first found out that he was a wizard, the sort of happiness that did notenhance his handsome features, but made them, somehow, less human ...

'Thank you, Percy and Harry,' said Dumbledore quietly.

'Let us go ...'

My feet landed back in the office.

'I am sure you understand how vital this information was."

"He did it didn't he, created a Horcrux?' I say.

'Not only did he suceed in creating a Horcrux, but according to this memory he suceeded in making several.'

'So if we destroy every Horcrux Voldemort will be vunreble?' Percy asks.

"Yes."

"Do we know where these seven Horcruxes are?'

'Six. You, Harry you destroyed one.'

'What?'

'Riddle's diary.' I feel my eyes widen. of course.

'This ring is one, and I know where another is.'

'If you know where it is, then we need to get it.' Percy says.

'Yes, we leave tomorrow at 5;00. Go get a good nights sleep Harry, I need to have a quick chat with Percy." I nod my head and leave his office far behind as I walk into gryffindor tower to tell my friends the dreadful news.