Chapter 36: The Search for Horcruxes

Astoria groaned loudly as she practically threw herself onto the couch in her older sister's common room. "What did you call me here for? I gotta study for my exams."

Daphne giggled as her younger sister made herself comfortable on the couch. "We just have to wait for a few others to get here and believe me, you'll do fine. The fourth year exams weren't that bad."

"I know, but it's still good to study. Also, couldn't you have the others ready for when I got here?" Astoria was lying on her back, trying to shift into a comfortable position. The real reason that she didn't want to be here was because she had been training with Alvar last night and he did quite a number on her back. A reducto that she dodged hit the wall that she swore was ten feet further back from where it was. Regardless, the stone wall cracked and a large piece flew and struck her in the back leaving her with plenty of little cuts and a very sore back.

"Well I happened to see you in the halls, I expected that I'd have to go down to the Slytherin common rooms to get you," Daphne commented.

"We're here!" Tracy called out in a sing song voice. Astoria glared at the excited girl as she sat down on Astoria's legs.

"You know that there's plenty of empty seats all around you," Astoria said, annoyed yet happy at seeing Tracy.

"I know," Tracy grinned.

"She was a nightmare to get down here you know," Alvar said as he entered the common room. He sat himself beside Daphne on the couch opposite the one where Astoria lay. "Why? What is it? Just tell me what you want to talk to us about. Why won't you tell me?" Alvar said, doing his best to imitate Tracy's voice.

Tracy made a mock angry face at Alvar which led to the four friends laughing. "Where's Harry and Hermione, I thought you said that-" Daphne began.

"We're here, we're here," Harry waved as he came into the common room with Hermione.

"Sorry, we got a little… sidetracked," Hermione said, blushing lightly.

"Is that what they're calling it these days," Tracy joked.

Hermione's blush only deepened. Astoria found her eyes locked with Harry's quickly before she looked away. It was strange for her to see him in situations like these. Her only interactions with Harry happened to be those when the two were on a mission together, it was strange to see him in any other situation. Out of the corner of her, Astoria noticed Alvar subtly casting some magic from his hand, a ward from the looks of things. Alvar turned and nodded to Daphne who let out a deep breath. "Alright, so there's an important reason why we called you all here," Daphne began. "Over the Christmas break, Alvar and I decided to get married."

Everyone called out with congratulations other than Astoria. She had found out a while ago what was going on and had already spoken to her sister about it. "When's the wedding?" Tracy asked loudly, her face brimming with excitement.

"This summer," Alvar answered.

"Wow, that's really soon, only a few months away," Harry noted.

"Yeah well we didn't want to wait, and with the war picking up the way it is there may not be time later on to do this," Alvar shrugged.

"No talk of any war or anything depressing, today is a happy day," Tracy chastised.

"Yeah, sorry," Alvar replied sheepishly.

Astoria felt out of place here. She didn't interact with Tracy, Dapnhe, or Hermione, only Alvar and Harry. In any case this was a very different dynamic than what she was used to. If Astoria was being completely honest with herself, she hadn't really been in a social situation like this in some time. All of her time had been spent practising her skills or studying to learn new spells or techniques. She still spoke with most of her friends, although they weren't as close as they used to be. Astoria realized that she had become more reserved and quiet this year. Before, she would have jumped right into the conversation, joking with everyone and being her wonderful and cheery self. Now though, well now she does what she was doing right now, watching and analyzing.

"Is there something else?" Astoria blurted out before she could stop herself.

Alvar looked surprised at her. "Yeah, there is." He shared a look with Daphne.

"I know this might be a bit much to ask, but you can't share this with anyone, actually you can't even tell anyone that we're engaged. Not Ron, not Luna, not Dumbledore, not any of your family, no one," Daphne said.

"Fine fine, just tell us what else already," Tracy said excitedly.

Daphne looked around at everyone, her eyes stopping on Astoria. "I'm pregnant."

Tracy's squeal was the first thing Astoria heard. Her sister was pregnant. Wow. She hadn't been expecting that. Suddenly, Astoria noticed that her sister's eyes were still on her, damn. Astoria immediately fixed a bright smile on her face, it felt strange. Daphne returned her smile but Astoria could tell that her sister was still unsure about Astoria's feelings.

"Congratulations Alvar," Harry said shaking Alvar's hand.

"Thanks," Alvar replied.

Tracy jumped off of Astoria's legs and launched herself into Daphne, hugging her best friend tightly. Hermione followed suit and then came Astoria. She got up and hugged her sister tightly. "I need to talk to you after this is all over," Daphne whispered into her ear.

Astoria nodded as she pulled back. She turned to return to her seat but found her path blocked by Alvar. She looked up into his face and found that he had an unsure smile on his face. Astoria returned the unsure smile and he patted her on the shoulder before pulling her into a hug of his own. "So do you know when you're due?" Hermione asked Daphne.

"Well it would be around late September, but during the summer we might stay inside of the time chamber in Alvar's house so I can have the baby during the summer," Daphne replied.

"Oh that will be just great!" Tracy squealed again.

"Come on, lets go down to the kitchens, get some food to celebrate!" Harry suggested.

Everyone readily agreed. "You guys go on ahead, we need to talk to Astoria first," Alvar told them.

"Alright, we'll wait for you down there I suppose," Harry said, looking curiously at Astoria.

Astoria waited as the three friends left the common room quickly leaving her alone with her sister and future brother in law. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" Astoria asked them.

"Let's sit down first," Alvar said.

"Astoria," Daphne said her name with so much love and affection that it surprised her, "I know that you've been acting differently this year. Alvar told me about everything."

Astoria looked over to Alvar with wide eyes. She was so shocked, he had told her sister everything? Then she felt the anger rise up in her, it wasn't his to tell. "Why?" She asked, trying horribly to mask the anger in her voice.

"Look, Astoria, I knew that you didn't want Daphne to know, I know that you thought that she'd be upset with you and force you to stop everything, but she won't. We spoke a lot about it and she understands now," Alvar told her.

Astoria looked over to her sister with questioning eyes. "Do you?"

"I can't say that I understand it entirely, but I can accept it," Daphne said.

Astoria felt relieved. Her sister was fine with what she was doing. "Alright, was that it, or…"

"We also wanted to talk to you about how you've been this year," Alvar told her.

"Ever since you've started… working with Alvar, you've changed. You don't hang out with friends anymore, you don't annoy and bug me all the time, I can't even remember the last time I saw you gave a real smile," Daphne wiped at the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "Your my sister and I hate to see you like this, you seem so devoid of joy."

"I'm not devoid of joy," Astoria lied.

"We want you to come live here, with all of us," Daphne continued on as though she hadn't heard Astoria.

"Here?" Astoria asked.

"Yes, here," Alvar said.

"We hate to see you like this, we don't want to see you like this. We want you to come here, spend more time with all of us," Daphne told her sister.

Astoria wanted to. She would love to come and spend more time with everyone. She was always so busy, she didn't interact with people that much, it would be nice, to go back to the way things had been before. But for some reason she hesitated. "I don't know if I can…"

"I've cleared it with Snape, there's no problem. We can send the house elves for your things right away," Alvar told her.

Could it be so easy, could things really go back to the way they were? "Alright, I'll come stay here."

Daphne's face lit up and she got up quickly for a big hug. Alvar joined in partway through as well. Astoria could feel her sister's hot tears on her cheeks. If only I could cry as well, Astoria thought to herself. "Come on, let's go down to the kitchens, I bet Tracy's dying to ask you a million questions," Astoria joked as she pulled back from the hug.

"Okay," Daphne said, wiping away the happy tears from her eyes.

The dimly lit lights guided Alvar to the Headmaster's office. The gargoyle immediately moved to the side as he approached, granting him access. Two short raps on the door was all that was needed before the door opened of it's own accord. "Alvar, what my I do for you this evening?" Headmaster Dumbledore asked from behind his desk.

"It's about Harry," Alvar told him and seated himself in the chair in front of the Headmaster's desk.

Dumbledore leaned back in his seat and opened his tin of sherbert lemons. He popped one in his mouth and held out the tin in offering to Alvar who politely refused. Dumbledore sucked on his treat for a few moments, this was one of the reasons that Alvar hated the old man. He enjoyed taking things slow, whether it was out of preference or due to the fact that it tended to throw other off Alvar would never know. "What of him?"

"I was curious as to how he's been progressing," Alvar tipped his head in the direction of the pensive lying out in the open, memories swimming within. "I assume that you've been showing him memories of Voldemort."

Dumbledore hesitated. "I have been," he conceded.

"And?"

"And what?" Dumbledore smiled.

Alvar rolled his eyes. "Trying to rile me up won't work old man."

"Whatever do you mean?"

Alvar sighed deeply. "I would have assumed that you would have been teaching him more magic rather than old memories."

"It seems as though Harry is telling you more than he should be," Dumbledore noted.

"Stuff it, you and I both know that he tells both of us things about the other."

"Until recently my magic has been… rather limited. I suppose that I have you to thank for that."

"And yet you've yet to have thanked me," Alvar snorted.

Alvar stood up and began pacing around in a circle. "I came here to ask you if you have any knowledge on Illusion magic."

"I do, however I would assume that young Harry has a far better understanding of it than I do," Dumbledore told Alvar.

"As much as I'd love to believe that, I don't. Do you have any texts which I may borrow?" Alvar walked over casually to a small bookcase at the left side of the room.

"Unfortunately not, books that go into any depth on Illusion magic are rather rare I must admit. Gringotts has recovered a few from their curse breakers working in Egypt, other than that I have no knowledge of many being in circulation."

Alvar hummed and brushed some dust off of the spine of a book. "Well then it seems as though I have no reason to be here." Alvar walked up to Dumbledore's desk. "I believe that we may be meeting again very soon."

"Why would that be?" Dumbledore asked.

"You'll see," Alvar said vaguely before turning around and walking out of the room. As he passed by the bookshelf, he stumbled but caught himself by grabbing onto the edge of the top of the bookshelf. He pulled his hand back slowly and continued out of the room. Only once Alvar was on another floor, away from the Headmaster's office did he allow himself a small grin. The entire meeting with Dumbledore had gone exactly how he had wanted. In truth, Alvar knew that their were very few books on Illusion magic, any which Dumbledore may have would be guarded closely. The real reason he went there was for more information on Horcruxs, and boy had he learnt plenty. At first he noticed that he must have interrupted Dumbledore in the middle of something, his pensive was out and a memory was swirling within, there were papers and books out on a nearby table but what caught his attention the most was a small scrap of parchment on a table beside the bookshelf. The Crystal Cave, it read. A small crudely drawn map went along with the title showing the surrounding villages. Beneath the drawing of a map was a drawing of a golden locket with a great big S drawn in the middle.

Now Alvar had a lead, a horcrux that he could go after. But first, he needed to tell Harry. This was another way that he felt that he differed from Dumbledore. Dumbledore was rather wont of not telling others what he was planning, rarely telling anyone else his entire plan. Alvar felt it was important to work with others, especially Harry. Alvar knew he wasn't omniscient, he could make mistakes, me could forget little things, this was why he enjoyed having input from everyone else. Alvar quickly made his way back to the common room where he found nearly everyone in the common room. "Ladies, gentlemen, I have discovered the location of one of Voldemort's horcruxes!" He said with a mighty flourish.

"Really?" Harry asked immediately, practically jumping out of his seat.

Alvar nodded. "Yeah, but we need to move now and go get it."

"Well I'm coming with you!" Harry shouted.

"I will too," Ron stood as well.

"Count me in," Hermione chimed in.

Suddenly everyone wanted to join in, even the one person he did not want to come with them, Daphne. "Look, I need at most four others, the rest of you will be waiting here for our return. Harry is coming of course, and Astoria I want you to come as well."

"Alright," Astoria nodded with a smile on her lips.

"I'm coming, it's not up for debate," Hermione said stubbornly.

"That's fine, your brain may come in handy. And how about Tracy to finish us up."

"Why her?" Ron asked, he seemed rather annoyed that he wasn't chosen.

"I feel like she's ready, besides it might be good for her to see some action," Alvar told Ron. "Now Ron, could you find Neville and Hannah for us, they need to be ready here in case we get injured on the mission. Have Neville ready with plenty of potions and whatever else he may need and make sure that Hannah has space to work. Help them out the best you can while we're gone."

"What about Luna and I?" Daphne asked.

Alvar stopped himself from telling her that she was to remain in her room and wait for him to come back, that would go over horribly no matter what his intentions may be. "Well you go find Luna and bring her back here, she might be in the library."

"That's it?" Daphne asked, her eyes narrowing at him.

Alvar avoided looking her in the eyes. "Yeah, there's not really much else to do."

"Fine," Daphne sighed.

"Alright, let's go then," Alvar said happily.

Harry led the four friends out of the common room. Harry shot Alvar a look over his shoulder and Alvar nodded. They would be going to their usual apparation point to arrive just where they needed to be. The halls of Hogwarts seemed darker than usual as they passed by, Alvar shook it off as anticipation for what was to come, but it was strange still. The silent halls threw him off, it was quiet. Usually at this time there were still plenty of students about but there seemed to be far fewer than usual. Damn it, stop this Alvar, everything will be fine.

"Grab hold," Alvar told everyone as they reached the apparation point.

Everyone grasped his outstretched arm and a quick turn sent them apparating far away to a cliff's edge. "Whoa," Hermione said quietly, stepping back from the edge.

The ocean swirled angrily before them, a storm was incoming, the dark clouds above signaled this. A large gust of wind sent chills through Alvar's body but he was not the type to care about such things at this moment. "Look, down below," Astoria pointed out to everyone.

Alvar looked over the cliff's edge and saw a large group of rocks jutting out from the dark ocean below them. One in particular had a rather unusual flat top, more than wide enough for all of them to stand on comfortably. "The cave's entrance is down at sea level, a large crevice in the rocky wall," Alvar told them.

"Well what are we waiting for them? Let's get down there!" Tracy exclaimed.

Alvar held out his hand once more and the group apparated down on top of the large flat rock. "Over there," Harry pointed to a small yet noticeable crevice in the cliff side, right at water level.

Alvar nodded. "Ok, I've been working on this for a little while so I hope it works."

A great big wave crashed against the side of the large rock they stood on, spraying them with cold and salty water. Alvar walked carefully to the edge, being mindful of where he stepped on the slick stone. A slanted edge went right down to beneath the water. Alvar waved a hand and jumped off the edge of the rock. Tracy cried out and rushed to the edge but her feet slid across the wet stone and she too fell off only to be caught by Alvar. Alvar laughed as he hoisted her up. He watched as Tracy's eyes went wide as she saw what was beneath them. A large rectangular platform that was almost completely see through. The edges could be seen easily due and there were tiny glittery stars trapped within the clear platform but that was it. The platform was suspended in mid air, only a few feet above the waves below. They were only about eight feet below the top of the rock, easy enough to jump down on as long as you were careful.

"This is amazing!" Tracy squealed as their friends faces appeared over the edge of the rock. "Come down here."

One by one, everyone jumped down and landed on the platform. "How did you make this?" Hermione asked, wonder clearly evident in her voice.

"It was an accident to be honest, it was accidental magic when I was young. I thought that I could fly so I jumped out of a window, hoping that I could fly up and reach the stars. I landed on this and slid back inside the house, needless to say Vippy had an absolute fit when she caught me," Alvar chuckled at the memory.

"And so what, you just decided to recreate this?" Hermione asked.

"Pretty much," Alvar shrugged. "It adapts as anyone moves around on it, see." Alvar took a step forward to demonstrate how it would extend. "But try to stick close, it drains my magic something fierce, and I'd hate to see what it would be like if I had to manage two different paths, let alone five."

The five friends stuck close by one another as they moved ever closer to the crevice. Suddenly, just as they entered inside the crevice, the magical bridge beneath them disappeared entirely and they all fell into the ocean below. Alvar was shocked but understood immediately what had happened. Voldemort must have placed plenty of enchantments around this area, including those that would prohibit some magics. He quickly latched onto the wall beside him but his fingers slipped off the slimy stone. The water was icy and dark and he could barely see a thing. He quickly cast a lumos spell and suddenly the cave lit up. He could see that all of his friends were treading water. "Sorry, wards messed it up," Alvar told them. "Just follow me, we need to go deeper in here."

Alvar began swimming further into the cave, occasionally glancing back and his friends to make sure that they were keeping up. He could see immediately that something was wrong with Harry as he was struggling to keep up. Hermione had noticed this as well and was trying to help him but all she was doing was making things worse. Alvar sighed in relief as his foot caught on some loose sand beneath him. He quickly stood up and used lumos again to take a good look around the crevice. Directly ahead was a slanted hill leading to a dead end but that didn't deter Alvar in the slightest, in fact he was relieved, if it was easy to find then he would be worried. "What's wrong Harry?" Alvar asked as Harry struggled to his feet in the sand.

"I think I twisted my ankle when we fell into the water. My foot hit a rock below the water," Harry looked down to his submerged feet.

"Let's get to dry land and I can take a look at it," Tracy said.

They slowly made their way forward, helping Harry walk until they reached the slopped hill. Harry sat down about halfway up and Tracy went to work. She began waving her wand over Harry's foot casting diagnostic spells. "It looks like the bone is broken, but some of it chipped and has come out of place. He shouldn't be walking anymore and unfortunately there's nothing that I can do right now, we need to get him back to the school, we may even need to find Madame Pomfrey to fix this," Tracy hesitantly told her friends.

"Let me look," Alvar suggested but he came up with the same results. At best he could place a stasis charm on the foot to prevent the broken bones from jostling around but other than that there was little that he could do.

"Tracy, use a stasis charm on his foot, that's all that we can really do right now," Alvar said sadly.

Tracy nodded and quickly placed the charm on Harry's foot. Harry moved to stand up but he instantly fell back down. "It will feel like your foot is not even there so be careful. Hermione, could you help him?" Alvar asked.

Hermione quickly put Harry's arm around her shoulder, helping to support him. This was bad, they'd barely done anything and already one of them was injured. Alvar suppressed a groan. "Well we have to keep moving."

"But where is there to go?" Tracy asked, looking around.

Astoria walked up to the top of the hill and dragged her palm across the stone wall. "Here," she said, stopping a little ways down the wall.

"Do you know what protection it has?" Alvar asked her.

Astoria shook her head. "It requires something, we have to offer something to it, that's all I can tell."

"Let me look at it," Hermione said.

"No, just stay there with Harry for a minute," Alvar told her. He walked up to the wall and began inspecting it. "If I was a deranged mad man, what would I require?" Alvar snorted.

He tapped the wall a few times. "Hey Tracy, was Harry's foot bleeding?"

"No."

"Damn." Alvar held out his hand and with the other, made a slash across it with his finger. His palm split open and blood began to run down it. He cautiously smeared his still bleeding hand across the stone. He pulled it back, dismayed when suddenly the wall rumbled and disappeared entirely. Alvar quickly healed his hand up with a grin. "Come on, let's get inside."