A/N: Happy Holidays!
Chapter 37: New Paths
James's POV
It took Dumbledore two weeks to contact me about the Horcrux he thought he'd found. He said I didn't have to go with him, but I stopped him before he could continue trying to persuade me.
Lily didn't want me to go without someone else from the pack but the only Marauder we could get hold of was Severus who told us that he couldn't because he had an important meeting; something that might help us to find other Horcruxes.
After arguing for a few minuets, I managed to convince Lily to stay at home with Harry while I went with Dumbledore. She only let me go after I promised to be careful and come back home. I knew that she was feeling helpless but we both agreed that Harry had to be her priority until the war was over.
I took the Floo to Dumbledore's office; Dumbledore was stood waiting for me in front of his desk holding a silver kettle in his hands. He gave me a quick greeting before informing me that the kettle was a portkey that would take us to the Horcrux.
The portkey spat us out on the edges of a town, I looked around curiously but Dumbledore continued walking to the edges of the town, heading towards the poorer side.
"Where are we?" I inquired while I hurried after him. "Something about it seems familiar."
"I'm sure it does," Dumbledore smiled. "We are in Little Hangleton."
It took a moment for the name to click. "This is where Voldemort's parents came from!"
"Indeed," he nodded, gesturing to a shack slightly ahead of us. "I have reason to believe that Voldemort has hidden a Horcrux in his mothers' old house. After all, who would ever think to check an old shack in a muggle town?"
As we drew nearer to the shack, I noticed that the dead snake from the memories we'd seen was still nailed to the front door, but that it was nothing more than bones. I jumped slightly and drew my wand when the snake twitched before guessing that it was just the wind.
My guess was proved wrong once we entered the garden and the snake began to hiss threateningly. Dumbledore shot a few flames at the snake until it was burnt and dead for good.
"Inferi," Dumbledore explained. "One of the only ways to stop them is with fire."
I nodded and committed it to memory, even while hoping that I never had to use the information. The idea of Inferi creeped me out; the dead should stay dead as far as I was concerned.
We had to break through a few wards before we could enter the shack. Dumbledore thought that the Horcrux would be in one of the small bedrooms; most likely the one that used to belong to Voldemort's mother.
His idea got more and more likely as we had to break through some stronger wards to get into one of the smallest bedrooms and the further into the room we went the stronger the feeling of Dark magic got.
Eventually, we found a loose brick in the farthest corner that pulled out to reveal a ring. I recognized the ring as the Gaunt family ring but didn't get close enough to examine it properly,
"Is that it?" I asked, I already knew that it was; it had the same Dark feeling to it that the other Horcruxes had had, but I wanted to make sure. "Dumbledore?"
Instead of answering, Dumbledore leaned forward and picked the ring up; it looked like he was in some kind of trance as he stared at the ring. I could hear a quiet ringing noise and realized it was coming from the ring.
"Dumbledore?!" I shouted over the noise. He made a move to slip the ring onto his finger so I pointed my ring at him and fired off the first spell I could think of to get the ring away from him. "Expelliarmus!"
I was forced to duck as the ring was ripped from Dumbledore's hands and began hurtling towards my head. Normally, I would have just caught the ring, but if it was powerful enough to ensnare Dumbledore, I didn't want to take any chances.
"Dumbledore," I kept my wand trained on him as the glazed look began to leave his eyes. "What happened?"
"I had to put the ring on," Dumbledore sounded older than he usually did, but he also sounded lost. "Everything inside me was telling me to put the ring on; I didn't even try to fight it."
"It must have a compulsion charm on it," I told him, lowering my wand. "Can you break it?"
Dumbledore pointed his wand at the ring and broke the charm before nodding at me to pick it up. I noticed that he was still looking at the ring with a faint longing in his eye so I placed it into the bag we'd prepared for it and then shoved the bag into my pocket.
"I think, perhaps, it would be best if you kept this Horcrux," Dumbledore sighed. "The temptation is too strong for me to see that ring again."
I didn't argue, instead I just reached out and placed my hand on the kettle so that the portkey could take us back to Hogwarts. We'd been gone for a few hours, but I'd thought it would have taken us longer than it did and it wasn't as dangerous as I'd thought either. Lily would be pleased.
"I'll put it with the others," I told him once we were back in his office. "We can destroy it after we've got the others."
Dumbledore sighed mournfully but nodded before telling me that I could go. I made a quick run to the RoR to put the ring away and then left Hogwarts grounds so that I could apparate back home to Godric's Hollow.
Everyone was gathered in the living room when I arrived. Lily placed Harry in Remus's lap and then tackled me into a hug. I hugged her back and nodded at the others over her shoulder.
"Thank Merlin you're okay!" Lily gushed, pulling back so that she could check that I wasn't injured. "What happened?"
"Give him chance to breathe, Lils," Sirius laughed, reaching over and yanking on the back of her jeans so that she fell onto the couch next to him. "How'd it go then, mate?"
I took a seat between Remus and Lily and then launched into a description of what had happened. They were surprised that the only problem we'd come across had been Dumbledore becoming enchanted by the compulsion charm, but they were also relieved that no one had gotten hurt.
"What about you, Severus?" I asked, turning to look at my pack mate and then frowned as I realized someone was missing. "Wait, where's Peter?"
"He's at the hospital," Zoe answered sadly. "A Death Eater attacked Marlene."
"Is she okay?" I questioned. Peter seemed to really care for Marlene and she seemed to like him back which was rare for Peter since he was so shy. Marlene was a nice girl and part of the Order; I hoped she was okay.
"She's fine now, just in shock," Remus explained. "If Peter hadn't been there she would have died. His tattoo alerted him the Death Eater that was behind them just as he shot off the Killing Curse."
"Thank Merlin neither of them got hurt," I sighed as the others mumbled in agreement.
"What were you saying about Severus?" Lily asked, I guessed she was just trying to distract us but it worked.
"Oh yeah!" I smiled at her before looking at Severus. "You said you had a meeting with someone who could help us."
Severus shifted in his seat and sighed. "Okay, don't overreact, but I had a meeting with Narcissa."
There was a sudden explosion of sound. Harry woke up and began to cry which just added to the noise. I shot off sparks from my wand until everyone had quietened down and then waited for Severus to continue.
"I said not to overreact," he glared at us as Lily calmed Harry down and got him back to sleep. "I met with Narcissa because she sent me a letter and I had reason to believe that what she said was true."
"What did she say?" I asked quickly before anyone could comment, nudging Sirius when he opened his mouth to argue.
"She said that she wanted to meet and talk to me, which I agreed to," Severus continued over our comments. "She said that she wanted to help our side of the war. She doesn't support Voldemort and while she doesn't agree with Dumbledore, and she still doesn't like muggle borns, she wants to protect her son. Lucius can't know anything though."
"How can we trust what she says?" Remus asked. "She could be lying to spy on us."
"She's agreed to drink Veritaserum and be questioned by Dumbledore," Severus told us. "I sent Dumbledore a letter, we're going to his office tomorrow and Narcissa will meet us there."
"How will this help our search for Horcruxes?" Sirius demanded. It was clear that he still didn't like that Severus had gone off on his own to meet with a potential Death Eater, but he trusted him enough to let it go.
"Lucius is one of Voldemort's most trusted Death Eater, is anyone knows about Horcruxes it will be him, and by default, Narcissa," Severus grimaced. "Whether she's on our side or not though, she's still a nightmare to talk to." We snickered and just like that the tension left the room.
"Well, if that's everything, I'm going to go visit Peter and Marlene and make sure they're okay," I stood up and stretched, offering Lily a hand up. "Who's coming?"
Zoe and Severus declined and Lily said she wanted to put Harry to bed, so Remus, Sirius and I apparated to Saint Mungo's. Marlene had been given a small dose of a Sleeping Draft and a Calming Potion, she was fast asleep by the time we got there, but Peter was sat at her bedside, still awake.
"How're you doing?" Sirius clapped him on the shoulder and smiled at him as we lifted him off of his feet and practically dragged him from the room.
"Hey! Guys! What are you doing?!" Peter protested. "I have to stay with her! What if they come back for her!?"
"Don't worry, Pete," Remus soothed. "There's Order member all over and we're only taking you to the café; if you're planning on playing guard then you're going to need some coffee."
Peter protested a little more before accepting that what we said was true and sitting down at one of the tables in the café. We spent at least an hour with him, cheering him up and making sure that he was alright before he told us to go home and get some sleep so that we'd be ready for the meeting tomorrow. We'd told him everything that had happened and he said he'd be there tomorrow, but he wanted to stay with Marlene for the night.
A/N: I've put one of my other stories (When Legends Were Born) up for adoption, if anyone's interested please contact me.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you all have a great Christmas! Please review! :)