Book 5: Marcus Montefiore and The Crown of Horns

Chapter 10: Horcrux

"Tamper with the deepest mysteries - the source of life, the essence of self - only if prepared for consequences of the most extreme and dangerous kind." -The First of Adalbert Waffling's Fundamental Laws of Magic


Marcus, Ron, and Draco were rifling through drawers in Dumbledore's office in the bastion. He had enough filing cabinets filled with junk and stray papers to make any hoarder happy for a lifetime. The ceiling was covered in maps that were dotted with pushpins and lengths of colored string. On the desk, he was using his console as a coaster. Old dogs...

"They must be in here somewhere." said Draco. "Dumbledore was the one who confiscated all the firewhiskey. I heard him telling Arthur that he'd crack open all the bottles when the war was over."

"Why do you want to get drunk again?" asked Marcus. "Considering the beat down you got the last time you were soused."

"Because Valentines day is coming up and I'm dateless for the sixteenth straight year." said Ron.

"And I'm Ginny-less for the forty-eighth straight day." said Draco.

"Maybe you two lonely people should hook up for Valentines day." said Marcus.

"You're disgusting." said Ron.

"You have to keep your options open." said Marcus. "A light supper, candle light, dancing, who knows where it might lead?"

"It's going to lead to me killing you with fire." said Ron.

"And I'll burn the corpse." said Draco.

The door opened. They all dropped what they were rifling through and spun around. Harry stood in the door way, wondering what was going on.

"You scared us." said Ron, relaxing. "We thought you were Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore asked me to meet him in here." said Harry. "He should be here any minute."

Marcus turned back to the drawers and started pushing them back in. Ron and Draco did the same. They all made a dash for a the door, but stopped when they heard footsteps.

"Dumbledore, hi!" said Harry, looking down the hall for them. "What did you want to talk about?"

Marcus looked wildly around the room for somewhere to hide. He remembered his invisibility cloak in his back pocket, and pulled it out. The three of them hurriedly cramed themselves in one of the corners and covered themselves with the invisibility cloak. It was a tight fit, but they could manage it if none of them moved, or breathed.

"Harry, my boy," said Dumbledore walking into the office. "I'm afraid we have something very serious to discuss." He sat behind his desk and Harry took the seat in front of him.

"If this is about me and Hermione, I swear we're very careful." said Harry.

"No!" said Dumbledore, holding up his hands. "Not that. Never that. Ever."

Dumbledore reached into his desk and pulled out some items. Marcus could see a golden cup, a book, and a locket.

"I remember these." said Harry. "They glowed when I touched them."

"How did you feel afterward?" asked Dumbledore.

Harry shrugged.

"Like I was...more." said Harry. "Like I had found something I didn't even know I lost."

Dumbledore pursed his lips in thought.

"Harry," he began, "are you aware of what a Horcrux is?"

"No, sir." said Harry. "I only ever heard it mentioned once when we were studying Golems."

"A Horcrux is an item of powerful dark magic." began Dumbledore. "It contains a fraction of a persons soul. Someone puts a part of their soul in a physical item to keep themselves anchored to the world of the living. If their body dies, the Horcrux keeps them on Earth."

"They'd live forever?" asked Harry.

"Yes and no." said Dumbledore. "The state they'd be in after their body died would be less than the meanest ghost, the merest whisper of a person. Death would be preferable."

"Is that how Voldemort stayed alive?" asked Harry. "He made a Horcrux?"

"Yes." answered Dumbledore.

"Does mom have one?" asked Harry.

"Cynthia?" asked Dumbledore. "No. She wouldn't do that. To make a Horcrux, you need a sliver of soul. This goes against the fundamental nature of the soul. It is meant to be whole. When you create a Horcrux, it makes the rest of your soul highly unstable."

"That's why Voldemort is so nasty?" asked Harry.

"We'll never know for sure." answered Dumbledore. "In order to fracture a soul you need to commit the supreme act of evil: murder. I wouldn't put it past Cynthia to kill someone in a fair fight, but cold blooded murder is beyond her. Even if it wasn't, her behavior is that of a typical human. She smiles when she sees her children. She cries when she sees the Memorial Pillars. She lays awake at night staring at her ceiling wondering how she got into this mess. Love, sadness, confusion; all the earmarks of the human condition.

"Voldemort is afraid to die. He made more than one Horcrux. He's pushed his soul to the very limits. He's walking on existential thin ice. Cynthia confirmed that these objects," he indicated the items he pulled out, "were carriers for his soul once. At least, they were before you touched them."

"They aren't anymore?" asked Harry.

"What happened the night Voldemort died is a mystery to everyone." said Dumbledore. "The interesting attributes of your scar gives us a clue. There is a part of him in you. Without meaning to, he gave you the ability to interact with his other Horcruxes."

"What do you mean 'part of him in me'?" asked Harry, looking horrified. "I don't want Voldemort in me!"

"That's perfectly understandable." said Dumbledore. "But never having studied the art I don't know how far the effect extends or why you can even do what you do. All we an be sure of is that after you touch a Horcrux, it looses all its power."

Dumbledore reached into another drawer and pulled out a Locket he was holding up with a pair of tongs.

"We have confirmed that this locket is another Horcrux." he said. "Harry, I don't have all the answers. I'm not even sure if I'm asking the right questions. What I do know is: one less Horcrux is a good thing."

Harry hesitantly reached out for the locket. When his fingers brushed it, it glowed brightly. The maimed fragment of Voldemort's soul flew out of the locket and into Harry's body.

~o!o~

That evening, The Fifth House was seated at their usual table. Harry had shared what happened with Hermione. Everyone was very quiet. Marcus pushed the lasagna around on his plate without any intention of every eating it.

Hermione had a sketchbook out and was doodling something. Marcus looked over to see a sketch of the stadium, with small annotations.

"What are you working on?" Marcus asked.

"I want to figure out what the stadium does." said Hermione. "The magical contracts can't smite us for what we figure out."

It seemed very risky to Marcus, but he was as curious as anyone.

"The spires are hollow." he said. "Their full of outlets, so I think we're going to put something in there."

"There are these huge wires going around the building." said Draco. "They meet up here." he pointed to an area between the two North spires. "It's not as big as the spires are. It's about the size of a long truck."

"The whole complex is full of Magic Tech machines." said Harry. "I don't know what they're for."

"Nor I." admitted Hermione. "All we know is they're going to cast spells."

"Not necessarily." said Draco. "The other day I saw Diego putting together what was definitely a long range sensor."

"I saw the twins carry a radio receiver up to one of the spires a few days ago." offered Ron.

"Right." said Hermione. "So what we're building can cast spells, see things, and communicate across vast distances."

"It's a bigger Bastion." said Ron. "This one will be offensive. We'll be able to fire death rays at the Death Eaters from miles away."

"That makes sense." said Draco. "Do you think the other Cells are doing the same thing?"

"Sure." said Ron. "We'll be able to defeat the Dark Wizards through superior firepower. We'll use the new bastion to drive them back and we'll extend the borders of the safe zone slowly."

"Muggles can start running their governments from within the safe zones and they can reach a diplomatic solution to the war." said Hermione.

"They'd better work fast." said Marcus. "It's only been a month and the death toll in in the millions already."

"There are thousands of feet of cable and just as many machines. All of it runs on magical energy." said Hermione. "There aren't that many witches and wizards in the bastion. How are we going to power this thing?"

~o!o~

On the bottom of the world, Antarctica, a polar bear loped along the icy plane. This was very strange, because polar bears are indigenous to the Arctic.

It stopped suddenly and started digging through the ice. It's claws scraped against metal. It stopped digging and knocked on the metal plate. There was a grinding sound and the ice it was standing on started moving. A few feet away a long, straight crack formed on the ice. The crack widened steadily as the sheet of ice slid aside, revealing a large chamber below.

The polar bear looked up into the air expectantly. In the sky above, the long white hull of the Exile drifted down into the cavern. As the deck drew level with the polar bear, it took a running leap and landed on the ship. It rode the Exile down into the hangar like an elevator. The Exile came to a halt and there was a small thump as the hull made contact with the floor and came to a rest. The huge door overhead began to make it's way back into place.

The polar bear took another jump and landed on the cold steel floor below. It sat down on it's haunches and surveyed the ship. A section of the hull slid open and a ramp came down to the floor. At the same time, a section of the wall in the hanger slid open, revealing a brightly lit hallway.

A pair of what looked like glass coffins came floating out of the ship down the ramp. They were joined together and each lid bore a red serial number. Each glass coffin had a person in it. The polar bear watched the steady march of hibernating people. They came from every nation, and every walk of life. All ages and every race. All going down the hall, two by two.

Eventually, the last unit came off the Exile and the hull closed up again. The polar bear got up and sauntered to the other side of the hangar. A different door slid open to an antechamber and the polar bear crawled inside, filling up the whole space. The door slid shut behind it, and there was a hissing sound from the vents. The polar bear felt the temperature of the room go up.

The polar bear shrank and the fir retracted into it's body. After several anatomical contortions, there was a woman standing in it's place. A different door slid open, revealing two men in lab coats.

"Welcome back to Vostok, Chairwoman." said Dr. Laurel.

The three of them walked down the underground corridor. The entire complex was heated and powered by tapping into the energy from the volcano underneath the ice caps. In this frozen wasteland, they were able to live very comfortably. Cynthia came here very regularly; whenever she had a full ship. Today she was delivering 12 pairs of Philia, 15 pairs of Storge, and 11 pairs of Agape.

"We just birthed five new whales." said Dr. Laurel. "Two of them are already fully mature."

They came to another door that slid open to admit them. The new room was the same dimensions as the hangar, but the floor was a pool. A walkway extended across the water. Cynthia walked to the middle and looked down into the hundred foot deep pool. She could see a dark shape floating passively. It's body had glowing patches that moved slowly as it rolled in the still water.

"This one still has more to grow." said Dr. Laurel, indicating the creature that was nearly as long as the hangar sized pool.

"What's the magical output on the mature ones?" asked Cynthia.

"Eight TerraThaums." said Dr. Laurel. "Each. Consistent with the other specimens we've already grown. At the cellular level they each have a high Belfast Apparatus count. Their sheer size doesn't hurt matters."

"Eight TerraThaums still isn't enough, though." said Cynthia.

Dr. Laurel sagged.

"But you said-"

"Eight TerraThaums is all I need from you." said Cynthia. "I have ways of magnifying a modicum of power. How close are you to quota?"

"We only need thirteen more." said Dr. Laurel. "We'll be finished within a month."

"Excellent." said Cynthia. She had been hearing the same thing from all the Cells she'd been visiting: In spite of set backs, the schedule was being maintained. The plan would be finished soon.

"I need fifty eight whales." she said turning to leave the room. "Get them ready to be sent in two at a time to the Chamber of Repose, same as always. As usual, make sure no one is in that part of the lab."

"Yes, Chairwoman." said Dr. Laurel, as he wondered for the millionth time what the Chamber's purpose was. Every time Cynthia arrived they went in two at a time, they came out two at a time, and no matter which way he measured them, he couldn't find a difference. All Cynthia would tell him was make sure that pair always stayed together from then on.