XIX – Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem and the Scar

Draco met Severus in his office.

"Draco." He greeted.

"I know where one is." He exhaled, running the entire way.

"Wha-Come in." He barked as he looked around for any listening ears. "Where." He demanded.

"The Room of Requirement." Draco grinned.

"What?" Severus scoffed. "The Room of Lost Things? What could possibly be in there?"

"Ravenclaw's Diadem."

OoOoOoOo

"So, what do I have to do again?" Harry asked the portrait.

"I have a basilisk venom infused sword. It should be in the weapon room attached to that door, there." He pointed to a door.

"Okay."

"Only things that completely destroy an object can destroy a horcrux, yourself not included. Basilisk venom, fiendfyre, those are the only things that can destroy the soul container."

"What are we going to do for me?" Harry asked in a small voice.

"I need to think some more. I need help if I want to do what I think would be the easiest way to get rid of his soul in you." Slytherin steepled his fingers together. "Now, get the sword." Harry went to the door and pulled out the sword in the middle of the room.

"Here it is."

"Excellent. Now, when Tom was a student, he was obsessed with finding Rowena's diadem. It seemed he was successful and when he returned for a teaching position, he hid it in Hogwarts herself. Now, where could he have hidden it so well?" Slytherin peered at him in a way that Harry was absolutely certain that he was definitely a teacher at some point in his life.

"I don't know of such a place here, sir." Harry answered.

Slytherin frowned. "Hm. We thought it'd be less of a secret, ah well. There is a room on the seventh floor. Anything that is lost or misplaced appears there. It is vast and I would love to see what could possibly be in there, alas portraits can't go portrait hopping in there. You'll have to tell me all about it." He smiled at Harry.

"So where exactly on the seventh floor is it?"

OoOoOoOo

Draco looked around, not really sure what he was looking for. When he lived this last time, he was kind of concentrating on not dying from Crabbe's idiotic move that could have gotten them all killed.

"Where is it?" Severus hissed, already tiring from looking through the giant room for a trinket.

"Uh..." Draco trailed off.

"You don't know where it is, do you?" Severus folded his arms and glared at his godson.

"I didn't actually see this one but it's in here somewhere. Someone set fire to the whole room."

"What brainless idiot would do that? To all these books?" Severus was itching to read all these forgotten knowledge tomes, what things he could learn.

"Uh...Crabbe." Draco mumbled. Severus snorted.

"Well, that explains that, then." He sniffed and turned the corner and was startled when he ran into another student. "Potter!" Potter jumped out of his skin, breathing hard, placing a hand on his chest.

"Merlin, you scared me half to death!" He cried out.

"Potter, what the bloody hell are you doing here?" Draco pressed forward.

"Well, that doesn't matter. What are you doing here?" Harry asked instead.

"I asked you first." Draco replied petulantly.

"I asked you second." Harry was unmoving.

"Okay, that's enough. We are searching for something." Snape stared at Potter evenly, watching those green eyes stare him down as if searching for his prerogatives and finding something, he looked at Draco, analyzing him in the same way.

"Are you looking for the diadem too?" Harry asked.

Draco almost fell over in shock.

"W-What?" Draco swallowed.

"Um...yeah, just kind of found out about horcruxes." Harry rubs the back of his head nervously.

"You just found out." Severus stated, deadpan. "One doesn't merely come across them in the latest Charms quarterly, Potter. Who told you? Was it Dumbledore?" He demanded. A rage poured over Potter's face.

"Wait. Dumbledore knows?" He asked angrily.

"Well, he has the one my father had." Potter's eyes snapped to Draco.

"What one your father had?" Potter asked.

"The diary."

"That Ginny had." Potter stated.

"Yes."

"Interesting. Anyways, as fun as this conversation is, there's the diadem. What's your strategy for killing it?" Severus and Draco turned around and Severus cursed colorfully as he saw it was behind them the whole time, while they were arguing. Figures.

"Not as such..." Draco muttered, setting his godfather's ire on him.

"You don't have a plan?" He demanded to which Draco shrugged.

"Guys..." Harry tried to interrupt the argument.

"I cannot believe..." Severus ignored him.

"Hey, it's hard keeping everything straight..."

Both of them turned when they heard a horrendous scream, emit from the corner that the Horcrux was in. Harry stood above the diadem, pulling a sword with emeralds on in from the ruined shell of the tiara.

"Is that Slytherin's sword?" Severus breathed.

Harry looked at his Potions Professor.

"Yes. He let me borrow it for this purpose."

"I never knew that you knew where Slytherin's sword was..." He trailed off, not seeing the odd look pass over Harry's face.

"I can bring you to meet him if you want." Harry offered, off hand. He slyly knew that any Slytherin would kill to meet the founder.

"Right now?" Draco asked, eagerly.

"Sure."

"Well, I supposed I must accompany you as a member of the staff." Severus sighed.

OoOoOoOo

Harry led them to Myrtle's bathroom where he quickly said Open to the sink so they could get to Slytherin's secret chamber quickly without being waylaid by the ghost.

They made their way past the monster, which Severus and Draco stopped at.

"That was true?" Draco breathed. He turned to Potter. "You really fought a giant snake?" Harry looked at Draco and at the basilisk.

"Clearly." Harry said before making his way to the hidden passage and pulled a lever and said a password and the door opened and he waved them in.

Draco and Severus took in the room, a giant tome the only thing that sat on a giant table and a portrait sat on the wall.

"Salazar, these are two of your sorts. They wanted to meet you. They were looking for the Horcrux too."

"Were they? How interesting..." Salazar purred as he took in the two wizards in front of him. "Related, not by blood obviously but by the heart. Godfather and godson, correct?"

Draco gaped.

"How'd you know!" Draco was overjoyed.

"Simple." Salazar sniffed.

"Indeed?" Severus sniffed.

"Harry told me." Salazar told him matter-of-factedly. Harry lost it and started snickering, making both Slytherins glare at him.

"Oh Merlin, that was great." Salazar looked smug.

"But onto more important news, Mr. Malfoy here is from an alternate future where he is trying to stop the being known as Lord Voldemort, why don't you tell me about that instead?" Salazar stared down the Malfoy heir, who went extremely pale.

Harry looked at Draco.

"Is that true?" He whispered.

"How did you know?" He whispered to the portrait, afraid he gave something away.

"Your eyes. You've seen many things, things that can help me and help Harry to succeed in destroying that monster once and for all." Salazar said wisely.

Draco swallowed.

"Yes. I woke up and was fifteen again. I'm trying to help as much as I can."

"That's why your father is in prison and you've been so nice."

"Yes."

"Did you know I was a Horcrux?" Harry asked, bluntly. Severus startled and looked at him.

"What!" Draco cried out. "But...but... you were alive when I was sent back! And he's been dead for years!" His mind was flashing with every memory that he had of Potter.

"Salazar and I need help destroying the Horcrux in my forehead. Can you help?" Harry asked.

"Why not ask Dumbledore?" Draco asked him.

"Pah. That coot." Salazar sniffed.

"That's why. I mean, I know he did a lot or whatever but he hasn't had my best interests at heart all the while." Harry said.

"I will do whatever you need of me." Severus agreed first. Draco nodded immediately.

"Let me tell you what my theory is." Salazar spoke.

OoOoOoOo

"Are you sure about this?" Severus asked the portrait seriously. "I do not want anything to happen to Lily's son."

"It should work." Salazar told him.

"It better, or I'll burn your portrait." Severus turned dramatically.

Salazar rolled his eyes at the dramatic professor behind his back.

Harry laid on the table that originally held the tome. It was moved temporarily as the table was a ritual table. He was fastened to the table as they were not sure how wound the Horcrux was within Harry, the host's body may try and resist.

Harry was unconscious and Draco was prepping the area with cleansing potions while Severus was preparing for the extraction.

Severus exhaled and took a ritual knife and cut along the scar, blood flooding to the surface. Severus eased his magic into the youth's forehead and felt for the horcrux. He encased the horcrux in his magic, rising it, detaching it from the good soul that Harry had, the black squirming magic trying to get back to the place where it laid.

Severus felt sweat beading down his forehead as he rose it to the surface of the scar, the blood bubbling due to the anger that Horcrux was feeling, Harry's fingers twitching in response.

"Draco." Severus demanded.

Draco grabbed the small dagger, doused in basilisk venom, the goblin steel gleaming in the room as he stabbed right below the scar.

It worked instantly.

Harry's body convulsed as he screamed out as a black face emerged from the curse scar and screamed and then turned to magic dust.

Harry fell back to silence and laid extremely still, Draco looked at Severus and he immediately grabbed his head and cleaned the wound and poured healing draughts down his throat, healing the wound with a quick spell and feeling his pulse. Sometimes, the muggle methods worked better than anything else.

"His pulse is steady." Severus stated.

"Should we bring him out of the sleep?" Draco asked. Severus shook his head.

"We should let him come out of it on his own. Only time will tell." Salazar stated.

Severus moved his hands to his side and settled in for waiting.

Many hours later, Harry's eyes fluttered open and green eyes looked around and he cleared his throat, surprised to feel some scratchiness – almost like he had been screaming for a while.

"Potter." Severus was at his side in a minute, not wanting to remove the restraints until he was sure that Potter was unaffected.

"Did it work?" Harry looked at him earnestly.

"We think so. How do you feel?"

"So good. Like all this anger is gone, I feel like a completely different person." He gushed.

"Severus, release him." Salazar commanded from behind him.

Severus released the bonds keeping him to the bed.

Harry sat up slowly. He felt his forehead and felts smooth skin.

"Is my scar gone?" He breathed.

"Once the curse was resolved, in this case, removing the Horcrux, the scar healed flawlessly." Draco answered, coming up to the table.

"Wicked." Harry exhaled, extremely relieved.

Progress:

(Had a rough weekend - not a lot changed but I am energized to write this week, in between some DIY xmas gifts)

Harry - Didn't save my latest copy but I'm pretty sure its around ~3000 words

Draco - Outlined

Hermione - Outlined

Neville - Outlined

Please note that 2/4 epilogue stories will be have LGBTQIA themes. If it isn't your cup of tea, that's fine but I want to let you know that.