XX – Salazar's Plan
Draco walked into Gringotts on the Saturday a few weeks after destroying Harry's horcrux. Draco still couldn't believe that he had one in him, how gross was that? Having him in your head? He couldn't imagine it.
Shudder.
"What is your business with Gringotts?" A Goblin demanded, seeing the Black heir.
"The Black family has requested I do an audit of Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black's vault. It seems she may have been the pilfering type." Draco said with a sneer.
"You do have permissions to visit it." He sneered as he waved to a goblin.
Draco went to the vault and found the cup that looked out of place from the other linens and hand-me-downs that she had stored there. The golden cup was placed on a pedestal.
He dared not touch any other gold, knowing how paranoid Bellatrix was. He made sure that the Goblin stayed outside and took out his goblin blade and stabbed the cup. It squealed and disintegrated. Draco waited until it was completely gone and poked the ashes, making sure nothing was going to come of that again.
Satisfied, he turned and returned to the goblin.
OoOoOoOo
"Is it completed?" Salazar asked the blonde boy in front of him, who nodded firmly. "Good, let us move onto the next phase." He nodded to Harry.
"Kreacher, on behalf of the Lord of the House of Black, I request your presence." Harry stated in a firm voice.
"Kreacher comes." A bitter, gravelly voice utters as a pop of apparation sounds through the room.
"Elf." A voice booms behind the house elf. Kreacher turns and saw the portrait.
"Yes." Kreacher always dealt better with direct orders, especially as he's gotten older.
"We are aware what Regulus was attempting to do and we would like to finish his mission."
"Oh, Kreacher has tried, Kreacher has failed, no magics works on it!" Kreacher wailed, pulling on his ears in an agonizing manner.
"Bring it here." Salazar told him.
Kreacher popped off and then returned with a locket.
Salazar looked at it.
"It saddens me greatly. I had hoped this would stay in the family instead of being ruined by Riddle." He looked at the necklace and then closed his eyes and Draco stabbed the necklace while his attention was elsewhere, it squealing in agony.
Kreacher burst into tears when he saw the locket was destroyed.
"Kreacher has satisfied Master Regulus' demands..." He said as his eyes dimmed and he fell to the ground, dead.
Harry looked on in horror, looking at Draco who dropped his head in mourning.
"He must have fought, trying to finish Regulus' task. He was an exceedingly old house elf. I haven't seen one so old." Draco sighed. "I'll contact Sirius and let him know."
Salazar called upon the house elves of Hogwarts and arranged for a proper burial that would be adequate for the House of Black.
Harry didn't really know Kreacher and he was still very affected by the death of the house elf. He cried himself to sleep, even if Kreacher knew that, he would be disgusted with him, but Harry didn't know that. He just felt empathy for the creature.
The following day, Severus, Draco and Harry went to Godric's Hallow.
Severus remembered the last time he came through as he gazed upon Harry who walked in front of him, remembering the night when he held the dead body of Lily, crying at the unfairness that this vivacious woman's life was snuffed out too soon.
He would always be haunted by that night. He might have been bitter since then but he never lost sight of the fact that he needed to protect Lily's son. He was their way to being free of that monster. Such a heavy burden place upon such young shoulders.
Severus didn't really know the half of how much strife that Harry went through but somehow came out strong and so much like Lily sometimes, that he couldn't handle it.
They walked to the Riddle residence where Severus immediately scanned for curses and wards. He found none.
He then found a surge of magic coming from the floorboard, he set up strong curse-breaking wards that he read about in his many book referencing the subject.
There were a lot of compulsions on the ring to wear it, to handle it, with the underlying curse under the lure of the ring.
"There are a lot of compulsions, we need to be quick. Who cares about the stone." Severus commanded, brusquely, sweat pouring down his face, trying to mute the compulsions to the minor wizards.
Harry strode forward and stabbed the ring with his sword.
The ring screamed in agony as it curved in on itself. The stone lost its red color as it faded. Harry stabbed it as well, not knowing what it was, thinking it was evil.
Death looked on as one of his boons was destroyed, he didn't know why that infernal Riddle had his resurrection stone but he was glad the basilisk venom had destroyed it. The boy could keep the cloak and he would see about that wand.
OoOoOoOo
Neville breathed out a sigh as the potion changed colors, meaning he did it right.
"See?" Sebastian chirped. "You are getting better." He commended.
"I'm still not much help with the project for my parents." He grumbled as he stirred the potion.
"Look, Neville." Sebastian clapped a hand on his shoulder. Neville looked up at him. "These take time, I am so close to getting the approval to test on the mice, which is always the step before testing on humans, so we just need to keep pushing forward. We will do our best to help your parents." Sebastian felt for Neville, he really did. It seems like he hadn't had a lot of good people in his life that pushed him to do the best he could. Someone who genuinely cared for him. Neville told him that he was using his father's wand – which everyone knows that the wand chooses the wizard based on how good of a match they were. Neville was extremely different from Frank, even from eleven years old – they lived very different lives.
"Okay. I'll try and stay positive." Neville seperated the potion into separate bottles and started cleaning his station.
"Good man." Sebastian said approving. "Hey, Neville?" He asked.
"Yeah?" He replied, scrubbing the cauldrons.
"Would you like to come back to LA with me? Meet my partner and see the magic side of Los Angeles? Stay the summer with me?"
Neville whipped his head around, looking around his face, to see if it was a joke or not.
"I'd love to." Neville breathed.
"Awesome." Sebastian smiled easily.
This year was a bit of a whirlwind, Sebastian enjoyed teaching and working with Neville but usually he didn't do the teaching bit. He could understand why Severus was so frustrated.
Severus was always very talented on creating new potions and spells, he was a very good creator, not necessarily a good teacher. He wasn't exactly sure why he taught but it must have something to do with his death eater status, or some penance or something. Severus' personality wasn't a good teaching personality – he was much better suited to a potions creator versus an instructing. Severus was quite relieved when he was liberated from what he called "dunderheads" and focused on his NEWT and OWL students while working with Draco on various projects. Sebastian wasn't sure if they were actually working on the potion that they said they would but they seem to be working quite furiously on something else.
Although, it wasn't Sebastian's place to ask about it but he was curious.
OoOoOoOo
Hermione smiled widely at Viktor, as they walked to the courtyard, spring trying to make its way through the cold and bitter Scottish lands, some green popping in here and there.
"Is that really what happened?" She giggled as Viktor finished telling a hilarious story of his classmates, in French of course. She was working on the Bulgarian language but French came naturally to the both of them.
"It really did. He was so embarrassed." Hermione laughed harder as she thought about it more.
"That's so funny." She tapered off her laughter as Viktor guided them to a seat.
"Mia, what do you know about courtship?" Viktor asked, changing the subject suddenly.
"Malfoy gave me a book. I know of them. I don't expect to get many offers, to be honest, with my unpopularity here and my muggleborn status."
"I intend to court you when you turn sixteen, as is what is proper." Viktor declared.
"Viktor, it is quite a bit of time before then, please don't promise things, you might meet a wonderful Bulgarian witch who is much better than me." She took his hand in hers.
"Impossible." He grunted in English. Hermione smiled sadly as tears came to her eyes as she thought of Viktor with someone else. She never thought she would meet someone who valued her intellect as much as Viktor did. He loved having intelligent conversations and even though he was a Quidditch star and he liked it, he didn't want his life to revolve around it. He told her he mostly did it to get his mother and Headmaster off his back. He didn't have to be home as much or be at school as much, as he had Quidditch practices.
"Let's just see what happens, no promises." She whispered, the conversation taking such a drastic turn from the laughter that they were having.
"Let us move on." Viktor said, not promising anything. "I am being told I will be in America, New York, for my training this summer."
"Really?" Hermione squealed, her hands coming to her mouth.
"Yes." Viktor said warily, he wasn't used to her squealing.
"Sorry, it's just I'll be living with Sirius and Harry this summer, they live in New York. We could see each other." She smiled at him.
Viktor grinned.
"I would like that very much." He nodded and Hermione smiled as she leaned her head on Viktor's shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her.
OoOoOoOo
Harry looked over the book, at Salazar's behest.
"It looks like just one is left, Nagini." Harry looked up.
"Maledictus, probably." Salazar thought of what Nagini translated to.
"What is that?"
"A Maledictus is a cursed woman. This woman is cursed to transform into an animal, eventually the animal taking over and unable to change back to a person and they lose their human identity." Salazar sighed. "A very sad life. They are able to change at will but eventually it becomes uncontrollable and they are not able to turn back into themselves."
"How horrible." Harry looked at Nagini's name in the book.
"Before you feel too badly for her, just think that she has been trapped in the snake body for a very long time. I vaguely remember seeing in the paper, that in America, there was this woman who could change into a giant snake – this was 1927." Harry looked on in horror. "Now, this may not be the same person or snake, as the case may be, but what if it was – Riddle somehow found her and gained her loyalty and made her into a Horcrux. It is incredibly sad but we need to free her soul." Salazar stared into the air, unable to believe that there was another live Horcrux, but this Horcrux – she had to have been in agony for years and unable to say anything because the snake mind took over. It was quite sad.
"We should free her." Harry stated and Salazar nodded.
"Yes. But we need to plan. Here's what I think..." Salazar started speaking to Harry, talking a strategy to take down Riddle.
Hello! Sorry for the delay – I've been feeling a little depressed and sad – I have had some family members pass away around the holidays – so they're kind of rough for me. But I shall power through. I have not made any progress on the stories – I've been feeling some sort of way, we've all been there…
Thank you for the favorites and etc.
I got a review – I don't want to say flame, but probably that – saying that I bashed Ron to make Draco look better and that I have a lack of understanding and I'm sloppy.
Insert crying emoji – people take fanfiction so serious – it's for fun, it's a hobby – I am not a publishing author or anything, I barely edit – I am a late twenties, make shit money at a non-profit and I do this just because I wanted to. If you don't like it, oh well. I don't think I bashed Ron that badly, I've definitely seen WAY worse and some people have written him really well – it depends on the author and their plotline. I wanted him out of the way as I wasn't focusing on him. Shrugs
Anyways BYE. I'll post ch 21 tomorrow.