Harry ran through the dark corridor as the footsteps of his attacker closed in fast. He couldn't remember what he was running from but he knew his life was in danger and he couldn't shake this feeling of dread and fear.
His clothes were drenched in sweat and blood but he didn't remember how or when he got hurt. He didn't feel any pain or tiredness but his breathing was labored and his legs were shaking. He saw the corridor branched into several ahead of him and unable to decide where to go, he simply turned left. He didn't know where he was going or whom he was running from but he could feel it closing in on him.
He increased his speed before his legs finally gave in as he fell hard on the ground on his face. He hit his chest hard as all the air in his lungs was forced out due to the impact. The footsteps closed in as Harry realized it was standing right on top of him.
He turned slowly to look from what he was running from and saw himself standing there looking down at him. But there was something different. While Harry saw his…copy, it looked more deformed and like a demon to him. The clothes on his upper body were torn with his left shoulder exposed from where his shoulder bone protruded out like a dark, bark-like extrusion going up to two feet in height as Harry noticed his entire left hand was made of that thing, whatever it was. His face was all black with marks of red as if small cuts which were bleeding. His hair was coming down to his shoulders in thick, long clumps with streaks of the same red color as on his face but the most striking and scary thing which Harry saw was his eyes.
He had those same red eyes which Harry had seen back in the forest that night in Wester Ross. He grinned at him baring his sharp demonic teeth as he prepared to impale Harry with his left, clawed, metal-tree sort of hand as Harry screamed loudly seeing death itself closing in on him.
He opened his eyes and sat up realizing he was in his room in the manor. He was sweating heavily and his throat felt dry and scratched from within when Temmie popped into his room and looked at him with worry.
"Harry, are you okay?" she asked approaching him when she stopped and looked at him with fearful eyes. "I…I will get you some water," she said before quickly popping away.
Harry seemed to miss her shocked reaction as he breathed hard. Temmie popped back in, placed the glass of water and disappeared within a second. Harry wondered why she was in such a hurry as he gulped down the entire content from the glass before getting off the bed. He looked at his pillow and the mattress which was both drenched in his sweat.
Out of habit he reached for his wand and cast a drying charm when his magic flared up filling his room with a small tornado of hot air for a second, throwing everything everywhere before vanishing away. He was thrown off of his feet. Some of his things flew out of the window as Harry stood up and remembered his magic hadn't been working properly.
He sighed, his left hand holding his head as an unbearable headache only made him feel worse. He walked over to the small cupboard in his room which was where he stocked a few potions just in case he might need them and took out a vial of pain relieve potion before gulping I down.
It helped ease his headache but not so much. Harry didn't want to consume another one of those knowing he could risk an addiction of them so he pressed his lips and decided that the pain will go away on its own.
He then entered his bathroom and thought maybe a hot shower will help but it didn't. As he came out of the bathroom drying his body with a towel he stood in front of the full length mirror in his room and looked at his reflection. He didn't notice it at first but then he did and realized the scar on this forehead, the one which had been with him ever since he could remember, had faded away a little bit. He ran a finger over it and couldn't feel its contour anymore. It was a lot thinner and looked like it would be gone completely in a few days.
He knew that this scar was given to him by Voldemort that night when he had come to kill him and his parents. When his killing curse failed instead left this scar on Harry's head. Harry had tried to hide it when he realized this scar was what made people recognize him more but nothing worked. And now all of a sudden it had started to fade. Perhaps that is why he was having the headache.
He removed his hand from the scar and looked at his reflection, the memory of his dream coming back to him. He didn't know what that was which had attacked him in his dream but its eyes was similar to what Harry had seen back at Wester Ross and that could not be a coincidence. It could be possible that his mind created those eyes in his dream out of memory seeing how scared he was of them that night in the forest but somehow Harry didn't feel like it.
He then ran his right hand on his left shoulder joint feeling it. The protrusion happened there in his dream. "I'm thinking too much," he said to himself before drying his hair with the towel and changing into some fresh clothes.
Harry headed down and saw Temmie had already set up his breakfast like always. He had woken up late even today so he missed his morning exercise. He didn't want to do it considering how his head ached this morning as he thought exercising would only make it worse.
He also realized that he might be alone as he didn't see Remus in the living hall which was usually where he found him sitting and reading the morning Prophet every day. It was then that he realized that tonight was going to be a full moon so Remus might be in out of the guest houses preparing for his night-out. He felt bad for him. Yes, the wolfsbane potion was helping him with recuperation but every time Remus transformed and Harry was here he could hear his painful screams and howls until his transformation was complete.
Remus had told him that no pain relieve potion or anything like that worked during or after his transformation as he had tried it before. The only possible solution was the consumption of wolfsbane potion after the full moon night had passed and he had reverted back to his human form and it only helped just a little bit. Sometimes Harry wondered if the magical society had not exactly made a cure for the werewolves simply because of their discrimination towards them but then he'd read that the potion had been invented by a werewolf so why would he lie about it in the first place?
Harry was interrupted from his thoughts when Remus entered the hall. "Morning, Harry," he said. "Another late start?"
"I had a bit of a headache so I thought I would give myself a break," Harry replied when he saw Remus approach him. He realized he had noticed it, too.
Remus stopped in front of Harry and looked at his forehead with wide eyes. "Your scar," he said.
"I know," Harry said. "I noticed it, too, this morning. Maybe that is why I have this headache."
"You mean you've had this scar give you headaches before?" Remus asked sounding worried.
"Sometimes," Harry said. "Mostly whenever I was in danger of getting hurt or…or worse," he said remembering the countless encounters where Vernon would hit him so much that Harry would lose consciousness and/or break his hand or leg. Every time Vernon was about to hit him he had felt his scar hurt.
Remus looked at him knowing what Harry meant. Harry had told him about how his relatives treated him and it had taken a lot of self-control on Remus' side to not go and kill them with his own hands. He knew Harry had them arrested by the muggle authorities as he hoped it would teach them a lesson for the crimes they'd committed.
"Are you sure you are alright, though?" Remus asked.
"I'm fine, Remus," Harry said. "You don't have to worry. If I feel anything I will tell you." Remus looked at him before nodding. "If you want we can cancel today's class."
"No," Remus said. "Everything happens during the night so I can be around until evening."
"Remus?" Harry said making the werewolf look at him. "I was wondering if you could teach me occlumency. I saw how Daphne controlled her magic and she said it was due to occlumency. Can you teach it to me?"
"I've never thought about teaching someone a magic like that," Remus said. "Being a werewolf I have some defenses of my own which comes to me naturally. Occlumency is one of them. I don't know how it works. I mean I know but…but no one ever taught it to me so I don't know how I can teach it to you. Ever since I was bitten it became one of my natural abilities like my heightened senses. I would've taught you but I don't know its proper principles myself. I hope you understand."
Harry nodded. "Is there anyone else who can teach me?" he asked.
"Sirius might know although I am no sure," Remus said. "Coming from a noble family he should've been taught how to protect his memories so we can give him a try. It's a good idea, though – learning occlumency. With things that have come to light in the recent days it is important that we don't let those information fall into the wrong hands."
"I guess I will write him a letter then," Harry said knowing Sirius hadn't been back from his vacation with Amelia and Susan yet. But this left him with another problem and that was his out-of-control magic. Harry didn't want to think it this way but luckily for him, because of Remus' transformation tonight he will be unable to teach him for a few days at least so Harry hoped Sirius returned by that time and they could begin learning occlumency. That is, if Sirius knew how to do it himself.
Harry got a letter from Sirius a few days later and was happy to know that his godfather knew about occlumency and had agreed to teach it to him. He had offered that Amelia did it as she had better control on it and knew a lot more than Sirius did but Harry figured he might end up letting her know about things he wanted to keep secrets for now so he decided to stick with Sirius' way of teaching.
Harry had done some research on what or how occlumency worked and in order to learn it all one had to do was to make sure they could withstand someone's attack on their memories. This meant that Sirius will be using legilimency on him and Harry had to figure out how he could protect his memories from him. That posed the risk of Sirius knowing about the book and everything else Harry had kept from him, Remus and others.
Harry sighed knowing he probably didn't have any choice as he'd learnt that occlumency did help a great deal in controlling the flow of magic within someone and with the way his magic was reacting Harry had found no other way that could help him because none of the books in the manor's library had any information as to why his magic was reacting that way so at the end he had to stick with occlumency. He only hoped Sirius wouldn't probe into his thoughts without his permission.
00000
"Good," Snape said lowering his wand. "You've improved a lot since we started."
Draco breathed hard as his training with Snape came to an end. He had mastered enough to give the seventh years at Hogwarts a run for their money. Snape was really a great teacher. Draco walked over to where Dobby had brought them some water and health replenishing potions. He chose water as he decided relying too much on potions would not let his body develop in terms of natural recuperation.
He had learnt one thing from his training with Snape and that was to train until he could not even cast a simple lumos charm. Every single day as his training with Snape ended Draco was left so tired and magically and physically exhausted that he would simply head straight to bed as soon as he'd had his dinner.
Narcissa voiced her disagreement with Snape's way of teaching her son and for the first few days Draco felt the hard training taking a toll on his body but then he got accustomed to it as he realized after three months of the rigorous regimen that Snape had set for him that his body now needed just a night's worth of sleep and he was all ready and prepared the next morning.
To keep things in line and to not tire him too much Snape would train him for four hours straight starting in the evening so by the time night came Draco was finished with his training and he could take the night to rest his body.
This method came with the risk of stunting his magical growth but as Snape had guessed Draco's magic had reacted just the opposite way. It grew, expanded and became stronger at first with each month, then with each week until Draco had become accustomed to the training and his magic began to improve daily.
Narcissa chose that time to enter the training room as Snape and Draco turned to look at her. "Can we talk?" she asked looking at Snape.
"Is it related to your search for horcruxes?" he asked. She nodded. "Then Draco joins as well." Narcissa seemed to not accept it but she knew her son was more than just a twelve year old boy now and already knew enough that it wouldn't be wise keeping him out of things like this. The circumstances had made him grow up faster than any kid his. She nodded before the three gathered at the couch which Snape conjured.
"Sirius annulled Bella's marriage with Rodolphus," she said, "and has disowned her from the family. I only came to know about it today morning when our vault manager contacted me regarding that matter."
"And?" Snape said already guessing what she would say next.
"Sirius didn't claim back Bella's personal vault at Gringotts but he only had the dowry money from Rodolphus' account removed which pretty much left his vault empty," she said. She then took out the letter she had received last night. The men saw it was from Sirius. Snape read it and looked at her. "He asked me to have that vault because he thinks I deserve it more seeing how Bella's my sister."
"So what does this have to do with anything?" asked Draco.
Narcissa and Snape looked at each other before Snape spoke. "The dark lord had given another piece of his horcrux to Bellatrix just like he did to you father," he said causing Draco's eyes to open wide. "There is no other place as safe as Gringotts where she'd have kept it but that is just a guess."
"I had all the contents from her vault moved into a new one which I opened under an alias," Narcissa said. "I figured the dark lord could find out we aren't actually dead if he came to know that the contents from Bella's vault had been moved into our family vault. If there really is a horcrux in her vault all we now need to do is find it."
"And how do we know what it is?" asked Draco. "We knew about the diary because dad had it."
"We will figure something out," Snape said. "But first we need to get something to keep that horcrux in like that diary had."
"I will contact our vault manager," Narcissa said.
00000
"So you want to learn occlumency?" Sirius asked. He had returned back from his vacation and Harry felt bad because he knew Sirius had cut short his vacation with Amelia and Susan after receiving his letter. Over the days Harry had somewhat predicted his godfather.
"I actually want to learn how to control my magical flow," Harry said. Because Sirius had decided to teach Harry occlumency Remus thought he focused on Daphne and so they both were in the other corner of the basement.
"What do you mean you're having difficulty in casting magic?" Sirius asked. Harry cast a lumos and his wand tip started to flicker. Sirius watched carefully wondering what was happening as Harry cancelled the spell. "That's weird," he said. "Control issues or not a lumos charm isn't supposed to do that."
"Which is why I want to learn occlumency of all things first," Harry said. "I heard that it helps one control their magic more properly. My magic's been acting up strange lately. I don't know what happened. I saw Daphne's control on her magic and she told me it was because of her occlumency training, unless there's a better way?"
"Not that I know of," Sirius said. He then glanced to where Remus and Daphne were and smirked. "You sure you don't want Daphne to teach you?" he asked.
"I could but then you won't get any of the spicy secrets of the universe which I inside my brain," Harry sad equally sarcastically. Sirius laughed.
"Alright," he said. "I take it you've done at least a light reading of what occlumency is. Remus told me you did so I will skip the theory and get straight to the practical. Man, I never thought I would have to teach someone something. It feels weird."
"Just do it the way it makes you feel comfortable," Harry encouraged his godfather.
"Okay," Sirius breathed in and out. "To be honest there's only one proper way to teach someone occlumency and that is to subject them to the legilimency spell. Before we do that I will give you the opportunity to go ahead and calm your mind. Make sure you don't have any violent, surprising, sad, happy…any kinds of thoughts or memories inside your head. Once you think you've done that you tell me and then I'll take it from there."
Harry nodded. Ever since learning about the principles of occlumency he had been practicing about secluding his mind from his memories and thoughts. Every morning he would now wake up an hour early and meditate. While he realized his focus because of the meditation increased it didn't improve his control on magic at all.
"I'm ready," Harry said after a while.
"Now remember," Sirius said walking towards him, "when I enter your mind you will feel a flood of memory and thoughts you ever thought before. They will come like flashes so don't panic. It might feel to you that I am going after them but I won't be. That part comes later as that's a bit more advanced. For now just try to push me out of your mind. Okay?"
Harry nodded taking in a long breath.
"Ready?" Sirius said pointing his wand at Harry's forehead. "Legilimence!"
At once Harry felt like someone had forcefully entered his mind and was rummaging around his memories and thoughts as he saw flashes of incidents that happened with him as if he was reliving them. He began to panic as his breath became shorter and quick. Suddenly he felt the intrusion end as he fell on the floor breathing hard.
Sirius crouched down beside him and put a hand on his back. "You okay?" he asked looking at him worried.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Was that supposed to have happened?"
"That was your first experience with someone entering your mind forcefully so yeah," Sirius said. "You got lost into what was happening instead of focusing on pushing me out. I don't blame you that you couldn't do it because no one can on their first try…unless they're a natural in it like Remus." He then helped Harry up. "Now, remember to focus on where my legilimency is going to be focused at. It's a bit hard to do in the first few times but that will allow you to push me out more accurately or else you will keep on trying and won't be able to push me out. Let's do it a different way. Can you think of something that I can come after inside your head, something which isn't very personal or private for you?"
Harry thought for a while before deciding about the day he got his emancipation. "About the day I got my emancipation," he said.
"Alright," Sirius said. "So I will be coming for that memory of yours. Now, because you know what memory I will be going after you have an advantage but it also puts you in the position of abandoning your other memories which will become a lot easier for me to access and through that I can figure out what happened during your emancipation even if I don't get the actual memory. Do you understand?"
"It's like joining the pieces of a puzzle," Harry said. "You will collect small information from other memories that will help you know about the actual memory that I am trying to protect from you."
"Exactly," Sirius said. "Well, let's first deal with just one memory. We will proceed to the other part once you've successfully thrown me out of your head." Harry nodded and emptied his mind. He made it feel as if he had almost completely forgotten about his other memories thinking it might help him hide those away from Sirius and that way he could focus more on the memory Sirius was after.
"Legilimence!" Sirius said entering Harry's mind and this time, for Harry, the flashes were a lot less compared to before as he was more prepared and knew what Sirius was coming after. As he felt Sirius' intrusion getting stronger he focused more on the memory he was supposed to protect from him.
Sirius intruded further, searching for that one memory he was supposed to steal from Harry as he passed hundreds of thousands of Harry's other memories when he noticed something odd.
Inside Harry's head his memories were projected in square planes the size of a photograph, each playing like a slideshow of pictures. That was the normal arrangement of thoughts that a human's mind did on its own without the use of any occlumency. Because of Harry's inexperience in occlumency his thoughts and memories were completely open to Sirius and he could see all those memories very clearly even if he didn't want to but there was one particular memory which caught his attention.
It was simply a black square and there was a dark grey/black aura emanating from it. Sirius had only intruded someone's mind before using legilimency during the last war whenever he would have to extract information from a death eater he took down but he knew something like this wasn't supposed to be normal as he looked at that black patch of memory. Curious as to what it was he headed its way but before he could approach it he felt an immensely powerful push which Sirius thought was impossible for someone to do on their first try. But that wasn't it as he realized that the push didn't come from Harry but rather from the memory itself.
He felt his own memories being attacked and in a very powerful, head-on way as his occlumency shields rose up but it couldn't be before Sirius was forcefully thrown out of Harry's memories. He gasped, opening his eyes as he looked at Harry in front of him. He still had his eyes closed, face scrunched due to his focus on the occlumency training. He was still trying to push Sirius out it seemed.
Sirius didn't understand. How could a memory push him out of Harry's head? "Harry?" he said putting a hand on his shoulder as Harry opened his eyes and looked at him confused.
"Sirius, when did you get out?" he asked.
"Just now," Sirius replied. "I think we will leave it here for today. How about we continue on from tomorrow?"
Harry nodded wondering what was going on. Something was definitely bothering Sirius. Harry wondered what. Did he saw his memories from that night? No, that couldn't be or else Sirius would be asking him about it right now. Maybe it wasn't something that important, Harry thought. He looked where Remus was training Daphne and they both seemed to be done as well as Remus was putting down the wards around the basement.
Harry saw as Sirius had already left the basement but shrugged his thought aside as to what was bothering his godfather. He had to think about practicing occlumency more on his own. A few hours every day wasn't going to be enough for him as he thought about it. The faster he could learn occlumency the sooner he could get back to practicing spells.
00000
Sirius came back upstairs in the living hall thinking about what had happened just now in the basement. When he had tried to access that memory of Harry's he not only felt a powerful force pushing him out of Harry's mind but also a very dark aura. He couldn't figure out what it was exactly as he never got the chance.
He was still feeling a bit dizzy from being forcefully pushed out of Harry's head. He knew it wasn't done by his godson or else Harry would know. His magic or whatever it was that had done it did it on its own without letting Harry know about it. Sirius wondered what it was. Perhaps he should discuss this with Remus. He would know better as he was the one living with Harry.
Sirius worried about his godson. If this was something that could harm Harry then it needed to be dealt with. He had also noticed Harry's scar which was a lot lighter now all of a sudden. He wondered if this had something to do with it as after all, that scar that he had wasn't any ordinary scar. But if it was somehow related with Voldemort then Harry could be in some serious danger. Sirius knew what the prophecy said about Harry and Voldemort and had always wondered if there was a way for Harry to not be a part of it. Sirius had always wished that the prophecy turned out to be false but unfortunately prophecies didn't work that way.
"Why can't things be normal with you, Harry," he muttered to himself worrying about his godson.
00000
Voldemort opened his eyes and looked around, groaning in pain. His entire body felt as if it was on fire. His throat was dry as he looked on his left and found a glass of water placed on the nightstand. He somehow made himself sit up and took a few small sips from the glass to ease his dry throat when he realized he wasn't alone in the room.
"How long was I out?" he asked knowing Grindelwald was sitting beside his bed looking at him intently.
"About a week," he replied. "Do you not remember waking up before this?"
Voldemort figured he might've gained consciousness before but couldn't remember when. A few days ago he suddenly felt as if someone had killed him. It was the same feeling he had experienced every time he had made a horcrux for himself. He wondered if someone had destroyed his diary which had been missing ever since Lucius' death. The remaining two Malfoys had been unable to tell him where it was and had died before he could properly punish them for not being aware of his diary's location.
"Your worry is correct," Grindelwald said having his attention. Voldemort looked at him as Grindelwald smiled. "You are right in thinking that one of your horcruxes has been destroyed."
"How do you know about that?" Voldemort asked.
"Because I sensed it within you when your death eaters called me when you collapsed right in the middle of your meeting," he said. Voldemort mentally winced hearing that. Losing consciousness in front of his followers made him feel so weak and helpless. "Safe to say I could sense one of your links to your horcruxes was broken. Now there's only six."
"Six?" Voldemort looked at him confused. "But I only made that many. If one of them is destroyed shouldn't there be five left?" He then realized as his eyes widened with surprise. "That boy!" he said in a whisper. He remembered doing a horcrux ritual before going to Godric's Hollow that night to kill that brat, gifting himself a horcrux made from the sacrifice of the child that had been prophesized to be his defeater. Unfortunately he had to kill Harry's parents before he could get to the boy and in doing so he completed the horcrux ritual.
So when his body was destroyed due to his curse's rebound from the boy a part of his soul got separated because of the ritual.
"Mark him as his equal," Voldemort muttered realizing Harry was his final horcrux which he made without even realizing it. So the boy had somehow managed to destroy a part of his soul that was inside of him. That could be the only possible case as all his other horcruxes except for Nagini were inanimate objects, albeit with powerful residual magic. Except for the diary all of the other horcruxes were safely hidden "Can you locate my horcruxes?" he asked Grindelwald wondering if he could locate the diary.
"I can't," Grindelwald replied. "They are your horcruxes. I can only sense their links to you like I did when you collapsed." Voldemort looked worried. The part of his soul which was inside this current body of his had taken a heavy impact due to this one horcrux's destruction. He didn't know if he would be able to survive another one unless he regained his original body.
"All the things for your ritual are ready except for that boy's blood," Grindelwald said. "The ritual will still be a success even without it, though…"
"No!" Voldemort said interrupting him.
"Then have your men get it otherwise I cannot help you," Grindelwald said.
"I don't think my body will be able to handle the ritual's effect in the condition I am in right now," Voldemort said. "Regulus!" he said loudly although it hurt his throat. A moment later Regulus Black walked into the room and bowed to those two. Voldemort smiled looking at the youngest Black. "I hear your brother is now the lord of your house," he said looking at him. "How would you like to take that position from him?"
Regulus looked at Voldemort without saying anything or moving. He knew he had no choice in the matter. Hopefully his cover won't be blown before it happened as he realized why Voldemort had called him here. He needed to hide the locket so that Voldemort couldn't get his hands on it. He wondered if Sirius will be able to forgive him.
00000
Narcissa received summon from the Malfoy family's vault manager. She arrived at Gringotts and walked in confidently. She knew there was no risk of her getting identified as the Malfoys had officially been declared dead by the DMLE. She made a note to thank Bones for that if she meets her the next time.
Knowing that tricks like illusion charms or polyjuice potion won't work once someone was within the wards of Gringotts, as per Snape's advice Narcissa had went ahead and gotten a plastic surgery of her face followed by dying her blond hair brown. Completely unrecognizable, it even took Draco a few days to get accustomed to his mother's new look and while he hated it he knew she had no other choice.
She walked straight to Ripclaw, her vault manager's office where he was waiting for her. "Did you find something?" she asked the moment she entered his office.
The goblin nodded asking her to sit. She did as he brought a small golden cup and placed it in front of her on the table. She could immediately feel the pull from the cup tempting her to pick it up and look more closely at it. She had felt similar magic coming from that diary which she gave to Remus.
Ripclaw enclosed the cup into a secure box just like the diary as she felt the cup's effects wear off. "I suppose this is what you wanted me to look for, Lady Malfoy?" he asked looking at her. "Do you know that it is against the policy of Gringotts to house soul vessels? They are cursed and have the ability to influence anyone who is not careful around them."
"Only it wasn't mine, Ripclaw," she said looking at the goblin. "This cup was in Bellatrix's vault which I acquired after my cousin Lord Black annulled her marriage to Rodolphus Lestrange and then disowned her from the Black family. Being her sister all her belongings was inherited by me and you know the rest from there. Yes, when I asked you to search every single item in that vault I meant you to find it because I surely couldn't."
"So it was Bellatrix who had something this vile in her vault?" Ripclaw said looking at the box. "She must have smuggled it in somehow otherwise our wards would've detected it. Are there any more of such things in that vault?" he asked looking at Narcissa.
"Not that I know of," she said. "I had information she might have one which you found out but if you could somehow look for similar things in all the other vaults I think it will be good for both you and me."
"Unfortunately we cannot do anything like that," Ripclaw said. "Our rules are what define us. Being your vault manager I did what you asked. In order to investigate all the other vaults their respective vault managers will have to be made responsible and that cannot happen unless the vault owners specifically tell them to do so."
Narcissa nodded knowing full well that the goblins would never walk away from their rules and laws. That is why they had been entrusted with the magical world's money. "If you must know, finding these vessels is very important not only for me but for the entire magical world. This cup is a soul vessel for…for Voldemort," she said after gathering some courage.
"That does not surprise me," the goblin said. "What surprises me, is knowing who this particular cup belonged to." He then looked at Narcissa's confused expression and then grinned which sort of scared her a bit. "You have no idea what this is, do you?" he said. She shook her head. "Lady Malfoy, this cup belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, one of the four founders of Hogwarts. A soul vessel or not, this item should not be here at Gringotts in the first place. I am certain that it was stolen by Bellatrix or someone who then gave it to her. They belong to the ministry of magic."
Narcissa couldn't believe what she had just heard. She looked at the box and wondered how Voldemort got his hands on something this valuable. "Are…Are there any other artifacts like this here in Gringotts?" she asked.
"I cannot tell you that," Ripclaw said. "But what I can tell you is that a relic like this…Gringotts has no jurisdiction of keeping something this valuable. I am afraid you will have to take it with you. We cannot keep something like this here. We will have to notify the ministry."
"You won't have to," she said immediately grabbing the box. She knew if word got out what this cup was both in terms of horcrux and who it originally belonged to then the authorities will take it with them and then it will be impossible to get it back. "I'll take it with me," she said taking the box before standing up and bowing to Ripclaw. "Thank you for your trouble."
Ripclaw bowed back before Narcissa left his office.
00000
"What do you mean a black patch?" Remus asked.
"I am telling you I have never seen anything like that before!" Sirius said. "Of all the legilimence I cast years ago questioning the death eaters we caught this is something I am seeing for the first time and I don't think it's normal. The way it pushed me it felt as if it had a mind of its own."
"A memory with its own mind?" Remus asked, surprised Harry hadn't told anything to him about it. Or perhaps he didn't know about it himself.
"It…It felt like death," Sirius said in a low, more serious tone. "I am worried about him, Remus. With everything that's been going on in his life…the prophecy, him taking his lordship and all…I don't know how much Harry can take anymore. Understanding or not he's still eleven years old! He's still a child!"
"Let's go talk of him together," Remus said. "I thought he was hiding something from me especially ever since we got back from Gairloch and now you say this. If one of us tries to talk to him then he won't tell us anything so let's do it together." Sirius nodded.
00000
Thanks for reading…