"How long do you think we have?" Narcissa asked looking at Snape.
"Not long," Snape said. "From what I hear all the dark lord needs is Potter's blood. He already has nested into another body – your cousin Regulus."
Narcissa's mouth opened in shock hearing that. She couldn't believe Voldemort had made him as his host to survive, feeding off of his magic. If he went and faced Sirius now than the man will completely break because she knew how close Sirius and Regulus were when they were kids. They both kept their relationship even after Sirius was kicked out of the house but then Sirius broke the ties when he heard that Regulus had joined the death eaters.
Even then she knew Sirius hoped Regulus will realize his mistake because he was ready to forgive his little brother even though Regulus had killed and tortured so many in the name of Voldemort.
"Should…Should we inform them?" she asked coming back from the shock of knowing how her cousin now was a host for Voldemort. Snape nodded once.
"There is also this other thing that I found out about," Snape said. "I know how to get into the secret chamber." This grabbed her attention. "But we are going to need Potter's help and then there's the problem with Dumbledore. Also, I can't work with that brat directly."
"How long are you going to hide it from him, Severus?" Narcissa said. "You will have to tell him the truth one day. It might as well be now because we are already working with them. Harry still doesn't trust you so just tell him the truth. As for that old bastard you don't owe him anything. He is using you because he knows you were in a desperate position that time."
"It's not just that, Narcissa," Snape said. "Dumbledore is smarter than that. He has me under an unbreakable oath to serve him until he says otherwise. I was not thinking clearly that night so he took advantage of my emotional vulnerability and now I can't undo it. He manipulated me into making an unbreakable oath to serve him by using Lily's death."
Narcissa looked at him as he brought himself under control. "We will have to work on it once the new term begins," he said. "Dumbledore will find out if we do anything now. I will be taking Draco with me on the day we enter that chamber."
"Why him?" she asked.
"He's just as important in this plan as Potter," Snape said.
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Harry had just returned back to his room after having his morning run outside. Ever since the morning he had been thinking about what the book had told him as like a ritual he would wake up and look at it the first thing every day.
"Tell them," the book said as Harry wondered what it meant by that as he grabbed his towel and headed towards the bathroom for a quick shower when someone knocked on his door. Harry stopped and looked towards it wondering if Remus wanted something.
He opened the door and saw it was both Remus and Sirius. It was weird for them both to come visit him early in the morning. He wondered when Sirius got here as he let them both inside. "Is something wrong?" he asked looking at them curiously.
"Harry, we need to talk to you about something," Remus said looking at him. Harry wondered where this was coming from as he looked from Remus to Sirius who also had the same look on his face as him. Harry nodded wondering what it was they wanted to talk to him about as this seemed pretty serious when he remembered about what the book had told him as his suspicion grew. Did they know?
"Yesterday," Sirius said, "when we were practicing occlumency and I entered into your memories the second time…I noticed something." Harry looked at him wondering what he was talking about. "Do you remember pushing me out of your head yesterday?"
"I tried but I couldn't do it," Harry said.
"Harry, is there something you are not telling us?" Remus said.
"What are you guys talking about?" Harry said. "Is something wrong?"
"I saw something inside your memories yesterday, Harry," Sirius said, "and it wasn't normal."
Harry wondered if Sirius had somehow seen his memory from that night at Wester Ross' forest but he decided not to say anything. If the book wants him to tell them everything then he will, but only after hearing them first. He wanted to know how much they knew…if they knew anything about it. "What was it?" he asked looking at them.
"I saw a memory of…of nothing," Sirius said. Harry looked at him confused. "It was all black but it was that memory that pushed me out of your head. You may find it weird but that is what happened and the last time I remember memories couldn't do things like that."
"My memory pushed you back?" Harry asked.
"It had an aura around it…a sort of black aura which felt like death," Sirius said. "It didn't want me to look into your memories I think because the moment I saw it…or rather it saw me I was forcefully pushed out."
"But shouldn't I have felt anything?" Harry asked. "I mean, it all happened inside my head. I should've felt it."
"I don't know but I told you what happened," Sirius said. "Also, I notice your scar has faded a lot since the last time I saw you. I think it has got something to do with your scar. Remus told me how it hurt whenever you were in danger. It was given to you by Voldemort so there's no telling if all of this is happening because of your scar."
Harry ran his finger over it as he thought about what Sirius had just said. "Harry," he looked up when Remus spoke, "is there something you want to tell us about because we are here for you. We may not be your parents but we care about you more than anyone. Although you might think you don't need us seeing how you've already taken control of your life but please, Harry, let us help you."
"Who said I don't need you guys?" Harry said. "Without you I am nothing. It doesn't matter if I am the head of an ancient and noble house or that I am famous for taking down a dark lord as a toddler. I need you guys because you are my family."
Sirius hugged him tightly as tears fell from his eyes. "Sorry," he said breaking the hug. "I got a little emotional."
Harry looked at him with a smile before he walked over to the locker where he kept the book. "There's something I need to show you guys," he said as he opened the locker. "But you will have to promise me that you will trust me." They looked at him as he took out the book from the locker and then walked back to them. "I got this two years ago when I was living with my relatives," he said handing them the book as they looked at it confused. "Whatever I am today, I am because of this."
Remus opened the book as the two adults saw words appear on its pages out of nowhere. They began to read it one page after another as their eyes opened wide with shock and surprise. Harry waited patiently for them to finish the book as of today after which they looked at him with a mind full of questions.
"I don't know who sent me that book," Harry said, "but whatever it has said has turned out to be true, however, there are a few things that I don't get why it told me to do."
"Are you sure that this book is safe?" Remus asked looking at it with suspicion.
"I told you to trust me and that is all I am asking of you," Harry said looking at them. "Like I said, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for this book. I would still be living with my relatives; Dumbledore would still be controlling my life; Remus, you would still be out there somehow barely surviving and Sirius," he said looking at his godfather, "you would still be in Azkaban serving for life for a crime you didn't commit. If it wasn't for this book things wouldn't have turned out this way."
They both looked at him as Remus handed him the book. "If what you say is true," Sirius said, "then the only thing that makes sense is that this book can predict future and guides you accordingly."
"Possible future," Remus said. "Exact future prediction is impossible, but," he said looking at the book, "I am inclined to change my thoughts after what I have seen."
"I don't think that's how it works, though," Harry said as they looked at him. "Now you two know why I wanted to go to Gairloch but I still don't understand one part of it where the book told me to go to this forest in Wester Ross." He then grabbed his wand and cast a lumos charm as the two adults saw his wand's tip flicker. Sirius had seen it before but not Remus. Harry cancelled the charm before taking a long breath. "Something happened in the forest on the day we arrived at Gairloch," he said. "As you've already read the book wanted me to go there looking for Birchwood trees. I don't know why but when I got there I experienced something I can't describe properly. It was similar to what you said you felt when you were in my head yesterday," he said looking at Sirius. "Only I felt it as if it was right there in front of me. I saw huge red eyes on a huge shadowy body staring down at me before I lost consciousness. Ever since that day my magic has been acting up out of control and…"
"And?" Remus asked.
"And I've been having these dreams where something looking like a sort of demon version of me and kills me every time," Harry said.
"This is why you wanted to learn occlumency," Sirius said. "Because of what happened you lost control over your magic and didn't want to tell us."
"But now I have so I need you to trust me," Harry said.
"While we do…" Remus said looking at Sirius who nodded in affirmation, "…do you really think trusting this book is a good idea? I mean you don't even know who sent this to you and now you have encountered something none of us understand and it's messing up with your magic."
"Was it that which pushed me out of your memories yesterday?" Sirius asked.
"I don't know but it could be possible," Harry said as Remus and Sirius looked at each other with worried expressions. "What?" Harry asked.
"We are not sure," Remus said, "but we think there's something inside you."
"Inside me?" he said looking surprised.
"And we think it all happened in that forest you went to where you encountered…well, whatever it is you encountered," Remus said. "It makes sense that that thing got inside you and is now living within you surviving on your magic."
"But wouldn't that mean that I should feel tired and weak all the time?" Harry said. "If it is feeding off of my magic, that is?"
"You don't?" Sirius asked confused. Harry shook his head.
"If only, I have been feeling rather better and my magic has only grown stronger and more powerful only except I can't properly control it," Harry said. "That wasn't the case before as I felt weak almost all the time."
"How can it be the other way around?" Remus said thinking.
"Whatever it is, though, we can't take any chances," Sirius said. "We need to find out what is inside of you and get it out. Unless we do, I don't think you will be able to control your magic. That thing had intelligence enough to see me as a threat when I entered your mind and so it pushed me out. It didn't want anyone to know about its existence inside of you."
"But if it doesn't want to come out then wouldn't it be dangerous for Harry when we try to separate him from that thing?" Remus asked. Sirius realized Remus was right as he began to think.
"Can I have a say in this?" Harry said having their attention. "If this is true that I have got something inside of me after that night that is meant to harm me then I think the book would've warned me about it. It hasn't yet so I think whatever it is; we don't have to pull it out, at least not yet." Both Remus and Sirius looked at him with shock.
"And what if it harms you," Remus asked, "as it is doing right now?"
"I have complete trust in the book's ability," Harry said. "It hasn't warned me yet about it so I think we can be a little assured that nothing bad is going to happen…for now."
"Don't you trust it a little bit blindly, Harry?" Sirius said.
Harry remembered that Hermione had told him the same thing when he'd told her about the book. "You read the book just now," he said looking at his godfather. "I don't trust it blindly."
"If you are referring to those clues that the book gives you without telling you the exact whole thing then I have to tell you that I still don't see myself being comfortable with it," Remus said. "It led you to a place where something – we don't know what – got inside of you. If this thing really has the ability to think for itself then who's to say that it was all planned from the very start?"
"So you are telling me what whatever it is that I saw in that forest wanted me to have my lordship, get my relatives arrested for abusing me, keep my distance from Dumbledore who wants to control my life, help you and Sirius out of your situations just so that it could create a situation where it could get inside of me and live? Yeah, that makes sense," Harry scoffed. "I know how you are feeling. Even I didn't trust it fully for the first few months after I got it but then as it started to help me I realized that I could trust it…or whoever it was that had gave me this book which I still want to find out. If this thing inside me is dangerous then I am sure this book will tell me about it and a way to get it out of myself. But until that happens I will stick to learning occlumency in order to get more control over my magic."
Sirius and Remus saw as Harry placed the book back in the locker before walking out of the room. He was clearly pissed on them for not trusting him and they understood that but they couldn't simply trust a book either which had gotten Harry in this situation. They didn't know what was inside of him and they were worried that it might put Harry in danger.
"Book or not, we need to get it out of him," Sirius said. "I've got a feeling that it's not safe for him as long as that thing is still inside him."
Remus neither said anything nor nodded in response to what Sirius had said as he glanced towards the locker where the book was before walking out of the room as well. Sirius sighed before following him out.
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Harry was mad although he could see why those two didn't want to trust the book. It had happened exactly when he had told Hermione about the book. But he didn't care. He trusted in the book's capabilities and nothing would change that unless he had seen it through his own eyes that the book was actually meant to harm him.
He was in the gardens of the Potter estate when Temmie popped in front of him and immediately cowered in fear. Harry didn't miss it this time.
"Your breakfast is ready…Harry," she said.
"Temmie!" Harry said causing her to jump in surprise as she was about to pop away. He had noticed this change in her behavior ever since he and Remus had returned from Gairloch. "Ever since we came back you seem to have been keeping a distance from me. Is everything alright?"
"Ev…Everything is fine, Harry," the elf replied but Harry knew from her stammer that she was lying.
"You can tell me, Temmie," he said crouching down to her level. "I won't bite."
That seemed to scare her more as her ears bent back and she whimpered. Harry sighed. He didn't want to do this but he had no other choice. "As lord of house Potter I want you to tell me why you are behaving strangely around me," he said a bit loudly. He hated it but he saw no other way to get her to talk.
"Temmie is scared of…of Lord Potter because…because he has the Yayu inside of him," the elf said.
"What is a Yayu?" Harry asked wondering what she was talking about.
"Temmie apologizes for she can't answer," the elf said. "I am sorry, Lord Potter," she said looking at him before popping away.
Harry stood there wondering what had happened. What in Merlin's name was Yayu? Temmie was pretty scared about it and…and she said he had it inside of him. Harry remembered those red eyes he had seen in the forest at Wester Ross and the shadow of that monster. Could it be that that monster had somehow made it inside of him? Was it this Yayu that had pushed Sirius out of his memories?
"Divine beasts," Harry muttered remembering how the book had told him to look for them in the Bibliotheca Mundi. Those torn pages in that book, Harry knew from the index that those pages contained the names of all the divine beasts. Someone had taken those pages with them so that means someone knows or knew about them.
If this was all true then Harry wondered what he could do when he realized something. He turned and started heading back inside the manor. If he was looking for answers then he knew where he could get them.
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Amelia sighed as she looked at the reports of all her officers who'd been assigned to this secret hunt for Grindelwald. Fudge kept asking her about it as he was desperate. What could she tell him if her own team hadn't been able to find anything yet? She thought that perhaps catching a death eater would solve little of the matter but whatever was Voldemort up to, he was keeping quiet about it.
On the bright side the great alliance between house Potter, Bones, Black and Longbottom had been officially made. A lot of dark families who were members of the Wizengamot weren't happy with this development. Amelia knew that because a part of her job was to go through the complaint letters that the Wizengamot members wrote to the minister in order to express their disagreement over something.
Unfortunately alliances were not something that could be discussed as an official hearing so these letters meant nothing for the record. And fudge wasn't interested in them.
As she went through the remaining of the paperwork for different auror cases she thought about the vacation she and Susan had been to with Sirius this break. Although it was a short vacation but it was Susan's first summer break as a Hogwarts student and Amelia, too, had not been on a vacation from the day she'd been made the head of DMLE. It was a nice change for both of them and Sirius spared no expense to make sure the aunt-niece due had a great time which they did.
Unfortunately their vacation was cut short by a request from Harry. There was something he needed Sirius' help with so Sirius had to cancel the remaining of the vacation. Amelia decided Susan was enjoying the vacation mostly because of Sirius and his antics so she thought without him it wouldn't be as much fun so they decided to head back as well.
She wondered what Harry needed him for but didn't put too much thought into it. She knew Sirius was trying to be there for him which he couldn't for the last ten years when he should've so she couldn't blame him for that.
When the clock struck five she looked at it and sighed. She had no interest in doing overtime. She had promised herself to spend more time with Susan as long as the summer break lasted. She closed all the files as they automatically started to fly back to their spots as she stood up and grabbed her cloak. She had promised Susan that they will cook dinner together.
"No overtime today, ma'am?" Bainbridge, her secretary asked. She just smiled as she headed for the floo. Bainbridge watched her go with an amused look on his face. Ever since she had returned from her vacation she had been looking a lot happier. He wondered what had happened.
Amelia grabbed some floo powder and threw it in the fireplace, saying the name of her destination when the fire didn't light up. She threw some more powder into it but nothing happened. Wondering that the fireplace was not working she headed for the next one but the same thing happened there, too. She then saw another person vanish in green flames in the fireplace she was trying to use before. Her eyes widened with realization. If the floo networks were working but she couldn't access her house's floo through here then someone must've blocked it. Knowing Susan was too young to do anything like that Amelia felt her blood run cold as she ran towards the exit of the ministry building. On her way she took out the communication mirror which Sirius had given her and connected a call to him. Sirius picked up as she told him what had happened.
In her hurry to reach home she had forgotten to tell any of the aurors what had happened. She realized it when she had apparated outside her house and saw Sirius there waiting for her. He looked at her and was sort of surprised she was there alone.
"You didn't bring the aurors?" he said. Amelia realized her mistake but by then it was too late. They both could feel there was an anti-apparition and anti-portkey ward around her place. Amelia knew it wasn't put up by her because she didn't recognize the magical signature. Susan was alone in there. Memories of the last time started coming back to her as Amelia started to breathe hard. Sirius came by her side immediately, trying to console her. After some time she controlled herself and took out her wand.
Without a word Sirius nodded as the two of them walked inside. Surprisingly the wards let them in which Amelia thought wouldn't happen. Sirius was in the front, taking the lead. He had been to Amelia's place a few times after he'd been freed so he knew her house well enough. They went straight to Susan's room which was upstairs.
Even though the Bones were a noble family with an ancestral manor, a good amount of money and wealth Amelia and Susan lived in a small, middle class magical neighborhood. Their house was also a normal two-story building. Sirius had asked why she wouldn't live in the security of the Bones manor. She had told him that the place made her remember losing Susan's parents.
The whole house was dark but there was a little light coming from inside Susan's room as the two noticed from the little space under the door. They also noticed two shadows, one still and the other one walking.
Sirius was about to explode open the door when it opened by itself as the light inside the room was gone, leaving the whole house in darkness. There was still a little light coming from the window as the sun was about to set but it wasn't enough to let them see the face of the person as he turned around to look at them.
Amelia's heart almost stopped when she saw Susan in his grip with his wand pressed at her throat.
"Who are you?" Sirius asked as his wand crackled with purple lightning, a dark curse ready to be fired.
"I would ease down with the spell if I were you, Sirius," the man said, poking his wand into Susan's throat which caused her to whimper. Amelia could see she had been crying. As her hand shook with mix of emotions after seeing her niece in danger, the corner of her eye noticed Sirius' wand going down. There was a look of shock on his face as he looked at the man in front of them.
"Sirius?" Amelia said wondering what had gotten him so shocked when Sirius held her wand arm and nudged it down. "What are you doing, Sirius?" she asked.
"What do you want, Reg?" Sirius asked. Amelia looked at the man whose face she couldn't see due to the lack of enough lighting inside the room but Sirius seemed to know who he was when she realized.
'Reg?' the name popped inside her head as she remembered Sirius calling someone with that name all the time when they were in Hogwarts. Then her eyes widened with realization as she looked at the man in front of them.
"It's been a long time, brother," Regulus said walking forward so they could see his face.
"What do you want?" asked Sirius.
"Can't I come see you?" asked Regulus with a smirk on his face.
"You know where I live," Sirius said. "Let her go or I won't regret what I will do." He pointed his wand at him once more as Regulus smiled.
"Do you remember how close we were as kids?" Regulus said. "You were my best friend even after mother kicked you out of the house. Every Christmas I would wish that I could see you. Even at Hogwarts we could barely meet as mother had cousin Bella and Cissy to look after me."
"And then you joined their ranks," said Sirius. "Let Susan go."
"I'm afraid I can't do that," he said. His voice was shaking as Sirius wondered why. He also noticed that Regulus was sweating profusely as the sweat on his face glistened in the light of the setting sun. Something wasn't right here.
"Don't make me put you down, Regulus!" Amelia said. She had her eyes on her niece who was looking back at her. Amelia didn't want to break eye contact with Susan because she knew Susan will lose all hope. Even though she was barely a year old to see and remember how the death eaters killed her parents in front of her years ago Amelia knew Susan was haunted by that memory because of her nightmares. Susan had told her about it once and Amelia knew it hadn't stopped even now for she would wake up hearing Susan's whimpers in her sleep almost every night even today.
And now looking at her Amelia could see Susan was thinking about those nightmares she had of that fateful day.
"You don't seem to understand the position you are in, Madam Bones," a hissing, chilly voice said which sent chills of fear down Sirius and Amelia's spine. Their experiences from a decade ago had them confirmed whose voice they'd just heard.
It was Voldemort.
They looked at Regulus who was grinning as his eyes turned red. "I have come to tell you that it will be wise of you to pull back your men from looking into the matter. It will be unfortunate if they end up dead. Don't you think it will be hard for you to then explain it to their family how they died while doing nothing?"
Amelia knew what he was talking about. With him saying this it was even more confirmed now that Voldemort and Grindelwald were working together or else why would he tell her to stop her search for Grindelwald. Her fear of Voldemort was stopping her from moving but she didn't let it show in her eyes. Her eyes looked at Susan telling her that everything will be fine.
"Such a sweet child," Voldemort said caressing Susan's cheek. "You listen to your aunt," he said looking at Susan. "She's a smart woman. Aren't you, Amelia?" he looked at her and grinned. "You know when it's smart to step back, don't you?"
Regulus or rather Voldemort pushed Susan towards Amelia before a bright flash of light almost blinded them all. Once they could see properly they realized he was gone. Amelia ran over to Susan and hugged her tightly, looking if she'd been hurt. Sirius stood there, his mind filled with a flood of emotions. He couldn't believe Regulus had gone far enough to give his own body to Voldemort.
"Are you alright?" Amelia asked. Susan nodded before reaching for her pocket and taking out a piece of paper and looking at Sirius.
"He told me to give it to you," Susan said.
Amelia took the piece of paper from her hand and saw it was for Sirius. She turned to look at him and saw him standing behind her, still looking shocked over what he'd seen. Amelia stood up and put the piece of paper in his hand as he slowly looked at it. He recognized that handwriting. It was Regulus'.
.
'I am sorry that it came to this. I had no idea that I would end up giving myself to him. As it turns out I had no control over it ever since I joined their ranks trying to impress our mother.
I saw and did lots and lots of heinous crimes as a death eater and I know that nothing I do will be enough to make up for my crimes. So in a last attempt to regain your trust in me I will tell you how you can bring the dark lord down.
In order to ensure that he never died the dark lord created horcruxes to anchor parts of his souls to this world so that in case he was 'killed' he could come back. I found out about it a few years after I managed to climb up to the middle circle of death eaters and as of a few days ago I have come to know that there are seven horcruxes. They include Helga Hufflepuff's golden cup, Salazar Slytherin's locket, the dark lord's own diary from when he was a student, his mother's ring, the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, his pet snake and your godson, Harry Potter.
I have stolen the locket and it is safely hidden at Grimmauld place. I hid it where we played hide and seek. You will find it, Sirius. I know it still doesn't make up for my mistakes but I hope you will forgive me. I don't think it will be long enough when the dark lord finally finds out that I betrayed him. As he is now living inside me he will soon see this memory of mine and then fate will have its wait finally come to an end.
Be safe and responsible, Sirius. I know how you tend to lose yourself into situations like this.
Lots of love,
Regulus.
.
Sirius stood there motionless as he looked at the piece of paper in his hand. Today would always be remembered by him.
Amelia looked at him as she held Susan close to her. "Sirius?" she said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her with teary eyes before breaking down as she hugged him. She knew it had something to do with what was in the letter so she wouldn't ask him until he had calmed down. She took one of her hand and hugged Susan who wrapped her hands around Amelia and Sirius as the sun sat down outside.
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Thanks for reading…