With the venom in their possession the group waited no longer as they destroyed each horcrux they'd been able to find which included the locket, the diary, the cup and the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw which, with Snape's help, Harry had been able to find in the 'room of lost items' – a part of the room of requirement where everything that had ever been lost in Hogwarts ended up going.
Voldemort had never felt anything like it. Four continuous experiences of tremendous pain and death were more than enough for him to know that four more of his horcruxes had been destroyed. He felt death because four parts of his soul were destroyed. That day saw tens of death eaters dying at his hands and many more being tortured due to his anger and pain.
His tantrum lasted for about a week after which he knocked on Grindelwald's room.
"How can I help you, Tom?" the man said.
Voldemort hated when someone called him by his real name but in case of Grindelwald he couldn't do anything. With each day he could sense the man's growing strength and he wondered what the secret was behind it. He didn't care to ask because it wouldn't matter when Voldemort betrays him after he'd secured his remaining horcruxes, something which he'd already done. No one but only he knew where his remaining horcruxes were.
He was only waiting for the ritual to complete so that he could get his original body back. But the main ingredient for it – Harry's blood – was still something he didn't have. That brat was at Hogwarts where he clearly couldn't go right now. He needed to stay hidden. Amelia was already in the light of him being alive. Fortunately because of that dumb-wit minister of magic no one would believe her. But that didn't mean he could be careless.
"I need your help," Voldemort said. Grindelwald looked at him amused. Voldemort snarled in his head looking at the cockiness of the man in front of him. If only he had his original body he could show this man who the real boss was. "Neither I or any of my men can get Harry Potter's blood. Can I ask you to get it for me?"
"Seeing that I already helped you by telling you about a ritual for your return you must've something more valuable for me if I were to do this favor for you," Grindelwald said.
"What do you want?" Voldemort asked.
"I need you to take down Dumbledore for me," Grindelwald said.
Voldemort looked at him surprised. "How do you think I am going to do that?" he asked.
"That is on you," Grindelwald said. "I know that you are weak right now and you won't be at your prime unless you've gotten your original body back so I will get you that boy's blood and you kill Dumbledore for me after that. How does that sound?"
"I can agree to that," Voldemort said.
"And Tom?" Voldemort looked at him. "Don't think of betraying me once you've gotten your body back because in your prime or not…" suddenly Voldemort felt an extremely powerful aura as if it was pushing him down, "…it won't even take me a second to end you."
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"You look happy today, Potter," Daphne said as she met him on the seventh floor for their normal occlumency training.
"Five out of seven horcruxes of Voldemort are destroyed," he said. "All we've got to do is find the remaining two."
"But didn't he move them already?" she asked.
"Which is why professor Snape is trying to find where he might've moved them," Harry said as they entered the room.
"It's still hard to believe that professor Snape would actually turn out to be a person who cares for someone," Daphne said.
"It takes a lot to be able to bear what he went through all these years," he said looking at her. "And he still thinks that he failed. If only I could go back in time and know about it sooner."
"And what about Draco?" she asked.
"I think he knows that he's the child of the prophecy. Snape must've told him," Harry said. "Voldemort has his death eaters guarding the entrance of the room of mysteries so no one can retrieve the copy of the original prophecy to know for sure. Professor Snape told me that Voldemort wants the prophecy for himself. I still don't understand why he won't ask one of his death eaters to get it for him if they are already guarding the entrance and the prophecy itself."
"Prophecies are a very delicate thing, Potter," Daphne said. "No one other than the subjects of the prophecy and the seer who foretold it can touch or hear it. In this case it's Draco, Voldemort and professor Trelawney."
Harry nodded in understanding. "You should've seen him," he said. "He looked so different. I am very much sure that Snape is training him to face Voldemort."
"That wouldn't be a surprise," Daphne said. "Even if it is Draco who more than half of the population of magical Britain hates because of his family, he's still the more likeable candidate to win this fight. No one but the death eaters and some pureblood fanatics would hope for Voldemort to win and continue his reign."
"Dumbledore still thinks that the child in the prophecy is me," he said. "And he was planning to sacrifice me."
"So you keep it that way," Daphne said. "Letting him know about Draco would jeopardize everything."
"I know," he said. "This is why I haven't told about it to Sirius, Remus or Amelia. All they know is that Snape helped me find the remaining horcrux and the venom."
"How did you get the venom?" she asked. "You never mentioned that."
"It's a long story," he said.
"We've got time," Daphne replied.
"Okay, but promise me you won't tell anyone about it," Harry said. She nodded. "Do you know how I used to have a horcrux of Voldemort inside me?" she nodded. "Well, turns out it gave me the ability to speak in parseltongue. I never realized what it was before I was told about it and how it is seen as a taboo in the magical world."
"It is," Daphne said. "Wait, you used parseltongue to talk to the basilisk?" Harry nodded. "And it listened to you?" Harry nodded again.
"I know it sounds a bit weird but do you remember that about fifty years ago students were being attacked here at Hogwarts?" Harry asked. She nodded. "Well, turns out it was during those times that Voldemort was here as a student and he controlled that basilisk with his ability to speak parseltongue. Snape knew that and so he decided to risk it all in my ability to speak that tongue and guess what? It worked!"
"That was a very reckless step, especially for someone like professor Snape who is a very cautious man," she said. "Are you hiding something from me, Potter?"
Harry sighed. "Yes, I am," he said. "You have to understand that I can't tell you everything…"
"I do," she said catching him off-guard. He looked at her surprised. "I don't mind if you hide things from me but please don't ever lie to me. I hate liars and I wouldn't want my 'husband' to be one."
Harry looked at her with a puppy face. "I am your husband," he said trying to sound cute but ended up receiving Daphne's glare.
"Say that one more time and I will steal all of your memories," she said. "Let's continue with your training."
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"How did it go?" Remus asked.
"Not great," Sirius said with a sigh as he sat on the couch with a heavy sigh. "We barely made it out of there." He raised his hand and Remus saw a bandage wrapped around his wrist. It was red and wet.
"You're bleeding!" said the werewolf as he got up and ran over to the storage and came back with some potions and new bandages.
"Our guess was right," Sirius said as Remus tended to his wounds. "He moved the ring. I think it's safe to say that we no longer know where it is anymore. He knew someone would be coming for it and so he laid out traps in order to get us."
"How's Amelia?" Remus asked.
"She went back to the ministry to round up a group of aurors and search the place we went to," Sirius said.
"She needs to stop trying to make Fudge realize that Voldemort is not dead," Remus said. "Even if he sees Voldemort standing right in front of him he won't believe it because he doesn't want to take action. It is not in him to lead an entire magical nation during a war-like situation which is how it is going to be once Voldemort returns completely. Just like the last time."
"Which is what I told her," Sirius said. "But now that he's wounded and we stand a chance to defeat him I think people should be made aware about the fact that they no longer need to fear him."
"There are still two horcruxes out there, Sirius," Remus said. "And who knows he might even end up making more just to be safe. We can't take that risk. We need to give it everything we have and find those other two horcruxes before Voldemort does anything we might regret."
Sirius nodded. He knew Remus had a point but they had no idea as to where Voldemort was hiding his horcruxes. They knew his base of operations was the riddle manor, his late father's place but Snape said the horcruxes weren't there. No one but Voldemort himself knew about the location of the ring and his pet snake. He no longer trusted anyone with their location.
"What about Harry?" Sirius asked.
"What about him?" Remus said.
"Well, he's supposed to be the one to kill Voldemort so what can we do about it?" Sirius asked.
"The prophecy is real. We know that much," Remus said. "Dumbledore showed us his memory of that time when Trelawney prophesized it."
"I know that," Sirius said. "I was there. I am talking about the horcrux which is no longer inside Harry." Remus looked at him. "I think the prophecy talked about the horcrux that would end up inside Harry and that Harry would destroy it."
"Is that really what you think?" Remus asked.
Sirius nodded. "I was thinking about it a few days ago," he said. "I mean, technically a horcrux of a person is that person, right? The Voldemort right now is actually Voldemort's horcrux."
"What are you getting at, Sirius?" Remus asked, unable to clearly understand.
"What I'm saying is that with the horcrux inside Harry now gone the prophecy is probably fulfilled," he said.
"If the prophecy is fulfilled then there should no longer be a copy of it in the department of mysteries," Remus said.
"Is that how it works?" Sirius asked.
"You should've taken divination like I had," Remus said.
"You only took it because of a dare with Lily," Sirius said grinning. "Was it worth it?"
"No," Remus said in a low volume. "That subject is for no one but potential seers. Anyways, what I am saying is that there is a room in the department of mysteries where a copy of every single prophecy ever made is kept. They appear there on their own. No one knows why or how it happens but it does. Once a prophecy is fulfilled it disappears from that place."
"So what are you suggesting?" Sirius asked.
"That we go down to the department of mysteries and see that prophecy for ourselves," Remus said, "if it is there or not."
"But can we really see it?" Sirius asked. "I thought only the subjects of a prophecy could see them."
"We just need to confirm that the prophecy is still there," Remus said. "If it is fulfilled like you suggest then it shouldn't be there. If it is there then…"
"Then the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled," Sirius said. "What if it's there?"
"Then I guess we'll have to bring Harry with us the next time," Remus said. "Might as well see the whole prophecy for real this time. After everything that has come to light about Dumbledore I no longer trust anything about that man. While the prophecy is true I wonder if he showed us a tampered memory to keep things his way or even a complete prophecy."
"Are you saying the prophecy might not be true?" Sirius asked.
"It is true," Remus said. "Or else why would Voldemort go to such trouble for it? Snape confirmed it and I trust him more than Dumbledore, especially after he told us about the remaining horcruxes and Voldemort's base of operations."
"So how do we get into the department of mysteries?" Sirius asked. "It is one of the most guarded places inside the ministry building."
"I'll think of something," Remus said.
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Neville wondered what Harry wanted to talk to him when he said to meet him in the astronomy tower one day after class. He had just left the greenhouse after helping professor Sprout with her sandvine harvesting and looked at the astronomy tower as he headed inside the castle. He could see Harry was already there waiting for him but he was not alone. He couldn't see properly from here but there was also a girl Neville wondered who.
And so he hurried back to his dorm and changed out of his uniform and cleaned all the mud and dirt he had from the greenhouse before making his way towards the astronomy tower. When he arrived he saw Luna there with Harry. She looked at him her usual way which made him feel a bit insecure as it wasn't normal for him to be stared top to bottom by anyone, especially a girl in this case. He looked at Harry.
"You wanted to talk to me about something, Harry?" he asked.
"Yes, Neville," Harry said. "There's no subtle way to put this so I will just jump straight to the point. Do you know anything about the divine beasts?"
Neville looked at him with wide eyes. "N…No, I don't" he said. "I just remembered that professor Sprout asked me to meet her in the office." He turned around and was about to leave when he was stopped by Luna.
"We know you are a vessel for Griffin, Neville," Luna said making him stop and look at her. "I know that because I, too, am a vessel just like you."
Neville turned around and looked at them both. "I know that you are," he said slowly after a pause. "I knew the moment I got on the train at the start of this year."
"So you can sense them just like Luna?" Harry asked.
Neville nodded slowly before looking at Harry. "He told me to be aware of you. He thinks you're dangerous." Harry didn't say anything. He just pressed his lips together. "We both noticed something different about you at the start of this year."
"Harry is the vessel for the Yayu, Neville," Luna said. He looked at her.
"What is a Yayu?" he asked.
They both looked at him. "Looks like you don't know everything," she said.
"All I know is that I have to stay careful around him," Neville said looking at Harry. "I'm sorry Harry but I can't take any risks. I know you don't mean any harm to me…us," he said looking at Luna, "but what you have inside of you is…it's dangerous. It cannot be trusted."
"He knows that," Luna said. "I take it you don't blame him for being his vessel."
"Griffin told me he felt the Yayu break out of the spirit realm prison and come into this world," Neville said. "We didn't know that he had found a vessel until I got on the express and Griffin felt his presence. Over the next few days we sensed him inside Harry."
"I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, Neville," Harry said. "I still don't know everything about it or why it chose me as his vessel but I am worried, too, especially after hearing what he did to the divine beasts."
"It didn't choose you as his vessel," Neville said. "He was desperate to survive once he had broken out. His powers were all out of control and he knew he couldn't survive for long on his own so he sensed a life form with enough magical energy and found you. We could all sense his desperation. After all, he was made from each of us divine beast's powers. Vessel or not, all the divine beasts felt him break out of the spirit realm that night and they are all worried ever since."
"They shouldn't be worrying about the Yayu…not right now at least," Harry said. "There's a bigger threat they need to be worried about."
Neville looked at him confused. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Looks like you and Griffin don't talk about everything," Luna said. Neville looked away. "You are angry at him," she said realizing as she looked at Neville. Harry looked from her to Neville confused.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked looking at Luna.
"He probably won't accept it but he is angry at Griffin for some reason," she said. She walked closer to him. Neville stepped back when he felt his back on the wall. He glared at her as if warning her not to approach. He could feel the mental intrusion inside his head and knew Luna's divine beast was trying to communicate with Griffin through their telepathic connection. "You know you are lying to yourself if you think that you can suppress him," she said. "If you won't let him talk to Celia then why don't you tell us why you are angry at him?"
Harry was watching all of this in confusion. Perhaps Luna was trying to talk to Griffin telepathically. She'd told him that the divine beasts were capable of doing that. In fact, they mostly talked to each other through their telepathic link and it could range for hundreds of miles.
"Because he is the reason my parents no longer recognize me," Neville said or rather shouted. Both Harry and Luna were a bit taken aback by his sudden outburst but then they looked at him. Harry knew what had happened to Neville's parents. They'd been torture to insanity by Barty Crouch Jr. and Bellatrix. It had happened on the same night when Voldemort had come to kill him and his parents. Snape had told him how Neville was a possible subject of the prophecy so Voldemort didn't want to leave any lose ends and so he'd sent two of his most loyal followers after the boy.
"You know that is not true," Harry said.
"But it is," Neville said. "If only he had my dad as his vessel that night, things would've been different today. But no! He moved into me as soon as I was born. He could've helped dad fight them that night…save himself and my mom but he only thought about himself. MY PARENTS WOULD STILL BE SANE!"
Neville dropped on the floor, crying as he curled himself, knees close to his chest. Harry crouched down and looked at him. "I know you think that this is his fault," he said, "but did you ever ask him why he did that? Moving into you when you were born?"
"Celia did the same thing," Luna said. "She moved into me as soon as I was born. I never asked her why until now." Both Neville and Harry looked at her. "She would've died if she didn't."
"What do you mean," Harry asked.
"When my mother became pregnant with me," she said, "half of Celia's powers moved into me because I was still inside my mom, a part of her and a somewhat vessel for Celia. When my mother gave birth to me Celia had to choose between me and my mother to be her vessel seeing as half of her was inside me while the other half was inside mom. She needed to retract back from one of us."
"She chose you," Harry said.
"Because I had only been born and retracting away from me would've killed me," Luna said. "She's been doing so in my mother's family line, moving down from generation to generation. Of course she could've chosen to not live inside a vessel like some of the others but because she hasn't, I think this is the reason why Griffin also moved into you."
"But my dad was his vessel," Neville said, "not my mom. Unlike you my situation was different."
"Why don't you ask him?" Luna said. "I am sure he will be happy to explain it to you. I guarantee you he feels as much in pain as you feel for your parents' present condition and he even blames himself for that like you blame him but give him a chance to explain. I am sure he had a similar situation like Celia."
Neville didn't say anything. A moment later Harry saw Luna smile slightly as she stood up. "What is it?" he asked standing up as well.
"He's talking to him," she said.
"You can hear their conversation?" he asked.
"No, but I can feel it," she said.
About ten minutes later they saw Neville silently sniffing as tears kept falling from his eyes. His face was, however, a bit red as Harry wondered why. Neville stood up wiping his face as he cleared his throat. "How did it go?" asked Luna.
"We are on talking terms again but it will take time," Neville said. He then looked at Harry. "Griffin told me about the threat that you mentioned. Like you he also agrees that it takes priority over your Yayu. He suggests that we group with others as quickly as possible."
"Celia agrees to it, too," Luna said.
"And I think I can introduce you two to another one here at Hogwarts," Harry said looking at them.
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Thanks for reading…
Reg. Neville and Griffin: Griffin's vessel, before Neville, was his father, Frank. When Frank and Alice married and he made her pregnant half of Griffin moved into Alice through which he moved into Neville while he was in her womb. When Neville was born, just like in Luna's case, Griffin had to choose if he wanted to retract from Frank or Neville. Because Neville was a newborn and very weak Griffin chose to retract from Frank as doing so with Neville would kill him. He made Neville his new vessel.
Neville's face was red because Griffin gave him a bit extra detail about how his father made his mother pregnant…