Chapter 48

Harry was wise enough not to overly participate in the parties that had broken out in the Hufflepuff common room due to his immense task that needed to be completed today. Harry had no doubt that Hannah and Susan suspected something was up when he decided not to match Cedric shot for shot the night before, but they trusted him implicitly and did not push the subject. This was something he loved about his girls more than anything; they were always there when he needed them but also respected his space when he needed it.

Training the next morning, however, raised the suspicion of everyone. Harry had hardly done any magic in the training session, and finally at the end Darrel asked the question that everyone was thinking, "Alright Harry what's going on? You need a break from training or something, because you hardly did anything."

This caused some chuckles at the light ribbing the boy got from the dueling instructor of Hogwarts, but Harry just laughed, "I am going to some meeting with Professor Flitwick tonight away from the castle, and he said there could be some dueling involved between some of his old colleagues all in good fun of course, but I wanted to be ready and fully charged just in case."

Harry hated lying to his friends. He hardly ever kept them in the dark about anything, but with Tom Riddle walking around the castle right now there was hardly a safe place to talk. This explanation however caused some minor excitement in the group, and some even speculated that Flitwick might be introducing Harry to some of his old colleagues on the Professional dueling circuit when the charms teacher ruled the league.'

The only person who didn't seem to buy this however was Rosalie, and she eyed the boy suspiciously throughout the day anytime they were close together. At around 5pm Harry was sitting in the office however with Professor Flitwick, and the little half goblin seemed to be very excited about the adventure he would embark on with his apprentice, "We will leave for the Room of Requirements at 6PM sharp. That should make sure that we have plenty of time to get in and begin our search. Now I want you to remember Harry that while the Horcrux is our goal it is paramount that we protect each other. Tom Riddle is one of the brightest students to ever walk these halls and knowing him he likely has these traps set up very well. He was brilliant as a young man, and as a dangerous dark wizard when he got older, I can only imagine he became even more intelligent."

This was a topic that Harry and the Professor had rarely had, "How did you know him sir?"

Flitwick sighed, "I started Hogwarts Harry in 1937. As you know my birthday was just celebrated on the 17

, and that made me 67 years young. I was one year above Tom, and I remember him quite well. He was a Slytherin Prefect when I was head boy, and I will be honest with you Harry he was a quiet yet brilliant boy. All the teachers thought he was going to be the next Minister of Magic, and I myself thought he would go to the dueling circuit. While we have some time, I would like to show you a memory. This will only take you a few minutes, but this has been on my mind for some time now, so it will be nice to get it out of my head per say."

This was all sorts of new territory for Harry. Master Flitwick rarely ever liked to enter the pensieve with Harry, and when they did it was always for his memories. Harry wasn't sure if the man was private about his past for a reason, but it was always about Harry, and now he was going to glimpse at the man's past, "What are we going to be seeing sir?"

"This was the Dueling Finals in 1944. It was my very last match as a Hogwarts student. I was head boy this year, and my Dueling team was phenomenal. Not quite as good as yours, but we were very good. Won 3 of my last 4 years. Shall we?"

The man motioned for the pensieve nearby and drew a memory from his wand tapping it to the bowl. Harry approached it with more curiosity than he could contain and dived in behind his trusted master.

The first thing Harry saw was spell fire. A young attractive man with the signature Slytherin Hogwarts robe was standing on top of the dueling platform blasting at a young woman close to his age with Ravenclaw Blue Robes, and Flitwick whispered, "That is Molly Treswyler, she was my girlfriend at the time, and the Hogwarts Head girl. One of the reasons my team was so good, because I was the captain and she was the Co-Captain. Now this match was their only hope at starting a tie breaker, so everyone on both teams had dueled that day. You may or may not recognize that she is dueling Tom Riddle."

Harry gasped at this information looking at the man that had just blasted the young woman most violently off the stands. Like Harry's earlier observation pointed out this was a fairly handsome man and bore no signs of the Monster that he became later in life. Harry had seen many memories of Voldemort, but this was not one he was expecting. Professor Dumbledore waved the flag to signal the end of the duel and announced, "It seems Slytherin is refusing to go down without fight. Captain of the Ravenclaw team will now step up to the dueling platform and duel the captain of the Slytherin team."

Staring in utter fascination he finally got his first look at the young Flitwick. This young man had a head full of dark brown hair, and Harry could see the man's moustache was already starting to form. He looked so alive, and most importantly looked determined. Harry watched as he took the hand of Molly Treswyler and kissed her forehead as they took her off to the Hospital Wing. Flitwick marched up the other end of the dueling platform looking fierce as Dumbledore called through the bowing process.

Flitwick spoke, "Sparing the modesty Harry I was the best duelist in the school since I was fifteen years old. Tom Riddle had only just joined the Slytherin team in his fifth year, and while he was talented I thought he had nothing on me. He took the captain spot within a year and had done very well. Slytherin actually won the year before this, because I had dragon pox so this will be the first and only time myself and Voldemort have ever crossed wands."

Harry couldn't tear his eyes from the duel that followed. It was clear Flitwick was much faster than Riddle, but the amount of power the young man possessed could not have been clearer, "Had anyone defeated him?"

"No, and I believe that is why he waited till his fifth year to join the team. I think the idea of losing upset the boy so much he only joined when he thought he was unbeatable." Flitwick said, smirking.

The smirk told Harry how this duel was going to end, and it lasted for nearly fifteen minutes, before Flitwick dropped under a curse spinning around and spit firing such a variety of curses Voldemort went flying backwards, but still landed on his feet. No one was as stunned as Flitwick was that the boy had taken so many curses and still managed to not only hold on to his wand but stay on his feet as well. Flitwick however wasn't the best without reason, and began launching blasting curse after blasting curse, and even disarmed the young Voldemort. The most impressive thing followed however when Tom Riddle began using wandless shields at a speed Harry himself could not have matched, "Merlin."

In utter shock the boy watched another sixty seconds of young Flitwick pounding Voldemort with what could have been a hundred spells before Tom Riddle roared out and shot a pure black energy tendril towards Flitwick causing the young man's eyes to widen, and before he could raise a shield Dumbledore stepped in deflected the curse with a wand that was most certainly not the Elder Wand, and called a disqualification, "Slytherin Captain disqualified for class 4 dark arts spell."

Riddle looked like he wanted to protest this call immediately, but instead put a winning smile on his face, and came over to Flitwick offering his hand, "For a half goblin you duel well. I would love to meet with you sometime and talk about our future together."

Flitwick took a smile, but Harry could see in the young man's eyes the outrage, "I can assure you Tom that you may have a lot of people at this school fooled, but not me. A class 4 dark arts spell in a school yard duel. Had I or Professor Dumbledore not blocked that I would've died. I can guarantee you any future you are interested in I won't be a part of."

The two boys kept smiling, but Harry could tell there was a lot of animosity in both young men's eyes. Dumbledore announced Ravenclaw's the winner of the gauntlet, and Flitwick turned his back on Voldemort walking to be embraced by his friends.

This pulled the two out of the pensieve ending the memory. Harry asked, "What happened after this sir?"

Flitwick smiled, "I ended up leaving Hogwarts obviously just a few months later. I was approached by Augustus Rookwood of all people to join the Death Eater movement. They said that I was a fine example of a half breed that was worth more than met the eye. I ended up putting Rookwood in St. Mungos for a month after that and no other Death Eater approached me. I fear in my youth that I was disowned by my family for choosing the life of a Wizard over a goblin, so I moved across the pond to avoid the war that was reaching its breaking point with Grindelwald. I was young Harry and it wasn't my fight so in America I ended up joining a team for a few years in Dallas, and from there I moved on to the Individual league, and within five years I had won an international title. I apprenticed under a man for three years after that and became a dueling master before winning the title two more times, and then applying for a teaching job here at Hogwarts. I have been teaching her for over twenty-five years and will admit I never saw Tom Riddle again. The next time we would meet he would be fully into his years as Lord Voldemort. As you know he applied for a job for teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts here, and I ran into him that day, but we did not exchange words. He didn't even look at me, and I could only hope that Albus would remember that day he threw that very dark curse that would've taken my life that day, and not offer the psychopath a job. It is that night however I believe that he had the Horcrux in the Room of Requirements."

"The Room of Requirements sir? I thought that was just a myth." Harry asked curiously.

The man smiled, "Let's call this another benefit of being my apprentice, because tonight you are going to learn that every myth starts somewhere. The Room of Requirements is on the east side of the castle 7

floor, across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy."

"Is it really able to create anything?"

"All within the laws of magic of course my young apprentice. It could make you the finest meal, but it would have zero nutritional value as you know. It can however give you water, which I can't even fathom how Rowena Ravenclaw figured that arithmancy equation out." Flitwick said, shaking his hand.

"So say I wanted a dueling training room?" Harry asked curiously.

"It would likely provide you a room with dummies, and possibly even some books on dueling. It isn't a poor idea to explore this more on your time, but I advise you to be as specific as you want. I believe this room to be dangerous, and I also believe that even Headmaster Dumbledore is not fully aware of its existence." Flitwick said excitedly.

"How did you learn about it sir?" Harry asked.

The man blushed a deep scarlet clearly recalling either a rather embarrassing memory, or a highly pleasant one, "A story for another day perhaps."

This caused both Master and Apprentice to chuckle as Harry hid under his invisibility cloak, and professor Flitwick cast a disillusionment charm and the two bounded off to cross the castle to the other side of the seventh floor.

Thankfully the walk wasn't long as Ravenclaw tower was of course on the seventh floor in the west side, and now that they stood directly across from the portrait Harry looked at the professor expectantly. The man explained in a whisper, "We must think deeply on what we want. I believe if we focus on wanting a room of hidden things it might give us what we are looking for. Go on, my boy give it a go."

Harry nodded as he looked at the blank wall and took a deep breath. He felt slightly foolish, and wondered for the first time if this was an elaborate prank that his Master was pulling on him for letting loose that his birthday was just two weeks before, but instead of questioning the man he took his step of faith, and paced three times focusing hard. I need the place of hidden things. I need the place of hidden things. I need the place of hidden things.

On his third attempt strutting back and forth under the invisibility cloak a dark brown door started to appear from the wall, and Flitwick called quietly, "Come Harry we must get inside before we are detected."

Harry made a quick haste to follow the man into the room, and when he did his jaw dropped at what he saw. Dozens of rows of bookcases, and the widest assortment of objects he had ever seen were in a football field size room, "This is like a flea market of lost magical items and artifacts."

Harry could see everything from textbooks, to skulls that he hoped were not human, and even potion cauldrons that appeared to have been making something very dark in terms of magical aura.

Flitwick however just stared in awe, "I never dreamed it would be this big."

"I think we are going to need more than a day professor unless we are extremely lucky." Harry said, sounding a little disappointed.

This caused the man to chuckle, "I hope I won't disappoint you by saying we aren't going to have to search every nook and cranny of this room. I have of course developed many dark sensory charms, and a Horcrux is going to be like a magnet for a charm like this. I would like to teach it you now if you are up to it."

Harry nodded walking over to the man watching him pull out his wand, "

Watching as Professor Flitwick did this the man's deep blue eyes turned a shade of gold, and spoke, "The wand motion was simple. Just a cross motion from shoulder to hip, and the intent is to focus on revealing dark magic. Come, come."

Flitwick motioned for Harry to follow him towards the overturned cauldron, and Flitwick motioned for him to attempt the sensory charm. It was an instant success for Harry as his eyes glowed, and he was seeing the world in green 'and red. Flitwick furtherly instructed, "If it is green it is normal. If it is red, then we have a match for dark magic. Now since we know precisely the item we are looking for then this should be simple. Just walk up and down the rows until you find the Diadem and then immediately call me over, and we will begin dismantling its defenses."

Harry nodded as he looked around in wonder. There was lots of red in the room, and much of it was in different shades. After an hour of walking around Harry began to realize the brilliance of his master's charm. If it was a light shade of red then it was a minor dark arts object, but the darker the shade of red the more powerful or dark the artifact was. Most of the things were minor, but he saw a few things were a dark blood red, and Harry realized that students must have been hiding things in this room for generations.

Two hours passed and Harry knew they were running out of time, before they needed to clear out. He briefly wondered who was selected for Hogwarts Champion due to the fact that none of his friends had volunteered. He figured perhaps Angelina from Gryffindor would get it, or perhaps one of the 7

year Ravenclaws or Slytherins. One thing for sure was that all his Hufflepuffs should be safe, because if someone like Cedric Diggory and Heidi Macavoy thought the tournament was more dangerous than the reward was worth, then the rest figured it was probably too foolish to attempt.

Just as Harry was about to call it a night a brief black shine caught his eye. He turned his head to get a better look and a color as dark as the night sky met his gaze, so he immediately cried out, "Master Flitwick!"

A short series of steps was heard, and the man was at his apprentices side clearly eying the dark magic with trepidation, "Finite."

The man said pointing his wand at his head, and his eyes turned back to its normal shade of blue. Harry followed suit, and there before them clear as day was the Diadem of Ravenclaw. Flitwick spoke quietly under his breath, "It's so beautiful. I have spent half my life searching for this object, and I have found it defiled by the darkest of magic. What a shame."

"Do you think we can destroy the Horcrux, and not destroy the item?" Harry asked.

"Perhaps, but first we have to see if it is safe to touch. I would like you to take the first crack at it, but do not attempt to touch the object without my expressed permission do you understand?" Flitwick asked Harry calmly, but the excitement in his eyes could not be missed.

"Yes sir." Harry said nervous as he pointed his wand at it.

Most of the charms he could think of were intent based, and of course he tried many of the basics, "Finite Incantatum…Revelio…Surgito…"

With each spell Harry could see the magic of the Horcrux resisting him. He could see flashes of the many enchantments from the impervious charm all the way to the confundus charm. He began waving his wand attempting to disarm what he recognized, and it was a careful and slow process. Every now and then the item would twitch with black smoke coming from the center of the Sapphire in the middle of the Diadem. It was a long process, but finally he looked at Master Flitwick, "That was all I could think of."

"You were thorough, careful, and impressive. It was a very good attempt, but allow me to teach you a few things about dark sensory charms as well. The spell we focused on earlier was of my own invention but let's dive towards something our illustrious headmaster may have designed."

Flitwick began waving his wand slowly instructing Harry on how to stretch his magic out to force its will over the Diadem when suddenly a blast of black smoke came out, and before the Charms Master could raise his wand to defend himself his apprentice was on the job creating a massive shield encircling the two as the smoke attempted to engulf them. Flitwick was quick on the draw at this point, quickly flinging his wand around trying to fight back the smoke when the face of a Death Eater appeared. Not just one though as they were suddenly surrounded by the masks of Death Eaters staring at them. Harry asked in a panic, "What is this?"

"The defenses of the Diadem, I was such a fool. I thought Tom Riddle's arrogance knew no bounds, but apparently I underestimated him this time." Flitwick said.

"What do we do?" Harry asked as the masked men began walking towards them.

"I believe this is an illusion, and what is surrounding us is Voldemort's power, and creatures of his own creation. We will need to defeat them with the lightest magic we can think of."

Not needing to be prompted both men flicked their wands outward, "Expecto Patronum."

Kong erupted from Harry's wand and charged towards the dark creatures that the young man realized only resembled Death Eaters, and his creature smacked through two before being engulfed by two more. Flitwick's eagle had the same problem, and Harry's shield began to shimmer, "We are going to have to come up with something fast. I can't hold this shield forever."

Flitwick rapidly looked around, and then had a theory. He reached out quickly and grabbed his young apprentice, and the two were shoved into the familiar feeling of the tight tube and were suddenly across the room. Harry gasped, "We just apparated."

"The wards don't work here. I don't think we can apparate out of here, but apparating around here I believe is very manageable. We need to escape now." Flitwick said desperately.

Harry shook his head, "No we can't risk Tom knowing that we discovered one of his Horcruxes. We have to get it out of here."

"Harry we can't lose you over something like this. I know where the item is, and I can bring Dumbledore back with me to remove it."

"Master we can't risk that. If Voldemort gets his hands on the Diadem before we do all will be lost. He will hide it in the darkest corner of the world if he knew we were on to him." Harry said staring at the creatures now slowly approaching the duo.

The door was just behind them and they could escape with their lives easily, but at what cost would come later. Making up his mind the half goblin said, "We need to lure the creatures away from the Diadem, and I will dispel the curse. Can you keep those monsters busy?"

The monsters began closing in on Harry and the Master Duelist, and this time they all appeared to be carrying long samurai swords, and the young man gulped, "I can do this. Dispel the curse. I will hold them off."

Flitwick offered a fist to the boy, and Harry bumped it as the man apparated back to their area, and before the monsters could attempt to follow them Harry stepped forward, "Sectumsempra!"

The dark curse flew from his wand, and he decided right away no punches would be pulled. He cast curse after curse as they came to his head from Professor Snape's notes. The Flagrante curse, the disintegration curse, Sectumsempra, defodio, and more blasting curses than he could ever have remembered. Almost nothing was working. His best was merely pushing them back, and he couldn't keep it up forever.

A sword came swinging towards his head, and he summoned a shield with one wand, and instinctively with his other he screamed out, "Lumos Maxima."

The blast of light that left Harry's wand caused a terrible screech from the creatures, and now they surged forward faster. This time Harry put more and more power into the charm causing them to scream in pain. With one wand lighting the room, and a hint of desperation coming in he apparated away and then screamed out, "Expecto Patronum."

Kong made a reappearance this time, but instead of the monsters surrounding the patroni and taking it down Harry ran forward to protect it as it smashed its way through its ranks. Harry stood back to back surrounded with his patronus behind him, and his great ball of light in front of him. These dark Samurai spirit creatures were a level of dark magic he never imagined, and when he thought he was finally going to lose the blackness merely fell to the floor, and they all disappeared.

Shaking and still having his body pumping with adrenaline he nearly cursed his Master as he came barreling around the corner, "Well done my Apprentice. "Well done Harry."

The two embraced tightly for a moment and when Flitwick separated them he said, "I got the curse dispelled and it was a nasty one."

"Tell me about it." Harry muttered, still shaking a bit.

"You did incredibly well Harry, and as always you were very brave. Well done." The half goblin complimented.

"What about the diadem, was there anything left on it?"

Flitwick summoned a black case from behind him, and opened it for Harry to see, "The Horcrux is still in there, but all the dark magic surrounding it has been dispelled. The only thing left is the piece of soul, and no magical power is even residing in it at this point. We now have time to study removing the piece of soul from it without damaging this priceless magical artifact. The Ravenclaw family themselves would be in your debt today Harry. Well done."

It was clear that Flitwick had expected danger on this journey, but the near death experience the Master and Apprentice just shared was not what either could have guessed. The two walked out of the room together not even caring to hide the fact of where they were, but suddenly a Stag patronus appeared, "Harry. We need you back at Hogwarts NOW. We are in the Great Hall and there has been an incident with the Goblet of Fire."

Sighing, the man said, "So much for the celebration I was going to have with you. Now let's move quickly. I do not believe your parents would have summoned you away from your training if it wasn't important. Let's run this to my office, and we will floo to Hogsmeade, and come in on a broomstick. We must be convincing that we were away from the school to alleviate any possible suspicion."

Harry nodded and followed the head of Ravenclaw house on a run towards his office. They did exactly as the professor said, and they flew their brooms to the Hogwarts gates. When allowed through by Filch they continued their flight towards the school and landed in the courtyard that Harry and Dumbledore had defeated Slytherin's monster all those years before. It was only a matter of seconds now before Flitwick pushed the doors open with his wand and saw that there was quite the argument going on between, surprisingly, Darrel Abbot and James Potter. They however weren't the only two arguing. Many of the Hufflepuffs were on their feet shouting at the Durmstrang headmaster, and some of the students from the opposing school were on their feet shouting back.

Dumbledore finally yelled out, "ENOUGH!"

The hall fell silent at this as many had even noticed that Harry had walked in. Many gasped at his appearance. The boy did look a little ragged and showed obvious signs of battle. Harry looked at his father and the Marauders who looked furious while his mother looked pale as a ghost. Dumbledore spoke directly to Harry, "My boy you are Hogwarts Champion."

{A/N} Cue shit getting real. A thanks to my Beta LordProtectorCorvoAttano for another fine job in this update. Next chapter hopefully comes in two weeks, so stay tuned, and if you are still on the wagon for this story hit me up with a review so I know all five of you are still paying attention ;). Cheers!