Chapter 6 - Welcome Home

When Harry woke up it took him a minute to realise where he was. Having spent so many years waking up in the Gryffindor dorm during term time, waking up in a strange bedroom in Grimmauld Place was a bit disorienting. He called out for the house elf.

Kreacher appeared looking as miserable as ever, although Harry thought his attitude was certainly less belligerent than it had been. "Master called for Kreacher?"

"Yes, I have to go back to Hogwarts this morning, but I wanted to speak to you first. Did Master Regulus have any journals, or any books about his locket?" Kreacher thought.

"Old Master had a diary he wrote in. Kreacher can't look inside or give help to anyone else who wants to look inside, even the new master". Harry understood the complex nature of house elf magic and the loyalty it engenders.

"It's ok Kreacher, I'm never going to ask you to so anything which would have made Master Regulus unhappy, and I won't ask you to do anything to betray him, even as a memory. " Harry sat and thought for a while. "I presume Master Regulus will have had his own room?" Kreacher nodded. "I also presume that Sirius had his own room?" Another nod with confirmation that Harry had slept in Sirius' old room the previous night, which sent a course of regret surging through the young wizard. Harry though kept on with his thinking out loud. "I also imagine that no one will have really looked through the rooms in the past few years. Now that I've claimed the house and the house magic has accepted my claim, I have unfettered access…" It was time to have a quick run through the house before he headed back to Hogwarts. "Kreacher, can you please rattle up something to eat, for both of us, I need to have a look through the house to see if I can find anything which will help me carry out Master Regulus' last wish. I do not want to be disturbed until I come into the kitchen when I am done, do you understand?"

Harry knew that he would be pushing the bounds of what the elderly elf would find palatable, so wanted him restricted to another area of the house whilst he had a search for, and then hopefully through, Regulus' bedroom.

As Kreacher popped off to the kitchen Harry jumped into the shower to quickly freshen up, and one drying charm later, was able to dress and start his exploration. It didn't take long, two doors down from the room he exited, was a door with RAB on a plate upon it. Surprisingly the door was unlocked, making it a very cautious Harry who opened it. He slowly entered, looking around for any obvious signs of traps or enchantments. Finding none, he made his way to the writing desk and bookshelves at the far end of the room. The thick layer of dust encasing everything made it obvious that he was the first person to enter this room in many a year. The quills on the desk had their own dust encrustment, the rolls of blank parchments the same. There was nothing on the desktop which looked like a book, or a diary. Assuming that it would be locked in a drawer, Harry looked more closely at the desk itself, and found there were 5 drawers, all locked. With a thought of 'nothing ventured and all that' he cast an alohomora charm to unlock the drawers and found that of the five, 4 unlocked and could now be opened, the fifth, the long middle drawer, remained robustly locked. Fair chance then, Harry thought that any diary is going to be in there, the drawer being charmed against alohomora made it likely that it would hold something which Regulus wanted to limit access too. He would need to hit the library when he got back to Hogwarts to see if there was a charm against the charm against the unlocking charm.

A rummage through the unlocked drawers saw Harry find a couple of interesting books on dark magic, which he thought would be worth a read to see if he could get any ideas on the remaining horcruxes. As he was about to close one of the drawers, he noticed something which didn't make sense. The drawer seemed shallower than it should have been. "I wonder if it's charmed" he thought to himself. As he took out the few parchments which were in the drawer, he tapped the bottom and thought it sounded hollow. He remembered there being a potions lab in the basement, so ran down to have a look around, soon finding a potions knife. With the blade in his hand, he jogged back up to Regulus' room and stuck the tip of the blade into the bottom of the drawer, where the base met the wall and after a couple of minutes, the bottom popped out and there was another inch of drawer hidden under the false panel.

Tucked away was a small notepad, again with the initials RAB. 'Not a bad effort' thought Harry. Charm a drawer to stay locked, which is automatically going to get people to focus on that, whilst you hide what you want in a false bottom. No wonder he was a Slytherin!' The notepad joined the couple of books to go back to Hogwarts. Thinking he had done enough for the moment, Harry put the books and journal back in his room after closing up the desk again, and headed into the kitchen where Kreacher was still waiting.

"Is Master finished with his tasks?"

"Yes Kreacher, you can go where you want again. Are there any charmed bags in the house? I have some things I want to take with me, but I want to be able to shrink them down to put into a pocket."

The old elf popped off and returned seconds later with the asked-for charmed bag. "Excellent, thanks Kreacher, that's awesome." Kreacher looked at Harry. He wanted to hate his new master, but new master had already spoken kindly to Kreacher, more kindly than Master Sirius the traitor. The look he gave Harry was at best neutral, but didn't display the outright hostility he had previously expressed. That was good enough for Harry for the moment.

Harry sat and ate the plate of sausage, eggs and bacon which Kreacher had prepared and thought about what his next steps were going to be. He needed to go back to Hogwarts today, that much was certain. He had things there he needed to collect and wanted to speak to Headmistress McGonagall to see if he could borrow a wizarding tent. He would need to speak to Amelia Bones again, make sure the mirrors were set up properly, and see if she had any ideas how to move things forward. He didn't trust Rufus Scrimgeour just yet, but he knew that Madam Bones was straight. Susan being a keen Defence Association member helped.

He finished up and cleaned up with a quick scourgify before heading back to his room to collect all he wanted to take back with him. "Kreacher!" The elf popped into view. "I'm going back to Hogwarts. Is the floo here still working?" The old elf nodded, but said that Harry would have to set access as the new master of the house. Harry looked confused? "How do I do that? I've never been the master of a house before!"

"If master was a proper master he would know" muttered Kreacher, although without the rancour Harry might have expected. "Master needs to throw floo powder into the floo and tell the house magic that he takes control of the Grimmauld floo. Once master has done that, he can decide to limit who can use the floo, and where the floo will connect to. If master floos to a public floo, that floo will remain open for master to come back, but only master. If anyone else wants to use the floo, the must floo with master the first time."

It seemed easy enough, so Harry threw the powder into the fireplace and uttered the words. Rather than the traditional green, the floo flamed a bright blue as the system recognised Harry's magic and accepted him as the floo master. His charmed bag now shrunk and in the pocket of his robes, another handful of powder was tossed in, with the usual green flame, as Harry shouted out "The Three Broomsticks!"

With his usual (lack of) grace, Harry fell out of the fireplace at the other end and into the main hall, landing on his bum with a thump. With as much dignity as he could muster, he stood and brushed himself down. He looked over and saw Madam Rosemerta laughing at his state. "I've never been able to master floo travel" he admitted with a sad grin.

"Yet you hide that fact so well, Mr Potter! I wasn't expecting to see any students today." The innkeeper beckoned him over and reached for a tankard. "Here, have a butterbeer before you go, on the house, make up for my laughing at you!"

Harry shrugged. "Thanks, although if I got a drink from everyone who laughed at me when I flooed anywhere, I'd need a swimming pool to hold it all!". He took the butterbeer though.

"Such a sad thing, Professor Dumbledore." Madam Rosemerta pulled herself a drink. "Most of us have never known a time when he wasn't the headmaster, it was a huge shock to us all." Harry just nodded. ""A clever man, too he was. Saw things that most didn't." She reached under the counter and pulled out a package, wrapped in parchment. "A few weeks ago, he was in here and left this. Said that you would be along here if anything happened to him.

Typical of Dumbledore, thought Harry. Too much like hard work just to actually give him the information, too bloody straightforward just to pass on something directly, no, for whatever reason Dumbledore had to send him on a bloody treasure hunt for the information he needed to go on his treasure hunt! Harry's frustration with the deceased wizard wasn't lessened with his passing.

Nonetheless, he took the package from Madam Rosemerta and muttered his thanks. The older woman looked at the young wizard. "You have the weight of the world on your shoulders Harry Potter. I don't pretend to know a fraction of what is going on, but this is a pub after all, and people talk. I know that war is coming again, and I know that you are going to be right in the thick of it," She sipped her butterbeer. "You have something about you Harry, a nobility if you will. It's obvious that you care about people, but don't let that nobility push people away. You can't carry that weight all on your own, the more shoulders it's spread across, the easier it is to carry."

Harry couldn't look her in the eye. "You are right,but it's not that easy. Too many people have died already, too many have died because they know me. Because of me." Harry looked haunted. "I can't let anyone else die."

Madam Rosemerta reached over the bar and put her hand under Harry's chin, forcing him to look up at her. "None of them died because of you, Harry. They died because of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. His followers killed them. You didn't."

-oOoOo- The Struggle Within -oOoOo-

It was early afternoon before Harry found himself trudging back up the path which lead to Hogwarts. As he made his way in the back door, he was surprised to find Professor, now Headmistress, McGonagall waiting for him.

"Mr Potter" she started on her broad Scots brogue. "Next time you decide to go galavanting, please have the decency to let someone know. People have been sick with worry about you."

"I'm sorry Professor, I mean Headmistress. I had to…" he was cut off by McGonagall.

"I'm well aware you were summoned to the Ministry. We authorised the ministry to use special Avalon portkeys on the understanding that we had the ability to know when one was used. The wards were triggered yesterday to let me know that an Avalon Portkey had been used. As you were the only student not accounted for after the memorial, it didn't take the intellect of Miss Granger to figure out who had activated it."

Harry nodded, a brief spasm of tension running through his body at the mention of Hermione's name. "I figured for the Minister and head of DMLE to have left the memorial and sent me a portkey, they must have wanted to see me pretty urgenty, plus I didn't think anyone would miss me."

McGonagall looked at him. "There was one person who certainly did, Mr Potter. It was her who came to me to ask if I knew where you were. She is worried about you, as am I."

Harry looked surprised. "Mr Potter, Harry" McGonagall's voice softened. "I know are a child of prophecy, Albus was notorious for treating information as a prisoner, even when it would be better shared, but I know that you and he have been involved in something which is secret, but key to see You-Know-Who defeated. I wish you didn't have this burden upon you, but you do. I wish also that I could help, but knowing that Albus wouldn't tell anyone a syllable more than he could get away with, I know you probably are flying blind, as are we all." The older witch paused. "I want to help, I've been appointed Headmistress of Hogwarts in the interim, so anything at my disposal is also at yours."

"Thank you pro… Headmistress." They had reached the gargoyle which guarded to headmistresses office. It rolled away without a password being uttered.

"I don't plan on hiding behind an enchanted statue. I want to be more accessible than my predecessor. He was a great man, a great wizard, but he was not without his faults."

"You aren't going to get any arguments from me" muttered Harry as the two climbed the stairs. They reached the office and both sat. "I appreciate the help, Headmistess. There are things I know that I don't want to share, not because I subscribe to Professor Dumbledore's opinion that secrets must be kept, but because the knowledge is dangerous, the more people who have that information the more danger everyone is in." Harry paused. Just like at the Minstry, he was having to work out how much to say. "All I'll say is that the information is related to how Voldemort didn't die for good when he killed my parents, and what I have to do to change that so that the next time he dies, he doesn't come back."

McGonagall's eyebrows raised at that and she looked over her glasses at the haunted visage before her. "There are only two things I can think of which would fit the bill, neither bear thinking about. A young man of your age shouldn't be involved with seeking out such filth."

"Regarless Headmistress, I am. You said you wanted to help. Does Hogwarts have any wizarding tents? If there is, I am going to need to borrow one."

"Does this mean you are going to be leaving the castle?"

"Yes. I don't want to, but I don't have a choice. Dumbledore and I started a task, I have to finish it. I don't have the option. If I don't, Voldemort is going to hunt me down anyway, and if I don't complete the task first, there's no way I can win. Even if I do, if I'm being honest, it's 50/50 at best if I make it through this alive. If that."

"Why you, Harry?"

"You said yourself, I'm a child of prophecy. I'm not going into detail, but that prophecy means I'm the only one who has even the 50% chance."

"What timescale are we working to here?"

Harry sat and thought. He wished Hermione was here with him, with her ogranisational abilities, they'd be able to work everything out to the day. As it was, he was guessing. "I don't know. There's a few things I need to sort out, but I think I'll be leaving in a week at the most."

"Well then, let's go to the storerooms and see what we have in the way of tents…"