Author's note: Once again there is a bit of Latin in this chapter. It means: I, Lord of House Black disown this woman named Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black for the crime of kinslaying. May she never darken our lives again.

Enjoy!

Chapter 18:

It was the morning of the meeting with Bloodaxe when Othello came back with a letter from Hermione. Harry quickly took the last bite of his breakfast before he took the letter from the owl sitting in front of him. To Othello he said, "Why don't you go visit Hedwig? She is still in the owlery with the eggs and could use some company."

Othello hooted at him and flew away to the owlery. Harry watched him go for a moment before he turned back to the letter. He opened it and started reading.

Dear Harry,

Hedwig has laid eggs?!

Harry, I am so sorry! Are you able to take care of the chicks? Do you need any help? Is Hedwig alright? Do you know how to take care of chicks?

Write me back soon!

Love,

Hermione

Harry had to laugh at her letter and was resolved to answer her after the meeting with Bloodaxe. He hoped that she has a book about owl care because he did not know how to care for owl chicks and it was Hedwig her first nest too.

This time it was Kreacher who would take him to Gringotts. The cranky Elf didn't really like goblins but he wanted to do something with his Master that wasn't cleaning or cooking.

And so Harry took Kreacher's hand and they popped to the meeting room in Gringotts where he had been the last time.

This time it was only Bloodaxe who sat behind the big desk and Harry could see that on the desk was the Rune covered box that they used to contain the locket.

Bloodaxe stood up from behind the desk as Kreacher popped away again and greeted Harry with a, "Welcome, Lord Black, to Gringotts. May your gold grow and may our enemies die regretting ever meeting us."

Harry bowed his head slightly as gran had taught him to do and said, "So mote it be." As an answer to the respectful blessing Bloodaxe had spoken.

When Harry walked closer to Bloodaxe so he could take a seat, both he and the Black accountmanager noticed how the Rune covered box was shaking on the desk. Harry had a nasty feeling as to what the shaking of the box meant and even Bloodaxe looked a bit resigned.

Harry asked just to be sure, "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Bloodaxe looked a bit sorry for him as he nodded, "I fear that that means that what we suspected is in fact the reality. You, Lord Black, are a Horcrux."

Harry was not even shocked when he heard it confirmed. It was just his luck. Now he just hoped that there was a way to destroy the Horcrux without it needing to be his death.

Harry took a deep breath and asked the most important question, "Is there anything the goblins of Gringotts can do to take the Horcrux safely out of me?"

The account manager of the Black Family nodded at his question and Harry felt a bone deep relief. He didn't want to die at only sixteen years old. There was so much he wanted to do and now it seemed like he would get to live past his sixteen years.

Bloodaxe explained, "We had our suspicions after we found the first Horcrux in the Black Town House that that might have happened when Voldermort attacked your family that Halloween night. Throught it seems like the Horcrux was unable to posses you as they are supposed to do. This might have something to do with the ritual your parents made to protect you against the self-styled Lord Voldemort since the Horcrux is a part of the man the ritual was meant to protect you against."

The goblin continued with, "And so we have searched for a ritiual to get the Horcrux out of you without it needing to be your permanent death."

...Permanent death? That seems a bit of a strange thing to say. Does that mean Harry would only need to die a little bit?

So he asked, "I would like to stay alive for a long while longer but what do you mean with it not being my permanent death? Does that mean I will only be a little dead?" He was only a tiny bit worried but he trusted the goblins. They were very honest with him and he really liked that.

Bloodaxe hooked his fingers under his chin and he said, "I shall explain the ritual to you since it is important to get it out of you as soon as possible. After you agree we will take you to our Ritual Room deep in Gringotts, there you will drink the Draught of the Living Death so that the Horcrux will think you are death and search of another host to possess."

Bloodaxe took a moment to breath before he continued, "Since you will be in a closed ritual circle it will be impossble for the Horcrux to escape. We will then trap the Horcrux in a smal object which we will destroy. Then you will get a dose of the Wiggenweld potion to wake you up again and be checked over by one of our healers."

Harry took a moment to process all this information before he said, "Very well, lets do it."

It was not like there was any other option. He had to die so that Voldemort would be a step closer to being mortal again. And since it woudn't be a permanent death, he would gladly do it.

Bloodaxe looked satisfied and send a notice to alert the others to make the Ritual Room ready for the Horcrux extraction.

Then he stood up and motioned Harry to follow him. They walked a while through some parts of Gringotts Harry had never seen before and some time later they stopped in front a a big door made of what looked like marble.

Bloodaxe looked at Harry and said, "This is where I leave you. After you entered you need to undress and put on the robe that we put there for you. After that you need enter the Ritual Room and to lay on the big table in the middle of the room and wait for the healer to arrive with the potion."

Harry nodded that he understood and said to the goblin, "Thank you, Bloodaxe, for all your help. I can't immagine what would have happened if we never found out about the Horcrux in my head."

Bloodaxe looked a bit grumpy at being thanked but still said, "No need to thank me, Lord Black. After all you are still a child and even goblins will help a child in need. And since you are one of our best clients and we woudn't want to lose your money so there really are no thanks necessary."

The last thing felt more like a thing the goblin said as not to lose the tough reputation of goblins. Harry found it kinda funny that the tough warrior race had a weak spot for children in need. He wasn't used to people helping him but he could really get used to it. There were quite a few capable adults helping him lately. It was nice.

Harry said goodbye to Bloodaxe and walked through the door. Inside was a small changing room with a white cotton robe hanging from one of the hooks on the wall. Harry quickly changed into the robe and neatly folded up his fancy clothes.

The robe was kinda cold and Harry hoped that it would be over soon so that he could change back into his actual clothes. The robe felt uncomfortably naked since he wasn't allowed to wear any clothes underneath the robe.

He walked through another door and there was the Ritual Room. It was completely made of stone with in the middel a stone table. Around the table was a wide circle carved in the ground with Runes running around it.

Harry recognised a few of the Runes that meant Strength, Health, Power, Success, Mind and Body. There were a few other that he didn't recognise but Harry would look up those later.

He went to sit down on the surprisingly comfortable table and waited for the healer to arrive. Soon the door opened and 7 goblins walked in. They too, were wearing a robe and they went to stand around the circle.

After that there was another goblin that came through the door. Harry looked at the goblin and was surprised to see that this goblin was female. At least it seemed that way since she was wearing a dress and apron instead of a Ritual robe like the others in the ritual room.

The goblin in the dress walked briskly up to him and introduced herself as Healer Diamondaxe. Then she told him to lay down and then she would spell the potion in his stomach so he woudn't have to taste it.

Once again Harry was surprised by the thoughtfulness of goblins. He really needed to find a way to thank them all after this was over.

Perhaps he could find a way to banish Binns ghost for them so that they could get an unbaised history teacher in Hogwarts? They were really a lot kinder than Binns would have his students believe.

Harry layed down and saw Healer Diamondaxe pull out a potion vial from out of her pocket. Then she made a few movements with her hands and the potion vial slowly emptied.

Harry could feel himself slowly falling asleep and just before he actually went under he felt a clawed hand patting his hair while saying, "Good luck, Mr. Potter and we will see you soon."

She then stepped out of the circle and room to wait for the Ritual to finish.

Each of the goblins pricked their finger with their Ritual Knives and put the bleeding finger on a rune. The circle closed and the goblins started chanting in their own langauge while they waited for the Horcrux to come out of the boy sleeping like death on the stone table.

They knew as soon as the Horcrux noticed that the heartbeat of the boy stopped, that the Horcrux would leave his current host and try to latch on to a new one.

Soon after the boy completely stilled they saw that the scar started bleeding slightly. The skin on his forehead started moving and suddenly as the skin burst open there was a black sludge coming out along with the blood.

There sounded a screech and the Horcrux burst out from the boys forehead. The Horcrux took the form of a skull and seemed to look around for another host.

The lead goblin of this ritual took out a clear crystal and threw it in the circle. The crystal glowed for a moment and the Horcrux was getting slowly sucked in by it. It only took a moment but then the Horcrux was completly absorbed in by the crystal and the clear crystal had turned a inky black.

The goblins then dismantled the circle and took the crystal to put in another rune covered box to be destroyed later. After all they could hardly use Fiendfyre while the boy was here sleeping like the living death.

Harry woke up alone in the Ritual Room. It was completely silent around him and Harry could feel that something was very different with him.

He felt so light. As if he had unknowingly carried a few extra pounds on his back that were now gone. He also felt his magic a lot better then ever before.

The door on the side of the room opened and the Healer stepped through. She looked glad to see him awake again.

When she walked up to the table the first thing Harry asked her was, "Is the Horcrux gone?"

And immediately after that, "Oh sorry, it is nice to meet you Madam Diamontaxe. My name is Hadrian Potter-Black and I am very grateful for your care." With a blush because gran would have made him do the most difficult dance she could think of if she heard about this slight misshap in manners.

The female goblin laughed slightly at his words and answered him, "Lord Black, I am very glad to inform you that the Horcrux is gone and destroyed. Since the Horcrux is now gone I ask you to take it very easy today so that your magic can get used to it. So no casting any magic today, young man."

Harry wondered why all the Healers he knew like Madam Pomphrey, Andromeda Tonks and Healer Diamondaxe all acted the same. Like he was a child they really wanted to cuddle and surround in bubblewrap.

Still she was his Healer and had been very kind to him so he said, "I understand, Healer Diamondaxe." Like the mature young man he was.

She cleared him for leaving and Harry went quickly to the changing room to get dressed in his own clothes.

Then he was escorted back to the meeting room by another goblin where Bloodaxe was waiting behind his desk.

"I was very glad to hear that the Ritual succeded in extracting the Horcux from you." The goblin said as he looked at Harry's forehead.

Harry nodded and said, "Yes it went very well. The ritual was quick and Healer Diamondaxe was very kind to me."

Bloodaxe looked proud as he said, "Ah yes, you met my daughter. Such a good healer isn't she? She does very well in her chosen craft."

Harry nodded and agreed quickly with the proud father.

Then they talked a bit more about the rest of the Horcruxes. Now there were four destroyed and another three not. The goblins were pretty sure that one of them was the snake Nagini that Voldemort kept close to him.

That one would be difficult to destroy but the goblins would leave that one for last. They didn't want to alert Voldemort to them destroying the Horcruxes.

The other was somewhere they didn't know just yet since it seemed to have been moved recently.

The last one was in an unknown location in Hogwarts and Bloodaxe would ask Professor Flitwick for help with that one. He also asked Harry if he knew any places where someone could hide a Horcrux.

So Harry told him of the Chamber of Secrets and the Room of Requierment. Bloodaxe was shocked to hear about the size of the Basilisk Harry killed in self-defense and told him that in exchange for a liter of the venom they would render the snake in parts for him and sell everything he didn't want.

Bloodaxe told him that is he estimated the size correctly that Harry could expect to receive around 800.000 Galleons for such a rare creature.

Harry was shocked but agreed to the deal. Harry then asked the Black account manager to start the process for disowning Bellatrix Lestrange. The goblins would take care of the paperwork but before that was done Harry had to disown Bellatrix magically as to make it permanent and not just legal.

Which he did on the spot since he didn't want her anywhere close to him. Harry stood up from the desk and took out his wand so he could chant, "Ego autem dominus dederit ter Nigrum Domus hæc mulier nomine Domini sustentor adflixisti ut proximam sanguinis sui Bellatrix Lestrange nee Nigrum propter scelus. Sit nigrescere faciam quæ numquam iterum animabus nostris."

Since that the last thing Harry wanted to talk about and there was nothing left Bloodaxe wanted to speak to him about it was time to conclude the meeting. Harry called for Dobby to pick him up so that they could get to Longbottom Manor.

Harry wasn't allowed to do any magic today but he could still do his lessons with gran. Tomorrow he could continue with the combat lessons with Amelia, Susan and Neville.

Dobby appeared and together they popped away to Longbottom Manor.