The 7th Child

A/N: Well, regular updating went well didn't it? FYI I've started my work placement which is so interesting so updates are likely to be slow (though I don't think you can get much slower than my usual update pace).

Also, I think I've actually got a more coherent plot now, so let's hope that pushes me to actually get something on paper! This chapter should start to set this up and hopefully makes sense and isn't like I'm pulling it out of my arse (please tell me if it sounds like I am lol).

Anyway, as always, I don't own anything, and please, follow, favourite and review!

Eve x

Chapter 11: To catch a rat

Ginny hid behind a curtain of hair, its colour darkened by the water it still held from her earlier shower. Thankfully, it provided a barricade from the grinning Sirius who sat opposite, waiting for her to start the conversation. They'd been sat like this for 10 minutes, ever since he'd come downstairs and responded to her sleepy greeting with a "What I'm back to Sirius? And Dad was growing on me." Ginny had immediately gone bright red and put her elbow in the butter dish, much like she had at the Burrow so long ago, before retreating behind her hair. Sirius had laughed and sat down opposite her, and there they remained.

Sirius cleared his throat, disrupting the embarrassed silence. "As riveting as this conversation is, I'm going to have to ask that we hurry it along kiddo." Suddenly his face turned serious, an unusual look for the jovial man. "In all honesty Ginny, if it was a slip of the tongue, that's fine, okay? You don't owe me anything, and you don't need to be embarrassed."

Ginny shook her head, and slowly moved her hair out of her eyes. "I meant it. I really did. I just… I didn't want to freak you out."

Sirius laughed then; a great big belly laugh that caused a smile to spread across Ginny's face. "Freak me out? Kiddo, I've told you my oh-so-tragic life story. At this point, I can assure you that nothing will ever freak me out again."

Ginny looked up. "So you're okay with it? Like it's not an issue? I know it might seem so sudden and stuff because it's not even been a year but you've done so much for me that it just kinda made sense, you know? And you've stuck by me when everyone else decided that I wasn't worth it and … yeah."

Sirius smiled understandingly. "Ginny, I get it. I really do. I wouldn't have done half the things I'd done for you if I didn't think of you like a daughter, okay? And remember, we were in Azkaban together – that place probably creates stronger bonds than most things." Sirius cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable with the emotional conversation. "And like I said, the shit I've been through has rendered me immune to all potential freaking-out-situations. I'm basically prepared for anything."

Ginny snorted, recognising the subject change for what it was. In all honesty, she was glad Sirius had lightened the conversation. The diary had made it difficult for her to trust others, but as Sirius said, escaping Azkaban creates bonds. Attempting to maintain the newly found levity of the conversation, Ginny grinned slyly. "Willing to put money on that?"

"Ah, you're a betting girl! I knew there was several reasons why I liked you. Alright then. 10 galleons says that I will remain unfreakable. Good terms?"

"Sounds decent but 10 galleons? I don't have that sort of money!"

Sirius smiled at her. "Sure, you do. I basically decided that I adopted you in Azkaban, albeit not legally, so I set up an allowance for you. Was going to surprise you with it at Christmas but completely forgot. Hang on, let me get you the vault key and parchment."

Ginny sat slack-jawed as Sirius ran out of the room and very loudly rustled through some drawers. Of course he'd done this, even though he had no reason to. Ginny realised that he hadn't been lying when he claimed that he thought of her as his daughter; this gesture was just proof of it. He returned, smirking at her expression. "Here you are, kiddo."

Ginny took the parchment and read it, her eyes growing wider. This was more money than she'd ever seen in her life, and Sirius had set it aside for her use. For a girl who had spent the majority of her life without two knuts to rub together, this was nothing short of miraculous. "Thank you so much! This is so kind!"

Sirius waved off her thanks and lent forward. "It's no big deal. My family were basically hoarders, and you needed some pocket money, especially if we're gonna do some betting. So, are you in?"

Ginny grinned, warm, brown eyes twinkling with mirth. "It's a bet… Dad."

-The 7th Child –

"So, what's the plan for today?" Ginny asked as herself and Sirius headed up to the library after lunch. "I remember Dumbledore said he had something specific for us to research."

Sirius nodded, and held open the door for the small girl. "Yeah, we need to see if we can find the process of how to make them. Dumbledore seemed really keen to find it out, he was very insistent on how important it was. If it was anyone else, I'd be worried, but its Dumbledore, y'know? Sure, he's a conniving son of a bitch at the best of times, but he's not evil."

Ginny nodded and began pulling random books about dark magic off the shelves, throwing some to Sirius. Sirius grabbed his stack, and settled into an armchair before taking a deep breath, as though bracing himself for something rather unpleasant. Ginny was unsure whether Sirius thought the content was more unpleasant than the thought of reading. Smiling slightly at the thought, Ginny sat herself at the desk and pulled the first, thick tome towards herself.

Two hours later found the occupants of Grimmauld Place looking far worse than they had when they had originally entered the library. Ginny's head was in her right hand, her left resting on the book, although she did not appear to be reading. Her eyes looked glazed over, and only blinked themselves into awareness when a groan echoed across the library.

"My brain is melting. Actually, it's done the melting, it has gone straight to the sludge stage. Like that grey shit that snow turns into when it's too wet to stick properly." Sirius sat slumped in an armchair in the Grimmauld Place library, a book lying across his face like he was hoping the information would soak into his brain.

Ginny looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot, and her hair tangled from where her hand had been resting in it. "I can't find anything. Like at all! It's like horcruxes are some sort of myth! At least in terms of making them! Why we even looking for how to make them anyway?"

Sirius sat up, the book sliding off his face and balancing precariously on his shoulder, before dropping to the floor with a loud thump. "You're telling me! There's absolutely fuck-all and I'm looking through the worst books in this place! Oh and we're looking because Dumbledore reckons if we find the process we can reverse engineer the fuckers. He seems really keen on removing Voldemort from the objects without damaging them. I figure it must be something to do with the historic value of some of the stuff; I mean, the locket's Slytherin's – that makes it priceless."

"Ah okay, but seriously it makes no sense that there's nothing on that here! You said this place had one of the most extensive dark libraries in the world, because your dad was some kind of collector, yet he doesn't have a book about how they're made? There's books on everything! I'm realising that with all this home-schooling. You either learn it in a book or someone teaches you! Or you can make something up but that takes ages!"

Sirius nodded, before his eyes widened and he sat up straight; Ginny mirrored him as they both realised the same thing at the same time. They both made eye contact, their mouths falling open in shock.

"Ginny you bloody genius." Sirius breathed out. "You bloody genius. Someone must have taught him how to make them. If it's not in a book then someone must have taught him. He must have discovered them and what they are, and then found someone to teach him because there's no way he would have had the time or resources to experiment."

"But who?" Ginny queried, her brow furrowed in thought. "V-V… Tom was the worst person in generations wasn't he? The only person soulless enough to even attempt it. Who would even know dark magic that he didn't?"

Sirius groaned and fell forward onto his hands. "I have no clue. Right, lets recap. So, Voldemort made 3 or 7 horcruxes –"

"And we're leaning towards 7 because we already know about two of them. And also because Dumbledore said there's probably 7." Ginny piped up.

"Right." Sirius nodded. "So we've found two of them. One was the diary that possessed you and was destroyed by a basilisk fang. The other is the locket that we're keeping locked away so we can experiment on it. Now, the diary was obviously made when he was what, 16? That's the age his ghosty thing looked, right?"

Ginny nodded and motioned for Sirius to continue. To her credit, she hadn't even flinched when the thing that had destroyed her life was mentioned. She just kept looking resolutely at Sirius, determined that those things would never be able to harm another again.

"Okay, so he discovered them in his mid-teens and figured out or was shown how to make them. Which means the spell or spells to create a horcrux must be fairly subtle, because he would have had to make them in Hogwarts. Unless… unless he had wands like you or me. Traceless wands."

"But the price of them, surely only the wealthiest members of the wizarding world could afford them? And I've never heard of the Riddle family." Ginny jumped in, her hands having now folded across her chest. "But he was the heir of Slytherin…"

Sirius looked up at that. "That can't be right. My psychotic mother had me memorise all pureblood family trees so I knew who appropriate brides were; the Gaunts were the last of the descendants of Slytherin, and there were no heirs after Merope Gaunt died."

"But he was the heir of Slytherin! That's how the Chamber was opened!" Ginny frowned at the slightly whiny tone her voice had taken on. Sirius just smiled, given he found it fairly amusing that Ginny would be repulsed whenever she acted remotely like her age. Smothering the wave of amusement before she noticed, Sirius moved the conversation along.

"So, he's an heir that no one knows about? That's not important. What's important is that he obviously didn't have the funds to secure one of the wands, meaning he must have made it in Hogwarts. And, if he could open the Chamber, then maybe the spell wouldn't need to be subtle."

"So we're back at square one, right?"

"Not necessarily. Dumbledore said that a horcrux is used to store a piece of your soul, yes? And that the process is unknown yet said to involve an act so horrific that it tears your soul in two, which logically must be murder. Did anyone die at Hogwarts when Riddle was there?"

"He said that someone had died the last time it had opened, I think." Ginny answered uncertainly. "You don't think…"

Sirius nodded grimly. "The first person he killed was in Hogwarts, using the basilisk, and he used that death to help create the diary."

"But how did he use that death to create a horcrux?"

"That's what we need to find out. Dumbledore's coming tonight, so we can give him the rundown. You did your schoolwork this morning right?"

"Yeah, I've nearly finished the Goshawk book, it's so interesting and so cool, and I've practised my transfigurations and done began doing some reading on the Arthurian times – Dumbledore seemed really keen on me keeping up with that branch of history."

Sirius furrowed his brow at that odd decision by the Headmaster, before shrugging it off and standing up. "Good work, kiddo. Alright then, to the basement. Its duel time."

-The 7th Child-

It was approaching half-past eleven that night before the tell-tale crack of apparition could be heard from Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Ginny was dozing on the sofa whilst Sirius stared straight ahead, his knee bouncing. Dumbledore had never arrived this late before, and, given the ease with which the Headmaster seemed to move between Hogwarts and Grimmauld Place, it was worrying. It was only when the door opened did the two convicts spring to their feet, only for Sirius to collapse back into the armchair he had just vacated.

"Black, I didn't think that you'd be that moved to see me." Drawled the dark-haired potions professor. "After all, didn't you try to murder me for one of your moronic, and consistently underwhelming pranks?"

Sirius responded rather quickly to the barbed question, obviously falling on old habits. "That was what, 30 years ago? We were 16, get over it Snivellius. And underwhelming? Our pranks were nothing short of legendary, nobody could ever hold a torch to the genius of the marauders. Well, three of us anyway. Wormtail can rot for all I care. Dumbledore, care to tell me what the fuck is this greasy man-bat doing in my house?"

"Get over it? Get - You arrogant, pompous –"

Dumbledore cut across the spluttering potions professor who had turned a rather alarming shade of red. "Severus has agreed to assist us. He has a personal stake in ensuring the capture of Pettigrew and defeating Voldemort."

"Personal stake? I thought he was one of Voldy's most devoted followers… oh wait, is it because you lo-"

Snape cut Sirius off. "Finish that sentence and I won't hesitate to report you the authorities, Black."

Sirius responded in turn, causing Ginny's head to rapidly turn from one side to the other as she watched the tennis match of insults unfold. Dumbledore sighed and spoke across the two men who were behaving as though they were teenagers again.

"Severus knows everything now. We have to work together and having an ally in Tom's inner circle will prove invaluable in the long run. I chose to inform him first as there has been some unforeseen developments within Hogwarts and he has my absolute trust. Now, I came here to discuss what you may have found out about the horcruxes and also to discuss a plan for capturing Pettigrew."

Both Sirius and Severus straightened up at this, eager to enact their respective revenges.

"Hopefully it involves a slow and painful death." Sirius muttered.

The corner of Snape's mouth curled upwards. "I rarely ever find myself in agreement with Black, but on that we can agree."

Ginny heard the exchange and rolled her eyes. Of course these two would bond over revenge. She caught Dumbledore's eye, who watched the proceedings with no small amount of interest. As he met Ginny's gaze, his eyes twinkled, causing Ginny to smirk.

"Before we move on to that part of the discussion, perhaps it would be more prudent to fill me in on what you discovered." Dumbledore said calmly, as he perched himself on a chair. He gladly accepted a cup of tea from Kreacher and motioned for Ginny and Sirius to fill him in.

And fill him in they did. Cutting across each other, quickly interjecting details the other had missed; it was chaos. Snape looked shell shocked as he attempted to follow this disjointed conversation, his lip curling in distaste at the evidently Gryffindor display in front of him. Dumbledore listened, his brow furrowed as he absorbed each piece of information; an ability Snape surely wished he had. It wasn't until Ginny and Sirius reached the end of their tale did both the Headmaster and Potions professor sit up. Dumbledore held up a hand, and interjected.

"Are you saying that you can find no record of how to make a horcrux in the Black library, and in fact that you believe there is no record of how to make them? And if that is the case, then someone must have instructed him?" As Sirius and Ginny both nodded, Dumbledore slumped in his chair and Snape put his head in his hands.

"Are you sure your father would have known if there was such a text?" Snape lent forward, uncharacteristically non-aggressive. "One could have possible slipped his knowledge."

Sirius shook his head adamantly. "There's no way. My dear old dad kept networks in all of the black markets for dark magic; if there was a book as rare as one on horcruxes, he would have found it. People just don't keep these things secret in the underbelly of the Wizarding World, as well you know Snape."

Snape nodded, and turned his gaze to Dumbledore. "So why is this so important for us to find? I understand that it is concerning that the Dark Lord will have had instruction for this barbaric act, but why do we need to know?"

Dumbledore breathed heavily through his nose. "I have a theory; one that cannot yet be proved but if we knew how they were made, perhaps we can remove Tom's soul without destroying the vessel. I am not ready to share it yet; allow me time to gain absolute proof of it being true. What concerns me most is that there is a wizard or witch that Tom deemed powerful enough to teach him; he became more arrogant as time passed and would not have accepted instruction from just about anyone. This may be an avenue that requires investigation."

"Surely whoever did it would be dead by now?" Ginny piped up. Three heads swivelled in her direction. "I mean, Tom didn't like loose ends; he was going to kill me after I served my purpose. So surely he would have killed this person or they'd have died from old age by now?"

Dumbledore nodded whilst Sirius worried his lip, his stomach turning at the forced casualness with which Ginny had mentioned her brush with death. On the other hand, Snape looked at Ginny calculatingly, with a small modicum of respect building for the astute way Ginny had applied her own experiences with Voldemort to the current situation. If he was going to like one Weasley, it would most certainly be this one.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "That is certainly a likely possibility Ginny. In fact, one may say it was a certainty if it wasn't to do with this awful branch of magic. Unfortunately, we may need to consider the fact that this individual may have had horcruxes of their own, and may still be alive."

The three faces that looked at him nodded solemnly, before one lit up with an expression that could only be described as a feral.

"Now that that's over and done with, let us move on to the main reason as to why we are gathered in my humble abode." Sirius announced rather grandly. Snape rolled his eyes, Dumbledore smiled serenely and Ginny would have laughed if the situation hadn't been that they were plotting a man's capture and probable death, given Snape and Sirius were both involved.

"I hope that means we are plotting this rat's slow and painful descent into the fiery pits of hell." Snape drawled.

Sirius grinned in response. "Snivellius, you grow on me more and more by the minute! Now I've personally been trying the psychological torture so far, but I think it's time to up the stakes. Like really up the stakes."

Snape leant forward intrigued, whilst Ginny and Dumbledore slowly edged back, ready to dive in if things got out of hand. "Black, I suppose your plan is completely over the top and is likely to need much work, but you can consider me involved." Snape said silkily.

Sirius nodded and began to plan with his once arch nemesis. It appeared as though they had put aside their differences to work towards the common goal of capturing the one who ripped those most dear from them. Ginny could only hope it lasted, and with the way Dumbledore was only occasionally interjecting, she could tell he too hoped for the same outcome. Smiling, she leant forward and began to assist; after all, a lifetime of being the youngest of seven (and two of those being the twins) had taught her a few tricks.

-The 7th Child-

Dumbledore sat in his office, a vial of potion in front of him that would rejuvenate him like he'd had a full night's rest. Instead, planning had continued until just before dawn, followed by Severus setting up a potions schedule to recover 'what he could from the undoubtedly awful instruction she had received from one as undisciplined as Black'. Unusually, Sirius had barked out a laugh at the claim and agreed. Nothing drew men closer than plotting the murder of the same person, or so it appeared. Severus had only just left his office, clutching a vial of potion identical to the one that now sat in front of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore ran a hand over his face. Tonight had been troubling, especially with regards to Ginny and Sirius' revelation. He had not been anticipating an unknown variable, so his plans must change and account for this. This did not bother Dumbledore, as his plans changed often and in response to the situation around him. For example, the amount of information shared amongst his three confidantes was far more than he originally had planned to share with anyone at this stage. His amount of close allies had multiplied as well. Severus was meant to be his closest ally but Ginny and Sirius had proved invaluable. Their bond was pleasing to him as well. A subtle search through Sirius' mind had confirmed what he had suspected; he daren't search Ginny as her mind may be more aware of attacks after her harrowing experience.

Ginny… that girl had more raw power than Dumbledore had seen in years. Her lessons were progressing very well, and Dumbledore was glad for an additional tutor in the form of Severus. If she was fully trained by the time Tom returned, the more of a chance they had; the more of a chance Harry had. As Harry crossed his mind, Dumbledore let his head fall into his hands. If what he thought was true, then what he had been told tonight removed any hope of Harry surviving the coming war. That worried Dumbledore immensely. More avenues would have to be researched; this boy was not to die. Not unless there was no option left.

But that day is far away. Dumbledore's more pressing issue lay with Pettigrew and the plan. It was rather good but unfortunately the unknown variable changed things and the ripple effects needed to go the way Dumbledore wanted. Severus may have to be informed of these changes, mused Dumbledore, but not the others. Not yet.

Dumbledore sighed and downed his potion. He had work to do.