Christmas holidays were coming quickly, with the most incongruous pranks on Umbridge, all referring to her appearance of a toad, were multiplying. Once, she had been followed for hours by some toads and frogs drugged with a love potion. Since Luffy had seen Spade deliver a huge box to his brother, some times before, he had an idea on the identity of the culprit, once more.
"What will you do, for the holidays?" asked Hermione.
"I'm going back to Weatheria," answered Nami as she proofread some notes. "It's a mobile sky island specialized on meteorology. I learn a lot of things, and they have information about the islands of the Shin Sekai."
"And you, Luffy?" asked Parvati.
"Ji-chan is waiting for me on Ruskaïna. Shakky is going to give me a portkey at the station for me to go there. And you?"
"I think that Padma and I, we'll stay here. Things are bad at home right now, it may be for the best."
"I'm sorry to hear that," sympathized Harry.
Parvati shook her head.
"Don't apologize. Padma and I, we choose our side, that's all. And you, Hermione?"
"I'm going skying with my parents," answered Hermione.
"Skying?" repeated Ron.
"You tie two thin boards to your feet and you throw yourself from the top of a slope full of snow to slide. It's so popular that this sport has several ordeals in the Olympics Games," answered Nami in an absent voice.
"I don't know how to sky," mumbled Luffy.
"You don't know how to skate either."
...
"Reviewing?" huffed Smith during the last lesson of the D.A. before Christmas.
"Oh, we're sorry that Harry didn't warn you before, to keep you from coming," pointed out Fred at him, his voice full of sarcasm.
"Except that, you see, we have two pirates with a lack of action on this side, Smith, and that it's on them that you will review everything. And I'll give myself the pleasure to join you," pointed out Harry with a smile.
Luffy snickered as he let himself fall on the ground to stretch himself. Snape had given him some mercy, since it was the last day before Christmas, and he had decided that his last detention had been the day before. Nami smirked a little as she threw back her hair that were beginning to be long enough behind her shoulders, one hand on her hip, her wand in hand.
And the wild beast were released.
Vivi heard a disappointed sigh from Parvati that night.
"Something's wrong?" asked the blue haired girl.
"It seems that a Ravenclaw was faster than me," muttered the Indian girl as she watch Harry in a state of utter shock, as he came back late from the AD gathering.
"Chang, eh?"
"I think…"
Eyes shining, Parvati turned toward Vivi who was sitting in a corner of the room with Nami, both of them doing something on their own. She needed to think about something else than the new love life of the local Boy-Who-Live.
"What?"
"What about Luffy?"
Nami raised her head, surprised.
"What the matter with Luffy?"
"His love life! Is he the pirate we all imagine, with a long line of one night stand, or does he have someone in his life… maybe you, Nami…?"
"Don't say stupid things like that, Luffy is my captain. My nakama, almost a brother, nothing more" huffed the redhead. "I only like money and tangerines. Also, Luffy isn't anything like Sanji."
The two others shared a laugh trying to imagine Luffy with Sanji's behavior.
"And there are pirates that don't go with the one night stand," pointed out Nami. "Ace has a stable relationship."
"Really? With who?" wondered Vivi. "The Grey?"
"Nope. The who, is a secret whom I am not the master. But Ace is in a relationship with someone for a while already."
"Which would explain why anyone never succeeded in dragging him for a date for Valentine's Day," understood Parvati.
"You forget that we have a lot of Japanese traditions," rectified Vivi. "We don't celebrate Valentine's Day the same way. Our equivalent would rather take place during the day of Christmas. In February, the girls give chocolates to the boys. Be it bought for the family or friends, or handmade for the person they love. In March, during the White Day, boys must answer to the girls with a present three time the valor of the given chocolate."
Horns appeared on Nami's head who elbowed Vivi.
"Are you going to give handmade chocolate to Kozah?"
Vivi blushed bright red.
"What are you speaking about?" inquired Hermione as she walked away from the dorm where she was originally going.
"Well, I wanted to know about Luffy's love life, and we came to talk about the tradition for Valentine's Day on the side of the Grand Line," smiled Parvati. "And it seems that Vivi got a boyfriend."
"Kozah isn't my boyfriend!" huffed Vivi, even as her red face said the contrary. "He is a childhood friend!"
Nami let out a rather telling snicker.
"You are evil, Nami," smiled Hermione.
"I know. To answer your original question, Parvati, Luffy only like his family, his nakamas, adventures, and meat. The women don't even enter in his consideration. At least not yet. But I kind of understood that a particular Hebihime has quite the crush on this ahou gomu."
"Boa Hancock is in love with Luffy? How is that possible?" Choked Parvati.
"With Luffy, everything is possible," commented Vivi shrugging. "Speaking of Luffy, where is he?"
"Already went to bed. Sabo ambushed him on our way back to knock him out and make him sleep with him, to make sure that he got a good night of sleep," said Nami shrugging.
"Aren't they a little old to be sleeping together?" inquired Parvati.
"This isn't that which would keep them from doing it, believe me. Closer than those three, you won't find. Ace isn't here to keep an eye on Luffy? Sabo do it instead. It's also one of the reasons he can't wait to go back on the sea," commented Nami. "On the Sunny, there won't be any of his brothers to worry about him. He is independent, no one to smother him."
"I understand," noted Parvati.
"And he doesn't have an easy life, either. He has to work with the reputation of his oldest brother, Garp's and sometimes Dragon's. He has some trouble being seen as Luffy, just Luffy, and not the brother of Roger's son or the Marine's Hero's grandson, or yet, the son of the Leader of the Revolutionaries…"
"It's like Harry-san," pointed out Vivi. "Everybody only see him as the only boy to have survived the death spell, but forget who he is really. What he went through. He just is the Boy-Who-Lived. A reputation that makes forget the being behind the title."
Harry was still reeling from the shock of the vision he just had.
He was trying to put some order into his thoughts, leaning over a letter.
He wanted to write to Marco to tell him what had happened. He knew that he was the best person to speak to for this sort of things. Sirius didn't dare to be blunt. He just told him not to worry. But it wasn't what Harry wanted. He wanted some answers, explanations. Why did he get this vision? And he knew that Marco would certainly give them to him.
Mrs Weasley's scream warned him.
Quickly, everybody found themselves up the stairs, in front of the bedroom that Ron and Harry shared, to see Mrs Weasley, placated against a wall, a shaking wand throwing spells on…
"Shayna?" recognized Harry.
"Stop! Mom!" intervened George. "It's Shayna!"
"She is Sabo's snake!"
"You degenerate! You don't attack people like that! I swear!" huffed the snake as she straightened threateningly.
The scared shriek from Mrs Weasley showed that the message didn't go over well.
"Harry, you can speak to snakes, right?" asked Sirius. "Can you try to..."
Harry hesitated. He knew that it made almost everybody uncomfortable when he spoke Parseltongue. But seeing a cutting curse thrown not far from the reptile made him act. It couldn't be too bad…
"Shayna, come toward us. I'll try to find you some mouse."
Shayna turned toward Harry and slid graciously toward him. Fred put himself between the snake and their mother, just the time for the female to slid around Harry's arm, to finally end on his shoulders. Ginny looked with worried eyes the snake, probably remembering the Basilisk.
"How did you come to be here?" asked Harry to the snake as he went to search for a place where he was sure he had seen a mouse hole.
"Your suitcase. This mentally unstable person opened it and took some clothes out, pulling me away from my nest. She began to scream and attack me. You know the rest."
Shayna brusquely straightened, her head turned toward the living room's door.
"What is it?" inquired Sirius as he joined with them.
"I don't know. She explained to me how she came to be here, and then she stared silently toward the living room."
"How did she end up here?"
"By my suitcase. Sabo entrust his snake to Luffy, usually, so, she always is in the dorm when she isn't around his neck. She must have slid in my case when trying to escape Crookshanks probably. Since she can't attack him if he chases her, she must hide..."
"There is something strange in this room," commented Shayna.
Before Harry could say anything, Tonks and Mad-Eye arrived, with a blond young woman that Harry remembered having seen at the Quidditch World Cup.
"Cool the snake, Harry!" smiled Tonks as she looked at the reptile.
"It's dangerous, it could spy on us for Voldemort's sake," muttered Mad-Eye, "We have to kill it."
Harry tightened his grip around Shayna in a protective hug.
Sabo would kill him or even, skin him alive if something happened to his petsnake.
"She is Sabo's, there is no risk," commented Sirius. "You know, the young man who took professor Fushisho's place as a teacher."
"Ah, this good old professor Fushisho..." sighed Tonks. "He was a good teacher… How is his substitute?"
"He left school last year. He is cool and nice. Not a hassle at all."
Harry was sure that the blond's lips had twitched.
"Oh, we forgot the presentations… Koala, this is Harry Potter. Harry, this is Koala Sun, from Salem."
"Nice to meet you," greeted Harry.
"Same," assured Koala shaking his hand.
"I'm going to see Molly, she got a serious scare when she discovered the snake."
The adults followed Sirius, leaving Koala with Harry and the snake.
Once alone, Shayna slid on the ground and climbed around Koala's leg who stroked her head.
"How did you end up here, eh? Sabo will be worried sick to see you absent. It isn't as if he already almost killed Hack the last time he made a prank using your dead skin…" smiled the young woman.
She took the snake and held her back to Harry.
"She seems attached to you, I trust you with her. And you will have more chance to see my dear colleague than me."
"What is a woman like you doing here?"
The smile on the young woman's face widened. Harry was careful, he hadn't said the word revolution and he was talking in a low voice. And he had waited for her to speak first, before asking any question.
"I thank you for not saying what my true affiliation is. And let's simply say that the way of thoughts of my boss will always stay a mystery to me. How is Luffy-kun?"
"You know him?"
"Not personally. But Sabo speak all day long of his brothers to those he trusts. And I am lucky to have that trust."
Koala opened the door of the living room and entered.
"He is alright.
"I'm not asking physically. I mean mentally. I saw a memory from Ivankov, on the war. I saw the conflict and I wouldn't be surprised if he was quite marked by it. Traumatized."
"He has a hard time sleeping. Shayna says that he has a lot of nightmares. By any chance, you know how he got injured?"
Koala had just opened a glass door and turned toward Harry.
"Luffy has a huge scar on his chest… he didn't tell anyone how he got it, and since you have access to more information than me..."
"I see. You know who Akainu is?"
"An admiral, a magma man, I think."
"You're right, if you think about what he was during the facts. Today, he is fleet admiral. I saw in Ivankov's memory that when Ace-san fell and we believed him dead, Luffy's spirit broke and he wasn't answering to anything anymore. Everybody passed the message to get him out of there, make sure that he would survive. During the escape, he was in Jimbei-ji-san's arms. Akainu attacked them. Jimbei-ji-san took most of the damages, but Luffy was touched by the fist, still. Probably the why to the injury. A little more, and the fist would have passed through him, like for Ace-san."
Koala turned back toward the display case and took the locket they had failed to open during the summer.
"Can I ask you a favor?"
"What is it?" asked Harry as he watched curiously Shayna hiss worriedly in front of the locket.
"Pass this to Sabo. He will know what to do about it. Don't let ANYBODY see it, but don't keep it close to you for too long."
Harry took the locket and put it in his pocket.
"Shayna, if I forget, can you remind me?" asked Harry.
"Pass the locket to the servant? No problem."
"Why do you call him a 'servant'?"
"To remind him that he isn't a noble. He can recognize some of my hisses."
"I find it fascinating," smiled Koala. "To talk to snake… Sabo would give his left arm to be able to speak with Shayna."
Harry was going to answer her when Mrs Weasley found him.
"Harry dear, we're going to see Arthur, maybe you should prepare yourself. I took some clothes out for you."
She threw an uncertain glance toward the snake who glared at her.
"Attack me again and I'll introduce you to my mother..." threatened Shayna.
"I'm going right now," assured Harry.
"It isn't very prudent to keep this snake on you, Harry dear."
"I don't see how? Sabo gave her for mission to defend Luffy, and she does a super good job. We share some jokes, in the dorms. She has several stories and a good sense of humor! Nothing worrying. She isn't mean so long as you don't attack her."
"He is right!" said the twins a little further away in the corridor.
Harry took the snake with him to go pick his clothes, trying to ignore Koala who was fighting her laughter.
"Your mother is big?"
"Oh yes, very big..." assured Shayna proudly.
"Like a Basilisk?"
"More than a Basilisk."
Harry shivered. He didn't want to meet her.
"How is it that you are so small then?"
"Because I am still young, and because I don't live on Skypea. There, the animals and the plants are enormous."
"I never want to meet your mother..."
"Luffy met her! He even passed some time in her stomach."
"How did he come back out of it alive?"
"Luffy is impossible to kill."
You can say that again.
Harry entered in his bedroom to see that Ron wasn't there. He took out of his pocket the locket and slid it in his suitcase, before grabbing his things, leaving Shayna there.
...
Shayna had listened to the humans talk, and had easily guessed Harry's fears.
Possession.
To find a denden hadn't been easy. She had to leave Grimmaud Square and adventure in London, to Shakky's home. Since the woman wasn't here, the snake had allowed herself to steal her denden (well, to swallow it for the trip).
Which explained why Harry was staring, at this moment, a denden dirty from the stomach acid and spit utterly traumatized and hidden in his shell.
"It's a denden mushi. It's like a phone!" Shayna told him happily.
"And? What do I do with it? Where did you find it?"
"I stole it from Shakky."
If she had had shoulders, she would have shrugged as if to say, 'so what?'.
"But what do you want me to do with it? He seems traumatized your snail."
A knock on the door made him jump.
Hermione passed her head in the room.
"Hello Harry!"
"Hermione?! But..."
"No, I didn't go skiing, I don't like it, but don't tell Ron that… Oh, Shayna!"
"Since you decided to stay locked up here, ask her to bring some salad leaf and to muzzle her cat."
"Shayna would like you to do something about Crookshank and to bring her a leaf of salad."
Hermione looked at Harry septic, then the snake.
"There's a link between the two?" asked Hermione.
"I doubt it, I'm just repeating."
"What does she have against Crookshank?
"It's because of him she found herself in my suitcase, and so here."
Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"I'll try. I'm going to pick the salad. You don't want to come down a little, Harry? Everyone is worried about you. They told me what happened at St Mungo..."
The closed expression on the Boy-who-lived's face gave to Hermione her answer. With a sigh, she left the room and came back a little later with some salad. She entered and closed the door, giving the leaf to Shayna.
"I don't eat this sort of thing, me. It's for the denden mushi."
Harry took the leaf and presented it to the snail phone.
"Oh, so this is a denden mushi!" said Hermione seeing the animal slowly come out of its shell.
"Shayna took it from Shakky."
"We'll have to give it back to her, then."
"I'll ask Hedwige to bring it back."
Finally, the snail came out and happily ate the leaf.
"There, now you will enter the number I'm going to give you."
"Who's number?"
"Ace's. I don't know the one of the ship, so we will do with the closest."
"Something is wrong?" asked Hermione seeing the puzzled expression of his friend.
"She wants us to call Ace."
"What for?"
"No idea."
They weren't able to say anything more, since when she saw the lack of cooperation of the Boy-Who-Lived, Shayna raised her tail and composed herself the number, after having picked up the receiver.
"Shayna! We don't bother people like this!" protested Hermione.
The serpent stuck her tongue at her and came back to the denden which was ringing, ringing and ringing…
"Portgas D. Ace."
Shayna began to hiss in the denden… who raised his eyebrow. It was a typical Ace expression. His way to express his perplexity.
"Mmm. So ka. Konnichiwa Hermione, Harry and Shayna."
"Konnichiwa, Ace. You understood what Shayna said?" said Hermione, curious.
Ace smirked. Well, the denden smirked in a very Ace way.
"I have more than one talent. Shayna told me that you needed to speak with Marco?"
"She decided it all on her own. She is the strangest snake that must exist in this world," commented Harry.
"She is from the Grand Line. If she wants you to speak with Marco, then there must be a reason. I'm going to bring him here, don't move."
Harry sighed and pinch his nose. The situation was more than surreal. Hermione gave him a sympathetic smile, before the voice of their old professor reasoned in the denden.
"Hello to you two, and hello to you too, Shayna."
Shayna just hissed happily in the transponder.
Harry preferred to ignore the fact that the snake had just called Marco 'roast juicy aggressive chicken'.
"Hello to you too, professor," greeted the two Gryffindors.
"We are sorry to bother you," said Harry, embarrassed.
"You don't bother me. We are anchored, and I was actually searching an excuse to avoid Cassandra, yoi."
A woman's voice could be heard yelling something in the back.
"Anyway. Ace told me that Shayna took some initiatives, so?"
"Yes."
"Does this have something to do with the attack on Arthur Weasley by Nagini, yoi?"
"How do you know about that?" asked Harry.
"Nagini?" repeated Hermione.
"Nagini is the name of Voldemort's snake. As for my source of information, it's Fawkes, yoi. Between phoenix, we understand each-other..."
Hermione elbowed Harry, gesturing toward the snail with her head, blind to the pain she had cause to her friend.
"Don't bully eachother or I'll accuse you of acting like an old married couple, yoi." warned Marco, amused.
"With Harry? Got something else! Anyway, he already got someone for now… right?"
Harry blushed bright red, making laugh Marco.
"It's good to see that even with the situation, you can have enough spirit to tease each-other like this! Anyway, what happened for Shayna to decide that you should call me, yoi?"
Hermione threw a glare toward Harry who sighed.
"It's alright Hermione… There, you see, professor..."
"Call me Marco, I'm not your professor anymore, yoi."
"Marco-san, this is a good compromise?" asked Hermione.
"Acceptable. I'm listening Harry."
"Fawkes told you about the vision?"
"Not in detail. He told me that you saw Mr Weasley being attacked by a huge snake."
"I… I saw that as if I was the snake… as if it was me who was doing this… and… and I overheard a conversation, the other day..."
"Mister got into his head that he was possessed," completed Hermione.
Marco sighed deeply.
"Do you remember the conversation we had just before the last task, last year, Harry?" asked Marco.
"When?" inquired Harry.
"You came to see me after a vision which involved Pettigrew and Voldemort. It was after this that you went to the infirmary."
"I don't remember."
"I thought so, yoi."
"Why?" asked Hermione.
"Smoker was in the Infirmary that night. He was keeping an eye on Ace, yoi. He saw Dumbledore show up and throw a spell at Harry, in his sleep. Seeing that the next day, Ace signaled me that our local Boy-Who-Lived complained about some blank in his memory, I immediately made the connection. I suspected that it was about this, but I wasn't sure, yoi. Hermione, you still have the envelop?"
"Yes…"
"Harry, I want you to open this envelop when Fudge stop burying his head in the sand, alright? There is an important memory inside."
"Well, yes, I promise Marco-san."
"And don't tell anyone about it, other than Sabo or Luffy and even then… Most of all not Dumbledore, yoi. Hermione, it goes for you too. Harry will need your support and you are the only one smart enough to give it to him."
"Alright," said both teens.
"To come back to your vision… You're not possessed. It's more complex than this and much more darker."
Hermione gulped.
"What is it, is an insult to Mother Nature herself, yoi. It turns out that to make sure to not die, Voldemort accomplished an act which made him lose his humanity. He did it several times, yoi. Ace retold me what happened at the graveyard and he noted something strange with Nagini which make me say this… Voldemort put a part of himself, in his snake."
"A part of himself?" wondered Harry.
"A piece of his soul."
"What?!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Don't even search in the Reserve, you won't find anything, yoi. And it is much better this way. The fact is that the night of the attack, Voldemort must have been inside Nagini, via this piece of his soul. And the link there is between you made it that you were taken by mistake in the process, yoi. You're not possessed."
Harry let out a relieved sigh.
"However,… you still practice the Occlumancy that Robin though you?"
"Yes. She tests me at each meeting. She told me she would do it. And Snape himself congratulated me on having actually done something right for once."
"I doubt it will help you, but continue. I want you to promise me something, Harry. That you won't believe your visions as long as you don't have a true confirmation. Give your trust only to those who proved that you didn't risk anything by doing so, yoi."
"The logic would be to give his trust to a pirate, then," smiled Hermione.
Marco chuckled.
"If the pirate's name is Luffy, there is no risk, yoi. However, I learned that you have Umbridge."
"This woman is a shrew added to being a harpy. Fortunately, Luffy didn't assist at Hagrid's inspection, or he would have had troubles."
The denden nodded.
"Be careful. Harry, keep this denden. And expect a visit from Spades."
"I'm alright with this, but it is Shakky-san's."
"I'll give her a new one. Be careful. Keep a wall in your back and wands in your hand."
They shared some other news, before hanging up.
"Better?" asked Shayna.
"Yes, thank you."
Shayna hissed happily and went to slid under Harry's shirt.
Harry took the denden and put it on the bedside.
When Christmas came, he could see the puzzled expression on Sirius' face as he was given a denden too, and Hermione took great pleasure to explain to him how it worked.
In the end, the break was good, even if short, more so knowing that Umbridge was expecting them at the start of school. Snape's visit still left Harry puzzled. Why did Dumbledore insist on Harry taking Occlumancy lesson, when Snape had already told him that the boy had a good level? A lot of things escaped him, truly.
...
"Hello Luffy," greeted Sabo as he welcomed his brother in the hall, after Ace had apparated him to the village.
"Hey! Sabo!" grinned Luffy.
"How are you?"
"Good!"
Sabo frowned slightly.
"I repeat my question. How are you?"
Luffy sighed and gave a serene smile to his brother.
"Better."
Sabo examined from head to toe. Luffy seemed more relaxed, serene and less tired. He really looked better.
"Hello!"
The two brothers smiled to Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys who had just arrived. And surprise…
"My favorite servant!"
"Shayna? What are you doing with her, Harry?"
"She slid into my suitcase to escape Crookshanks, and didn't have time to come out before I went to the Burrow."
Shayna rose up hissing happily at seeing Sabo. Harry gave her back to her master who put her around his neck.
"Do you have some free time today? There is something I wanted to talk about with you..." said Harry gathering his courage.
"Yes." assured Sabo.
"I have to put my things away first, though."
Sabo raised a puzzled eyebrow.
"I am in Marco's old office; you know where to find me. Shayna, are you alright with resuming your role as Luffy's bodyguard?"
Seeing the way the female curled up against his neck, the answer was visibly a no. With a sigh, he walked away.
"What do you want to talk about with my Nii-chan?" asked Luffy.
"Something."
"So ka."
"But what?" insisted Ron.
"If Harry didn't give any details..." sighed Fred.
"…it's maybe because it is private!" completed George.
"Learn to respect people's private life, Ron," scolded Hermione.
"It's obvious that you're back..."
The group looked the staircase where Sabo had disappeared to see Parvati show up.
"You had a good break?" asked the young teenager girl.
"Good and you?" asked Ginny. "Thank you again for the present."
"The color of the sari is beautiful," approved Hermione.
"I wasn't sure you would like it."
For all answer, Fred grabbed Harry from behind, making him shriek, and George opened his coat, showing an orange scarf that turned to the dark red at the ends.
"I think that it answers your question!" mocked the twins.
Parvati let out an embarrassed giggle, while Harry blushed like a tomato.
"Maybe we should go, Harry still has his appointment with Sabo," pointed out Ginny as she threw a glare toward Parvati who didn't see it.
...
Removing the locket from his suitcase without Ron seeing it was hard to do. Luffy had seen it and inquired. The simple fact he told him that it was for this that he wanted to see Sabo the only thing that made Luffy not take it from his hands.
"That thing is dangerous."
Harry suspected so, seeing the place where it was found.
He put it on Sabo's desk who raised his eyebrows high seeing it. Robin, present at this moment, took it in her hand and examined it.
"I saw your colleague Koala. She asked me to give this to you," explained Harry.
"I see… How did you find something like this?"
"Cleaning."
Sabo watched him dumbstruck.
"I know this item," stated Robin after a while.
The two men looked at her while she put back the heavy trinket on the desk.
"This is Salazar Slytherin's locket. It was given to his descendant at his death..."
"Koala was at the HQ of the Order of the Phoenix, from what I know of her mission," pointed out Sabo, pondering. "What are the details you can give me on the place, without the Fidelius interfering?"
Harry wasn't even surprised that Sabo knew so much.
"It is Sirius' family house."
"The Black are an old pure blood family, but none are descendant of Slytherin," pointed Robin. "How did the locket ended up there?"
Sabo took the object and made it spin absently between his fingers.
"He has some Death Eaters in the family," said Harry.
"Hmmm… true. Regulus Black is to be considered, without mentioning Bellatrix Lestrange… If it had been on Malfoy's side, we would have found it for a while already," muttered Sabo.
"How so?"
"I was obligated to report the incident of the Chamber of Secrets, and Lucius Malfoy's implication in it made so that his house was searched in depth, without him knowing. We found some creepy things, but no others Horcruxes."
"Horcruxe?"
"It is the name given to those horror to nature itself. The fact is that Malfoy hid the diary in his house all those years. He would have done the same with this locket. Or even, more, seeing the historical value of this trinket."
Sabo put it down on the desk and rubbed the scar on his eye, sign that Harry had learned to associate with the fact that his brain was working fast.
"Am I the only one seeing a link?" asked Robin.
"How so?"
"The diary was a way to prove he was Slytherin's heir. This was something of Slytherin. We also saw what happened to the Raveclaw's Diadem."
"He is searching for object that have a link with Hogwarts and his founders?!" understood Harry.
"I think so, yes."
"Gryffindor's sword is in Dumbledore's office. The goblins are giving him a headache asking him to give it back, but he is playing deaf," muttered Sabo. "There is still an object of Hufflepuf to find to confirm the theory."
"A cup, if I remember right, I need to check," pointed Robin.
"I had Marco-san on the phone during the break," pointed Harry.
"How?" wondered Robin.
"Shayna stole this from Shakky-san."
Harry put the denden down on Sabo's desk, which made the blond laugh.
"So this is why she has a new denden, then!" cracked up the blond.
"And what did Fushisho-san wanted?" inquired Robin with a smirk.
"It's more Shayna that took an initiative..."
"She does that from time to time." explained the blond.
Sabo patted the mentioned miss as he said that.
"Yes, rub my back!"
Harry though that this snake was the closest to a cat's capacity to purr.
"We came to discuss the case of Voldemort's snake… Nagini."
Sabo opened wide eyes and shared a glance with Robin.
"This reinforced his link to Slytherin, and would explain the care he gives to her," though Robin.
"How many did he made this bastard?! How many are there still, shit!" Sabo got mad as he hit the table with his fist. "We at least know why he doesn't look anything like a human anymore."
"He maximized the murders," pointed Robin with a dark amusement.
"You're gory."
Harry was watching them without understanding. With a sigh, Sabo explained to him:
"A horcruxe consist of ripping apart a part of his soul, and lock it into an object. But to rip it in the first place, you need to kill someone in cold blood and take satisfaction, joy or pleasure from it. Which is the why to Robin's comment."
"Seeing the quantity of people he killed, he could have done several hundreds of them, if not thousands..." moaned Harry. "He could have made the snakes of all the country into Hocruxes..."
"No, Harry. Believe me, you don't want a piece of your soul moving around, out of your sigh. Plus, a snake doesn't have a long live expectancy, other than some found on the Grand Line, like Shayna's specie or those raised by the Kuja. If the snake dies, Snake Face lose a piece of his soul. He must have made Nagini into a Horcruxe as a last resort."
Harry sighed in relief, before remembering something that made him pale suddenly. Someone had made the comment that something in him was similar to Voldemort and Riddle's diary… He raised his eyes to see Sabo, who must have understood.
"Sorry Harry, it is the case..."
Sabo's voice was soft and pained.
Harry took his head in his hands. It wasn't a link he had with Voldemort. It was a piece of his soul. He was a fucking Horcruxe.
He was helping his own enemy to stay alive.
"Harry…"
Sabo and Robin had crouched down in front of him, worried. But the boy wasn't like they were excepting him to be. He wasn't on the brink of despair.
No.
Harry James Potter wasn't distressed.
He was fulminating with rage.
"Dumbledore knows it?" demanded Harry trying to stay master of himself.
Robin nodded.
"There… there is a procedure, which allow during the first days to transfer to another item a Hocruxe," explained Sabo. "This process must be done in the three months following the act. The last container doesn't need to be destroyed and stay without damage. Dumbledore know of this process..."
"This… this man… left me at the Dursley's with a Hocruxe in my head and didn't do anything to take it out?!"
Oh yes, he really was bubbling with rage…
"Harry, look at me."
Harry looked at Sabo who put his hands on his shoulders.
"I have colleagues who are searching all the libraries of the world to find a max of information to get you out of this. But don't let anger take the better of you. Use it as a weapon, and not the contrary. Dumbledore left you in deep shit? Right. Well use this anger to take revenge on him. It can seem very Slytherin what I ask you, but we all have some part of us like this. Manipulate him, and beat him at his own game. But don't let him know that you have those information."
Harry breathed deeply.
"I should have listened to the Sorting Hat and go to Slytherin," commented Harry.
"We are on your side," Robin assured him as she held his arm softly.
Harry gave them a smile of thanks.
"Nothing tells us that Snake Face made you into a Hocruxe willingly, or even that he knows it. If he realizes it, he'll be obligated to keep you alive, but you will find yourself under his power, which isn't the best option. But you can use this connection to manipulate him. Don't be Dumbledore or Voldemort's puppet. You have the right to make your own choice."
"I'll be the puppeteer," promised Harry.
"Maybe we should introduce you to Doflamingo," giggled Robin.
They continued to chat for a while still. And the more the minutes passed, the more Harry felt determined.
He suspected that he would have to die to totally kill Voldemort as he left Sabo's office. But they had assured him that even if he kept Voldemort alive, he could never have a true body because of him. He had only came out of it alive because of Nagini's venom, a Hocruxe. The same ritual wouldn't work twice without the snake present. He would have to find another Quirrel to find back a body.
As he came to the tower, Harry had one main objective, other than revenge.
To protect his mind from Voldemort. To protect the information in his mind, from Voldemort.
"I know a method."
Harry turned around to see Luffy, kneeling on the couch, arms crossed on the backrest, watching him.
"Of?"
"Your posture and look."
"What does it have?"
"You're determined. Like someone who prepare himself to a fight and is determined to win. Just with this, I guess what you talked with Sabo."
"You knew?"
Luffy shrugged.
"If you have a way to tell your twelve years old best friend, that he is doomed to die, tell me."
Harry shook his head and walked toward Luffy.
"You have a method for what?"
"To protect yourself from Snake Face. Legilimancy isn't the only thing that allow you to read minds. Other methods exist, and for some Haoshoku doesn't help."
"Your point?"
"It is the technique that Rayleigh named One-track Mind"
Harry looked at Luffy, puzzled.
"You think about one thing. Always and always the same thing. All the time. You turn all your thoughts on it and fixated it with magic on the first level of your mind. It's like making a shield with natural magic, but in your mind. And it is behind it that you hide your brain and what happen inside."
"You could teach me?"
Luffy smirked at him.
"It doesn't cost anything to try."
And they shared a handshake.
"Oh, you're back, Harry," noted Hermione as she entered with Parvati.
"The discussion I had with Sabo took more time than what I had envisioned, but was instructive.
"Look like it, yes..."
"You seem… different," noted Parvati.
Before Harry could answer, a redhead rocket threw herself at Luffy, making him fall on the sofa.
"I am happy to see you too, Nami, but why did you throw yourself at me like that?" asked Luffy who had his members in quite a number of knots.
"You have your mugiwara boshi on your head! It is what I was waiting to see since the start of the school year!"
"Oh?"
Luffy straightened and pulled his straw hat off his head to look at it.
"Should we except you on the front page?" asked Hermione with a smirk.
"Shihihihi! Only when my men are ready."
"You just have to say the word, Luffy, and I'll lead us to Raftell," Nami told him seriously.
"We'll see at the end of the year. Let's take our time, we still have classes..."
"Wow, Luffy who worries about classes…" said Harry trying not to laugh.
"I would say that pig are soon to fly, but we are at Hogwarts," giggled Hermione.
Parvati laughed leaning on her shoulder, soon followed by the two pirates.
Harry swiped a tear of laughter.
Having a part of Voldemort's soul wasn't important. Life didn't stop because of this.