Harry apperated into a beautiful sunlit atrium and was immediately greeted by two soft pops. Two house elves greeted him warily. The larger elf spoke first with a bit of warning to his voice.
"Who may Steinig ask is calling?"
"Harry Potter."
The smaller elf spoke up, "Brillare knews it! Steinig, he looks-it just likey Master James with eyes of Mistress Lily!"
"Not so fast, Brillare!" Turning to Harry, Steinig asked, "How does Steinig know this wizard is who he says he is? It could be a trick to enter our Master's home!"
Exhausted, exasperated, and feeling a bit pressed for time, Harry rudely lifted his hair, bent over close to Steinig, and shoved his scar in the elf's face. In a cold whisper, Harry breathed, "Does this do it for you?"
"Master Harry! Steinig is most sorry! Steinig is most aggrieved! Steinig was only looking out for Master Harry's…"
"STOP!" Harry shouted. Then, holding up his hands to them, he said a little less aggressively, "Just… stop." The elves just stopped. After a few moments pause, Harry spoke again.
"Listen. Steinig, is it? Steinig, I want you go right now to the houses in Salon-de-Provence and Castellabate. I have guests that should be arriving there soon. I want you to tell the elves at those homes three things. First, that I order them to remove any reference to the Potter, Peverell, or Black families from the home. That includes tapestries, old pictures, letters, books, anything at all. Second, that I forbid them from revealing to the guests or anyone else that I own the home or that I am their master. Finally, that they are to treat the guests as they would treat me and that they are to listen to and follow the guests' orders as they would mine, EXCEPT they may never reveal who their master is or who owns the property. Understood?"
With a deep bow, Steinig replied, "Steinig understands perfectly, Master Harry!"
"Great, when you're done that, visit my elves at the other homes and tell them that I also forbid them from revealing to anyone that I own the home or that I am their master. I don't expect any guests at the other homes, but I would like all of my elves to follow this rule until I tell them otherwise. Understood?"
With another deep bow, Steinig replied, "Understood, Master Harry!"
"How long do you think all that will take you?" Harry asked.
"Steinig believes this should take him no more than two hours, Master."
"Great, get going, and thanks Steinig!"
With a final bow, Steinig disappeared with a pop.
Turning to the smaller elf, Harry said, "Brillare. It's Brillare, right? Um, Brillare, I'm awfully hungry. Could you make some lunch? And bring me a bottle of firewhiskey and a glass."
"Of course, Master Harry!" Brillare said as she too disappeared with a pop.
After returning to the conference room table, Hermione started, "Kingsley, answering your question of why Voldemort had Professor Dumbledore's wand is very complicated and will take quite awhile. Do you have time to hear it?"
"If I'm about to hear what I think I am, I will make the time." Kingsley replied, and everyone else murmured agreement with Kingsley's statement. They all believed they would finally learn what Ron, Hermione, and Harry had been up to for the past year and they weren't disappointed.
"As all of you know, Dumbledore left Harry a mission before he died and we, Ron and I, were to accompany him on the mission. However, to tell the full story of the mission properly, I guess we should start with the prophesy about Harry.
"At the end of our fifth year, we invaded the Ministry of Magic to rescue Sirius because Harry believed Sirius was being held captive there by Voldemort. While in the Department of Mysteries, we discovered a prophesy about Harry and Voldemort. It said 'neither could live while the other survives', so Harry knew at the end of our fifth year that he would have to be the one to kill or be killed by Voldemort."
"But…" Neville chimed in, despite everyone trying to shush him. "No, no, hold on! The prophesy was smashed. I saw it happen. No one knows what it said."
"Actually, that's not true, Neville. Professor Trewlawney made the prophesy to Professor Dumbledore shortly before Harry was born. Dumbledore used his pensieve to show Harry his memory of Cybil making it at the end of our fifth year, after the Ministry break-in. It said that there was to be a wizard born at the end of the seventh month to parents that had escaped Voldemort three times. It also said that Voldemort would mark the child as his equal, but that the child would have some sort of power that Voldemort wasn't aware of, and that 'neither could live while the other survives'."
All were quiet until Neville's grandmother spoke up, "So Neville could have been Harry Potter? Why didn't Voldemort go after Neville?"
"I don't know. For some reason, Voldemort thought the prophesy referred to Harry and went after him instead, marking Harry his equal," said Hermione as she tapped her forehead where Harry's scar would be.
"Dumbledore had for many years been collecting information on Voldemort. During our sixth year, he and Harry discovered that Voldemort made Horcruxes. Horcruxes, for those of you who don't know, are objects that are magically enchanted to hold a piece of one's soul. To make a Horcrux, one would take an ordinary, everyday object, like a diary, or a ring, or a cup, enchant it, and then split one's soul. To split your soul, you need to murder someone, which tears the soul. Then, you place that piece into the magically enchanted object. They learned Voldemort split his soul into seven pieces. One piece was in his recreated body and with the other six pieces of his soul he made Horcruxes. Voldemort then protected his Horcruxes with nasty dark magic, so not only did Harry, Ron and I need to find the Horcruxes themselves, but we also needed to find powerful enough magical objects that we could use to destroy them."
"What did you use to destroy them?" asked Bill.
"Well, fiendfyre destroyed one, while basilisk fangs and the Sword of Gryffindor were used to destroy others. The sword had been imbued with basilisk venom when Harry used it to kill Voldemort's basilisk in our second year."
"When he saved my life," whispered Ginny. Ron nodded to Ginny with a look of sorrow and empathy.
"Our mission last year started as a hunt to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes. That way, when Harry finally confronted Voldemort, it would just be mano a mano, so to speak. Harry had already destroyed the first Horcrux, Tom Riddle's diary, in our second year and Dumbledore destroyed the second Horcrux, Marvolo Gaunt's ring, during the summer between our fifth and sixth years."
"Wait, who's Marvolo Gaunt?" Bill asked.
"Voldemort's grandfather. To make a very long story somewhat shorter, the other four Horcruxes were the Locket of Slythern, for which we had to break into the Ministry and steal back from Dolores Umbridge, Hufflepuff's Cup, for which we had to break into Gringotts, Ravenclaw's Diadem, for which Harry had to search Hogwarts before and during the battle, and Voldemort's snake, Nagini, which Neville killed."
"So where does Dumbledore's wand come in?" asked Kingsley.
Hermione paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Well, halfway through our mission, it sort of… diverged into two missions. We found ourselves at a crossroads - finding the Horcruxes versus finding the Deathly Hallows."
"What are the Deathly Hallows?" Percy asked.
"Er, how do I explain this," Hermione replied reflectively, more to herself than everyone else. "I'm sure you all have heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and the story of the three brothers who cheated death?" Everyone nodded or murmured that they had.
"Good, because the story of the three brothers is true."
Several of the Weasley men snorted or barked out a laugh and expressed their disbelief. However, Hermione's resolute expression never wavered.
"What? You can't be serious!" Charlie shouted.
Hermione nodded to Charlie.
"It's true! My father told me all about them!" Luna said dreamily, but coming from Luna it was hardly a ringing endorsement of the story.
"Some of you know about Harry's invisibility cloak; his ancient, perfect, always infallible invisibility cloak? Well, it turns out that Harry is descended from Ignotus Peverell, who, amongst long-time advocates of the Deathly Hallows, is widely believed to be one of the three brothers in the story. If you recall the story, the cloak of invisibility is one of the three Hallows. The other two are the unbeatable Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone, which brings your loved ones back from the dead. According to the legend, the possessor of all three Hallows becomes the master of death.
"Dumbledore's wand was the invincible Elder Wand. Riddle stole it thinking it would make him unbeatable when he finally faced Harry. Marvolo Gaunt's ring was the third Hallow. Well, not the ring but the stone it contained was the Resurrection Stone."
"We never actually saw the stone after Dumbledore died, but in his will he left Harry the snitch he caught in his first ever quidditch match. We believe the Resurrection Stone was hidden in the snitch, but we never did figure out how to open it. Dumbledore had charmed the snitch. The only thing we learned was that when Harry pressed the snitch to his mouth, the words 'I open at the close' appeared on it.
"I thought you said Marvolo Gaunt's ring was one of the Horcruxes," Bill noted.
"It was both. The stone in the ring was the Resurrection Stone, but Voldemort apparently wasn't aware of the Deathly Hallows because he turned his grandfather's ring into a Horcrux. When Dumbledore discovered the ring, he was so excited to have found the third Hallow that he put it on his finger, forgetting all about the fact that it was also a cursed Horcrux. Do you remember how blackened and dead his hand was before he died? That was the curse.
"Dumbledore destroyed the Horcrux, but it was too late to avoid the curse. Dumbledore was going to die anyway, so he and Snape planned to have Snape kill him. That way, Snape would be the owner of the Elder Wand and would be able to keep it away from Voldemort. However, Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower before Snape had a chance to kill him and the Elder Wand gave its allegiance to Malfoy. Then, when Harry disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor, the Elder Wand's allegiance shifted to Harry. That's why Voldemort couldn't defeat Harry even with the Elder Wand."
Hermione finally ended her story and waited for more questions from the gathering. Finally, Kingsley spoke up.
"I do have one correction to make to your story, Hermione. Riddle didn't split his soul into seven pieces. Actually, Riddle split his soul seven times, meaning he didn't have seven pieces of soul lying around, but eight. There were seven Horcruxes made, not six."
"So, Voldemort's… he not dead?" Molly asked nervously.
"Yes, I'm reasonably certain that Voldemort is, in fact, gone." Kingsley replied.
"What d'you mean, there were seven Horcruxes?" Ron demanded.
Kingsley took a deep breath. "After I left Harry this morning, I went to Hogwarts, as you know. When I first got there, I met Professor… er, now Headmistress McGonagall in her office. She showed me Professor Snape's memories that Harry had apparently left in the pensieve two nights ago. They showed that Dumbledore and Snape knew there was one additional Horcrux. That seventh Horcrux was Harry himself."
"So, as long as Harry is alive, Voldemort is still alive?" Percy asked.
"I believe not. Let me read to all of you the letter my secretary gave me several minutes ago." Kingsley removed the letter from his robes and began to read aloud, all except the first sentence of the letter and the third paragraph. As not everyone in his office had had the opportunity to read Harry's letter, Kingsley felt it more prudent to exclude these references for now.
Dear Mr. Minister,
As I am sure you are aware by now our Mr. Potter has taken off to parts unknown, but I figured you ought to know of the treatment I provided to him. As requested, I have cleaned and repaired all of Harry's wounds and bruises. All of his wounds required standard treatment, save one.
I don't know whether Mr. Potter informed you already, but it appears that while Harry is 'The Saviour of the Wizarding World', he is no longer 'The Boy Who Lived'. No, he is now 'The Boy Who Lived… Twice'. Apparently, at some point during the battle two nights ago, Mr. Potter had again been hit with the killing curse, and has again survived. He had a gash in the shape of a lightning bolt on his chest, over his heart, which matched the scar on his forehead, only larger, and which would not heal by conventional spells or potions. When confronted about the wound, Harry admitted to having taken the curse once again.
The wound requires several treatments of a salve I developed, but our Heads-Up-Harry stole the tub containing the salve, along with a stack of bandages, when he left.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Yours Truly,
Athentina McSorely, Chief Healer
St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies
After reading the letter, Kingsley shared his thoughts. "I think that during the break in the battle Harry learned that he was the final Horcrux. I believe he went into the Forbidden Forest to face Voldemort and have him kill him to destroy the Horcrux within."
"He sacrificed his own life, or at least tried to, so that the rest of us could finally defeat Voldemort," Arthur stated quietly.
"I believe so, Arthur, yes." Kingsley replied.
"I tend to agree with you, Minister. It all fits." Hermione commented quietly.
"SO. WHERE. IS. HE?" Ginny demanded. It was evident to everyone that Ginny was becoming a bit unhinged.
Kingsley turned to the Weasley matriarch. "Molly, perhaps it's time to share Harry's letter. There's something in there for everyone, I think."
Molly uncrumpled the letter she held in her fist and handed it to Bill. When he finished reading, he passed the letter to Fleur.
"Bill?" Ginny pleaded.
"I'm sorry Ginny, but he's gone… left the wizarding world," Bill replied with quiet compassion before shooting another questioning look to Charlie.
Ginny buried her head in her knees and muttered one of Kingsley's choice explitives. Molly didn't have the strength to correct her daughter and let the utterance go by. The letter was passed amongst the rest the gathering, save Ginny. She passed it to Hermione without reading. Neville picked up on it.
"Ginny, there's a note to you in there as well," Neville said.
Ginny ignored Neville's comment and he felt it wise not to push her at this time. After several minutes, when each had had his or her turn reading it, Kingsley finally spoke.
"So, as you could probably gather from Harry's letter, we discussed placing all of you in safe-houses. There are two reasons for this.
"First, let me extend my apologies to all of you. The Burrow, the Longbottom Home, and the Lovegood home are all gone; apparently the Death Eaters found a way to vent their anger at the loss of their leader."
After pausing to let this news sink in, Kingsley continued, "Also, as you know from Harry's experience early this morning, the remaining Death Eaters are not going away so easily. In fact, it seems they plan to do as much damage to as many of the resistance as possible. As your families were the vanguard of the resistance, all of you are still in grave danger. I realize that we utilized Shell Cottage and Aunt Muriel's home during the war, but I think the Death Eaters will eventually make the connection to those homes, so I no longer trust them as safe-houses.
"Apparently, Harry has found some safe-houses for all of you, but I have no idea where they are or what they're like. Therefore, I would like to suggest the following: Arthur, Bill, Charlie, and Neville – take four portkeys for each home and go inspect them first. If they appear safe, come back here and let us know. Percy, George, Ron and Hermione: go to Tonks' home, get Andromeda and Teddy packed, and bring them back. If Harry's done his homework, we'll use what he's given us."
Fed and sufficiently numbed by firewhiskey, Harry had just started to doze off on a comfortable leather couch in one of the parlors when an audible 'pop' roused him.
With a deep bow Steinig informed, "Steinig had done as Master requested. The elves will not speak a word of Master's ownership of property and elves, and all traces of the Potter, Peverell, and Black names have been removed from the homes."
"Tangu, Schtinky." Harry slurred. "I goth un more ting fer youse ter do, k? Go to Dign… Drign… Dragin… uhh, dat playsh were day buy an shell schtuff."
"Is Master Harry referring to Diagon Ally?" Steinig asked.
"Dash da playsh. Go der an fine me da raresdest birdy owl ting dey got." Steinig bowed and disappeared once more.
A/N:
Another chapter up, and I hope you guys enjoyed it! So now, REVIEW!