Harry did not appreciate having to start yet another chapter worrying about the health and safety of his friends! His worry for them always near peak because he had no clue where, or when they were wasn't being helped by something clearly having happened to Hermione, and now he could swear there was more blood on the horizon for one of them! He couldn't pay attention to anyone or anything around him until he knew they were okay!

Harry huffed in frustration with himself, he should be relaxing! All three of them were okay, if not where they expected to be, why was he still tripping over words? He couldn't seem to stop himself though, was hardly drawing breath in between.

The Marauders all made little noises that tried to be laughs for Harry's sake, wanting to brag and posture they'd have known this same fact in seconds as well as they knew those grounds, but Harry still wasn't paying anyone any mind, and his unease would always have them on edge even if they didn't understand why.

"He got hit!" James demanded, trying to get to his feet and run to help on instinct, but Harry was ahead of him. Even as his mind spun in every direction for how many ways this could go, taking him to St. Mungo's and be damned the consequences being the worst, he kept reading feverishly.

This answer didn't soothe anyone, they were all aware how painful and even lethal Splinching could be if not handled properly at once.

Lily vaguely had time to wonder how in Merlin's name Hermione had gotten her hands on something like that, while breathing a sigh of relief in thankfulness she had. She tried to cut Harry off and assure him he'd be fine, but her son wasn't paying her any mind, and she knew he wouldn't really let the news sink in anyways until it came to himself.

Harry managed to breathe again, sagging back into his seat and letting the book just rest in his lap for a moment as he thanked the ceiling. Lily rubbed his shoulder and they all forced themselves to calm down and take stock for a moment, give themselves a chance to breathe before diving back and finding out the rest of what happened.

"I'm a little surprised at her for that," Remus admitted. "I thought she perfected spells just by reading about them." He wasn't entirely kidding, as far ahead as the rest of her peers she was.

"Still," Harry muttered, "better to not risk it."

"Someone had hold of Hermione," James had already understood, "clearly it was a foe, and not a friend." Maybe even Hermione didn't know, it could have been anyone and Hermione had acted on instinct, and he was grateful for it.

"Damn," they all cursed, the four of them already aware of every consequence this would hold, Harry in mere frustration for it happening.

"The magic doesn't care you brought him there intentionally or not," Sirius groaned. "He's still been there as well as anyone else."

Harry swallowed painfully as he looked at his godfather, imagining the place now being ravaged by Death Eaters. Sirius might not care, but it bothered Harry greatly for a place he'd actually been starting to grow fond of.

Sirius took a deep breath, and then let out a great blow of air.

Harry had honestly been expecting a much cruder joke, so he still snickered in surprise, while the others all grumbled at him for indulging the man.

The smile slipped from Sirius' face as his brow creased with an unwanted feeling, sympathy. He found himself actually feeling a little bad for Kreacher, as the irony of his situation played out before him. All Kreacher had ever wanted was to tend to Death Eaters just like his mother's wishes, now he was getting to and would very likely be hating every second, just like Regulus.

"Can't bring myself to regret your actions at all," Lily promised.

"I'm confident we all would have done the same," James agreed.

Harry watched the four of them shiver as they remembered the last time Harry had been there, the first true sign of the Death Eater's returning and the horrors those Muggles had faced, which really only was the beginning.

Harry tensed at once, feeling a hopeless situation quickly encircling him as with Ron incapacitated in this way they'd have no way to escape or barely fight back-

"Well there is a solution if that's the problem," Remus quickly offered. "Ron and Hermione should just never tell you where they're Apparating to."

"Yeah, I suppose," he muttered just to answer instead of really finding that a long term answer, the truth of it as always clouded at the edge of his thoughts just beyond his reach.

They weren't surprised at this point to have recognized half of those spells, and assume the rest weren't from their time.

Harry's voice cut off like he'd bit his own tongue, going cross-eyed in pain for a moment. He shook it off fast enough, and was even more glad to find it must be a reason from his memory's in Ron rather than some unfounded new fear of that name.

"What's his problem?" James asked in surprise. "He's actually been saying it quite a bit these past months I've noticed."

"I suppose being injured has brought back the old insecurity, made him more vulnerable," Remus offered with some experience in this, he always felt a little extra sensitive around the full moon when pain was inevitable.

Harry jolted like he'd been given an electric shock, staring bug-eyed at that word. He muttered to himself incomprehensibly for a moment, but as always the now all too familiar pain began creeping in on him for even trying to think what flash feeling this had given him. The others just gave Harry sympathetic looks for not understanding Ron's sudden problem any more than them.

"He's not wrong," Remus muttered.

"Ron's still being a goofball about this," James rolled his eyes.

"Respect?" The five of them echoed in disgust, convinced at once Ron had lost more blood than they thought for him to be speaking such nonsense.

"It's really not in anyone's benefit to argue with the delusional," James agreed.

"Knowing Lockhart should have convinced you of that," Remus snorted.

Harry massaged his shoulder where Ron's injury had been. Even though his friend wasn't in immediate danger from the wound anymore, Harry still worried for something so grievous happening so early on in their Horcrux Hunt, and feeling so ill prepared for it.

"She packed bloody tea and a kettle but not lunch-meat and some bread?" Lily muttered, still clearly a bit sore on that, especially now that food was even more questionable. She couldn't entirely blame Hermione though, it wasn't as if Harry or Ron had even thought this far ahead anywhere near her, and surely they'd come up with something.

All of them couldn't stop a bone deep shiver for that unknown, some part of Harry digging for an answer in hopes he could at least get a feeling for such a thing, but was as disappointed as ever in himself for the lack of answers.

"No, it wouldn't," Lily promised.

"I'm under the impression you can even do that to Muggle's," James agreed. "The one Apparating is controlling the magic there, though the act of them splinching is even higher and usually even more gruesome."

Harry flinched hard for that unneeded reminder but thanked them anyways.

"Honestly, they need to get to it already," Remus rolled his eyes, "I feel like we've been waiting for that moment for ages already."

"Speak for yourself," Harry snorted, still feeling like he was testing the waters on this most days.

"So needy Harry," Sirius snickered.

"He's speaking from experience," James told Harry.

"They were a little busy," Lily chuckled.

"Oh, was that all?" James rolled his eyes. "It's no wonder you didn't stop and swap knitting patterns while you were at it."

A look of murderous rage flashed across Sirius, the need to burn that thing alive along with the rest of the cave it had long since resided in nearly overtaking him for a moment. He had to take a deep breath and remind himself why he wasn't apparating there now to take care of this problem, finish what Regulus had started.

Their minds flashed back to the ring and diary, both of which did have visible damage to substantiate Hermione's claim, but none of them felt convinced enough to outright agree with her either. Magic made all of this too tricky to just be guessing blindly about anything.

"You could always try Parseltounge on it," Remus shrugged.*

"Or Ron could sprinkle his blood on it, maybe being a Pureblood would be some sort of trick," James offered, thinking of the ways Dumbledore had gone in to get the locket.

"Or just use Alohamora," Lily snickered, well aware this likely wasn't the answer given Kreacher's attempts. "Sometimes the obvious can be easily missed."

Harry opened, then closed his mouth without response for them. It all felt obvious being said out loud, but he had a bad feeling he didn't think of this any time soon, and the consequences of this weighed heavily on his mind, so he ignored them instead.

"So long as you hit a tree, you could claim you were trying to help," Sirius shrugged.

"Maybe only Voldemort can open it," Remus offered.

Harry flinched again for some unknown reason, but quickly covered that rising uneasy feeling and tried to say hopefully, "well, maybe we'll get lucky and find some way to destroy it without having to open it."

He didn't really think it true, but he was trying to keep some good spirit in place. This was supposed to be a victorious moment, they'd just saved a bunch of innocent people and had one horcrux in hand!

They all shivered in disgust at the very idea, again thinking of that diary Riddle and just how real it could have been. With any luck, it was just the kids imagination.

Harry let out an uneasy breath, trying to convince himself he was just being paranoid so worried about this action.

His mother went along in the same way, "well, no harm in that I suppose. It's not as if you have any reason to get emotionally attached to that locket."

"Still, I don't like it," James grumbled, eyeing Harry's neck as if he expected to see the gold chain there now. "What's the harm in keeping it in Hermione's bag instead?"

"Less likely to be left in the bathroom," Sirius snorted, but none of them could deny they felt very uneasy about any of those kids casually wearing this.

"Ron's perfect for watch duty though, all you have to do is sit there, takes no real skill," Remus chuckled.

"Why do you think we always made you do it," Sirius smirked while Moony scowled at him and muttered something that made Sirius laugh out right. Harry ignored the pair, far more invested where his distracted mind was trying to lead him.

"That can not be safe," Lily crinkled up her nose in as much worry as distaste at the idea.

"I trust Hermione read a book on different types of mushrooms," James shrugged.

"I don't care, I still wouldn't eat it," Sirius grumbled. "Rather starve to death than eat that."

Lily grimaced in unease, her worry about food growing by the moment. She had a bad feeling if those kids didn't find some way to get to a Muggle village and keep in stock, that may be what they planned on doing, and that would help nothing.

"Oh cheer up Harry!" Remus groaned. "What you need to do is some looking into. You've an idea what the other two are supposed to be, some heirloom of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, not to mention you could try digging into Voldemort's past more and figure out where else he'd keep such things. You've plenty of options left to keep nosing around, it's what you've always been best at."

"You even know what one of the items is and just have to figure out where it would be," Lily agreed. "Perhaps Voldemort put that Cup at the old Riddle house, where he kept himself away while, err, waiting to be resurrected."

"You think he'd keep two so close together?" James asked in surprise. "Dumbledore got the ring from the Guant house that was in that same village."

"We've well established Voldemort isn't doing this out of smarts," Remus snorted.

"Let's save the snake for last," Sirius offered.

Harry looked around at them all and tried to stay as optimistic, but he could already feel a pressuring weight leaving him unable to feel anything else. If only he'd had them with him all along- but he had Ron and Hermione and they'd figure this out! There was no point in wishing for something like that now.

"Haven't you discussed this with Ron and Hermione?" Sirius asked in surprise, he'd been expecting the book to dive into that.

"They were having plenty of conversations on their own," Harry muttered bitterly, and kept going loudly without bothering to explain.

Harry realized that he was starting to scare the others, he'd swear his mother was trying to suppress shivers beside him, but he couldn't bring himself to stop and comfort them, his mind on nothing and everything as scattered thoughts form his past kept echoing right in front of him in a void he wasn't getting an escape out of.

"I'm sure he will," Sirius surprised him by bursting out saying that with actual confidence. "He actually started treating you like my scum parents there for a minute Harry, no offense."

Harry just gazed at him for a moment, and for a second almost cracked a smile before turning back to his dreary thoughts. Sirius shifted in frustration, considering snatching the book away from Harry to make him pay attention to them rather than this mess of his past before he got lost in it.

"I thought you just hadn't because, I mean, what good would he be to you out there," James said in surprise. "I don't get it though, so what if one person tags along, you could over power them with ease and get your house-elf back if that's really what's bothering you."

"You must remember elf's have their own magic," Sirius agreed with a shrewd look at Harry. "Whatever they're doing to bind him in place and have one of them come along when you summon him would be instantly nullified by Kreacher himself responding to his master, that magic always takes precedence."

"Not always," Harry needlessly reminded them of Dobby. He'd never seen the Malfoy's give him an order and Dobby directly disobey it. He had not wanted to risk trying this with his own, and found no point in letting them try to comfort him about it now.

"What have you come across to agree with that?" Remus asked in surprise.

"The Horcrux," Harry reminded as if he were daft.

"That's nothing new though, you learned about it last year," Sirius snorted, glad to see him finally responding like normal. "So far the biggest new thing is the Ministry's entrance is in a toilet, and I still find that more appropriate."

Sirius groaned obnoxiously loudly when he realized Harry still wasn't having any sort of normal reception and even then his godson still ignored him!

Harry shifted around in unease as if he'd eaten those slimy mushrooms just as recently. There was something about that question that held some greater answer in all of this, as if he didn't have enough of that hanging around him.

Lily flinched again at that reminder, she doubted she'd ever be able not to.

"Oh great, this is sure to cheer everyone up!" Sirius groaned. He was already sagging in his seat with exhaustion, and seeing Harry struggle so much was putting them all on edge.

Remus couldn't help but snort in surprise even as they all looked sickly for the reminder of Professor Burbage's last moments.

Nobody was particularly surprised Voldemort had caught up to Gregorovitch, it really had felt like only a matter of time.

James grumbled uneasily for this puzzle getting no clear answer either. What had he been after Gregorovitch for? A wand, that seemed reasonable from a wandmaker, but what then? Was this really about the Elder wand, as the man had always boasted of having? Admittedly there could be any number of things in his possession to steal, but James couldn't think of anything else, and was sure he was wrong. Voldemort couldn't be after some kids tale.

Harry again felt like someone had jabbed him in the throat even before he'd finished saying the name, and he was growing more frustrated about that than anything else. What was his sudden aversion to it? He irrationally blamed the locket for suddenly not being able to think up anything, his mind seemed frozen in place and couldn't move past anything and he wasn't even wearing the blasted thing! Just the memory of doing so left him feeling hopeless! He grit his teeth to try and fight all this off without the others noticing and then pressed on loudly in hopes they hadn't noticed.

They had, but they were trying to just let him finish this mess so they could have a break.

Harry laughed for some unknown reason, he had an odd urge to thank Ron.

It was the first time the others had seen him crack a smile in so long, they didn't even think to question why.

"Ah, but she said the magic word," James snorted. "Learned, which he never did!"

"It doesn't help he's still not bothering to try," Lily muttered.

Remus couldn't help but snicker a bit, muttering that's what everyone wanted but rarely got.

"Bloody hell, just dismiss him why don't you!" Lily yelped, looking just as hurt as Harry.

"She really needs to balance that scolding and helping thing, I'm getting her a book on that for Christmas," Sirius sighed.

"The mother hen is back," Remus stage whispered.

"Honestly, didn't anyone ever tell Ron not to bring your mum on world-saving adventures," Sirius snorted.

Lily especially rolled her eyes at the pair.

"You've grown up some at least," James offered to Harry's put out expression. "A few years ago you would have just shouted at her about never listing to you."

"She still may deserve it," Sirius grumbled.

"Maybe he's looking for some rare material," Lily offered, none of them could really figure out just what had been stolen or what Voldemort had seen. They weren't even sure if Voldemort had gotten more out of it than them, Harry wasn't sharing any other insights.

The same problem was alluding Harry again, as usual. He looked desperately around for help, but they merely shrugged, this wasn't anywhere near descriptive enough for them to put anything together.

"Tucked away in his pocket, or he threw it out the window first, or magicked it away and was heading after it," Sirius agreed. "There's any number of ways this thievery could have gone down."

"It's this bloke's misfortune to have been caught, though I got the impression he didn't mind," Remus snorted, recalling the laughter at the end. It was possible this was someone like Dung, a man use to thieving for a living.

Their skin crawled with revulsion at the idea. One of the few things Harry had going for him right now was the memory from Slughorn, giving them a number he had in mind, and Dumbledore's insights into what the horcruxes were. If Voldemort had come into some new information and might be planning to add even more into the mix, they were sure it would only be even more disastrous for Harry, and they weren't sure how much more they could stand.

"I doubt that's high on his priority list, or he'd never have done this in the first place," Remus reminded.

"You clearly hadn't heard the whole conversation though!" Lily reminded. "If you'd fallen asleep just a few minutes before, you would have been there when Voldemort found him and heard what he was actually asking after."

"My timing," Harry agreed in disgust.

"Sounds like someone's hand I need to shake," Sirius sighed.

"How long ago did this happen is the real question," Remus observed. "If it's recent he'd still be this age and possibly at Durmstrang, if it was years ago he could look very different now."

"We don't even know if Voldemort knows that," James groaned.

"That's it!" James wrenched the book away from Harry. He couldn't watch this anymore even if Harry hadn't been done with the chapter. "We're stopping for dinner! I've been craving steak-and- kidney pie for the past hour because of that blasted- I mean, the lovely meal Kreacher kept teasing you with."

Harry gazed at his empty hands in surprise like he still expected the words to be swimming in and out of focus, it took a great effort to drag his eyes to meet those around him. He had no appetite, but felt he had no choice but to agree.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHP

I'll be honest, I figured out the majority of this book right away. Maybe it's because I'd been reading for quite some time at this point in my life, my brain automatically picked these things out, or maybe I was just used to JK's style and it was starting to become predictive, but yeah; the big mystery of Lily's letter, the same description of a boy with golden hair with Dumbledore in the last chapter and then the exact same person being described in this chapter stealing. I thought the big reveal was Dumbledore had helped steal something big and important, like whatever these Deathly Hallows were the book was named after but had yet been mentioned but I guessed had something to do with Grindelwald considering Krum made such a big deal about it at the wedding. I was clearly partially wrong, but that's not the point.

Does anyone else want to call bull on Harry not recognizing Grindelwald in Gregorovitch's memories? He saw the picture of him literally less than three hours ago at minimum in that book in Umbridge's office! I don't care what happened in between, I don't buy it, and she just denied Harry placing a face next to Dumbledore he'd seen that very same day for suspension. The name could have still been just as big a reveal without making Harry look like an idiot. I freaking figured it out because it was the only new character described this book with golden hair!

I kept the characters from putting together the same for the literary purpose of the fact there are plenty of people out there with golden hair and it is a leap if you're not reading a book. Even then, I was tempted to anyways.

I'm worried these next few chapters are going to start feeling a bit drab and repetitive. As always I'll try to liven things up with the commentary, that's kind of the whole point of doing this. Thanks as always to all of you for sticking with this so long and every last bit of commentary from you all!

*I know that's a really early reveal and I try to avoid those, but no joke this was my first thought when I read this. I can't believe the way JK worked it in later, it feels dumb for this to be an 'epiphany' to Harry when it's so obvious. Hmm, how to open the Slytherin Locket? Well it's not as if I've ever gotten into Slytherin's Super Secret Chamber before!