Chapter 10
Unspeakables Hunt Horcruxes

The next morning (Saturday, 9th November)
Gringotts

After breakfast, Sirius met Harry in the Great Hall. After a bit of walking and some Side-Along Apparition (which Harry could have done without), the man and the boy entered Gringotts. Soon after this, Harry and Sirius entered a Gringotts room with stone walls and comfortable chairs.

Harry was in this particular room for the official reading of James Potter's and Lily Potter's wills—ten years and nine days after Harry's parents had died.

Frank and Alice Longbottom were in Saint Mungo's—Still, after ten years?—and Neville was not yet a legal adult, so Frank and Alice Longbottom were represented at the wills-reading by Augusta Longbottom, who was Neville's "Gran." The old woman, Harry noticed, did not smile even once.

Amelia Bones walked into the room, greeted everyone already there—and sat down next to Sirius, on the other side of Sirius from Harry. For the most part, when Sirius and Amelia were not speaking to Harry, they were speaking to each other.

A woebegone man of Sirius's age, with scars on his face, entered and looked about. Immediately he walked up to Sirius and spoke briefly. Harry could not make sense of the words that Sirius and the man were saying, but he clearly picked up their tones of voice—

Sirius was angry with the sad, scarred man, who was deeply apologetic for something. The sad man walked away and took a seat in the far corner of the room.

The Potter wills were read aloud, officially, by a goblin in a grey pinstripe suit. Since Harry had already read the wills unofficially, there were no surprises for him. The scarred man, however, gasped when the two wills each described Sirius Black as Harry's "oath-sworn godfather."

James Potter's will bequeathed G42 000-G56 000 to buy fourteen new training brooms, which were to be donated to Hogwarts "because the brooms are crap that the firsties learn to fly on."

Harry thought, Neville certainly would agree with that.

After the wills were read, the scarred man walked up to Harry and introduced himself. "My name is Remus Lupin, Harry, and I was a friend of both your parents. I often visited your house before James and Lily—anyway, my name amongst my friends was 'Moony,' which you said as Mooey."

Harry looked at him coldly. "When I was with the Dursleys, my life was truly awful. They would have backed off on their shit if just one magical person had looked in on me from time to time. You and Sirius and Amelia all tell me you were friends with my parents, but when I got bones broken and I was starved, none of you were there!"

Lupin stared. "Wait, you said 'Dursleys'? As in 'Vernon and Petunia Dursley'? You grew up with Lily's sister?"

"Yeah, whilst someone named Andromeda Black Tonks wanted to raise me. But no, the great Dumbledore decided, despite the wills that you just heard read, that I should be put with the Dursleys."

"I'm so sorry," Lupin said, looking even more sad. "I didn't know where you were, the headmaster wouldn't tell me, and he implied that it would be better for you if you weren't exposed to someone with my condition."

Harry shook his head. "What 'condition'? Do you have leprosy? Do you turn into a muscular green giant with a nasty temper when someone kicks you in the shin?"

"No, but you're close," Lupin replied. He said no more.

Sirius and Amelia by now were standing in front of Harry. Sirius said, "Remus is a werewolf, Harry. He turns into a rampaging beast during the full moon, unless he drinks a special potion."

Harry said to Lupin, "I'm not bothered by you being a werewolf. What I am bothered by is that you avoided me for ten years because of the words of a school headmaster, before I came to his school, instead of doing the right thing by your friends' son. What House were you in? As timid as you were, and apparently still are, I'm guessing Slytherin. You sure as hell weren't in Gryffindor, the House of the brave, or in Hufflepuff, the House of the loyal."

Lupin glared. "I was in Gryffindor, Harry, the same as Sirius and your parents. I eventually made prefect."

"Impossible. Tell you what, Mr Werewolf Lupin. You didn't visit me or write to me before I came to Hogwarts, and you haven't visited me or written to me in the two months since I came to Hogwarts, so how about we continue with that? I sure as hell don't want near me, someone who listens to what Dumbledore says, when Dumbledore stole half a million galleons from my trust vault and he put me with child abusers!"

After a pause, Lupin said, "I guess it's time for me to go."

"Yes it is," Harry replied.

After Harry, Sirius and Amelia left the wills-reading room, Sirius said goodbye to Amelia—they kissed—then Amelia walked up to Harry. Instead of the polite Goodbye Harry was expecting, Amelia held up her hand to his forehead and asked him, "May I?"

"Sure," he said, unable to guess what she intended.

She brushed his hair aside, then she grinned at him. "Your famous scar, that had its horcrux removed a week ago? The scar is fading."

Harry grinned back. He hated that scar.

11 o'clock, at the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch

Sirius was sitting in the stands, along with Harry's friends, when Harry played his first-ever Quidditch game. Against Slytherin.

Harry got jostled a lot, "accidentally," by older Slytherins on brooms, but nobody succeeded at knocking Harry off his broom—or succeeded at getting Harry much worried about being knocked off his broom.

The game ended with Harry catching the Snitch—in his mouth. And Harry's friends and his godfather saw it all!

Harry drank one butterbeer in the Gryffindor common room with a mob of happy Lions, then Sirius whisked Harry back to Gringotts—or rather, Sirius intended to whisk Harry to Gringotts.

Just outside the Gryffindor portrait-hole

When Sirius and Harry stepped out into the corridor, they found Director Croaker waiting for them. Croaker was holding a rolled-up parchment that had enough layers that Sirius suspected that the parchment was ten feet long when unrolled.

Croaker asked Harry, "Mr Potter, may I have a moment of your time to ask a quick question?"

Harry shrugged. "Sure."

Croaker conjured a table in the corridor, and unrolled the parchment just enough for Sirius to read the top two lines—

.

Sssssssss sss Ssss Ssss

by Unspeakable 99

.

Sirius asked Croaker, "Is this some sort of secret code you want Harry to break?"

Harry said, "I don't see any secret code. Looks pretty simple to me." Harry then read aloud what was printed on the parchment, complete with Harry hissing the first part.

Croaker said, "Mr Potter, would you look into my eyes and repeat what you just said?"

Harry shrugged. " 'Analysing the Dark Mark' by Unspeakable 99."

"What the hell?" Sirius blurted. "That's not at all what the first line says!"

Croaker replied, "The first line does say this—in Parseltext. Which you and I cannot read, Lord Black, but Mr Potter can read."

Sirius asked Croaker suspiciously, "How did you know Harry could do this?"

Croaker replied, "I didn't know, but I suspected."

Croaker laid the tip of his red wand on the parchment, and "by Unspeakable 99" was changed to "by Lily Marie Potter."

"Whoa," Harry said.

Croaker looked at Harry and asked, "Would you believe that for two years your mother was not only an Unspeakable, but was the DOM's resident expert on Parsel magic?"

Sirius blurted, "Sweet Lily Evans, the Muggle-born Gryffindor princess, could speak to snakes?"

Back in Gringotts, after talking with Croaker

Sirius had told Headmistress McGonagall that Harry would be gone all weekend. Now Sirius walked with Harry to a different part of Gringotts than where they had been, earlier this morning: the goblin hospital.

Harry was admitted to the goblin hospital in order to get his poorly healed bones vanished and regrown, and for the three bindings on his magical core to be removed. Recovery would take thirty-six hours.

Harry was put in a special room, with a rectangular ring of runes on the floor surrounding his bed. Harry was told that right when his bindings were removed, and at odd times soon afterwards, he would have spurts of accidental magic; the runes were there to create magical walls that would absorb the accidental magic.

Vanishing Harry's bones (in sections) did not hurt, but felt strange to him.

Having many bones grow from nothing, inside Harry's body, felt strange in a different way. The process was not painful, but Harry felt all those bones regrowing, in a way he could not describe.

The rest of the weekend

Harry, with Sirius's help, was visited in his hospital room by Hermione, Lavender, the Patil twins, Neville, the Weasley twins and Susan Bones.

Hermione got into an excited discussion with a goblin healer about goblin customs. Hermione wound up buying a goblin-published book about goblin history, etiquette and customs for five galleons. This was slightly more than a Hogwarts textbook cost; but Hermione told Harry, "It's a bargain." Padma Patil asked Hermione if she could borrow the book after Hermione was through reading it.

Harry was visited by Andromeda Black Tonks, who had been trying unsuccessfully for ten years to raise Harry, or at least to visit him. Harry was deeply touched that this witch had tried so hard for ten years to be family to him. Harry was pleased when Mrs Tonks mentioned that her husband was a magical lawyer.

Sirius visited whenever Harry's friends and yearmates visited, since he was acting as the children's magical chauffeur between Hogwarts and Gringotts. Once during the weekend, when Sirius came to visit Harry, he brought Amelia Bones with him; Harry noticed that when Amelia was standing near Sirius, she smiled a lot.

Amelia told Harry "an odd story": that when she had been about to assign Master Auror Shacklebolt to escort Narcissa and Draco to Malfoy Manor, so that they could collect their clothes and personal effects, DOM Director Croaker had asked Amelia if he could send an Unspeakable with Shacklebolt. Amelia had agreed. Shacklebolt later told Amelia that once the four of them had entered Malfoy Manor, he, Narcissa and Draco had gone up the stairs, whilst the Unspeakable had walked away in a different direction—whilst holding a magic-proof box and a goblin memory-recording crystal.

Harry asked Amelia, "Do you think this is the same goblin memory-recording crystal that—?"

Amelia smiled at Harry and said, "Probably."

Sirius, who missed the Harry-Amelia subtext, had his own memory-recording-crystal tale to tell Harry: that yesterday after his acquittal, Sirius had intended to go to the Black winter house in Dover to shower, to eat, and to change clothes. But as Sirius had been heading towards the Floos corridor, Croaker had asked Sirius if he could take an Unspeakable briefly to the other Black property in Britain, the Black London house. Croaker had given no explanation for his request, and Sirius had not expected one. Sirius had said yes.

Sirius, instead of Flooing, had Side-Along Apparated the Unspeakable to just outside the Black London house, which was under a Fidelius. The Unspeakable had brought with him a magic-proof box and, of all things, a goblin memory-recording crystal.

Sirius had brought the Unspeakable into the house. To Sirius's embarrassment, the Black London house had been filthy after ten years of being unlived in, because the house's only house-elf was "crazy." Anyway, the Unspeakable had promised that if what he/she was seeking was not at the Black London house, he/she would leave in less than a minute. Instead, the Unspeakable had found what he/she had been looking for—some sort of green necklace or locket. However, when the Unspeakable had tried to put the green jewellery into the magic-proof box, Kreacher (the crazy house-elf) had attacked. Sirius had been forced to order Kreacher to stand in a corner like a bratty child, in order for the Unspeakable to complete his/her mission unharmed.

By Harry's hospital bed, Amelia then mentioned that Malfoy Manor had three house-elves who were now on offer by the Ministry, but nobody had bought the house-elves yet.

"Why not?" Harry asked. "Aren't house-elves considered good for a family to have?"

Amelia replied, "Those three have not been bought or bonded because Lucius Malfoy abused them, and the behaviour of abused elves is unpredictable."

Hermione jumped on this; she all but ordered Sirius to buy one of the Malfoy house-elves, "because I'm sure you'll be a kind master to the house-elf you bond with, Mr Black!"

Hermione reminded Sirius of Lily, and Sirius realised that Hermione was important to Harry, so Sirius agreed. He changed Hermione's plan so that, whilst he would pay the galleons to the Ministry and he would bond with the new house-elf, Hermione should be the person to choose which Malfoy house-elf would become a Black house-elf.

Between one hospital visit by Sirius and Hermione, and the next visit, Hermione selected a Malfoy house-elf and Sirius bought the elf and bonded with him. This action had one unintended consequence—

Officially, Sirius was Dobby's master, and Harry would become Dobby's sort-of master when Harry left the goblin hospital, since Harry was part of Sirius's family. Hermione, not being part of Sirius's family (yet), had no right to call Dobby and to expect Dobby to answer. However, as far as the overexcited house-elf was concerned, Hermione was his rescuer, so Dobby would move mountains for "the Great Hermininny Grangy Ma'am"—official family or not.

However, Sirius told Harry with a roll of his eyes, Kreacher and Dobby did not get along. Each house-elf judged the other to be a "bad elf," which was the worst crime of all to house-elves.

Sunday night/Monday morning (midnight)

The goblin healers refused to release Harry until he had spent the full thirty-six hours in recovery, so it was three hours after curfew when Sirius brought Harry back to Hogwarts and walked Harry to Gryffindor Tower. (Fortunately, Sirius had made arrangements with Headmistress McGonagall ahead of time, so Harry did not get into trouble when Argus Filch and his cat ran up.)

Since Dumbledore had been arrested and Professor McGonagall had become headmistress, which was a little over a week ago, Gryffindor had not had a Head of House. However, Sirius told Harry, he had realised that he had two residences to live in but was lonely in both of them, so he had asked "Minnie" to hire him as Gryffindor Head of House. She had agreed; she would make the announcement this evening at dinnertime.

Harry grinned cheekily and said, "That's brilliant! But if you and the Weasley Twins blow up Gryffindor Tower, I'll be cheesed off with all three of you."

Monday, 11th November

The Hogwarts students were not alarmed to see five Unspeakables doing mysterious things in different parts of Hogwarts Castle. No student felt curious to ask the Unspeakables why one of them was carrying a magic-proof box.

At the start of dinner, Headmistress McGonagall introduced Sirius Black and announced that he would be the new Head of House Gryffindor (and would hold no other positions). Mr Black would have a suite that was just off the Gryffindor common room, so was available to Lions both day and night.

Headmistress McGonagall also announced that the curse on the DADA-professor position was gone; and she had hired a retired Auror, Alastor Moody, to be the now-permanent DADA teacher. Moody would start work tomorrow.

Amidst the polite applause in the Great Hall, Susan Bones was heard saying, " 'Mad-Eye' will be teaching us Defence? We're doomed. He makes a religion of 'Constant vigilance!' "

Sirius Black, who now was sitting at the High Table, laughed. "Truer words were never spoken, Miss Bones. Students, it doesn't matter whether you're firsties or seventh-years, your first five minutes of your first DADA class with Moody will be a shock."

The next morning (Tuesday, 12th November)
In a Department of Mysteries conference room

Croaker looked at all the other faces—or rather, at all the grey-wool masks—in the room. He asked, "What is the status on the last two horcruxes?"

Unspeakable Fourteen reported, "Director Ragnok thanks you for telling him that there was a horcrux in a Gringotts vault. He told me to tell you that the horcrux was destroyed—without destroying the gold cup to which the horcrux was attached."

"Did Ragnok tell you how the goblins achieved this?"

"No. Nor did he tell me the name of the vault-owner whose vault held the horcruxed cup. But, Director Ragnok wanted you to know, Gringotts has dealt with the vault-owner. I suspect a jaw-dropping fine or even complete confiscation of the vault, at the least."

Croaker grinned. "And the other horcrux, the one in the old shack?"

Unspeakable Eight reported, "We found the horcruxed item, which was the Gaunt Head of House ring. You-Know-Who had put a nasty withering curse on it if you put the ring on, then also laid a strong compulsion to do exactly that. We had to Stupefy Ninety-Four in order to stop him/her from putting on the ring. But Ninety-Four is unharmed, we got the ring, and I've already Veiled it."

Croaker's heart was beating fast now, from excitement, but his words were spoken calmly: "So including the horcrux in Harry Potter's scar, Voldemort made six horcruxes. The goblins have destroyed two, and we've Veiled the other four. 'Lord' Voldemort a.k.a Tom Marvolo Riddle now is mortal."

Croaker was grinning now.

He continued, "Now, let's discuss exactly how we're going to end Voldemort's worthless life."

Twenty minutes later, Croaker said, "Three"—Unspeakable Three—"go to the Hall of Prophecies and tell Twenty-Two and Sixty-Five that I have an assignment for them. Today at lunchtime, have them go to the Great Hall and fetch Harry Potter. If anyone but Harry Potter asks why, tell him or her that Harry is wanted for routine DOM business—well, as 'routine' as DOM business ever gets."

Three asked, "And if Potter asks why he's being brought here?"

"He gets told the truth: that today the prophecy will be fulfilled."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In "Harry Potter and the Angry Grim Reaper" Chapter 17, Lily discovers that she is a Parselmouth in or before her sixth year. In sixth year, Lily briefly visits the Chamber of Secrets, then leaves.

In "Narcissa Black, Lord Potter's Concubine" Chapter 4, it is my-canon that Lily Evans is descended from a Squib son of Cobrana Gaunt Yaxley.