Planning for a Better Future

Chapter Twelve

Questions

Hogwarts

Headmaster's Office

After returning Roy and Edward to their hotel, Severus went back to the school to update Dumbledore on what they had found. He entered the office to find Albus in deep concentration with books and parchment surrounding him. Severus sat with a frown, "The cave did not contain a horcrux."

"Are you certain?" Dumbledore asked with a frown of his own. "My research suggested it should have either contained the locket or the cup."

Severus remembered seeing a locket at the bottom of the bowl but trusted that Roy would know if it had been there. "There was a decoy. The real locket was not found."

"Ah. I will have to look into it." Dumbledore replied. "What happened to the stone?"

"I am not certain, though considering the insistence it not enter Amestris, I would assume it will end up in the Gringotts Vault." Severus said.

"As long as it wasn't destroyed completely…" Dumbledore replied. "I believe at least one or two horcrux may currently reside in Gringotts as well."

"Then we will need to devise a new strategy." Severus said in irritation. "We must eliminate them, or He will return."

"We've weakened him already by destroying one. We also are working with assumptions on how many there were if the locket was simply a decoy, we may have overestimated how many we are hunting."

"You do not truly believe that."

"No, I don't however we seem to have met a dead end at the moment and it may be for the best that the Amestrians believe that I believe that." Dumbledore replied as he stood and began gather his books and papers. "We can bring them back into it once we can establish where else they may be."

"In other words, get rid of them before they are found." Severus said pinching his nose. "Alchemists fall under the magical laws Professor; they would not be Obliviated."

"It would perhaps be easier if they were. At least then we would have a better guarantee of young Harry joining us at Hogwarts." Dumbledore replied. "That said, I am more concerned about raising flags to the Death Eaters. Alchemists wandering around England is something I would prefer to keep from them."

"I agree. I will be returning them home this afternoon, we can bring them back once we find more of them. They do have their own country to worry about, and children to care for." Severus said. "I only came in to inform you about the locket. Officially I will be back tomorrow."

Severus left shortly after that, and Dumbledore found himself relieved that the Amestrians were leaving. If anyone could somehow break into a vault and make it back in one piece, he'd never heard of it. Though if someone could manage it, it would be someone like the Amestrians. The group that James Potter formed in school might have tried it, Voldemort's Death Eaters as well, but they would have no reason to steal what had been gifted to them. It was possible, he mused, that by the time Harry returned to them he might have acquired enough skills to make the list as well.

Now the real question to Dumbledore was worried was what happened to the real locket. If the one that was hidden was a fake, it seemed likely that someone switched them out. Who and what happened after the switch was the mystery? He supposed he could retrieve the decoy to see if a clue had been left behind, Severus had implied they had left it in place. It would be a two-man job at least however, and there was no one he would trust to join him. Not on this.

Instead, he would focus on finding out how many they were hunting and where they might be. They could revisit the locket when the others were secured. He had no doubt now that it had been the locket that was missing, he had gathered enough information to have narrowed it down before the conversation with Severus, and there would have been no reason to leave the wrong decoy.

There was also the possibility that it was the real one in the cave and would still need to be retrieved. Severus was convinced that the Amestrians said it wasn't real, so it wasn't however Albus did not have the same faith in the alchemists.

The ring was destroyed.

The locket was missing.

The cup had not been located.

The other piece was unknown.

Then, of course, there was Harry. Who would have to be last. His people had overhead enough to know they thought the boy was now cleared, he had his doubts. She didn't know what they had been discussing, and he acted as though it confused him as well, but it had been the confirmation he'd needed to prove his theory about that night...no matter.

It would not help the relations between their people to bring to question the child's condition. It also seemed at this time pointless to continue the search for the other three. He was convinced they would surface closer to time. The prophesy suggested they would defeat him therefore the pieces would show themselves at some point before then. For now, Dumbledore needed to focus on bringing everyone back together.

He had regained some of Minerva's faith in him, his other teachers never knew how poorly he had been coping with his loss thankfully. Severus and Minerva had seen to that, though Severus had lost faith. He had not regained any ground with the younger man, as Albus was well aware, and it could be a problem in the future. Therefore, he needed to work harder to convince the man that his moment of weakness was short lived and that he had regained focus.

Severus was back to teaching at Hogwarts, with him close at hand it should be easy to show him that Albus had completely recovered and then Severus would return to the fold. He also needed to focus on selecting people to fill the holes their losses had created. Voldemort would return eventually, and they needed to be prepared when he did.

Rented Room

Severus returned roughly an hour after leaving, and was no surprised to find the other men eating when he came in. Roy was still recovering his energy and as far as Severus could tell, Edward was nearly always hungry.

He had asked about it once, but Edward's response had made no sense. Something muttered about his body making up for years of supporting another person as well. Severus had decided no to ask anything further about it, since Edward didn't seem to want to talk about it. There were some things best left unsaid.

He sat down with the others as they finished their meal before he said "I just came from Dumbledore. After the locket in the cave, he hasn't yet found another place to look. He suggested that the locket had been switched out and will be looking into who might have taken it."

"In other words, we are currently out of leads." Edward said as he finished his noodles.

"Yes. I did see his list at his desk. As far as he can gather, and I believe he knew Voldemort well enough to have an educated guess on these matters, three should be three horcrux left. He suggested that at least one or two may be in the Vault of Gringotts in which case we will have to wait until someone pulls it out to find it in that case. The bank is unbreachable." Severus said as he reached over and grabbed a couple of crackers from the center of the table.

"We will visit the bank, then we should probably go back. Our people need us to lead them just as much as we need to find these threats." Roy said. "Shall we go then?"

Edward shrugged and threw away their trash before agreeing that they needed to go. Severus decided to wait for them outside, but Roy would be going down to Hohenheim's, now Edward's vault with Ed. Ed wanted to grab a few more books and to leave the stone behind. Roy didn't want Ed going anywhere alone that included a huge library that Ed technically owned.