The three friends, Ginny, Reyna and Frank walked through the long and seemingly endless halls. Glancing at her map ever so often, Ginny came to the conclusion that the Horcrux was on the first floor of the place.
The first room they went into, marked 'For Hermione Granger's stay,' wasn't hiding a Horcrux. Ginny couldn't feel it.
"Next room then," Reyna led them to another room, this one a bathroom. It was quickly ruled out as well.
Finally, they approached the last room on the floor. "It'd better be here," Ginny said in a voice mixed between hopeful and threatening.
The last room looked like a drawing room, which was quite unfortunate, as the room was quite large. Ginny smiled to herself when she felt the telltale sign of a nearby Horcrux. The headache it gave was quite painful but containable, and after a while, she got used to it.
"Where is it?" Reyna was taking apart one of the couches, littering the floor with various cushions.
"That side," Ginny pointed to the opposite corner. There was a tall shelf there filled with old antiques and very dusty objects. She didn't know how she knew, but she just did. Frank hurried to the shelf while Reyna put the cushions back.
Frank was rummaging through when Reyna and Ginny walked over. In the last drawer he pulled out was a green locket with an 'S' engraved in it.
"It's that one," Ginny stopped him from closing the drawer. She bent down and picked up the said locket.
Just then, Ginny heard two pops.
"Hello, people I've never seen here before," said a voice.
"Curious, curious, I thought I knew everyone in the Order," replied the other.
Ginny closed her eyes. She knew the voices. She discreetly tucked the locket safely away before turning to face the two. She met the faces of Fred and George Weasley.
"Well, what do you have to say?" Fred asked Reyna.
George glanced at Ginny. The two locked eyes and before Reyna could answer his twin's question, he snarled at Ginny.
"Ginevra Molly Weasley," he exaggerated every syllable, "what on earth are you doing here with these people?"
"Living my life, you?" Ginny mustered the casualty, which proved to be difficult while having Horcrux induced pain searing through your head. The proximity definitely factored in the agony.
"You know these people?" Reyna asked, surprised.
Ginny nodded. "My brothers, before I ran away."
"Tell us about them." Ginny could tell Reyna was devising some daughter of Bellona battle plan.
"Think of the Stoll brothers but more pranks and a tad less stealing." Ginny compared the two sets of siblings.
"Ah, okay, so they're pranksters." Frank summarized.
"More or less," Ginny shrugged.
Fred smiled. "Our legacy lives on." Then he looked at Ginny. "Wait 'till I tell Mum."
"Sorry, but I don't think I have the patience to wait," Ginny snapped her fingers, calling on the Mist, "we were never here, remember that. And if anyone asks where the locket went, you took this locket for some pranking." She held out the locket in front of the twins.
The twins nodded dumbly before apparating away with two loud cracks.
Frank sighed. "That was close."
Reyna nodded vigorously in agreement. "Let's get out of here and kill the Horcrux somewhere else so no one knows we ever came."
"All right, half humans, hold on." Ginny extended her arm. "We're going for some teleporting."
"I'm still lending you my power, right? You need yours to destroy the Horcrux later." Reyna asked. Ginny had a feeling it wasn't much of a question as it was a statement.
Either way, Ginny nodded. "On the count of three. One, two…" she thought of somewhere close by. No one would be at the Burrow, she thought. "Three."
In a flash of darkness, Ginny landed on the too familiar grounds of the Burrow. The garden was more unkempt than she was used to. But then again, no one was taking care of it. It was a lush green color, some parts of the yard dying, with little gnomes overpopulating the area.
"The Burrow," Ginny introduced.
Frank and Reyna glanced up with wide eyes. The Burrow stood, in its full glory, crookedly held upright by magic.
"It's…" Frank struggled to find the right words. "Magical."
Ginny let out a small scoff. "Of course it is."
Reyna passed out beside them from the shadow-traveling.
Again, Frank caught her. He motioned to Ginny to go. "Destroy the locket. The faster we get home, the better."
Nodding, Ginny unclasped the locket she was holding tight in her hand. She could see red marks on her skin of where the locket had pressed in. Desperate to put distance between the Horcrux and herself, Ginny hastily dropped it on the grass. She looked uncertainly at it, hesitating.
She took a deep breath and summoned her inner Hades power and projected it onto the locket. The ground opened up like when she summoned skeletons, but Ginny reminded herself that it would be the other way this time; she would be putting the Horcrux into the Underworld.
Using the rest of her energy, she projected her power onto the locket, pushing it into the chasm in the ground she created. The locket let out an almost human-like scream as it fell off the edge. The hole closed up immediately behind the object, trapping the screams beneath the ground.
Ginny, tired, looked over to Frank and Reyna. "I can't-" she groaned and exhaled in exhaustion. "I can't shadow-travel us back yet. I need time."
Frank nodded in affirmation and went over to her, giving her room to pass out on him. Being Hazel's boyfriend, he was pretty used to that.
"Four down, three to go. We've passed the halfway mark," Frank murmured to Ginny just before she fell unconscious.
Around half an hour later, when both the girls were standing upright on their own again, were they fit to travel. But before the three left, Ginny pulled out a drachma and her map. She went over to the hose and turned it on. Reyna helped position it upwards to create a rainbow.
"O Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering," Ginny recited, throwing it at the misty projection of the colors, "show me Hazel Levesque at Camp Half-Blood."
The image of Ginny's sister appeared through the connection. "Ginny!" Hazel smiled up at her. She was in the Hades cabin back at camp, where they'd decided to meet up after killing one Horcrux.
"Hey, Hazel. Is Nico there with you?" Ginny smiled back but got down to business right away.
Hazel nodded. "Nico, Ginny wants to talk to us," she looked over to the right of where she was on her bed.
Ginny watched as Nico sat down next to Hazel. "Hey, Gin. What's up?" Nico greeted her.
"I know where the two last Horcruxes are. One of your quest groups would have to go there." Ginny told them.
Nico stared past her, calculating and thinking. "Where?"
"Gringotts, only one of the safest places in the wizarding community around here," Ginny announced airily, though knowing that didn't soften the blow. One of them was going to have to get into a bank and steal a Horcrux from there.
"I'll go," Hazel said after a moment of silence, "I don't know about Leo and Piper, though, but I can definitely go."
Ginny was shocked at how Hazel had volunteered like that. She admired her courage, but quests were something Ginny would rather avoid. "Alright then, bring two others. It can be anyone."
She glanced at the map. The map had magically changed to add detail to that specific Horcrux. "It says it's in a vault." There was a small caption underneath, which Ginny read out loud. "The Lestrange Vault, operated by Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange," she closed her eyes, her time in the wizarding world came flooding back overwhelmingly. "High ranked Death Eaters," she recalled.
"I'll go regardless." Hazel told her boldly and Ginny shrugged.
"Then I'll be finding the Horcrux in Hogwarts."
Nico frowned. "The school?"
"Yeah, that one," Ginny confirmed.
"Well, good luck then, both of you." Nico made to get up. "I'll try to find the last one. The map says it's in-"
"America," Ginny finished, "but why?"
Hazel shrugged, troubled. "He has no relation here except being Hecate's legacy. I don't know why he left a Horcrux here."
"Hey," Nico put a hand on his sister's shoulder comfortingly, "stick to what we know, right? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Ginny could tell Hazel was still nervous. She was absentmindedly chewing on her bottom lip, a telltale sign, but she still smiled through her worried features. Nico wanely smiled back, doubt swimming in his eyes. They were to stand strong. Against all odds.
Nico broke eye contact first. "So, Hazel, you're going to the Lestrange Vault at Gringotts. Ginny, you'll be at Hogwarts. I'll be here, finding the last Horcrux." His sisters nodded in understanding of their assignment.
"It'd be easy for me. It's still the break, no one would be there." Ginny assured them. " But Hazel, 'Thief, you have been warned, beware of finding more than treasure there.' The inscription on the Gringotts doors. They'll be guarded twenty four - seven by goblins.
"I don't know what lies there. I had no use there, either, the Weasleys were bankrupt and poor." Ginny continued. "I'd offer to trade quests, but a magical witch or wizard has to be present for the Hogwarts one; muggles would see it as an abandoned castle."
It was something she hadn't considered herself for a long while back. A witch. It wasn't her, it didn't define her, it didn't shape the person she was that day.
Hazel must have noticed the look on her face because she said, "I know you're doing everything that's in your power, Ginny. We'll see you soon," and cut the connection.
It was almost four days later the three siblings were back together in the Hades cabin. With Nico as its only resident, the cabin was out of shape and somehow Nico managed to collect a fine layer of dust.
The three were sitting on their respective beds, all facing one another. There had been a meeting with the larger group before, discussing what they had discovered. But some things, Nico knew, were best kept between siblings.
"What's troubling you, Nico?" Hazel asked into the dark. Even with the green flames crackling from the fireplace, the room was so dark only a Hades or Pluto child would be able to make out shape outlines. Ginny had suspected that the Hunters of Artemis could too, with Artemis the goddess of the moon, but Nico shut the idea down. Probably not due to the improbability but his dislike of the Hunters.
Nico had his head in his hands. "Well, firstly, congratulations for killing off the cup and diadem. I'm sorry I didn't finish on my part."
"Hey, yours was definitely the most difficult," Ginny brushed the apology away, "cut yourself some slack."
Nico shook his head. "It's not that, it's-" his face was hidden from view, but Hazel and Ginny could tell that Nico sounded slightly on edge. They didn't prod him, but let him take his own time. "I know where it is. I don't know how to kill it."
"Do it like how you killed the snake," Hazel was confused about why he didn't use the same method.
Nico felt as if he were in pain. He was, but not physically. It hurt to say the next words he said. "The Horcrux- it's Harry Potter."
There was long stunned silence for a while that no one dared to break. Nico had just dropped the bomb on them, and they had no time to react.
Finally, Nico felt the need to explain his accusation. "Whenever I go near him - Harry - I feel the 'Horcrux feeling,' if you know what I mean." Nico gestured vaguely. "The same as I felt with Nagini. The feeling then was closed down, something I can do only when I have felt the feeling. I just connected the dots."
"I- I hear you, Nico," Hazel spoke up, "it's just… hard to process, that's all."
"Yeah," Ginny agreed, "I feel like I've known this, at the back of my mind, but I've been living in doubt."
Hitting the avoided topic straight on was one way to address it. But now what?
"If we kill the Horcrux, we kill Harry." Hazel got up and paced. "But he's our only hope. He has to kill Voldemort, else we all die." She turned on her heel countering her previous statement. "Voldemort can't die with a Horcrux alive."
It was a delicate subject, the Harry-is-a-Horcrux topic, so the three decided not to mention it and go on with whatever else they knew.
In the morning, they went down for breakfast together and sat at the Hades table. Nico sat across from the other two at the very end.
"Mornin'," Will Solace sat himself down next to Nico, "How are you all doing?"
Nico answered. "Fine, I guess."
"No, you're not." Will scoffed. "And get some food." He added glancing over to the empty plate in front of Nico. Nico just collapsed onto the table with an annoyed groan, burying his head.
For some incredulous reason though, the Hades table was getting many visitors that morning, including the one and only Harry Potter. The three initial people at the table glanced at each other with grim expressions. Even Nico managed to lift his head to exchange looks. The underlying pain was there, even though all three had their own way of muting it. There was no doubt, Harry was a Horcrux.
Suddenly, both Ginny and Hazel weren't hungry anymore. Even with Will and Annabeth's pestering, they refused to touch their plates. It was no doubt some of them knew that something was up, so the three avoided their curious stares, especially Annabeth's. She had this way of looking through your eyes and into your soul.
Throughout the day, the three skived off all the activities to hole up in their cabin, talking about the soul banishing process. It was useless, even after the many books they'd read on necromancy, souls, the living dead and the Underworld. There was no solution. In all the situations, Harry was going to die.
"Why aren't we asking Annabeth again?" Hazel asked.
"We don't want to concern the others about Harry's upcoming death now, do we?" Ginny replied, busy flipping through The Secrets of Souls. "This book is useless." She declared, throwing the said book over her shoulder.
"We'll find nothing at this rate," Hazel pointed out. It wasn't so much of whining as it was straight facts.
Nico looked at her sharply. "Stop zoning out and help us with the books." Hazel sighed and grabbed a book.
Before long, there was a knock on the door. Granted, there had been many before, but unlike previous examples, this person walked in after three knocks.
"Okay, you three had been here for half of the day already. Come out for lunch. Then you can come back and do whatever you're doing." The person said. Ginny looked up and recognized him right away, but her eyes weren't focused on the person, but behind the person. Why was the sun so bright?
"Hello to you too, Will." Nico didn't even move to go eat. "We're just sorting the books. It'll take us a couple hours, if not days." He was such a smooth liar that Will almost didn't question it.
"Why does book sorting take you days?" Will caught on to the last part.
Nico rolled his eyes and answered without missing a beat. "Have you tried book sorting with these people?" Will nodded as if Hazel and Ginny made book sorting impossible.
Ginny threw a book at Nico and he just looked over at Will to demonstrate the difficulties of book sorting.
"This doesn't get you out of lunch, di Angelo." Will raised his eyebrows, but his boyfriend would not give in. He turned to Nico's sisters. "You too, Levesque, and- uh- Ginny." Will avoided Ginny's last name because of the look Ginny was sending him. It was deathly scary.
Seeing as they didn't have much choice, the three of them followed Will outside to the Hades cabin, where the others were waiting for them.
"Huh, and I always thought the Hades table was for the Hades and Pluto children," Ginny retorted at the sight of people.
Annabeth moved over to make room for Ginny. "We're here to talk about our next steps." The chatter stopped from around the table and everyone turned to face Annabeth. "We have one Horcrux left and Nico, Ginny and Hazel don't know where it is yet," she recalled, "so I suggest we have Harry keep training. Since you're expected at Hogwarts in a week, that's where you'll be. Two of us will go with you in case. The rest of us will talk about our battle plan and find the last Horcrux." She scanned the table. "Got it?"
Everyone nodded in agreement almost immediately. They all trusted her, and Athena always had a plan.
But Athena took input to get the best output. And there was one crucial piece of information Annabeth didn't know.
Harry Potter was a Horcrux, destined to die.