Chapter 46
Harry
It was time. Just after dinner we met in Dumbledore's office. Sirius demanded to be there, as did Ginny, Hermione and Ron. I also asked Percy, Annabeth, and of course Reyna to be there, and Neville joined her.
Jennifer was there as Dumbledore required and was soon in charge of what felt like a ceremony. She deferred a lot to Severus though and he really led me through how to attack someone mentally that wasn't seated across from me. I appreciated everyone being there, but most of all Severus.
He had loved my mother more than anyone in her life, perhaps even more than my father, and suffered at her loss more than anyone except me. The pain and anguish he felt at destroying their friendship with his cruel words years before I had felt with him only while in his mind, but he had felt it every day since it happened. I had felt everything in fact, but only briefly, not eternally as he had. Once in his mind it was like reading through a stack of old magazines arranged in no particular order. Severus told me this was normal and the way to find what you were looking for was to focus on one word or concept that would draw forth the memories. He also taught, and I had learned this myself on him the night before, as well as on Percy, wouldn't appear to be lined up to me, but rather stacked like cards. If I could see the stack, and remember it, I would be able to understand it when I came back to my mind.
We decided to focus first on "horcruxes" and then on where they were if time allowed. No one thought it was good for me to be in there very long. Just knowing what they were and how many might allow us a way to find them.
It felt like a seance which seemed silly to me, but once I was seated comfortably Severus had me focus on Voldemort, what I knew him to look like, open my mind, and cast the spell. I did so just as I felt the warmth of Reyna's support wash over me.
It seemed as though I was apparating for a bit and then I knew I was there. It felt evil, everything about it. At first I don't think he was aware of my presence, but of course I had not done anything yet. As soon as I focused on the word horcrux all manner of images flooded my mind's eye, only a few of them recognizable. I saw a cave by the ocean, the diary, some people I didn't know, bugs, spiders, dogs, more people, then a cascade of strange images, none of which made sense. I felt warmer and sicker the longer I was there and eventually the images stopped.
I was looking at Voldemort, but not as I had seen him, as he saw himself, an adult Tom Riddle.
"So, Potter has learned to scry. Are we looking for anything in particular?"
He wasn't looking at me, it was as though he knew I was there, but couldn't see me unless I did something. I knew I couldn't ask for horcrux locations, he was already looking at what I had seen and trying to make sense of it. I imagined I had a spray paint can and wrote on a wall "Harry Potter was Here! I'll be back!"
I couldn't stop laughing at my vandalism but the apparition of Voldemort turned and drew his wand. He began the occulemancy spell, but I drew my and shouted "Stupify!" blasting him against the far wall of the room I imagined us in. He slammed into the wall and did not rise as I had hit him with enough force to explode a practice drone. Everything, including time, seemed frozen at that point. The stack of images had shattered when I hit him, as did the walls and floor of the place I was in.
Jennifer appeared at my side, smiled and whispered "It is time to go Harry."
She took my hand and a moment later I was waking up in my bed in the Leodis.
"How... how long was I out? How did I get here?"
"Hush. Rest now. Your mind has had quite a journey." Will said. "And in answer to your question, its Monday evening, so you've been out for about a day. I'm having dinner sent in, you must be starving."
Will left, but as promised in just a couple of minutes a tray floated in with dinner on it and I stuffed myself. I'm not sure why I was out so long, but I felt fine once I woke up fully. I took my time showering and getting dressed. I figured I would go to the study room first, then to the practice field until I found everyone and could report what I saw in Voldemort's head. When I opened the door I found Ginny sleeping in the floor just outside my room. She stirred as I opened the door.
On seeing me, Ginny leap off the floor and into my arms, her lips planted firmly on mine. After a moment she spoke. "Mom said I couldn't stay in your room so I slept out here and waited all day... are you okay?"
"I feel fine. Why? What happened?"
"In Dumbledore's office, you were gone like forever! Like two hours! Then when you finally came back, Jennifer did something to help, you looked around, and just collapsed. No one could revive you, not Will, or Jennifer or Madam Pomfrey... we didn't know what was wrong. Jennifer said you would be fine and that you just needed rest but... I was so scared." She wept.
"Ginny, I'm fine. Don't be scared."
"I'm not now, but..."
"But what honey?"
"Promise me you won't do that again. Please! Please promise me!"
"I won't, unless a life depends on it. It takes a lot out of you. Now come on, where is everyone? Did I miss anything?"
"Yeah! Slughorn felt so bad when he found out what you were doing when you got hurt that he gave Dumbledore the real memory this afternoon. We are going to talk about it after dinner, he's called a meeting."
"Oh good, so everyone is at dinner?"
"Yeah, I mean, except you and me, and I guess the Order is out by the grounds. And Will is somewhere about."
"Your mom and dad?"
"Yeah, they are in the dining hall with everyone, why?"
I took her by the hand and pulled her into my room, locking the door. Since her mom had been hired we had not been allowed a moment alone together. That needed to change. I looked at my Flipper watch and figured we had fifteen minutes before folks returned. I'd take it. I threw my arms around Ginny and kissed her with all the fury I could to show her just exactly how I felt about her. She returned my kiss with enthusiasm.
"Do you want to?" She asked, nodding towards the bed.
"No. I mean... yes, of course! But no, not until this is over. Besides we only have a few minutes, I do not want to rush that, I just wanted you to know how I feel. I know you hated it when all the Beaxbaton's girls joined us, and you're probably still not comfortable with the Americans, but you're it for me. I don't want anyone else. You are perfect in every way. And I am so proud you are leading the cavalry, I just, well, you're awesome. I... well, I'm in awe of you. It took Hazel to wake me up to how much I love you, but I'm awake now."
This time it was her that was kissing me furiously.
Ten minutes later we were waiting in the library for everyone with Will, who kept giving us a knowing smirk. It may have been that Ginny was very affectionate towards me now that I was awake and apparently not going to die, but I later found out he had left one of Leo's monitoring gadgets in the room so he would know when I was waking up. It didn't matter, as I didn't care who knew how I felt about Ginny.
The meeting consisted of the usual people plus DA2 who had a training group, but not for another hour. Quidditch was done until after the Christmas break, so there was nothing for them to do but join us. Luna sat with Ginny as they were fast becoming the best of friends along with Hermione, and Luna had been joining our strategy sessions often of late.
Hazel called the meeting to order and promptly thanked Jennifer, Will and the gods for my safe return. She asked if I could recall anything and I told them an overview of my visit to Voldemort's brain starting with the feeling of apparating, then focusing on horcruxes and the cascade of images, then stunning Voldemort and vandalizing his mind's wall, which got a great laugh out of Snape, Lupin and Sirius. I didn't leave out that everything, including time, seemed frozen and Jennifer had told me it was time to return, which matched what they said about Jennifer doing some magic on me after I was in the spell for a couple hours.
"Harry" Dumbledore asked when I finished, "This barrage of images, by chance were there seven of them?"
"Six" Slughorn said, as if correcting him.
Everyone stared at Slughorn until he continued. "Tom asked me if it were possible to split the soul into seven pieces. If this is what he did, then he made six horcruxes, and had one portion left to occupy himself. We believe Harry that when you deflected his killing curse, that part of him was cast free and it roamed until it landed on Professor Quirrel. So he would have created six in order to have seven sections of soul."
"That does make sense. What of it Harry, were there six of anything?"
"There wouldn't be six either. Remember, Harry already destroyed the diary, and Hazel destroyed the ring. So there should be but four left, and one of those is the snake. So really, we're looking for three." Ginny announced.
"That... that is an excellent analysis Miss Weasley. Harry, did you see three of anything?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, sorry Professor, there were a lot more. I saw people, I didn't know any of them, mermaids, the diary, it was there! And the ring! Oh, and so much other stuff. A room filed with junk, a cave by the sea, some,,, well, it looked like antiques or just junk, you know, stuff old people have on their bookshelves. Some of it was on a book shelf and..." I looked down at Luna's notebook which was of course covered with her doodles, and said "That! That was there, what is that?" I asked as I pointed to a drawing on the cover that she had apparently made.
"This?" she asked, pointing at the drawing.
"Yes, that was there, it was like dark purple stones with lots of diamonds."
"It is the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. It hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."
"It was there, he has seen it, I think, I mean, I feel it is a horcrux. I don't know how I know that, but, well, it is." I said, not sounding very convincing even to myself.
"Miss Jennifer, does your library have a copy of Winston Churchill's "The Treasures of Hogwarts" by chance?"
She waved her wand and the appropriate tomb gently flew over from the shelf it had rested on. "I tried to get copies of everything in the unrestricted section of the library, but some are difficult to procure." She said.
"I can imagine. This book for instance was previously believed to have but one copy as it was handwritten and illustrated by the author while a student here." Dumbledore smiled.
"Then the aerials have copied it accurately." She grinned.
"Is this what you saw Harry?" Dumbledore asked after finding the right page. He showed me a better rendering of the diadem.
"Yes, it was exactly that. So a diadem is a crown?"
"Yes, or a tiara. It was the property of Rowena Ravenclaw and supposedly enchanted by her to give the wearer greater wisdom. It was lost when her daughter, Helena, stole it." Luna said.
"How would Riddle have gotten it?" Sirius asked.
"Well the legend goes that Helena eventually regretted her actions and returned to Hogwarts with it. It is allegedly on the grounds somewhere, although no one living has seen it." Lupin said.
"Voldemort has" I said.
"Yes. Apparently so. I'm curious Harry, did you see anything like this?" Dumbledore asked, showing me a picture of the sword of Gryffindor.
"Gryffindor's sword? No, but remember, I've seen it before, but no... I didn't seen it in Voldemort's head."
"I thought perhaps he had used objects associated with the school or its founders. Odd that he would use the diadem and nothing else."
"What other objects are associated with the school?"
"Oh, there are many. Just as there are many associated with its founders it could take days to list all possibilities." Dumbledore answered.
"Maybe there is an easier way. Harry, do you think if I drew pictures you could describe the things you saw? For now lets not worry about the people, just everything else?" Hazel asked.
"Sure, I mean, it might take a while too, but sure. Wouldn't it make more sense to just take the memory from me and use the penseive to review it?"
"Unfortunately what is learned during occulemancy isn't a memory in the sense that it can be recovered and reviewed. It is like a copy of a copy, it is someone else's mental information so when it is retrived for use in a penseive it becomes too garbled to make any sense of." Dumbledore answered.
"And ya know, if we focus just on the objects, not the people or animals or places" Hazel said before Frank interrupted,
"I thought we decided the snake was a horcrux."
"We did." Ron replied.
"Well, then the dogs and spiders and such could be too, couldn't they?" Frank asked.
"The snake has become Voldemort's familiar. He can only have one. I don't think he would cast a part of his soul into an animal beyond his total control for safekeeping."
"What is a familiar?" Frank asked for all of the Americans.
"Well, it is an animal, usually magical, that is connected to the witch or wizard in such a way as to be an extension of them. They can be used for tasks the witch doesn't wish to perform themselves, and usually the witch and concentrate and see through their eyes. Honestly, I thought Miss Hazel's horse and Miss Reyna's pegasus were familiars until I learned one was a minor god in his own right." Snape replied.
"If I may, I would ask that you start with a drawing of this cave you mentioned Harry. I have a suspicion regarding it I would like to either confirm or else dispose of."
"Certainly sir, but shouldn't we hurry? I fear I may have stirred Voldemort to action. He seemed quite perturbed that I would invade his mind."
"You didn't tell him?" Dumbledore asked Will.
"No, I felt the group might enjoy letting him know." Will replied.
"This is from this morning Harry." Leo said as he turned on a screen on the side of one of his spheres on the table. It showed the front walk of a beautiful stone mansion, not as majestic as Leo and Jennifer's home, but impressive none the less. "Remember the bug we had on the Malfoy residence? It sent this."
I realized I was watching the front of Draco's home, and just then four people apparated in carrying a stretcher that had Voldemort on it. They ran into the home and minutes later others began apparating in as well.
"That is Voldemort's healer, who was summoned by Bellatrix LeStrange, the sister of Mrs Malfoy. Snape said.
"Also known as my cousin." Sirius said with great sadness.
A moment later Snape apparated in. "That is of course me." Snape smiled.
"This morning Peter Pettigrew went to wake Voldemort and found him comatose. He summoned the four you saw bringing him, and, well, the rest you saw. I was summoned by LeStrange as well. Voldemort's healer reports that sometime in the night his mind was shattered by a mental attack. It is unknown when he might wake, and, if he does, what condition his mind will be in. Apparently the healer found extensive damage and he does not think the dark lord will waken before spring, if at all. At that time it is anyone's guess if he will even know who he is. In the mean time it is the plan of the Death Eaters to continue to gather an army in his name, although what they consider an army and what we do are two completely different things. The Death Eaters favor numbers over skill and organization. In addition Bellatrix has assumed command and has issued a death warrant for the only person she believes capable of such an attack, our Headmaster." Snape reported. "She intends to begin attacks on Hogwarts students outside of Slytherin House as means of ultimately eliminating the Headmaster from Hogwarts, then attacking him where he is not as well defended. It is important that we move the children to safety, and all now reside in either the Leodis or the barracks, save Slytherin House.
"I guess that means you're back to being the one too young to die." Annabeth said.
"Indeed, I suppose it does." Dumbledore replied. "As well as explaining why we must move the student body behind Poseidon's wall."
