Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the wonderful wizarding world and all credit must be given to Ms. JK Rowling, however, anything unrecognisable is of my own creation.

This chapter is M Rated for coarse language.

Chapter 25: The Sword of Gryffindor

Sirius and I have a meeting with Dumbledore, so I skipped down to the common room, wearing tight ripped jeans with my favourite converse and a tshirt that hung off my shoulders. I couldn't remember if it was one of Sirius's tshirts, or just a guy's tshirt that I'd brought myself. Sirius was waiting for me as I entered the common room: he smiled.

'How'd I get so lucky again?' I chuckled, walking over to Sirius and pulling him to his feet. We kissed, and weren't interrupted because the other Marauders were busy. After our kiss, Sirius turned to James, Remus, and Wormtail. 'I'm going with Mynee to see Dumbledore.' James peered over his magazine with a confused expression.

'Why?' Sirius shrugged.

'Don't know, Mynee said he requested my presents the next time they had tea.' I watched James raise his eyebrows. I took hold of Sirius's hand and commented that we'd be late if we didn't leave now. I knew James would demand answers from Sirius when we returned, but at least Sirius had some time to construct a decent lie. I lead Sirius out of the portrait and we wondered to the headmaster's office, I spoke.

'I never answered your question.' Sirius raised his eyebrows.

'What question, love?'

'How'd you get so lucky?' Sirius smirked.

'Oh yeah, how'd I get so lucky?' I smirked.

'You're not, I'm only with you for your inheritance.' Sirius rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me closer.

'Ha ha.' I kissed him, and as I did we reached Dumbledore's office. I was surprised when Sirius knew the password, although, as I stood there looking shocked he shrugged. 'Prongs and I put a Dungbomb in Slytherin's fresh laundry; McGonagall sent us to Dumbledore's office yesterday.' I shook my head, before leading Sirius up the staircase.

Once inside Dumbledore's office, Sirius and I took seats opposite the old headmaster. The headmaster finished his cup of tea, before addressing Sirius.

'I assume Mr. Black that Miss. Granger has brought you up to speed with her current predicament.' Sirius nodded.

'Yes, sir.' Dumbledore grinned.

'Miss. Granger has informed me that you're dealing with it better than she expected.' Sirius glanced towards me at this point, meaning I shrugged.

'The older Sirius, well, you've seen him... I thought you might have tried to kill Wormtail by now.' Sirius smirked.

'I've thought about it, but you know what they say, a bludger for a bludger...' I raised my eyebrows so Sirius continued. '... Death doesn't make up for what he's going to put me through. James is my brother, and 12 years in Azkaban accused of his murder must've really fucked with my head. Excuse the language sir.' The characteristic twinkle appeared in Dumbledore's eyes at this point.

'Very well said, Mr. Black... Miss. Granger has also informed me that you've come across a method of disposing of our problem.' Sirius nodded, but allowed me to explain.

'The soul fragments within the horcruxes can't survive without their containers; so destroying their containers destroys the soul fragments. However, the soul fragments are capable of repairing their containers, and therefore to destroy the soul fragments and the horcruxes you have to cause irreversible damage to their containers.' I watch Dumbledore consider this new piece of information, before speaking.

'And you've come up with a way of achieving this?' I nodded.

'Basilisk venom... There's only one antidote, and it's not something a soul fragment could replicate.' I stared towards Fawkes with Dumbledore. There was silence for a moment and I watched Sirius fidget in his seat. I nudged him to make him stop; he glanced towards me and whispered in my ear.

'I don't like this seat, this is Prongs' seat. I usually sit that side.' I rolled my eyes, but swapped seats with Sirius. Sirius leaned back in his usual seat.

'So professor, when do I get to slave this Basilisk?' I gave Sirius a glare for his very blunt question: Dumbledore smirked.

'You believe a sixth year like yourself is capable of defeating such a dark creature.' Sirius shrugged, helping himself to a few lemon sherbets, obviously forgetting about the calming draught they contain.

'Sure, how hard can it be? Prongs Jr. kills one when he's a second year.' I sighed, explaining to Dumbledore the reason behind Sirius's confidence.

'Harry Potter killed the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets when we were second years. He had Fawkes's help though: Fawkes blinded the Basilisk for him.' Dumbledore seemed a little surprised as I said this, so I continued. 'He used the Sword of Gryffindor. I've been researching other methods for killing the Basilisk. I was hoping we could use a rooster, but I've read that the resonance of the rooster's crow will change the molecular structure of the venom, rendering it useless. The Sword of Gryffindor on the other hand is goblin made, so it takes in only that that makes it stronger. I'd imagine Harry impregnated the sword with Basilisk venom when he slayed the Basilisk.' I stopped talking to allow Dumbledore to consider my logic. There was silence as Dumbledore steepled his fingers: it didn't seem he was going to speak for a moment, but then he rose to his feet and took the Sorting Hat down from its position on his shelves.

'Miss. Granger, your intention is to slay the Basilisk?' I nodded, meaning Dumbledore spoke again. 'Hmm... That is very reckless, my dear.' Dumbledore placed the Sorting Hat in front of me and Sirius, and when I didn't speak he continued. 'Very well, though, only a true Gryffindor can pull the sword from the Sorting Hat... and many student sorted into Gryffindor do not demonstrate a pure enough set of traits to summon the sword.' At this point, I attempted to retrieve the sword from the Sorting Hat. I didn't have high hopes of achieving such a feat, because while I was immensely brave at heart and selfless, I had several traits, which would've impressed Rowena Ravenclaw. I reached into the hat and wasn't surprised when the Sword of Gryffindor didn't appear in my hand. I withdrew my empty hand, as the headmaster spoke. 'Don't worry, my dear, I myself have never been able to retrieve the sword.'

I turned my attention to Sirius, whom I could tell wasn't paying attention. Sirius was rather startled, when he realised that me and Dumbledore were watching him.

'What'd I miss?' I sighed: I would've thought he'd memorized the exact position of all the trinkets on Dumbledore's shelves with the amount of time him and James spent in here. Dumbledore spoke.

'Miss. Granger was unable to retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat... so we're hoping you'll have greater success, Mr. Black.' Sirius glanced towards me as I took my seat beside him.

'What? But she's a Gryffindor.' I shrugged.

'But I was almost a Ravenclaw... The Sorting Hat was a little indecisive with me and eventually agreed I would reach my full potential in Gryffindor.' Sirius looked a little worried for a second, before turning to Dumbledore.

'I won't be able to... I'm supposed to be in Slytherin. The Hat only put me in Gryffindor because I argued.' The twinkle appeared in the headmaster's eyes.

'Please try Mr. Black... from my experience the Sorting Hat doesn't put students in houses that they're not suited to.' Sirius hesitated, before reaching into the Sorting Hat. I had my fingers crossed, because if Sirius couldn't retrieve the sword, then we had a problem. There was a moment of silence, before Sirius's face fell, and the next second he withdrew his hand and the Sword of Gryffindor. I watched Sirius staring at the sword in a stunned silence, whilst Dumbledore told Sirius that he'd always been best suited to Gryffindor: that he was brave and courageous, and not afraid to defend his own opinions. I watched Sirius continue to gaze towards the Sword of Gryffindor, before lifting the old sword and speaking.

'I have to kill the Basilisk with this?... It's heavy.' I rolled my eyes.

'Did mother and father not teach their eldest son traditional sword combat?' Sirius's eyes narrowed as he glanced towards me.

'They're old fashioned, not medieval.' I laughed.

'Siri, I was kidding.' Sirius stuck his tongue out, and as he did Dumbledore spoke.

'Miss. Granger, we shall discuss this plan another day... though, in the meantime, I shall organize some training for the two of you. Mr. Black will need to learn how to wield that sword.' I remembered an important detail as Dumbledore agreed to let us face the Basilisk.

'Oh, sir... we'll need someone who speaks parseltongue to open the Chamber and summon the Basilisk.' Dumbledore seemed to have forgotten this little detail as well, so sat stroking his beard as he considered the issue. There was a moment of silence, before Sirius spoke.

'My Uncle Alphard is a parseltongue.' I glanced towards Sirius.

'Really?' Sirius nodded: Dumbledore smiled. We would need to record Alphard speaking the phrases that we required, meaning Sirius said he'd write, asking his Uncle to visit during the next Hogsmeade weekend. The rest of the meeting involved telling Sirius about Tom Riddle's Diary and Marvolo Gaunt's Ring. Sirius confirmed that he'd be attending Lucius and Narcissa's wedding, so the plan to steal the diary seemed to be finalized. Dumbledore, however, was yet to look further into the Gaunt Estate, though, he did have some positive news about identifying the other horcruxes. The reason why Professor Cullen isn't teaching us DADA this year is because Dumbledore has sent her undercover as a Death Eater. The headmaster said she'd inform us if she discovered the identity of any other horcruxes, so I have my fingers crossed that she's successful.

A/N: I'm back! Sorry it took a little while to update... as I said I've started a PhD and I'm currently writing this story on IPhone, during my commute into uni every morning. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it's just a set up for their plan to kill the Basilisk. Thanks you to all my reviewers on my last chapter: that's Skier Chick, harryginny4life, Blue Luver5000, joellen818, and katiek121. Just to clear up a concern I think katiek121 had, Sirius didn't spike Hermione's drink maliciously, he did it because he was concerned about her hysterical behaviour and wanted her to stop stressing out. Anyway, I'm going to try and get the next chapter out today, though what I have planned for the next chapter is something I've been debating over whether I should include. I haven't written it yet, so I'll have to see how it comes across. Remember to review. Love RoxannetheLaugh x.