AN: Another shorter chapter, but if I wrote much more, it would have been twice the length of a regular chapter and it would mess me up quite a bit. There also was no easy way to transition from the end of this to the beginning of the next one, so you got this. Now, a couple of things; first off, I don't mean anything bad about Nanoha, but she comes across, to me at least, as a 'try to hard' sort of person, so that's what is supposed to be conveyed in the appropriate section below (you'll know it when you read it), and I know from personal experience that such people can be rather... grating at times, but hey! These are children, they're people, what sort of real person is perfect in every way, shape, and form? Harry is secretive, and at times a bit reckless, Fate can be too submissive at times, Chrono can be a bit arrogant, Nanoha is rather stubborn, Hayate can be rather in your face, and so on and so forth. Flaws are awesome! Flaws are what make characters into characters, rather than caricatures, or angels, or whatever. Another thing is that I know I'm diverging quite a bit from the books now, and making my own stuff up as I go along, and I'm not completely confident in my ability to give 'my' world enough depth. I beg you to please bear with me while I try and bring things to life, and that you have a little patience too. Third, has anyone any ideas what a good 'reapery' name would be, or at least some way to refer to them that flows better?
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN
Chapter 17 – A Wand
It was late at night, and only a handful of people were still awake in Hogwarts castle. The late evening prefect patrols had ended, and only two professors wandered the halls at night to search for the students who were out after curfew. There were some students still awake in their dormitories or common rooms, a few of whom were trying to finish their homework for classes the next day.
If one had the ability to see Astral spirits that were actively hiding from mortal eyes, they would have seen something rather unusual, a shade was wandering around the headmaster's office, as well as the rooms beyond it where the old man slept.
Once the shade had finished what it was doing, it left the room and floated up to the roof of the tower, where it found its master and two further Astral spirits, reapers this time. One reaper was the one that had been sealed inside what was known as the 'resurrection stone', while the other had been extracted from the 'cloak of invisibility', which was now nothing more than a rather nice bit of clothing.
"The wand is on his bedside table." The shade informed its master, Harry Ritter. "He is asleep, but there are a number of wards on the room to prevent entry. However, if you can get inside without setting them off, there's no further traps that I noticed."
"So, entry via the Astral Plane then?" Harry mused aloud. "Unless there's something there that's too much for me to handle."
"I checked." The shade replied. "The greatest threat is a Revenant, a Class three spirit. You... should be able to handle something like that without too much difficulty, though your Wraith-blade really isn't all that powerful yet."
"Take my scythe then." One of the reapers said, this one with glowing blue eyes, and a more masculine voice. "Me and my sister may be weakened due to our imprisonment, but our weapons are still as effective as ever, and I wish to see my brother as soon as possible."
Harry accepted the scythe from the reaper with a grateful nod, before turning to his shade again. "Any idea if this really is the right wand? It'd be a hell of a muck up if we go through all this only for the wand to be nothing special."
"The wand is old, older than the wizard by far." The shade informed him. "If it is not the elder wand you believe it may be, it is of the same ilk. I can feel some sort of Astral presence from it, but far weaker than both the stone and cloak. It is likely that the spirit bound to it is either bound tighter, or is greatly weakened, perhaps both."
Harry sighed. "Well, no time like the present then. Wish me luck."
With that, he shifted into the Astral Plane.
xxxxx
Fate, still awake despite the late hour, rolled over in bed.
She had a few things on her mind recently, and she couldn't help but think about them. To start with, there was the form her boggart had taken, Presea Testarossa and Alicia. Fate had accepted the fact she was a clone, that she was a copy of someone else, but that didn't mean she had to like it.
If Presea had never lost Alicia, then Fate would have never existed, and yet, Presea didn't care for her, only the original. If Fate had died, she had little doubt that her 'mother' would have simply used another clone in her place, and another after that, and so on and so forth.
This lead to the one thing she actually resented about Nanoha, the pity. Of course, this was a bit stupid, she knew, Nanoha cared for anyone and everyone, it was simply part of her nature. However, there was a small part of the blonde girl that hated Nanoha for the pity she gave her, for the concern.
She hated how Nanoha told her she was her own person with her own choices and feelings, as if she didn't know that already.
It was the one thing that Hayate lacked. The formerly wheelchair-bound girl knew what it was like to be pitied, and so didn't pity Fate, but treated her just like anyone else. Hell, Hayate had only known Fate was a clone when it had been brought up, and while she put on a display of care for Fate, she knew that Hayate hadn't been bothered by it at all, and was just doing it for show.
The Wolkenritter were the same, they didn't care for the fact she was a clone, they didn't try and tell her she was her own person, and neither did they denounce her as nothing more than a copy, she was simply there to them, a comrade, a friend of their master.
Harry, another one who didn't care she was a clone. He'd known about it before he met her, of course, from Reinforce who'd absorbed both her and Nanoha's memories. He had a very different way of going about things though, a very proactive mindset.
Harry did not care for where you came from or what you were, he was focused on where you were going, what you intended to do, and how you might go about achieving such a thing. He was very much a 'aim high and do your best to get there' sort of person.
Fate also felt some level of... empathy for him.
She was a clone who had been created in the image of a dead girl, and he was a corpse given a semblance of life only to be some sort of magical suicide bomber baby.
The way they dealt with their situations, however, was wildly different. Fate was a reflection of what people saw her as, a demure beauty with artificially enhanced magical power, a polite and friendly young girl, if a bit shy, that everyone either envied or adored.
Harry had decided to discard any preconceptions and strike out on his own, willing to use magic others were leery of, willing to ask questions no one wanted to answer. He was helpful and fairly friendly, yes, but he was also somewhat distant, separated from others by his drive and determination.
It was something she both envied and admired about him.
Of course, all of this was simply one of the many things she was thinking on right them. Running through her mind, there was also her integration into this school of magic she found herself in. A little surprisingly, the colour of her eyes hadn't caused her as many problems as she had expected it would.
She knew that many fairy tales, stories, games, and films often had red eyes being a sign of evil and the like. However, in a society that seemed stuck several centuries in the past, she had almost no problems because of it. Oh, there were a few who cast aspersions on her character due to her eye colour, but most seemed fine with it, possibly having gotten used to seeing Harry with a red eye for the previous two years.
Something caught Fate's attention in the corner of her eye.
Out of the window, she could see over the castle and towards some of the other towers. In the distance, she just managed to catch a glimpse of something on the roof of one of the other towers.
"Bardiche, what is that over there?" She quietly asked her Device.
[I am sensing Aionia Mnimi in that direction, suggesting that it is your friend Harry, sir!] Bardiche reported.
Fate frowned. Why would Harry be on the roof of one of the towers? She didn't know which particular tower it was, not yet being familiar with the castle layout. She knew it wasn't Gryffindor tower, or the Astronomy tower though, she knew which one the former was due to seeing through the windows of that one and seeing the students there, and the latter had an open roof for lessons. She also knew it wasn't the Owlery either.
She was about to attempt to contact him telepathically, to ask what was going on, when he vanished from sight.
xxxxx
Hanging from the roof by one hand, Harry had to say, was really not very 'fun'.
Thankfully, the window was within reach, and it wasn't too difficult to latch onto that while he held the reaper's scythe between his feet. It also wasn't too difficult to get the window open as, on the Material Plane, they were kept shut with magic rather than latches – he had no idea why – so on the Astral Plane, there was nothing preventing him simply pushing it open and clambering through it.
The scythe was a bit more difficult to get inside however.
Once inside the room, Harry examined the Revenant that was there. Oh, there were a few other spirits in the room, but not many, and nothing particularly threatening. It was the Class three spirit he was interested in, the first he'd ever seen. The reapers didn't quite count as they were currently really weak due to their circumstances.
The revenant was tall and thin, almost stretched in appearance. Its flesh was a black-brown colour, and there was what looked like strips of semi-rotten flesh hanging off it. It's arms were thin, like the spindly branches of a desiccated willow tree, and stuck straight out at the shoulder. They ended in a claw, three where fingers should be, and one more in place of an opposable thumb.
It wore a strange sort of long robe that was open at the sides, from the armpit down, but bound around the waist with a sort of belt. The robe fell to its feet, so Harry couldn't tell just how human or otherwise they were, though he was leaning towards them being as clawed as its 'hands' were.
The revenant's head was like an upside down triangle, though more rounded. It had sunken eyes, and a very long mouth that seemed to be opened wide in a perpetual scream. Fortunately, it wasn't looking right at Harry, but it would notice him very soon if Harry didn't do anything.
He closed the window behind him.
Harry then slowly stepped out into the room. After all, he had a scythe in his hands, if he was going to use it, he would actually need room to swing it. Of course, it was as he stepped out that the revenant's gaze seemed to fix on him, and also when Harry noticed the large sword clutched in the revenant's claw.
"LIFE!" The revenant screeched, launching itself at Harry with a wild swing of its blade.
Harry ducked underneath the weapon and attempted to hack the revenant's legs off with the scythe. However, despite the amateurish attack, the Astral spirit had faster reactions than Harry had given it credit for and leapt backwards and away from Harry.
"Need life! Want your life!" The revenant gibbered, raising one claw to Harry, whose eyes widened as a reddish orange fireball was suddenly launched at him.
Diving aside, Harry rolled out of the way of the attack, only to be forced to dodge again. This time, it was like a cone in front of the revenant simply froze, covering everything with a layer of frost and taking Harry's breath away. Hoping that it wouldn't cast another invocation so soon, he decided to go on the offensive.
A shadow bolt only made the revenant stumble, but it was enough for Harry to get in close and attempt to strike it down with the borrowed scythe. He didn't mean to, but subconsciously he attempted to use his Wraith-blade while attacking. The result of which was the black scythe being outlined with a familiar grey 'glow'.
Unfortunately, the revenant managed to put its own blade between it and the scythe, and despite how thin and wasted its arms looked, the revenant was strong, strong enough to match Harry's own strength easily and force him back. It was then that Harry, once again, remembered that on the Astral Plane, he didn't have any magical augmentations for his speed and strength.
Still, the revenant was strong!
Instead of continuing the battle of strength, which he was losing anyway, Harry disengaged and darted to the side, swinging the scythe as he did so, hoping to do some damage to the revenant, if only to just slow it down a bit. However, the revenant was still the superior fighter and dodged Harry's attack once more.
While it was still mid-jump, however, Harry, being as reckless as he sometimes was, darted forward to shoulder barge the revenant, and succeeded in tripping it up. He then swung the scythe down on revenant, only to be blocked once more by that damn sword it held.
Holding off Harry with one hand, the revenant jabbed its other claw at the young necromancer, a sizzling bolt of white lightning jumping from it and into Harry's side.
Harry yelled in pain as the invocation tore through him like a sledgehammer through wet tissue paper. One of Harry's hands left the scythe as he stumbled back to feel at the chunk blown out of his side. Fortunately, spiritual damage could be recovered from given time, and didn't reflect physical health.
Unfortunately, Harry was currently in the middle of a battle he wasn't properly prepared for. Facing down a dozen or more Class two spirits was one thing, but trying to fight a single Class three was something else. This was the difference between one level of power and another, and it was quite obvious just how much stronger a revenant was compared to a sluagh.
It made him wonder just how powerful the reapers would be when they recovered, being Fourth class spirits and a level of power above this revenant.
"Life! Fresh life for me!" The revenant seemed to be delighted... or maybe in pain? It was hard to tell when all it did was screech and scream like that.
"Hell. No." Harry growled out, refusing to become this spirit's next meal.
The revenant charged forward, knocking Harry back and onto the floor. He stopped its blade with the shaft of the scythe though, before rolling slightly and managing to kick the revenant in the face. Sadly, that didn't really do much damage, only disorientating it, though it did give Harry the chance to roll to the side and out of immediate danger.
Glancing down at his side, Harry saw his spiritual flesh was slowly regenerating, though it left him feeling drained. It would take several hours, at least, before it was fully fixed though, and his Tiet reserves were rapidly being eaten up. He had maybe five minutes to finish this fight, he'd be running on fumes after that.
The revenant, however, had yet to receive even the slightest cut from Harry. Luckily, the scythe Harry held was the weapon of a reaper, a Fourth class spirit, meaning that it was strong enough to pretty much only need one cut, as long as he caught the revenant right.
Harry decided to just go for it.
Two rapid shadow bolts aimed at the revenant's knees made it stumble slightly, and Harry was already running at it full speed. He blocked the revenant's sword with the shaft of the scythe once more, but instead of fighting it, he twisted so that the blade was deflected one way, and the scythe itself was on a collision course for the revenant's shoulder.
He lashed out with a kick, knocking the revenant back, and put his full weight behind the scythe as it seemed to inch closer to the revenant in slow motion. He was just beginning to hope that this was going to be it, when the revenant's foot lashed out, clawing Harry's own ankle and making him stumble.
He'd overstretched on that last blow, and rather than recovering from his fall, he was knocked head over heels across the floor instead.
As he tried to get up, he found the revenant hovering right over him. One of its clawed hands was pinning his wrist and scythe to the ground, and it had contorted itself so that on foot was placed on Harry's chest, keeping his full body pinned to the ground.
Its eyes seemed to gleam hungrily as it leaned over him, and there was a disgusting sucking noise coming from it's mouth. Oh, hell! Was that some sort of worm or something in there!? There seemed to be a large worm, as thick around as Harry's wrist, coming from the revenant's mouth, and...
The 'worm' opened up, peeling itself back like a banana, revealing a mouth full of long, sharp teeth that reached for Harry, eager to devour him...
The revenant froze in place, and Harry's eyes opened wide as he saw the tip of a blade emerging from the revenant's chest. Shoving it aside, as the revenant's strength had left it, Harry looked up to see the first reaper he'd met stood on the windowsill with her own scythe embedded in revenant's back.
"We were wondering what was taking you so long." She told him. "Not much of a necromancer, are you, if a measly revenant can come so close to killing you?" She mocked him. "Do you not know any invocations to subdue it?"
"As a matter of fact, no." Harry replied. "I only know the Wraith-blade and shadow bolt, both of which were taught to me by my shade, and as you know, my Wraith-blade isn't exactly the most powerful one there's ever been." He sighed. "Thanks for the save though, I thought I was done for."
"You are trying to retrieve my brother's prison, I have reason to keep you alive and well." She responded. "As for not knowing any invocations, I know a handful, perhaps I may teach you one or two of them." She turned around to regard the other Astral spirits in the room who'd kept out of the revenant's way while it and Harry fought.
The other reaper soon joined Harry in the room, and he handed the scythe back to him. The shade also made an appearance, though it seemed focused on the rapidly dissolving corpse of the revenant. It beckoned Harry over and indicated the 'corpse'.
"Plunge your Wraith-blade into it. You won't get much from it, but every little bit helps. Claim it's blade also, use it to enhance your Wraith-blade as you did with the reaper's scythe. It won't dissolve like the revenant if you claim it for yourself." The shade told him, and Harry was too exhausted to argue and did exactly that.
Once that was done, he stumbled towards the door separating the headmaster's office and the man's own quarters. Pushing it open, he headed through the first room and into the second, before finally entering what he knew to be Dumbledore's bedroom.
"Shade, please check for me that he's still asleep. Knowing my luck, he'll have awoken by now." Harry requested.
"Very well, master, I will return in just a moment." The shade bowed to him, before fading from view.
It was only a handful of seconds later that the shade reappeared, but by this time, the reapers had followed after Harry and taken up positions just behind and either side of him, rather like bodyguards would.
"He's asleep, master, though I would suggest grabbing the wand and returning to the Astral Plane as quickly as possible." The shade suggested. "He seems to be a fairly light sleeper, and I doubt he got to his age by sleeping through trouble."
"Understood." Harry agreed. "However, once I've gotten the wand, please check that I've left nothing behind, no hairs caught on anything or the like."
The shade nodded, before guiding over to where, on the Material Plane, Dumbledore's bedside table was, indicating just where the bed with the sleeping man on it was as well.
Taking a steadying breath, despite it hardly being necessary for a spirit, Harry shifted back to the Material Plane, his eyes already scanning around for the wand. It took but a moment for him to see it, his hand reaching out to grab it, and another moment to return to the Astral Plane.
The shade, already anticipating the question, faded from view for a moment, before returning.
"He did not wake, and I detected no proof of you being there." It informed him.
"Good." Harry breathed. "Now, let's get somewhere else and see if I can free your brother." That last point was addressed to the reapers, both of him did not look at all happy to see the wand currently in Harry's hand.
"Yes, lets." The female reaper agreed.
xxxxx
Going out of the window and down the outside of the tower, was quite frankly both scary and exhilarating. Spiritual bodies didn't receive 'fall damage' in the same way that a physical one would, so there was little risk of injury if they fell – which Harry did – aside from being rather 'winded' when they hit the ground.
After that, it only took a quick shift to the Material Plane and a Dimensional Transfer spell for them to end up, once more, on the world that seemed to be acting as Harry's workshop of sorts.
"Right, how are we going to get your brother out of here?" Harry asked. "Destroying the stone worked, but the cloak was trickier as that simply refused to be destroyed."
"It's a wand, isn't it? Wands are easily broken, just like any other twig." The male reaper said.
Deciding that he might as well start with something simple like that, Harry tapped the ground with his foot, raising a golem from the earth beneath his feet. He handed the wand to the golem, which wandered away before trying to snap it. Harry wasn't going to risk it blowing up in his face or something like that if it was trapped. Hell, breaking a wand tended to release whatever mana remained in it, and this wand was both old and had a Class four spirit sealed inside of it!
It turned out he was right to have a golem try and break it for him.
Harry blinked in surprise as he examined the crater the resulting explosion had left behind, it was about half as deep as he was tall, and definitely not the sort of thing he'd want to get hit by himself. In the middle of the crater was the two parts of the wand, and a third reaper spirit.
This one seemed, if anything, to be in even worse condition than his siblings. Every bone Harry could see appeared to be nothing but cracks and breaks, with even the most shallow of them running deep into the bone. Harry couldn't detect Astral 'auras', but he was willing to bet that this spirit's was virtually non-existent.
So, seeing all this, Harry got to work. Fixing the bones up might not help the spirit recover its power, but there was no way that being composed of so many broken bones could be comfortable or healthy, and healing them up likely helped things along. Aside from that, it couldn't hurt, so there was no harm in it at least.
The reaper was unconscious, or so Harry thought, and didn't wake up at all while Harry went about fixing the many breaks in his bones. Despite it being rather easy for him to fix the damage, the sheer quantity of cracks and breaks kept Harry there for several hours as he methodically went about healing them one by one.
By the time he finished, dawn was only a couple hours away.
The Astral spirits watched as Harry created a magic clone and sent it off to school in his place for the day. They remained silent as Harry sat down and began to do some more work on the Pleiades golems. It was the female reaper who eventually asked why he wasn't going to school that day.
"I probably will later." Harry replied. "However, before that, I want to ask Hound if they've had any success on tracking down likely places for Voldemort to have hidden his horcruxes. We're still missing three, if he indeed did make six of them, and there's only so many places to look.
Honestly, one of the most likely places for a horcrux to be is Gringotts, and there's no way the goblins will let us into any vault but our own, especially if we intend to do something to an item they are keeping for someone. That means breaking into the bank, which comes with a whole host of problems, the least of which is what the goblins would do if they caught us. There's some pretty nasty rumours about what sort of traps and things they have guarding the vaults down there, and I don't want to fall prey to any of them."
"Could we not do as we did just now, and traverse the Astral Plane to avoid them?" One of the reapers asked.
"Goblins are paranoid buggers, I wouldn't put it past them to have traps that could affect, or at least detect, spiritual entities such as yourselves. Heck, there's supposed to be a convergence of leylines inside of Gringotts, not simply beneath there like at Hogwarts. I shudder to think what they could do with that much raw power." Harry sighed.
The shade then added its own opinion, gesturing towards the unconscious third reaper. "As you can see, it is possible to bind Astral spirits with magic, and while wizards may have forgotten about such things, goblins are hoarders, and they likely will have a book or tome somewhere regarding such things. Whether such magic is used, or if said book is simply in storage is another thing entirely though, and like all things, it is a risk."
"Could you not simply speak to the goblins about them having a corrupted item in their halls?" The conscious male reaper asked in exasperation. "Surely they would not like having such a thing there? I fail to see why anyone would wish to hold onto such a thing as a 'horcrux'"
"The goblins don't care what they keep, so long as the client does not break their laws." Harry responded. "Even Voldemort isn't stupid enough to cross them, not with the limited number of followers he had in the first 'war'. If he had attacked the goblins at one point, that would make things so much easier, but he didn't."
"I'm assuming that breaking into the bank will count as a breach of their laws?" The female reaper sarcastically wondered.
Such a question hardly merited an answer, but Harry confirmed it regardless.
"Yes, it does. However, breaking into the bank is not impossible." He said. "It was done summer two years ago, and I have the feeling I know who did it, so if it comes to it, I will attempt to steal a horcrux from Gringotts, if one is there of course. Though finding it would still be a problem, there's literally thousands of vaults down there, and it's an absolute maze too."
"That sounds troublesome." The female reaper said, and if she were human, or at lest had flesh and skin, Harry was sure she'd be frowning.
"Yeah, so let's hope there isn't a horcrux there." Harry agreed.
The reaper didn't say anything else as she and her brother watched over their unconscious sibling, and the shade offered nothing as it returned to watching over both James Potter and Albus Dumbledore, occasionally switching between which one it was observing.
Harry simply continued to make his golems.
xxxxx
Amelia Bones looked up from her paperwork when she heard a knock on her office door. A flick of her wand and it opened to reveal someone that she'd seen more of in the past two years than her previous decades within the Ministry, the head Unspeakable, Hound.
"Another one of your visits, Hound?" She asked. "It's not normal for department heads to get together as often as we do, people will talk, you know?"
Hound snorted. "I doubt anyone will say anything close to the truth, and besides, what makes you think I'm seen when I visit you?"
"I should have known, damned Unspeakables." She replied without venom, rolling her eyes as she did so. "Now, why did you come here?"
"I thought a mutual acquaintance of ours wished to speak, I simply gave him the opportunity." Hound told her, sounding rather amused as he did so. Amelia looked curious, but jumped in shock as a voice came from directly behind her.
"How did you know I was here? I know for a fact that the rest of the Ministry missed my entry." A fairly young, yet somewhat raspy voice grumbled.
"Harry?!" Amelia span around to see the boy in question, who was looking at Hound with a curious expression on his face.
"We didn't notice your entry actually." Hound replied. "We only picked up on you when you stopped doing whatever it was you were doing to keep hidden and used more regular means of remaining unseen. We have sensors for things such as notice-me-not and disillusionment charms, you know?"
"I see." Harry murmured. "Anyway, you're right, I was hoping to speak to at least one of you. I've retrieved another horcrux from the Gaunt shack at Little Hangleton and left a trap for Riddle if he ever returns there. I was wondering if you guys had any more success with tracking down any of them."
"I thought you'd ask about that." Hound said, reaching into his robes for something, before pulling out a locket. "We retrieved this from a cave Riddle visited in his youth. However, it's not the original, and we don't know the current whereabouts or condition of the real horcrux.
"There was a note in it, signed 'RAB', which we believe refers to one Regulus Arcturus Black. What he did with the real thing, we don't know, and finding out will be difficult. Regulus Black went missing towards the end of the last war, though rumours circulated that he was personally killed by Voldemort himself. In truth, we found his body amongst the inferi that filled the lake protecting the horcrux."
"I see." Harry murmured. "Perhaps Sirius might remember something, or we might find a clue at his home or among his personal effects."
"On the bright side, we have discreetly searched pretty much every magical location in Britain." Hound added. "Unfortunately, while we did find some interesting artefacts there, none of them were horcruxes. We haven't managed to search Diagon Alley, the homes of purebloods, Hogwarts, or Hogsmeade though."
Harry thought about that for a moment. He could probably have his shade search the homes of known Death Eaters for anything incriminating, he'd already retrieved the diadem from Hogwarts, and again Hogsmeade could be searched by his shade. Diagon Alley contained Gringotts, one place he actually had to be careful with.
Sighing, he told Amelia and Hound about that idea, as well as his concern regarding the goblins.
Amelia clicked her tongue. "If you find any dark or cursed artefacts class three or higher, let me know, would you? I'd really love to crack down on a few of the less pleasant elements of our world, but I need evidence, or at least a way to get evidence, before I can do much of anything."
"Hmm, yes, I'm feeling rather useless at present." Hound sighed. "I know a few spells that might help you sneak into Gringotts, but no matter how you look at it, doing that is a last resort, and incredibly risky all the same. I'll go over some old records and see if there's anything I can pin on Riddle that the goblins will be unhappy about."
"I'll have one of my auror trainees, possibly Andromeda's girl, dig out every law relating to goblins that exists. That should give her a taste of the less glamorous side of an auror's job, and perhaps we'll find something amongst all of the useless pretty words that we can use." Amelia added.
"Any idea where Voldemort himself is currently holed up?" Harry asked.
"None, unfortunately." Hound told him. "We didn't find him in our search of the country, so we believe he's abroad somewhere. However, if he's currently some sort of disembodied wraith then tracking him is going to be difficult. If he's possessing someone or something, then that would be even harder."
"So the best we can do is keep hunting down his horcruxes and wait for him to surface?" Harry groaned.
"It seems so." Hound agreed.
"Damned dark lord, why couldn't he just die properly?" Amelia grumbled.
"At least we're making progress in permanently killing him off." Harry offered. "Imagine if we'd never found out about the horcruxes at all, or only learned of them once he'd already taken over the country?"
"Somehow, Harry, I don't think that's helping." Hound said, indicating Amelia's expression.
Seeing the head of the DMLE glowering at him, Harry decided that it might be for the best if he returned to Hogwarts already and promptly fled the room.
Hound chuckled lightly. "He keeps things interesting, doesn't he?"
Amelia turned her glare onto the Unspeakable, who just realised he had some really important stuff to do back in his department and he really had to leave right then to check up on it.
Amelia huffed to herself. "Men, no matter what age they are, they never learn how to handle women."
Outside her office and throughout the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, a number of witches and wizards heard something rather uncommon.
The laughter of Amelia Bones.