AN: Yes I know Tonks's age is a bit off, she should be a year older. But for story purposes, I am going to make her a seventh year when Harry was a first year.
After a harrowing breakfast, where the twins and the remaining marauders shot ideas back and forth and Harry wondered if he had created an unholy alliance, he was pushed upstairs with the other children to clean the drawing-room. The spraying of the doxies was just as miserable as the first time and Harry waited anxiously to get closer to the locket in the cabinets by the mantle. He forgot that they had sprayed doxies all morning the first time and that they only reached the cabinets after lunch. He made a game of the spraying with Fred, George, and Sirius that made Mrs. Weasley red-faced with irritation. It involved spraying in different patterns and throwing doxies at each other. Molly did not like it.
Harry inhaled his sandwich at lunch and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting to get into the cabinets. When it was finally time, he took a moment to examine the contents and he could not believe he had not examined them before. Had the Horcrux made him blind and dumb?
There were old daggers, slightly rusted but durable and probably coated in poisons. There was a coiled snakeskin that must be rare if it was sitting there and probably very useful in potions. The same for the small vial of what was probably blood from a rare creature and the claws. The little boxes were still inscribed with languages he did not know but he was itching to see them closer.
Mrs. Weasley started throwing things into bags, and Harry panicked, "Wait!" he yelled, and everyone froze where they stood, thinking some disaster had befallen them.
"Those are probably useful potions ingredients…the blood, and the claws and stuff…don't you think we should save them for Snape if he's in the Order?" he finished, weakly. Oh, nice going Harry, they're all gonna think you're touched in the head doing something nice for Snape. Sirius looked like Harry had just clubbed him over the head.
"Oh, Harry dear, I didn't think of that! Of course, I'll ask Severus, we can just leave those be." Mrs. Weasley said as she bustled around. Everyone else shook out of their surprised stupors but did not stop examining Harry.
"Harry, why are you giving things to Snivellus?" Sirius asked him. All of the Weasley children laughed when they heard this name and Harry felt dread curl in his stomach that they might spread it around.
"Don't use that name, Siri." Harry glared at him, and then looked away. "It's my OWL year and I need to get into NEWT potions, I need to be nicer to the man."
"Oh, Harry, that's a brilliant idea!" Hermione squealed, making Harry grimace at her enthusiasm. He wasn't actively mad at Hermione and Ron, it had been too long since his real fifth year, but he did feel separate from them now. They were not the ones who fought Death Eaters with him and followed him to war. They were just school children.
They continued clearing out the cabinets, and eventually, they got to the locket that no one could open. Harry waited impatiently for it to be passed to him. He had considered his course of action for the locket and had decided to expose some of his new magic sensing ability. He reached out as Ginny handed it off to him and gave a startled yelp as it came to rest in his palm. He felt Voldemort's dark insidious magic curling up his arm and invading his heart, making it heavier. He dropped the locket quickly and yelled, "Everyone stay back!"
"Harry! What is it?" Sirius asked, edging towards him.
Harry turned to him with a grim look that he didn't have to fake. "That locket feels like Voldemort's magic in that diary from second year. Don't touch it."
Everyone in the room paled and stepped back further from the locket. Ginny looked like she might be sick.
"I'll call the Headmaster," Mrs. Weasley said. Harry had expected her to say this and decided he might as well let it happen. He did not like that he was raised to die but he understood Dumbledore's motives, and he trusted him to do anything he could to get rid of Tom. Mrs. Weasley hustled out of the room to go Floo call the Headmaster.
"Everyone else should leave," Harry said seriously, "This isn't magic you should all be exposed to. I already have been, I'll be fine."
Everyone tried to argue with him, but eventually, Molly came back and pushed all of her children and Hermione out of the room. She tried to get Harry to leave as well but he refused to back down.
"Sirius is here, Mrs. Weasley, I'll be fine," Harry said. She drew a deep breath, getting herself ready for another argument but at that moment Albus Dumbledore glided into the room in all his glory, his eyes taking in everything quickly. He saw the locket on the floor in front of Harry, and he paled a bit in shock. Harry realized he must have already seen it in a memory.
"I'll take it from here, Molly, thank you," he said. Mrs. Weasley huffed but listened to his authority and left the drawing-room.
Dumbledore met Harry's serious gaze and asked, "Do you know that that is, Harry?"
"No, sir, but it feels just like the diary," he answered, honestly.
The Headmaster's eyes widened, "You can feel the magic?"
Time to lie a bit. "I've been feeling magic more and more for the last year, Voldemort's is very strong," he said.
"Yes, Tom always had a unique magic…" Dumbledore trailed off, levitating the locket up into the air and examining it.
"What is it, sir?" Harry asked innocently.
"A very dark piece of magic, my boy. Very dark, indeed. I wonder – how did it get into this house at all?"
"We could ask Kreacher," Harry tried to suggest nonchalantly, "he probably knows about all of the objects in this house."
"Yes, my boy, I think you're right, could you call him for us, Sirius?" Dumbledore said.
Sirius looked at both of them like they were crazy but acquiesced to the Headmaster's request. "KREACHER!" he yelled. Kreacher appeared with a pop in his dirty pillowcase in front of them, already muttering. He stopped muttering quickly though and instead started grasping at the locket that Dumbledore had levitating like a madman.
"He has Master Regulus's locket he does! Kreacher must get it back! Kreacher must, must, must - "
"Hello, Kreacher," Harry interrupted, "Can you tell us where this locket came from?"
"Filthy half-blood asks Kreacher about the locket, Kreacher should not tell him…."
"Kreacher. I order you to tell us about this locket and how it got here." Sirius said.
And then the whole story came out. Voldemort needing a house-elf, Regulus stealing the locket and dying, Kreacher trying to destroy it. Sirius looked shaken by the end of it and Dumbledore just looked intrigued and rather vindicated (probably that his theory of there being more Horcruxes was true).
"We will destroy the locket, Kreacher. You have not failed your master," Harry told him. Kreacher looked like he might burst into tears at that. Harry turned to the headmaster. "So, what is the locket, sir?"
"Ah, I cannot tell you that, yet, my boy – "
"Pardon me, sir. But I destroyed an object just like that once and I found this one. I think I deserve to know and to help."
Dumbledore looked old and exhausted when Harry said this, clearly not used to a confident and calm Harry Potter. "I only have guesses, Harry…."
"So, tell us your guesses, Headmaster," interrupted Sirius.
The Headmaster just gazed sadly at the locket, before looking up and meeting their eyes, "I think that Tom made Horcruxes – that he split his soul into different containers – and that this locket is one of them."
Sirius looked vaguely ill and Harry sat down heavily on one of the dusty chaise lounges and tried to look shocked. "I killed one of them, didn't I? The diary?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"So, how many did he make?" Sirius added in.
"I am unsure…I have a few ideas of what objects could have been used but I do not know how many were made," Dumbledore said.
"Have you been looking for them?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore hesitated, "When I have the time," he hedged.
Harry snorted. "Pardon me, sir, but why don't you have a task force for these objects? You could have people in the Order that you trust look for them."
The Headmaster looked bewildered at this idea since delegation was not his usual approach, "This…is very dark magic…I don't want - "
"Sir. You could have a trusted group of people hunting these down. Bill Weasley is a curse breaker, Remus is wasting his considerable intelligence on werewolves who are a lost cause, Tonks can get into anywhere…all of them would be willing to take on this task." Harry said passionately.
In a rare show of casualness, Dumbledore took off his half-moon glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You are right, Harry. I should have thought of that…I will work on gathering a group."
"I'd like to be included in the group, sir."
"I as well, Albus," Sirius said.
Dumbledore just sighed and nodded. "I will take the locket back to my office and work on destroying it," he said.
"I used a basilisk fang last time, Headmaster. We could enter the chamber and get more…" Harry said.
"You may be onto something, Harry. Let me think about it and perhaps soon we can enter the chamber together. I will see you all at the meeting tomorrow night."
After the Professor walked out of the room less jovially than he entered, Sirius and Harry sat in silence for a while, both considering the large fight they had ahead of them.
Xxx
The next morning Harry handed a letter to Tonks for her to take into work with her.
Madame Bones,
I am writing to ask for your assistance in a personal matter. I am contacting you through my friend, Nymphadora Tonks, whom I met when she was a seventh-year student and I a first year. She has agreed to give you this message. I am afraid my mail is being watched by several interested parties and I do not wish to endanger my owl further, so I hope you will forgive me for the cloak and dagger delivery method.
My godfather, Sirius Black, is being hunted by the Ministry as an escaped convict. Unfortunately, he was never convicted so this is unlawful and that is why am I writing. You see, I have reason to believe my godfather is innocent. This June, during the last task of the tournament, I was witness to an event that involved the deceased Peter Pettigrew, who looked decidedly alive. I am sending my memory of the event in a vial in the package that Tonks should have given you. I would request that you watch the memory and proceed how you see fit. I will be at the Ministry on Aug. 12th for my hearing and would appreciate an audience with you afterward if you are amenable.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my letter.
Sincerely,
Harry James Potter