The Chosen One's Battle

By: Neen

Author's Note:

This is merely my prediction and theories…please do not criticize me if you do not believe any of these…as I said before, these are most likely NOT going to be correct!

Please do not give me a long explanation of how you think that so-and-so shouldn't be like that…this is my story that I think is how the seventh Harry Potter novel will turn out vaguely like.

Please read this story with an unbiased (even if you pretend and still call me crazy on the side) view! Thanks.

Please be gentle (like, 'This needs some work' or something of the sort) because this is my first Harry Potter crew story…I've mostly concentrated on Lily and James (Marauder's Era) stuff…but I felt the need to post up this story because I have so many theories and thoughts…Thank you.

Chapter Four: A Helpful Hint

"Harry, are you sure we're going the right way?" Hermione asked for the third time.

"Yes, Hermione! I asked that bloke in Hogsmeade, didn't I?" Harry answered impatiently as the four trudged along.

"He could be lying! It could all be a trap, Harry," Hermione cried, exasperated.

"Why would anyone want to spring a trap in Godric's Hollow?" Harry asked, stopping.

"They know you might go there—it's your parent's house, for Merlin's sake!" Hermione said, looking frightened.

"No one said that this journey wasn't dangerous, Hermione. If any of you guys want to go, go now," Harry said patiently, looking at all three.

"Rubbish, Harry, we're in with you," Ron said immediately, throwing a glare at Hermione, who nodded firmly. Ginny just looked at Harry in the eyes, and Harry knew her answer.

"Right then," Harry said and they walked on once more.

It was getting dark already; some stars were already springing out from behind the stormy clouds.

Harry muttered, 'Lumos' just as he heard the other three do the same.

They finally reached their destination. The Potters' house was a tidy, large mansion, but the front yawn looked like it hadn't been touched in years; the weeds had grown at an alarming rate and were almost as tall as the front door.

"Reducto!" Harry blasted a pathway through the thick weeds to the front door.

He stared at the doorway, thinking about the night his parents were murdered…here, at this house.

"Well, come on," Harry said in a hearty voice that was most definitely not his.

They walked across the pathway and Harry gently tried the door. It was unlocked.

Hermione gave a shriek as she saw something large scuttling across the doorframe. Ron yelled, "Stupefy!" and the creature stopped in midair.

"Just a...spider," Ron said, breathing heavily as he shook slightly. He looked foreboded at the dark house. Hermione muttered an, "Honestly."

Hermione lit the room for them using a tricky spell and the whole house lightened up. There were cobwebs everywhere and even though outside, the house looked clean and tidy, the inside of it was a wreck. There was a thin sheet of dust and squeaking noises, no doubt made by rats that had inhabited the house in recent years.

Harry stepped to the place he had seen so many times in his dream. The place where his dad had died, murdered by Voldemort himself, as he shouted to his wife to take Harry and run…The place James Potter died.

He then walked over to the stairs—the stairs Lily, his mum, had run on, desperate to find a way out. He ran up the stairs, closely followed by his friends and entered the room his mum had died, defending him, thus giving him an ancient magic that protected Harry from harm. An old, crickety-looking baby's crib stood abandoned, turned over on its side and the window was still wide open after all the years. A chilling breeze blew in and Ginny walked over to close it.

Harry left the room, not being able to take it any more.

"It's getting late. We better Apparate down to that inn we passed when we came here," Harry decided quietly, and they nodded.

They appeared with a large pop next to the Wicked Witch Inn and went inside to take two rooms.

"On your right," the blonde witch said monotonously, pointing to the stairs. Hermione stared at the witch a moment before Ron nudged her.

"Thanks," Hermione said hurriedly, and they left with the two keys that looked oddly like bones.

"Ginny and I will be next door, if you need anything," Hermione said as she stuffed the bone key into Room 138. It opened with a large crack.

Harry nodded and looked at the bone key, inserting it in Room 142, which was interestingly next door to 138.

Harry shook his head and Ron and he walked inside the room.

o.O.o.O.o

There was a knock on his door. "Harry? Have you and Ron woken up yet?"

It was Hermione.

"Hi. Ginny and I brought breakfast," Hermione said, entering when Harry opened the door.

"Morning, Harry!" Ginny said pleasantly, giving Harry a quick kiss.

Ron deliberately looked away and busied himself with eating the muffin Hermione handed him.

Suddenly Ron's face began turning blue and started choking, coughing loudly. Hermione began wailing, not a spell coming to her head in panic.

"Levicorpus," Harry thought quickly, flicking his wand at Ron.

Ron immediately turned upside down and the muffin popped out.

"Liberacorpus."

Ron's face took on its normal hue, and Ron shot Harry a grateful grin. "Thanks mate, I owe you one."

"No problem," Harry said, smiling.

Ron's face looked thoughtful. "That's strange. I thought I bit into something hard, but I swallowed it already…Blimey, what the hell is this?" Ron asked horrified, as he unearthed a rock, situated in the center of the muffin.

"Reducto," Hermione prodded her wand at the rock after holding it a minute or so, and it exploded into pieces, leaving a small piece of parchment inside.

"How did you know that it was in there?" Ron asked, looking impressed at Hermione.

"Magic leaves traces," Hermione said simply, and Harry looked at her strangely. He was strongly reminded of what Dumbledore had once said to him.

"How does it leave traces?" Harry asked quickly as this was one of the questions that had escaped his mind to ask Dumbledore.

Hermione looked surprised. "Why, magic makes an object or place warmer than its surroundings. Usually, you can feel it and if not, then objects like the Magic Tracer that the Weasley's got for you should do the trick, unless it's a highly guarded object."

Harry remembered how Dumbledore felt around, fingering the surroundings and understood. "Thanks."

Ron in the meantime, had already opened the parchment. "'There is something you might find interesting at the graveyard, Potter.' It doesn't say who it's from, Harry."

"That's just dandy—someone else trying to do me in…excellent," Harry said sarcastically, snatching at the piece of parchment to rip it.

Hermione made for it. "Wait, Harry. Specialis Revelio!"

Nothing happened. A name did not appear, and Hermione sighed, handing it back.

Harry stared at the parchment. The handwriting looked vaguely familiar, but he could not place where he saw it. He shrugged, absently stuffing it into his jeans and they made off to visit Harry's parents's graves.

They arrived there mid-noon and Harry found the two tombs, sitting next to each other under a large willow tree.

"Hi, Mum, Dad," Harry said softly, bending down. Behind him, Ron and Hermione looked uncomfortable and Ginny looked away.

Hermione conjured some white lilies and placed them down, muttering a small, 'hi', before stepping back again.

"Dad…Mum…" Harry traced the deep engravings in the headstone and one of his hands pressed down on the earth in front of his mother's grave.

He pulled his hand back quickly. The ground burned. He stared, puzzled and asked Ron, who was standing nearby, staring determinedly at someone's grave. "Ron! Is there anything unusual about a wizard's grave?"

Ron frowned. "I dunno. They don't do much—just lower the tomb and start filling in the dirt."

"Nothing magical?"

"I don't think so," Ron said, shrugging his large shoulders.

Harry stared at his mother's grave and felt the ground again. It was still very hot. He brushed a hand over at the ground in front of his father's grave, but it was rather cool. Suddenly, Harry noticed a glint of gold blinking brightly at him out from all the mundane brown dirt.

Harry began digging furiously at it, unearthing it out as Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came back to ask what he was doing.

"Magic," Harry said quietly and pulled out the object. It was a golden cup, and was molten hot. Harry let go of it quickly and it fell to the soft dirt and rolled over. There was a Hufflepuff crest stamped at the center of the large cup. He stared at it, wondering if it was the same one as Voldemort's horcrux.

"I think it's one of his horcruxes…I've seen this Hufflepuff cup before—Voldemort saw it too. He took it from that lady, Hepzibah Smith," Harry explained.

"Hepzibah Smith? Hufflepuff, you say? Say, isn't that nasty little bloke Zacharias also named Smith?" Ron asked, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"Yes," Ginny nodded. "He's in Hufflepuff as well."

Harry was still staring at the cup with a questioning look.

Hermione muttered, "Specialis Revelio."

The cup gleamed a bright red before sprouting the words 'Helga Hufflepuff' at the brim of the cup. The words disappeared a minute later.

"It's authentic, all right," Hermione said, bending down to pick the cup up.

"Careful, it's hot," Harry cautioned. Hermione set a Cooling Charm on it, which lowered the temperature of the cup down a considerable amount.

"Oh this is absolutely horrid," Hermione began, "I'm about to destroy a Hogwarts artifact! I hope Dumbledore forgives me."

"Dumbledore would have wanted another piece of Voldemort's soul destroyed, Hermione," Harry said quietly.

Hermione had a pained look on her face. "Yes, of course—what am I saying? Sorry, Harry."

Hermione muttered a spell no one could understand and the cup suddenly burst with a loud explosion and a large crack appeared at the side of the cup. "There!" Hermione said happily. Suddenly, her skin began to sprout what seemed like millions of boils, all oozing her blood. The other three stared at her bewildered. Harry quickly put a Freezing Charm on her and the boils stopped bursting. She had already lost quite a lot of blood.

"Mione," Ron breathed out, stricken-faced.

"Ron, you take Hermione to St. Mungo's and stay there with her—Ginny and I will keep going," Harry commanded, taking control of the situation.

"But we can't leave you, Harry!" Ron protested, but his hand moved towards Hermione.

Harry held a hand up. "I have to do this alone, Ron. I can't let anyone else that I care for get hurt."

Ron pointed at Ginny. "What about her, Harry? Alone? What did you say to me about not letting my little sister get harmed?"

"I can't stop her, Ron. You know that," Harry said quietly, and Ginny nodded, affirming this as she held on to Harry's arm.

Ron straightened up, looking much older, much mature. "I wish you luck, Harry. We're always here for you."

Harry nodded. "Ron, you were my best mate—ever."

Ron paled slightly. "Don't say that, Harry. We are best mates—don't say it in the past tense—you are my best mate."

"The best of mates, Ron," Harry said, a grim smile on his face as he clapped a hand on Ron's shoulder. Ron nodded.

"Oh, you two," Ginny said suddenly, her eyes watering, and suddenly dived down and hugged her knees, no doubt crying her eyes out.

"Mad! I never thought Ginny was such a touchy girl. Women—they make everything look so sentimental," Ron said, shaking his head as Ginny whacked him in the knee.

Harry grinned and watched with a sinking heart as Ron carried Hermione in his arms and Apparted to St. Mungo's.

Harry stooped down and laid a hand on Ginny's shoulder. She hugged him tightly.

"Harry, we're going to make it through this, aren't we?"

Harry did not know the answer.

Author's Note:

YESS! ONE MORE DOWN! Poor Hermione though…yes, I have a feeling that either Hermione or Ron or Ginny gets hurt…but I decided to make it Hermione because well…it would make Ron seem more like a hero Apparating her to St. Mungo's, right? Haha.

THE HORCRUX LIST:

Tom Riddle's diary – destroyed Marvolo's ring – destroyed The Slytherin locket – destroyed Hufflepuff cup – destroyed Ravenclaw relic – still a Horcrux Nagini – still a Horcrux Lord Voldemort's body – still there

Yess, Harry is over halfway there! But the easy part's over…now…it's much harder to deal with. And yes, Harry did get a tip-off…I'm supposing that you guys know who I'm talking about…if not, it will be revealed in later chapters!

I hope you enjoyed this…I know I'm not much of an adventure writer…and I think I should stick with the Marauder's Era stories…

Anyways, tell me what you think please! Thanks.

I'm really sorry about the fast-pacing...yes, I do realize it...it's just that school's going to start in a few weeks and I want to end this with seven chapters...hope you guys understand..

Thanks to all my reviewers! I did not think I would get so many in one chapter!

Thanks also to everyone who posted in ideas for the Ravenclaw relic--I'm sorry I could not use all of them!

firebirdgs: thanks for the idea!

Cassandra Lee: thanks for pointing out the mistake, I'll change the wedding date!

Rebecca Victoria Rushton: thanks for all the wonderful reviews!

Sylvia Snape: You pointed out something very important...I just think that Wormtail wanted Sirius to think that and kept dropping hints about it, making Sirius turn around and stuff...sorry for the crazy explanation...

ERMonkey Burner of Cookies: sorry, made a mistake! thanks.

swivelchair: I meant that Ron went with Harry to take the Apparation test, since he failed the first time...poor Ron!

Manus Dei: I'm afraid I might disappoint you...

For the two flames that I got about how I can't write and cussing me out...(which I believe is actually one flamer, who flamed two times)...well, it seems that you can write...so why don't you take over?