Chapter Thirteen: Perpetuo Destructo Totalis

Harry shuffled through the bits and pieces in the carved wooden box. Nothing there was giving them any leads. There were several brooches, bracelets and sets of earrings. There were even other necklaces. Lots of them, actually. As simple as the inexpensive snitch pendant and chain Harry had given to Ginny and as ornate as a thick, embossed gold set that had to weigh at least twelve pounds. But none of them looked anything like the locket Harry remembered from what Dumbledore had shown him of the collected memories.

"There is nothing here," Harry said, closing the lid. "Thanks for bringing it, Bill, but it's not what we're looking for. None of it looks right, and none of it... feels right."

"Sorry, Harry," Bill said. "You want me to take it back and put it in your trunk?"

"You might as well... or give it to Remus to return to the vault. I only took it because I thought it was my mum's."

"I'll get it to him, then," Bill stood, lifting the box and holding it under one arm. He looked tired.

"How are you doing, Bill?" Harry asked.

"I'll live," he smiled sadly as he began to turn away.

"No, I mean..."

"There hasn't been any sign yet," Bill paused, speaking quietly. "Apparently, a werewolf does have to be changed to infect someone."

"Remus did tell you that."

"Remus was no more sure than the rest of us," the tall, scarred redhead said dismissively. "You were all just trying to give me the will to live long enough to find out."

"Well..."

"Thanks, Harry," Bill said.

"I don't know what for. If it weren't for me..."

"I'd have still been there. Malfoy would still have rigged up that wardrobe, Death Eaters would still have gotten into Hogwarts."

"Yes," Harry nodded. "But I keep feeling like if I could just finish this..."

"There will still be werewolves in the world, Harry, even after Voldemort is nothing but dust. And some of them will be so bitter, or so twisted, they'll somehow justify infecting others purposely, just as some wizards will still believe that the purity of your blood decides your worth. Those things won't go away."

Harry was silent.

"But maybe we'll be able to buy enough time between now and the next rise of the Dark to convince a few others to not follow them, and maybe, in future, that will save some lives," Bill continued. "And maybe one of those lives we save by our actions now will be the life of someone we care about. My child... Remus and Tonks'... or even yours and Ginny's."

Harry reddened. Bill chuckled.

"Don't think it's not obvious to everyone with eyes that you two are together, Harry. And you're not the type to give his heart lightly. Neither is Ginny. If it's as serious as I think it is, you two are in it for the long haul."

"I don't even bloody know what I'm looking for!" Remus said angrily, throwing a rucksack full of old robes through the air. It landed with a flat sound against a stack of boxes... boxes that Remus had already been through. They contained old pictures, papers, and a couple of old wands that Remus had looked at carefully before passing them over as merely old wands. By rights, wands were supposed to be turned in to the Ministry after a witch or wizard passed away, but in truth, it seldom happened. Families kept them as mementos, and there was nothing special about these wands to say that they were anything but that.

"Slow down," Tonks said, stretching, her hands kneading her lower back. "You're getting frustrated."

"No, really?" Remus snapped, instantly feeling contrite. "Oh, love... I'm sorry. It's just..."

"I know, Remus. Try sifting through years worth of voter's records in the dustiest, dingiest hole there is under the Ministry for eight hours solid. What a nightmare."

"Tough?"

"Tough," she nodded. "And unproductive. I can hardly believe it, but by all appearances, there was only one witch or wizard in the last century with the initials RAB, and that was Regulus Augustus Black... Sirius' brother."

"But that is good news!" Remus smiled. "It means that he was the one who took the locket!"

"Yes, but it doesn't get us any closer to finding the damned thing, does it?" Tonks said, lifting up a pile of blankets, then shrieking and jumping back, the blankets flying everywhere.

"Nymph?"

"Doxies! Bloody doxies!"

"Are you okay?" Remus moved quickly to her side. "The baby?"

"He's fine, Remus... just... surprised me. I hate those things."

"I know," he pulled her close, resting his chin on the top of her bubblegum pink hair.

"Remus, you know what we have to do, don't you?" Tonks enquired gently.

"What?"

"We need help to find it, if it's here," she said, leaning back to look him in the eye.

"Tonks..."

"I mean it. This is a big house. There is one... person... who can help."

"Molly Weasley is not being told of what we're looking for, Nymph! She'd have it out of me in approximately eight point two seconds, try to use my portkey to get to them, and whatever nastiness that Hermione Granger has thought up to keep others from using the portkeys successfully... and I assure you, knowing that witch, it will be very, very nasty... would then be my fault. I think not!"

Tonks laughed. "I wasn't talking about Molly, you silly canine. I was talking about Dobby."

"The houseelf?"

"Do you know another Dobby?"

"Umm... no. Do you think he could help?"

"The house belongs to Harry, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"So, I would imagine that houseelves are called that for a reason, wouldn't you?"

Remus grinned, before taking in a deep breath and bellowing, "Dobby!"

"Master Remus called?" the spritely houseelf smiled happily from where he had just appeared in the corner.

"Tonks, you're a wonder!" Remus exclaimed.

"About time you figured that out."

"It can't be that easy," Bill sat back, his scarred face white with exhaustion.

Hermione Granger, her normally frizzy hair held back with a quickly conjured elastic band in a messy, yet effective, ponytail, was just as tired, but her cheeks were flushed with excitement. The ancient straight backed chair she sat on creaked alarmingly as she leaned forward. Hermione didn't seem to notice.

"Yes, it can!" She said. "Look, here... see? Where this goes... watch as the energy passes through this... see? There!"

"But, Hermione..." Bill looked down at the arithmancy notes she'd been scribbling, then back up at what they'd created. Professor Vector would certainly have been impressed. The girl was capable of calculations he'd never considered before, and Arithmancy was his best subject at Hogwarts, not to mention the reason he got a job as a cursebreaker at eighteen.

"Bill, sometimes we overlook the simplest solutions in favor of something more detailed, yet less effective, because we expect it to be confusing," she pointed out. "It doesn't have to be."

"Where did you read that?" Bill asked dryly, passing a hand over his tired eyes. They'd been at this for well over eighteen hours, today alone. They'd been working on it, with short breaks for naps and food that Ginny pushed in front of them at regular intervals, for the past three days.

"I didn't," she said quietly, avoiding his eyes. "It's something that Dumbledore said to me once."

Bill felt the impact in his gut as though he'd been punched. "Sorry."

"Don't be," she flexed her shoulders. Hermione, too, despite her excitement, was tired. "It doesn't always have to be confusing, though. The spell to create a horcrux is really quite simple, if you don't take into consideration the need for the murder of an innocent to complete it. Why shouldn't a spell that destroys the horcrux and the piece of the soul held within be just as simple? We expect it to be confusing, to be costly, to require a sacrifice, because of the very nature of the thing we're destroying. Nothing says it has to be that way."

"But..."

"Of course, there are the moral implications of destroying part of someone's soul. But if you take into consideration the fact that they murdered an innocent to get there... well, I suppose you could consider it justified..."

"Hermione?"

"... and if you really have a problem, despite that..."

"Hermione?"

Hermione's bright brown eyes looked up to Bill Weasley's sparkling blue ones. "Sorry, what?"

"We did it." Bill said flatly.

"Yes. Yes, we did," she smiled.

"We've created a counter spell to magic so ancient..." Bill swallowed back the tears. "A counter spell that doesn't require a death or a sacrifice in exchange. Hermione, I've never done anything so..."

"The implications are certainly..." Hermione squealed as Bill jumped up, lifted her into his arms and spun her around, kissing her soundly on the cheek as he did.

"Hermione, you aren't even a fully accredited witch! And I'm a tired, broken cursebreaker! And we did it!"

"Greatness isn't a requirement to accomplishment, Bill," she smiled as he put her down. "All anything takes is hard work."

He hugged her, and grinned hugely as Ginny stuck her head into the room.

"Well?" the tiny redhead asked with a smile. "Did I hear squeals of delight?"

"You did!" Bill said happily.

"Well, I hope it's because you've developed the spell, and not because you've suddenly realized that Ron and Fleur are gits and you really want to be together. I wouldn't want to be around when Fleur found out."

Bill chuckled. "No. Our genius future sister-in-law did it!"

Hermione flushed crimson. "No... I don't think... I mean... we both did it."

"Good," Ginny smiled, backing out of the room. "Harry will be pleased."

Bill watched her as she closed the door behind her. "Is that all she thinks about?"

"Pleasing Harry?" It was Hermione's turn to chuckle. "Pretty much."

"They're..."

"In love, Bill," Hermione said gently, gathering parchments together into a pile on the worn tabletop. "They're very, very much in love. And they need each other."

"I know."

"Just like you and Fleur, Remus and Tonks..." Hermione said softly, almost longingly.

"You and Ron."

"Well..." Hermione flushed. Her movements seemed to increase in speed, she nearly knocked over a bottle of ink in her rush.

"Does he know yet?" Bill asked softly.

"What?" Hermione's eyes flew to his, her surprise well-guarded. Bill smiled again.

"That he's going to be a daddy?"

Hermione paled. "Bill..."

"Hermione, I know the look on your face. I've been watching it very carefully these past three days. Fleur has it, Tonks has it. Tell me I'm wrong."

"Ron can't know," she whispered.

"What?"

"Ron can't know," her eyes rose to his, her pain very, very obvious. "It wasn't...planned... and..."

"These things seldom are," Bill said, his voice cooler. "But my brother has the right to know that you're carrying his child."

"Not until..." Hermione took a deep breath, visibly straightened her spine, and looked Bill squarely in the eye. "Not until this is done. Not until... he'll not want me anywhere near... and I have to be."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do," Hermione said quietly. "Bill, Ron is..."

"He's stronger with you there," Bill put two and two together. Hermione was concerned that Ron couldn't do what he had to do, what Harry needed him to do, if he was distracted by this.

"Yes."

"The baby..."

"Is perfectly safe," Hermione said. "I promise that."

"It's not going to be something you can hide for long," Bill pointed out. Hermione's lush figure would show the obvious signs of pregnancy early.

"No," she agreed. "But it's not going to be long. You know that as well as I do, Bill."

"Yes," he sighed after a moment. "Okay... but..."

"But?"

"But if it's not over by the end of the month, three weeks, you tell him no matter what. Okay?"

She smiled. "I promise."

Bill pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "And stay away from trouble. That's my nephew you're carrying in there."

"Niece," she corrected, pulling away and gathering up the last of her things. "Harry and Ron should be back shortly. Harry will want to know about the spell immediately."

"Do I get to tell him?" Bill grinned cheekily.

"You get to tell him," she agreed. "I'm going for a nap."

"Good," Bill nodded. "Go on, then."

Remus sighed, sitting down on the trunk he'd just closed. The attics of Grimmauld Place were now officially completely gone through. Three days of searching and there was nothing. Nothing at all.

"Master Remus! Master Remus!" Dobby's high, shrill voice came floating through the air. Remus had no idea where he was.

"Dobby?"

"Dobby has found something!" the voice came again. Remus looked around. It sounded like it was coming from that corner, but...

"Dobby, where are you?"

"Up here, Master Remus!"

Remus looked up to see Dobby standing precariously on a beam high above the floor. "What are you doing up there?"

"We house elves like high places, Mr Remus. Dobby thought, perhaps Kreacher did, too. And Dobby was right!"

"What?"

"It is up here, Master Remus!"

"What is?"

"Kreacher's place!"

"Kreacher's... what are you talking about?" Remus asked as he levitated himself up to the houseelf's level.

"Kreacher's place," Dobby indicated behind him.

Across the rafters, a sort of loft had been made. The floor was made of a long piece of board, and upon it, tucked back into the corner under the eaves, was a pile of what appeared to be rags.

"Dobby? What is this?"

"Kreacher's place, Master Remus. All houseelves have a place... we make our own place."

"I thought Kreacher's place was in the cupboard..."

"Oh, no... he wanted thems to think that... but that wasn't his place. Dobby knew he had another place."

"How?"

"Because he never slept in that place," Dobby said. "And there were only things Kreacher wouldn't mind losing there. Look..."

Dobby crept forward and began to pull out all manner of things. There were a set of golden candlesticks, several small portraits, and a woman's dress. Under the pile of rags, they found bits and pieces of crockery, a glass jar holding a collection of galleons, and, under it all, a long, golden chain.

"Master Remus?" Dobby said. "Is this what we look for?"

Holding it up, Remus could see the heavy golden locket, with the etching of an elongated S, and an engraved head of a serpent at one end.

"Yes," Remus said quietly, staring at the dangling locket. "Yes, Dobby, I rather think it is."

To say that Harry was excited about the accomplishments that day would have been a gross overstatement. If anything, he was more grim than ever.

Bill spoke to him the moment he returned from whereever it was he and Ron had been going for the past few days. Bill rather suspected that the two were helping Neville in the search for Voldemort and Nagini, not to mention Snape and Malfoy, but he didn't ask. He had his own work to do. Or, at least, he had had his own work to do, until this afternoon.

"We did it, Harry," Bill greeted him as Harry and Ron entered the lounge just before dinner that evening, the shoulders of their jackets damp with the spring rain that hadn't seemed to stop for the past week, the look on their faces showing their lack of progress that day.

"What?" Harry stilled, staring hard at Ron's eldest brother.

"The spell. Hermione and I finished it. Today. It's ready."

"It... really?"

"Yes."

"You mean..."

"We can do it... we can destroy them. All of them."

Harry took a deep breath and nodded. "Teach me."

Remus' arrival shortly after found Harry and Bill standing close together in the lounge, Ron and Ginny watching carefully. Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

"Harry!" Remus entered, his eyes almost wild with excitement. "Harry! We found it!"

"You...?" Harry looked at the pendant with shock as Remus held it from the long golden chain. "Where?"

"It was in Grimmauld Place. I have no idea how... I was certain that Regulus would never return there. But it was!"

"How did we miss it before?" Harry asked.

"Kreacher had it stashed, up in the rafters of the attic," Remus said. "Dobby found it."

"Thank Merlin for Dobby," Ron smiled. "Better at cleaning than Mum. That's saying something."

"Well," Harry said. "All the better. Bill and Hermione have finished the spell. Perhaps we ought to test it."

"Harry?" Ron looked at him. "I thought you wanted to wait until we had all...?"

"Nagini is going to have to be destroyed with Voldemort, Ron. When I get close to her, I'll be close to him. I won't have another opportunity."

"But... the others?"

"Go get the cup, Ginny," Harry said, not looking at her. "You know where it is."

Ginny stood and silently left the room.

"But..."

"I don't know," Harry looked at Ron. "We don't have the other one, Ron. We have to destroy these while we can. It's... it's coming, and I don't want to walk into it with any of the horcruxes remaining where I can't get to them to destroy them. We have these now... we have to do this now."

"But you said..." Ron looked at him. "You said they all had to be destroyed right before we found Voldemort... or he could..."

"He can't. I know that now," Harry said cryptically.

"How?"

"I just do," Harry thanked Ginny with a smile as she reentered the room and handed him the cup, still wrapped in the rags it had been.

All were silent as Harry took out the cup and laid it on the tabletop where Remus had placed the locket. "Well, no time like the present."

"Harry," Bill began, warningly. "Perhaps I ought to..."

"No, Bill," Harry said. "It has to be me."

Nodding, Bill stepped back. Harry looked once at Ginny, then turned to the table, and quickly drew his wand and cast the spell.

"Perpetuo Destructo Totalis!"

With a sizzling sputter, the two items on the desk were encased in a bright red light, and then shriveled into nothingness. As they blinked out of existence, there was a short, disembodied wail of pain... and then nothing.

Everyone stood back and looked at the singed tabletop, silent.

"Well," Ron said after a moment. "That was rather... impressive."

"It doesn't have to be accompanied by fireworks and a light show to be effective, Ron," Bill said shortly.

"It worked?" Ginny asked, moving forward and touching Harry's arm with her hand.

"It worked," Harry said. "Two more parts of Voldemort relegated to hell."

Well, how about we stop there for the weekend? I have to say, I enjoyed my time in the WizardTales chat room doing the Author chat thing immensely. For those of you who haven't checked the site out – please, do so. Thank you to everyone who turned up and made it such a wonderful experience for me!

CQ

YelloWitchGrl: Kreacher is a houseelf, and knows all SORTS of things... LOL!

GiGiFanfic: I've been over there, but I haven't posted anything. I'll have to check them out.

Treck: Ooooh... I LIKE it! What a wonderful idea... Snape-kebabs...

Jshulmi: Yes, I'll be posting everything there.

Alix33: Wizards Itch: A rather uncomfortable rash in a rather private place.

NutsaboutRemus: They simply didn't know WHERE it was... and why did Remus and Bill exchange a dodgy look?... well... hmmm. Maybe... well, read on!

OldCrow: Question answered?

TDSM: LOL! I knew you'd be here somewhere...

Eleopy: You think he actually LIKES Draco? I can't agree with you, but I'm interested in knowing why you think so?

Pegasus: Thank you!

David305: Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much for clarifying that for me! You have no idea of how relieved I am! Folks – David directed me to the rules in question about the review responses – and it looks like we're okay! Thanks, David!

Shotgunn: I know. It pisses off a lot of people (so therefore I do it more), LOL!

Josh: Glad to hear from you, buddy – where have you been? Like I should ask, right? Happy to hear you like it – like I said, this is the warmup!

Thank you to everyone for reviewing: sweetmelody, luvguurl, ImLOVINGit, Harry/Ginnymatchmaker, OrlaPotter, HarryPassionFan, andy-may, ProfessorMoody, LarnaMandrea, BrittSchrick, genuinescience, joeyandpaceyforever, Lacyl, blueclover13, substandardauthor, azntgr01, Bexylou, dragonclawz54, WolfsScream, Ameristrat, kazziedal, MarinePotterFan, AriannaofBellezza, Skateforever, smiley12, AlliBaby, moodyboy66, blueclover13, AintNoAngels, Kordolin, life2me, PrincessSkywalkerOrgana, HarryGinnyfan23, Harry+Ginny4eva, HAM005,Alex, pcb, hark27, Ennui-EAF, HermioneJaneKoriand'rTarberllaRiewer, LunaMoon224, volleypickle16, RecklessYouth, renoir, miss-understood, sillysac, penghu-dust, JoannaPotter, JamesPottersLilyFlower