Harry's eyes widened in shock. How could he have not realized it? Sirius had told him, standing before the mural of the Black Family Tree, how his brother Regulus had joined the Death Eaters, but later changed his mind, and was killed by Voldemort. "Then the locket must be at Number 12, Grimmauld place!" he exclaimed. However Ron looked crestfallen. "Probably not anymore, Harry" he said "We cleaned out all the old Black family stuff, remember? Bloody hell, I think I even remember the locket now that you mention it, it had a snake on it?"
"Yes, that's it! That's Slytherin's mark!" Harry shouted, bounding to his feet!
Ron looked slightly apologetic "Remember we coudln't open it? We chucked it Harry, It could be anywhere now."
Harry's eyes fell, he then turned to Hermione, silently begging her to figure something out. She pressed her fingers to her temples and thought hard, trying to remember. Pity that we don't have a pensieve Harry thought to himself. He could see now how that tool had been invaluable for Dumbledore's studies into voldemort's past. "I remember the locket..." Hermione trailed off "It did have that snake symbol on it...Of course none of us then thought anything of it, the lot of Sirius' family were in Slytherin...It must have been thrown out." She then turned to Ron. "Where does wizard rubbish go?"
"In the bin!" said Ron, looking at her as though he worried for her health.
"No, Ronald. I mean afterwards. For example in the muggle world, dust collectors come and take the bins and empty them out somewhere else."
"Blimey, doesn't it add up? Ours just disappears. Magic, you know? Once something is gone, it's gone."
"Then might you not consider this Horcrux to be destroyed?" said Horatio, speaking after a long silence.
"No." Said Harry "I reckon that no garbade disposal spell could have destroyed a Horcrux. We couldn't even open the locket, I doubt an everyday spell could have destroyed it. It must still be in the house." He sounded bracing, though he didn't even fool himself into believing he was trying to convince them more than himself.
"Then we'd better get going and see" said Hermione, a tone of warning in her voice. "Because that house isn't safe anymore, with Dumbledore gone, the Death Eaters could have ransacked it at anytime, I mean with no secret keeper, Snape could have told Voldemort personally where headquarters was located, and if he knew that a Horcrux was there, he'd be sure to want to recover it!"
"He doesn't know there's one, though." Said Horatio "If it was Regulus, and I'm inclined to agree with you that it probably was, judging from the note left in the fake locket, I'd say that Voldemort remains blissfully unaware that his Horcrux was ever disturbed. That's not to say that it would remain safe there for long, however."
"When let's go!" Harry walked over, ready to assist Ron and Hermione in apparating. Horatio held up his hand and said "Ah, Harry, if you'd just wait one moment, there's something I'd like you to do for me before you go.
"Anything." said Harry readily. Even though the damage had been repaired and Horatio didn't seem angry at all, Harry still felt bad about destroying the man's house.
"As Miss Granger so smartly pointed out, there's not very many safe places left. Number 12, Grimmauld place is no longer a secret, you can bank on that. Hogwarts, while generally safer than most places, is not the stronghold it once was. And your Aunt and Uncle's house won't protect you anymore now that you've come of age. I aim to fix this. This house must be a safe place for you to come to, and I would very much like you to return once you have obtained the Horcrux, I can help you verify it and destroy it."
With these words, Hermione looked a bit uneasy. Harry could tell that for whatever reason, she didn't completely trust Horatio.
"With that in mind, I would like to protect this house, and make it a safer place. As you've no doubt noticed, there already is some protection here. voldemort's winter cannot touch this area, this is due to your own power Harry, the residue of the magic that transpired here sixteen years ago." He took his wand out with a twirling motion, it happened so quickly that it seemed instataneous. "I am going to make you secret-keeper for this place Harry. Nobody will be able to find this location, unless you tell them where it is."
With this said, he took out two small scraps of parchment and a quill and ink bottle, and handed them to Harry. "Write down the location twice, you can give these to Ron and Miss Granger here, I think we know that they are trustworthy. As harry gathered together the writing implements he thought dully what Horatio would think of the fact that Hermione didn't seem to think he was trustworthy. He quickly wrote down "The House of Horatio Dumbledore-Smythe is located at the former location of the Potter House, Gordic's Hollow" He thought that would be sufficient, as Horatio's house did not seem to have a proper address, as the road running by it was unused and overgrown. He handed the slips to Horatio first, who taped them with his wand, muttering. He then handed them back to Harry. "It has to be you that gives it to them." Harry nodded and handed Ron and Hermione each a slip, who read it and nodded.
Horatio than took his wand and pointed it at Harry. Harry could see that Hermione had her hand on her own wand, ready to strike if something went wrong. Horatio muttered a long, inaudible incantatio under his breath. There was no visible sign of magic, but it must have worked, as Horatio smiled and put his wand away. "Safe as we can be there, Harry. Now I suggest you lot get a move on."
"Ready?" Harry looked imploringly at his friends, who quickly got up. They joined hands again. "Let's concentrate on the drawing room" said Ron. Harry and Hermione nodded. They closed their eyes and visualized the location. This would be a lot easier, thought Harry. Then he pulled them and turned, Disapparating on the spot with a loud crack.
When he opened his eyes they were in what used to be the drawing room of Sirius' house. It was now the wreckage of the drawing room of his house. He heard Hermione gasp and ron say "Bloody Hell" It was obvious that this place was once already visited by the Death Eaters, or even possibly by Voldemort himself.
"I doubt it'll be here..." began Ron. Hermione finished his sentence "But we should look anyway."
As Harry suspected, they didn't find anything. Anything having to do with the Black family was either gone or completely destroyed, including the portrait of Sirius' mother that had seemed impossible to remove. Also gone was anything relating to The Order of the Pheonix, although Harry hoped that was because they managed to clear everything out after Dumbledore died.
It was starting to seem as though they had wasted their time, when suddenly a loud tapping sound filled the air. Harry jumped, Ron cursed and Hermione let out a small scream. They all drew their wands and looked wildly around for the source of the sound.
"Hedwig!" shouted Harry, running over to the window. Ron and Hermione sighed with relief and dropped their wands. Hedwig was indeed an extremely smart bird, they had barely been there for an few hours and she had found Harry here. He let her in the window, and she dutifully dropped a letter on his head. He was delighted to see that it wasn't the same letter he had sent out, returned.
"She's brought an answer!" he whispered frantically, and they all gathered around as he sat down on the ruined sofa and slit it open. "It's from Lupin!" he exclaimed, still whispering for no apparent reason.
"Blimey" said Ron. "You think the Order have set up at Hogwarts?
"Shush, Ron." said Hermione "Let him read!
Scarhead,
I have to keep this short and nondescript for obvious reasons. I trust you'll be able to understand what I say. We are you-know-where and all quite safe. They are going to be reading a will here and I think it might be nice if you showed up and brought a friend or two. I'll be at the top of bacon, find me and we'll catch up on old times.
Your Friend, Moony
"Scarhead?" Ron blurted out, bewildered. "And 'top of bacon' is he taking the mickey?"
"No, I suspect he's trying to keep it anonymous in case Hedwig got intercepted. I suspect the Death Eaters are intercepting as many owls as they can these days." said Harry.
"Well what's that supposed to mean?" Ron seemed put out, it was clear that the letter was a huge disappointment to him.
"Well..." Harry thought carefully. "I suspect that 'you know where' is Hogwarts, since that's where we went Hedwig. You were right, I think the Order has set up shop there. This business about a will must be about Dumbledore, they've probably found his will and he wants us to come for the reading. That might be rubbish, or just a cover to get us there though. But this 'top of bacon' business, I...I haven't the foggiest!" He felt as if he should be annoyed but was actually momentarily thrilled just to have the letter.
Both of them turned expectantly to Hermione. "Oh, honestly!" she said. "If you two learned to think for yourselves once in a while you wouldn't always be needing me to explain everything!"
"But you can explain it, can't you?" asked Ron.
"Yes, yes. He's talking about the Hog's Head. You know, bacon...hog. The top...the head? Lupin wants us to come to that pub."
"That place?" Ron seemed disgusted. "That place has been nothing but trouble! First Snape overheard the prophecy there, and then we nearly got busted setting up the DA there, why in the world couldn't we meet at The Three Broomsticks?"
It was Harry who offered up an explanation this time. "I suspect it's probably out of business. After all, It was Madam Rosmerta who Imperiused Katie last year and gave her that cursed necklass. And of course she also poisoned that wine that was meant for Dumbledore, you nearly got killed when you drank some. And she let the Death Eaters into her shop so they could transport to Hogwarts." He said this matter-of-factly.
"But she was under the Imperius curse!" Yelled ron, smacking his fist against his palm. "Surely they wouldn't lock her up for something she couldn't control, right?"
"I'm not so sure of that, Ron." said Hermione. "They locked up Stan Shunpike just for running his mouth about the Death Eaters and there's not a shred of evidence that he's done anything wrong.
"Exactly." said Harry bitterly. "They want to make it seem like they're doing something, the ministry. If they arrest loads of people who are either innocent or who were bewtiched, it looks a lot better than arresting nobody. After all, Scrimgoer probably wants to keep his job, Fudge got sacked for ignoring the threat, Scrimgoer probably wants to appear as if he's making some progress, even if he's not."
"We'd better go" said Hermione. "It's starting to get dark, and It's been a long day. We could hole up at the Hog's Head tonight."
"Why not Hogwarts?" asked Ron. Harry felt the same way. He remembered last year that Professor Trelawney had warned him about bedbugs there.
"I know it's hard to forget right now" she began "but it is summer.
"Oh." Ron looked like he rather dreaded going to bed that night. Once again, Harry quite felt the same.
"All right then." said Harry. "As much as I wish it weren't so, Hermione's probably right, and if she's wrong, we'll find out soon enough. Let's join hands again."
However they didn't, Ron actually seemed to draw back a little. "Oh, no. Not this time" he said. "Being dragged along feels terrible, and I think if we do that again I'll crack a rib! I really don't think you're supposed to side-along more than one person, I really don't. I think we can manage Hogsmeade."
Harry nodded. He had gotten used to dragging them along, he forgot that they both could apparate, and that Hermione even had a lisence. "All right then" he said. "See you there." And he disappeared with a crack.