They gaped at him. Harry stared at them searching their faces for emotions. Mad Eye Moody looked shocked. Remus had a very shaken expression on his face. Ginny and Hermione had clapped their hands over their faces and both had wide eyes. The rest of the room looked speechless.

"Does anyone have anything to say?" Harry asked clearing his throat a little.

"I do…mind fillings us in a little bit more?" Mad Eye barked.

"Well….I sort of planned on doing that" Harry replied back sarcastically.

"Oh sorry…begin"

"Right. Now everyone knows the whole story about me, about how my mum died to protect me, what happened in the fourth year and the prophecy and about all that right?"

"No! What's the prophecy?" Ginny asked.

"Well, when Dumbledore was trying to find a new Divination teacher, he interviewed Professor Trelawny at the Hogs Head." Harry began.

"He went I there /I ?" Mrs. Weasly asked in distaste.

"Molly, not important" Mr. Weasly replied dryly.

"Sorry"

"Anyways," Harry said shooting Mr. And Mrs. Weasly a look, "He was about to leave because the interview was over, but then she suddenly went into a trance. Her words basically said that the person who is able to vanquish the Dark Lord was born to the parents who have escaped them three times. And the most important thing is…" Harry paused for a moment. "The most important thing that she said was that neither can live while the other one survives."

Silence was met after the words had died from his lips. Harry looked around the room seeing the frightened faces. Molly Weasly looked absolutely shocked.

"So basically either you or Lord Voldemort has to die?" Ginny finally said breaking the agonizing silence.

"Pretty much yeah" Harry shrugged. His stomach was doing flip flops and he could feel a prickly feeling on the back of his neck.

"Anything else Potter?" Mad -Eye Moody asked gruffly.

"Well, last year Dumbledore was showing me all these memories of Lord Voldemort, his child hood, his days at Hogwarts, and just before he became Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore reckoned that these memories are his weakness." Harry said slowly as if trying to understand the words himself.

"What did you see?" Hermione asked eagerly. Ron shot her a look but she ignored this.

"Loads of things, the orphanage at where it began, his school days and the most important one was of him asking Professor Slughorn how horcruxes worked" Harry said in a rush.

Remus Lupin gave a small cry of recognition of the horcruxes, and Mad Eye Moody stood up and banged his gnarled hand on the table.

"Horcruxes! You're crazy!" He shouted.

Harry gave a startled look of surprise and then ran his hand through his hair. "No Mad Eye, I'm dead serious."

"What are horcruxes?" Tonks asked confused.

"They're very dark matters Tonks, too dark to even I consider /I " McGonagall said in a very hoarse voice.

Harry let out a tired sigh and then began to explain, "A Horcrux is an object in which a person can conceal a part of their soul within---"

"That doesn't seem so bad!" Tonks interjected. Several 'shhs!' followed this.

"---The way it works is that you split your soul, and then you hide the part that you split into the object outside of your body. Then if any part of the body is attacked, destroyed; you cannot die because that part of your soul is still unharmed and undamaged."

"How do you split your soul?" Mrs. Weasly asked with sharp eyes.

"Well, splitting your soul is like a sin, it's not meant to be done. Your soul is to remain whole and inbound with your mind. But to split it, you do it by committing an act of evil, the highest level of darkness and evil."

"You mean by death?" Hermione jumped in cupping her chin in her hands.

"Exactly, you have to kill someone first, that rips the soul apart. The person who had committed murder could use that damage to his advantage. Then there's a spell to encase the split portion of the soul. I dunno the spell though, I'm not a killer" Harry continued.

"How many times can you split it?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked.

"Merlin, Kingsley, killing once is bad enough!" Dawlish said in a fearful voice.

"Hypothetically speaking" Kingsley amended.

"You can split your soul as many times as you want I suppose. Voldemort split his seven times. He wanted to become immortal." Harry told him.

"Alright, so far we know that either you or Voldemort has to die. We also know that he's split his soul into seven pieces correct?" Hermione asked in brusque tone.

"Correct, but so far two have been destroyed. The diary that enchanted Ginny during our Second Year and the ring that Marvolo used to wear and. Marvolo was the father of Voldemort's mother." Harry told the group.

"So we're looking for five more?" Tonks asked.

"Yes, we're looking for five more. Dumbledore had this theory that Voldemort used some object of the four founders of Hogwarts" Harry replied.

"Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin" McGongall chimed in.

"Right, and the fifth one Dumbledore reckoned is the serpent, Nagini."

"That's the one that bit you Dad!" Fred exclaimed.

Mr. Weasly gave a grim smile and nodded. Harry pushed forward "Dumbledore suspected that in the summer before Fourth Year, he used Nagini to kill an old man; Frank Bryce who was the caretaker of the Riddle mansion; he used his death to make Nagini a horcrux."

"Have you any idea of where a horcrux could be now Harry?" George finally spoke up.

"Yes, the locket of Salazar Slytherin. At the end of term last year, Dumbledore and I traveled to a cave and tried to destroy it, but it was a fake. It was the potion that he drank that made him weak, which made it all the easier for that arse to kill him" Harry said in a rather steely voice. Harry reached into his pocket and withdrew the locket that plagued him ever since Dumbledore's death. Not looking at anyone, he deftly threw the foul necklace onto the table.

Everybody leaned in and peered at it, except no one seemed to want to touch it. Maybe they were afraid that it would explode or something. Then Ginny grabbed it and held it up in the dim light.

"What's it history Harry?" Ginny asked watching it twirl around in the air.

"It belonged to Salazar Slytherin, and was passed down generation by generation. Marvolo, Voldemorts grandfather treasured it and gave it to his daughter Merope." He explained.

"Merope?" Ginny asked wrinkling her nose at the thought of having such a name.

"Voldemort's mother. But then she became pregnant and sold the locket for next to nothing at Borgin and Burkes. So Voldemort was right when he claimed that he was a descendent of Slytherin." He finished.

Ginny pried the heavy locket opened and exclaimed "There's a note!"

"Oh yeah, that proved that the locket was fake." He replied taking a seat next to her.

I "To the Dark Lord

I know I will be dead long before you read this

But I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.

I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.

I face death in the hope that when you meet your match,

You will be mortal once more.

R.A.B. /I

Ginny finished reading the note aloud.

"Whose R.A.B.?" George asked curiously.

"We dunno" Harry replied shrugging.

"So what's the plan Potter?" Mad Eye asked abruptly.

"Well, we need to start tracking down the horcruxes and finding more about Voldemort's past." Harry said.

"Right, then what?" Fred agreed.

"The what! Are you mad Fred, these horcruxes could be anywhere around the world! We need to establish teams of some sort." Harry replied.

"Oh.."

"Right then, I've sort of got this figured out. Hermione, I need you to document every bit of information on Voldemort that you can find. I'll talk to you explaining the memories. If Dumbledore was right about his memories being his weakness, then I can use that to my advantage."

Hermione nodded in acceptance. "Alright, since we already know what Salazar Slytherin's object is, we need to find the real locket and who R.A.B. is. I also know that we're looking for Helga Hufflepuff's teacup."

"Oh I remember that! You-Know-Who used a I teacup /I as a horcrux?" McGonagall exclaimed.

"Yeah, a teacup. But we also need to know what objects he used for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor."

"I'll go back to Hogwarts and bring some of the old record books here, come to think of it Madame Prince should know a great deal about what books will be helpful"

"Great. I guess that's it for now. Meeting adjourned."

Scrapings of chairs and immediate chatter started up and Ginny gave the locket back to Harry.

"Harry, are you still going to Godric's Hollow?" She asked him.

"Yeah, err, why?"

"Because you can start talking to people over there, after all, that's where everything began."

"True, but how's that going to really help?"

"We need to collect more memories right?"

"Right"

"So you need to find people who have had some sort of connection with Voldemort, muggles, witches and wizards alike"

It suddenly dawned on Harry on what Ginny was getting at. He need to search more of school records.

"I think you ought to start at the Riddle House." Ginny told him quietly.

"In Hangleton?" Harry asked startled.

"No! The original one, with Merope and everything"

"Ginny, what are you talking about?" Harry asked frustrated.

"I'm trying to say is that you need to retrace every step or memory of Voldemort all the way up till now. It's within that time where you'll find the unexpected." Ginny told him in a solemn voice.

It was getting rather late now and people were beginning to leave. They were quiet though tiptoeing past a sleeping Mrs. Black's portrait and breathed a sigh of relief at being out of such a creepy house.

"Well, that went well overall?" Fred said to nobody in particular.

"Dandy, just peachy" George agreed looking up at the inky sky.

"Cut it out you gits, this is serious stuff" Ron said annoyed.

"Whatever little bro, right, me and George best be off, bye" Fred said before appearating. George followed in suit with a sharp crack.

"Might as well go home too, I'll spend the night in my old room" Ginny said shivering slightly. Harry noticed this and threw his arms around her leaning his chin on her shoulders.

"Watch it Harry," Ron warned.

"Shut up Ron" Hermione said shaking her head. Ron muttered something under his breath and Ginny chuckled.

"Right then, shall we go?" Harry asked. They nodded and with loud cracks, they disappeared as well.

Harry and Ginny spent some time alone in the dark enjoying each other's company, while Hermione was writing a letter to her parents and Ron was playing chess against his Dad. Mrs. Weasly had retired to bed early saying that her head was spinning from all the new information.

"Harry," Ginny whispered as he was pressing soft kisses on her neck.

"What?" He murmured burying his head in the crook of her shoulder.

"It's getting really late, now I need to get some sleep."

"Sleep later"

"No silly! I'm tired enough, please let me get sleep"

"Alright, fine, you win"

He let go and Ginny stood up straightening her blouse and raking her fingers through her hair. Harry sighed and gave her a kiss and bade her good night.

"Serves him right too" Ginny said to herself with a smile.

Ginny lay tossing and turning in her old bed with all this information running through her mind. Horcruxes, lockets, teacups; oh my! And those damned intials kept bugging her. R.A.B, R.A.B, R.A.B. Then with great excitement, Ginny sat up straight in her bed. She knew what R.A.B stood for!

Without a minute to lose, Ginny jumped out of her bed, threw open the door and dashed into Ron and Harry's room.

"Harry! Harry! Wake up!" She shook him excitedly.

"Huh? What's the matter? Ginny, what the hell are you doing here?" Harry asked sleepily.

"I know who R.A.B is!" Ginny told him with shining eyes.

"What!" Harry asked sitting up shoving on his glasses.

"I know who he is!"

"Who is?"

"R.A.B!"

"Who is he?"

"Regulus Arturus Black!"