Chapter 2:
Ashes blew gently in the soft breeze, and crunched quietly under the children's shoes. It was as quiet as a graveyard. And to the Baudelaires, that's what it was. A graveyard. Harry, Ron, and Hermione gazed around the remains silently as they walked. Harry glanced at the Baudelaires and saw that their eyes were distant and sad.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked Violet, breaking the long silence. Violet looked over at him slowly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Violet said, surprised to hear her voice hoarse and strained. Ron cleared his throat.
"So where's the library?" he asked. The Baudelaires glanced over at him, before pointing ahead. Klaus led them to the library, knowing where it was more than anyone else. When they reached it, Klaus shivered. He was reminded of how many perfectly good books were destroyed in the fire. He scanned the burnt bookshelves until he saw the one in the corner that he remembered the secret books being.
He pointed to it and said, "It's that one." Sunny toddled over to the bookshelf that Klaus said. The young child was able to get to even the highest shelf, because it was all in a pile of charred rubble. She began to sift through it and everyone else joined her. As they searched through the ashes, handful after handful, they were reminded of when they came here with Mr. Poe, looking for anything that could be saved, only to discover that there was nothing.
"Bingo!" Sunny cried. They all looked up to see her holding a golden locket above her head. They all smiled. All of them except for Harry, who remembered Dumbledore, and how if that locket were only there instead of the fake one, then maybe it wouldn't feel like such a waste of Dumbledore's life. Only Harry could understand this, so he faked a smile.
"Good job, Sunny," he said. Sunny grinned, showing all four sharp teeth. Harry grinned back as Sunny handed him the locket.
"Now we just have to find a way to destroy it," he muttered.
"What about a spell?" Violet suggested. Harry shook his head.
"If we use a spell, it has to be a good one," he explained. "The locket's probably protected."
"He's right," Hermione said with a nod. "We should just take it with us and see what we can do later." Everyone nodded. "Are you ready to go, Baudelaires?" The Baudelaires looked back at their mansion and stared for a moment. Then they sighed and nodded, looking away. "Alright, everyone. Let's-"
"Shh!" Harry shushed Hermione, cutting her off. Everyone looked up at him in confusion.
"Harry, what is-"
"Shh!" Harry shushed again. Hermione silenced and listened closely to see what Harry was nervous about. As if reading her mind, Harry nodded toward the entrance of the Baudelaire mansion. Everyone looked over there and heard voices. Voices that were coming closer!
Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and held it up as big as he could. Everyone huddled together underneath it and waited in silence for the intruders to come closer. The Baudelaires, who couldn't imagine why anyone would be in their destroyed home, were trying to control their breathing, which was coming out sharply. They slowly crouched behind a pile of rubble.
"I just don't get it," said a familiar voice. "How could someone who's not even a wizard get to that Horcrux?"
"Quiet, Wormtail!" someone who they did not recognize hissed. There was a silence as the person of the voice whirled around in all directions. Then he whispered, "Don't discuss this so openly. I have no idea how that man retrieved the Horcrux. But I can assure you he did. We have to find it. I bet it's in the library; he was very fond of books. Just like his son."
Under the invisibility cloak, Klaus shivered. They saw two men approach the library, one who Harry, Ron, and Hermione knew to be Wormtail. The other, no one recognized. "Let's begin our search!" Wormtail squealed.
"Silence, fool!" the other man shushed. "Do you want us to get caught?" Wormtail glared pitifully at the man, but silenced. As they entered the library, the children saw that as they're chance. They stood up, held hands, and Apparated back to the Weasley's home.