AN: Got a bunch of reviews after the last chapter that made me really wish I was posting this on AO3 instead (and not all of them were even about Elizabeth Crouch!), so just a PSA: if you leave me repeated mean reviews, I will block you. I don't write fanfic to make my mental health even worse.
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Harry was back at Hogwarts now, and all the stress of birthday parties and other special occasions had passed. Edric was no longer a newborn either, and so Alduin was finally free to concentrate on Horcruxes once again. To that end, he headed to Hogwarts in mid-April to speak with Dumbledore.
With two children at home now, he liked to spend as little time away as he could, and so reluctantly, he took a broom with him. He didn't think he looked particularly dignified flying up from the Hogwarts gates to the castle, but it was quicker than walking.
"Have you had any success in your search?" Dumbledore asked him when he arrived.
"Not exactly. What about you?"
"Partially," Dumbledore replied. "I made one negative proof – the sword of Gryffindor is certainly not a Horcrux."
"Good. That is useful as well," Alduin replied. Not as useful as finding the actual Horcrux, perhaps, but it meant there was a reason to keep looking, and that his research into the location of the Resurrection Stone would be necessary unless it proved to be at the Black house, which was important information. "And about the locket?"
"I am almost certain I know where it is now," Dumbledore explained, "but I haven't gone there yet. I suspect it will require some preparation. What about your inquiry into the diadem of Ravenclaw?"
"Well, I am quite positive now that it is a Horcrux." Alduin replied. "I discovered that it had been hidden in Albania, and that Riddle was told of this."
"Ah," Dumbledore said eloquently.
"Precisely." Alduin sighed. "The trouble, of course, is that he is there now, and so we cannot exactly go and look for the diadem there. And I believe he would have moved it, anyway, to keep its location a secret. But I have no idea where."
"And the other idea you had?"
"Ah, yes, that. I believe..." Alduin hesitated. "I believe it was an heirloom of the Gaunt family."
He had thought about it for a while, about whether he should tell Dumbledore about the Resurrection Stone. But the thing was, Dumbledore was rumoured to have the Elder Wand, and he'd kept the Cloak at least for a time. It might have been accidental, but it also might have been an attempt by Dumbledore to collect the Hallows, and Alduin wasn't certain he entirely trusted him with them. Especially when no one truly knew what they did when they were all together.
"Ah. Yes, that is certainly possible," Dumbledore agreed. "Do you know where it is?"
Alduin shook his head. "No. I have no idea as to the location of any other Horcruxes. That is, with the exception of...I received a tip. It is possible, just possible, that just as Riddle gave a Horcrux to Lucius and Bellatrix, he gave one to Regulus as well."
"Sirius' brother?" Dumbledore asked in some surprise.
"The very one," Alduin confirmed. "It seems, from what I heard, that he used him to hide it somewhere and then killed him, but just on the off chance...could you ask Sirius to search Grimmauld Place and his vault? He's more likely to listen to you than he is to me," though Alduin supposed the loyalty would have suffered a bit by those twelve years in Azkaban without a trial, "and you can be the judge of how much to tell him."
"I'll certainly do so," Dumbledore agreed. "As for other locations...ever since you told me about what you've discovered, I have been making a study of Voldemort and his past, his approach to life and to what he considered valuable. It is my belief that Voldemort would tend to hide the Horcruxes in places he associated with power. His followers, particularly the ones who were powerful and from old families, made him feel that way because he had these people bowing to him. But there were other things, no doubt, that made him revel in his own power. After some consideration, I believe places where the actual Horcrux murders took place are all rather likely as well."
Alduin supposed it was as plausible a theory as any other. "Do we know what the murders were, though?"
"In some cases, we have a very good idea," Dumbledore replied. "For instance, one of them, almost certainly, were either some of the Riddles or the Gaunts. If you suspect a Gaunt heirloom is a Horcrux, then they were probably used to create that, and so I'd expect it to be concealed somewhere in the village. I do not know whom he killed for the diary. It couldn't have been Myrtle – she was killed by the basilisk, I believe."
"Yes, plus the diary contained memories from after her death," Alduin pointed out.
"I rather suspect it was one of the orphanage employees in the summer after he opened the Chamber," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "It means he already had two Horcruxes by the time he finished Hogwarts, which is really rather upsetting. Now, it's perfectly possible that he killed someone in Albania for the diadem Horcrux, and as you said, it's unlikely to be hidden there if the place was known to someone else as well. So the location of that Horcrux would be unrelated to the murder. He might have used the murder of Hebzibah Smith to make a Horcrux, or it might have been someone entirely different. At any rate, even if he used her, he would hardly hide it in her house. I have no idea who he used for the locket. And then, of course, we're still one Horcrux short."
Alduin nodded, and they both contemplated this in silence for a while. "The place where you believe you can find the locket," Alduin asked then, "how did you find it?"
"It's from his childhood," Dumbledore replied. "He used to torture other children from the orphanage there." He gave a small shrug. "There might be other places like that, associated with his history. After graduating, he worked at Borgin and Burke's for a time, as you no doubt know, then left to travel the world. I do not believe he would choose a place connected to the shop, as he hardly felt powerful there, but some place from his travels is entirely possible, and would be extremely difficult to discover."
Alduin thought about that. "And what about Hogwarts?" He asked then.
Dumbledore seemed surprised by the suggestion. "Do you believe he would dare?"
Alduin shrugged. "If he dared to open the Chamber..."
Dumbledore inclined his head. "That is a good point. I suppose it could be there, at any rate."
Alduin nodded. "I'll leave the search of Hogwarts up to you," he said. "I do not doubt you are the best qualified. If you feel you need to open the Chamber, let me know, since I do know the way to do it from the diary."
"That might be a good idea for reasons entirely unrelated to Horcruxes," Dumbledore pointed out. "While the means by which Voldemort meant to open it is gone, and there are no more heirs of Slytherin in the direct male line, I would still prefer it if the problem of the monster was solved once and for all."
Alduin could agree to that easily. "It's a basilisk," he said, "so it will not be exactly simple, but I'm sure you can take care of that. You will also need a parselmouth, though, so that might be more complicated." If there was some particular indication that a Hocrux was hidden in the Chamber, Alduin would be forced to reveal Harry's ability, but he had no intention of doing it just on the off chance. It was too revealing about Harry's own connection to Riddle for that. He would do his best to keep that fact hidden from Dumbledore until the very end. "I also trust you will find the time for the locket soon," he added. "In the meantime, I'll look for the heirloom at the Gaunts and around."
Thus agreed, Alduin left the school, wondering about the Resurrection Stone and if he was truly going to find it.
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"Seriously," Harry declared resolutely before the final Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, "whoever schedules the matches must be drunk all the time."
"Seeing that it's probably Hooch, it wouldn't surprise me all that much," Fred remarked.
Everyone agreed that it was rather absurd. In Harry's first year, the final match had been in June. A year later, it had been in May. Now, it was in April. Harry truly wondered if he was to expect the season to end in March next year.
"I for one am grateful," Wood commented. "At least I have an actual chance to pass my NEWTs."
Everyone laughed.
"Remember what Ron told you," Wood continued. "Ravenclaw has just a ten points lead on us, so as long as we score at least two goals the Cup is ours, but I want the last match of my Hogwarts career to be a win. No need for a quick match, for winning at all costs, but, well, I would much rather not lose."
Harry knew that he couldn't afford many tricks while playing against Diggory, but he did his best to oblige, and did actually manage to distract and divert him a few times before he had no option but to catch the Snitch unless he wanted Diggory to get it. Given that the team had managed to score eleven goals by that time, while Hufflepuff only gave them two, leading to the clearest victory in Harry's time on the team, it was, he felt, a job well done. Wood certainly seemed satisfied.
"I'm more and more grateful to Dobby with every passing year," Draco told him when the match was over and done with, the Cup was received and Wood thanked Harry for making sure his career ended on a high note. "It would have been really irritating to watch you win every match in a row."
Harry grinned at him. "You think next year is your turn?"
"Only if I can get Father to buy me a Firebolt," Draco replied a little sullenly.
"Why hasn't he, actually?" Harry had wondered about that.
Draco rolled his eyes. "He says that he made sure our team had the best brooms, and that unless we can manage to win the cup on them, getting me a Firebolt would just be a waste of money."
Harry frowned. "But, I mean, you did win the Cup the year you actually had the best brooms..."
Draco's eye roll was even more pronounced this time. "Father says that doesn't count, because of the rogue Bludger. But since he never normally cares about wasting money, I asked Mother what was going on, and she explained that people got the impression I had to buy my place on the team with the Nimbuses, and so now he wants to prove them wrong by not putting any more money in the team." Draco sighed in complete exasperation. "I didn't think I'd ever say that, but sometimes I'd welcome a more Gryffindor approach from him, really. He could beat those people up and then buy me that Firebolt."
Harry laughed so hard he almost strained something.
Other people came to congratulate him as well, enthusiastic Gryffindors and rather more grudging friends from other houses, including Cho, who in spite of her small disappointment seemed actually proud of him for catching the Snitch anyway.
Harry was glad for that, because their relationship had seemed to be on a bit of a rocky ground ever since Easter. He had been worried, coming back to Hogwarts, that Cho wouldn't talk to him at all, but it wasn't as bad as all that, and she even apologized for leaving him in the Alley without a proper goodbye.
However, she told told him she'd been hurt by his lack of attention, and that she wanted to spend more time together. With studying for the exams and training for Quidditch, that was a tall order for Harry, but at least Cho was amenable to having study days and didn't mind discussing Seeker tactics with him, even though she also said she was keeping her best ideas secret for when she played against him next year. That made it easier, but Harry was still often distracted and couldn't spend as much time as she wanted with her, which made her irritable.
Sometimes, she brought her friend Marietta with her, too, which Harry didn't understand and made him irritable. They had argued a few times over it, or over Harry not asking her to Sophie's birthday party, which he really didn't get at all – it was Sophie's party, after all, not his, and so it made sense Sophie's friends would be there, didn't it? He didn't think Cho had ever spoken more than two words with Sophie.
He felt like he was neglecting Neville for Cho, too, because with all this going on he still hadn't had enough time to actually start training him, and while Neville was as understanding as always, Harry really felt he had his priorities wrong. Wasn't preparing Neville for the war that would come one day more important than dates with Cho? He had gotten better in his training with Snape, in making his dummy-friends survive, but he was still very far from having a perfect score, and had regular nightmares about one of the dead dummies having Neville's face. So he thought it was rather understandable he wasn't too enthusiastic about Cho's demands.
At least Quidditch was over now, so he'd have more time. Wood was right, there were very real benefits to having the final match this early. It meant he could stop devoting time to it earlier, and he would do that soon enough. But first, it was time for the victory party.
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Alduin headed to Little Hangleton the first chance he got. He would head to the Gaunt house first, and only if he was unsuccessful there, he would try with the Riddle House, which was much bigger and, besides, actually inhabited, apparently.
As soon as he arrived at the Gaunt House and cast the first of a series of very sensitive, specific detection spells, he knew he was at the right place. Only, the protection was probably going to be rather more formidable than he had thought…
He considered the situation carefully, then turned on his heel and went back home to arrange for some help.
He returned two days later, with Kingsley, Theodore and Perpetua, who winced when he repeated the detection spells and she saw what they were dealing with. "Well," she said. "This is going to be...amusing."
Alduin supposed they each had their idea of fun.
Grimly, his friends set to dismantling the spells, with him helping where he could – which was rarely enough. This was, very emphatically, not his field. Honestly, his biggest contribution was when the experts failed to notice a spell hiding under another, broader and more dangerous one, and triggered a summoning charm that gave them some elementals to fight.
Alduin had never seen such a thing in real life, but he knew the theory at least, and with his advice on how best to fight them, they were able to first cordon them off and then banish them back to where they came from.
"You really do study the most obscure things," Kingsley muttered when they were gone.
"Be grateful," Perpetua said drily. "Otherwise we might have well been a smear on the ground."
In any case it made them all more careful, and so it took another hour until the last spell was dismantled and Alduin was able to open the hiding place under the floor of the house and look at the ring lying there in an innocuous looking box.
"Right," he said, giving it a mistrustful look.
"You don't intend to touch it, do you?" Theodore asked.
"Not on your life," Alduin assured him, and then took out the handle they'd created for Horcrux destruction and transferred the ring into a specially prepared container.
"Well," he said then, as he sealed the container and readied to bring it to his laboratory, where it would await being taken to the Department of Mysteries. "That's that."