Note: Two chapters in one day! Woo!
This be a long one!
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Three loud cracks were heard just in front of what looked like a vacant lot. Harry spun and headed toward the invisible house.
"Harry?" Hermione asked. "Don't you think we should knock, or something?"
"It's my house." Harry said, finding the door. "I don't need to knock to enter my own house, do I? Besides, it only lets people that I want to come in enter." But then he stopped, and turned to Ron.
"Ginny's at the Burrow, right?"
"Yeah."
"Okay then." Harry entered, and the other two followed. Ron stopped, apparently not able to enter.
"Harry!" He said crossly. Harry rolled his eyes and let Ron in. "What was that for?"
"I was only joking." Harry said, looking behind him. When he turned around, Mad Eye Moody's wand was almost poking him in the eye.
"Who are you three?" He asked roughly.
"It's me, Harry." He reached up and rubbed Hermione's makeup off his forehead. Moody looked up, and then lowered his wand.
"You should knock before entering. Scared us all nearly to death."
"Sorry. Figured I didn't need to knock to enter my own house." Moody narrowed his eyes at Harry, and then limped off into the kitchen. Harry followed and sat at the table. Ron and Hermione joined him.
"Harry, is that you?" Tonks asked, entering the kitchen. Harry noticed that her hair was pinker than he had ever seen it. "And the other two as well. Good. Molly was about ready to have a heart attack when she didn't hear from you."
"I wrote to her three days ago." Ron mumbled.
"Where's Remus?" Hermione asked Tonks.
"Oh, you know, off with his fellow wolves."
"Don't you miss him?" Hermione asked, also noticing the pink.
"Of course I do. But he said he'd be back today. Monthly report, you know. Then he doesn't have to leave again until the next moon cycle." Harry could tell why she was so happy today. He wished that he felt the same way. He wished that Ginny had been there, even though it was dangerous. He would have liked someone else besides Hermione to comfort him. "You three look like you're starving."
"Very much so." Ron said, sounding a bit excited.
"Well, you're in luck. Your mum was here only yesterday and made a whole bunch of beef stew." Harry would normally have felt good about this, but something irked him. If only they had come a day earlier…
Tonks brought each of them a bowl of soup. Ron dived in immediately. Hermione hit him over the head.
"Ow!" Ron said, choking on the soup. "What was that for?"
"You're such a disgusting eater! Honestly, Ron, it isn't going to run away." She sighed and went for her own soup, but stopped when she saw that Harry wasn't eating. "Are you feeling okay?"
Harry nodded, staring at his stew. Suddenly he had lost his appetite, and Ron had nothing to do with it. Hermione reached over and put her arm around him.
"It's okay. Really. I know how you feel. You should eat anyway." She kicked Ron in the shin for the same reason as before. "You haven't eaten in days -"
Harry got up from the table. "I'm not really hungry," he said to Tonks. Harry began walking around the house, not knowing exactly where he was going to. He entered a random room and sunk into a chair. He noticed that it smelt like dog. "What am I going to do Snuffles?" Harry whispered, looking up at the ceiling. "Someone please tell me what I'm supposed to do."
He rolled his head forward and stared across the room lazily. The Black family tree was staring back at him. Harry got up and went to it. He found Sirius's name, touched it, and smiled. Not to far away were the Malfoy's. Harry suddenly felt the urge to rip that part of the tree off. But, he thought, Draco hadn't actually done it. If he had really wanted to kill Dumbledore, then he would have done it in a second. Harry decided to be a little more understanding to Draco – but to rip Snape's throat out. That stupid git, Harry thought. If I ever see him again I'll –
Harry stopped the threat in mid thought. Something had caught his eye. Over near Sirius was another name… He spun around so fast that he almost fell over, and then ran to get Ron and Hermione.
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"Of course!" Hermione exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of it? Oh, sometimes I am so oblivious…" Ron snorted behind her. "Regulus A. Black. Wonder what the A stands for?"
"Does it matter?" Harry asked. "Now we have to figure out where he hid it."
"It was the locket, wasn't it?" Ron said. "Didn't we find a locket?"
Hermione looked as if she were about to correct him, but stopped herself. "Yes! We did! Remember? We couldn't open it!"
"D'you remember if it had an S on it?" Harry asked.
"Not sure… but if we can find it again…"
"I remember where it is." Ron said. Hermione looked at him, obviously surprised. "I'm smarter than I look."
"Or at least you have a good memory." Harry said. "Let's go."
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"Are you sure it was here?" Hermione asked. They had searched the whole room, and there was no sign of the locket.
"Yes, I'm sure." Ron said. "D'you think Sirius knew about it? Maybe he moved it."
"I doubt it." Harry said. "He wouldn't have moved it anyway. If anything he would have gotten rid of it. Why would you want Slytherin's locket in your house? Especially since it means so much to Voldemort."
"Well, he must have gotten rid of it." Hermione said, looking very disappointed. "At least we know who R.A.B. was."
Harry sat down on the floor. Sirius wouldn't have gotten rid of it. He would probably have thought it was nothing much, maybe something of his mothers. But someone had moved it, and within the last year.
Think Harry, he told himself. Who was here that would have known about it and moved it? The Order couldn't have known. Dumbledore wouldn't have known, or else he would have already taken care of it. And none of the younger people knew what it was until now. Suddenly, Harry got up. He had an idea… "Kreacher!" he called loudly. The house elf popped into the room and bowed slowly.
"Yes master?" Kreacher asked, looking quite annoyed.
"Where is Slytherin's locket?"
"Kreacher does not know what the master speaks of."
"Kreacher, I command you to tell me where the locket is!"
"Harry," Hermione said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "He doesn't know -"
"Kreacher, where did your old mistress keep her jewelry?" This seemed to register with the house elf. He sighed, mumbled something about them stealing his poor mistresses priceless jewels, and walked off slowly. The three of them followed. Kreacher went to a room just down the hall and pointed to an old box on a shelf.
"Stay here." Harry said to Kreacher, who looked like he might sneak off. Harry pulled down the box and dumped it onto the floor. Kreacher looked like he might faint. Harry and Hermione dug through the jewelry, while Ron kept an eye on Kreacher.
"No locket." Hermione said sadly.
"Kreacher," Harry said, standing up. "Did you ever see Regulus with a locket?"
Kreacher looked shocked. "You should not speak of Kreacher's master in such a tone."
"He's not your master anymore. I am, and I command you to answer my question."
"Yes, Kreacher did see a locket." Harry felt his spirits rise a bit. "Many years ago."
"Do you know what he did with it?"
"Master hid it."
"Where?"
"In the room you were just in."
"But it's not there, Kreacher. Someone moved it."
"Then Kreacher does not know where it is."
"Yes, you do." Hermione said. "No one else knew where it was except you. You had to move it." Kreacher kept his mouth shut.
"Good try," Harry said, "but he doesn't have to answer you. Did you move the locket, Kreacher?" The house elf shook his head. "Did you see it being moved?" Kreacher stopped, saying nothing. "Answer me or I will slam your ears in the oven door." Hermione looked absolutely appalled.
"The bad master moved it."
"Who's the bad master?" Harry asked, but he already knew the answer. Sirius… Kreacher did not answer. "Never mind. Where did he move it to?"
Kreacher sighed again. "I will answer only if you replace the mistresses' jewels." Hermione zoomed them back to the box and then back onto the shelf. Kreacher sauntered off again.
They were lead to an old broom cupboard. Kreacher entered and pointed up. Harry squinted in the darkness to see what he pointed to. There was a ladder, going straight up for what looked like forever. Harry stepped in as Kreacher scurried out. He reached up for the ladder, but was knocked sideways as Ron and Hermione hurdled into him. The door slammed shut and locked.
"Kreacher!" Harry screamed from under Ron.
"Harry, let him go." Hermione said as she lit her wand. "He won't be much use after this anyway."
The three of them stood up as best as they could in the small space and looked up. "Why would you put a ladder in a cupboard?" Ron asked.
"Maybe it's an extra passageway." Hermione said. "In case of emergency – like a fire escape."
"Or maybe they were hiding something." Harry said, reaching for the ladder. It was just beyond his reach. "Help me up." He said to Ron.
"Are you sure about this?" Hermione asked. "Maybe I should go." Harry turned toward her voice, giving her a look that he knew she couldn't see. "What if something's up there? You can't use magic yet."
"So? When has that ever stopped me before?"
"It will be pretty hard to get out of this one when Dumbledore isn't there to defend you." Hermione said crossly. Harry stopped reaching and stepped out of her way, quite angry at her. Ron boosted her up to the ladder. Harry could hear her climbing.
"See anything?" Ron asked.
"No, not yet." She continued to climb. "Wait – there's a landing up here."
"Be careful." Ron said up to her. Harry was still too angry to speak. They heard her struggle to pull herself up. Then they saw her wand light.
"There's a lot of room up here. It looks like an attic." The light dimmed as she moved on. "D'you remember what kind of box it was in?"
"No, sorry." Ron said. Hermione screamed. "Hermione? D'you need us to come up there?"
"No. It was a spider, sorry."
"You can go up, Harry." Ron said, backing away from the ladder.
"Do you see it or not?" Harry asked heatedly.
"Keep your hat on, I'm looking." The light dimmed and grew brighter as she moved around. "No – no sign of a locket." Harry swore under his breath and reached for the ladder. Ron helped him up.
"You stay down here," he said, looking down at Ron. "In case something happens."
"No problem." Ron said, backing away from the ladder again.
"You didn't need to come up, Harry." Hermione said as she helped him up. Harry ignored her and began searching. Twenty minutes later, he was convinced that Kreacher had lied to them.
"I'm going to iron that house elf's hands." He said crossly. Hermione looked shocked. "There's a difference between good house elves and Kreacher, Hermione - good house elves don't try to have their masters killed."
"Maybe we could try looking in the room again." Hermione suggested. "Maybe there's a hole in the wall or something." Harry helped her to the ladder and waited until she got down, as he didn't think it could hold more than one person at a time. As her wand light dimmed, Harry spotted something shine.
"Hermione! Stop!" She began to climb the ladder again. On the opposite wall, staring right at Harry, was something gold. "Get down and shine your wand up here." Hermione did as she was told, and Harry reached out as far as he could toward the shiny thing.
"Harry, be careful!" Ron warned. Harry reached out and just managed to grab the shiny thing, but he lost his footing and fell.
Hermione gasped. Harry banged of the wall sharply, but grabbed onto a rung in the ladder. "Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah." Harry climbed down the ladder, and Ron broke open the door. Seconds later, Harry was walking toward the kitchen with Slytherin's locket firmly in his hand.