The rest of Christmas passed mildly enough for FitzSkimmons, before they finally returned to Hogwarts a few days after the new year.

After they'd Floo into Professor McGonagall's office, she'd handed them a letter from Dumbledore, so the following evening at 20:00, FitzSkimmons entered Dumbledore's office for their third meeting with the headmaster.

As soon as they had sat down across from him, Dumbledore said, "I hear that you met the Minister of Magic over Christmas."

"We might have met in passing. He probably wants to arrest us for talking negatively about his government, but — oh well," Daisy answered indifferently.

"Yes — I must say he is not very happy with me either. But we must try not to sink beneath our anguish, and instead battle on. I have two more memories to show you this evening, both obtained with enormous difficulty, and the second of them is, I think, the most important I have collected."

"Before we begin tonight, we have something we'd like to alert you to real quick," Fitz quickly interrupted. "If you could be so kind as to allow us a minute."

"Of course, of course," said Dumbledore. "What is on your mind?"

"Remember the necklace that we borrowed from you at the end of our last lesson?" began Daisy. "Specifically how you believed it to be a cursed gift intended to assassinate you? Well, Hermione wore said necklace at Slughorn's Christmas party, and turned quite a few heads I must add. But one head turned in a bit of an unusual way."

"Said student stared at the necklace, for sure, but not in the normal 'oh it's beautiful' or envious ways that most everyone else at the party stared at it," picked up Fitz. "Instead, his expression looked to us like he personally knew that Hermione couldn't be wearing said necklace. Now, it is of course possible that he'd simply seen it in Borgin and Burke's at some point, as we know that the necklace was in there for a while, and so he was simply under the impression that the curse laid upon it was not of the removable variety, or perhaps that Mr Burke would not sell such a necklace to a mudblood, but it looked to us to be more than just that."

"Of course, we still don't know whether he was staring at it in that way because he personally was behind sending said necklace to you, or if he simply knew who did in fact send it to you, or if he'd simply heard someone mention that someone was sending that particular cursed necklace to try to murder you, but in our professional opinion we have little doubt that he knows at least something about the plan to use the opal necklace to permanently remove you from this school, and life in general," finished Simmons.

Predictably, Dumbledore stared at them in surprise, though whether at their excellent deduction skills, or because he knew exactly who they were talking about and therefore now at least suspected who was trying to off him, FitzSkimmons didn't yet know. But after a few seconds in which they could practically see the cogs in Dumbledore's brain turning at highest speed, he finally latched onto the part where they'd said that the student might have seen the necklace in Borgin and Burke's, and quickly brushed the entire thing off with a, "I'm sure Malfoy was just surprised to see Miss Granger wearing a necklace that he'd seen in a dark arts shop. Thank you for telling me this, but I suggest that you put it out of your minds. I do not think that it is of great importance."

FitzSkimmons simply nodded their heads, not needing to say anything more. Dumbledore had just without realizing it told them that he knew Malfoy was trying to kill him, not just by never asking who the student was that they had seen so shocked by the presence of the necklace, but by saying Malfoy's name himself when they never had. But if he didn't care about his own life, then they sure as hell didn't either him being nothing more than a book character who's fate wasn't in their hands in six months, and anyway it sounded like he had it all under control.

At FitzSkimmons' nodded agreement, Dumbledore continued on, "So I have two memories to show you this evening, and like I said earlier, the second of them is, I think, the most important I have collected."

They started out the evening's memory viewing with Morfin's memory of Riddle coming to pay him a visit, and at the very least snitching Marvolo's ring, along with possibly murdering Tom Riddle Senior and Senior's mum and dad in the nearby town. Dumbledore at least was of this opinion, and while FitzSkimmons also thought based on the memory that it was entirely possible that Riddle had simply imperiused Morfin to murder Riddle's dad and grandparents for him, thus making Morfin's confession true, they saw no advantage at the moment to mentioning this, so they didn't.

However, the moment Dumbledore said, "There he murdered the Muggle man who had abandoned his witch mother, and, for good measure, his Muggle grandparents, thus obliterating the last of the unworthy Riddle line and revenging himself upon the father who never wanted him —", Simmons couldn't help but angrily interrupt.

"Well of course he fucking didn't!" she exclaimed, cutting him off savagely. "He was raped by the child's mother! How can you possibly imply he's in the wrong here?! Sure, he could have been the better person and raised the boy essentially like an adopted son, and just maybe saved the world from this particular evil, but you certainly can't blame him for what he did, or say that he was in the wrong! Riddle's mother and now Riddle himself are the only people in the wrong here!"

Like any time anyone informed a magical person that love potions were rape (except Slughorn, interestingly enough, who in their very first lesson had agreed that Amortentia was the most dangerous potion in the world), Dumbledore stared at her in shock for several seconds, before completely ignoring her and continuing on with his explanation of what he believed had happened and how he'd obtained the memory.

Knowing a losing battle when they saw one, FitzSkimmons didn't press the issue, and soon enough they arrived at the second memory of the night — the memory of Riddle asking a much younger Professor Slughorn about something called a horcrux.

"So he knows exactly what horcruxes are, he just didn't want to tell Riddle what they were for some reason," said Fitz the moment that they landed back in Dumbledore's office.

"What was that fog that covered the memory a couple of times, Sir?" asked Simmons. "If this was memory on a computer, I would say that the file had been corrupted."

"The memory has certainly has been tampered with, Miss Granger," replied Dumbledore. "Though by Professor Slughorn himself, and intentionally. Those patches of fog are moments where he obliterated the parts of his memory which he does not wish me to see, I believe because he is ashamed of what he remembers, and has tried to rework the memory to show himself in a better light. But it is, as you will have noticed, very crudely done, and that is all to the good, for it shows that the true memory is still there beneath the alterations.

"And so, for the first time, I am giving you homework, specifically you, Harry. It will be your job to persuade Professor Slughorn to divulge the real memory, which will undoubtedly be our most crucial piece of information of all."

"So you think he actually did tell Riddle what a horcrux was," said Daisy. "And you want to know exactly what Professor Slughorn told him. Because you think Riddle has some of these horcruxes, or will be trying to get some this time around."

"And what is a horcrux, Sir?" asked Simmons.

"And why me specifically?" added Fitz. "About getting the memory, that is. Not my girlfriends, not you, but me specifically."

"To answer you first, Harry, Professor Slughorn has his weaknesses like the rest of us, and I believe that you are the one person who might be able to penetrate his defenses," answered Dumbledore, before turning to Simmons. "As for what horcruxes are, I do not believe it would be best to tell you at just this moment, not until the real memory is secure and we can see just how important of a memory it really is. And I must warn you, you will find no mentions of horcruxes in the Hogwarts library, so it would be a waste of your time to try looking. So, good luck...and good night."

Once FitzSkimmons were out of his office and walking back towards their dorm, Daisy looked over at Simmons and asked, "So do you think he's bluffing about the library so that you won't go look and find out on your own, or telling the truth that it's really not there?"

"In this case, I actually think telling the truth," answered Simmons. "I think he may have removed all of the books that it had on them at some point, probably once he became headmaster and had the authority. But regardless, hopefully we'll have the memory in a day or two, and either Professor Slughorn will have told us in it, or Dumbledore will tell us then, so hopefully it won't be a long wait anyway." Turning to Fitz, she asked, "How about you, Fitz? Any idea how you're going to get the real memory from Professor Slughorn?"

"Use Slughorn against himself," answered Fitz. "He gave me — all of us, actually — exactly what I should need to get him to give me the real memory given the fact that Dumbledore believes that Harry has the skill or some innate quality to do it."

"Luck," concluded all three of them at the same time.

"Exactly," continued Fitz. "How much luckier could I get than if I simply asked him to give me the real memory, maybe mentioned that it was important to stopping Riddle for good, and him just give it to me like that, no fuss or difficulties."

" 'You will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed'," quoted Simmons. "Seems like a good plan to me. And if you can catch him alone in his office, and take it right before going in, you shouldn't need to drink much to get what you need. I'd suggest two hours out of the twelve each bottle has, and make sure to have the bottle with you in case you need to top off, but theoretically shouldn't take you more than thirty minutes, an hour tops. Maybe not even ten minutes if you're really lucky."

~FSK~

So the following afternoon after a lesson of making antidote potions, Fitz subtly drank two hours worth of liquid luck as he hung back slowly packing up his belongings.

The night before, as soon as they had got back to their dorm, Simmons had carefully measured out one-sixth of Fitz's Felix Felicis into a separate vial for him to take, so he would be all ready to try to get the memory Dumbledore had assigned him to retrieve. And now that he took it, he slowly felt an exhilarating sense of infinite opportunity building up inside him. It wasn't like when Leopold had started talking to him or appeared, nor like any curse like Imperious or Legilimens that was directed at Harry — the closest thing it felt like was when hallucination-Simmons had appeared to try to help him through his injury, only without the actual hallucinations, or even a discernible voice. At least, that was the best way he could describe the prodding in his mind that he could only assume must be the potion. Looking around the dungeon and seeing that everyone else had left the room already, he had a gut feeling that it was the right moment to approach Professor Slughorn.

"Ah, Harry, the shining star of my Potions' wizarding trio," their teacher boomed genially as Fitz walked up to him. "Did you have a question for me about today's lesson? Otherwise, you really should be heading on to your next class to ace it as well. Although if there are questions to be had about antidotes, I should probably be the one asking you three, not the other way around!"

"I don't have a question about today's lesson, but I do have a question for you," answered Fitz. "But is there somewhere private that we could go? Some parts of the question are rather confidential, and I'd prefer no one overhearing information about me that they shouldn't."

"Oh, of course, Harry," replied Slughorn. "Anything for one of my best students. And you're just in luck — I don't have any class next period, so I'm free to talk for as long as you need me. And I'm sure your next professor won't mind either as long as we're discussing school related subjects. Come along, come along, let's go up to my office."

Harry followed Slughorn up through the castle to his office, which despite being the period between classes when everyone was usually rushing around and all the hallways were overcrowded and pushing and shoving and occasionally jinxing, seemed to be much less crowded today, and they easily made it up to Slughorn's office in record time.

Once they were settled behind and in front of Slughorn's desk, Slughorn asked, "So what is you wanted to ask me about, my dear boy?"

"Well, first off, before I get to the question itself — and this must strictly stay between us, you understand — I am in fact the 'Chosen One' that the Daily Prophet keeps calling me," began Fitz, feeling by the Felix Felicis that it was the right thing to do in this situation to disclose to Slughorn that Harry was in fact 'The Chosen One' Slughorn had been trying to find out ever since the train ride in September. "There was a prophecy made about me and Tom Riddle, and according to it I am the only one capable of defeating him for good. Now, since that is what the prophecy says, and Dumbledore believes the legitimacy of the prophecy, he has been giving me private lessons to try to prepare me for the eventual battle against Riddle that must one day occur. And in these lessons, we have been trying to discover any weaknesses Riddle may have that I can exploit, and any previously unknown magic he may have up his sleeve that I will have to overcome in order to one day defeat him. Especially one specific hitherto unknown piece of magic, which is what I want to ask you about. Something called a horcrux, which you many, many years ago told a young, prefect Tom Riddle about when he was a student here, in this very office in fact, late one night.

"And don't try to deny it," Fitz went on quickly as Slughorn opened his mouth to protest too much. "I know you told him something, and that it wasn't that you knew nothing about horcruxes and not to ever mention them again — which, by the way, even if you had actually said that, and not just changed your memory to make it seem like that's what you told him, clearly meant that you did in fact know something about them, or else you couldn't have known to tell him that you wouldn't tell him anything about them even if you did know something about them — but that is all beside the point.

"My question to you is, will you please give me the real memory? If I am to destroy Riddle forever like I'm prophesied to do, I need to know absolutely everything about Riddle, and I need to know everything Riddle knows, including what you actually told him about horcruxes. And if the prophecy is to be believed, I am the only person in the world who can possibly defeat Riddle, which means the fate of the wizarding world literally rests in my hands, and by extension in yours since you hold the memory I need to be able to have any chance at all of defeating him.

"You, Sir, like collecting outstanding and amazing witches and wizards. It's why you have all your parties the ladies and I attended all of last term. So tell me, Sir, how much greater of a trophy could you possibly obtain than collecting the boy who defeated Voldemort not once, but twice, and permanently the second time, all because you gave him the crucial piece of information he needed to win?"

Fitz would have been afraid that he'd laid it on a little too thick, but Felix assuaged his fears, and assured him that everything he had said was absolutely perfect, and necessary, and exactly what Professor Slughorn needed to hear to convince him to relinquish the real memory.

Slughorn stared at Fitz for the longest time, first in shock, and then in seemingly deep thought, but Felix Felicis told Fitz not to break the silence, to wait.

And eventually, Slughorn looked down at where his hands were folded over his extensive stomach, and whispered as much to himself as to Fitz, "I am not proud...I am ashamed of what — of what that memory shows. I think I may have done great damage that day..."

"You would be putting it right to the best of your ability by letting me have it now," Fitz gently reassured him. "It would be your piece in the puzzle of ridding this world of the terror that is Voldemort forever."

Slughorn stared at Fitz for a long while longer, before finally, very reluctantly, pulling out his wand. He took a small, empty bottle out from inside one of the drawers of his desk, and touching the tip of his wand to his temple, drew out the long, silver thread of a memory and lowered it into the bottle. Corking the top with a trembling hand, he handed it over to Fitz.

"Thank you very much, Professor. You have no idea how important this is," said Fitz sincerely.

"You're a good boy," said Professor Slughorn, tears trickling down his fat cheeks into his walrus mustache. "Just don't think too badly of me once you've seen it…."

~FSK~

That evening at the end of supper, once most of the crowds had left and they were afraid that they could wait no longer or he might leave, FitzSkimmons walked up to the staff table, to where Dumbledore sat chatting with Professor Flitwick.

"Excuse me, Sir," said Simmons when Dumbledore turned to look at them. "We found that piece of homework of ours that you asked to look at, whenever you have a free moment for us to give it to you."

Dumbledore looked at them in shock for a second, before quickly schooling his features and saying, "Very good. Why don't you come by my office in an hour, and hand it in then."

"Yes, Sir," replied Simmons, before turning and leading her spouses out of the Great Hall to wait until it was time to go give Dumbledore the memory.

When it finally was, they left the broom cupboard they had been snogging in and headed up to Dumbledore's office, where he was waiting on them with the pensieve already out.

"I must say, I am very surprised by how quickly you procured this," he said as Fitz handed over the memory.

"Harry can be very persuasive when he needs to be, and he got lucky that Slughorn was in such a good mood this afternoon after Potions," replied Daisy, holding back a smirk — at the lucky part because they had used Liquid Luck, but also at the persuasive part, remembering how it had mostly been Fitz who'd persuaded her to give their trio a chance, and to seriously consider the possibility of it as a marriage relationship once she had realized how good the intimate side of it was but she still didn't think that it could or should be a real relationship, believing that she would mess them up and that she didn't deserve to be with them like that.

"Well, it is spectacular news for sure. Now, at last, we shall see…."

And with that he poured the memory into the pensieve, and the four of them entered.

As soon as they had returned to Dumbledore's office, Simmons said, "So a horcrux is a separate, protected part of one's soul that isn't killed when the body is killed, and we're guessing that Riddle made, tried to make, or at least planned on making six of them, assuming splitting your soul once only created one horcrux and not two, despite your soul being in two pieces now — each split creates one horcrux, plus the original piece that you make more horcruxes from, so six horcruxes plus the original makes the seven pieces of his soul he wanted. Right?"

"Very well described, Miss Granger. And indeed, I believe he at least intended on making six horcruxes, though it is impossible to say with complete confidence if he ever did so," answered Dumbledore.

"So there's six horcruxes we have to destroy first before we can kill Riddle himself," said Fitz. "What actually are these horcruxes we have to destroy? I mean, I guess I should say, what are they encased in?"

"And how do we destroy them?" asked Daisy. "Well, how do we find them first, and then destroy them once we've found them."

"Before we get to what they are, Harry, and how to find and destroy them, Miss Weasley, I would like to speak for just a moment on what I know about Voldemort's horcruxes, and show you two more memories first.

"As far as I know — as far, I am sure, as Voldemort knew — no wizard had ever done more than tear his soul in two. What Voldemort was asking from Horace was an opinion on what would happen to the wizard who created more than one Horcrux, something no book could have ever told him because no one had ever tried it. Four years ago, I received what I considered certain proof that Voldemort had in fact split his soul."

He paused for a second, but when FitzSkimmons simply waited on him patiently to explain instead of asking, he began speaking again. "In fact, it was you who handed it to me, Harry. The diary, Riddle's diary, the one giving instructions on how to reopen the Chamber of Secrets."

"Which is how it was able to begin to become real and interact with the world down in the chamber, adapt to a world of Harry Potter it would have known nothing about purely as a memory, because it was in fact actually Riddle himself, just a disconnected piece of him," Simmons mused thoughtfully. Turning to look at Daisy, she added, "And this does mean we already know one way of destroying them — basilisk fangs. Because that's how Harry destroyed the diary down in the Chamber. Unless each would be protected by different kinds of magic, and therefore have to be destroyed with different weapons?"

"No, a basilisk fang would destroy any horcrux," answered Dumbledore. "There will usually be a lot of very advanced magic protecting the horcrux — or at least there normally is when there is only one horcrux, the diary clearly shows that Voldemort is a little different having made multiple — but the physical horcrux itself also takes something very powerful to destroy it. But anything that is powerful enough will destroy any horcrux — basilisk venom being one of those things. The Sword of Gryffindor, sitting in the glass case behind me, can also destroy them, for it is what I used to destroy the second horcrux I have discovered. Beyond that, there are a few very dark spells I am aware of that would also destroy them, but they are generally uncontrollable, even by the most advanced wizards."

"And what is the second horcrux that you've found and destroyed, Sir?" asked Simmons.

"Marvolo's ring," answered Dumbledore. "And a terrible curse there was upon it, too. Had it not been — forgive me the lack of seemly modesty — for my own prodigious skill, and for Professor Snape's timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale. However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldemort's soul. The ring is no longer a Horcrux."

"So how did you find it, so we can find and destroy the rest of them?" asked Daisy.

"And will that occur every time we destroy a horcrux with the Sword of Gryffindor?" asked Fitz, pointing at Dumbledore's hand. "Because nothing like that occurred with the basilisk fang."

At this, Dumbledore's ancient face reddened slightly, and for the first time that any of FitzSkimmons could remember, he looked embarrassed.

"Ah, well, no, actually. You see, it wasn't actually destroying it with the sword that did this to my hand. Rather, it was an old man's foolish dreams that did this — but that is not a story for now," he answered. "But as for how I found it, as you now know, for many years I have made it my business to discover as much as I can about Voldemort's past life. I have traveled widely, visiting those places he once knew. I stumbled across the ring hidden in the ruin of the Gaunt's house. It seems that once Voldemort had succeeded in sealing a piece of his soul inside it, he did not want to wear it anymore. He hid it, protected by many powerful enchantments, in the shack where his ancestors had once lived, never guessing that someone might one day take the trouble to visit the ruin, or that if they did they would be keeping an eye open for traces of magical concealment."

"So we just have to mosey on down the timeline of the most feared and least talked about man of the past century, who you've already said and shown us with the four memories you've shown us so far that no one knows or at least is willing to share, to find the remaining four horcruxes," said Fitz, rolling his eyes. "Piece of cake — we should be done by next Tuesday, just in time for our weekly saving of the world because it can't manage to keep itself out of trouble for longer than a week."

Like every time they referenced their real lives in front of someone, Dumbledore looked at him in confusion for several seconds, before finally simply saying, "As difficult as it will doubtlessly be, we do have several clues to be going on. Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies, as you hopefully remember from our memory at the orphanage, and he preferred objects with a powerful magical history. His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve for himself a startling place in magical history; these things suggest to me that Voldemort would have chosen his Horcruxes with some care, favoring objects worthy of the honor."

"I am Sherlocked," muttered Daisy.

"What's that?" asked Dumbledore in confusion.

"Oh, uh...muggle tv show. The bad gal of the week could have gotten away, but she let her heart rule her head, and it was her downfall — well, I suppose that technically depends on what you believe occurred off-screen later on, it might have ended up very good for her, in a getting to sleep with Sherlock Holmes kind of way — but it was still the end of her power and control, regardless of what may or may not have happened after the episode ended, between that point and the show finale a couple years later, that lended credence to the theory that they stayed in contact — and in bed. But getting back to the point, the same thing will have occurred with Riddle once we find all of his horcruxes, only it will be his pride and desire to rule the world that will be his downfall, instead of love. Literally pick any random object and Riddle could have truly been immortal, because no one could have ever guessed a bunch of completely random objects, even if they did somehow discover that he'd made multiple horcruxes. But he got caught up in the game, and had to make them objects of importance or power, which means they can now be tracked down and destroyed."

It took Dumbledore a few seconds, clearly only having half-followed what Daisy had said, but he eventually said, "Yes, well, I believe that Lord Voldemort would prefer objects that, in themselves, have a certain grandeur. So, as I said, I have therefore traveled back through Voldemort's past to see if I can find evidence that such artifacts have disappeared around him. Which is where we come to two more memories I would like to show you. But for them to make any sense, I must give you a little background on what I factually know about Lord Voldemort after he graduated Hogwarts, and a few suspicions about why he was doing what he was."

Dumbledore proceeded to explain how Riddle, instead of taking a highfalutin, prestigious job in the Ministry after being turned down by Hogwarts headmaster Dippet for the position of DADA teacher, had gone to work at Borgin and Burke's going around and convincing people to sell the shop their ancient and valuable treasures. Then Dumbledore showed them the memory of one Hokey the house-elf.

As soon as they returned to Dumbledore's office, Simmons burst out, "Slytherin's Locket's at Grimmauld Place!"

Dumbledore stared at her in shock, and more than a little disbelief. "Seriously?! You recognized it?"

"Yes — it was in one of the glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantelpiece in the drawing room. The left one to be specific, though I don't know — wait! I know! Kreacher!"

A second later the ancient house elf cracked into existence. Giving most of a bow to her, though still very stiffly, he croaked out, "Mudblood Hermione called?"

Dumbledore spent most of the following conversation staring at FitzSkimmons in shock — at the fact Hermione Granger could apparently somehow call Kreacher; the fact Kreacher was acting much less resentful and almost even respectful towards the three students, quite unlike when Harry had called the house elf in Harry's family's house over the summer; and finally, and perhaps the biggest shock of all, that none of the three even batted an eye when Kreacher called Miss Granger 'mudblood'. But FitzSkimmons were paying no attention to Dumbledore at the moment, attention focused entirely on their house elf.

"Last summer, when Mrs Weasley was making us clean Grimmauld Place instead of letting you do it, there was a big gold locket in the drawing room upstairs that we threw out. Do you remember it?"

Kreacher straightened up to look Simmons full in the face, before saying with almost reverence, "Master Regulus's locket."

"Regulus? Regulus Black, Sirius's younger brother? You know what, no — first we want to know if you by any chance stole it back," said Fitz. "We can come back to Regulus later."

"Yes, Harry, Kreacher did," answered Kreacher.

"Then can you go get it for us, and bring it back here?" said Daisy, slightly impatiently.

Once again, Kreacher gave most of a bow to Daisy before cracking out of existence. A few seconds later he returned, Slytherin's Locket in hand. Dumbledore stared at it in shock as Daisy took it from the cantankerous old house elf, and set it down on Dumbledore's desk. But finally, the headmaster reached out and picked it up, and studied it carefully for a long time.

Eventually, he said, "You have indeed found the third horcrux. Which means I assume that you would like to help me destroy it, as well."

"It would be good knowledge for us to know, if we ever have to destroy one of these on our own," answered Daisy.

"Very well then," said Dumbledore. "If I am not mistaken, the locket must first be opened to kill the horcrux living inside. Normally I would do that with powerful magic, and it would probably take me a while to find the right spells. However, as this is Slytherin's locket, and we have a parselmouth in the room with us, I think our best bet would be to first see if Harry can simply tell it to open in parseltongue. But before you do so, let me get the sword, and explain what I expect will happen."

He walked over to the glass case and took out the sword, before returning to his desk, where he cleared everything away except the locket lying in the very center.

Then he said, "When the locket is opened, the horcrux will doubtlessly have some kind of defense mechanism to prevent it from being destroyed. In the case of the diary, it was a sixteen year old Tom Riddle. Who knows what it will be in this case, but the best action is to strike it before it has a chance to actually do anything. So as soon as it opens, if this works, I will swing the sword down across the open halves — so I want all of you as far away from it as you can be in this room, with your wands out and prepared for anything. Do you understand?"

FitzSkimmons immediately pulled out their wands and nodded.

"Very good. Now Harry, if you need to be close enough to see the engraved snake to speak in parseltongue, you may, but immediately get as far away as you can once you start speaking or at least as quickly as you can. And Miss Granger, Weasley, Kreacher — back up now."

Once everyone had taken their positions, Dumbledore nodded at Fitz. Fitz concentrated on the serpentine S of the locket, inlaid in glittering green gemstones, and hissed, "Open," as he quickly backed up to join the wivesies on the far side of the room away from the horcrux. As soon as the golden doors of the locket flipped open, Dumbledore brought the sword down hard across the open faces of the locket. There was a long, drawn-out scream from inside the locket, and then nothing. After a few seconds, FitzSkimmons walked back over, and joined Dumbledore in looking down at the shattered remains of the locket lying innocently on the headmaster's desk.

"So that's it? It's destroyed, a seventh of Riddle permanently destroyed?" asked Daisy after several seconds.

"That's it," Dumbledore answered heavily. "We are now down to three horcruxes before Voldemort can be killed."

They were all silent for a few more seconds, before Simmons looked at her husband and reminded him gently, "You were going to ask Kreacher about this locket's connection to Regulus?"

"Oh, yes," replied Fitz, before turning to look at Kreacher.

But to all their great surprises, Kreacher was sitting in the corner silently bawling his giant orb-like eyes out.

"Kreacher?" Simmons asked gently, walking over and sitting down next to him. "Are you okay?"

At this Kreacher began howling as well as bawling, apparently having thought it his duty not to make any noise while Master and Mistresses were working, but addressing him was permission to make noise along with his tears.

But after several minutes he finally calmed down enough to hiccup through his tears, "Harry, Hermione, and Ronna finished Master Regulus's orders!"

FitzSkimmons turned and looked at each other.

"Okay, Kreacher — when you're collected enough to talk, I need you to tell us absolutely everything that Regulus had to do with this locket," said Fitz.

A few minutes later when calm enough, Kreacher took a deep breath and began.

"When Master Regulus was sixteen years old, he joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve. And one day, a year after he joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said that the Dark Lord required an elf. And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do, and then to come home. So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake, with a boat out to a little island. There was a basin full of potion on the island. The Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it. Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible things...Kreacher's insides burned...Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed. He made Kreacher drink all the potion…he dropped that locket into the empty basin…he refilled it with more potion. And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island. Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake...and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface.

"When Kreacher returned and told Master Regulus what had happened, he was very worried, very worried. Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then...it was a little while later...Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell...and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord. Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had, and he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets. And he ordered Kreacher to leave without him. He told Kreacher to go home and never to tell my Mistress what he had done, but to destroy the first locket. And he drank all the potion, and Kreacher swapped the lockets, and watched as Master Regulus was drug beneath the water.

"When Kreacher brought the locket home, he tried to destroy it, he did, but nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it. Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work... So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open. Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he tried again. But Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had forbidden him to tell any of the family what happened in the cave.

"But now Master Harry and Mistresses Hermione and Ronna have finally destroyed the locket for Kreacher, and Kreacher has no longer failed Master Regulus's last order," finished Kreacher with a wail of what they assumed was closest to happiness.

Everyone except the house elf was silent for several minutes, processing everything that Kreacher had told them, until Dumbledore finally said, "I have been trying to locate that cave for a very long time. The cave in which Tom Riddle once terrorized two children from his orphanage on their annual trip, if you remember. I had no idea what horcrux it might be, though apparently it was Slytherin's locket."

"Okay, so we assume that Hufflepuff's Cup is the fourth horcrux, leaving two more. Any ideas?" asked Daisy.

"I have one more memory to show you, that I believe will enlighten us to what one of them may be, and then I have a guess as to what the sixth is. But before we get to that, this last memory takes place ten years after Lord Voldemort visited Hepzibah and killed her and stole Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's Cup."

FitzSkimmons followed Dumbledore into his own memory of Riddle returning to Hogwarts to ask now-headmaster Dumbledore for the DADA position again.

Upon returning, Dumbledore sat back down in his chair and said, "You asked me what the fifth horcrux is — I hazard a guess that, having secured objects from Hufflepuff and Slytherin, Lord Voldemort set out to track down objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Four objects from the four founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over Voldemort's imagination. However, I cannot answer for sure whether he ever managed to find anything of Ravenclaw's. I am confident, however, that the only known relic of Gryffindor remains safe."

Here he pointed at the Sword of Gryffindor that he'd laid across his desk next to the shattered remains of the locket.

"So he came back here under the pretense of wanting a teaching position, in order to look for something of Ravenclaw's, or possibly Gryffindor's that he'd heard of in his years between memories, that no one else knows about," said Fitz.

"My thoughts precisely," said Dumbledore. "But unfortunately, that does not advance us much further, for he was turned away, or so I believe, without the chance to search the school. I am forced to conclude that he never fulfilled his ambition of collecting four founders' objects. He definitely had two — he may have found three — that is the best we can do for now."

"Did you have someone following him from the moment he stepped foot in Hogwarts to the moment he left, though?" asked Daisy. "Because if he even had ten minutes unobserved, with his supposed knowledge of the castle, he could have done a lot — ten minutes is a long time if used well."

"Well…no, but I believe most of the portraits would have alerted me if they had seen him anywhere he shouldn't have been, all of the common rooms are protected, and there were staff members wandering the halls like normal," answered Dumbledore, with just a hint of defensiveness.

"So he had free rein of the castle for an indeterminate period of time," said Daisy, nodding to herself. "Which means we must certainly consider the possibility that he succeeded in his mission." Looking back up at Dumbledore, she asked, "So what relics of Ravenclaw's are known or thought to still exist, that he might have found?"

"The only known relic of Rowena Ravenclaw is the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. But as best as is known, it had been lost for centuries before Voldemort walked these halls," answered Dumbledore. "However, I do have a good idea as to what I believe the sixth and final Horcrux is. I wonder what you will say when I confess that I have been curious for a while about the behavior of the snake, Nagini?"

"What would happen to the horcrux when the snake dies? Would it just stay in the carcass? But then what would happen when the carcass eventually decays? Or would magic prevent it from ever decaying? Or would the horcrux keep the snake from ever dying in the first place? Is it the GH-325 of the magical world? And are there any horcrux experts in existence who could even answer that question, or give an educated guess as to what the answer might be?" rattled off Simmons, stream-of-conscious.

Dumbledore just stared at her for several seconds, before finally saying slowly, "Well, I think it would be reasonable to assume that no one besides Lord Voldemort has ever tried it before, and as very few people have ever studied horcruxes, and most of those just to make one themselves, I don't believe there is anyone to ask those questions to. But what I can say is, that it is inadvisable to use animals as horcruxes, because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business. However, if my calculations are correct, Voldemort was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents' house, Harry, with the intention of killing you.

"He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant murders. You would certainly have been that. He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death.

"As we know, he failed. After an interval of some years, however, he used Nagini to kill an old Muggle man, and it might then have occurred to him to turn her into his last Horcrux. She underlines the Slytherin connection, which enhances Lord Voldemort's mystique; I think he is perhaps as fond of her as he can be of anything; he certainly likes to keep her close; and he seems to have an unusual amount of control over her, even for a Parselmouth."

"So we need to find Hufflepuff's Cup and possibly Ravenclaw's diadem," said Simmons, bringing them back on track. "Because we know Nagini will almost always be with Riddle, and so will have to be destroyed about the same time as him. Though that does bring up the question, does Riddle know when his horcruxes have been destroyed? Does he know we've already destroyed three of them, and be out there making three new ones to replace those three? Can he make new ones, or is there some point at which there is not enough left of his original soul to split it anymore to make new ones? In which case I assume he would probably just try to hide the remaining ones better — though that might give us an idea of where they are if we can track him, and see everywhere he goes. And if his original soul can't be split anymore, can he split a horcrux into two smaller horcruxes?"

"A very interesting question whether he knows or not," answered Dumbledore. "And I believe the answer is not. I believe that Voldemort is now so immersed in evil, and these crucial parts of himself have been detached for so long, that he does not feel as we do. Perhaps, at the point of death, he might be aware of his loss...but he was not aware, for instance, that the diary had been destroyed until he forced the truth out of Lucius Malfoy. When Voldemort discovered that the diary had been mutilated and robbed of all its powers, I am told that his anger was terrible to behold."

"Well that's a plus for us," said Daisy. "We don't have to pull a Gone in Sixty Seconds and try to destroy them all in three nights so he doesn't have time to make more and rehide the rest — it's a muggle movie reference, you wouldn't get it."

"So going back to where I was originally going," cut in Simmons, rolling her eyes slightly at her wife, though she did agree with Daisy's point, "how do we go about finding the cup, and also the diadem or whatever else he might have made the fifth one out of, or do you already have an idea of where they might be?" asked Simmons.

"Unfortunately, I do not have a specific answer for that," answered Dumbledore. "As you know, I found the ring and was searching for what turned out to be the locket by going back over everywhere Voldemort went during his life, but the diary he gave to Malfoy instead of trying to hide."

"So the cup or the diadem could have been given to one of his Death Eaters, without telling them what it actually was," said Daisy. "Which actually makes it likely harder to track down than the ones he hid in places important to himself. Which goes back to getting too caught up in the game — if he'd buried one deep in the Albanian forest or somewhere no one ever goes, or tossed a heavy one out into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as he flew over on his broomstick, unless they've got a will of their own like the One Ring, he truly would have succeeded in making himself immortal."

"Well, we do know that they have a will of their own, sort of at least, but the One Ring's will was to get back to its Master, whereas there's no reason for a horcrux to ever go back to it's original part it came from," said Fitz. "In fact, it's better if they never come within a hundred miles of each other again."

But Dumbledore simply said, "It will be difficult to track them down — I will not deny that. However, we are already halfway there, and who knows what new strokes of luck we may have in the future. In the meantime, I will continue searching for clues as to where the final two could be hidden, which will hopefully be ever so slightly easier now that I know exactly which horcruxes I am looking for. But now, it is very late, and if you three do not make it to bed soon, I'm afraid you may have a very tired school day tomorrow. So until I have something more to share with you, I believe it is goodnight."

A few minutes later, once they had left Dumbledore's office and were walking down a secret passage that would take them towards their dorm, Daisy turned to her two spouses and said, "So we need to find the lost diadem — any suggestions, either of you? Oh smart one who reads way too much, or you who tracked down how to open the monolith to save the smart one who reads way too much?"

Rolling her eyes at her wife's antics, Simmons answered, "We have to find something that's been lost since long before any living person was born. And while there are books that were around before any living person, so were a specific set of people we can talk to in this castle — the ghosts."

"Oh — yeah, that makes a smidgeon of sense," said Daisy. "So what's the likelihood we can find one wandering around this late at night?"

"Hopefully none, as it's late, and I want to get to bed," groused Fitz from the other side of her.

Smiling, Simmons replied, "For once, I actually agree with our husband. Riddle isn't going to be out there creating new horcruxes tonight, so we're not in that much of a hurry to have to find the diadem tonight. So I suggest we ask Nick at breakfast tomorrow to meet us some place private later in the day, and then ask him what he can tell us, and who we need to talk to next."

So the following afternoon, after their last class, FitzSkimmons met Sir Nicholas of Nearly Nary a Head in an empty classroom near the married dorms.

"Hi, good Sir with a not quite detached head," greeted Daisy. "We are looking for all the information we can possibly find on Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. And since it's been lost since long before any living person was born, we thought you or one of the other ghosts might be our best source of information."

"If you want to know about Rowena's diadem, your best bet would probably be to ask her daughter, Helena Ravenclaw," answered Nick. "Or as she is known by most students in the castle, the Grey Lady."

"Could you go find her for us, and bring her back here? I'm sure you know the patterns of the ghosts a lot better than we do," asked Fitz.

With a bow that sent his head toppling over, Nick disappeared through the wall after setting it right again. When he returned ten minutes later, a tall, young woman with long, transparent hair came drifting in behind him.

"Hi, Ms Ravenclaw," greeted Simmons. "We need to know everything you know on where your mum's lost diadem might be, in order to be able to kill Tom Riddle for good. It's a long story, one we don't have permission from Dumbledore to tell, but Riddle can't be killed if we can't find your mum's diadem first."

"While the diadem bestows wisdom," Helena replied stiffly, "I doubt that it would greatly increase you chances of defeating the wizard Riddle."

"He bestowed it with incredibly evil magic that makes him nearly impossible to be defeated in battle," Daisy said bluntly. "But if we can find the diadem, and un-curse it, our side will stand a much better chance of being able to defeat him when we eventually have to meet him in open battle. We don't care what happens with the diadem after we've de-cursed, we'll do whatever you want with your mom's jewelry whenever we're done with it so long as Dumbledore will let us. Or maybe put it with Slytherin's Locket and the Sword of Gryffindor in the trophy case in the headmaster's office — point being, we don't care what happens to it afterwards. We just need it to remove the curse Riddle put on it."

Helena stared at FitzSkimmons for a long time, before finally turning away from them and facing the wall as she said, "When I stole the diadem from my mother and ran away, it ended up hidden in a hollow tree in Albania. Where Riddle took it from there after he got the information out of me, I'm afraid I cannot tell you. I have not seen Riddle since he graduated from this school."

"Riddle didn't come here to find the diadem, he came here to hide it!" Daisy exclaimed excitedly. "And he'd certainly only need a minute or two alone to do that as long as he knew where he wanted to hide it before he came here."

"And he could have also been looking for any chance to nab the Sword of Gryffindor as well while he was here," added Simmons. "But that still leaves us with the question of where he hid it, that no one's ever found it."

"Excuse me, Ms Ravenclaw, but could you point us in the direction of somewhere we could see what it looks like?" Fitz asked Helena. "So we actually know what we're looking for."

"There is a statue of my mother in the Ravenclaw common room," answered the ghost.

"Luna," said Simmons to her spouses, before saying to Helena, "Thank you for your help, Ms Ravenclaw. We appreciate it."

~FSK~

At supper that evening, FitzSkimmons walked over to where Luna was sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table.

"Mind if we sit with you?" asked Simmons.

"Oh! Not at all," replied Luna in surprise.

"Thanks," said Daisy, as the three of them sat down.

They chatted amicably for a while, until Fitz finally said, "So we did have one reason we came over here to eat with you, besides seeing that you didn't have anyone to eat with and wanting to eat with you. We were hoping that you could take us into Ravenclaw common room, so that we could see the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. We need to see what her diadem looks like."

"Of course!" replied Luna. "I'd be more than happy to. When would you like to go?"

"Once we've finished eating?" suggested Simmons. "Might be fewer Ravenclaws around to ask us what we're doing."

So a little while later, after they'd finished eating, FitzSkimmons followed Luna up to Ravenclaw Tower. There in the common room, in a niche across from the door, stood a tall, white marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. A delicate-looking circlet had been carved into the marble on the top of her head, with the words, 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure' etched in tiny letters on it.

"There it is," said Luna in her dreamy voice. "Quite nice, isn't she?"

"Indeed," answered Simmons. "And this is a beautiful common room you have here. Great view of the grounds, just like Gryffindor Tower."

But the stone carving wasn't the real diadem, nor was it a horcrux, so after looking around the Ravenclaw common room for a few more minutes, they headed back downstairs, nothing more to do about the horcrux hunt at the moment.