A/N: I have very sorry for the long delay. Hopefully I will be able to update faster next time.

Too bad I have no one to thank for reviewing... : ( Maybe I will have reviewers to thank when I post the next chapter...

Let us turn to serious matters

"Damn it!" Harry groaned in frustration.

He had practiced for hours – along with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny – on how to perform the spell.

When they had seemed able to perform the correct wand movement without too much trouble, Harry had told them he would try it out alone first.

But, so far, it wasn't working.

"Maybe your not thinking about your love for what its destruction means…" Hermione suggested.

Harry glared at Hermione, but then sighed. "Probably. It's isn't easy to think that way."

Hermione nodded – Ron and Ginny sympathizing as well.

"Well we could help you try to perform the spell, maybe all of use together will be able to destroy it," Ginny suggested.

Harry shook his head. "I don't want what happened to Dumbledore or Mrs. Dearborn to happen to any of you. We already think that because I was 'chosen' by Voldemort then I am the one who has to do the spell – which means on my own."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Harry…"

"No. Please just give me some time. I know I can do this, I just have to think about it more."

"Fine," Ron said, standing up and pulling Hermione up as well. "Let's go get some food, I am starving."

Harry, Hermione, and Ginny followed Ron out of the room chuckling as they went.

They ate dinner, went out to a nearby shop to buy the Latin Dictionary – which they easily found – and then returned to their rooms.

"Harry," Ginny whispered later as they lie in bed.

"Hmmm?"

"If the mirror was destroyed, we would be one step closer to Voldemort's defeat, one step closer to the end of the war. You – everyone – could have a normal life then. Have you ever thought about what your life would be like after?"

"I know what you're trying to do, Ginny. But, to be honest, I think it will be almost impossible for me to 'love' the mirror or any of the other Horcruxes. And, to answer your last question, not really. There hasn't been much point to hope for more."

"Even now…You know, now that we're together?"

Harry looked over at her as she stared sadly, but he was relieved to see, not pityingly, at him. "You make me want to think of the future. I just don't let myself think about it very much."

"Maybe if you let yourself, being able to destroy the mirror and the other Horcruxes will be easier."

"Maybe."

Ginny kissed him lightly on the cheek, and soon drifted off to sleep.

Harry stayed up for at least another hour thinking of what Ginny had said.

The next morning, Ron and Harry went down to breakfast to find Hermione and Ginny sitting beside each other eating some toast.

"Morning," Harry greeted as he and Ron slid into seats beside their respective girlfriends.

Ginny smiled in response.

"Ginny was telling me about her suggestion last night," Hermione said, turning her attention away from Ron to look at Harry.

Harry blushed. "Uh, yeah..?"

"I think you should try that."

"I'm trying Hermione."

Hermione nodded and turned back to Ron to tell him what Ginny had said the previous night while Ginny and Harry started their own conversation.

After breakfast, they went outside to get some fresh air – they all felt that they had spent far too much time inside.

After a few hours of wandering around the town, they returned to the inn.

For one week the four teenagers spent most of their time relaxing and having whatever fun they could have – much to Hermione's frustration, who felt anxious not doing anything important – so that Harry could enjoy himself a little – which they felt might help him.

Aside from this, Ron, Hermione, but mainly Ginny, had been making comments about what they could do after the war was over.

One afternoon at the end of that week, Hermione, unable to hold it anymore, asked Harry if he could try the spell again.

Harry was a little uneasy, afraid that it might not work, but sucked in his breath and agreed.

"Amo speculum!" Harry commanded as he performed the tricky wand movement.

When nothing happened, Harry sighed in frustration. He had really hoped it would work, although it had only been a week, he had thought that he was getting better with his problem.

"That's okay, Harry," Ginny said encouragingly. "It's only been a week."

Ron nodded, slapping Harry on the back. "Yeah, mate. Give it time."

Harry nodded. Although they were acting encouraging, he could tell they were disappointed. And, truthfully, so was he. He had hoped that it would work as well.

"Maybe we should try to find the other Horcruxes now, work on trying to destroy them later," he said, looking to the others about their thoughts on that.

"That's a good idea, Harry. I would say we should probably continue looking for the locket, but we still don't know where Halen Cain might have gone. Or, for that matter, who he is."

"So, Zacharias Smith's parents, then?" Ginny asked, biting her lip to keep from smiling at Ron's look of disgust.

"Yeah, but how are we going to find him?" Ron asked.

"I have an answer to that," Hermione answered triumphantly.

"Why am I not surprised?" Ron asked smiling sweetly at her.

"Anyway, we can go over the owl post office tomorrow and send him an owl. But, since we have a spell on us that keeps owls from finding us, we can request that the returning owl be sent back to the owl post office."

Harry nodded in agreement. "Now all we have to do is decide what we are going to say when we owl him."

After the owl had been delivered, the four teenagers waited impatiently for a reply, returning to the owl post office everyday. They would have gone more often than that, but they knew that it would make them more suspicious than they already looked.

Luckily, four days later, a reply came.

They now had the Floo address of the Smith's house.

They decided that they would Floo over there in the morning and that they would not give up their rooms at the Crow's Nest. After all, they would be returning to the inn after their 'visit' with Zacharias.

One by one, Harry first, then Ginny, Hermione, and Ron, they threw the powder into the inn's fireplace, said the address, and stepped out into the Smith's immaculate kitchen.

Hermione was chagrined to see that a house elf came rushing into the kitchen to greet them.

"Hello, Smith guests, they have been expecting you. Toolio will take you to them. Follow Toolio, please."

The four teenagers looked at each other, shrugged, and followed behind the house elf, ready to grab and use their wands if the need to do so arose.

"So, you came here to ask us if we had a cup?" Mr. Smith asked haughtily, obviously wondering why they were wasting his and his wife's time.

"Not just any cup, sir. It was a cup that used to belong to Hepzibah Smith. It was gold, had two handles, and had a picture of a beaver on it," Harry said, thinking back to what he remembered about the cup when he saw it in the pensieve.

"You seem to be very knowledgeable about the Hufflepuff cup, Harry Potter," Mrs. Smith replied snootily, staring unblinking into his eyes.

"Yes, he does. What did you want it for again?" Mr. Smith asked.

As they didn't want to tell more people than they had to about the Horcruxes – and definitely not people that they didn't know or trust, they had come up with a lie about what they wanted it for.

"Hogwarts is collecting items for the four founders to display in the school," Ginny answered, taking some of the attention away from Harry, who was grateful that she did so.

"With all due respect, but the cup would not be safe in the school. That is why we chose not to allow our son to return to Hogwarts. We would not want such valuable possessions to be harmed," Mrs. Smith replied coldly to Ginny.

"Hello, Mother, Father," Zacharias said, entering the room without realizing that the four teenagers were there.

Mr. Smith looked over toward the door. "Greet the guests Zacharias."

"Guests?" Zacharias looked across from his parents and saw Harry and the others for the first time.

"Hello, Potter, Weasleys, Granger."

They all nodded their greetings.

"What are you doing here?" slight confusion spread across his face, but was gone almost instantly as he returned to his previously stoic expression.

Mrs. Smith spoke up before anyone else had the chance. "They are looking for dear old Hepzibah's cup – the one that originally belonged to the honorable Helga Hufflepuff.

"Oh. We don't have it though." Zacharias tried not to glimpse at the severe gaze his mother shot his way after he relieved this information.

"You don't?" Harry asked. For what they had been saying he had presumed that they did have it. We wasted all this time and we are no closer to finding it before we got here.

"As it happens, we do not." Mr. Smith answered, sending his own glare toward his son.

"We should go then. We have other places to visit."

Mrs. Smith nodded, clearly glad to see that they would be leaving. She picked up a nearby bell and rang it.

When the irritating sound ended, Toolio had appeared at her side. "Show them back to the fireplace," she said, not even bothering to look at Toolio when she addressed him.

"Yes, mistress." Toolio answered, gesturing them to follow him toward the kitchen.

Zacharias Smith followed closely behind them. "I'll go with them, Mother, Father."

"Toolio?" Hermione asked once they had entered the kitchen.

"Yes?"

"Do you know anything about the cup?"

Zacharias narrowed his eyes, looking at Hermione. "What makes you think he would know, if my parents don't?"

"But, Toolio does know, sir. Hokey, Hepzibah's servant was Toolio's grandmother. Hokey told Toolio's mother and then Toolio's mother told Toolio that Hepzibah did once possess the cup. But, Toolio is sorry to say that the cup was stolen by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when Hepzibah was killed."

"Yeah, by your crazy grandmother," Zacharias replied angrily.

"If Master says so," Toolio replied as he threw some powder into the fireplace and began pushing Harry toward it.

"Wait, Toolio, I was told that Hokey was framed. That Voldemort" – the elf screeched and covered his ears as Zacharias grimaced – "was the one who really killed Hepzibah."

"It is not for Toolio to say."

"Please, Toolio," Hermione pleaded.

Toolio looked silently at Zacharias, as if waiting for permission to speak – which is what he was probably doing.

"Go ahead," Zacharias answered. Truthfully, he was interested in the answer himself. He had never heard this rumor before.

"It is true. Hokey said to Toolio's mother that You-Know-Who came to the manor the day Hepzibah was killed and that Hokey was not the murderer."

After his four schoolmates had left, Zacharias walked slowly to his room.

The story the house elf had recounted was a compelling one.

He wondered what else the house-elf knew about his family's secrets.