Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Harry's New Boggart – Chapter 4

A Pensive Discussion

Harry awoke in the boys' dorm the next morning feeling really good about things. He had destroyed a horcrux! Three down, three more to go. Then it would be time to face Riddle. Harry left Ron snoring in bed while he showered and magically shaved (which consisted of pointing a wand at your face and saying a spell – the result being a perfect shave every time without ever cutting yourself). When he was finished, he went downstairs to the common room feeling pretty good about things. He had brought the pensieve into the common room the previous night, and decided that they'd find out what memories were inside it today. He found a worried-looking Hermione downstairs poring over Dumbledore's notes. "Good morning!" he greeted brightly, startling his friend.

"Oh," she muttered, "Hi, Harry."

"I'm glad we destroyed that horcrux last night."

"Er, me, too," replied Hermione apprehensively.

"Are you gonna tell me what's on your mind?" asked Harry.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione defensively. "Nothing's on my mind."

"I've known you far too long to be fooled by that, Hermione." Harry sat down across from her and looked into her eyes. "What's wrong?"

She sighed. "Nothing's specifically wrong, Harry. I was just thinking about how easy it was for us to find and destroy the locket."

"Because Regulus had already found it and Dung tried to burglarize Sirius,' I mean my, house?"

"Exactly. I just don't want us to believe that the others will be so easy to acquire."

"Easy? Both Regulus and Dumbledore died because of that locket," stated Harry seriously. "We just reaped the benefits of their work."

"I know," agreed Hermione. "Now we've got to work. Professor Dumbledore had a lot of information about the horcruxes, as well as possible locations, in his notes. He listed ten locations, two of which were the house of Gaunt and the cave, which, as you know, the horcruxes have been removed from. That leaves eight places to search for two horcruxes – Hufflepuff's cup and whatever the other one is. Presumably Voldemort's snake will be with him."

"How far away can you detect one with that spell?"

"Two meters."

Harry took a deep breath. "That's not very far," complained Harry. "I was kind of hoping you could just point at a house and say if one was there."

"Like I said, it won't be easy."

"I guess not. Er, what locations did he list?"

"His orphanage, the Riddle House, his parent's graves, the Slytherin dormitory, the Chamber of Secrets – unlikely since that's what the diary was related to, a place in Rome, and a place in Salem."

"Italy and America?" asked Harry, clearly surprised.

"Yes, Italy and America," repeated an exasperated Hermione. "He traveled all over the world studying dark magic."

"I guess so," admitted Harry. "We'll save those places for last."

"I agree. I think the first places we should search are the locations here at Hogwarts."

"All right," agreed Harry. Then, he leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially, "Let's not tell Ron and Ginny about revisiting the chamber though. I don't think she needs to go back down there."

"Back down where?" asked Ginny's voice from behind him. "Not the chamber again?"

Harry placed his head in his hands. "What's the point in trying to keep something from you?"

"There is no point, Love," she replied with smirk on her face. "I thought you'd figured that out already."

Hermione chuckled, then explained seriously, "One of several places that Dumbledore suspects could have a horcrux hidden is the Chamber of Secrets. We feel that it's unlikely, since the diary was related to it, and was actually destroyed in it, but we thought we'd double-check it just to make sure."

"Oh," said Ginny, with an unreadable expression on her face.

"He also thought Tom may have hidden one in the Slytherin dormitory."

"Well," agreed Ginny, "since he'd already made one when he was sixteen, he certainly could have made more. Especially after the conversation with Slughorn that Harry watched in the pensieve."

"The pensieve," Harry repeated. "That's what I wanted to do when I came down here. I wanted to see what memories are in it."

"In what," yawned Ron, who was just coming down the stairs looking like he'd just gotten out of bed.

"I was gonna see what memories Dumbledore has in his pensieve."

"Okay," replied Ron. "Let's go."

Harry looked around him and saw his three companions watching him intently. "I thought I'd go alone…" He trailed off as their expressions changed to glares. "But that doesn't matter. I guess we'll all go in there together." They walked up to the pensieve, grabbed each other's hands, and disappeared into a memory.

Harry was happy to find that all the memories Dumbledore had shown him during the previous school year were there. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny watched in amazement as they relived the memory of the Gaunts being visited by Bob Ogden, resulting in both Marvolo and Morfin being arrested, leaving Merope free to bewitch Tom Riddle into marrying her. Ginny moved closer to Harry, squeezing his hand, when they caught a glimpse of Voldemort's father. The resemblance was amazing. They then saw Mr. Burke talking about how he swindled a pregnant Merope into selling Slytherin's locket for a very small price, earning a grunt of disgust from Harry's companions. At this Harry quoted Dumbledore. "Caractacus Burke was not famed for his generosity," causing the others to chuckle.

They then watched the memory of Albus Dumbledore visiting the orphanage where Voldemort was born. Ron muttered something about how Dumbledore should've left Riddle there when he found out he'd already been terrorizing kids. When they got to the memory of teenage Tom visiting his uncle, Ginny put one arm around Harry and held him tight. Then they watched Tom, now wearing the ring his uncle had been wearing in the previous memory, talking to Slughorn about horcruxes. After that, they watched his meeting with Hepzibah Smith, where he saw Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup, followed by Tom's request for Professor Dumbledore to hire him. Once that memory was over with, Harry expected them to leave the pensieve. He didn't expect to see another memory.

Chapter end