A/N: The end is near! Please stick with me till we cross the finish line :)
At dawn the next day there were a series of successive faint pops near the Dumbledore house in Godric's hollow. Sirius Black, Bill Weasely, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Kingsely Shacklebolt appear out of thin air. They walked in and found the house covered in dust. Bill picked up a frame wiped it and handed it to Tonks who metamophosed into an elderly version of the woman in the picture.
"Are you sure this will work?" Tonks asked
"Bathilda has gone a bit batty in her old age…" Kingsely said "I don't think she remembers that Kendra has passed on…" He then taps his wand on her head disillusioning her so as to not frighten the other residents. The 3 wizards, the disillusioned witch and their dog slowly make their way to the house where unbeknown to them Nagini is waiting to have them fro breakfast.
—
After informing Sirius and Reamus about Narcissa's message and activating the members of the order, Harry, Snape, Reamus and Sirius dived into the old pensive in Sirius's house. When they emerged horrified
"Seven… " Sirius exclaimed "… He split his soul seven times!"
"How many have we neutralised so far?" Remus asked
"The diary, the cup, the locket, the ring and in a few hours I hope Diadem that miss Granger just found, if it turns out to be real…"
"That makes 5… do we even know what 6 and 7 are? Or am I 7?" Harry asked seriously
"We might find 6 tomorrow…" Remus said
"We need to see the Prophecy… " Sirius said leaving the room to fetch it
He returned with the bag in which the orb had been kept so that no one would touch it.
The 3 men and the boy were silent for a moment and then Harry said "Teach me how to extract a memory… As soon as I've seen it, I want it out of my head so that he can't see it…"
Sirius and Reamus looked clueless, Snape sighed then spoke "The inaction is captis cogitationes however it is specifically a non verbal spell. You have to first think of the memory, while thinking of the spell and channeling your magic through the wand to catch it. You have think of the entire memory and then go blank. You must think of it without emotion otherwise it will get clouded, you must think of it and nothing else otherwise you will loose the string and corrupt the memory…"
Harry was looking confused and worried all at the same time when Sirius spoke up "Can't you extract them from him too?"
"I can but it will be painful…" Snape said
"I can take it…" Harry said bravely
Snape rolled his eyes and thought 'Every bit the boor headed Gryffindor like his father…'
"Smash the orb Harry…" Remus said opening the drawstring bag as the glow from the prophecy filled the room…
—
Narcissa arrived by floo at Spinner's end to find McGonagall and Hermione Granger waiting for her.
"Minerva.." She said with a nod "…Where is Severus?"
"He is discovering how many more of these abominations we have to destroy to make him human…"
"You found another?"
"Miss Granger here might have…" McGonagall said as Hermione opened the box with her still gloved hand
"No spells seemed to work on them but I'm not sure which one it is…" Hermione said then added "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Malfoy.."
Narcissa gave a slight nod and pulled out her wand and then rotated it clockwise 3 times, then anticlockwise six times while humming a hunting rhythm like incantation she did the same over all 3 diadems, when she was done, two of them were glowing green and one was glowing purple. "This one…" she said tapping at it
McGonagall cast the silencing and blocking charms on the room, She placed the 3 of them in a massive powerful shield and reached into her robes and pulled out a dagger and handed it to Hermione.
"Beware Miss Granger, the Horcurx will try to show you all kinds of fears to dissuade you and make you drop or pull the dagger out, but you must hold it in place till the haze disintegrates…" Narcissa said as Hermione unsheathed the Basilisk fang dagger.
Hermione nodded, even thought this was not the time for it, she couldn't help but be in awe of Narcissa Malfoy. It was an ungodly hour of night and she was sure that the woman had rushed out of bed but she looked only like she'd taken a walk in a light breeze2. From her clothes to her hair, everything was perfectly in place. She could have just as easily been visiting a friend when she arrived here.
Hermione then closed her eyes for a moment to pull up her occlumency shields. Once she was prepared, she stabbed the crown and instantly a think black smog emanated from it. The first out were her parents telling her how she was a terrible daughter, then came Harry saying that she had abandoned him and that's why he died, and then came Draco calling her a filthy halfbreed mud-blood who was nothing more than a plaything to him. The last person was an evil version of herself as Voldemort stood behind her. Her eye's glowed green and Voldemort asked her to join him. Here green eyed self let out a banshee like scream and finally everything disappeared and the diadem began to ooze dirty brownish red blood. Hermione had not even realised when she had gone from standing to kneeling but as a deafening silence fell over the house all Hermione wanted was to disappear from the sight of her Boyfriend's mother… She was sure that by this point Narcissa had noticed her gloves and she was waiting for the question but it never came.
"I shall take the other two with me…" Narcissa said bagging the other two replica's with her own gloved hands "… You should know, he has asked for the diary…"
"And?" McGonagall asked
"I have bought time for tomorrow…" Narcissa said "Once the essentials have been told to me by my guest, I shall see what to do with the new resident of the manor…"
"You could leave…" McGonagall said
"No… We may not be gallantly brave, but we're not cowards either… and Minerva, I can't run in any of the dresses I own…" Narcissa said cheekily with a smile she then gave Hermione a nod "well, done miss granger… I hope we get the chance to have tea sometime…" She stepped into the floo and disappeared in the roaring of green flames
Hermione gave a soft nod while wishing her disheveled self would just get eaten by the floorboards
—
"Harmonia Nectere Passus… Harmonia Nectere Passus… Harmonia Nectere Passus!" Draco and Blaise chanted over and over again until the cabinet glowed slightly
"Again…" Draco said perspiring
"Harmonia Nectere Passus… Harmonia Nectere Passus… Harmonia Nectere Passus!"
This time the cabinet glowed blue in earnest. Draco took the canary out of its cage and placed it in the cabinet, then shut the door. When the chirping died out he opened it again. The Canary was gone.
Scared and hopeful at the same time, Draco put the door. Blaise and he shared a look and waiting. Nothing. They held their breath for a bit more and then opened the door. The Canary was lying there dead, as its head had been bitten off by an animal. Fear gripped them as they realised they had achieved the impossible.
They collapsed to the floor and held their head in their hands. Blaise whispered "What have we done…"
—
Narcissa had barely made it back to the room when Lucius felt the mark burn.
"We got one more…" She said
"I have to go…" Lucius stated holding the mark
"He can't know already…"
"I won't know until I know…"
"Come back alive…" Narcissa said and kissed Lucius who disapparated like smoke letting the cursed mark carry him to Voldemort
—
Mr. Burke was reading a book when suddenly he heard the chirping of a canary in the vanishing cabinet. He got up wry and opened it. The bird was there, safe and sound. The boys had done it.
He took the canary to the adjoining room where a wolf like man was eating with disdainful table manners. Mr. Burke screeched his nose and cleared his throat to get the man's attention. Fenrir Greyback finally looked up
"I believe the passage is ready and stable…" He said showing him the canary
Fenrir smiled a wide toothy grin that was feral. He walked up and grabbed the canary with his greasy hands and bit it's head off and spit it out
"Send this back…" he snarled and grabbed a napkin to wipe himself "I'm going to the manor to report this…"
—
Harry had screwed bloody murder as Sirius and Reamus had held him down physically while Snape extracted the memory of the prophecy. After a quick pepper up potion and some ice packs put on Harry's head, the 4 wizards had retreated to the library.
"Neither can live while the other survives…" Sirius repeated for the 100th time "so does that mean that Harry himself has to kill Tom or Tom has to kill harry for the Horcrux inside him to die?"
"For the 100th time Sirius… We don't know…" Remus said snapping a bit as his inner wolf snarled
Snape, Reamus and Sirius had been walking around the library looking for anything on Hrocruxs and the dark arts. Snape had even; despite protests from Sirius; raided Regulus's room and his collection of books. Suddenly Snape let out a cry of pain as the books that were levitating behind him all fell.
"Mr. Potter, please ensure these books are delivered to my office… I have to leave…" Snape said and walked out of the house, disappearing into smoke
—
Dumbledore was having a nightmare. He was battling Grindelwald again. His wand wasn't firing the spells properly. Then Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape appeared behind him holding swords and drove them through his heart. He woke up in a cold sweat. Minerva had not told him where she had hidden his wand after disarming him that night. He had his old wand but he needed this one. He could sense it, a war was coming.
As he got up and got himself some water, he saw the thestrals returning to their nests by day. He felt sick and weak. He wondered if the nightmare's had anything to do with the cursed veins that were spreading on this arms.
—
Voldemort walked slowly as his inner circle appeared one after the other. Lucius, McNair, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Yaxley, Lestrange and Severus.
"Welcome… The 7 and the spy…" Voldemort said baring his teeth at the group. "I have great news… Especially for you, Luciussss…" He said. He snapped and beckoned with his fingers and Fenrir Greyback emerged from the shadows "… tell them… what you told me…" Voldemort said sitting down
Fenrir Bowed deeply to Voldemort and then barked at the group "It's done… the passage between the cabinets is stable…"
There were cheers from McNair, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and polite congratulations from Yaxley, Lestrange, Lucius and Severus. Voldemort waved his hand and silenced the group
"The time has come to take Hogwarts, we shall do so on the 1'st of January… Lucius, please give my congratulations to your son… I hope that he will gift me my other gift on Christmas…"
Lucius bowed deeply and said "The Malfoy's live to serve my lord…"
Voldemort seemed appeased "… This calls for a revel, Nott, you may arrange one… Severus, we will need to sit and discuss the revival of the Hogwarts curriculum and Lucius, I would like Narcissa's inputs on how we can ensure the students don't have to go home once they arrive in Hogwarts till the completion of their education… Yaxley, we will need the Ministry to acknowledge the new curriculum of Hogwarts and it's new headmaster - Sanpe…"
Yaxley bowed in ascent as Snape's head shot up at the mention of his name
"You have a concern Severus?" Voldemort asked
"No my lord… thank you for this honour…" Snape said bowing deeply
"Very well then, that will be all… Yaxley and Lucius stay back…." Voldemort said dismissing everyone else
Once the room was empty Voldemort spoke "I trust the progress with the Ministry is going well?"
"Very well my lord…" Yaxley responded "… the slander campaign has most of the votes in our favour…"
"… Pius has been discussed as the right man for the job…" Lucius supplied "… many have come willingly hoping to win your favour…"
"Good… Then shall we take the ministry first? Or Hogwarts?" Voldemort asked
"I believe eliminating Dumbledore will ensure the ministry take over goes smoothly…" Lucius said "… He is still a great figurehead though I have been told he is no longer as powerful as he used to be…"
"Good… that will be all… oh! Lucius… I will be needing your wand…" Voldemort said as they were leaving both Yaxley and Lucius stopped stunned
"My lord?" Lucius asked confused
"Your wand man… it's not like you have any use for it…" Voldemort held his hand out as Lucius reluctantly drew his wand and handed it over "Do I detect elm?"
"Yes my lord" Lucius said softly
"And the core?"
"Dragon-heartstring…"
"This shall do well for the time being… I will be taking Dumbledore's wand after the battle at Hogwarts so you needed fret… Oh and the other thing I asked of you…. That can wait…" Voldemort said dismissing everyone
He then twirled the wand around in his fingers getting a feel of it. He then cast some basic curses and charms out the window. Satisfied Voldemort retired as dawn began to break in the sky. Without Nagini to feed on, he was feeling unstable… He connected to her and found her resting, relaxed he gave way to sleep.
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