Disclaimer: Must we really? Oh, well… I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the associated characters.

Summary: See Previous Chapters.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Irons Parents refused to let their children out of lessons for a year or more while they hunted for Horcruxes, and were backed up in the decision by the other parents. However, they were not above compromise, and acknowledged that being adults did not make them infallible, and that the children might have ideas or spot things that they had missed. As a result, as long as the students kept up their standard of schoolwork, they would be kept up-to-date by the adults.

Hannah Abbott's mother was a researcher, and Terry Boot's father was a University Professor who specialized in recent history. Working with the friends and contacts called in by Henry and Mrs Thomas, it worked well enough.

Much experimentation proved little aside from the fact that Horcruxes were bloody near-impossible to destroy. Even a special dispensation from Amelia Bones, authorizing an Auror by the name of Kingsley Shacklebolt (a former classmate of Henry's) to use lethal force, only proved that even Avada Kedavra was only able to weaken it, as you needed to destroy not only the soul, but also the object, which had nearly as many enchantments on it as Hogwarts.

The rather ugly locket that Sirius had found had been confirmed as a Horcrux by the Dark Magic Detectors going haywire, and by the Black Family House Elf, who had started sobbing about failing 'Good Master Regulus', who had been a Death Eater, but openly turned traitor and tried to destroy the Horcrux.

After three very awkward hours trying to comfort both Elf and Master (Sirius had been close to his brother before the House Rivalries and atmosphere at Hogwarts, and Regulus not standing up against his family, had forced them apart), they got down to business again.

Magical means had failed, and while a goblin-made weapon might help, no-one wanted to take the risk of the soul fragment latching onto the almost-indestructible weapon instead, so they moved on to exploring Muggle Means.

As it turned out, even Horcruxes were not up to surviving an extended visit to an industrial-sized blast-furnace after being hit with a killing curse for good measure.

Unfortunately, the locket that was all that remained of Slytherin's line was also the only one that didn't have some very nasty surprises protecting it, and they were forced to put aside their hostilities with Dumbledore, who had also been looking, and had found a ring at the shack that Voldemort's maternal ancestors had once called home. He had managed to confine the withering curse to one hand, but apparently even St Mungo's best had been unable to break it, and advised him to have his will made out and properly filed within twelve months.

A friend of Mrs Thomas, a Voodoo witch, had stemmed the worst of it by sending most of the parasitic curse into one of the potted plants that Dumbledore had kept in his office, but even she couldn't break it entirely, and abandoned trying in favour of working on a way to locate the remaining Horcruxes that didn't involve a year-long camping or road trip.

Mrs Thomas's mother and one of Henry's friends also got involved, joined on weekends by the children, and the trio managed to cook up something that took the magical signature of the diary that had once possessed Ginny Weasley and followed it to where the remaining soul jars were located.

Two were located in Malfoy Manor, which they unfortunately couldn't storm until they got rid of the dozen or so that Mr Malfoy had managed to bribe or blackmail into protecting him. Presuming that one of the signatures was Voldemort himself, they also had no intention of getting into an all-out battle until they were rid of the other Horcruxes first.

One of the Horcruxes was in the Gringotts Vault of Bellatrix LeStrange, Voldemort's right-hand witch, certified psycho, and Sirius's cousin. After about half an hour of remaining prudently quiet while Madam Bones snarled about getting the Wizengamot to allow inspection of the Vaults of those serving extensive Azkaban sentences, especially if the conviction involved Dark Magic, Sirius suggested looking at Bellatrix's marriage settlement (common among pureblood families) and seeing if there was a legal way to let him into the Vault to collect the Horcrux.

As Sirius wasn't a LeStrange, there wasn't, but the fact that Rodolphus was serving a lifetime prison sentence was enough to claim a Breach Of Contract, according to the Goldstein's, the price for which was the token amount of one item from the LeStrange Vault.

The Blacks either thought it unlikely that the settlement would be breached, didn't think the LeStrange's would have anything of interest, or were just desperate to get Bellatrix off of their hands and make her Someone Else's Problem (Sirius's theory), that no-one had specified which item. As Head of the Black Family, Sirius had been allowed to walk into the Vault, with a goblin guard to make sure he didn't take more than one item, and remove the Horcrux.

That was three Horcruxes down, and the remaining four were the two at Malfoy Manor, one at Hogwarts, and Harry.

The one at Hogwarts turned out to be a very pretty diadem, though it took a lot of effort to find.

Dumbledore and Madam Bones questioned every person living at Hogwarts, down to the House Elves and Centaurs, but came to a dead end before one of Henry's friends brought in a research acquaintance from Uganda, who asked if they had questioned those not living at Hogwarts yet.

Mrs Thomas took care of that with a carrot-and-stick approach, enlisting the assistance of a Ministry Historian, who promised that the ghosts would be recognized and remembered for their help, and an exorcist, who promised something a bit more permanent if they chose not to co-operate.

Perhaps the most disconcerting discovery, even above the diadem, was that there really was a betting pool for everything. The pot for whether or not the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron (House ghosts for Ravenclaw and Slytherin, respectively) had ever been in a relationship was very significant by now, and won by Lavender Brown, who had apparently been a sucker for tawdry romance, and the only one to bet in favour of the pairing.

The Grey Lady had been known as Helena Ravenclaw in her life, the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the Hogwarts Founders. Jealous of her mother's fame, and upset at the constant, unfavourable, comparisons between them, Rowena had stolen the diadem in the hopes of becoming less of a disappointment in the knowledge department.

Centuries later, she had been taken in by a boy with a silver tongue, Tom Riddle, who 'befouled' it and hid it away, reinforcing the ghostly woman's distrust of anything even slightly male.

They eventually found it, however, after taking the students on the pretence of a day-trip and scouring what Sirius termed 'the Butterbeer Room', but most referred to as the 'Room of Requirement'.

Again, no amount of knowledge stood up to the pressure and seven-hundred-plus degree heat of the furnace.

Meanwhile, no-one had been able to find a means of extracting the Horcrux from Harry, so they very, very reluctantly began looking into various forms of medically induced death.

Extensive research (led by Hermione while Harry's parents were still refusing to so much as consider the idea), suggested the circulatory arrest, used in brain and heart surgeries, was the best way to go. Figuratively speaking, at least.

It involved lowering the body temperature to eighteen degrees, stopping the heart and lungs, draining blood, and using drugs to stop the brain. It could be maintained for up to an hour before causing damage, and had a high success rate.

According to Dumbledore, who had witnessed Voldemort trying to flee a vessel five years ago, the Dark Lord's shade would most likely abandon its host within a few moments of death, and given what they knew of Voldemort's nature, he wouldn't think twice about killing someone if it was convenient, and wouldn't take the chance that his opponents wouldn't do the same.

With the Ministry currently in Royal Disfavour, and Voldemort quickly becoming a National Problem, a few of the country's top surgeons were contacted, swore an Official Secrets Oath, and performed the procedure. There had been a few complaints about how the surgeons had never met such impossible parents, but that was ignored.

Amelia Bones had told her Aurors and Hit-Wizards to prepare for a battle, but being aware of the rampant Ministry Corruption, had been smart enough not to mention further details, so the Death Eaters had little time to prepare or react (or bribe their way into immunity) when they stormed Malfoy Manor.

Most Death Eaters saw Muggles as little more than bait or cannon fodder, and were extremely contemptuous of those who used Muggle Weapons, regardless of whether or not said user was Magical or Muggle. As such, they tended to ignore them in favour of focussing on the witches or wizards who were paid good money to shoot dangerous spells at them.

While this opinion might be true under most circumstances, the Muggle in question had been capable of taking down Bellatrix LeStrange (and was currently holding her own in Round Two), and had been taking lessons in physical defence for several years. Policemen preferred to find non-violent solutions whenever possible, but were perfectly capable of using lethal force when totally necessary. Henry was no exception.

Aurors as a whole also preferred not to curse whenever possible, but the chance that they would be fighting Dark Witches or Wizards was a risk they took when they accepted their badge.

The mostly-not-quite-of-age children who followed the fighters at a distance before charging in did not have such an advanced knowledge of spells, but made up for it by alternating between Magical and Muggle methods of combat. Several Death Eaters had come up against the effective use of a skillet and assorted kitchen utensils when Voldemort had been resurrected, but hadn't really learned from the experience.

A good whack to the head took them down, and while the boys had yet to manage to stop themselves from cringing in sympathy, the girls had no problem with a good kick between the legs to ensure that even if a fellow Death Eater did revive them, they were still in no condition to re-join the fight. Dark Magic or not, some pain pathways were impossible to ignore.

Neville and Hannah managed to off a very large snake that was apparently the sixth Horcrux, and that left Voldemort.

The Dark Lord was an excellent dueller, proving a match for those who could pull themselves together long enough to actually fight him. Harry thought it was a bit cliché for him to be defeated in the age old manner of Major Villains, but there was something to be said for the value of a mob (as long as they all knew what they were doing) charging a single wizard en masse. As Susan had said: "It might be Quality vs. Quantity, but Quantity has a Quality of its own."

The fact that he had been presented with the ultimatum of his friends charging Voldemort and holding him down while Harry finished the job, or tackling Harry and sitting on him while the adults took care of it, may or may not have had something to do with that.

With all of his Horcruxes destroyed, and a body that was essentially a magical construct weakened from repeated multiple 'finite incantium's, all Voldemort had was his admittedly impressive fighting skills and a lot of power.

Harry had more than that, namely friends who served from love and devotion, rather than fear, and a willingness to accept people who were different. Voldemort's movements became a lot less smooth when several large pins were stuck in the major limb junctions of a Voodoo doll crafted to resemble him, and after that, all it took was one lucky, well-aimed 'Reducto!'

One Auror complained that it had been very anti-climactic, but shut up when he was bluntly informed that if he was so disappointed in the end result, he was welcome to try and bring Voldemort back to face him personally.

Dawlish decided that dramatic fights were over-rated anyhow.

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A/N: OK, another chapter is up, and we've only got one or two more to go. There is very little resemblance to Canon Book Six in this chapter, but aside from Quidditch, Following Malfoy and the Chest Monster, very little actually happened in Half-Blood Prince, so I had to work in my own. I'm not very good at writing battle scenes, so apologies about that.

To those who were complaining about a lack of Harry, Book Five was the point where anyone sane would expect the adults to actually start doing things. In Canon, they sat around uselessly, and Harry was forced to take things into his own hands. In this fic, there are responsible and rational adults who care about Harry and aren't going to hide behind prophecy in order to shirk responsibility.

On a lighter note, I wanted to get this chapter up before my birthday tomorrow, since I will be celebrating that day, and studying for a big exam due two days later. Wonderful timing, huh?

Do you know what makes a really great virtual birthday present? Lots of lovely long reviews.

Thanks, Nat