Thank you to all of my supporters with a special thank you to my awesome tear supporters: Antar Das, LegendaryWasabi, Oli Wieszun, Ibuki Mioda, SvenGTX, Optimum Prime and Jack Schriner you are all great people. we are quickly approaching the £50 point where I said I would commotion art for my fics. i have found another artist I am hoping to work with and they seem interested. if we reach the £50 mark (received not pledged) I will put up a poll for my supporters to vote on to decide which fic gets the cover art first.

if you want to read the next two chapters immediately chapters 10 and 11 are already up on pat re on /Lowten

Chapter 9

Harry awoke in his four-poster bed, his pillow cuddled into his chest with his arms around it like it was a person, and he sighed in frustration. Ever since he had woken up in Hermione's arms after his little breakdown in the graveyard, he had been dreaming of Hermione lying next to him as he slept. He loved Hermione, she was one of his best friends, but his damned teenager hormones had latched on to Hermione, interpreting Hermione cuddling up next to him to keep the nightmares away as far more than it was.

He reached down to the floor next to his bed and pulled on the socks he had left there the night before. Then once his feet had a barrier to the cold stone floor, Harry pulled himself out of bed and went to his trunk of a set of school robes for the day. Once dressed, he walked down the spiral stairs to the common room. Stepping into the common room, he saw Hermione and froze for a second before sighing and joining her at one of the study tables as she went over her notes for Transfiguration.

The two of them were having a little bit of a fight over the last week. After their trip to Little Hangleton, they agreed they needed the help of an adult to deal with the ring, what they were fighting over was who. Hermione was of the opinion that they should avoid Dumbledore and speak with Sirius as the man would probably know who to contact, but Harry wanted to keep Sirius as far away from this as possible. Even now that four years had passed by his point of view and he had his godfather back, Harry still occasionally had a night terror watching as Sirius fell through the stone arch. He was of the opinion that Dumbledore was probably their best shot at destroying the horcrux.

They were also fighting about the Triwizard Tournament and whether they should take steps to keep Harry's name out of it. The problem with this disagreement was that neither of them could really decide on which side of the argument they fell. On one hand, if they let the tournament go ahead, then Harry would be kidnapped and used to restore Tom to a body. That did, however, have the benefit of putting Voldemort in a known time and location, and even if they couldn't kill him permanently they could possibly make him a wraith again and buy themselves some time to find the missing horcrux. Of course, letting the tournament play out would mean keeping Mad-Eye locked away in a trunk for a year and neither of them were happy about that idea.

It didn't help that when they got back to the castle they went straight into exam stress. While they were already well versed in the subjects (except for Harry's ancient runes class), the teachers weren't aware of just how prepared Harry and Hermione were and they were piling on the homework to prepare them for the tests. The two of them were both just glad that this fight was not reaching the same intensity that some of their past fights had gotten. Neither of them were going behind the other's back, and both understood where the other was coming from, but in some ways the silent treatment was easier than the bickering whenever they couldn't be overheard.

"Morning Harry. Sleep well?" Hermione asked, only looking up from her notes for a moment to look at him.

"I slept fine. You?" Harry flipped the question on her.

"Well enough. Did you finish the essay for Professor McGonagall yet?"

Harry gave an affirmative answer and the two continued their small talk for a few minutes before Hermione pushed the Transfiguration notes she had already read at him to read.

-ϟϟϟ-

After another week, Hermione did come around to Harry's side of the argument. The fact that Dumbledore already knew what a horcrux was and had an idea of how dangerous they were helped a lot in convincing her. However, even if she was convinced to go to Dumbledore, she still didn't trust the man: how could she when she looked back on their original timeline? Quirrell, the chamber, Sirius's lack of a trial, the tournament being held at all, sending a petty thief to watch Harry, keeping her away from Harry when Harry had watched a friend murdered, and the first thing he did to Harry in this timeline was try to invade his mind. No, Hermione was most definitely not in Camp Dumbledore any more.

If they were going to try the headmaster then they were going to take precautions. For one, Hermione started brewing a potion she had found that would restore the memories of the drinker if their minds were altered in any way. The potion had a lot of drawbacks to make it practical; for instance, you needed to brew the potion before your mind was tampered with, a part of the brewing process was whoever memories where to be restored needed to stir the potion for an hour with their bare hand, and the potion would only stay fresh for six weeks once it was bottled. However, Hermione's plan was otherwise simple: she was going to brew enough for her and Harry (with Harry stirring his own of course) and then she was going to give the vials to Luna. Once they were finished with the headmaster, Luna was going to make them take the potion, by force if necessary.

It took the potion two weeks to brew, and during that time they all had to sit their end of year tests. The internal tests were earlier than the O.W.L and N.E.W.T exams, in order to give those students a little longer to revise for the exams that shaped their future careers. Most of the exams were easy, and the two time-displaced teenagers got through them with no problems. Hermione did have to make liberal use of her time turner so that she could both be in her tests and in the potions lab they had set up in the Room of Requirement.

Harry had two exams that he didn't breeze through. The first was expected, as this was his first time studying ancient runes he didn't have his memories of learning it to fall back on, so he actually had to study this subject for more than just camouflage. The other surprise was Divination. Harry had expected to give the teacher a made up story about him facing trials over the next year, it really was easy to give predictions when you knew the future, and be on his way. After all, there was no Wormtail running around to be prophesied about. But, as Harry sat in the hot room with heavily perfumed smoke swelling through the air, the woman fell into a trance and started to speak

It will happen tonight.

The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers.

His servant has been chained these twelve years.

Tonight, before midnight... the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master.

The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was.

Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..."

It was exactly the same prophecy that Harry had been told last time. Did that mean that Wormtail was gone to break out of Azkaban tonight? Sirius had done it in the previous timeline, so it wasn't impossible. His professor came back around and Harry made an excuse that she had succumbed to the heat and dozed off for a minute before rushing out of the tower and running to the Room of Requirement, where Hermione was currently splitting her time between studying for her arithmancy test and the potion.

"Hermione, something just happened!" Harry half shouted

Hermione jumped, startled at Harry bursting through the door and shouting at her, but she quickly turned serious as his words registered in her mind. "What happened?"

"Trelawny just gave a prophecy. The exact same one she gave me last time.

"Well, yes Harr… wait the one about Pettigrew rejoining Voldemort? But he's locked up in Azkaban! If Peter can't help Voldemort, how can Voldemort come back next year?"

"Well, the best I can figure is either Pettigrew is going to escape Azkaban tonight or someone else is going to and go to him. But Hermione, how is this happening today? How is it the exact same prophecy?"

That caused Hermione's mind to stall. Given how much they had changed in this time, the chances of an unplanned event happening on the same day with the same result were incalculable. Hermione started trying to logic it out. "Maybe some events need to happen, fixed points in the timeline. Maybe outside of those points we are free to change what we like, but whatever we do tonight someone has to set out to find and restore Voldemort."

"But if that's the case, does any of what we are doing matter? It's all going to work out the same in the end."

"No Harry, just because certain things need to happen doesn't mean we can't change the story. Look at all the changes we made so far. Sirius is a free man. We have destroyed two parts of Voldemort's soul that were still whole this year in the previous timeline, and we know where one more is and where one more will be. No one was petrified by the basilisk, Buckbeak was never put on trial. This history is already better. So Voldemort needs to come back, we already knew that, but this time is going to be much shorter and he will do a lot less damage. And don't forget that the prophecy about you may be why we could come back in the first place: dying by his snake probability didn't count as dying by his hand. And the knowledge that this little time travel event has given us might just be the power in the prophecy. The one Voldemort knows not."

Hermione's words were what Harry needed to hear. It was difficult to see your accomplishments as worthless when you had Hermione telling you all the good they had done. "But what if someone gets hurt while Pettigrew escapes? It will be our fault. We are the ones who put him there."

"No Harry, if Pettigrew hurts someone it's no-one's fault but his. And the people who guard Azkaban are trained professionals who knew the risks when they signed up to join the DMLE." Hermione told Harry. He wasn't completely convinced, but there was nothing that could be done. If Hermione was right about fixed points in time, all telling anyone about the prophecy would do is make it more likely that someone would get hurt. In the meantime, he had to spend an hour with his hand in a cauldron full of potion, so he got ready to do that.

The next day the Prophet had big headlines declaring that Peter Pettigrew and Bellatrix LeStrange had escaped from Azkaban. The story said that the escaped convicts had left one Azkaban guard in critical care at St. Mungo's but there were no fatalities. Harry shuddered at the idea that Bellatrix was out, but was distracted when Neville let out a raw scream of anger and stormed out of the room. Many of the students looked at Neville, surprised that Neville had such anger in him at all. Harry wasn't surprised at all, however, and neither was Hermione; they both knew what LeStrange had done to his parents. The two went after him to offer what support they could.

-ϟϟϟ-

Two days later Harry and Hermione found themselves on the spiral escalator that led to the office of Professor Dumbledore. They hesitated for a second outside the large ornate door before Harry knocked on the door.

"Come in." The headmaster's voice called from within and the two teens opened the door and stepped in. The office was just how Harry remembered it, full of bookshelves overflowing with books and trinkets. The sorting hat sat on a shelf near the headmaster's desk and Fawkes sat on his perch. "Miss Granger, Mr Potter, this is an unexpected surprise. Please sit down, what can I do for you?" Even if they weren't sure of the headmaster, there was something about his grandfatherly persona that made you want to smile and trust him.

The two took two of the three chairs in front of the headmaster's desk and it was Hermione who spoke first. "Professor, do you know what a horcrux is?"

The man jumped to his feet and the change in Dumbledore's demeanor couldn't have been faster. Gone was the kindly old man, replaced with someone you would expect to see on a battlefield facing off against a Dark Lord; it was suddenly very easy to believe that this was the man who defeated Grindelwald in a duel and was the only one Voldemort was ever afraid of. "I will not tell you about horcruxes. They are dark magic, the darkest of magic and you would do well to forget any references that you may have found and not go looking for more information." Hermione shrunk under the man's glare but didn't back down.

Harry jumped in and took the headmaster's attention onto himself. "You misunderstand us, professor. We are not looking for information on horcruxes. We already know what they are and agree that such a thing should never have been invented. What we needed to know was if you knew what they are before continuing with what we need to talk about," Harry said calmly.

Dumbledore took his seat again but the intense look didn't leave his face as he scrutinised them. "The two of you can consider me suitably informed. Now tell me what this is all about or detentions and expulsion will be the least of your worries."

"What would you say if I told you that we know not only what they are and how they are made, but we also know of someone who made some?" Hermione asked, her nerves quickly recovering.

"Who? And you say they made more than one, how many?" The old man was now gripping the edge of his desk, his knuckles white.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle. And as far as we know, six, so as to create a seven-part soul."

Dumbledore's eyes went wide and suddenly Harry felt the man invading his mind. Harry held him off but knew he could only hold for a few seconds, so he grabbed his wand and quickly cast a protago. Suddenly he was in Dumbledore's mind, but instead of the man's memories Harry slammed into a stone wall and was rebuffed out of Dumbledore's mind.

"Stay out of my mind, sir." Harry said with force.

"I demand to know where you learned this."

"No. I will tell you everything you need to know, but where that information comes from needs to remain secret." Harry was firm. He tried to get Dumbledore to back off but doubted it would work. It didn't seem to matter, as Harry felt Dumbledore dive into his mind for a second time. This time, instead of trying to keep the headmaster out, Harry dumped the old man in a memory of his choice.

Harry watched from under the invisibility cloak as Malfoy tried to work up to killing Dumbledore under the light of the dark mark. Harry could feel Dumbledore watching the scene in Harry's head. Then Snape came rushing up the stairs of the tower. "Severus please." Harry watched Dumbledore pleading and could feel the living Dumbledore start to feel smug until Snape raised his wand and blasted Dumbledore off the tower.

The man retreated in horror from Harry's mind, all sense of power gone. He went to a cabinet behind his desk and opened it. The two teens saw it was a liquor cabinet when Dumbledore pulled out a crystal decanter and pound himself a measure of some amber liquid before throwing it back and doing it in one gulp.

"What memory did you show him?" Hermione asked a cold edge to her voice. It was her idea for Harry to show the man specific memories if he kept trying to get into his head.

"The tower." Harry replied just as coldly.

"You let him off easy."

"Where did that memory come from? It's too clear for it to be faked."

"My past, your possible future." Harry deliberately left it vague.

But not vague enough as Dumbledore put the pieces together almost instantly. "Messing with time is dangerous and you can't change anything without destroying yourself. You know this Miss Granger, it is what you agreed to when you were loaned the time turner, now I find you have been abusing it."

Hermione signed "I didn't use the time turner for this. I'm not even sure that would work, and if it did there would definitely be side effects. This is something that happened long after I returned the time turner and took us back to long before I received it. And we have changed a lot. I have a theory on that, but that's not what we need to discuss." Hermione refused to let the man know how they had travelled in time; he was the type to think he could do everything better and take Harry back, then obliviate him so that Dumbledore could take over. And she had already seen where the man's plans led: to muggleborns being sent to concentration camps.

"What could be more important than finding someone who knows so much about Tom Riddle that they can give out information that I assume the man kept in the strictest of confidence? I assume you know who Tom is," The man sounded incredulous as he spoke.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram of I Am Lord Voldemort. Yes we know, and what is more important right now is the destruction of his fourth horcrux," Harry sounded as though he was getting annoyed with this conversation.

That stunned the old man. "By fourth horcrux, do you mean the fourth one he created or the fourth one you found?"

"Found." Harry deadpanned.

"Where are the first three? They need to be destroyed as well." Dumbledore was making demands again.

"Already done." Harry answered.

"My boy, horcruxes are almost impossible to destroy. How did you do it? Are you positive they are destroyed?" Dumbledore said in what Hermione thought was a rather condescending tone.

"We used basilisk fangs." Hermione said trying to hurry things along. But every time they answered a question the old man seemed to develop two more.

"Where on earth did you get basilisk fangs?" Shock evident in his voice.

"From the basilisk living in the chamber of secrets, she's quite nice when you feed her." Harry answered with his signature smirk.

A flash of fear passed over Dumbledore's face. "And just what are you feeding her?"

"Deer mostly, a few acromantula. Basically whatever I can find in the forest that's acceptable to hunt." Harry said, and watched the headmaster relax a little.

"But the monster only eats people. That's what the legend says."

Harry was officially annoyed now, Dumbledore was insulting a guardian of the school and one Harry had come to be friendly with. "The legends also say I grew up a pampered prince in a castle well fed and doted on. Legends can be complete dragon shit, professor, and you're getting sidetracked again. Destroying another horcrux, we need help."

"OK, why can't you destroy this one like you did the other three?"

Harry was unable to keep the sound of condescension completely out of his voice. "Now you're asking the right questions. The problem isn't the Horcrux itself, it's getting to it. One was hidden here in the school, another was also a weapon that was planted on a student that would have possessed her, and one was in the position of Sirius's brother when he died and was being held onto by his house elf. The next one is protected and we can't get to it without using magic, and as we can't use magic outside of the school without activating the trace we need someone who can."

"And that's where I come in." Dumbledore confirmed, getting a nod from the two of them. "What about the other two?"

"We don't have any leads on one of them yet, but the other is in his snake Nagini. So it's more about waiting until we know where she is."

Dumbledore nodded. "So what do you know about this horcrux and where is it?"

Harry nodded "The horcrux is in a ring. The ring is apparently a family heirloom passed down through the Gaunt family, Tom hid the ring in their old house."

Hermione took a copy of their map from her ever present bookbag and slid it across the desk to the old man as she carefully avoided looking the man in the eyes. "We did some reconnaissance. This is a map of the clearing that the Gaunt shack is in. We were able to find and avoid a number of traps around the house, but we couldn't get inside, so we can't tell you anything about what dangers might be inside."

Harry took over again. "Apart from the horcrux itself of course. Be careful with it and don't go alone. Two of the horcruxes we destroyed tried to possess us and they all tried to influence us."

Dumbledore smiled at them in what he obviously thought was a reassuring manner. "I think I will be fine, after all it's a lot harder to influence me than a couple of teenagers."

Hermione scoffed and said, "Pride comes before the fall. Harry can throw off the imperius curse and has the protection from his mother dying to save him protecting him from Voldemort specifically, and yet even he can be influenced by the damn things. You made the same mistake last time. It cost you and led to things you don't want to happen again. Take some backup."

Harry nodded and then pulled out a box from his robe pocket that was about the size of a ring box, enlarged it with a tap of his wand, then opened the box and slid it over the table to Dumbledore. "You should also take these," he said, indicating the two basilisk fangs inside. They were lucky basilisk fangs grew back in three to six months, depending on how well fed the basilisk was, or she might have been a lot less willing to keep donating to the cause.

Luna cornered the two of them after they left the headmaster's office and offered them each a dose of potion. Hermione took hers right away as that was the plan, but Harry tried to back out, knowing that the potion would probably taste disgusting. However, the waif-like Ravenclaw simply smiled at Harry, hit him with a full body bind, and poured the potion (slowly and carefully so that he wouldn't choke) down Harry's throat once he was lying face up on the ground.

"You know Harry, if you had just taken the potion, then you could have drunk it down quickly and then gotten a drink to wash out the flavour." Luna said as she took her time pouring the disgusting liquid in his mouth while Hermione giggled at Harry's predicament.

-ϟϟϟ-

Dumbledore poured himself a glass of brandy once the teenagers left his office. He looked around the portraits of the former head teachers who were no longer feigning sleep and sighed. A number of them had been telling him that plans never survive first contact with the enemy, but he had plowed forward convinced he knew better. Now Potter and Granger had come in and, instead of following his carefully laid out plan, the two of them had just gone right for Tom's weak spot. They had already destroyed three bloody horcruxes, three! And they were sending him after a fourth. And were they sending him after it because they weren't powerful enough? No, they were sending him because of the Trace, because they couldn't use their wands outside of Hogwarts without alerting the Ministry and getting expelled.

He looked at the map Miss Granger had given him. How had they been able to do this much without wands? It was incredible. It wasn't too hard for him to work out that they must have sneaked out during the Easter holidays, two weeks where the staff thought they were at home and their families thought they were at school. The big question, though, was what of Harry's scar? Did they know that it too contained a potion of Tom's soul, that Harry was just as much an anchor to Tom's life as the things they were trying to destroy? They didn't mention it as a horcrux, but they hadn't exactly been trusting of him during the meeting. Should he tell the boy about his scar?

A/N"

So I didn't originally plan for LeStrange to get out of Azkaban, at least not this early, but when I thought about an actual Death Eater escaping, then it made sense that he would release at least one other follower and when I thought about it, LeStrange being free should present an opportunity to bring the cup into play.

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