Author's Notes:

*DISCLAIMER* I do not own or have the copyright to anything that is included wtihin this chapter. JKR has the exclusive right to all of these characters, plots, and scenes I depict within portions of this chapter and I am simply using her vessel for creative fanfiction.

Hi all! I'm sorry this chapter is a day late, I promise I'm working on getting back on schedule. This weekend was absolutely crazy with everything opening back up here. I finally got to go see my best friend and work on wedding planning for both of our weddings and do some (much needed) summer shopping. Kohls is having absolutely AMAZING deals right now. ALSO, THIS CHAPTER IS NOT FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR LIKE THE LAST FEW HAVE BEEN. This chapter is for August-about November while Harry is 8. December-July will be next chapter.

Beer of the chapter: Seaquench by Dogfish Head! This is a super yummy lime and seasalt Gose that's light, refreshing, and slightly salty to the taste. It paired well with this chapter mostly because I wrote most of it outside and it was sunny and warm out. Also, the salt will go well with your tears. *SPOILER?*

Reviews: Midnitewanderer: OF COURSE YOU WERE MISSED! You're my most consistent reviewer! I've also been wondering where GeekyMom and MMax are. But oh. My. God. It's a fucking honor to be compaired to Breanie. She's literally my favorite fanfic writer. I've been reading her fics since high school (literally over 8 years ago at this point). Like, I totally fangirled when I read that part of your review. But I'm also not sorry you cried-That was kind of the point! As for not making it super graphic-I debated going into detail about that scene but I personally have a few family members who struggle with addiction that I've nearly lost myself and I personally couldnt bring myself to write it. I was also concerned about triggering someone else. Also I love that you loved the chapter title! I didnt even have to think about that one-I just knew that was it. AGAIN, I'm literally so excited that you think so highly of my characterizations. It means a lot. As for the boss at the old firm-I know! It actually violates a rule we have here in PA for attorneys. It really pissed me off but I've already had two interviews since leaving there Friday so I'm sure I'll find something.

Please enjoy the update and please please review! Your reviews give me inspiration for new plot developments and helpful criticism for chapter structure and characterizations. I love you all!

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Ancient Translations

Harry tumbled back into a crouch with his hand on the floor, his eyes looking up through his sweaty hair at the girl across from him. She stood with her feet apart, one hand behind her for balance and the other, open and flat in front of her face just in front of her nose up at an angle. She smiled mischievously but waited a breath too long as Harry seized the moment and sprung up at the girl, pumping and then kicking her in the stomach and springing back to his feet and grabbing her and flipping her over his shoulder.

Hermione, somehow, she was able to use her lower body strength to swing her legs around as she was falling. She was able to hook them around Harry's chest and took him down with her so she ended up on top of him. She calmly and precisely jabbed her elbow into his throat and grinned.

"And we have a winner!" the announcer shouted, "Ms. Hermione Granger is our new regional champion! Give her a round of applause Ladies and Gentlemen; this was no easy match!"

Hermione jumped to her feet and let the announcer hold her hand up while Harry calmly got to his feet, a smile on his face. He couldn't have been prouder of his friend than he was right now. She had bested him, only nearly, and she deserved to win.

The crowd roared with approval and Harry could see his dad and uncles, Ron and Ginny, and Draco, as well as Jean and Rick cheering Hermione on as she received her trophy. Harry simply grinned more broadly as he hugged Hermione tightly and he felt the tears rolling down her face. Harry simply hugged her tighter before they were met with their large group of supporters surrounding them—then Harry let her go and watched as she was hugged in turn by each of their friends and family.

Harry savored ever chance he got to see Hermione now that she and her family moved away. They were forced to relegate their friendship to writing letters which was going to get increasingly more difficult once he, Ron, and Draco started at Hogwarts.

While he was happy for his friend and excited for her victory, a small part of Harry was upset, worried, that he had lost in hand-to-hand combat against her. Even though he was 8 and didn't fully understand the events of the night his mother died, he did understand that, for some reason, his future was tied unequivocally to Tom Riddle and if he wanted a chance to win the end battle, he needed to get better, stronger. Second best would never cut it.

~ID~

Uncle Moony,

I've been doing a lot of thinking since the championship match against Hermione. I know dad has been teaching me the basic elemental, wandless magic the last two years, but I'd really like to start working on some more defensive magic. I talked to dad about it and he said that if you taught me, he'd work with Dumbledore to let me come to Hogwarts on the weekends for lessons. So, would you, Uncle Moony? Please! Just a few simple spells. Maybe the disarming charm or a shield charm! I already come to Hogwarts most weekends anyway to see Nana Minnie, I'd just be working on magic. I'll even do homework if you make me!

Write back with your answer! Miss you, Uncle Moony.

Bucky

~ID~

Bucky,

I don't know that having you come to Hogwarts and learn defensive spells is the best idea. There's a reason that Hogwarts waits until students are 11 before having them begin harnessing their magic. At your age, your emotional balance is not stable enough to properly harness your abilities. I can certainly speak to Dumbledore about it and he may have a different opinion, but I doubt it. I think you need to focus on your muggle studies, languages, muggle dueling, and your fencing for now. You're only 8 and I don't want you to take on too much too soon.

Until I have a chance to discuss this with Dumbledore, you're welcome to research the theory behind the defensive spells. I would recommend "Defensive Spells Every Wizard Should Know, Explained" By Bruce Warshawsky. I feel that Warshawsky gives a thorough explanation of the mechanics and process of basic defensive spells extremely well and knowing the theory of a spell will help you when you learn to use it someday. I believe there's a copy of the book at Potter Manner and, if not, I'm sure James would take you to Flourish and Blotts to buy it. Start by reading up on the shield charm, Protego. That's going to be your best defensive spell to most jinxes and curses that the average witch or wizard might use.

I'll write as soon as I talk to Dumbledore.

Uncle Moony

~ID~

Nana,

Are we on for our chess match this weekend? I've been practicing at home with dad and I've been getting better at it!

Also, dad told me to invite you for dinner on Thursday. Gus and Cirri are making a post roast with carrots because they know it's one of your favorites. Please, please come! I want to show you my fencing skills and we can go flying. I'm hoping to be picked for the traveling quidditch team this year so I really need to practice. Coach is pretty sure I'll be chosen but if I don't practice, I won't be.

Miss you!

Harry

~ID~

James stumbled out of the fireplace in Minerva's office late in the evening and used his wand to cleanse the soot off of himself. Minerva barely glanced up at him as she worked on grading the papers in front of her.

"Good evening, James. Albus told me you would be stopping by."

"Evening, Minerva. Are you going to make it to dinner tomorrow? Harry's excited to see you."

Minerva finished marking the document in front of her and sat her quill down and looked up at James, "Yes, I was pleased to receive the invitation. I do expect to see more of my grandson this year—I wasn't pleased with how little I got to see him this summer. You're working that poor boy too hard, James."

James let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry, Minerva. Harry really enjoys his extracurricular activities and I can't help the fact that they all happen during the summer. Er, well, that his competitions happen during the quidditch season over the summer, anyway."

Minerva pursed her lips, "Yes, well, you should make sure he has the time to visit his pseudo grandmother. I needn't remind you that chess is an important activity that promotes tactical planning and critical thinking. Not to mention I've been receiving letters from him asking when he can come visit me again."

"I'll be sure to send him over to visit this weekend," James replied, smiling.

Minerva let a small smile escape her as she nodded, "Have him floo here at 10AM sharp, will you?"

"Sure thing. I need to get up to Dumbledore's office though. We'll see you tomorrow night."

James quickly made his way through the castle until he found his way to the entrance to Dumbledore's office and said the password. After the statue jumped aside to reveal the stairwell James ascended the stairs up to the door of Dumbledore's study. Before he could knock on the door, he heard a brief, "come in".

James pushed the door to the study open and was surprised to see Remus sitting in a chair opposite Dumbledore. Both men looked his direction as he slowly walked into the office and took the open chair next to Remus.

"Good evening, James," Dumbledore said with a soft smile on his face, "It seems you're just in time to be privy to Professor Lupin's request to have Harry come to Hogwarts to learn wandless, defensive spells."

James' eyes widened, "Yeah, right, I forgot he had asked to do that. I didn't realize Harry had spoken to you about that, Moony."

"He sent me a letter earlier today asking if I'd teach him," Remus said and then frowned, "Harry had told me that you said you were ok with him coming to learn some defensive magic if I taught him here at Hogwarts."

"Yeah I said that. He just can't learn them at home because of the statute of secrecy and underage magic rules. Otherwise I'd be teaching him some basic spell work outside of the elemental magic that's sanctioned by the Ministry," James turned his attention to Dumbledore, "What are you thinking about this?"

Dumbledore let out a breath and frowned, "Well, James, Remus, you're both away, I'm sure, of my opinion that Harry shouldn't spend his childhood training for a war that we cannot predict the start date of. At this time we have no indication of when Voldemort will rise back to power and Harry shouldn't be forced to train and worry for a day that we cannot predict."

James frowned, his eyes darkening as he spoke in a deep, curt voice, "And I'm sure you remember my opinion that we should do everything in our power to give Harry as many tools as possible for when Voldemort returns. As you said, we have no idea when he'll come back, it could be tomorrow for all we know, and he should be as prepared as we can make him. I am of the general opinion that, if he can do it, he should. We've already had him learning muggle fighting techniques including hand-to-hand combat so he will never be without a defensive weapon. Teaching him wandless magic at his age increases his chances of success if he has to defend himself without a wand."

Dumbledore nodded curtly, "Then it's settled. Harry shall come to Hogwarts once every two weeks to learn wandless defensive spells from Professor Lupin. If you insist on Harry learning such techniques then I feel it's best to do so in a controlled environment like Hogwarts."

"Then it's settled," Remus said as he stood up, "I will be happy to teach Harry defensive magic. James, can you have him here at 9am on Saturday? We can have his first lesson then. I expect him to have read up on the shield charm by then."

James nodded, "That sounds good."

"Ok," Remus replied, "I'll leave you two to whatever you needed to discuss, then. Night."

Dumbledore nodded at Remus as he headed out of the room. James turned back toward Dumbledore and looked into the brilliant blue eyes staring back at him.

"Well, James, it's been quite some time since we had a chance to discuss Voldemort's potential immortality, hasn't it?"

"Yeah it has. Were you able to get any information from Morfin Gaunt? I brought the research I found on the horcruxes."

"In fact, I was. I think you'll find this memory extremely interesting."

Dumbledore moved across the room and pulled his pensieve out of his cabinet and placed it gently on his desk. He quickly pulled a small flask filled with a silvery liquid out of his pocket and deposited the contents into the basin. He carefully swirled the contents with the tip of his wand and then looked up at James.

"Shall we?" Dumbledore asked as he indicated the basin full of Morfin's memories.

James nodded and stood up before placing his face into the liquid in the basin. He felt the uncomfortable sensation of falling into a memory.

James looked over at Dumbledore as he landed lightly next to him. The two men watched as Bob Ogden made his way to the Gaunt shack and spoke to Marvolo about his son, Morfin. James was extremely confused by the hissing sounds that were continuously exchanged between Morfin and Marvolo—now and then he looked over at Dumbledore during these odd exchanges to see if he understood the odd and mysterious language but he was met with Dumbledore staring into the sky or off into the distance with a smile on his face.

When Marvolo attacked Merope, James yelled and jumped into action to help her before remembering that they were viewing a memory and there was nothing he could do.

Eventually the memory changed and James found himself socked to be standing face to face with a young Voldemort inside of the Gaunt shack. James watched with curiosity the exchange between Morfin and Voldemort with fascination and was shocked at the abrupt end of the memory.

James and Dumbledore both came out of the pensieve and took their seats at the desk and looked at one another. James broke the silence first.

"Well. That was…something. What the hell did I just watch?"

Dumbledore leaned back in his seat and folded his hands together, "As to the first memory, I cannot be sure of everything that was said between Morfin and Marvolo. It is clear, however, that Morfin had attacked Tom Riddle Sr., Lord Voldemort's father, because of his sister, Merope's, infatuation with him and that Bob Ogden was there to inform them of the Ministry Hearing regarding the incident. From my understanding, after Ogden left, he returned to the Gaunt shack with law enforcement and arrested both Marvolo and Morfin for the incident. Marvolo received less time in Azkaban than Morfin. While both father and son were in Azkaban, I speculate that Merope then discovered her magic that hat been suppressed. I believe she may have used a love potion on Tom Riddle Sr. as, according to the town gossip, he suddenly left the woman he had been with in the memory for the pauper's daughter. It was quite the scandal and I suspect it would have been easy for her to slip it into some lemonade on a hot day—it wouldn't have taken much convincing to get him to drink it.

"At some point after the first memory Tom Riddle Sr. returned to Little Hangleton claiming to have been bewitched by his wife. I believe that Merope decided, whether she believed that Tom truly loved her or believed he would stay for his child, to stop giving him the potion. Once the effects wore off, it seems she was sadly disappointed. And when he left, I believe she was no longer able to perform magic, even to save her own life or that of her child's.

"After the second memory, the entire Riddle family was found dead in their dining room. The muggles never determined a cause of death, but the Auror's knew it was from the killing curse.

"Because of his past altercations with Tom Riddle Sr., the Auror's investigated him first. Once they arrived, Morfin admitted to the murders and an inspection of his wand revealed that it had performed the killing curse three times within the last twenty-four hours. Morfin was then sent to Azkaban with a life sentence. I was able to procure these memories three weeks ago from him. However, as I extracted these memories, I became aware of the altered memories from the night of the murder. They did not match the rest of his mind. After some spell work and digging, I discovered that Morfin had several hours of missing time from that evening. I believe that Voldemort killed his family and framed his only Uncle for the crime."

James had sat up during Dumbledore's explanation, open mouthed, "So, he, Riddle I mean, had murdered three people before he turned seventeen?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, I believe so."

Shocked, James replied, "But—he—he was so young. That's…just evil."

"Yes. And I believe Voldemort's past is becoming clearer and clearer as I also learned that Morfin's family ring was missing upon his arrest. The missing ring was all he cared about as the Auror's carted him off to prison."

"You think Voldemort took it as a prize?"

"Yes, I believe he did. This memory, and the missing items of note, lead me to believe more and more that we may be facing a man who made a Horcrux. But I cannot be sure. Without more information, or something indicating a horcrux can even be made…" Dumbledore said as he trailed off.

"I found it."

Dumbledore sat up, his eyes alert, "Go on."

James quickly pulled out the documents he had brought with him containing the translation of the missing horcrux information, "It's all in here. A man from the early 12th century attempted to make a horcrux based on the original Egyptian design but he tweaked the recipe and spell and he succeeded in making the object and successfully and safely, albeit painfully, removing the portion of his soul. The wizard also has to perform a spell on the removed piece of soul to gain control over it so that they can physically move it into the object they have turned into a horcrux. So, I figure one has to make the potion and use that to make the horcrux before they can remove their soul.

"From the research, if you wait too long to put the soul into the object, it dies. From the author's experiments, the witch or wizard has about an hour to place the soul into the object before that occurs. And the potion—I've never read a more horrible recipe. I don't—I'm not even sure how one would be able to get some of these ingredients and it takes 6 months to brew it with almost constant care."

As James spoke, Dumbledore was quickly reading over the translation James had made. James could hear him periodically mumbling an ingredient under his breath such as "Heart of a virgin wizard" and "ovaries that have not undergone reproduction."

"Dumbledore," James said carefully, "If he found this document, he would have been able to safely create a horcrux if he was willing to gather the ingredients necessary. We already know he was capable of murder for fun, I 100 percent believe that he was willing to murder others to gather the heart and ovaries necessary. But, it's the last step of the spell that I just—I can't even think about."

"'Once the wizard safely encases the soul within the horcrux, the soul must be sealed within by placing the horcrux and soul within the belly of a new born wizard until it's natural death,'" Dumbledore read aloud as James paled, vomit at the back of his throat as he the thought of anyone doing that to an infant engulfed his mind.

"Even he wouldn't…would he?"

Dumbledore looked up at James, his eyes hard as steel, as he replied, "I believe he would and did."

James placed his head into his hands as he thought to himself that it couldn't get any worse than that.

End Notes:

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