Harry Potter: King of the Amazons
Chapter 23
-Harry-
Face set he strode down the halls of Gringotts bank, Bellatrix at his side as the woman looked as determined as he was. It was Halloween and the Champions were set to be selected that night but right now he was more focused on dealing with Voldemort. Last night he had a vision of the bastard and saw the man kill a muggle before muttering in parsletongue to a massive snake that was apparently called Nagini, talking about finding a way to free Bellatrix's husband to reclaimed the 'Horcrux' in her vault. He had woken up in a cold sweat and had immediately woken up Bellatrix to ask what it was he had seen.
While his Betrothed hadn't recognized the term, even if it did sound somewhat familiar, she had told him that Voldemort had once given her a golden goblet to store in her vault, saying that it was important. She had been embarrassed at how she had forgotten before he pointed out that people who spent even half as long as she had in Azkaban often had their minds even more damaged. Now though he was about to go to Ragnok to get the item removed so they could see what it was and if the Goblin leader knew what the term 'Horcrux' was.
"Ah, Harry." Ragnok said when he entered the office "What can I do for you?".
"Last night I had a vision of Voldemort." he said as Ragnok sat up, all sense of calm vanishing from his goblin ally who immediately went into 'war mode'.
"Explain." Ragnok said instantly as the guards in the room stiffened.
"I saw a vision of Voldemort killing a muggle while mentioning a plan to attempt to break out Bellatrix's ex-husband to get something called a 'Horcrux' out of her vault." He said only to stop when Ragnok shot to his feet.
"A HORCRUX?!" Ragnok yelled in anger "He made one of those abominations?! Guards! Go down to the Lestrange Vault and collect the item!".
"It's supposed to be a golden cup." He added in helpfully as the guards nodded and rushed off.
"What exactly is a Horcrux?" Bellatrix asked once the guards were gone and Ragnok seemed to calm down slightly.
"The darkest of magics," Ragnok explained, the goblin bringing out a bottle of Firewhisky and pouring them each a drink "where one splits their own soul in an attempt to gain immortality.".
"How would that work?" he asked in confusion.
"The soul piece would anchor the individual to the world of the living," Ragnok explained "and while the main piece of the soul can attempt to come back through a few dark rituals the shards themselves can attempt to return as well by possessing and draining the life force of an individual. You have to destroy the items beyond any hope of repair to get rid of the shards, or move the shard to another item and then destroy that as some items can't be destroyed.".
"I think I've run into another of his Horcruxes before," he said as he remembered the Chamber of Secrets incident "back during the Chamber incident.".
"Another?" Ragnok asked in horror "No one has ever made more than one. Splitting a soul once is horrid enough to consider but to split it several times is beyond evil.".
"And who knows how many others that the bastard made," he growled "for all we know there could be even more out there somewhere.".
"Then we'll have to track them down," Ragnok said firmly, "we have an old runic device that used to be used to track down the Witch or Wizard that created the Horcruxes by transferring the soul shard to the device and using it as a compass of sorts.".
"But what if there are multiple shards left?" Bellatrix asked hesitantly.
"Then we can use it to triangulate it's position," he answered "perhaps filling a second device with other shards when we find them.".
Nodding in agreement Ragnok began going through several plans on how to best track down the different shards and then Voldemort's new Homunculus body to end the bastard once and for all. About ten minutes after they had left though the guards returned with the chalice which was set upon the desk along with a wooden box that was covered with runes and had a glass dome containing a compass needle. "This is indeed a Horcrux sire," the guard said to the Goblin leader "but the size of the soul piece within…it is too small to be a lone Horcrux.".
"We know," Ragnok sighed "we will have to use the device to triangulate the positions of the other shards before we destroy Voldemort himself.".
Nodding the guards began chanting as the golden chalice began to glow with a strange ethereal light before a dark looking mist began to seep from its gleaming surface before entering the runic device which began to glow with a faint violet light as the compass needle began spinning rapidly before the glow faded and the needle's spinning slowed to a stop with the needle pointed directly at him.
"That's rather disturbing." he said, eyeing the needle warily as he did so.
"It's likely pointing in something that's in the same direction," Ragnok said with a shrug "it is designed to point to the nearest piece of the same soul within the device so I doubt it is actually pointing at you specifically.".
"Just to put my mind at ease though." he said as he stood up and moved to a different part of the room only for the needle to follow him as the goblins and Bellatrix paled in horror at the implications of what it meant.
-Neville-
Sighing he lazily watched the other attending schools as people whispered about Harry not sitting on his Throne at the Slytherin Table. Earlier in the day he and the others had received a letter from their friend saying that a medical emergency had shown up, Harry having come into contact with some sort of cursed object as the Goblins worked to get him back to full health.
Dumbledore had received a letter as well he had noticed and he had also noticed the gleam of enjoyment in the old man's eyes at the thought of Harry being cursed which pissed him off to no end.
Dumbledore's enjoyment had quickly abated when he had spread word about the manipulative old man's enjoyment in seeing Harry's suffering due to a curse that was inflicted upon the man who had become both the official and unofficial leader of Hogwarts.
"The Goblet is ready for the Champion's Selection!" Dumbledore called out as the fire within the ancient artifact began to turn from the bright blue to a dark bloody red until there was no blue left and a streak of the crimson fire shot into the sky. Reacting quickly the old Headmaster shot his hand out and caught a piece of paper from the flames and read out "The Durmstrang Champion is…Victor Krum!" as the Durmstrang students, and just about every professional Quiditch fan in the school, began cheering loudly.
After Krum walked up and received the parchment the Champion was ushered into a side room as the fire, which had gone back to bright blue, was once more turning red. When the process had finished a second time and the pillar shot into the sky Dumbledore caught the new paper which he noticed was a doily. "The Beauxbatons Champion is…Fleur Delacour!" Dumbledore called out as an absolutely beautiful French girl stood up and received her parchment with a nod before going to the same room as Krum.
Finally though the hall waited with baited breath to see who the last Champion would be, Each Hogwarts House hoping for one of their own to be selected. The tension in the room was thick enough to be cut with a knife when the pillar of crimson fire shot skyward for a third time before Dumbledore caught it and read out "The Hogwarts Champion is…Cedric Diggory!".
The Hufflepuff table burst out into wild cheers at the fact that one of their own had been named champion while the Ravenclaws nodded thoughtfully, the Slytherins, for the most part, kept their cool due to not wanting to upset Harry when the King returned, and his own table…well most of them were glaring at the 'Hufflepuff pretty boy' as they referred to the new Champion as he sighed in exasperation.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed something that caused him to stand up slowly in shock, as if not sure what he was seeing as people quickly noticed and followed his line of sight to see the goblet, once again, turning crimson as whispers filled the hall. Finally the pillar of fire shot into the air as Dumbledore caught the parchment and the hall fell silent only to hear two simple words "Harry Potter.".