Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 7
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
The next morning found Harry getting an early start to set everything up to remove the horcrux from Little Harry's scar. He didn't think the soul piece had been there long enough to really put up much of a fight, but wanted to set up an isolated area with wards to block detection and make it impossible for outside interference, due to the high concentration of magic that Harry expected.
The location Harry chose in the end wound up being one of the many remote locations he, along with Ron and Hermione, had camped at during the original horcrux hunt. It was miles away from anywhere. Once Harry had all the wards set that he felt would be necessary, Harry returned to the tent to go have breakfast with Merope and Little Harry.
After breakfast, Harry and Merope both helped to clean up, and then Harry helped get Little Harry dressed while Merope got the tent ready for packing, in case they needed to set up camp at their destination to give Little Harry time to recover.
Little Harry watched the tent disappear with wide-eyed amazement and clapped excitedly. Then Harry scooped him up, wrapped his other arm around Merope, and apparated to their next destination.
When they arrived, Merope got the tent set back up again with new wards, while Harry walked over to the location he had warded earlier that morning. While he was waiting for Merope to join them, he attempted to explain to Little Harry as much as he felt he could understand about what was going to happen.
Harry conjured a chair and sat down with Little Harry in his lap. "Harry," he said, "I need you to try to pay close attention to what I say to you. Okay?"
Little Harry blinked at him with serious eyes, as if understanding this to be a serious talk, nodded and said, "O-tay."
Harry conjured a mirror, and showed Little Harry his own reflection. "Do you see that big boo-boo right here?" Harry asked, indicating Little Harry's forehead.
Little Harry looked at what Harry was pointing at in the mirror, and with brows furrowed he nodded and said, "Boo-boo. Green light."
That answer surprised Harry a little, but continued on. "Yes, son," Harry said, "That happened when the green light hit you."
Little Harry's eyes teared up a little, and then he said, "Green light hit mummy, she no get up no more. Why?"
Harry was not quite prepared for the turn in conversation, but pressed on the best he could. Little Harry was a very smart boy for his age and seemed to have a great deal more of understanding than most children. Harry cleared his throat and said, "When the bad man hit mummy with the green light, it removed her soul from her body, which made her fall and not be able to get back up again."
Little Harry seemed to think very hard about this information and then said, "Green light hit me. Me still get up."
Harry said, "Yes, that's right. When mummy fell, she made magic to protect you from the green light from the bad man."
Little Harry asked, "Mummy protect me?"
"Oh, yes," Harry said, "Mummy loved you so much that she did everything she could to make you safe from the bad man. And now Mummy Mary and I are going to keep on making sure you are safe. Okay?" Merope had quietly arrived at this point and waited for Harry to finish.
Little Harry nodded and said, "O-tay."
"Now," Harry said, pointing to Little Harry's forehead, "when the green light hit you, it left a piece of the bad man there." Little Harry reached up to his scar and rubbed it, while he stared at it in the mirror. "Mummy Mary and I are going to get it out and heal that boo-boo, so your skin will be smooth there again and not be hurt. Do you think you can let Mummy hold you, while we make the boo-boo better?"
Little Harry looked thoughtful and then looked over at Merope and nodded, then asked quietly, "Head no more hurt?"
Harry said, "That's right. It won't hurt anymore after we're done."
Then Little Harry reached his arms out to Merope and she picked him up after conjuring her own chair. Once he was in her arms, Merope said, "It's going to be alright, baby, I've got you and we won't let any harm come to you." Then she kissed Little Harry on the cheek and indicated to Harry that she was ready.
Using the power of the stone, they were able to combine their powers to draw the horcrux out of his forehead without causing Little Harry a lot of pain. It tried to fight a little bit, but it wasn't strong enough to fight against them and the powers they had as Masters of Death. After about ten minutes, the deed was done and Little Harry appeared ready for a small nap.
Removing the horcrux caused the artifact that Dumbledore had linked to his scar to go dead, but Dumbledore wasn't in his office to see it and it, therefore, went unnoticed until at least the next day.
As Little Harry laid in Merope's arms contentedly, Harry healed up the cut on his forehead, and was able to heal it back without leaving any scaring. This caused Harry much satisfaction. Without the scar, Dumbledore will never be able to truly link this Harry Potter to the Boy-Who-Lived, if their paths ever crossed again.
Then he picked Little Harry up out of Merope's arms and helped her up. After dispelling both chairs, they made their way back to the tent to lay Little Harry down for a nap. Harry looked down at Little Harry as they walked back to the tent and saw such a sweet, peaceful smile begin to form on his face while he was cuddled up on Harry's shoulder. Seeing Little Harry so content made Harry feel thankful that he and Merope had the power to have been able to provide him that peace.
Harry checked the time, which was mid-morning and decided he could take care of destroying the other horcruxes probably before lunchtime unless he encountered something that delayed him. He decided he needed a little snack first, as using powerful magic like they had been, had the tendency to make him extra hungry.
After finishing his snack, he was considering going after the ring first, and since he had no desire to try to salvage it, he planned to take it out of its hiding space, then leave it on the floor of the shack and do a controlled burn with fiendfyre and burn the whole place to the ground, after placing wards of course.
He hadn't heard back from the goblins regarding the cup, but he had only spoken to them about it just the day before, so he knew he needed to give them some time before he attempted to speak to them about it again.
Harry decided he should ask Merope's opinion on trying to salvage Slytherin's locket and if she would like to have it back. Her response was, "No, I don't want it for myself after that blasted parasite has been in it, but perhaps you should still try to salvage it, it is a Founder's object after all. So I think you should destroy the ring and the diary, but bring the locket and the diadem to the clearing where we took care of Little Harry, and you can cleanse them there. Afterwards, we'll decide how we can return them to Hogwarts with the least amount of fuss. Perhaps leave the diadem on Professor Flitwick's desk and the locket on Professor Snape's." While Merope understood Snape's role in the original war and how he had felt about Lily Potter, she still felt he was immature and wrong to have treated Harry the way he had during Harry's time at Hogwarts.
When Harry asked, "Were you not planning to help me cleanse them, like we did with Little Harry?"
Giving it a bit of thought, Merope said, "No, you have more than enough power to do that, it was only because Little Harry was a living, breathing horcrux that I wanted to help, because I wanted to do everything I could think of in order to prevent him from feeling any pain. We don't need to be as delicate with the other horcruxes. Plus, while Little Harry might well nap for a while, I'm not ready to leave him alone in the tent, using monitoring wards or not."
Harry nodded in answer, though he was curious to see how the locket would attempt to interact, since he would probably still need to open it in order to destroy it, he knew Merope to be correct in that he had more than enough power and was plenty capable of taking care of them all.
Making sure to take his backpack with him in case he needed something in it, which he and Merope are typically wearing all the time unless they are within the tent, he switched over to stealth mode and apparated near the shack and began setting up his wards around the perimeter, layering a multi-functioning repelling and aversion ward to start with.
After adding in every other useful ward he could think of, including a ward that would prevent detection and outside interference, he decided that he may as well kill two birds with one stone and pop over to get the diary from Malfoy manor, before Narcissa had the chance to go through all of the dark artifacts in the hidden secret cellar below the drawing room - assuming she was even aware of the hidden cellar.
Having been the place where he and Ron were held prisoner while Hermione was being tortured, Harry had no problem apparating in, still in stealth mode, and found the diary. In looking around the cellar, he found many other dark artifacts that would have been detrimental in the wrong hands, so he conjured a bag with an undetectable extension charm and summoned everything dark and dangerous into it, which was basically everything in the cellar.
When he filled the bag he returned to the shack, this time arriving inside. Then he levitated the ring from its hiding place, as he didn't want to touch it even if he would have been immune to the withering curse placed on it. He drained the stone's power at the same time, and placed it in the middle of the floor, where he then emptied out the contents of the conjured bag, placing the diary beside the ring, and then vanished the bag.
Considering the amount of magical backlash that could be expected from destroying dark magic of this magnitude, Harry apparrated back out to the perimeter to double-check the wards and make sure they could handle the anticipated backlash, then he returned to the inside of the shack to aim fiendfyre directly on the horcruxes and saw them destroyed before he allowed it to spread to the other items, apparating back outside the perimeter where he watched the fiendfyre burn down the shack where another version of his wife had been abused her whole life, before being attacked repeatedly by Tom Riddle.
Perhaps he should have done more to the version of Tom Riddle that had attacked his Merope, but attempting to force legal action in the muggle courts, when the perpetrator was the son of the richest muggles in town against the poorest neighbors, all of whom the town had immense hatred for, they would not have gotten any true justice for her.
Likewise, the wizarding courts have no provision for punishment of muggle crimes against a witch or wizard. Thoughts of Dumbledore's father came to mind, when the elder Dumbledore attempted to get justice for the muggles' attack of Ariana, which resulted in himself going to Azkaban. So taking it before the Wizengamot would have done nothing, they would have just said to take it to the muggle authorities.
Harry, supposed that he could have killed him, but the fact that Bob Ogden saw his presence with Merope, might have raised suspicions later if Tom Riddle was found dead. After all, it was the Gaunt family that had been hexing Tom Riddle and Morfin had just been arrested for it just before Harry and Merope had encountered Bob Ogden.
No, in the end, perhaps the hexes he had placed on him were the best he could have done and gotten away with it. Perhaps if he hadn't allowed himself to be known at that time, then he could have gotten rid of him then, but what was done was done, and there was no use dwelling on it or over analyzing it.
Finally, the fiendfyre was finished and Harry smothered it out and stopped the spell, then began taking down the wards. Well, perhaps he will leave the muggle repelling wards up, so that the muggles won't notice anything amiss. If he timed them to drop about ten years from now, then that should give the land enough time to heal and allow for new growth to cover up the damage.
Next he decided to get the locket. He wondered if Walburga was just as awful in life as she was in her painting. She didn't die until1985 in his timeline, so she would still be living at 12 Grimmauld Place with Kreacher.
Still in stealth mode, Harry apparated through the wards of 12 Grimmauld Place and into the drawing room, coincidentally it was the room where Walburga was ranting to Kreacher about the injustices of the end of the Black family name because her favorite son was killed in the service of the Dark Lord and the son she thought to have been worthless had found himself in Azkaban.
"Oh, Kreacher," Walburga said, "what is to become of me? What is to become of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black? There is no one left to carry on the name. Oh, Sirius, how I have failed you! How I allowed myself to have been so blinded by the Dark Lord and his flashy words and promises." Walburga cried and cried.
"Kreacher, I have nothing left to live for. My children are gone, I have no hope for redemption, and I have no hope for grandchildren," Walburga cried. "What am I to do with myself?" Kreacher wanted to comfort his mistress but he didn't know how.
Harry considered what he heard and thought he could possibly incorporate her in his plans to free Sirius, but he didn't intend to get involved in that until after he had completed what he needed to with the horcruxes.
Then he made his way over to the cabinet in which the locket was kept. Making a quick decision, Harry cast wards to prevent Kreacher from noticing anything amiss, then conjured a duplicate locket and attached a note to it addressed to Kreacher, should he realize it's not the true locket, and told him that he was completing Master Regulus' mission and promised to show him the cleansed locket whenever he was finished. Next, Harry conjured a warded bag and placed the true locket in it, while replacing it in the cabinet with the fake and the note, then removing the wards he had placed.
Now it was time to get the diadem from Hogwarts, and he expected to take a bit of time there, as he was fancying a side trip to Dumbledore's office to perhaps set up some pranks and mess with his lemon drop stash.
In a blink, he was gone, having never been noticed by the other occupants in the room.