AN- Shout out to Stephanie O, I completely thought it was Inferni, not Inferi, went back and changed the spelling
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Chapter 30-The Next Adventure
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Owning His Dark Side by George H.M. Rannier
Creating an alternate identity for one's self takes some time. It requires you to slip away from the world that knows you. There might not have been any one person that knew him intimately, but he'd carefully cultivated enough relationships with people of a certain standing that he didn't need them linking his new identity with his old. You see, only a select few would have been able to link his old self with his new. There was a hierarchy in his followers, only the top tier would have known what his name was before.
His pathetic Muggle name.
He was not a mere Muggle. He looked down on Muggles, they were simply the dirt beneath him that he would squash out. They hadn't wanted him, so he didn't want them!
No, he would never be known by his Muggle name ever again. Now he had a new name, one that people were beginning to fear saying aloud.
That was what he wanted.
He'd given his followers purpose, a leader to look up to and inform them of the ways that they would bring about the change in their world that would make it how they wanted. Make it better. Rid their world of those that dared to steal magic. (Which, may I point out, cannot be done. It is just another one of those lies that prejudice spreads around.)
He did believe that was what they were doing; making the world a better place for witches and wizards by slaying down Muggles and Muggleborns alike. Even after seeing what generations of Pureblooded breeding had brought about, like in his closest living relative; his uncle. His uncle who was too mentally impaired to have attended Hogwarts, the one who's handicap had stemmed from generations of inbreeding to 'keep the bloodlines close'. His uncle was the only blood relative he had left and was locked away in a prison cell for the crime of killing a whole family of Muggle's down the way from where he'd lived; The whole family of Muggles that was where this dictator received the other half of his parentage.
It hadn't been the uncle though, you readers knew that, didn't you?
That had been his first murder; patricide.
The first of many murders this dictator would make and frame on others. First his uncle, then a House Elf. There had been others along the way to where he was now. He had to make sure that his followers feared him as well, how better to do that then to follow through on a few threats here and there. Murdering a child, a lover, a random Muggle or Muggleborn.
He had hidden away from the world at large and taken his time researching the Darkest of Arts, practicing and altering himself physically to become fearful to even look at. He didn't care that he'd had an almost angelic looking face before, he didn't want to be adored, he simply wanted power. Craved it.
It took nearly ten years for him to do it, to become feared by our world at large, but finally he had emerged from his endeavor successfully changing himself from Tom Marvolo Riddle to become Lord Voldemort.
He couldn't possibly let anyone know that this most feared person of their time was himself a Muggleborn. How many of his loyal followers would have continued to revere him if they knew? Surely they would have immediately tried to kill him for his lies, seeing it for what it had really been; self loathing. How many of the followers would have appreciated it once they realized they had simply been no better than sheep?
A poor orphaned Muggleborn child, deprived of love and hell bent on world domination. It sounds like the makings of a wonderful comic book villain.
Pathetic, isn't it?
Pathetically true.
You readers must be having a hard time believing this; it does read fantastically.
But that was the point.
Tom Marvolo Riddle was born in at Wool's Orphanage in Central London on New Years Eve 1926 to Merope Gaunt, a witch who had been in love with her local Muggle Lord. She had brewed him a love potion and tricked him into marrying her, believing that he would really be in love with her after she became pregnant. She stopped giving him the love potion when she was with child, her rose colored glasses making her think this would all have a fairy tale ending. Instead she was cast out by her husband and cast aside by her family.
Tom Riddle was raised in the Orphanage, a miserable little boy with no friends, he realized he could do little tricks to those around him and make them hurt. Torture them a little bit until they left him alone or gave him what he wanted.
Upon learning he was a wizard he changed his tune and crafted his skills of manipulation. He was cleverly charming and attractive. He conned all the well to do Pureblood families and played politics until they were eating out of his hand.
Tom Riddle was a dangerous little nobody.
You're still having trouble believing it, aren't you?
Thought so. How many of you fell under his spell? How many of you cowered in fear while this tyrant used his pawns to reign terror down upon our world less that two decades ago? How many of you to this day are too afraid to say the name Voldemort outloud?
Here is your proof;
T-O-M-M-A-R-V-O-L-O-R-I-D-D-L-E
Let's rearrange that alphabetically, shall we?
A-D-D-E-I-L-L-M-M-O-O-O-R-R-T-V
And shuffle them up, once more for fun;
I A-M L-O-R-D V-O-L-D-E-M-O-R-T
Childish, isn't it?
In the pictures below you will see the announcement in the Muggle papers of Tom Riddle Senior's divorce, the Birth Certificate for Tom Marvolo Riddle, and reports on him from Wool's Orphanage. All these articles were taken directly from the Muggle Government Child Services.
Following that, for those skeptical of Muggle Documentation, we have the young wizards exemplary Hogwarts school records; Tutor, Prefect, Head Boy. His employment records, Daily Prophet clippings on the imprisonment of Morfin Gaunt and the case of Hokey the House-Elf being charged with killing her mistress right after one Tom Riddle had visited.
One could look into it for themselves if they would like. Perhaps try asking a former Death Eater, one that managed to claim they were under the Imperius Curse, even though the mark had to be taken willingly, the others that weren't so convincing are still rotting in Azkaban. Probably not feeling too happy about how their leader was a liar and a hypocrite.
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Harry gave a bit of a stretch as he awoke. He rolled his shoulders and extended his legs as far as they would go. He tried to raise his hands to rub his face, as he normally did first thing in the morning, but they were restrained.
Blinking his eyes open, squinting as he adjusted to the amount of light shining through the windows above the bed he was in and looked down to see what was keeping his hands from moving. His brow furrowed as he cocked an eyebrow at Ginny and Sirius, each whom had a tight grasp of one of his hands and were seated beside the bed and were staring at him looking rather startled.
He was in the hospital wing.
It had been ages since he'd been stuck in the hospital wing.
"How're you feeling, Pup?" Sirius asked him.
Harry took a mental assessment of what was going on in his body at the moment. There didn't seem to be any injuries that jumped out at him. Aside from the sleepers that had built up in his eyes and the two of them were preventing him from wiping away, everything seemed fine. He felt rather good actually.
"Why am I here?" he asked. Sirius finally let his hand go free and he brought it to his eyes for a rub. Ginny removed her grasp on him then too and he shifted up in the bed.
"You don't remember?" Ginny asked.
"What is the last thing you remember?" Sirius pressed.
Harry frowned and thought back. "Oh," he remembered suddenly with wide eyes. "Oh!" He sat up straighter and pulled his legs up to cross them in front of himself excitedly. "Did it work? Is Dumbledore okay?"
"Well, how do you feel?" Sirius disregarded his other question.
"Uh, kind of great really," he smiled. "At first, I thought I was in here due to injury or something, but I feel so… light. Am I on any potions right now?" That could easily be the real reason he felt so good.
"No," Ginny shook her head. "Madame Pomfrey just did an overall diagnostic on you and claimed you were alright. Said your magic was slightly unstable when you were brought in and that was the reason that you passed out, but you just needed to sleep it off."
"Really?" he smiled widely at her. "When is it? How long have I been here?"
"Only about ten hours," Sirius told him. "We've been by your side the whole time. You barely moved all night. We took turns making sure you were still breathing," he chuckled unconvincingly, his eyes glinting.
Harry turned to Ginny then, she looked so relieved to see him awake. "Thanks for getting her," he told his Godfather, not looking away from her eyes.
"Didn't have to," he told him. "She was sitting outside the Headmasters office waiting for you."
Ginny blushed slightly. "Yes, well. I wasn't very well going to wait any longer than I had to to find out, was I?"
"Course not," Harry grinned at her.
"And?" she asked with wide hopeful eyes.
"Think I love you even more now," he whispered to her sappily. There was nothing inside him telling him to keep his emotions to himself or hold back on how much she affected him.
"Oh, thank Merlin," she breathed out. "Then can I kiss you now?"
"You okay doing that in front of him?" he teased, tilting his head at Sirius.
"Oh please," she huffed, getting to her feet and placing her arms around his shoulders as she brought herself closer to him. "I brushed his teeth, remember?"
Harry was the one to close the last bit of distance between them. If anything, her lips were even softer than he remembered, perhaps due to having nearly two weeks without him stealing her lip chap for himself but it could also just be because he didn't have to share her with anyone anymore. Their kiss wasn't as long or as thorough as either of them would have liked, but they did have an audience.
She pulled back and sat back down in her chair, taking up his hand again and turning to Sirius. "He was telling me a bit of what happened," she frowned. "It sounded like it was a bit of a struggle for you to get it out?" she asked.
"What?" he turned to Sirius in question. Harry didn't remember a struggle, he just remembered seeing red and that crap he'd thought about Dumbledore before he'd reasoned against it.
"All that stuff you'd said." Sirius mentioned. "I wondered if Albus was going to be able to keep up with his part. It seemed to affect him more than the image of his sister had."
"What- I said all that out loud?" Harry wondered. He didn't remember verbalizing any of it.
Sirius nodded sadly. "He was rather shaken up over it. Guess he had placed some blame on himself as well for all that's happened to you. There are a lot of us that do."
Sirius' frown deepened at that thought. Harry didn't want him to feel like what he'd gone through was his fault. It was the Dursley's fault really. Not his parents being murdered of course, but the neglect and abuse he'd suffered through. That was all on them. He was still resolute in his decision to simply give them their house and cut off all other ties.
He felt even better about that decision now than he had when he made it. There wasn't a voice in the back of his head telling him to take more revenge like there had been before that he'd fought with and worried over. His mind felt so much quieter than it ever had. It was peaceful. He hadn't even realized that there was something making him second guess things like he had been doing. He'd thought it was completely normal for everyone to have that devil on their shoulder making them think their ideas are stupid. There were references to such like that in all kinds of shows and books.
"Is he alright then?" Harry asked of his Headmaster.
"Yes," Sirius nodded. "Same as it was the last few time's he'd done it. And the…" he took a look around the room. "The thing is fine too. Same as it was before, just," he indicated to his eyes. "A little more red."
Harry hummed in response. They didn't seem to know what the red eyes of the Inferi would mean, but he'd believed Dumbledore's assessment of the being's ability to perform magic and potentially get out of its cage.
"So then, how soon until I can get out of here?" Harry asked them both. He felt completely fine and was ready to get back to his life as it was before he'd found out about the Horcrux in him. Spending quality time with Ginny in particular.
"I was going to see if you could be excused from your next day and a half of your classes." Sirius mentioned. "Get a jump on the holiday?" he raised his eyebrows in question.
"That'd be great!" Harry beamed. "I've already caught up on the work I'd been assigned. I'm sure Hermione would be alright passing along any notes I'd need."
"Uh, so would I," Ginny gave an incredulous wave. "I take the same classes as you, you know?"
"I know," he kissed the back of her hand. "It's just… she has nicer handwriting."
Ginny scoffed in mock offense, "you prat!" she laughed. It seemed she couldn't manage to get too mad at him right then. She too was relieved that nothing untoward seemed to have happened to his person having the Horcrux removed.
"Alright then," Sirius beamed. "I'll call over Madame Pomfrey to check you over and see if you can leave. I'll run it passed Minnie as well," he patted Harry on the shoulder and made to leave, but was halted by Harry's arm grasping his wrist.
"I don't get a hug?" he asked teasingly.
Sirius' shoulders sagged in relief and he came forward to embrace him. This wasn't a move Harry would have made two days ago. He was feeling more elated by this freedom his body was experiencing. It felt really good to be hugged by people that cared so much for him.
"Professor Lupin would have been here too if he didn't still have his classes to teach." Ginny told him after Sirius had gone to talk to the nurse. "He was here most of the night too."
"Did you lot get any sleep at least?" Harry asked. The both of them had looked quite drawn. She had rather pronounced bags under her eyes.
She gave a non-committal shrug of her shoulder. "I took a kip on that bed," she indicated to the one behind her. "Then Sirius took a turn as well."
"Come here," he told her gently and pulled back the blanket that was covering his legs, giving her space to move in.
"Harry," she blushed, "Madame Pomfrey will be here in less than a minute."
"Please?" he pouted in request. "I've been through an ordeal. I think I need some nursing from one person in particular." She rolled her eyes and got up to slide onto the bed beside him. He wrapped his arms around her. "I missed you," he whispered and nuzzled his nose against her cheek.
"I missed you too." Her hand rubbed up and down his arm as she leaned more against him. "Let's not have that happen again, yeah?"
"Promise," he replied before moving in to kiss her again. Properly this time. Merlin, how he'd missed having her in his arms. She responded immediately and he had just enough wits about him to not pull her against him so she'd straddle him. He wanted her to though. He wanted her pressed as much against him as possible until he didn't know where he ended and she began, but as it was he was getting too worked up.
Ginny sighed against him and the feel of her breath mixing with his as their mouths danced together seemed all the medicine he was going to get just then.
A throat cleared impatiently, sounding out from the end of his hospital bed and they managed to pull their lips apart under the scrutiny of the school nurse. "Your coloring seems fine," Madame Pomfrey commented disapprovingly as he was flush from his activity.
Ginny slipped off the bed and back into the chair she'd been occupying while Sirius, who'd come back with the nurse, tried to hide his grin. Ginny pointedly ignored Sirius while the nurse cast all kinds of diagnostic spells around Harry.
"Right then," the nurse stated in a strict voice. "Whatever it was that seemed to have plagued you last night, you're fit as a fiddle now. Your magic was off when I checked it last night. Seemed to be all over the place for some reason, but its settled now. Whatever you got hit with, your magic was working overtime to expel it. Just needed the time to return to normal. I will suggest having someone around you at all times though for the next two weeks, just in case something happens again. Can you do that?" she asked sternly.
"Was the plan anyhow," Harry nodded.
"Okay then. Mister Black mentioned he'd be talking to your Head of House to get you excused early for the holiday," she looked over at Ginny. "Will you be able to help him get packed up?"
"Absolutely," she nodded vigorously.
"Right then, off you go. If you feel dizzy then sit down immediately, lest you have a fall." With that, she left him to get changed and sorted for his early holiday.
"I'll go see about talking to Minerva then," Sirius stated. "How about I meet you at Remus' suite in an hour?" he looked down at his watch.
"Sounds good," Harry nodded.
Ginny held his hand all the way back to Gryffindor Tower. She seemed as reluctant to let go of it as he was. In his opinion they had to make up for the last two weeks, and the next two weeks, in this next hour and it would be bad enough to have to pack up his clothes without her hand in his.
His dorm was empty when they got there, everyone would have been in class. Ginny shut the door behind them and pulled out her wand to lock it.
Harry regarded her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "What is that about Miss Weasley?"
"That, Mister Potter, is about how I want you. Right now. And we really don't need anyone coming in and seeing us in a precarious position," she grinned and pressed her fingers gently on his chest, giving him a little push so that he'd walk backwards towards his dorm bed.
"What position would that be?" he asked, feeling playful, a shifting in his trousers causing his hand to go to his belt already.
"Well," she started. "First off, you're going to strip down for me and lay down before I climb on top of you and take care of this itch I've had for quite a while," she purred. "Then, after a quick spell that pack's up all of your things, I think you'll be needing a shower." Her eyes were sparkling with anticipation. "And I do believe the nurse said that you needed someone with you at all times. So, I'd better help you out with that as well."
"Are you saying you want to play doctor?" he grinned, pulling his shirt over his head.
"Oh, fuck yes." She pulled off her clothes as well and pushed him the rest of the way onto his bed before climbing on with him and attacking his mouth.
Their hands wandered with desperation. It hadn't been that long in the grand scheme of things that they'd denied themselves this pleasure, but the anticipation had certainly revved up the desire. As Ginny's hands grasped at ever part of him she could reach Harry writhed beneath her, his erection was straining to be buried inside her already and they'd only just started.
She took him in hand, clearly not overly anxious for foreplay, and directed him towards her entrance. She gave a twirl of her hips as she lowered herself onto him. His eyes rolled back at the warm sensation that flowed through him. He thrust upwards to bury himself inside her. He gave a groan and grabbed at her hips.
She rocked him back and forth inside her while her face buried itself in the crook of his neck, her pleasured breaths encouraging him to grind himself inside her more. As she rocked his hands wound around her back to hug her closer. He needed her lips on his though. Pulling her hair slightly he made her tilt her head up so he could kiss her. It wasn't enough though. She wasn't as wrapped around him as she could be while he was inside her.
Carefully as he could manage, he rolled them over. "Wrap your legs around me," he ordered.
This was what he wanted. Her beneath him, her hands clutching at his back, her feet locked on the inside of his knees. Her breasts pressed hard against his chest as he thrust inside her, being sure to grind against her clit with his pelvis.
"Missed you," he groaned.
She could only whimper in response. "So. Good," her lips found his again. They merely held their lips against each-others while they moved. His finish was closely approaching, and he could tell by the contractions of her inner muscles around his cock that she wasn't far either.
"Get there," he growled in want. "Come for me, you know you want to."
Her breathing became shallow as she ground harder against him. Her nails dug into his shoulders as he panted out words of encouragement that he wasn't fully aware were coming out of his mouth. Until he felt her clamp around him properly and he gave into his urges to thrust into her properly until his own climax overtook him.
"Yes!" he groaned loudly into her shoulder. His thrusts turned more to jabs as he milked the last of his orgasm out of him, breathing hard against her skin as his heartbeat started to slow down.
They lay there naked together as they recovered, and he was so appreciative for her being there for him. She was amazing and beautiful and strong and stubborn and she'd have been completely justified in hexing him for trying to pause their relationship as he had done. In a daze his post coital brain guided him to the conversation he'd overheard between she and Ron over Christmas break about how she'd be trying to figure out how to make his death look like an accident if he tried to break it off with her, and he started shaking softly with laughter.
"What's that about?" Ginny asked, trailing a hand up and down his spine.
He raised himself up on his elbow and looked down at her. "Just," he smiled and shook his head. "I love you."
Ginny grinned back in response. "I love you too," she gave him a kiss. "And we need to get you packed."
"Urgh," he groaned. "What was I thinking saying I should leave two days early? If I stayed," he started as she slipped out from under him, "then we could have just slipped away to the room of requirement for the next two days and made up for lost time."
"Mmm, tempting," she kissed his forehead before standing up and giving him a lovely view of her in all her glory. "However, you have plans that involve going to a foreign country and hunting down a wraith and being an adventurer or whatever." She picked up his shirt and pulled it over her head. "And I get to pack your bag." Ginny found her wand and summoned his travel case from his trunk.
"You don't have to do that," he frowned at her. He could pack his own bag.
"I don't mind," she shrugged her shoulder. "I want you to sit there and tell me what happened yesterday. In your own words. Naked." She waggled her eyebrows at him and looked down to his, now not quite so impressive, penis.
Harry narrowed his eyes at her slightly with a smirk and pulled his sheets over his lower half to begin regaling her with how it had been for him to go through that experience. He still wasn't sure just how long the entire ordeal had lasted. He was surprised that it had knocked him out for ten hours though. He certainly felt well rested and relaxed now.
The relaxing bit might just have to do with what he'd just done with Ginny though. He'd been way more verbal than he'd ever been before, but other than that everything had been as fantastic as it had always been, he'd just craved more intimacy from the experience than that first position would allow.
She listened attentively while she pulled a few days' worth of his clothes from his trunk and placed them in his smaller trunk. It was really sweet that she wanted to pack for him. It was odd, because no one had ever done that for him before, but sweet. He described how he'd seen the room in red and hadn't been aware he'd been saying things about Dumbledore aloud, then his vision had cleared and then he'd felt great. Then passed out.
"Do you think they're planning on taking the Inferi with you all to Albania?" she wondered.
"I don't think so," he said, confused as to whether that was even a possibility. Would one be able to take a portkey? He was pretty damn sure that it wouldn't be able to board a Muggle plane. "Pretty sure it is staying here under lock and key. The only crotchety eye sore I want coming along is Snape. And I don't really want him coming along."
Ginny snickered and put his packed bag at the end of his bed. "There, just your toiletries needed now," she told him. "And I believe you'll need to use them once more before you can put them in the bag."
As she turned towards the bathroom she pulled his shirt over her head and tossed it back in his direction casually. "You coming to help me?" she winked over her shoulder.
He really had the best girlfriend in the world.
()()()
Sirius stood beside Harry just the other side of the white picket fence. The small spot of lawn had all gone wild, there were even sprigs of weeds poking up between the spaces in the cobbled walkway leading to the front door. There hadn't been anyone maintaining the property here like there had been at Potter Manor. Mira said she wasn't allowed to go there until directed otherwise by Harry. Sirius gave a sigh, he should have asked Harry to send her permission before they came, but he really hadn't thought about it.
There was a statue at the corner of the property of James, Lily and a baby Harry between them. Sirius couldn't even look at it.
They wouldn't have wanted that. Harry didn't want it either, though he'd looked up at the image of his parents and he for a few moments, then taken one look at the inscription and averted his eyes. He moved to the other side of Sirius to take in the sight of the cottage before them. It looked the same as it had the last time he'd visited before the attack, save for the hole in the wall where Harry's nursery had been.
He imagined it would probably look the exact same as it had if he was viewing it from the back garden.
Swinging the gate open he started slowly walking up the way to the door. The last people through this door would have been the Auror team that took away…
Sirius' hand froze above the doorknob as he stowed that thought away in the back of his mind. This was going to be emotionally wracking for Harry. He had to be strong for him.
His hand touched the doorknob and it swung open, he'd been one of only a few that were keyed to the door. It was as chilly inside the house as it had been out. Stepping inside he looked to his left, towards the sitting room and saw that a few of Harry's toys were still scattered along the floor by the bay window. James' pipe was on its side on the coffee table. All the furniture looked a little outdated now, the fabric seemed stiff.
He continued forward, not daring to look at the wall to his right that held several pictures of James and Lily with friends and family over the years. He could see that the photos were waving and smiling out of his peripherals and didn't think he'd manage to keep it together if he saw that head on right now. Instead he kept moving past the hallway and into the kitchen.
There were still dishes in the sink from the dinner they'd had that night. Harry's highchair table piece was on its side in one of the sinks. Automatically, he moved to the fridge and reached for the cupboard above it. James kept the hooch there. Grabbing a dusty bottle of Glenfiddich he went to the glass cupboard and pulled out two tumblers.
"Pup, I don't know if you think I feed you too much liquor, but I need this, and I think you will too," he stated as he poured. He didn't hear a response, so he turned to see what Harry was looking at and saw he was enraptured by the photos on the wall at the entrance.
Sirius braced himself. It wasn't even just what was behind the frames, he'd helped James hang up those photos. They'd had a bitch of a time getting them levelled and in an order that Lily approved of. It had taken all day, which he could attribute to several beers, and several cuss words. He'd never realized just how much work it would have taken until they'd attempted it. It didn't help that the frames were all different sizes.
Taking a swig to ready himself, he took a glass in each hand he went back to stand beside Harry and gave him one of the Scotches. He pointed to the one of the four Marauders on the end. "That was our sixth year," he told him. "We'd just finished up our exams and I was looking forward to spending the summer with James at Potter Manor."
Harry nodded and his eyes drifted over to one of just his parents.
"That was the first 'couple' photo they had," Sirius told him. "She'd finally caved to his advances at the beginning of seventh and then they were ridiculously happy together for the rest of," he cleared his throat and couldn't finish that sentence. "It was after their first date. James was adamant that they have a photo to commemorate it," he chuckled at the memory, "he said she'd be grateful to have it to go beside their wedding photo so she was to just shut up and enjoy it."
"Really?" Harry grinned wistfully.
"Yeah," Sirius sighed. "And that," he gestured to the one right beside it, "is their wedding photo." He looked at his younger self beside his eighteen-year-old friends. At the time he'd thought they were mad to be getting married so young. They could have simply lived together, no one would have thought less of them for taking their time. James was determined though, he'd known she was it for him and Sirius supposed he'd wanted to put a baby in her sooner rather than later. The baby bit was probably the main reason for rushing it all. It had been a year after the wedding that they announced she was pregnant.
He'd both been crazy happy for them, and thought they were simply crazy. But, they weren't letting the war dictate their lives and he respected them for that.
He was glad to see that Peter had walked out of the photo from their wedding day. There had only been about twenty people there to witness it.
"She has a picture of her and Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked incredulously, looking at the smallest photo of the bunch. Lily had wanted that one up there, she hadn't given up on her sister coming back into her life at some point. "You know, I'd never seen a picture of my mum until my first Christmas at Hogwarts? My dad neither."
Sirius let out a slow breath. He couldn't help feeling like they'd all failed Harry, he probably wouldn't ever get over it properly. "I'm so sorry about that," he told him sincerely. "I wish I could go back and stop myself from being so damned adamant about making Peter the Secret Keeper."
"I don't blame you," Harry turned to face him, his face completely open. "You were doing what you thought was best. It was Peter that wasn't strong enough to fight off Riddle and his crooneys. And it was several other people who let him raise to power. There were a million other factors that allowed it all to happen. I don't blame you, and I don't blame Dumbledore," he promised.
That was a weight off his chest to hear it, but it wouldn't remove all of the guilt that he'd reflected on over the many years since it had happened. "Come on," he guided him towards the kitchen. "Let's show you the rest of the house." He'd had as much as he could take from these photos.
As they went through the different rooms Sirius pointed out little spots of interest and told a few stories about different things that had happened in the rooms in the near year and a half that Harry and his parents had lived there. They made it through the kitchen, dining room, sitting room, office, then up the stairs and into James and Lily's room.
Every last piece of clothing and knick knacks had been left where they were on Halloween of 1981. After he and Harry had been let into the cottage so easily he was amazed that no one had been in to ransack the place since. Lily's jewelry was still out on the dresser.
"There must be some kind of wards still in place," he commented to Harry. "This ring is a Potter family heir loom." He held up an emerald and diamond white gold right for Harry to see. "It was an engagement ring for Euphemia, but Lily had worn it to a function or two. She wasn't much for jewelry during her day to day, but James always noticed when she put on the Potter pieces."
Harry took the ring out of his finger and looked down at it with a small smile. "It's really pretty," he commented. "Rather simple, but elegant. Looks like it is for working hands."
"Sturdy enough for a Quidditch player," Sirius smirked.
Harry's eyes shot up to his and his cheeks colored. "Yeah," he admitted.
"Why don't you just keep that idea locked away in your mind for a few years down the road?" he suggested. Harry was far too young to be thinking of marriage. Molly and Arthur would probably be out for Sirius' head if they learned Harry was already thinking of that, no matter how much they seemed to like the boy already.
He heaved a great sigh, "are you ready for this next bit?" The only room left in the house was the nursery.
"Just," Harry raised his hand and took a great swallow of the last of his Scotch before having a coughing fit. "Gah, why do you like this stuff?"
Sirius grinned at him. "It's an acquired taste," he admitted. "You'd probably just prefer something sweet at your age."
"Yeah, let's keep that in mind for our holiday." Harry choked.
They both set their glasses down on the dresser and went across the hall. Harry was the one to open the door, it did have his name on it after all.
The door swung inward and the two of them stood side by side, taking it all in. The hole in the exterior wall was large enough that Hagrid could have easily fit through it. Harry's crib was singed on the side facing them and there was quite a bit of stuffed animal batting around the floor.
"Hey!" Harry strode in and reached down into the corner of the room. "I remember this!" he came up holding a toy broom. "I had dreams about flying on a toy broom like this. I had thought that it was just a dream, but here it is!"
"I got that for you for your first birthday!" Sirius told him proudly. "Your mum was pissed, but your dad was eager to get you on it. Only flies far enough off the ground that your pudgy little feet wouldn't have been able to touch, I don't know what she was so worried about."
"I remember riding on you too," Harry said quietly as he examined the broom, unable to meet his eye. "When you were Padfoot."
Sirius almost lost his composure as he recalled those days. He loved it when little Harry would reach his pudgy arms up and demand for 'Pafoo'. "Used to take you for a ride around the coffee table. You tugged on my hair something fierce, but you loved it, so I kept doing it," he choked out.
Harry nodded with a sad smile and looked around at the other toys in the room that hadn't been destroyed. Sirius spied the stuffed rat that had fallen under the crib and quickly cast a spell to incinerate it. Harry looked back at him in question, not having noticed it before it was a ball of flames.
"Don't worry about it," he shrugged off his concern. He found himself dealing with this a lot better than he thought he would.
"Where are they?" Harry asked, he was looking at a picture of he and his parents that was sitting on a shelf in the closet.
"Down in the cemetery in town." He hoped Harry wouldn't want to go there right then. It was too much on top of this visit.
Harry nodded as he traced the outline of James' smiling face with a sad smile. He gave a muffled sniffle and took a step back before looking at Sirius with shining eyes. "Another time?" Harry asked.
Sirius let out a slow breath of relief, "Another time."
()()()
Albus Dumbledore stared at the creature as it continued pacing back and forth in its minimal space, like a feral dog. There was an overall sense of awareness that it was giving him through the look in its eye. It seemed to be rather more healthy than one would expect from an Inferi. The House-Elf's had been taking good care of it, but that didn't explain the coloring of its flesh taking on a more natural human hue.
There had been many reasons that he wanted to use an Inferi instead of some other object. He could have just transferred the souls into one of the objects that Tom had used already, but Albus was a scholar and there was so much to be learned from the effects of a Horcrux on a human body; and he couldn't very well do this sort of study on an actual human. That would be too reprehensible.
Using a recently dead body wouldn't have given him the results he was looking for either, there was a large possibility that the soul fragments would have been locked into the corpse.
No, he needed something else.
Victor Frankenstein had messed around with reanimation, and look where that got him.
There was so little in the way of studies related to Horcruxes. This was most probably the only chance he, possibly anyone, would have to see of the effects of multiple Horcruxes, from the same soul, and the impact they would have on a body. Seeing the Inferi's progress after having just one Horcrux in it was incredible enough, after each additional one was transferred it gained more recognition and outward signs of it being 'alive'.
In his research for transferring Horcruxes he had learned a lot about souls, including the spell he had used to see if Harry had a piece of Tom Riddle inside him as well. It was a spell that measured a person's soul. Harry had an extra amount of soul on top of his. A minuscule amount of extra soul, but just enough that Albus could see it.
He'd been measuring the amount of soul that was residing in the Inferi after each transfer. Each measurement would tell him how many of the Horcruxes were made and the order in which they were made as well.
Every time Tom Riddle had split his soul, he wasn't simply tearing off a small piece of himself, he was ripping his soul in half. Every additional Horcrux was diminishing his soul to less and less, until what he was left with was only just under one percent of his original soul residing in himself. It was why he was so susceptible to the Dark Arts and why he had no conscience telling him right from wrong. That first Horcrux had altered his sense of judgement irrevocably, the additional one's he'd created after had made him all the more unstable a human.
Unfortunately it did not inhibit his ability to do magic. If only that had been the case.
After transferring the Hufflepuff Cup the Inferi had one quarter of a soul, the Gaunt Ring had added to it only slightly, and the Slytherin Locket added near one sixteenth of a soul. The transferred Horcrux from Harry had barely added to the Inferi's soul at all.
The creature now held just over thirty five percent of a regular person's amount of soul. This meant that the previous two Horcruxes he had been forced to destroy by Fiendfyre, the Diary and the Diadem, had been the second and third Horcruxes created.
This also meant that they had all the pieces of his soul from before he was forced into his wraith form.
Once Severus was successful in returning his old master into a human form the Inferi could be destroyed. Until then, Albus was going to get perverse enjoyment from torturing the thing.
He stood from his chair and waved his wand at the gramophone in the corner, starting the record of Ethel Andrews reading out the Muggle Studies text book from the 1950's. It had been created for a blind student that had attended the school, and subsequently dropped the class due to the entirely grating sound of Ethel Andrews' voice.
The creature moaned loudly and covered its ears. Albus turned up the volume and closed the portrait to the room, the sound of the album disappearing as the portrait sealed shut.
()()()
The Palmanova Resort in Albania was rather breathtaking.
Tonks really hadn't thought that her first weekend away with Remus would actually be a week long trip away in a foreign land. And not to a resort as nice as this one. It was extra great because Sirius was footing the hotel bill. Initially she'd protested that a bit, but he'd argued that he was using the Black Family money, and she was a Black. He'd also told her he was footing the bill for her former Potions Professor as well so she could very much 'shut up about it'.
They weren't too far out of the capital city and had a large Villa on the resort to themselves with a private pool and a kitchen that was restocked every morning. The only thing she wasn't keen about, besides attempting to track down the wraith of the evilest man she'd ever heard of, was potentially seeing her former Potions Professor in a bathing suit.
She hadn't considered too much what Albania would be like, but it was beautiful. From the moment they came through the portkey she felt the warm salty sea air hugging her. The foliage around them was green and the sky was blue. It was fabulous.
Remus grinned at her as they look down at the private pool area from the balcony of their bedroom.
She'd already emptied her suitcase into the dresser and closet provided and put her toiletries in their ensuite. The two of them were the first to arrive, the others were going to be a few hours. As soon as she'd checked and rechecked the wards around the villa and the silencing spells around the room twice she'd dragged Remus to their room to christen the bed.
"This is fantastic," she beamed back at Remus. "I'm sure it won't all be like this the whole trip, but I'm glad we got a bit of time to ourselves before everyone else shows up."
Remus sighed contentedly. "I'm so glad you've taken everything so well."
She had been surprised by it all, that much was a given. She worked with a few senior Auror's that had never believed that You-Know-Who was gone for good, so they'd instilled the sense of doubt about it in her as well. "Moody was the one that trained me," she told him. "I guess all of his paranoia had prepared me for it somewhat."
"That wasn't what I meant," he told her and hugged her back tighter against his front.
"Oh," she smiled softly. He meant his being a werewolf. "I was plenty keen on you before finding out, now I just understand why it is you can tell when I'm really aching for it," she teased and wriggled her bum against him slightly.
He growled playfully in her ear. "We should get back downstairs."
She frowned regretfully. They did have quite a bit of mapping and such that they wanted to review of the country and go over their plan of combing through it effectively. From what they knew, Lady Grey had hidden her mothers Diadem in a tree in a wooded area. That meant that if he'd been in hiding around there then they would be needed to search the parts of the country further inland. Along the coast was too developed, and there were a few small wizarding settlements near the mountains that he'd want to stay away from as well.
Sirius had rented a vehicle for them to travel around in and they were going to be visiting all the little hamlets and such and trying to coax some local legends out of the patrons at the pubs and such. Once they narrowed down the area that he was most likely to be in, then it was Severus Snape's job to go through the woods and search for his presence. One of them would be following him in Harry's Invisibility Cloak the whole time.
She wasn't entirely sure what it was that Sirius had held over Snape's head in order to get him to agree to this. She'd known he was a Death Eater at one point in his life, but apparently he'd switched sides right before the end and played double agent.
They made their way down the stairs and she brought a file with her that held all of the road and topographical maps of the area along with the travel guides and such for sight seeing locations along the way. Remus went to assemble a snack platter for them and she set herself up at the table by the pool to go through everything.
"Finding anything you'd missed before?" he asked setting down a crudité platter with some charcuterie.
"Reading over the 'haunted' area's in this Muggle brochure," she held up the cover for him. "Found it at the Apparation site. It's for Muggle's, but I guess they get enough visiting Muggleborn that they carried them there.
"Is it just about ghosts and such?" he wondered. "Does it say what ghost the Muggles are actually referring to?"
She shook her head, "No. It's mostly about the brutal history of the area and where one might 'hear the echo's of the violent past'," she quoted. "This is strictly Muggle, but their rumors and such might help us narrow some spaces down."
"Historically violent area's he might be interested in," Remus offered.
"Not when they have nearly 100,000 visitors every year," she stated with a shake of her head. "I'm actually thinking it might be best to simply cross off every place on this map that this guidebook suggests visiting and see what we're left with."
"That would certainly narrow down which wooded area's we should be checking," he nodded.
"Lupin, Tonks," came the tense greeting from the patio door of the villa.
"Ah, Severus." Remus got up to greet him. "Glad you found the place alright. I'll show you which room is yours." He leaned over the table and gave her a kiss before doing his polite duty of playing host.
She was rather stuck staring at Snape. He was wearing Muggle attire. She didn't think he'd ever not worn the vested robes that he donned when he was teaching. She'd expected it was the only type of clothing he owned. Now, here he was wearing Muggle jeans and a light-weight button up shirt! It had a bright color on it! She didn't mean to stare, but he looked rather normal. Almost like he hadn't come out of a coffin this morning. His hair even looked less greasy and more like he'd used hair product.
As Remus guided him out of sight she focused again, turning back to her map of Albania and to crossing off places for them to check. Tourist destinations, metropolis', places too close to a Magical community, too close to a muggle highway and anywhere that wasn't wooded. She wasn't left with much after that, there were two places in particular that she believed would be most likely.
"That was pleasant," Remus said sarcastically as he came back to sit down with her.
"Whatever do you mean? He's the nicest bloke out there," she deadpanned, still consulting her map and crossing off locations.
"I've been over the folklore about the Ravenclaw's and believe it is likely that they had a summer home near here," he pointed to a spot that she had down as a potential location.
"Right," she'd already circled it, but added extra emphasis over the area. It was a reserve near a medieval town called Gjirokaster. The reserve close to it didn't have any trails or excursions that went through it. She'd had it down for its potential because it was a reserve rather than a National Park and they didn't seem to draw any resources from it. So far as she could tell there wasn't any scientific studies that the Muggles did of the area either.
Rrezoma Reserve is what it was called.
"Here as well," she showed him the other location that she thought had promise. "It is off a recently built highway, but not very travelled. The bridge there is rumored to be the one from the Three Brother's tale." She'd liked the photos of the Goliku Bridge that she'd seen, but apparently it was illegal for the Muggle's to actually use it, claiming that it was too fragile. The magical community knew better though. It was structurally sound, so that gave her another indicator for where he might have been hiding.
"Anybody call for someone tall, dark and handsome?" Sirius asked loudly as he came out to the poolside.
"Hey!" she grinned and got up to give him a hug before moving to Harry, who looked amazed at his surroundings. "How're you doing kid?"
"Pretty fantastic actually. How're you?" Harry grinned.
He seemed less reserved than she'd observed him to be the last few times she'd seen him. Remus had filled her in on how they'd managed to get the Horcrux out of him, and how incredibly relieved they all were that there didn't seem to be any ill effects from its removal.
The night after it had happened Remus had come to her flat and basically collapsed against her. She'd had to half carry him to bed he'd been so tired. It wasn't until the following morning that she got the proper story. He'd been up nearly all of the previous night at Harry's bedside and then still had to teach all day. That it had all gone down only two days after a Full Moon, she understood his need for a proper rest.
"Quite happy to be in a beautiful country like this for the Easter Holidays," she answered honestly, "even if we do have some work to do."
"See you've already been hard at work here," Sirius gestured to the maps and books spread out over the table, then helped him self to some crackers and cheese.
"Have you got any of your own done up?" she asked. She hadn't really spoken to Sirius about anything more than getting assurance that he was okay with her coming along for this trip.
"I have, but the two of the three spots I'd been looking at you've already got marked off." He pointed to an area that was close to the border with Macedonia, by Lake Ochrida.
"I had thought about that one too, but it has a lot of tourist traffic right now, and though it is technically 'Albania', when he would have fled that area was considered North Macedonia Region, and I didn't think he'd be likely to settle there."
"It was all Albania when Lady Grey would have been alive though," Sirius reasoned.
"Fair enough," she took up her marker and circled that forested area as well. The country was small enough that they would be able to check out each of the three locations each day and still make it back for dinner.
"Did Snape make it here?" Sirius asked.
"Just showed him to his room before you got here," Remus told him.
"He's wearing Muggle clothes," she muffled her laughter. "It is so weird to see him like that." Harry at least seemed to find that idea as humorous as she did. "Lets get the two of you settled and then we can go over the plans."
()()()