Asta and Brynjar disapparated as soon as they made it to the sitting room, entirely unsure of where they were going or walking into. Sure, they say in on the same informative meetings Ron and Malfoy had done for Harry and Hermione, about the Ministry and the officials there. But they still weren't one hundred percent certain on how to navigate it.
Upon their arrival at the ground floor of The Ministry, they were surrounded by chaos. People were screaming and pointing towards one side of the expansive space, wanted posters were flying through the air haphazardly, obstructing their view of the scene before them. They came face to face with the new "Minister", who was giving them a puzzled look, like he knew them but couldn't quite remember from where.
Asta couldn't help but admire the interior style of the Ministry. The dark tile, all over. She adored the transition the tiles made from emerald green to black. For a place of importance underground, the Ministry was huge! She couldn't help but wonder how the muggles never happened upon it while doing work underground or building. Her admiration was cut short when she heard a scream, Hermione's scream to be exact.
From the other side of the room, they heard Hermione scream , "Let go off me! Get off!" Brynjar quickly flew to her, landing behind the gentlemen holding her roughly, and hosted him up in the air by the back of his shirt.
The brown haired man was so startled, he released his grip on Hermione, who scurried towards Harry and Ron. The two boys dueling encroaching Ministry guards, while Hermione collected herself, fumbling to find her wand.
"Why do I know you?" Pius asked slowly narrowing his eyes at the small woman, desperately trying to recall when they had crossed paths before. "Did the Dark Lord send you?" He followed up, thinking she may be a new edition to Voldemort's ranks.
After he asked her that, she knew where she had seen him before, and instantly disarmed him, snatching his wand from the air and stowed it in her pouch. "You were there that night we killed his snake." She replied, watching his eyes go wide when he finally remembered where he knew her from. "Yes, you sat next to Blondie." Asta declared, the memory coming back clearer and clearer with each passing moment.
"You're the Viking child." Pius stated, his hand moving to reach into his pocket.
She sent a killing curse towards Pius, but he deflected it easily, as though she was nothing more than a nine year old child. The two dueled feverishly, while Asta easily deflected attacks from those that came to the Ministers aid. She couldn't believe how... WELL he was dueling her. She hadn't met a Death Eater yet, aside from Snakenan, who fought so well.
She was slowly but surely growing tired of his arrogance, and of not being any protection for the trio, she sent out a large pulsating electric shock to everyone within 20 feet of her. All dropped to the ground, except for Pius. He shielded himself just in the nick of time. His prowess was getting under Asta'a skin. He was quick and strategic, but she was better than him, and she knew it
She looked behind him and smirked, making the man turn to see what awaited him from behind. When he saw nothing there he knew he'd been duped, and let out a curse as he felt ripped wrap around, and tighten against his body.
Asta quickly stunned and bound the man, not even bothering to keep him from smacking his head against the hard tile floor. She quickly took off to find the trio running towards a grate, a Death Easter on their heels. Just as she was about to reach them she was hit in the side knocking her to the ground, a black coated figure tumbling with her.
"You son of a bitch!" Asta soured, babying her ribs on her left side, turning towards the greater to see they were gone... along with the Death Eater that was following them. "Fuck!" She growled, reaching down to the unconscious figure that broke her ribs, then stupidly flew into the wall, placing a hand on his head and emitting a deadly shock. The man did not get back up.
She looked towards Brynjar, who was in his glory, fighting of multiple hooded figures at once, when their pendants started buzzing again. They looked at each other and nodded, disapparating on the spot, leaving their enemies confused and shocked.
They suddenly appeared in the middle of a forest, with Ron convulsing on the forest floor. Asta immediately ran to aid Hermione, who was crying and shaking as she tended to her friend.
"He's splinched." Asta , dropping to her knees with a grimace next to Hermione. "What happened?" She ground out, working through the pain, batting Hermione's hands away so she could work. Hermione was too shaky to be trending to him right now.
"When we went through the grate, Nott Sr grabbed hold of me." Hermione began, her voice trembling and shaky with guilt and fear as she spoke. "I managed to shake him off at Grimmauld place, but Ron got splinched. And Draco is now wandless in a house with a Death Eater!" Hermione cried out, swiping at her eyes with her blood soaked hands, holding Ron's head in her lap while Asta worked to heal him.
"Go get Malfoy, and bring this Nott guys body back with you." Asta ordered, beginning to bandage up Ron's shoulder and arm. "Unless you three would be comfortable going back once that Nott man is dead?" Asta added, slowly rising from her crouched position, doing her best to hide her broken ribs for the time being.
"We won't know for sure if he had called the others by using his mark or not. It won't be safe to go back now." Hart groaned, slumping down against a tree, rubbing his hands up and down his face.
Asta and Brynjar nodded their heads in unison, fully supporting and understanding his decision. Brynjar walked a bit away from them and disapparated back to Grimmauld Place, where he found Malfoy standing over the body of the man he assumed was Nott. Once Malfoy heard the faint pop associated with apparation , he turned quickly, raising his arm high, brandishing a bloodied butchers knife at Brynjar.
"Woah! Way there Blondie!" Brynjar exclaimed, putting his hands up infant of him. "What happened?" Brynjar asked, moving past Malfoy to look at the body. Turning the man over to look at his face, before beginning to search his person for anything useful. Brynjar summoned a vial from his pouch and began to pull silver blueish liquid from the dead man.
"I-I heard Hermione screaming, and a pop. I thought she was hurt so I ran to the sitting room and there I saw Mr Nott pulling himself off the floor, a-a-and looking around." Malfoy began, only slightly shaky as he recalled the events. "When I heard Hermione scream I grabbed this just in case. But when I got in here she was gone and Nott was here. I-I snuck up behind him... an-and..." Malfoy trailer off, his pale face whiter than normal as he stared blankly at the dead man before him. His best friends dead dick of a father, dead by his hand.
"Blondie? You alright?" Brynjar asked, rising up to look at Malfoy, genuinely concerned the small man may have a mental breakdown. "Mate, it's fine. He was a bad guy. He was going to hurt Hermione. You did the right thing." Brynjar started in a soft tone of voice he has never used with Malfoy before. "'Sides you trying to tell me this is the first person you ever killed?" At that, Malfoys has snapped towards Brynjar, his eyes dark.
"Those times were different. I didn't even want... I had no choice... besides I never used my bare hands to... to..." Malfoy stopped talking all together. His mind forcibly reliving his darkest, most bile-churning moments when he was still home. The loud, pain filled screams of the women, always women he has brought to the Manor. The sound of his aunt cackling as she tormented the terrified women. The smell of blood invaded his nostrils, and his stomach forced its contents out of his mouth, while tears streamed down his cheeks.
Brynjar genuinely felt bad for Malfoy at this moment. He never once thought that killing a bad person would be this hard for someone. Malfoy was in a right state at the memories of the things he had done and witnessed. Wretching on the side of an old "comrade" with tears staining his cheeks.
"You alright now?" Brynjar asked, patting Malfoy on the back a little harder than he meant to. He watched as Malfoy nodded his head in reply, wiping his mouth on his short sleeve as he stood back up to his full height. "Good. Look, I'm sure I can guess what you witnessed and were forced to partake in at your house. Believe me when I say, killing the people who are the true wrongdoers in the world gets easier with time." Brynjar began, watching as Malfoys face paled as he spoke. "It sound terrible, but it's true. What you were made to do, would break anyone. It would destroy them inside. But you're not a bad person. You did what you had to to survive."
Malfoy felt a little better, not much but a little, to know that even Brynjar would have been shattered to be forced to torture and murder innocent women. He rubbed his hands on his face to wipe away all the stress, and took a deep breath. He was calming down, and feeling closer to normal than he had in a while. He watched as Brynjar reached into his pouch and pulled a small pencil and a piece of parchment out, and began scrawling a note. Once Brynjar finished, he pinned the note into Nott Sr's body, put a hand out over him and the corpse disappeared.
"She told me to bring his body back with me, but I really don't feel like hauling him with us." Brynjar explained as he walked towards the cupboard door where Kreacher slept.
"What are you-" Malfoy began to Al but was silenced by Brynjars hand.
Brynjar reaches the cupboard door and knocked, waiting for the small elf to open the door. He heard rustling behind the door before it , revealing a grumpy looking Kreacher.
"Yes Mister..." Kreacher trailed off, having forgotten Brynjars name.
"Brynjar. Hey, Harry needs you at their camp. Bring all your things you'll need or want with you ok?" Brynjar explained kindly, almost as though he were talking to a child.
"Of course, sir." Kreacher replied, turning to pick up hood locket and his new bed he loved so much. When Kreacher finally extricated his bed from the cupboard, he nearly toppled over due to its size.
"Would you like me to carry that for you?" Brynjar offered, his hand outstretched to take the breed off of the little elf's hands, but Kreacher clung tight to it. Brynjar chuckled lightly. "Can I at least temporarily shrink it for you? I need at least one of your hands for disapparation." Brynjar explained, watching the struggle on Kreachers face. The elf clearly didn't trust that Brynjar wouldn't try and take his bed away somehow.
"Will you fix it once we get to Master Harry?" Kreacher asked, squinting at Brynjar.
"Yes I will." Brynjar replied with a patient smile as he looked down at the sad little elf, who nodded in consent. Brynjar shrunk the bed and gestured for Kreacher to follow him to the living room.
When they both got there Malfoy broke the silence. "Please don't tell anyone about what I was forced to do at home. I-" Malfoy was cut off by Brynjar.
"It's no ones business but yours." Brynjar said flatly, gesturing for Malfoy to take his hand right as two Death Eaters apparated right at the threshold of the sitting room. Brynjar quickly disapparated, barely giving the Death Eaters a Chance tip glimpse at who was leaving.
They quickly landed where Brynjar remembered they had been taken by their pendants, but Asta and the others were no where to be found. He assumed they had put up enchantments while he was gone, and started calling for Asta until he saw a hand, he assumed was hers, come into view and pulled the three into the enchantments.
"Where the body?" Asta asked, confused as to why Brynjar brought the elf back with him and Blondie. She watched as Kreacher tugged insistently in Brynjars pant leg until Brynjar looked at him and waved his hand at Kreachers bed, returning it to it's normal size. All three watched the little elf make his way towards the tent to find his Master.
"Sent it to your dad. We don't need the extra work. And don't worry, I did extract memories from him." Brynjar replied defensively, handing her a vial off blue-silver liquid. "Hopefully there is good stuff in them, he was already dead when I got there." Brynjar added with a smirk, gesturing towards Malfoy with his eyes. Asta looked dumbfounded. Unable to process that Malfoy has killed someone without magic.
"You killed him?" Asta asked, watching him with scrutinizing eyes. She watched him look to see if anyone else, i.e. Hermione, was listening or watching before nodding his head. Asta arched an eyebrow in surprise and slight appreciation. "What did you use?" She asked, seeming far to interested in this topic.
"Butchers knife." Malfoy replied, keeping his voice flat, trying to remain calm at the images her question brought forth.
Brynjar mouthed something to Asta, and she let the topic go. She patted Malfoy on the shoulder, in what he assumed meant "job well done", before moving towards Brynjar.
"Can you heal my ribs now? I think they're shattered." She asked bluntly, as though it was nothing big. Brynjars eyes went wide, and his face red.
"Why would you bloody wait until you did a fair amount of work before telling me you shattered your bloody ribs?!" Brynjar shouted, gently guiding her into their tent, which she had set up in his absence. "Bloody twit." He grumbled, helping her down onto the couch, helping her lay on her back. "How did you shatter your ribs?" Brynjar asked in a curt tone as he lifted her shirt to feel her side as gently as he could.
Asta hissed when Brynjar started touching her side, the pain was intense. Nothing she hadn't experienced pain like it before, but she didn't enjoy it. "Pain potion." She ground out, looking at Brynjar from the corner of her eye.
Brynjar summoned the bottle and glass, handing the glass to her and watched as she damn near inhaled the liquid. "Death Eater barreled into my side while I was flying... knocked us both in the wall... he didn't make it..." Asta ground out, avoiding eye contact with a very annoyed Brynjar.
Brynjar pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and told her to bite it before he went to work resting her ribs.
Meanwhile, the trio were in their tent, Ron sleeping on one of the bunks while Harry and Hermione told each other what happened after they were split up. They were quite startled when Kreacher came passing into the tent, carrying his bed with him, with some difficulty.
"Kreacher?" Harry questioned, "What are you doing here ?"
Kreacher set his bed down in a corner of the tent by the opening, before making his way to Harry. The locket of his favorite master bouncing against his chest.
"Mr Brynjar said you would want me here after the Death Eater got in and was killed by Mr Malfoy." Kreacher replied, looking at Harry's legs instead of up into his face. "Would you like me to prepare something for dinner Master?" Kreacher added, not even acknowledging the stunned expressions on Harry and Hermione faces.
"Malfoy killed the Death Eater that attached to us?" Harry asked, wishing the little elf would look him in the face, he couldn't tell if Kreacher was even listening to him.
"Yes. Mr Malfoy said he heard Miss Hermione scream and ran into the sitting room with a knife. Kreacher had been woken up by her scream, but stayed in his cupboard. Mr Malfoy said he crept up behind the man and slit his throat, not before he called the others I'm afraid, Master." Kreacher explained, not looking up into Harry's face once.
Harry's blood boiled at the thought of the Death Eater trash that was currently in his Good Fathers house, his house. They were probably trashing it as we speak, turning it over for something informative. Now he understood why Brynjar asked Kreacher to come with them. When the Death Eaters found him, he would have refused to talk and been tortured, all because of Harry.
"Thank you Kreacher." Harry replied, looking down at the little elf with pity and sadness he had never felt for this particular elf before. "I would like you to go to Hogwarts, work in the kitchen with the other elves. You should be safe there." Harry instructed, smirking at Kreacher when he immediately turned to look at his bed. "Yes, bring your bed with you. Also, if you get a SAFE opportunity to, please tell Professor McGonnagall that we are ok, and we are going to end this." Harry stated, looking down at the elf, who for once, looked him in the eye and nodded his head.
Kreacher was about to turn and go grab his bed and leave, when Hermione gently grabbed his arm, noticing the visible cringe from the elf, but ignored it.
"Let me charm the locket so only you can see it. That way, since there are probably Death Eaters working in the school, they won't see it and try and take it away from you." Hermione explained, doing everything she could to make Kreacher believe that she wouldn't harm the locket. Kreacher nodded, eyes screwed shut in fear, apparently never having had a wand trained on him for anything good. Hermione muttered a charm, and the locket became invisible to her and Harry.
"Can you still feel it Kreacher?" Hermione asked, eyebrows knitted together in concentration as she watched the elf closely. Kreacher reached up and touched the locket, and he did still feel it was there. He opened his eyes, and they went wide. Hermione panicked as Kreacher flung himself at her, giving her an awkward and kind of tough hug.
"The locket is still there Miss Hermione. Can you or Master Harry see it?" Kreacher asked, looking up at the pair like a hopeful child. Both Harry and Hermione shook their heads no, and Kreacher looked happy, for the first time since they've known him.
"Thank you. Kreacher will go to Hogwarts now, as Master ordered." Kreacher bowed, before heading towards his bed and picking it up, then disapparating away.
Harry and Hermione exchanged happy but stunned looks with each other upon Kreachers departure. Malfoy has killed the Death Eater that clung to them as they tried to escape to Grimmauld place. A man who should have been his comrade. They were grateful to him, and Brynjar, and confused. Suddenly, both jumped as they heard a muffled cry from outside their tent. They had never heard her cry or scream in fear or pain , but it sounded like Asta. They jumped up and ran out of their tent to find no one outside , and made their way to Asta and Brynjars tent, where they found her covered in sweat, biting a blanket; while Brynjar was working on her bruised ribs.
"What happened?!" Harry asked, making his way into the tent and behind Brynjar quickly.
"Why are your ribs bruised? You were fine while we were setting up camp just five minutes ago." Hermione started, looking down at Asta over the back of the couch.
"She shared her ribs at the Ministry." Brynjar replied, fishing around in his pouch for white wrap bandages. "Hermione, can you levitate her so I can wrap her up please?" Brynjar asked.
Hermione watched him begin to unroll the bandage, and look up at her expectantly. She nodded her head, assuming her wand at Asta, and she began to levitate voice the couch. Harry and Hermione watched as Brynjar wrapped the white bandage around her torso with a gentle firmness they had never seen him use before. Brynjar nodded when he had finished, and Hermione lowered Asta down gently, back on to the couch.
"Kreacher said Nott Sr is dead?" Harry asked bluntly, looking to Brynjar for an answer, since he had been the one to fetch Malfoy.
"Yeah. Blondie killed him with a butchers knife after he heard Hermione scream." Brynjar replied.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Harry and Hermione were trying to spot Malfoy inside the tent, but he had hidden himself in his bunk. Hermione couldn't help but be worried for Malfoy, she wasn't sure if he'd ever done anything that dark before. She really wanted to talk to him, to check and make sure he was ok. She looked at Brynjar and pointed towards the side of the tent where there was a colored curtain, that didn't match the walls of the tent, pulled across completely. Brynjar nodded to confirm that that was where Malfoy was hiding, and watched as she made her way over towards the curtain.
"Draco?" Hermione asked, starting nervously at the curtain. "Draco, are you alright?"
There was no response from the other side of the curtain, they all waited for him to say something, but it never came. Instead, they all jumped when he slid the curtain open, and greeted them with a paler than normal face and red rimmed eyes. He looked absolutely distraught. He looked at Hermione with pleading eyes. He was silently begging her to understand he's not a monster. He feared that because he was technically a Death Eater, and doesn't exactly have the best reputation, he didn't want her to think that he had been turned into a murderous monster.
The pain she saw on his face broke her heart. She understood where the pain was coming from. She couldn't imagine intentionally taking someones life, let alone someone so close to her, even if they were a bad person. She wanted to comfort him, but she wasn't sure how.
"Thank you, Malfoy." Harry called from behind Hermione, looking past her head at the paler than normal blonde. He didn't elaborate, he knew Malfoy knew what he was talking about. Harry tapped Hermione's shoulder, when she turned to look at him, he nodded his head for her to follow him out of their tent. Hermione looked from Harry to Malfoy, she gently patted Malfoy on the shoulder and followed Harry out of their tent.
Malfoy flopped down on the bed, and closed the curtain so he could have his privacy. Brynjar helped Asta stand up, and guided her out of the tent, to follow Harry and Hermione.
"Why is he so upset by killing someone?" Asta whispered.
"Because off things he was forced to die before we took him." Brynjar explained, briefly stopped between the two tents to explain Malfoys plight. "He was forced to kill and torture women. He said it is always women they brought to his manor. But this was the first kill of his with intent and with his bare hands." Brynjar whispered, looking between the two tents to see if anyone was listening. "He feels guilty."
"I see." Asta replied, looking straight ahead as she imagined all the horrible things Malfoy was probably made to do. She couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. He clearly didn't have the stomach for being a soldier.
Brynjar gently nudged Asta to keep moving towards Harry's tent, and she hissed at the burst of pain that course through her torso.
"Can't believe you worked on camp with shattered ribs." Brynjar scolded, not quite angry but amused.
"I've worked with comparable injuries before." Asta replied, a small smirk on her lips.
Brynjar shook his head with a soft smile on his lips. They stopped at the tent flap, and called to Harry and Hermione to see if it was ok to come in. Hermione came to the entrance and gestured for them to come in. They followed Hermione into the tent and saw a still unconscious Ron on one of the bunks, left shoulder wrapped with his arm in a sling.
"Were you able to get the real locket?" Asta asked, breaching her hands on the back of the couch, looking between Harry and Hermione.
Harry pulled the locket out of his pants pocket showing the two Vikings the real version of Kreachers locket. Both Vikings twitched when they saw it. The dark energy pulling off of it was unsettling and irritating. Asta couldn't help but find it a shame that such a pet locket was being used for something so sinister.
"How are you planning to destroy it?" Brynjar asked, mimicking Asta on her left, watching Harry and Hermione's annoyed and slightly sad faces. "You have no idea do you?" Brynjar added, looking from them to Asta.
"Unfortunately Dumbledore hasn't gone into how to destroy them. Just like he never elaborate on how to find the rest of them." Harry replied, sinking down into a ratty old recliner, his elbows resting on his knees. The weight of the world on his shoulders getting heavier by the day.
"Hey Harry." Asta called reaching to the knife strapped her hip and unclasped the fattening for the sheath, and tossed the dagger to Harry. Harry looked up at her, seeing the flying black objects coming at him, he jumped and just barely caught the dagger. "Try that."
Harry looked down at the dagger in his hand, recalling the last time he held a blade like that it was the sword of Gryffindor. He gave Asta a confused look while he replaced the dagger in the sheath. "Why would your dagger work? Dumbledore tried destroying one of them himself and it cursed him." Harry explained, looking between Asta and Brynjar for an answer.
"That's a goblin made blade, and the blade has been soaked in basilisk venom." Asta began to explain, just as she was about to continue when Hermione gasped, and took over.
"Oh my God! Of course Harry! That's why Dumbledore tried to will you the sword of Gryffindor!" Hermione exclaimed, kneeling down in front of Harry taking the dagger into her hands. "The blade is impregnated with basilisk venom! Which means it can destroy horcruxes!"
Understanding washed over Harry's face. Then surprise at the fact that Asta said her blade was soaked in basilisk venom. He was curious as to where she got basilisk venom from, and why she would have stores of venom at the ready. But was even more curious as to why she thought, or how she knew that basilisk venom would work.
"What made you think of basilisk venom?" Harry asked.
"Basilisk venom is a highly destructive, and fast acting poison." Asta began, looking at Harry casually, like this was a normal topic of conversation. "Plus, I'm pretty sure I've read about it in one of the books we have at home. Either the person has to feel genuine remorse for what they've done, or destroying it with something as 'evil' and destructive as basilisk venom." She added, wincing as she took a breath. "The worst that could happen is it won't work at all, just try it and see."
The main part of the tent was quiet, except for Ron murmuring in his sleep. Hay spent a good while starting down at the dagger, contemplating his options. He was offered a potential way to destroy the locket, and the others when they found them, but it may not work. His fear was that he would stab the locket and since both objects have evil in them, the locket will absorb the venom and make it that much harder to destroy. He was tossing the ideas around in his mind, weighing the good and bad against each other, and made his decision.
Harry sighed, rising to his feet, "Screw it." He started as he gathered the locket and unsheathed the dagger, while making his way to the tent opening. The three of them followed him out of the tent, staying close to it while Harry made his way a good distance away from them.
He knelt down, setting the locket on the ground, a high pitches ringing in his ears and a twitching sound as he looked down at the small object. He took a few breaths before whispering, "Please let this work." He spoke a few words in Parsletongue, and the locket sprang open. A whirlwind whipped around him, and he heard Voldemort speaking to him.
"You could have great power and wealth, if you join me." Voldemort's voice echoed around him. "You could live carefree, if you agree to aid my cause. Join me, and live." The voice hissed, instantly transporting Harry back to his very first battle with Voldemort at the Mirror off Erised. Harry's teeth were clenched as he recalled the false hope and promises Voldemort had "offered" Harry at that time. The promise of bringing his parents back, meaning he would have a better life, if Harry would give him the Philosopher's stone. All the anger he harbored over the false promises, and the way his life has been lived up until now, and for the foreseeable future, came bubbling to the surface. He raised the dagger up, level to his ear, and quickly and brutally, slammed it down into the locket.
Once the connection was made, a wave of pure black smoke erupted out, knocking Harry over, and evaporated up in the tree tops. When he looked back towards the locket he found it shattered and black. It worked.
Harry picked up the remnants of the locket to inspect it closer, and Hermione gasped when she saw the state of the locket. She rushed over to Harry to get a closer look herself.
"Merlin! Look at the damage the blade did!" Hermione exclaimed, examining the locket, but not taking it into her own hands. She couldn't believe the extent of the damage done Byatt single strike from that dagger, it was irreparable!
"Could you lot hear it when I opened it?" Harry asked, quite shaken.
The three others exchanged confused looks. "Hear what, Harry?" Hermione asked nervously, her brows furrowed as she looked hard at Harry.
"You didn't hear him talk to me?" Harry asked, completely disheveled, worried that all the stress was making him lose his mind.
The three of them shook their heads in response, exchanging confused and worried looks with each other, as Hermione helped Harry up to his feet. Once both Harry and Hermione were on their feet, she gave Harry a sympathetic look, before removing the locket from his grasp. He didn't fight her on it, he just watched as she showed the destroyed locket inside a little box in her beaded bag. Once everything was tucked away, she looked back up at Harry with a hard, yet somewhat hopeful face.
"The down, for to go." Hermione declares, giving Harry a half hearted smile before turning and making her way back to the tent to check on Ron.
"Three down?" Brynjar asked looking confused, making way so Hermione could slip into the tent behind him.
"Yeah. I didn't know it at the time, but I destroy one of the seven horcruxes in my second year, with a basilisk fang, after I has killed it." Harry began, making his way towards them, to go back into the refuge of the tent. "Dumbledore destroyed Marvolo Gaunts ring, though I'm not sure how. But that has been another horcrux. And now, we have destroy the locket. That's three ." He finished, settling himself in the sofa, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. "But there is still four more we have to find and destroy, as quickly as we can. But I have no idea where to begin."
A silent, and solemn, silence was shared amongst the five of them in the tent. The sudden understanding of Harry's stress regarding this hunt was now made clear. Asta and Brynjar note sharing in the weight of the burden, wracked their brains trying to think of where they may possibly be able to start.
"Well, when we," Asta began, gesturing between herself and Brynjar, "have an assignment we are unsure of where to begin, we get everyone in our group together and swap information we know about the objective our target individually. We all take notes and start building up plausible motives and such. Perhaps you try doing that?" Asta offered, knowing it wasn't much, but it was somewhere to start.
Harry started at the raven haired girl for a moment before nodding in agreement. He couldn't help the bit of annoyance at her suggestion though. What did she think they had been doing at Grimmauld place? At her own house during that last big meeting?! But she did have a point. Everyone present has their own amount of knowledge about Voldemort. Maybe someone knows something that Harry doesn't. Like a freight train it hit him.
"Malfoy." Harry said, making Hermione jump.
"What about him?" Asta asked, looking moderately confused.
"Vol-You-know-Who spent a lot of time at Malfoy manor. Malfoy May know something more from being on the inside." Harry explained, looking at Brynjar, who nodded and made his way out of the tent to fetch the shaken blonde.
"Harry, I'm not sure Draco is going to want to talk right now." Hermione popped up just as Ron groaned as he tried to prop himself up.
"What'd I miss?" Ron asked groggily, swinging his legs over the edge of the bunk.
"We destroyed the locket." Harry started, watching Ron's jaw hang slack.
"How? And how long have I been sleep? What else did I miss?" Ron asked, rapid fire.
"About an hour or so. Malfoy killed a Death Eater with a butchers knife, and Harry stabbed the locket with my dagger. It has basilisk venom in the blade." Asta explained, grinning at the red head as he stumbled toward the sofa with a stunned expression.
"Malfoy killed one of his own?" Ron asked, still completely in disbelief.
The other three sitting around the small shabby coffee table nodded in unison. Rob just stared at them blankly in response, still processing the thought.
Malfoy came through the tent flap first, clearly being "persuaded" to join the masse by Brynjar who followed Malfoy in. The svelte blonde found an empty, tattered plush chair, and lowered himself into its welcoming cushion.
"Right. So first thing I want to do is to discuss all the bits of knowledge we have about Vol-You-Know -Who, and see if anything jumps out at us." Harry declares, eyeing everyone in the room.
They all took a turn declaring knowledge they had about Voldemort, some more surpassing than others. Malfoy was blown away to learn that the rumor about Voldemort being a half-blood is true. It was a forbidden topic at his home, for many reasons. Each of them had proffered something useful and previously unknown among the lot that was gathered.
Finally, Ron's stomach intervened, and they broke for dinner. They are in mutual silence, everyone of their minds reeling with the information, trying to find a pattern amongst all of it. When it hit Malfoy so hard, he almost fell out of his chair.
"Hogwarts." Malfoy declares, dropping his spoon into his bowl of stew that Asta and Hermione has made.
"Come again?" Harry asked, looking thoroughly confused as he looked at Malfoy, only to snap his head towards Asta when she dropped her spoon as well.
"Holy Shit... Hogwarts is the common factor..." Asta started, eyes locked in Malfoys in a zombie like stare. "So, possibly he took our used an item he recognized as a symbol of each house, and used them as a horcrux?" Asta suggested, looking around at all the scowled faces deep in thought.
"Possibly... But what objects would he use..." Harry thought out loud, staring blankly at the canvas that made up their floor. He was trying to wrack hood brain on items that Voldemort could use to represent the other houses at Hogwarts. Books for Ravenclaw? That made sense to Harry, Ravenclaws are intelligent and bookworms. The sword of Gryffindor would ideally be something Voldemort would seek, but a horcrux wouldn't survive in something impregnated with Basilisk venom. For Hufflepuff, what could he have possibly used? A hug? Kindness is what represents a Hufflepuff. So what kind of object could he have used to represent that house?
Harry was getting a headache from thinking so much and so hard. He wished Dumbledore would have just told him what he suspected the others were. Dumbledore knew everything. This would be so much easier if he hadn't been keeping secrets from Harry. Harry was pulled from his internal grumbling when he heard a hush disruption of the silence, by Asta and Brynjar, who were animatedly and quietly whispering to one another.
"What are you two going on shoot over there?" Harry asked, his tone a bit more snappish than he meant for it to be.
Asta and Brynjar exchanged slightly nervous looks with each other, before Asta spoke up. "We think... possibly... we think Brynjar might have killed one of his horcruxes." At her words, eyes went wide and jaw slackened in a mixture of shock, with a slight amount of glee.
"What do you mean you think?" Harry asked.
"The night we went to Blondies, there was this massive snake that attacked us. I musta bashed it into the wall at full strength AT LEAST fifty times, and it was like nothing happened to it! I was finally able to stab it with Asta dagger, and it let out this long his with black smoke. Kind of like when you stabbed the locket..." Brynjar explained.
"Can you show me what you saw?" Harry asked, eyes hard.
Brynjar stood up and made his way over to Harry and showed him what happened that night. After the snake was dead, Brynjar pulled his hand away from Harry's temple, and backed up a bit to look at the dark haired man properly. Harry has a look of relief donning his face. That was another horcrux down.
"She was one." Harry declared, slumping down in his chair in relief at having one less horcrux to find and destroy. "That's four down."
"Not sure if this is really vital, but You-Know-Who put something in my Aunts Vault at Gringotts." Malfoy piped up, instantly killing the little bit of cheer that was daring to shine on them. "I don't know what was put in there, only that it was something extremely important and personal." Malfoy explained, setting the information hungry look in Harry's eyes.
A million thoughts were spinning through Harry's head with this new information. Voldemort his something personal and important in Bellatrixs' vault. It has to be a horcrux. It just has to be. Now to figure out how to get in to her vault, and get the items.
"What do any of you know about how the vault are guarded? What protections are put in place to make it impossible to steal from Gringotts?" Harry asked, knowing Asta and Brynjar wouldn't really have any idea, but the other three should have something to go on.
"You need to be a goblin. They're suspicious of all humans, they only use us for guard duty there." Ron stated, looking for something to eat.
"Also, when you get to the older vaults way down below, they have a dragon guarding them." Malfoy declared, watching Hermione face contort with anger.
"A dragon?" Brynjar asked, shock evident on his face.
"Yeah when you get down to where the older vaults are, the dragon will try to stop you, but the Goblins have these noisemakers that they use to scare the dragon." Malfoy began explaining, looking at the ever reddening faces of Asta and Hermione. "I was told the dragon had been trained to expect pain when it hears the noise. It's terrible."
"That's barbaric." Asta and Hermione growled in unison, anger etched into their faces.
"Agreed. I always hated going to the bank with my father for that specific reason." Malfoy explained, visibly upset as he recalled the images he can never unsee.
"Humans are the worst species in this world. Just because we have an actual articulated voice, a majority of us treat other creatures, animals, like absolute trash. It makes me angry and sick!" Hermione snarled, beginning to pace the tent floor.
"It's actually the Goblins doing, though I don't disagree with what you said, just clarifying." Malfoy interjected.
The room fell quiet as Hermione continued her angry pacing at the barbarity, while the others exchanged looks. They all knew what they had to do next. They had to sneak into Gringotts and get inside Bellatrixs' vault. They had Malfoy, who could give them a general idea of what to expect once they got below the surface, but other than that, they had nothing. The only remaining issue was, they had no idea how they were going to do it.
A/N: This was a really rough chapter for me to write. I know what I want to happen, but when I tried formulating the words it all seemed terrible. This was my best draft of this chapter. As we get closer to the end it will truly be better because I know how the end will go already. Thank you for reading! Please feel free to review!