Chapter eight

'What was my brother intending to do when he put the ring on?'

Harry looked back at Aberforth, 'Arianna, he felt guilty and wanted her back. He died not knowing if it was him or Grindlewald.'

'That's what I thought, but I'm glad he didn't, Arianna didn't deserve to live like that.'

'No, they can't live like that, I got to see that for myself.' Harry picked the wand back up, staring at it.

'I thought you were going to put that back Harry, you said it was too dangerous to keep,' Hermione said.

'It is, but I figured if I needed extra power, nothing can beat this. I had it on me today just as a precaution. Every time I was at Hogwarts I almost died, I wasn't going to take the chance of it happening again.'

'Can you please explain what you and Aberforth were talking about Harry?' Charlie asked but noticed Hermione and Ron both stared at him, 'What's going on?'

Harry sighs, 'This is the elder wand,' gasps and shocked looks went around the table, 'My cloak is the cloak of invisibility not an ordinary invisibility cloak and the stone was the resurrection stone. Those three items are called the Deathly Hallows. Legend tells that when all three are united they make the owner master of death, that's me, I own all three, but as I said, I got rid of the stone. I couldn't destroy the cloak, it belonged to my father and this wand belonged to Dumbledore.'

'You're talking about the story of the three brothers that meet death on a deserted road and they outsmarted him because they were wizards. He lost his three souls and rewarded the three brothers with those items,' Arthur said.

Harry nodded, 'Everything apart from death is the truth. Originally Dumbledore wanted to find and own the deathly hallows, but after his sister died, that changed. He just lost his head when he realised he had the stone and wand in his possession and I had the cloak. Grindlewald and Dumbledore were best friends and they both wanted the Deathly Hallows.'

'That night, when my sister died, Gellert and Albus were arguing. Albus realised how far Gellert was willing to go, Albus wasn't. I ended up having a got at them, then the three of us started fighting, Arianna tried to protect me, she knew I was no match for Albus and Gellert. After she died Albus changed dramatically. He stopped trying to gain power and whenever he was offered a powerful position he turned it down, he didn't trust himself with power.'

'He told me that, he said he wasn't suited for power because he went after it. But he said it suited me and I was the true owner of the Deathly Hallows because I never wanted power, it was thrust upon me and I basically just used it to destroy Voldemort.'

'I just realised something,' Hermione said as she stared at Harry.

Harry turned, 'Why I can do everything wandless, why I can invent spells when I'm only twenty two. Yeah, I figured if you knew the truth you'd work it out Hermione.'

'Oh don't you two start again, just tell me,' Ron said.

Harry smiled at Ron, 'All magical people come into their power as a child, around the age of seven right?'

'Right, all kids do accidental magic when their angry or upset. Dad said I set fire to the shed because the twins turned a rock into a spider.'

'Well, I never got all my power, the soul or horcrux blocked it from emerging. So even though I was still magical, I couldn't assess my full power, not until that night. But during our years at Hogwarts I was able to keep up with all of you, yet I never had all my power. Remember after your mum killed Bellatrix, what I did before I pulled the cloak off?'

'I remember a bloody powerful shield charm went around everyone. That was you and because you just got your full power, it protected everyone from his curses, instead of just mum or the people around mum,' Bill said.

'Yes, exactly, I felt it when I woke up in the forbidden forest, a surge of power went through me. None of that occurred to me until I was overseas, then I started doing spells and charms that I used to have difficulty with, then the wandless magic started.'

'I did read up on that Harry, about making a living thing into a horcrux, I just never knew about you at the time. That's why you saw and felt everything, you were connected through that piece of soul.'

'Yep, it all made sense to me after I saw Snape's memory. You know Hermione, it's a wonder you never worked it out since you were doing all the research for us.'

'Yes, I should have worked that out. It just never occurred to me that you were one. We just figured it had something to do with your scar.'

'The scar is not from surviving the killing curse.'

'What?' Charlie blurted out.

'You saw my other scar Charlie.'

Charlie closed his eyes for a minute before staring at Harry, 'The one on your head is when the soul entered you, the one on your chest is when it was destroyed or left you. Did Dumbledore know all this?'

'Not straight away, he figured it out after Ginny and the chamber of secrets. I told Dumbledore what Voldemort was like, that's when he worked it out and knew the diary had been a horcrux. At the time he figured it might be the only one, that's when he began to go through all the memories, to find out for sure. But things seemed to go missing around him and people also died around him. Then he started to watch me, when I saw your dad get attacked, that's when he worked it out about me and why he refused to look at me that year. He didn't want Voldemort to use our connection to see what Dumbledore was up to.'

'Even though I can understand why Dumbledore told you, you were part of this and the prophecy of course. But surely he could have confided in the order of the phoenix so we could have helped instead of putting that dangerous task on you three,' Arthur said.

'It was because of my parents why he never told any of you. He knew he could trust you, but after Pettigrew betrayed my parents and he was an order member, Dumbledore wasn't going to take the chance that there could be a spy amongst us. Sorry Percy, but he still didn't trust you at the time and if your parents knew, they might have said something to you and you could have told the wrong person. This was dangerous information, it had to be kept between just us. He only allowed me to tell Ron and Hermione because he said I needed my friends.'

'It's fine Harry, I wasn't to be trusted then, so he did the right thing, as always.'

'You're right Harry, even though this was dangerous, if we spoke about it, we might have told Percy, he's family.'

Everyone realised that Dumbledore still felt guilty that he couldn't save the Potters, so keeping such dangerous and important information to himself finally made sense. They might not like it, but it did make sense.

'So as you explained, three items that belonged to the founders of Hogwarts, along with his diary, Nagini, the stone and you. You found the item he was going to use, it wasn't a horcrux because it ended up being you. Was there any talk about another item, anything?'

'Only something that might belong to Godric Gryffindor, but as everyone knows the only item of his is the sword that hangs in McGonagall's office.'

'And only a worthy Gryffindor can call for the sword, like you and Neville did Harry,' Ginny said.

'Right, so if he did have something else that was used to keep him here, maybe he did find something that belonged to Gryffindor. His home town is Godric's Hollow, my ancestors have lived there since Gryffindor himself. I found out that only three original families still live in Godric's Hollow, but no one has ever found Gryffindor's home. The Potters might not live there anymore, but their home is still there, maybe he's is still there somewhere as well. He kept disappearing, maybe it was to Godric's Hollow to find something and maybe he did find something. From what Sirius told me, my father did a lot of research on his family and Godric Gryffindor. I think I should go back to their house and look through everything my father found, there might be some clue at the house.'

'If you don't mind Harry, we'll all go and have a look. A different set of eyes might just see something others might miss,' Arthur said.

'I don't mind Mr. Weasley because this time all of us might work out if there is or isn't something left. You all know how dangerous this is so you all know not to say anything. That's why Sirius had a go at Dumbledore a lot, he thought Dumbledore should tell a few of the order. I get why he didn't, why he was cautious. Originally Sirius was going to be my parents secret keeper, Dumbledore offered but my father and Sirius came up with the plan of using Pettigrew because they knew Voldemort would suspect Sirius and Pettigrew was hopeless at magic. Voldemort would never believe my parents would use such a worthless person to protect them and me. It would have worked if Pettigrew wasn't a death eater all along.'

'Ron told us about what happened in the cellar,' Charlie said.

'Yeah, he tried to choke me, but he ended dead.'

'Ron said that you tried to stop that hand Voldemort gave him from choking him, even after he betrayed your parents, you still tried to save him,' Bill said.

Harry shrugged, 'I didn't want another death on my hands. At eleven I killed for the first time, but hearing about my parents, it was my fault they died, then Sirius because he tricked me into thinking he was torturing Sirius. Being responsible for people dying is hard to live with. I think that's why I started drinking heavily, I've eased off now, but right after, I would get so drunk I would pass out every night.'

Just then an owl flew in and landed in front of Harry, he sighs but takes the note and reads before handing it to Charlie.

'Kingsley has organised for an Unspeakable to study that area in the great hall sometime tomorrow. Then the day after he's going to bring him here to do some test on Harry. He's been talking to Albus and the Unspeakable, they don't believe he's still here, even a small bit of soul is still here, but they are going to make sure.'

'That's good, so if you want Harry, we can go to your parent's house tomorrow, check a few things, then the day after you get checked before we can put all that behind us and go back to wedding plans,' Arthur said.

'Let's hope we can put it behind us. So how about we meet at Godric's Hollow at eleven. That way Ron can sleep in,' Harry smirked at his friend making everyone laugh and Ron scowl, 'He'd be no use if we woke him earlier.'

'Stop being a Prat Potter.'

'Are you calling the man that saved your life a Prat, I might think twice next time.'

'Just remember mate, I saved your arse as well.'

'I know Ron, just like Hermione saved me.'

'And you saved me,' Hermione kissed Harry's cheek.

'Harry saved me as well,' Arthur smiled.

'Hey, I was the first person he saved.' Ginny smirked.

'Alright, you're going to give Harry a big head hearing all this praise,' George grinned, 'It's big enough already.'

'Twice the size of a normal head,' Fred grinned.

'Oh don't you two start. But it's getting late, I might head home. I have to apparate this time though, my bikes at Hogwarts. Hagrid better keep those kids away from it.'

'Do you seriously think Hagrid will let anyone near it Harry, he loves you,' Hermione smirked.

'Your only concern should be that Hagrid decides to tinker with it like he did with Sirius' old bike,' Ron said.

'That was Hagrid and your dad that did all that to Sirius bike. It's a shame that we crashed it, I wouldn't mind keeping it.'

'Um Harry, it's in my shed, I've been slowly rebuilding it.'

Harry stared at Arthur Weasley, 'You got it from Mrs. Tonks' place?'

'Yes, Hagrid told us what happened, we spoke with Andromeda, it was still lying where you crashed it. The whole front end needs replacing and the flying charm doesn't work anymore. So if you ever want to tinker with it, it's just sitting there.'

Harry grinned, 'I'll take you up on that Mr. Weasley. I've only got a couple of things that belong to Sirius. All his stuff was destroyed when he was sent to Azkaban. Anyway, time to go,' Harry turned to Charlie, 'Are you coming?'

'If you want me to I will.'

'Yeah, I want you too, especially after today, you can take my mind off everything.'

'Oh great, I'll tie you to the bed that will definitely take your mind off anything but me.'

'Alright Charlie, no details please,' Molly shook her head at her son.

'I never said what I'll do to Harry apart from tie him to the bed.'

'Charlie you are impossible, now take your man home,' Bill said.

Harry hugged and kissed Hermione, hugged Ron, then went around to all the Weasley's and Aberforth before shaking the Grangers hands. Charlie did the same before throwing Harry over his shoulder and carrying him outside with Harry waving and laughing.

'He seemed a little better,' Molly said.

'He wasn't Mrs. Weasley, Harry's very good at hiding his real feelings when he needs to. But Ron and I got to see subtle differences in his eyes or how he stood or sat. He's still worried and he's still scared. Once the Unspeakable has seen him, only then will he relax.'

'We can't blame him though. All his life he had Voldemort trying to kill him. If there isn't any bit of him left, why did he look like he was bound? That's what I don't get,' Ron said.

'I'm sure we'll hear the reason once the Unspeakable has done some tests on that area. Let's just try to figure out if there might be something left out there. I really don't think there is, but trying to find out where Gryffindor lived might be our best chance. Harry's right though, it's getting late and we still have a lot to do before the wedding.'

After than everyone said goodbye and headed to their homes. Hermione and Ron said goodbye in private before Hermione headed to her parents place, Ron heading upstairs to his bedroom. But everyone's thoughts were the same, they hoped there wasn't still a piece of Voldemort's soul out there somewhere, no one wanted to go through all that suffering again.