Ch 23 The Sixth Horcrux

A dilemma. A diary, a ring, a locket, a cup, a snake, which makes five. The diary was destroyed, as were the locket and the ring. There was every chance Malfoy had destroyed the cup. There was the snitch recovered from Gringott's bank that was now transfigured into a vase, sitting on a shelf in the crypt that held the bodies of the Potter family. There was the strong possibility it was not a Horcrux. The twin that had shared space in the womb with Harry had died prematurely and if it had been a Horcrux then it had also been destroyedand that would have been the sixth one.

Or, Hermione thought, it could be Harry. Harry was the surviving twin and could also be the Horcrux and his dead brother would be an innocent victim.

But she had been around Harry for a very long time and knew him. And Voldemort had made mistakes, lots of mistakes. His Horcruxes were not safe. They had been scattered, like his physical body had been scattered, just like dust in the wind. He had not known about Lily's pregnancy and the twins. He had not secured the ring and Dumbledore had found it. He had been arrogant in leaving the diary where Malfoy could find it. He had turned over another precious one to Bellatrix Lestrange. One had been stolen from under his nose and a fake left in its place. Oh yes, Voldemort you have been careless, she thought. And you are going to go on being careless with your precious soul aren't you?

Snape illuminated the room once again by lighting his wand.

The snake is the last one, Hermione decided staring at Snape. He was right about refusing her. She was willing to sacrifice, to do whatever needed be done to give her friend a chance. But she realized when all the information was put together, the entire truth, that truly the one and only Horcrux left had to be the snake. If I'm wrong, I'm dead.

She waved her wand over the vase before Snape could stop her. Her lips moved as she cast the spell shattering the vase into a thousand, thousand tiny dust particles.

She looked up at Snape and he stared at her in horror. Slowly, his expression changed and he rolled his eyes skyward. "The impulsiveness of youth," he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily before looking at her again, saying, "That was foolish."

"According to you a person has to stop being afraid and be courageous. I call that..." she nodded at the remains of the vase laying on the marble floor, " being courageous. Now we have only to consider if the snake is the last one," she said very calmly, although her heart was pounding wildly in her chest.

He frowned and then nodded slowly.

"I think it's time we go to Hogwarts, Professor Snape," she mumbled and gathered her belongings. "We may yet have a chance to sacrifice ourselves for the good of our world."

...

Voldemort lay on his sofa and waited for news from the prison. He was about to leave the castle and go there. It was only a short time to midnight and he wanted to used the captives to perform the necessary magic with the boy. But he had summoned his companion Nagini and she had not arrived and neither had Wormtail. Malfoy had sent no word and they had not captured the Potter boy or Bella had failed. She was to have placed the cup in his hands immediately. Then; he knew it would act as a window into the boy's mind, a place he dared not go to directly.

It was obvious none of those things had occurred and he was, above all, a very impatient man. He stared at the portrait of Dumbledore once again and wanted to ravage it and vent his rage against it. Instead, he was treating it as if the figure within its' frame were still alive. If there had been any lips left on his face he would have curled them in derision.

He struggled to an upright position, his feet, what remained of them, were dangling from his trunk. He slithered around the desk to curl up on the floor below the portrait.

"They will all pay, Dumbledore," he hissed. "They will all pay for their insubordination and treachery. None will survive that seek to harm me or betray me." He didn't realize he spoke in parseltongue and that he had lost the ability to use human speech.

He didn't realize his body was grotesque and transformed, and that scales of grayish-green covered him. He didn't realize that if he had wanted to wield a wand, he could not. He no longer had arms or hands.

This did not occur to him. He felt more powerful then he had ever felt before. His senses were keener, his taste and smell exquisitely sensitive.

Nagini was reluctant to leave her eggs. The leathery round pouches were susceptible to drying and they needed the moisture and warmth of her body curled around them. She felt the human summon her and she forced herself to stay where she was at. It was a warm dry place in the garden near an entrance into the school where the sun heated the cobblestone during the day and it remained that way well into the night.

It was her first batch of eggs. Her master had never allowed her access to one of her own to fertilize the eggs. And though these were unnaturally fertilized, a product of magic and nature, she was satisfied as only a snake mother can be. There were six of them; all greenish and scaly except for the darker one that throbbed in their midst. She nosed this one away from the others and allowed it to cool in the night air. She would not have understood that the evil that had dwelled within her had been transferred to this egg, one she was now naturally rejecting. The Horcrux, made from the essence a human soul, was struggling to get out of the rejected egg and died even as the embryo died.

…...

Harry proceeded slowly through the ground floor, past the entrance, and the heavy oak doors of the Great Hall. The vast chamber was empty and there was no reflection from the ceiling which was now barren of stars or sky or clouds. It was an overhead canopy of wooden beams and cobwebs. He crept up the staircase and past the first floor classroom where Firenze held his divination class. The door was bolted shut and Harry's hand wavered over it momentarily and then he moved on after glancing at it longingly. He felt the absence of his friends and the support he had grown accustomed to and, now, had only just realized it.

Then stood in the doorway of Filches office.

It had been ransacked and the man's neatly arranged card system had been scattered over the floor and paper had escaped to fly down the hallway and mingle with other debris. Even his own writing was visible on several of the cards and he remembered how they had come to be.

Harry was on his way to the library but couldn't help but ponder each new scene he came across. There had been a struggle in several of the classrooms. He continued down the course of the corridor and made his way to the first floor and to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He thought at that moment was of Remus walking away from this classroom. It seemed like a long time ago and Harry paused and stared into the dark room and recalled his mother's words. She had been writing as if she had forgotten she was leaving a message for her son. It sounded like she was writing as if she was also living through the moment again.

I know Remus never would have left me if there had not been a reason, she wrote. I know he loved me, that Sirius loved me and Peter. I knew itas much as I knew that I loved them. My dear son, you can never do enough for friends like these. They would have sacrificed their lives for me and I...well, I have sacrificed. Without knowing it Voldemort made a Horcrux out of the child I carried. And only when it died and I still carried the other child did I know what had been done. It was horrible, beyond description and I grieved with all my heart. I needed Remus. He was always the one who could comfort me and comfort your father. James was torn apart by what had happened and wept bitterly. I could not console him.

He was almost insane with grief and rage and swore neither I or our surviving child would suffer from Voldemort again. You see he thought it was the torture that killed the child. He finally gave in to Sirius demands for action. I love Sirius but he was impetuous. They went to see Reggie.

Can you imagine what it must be like to have caused all of this? If I had only listened to Severus I would have not been captured. I was not careful, I was too outspoken... No! That's not true. I was too stubborn. Ah but what has passed cannot be changed...

He moved quickly , time was getting away from him. If there was anyone who could help, it would be Slughorn and Harry was now in the mood to make him help if he refused. He'd never liked the man and now had no compunctions about getting information from him.

He had never felt as lonely in his life as he did now. The halls were dark and empty and his friends were alive but could not help him. He had known somewhere in his heart this day would come. Dumbledore had wanted to protect him from it and had kept information from him. Sirius had suffered greatly in Azkaban and had died trying to protect him. His parents...well... that was an old sorrow. He hadn't known them or known anything about them until he had read his mother's diary. Oh the diary! How his mother had sacrificed; had suffered to protect him.

Harry felt the heavy weight of grief, like lead in his chest. I had a brother, he thought. Voldemort not only killed my parents he killed my brother. He knew he shouldn't think about it. If he did he would lose his concentration and the rage would take over, and yet, he couldn't help but think about it as he walked.

He was also aware as he moved cautiously down the corridors and up the stairs that the castle was not exactly empty. It had changed and had grown colder and somehow grimier. He passed a tapestry and was aware it was infested with doxies, a cabinet shook perceptibly and he was sure it held a boggart. It had not been long since Voldemort had become a tenant and many dark and ugly creatures had moved in and made the once beautiful castle hallways dank and creepy. Not even the normally eerie ghosts who startled everyone as they popped out of the walls were making their appearance.

He held the wand in his wand hand and walked, stopped and listened, and then walked on. Harry was aware the wand in his hand was foreign to him. It had belonged to Dumbledore. He also had not really performed much magic since having come-of-age.

He began to use it experimentally. He mentally performed the spells he had learned through the years. EVANESCO! he thought and the not only did the wand produce the desired results, it was astounding. A suit of armor vanished from its' usual spot, and left a scooped out, crater size hole in the stone floor. He tried it again on a portrait and found it once again performed remarkably and made the portrait disappear but also opened a new hole in the stone wall so that one could see inside the History of Magic classroom on the first floor.

He passed the girls bathroom on the second floor and stopped briefly to put his ear to the door. He heard no moans or otherwise any kind of noise from Moaning Myrtle who had wisely fled the bathroom and was probably hiding in the pipes somewhere. He would have liked to step in just to check it out. Although he didn't like being around the ghosts of Hogwarts, particularly this ghost, Moaning Myrtle had been helpful to him several times and he thought it wouldn't hurt to have all the help he could get.

He hesitated and then moved on, practicing his spell work as he went. The wand definitely seemed to have a mind of its own, or at least seemed to have memorized many of the spells Dumbledore had known. Harry only had to think of something he wanted to do and sparks of varying colors would shoot out the end. He narrowly missed falling into what looked like a very deep pool of water with an adjacent waterfall he had created on the floor with one awkward wave when he had only been thinking how thirsty he was.

Although he had not been very good at them, he attempted a switching spell and found to his delight the could changed the pool of water into a goblet of water. Harry lost himself in performing several spells that he'd never really succeeded at doing before and suddenly found himself feeling very satisfied with the results. With each step he took the task of killing Voldemort didn't seem as daunting as it had once been.

With renewed determination he stepped by the stone gargoyle leading to the revolving stairway and Dumbledore' office and moved on towards the staircase that led to the second floor. He had to move quickly now he realized because he had to get to the library and find Slughorn.

But his heart gave a small leap because each time he used the wand he thought he heard; No, it couldn't be, he told himself. It is wishful thinking..., but he thought he heard... Phoenix song.

…...

Lupin arrived very near Hagrid's old burnt out hut and found Arthur Weasley and a group of wizards and witches clustered nearby.

"We haven't known what to do, Remus," Arthur said quietly. "If we burst in we could give Harry away. Ron's gone in after him!" Remus could hear the frustration in the man's voice as Arthur continued. "But it's so quiet. There should be more Death Eaters or others around if he...if Voldemort is in there and there are none."

Lupin stared up at the castle and saw very few lights on. Even if it was very late in the night there were always lights on.

He was about to say something when a movement caught his eye. A glimpse of something very light-colored and moving through the forest. Only his keen eyesight would have caught it. He motioned for the others to hide themselves and he waited wand out when the two figures past him.

"Stop!" he said and stepped into their path.

There was moment of heart-throbbing silence and then Remus heard Ron's voice.

"It's me, Mr. Lupin, it's Ron."

"Who's with you," Remus asked.

"I've got Draco Malfoy."

A moment later as the others gathered around them again there was a several faint pops nearby and Lupin was beginning to wonder if they shouldn't just light some candles, set up tables and have a party. If they kept on like this, he thought, someone would notice and give the alarm.

To is surprise it was Hermione and Snape who walked into the small circle.

"Is it done?" Lupin asked.

Hermione was the first to answer. "Yes, it's done. That leaves one." She had found Ron in the dark and had his protective arm around her shoulders. Lupin studied the night around them and listened with his sensitive ears while they talked. "Is Harry inside? No one has come out?"

"Just me and Draco," Ron answered quietly. The blond-haired boy stood quietly. Snape had stepped up beside him. Ron gestured at Draco and said, "He says Slughorn is inside. The Dark Lord is still there. There's no one else."

That can't be, Lupin thought. He would not leave himself unguarded. "Severus?"

Snape stepped forward after glancing at Draco.

"I'm going in," Remus began. "Will you go with me?"

"I'm going too," Hermione said. "Professor Snape and I have to deal with the last Horcrux." The few in the circle who had not heard of the Horcruxes gasped and there was some slight murmuring that was quickly silenced by Lupin.

"I'm going, too," Ron said. "Someone can watch Malfoy but you're not leaving me behind."

"Very well," Remus said. "No more or we could attract unwanted attention. The rest of you scatter out and send out a warning signal if you see anyone apparating on the boundaries of the grounds. "This just does not seem natural to me," he said nervously. "Severus does this seem right to you?"

The man understood immediately and replied, "No. He would have the grounds heavily guarded. Perhaps he has already left for Azkaban. It is near midnight."

Lupin considered it and looked at Draco. "Are you sure there are no others in the castle, Draco?"

"Why are you asking him?" Ron said savagely. "You can't trust him!"

Snape stepped in front of Draco and Ron pushed forward into the older man's face.

Lupin stepped in. "We don't have time for this, Ron."

"Ron!" Arthur Weasley stepped over to put his hand on his son's arm.

"Where are they?" Snape asked, looking once over his shoulder at Draco. "Where are the Dark Lord's servants?"

"Are you with them, then?" Draco asked loudly, with a touch of sarcasm for his old teacher.

Before anyone could react Snape had swung around and had grabbed Draco by the front of his robes and lifted him so that his toes were dangling just above the grass. "Don't get cheeky with me, Draco," Snape growled. "You are lucky to be alive and you know it." He leaned over the boy and his own face, now badly disfigured, was a nose-length away from Draco's. It was clear the boy could see the destruction and he winced. Snape continued, "You father is dead and cannot save you now. I think you know the Dark Lord will kill you in the end and it will not pleasant. For once in your life use your common sense. If you want to survive then speak now."

Draco nodded slowly still in the iron-tight grip of his old teacher. "There were others... goblins and...and wizards. The Death Eaters were sent out on some errand. There are two dozen or more. I don't know anything else." His voice was weak and Snape glared at him. The faint light of the waning moon bathed their faces and everyone waited, watching the two.

"What errand?" Snape asked.

Draco shook his head. "He is changed. He's...he's not human anymore!" He struggled in the grasp and Snape let him down to the ground, his hand still at his throat. Draco continued in a panicked voice, "He sits up in Dumbledore's office and...and ...he talks to Dumbledore's portrait. He's gone mad!"

Lupin stepped in closer and asked, "Who else is in the castle? He would not stay by himself. How does he protect himself?"

"There's a room," Draco began. "I discovered it and...and my...my father used it..."

"The Room of Requirement?!" Hermione hissed. "Are you talking about the one on the

seventh floor. The one you helped him use the night of Dumbledore's death?"

Draco was nodding. "Yes...yes, that's the one. My father and his friends came through the cabinets. There was one at Borgin and Burkes. Father used Polyjuice Potion and..." at this Draco looked back into Snape's eyes. "...and he changed into Professor Snape." There were suddenly tears in Draco's eyes. "I was...suppose to kill him. I wanted to kill him to show my father that I wasn't a...a...coward."

They all stood in stunned silence before Snape spoke. "Killing a man does not make you courageous, Draco. We are wasting time. Where is the snake? Where is Nagini?"

Draco pondered the question, shaking himself lose. "It is somewhere in the castle. It won't go near him anymore."

"And Pettigrew?" Snape asked curtly.

"I haven't seen him."

"Slughorn?"

"In the library," Draco answered.

"What about the Room of Requirement?" Hermione asked.

Draco looked like he was going to hesitate and Snape reached for him again. He shied away and said, "There's a house elf, Kreacher. If there's trouble he's supposed to open the room. There are wizards hiding there."

Ahhh, Lupin thought. That's where they are.

"What about the grounds?" Arthur asked. "Are there any wizards guarding the grounds?"

"How am I suppose to know everything?" Draco sputtered.

Snape cut in, "I, too, have the dark mark Draco and even now it burns me. I know he is angry and he calls to us." Draco was silent and Snape stepped closer menacingly. "I am trying to help you, Draco," he said so quietly that Lupin thought the others could not hear, "but I will let him have you if you do not help us now."

"There's...there's something about Dumbledore's tomb."

Hermione was the first to speak, "A Trojan Horse."

They all stared at her silently.

"It's a muggle concept," she sighed and spoke very quickly. "Very simply they placed an army inside of an immense horse and then gave the horse to their enemy as a gift. The horse was pulled inside the fortress and in the dead of night the army escaped the horse and took over the city."

Lupin nodded to Arthur Weasley. "Take some of your people and guard the tomb. There will be others who'll arrive shortly. McGonagal and Scrimgeour are at Azkaban. Send word to them you need assistance. We are going inside." He turned and the other three, Snape, Ron and Hermione moved to follow. He turned back and said, "And Arthur put a guard on Draco. Make sure he doesn't get away."

…...

Harry saw the light in the library as soon as he stepped on to the fourth floor. He walked on cat-like feet until he reached the doorway. The view stunned him. Slughorn was in the center of the room surrounded by some of the very parchments and books he had seen Hermione examining. There were several bubbling cauldrons and the man was on his hands and knees scribbling on the floor with what looked like an oversized piece of chalk. He was drawing figures on the floor and setting lit candles at various angles. He was also mumbling to himself and looked like nothing more than a deranged lunatic.

Harry walked slowly in, glanced around, and then stopped at the edge of the circle Slughorn had drawn. The man was busy writing cryptic figures and numbers at various points along the circle and stopped cold when he heard him enter. He looked up, his beet-red face sweating and his eyes wide with terror.

….

"Hello, Professor Slughorn," Harry said softly pointing the wand in the pudgy face. "I'd like a word with you."