Chapter 22

"Charles, what color was your mother's hair?" Sirius asked at dinner that night.

Charles looked thoughtful. "It was auburn," he said.

"And what color was Aunt Anna's hair?"

"You know perfectly well what color her hair was. It was red."

"So both you and your father married red-heads, then."

Charles nodded.

"And, let's see, I believe James married a red-head, too, didn't he."

"What is your point, Sirius?"

"I don't have a point. I was just making conversation."

Charles shook his head and went back to his dinner.

"So, Harry," Remus asked. "Was that Ginny I saw you with on the carousel today?"

Harry looked as if he were trying to remember. "It might have been. I think she was on the carousel at some point today."

Sirius tried to hide a grin. "Do you think that might have been Ginny you were holding hands with at the beach?" he asked.

Harry blushed and looked down at his plate. "It might have been."

Sirius turned to his best friend. "I'm not sure I can recall, Remus. What color hair does Ginny have?"

Remus looked thoughtful. "You know, Sirius, I believe she's a redhead."

"All the Weasleys have red hair," Harry said. "You knew that."

"So, are you two . . ."

Harry sighed. "Yes, we're going out."

Remus and Sirius grinned at each other.

"But I don't want to be teased about it," Harry said. "And I don't want you to tease Ginny. You might mess things up."

"Oh, I doubt that," Remus said. "But we won't tease you, will we Padfoot?"

"Of course not! I'd never tease my godson about his girlfriend."

Harry narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously before going back to his dinner.

After a moment of silence, Charles said, "Harry, after dinner, we need to have a talk."

Harry looked up at him in horror. "You're not going to give me the talk, are you?"

Charles frowned, confused. "What talk?"

"You know, The Little Wizard's Talk. Sirius already gave me that talk at Christmas, and if you don't mind, I'd really rather not go through anything like that ever again."

Remus and Sirius tried to cover their laughter.

"That wasn't the talk I had in mind, Harry," Charles said. "But I am relieved to know that you've already had it."

"And if you have any questions," Remus said, "You know that you can always come to one of us, don't you?"

Harry sighed. "If I have any questions, I'll go to Hermione. She'll find me the books I need, and I can read them in the privacy of my bedroom."

After dinner, Harry followed his grandfather into the secret room behind the bookcase in the library. He greeted all the portraits while Charles went over to the bookcase and selected a few of the journals. When he had what he needed, he went over to the sofa, and he and Harry sat down.

"Harry, you are a very powerful wizard, and your power will continue to grow as you get older. In my lifetime, I have only known three wizards with your capabilities: Albus, Voldemort, and you. But the problem is, you are still learning to use yours. You won't be a fully trained wizard for two more years, while Voldemort has not only been trained, but has had years of practice. He also knows dark spells that you would never use. So, when you vanquish him, it will not be in a normal dueling situation where the two of you stand face to face and throw curses at each other."

Harry frowned. "Then, how . . . "

"I'm going to show you, but what I'm about to reveal to you can never be known to anyone outside this room. This is powerful magic, Harry. Not even the light side can be trusted with it. If what is in these books were to ever fall into the hands of a dark wizard, Voldemort would seem like nothing in comparison."

Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise, and for the first time since learning of the prophecy, he began to have real hope of surviving.

"The first thing I want to teach you is a shield charm that is totally impenetrable, even by the unforgiveables. It's not like most shield charms. This one is to be worn like body armor. It covers you from head to toe, but it's invisible, so it won't impede your vision. We place the spell on you, and it lasts until we take it off. Nothing can get through this spell or remove it from your body. Only the person who placed the spell on you can remove it. And since that will be you, you don't have anything to worry about."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and waited for his grandfather to continue.

"The second thing I'm going to teach you is how to place yourself and Voldemort inside another shield. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it will prevent Voldemort from escaping. Secondly, it will prevent anyone from hearing the incantation you use. And finally, it will contain the affects of the spell you use to vanquish Voldemort."

"And the final spell is a curse that will remove his soul permanently, leaving him dead. It's not the killing curse, but it works on the same principle. However, the soul will not be able to linger in our world at all. It will be immediately banished to the afterlife. He will not even be able to come back as a ghost."

"So his soul won't be dead?"

"No, it won't be destroyed, but it will go where it's supposed to, Harry."

"And he can't come back? Ever?"

"Not ever, Harry. The dead can't return to the land of the living."

"But Sirius . . ."

"Sirius never died in the timeline in which you rescued him. You did not bring him back from the dead. You went back to a time before he died and prevented his death."

Harry nodded.

"Right, then. You're going to learn one spell at a time, and we'll begin with the first one—the body shield charm. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Sir," Harry said, and Charles began to teach.

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"We have three choices," Charles said to the other men who had assembled in the library. Sirius, Remus, Harry, and Albus had gathered to hunt for the second to last horcrux. "We have Hogwarts, Borgin and Burkes, and Godric's Hollow. Which of these three do you think would most likely be hiding a horcrux?"

"Hogwarts," Harry said immediately. "If the pattern holds true, it will be Hogwarts. That's where he lived and learned to use magic."

"I agree," Remus said. "I think it will be Hogwarts."

The others agreed that Hogwarts was probably the most likely place.

"It'll be difficult because of its size, but I have to agree," Charles said. "So, we'd better get started. We may be looking for quite some time."

They began their search in the Slytherin dormitories. When that did not reveal anything, they moved to the Chamber of Secrets. Hidden behind the large sculpture of the head of Slytherin, they found the remains of an old library, but there was no horcrux. They decided to go from floor to floor, beginning with the dungeons, then up to the next floor and so forth.

It was a quarter to three in the morning when they entered the trophy room. "It's here," Charles said, studying the monitor. "Somewhere in that trophy case."

Everyone looked, but there was nothing that even resembled Hufflepuff's cup.

"Could he have transfigured it?" Remus asked.

Charles shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe."

They watched on the monitor as the glass door of the case opened slowly. Charles scanned the objects on the shelf. "There," he said, zooming in on a view of a plaque. "This is the horcrux."

It was an award for services to the school presented to Tom Riddle. Sirius snorted, "We should have known."

"How many people are at the school, Albus?" Charles asked.

"Minerva, Professor Trelawney, Mr. Filch, Mrs. Norris, and 78 house elves," he said.

"Where can we take this that is far away from all the inhabitants?"

"My office would be the best. No one should be in there."

Charles levitated the plaque from the trophy room to Albus's office, and then placed it on the floor. He flipped the switch behind the panel and exorcised the soul piece. When the work was done, he levitated the plaque back to the trophy room and replaced in the case.

"Well, gentlemen, only one more horcrux to go, and we don't have to look for that one. We know exactly where it is."

"I wonder what he did with Hufflepuff's cup," Harry said.

"My guess is that he hoped to start a collection of objects that had belonged to the founders. It's probably locked away in a vault somewhere."

"Or Lucius Malfoy may have it," Albus said. "After all, when Voldemort was vanquished the first time, Lucius somehow ended up with the diary."

"We may never know, but at least we know it's not a horcrux." Charles said.

"Are we sure he only made 6?" Remus asked.

Albus and Charles exchanged looks. "That is the information that we both received," Albus said.

"I hope it was right," Sirius said.

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Voldemort was not a stupid man. He knew that he was being spied on. He knew that somehow Albus Dumbledore was responsible for the disappearance of most of his Death Eaters and for obstructing his attempts to destroy the mud-blood and Dumbledore's Army. He had searched the manor himself for the source of Dumbledore's information. There was nothing. He had scanned the entire building for magical listening devices. Again, nothing. He had checked the old wards and added new ones. He had tightened security. He had strengthened the anti-portkey and disapparition charms. The privacy charms in his throne room were the strongest they had ever been. He revealed his plans only to Bella in that room, and he had questioned Bella under veritaserum and torture. He had added movement detectors in the throne room. Nothing. How was he doing it? What kind of magic had he found that would over-ride his best attempts at secrecy?

"Bella!" he shouted.

She ran into the room immediately, kneeling and kissing the hem of his robe. "Yes, my Lord."

"We're going to destroy the manor."

She looked up at him in surprise. "Where will we go, my Lord?"

"You will know when we get there," he said, stroking Nagini gently between her eyes. "Come with me."

He led Bella outside the manor, followed by Nagini, and with a wave of his wand, the house exploded. When the dust had cleared, nothing had been left standing. Nodding in satisfaction, he led Bella away from the anti-disapparition wards. Taking her arm with one hand, while Nagini wrapped her body around the other arm, he disapparated, taking nothing with him from the house except for Bella, Nagini, and his wand—and, unknowingly, the Potter trunk, which was hidden inside his pocket.