Chapter 3
Tonks was furious. How could he dare to dump her like that? It didn't matter to her that he had noble reasons. He had broken up with her before their relationship had a chance to develop. And he didn't even have the guts to face her when he informed her about his decision.
She
was about to jump out of bed, determined to set Remus' mind
straight, when an insistent knock at the window made her realize what
had woken her up. It was an owl and she was picking against her
window, getting more and more impatient. "It's alright, I'm
coming,"
Tonks groaned angrily.
The young witch opened her window and took the sheet of paper from the owl's leg. It had the Hogwarts seal on it. Tonks' mood changed from annoyed to interested. Why should someone in Hogwarts send her a letter? The letter was short, obviously written in a hurry.
A reliable source told me where we could find one of the two remaining Horcruxes. I expect each member of the order at my office in Hogwarts. Today, 12 am.
M. McGonagall
Two? Tonks wondered. To her knowledge there were three Horcruxes left. Tonks looked at the clock next to her bed. It was past 11, talking to Remus had to wait.
Now excited, Tonks hurried to get dressed and leave for her meeting. After two years of work they were finally getting somewhere.
When Tonks arrived most of her colleagues were already there. For the first time, Ron and Hermione, who were of age now, attended a conference of the order. There had been a debate whether or not to loosen the rule that only full-educated wizards were allowed to join the order. But they had taken into consideration, that the DA members had already fought Death Eaters face to face. So they had allowed the two of them to join the order. But McGonagall had refused to loosen the rule that all members had to be of age, so Harry had to wait another month until he was allowed to join.
Tonks nodded at everybody and took a seat next to Kingsley.
"Hi," she greeted him, "Do you know more about what's going on?" she asked her partner curiously.
"I don't know more than you," he told her. The murmuring around them clearly showed that Tonks and Kingsley weren't the only people who were thrilled to learn more about the new developments. Everybody became quiet the minute the door opened and Minerva McGonagall entered the room.
"I know all of you are eager to hear what I have to tell you, so I will come straight to the point. One of the remaining Horcruxes has been identified and destroyed due to the information I got from my source. It has always been in Hogwarts." Everybody looked at McGonagall with wide eyes.
"Obviously, we underestimated You-Know-Who's boldness. He turned Godric Gryffindor's sword into a Horcrux."
The audience gasped at the news. One of the Horcruxes had been in their hands all the time and no one had known. "I destroyed the sword yesterday," McGonagall added.
One question was bothering everybody now.
"Who told you about the sword?" Tonks asked McGonagall.
The headmistress took a long breath followed by a moment of tense silence before she answered.
"Severus Snape."
"What?!" Kingsley exclaimed. "He is the reliable source?"
McGonagall raised her hands to signal the order members to listen.
"I know what you think; I know that he is the last person any of you is willing to trust. I thought the same way only a week ago. I started to go through Professor Dumbledore's belongings. Doing that, I found his Pensieve and used it, hoping to find some information that could be useful for us now. One of the memories consists of a talk between Professor Dumbledore and Snape. Let me show you what I saw, I am sure that will change your minds."
With these words, McGonagall took the Pensieve from the cupboard and placed it on the table. She used her wand to stir the liquor. One after another, the order members stuck their noses in the Pensieve until they all had entered the World of Dumbledore's memories.
The wizards and witches found themselves inside of Dumbledore's office. The headmaster was sitting behind his desk. He was right in front of the group. It was as if he really was still among them, but all of them knew that he could neither see nor hear them. They heard a knock on the door and saw Severus Snape enter the room.
"Severus, thanks for coming. Please take a seat," Dumbledore greeted the younger teacher politely. Snape acknowledged the greeting with a nod and sat down in front of the desk, waiting to hear why he had been called to the headmaster's office. Dumbledore's expression became very serious.
"Severus, I wanted to talk to you because I need your help. The inside information about the death eater activities you could give us in the past has been very helpful. But I know that Voldemort lost his trust in you. He won't share information of importance with you anymore."
"That's true. I'm afraid the Dark Lord is questioning my loyalties," Snape answered.
"Yes, he is. But I am not, Severus. I trust you, I know where you stand in this war. And that's why I called you. If we want to have a chance against Lord Voldemort, we are in need of inside information. The kind of information you gave us in the past. I need you to gain Voldemort's trust back, so that he will never question you again. And there is a way you can do this. Kill me, Severus."
Snape looked as shocked as the visitors from the present.
"You can't be serious!" Snape exclaimed.
"Believe me, I am absolutely serious. I want you to smuggle a small group of death eaters into the school at night. I want you to convince them to come straight to my office, so that nobody else will be harmed. They have to see you killing me, Severus."
"Sir, are you sure this is the only way? You are of great importance in this battle."
"I considered this very carefully," Dumbledore replied. "And yes, I came to the conclusion that there is no other way. There are only two ways you could gain Lord Voldemort's trust forever: Either by killing me or by bringing him Harry Potter. And we have to protect Harry with all means."
When they were back in the present nobody was able to speak, all of them too shocked to form a coherent sentence. So it was McGonagall who spoke first.
"I think you will agree with me now, that we can trust Snape. Now I will come back to the reason I called you today. Snape told me where another Horcrux is hidden. It's Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. It is kept in an old motel near London, that isn't used anymore. But according to Snape, they want to move it to a safer place and save it with a Fidelius spell now that there are only two Horcruxes left. So we haven't got much time. We have to get it tonight. According to Snape, there are at least a dozen Death Eaters at the motel. We have to prepare for a tough fight."
