Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they all belong to JK Rowlings. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.

– CHAPTER TWENTY TWO –

Down Memory Lane

'Today we're going to be learning the Protean Charm,' Professor Flitwick squeaked from the top of his pile of books, 'does anyone know what it does?'

Harry automatically leaned away from Hermione as her hand shot into the air and waited for her to answer.

'Yes, Ms. Granger?'

'The Protean Charm connects several objects together so that if the shape of one were to be changed, all the others would be similarly changed, however far apart they were.'

'Very good Ms. Granger and does anyone know the incantation?' Hermione's hand shot back up into the air.

'Onis Muto and the wand movement is this -' she pulled out her wand and demonstrated for the class.

'Well done Ms. Granger. Now, I'd like you all to try to cast this charm on the two pins in front of you, and then try bending one -' Harry's attention drifted away from the diminutive professor as he thought about the possible locations for Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Nothing he'd learnt last year with Dumbledore seemed to give him clues, the only possibility being his old orphanage. Harry doubted though that Voldemort would hide part of his soul in a Muggle orphanage, especially as any curses on it could be triggered by a child there, alerting the Ministry of Magic of its existence.

Hermione and he had been looking through the school records and old Daily Prophet articles for almost a week, searching for important events of the First War. Perhaps Voldemort had hidden them where he'd defeated a particularly important wizard or witch -

'No,' he thought, 'Voldemort used the cave and the Gaunt home. He'll have used isolated places which would relate to his ancestry or his own history.' Somewhere from the First War would be too obvious and too well documented for Voldemort. Few people would have known enough about his childhood to know about the Gaunt home, or the cave. 'Which brings me back to who RAB could be.' He thought glumly.

Hermione, Ron and he had spent hours at the end of last year, and a large part of the summer, trying to find out which wizards and witches in the last fifty years had had those initials, and there were very few names that matched them. The main problem though, was that none of the people they'd found fitted the description, 'although Sirius' brother was a strong possibility, apart from for the fact that he didn't seem like a powerful enough wizard.' Hermione had eliminated him as a potential candidate almost as soon as they'd found him, insisting that if Dumbledore had been weakened by the potion, and had lost his arm to the other Horcrux, only a very powerful wizard or witch could have already removed it. Regulus Arcturus Black apparently didn't fit into that category.

He was disturbed from his musings by Hermione's insistent hissing, reminding him that they had to work on the charm together. Harry pulled out his wand, and watched Hermione as she performed the charm, paying close attention to her wand's motion. As Hermione cast the charm on each pin, they glowed a soft blue for a moment before returning to normal. Hermione took one pin in her hand, and bent it confidently. Harry watched, unfazed, as the other pin lying on the bench bent too.

Flitwick chose that moment to pass by them, and as he saw Hermione's pins bend together, squeaked in pleasure.

'Oh, well done Ms. Granger!' He cried as Hermione smiled happily. 'Now let me see you try Mr. Potter.'

Hermione bent the pin in her hand back into shape, lifted the charm, and placed the two pins in front of Harry. He gulped, raised his wand nervously, and concentrated as hard as he could on the incantation. Waving his wand in a pattern vaguely resembling Hermione's attempt, he pointed at the first pin. It glowed a dark shade of blue, but Flitwick didn't say anything; heartened, Harry repeated the charm on the second pin. Instead of glowing blue, the second pin flew to the first pin, and they fused together. Hermione groaned quietly, and Flitwick frowned, separating the pins with a flick of his wand.

'Mr. Potter,' he said, 'I expect you to practice this charm for homework.'

As Harry and Hermione made their way back up to their rooms to drop off their bags, Hermione tried to demonstrate the proper wand movement for him, but try as he might, Harry couldn't replicate it. All he could think about was RAB's identity, and how he was ever going to find the missing Horcruxes' locations.

'Look Hermione, I can't do it, ok?' Harry groaned as they stepped into the common room. Hermione looked affronted, and was about to interrupt, but he pressed on. 'I don't know what it is, but I just can't do it, I'm trying, you just watched me try. I don't know what's wrong, but I can't get the wand movement.'

'Harry, if you just concentrate, it'll come with practice. All you need is to work at it, and try and focus.'

'I can't focus Hermione!' Harry cried out in frustration. 'It's too much, to deal with Voldemort, and work and everything else. I just can't do it. I can't just block one thing out so that I can think about the other.' He didn't care that a crowd of curious students was forming around them. 'Do you know what I'm thinking about?' Hermione shook her head unsteadily, her eyes were glistening with unshed tears, but Harry didn't care anymore. 'Right now, I'm wondering if we're ever going to find out who RAB was, or if we're going to find that brooch, or if I'm even going to be alive at the end of this year!' There was a sharp intake of breathe around the whole room, but Harry didn't notice. 'And you want me to worry about managing to perform a charm?' He added in a whisper. 'Sometimes I wonder if you've got your priorities right, because to me, failing an exam doesn't compare to dieing.'

Leaving a very pale and heartbroken Hermione, Harry stormed up the stairs to his room and upon reaching his trunk, threw his books into it in frustration. He was about to grab his Invisibility Cloak and take a walk, when he heard a ripping sound.

Looking down at his trunk, he saw that one of the books he'd dropped in had knocked another off a pile. This book in turn had dragged half of a roll of parchment along with it, leaving the rest of it wedged under another book. Harry frowned, he didn't recognise the parchment, and leant in to pick the two sections up. As soon as he collected the parts though, he recognised it for what it was, each piece was in fact three, sandwiched together, and one part had a seal on it; the letter he'd received at Gringotts. With everything that had happened since receiving it, he'd completely forgotten about it.

He placed the two sections together, and flicked his wand at it. They jump back together, and he eagerly ripped the back of the envelope open, his sour mood vanishing to be replaced by curiosity, but as he pulled the letter out, his face blanched in shock. He recognised the messy scrawl immediately; it had belonged to Sirius. He leapt up from the floor, and sat back on his bed, his hands shaking as he began reading.

Dear Harry,

If you're reading this, it meant that I didn't make it till your seventeenth birthday, although, if that is the case, I hope I went down fighting. I know you, more than anyone, know how frustrating it is to be cooped up and unable to help the Order. Whatever idiotic thing I did that led to my demise; I hope it was either helping you or Dumbledore out, because to be honest kiddo, you'll probably need it! Look, I'm not going to lecture you on how to behave in what in all honesty is my last letter to you, as it'll probably have no effect. I know you don't go looking for trouble, just, be careful alright? I'd hate to be around you and your parents if you showed up wherever I've gone to early. Anyway, behaviour-wise we both know just how poor a role model I'd be for you, well in Molly's view anyway!

The purpose of this letter is twofold. Firstly, if you don't already know, I'm leaving you everything I currently own in the case of my death (which has clearly happened if you're reading this), including Headquarters. I know that you probably won't want to set foot in there for a while, but when you do, I hope you continue with the redecorating which I've already started. I think the colour scheme could do with a make over, don't you? Anyway, I'm diverging. I've left you everything, although to be honest, I'm not entirely sure of what 'everything' is. You'll have to go have a look in my vault (number seven hundred and eleven) to check out what's in there, as I haven't had the, shall we say, opportunity to visit in quite a while. I'd watch out when I went in if I were you though; I don't know what my dear old mum will have left in there since my incarceration.

The second purpose of this letter is more of a favour I need to ask of you. Please could you help Remus out financially using some of what I left you? I wanted to leave him something, but I know that he would have refused it and given it to you anyway, so I saved him the trouble. Just make sure the old wolf gets a new set of clothes every so often alright? I know you'll do it, though I don't want you spending everything I leave on him, you understand Harry? I knew you're father, and if you're anything like James, you'll give everything to Remus. I don't want you to, I know you'll be inheriting you're family vaults when you collect this letter, but this is my gift to you, for not having been there for you when you grew up. I cannot begin to express just how sorry I am that I landed myself in Azkaban before you even got a chance to know me. I wanted to look after you so much, and every second I spent stuck in a cell, thinking about how you'd be growing up among Muggles, killed me.

I want you to have the money Harry, as my gift, although I do have an ulterior motive. Imagine my dear mum's reaction when she finds out who I've left her family's fortune to, I just wish I could be there to see it! Anyway, this is goodbye, and I hope that we do not meet again for a good long time. The best of luck in everything that you endeavour,

Your faithful mutt,

Snuffles

Harry sat there, a single tear making its way down his cheek. When he reached the end, he hiccoughed in dejected amusement. 'Trust Sirius to make a joke of his own death.' He thought miserably. Placing the letter down delicately, he lay down and took a few deep breathes. He knew he was over Sirius' death, but it still ached, and try as he might, he couldn't escape the feeling that he had led Sirius to the death he had been trying to prevent. It was a cruel irony, he thought, but there was nothing he could do about it anymore, and so it could do no good to dwell on it. 'Well not until I've defeated Voldemort anyway.' He folded the letter back up and after placing it back in his trunk, he left to find and apologise to Hermione.

The next few days saw a reform in Harry's attitude. He still worked hard at his classes, both at NEWT level and with Moody, and taught his DA lessons with the same enthusiasm as before, but it was as if a candle had been lit in his head. It was Ginny who noticed it first; when on one of their regular walks around the lake, Harry began talking about the possibility of having a foreseeable future. Harry had never liked to talk about what he'd do as an adult, and it hadn't been difficult for Ginny and Hermione to deduce that Harry had a deep seated fear that he wouldn't survive his next encounter with Voldemort, even before his outburst in the common room. This fear, had hampered his ability to learn, as however much he wanted to learn on a conscious level, sub-consciously he didn't see the point as he thought he was going to die anyway.

But all of a sudden, Harry's mental block seemed to vanish, and Harry began picking up spells as fast as Hermione, if not faster. They still worked together, although their conversations were a bit strained, and Ginny often had to try and bridge the gap between the two of them; but that didn't prevent their research, if anything it fuelled it. With Harry picking up spells faster and so not having to spend time working on them out of class, and Ginny being almost permanently in their company, they were able to search through an even greater number of texts and old Prophet articles, but still they found nothing.

It was late October and fast approaching the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, and even Hermione's blind faith in the Library's resources was beginning to falter. They had spent every free moment they'd had had for almost a fortnight sifting through old records looking for even the slightest mention of Voldemort or Tom Riddle, but nothing seemed to fit. Ginny and Harry had all but given up, and it was Hermione was could often be found dragging them back to the Library after a hurried dinner, much to their annoyance.

They were no longer getting any time alone, and it was beginning to show in their strained relationship. Harry had promised Ginny that they wouldn't spend a single moment of the weekend in the Library, and that he'd even try to drag Hermione out, but Hermione had only huffed and stonily replied that someone should be taking their research seriously. Ginny had giggled and told Harry to leave her be, so on Saturday morning, Harry could be found in his room dressing very carefully.

As he was pulling his cleanest shirt out his trunk, he noticed a patch of silvery light, glimmering on his Broomstick Servicing Kit case, pulling a dirty set of robes out of the way, Harry leaned over to see what was the origin of the peculiar light. Lifting a rather heavy textbook, his breathe hitched. Lying in the bottom of his trunk was Dumbledore's Pensieve.

Harry was torn between looking at the memories in it now, and waiting until after his trip to Hogsmeade, knowing that Ginny would be upset and more than a little angry with him if he didn't go. On the other hand, the shallow stone basin lying before him could hold the answers to a lot of his problems, and he was loath to leave it. Checking the time, he decided that he had enough time to look at least at one memory, which might give him an idea of what other memories could be in the Pensieve.

Not wanting to get stuff in Dumbledore's memories, Harry prodded the thoughts swirling around the basin hesitantly with his wand. Instantly, a figure rose out of it, a very familiar figure, which began to revolve slowly, with his feet still in the basin. His voice echoed through the room, but there was still a hint of life in it, and Harry fought to regain control of his emotions as the memory of Dumbledore began to speak.

'Harry, if you are listening to this recording, you must have read my letter, so I will try not to repeat myself too much. I have left you my Pensieve to help you, and I hope that some of the memories you find within will help you find the remaining Horcruxes. I will not keep you from them too long, just enough to quickly explain the contents. Most of these memories are from when Tom was a student at Hogwarts, I have placed in the Pensieve every memory I can remember of him during that time, whether it be from lessons, discussions with his other teachers, or conversations with him. I have also added memories relating to his absence from Britain and rise to power, most of these are speculative conversations with members of the original Order, so do not trust everything you hear to be fact. It was nearly impossible to know exactly what Tom had been up to in that period, so very few of these memories contain solid evidence. However, I have also added my memories of any confrontations I had with him, so that you can study his duelling style and learn from it. Show these to Alastor Moody if you like, he may be able to help you adjust to them. Finally, as you've probably been sitting impatiently for, I have added my memory of the day I took the Slytherin ring. I only wish I will live long enough to recount it myself, for was a truly remarkable event, and I do not believe a simple memory could ever do it justice. That is all I have to say for now, so good luck searching for Horcruxes, I am sure you will perform admirably, and I have every confidence that you will defeat Tom, good luck Harry.'

Dumbledore's silent figure continued to revolve, until Harry prodded the basin again, and he sank away, becoming silvery and opaque again. Gently placing the Pensieve back in his trunk, Harry then hastened to throw his clothes back over it to hide it. He closed the trunk lid, and added a few locking spells, before making his way down to the common room, where he waited for Ginny to finish getting dressed.

A/N - I'm sorry this chapter took so long to write, I've been very busy recently, but hopefully, I'll be able to start writing again. I felt a bit rusty while writing this one, so if there's anything that doesn't sound right, or just feels wrong, please tell me, because I know this one wasn't really up to par with the rest of the story.