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Quest for the Missing HorcruxesChapter 4: Cracking the Cup
Harry awoke in a very familiar place: the hospital wing of Hogwarts. As he fumbled for his glasses, he barely had time to wonder why he wasn't in St. Mungo's before Ron snapped out of his slumber next to the bed.
"Finally, you're awake." He grinned. "Been out for nearly a day, mate."
"Whuhappened?" Harry asked groggily.
"Looks like facing your greatest fear took quite a bit out of you," Ron said. "We brought you back here. Thought showing up in St. Mungo's might cause a little bit of a privacy problem."
"Fair enough" Harry said. "Where's Hermione?"
"She's been working on that cup almost non-stop in McGonagall's office since we got back" Ron said. "I've barely been able to feed her. Had to summon a house-elf in front of her just to snap her out of it an hour ago. Then, of course, I spent fifty minutes being yelled at." Harry grinned.
"Am I allowed to get up?"
"Madam Pomfrey said you could go as soon as you were awake. Personally, I think she'll be glad to be shut of you. This is supposed to be a vacation for her too, you know." The two laughed as Harry got up.
"So it's not going well?" he asked as they made their way to Professor McGonagall's office.
"Horribly" Ron replied. "I've never seen her have this much trouble with anything, except flying. She spent hours in the library (alone, of course) and dragged I don't even know how many books back to the office. She's tried Charms, Transfiguring, different potions, Vanishing, Conjuring…it's starting to look hopeless, mate."
"Hopeless?" Harry said. "It's only been a day. It's going to be a while, I imagine. The wizard who created Felix Felicis probably wasn't happy to know that it took six months to make."
"True" Ron said, "but we haven't got six months here." Harry nodded as they entered the office. Hermione sat behind the desk, her hair even wilder than usual, and large circles under her eyes. A cauldron sat on one side of the desk, steaming slightly, and Hufflepuff's cup sat in the middle, shining golden and looking like nothing had happened to it. Hermione raised her head and smiled weakly as Harry and Ron walked in.
"You're back…" she said quietly.
"Are you all right, Hermione?" Harry asked anxiously. She waved her hand vaguely.
"Oh, you know…a day without sleep, trying to break some of the most powerful spells in the world…nothing major" she said airily.
"And nothing's worked?" Harry asked.
"Nothing!" Hermione shrieked. "I've tried everything I could think of, and everything that looked like it might work when I read it!" She seemed to be on the verge of tears. Harry thought hard.
"What do we know about Helga Hufflepuff?"
"Why?"
"Even Voldemort has weaknesses" Harry said. "There must be something we can use here. I know Hufflepuff was one of the most powerful witches of her age, but that doesn't mean she wasn't even afraid of anything!"
"Hang on…" Hermione said, thinking hard. "That seems familiar…what was it she was afraid of? I wonder…" She grabbed a book and started reading fast. Ron rolled his eyes at Harry, who grinned.
"Snakes!" Hermione exclaimed triumphantly a few minutes later, slamming the book down. "Helga Hufflepuff was deathly afraid of snakes!"
"So?" Ron said. "How does that help us?"
"Well, this is her cup, and I think badgers are afraid of snakes too…Maybe that's the key to it!" With a wave of her wand, Hermione conjured a snake on the desk that hissed at the badger engraved on Hufflepuff's cup. To everyone's surprise, the badger squealed and ran around to the other side of the cup. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched, dumbfounded, as the snake began chasing the badger around the cup.
"I don't think anyone expected that" Ron said, as the chase continued.
"Can we use this to our advantage?" Harry asked.
"It depends," said Hermione, as the badger squealed in terror, "on whether or not this spell is useful. I can't see it just being something Hufflepuff put on here for fun…especially since it isn't, and she's afraid of snakes. It seems," she continued, as the badger attempted to hide inside the cup, "that the badger is confined to the outside of the cup. Maybe it's magically charmed to protect the cup from harm somehow."
"And its only vulnerability," Harry added, "would be snakes, right?"
"Seems rather easy" Ron said. "I mean, how many people knew Hufflepuff was afraid of snakes?""
"Only the people who've checked this book out from the Restricted Section" Hermione said. "For example," and she flipped to the back of the book and showed them the small list of names, including one Tom Riddle.
"Somehow, I'm not surprised" Harry said. "So, how do we use the snake to destroy the cup?" Ron and Hermione looked at him in shock.
"Destroy it?" Ron said. "Harry, this is a priceless magical artifact!"
"Yes," Harry said, "and the most evil wizard of all time put part of his soul in it so he could never be killed. I don't think we can just remove that piece of his soul, Ron. We have to destroy the cup."
"I don't know, Harry" Hermione said. "I mean, it belonged to a founder of Hogwarts. We should be doing all we can to save the cup."
"Hermione, nothing else is working. We don't have a choice here. So how do we use the snake?" Hermioned sighed in exasperation and thought hard.
"Okay…Hufflepuff was afraid of snakes…and this is her cup. Maybe it absorbed her magical essence, somehow, and that's why the badger is afraid too. Perhaps they're magically linked together…."
A loud squeal caught their attention. They turned back to the cup to see that the badger had been cornered by the snake, who took advantage of the opportunity to strike. Harry, who had expected to see a useless clashing of fang on metal, was shocked to see the snake's fangs penetrating the badger's body. He was further shocked by what happened next. From the point of contact, small black lines started to form. They spread out through the cup, crossing, connecting, somehow flowing through the golden surface.
"Is that…the snake's poison, or something?" Ron asked.
"I don't know" Hermione said. "But I think it's working…look!" The black lines had spread over the entire cup. They seemed to pulse for a second before a loud cracking noise filled the room. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched in surprise as Helga Hufflepuff's ancient golden cup fell to pieces on the desk, apparently destroyed by the venom of the snake.
Out of the wreckage of Hufflepuff's cup, something floated. It seemed to be a small dark black ball, twisting and writhing in midair like it was full of snakes.
"Voldemort's soul" Hermione whispered. "Or at least, a part of it. Look how dark and evil it looks…"
But before long, it vanished. The three teens looked at each other.
"Well, now we know what a soul looks like" Ron said. "Or part of an evil one, anyway. And we know we're on the right track…I doubt Hufflepuff herself would have put anything that looked like that in her cup."
"You're right" Harry added. "And according to what Dumbledore told me, that leaves…I destroyed the diary, he destroyed the ring, we just destroyed the cup…that leaves the last part of the soul in Voldemort's body, his pet snake, something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's, and Slytherin's locket, which may be destroyed or not."
"You'll know, won't you?" Ron asked. "What with your handy Horcrux-hunting spell?"
"Well," Harry said, "I'll have to find out. Horcruxia!" And just like before, the world went dark. As Harry attempted to adjust his eyes, something came into focus. It looked like…but no, it couldn't be…
Ron and Hermione's faces came back into view.
"Well, Harry?" Hermione asked, anxious. "What did you see?"
Harry was a bit surprised at what he had seen and didn't immediately hear her.
"Harry?"
"Hogwarts" Harry whispered.
"What, Harry?" Ron asked.
"I saw…Hogwarts." Harry said. Ron and Hermione looked at each other.
"It's…here, somewhere?" Hermione said, worried.
"It looks like it" Harry answered. There was silence for a minute.
"So all we have to do," Ron said, trying to inject a note of humor into the proceedings, "is search every centimeter of this school for the next Horcrux, despite not knowing what we're looking for, where it might be, or what spells might be protecting it."
Not surprisingly, Harry and Hermione didn't laugh.
A/N: On to chapter 5. Don't worry, the next Horcrux will be surprisingly easy for them to find. Read and Review!