CHAPTER Twenty-Six

They landed in a small clearing many miles away and the indicator of the horcrux increased showing the horcrux was much nearer to them than before. Fleur turned a couple of times and then pointed in a direction and they began to walk. It was fifteen more minutes before Harry stopped their progress. "This bushy hedgerow is heavily warded and it doesn't feel right. It looks like there is some kind of building located behind it."

Fleur looked through the shrubs and noticed a structure of some kind "There is a shack over there, see it?" Harry nodded.

Harry studied the wards for a few minutes "There are spell chains associated with these wards and triggers to activate other nasty things. Funny thing about triggers, get rid of them that stops the magic from acting. Harry swished his wand and heard the tinkling of glass as the triggers went away.

Harry stated "Follow me directly in my footsteps and do not deviate." They had crossed two more triggers but they were made to look like ward lines so that stepping across them would trigger the ward and what he assumed were very nasty defensive wards. Harry was fooled for some minutes but finally found a way to eliminate them. The second he crossed over the ward lines, Harry took a stick and pushed the front door open and two magically constructed snakes started automatically trying to bite anything on the front step. Harry flung them outside of the wards and they fizzled away.

He looked carefully inside the door and cast a few different revealing spells and found several triggers attached to the floor boards. Harry removed the boards with the triggers. Harry was about ready to step in when he suddenly backed out. He began to levitate everything out to include the floor boards and walls. When he finished with half the floor by the fireplace, Fleur noticed a box that had been hidden. Harry brought the box to the porch and then set it down.

He opened it slowly with a stick facing away from him and it had a nasty shot of acid or venom that was sprayed away from him "Somebody went to a lot of trouble to guard this ring." He said to Fleur. She opened the vial and let a few drops of venom hit the ring. It began to bubble as the acid in the venom began breaking down the metal of the ring.

Soon, just like the other horcruxes, a green mist developed, began screaming and then dissipated. All the darkness around the ring went away with its destruction. Harry and Fleur were about ready to leave when Harry felt a pulse of magic come from the ring. When he looked down the ring glinted. He looked at it for a moment and then suddenly levitated it into a small leather pouch.

"That is the second ring we found as a Horcrux but this has some other powerful magic that is not part of the horcrux." Harry stated.

Fleur thought for a second "You found the first at the graveyard, right?" Harry nodded.

They made their way back out of the yard when Harry felt magic building up all around him. He grabbed Fleur quickly and then apparated away. The watched from a hill 200 yards away as Death eaters suddenly started to appear. Harry watched Voldemort go to the box and then suddenly kicked it in anger.

Voldemort was looking around when Harry stood up so he could be seen. Harry placed Hermione's shield around both of them and Voldemort apparated to within twenty yards. Twenty Death eaters came with him. Harry just smiled "Hello Tommy."

Voldemort snarled as Fleur put the detector away within her robes "Potter, I might have known." Voldemort then smiled "What an opportune time for me to find you all the way out here, without any protection."

Harry just laughed "I was just about ready to say the same thing about you and your little death muncher party here. It is a perfect opportunity for me to release them to hell as they have no one here to protect them from me."

Voldemort scoffed as five Death eaters cast killing curses at him from behind. Harry didn't even flinch as the curses hit the shield and he maintained eye contact with Voldemort. Voldemort watched all five of them suddenly fight with their wands before their hair turned white and they fell down dead. Harry smirked at him "Five down and fifteen more to go." He then yawned as if bored by all of this. It pissed Voldemort because he was showing his Death Eaters how unafraid he was of them or the Dark Lord himself.

Harry suddenly came out from a small portal that opened on the back of the shield and sprayed five more with bullets. Before anyone could think to do anything he was back within his protective shield. Two death eaters cast nasty hexes that hit after the shield door closed and they fell dead soon after and added "Twelve down and eight more to go."

Voldemort looked very angry "Nobody else cast a spell!" he roared. "Impressive, a shield that drains the user of his magic. I have heard it was possible but have never seen one before. They are also illegal!"

Harry snorted "It is only illegal if you get caught. As of yet no one has been too talkative after they have been around it."

Voldemort asked "What are you doing out here?"

Harry acted surprised "Is that all you wanted to know. Well I was discovering the countryside of course. When I came upon a very heavily warded shanty it peaked my curiosity and I decided to investigate."

Voldemort looked at him to judge what he knew. He lightly probed his mind but Harry suddenly raised his hand and acted like he was knocking on a door. Voldemort felt two physical raps on his head "Hey, Tommy that is not nice. Decent people usually knock before trying to enter someone else's privacy or home."

Voldemort looked surprised before he asked "You know, don't you?'

Harry asked in reply "I know what?"

"You know my secret."Voldemort asked him as he narrowed his eyes to look at him.

While everyone was busy watching the two have their words, Fleur conjured some fairly large boulders above five of the remaining eight death eaters. The magical effort made her sweat but without warning four of them were crushed and the fifth suddenly moved but still got his leg caught and was screaming as his leg bone was crushed under the heavy boulder.

Harry smirked "Seventeen down and three to go."

Voldemort turned and stalked off "This is not over Harry Potter at another time you will not be so lucky."

Harry waved as Voldy mort and the three left "bye-bye now." He then smiled "You will see me again very soon, just before your death, most likely."

Jessup Hedgeworth had only been in the death eater ranks for a month fresh from his training. He was having second thoughts about fighting. His second thoughts suddenly found clarity as he realized that going against Potter was not a good choice. He had just stood as the Dark Lord confronted him and with very little effort Harry Potter and his girl had killed seventeen in their ranks. He apparated away and did not go with the Dark Lord. He went straight to his apartment and packed his bags before apparating across the channel to France.

Harry and Fleur left quickly before heading in the direction of London. They followed the detector all the way to Gringotts bank. When they entered the goblins looked at them strangely as four guards surrounded them.

Harry looked at the guards "I am not here to try and steal anything."

Another Goblin came from behind the row of counters "You have some sort of device. What is it and what does it do?"

Harry looked around the lobby "I cannot tell you out in the open. May we speak in private?"

The Goblin nodded and then led them to a small conference room. Four more guards had joined the procession. When they entered Harry turned to the Goblin "This is a detector for an item of Dark Magic. I am hunting it down to destroy it. I have been led here to Gringotts"

The Goblin nodded "What kind of Dark Magic?"

Fleur responded carefully "The very darkest kind involving soul magic."

The Goblin was surprised and then was angry "If somebody has brought a foul item into this bank then I am sure the manager will be very displeased. We will bring charges against them as it is against the treaty to store dark magical artifacts here."

Harry then asked "I want to ask permission to find its' location and either I or the Goblins get rid of it. I will pay for its disposal."

Goblin nodded "I will of course have to speak to the manager and I will be back momentarily."

Harry and Fleur sat in the chair to wait and five minutes later the Goblin Teller came back with a older and taller Goblin. "This is Ragnarok our bank manager." Harry and Fleur stood quickly and bowed as Harry added "It is a pleasure to see you again Manager Ragnarok. I am Lord Potter and this is one of my wives Fleur Potter."

Ragnarok stopped and looked at him before stepping into the room "Lord Potter I was told you are different from the average wizard we have met. I am glad to see that at least some of your kind have manners." He turned to the teller "Gringhand please leave us and seal this room I have private matters to discuss with Lord Potter."

Harry arched his brow but said nothing and did not seat himself until Ragnarok indicated to do so. "Lord Potter this device you brought and what it detects are why I am here. I need to know more than what I was told. If someone has violated the treaty I need to know."

Harry sighed "If this gets out it will cause many problems. I need to know that what I tell you stays between us until I tell you it is ok to tell others."

Ragnarok grinned "I will tell no one of what I learn today, you have my word."

Harry looked down and then took a breath "Lord Voldemort has made Horcruxes. I have already destroyed four of them. The fifth is somewhere in this bank and I have another that is indicated as somewhere in London. I want to get rid of them so that Lord Voldemort can be defeated."

Ragnarok looked angered "Do you know who brought this in to the bank?"

Harry replied quickly "No, Sir I do not but if it is in someone's vault that should be a sign. I am willing, regardless of where it's found, to have it destroyed or I do have a means to destroy it myself. I think the best bet would be to look at known families that had been death eaters and go from there." Harry nodded to Fleur "This detector has already found two and I believe we could find the one here, if you will allow us to do so."

Ragnarok looked thoughtful "I am allowed by treaty to remove or destroy all dark objects from our bank. If a dark item is found in a vault I am allowed to seize it and the vaults contents. So I will allow you, under heavy guard, to search for its location."

Once four guards had entered and surrounded Harry and Fleur, they were escorted across the lobby, in front of many patrons who watched with great interest. Once they entered the tunnels, Ragnarok met him "Lord Potter we already know where the item you seek is at. We found it when we transferred the contents of the Lestrange vault to yours. We were waiting for the guilty party to come here and try to claim it."

Harry stopped "You moved it to my vaults?"

Ragnarok smirked and then said "Yes, of course it was the spoils for ended line of Lestranges." Harry followed him quickly as he continued "This detector of yours will it work on other dark items or only horcruxes?"

Fleur spoke up "Actually it was modified to only work on Voldemort's horcruxes. It may be possible to modify it to work on other things but it helps to have a sample of a similar item."

Ragnarok "It sounds as if you have specific skills to do this?"

Fleur grinned "Actually the expertise lies with Harry's other wives and as a team we figured this out."

Ragnarok replied "That is a very valuable skill to have for breaking wards. Perhaps Lord Potter we could come to an arrangement to hire your wives services and it is my understanding you also know how to destroy this object?"

Harry smiled "Yes, we could help each other as always and we don't need the money. You have done so much for us already that I will help you anyway I can free of charge."

Harry then said "I will need to get Gabby here so we can destroy this one, so could you have somebody bring her to us that would be helpful." One of the guards went back up the tunnel when Ragnarok nodded to him to do so.

They went for a ride on the carts and arrived at Harry's vault five minutes later. Harry opened it and the detector went off as soon as the vault doors opened. They found it in the pile marked from the Lestrange vault and Harry opened a chest to find Hufflepuff's cup. He levitated it to the center of the room.

Twenty minutes later Gabby walked into the room and immediately turned into her basilisk form which shocked the Goblins. Harry and Fleur stood on each side of her neck and squeezed the sacks behind her head to cause the venom to spray on the cup. It took two minutes for the cup to deform and begin to melt. Next the green mist appeared above it before it began to scream and then disappeared quickly.

Ragnarok watched as Gabby turned back "That is a most interesting Animagus form to have. Did you know that you could make a small fortune from the Venom milking that you could do?"

Gabby frowned "I am not a farm animal to be harvested from!" Harry couldn't help but to laugh as Daphne often teased her about being milked which did irritate Gabby. Gabby reached over and punched Harry "It is not funny Mr. Potter."

Fleur was laughing too and quipped back "Well it is a little."

Gabby rolled her eyes and then talked to Ragnarok who sent two more guards to come back with two jars. Gabby gave them about a half galleon of her venom which made the Manager very happy. Gabby was absently looking down at many items when she came to a necklace that almost glinted at her. She held it and then asked Harry "I feel a strong pull to this necklace, may I have it Harry?"

Harry grinned "Of course you can." As an afterthought "I guess I should really bring all of you down here so that you each pick out some things you want from our vault."

The three left the bank rather quickly after that and made their way out into the muggle side of London. Fleur was steadily tracking another horcrux which led them to the seedier part of the town. When a couple of seedy looking guys began to pay too much attention to Gabby and Fleur, Harry decided that a notice-me-not charm was a very good idea. This caused the three men following them to suddenly turn in confusion.

Harry began to recognize the street they were on and then stood between number 11 and number 13 Grimmauld place. Harry could see number twelve but Fleur and Gabby couldn't as they had never been here after Sirius recast the fidelus charm from the end of summer. Harry grabbed their hands and led them up the steps to knock on the door.

Remus opened the door "Harry…what are you doing here?"

Harry frowned back at him "Looking for something I have been looking for, for a month!"

Remus eyes widened "Here, you think one of them is here?"

Fleur showed the detector "That is what this says." Remus opened the door and followed them to the various rooms until they opened the pantry door. The detector revealed a strong indication that it was somewhere in the pantry. They found a blanket and a floorboard that was able to be pulled up. It was filled with various items from family members that Kreacher had tucked there over the years. It took very little time to find Slytherin's necklace among the items.

Gabby transformed and after placing the necklace in the sink, they helped Gabby spray it with her venom. Five minutes later it was destroyed and the soul piece died within it.

Remus set it down heavily "I can't believe you found one here?" Remus sat in thought "I wonder if Regulas was holding it for Lord Voldemort?"

Kreacher popped in and was smiling "Youse have done what Master asked me to accomplish years ago. Kreacher is very happy, even if you are a wolfie, Veela, and a half blood. You have helped Kreacher and for this Kreacher is indebted to you." Kreacher bowed and then got them tea.

Remus sat with his mouth open in shock "Kreacher, did master Regulas ask you to destroy this for him?"

Kreacher looked saddened "Yes, just before he was killed by the bad death wizards. He said that Voldemort was a bad person and that I should not help him. He asked me if anything happened to get rid of the necklace as it was full of bad magic." Kreacher didn't look very happy "Kreacher tried many times but the magic of the necklace protected it and he could not do as he was told. Kreacher couldn't be a good elf."

Harry grinned "So Sirius's brother, in the end was not a bad wizard and he was against Voldemort."

Kreacher nodded "Kreacher was ready to attack but heard you wanted to destroy it and help make Kreacher a good elf for house Black." Kreacher seemed hesitant "Can Master Harry talk to master Sirius and let the Master know I will be a good elf from now on?"

Harry smiled "Yes, I will and I will tell him not to treat you so badly." Harry waved his fingers and handed Kreacher a newly conjured Slytherin Locket "Here take this and remember Regulas fondly and as good wizard." Kreacher smiled and then put it over his neck and then walked out of the kitchen.

Remus turned to Harry "You know as long as I have been around Sirius and this house I have never seen Kreacher act nicely to anyone. Sirius won't believe it when he comes here tonight. He will probable think Kreacher has poisoned his food or something." This caused Harry to laugh.