Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Seek and Find – Chapter 2 – Finding a Horcrux

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were still on their broomsticks as they left the room in the four-story mansion, where they believed Gryffindor's shield was hidden. Harry flew through the doorway he'd entered and found himself in a hallway. His companions followed, immediately.

As soon as all three were in the hallway, Harry felt disoriented. The air began turning purple as he started coughing. He heard the others doing the same. His vision was getting blurry and he felt faint. He fell off his broom onto the floor, finding it hot (like sand on the beach). Half-dazed, he clumsily jumped up before getting burned. He was climbing back onto his broomstick, gasping for more oxygen, but all he could inhale were the purple fumes that were killing him. He could barely keep his eyes opened. As he thought about this, he remembered a charm that allowed you to breathe in any atmosphere. He pointed his wand at his face and performed the bubblehead charm.

Breathing deeply, he looked around to see that Hermione had already put the charm on herself and was doing to it Ron. He smiled at her. "I'm glad you insisted we learned that charm after the tournament."

"I still can't believe I didn't find it before the second task."

"Yeah. I guess that proves you don't know everything. Or at least didn't."

Ron, who was finally breathing correctly, suggested, "I don't know about you, but I don't like it here. Maybe we can hurry up."

Hermione used her wand to scan around for spells as they flew around until they found the staircase. Harry commented, "Like I said earlier, I think it's in the basement, so we'll have to go down the stairs. I'll take the lead." Harry started flying downward until a gust of wind blew him backwards, straight into Ron and Hermione.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Hermione, who'd fallen off her broom when Harry hit her. She was on a wooden staircase and rolling. But instead of rolling down, she was rolling up. This was fortunate for her since she only had to roll up one stair, but it did present a problem. "Something is stopping us from going downstairs," she said, declaring the obvious as she remounted her broom but stayed away from the staircase.

"I'd say our best bet is sticking with the brooms. I've flown in storms with wind, rain, and lightning."

"And a hundred Dementors," added Ron.

"Let's hope there aren't any here," said Hermione.

"Yes, let's," agreed Harry. "This is just wind. I was surprised before. That's why I flew backwards. What we need to do is lean down into the broomstick and keep flying. Hermione, do you know any spells that might help us?"

"I doubt I can cancel Voldemort's wind, but I can create more wind behind us to even out the odds."

"Do it once I start flying. Hermione, you need to be in the middle so that Ron can catch you if you have any trouble. You're the least experienced flier."

"Fine," she accepted.

"Besides, that means I get to look at your…"

"RON!"

"Sorry, Hermione," he apologized, not convincing anyone of his sincerity.

Harry chuckled as he leaned into his broom and started forcing his way down the stairs. It was extremely difficult at first, so he appreciated the small boost that Hermione's spell gave him. After five minutes, he reached the next landing and felt the resistance disappear. He didn't break in time.

Harry now felt the full force of Hermione's spell, as he suddenly sped out of control toward the other side of the room. Realizing his predicament, he managed to stop his broom before he crashed and yelled out, "Be ready to stop immediately at this floor or you'll lose control of the broom," before he heard an ear-piercing scream.

"Harry!"

It didn't come from upstairs, so he looked around and saw his worst nightmare. His fiancé, Ginny Weasley, was writhing on the floor, screaming in agony as Voldemort was subjecting her to the cruciatus curse. Harry pointed his wand at the monster who was now laughing. "Sectumsempra!" he thought, sending the slicing spell at Riddle. He watched the beam of light hit Tom in the side of the head and do nothing. He noticed that the wall behind him suddenly cracked.

Riddle taunted, "If you really loved your blood-traitor fiancé, you'd have brought her with you instead of abandoning her, but I thought you'd enjoy the show, anyway."

"Your fight is with ME, not her!" he shouted.

Voldemort chuckled. "Actually, your fight is now with her!" He let loose the cruciatus curse and cast, "Imperio!" Ginny shakily got up and started walking toward Harry, pulling a knife out of her pocket. Her eyes were glazed over. Harry didn't know what to do.

"That's not Ginny!" came Hermione's voice behind him.

"Yes it is!" he yelled. "And Tom's here too! Take Ron and run! I'll get her!"

"Then why is she wearing her bridesmaid dress and an engagement ring? Wouldn't she be in a Hogwarts robe if she were kidnapped, and wouldn't we have heard if he got in there?"

Ginny was still approaching Harry with a knife. "But, but," replied Harry, eloquently.

"It's obviously a boggart. Watch!" Hermione flew in front of him and there was a loud crack! Suddenly Tom and Ginny were replaced with Ron's corpse. She gasped. "How do you laugh at that?"

At that moment, Ron reached the bottom of the steps and stopped. "What's my corpse doing over there?" he smirked.

"It's a boggart. Maybe you can find something to laugh about. Fly in front of me."

His boggart became a giant spider. Ron pointed his wand at it and shouted, "Riddikulus!" After a loud crack, each of the eight legs was wearing a roller skate, and it was trying desperately not to fall. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" Ron laughed, accompanied by the others, who were greatly relieved to find something to laugh about. The boggart backed up and retreated into a cupboard in the corner of the room.

Clearly shaken up but determined to go on, Harry suggested, "I don't think we need to explore this floor. We're heading to the basement."

Ron took the lead this time (since he was closest) and flew toward the staircase, only to bounce backwards. "There's something there," the redhead stated. "It's not like the wind. It's more like a barrier."

"Let me check," volunteered Hermione, as she pointed her wand in that direction. After a few minutes, she frowned. "It is a barrier that will only let someone pass if they have something with them, but naturally it doesn't reveal what."

"You mean like a dark mark?" suggested Harry.

"I don't think so," she replied. "Voldemort wouldn't want just any Death Eater to get past his defenses. Besides, he doesn't have a dark mark. There would be something else. I'm hoping it's on this floor."

Looking very frustrated, Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Fine. Hermione, you and I will explore. Ron, keep an eye on the boggart."

Harry looked around the room he was searching as he flew. He noticed a Death Eater mask, as well as a knife. "That would be too obvious," he mumbled. He noticed portraits hanging on the wall in the room he was in. One showed the Dark Mark over a burning house. Another showed a man about to be beheaded. Yet another showed an orphanage, and the last one showed a church building. He left the room and called, "Hermione, come here!"

"Yes," she called out from another room.

"I think I've found what we're looking for, but I want a second opinion."

"All right."

"I think it's the portrait of the orphanage. What do you think?"

She bit her bottom lip as she looked around the room at everything. "Possibly. Most people wouldn't know the significance of an orphanage to him. I really wonder why Professor Dumbledore didn't make that information public. He wouldn't have half the pureblood supporters that he does if they knew he wasn't one of them."

"Maybe you should scan it for hexes."

After a few minutes, she'd scanned all the portraits. "Just as I suspected. They all have the same traps so that you can't guess based off a scan. They all have a spell that is related to magical wards on them. My hypothesis is that if we guess wrong, we'll die."

"Then I'm going alone!"

"No! You can't be the one to try! If you die here, then no one can kill Voldemort. I'll go. Don't tell Ron the risk, because then we'll have to fight over who goes!"

"But…"

"I'm not going to make you choose between your friends. I've already chosen." She turned around and flew out of the room before he could say another word.

He followed as he heard her say, "Wait here Ron, while I test this painting."

"All right."

He got to the hallway in time to see her close her eyes and fly through the barrier, with no problems at all. He heard her sigh of relief. "This is the right item," she declared as she turned around. Everyone grab onto it."

When they were all touching it, they awkwardly flew down the staircase to the second floor. As they approached the bottom, they began to hear beautiful singing. Ron's eyes glazed over while Harry's mind began to cloud. It was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. He saw Ron let go of the painting and fly onto the second floor, following the voice, and thought that was a brilliant idea. He began to follow, vaguely registering that Hermione had called his name.

He followed the voice into a room and saw a magnificent sight. The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen was sitting on a chair wearing a short, sleeveless silver dress. Her skin was shining as bright as the moon and her white-gold hair was fanning out behind her, without wind. Ron was on his knees in front of her.

"Come with me," the redhead begged, angering Harry.

"I'm the leader here, the chosen one," he called out. "You should come with me!"

"I do all the work! He couldn't do a thing without me!"

"You liar!" Harry shouted as he pulled out his wand. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Ron reached for his wand, but was too slow, under the influence of the veela. He fell to the floor, unable to move.

The woman got up and smiled at Harry, making him go weak at the knees. "You're sooo powerful," she said seductively as she slowly walked toward him.

"Harry!" came an irritating voice behind him.

"Leave me alone, Hermione," he hissed, while taking a step forward.

"Argg. That's a veela! What about Ginny?"

"Ginny who?" he asked.

"Ginny Weasley – your fiancé, a redhead that you're in love with."

"Stop confusing my man!" shouted the veela, as an image of kissing a redhead in the middle of the Gryffindor common room flashed into Potter's mind.

"Ginny," he uttered, blinking as he came to his senses. He started backing up as he pointed his wand at his enemy. Suddenly, her appearance changed. Her face was elongated into a sharp, cruel-beaked bird head, and long, scaly wings were bursting from her shoulders. She began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at Harry and Hermione.

While Harry was diving out of the way, a red beam shot from Hermione's wand, effectively stunning their attacker. As the veela fell to the floor, Hermione was hit by her last fireball, and her jumper caught fire. She pulled it off and slammed it on the floor until the fire was out. She picked it up and declared, "It's ruined!"

"Better it than you. Here, you can borrow mine."

After Harry gave Hermione his jumper, he revived Ron. "Sorry, mate. We both fell victim to a veela."

"I wanted to kill you." He shrugged his shoulders. "Not our faults. Think we can leave this floor before she wakes up?"

They stunned her once more, before flying down yet another staircase to the ground floor. There was no staircase beneath them.

"It looks like we'll have to find the stairs to the basement," commented Hermione.

"Have you noticed that it's gotten a bit chilly in here?"

"If you want your jumper back, Harry, just say so."

"No, that's not what I meant. There's some kind of a familiar chill in the air."

"I feel it, too," agreed Ron, who was rubbing the arms of his jumper.

"I suggest we start looking for the stairs," stated Hermione.

"They might be hidden, so we'll need to scan the floor with our wands."

They separated, each going into different rooms as they scanned the floors and walls. Harry was scanning along a wall, when the beam of light from his wand went right through a section of it, as though it weren't there. Narrowing his eyes, he started tapping his wand on the wall in that area until he got to the same spot and found that his wand didn't hit anything. He was immediately reminded of the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. "Ron! Hermione! I think I found it!"

Suddenly, Harry felt paralyzed as a feeling of dread came over him. He began to hear voices.

"Severus….please…."

Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.

"Avada Kedavra!"

As Harry watched the jet of green light shoot from Snape's wand, he thought to himself, 'This already happened. Must be a Dementor! Think happy. Ginny.' He pulled the image of their first kiss to his mind as he pointed his wand in front of him. "Expecto Patronum!" he shouted as his vision began to clear. After a few seconds he saw Prongs pushing a Dementor that had apparently been right next to him down the hidden passage. His broom was floating above him. He grabbed it and remounted.

A silver-white otter joined Prongs, and he turned to see that Hermione was standing there, looking scared as she panted. She'd obviously run there.

"I'm following them. I'll bet the Horcrux is in there!" He ran through the barrier before Hermione could object. He didn't see Ron join her a moment later.

When he got to the other side, Harry saw the two Patronuses chasing the Dementor into a corner. The light from them illuminated the room. The floor appeared to be covered in oil. He wouldn't have wanted to walk across that. In the center, he saw a small table with Gryffindor's shield on top of it. He sent another Patronus at the Dementor to make sure that if the other two disappeared, it wouldn't escape.

"Harry," came Ron's voice behind him.

He glanced back to see both of his friends were behind him. "Hermione, scan this for every curse you can think of."

"Naturally," she replied, as she caught up to him.

Harry kept an eye on the Dementor while Hermione went through a five minute process of identifying and eliminating seven different curses on the shield.

"I think it's safe now," she stated.

"The diary was safe to touch," commented Harry, "but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks here. Could you levitate it into the bag without touching it?"

"Sure." She pointed her wand again and the shield started to float. As she held a back-pack open, the relic floated toward it. Harry could sense something wrong as a few chips started falling from the ceiling. He held his breath while Hermione zipped the bag closed.

"Let's get out of here!" Ron shouted, as the house began to shake. The oil-covered floor caught fire and Harry was glad they were on broomsticks. They started flying as fast as they could up the barrier that led to the ground floor.

"We don't have time to go to the third floor," shouted Hermione as a huge crack was forming in the ceiling above them.

"Can we blast through the door?" asked Ron.

"Perhaps the wall near the door would be best!"

Harry once more transfigured a part of the wall into a doorway. "The place is already falling apart," he explained, while flying toward the new hole. "Come on!"

He waited for Hermione and then Ron to fly out of there before he left. The ceiling collapsed moments after. While they continued flying, the whole house collapsed upon itself. They flew to the back yard and over the fence and landed in a deserted alley, apparating away seconds later.

They walked a block toward their hotel. "Well," commented Harry, "I guess we got what we came for. I think we should get a few hours' sleep and then leave town."

"Good idea," agreed Hermione.

Ron yawned and asked, "Now that we've got the Horcrux, do we know how to destroy it?"

Chapter end