Chapter Twenty
Heather was released later that day, and immediately set about plotting to destroy the Horcruxes, before Voldemort would be revived. She knew her time was limited on that subject, since he would be back in Harry's fourth year.
"Let's see, Slytherin's locket, lying in a cupboard at Grimmauld Place, Hufflepuff's cup, Lestrange Vault at Gringotts. Resurrection Stone, the Gaunt shack in Little Hangleton. Ravenclaw's diadem, Room of Requirement, the diary, Lucius Malfoy, that's going to be a hard one to pull." Finally, she gulped as she thought, came Harry himself. She knew Dumbledore knew about it, but wasn't sure he knew how many Horcruxes there were at this time. Voldemort had only made Nagini into one upon his return to his late father's house, and discovery by the muggle caretaker. She knew that Hufflepuff's cup might have to wait until Bellatrix broke out of prison, which means in that case Voldemort would indeed have to rise again. She shuddered at the thought of that man. Unless, and she would have to talk to Sirius about this, the goblins would let Sirius take stuff out as he was a relative of Bellatrix.
"Whatcha doin'?" her husband's voice suddenly spoke, she jumped, and turned to him.
"Just thinking." She answered.
"Oh, what's all this?" he said pointing to the papers she had scrawled the locations of the Horcruxes on. "Slytherin's locket? What does this have to do with the Black family home?"
"Oh, your brother took it there." She said, "Or rather had Kreacher take it there, before his death."
"Right . . ." Sirius was still skeptical about his family, even though he was the Head of the House of Black. "And why does this matter?"
"Because," she stopped writing for a moment and turned to her husband, "Voldemort made seven Horcruxes in his lifetime in the old timeline. Five before he attacked me, one afterward."
"But that's six . . ." the realization dawned on him, "It was made during the attack, wasn't it."
"Yes." Heather said. "On accident, he was intending to make his sixth Horcrux with my death, but when he failed to kill me, a piece of his soul detached itself and flew to the only other living person in the room at the time."
"Harry's one of these things?"
"Yes," she told him, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to try and keep the timeline as close as possible . . ."
" . . ." Sirius was speechless.
"Not that I want you to die . . ." Heather spoke up, "But, we need to find a different way to destroy the Horcrux within Harry. The way it was destroyed in me was that I walked willingly into an encounter with him and the blood protection prevented me from being killed. Instead it took the Horcrux."
"But, doesn't he have the blood protection?"
"Yeah, but how would he willingly walk to death like I did, I had you, James, Lily and Remus to accompany me."
"That . . . I do not have an answer for." Sirius gloomily answered.
"And the fact that Voldemort would have to use the exact same ritual as he did before . . ."
"It would have to wait until and if the Triwizard Tournament happened. Unless they somehow kidnap Harry while he's at school and take him to Voldemort."
"That's the thing Sirius, Voldemort should be at Hogwarts right now, latched onto Quirrel."
"Oh . . ." Sirius started. He slumped into a nearby chair and pulled the list nearby.
"Sirius, would you be able to access the Lestrange Vault?"
"I don't know, I am only related to that family by marriage, as dear sweet Bella married into that family. Sometimes I think that had she not been sorted into Slytherin, she wouldn't have fallen into that crowd." He shook his head, "Nah, her mother and father would have made her go to that crowd." He laughed briefly before sitting up straight once more. He moved his finger down the list, before stopping at Ravenclaw's diadem.
"How did he find it?"
"What?"
"Ravenclaw's diadem, how did he find it?"
"Oh, he asked the Grey Lady about it, her real name is Helena Ravenclaw."
". . ." he sat with a puzzled look on his face before seemingly realizing what she had said, "She was related to Ravenclaw."
"Her daughter to be precise, killed by the Bloody Baron."
"Oh . . ." he again sat shocked before jumping up out of the chair, "THE BLOODY BARON KILLED THE GREY LADY!?" Sirius shouted before falling to the floor unconscious.
____
My lord,
As you probably have heard Bellatrix has gotten herself thrown into Azkaban. She and her husband attacked the Blacks yesterday afternoon for information on yourself. I alone knew you had returned to the country, of course, and had not had the chance to speak with my wife's sister since you did so.
May your attempts to rejoin us succeed,
Your servant,
Lucius Malfoy.
"So, Bellatrix let herself get caught, foolish woman, she will get the punishment she deserves." A voice spoke out of the darkness, "Quirrel, what is the progress on the Stone?"
"M . . . master, that beast of Hagrid's is quite the troublesome thing, I can't get it to move off of the trapdoor."
"Very well, we will have to find out from the oaf himself then."
"W . . . we?"
"Come here Quirrel, this host is about used up."
"W . . . what shall we do?"
"First, I need to join with you, our magic will support each other." Quirrel's eyes lit up at the prospect of being able to access the pool of magic, "The turban, will come in hand I admit, to hide myself, then we shall cast a few spells to prevent Dumbledore from finding me out."
"After that?"
"When does the oaf next visit the bar?"
"I shall find out, and we are going to get him drunk?"
"No . . . something even better, something that will make the oaf want to win, and give out information."
"What exactly, master?"
"We need a dragon egg."
___
A/N: Sorry it took so long to get the chapter up, I have been slammed with assignment after assignment. I decided that Malfoy would be in on his Master's return this time, as he would be someone that could sway the political area in his favor quite easily and prevent Voldemort from being found. Quirrel also joined with Voldemort after the Gringotts fiasco in Book 1 but here he never did the Gringotts theft and thus until it was needed, they never joined together, this time, to get information out of Hagrid, and get past Fluffy.
I hope I'll get the next chapter up sooner, as I should have a bit more time, but I am taking more classes right now so it might be awhile still.