Chapter Twelve: The Curse-breaker Team:

Two weeks had passed and in that time a team had been gathered. Now that one Horcrux had been found, it would be much easier to find more. Dumbledore was feeling very foolish, of course a curse-breaker would know about these. But then curse-breakers had fled Europe during the war with Grindlewald and even before they were viewed in Great Britain with suspicion at best and hostility as the norm. To learn they could remove curses with ease and ones like this made him grateful there was one less thing he had to worry about.

The team had a young cure-breaker, a one Bill Weasley. He was causing a stir here; he was wearing a typical outfit for a curse-breaker. Canvas trousers, heavy brown dragonskin boots, a short leather jacket with lots of buckles over a what was called a band tee shirt and his pride and joy what he called a duster made from dragonskin. His hair was long and wavy and many different shades of red he kept tied back from his face. He had a patch of hair on his chin and was now smirking at two identical white rabbits.

"Now my dear brothers you really should not try to bother me." Bill said and on seeing an upset McGonagall walk up, "hello professor McGonagall! How are you this fine day?"

"Mr. Weasley explain yourself at once?"

"I rather think they look better this way." Snape said.

"Well, they tried to prank me, and I might have reacted a bit." Bill replied.

"You are not to do magic in the halls!" McGonagall snapped, "the rule is for adults too, unless there is a need!"

"Ah, I will apologize to Mr. Flitch then." Bill said.
"I would give points for such a flawless transfiguration." Dumbledore said turning the twins back "but alas you are no longer a student here off you two go now. "

Bill turned to face Snape. Both were the same height, and both were adults. Which meant that Bill stared down Snape as much as he stared down him. Then Bill grinned and stuck out his hand which Snape took. Sure, Snape was strict in class, but he had his favorites and Bill had been one of his favorites. He liked potions and did very good at them. In fact, there were few like Bill with potions that Snape had met. It was one of the reasons he was taken so young to be a curse-breaker and why he had moved up from apprentice Cursebreaker to journeyman in only a few short years. This could get him his mastery if he helped find all the Horcruxes and help elevate curse-breakers in England once more.

"So, you really do have Nagini?" Bill asked, "mum was right when she found her to bring her to Hogwarts, you can speak Parseltongue?"

"Yes, I learned it, same as you, though native speakers have more of a sway shall we say it can be learned. Would you like to see her?" Snape asked.

"Yes, I would." Bill replied.

They entered the teacher's lounge and found Nagini already there with a cup of tea before her and some biscuits. Though she had not been raised English, she still liked this custom of tea and biscuits herself. She looked up at Bill and slithered over and gave him a very gentle snake hug. He crouched down by her and had a lively conversation by hissing to her. He stopped when McGonagall narrowed her eyes at him, she knew they were trying to get into trouble even if she could not understand a word they said. Nagini paused and thought for a moment and then spoke again.

"I have human speech again." She said, "Professor Flitwick has put one curse into a sphere."

"Good, we can find the others easier that way." Bill replied, "this needs to be done quickly, I know the theory and will do what I can to feel for these. Severus, may I call you that?"

"Yes, William or Bill?" Snape replied.

"Bill is fine." Bill said.
"Yes Bill you can, but do not do so around the students." Snape replied.

"Very well, I need you to keep me grounded." Bill replied, "you turned from the darkness and can keep me grounded, the headmaster too."

"Very well my boy I would be delighted." Dumbledore said.

"As would I, it would be an honor." Snape replied.

"Oh, and Filius could you help ground me as well?" Bill asked.

"Of course, it would be an honor!" Flitwick said beaming.

"Maggie…" At the pointed look from McGonagall, "I love you?"

"You rascal." She said giving him a smile, "I would love to help."

"Pomona could you help as well?" Bill asked.

"Of course, it would be an honor!"

"I need access to the center of the castle, the heart." Bill said, "classes are over for the weekend?"

"Yes, this should not take too long, but it will be taxing." Bill warned.

Dumbledore led them to the heart of the castle, under the center courtyard in a cozy but still large chamber. Here Bill sat in a circle and placed the sphere before him. Dumbledore took a spot across from him, then, the heads of house spaced themselves. They were told to ground him, and they knew what to do. The heart would help him focus, the heads of house and headmaster would counter the evil of the Horcrux and keep it from infecting him. He held the sphere in his hands and closed his eyes.

At first, nothing happened, but then Bill started to sweat, and the air was filled with evil. The heads of houses started to chant, the ancient words that they were taught in becoming heads of house came to their minds. Words they thought just a poem turned out to be words of protection. The chanting grew and Bill trembled and then went still. He placed the orb on the ground and took out parchment and a quill and scribbled down five things, locket, ring, diary, cup, crown and drew what they were by them. Then he put symbols by each and sighed looked weary as if he had run a great distance.

"I know where they are." Bill said, "one is in the castle a crown, up high, there was a room I found to hide things there at one time, it bet it is there."

"Ah, a good place to hide things." Dumbledore said, "oh of course he would, clever, but wicked, very clever."

"One is at the Malfoy estate, a diary." Bill said, "then a ring in a shack, and a cup in a vault, I will need your help with that one Filius." Bill said.

"Of course."
"So easy to find." Dumbledore said, "I would have hunted them by myself."

"And you would die for it!" Snape snapped, "Albus I love you, but you can be a fool!"

Sprout watched yet again the youngest of the heads of houses went off on Dumbledore. Snape had a tongue on him and used it as a weapon, he was so very blunt. This is what she liked about him, it was not fully due to his working-class roots, nor fully due to his being from the north of England. No this was him, how he was, and he cared, he cared so much about others and sometimes when he got frustrated, he just said whatever came to his mind. His father was far nicer, Snape took after his mother.

He did remind her a bit of her husband, yes, he was dead, but she knew she would be with him again. She had his portrait and talked with it; it was not her husband, but it helped dull the pain. She knew what Snape had done but was willing to forgive him, and so were others. He was far from perfect, but no-one was perfect at all. The fact he was here and able to help Bill was a good thing. It showed he was not fully evil nor as far gone as many claimed.

Bill got up and headed out, he would be going to hunt down these artifacts. The only one he could not get to was at Malfoy Manor. Unless he spoke to Sirius Black, in fact he would. He knew Sirius knew of these things and could help destroy them. Well sort of, he could bring one to him to destroy it. This was a test for Bill, if he could hunt down and destroy every one of these abominations, he would be elevated as master curse-breaker before the age of twenty-five. This had not happened in nearly five hundred years.

He was able to gather the cup and ring easily, the latter had quite the curse on it and was child's play for one trained to avoid traps like these. The cup was easy as the goblins cheerfully threatened his head if he was wrong (he was not) and allowed Sirius to take control of the vault as the only "surviving member" to take the vault. Flitwick there to be a mediator if needed was very helpful as well. Bellatrix was in Azkaban and not getting out, ever. Sirius had gone and talked to Narcissa and that took care of finding the diary. The last took Bill a few days to find and in the end, they had one large sphere to work with. He was headed back to Flitwick's office when he ran into Quirrell.

Quirrell staggered back and then clutched his head. It was good the headmaster was heading down the stairs as with a flick of his wand Quirrell ended up in a classroom just as something foul crept out of his head. He fell to the floor sobbing hard and the sphere now had a face in it. Bill hovered it in front of him horror on his face. This was the full dark lord, and he had no idea what to do with it. The classroom door opened, and Harry Potter strode in, he had left his book behind and was looking for it. He saw the sphere trying to come towards him and threw up his hands. They touched the sphere and there was a wailing sound. Harry found he could not remove his hands. The sphere vibrated, smoked and with a pop vanished.

"I am sorry if I destroyed your experiment sir." Harry said.

"No, no you did a wonderful thing!" Dumbledore said beaming, "you helped us with a real problem, though, alas I think we need a new defense professor."

"Oh, Professor Quirrell sick sir?" Harry asked.

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Dumbledore said, "I do think that Severus is going to want to have a few words with me again."

"I can see why he does." Bill said, "I might want too as well."

"Oh, there is my book!" Harry said, "may I go?"

"Yes, of course! Take twenty points to Hufflepuff for your help!" Dumbledore said.

"Thank you, sir!" Harry replied.

He left and Bill had a very important talk with the headmaster about self-fulfilling prophecies and what role Harry played in all this. There was no way that Harry just happened to misplace his book, he did but not on purpose. He was supposed to be here to defeat the evil dark lord Voldemort. Which he did. Bill headed out and invited Snape to have a few drinks in Hogsmeade. This day had just gotten better but so much weirder too.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

So, there you have it simple as using a curse-breaker. But Dumbledore had no experience with them before Bill and so would not know what a curse-breaker did fully. If he had, you could bet that Bill would have been on that Horcrux hunt with Harry and his brother. So yes, Bill had help but, in the end, Harry still had his part to play. A little anti-climactic but sometimes good things end up that way. Like defeating a dark lord.

Anyway, do review please.