The Tale and the Ministry

Afraid for his beloved Locket Horcrux, Lord Voldemort went to the inferi lake and, to his horror, found out the locket is no longer at the place where he hid it. "Curse you, Dumbledore!" He exclaimed. "First that stupid Malfoy loses me the diary; then Dumbledore finds the ring and how this? All I have left now are the cup, the diadem and Nagini. I can place a charm to protect my familiar and Bellatrix reassured me the cup is secure but the diadem is at Hogwarts and I don't trust Severus to let him know about it. I must take over Hogwarts to see if my Horcrux is safe. But first, I need the Elder Wand so I can beat Harry Potter without having to worry about the twin core issue."

Unbeknownst to the Dark Lord, Harry Potter learned all of this via their mental link. The Chosen One then told his friends and allies at Hogwarts about this. "I just don't get what is that Elder Wand he mentioned."

"Throughout history, some Dark Wizards claimed to have undefeatable wands." Professor Snape explained. "Some people, the Dark Lord apparently included, believe those wands to be one and the same. 'Elder Wand' is just one of the names the wand is known."

"Sounds like the wand from the Tale of the Three Brothers." Ron commented.

"In fact, Weasley, some people, most notably the Lovegoods, believe the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility are also real." Snape replied.

"Excuse me." Harry asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Have you never heard about the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Ron asked, shocked somebody never heard of that tale.

"Harry and I grew up at the Muggle World, Ron." Hermione replies. "We learned about other fairy tales."

"Some of them, actually, were inspired by real events, Ms. Granger." Snape explained.

"Really!" She eagerly asked.

"Sure." Snape answered. "Do you remember fairy tales like 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk'?"

"Don't listen to him!" Ron demanded. "I don't know any Sleeping Beauty but that Jack is the one who killed Bran the Bloodthirsty."

"Was that a real story?" Harry and Hermione asked.

"You actually grew up dismissing his heroism as a fairy tale?" Ron asked, just as shocked as his two friends.

"Just another example of how some fairy tales are inspired on real facts, Mr. Weasley." Acting Headmistress McGonagall interjected. "But I believe we were talking about You-Know-Who's desire to posses the Elder Wand."

"According to legend, three brothers crossed a dangerous river who claimed the lives of all others who tried to cross it." Snape explained. "Pretending to congratulate them for this, Death offered each of them any prize they desired. The oldest brother asked for a wand able to defeat anybody and Death gave him a wand made of elder wood. The second brother asked for a way to bring people back to life and Death gave him the Resurrection Stone. The youngest one was clever enough to ask for something to keep him from being found and Death gave him the Cloak of Invisibility knowing that a refusal would make the other brothers suspect foul play. The brothers eventually went separate ways. The first one used the Elder Wand to finish off an old rival on a duel, bragged about the wand and somebody killed him on his sleep to steal the wand. The second one used the stone to bring his wife back to life but she wasn't completely back so he decided to join her in afterlife. Death never found the third one until he became too old and gave the cloak to his son. Some people believe these artifacts to be the Deathly Hallows and that they were created by the Peverell Brothers: Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus."

"The Deathly Hallows can't be real." Hermione said. "Sure, the Elder Wand is plausible but who ever heard of a way to bring dead people back to life? And there are several Invisibility Cloaks. What does this one have of special?"

"While most of those cloaks lose their power as time passes, the one from the legend remains as good as new despite being practically one thousand years old." Snape said and then glared at Harry. "And some of us have already seen a cloak like that."

Harry would have replied to Professor Snape's insinuation but Bill suddenly appeared. "Mr. Weasley, any news on the Goblins?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"They won't treat the cup as stolen until an heir of Hepzibah Smith claims it but they don't like keeping cursed treasures so they allowed me to destroy the soul fragment inside it." Bill explained.

"Good." Professor McGonagall replied. "It seems nothing can go wrong now."

Moody and Scrimegour suddenly appeared from the fireplace.

"I spoke too soon."

At first, I planned to develop the Ministry's interference with the Horcrux hunt in this chapter but I've changed my mind. Hopefully I'll show it next chapter. Please review.