Chapter 2

It was midnight and Griffindor common room was empty as all students had gone to bed except two teens, to whom sleep was not coming easily. They were sitting on couch near to fire taking in the comfortable warmth from each other and thinking about what they had just witnessed.

It had been days since Dumbledore told them about Horcruxes. And few hours since they had viewed Slughorns memory where he told young Tom about the abomination called horcuxes.

To anyone watching from outside it was a simple conclusion that Tom made horcruxes and if headmaster was to be believed there were five more of them. But to Harry it didn't look like that straight. Something was missing and it was bothering him.

"What are you thinking about Harry?" Hermione asked not able to withstand the silence. She was always able to tell what was bothering him before. But at this point even she was clueless. He could be thinking of anything like how Dumbledore was dying because of the ring of Salazar? How were they going to tell Ron? Or if they can even trust him with such a secret. And if headmaster was right then how were they going to find and destroy them when he was gone? But her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Harry suddenly started talking.

"Voldemort may be playing with our heads Hermione. That can be the only explanation of this mess." He said looking grave.

"Please explain Harry" asked Hermione knowing that he must have given this a long thought before voicing his concern.

"Horcrux is only a myth voldemort created to throw off people on his trail. Horcrux are not the something which is keeping him in our plane they are the traps set up by him to take care of his enemy. He does not need to be immortal to live long Hermione; he just had to make people believe that he IS. And people who believed him to be immortal will go for horcruxes to make him mortal again. These people will fall for his traps and if not then voldemort will have enough time to finish them off."

Hermione was surprised but had to know something "Whatever gave you that idea Harry. Even with all his faults Dumbledore IS the smartest and greatest wizard in Britain, and he believes that Horcrux is the thing keeping him alive and what other explanation is there for voldemort to come back to life after you defeated him."

"Slughorn is still alive Hermione that alone makes me doubtful about horcruxes." Harry said looking very grim.

Suddenly it hit Hermione. If horcruxes were so important to voldemort why didn't he sever all loose ends that could lead someone to them? He was the strongest after Dumbledore and had many years to finish Slughorn off. On top of that if Slughorn was hiding that memory so well, he knew that Tom Riddle was none other than Voldemort. And voldemort had worked hard to keep his identity as half-blood from being exposed then why was Horace Slughorn still alive.

Seeing that Hermione understood what he was trying to say harry continued further "If I had to guess, I will say that he wanted us to know about horcruxes. And that's why Slughorn is still alive, Tom deliberately asked him about horcrux to give anyone who asks him about it hint that he had made horcruxes. But Slughorn -being the Slytherine he is- hid that memory so the blame does not come to him. As for Dumbledore, there are only two options either he truly believes this horcrux theory or he is not sure and want to be on safer side by destroying those things."

"Or he wants to give impression that he is finding horcruxes while looking for the alternate ways to defeat Voldemort because we still don't know how he survived all those years ago." Hermione put her thoughts, now familiar with how Dumbledore worked.

Harry nodded in agreement "It is possible but I don't think he will take a suicide mission just to fool Voldemort into thinking that his plan worked. But as you mentioned we don't know what keeps Voldemort alive."

"So what do we do now?"Hermione asked feeling a bit lost about the whole situation.

"What can we do? We have to keep doing what we were doing before. Keep finding what happened the night my parents died that is the only thing we are sure about right now. Everything else seems to be planned by 'greater wizards'." Harry replied sarcastically.

Hermione nodded and opened her mouth to say something but closed it hesitating. When harry saw it he asked her about it and after much thinking Hermione replied

"I was thinking we should visit Black family library in Grimmauld place. It is the only place we know where we can find some darker material to read and relate to horcrux and maybe we will find something about your mother's ritual." She completed in one breath knowing that Sirius was still sensitive subject to talk with Harry.

His expression dulled a bit at the mention of his dead godfathers family home but knew that Hermione wouldn't had brought it up if not absolutely necessary and he agreed with her, she was after all his research expert.

"Yes we should do that. Also I was thinking of taking more active political role in politics. Now that Voldemort is back I think will have more influence what with me being the chosen one."Harry replied. Hermione was looking at his face for any sign of humor but he was very serious. At her questioning look he said

"When my parents died that night they gave me something no one expected Hermione." He sighed and stopped talking for a while like preparing to say a secret." They made me a hero. A hero that wizarding word needs right now, however hard I try to deny it people will always look for me to lead them in better future. And not doing that will be dishonoring their sacrifice. So I am going to do just that. I may not be in his league when it comes to power, but I can certainly fight him by showing people how fake he is."

Hermione was smiling at him proudly. She knew that he didn't owe world anything but was doing this because he owed his parents that much.

"I will be always be by your side, you know that. Right." She said taking his hand in hers.

"Never doubted for even a second." Harry replied giving her a lopsided grin.