Chapter XXII - The Search Begins

When Harry and Ginny met Ron and Hermione at the Three Broomsticks around three that afternoon, both of them felt refreshed and satisfied. When they sat down at the table, they were hardly surprised to find the couple bickering; after all it was quite normal for the two of them.

"It's not my fault that you can't keep up with you're homework, Ronald. If you would just set up some type of schedule you wouldn't be so far behind in everything!" Hermione demanded.

The tips of Ron's ears reddened. "If you weren't on such a damn tight schedule with homework, we wouldn't be having this damn argument in the first place!"

Harry leaned over to Ginny to whisper in her ear. "Do you know what they're arguing about?"

Ginny grinned up at Harry and kissed him softly. "Do they really need a reason?"

"True." He pulled her down into his arms as they sat down in the booth across from Ron and Hermione who were still bickering and hadn't even noticed they were there. Madam Rosmerta placed two butterbeers in front of them and Harry grinned at her. "Thanks."

He paid her for them and looked over at his friends.

"This is dumb, why are we even arguing?" Hermione demanded. "I swear. Ron; you get so angry at the stupidest things! It's our N.E.W.T. year, it's only natural for me to work harder."

"Shut up, Hermione." Then before she could respond, he yanked her towards him and they were kissing passionately.

Harry grinned. "Looks like they made up."

Ginny smiled and reached up to kiss him softly. Her body responded instantly and she grinned. They had made love three times at Potter Manor before heading back to Hogsmeade, and she wanted him all over again. She wondered if it was normal to have such an insatiable sexual appetite. She slid her fingers into his hair just as she heard her brother's voice.

"Hey, when did you two get here?"

Harry pulled back and grinned at his best friend. "While you two were bickering as usual. So Hermione, what did this guy do this time?"

Hermione smiled, a knowing look on her face. "Who knows?"

Ginny smiled at Hermione. "So, what did you guys do all day?"

"Shopped for Christmas mostly … speaking of, Ginny, I need to get a gift for Ron, do you want to come shopping with me?" Hermione asked.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, I need to get Harry something too. Can you two manage a day on your own?"

Harry grinned and pulled her down for a long kiss. "Sure, but I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. See you guys later."

Ginny and Hermione waved goodbye and left the pub as Harry turned back to Ron.

"So how many arguments have you two gotten into in one day?" Harry asked as he drank his butterbeer.

Ron shrugged. "I love her when she's angry. I think she looks so beautiful that I just pick fights with her on purpose."

Harry laughed. "But then you get to make up, so there's a bonus!"

Ron grinned. "Yeah … I think she knows too because honestly she was right, I do pick fights over stupid things."

"Well, I don't know. It's not that much different than before except that now after you guys fight you snog, where as before you didn't talk to each other for a week and I was always stuck in the middle." Harry replied. "Ginny and I don't fight over dumb things; well I suppose they might be dumb sometimes, but when we fight we at least have a good reason, such as Dean; which was for a good reason. And who needs a reason to make up … we do that all the time anyway. We did a lot of making up today in fact." Harry said with a smile that made his whole face glow with happiness.

"You had sex with my sister!" Ron hissed at him suddenly.

"What?" Harry said in surprise. "What am I, wearing a goddamn sign?"

"You had sex with my sister!" Ron repeated as if he was in some sort of shock.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, so I made love with her, and you made love with Hermione, get over it."

Ron's mouth closed but he still looked like he was going to hit him. "Come on, Ron, Ginny's beautiful, you had to know it was going to happen some time. If it makes you feel any better, she's never been with anyone but me. It was her first time today."

"Today? It happened today?"

Harry grinned now, Ron looked like he was going to blow up and at the same time he looked positively horrified that it was his baby sister they were talking about. "Yeah, I took her to see Potter Manor remember. We spent the day there." When Ron failed to smile, Harry glanced around the crowded pub before he turned back to his friend. "Ron, come on, I love her, and you know that. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

Ron's face went from anger to shell shocked. "You're serious? When did you realize that?"

Harry grinned as he felt his heart explode with happiness. "Just now actually. God, I love her so much … I want … I want to marry her, and make babies with her … live in Potter Manor with her."

"Wow," Ron mumbled. "You are serious. Did you buy her a ring?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I want to give her my mum's ring; you know the ones we found in Godric's Hollow. I think she'd like that. Don't say anything to her, Ron; I don't know when I'm going to … ask her."

"Wow, you really are serious." Then his face split into a grin. "This is awesome, mate; you're going to be my brother-in-law! That's amazing!"

Harry grinned. "Don't count you're chickens before they've hatched. I still have to ask her, and who knows what my life is going to be like … I still have to kill Voldemort."

Ron nodded. "Yeah, I know. Do you have any other places that you can think of for where he would have hidden a horcrux yet?"

Harry shook his head. "No … but I'm working on it."

Ron nodded. "Alright, well come on, mate, let's go get our girls some gifts for Christmas."

"Sounds like a plan." Harry replied as he stood up. "Let's go."

Hermione ushered Ginny out of the Three Broomsticks and they quickly hurried into Honeydukes before she spoke to her. "Well?" Hermione asked.

"Well, what?" Ginny asked as she glanced at the walls of sweets around her.

Hermione sighed. "Well, did you sleep with Harry?"

Ginny nodded and turned to her friend, her face glowing with happiness. "Yes! Oh Hermione, it was so … beautiful and so wonderful. I couldn't keep my hands off of him. He was … amazing! I love him so much."

Hermione grinned and hugged her friend tight. "Ginny, I'm so happy for you!"

Ginny grinned. "It was so incredible, I still don't know how I've managed to live my life without making love for so long … it's positively stimulating." She sighed. "God, I am going to turn into a scarlet woman!" She giggled at the thought. "He showed me Potter Manor first and I met his parents."

"The house is incredible, isn't it?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes, it's amazing. And I fell in love with his parents, they were so sweet. His dad kept saying how pretty I was, and how Potter men must have a thing for red heads. His mum was sweet. It made me sad to think that these two wonderful people had to die so young."

"I know. Once I got over the shock of talking to a portrait of Harry's parents I thought pretty much the same thing. I was speechless when I realized that they had portraits made of them so long ago and that Harry had never knew about it. I mean, he never even mentioned it to Ron or I before we went to the house."

"He told me." Ginny replied as she picked out all of Ron's favourite sweets for his Christmas gift. "At the wedding when we were dancing. I told him that once I became of age he couldn't stop me from standing by his side in the final battle. He said that his parents had said pretty much the same thing and then he told me all about the portraits. He looked so happy to be sitting there talking about his parents, it made him smile."

Hermione smiled. "It is rare to see Harry truly happy … or at least it was until he started dating you."

Ginny grinned. "I love him so much. He makes me feel … incredibly alive and so happy. Today when we were lying in his bed after the first time he said that he wanted me there always and my heart just about leapt right out of my chest in happiness. I think that's the first time I've ever heard him talking about the future outside of the final battle."

Hermione nodded. "Yeah … speaking of the final battle, he has to get a move on the search. He still hasn't pinpointed anything, has he?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, I don't think so. He'll do it, I know he will, it will just take time."

"Yeah, but time is the one thing that he doesn't have."

Ginny nodded. "I know, come on let's go get the rest of our shopping done before we dig into research mode. I want to get Harry something really special."

Hermione smiled. "Alright, let's go."

Later on that evening, Harry sat in his dorm swirling his wand around in the pensive that he had received from Dumbledore. Ron had mentioned the horcruxes again and it had made him realize that he needed to get a jump start on that information. He had barely done anything towards finding out another one. He had been partially focused on R.A.B. but he still hadn't done much there. He knew Hermione and Ginny were searching the library in their spare time for someone with those initials as well as for information on the four founders of Hogwarts. He took out some parchment and a quill and decided to make some notes on all of the memories that Dumbledore had showed him the year before. He searched for the first memory and decided to go in order, adding his own memories in of the discussions he had had with Dumbledore after each memory. After a couple of hours of work reviewing the memories and jotting down summaries of each one, he had pieces of parchment full of notes. A knock sounded on the dormitory door, interrupting his thoughts … which really weren't much at the moment.

"Come in."

Ginny poked her head inside. "Hey, we were wondering what happened to you."

Harry smiled. "Nothing, I was just … are Ron and Hermione down there?"

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, why? Are you okay?"

Harry grinned at her and stood up, gathering the parchment in his hands. "I'm fine; I just need to talk to the three of you."

Ginny nodded. "Okay, you had me worried for a second there that you were ignoring me or something. I guess I'm just being stupid."

Harry smiled and walked over to pull her into his arms for a warm hug and soft kiss. "I'm definitely not ignoring you. I love you." He kissed her again and then he followed her downstairs.

Within a few minutes the four of them were settled in the Head Boys room with a silencing charm on the locked door.

"So what's up, Harry?" Ron asked.

Harry grinned. "Well, Ron mentioned earlier something about the horcruxes and I realized that, yeah, I've been preparing myself for the final battle and I've been researching but I haven't really done the one thing that I should have done in September. That is to review the memories that Dumbledore showed me. I know I discussed these with you two, Ginny however hasn't heard them and I don't know how much you guys remember. Anyway, I viewed the memories again and made notes to summarize what happened and what Dumbledore and I discussed and I just wanted to go over them with everyone and see where we go with it." Hermione smiled. "That's a smart idea, Harry; I think you're finally on the right track. Because when you first started with these memories we didn't know about the horcruxes. So backtracking is definitely a good plan."

Ron nodded. "I think so too. Are you starting with the first memory?"

"Yeah." Ginny smiled. "Now I'm curious. Okay, let's hear them."

Harry nodded. "Alright, well the first one starts with the heirs of Slytherin. Bob Ogden, a ministry official from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He is assigned to go to the House of Gaunt; the Gaunts are the only descendents left of Salazar Slytherin. When he arrives he finds a small shack with a dead snake nailed to the door, which tells him what kind of people he's dealing with and the man outside is speaking in rapid Parseltongue. Marvolo, the father, comes out and is angry to see the stranger and even angrier when he discovers that he's from the ministry. Ogden is there because Morfin Gaunt, the man who was speaking Parseltongue is in trouble for using magic on muggles. He goes into the house after the two men who refuse to talk to him and he meets the daughter Merope. She is used as a slave and treated so badly that her fear allows her magical talent to remain hidden, at least that's what Dumbledore thought. Marvolo throws his heritage in Ogden's face showing off the ring and proudly saying that he is Slytherin's heir. Two muggles come riding out and Morfin teases Merope because she fancies the rich muggle outside who lives in the big house on the hill. Both Morfin and Marvolo are disgusted with the idea of her even liking a muggle, which is just shameful in their way of thinking. To them this is the worst of all crimes. Anyway, both Marvolo and Morfin are arrested and sent to Azkaban. Merope, who is now on her own, discovers that she is magical and she makes a love potion to give to the rich muggle, Tom Riddle. He falls in love with her and they marry and she becomes pregnant. This is all theory on Dumbledore's part, but she decides that she doesn't need the love potion anymore because Tom will love her. He doesn't and he leaves her alone and pregnant. Marvolo comes back from Azkaban and is horrified that his daughter has run off with a muggle and is not there."

Hermione nodded. "I remember that, I think it's creepy that the family was already a little mental before. Good thing Voldemort didn't grow up in that environment he might have turned out even worse."

"It almost makes you feel bad for them … if you didn't know the outcome of course." Ginny said quietly.

Harry smiled at her. "Yeah, almost. Okay, so the second memory again has lots of theory. Merope goes to see this guy named Caractacus Burke and sells him Slytherin's locket cheap. She goes into labour and ends up in a muggle orphanage. She only hangs around long enough to have the baby and name him before she dies: Tom Marvolo Riddle. So eleven years later, Dumbledore has an appointment with a woman named Mrs. Cole; she was head of the orphanage. He learns that Tom is considered odd, a bit of a bully and she knows that it is him who causes these nasty and unexplained accidents. Dumbledore meets Tom who is very rude and demanding; he has already figured out that he can control people a bit with his mind. He learns about Hogwarts and all that, but most importantly, it is here we learn that he likes to keep trophies of his victims from bullying. So why shouldn't he continue this when he is older?"

"Creepy when you say trophies," Ginny replied. "My mind keeps wandering off to all of those muggle mystery books where psycho killers keep pieces of the people that they murder, or leave like a symbol to prove that it was their work."

"Oh, Gin, you're right, I never thought about that. It makes you wonder if he keeps something from every person he's killed … and what it is." Hermione replied, shivering in disgust.

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, you two are creeping me out. Alright, Harry, memory number three."

Harry nodded. "So Tom starts at Hogwarts. He is instantly put into Slytherin, and is very talented. He gets lots of sympathy from the staff for being an orphan. After much research, Tom discovers that his father was not a wizard. Dumbledore believes that this is when he dropped the name Riddle and began to go by the alias Lord Voldemort. Voldemort believed that his father had to be a wizard because his mother couldn't be a witch, or why had she allowed herself to be succumbed to the human weakness of death. He also soon learns that he is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin and he discovers the Chamber of Secrets. He goes to the Gaunt House looking for Marvolo, who is the only link he has to his past; he instead comes across Morfin. Morfin is angry when he sees him because he automatically mistakes him for Tom Riddle Senior, the rich muggle. It is from Morfin that Tom learns about his father and his mother. He stuns his uncle and takes his wand before he goes to the Riddle House and he kills his father and his grandparents. Then he plants the memory into Morfin's brain, and Morfin confesses to the crime when the ministry goes to him, as he is the only muggle hating wizard in the area. At the same time, Marvolo's prized ring that he flaunted to Ogden goes missing." Harry put some of the parchment down and got up to get a glass of water from the bedside before he continued.

"After Hogwarts, he works at Borgin and Burkes. He originally wanted to work at Hogwarts but Professor Armando Dippet, the headmaster at the time, thought he was too young. Now Dumbledore believes that he wanted to work there for three reasons. One: Hogwarts was where he had always been the happiest; Two: The castle itself is a stronghold of some ancient magic and he had already discovered many of its secrets; Three: As a teacher, Voldemort would have had a great deal of power and influence over the students, that alone is a danger. So anyway, while he is working for Borgin and Burkes, he goes to visit this woman named Hepzibah Smith. He charms her with flowers and polite gifts so she thinks he's a sweet and handsome boy. She tells her house elf, Hokey, to bring out her two most treasured possessions, the cup of Helga Hufflepuff and the locket of Salazar Slytherin. Two days later she's dead and her possessions are gone. Like Morfin, Hokey confesses to everything. Tom resigns from Borgin and Burkes. Years later after much study and after he now had followers known as Death Eaters, Voldemort goes back to Hogwarts and asks for a job, this time Dumbledore is headmaster. Voldemort is angry that Dumbledore keeps calling him Tom and not his new name. Dumbledore refuses him the job and to that day, the Defence Against the Dark Arts job post has never had a teacher that lasted more than a year."

"So, he stole the cup and the locket as well as the ring?" Ginny asked.

Harry nodded. "Dumbledore thinks so, and I'm inclined to believe him."

Ginny nodded. "And what about the horcruxes themselves … I mean what do we know about horcruxes other than that Voldemort made himself seven?"

"Not a whole lot, I'm afraid." Harry replied. "Dumbledore had me get the memory from Slughorn last year; the one where Voldemort first learns about horcruxes."

Hermione nodded. "Well, from what I understand, a horcrux is when a witch or wizard splits their soul in two, putting half of it in an object outside of the body. By doing this then the witch or wizard has a chance of survival. If their body is attacked or destroyed, they can't die because a part of their soul is still out their somewhere. It's still on the earth and it's undamaged because it wasn't part of their body when they were attacked. To split a soul you need to commit an act of pure evil. You need to commit murder."

Harry nodded at her. "Exactly … I don't know how you remember stuff like that, Hermione, anyway, when Voldemort was talking to Slughorn about them he gave the impression that he wanted to split his soul into seven pieces, seven being the magical number. That's all we know."

"Wow." Ginny replied. "I'm glad I heard all of this. I think it might broaden my mind when I'm trying to help out."

"I'm glad I heard it again, unlike Hermione there I needed to rethink everything." Ron said as he glanced at Harry who nodded at him.

"I did too, which is why I wanted to review everything in the first place." He sighed and stood up, pacing around the room for a minute before he spoke. "I need to go talk to Dumbledore again, run things by him, see if he's had any luck with this R.A.B. guy. I'll talk to you guys later."

Ron nodded. "Yeah, good luck, mate."

Harry kissed Ginny softly, before he gathered up his parchment and headed down to the headmistress' office. When he knocked on the office door, McGonagall looked surprised to see him.

"Potter, what are you doing here?" She asked as she let him inside and ushered for him to take a seat.

"Actually, I was doing some brain storming, and I need to talk to Dumbledore. You're more than welcome to stay here of course, since you know everything about the horcruxes anyway."

Professor McGonagall smiled. "Sure, Harry." She turned to look up at the portrait of Dumbledore. "Albus, you have a guest."

Dumbledore smiled. "So I noticed, Minerva. Hello Harry, what can I do for you?"

Harry grinned. "Good evening, sir, um, I was going over all of the memories you showed me in the pensive and I made some notes before reviewing everything with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. With all of it fresh in our minds, I was hoping we might actually make some progress. How have you been coming along with R.A.B.?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Not well, Harry, not well. I have asked Minerva to pass it on to the Order. I believe Remus and Tonks are now researching that particular task. I figured that they would be the ones to trust with it, being that they are so close to you. So, Harry, after everything that you reviewed in those memories, nothing new came to you?"

Harry shook his head. Of course nothing new had come, it had all been heard before. Voldemort's life before Hogwarts, like the cave where they had found the first horcrux, or the fake whichever way you looked at it. The orphanage, the shack, the Riddle House … nothing was really there, was it?

"No, sir, I don't think so. We have the ideas of what they might be, but it's the locations that are throwing me off. I don't know where to look. He could have hid them anywhere in the world. The search seems almost impossible."

Dumbledore smiled, a knowing look in his eye. "It could be, Harry, but it won't be. Tom would never hide things all over the world. He needs it to have meaning; to somehow be a part of the life he once had. Like that locket, Harry, he hid it in a cave where he once bullied children. That is a part of his past and no matter how much he hated it, by putting a piece of his soul there, it shows that he remembers it, and that he understands that it is a part of his history that has got him to where he is today. Think, Harry … in all of those memories you've seen and viewed for the second time, Harry, where is a place where Voldemort might consider an important piece of his past … an important place where he might hide a piece of his soul?"

Harry was silent for a long moment, as both McGonagall and Dumbledore looked at him, then he realized what the place was. He felt like a balloon was rising in his heart as he figured out exactly what Dumbledore was hinting at, and exactly what he should have known all along.

Harry stood up, a grin on his face. "You're right. I know where the next horcrux is."