Note: Half flashback chapter; again it was the only way I could get everything explained to my satisfaction.
Chapter Forty-Three
Luna Lends a Hand
"Well," said Ron, closing the heavy book in front of him with a satisfying thump and cloud of dust, "I'm stumped."
Harry raised an eyebrow but made no remark. He knew for a fact that instead of reading his book for the past hour and a half, Ron had been using it as a not particularly comfortable pillow, and indeed, some of the ink from the pages had come away on his forehead. They had spent the best part of the day, the best part of the week in fact, in the library, searching fruitlessly amongst the contraband books that Hermione and Madame Pince had managed to acquire between them. After the destruction of the fourth horcrux, they had been spurred on to make headway on their mission and bring it to an end once and for all, but they were frustratingly hampered by the fact they had no idea what they were looking for. Ostensibly the next horcrux should have originally belonged to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw; this knowledge, however, was not enough to secure them a physical form, nor a location. Harry closed his eyes and thought back to Boxing Day evening, nearly a month ago now, when they had learned of the obliteration of Hufflepuff's cup at Gringotts.
Christmas at the Burrow had been a mostly cheerful affair in spite of the gloom that surrounded them, and as usual, Mrs Weasley had cooked enough to feed a small army for a week. This was probably just as well, thought Harry, as hardly a day seemed to go by without one of the members of the Order, a small army if ever there was one, dropping in to impart new knowledge, and they always seemed to be hungry when they came. Lupin and Tonks had already come to sample the mince pies on the pretence of reporting that there was nothing to report so naturally, when Bill and Fleur had arrived on the doorstep, Harry hadn't thought anything of it. They'd wanted to spend their first Christmas Day on their own as a couple, but today it made sense for them to drop in on extended family and friends to wish them the season's greetings. It took Harry a few moments to see, through a haze of leftover turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches, that Bill looked as if he'd met a particularly unpleasant ghost.
"Is everything all right?" asked Mrs Weasley, flapping about with her tea towel and ushering the new arrivals into the living room and comfortable chairs. Once seated, Bill nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again before concluding faintly:
"I've no idea."
"What's happened?" asked Mr Weasley, wincing as he suddenly became alert and, no doubt, suddenly became aware of his acute indigestion at the same time.
"Well, to cut a long story short, Operation Dragontamer is off."
"Operation Dragontamer?" asked Harry incredulously.
"It was slightly easier on the tongue than 'Operation Let's Break Into Gringotts' Highest Security Vaults And Try Not To Die Whilst We're At It'," said Lupin drily, "But go on, Bill. What's happened?"
"It's been destroyed," said Bill weakly, shaking his head slightly as if he couldn't quite believe himself what he was saying. "Along with a lot of the bank."
The room was silent.
"It can't be," said Harry eventually. He wanted to desperately to believe Bill, but he knew that horcruxes were fiendishly difficult to destroy; there was always the possibility that it was the only thing that had survived whatever catastrophe had befallen the bank. "Are you sure?"
Bill nodded, opening the small bag that he was carrying and waving his wand. Out of the bag floated at least a hundred tiny slivers of metal that briefly came together to form the shape of a small cup inscribed with a badger before falling apart again. It was twisted and deformed beyond repair in addition to its being in so many shards; warped by intense heat. There could be no denying that this was once the goblet of Helga Hufflepuff, and the level of destruction showed that it had definitely once been a horcrux.
"As soon as I saw the wreckage, I knew what I was looking for," said Bill, "although it took a while for me to find all the pieces." He sighed, sensing that the rest of the occupants of the cramped room – the entire family had gathered by this point – were anxious to hear the full story. "It happened like this. Fleur and I had gone to the bank to surreptitiously sort out a few details for our planned excursion there on the second. When we arrived, however, there was obviously something very wrong, not least of all the smoking hole in the roof and the dragon disappearing over the horizon."
"So Gringotts really does have dragons," said Ron. "Hagrid will be pleased to know one's found its way to freedom. Carry on," he added quickly.
"Well, we went in," said Bill, picking up where he had left off, "and the entire bank was in complete chaos, goblins running here, there and everywhere and no-one paying the slightest bit of attention to who was going in or out of the bank. I thought that this might be a good chance to do some reconnaissance, but I still had no idea what was going on.
"Unfortunately Griphook noticed us at that point and came over to explain that the bank was going to have to close for the foreseeable future, and we asked him what had happened."
"Knowing the goblins, he probably said nothing," muttered Lupin.
"You guess correctly. Finally we managed to persuade him to let us take a look at the damage as employees of the bank, even if he didn't tell us what had occurred exactly. On the cart journey, we got it out of him that Rodolphus Lestrange had come in, Bellatrix had followed him and that only Bellatrix had left, and in the process of whatever argument they were having, they'd brought down half the bank's ceiling." Bill paused. "We found his body in the vault, crushed by the masonry."
Fleur shuddered at the memory.
"It wasn't pretty," Bill agreed. "But still, there was work to be done. We thought that since we'd been given this opportunity, we might as well use it." He indicated the bag. "There's the result."
"Blimey."
It took Harry a while to digest the succinct story.
"Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband had an argument and ended up destroying the horcrux that was in their care?"
"So it would appear," said Lupin. "If I were you, I wouldn't think into it too much and I'd just be glad that our task has already been fulfilled."
Harry nodded. Four down, two to go…
Harry came back to the present just in time to hear Hermione answer Ron.
"Well, it should all be a simple case of logic," she said matter-of-factly, closing her own book and starting on Ron's. "We know that it belonged to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, so we need to find reference to a famous item that was once owned by one of them."
"Yes, we know that much," said Ron. "The problem is, we can't find any evidence of them owning anything other than Gryffindor's sword, which, as far as we know, has never left the possession of the Gryffindor house."
"And can't be a horcrux anyway," countered Hermione, "since it's imbued with the basilisk venom which would have destroyed it."
"Alright, alright," said Ron. "But you can see where I'm coming from."
"There's the sorting hat," said Harry, who had been thinking over the problem whilst the other two bantered. "That belonged to Gryffindor. You can't say that it's an ordinary hat, either."
"Harry, the sorting hat cannot be a horcrux," said Hermione, her voice exasperated.
"Why not?" asked Ron. "Dad always says that you can't trust something that you can't see where it keeps its brain, and who knows where the sorting hat keeps its brain?"
"But it doesn't even make sense for You-Know-Who to use something of Gryffindor's," said Hermione. "He's the heir of Slytherin, and ostensibly, Gryffindor and Slytherin were bitter enemies."
"Doesn't that make it even more likely, though?" asked Ron. "No, think about it. Using your ancestor's archenemy's hat to house a piece of your soul in sounds pretty much like the ultimate one-upmanship to me."
Hermione sighed, and Harry began to regret his not altogether serious suggestion of the hat. He quickly changed the direction of the conversation.
"Perhaps it would be easier to focus on Ravenclaw."
"We've got even less on her," moaned Ron. He looked around at the imposing library shelves. "You know, I'm beginning to think that there was method in the madness when You-Know-Who decided to get rid of magical history."
"If all else fails, we can always just try searching the school," said Harry. "Since we're pretty sure that this is where it's going to be."
The others nodded. It was an undeniable fact, one that had been put forward after the cup had been destroyed.
"We're running out of possible hiding places," said Bill after his nerves had been restored with Mrs Weasley's rhubarb wine. Harry, Ron and Hermione had discreetly left the room in order to listen at the keyhole and therefore hear an awful lot more information than they might otherwise have done. "We've had the safest place in the wizarding world, a place of childhood importance, a place of ancestral importance, and in not-so-very-safekeeping with a loyal follower."
"If I was an insane evil megalomaniac, where would I hide my soul?" said Tonks drily.
"There's one place we haven't considered," said Lupin. "Hogwarts."
Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other.
"Why would it be there?" asked Bill. "True, it's probably the safest place in the world apart from Gringotts…"
"Including Gringotts if the bank's walls can be brought down by one angry dragon," Tonks pointed out.
"… but you can't rule out Dumbledore's influence." Bill ignored the interruption.
"I think that's what makes it even more likely," said Lupin. "No-one would suspect. And think about it, he did have ample opportunity during his schooldays. And he went back to apply for the dark arts job, giving him a further opportunity…"
The more they had discussed it, the more it made horrible sense, and Harry, Ron and Hermione had made the silent and mutual decision to take on the task of looking for the horcrux as soon as they returned to the school.
"So we're focusing on trying to find out what possible heirlooms Rowena Ravenclaw could have left behind." Hermione's voice jerked Harry back to the present once more. "And so far, we've found nothing. Most of the other founders have at least one mention of their defining object, but not Ravenclaw."
"The Grey Lady?" suggested Harry.
"Pardon?"
"The Grey Lady," he repeated. "She's the Ravenclaw ghost, and she's obviously been hanging around the tower for a while. If anyone's going to know about the history of the house, then it's her. We could ask the Grey Lady."
"We could just ask a Ravenclaw," said Ron, nodding towards Luna, who was watching them from the end of a row with a somewhat amused smile on her face, having come across them a few moments prior.
"I think the object you're thinking of is Ravenclaw's diadem," she said calmly. "It bestows great wisdom and knowledge upon the bearer," she continued. "Ravenclaws have been searching for it for centuries, but no-one has found it. The cynical say that it doesn't exist; the slightly less cynical say that she took it to her grave, but I believe."
The sixth-year came over to them and picked up the book that Harry had been looking through without success.
"You're looking in the wrong bit," she said plainly, opening the book at the back to a small thumbnail picture of what looked to be an ordinary tiara. "Ravenclaw's diadem. It was under your nose the whole time."
Harry looked at the picture, and he was struck with a horrible familiarity. He had seen that diadem before; not on paper but in a true physical form. He thought of the potions book last year, of the junk that the Room of Requirement had provided for him to hide it in. He thought of the bust he had used to mark the spot, a bust that he had adorned with a wig and a tiara…
"I've found it."
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione. "You've found what?"
"Ravenclaw's diadem," said Harry. "I know where it is."
"You do?" Luna's eyes lit up. "We've been looking for it for centuries and you know where it is?"
"Yes." Harry's mind reeled frantically as he tried to think of a way to stop Luna following them. "Well, no. Something similar but not the mythical giver of ultimate knowledge. Thanks Luna, you're amazing."
She shrugged her acknowledgement as the trio scrambled out of their seats and made for the library doors, a fervour of excitement spurring them along, much to Madame Pince's chagrin.
"Good luck," called Luna after them.
"So do you know where it is or not?" panted Ron as they hurried through the school at a pace that could not quite be called a run.
"Yes, I know where it is. I just didn't think it would be a good idea for Luna to come with us if we end up having to destroy the thing that her house has been searching for since time immemorial."
"Ah, yes, a wise decision. So where is it?"
"The Room of Requirement."
"What?" Ron's voice could not have sounded more disbelieving if he had tried, and Harry explained the tale of the potion book to him. Ron remained unconvinced.
"But if that's the case, what about Dobby's warning? At the beginning of the year he'd told you that there was an evil in the school, and it was the locket. Surely he'd be aware of the presence of another horcrux. That's what's been making me sceptical of the idea of one being here in Hogwarts from the start."
"That's true." Harry stopped short in the corridor in front of where the entrance to the Room of Requirement. Suddenly his theory seemed to crumple in on itself, back to square one.
"Not necessarily," said Hermione. Her brow was wrinkled in concentration. "Dobby said that there was a new evil in the school, but the Room of Requirement's been here since the castle was built, and people have no doubt been using it for as long. The horcrux could have been here for fifty years; in which case the evil's been here for so long that the house elves are used to it and it's nothing new for them."
"But why would You-Know-Who hide something in a place as obvious and accessible as the Room of Requirement?" protested Ron. "It just doesn't make any sense!"
"He probably didn't know what it was," said Hermione. "He probably thought he'd discovered something amazing that no-one else knew about. And naturally, that makes it an obvious place to hide a horcrux. Added to the fact that no-one would ever suspect Dumbledore of harbouring such a dangerous piece of magic, whether he knew it was there or not."
Ron conceded this point and they fell into silence, Harry wondering how on Earth he could get back to the room he required. 'I need the room full of junk' and 'I need the room with the horcrux in' didn't sound right. Finally he struck gold.
I need to find my book.
The room's door appeared in front of them and they entered into the glory of clutter where students had been hiding their contraband for hundreds of years. It did not take Harry long to find the bust once more, the diadem still perched precariously on top of it.
"Is that it?" asked Ron.
Harry nodded. After all this time, they had found a horcrux in the blink of an eye. As Luna had said, it had been under their noses all along.
Note2: And now all that remains is to destroy it, but I spy some trouble on the horizon. Voldemort's been counting his horcruxes and found himself a few short, and he's not altogether happy with this... With that little teaser in mind, I bid you adieu till the next update!