JK Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 7 – Back to Square One

Harry Potter had a very important decision to make. Should he make contact with Amelia and PROVE without a doubt that everything had been true, or should he just wait a while longer and see how things turned out.

Despite things looking bad for Dumbledore, Harry just couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, someway the wily old wizard would get off scot free and go back to his old tricks. If Dumbledore EVER GOT HIS HANDS ON HARRY…well it was just too frightening to think about.

According to Kreacher's latest report Dumbledore had been obliviating EVERYBODY. This meant that when they were called to testify and were questioned with Veritaserum they could truthfully deny all charges leveled against them and dear old Albus Dumbledore.

Sirius had been the first victim as he had attacked, or at least tried to attack, Dumbledore. He had been subdued and taken away to another room. Fortunately, there was a very small portrait of one of the Black ancestors in the room which was too small to notice as it was in a small picture frame and a vase was blocking it from view. The portrait witnessed the incident.

Black was sent off and spelled to go up and stay with Buckbeak for at least 24 hours and to "drown his sorrows" with large quantities of fire whiskey. Then person after person was summoned into the room and had their memories altered.

The only memory which wasn't changed was Alastor Moody's because he had made his escape once the story was printed and Dumbledore hadn't been able to track him down. Dumbledore was desperately trying to find him but had had no success so it seemed logical that the man was now allied with Amelia Bones.

Kreacher had stressed to Harry that although Dumbledore had many followers and allies in Britain and in Europe, he also had many, many enemies. It was too soon to tell if he would survive this scandal but he wouldn't go down without a fight and if he did go down, he would probably have many escape plans set into place to keep him out of Azkaban. Granted Fawkes was his main escape plan, but the noble bird was still stupefied and kept in a safe place in the lair.

Since Kreacher was unsuspected, Harry had given him permission to enter the lair but only when he personally summoned him or Dobby or Winky did, or if it was a true emergency, he could summon Dobby or Winky. This was to prevent Sirius from ordering him to take him to Harry if he somehow found out Kreacher knew where he was.

Kreacher had found out from Walburga's portrait that Sirius had made Harry his heir when the boy became his godson. If Sirius died without issue, as Harry's godfather he could claim his estate if Sirius did not leave a Will. However, it being war time, Sirius had made a Will making it official.

Although Walburga Black had announced that her first born son was disowned, she didn't have the power to do so. Only the current Lord Black could officially and legally disown a member of the Black Family. When his niece Andromeda had run off and married a Muggleborn, her parents disowned her from their immediate family but it had been the current Lord Arcturus who officially and legally disowned her from the Family Black.

Orion was not pleased with his eldest son and his choices but, he had not thrown him out of the Family Black. He had just reversed the inheritance making his younger son Regulus the official heir and Sirius the secondary heir. If nothing else, he wanted the Black line to continue so he played it very safe.

Regulus had joined the forces of the Dark Lord and died. No one knew how, when or why, just that he did die. The Goblins had sent a message to Lord Orion informing him that their records showed the death of Regulus Black so therefore he was officially dead.

Sirius had not changed his Will, it had been made a permanent document, had been legally filed with the Goblins, his solicitors, the Ministry and several copies had been given to many interested parties. Sirius had wanted nothing to be contested in his making Harry James Potter his legal heir. At the time the Will was made, Sirius was the secondary heir to the Black Lordship, but an heir he was.

Since the Will had been made before his incarceration in Azkaban, no one could legally claim that he was not of sound mind as he was an Auror and had to undergo a sanity test before he could start training.

No the Will was an ironclad, airtight document and even if Sirius made another Will at this point in time, unless he personally brought in a new Will, he would have to be checked for charms, spells, potions, have his identity proven, be found to be sane, under no duress, approve the Will's contents and sign with a blood quill in front of several witnesses such as his solicitors, a Goblin or two and at least two disinterested parties who would be bound by a special oath. He had made these specifications in his first Will to prevent somebody from impersonating him (like the Malfoys) and saying he had made someone other than Harry his heir.

According to Kreacher, when Sirius died, Harry would be his heir and Harry would be the new Lord Black and thus Kreacher's new master. The old elf much preferred Harry as a master despite his being a Half-blood. His paternal grandmother was a member of the Black Family and he had just as much right to the inheritance as Draco Malfoy had.

"In fact, young master," Kreacher had purred, "If bad master Sirius were to die tomorrow, you could go to Gringotts and make an immediate claim for the Lordship. Then master Harry could claim back the family house and kick everybody out of Grimmauld Place as the wards would automatically reset and break the Fidelius charm which old long beard put on the house."

Harry had the feeling that Kreacher was hinting that Sirius should meet with a terrible accident. For one brief disloyal moment Harry considered it, but he wasn't a murderer and Sirius was the last link with his parents besides Remus. Neither of them had ever considered his welfare and were too much the simpering lackey of Dumbledore, but he certainly wasn't going to commit murder.

Besides he couldn't go near Grimmauld Place because Dumbledore had cast all sorts of charms and spells on the place to alert him and trap Harry if he bodily set foot in the house. Sirius wasn't allowed to leave the house so if somebody wanted to "off" Sirius, they had to know how and have Dumbledore's permission to enter. In other words, only an Order member, the Twins, Ron, Ginny, Hermione or Harry could off Sirius

Kreacher had warned Dobby to not go to the house because there was a possibility that it was spelled to detect if any elf besides Kreacher was in the house. No, Sirius was safe – probably much safer than Harry would be if Dumbledore found him.

After a roundtable discussion with the three house elves and Hedwig it was decided that for the moment Harry would keep quiet. He would finish his potion regime, get back his health, do some studying and practice his magic.

Kreacher had brought him several wands from Grimmauld Place. Although some wizards had their wands destroyed at their death, many didn't and they were passed down for generations or saved for an emergency. The Blacks had been the same and that was how Sirius acquired a wand after his escape from Hogwarts.

Harry had tried out several and three were very compatible with his magic. Kreacher took the rest back to Grimmauld Place. Kreacher had also brought him several books on magic, the type of magic that was very, very useful to know and which would never be taught at Hogwarts.

Normally, only a person of Black blood could actually take any books out of the house, but since Kreacher was a bonded Black house elf he could especially if he was bringing them to a Black heir. The books were very useful and interesting.

The more the potions were flushed from his system the quicker Harry recovered. It helped that once he was free of the charms, spells and hexes and, especially the blood wards on Privet Drive, his whole sense of self and magic improved greatly and he healed quickly. He had been free for only 18 days yet he had never felt this vital and...alive!

The more he recovered the stronger he got. He started doing some mild exercise such as walking around the area of the lair. There was just enough ground surrounding the lair to have a nice walk and then eventually a good run once he got strong enough. There was even a very small pond, not very deep at the edge of the property where Harry could practice swimming. The only time he had swum was for the Triwizard Tournament but despite the danger and the stress he had been under, he had to admit that in other circumstances he could grow to like it.

Another two weeks had passed by and he was starting to run and do a few simple exercises like the ones he had done at his primary school. He was feeling much better as the flushing potions were really working.

He had also been doing some reading and had even assigned himself homework. Dobby had found discarded text books at Hogwarts and had gotten Harry a complete set of books for all seven years, although some of them were beaten up they were still usable.

Before he knew it September 1st had rolled around. Dumbledore's trial had also finished. He had lost a lot of ground but his obliviation of the "key witnesses" had done much to save him. He was relieved of his duties as Head of the Wizengamot and the ICW but he still retained his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts which was the only one he would have really hated to lose.

He was damaged but he survived, which was more than could be said for others like Fudge and Lucius Malfoy. Both wizards were currently serving a sentence in Azkaban as well as some of the Death Eaters who could not escape in time. At least many had escaped and there were still those unmarked Death Eaters who supported and spied for the Dark Lord in the first war and whose identities were not known by the Inner Circle.

Voldemort was severely damaged by this and the fact that there was uncontestable proof of his resurrection had also helped to save Dumbledore from ending up in Azkaban. Since Voldemort was indeed back, Magical Britain would have need of Dumbledore's guidance and assistance in stopping the Dark Lord from regaining his power.

And then there was Harry Potter. The boy had to be found, Dumbledore had told them but why he refused to answer as such information was much too sensitive and needed to be known by as few people as possible, namely, only Albus Dumbledore had the knowledge and he was under a magical oath not to reveal that information.

"It is a terrible burden," he had told the court sadly, "But one which I willing safeguard."

The "special oath" was one of Dumbledore's most brilliant plans. Of all the things that truly saved him it had been that oath that not only kept him free but also made Britain "need his services" to defeat Voldemort once and for all.

And what was this special oath you ask? As said before one of his most brilliant plans. A magical oath can only be broken without killing the oath taker if the person who made you take the oath allows it or releases you from it.

For example, Dumbledore made Snape swear an unbreakable vow about something. If Snape breaks that vow, he could die. If Snape came to near to breaking his oath, his magic would start to warn him by causing him pain. That would be the signal to stop. If he continued revealing it, he would die probably before he could finish telling all. However, if Dumbledore released Snape from his oath or allowed him to tell a certain individual, only then could Snape reveal the contents of the oath and survive.

Now if the person who made you swear the oath was dead, then you would never be free and would have to keep the oath. You might be able to reveal some of it but would die in agony before you could reveal anything relevant.

And that was what Dumbledore had done. He wrote down everything important concerning Voldemort from his creation of the monster down to and including his plans for defeating him as well as a few other schemes he had in mind and alternate plans. He then sealed it in an envelope and had one of his poor, foolish pawns make him swear to never reveal to anyone any of the information contained inside the envelope.

In this way he could take Veritaserum or even be forced to swear on his life and magic why he couldn't reveal such and such a thing and get away with it. If was a foolproof plan and did now and would always get him out of trouble should he be caught or called to answer something he did not want to answer.

And who do you ask would be trusting (or stupid) enough to administer the oath on information contained in an envelope which was sealed and he would never know what was in it? Actually Dumbledore had many followers who would blindly do whatever he asked of them without knowing the reason why. But what would stop that person from revealing this ruse of Dumbledore sometime in the future? If ordered or Imperiused or given Veritaserum, what would stop the oath binder from releasing Dumbledore from his oath?

Why someone who Dumbledore knew for certain was going to die very shortly. In fact, a person who was going to die very, very soon, like in less than a week. Someone who needed to die so that all of Dumbledore's plans for the Greater Good could go forward.

James Potter, that's who.

Yep, just as soon as they changed the secret keeper from Sirius to Peter and just shortly after Dumbledore had finished recasting the Fidelius charm, Dumbledore had asked James to be the binder for this strange oath. Since James always did what Dumbledore told him to do, he thought nothing of it and would definitely never dream to even ask what the contents of the envelope contained.

The Fidelius was changed and the oath given by Dumbledore to James Potter on October 26, 1981. And the rest is history. But since it had been James Potter, father of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the defeater of Voldemort and the orphaned child whose life Dumbledore had taken total control over who had made Dumbledore swear this oath, Dumbledore could and did infer that he was merely following the final requests and/or orders of James Potter regarding the boy, and he couldn't tell the "real reasons" why he had been doing the things he had done concerning Harry Potter because of his oath to James.

It was the perfect excuse and had saved Dumbledore from destruction and his well-deserved punishments.

Dumbledore had survived and he was confident he would regain his other offices as well as more prestige and honors because that was how things were meant to be. But first he had to find Harry Potter and get him back under his control.

He finally had access to Petunia and Dudley Dursley, Harry's only remaining blood relatives so he could make some new trackers and place more blocks and spells on Potter but first he had to find the boy and get his blood so that his original spell would work.

Severus would have brewed the special dark potions like he had done before (under a dark compulsion spell that Dumbledore had placed on him), but Severus….well Severus had not returned. He didn't know if the man was alive or dead. The Goblins refused to reveal the information regarding Snape's vault as it was none of Dumbledore's business and it was known that Snape was a Death Eater so since the Ministry had a warrant out for him, let them find out if he was alive or dead.

Dumbledore thought he must be dead. There was no way that Voldemort would let him live after reading about his spying and the orders he received from Dumbledore as to how he wanted Voldemort "handled." Snape had been his only trustworthy spy and since things had happened so quickly even the captured Death Eaters didn't know Snape's fate.

So when, not if, they found Potter, Dumbledore would have to acquire a potions master to brew all of those very special potions and a few new ones Dumbledore would need. He would probably have to pay for such unique services but he'd find the money somewhere – probably from Potter's trust vault once he regained access to it.

Harry Potter read the newspapers reporting the trial and Dumbledore's getting away with almost everything. He should have known better than to hope.

At least he hadn't rushed like a Gryffindor into the Ministry's grasp which would then have brought him back into Dumbledore's clutches. He was still safe at the moment from Dumbledore and hopefully from Voldemort.

An inventory was taken of all the supplies and money he had left. Winky was still working at Hogwarts and thus she might be able to sneak a few things here and there that Harry would need.

Kreacher still lived and spied at Grimmauld Place. He had reported that Sirius was once again firmly under Dumbledore's thumb and his godfather spent his days mumbling to himself, spending time talking to Buckbeak and drinking heavily. The Order still used the house as their Headquarters and Molly was still ordering supplies for the house and for use at the Burrow for when "she fed Order members when they came to call."

Kreacher offered to acquire some extra supplies when Molly wasn't around and sneak them to Harry. He also commandeered many of the potions that Snape had made and a lot of the potion ingredients he had stocked up on. Since Snape's disappearance there was now no official brewer for the Order.

Although Aurors were required to have a NEWT in potions, that didn't mean they were an expert it just meant they had taken and passed their NEWT. Also, brewing complex potions took a lot of time, time which the Aurors who were members of the Order simply didn't have. Therefore, it was quite easy to steal most of the Order's potions and supplies without anybody knowing.

They still had a lot of food left compliments of the Dursleys, but it wouldn't last forever. So Kreacher volunteered to place a few clandestine food orders whenever he could. A vegetable garden could be planted next year so that would help.

Harry netted about £3,700 in cash from the Dursleys and he had about 30 or so galleons left. The basilisk venom and scales and the shedded skin were worth a lot but they would be sold as a last resort especially if Dumbledore was still trying to acquire the venom.

Kreacher, who had more experience than Dobby in running a household especially when it came to money, estimated that Harry and Dobby could live at the lair for at least two years with their current supplies and the supplements that he would sneak from Grimmauld Place.

Harry's clothes could be magically enlarged as he grew but only up to a certain extent since they were Muggle made. It would be too risky to purchase him new clothes using the Black vendors' account unless Molly started ordering "clothes for Order members" which were the exact size of one or more of her children.

Harry decided that he would really start worrying in two years. He was getting better and would be learning all he could and if after two years neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort found him, then decisions would be made when their options ran out.

And that is what they did. A year passed. Things were very quiet at Hogwarts during that year. Hermione, Ron and his other year mates took their OWLS then the school year ended and they all went home. Many students, even Slytherins, had to admit that without Potter there, nothing exciting had happened.

With his father in Azkaban, Draco Malfoy was silent. Ron had made the mistake of trying to taunt Malfoy but Draco still had his ways of getting back at the boorish Weasley. Even without Snape to aid and abet him, Malfoy managed to get Ron in a lot of trouble.

With some very careful manipulations on Malfoy's part and Ron being Ron, he had managed to lose his Prefect badge by the end of the year due to fighting, bullying, neglect of duties, unfair behavior directed to the students of other houses, especially Slytherins, and Dumbledore's indifference.

Dumbledore was too busy looking for Potter and scheming to be bothered with running the school. As usual McGonagall did most of the Headmaster's school duties. Fortunately Flitwick and Sinistra helped her otherwise she would have worked herself sick.

Without Dumbledore actively meddling in the school, things actually improved scholastically, but just a little. Binns still "taught" and they lost the Defense teacher at the end of the year in a freak accident as the curse on that position was still in effect.

Voldemort had spent most of his time recruiting and fund raising. He was laying low, training the new recruits, and like Dumbledore, looking for Potter. Voldemort wanted to kill Potter on principle. Since Dumbledore was desperately looking for him, there must be a very good reason why. So after lulling the Ministry into a false sense of security, he hit two places the same night. Voldemort went after the prophecy while most of the best Death Eaters attacked Azkaban and freed all the Death Eaters. Both were a great success.

Then he stopped everything. The rescued Death Eaters regained their strength while Voldemort carefully studied the prophecy. It explained a lot of things. No wonder Dumbledore had to find the boy.

Another thing which Voldemort had done during the past year was to study up on wand lore. He wanted to know why his and Potter's wand acted the way they did that night in the cemetery. He found out some very good information here and there and decided to acquire a new wand, several in fact. He went to the best wand maker in Europe. He then meditated and thought for an entire month.

The month before he went for the prophecy he did two things. The first was to retrieve the Gaunt ring and reabsorb the ring's Horcrux. He realized that making all of those evil things had limited his ability to reason, to truly plan. He then decided to retrieve and re-hide his remaining Horcruxes especially when he found out about what had happened to the journal he had entrusted to Lucius.

He could not trust anyone, but he had always known that. He had often wondered why Regulus Black had suddenly disappeared and was pronounced dead shortly after he had used his house elf to hide the locket. Now that he could think more clearly, he wanted the locket back and would personally hide it where no one knew or would be able to find it.

That was one of the reasons he risked breaking Bellatrix and Lucius out of Azkaban. Bella would get the cup from her vault and Lucius…well Lucius would be tasked with retrieving the locket. Failure would not be an option as if anything went wrong, Draco would be killed – slowly and painfully in front of his father's eyes.

Lucius and two nearly insane and worthless Death Eaters were sent. The two expendable DEs were lost but Lucius and completed his task. He had gotten the locket. Actually he had gotten A locket but not THE locket.

Narcissa was tasked with calling Regulus' personal house elf. Draco had already been crucioed unmercifully while both Lucius and Narcissa watched. He would be tortured for ten minutes every day by the Dark Lord himself until the elf was produced.

A desperate, frantic Narcissa called and called Kreacher. Then Bellatrix tried but nothing worked. It had been Bellatrix who suggested that perhaps the elf was dead as he was very old and slightly crazy and Sirius Black had truly hated him so perhaps he had been killed or died of old age. Voldemort had to admit that was a possibility. Snape had never mentioned Black having a house elf, not that something like that would be worth mentioning.

A new spy would have to be found or at least a member of the Order would have to be captured and questioned, perhaps Imperiused and used as a mole. The spy would have to be mark free because since the revelation of Snape's treachery and Voldemort's new found sanity, there was no doubt that Dumbledore knew more than he let on.

On yes, Dumbledore knew everything or at least suspected. He had to know that Quirrell was working for Voldemort as it was clear that having the Philosopher's Stone at Hogwarts the year Potter was coming to school could not have been a coincidence. Had it even been the real stone?

Once again since reabsorbing his Horcrux, Voldemort's memories were starting to come back. At one point Voldemort had done substantial research regarding making a stone for himself. Immortality and limitless wealth would be just the thing he needed. While studying in India he had found some books written in parsel and one of them mentioned the history of Philosopher's Stone. Two people had successfully made such a thing although it was called by a different name but he recognized it.

The magic needed to make such a thing was dark, in fact it was some of the darkest magic he had ever read about. Apparently Nicolas Flamel was not a Light wizard if he had used the same procedures to make his stone. Also it would only work for the person or persons involved in the direct creation of the stone. Since Flamel's wife benefitted from her husband's creation, she must have also "sold her soul" along with her husband and helped in its making.

But in his disembodied pain-filled state as a wraith he had forgotten all of that and instead only thought about getting possession of the stone. Now that he thought back on it all, why would Flamel, who had kept the stone safe for over six hundred years, keep it in a vault at Gringotts? Surely he had the best safeguards money could buy and would be foolish to ever let it out of his sight and possession.

He had had six hundred years of magical knowledge and practice to protect it so why was it in Gringotts and then why would it be moved from Gringotts, an unbreakable, theft-proof place, and given into the "safekeeping" of someone like Albus Dumbledore? If Tom Riddle knew some of the very dark and/or at least unethical things which Dumbledore had done and Voldemort knew even more, Nicolas Flamel definitely had to know and probably knew additional information.

In fact, were the Flamels even alive? Apparently no one but Dumbledore had seen or had contact with them in years and that had been when Dumbledore had been Flamel's apprentice which had been years before Tom Riddle was born.

No, now that he could clearly think about it, it couldn't possibly have been the real stone but merely a trap set by Dumbledore to lure Voldemort out of hiding and no doubt to test Harry Potter. Word had come back to Voldemort that the stone had been voluntarily destroyed by the Flamels because it was too dangerous an item to exist. Dragon dung!

Therefore, if someone actually succeeded in making a stone, lived and benefitted by its use for six hundred years, they were not going to destroy it because it had suddenly become too dangerous to exist. Nope it had been a ruse by Dumbledore, a trap set and had worked out very well for Dumbledore's purposes. If the Flamels still lived they probably knew nothing about it and people, especially Harry Potter and Dumbledore's staff, would and did believe anything that Dumbledore told them.

At the time in his life when he first read about the stone's creation he had been dark, but not even he was that dark – yet. It wasn't until after he had made his third Horcrux and began to lose his sanity that he became dark enough to consider making his own stone, but by then he had his Horcruxes.

It seemed that hadn't been such a great idea either. Oh he had immortality of a sort but at what cost – the cost of his sanity and a lot of his power. He needed his sanity not only to survive but to prosper and to accomplish his original goals. He also had to have someone he trusted to bring him back from the dead, which was why it had taken him 13 years to come back.

Thirteen long and painful years, and even then it was only by a stroke of luck that Wormtail had been exposed and had to flee from the wrath of Sirius Black and Barty Crouch had managed to escape his father.

But what would happen if he should be "killed" once again? He had to make better, safer provisions and some foolproof plans. Oh he had plans but he also had FOOLS serving him. But he had always known that as most of his followers were nothing more than weaklings, sadists and fools seeking power they really didn't deserve. They would turn on him in a second if they could and that was why he had created the dark mark trapping them in his service and preventing one of them from killing him.

Bellatrix was one of his few faithful followers but was that because she was insane? She had been a sadistic bitch bordering on full blown insanity before Azkaban and her imprisonment hadn't helped. She was basically unchanged except for her bad health and loss of looks and that itself had frightened even Voldemort.

But he had to work with what he had or at least until he could get something better.

His original plan was to retrieve the locket, the cup, his journal and re-hide them. Ravenclaw's diadem could stay where it was, but the others would be hidden in places where even Dumbledore wouldn't think to look.

He had reabsorbed the ring's Horcrux and planned to eventually reabsorb Nagini's as it was just too risky having a living object subject to sudden death at any moment carrying a piece of his soul. It wouldn't kill her and she would still be his beloved familiar but she would be better protected if she was returned to being just a normal, enhanced magical snake.

But then he had found out what Lucius had done with the journal. His wrath knew no bounds and Lucius nearly died for his foolishness. He had told his followers that the journal had been the Slytherin Grimoire spelled to look like a journal. Even Snape agreed with the other Death Eaters that Lucius should be killed because a family Grimoire was an irreplaceable heirloom and an important foundation for a family.

That the Slytherin Grimoire had been destroyed through Lucius' careless indifference was such an unforgiveable act that many thought the only reason he wasn't dead yet was because the Dark Lord was planning a punishment so horrendous that it would make history. Everybody was looking forward to witnessing such a thing as Lucius was universally hated and it would be very sweet to see him and his family be utterly destroyed.

For the moment at least Voldemort had used it to his advantage by fining Lucius. Granted Lucius generously contributed to his Dark Lord, but it was usually well within his means. But this time the "fine" would serve as a slight reprieve until Lucius could either redeem himself or be suitably punished if he made just one more mistake.

The G2 million which he had been obliged to produce in cash, divided equally between Goblin gold and Muggle currency, was an unbelievable amount. In Britain the average rich wizard had perhaps G1 million in their vault, some better off families had perhaps G5 to 10 million and only the super rich, like the Malfoys, Potters, Blacks, Greengrasses and a few others, possessed more.

The Malfoys had a lot of money but they spent it freely. They lived lavishly, entertained continually, were publically seen to donate to many worthy charities, and funded many a campaign fund. In other words, Lucius had bribed his way out of Azkaban and bought most of his influence at the Ministry and in the public eye and now that the Dark Lord was back he would be expected to raise and donate much money to the war chest.

And he would, but first he would be financing Voldemort's "reconstruction of the Grimoire." Voldemort would need to go on private searches, purchase ancient tomes, seek out this and that knowledge not only in the Magical World but, shudder, shudder, in the filthy Muggle World. It was a task only he could do and not only would it be time-consuming, exhausting and expensive but delay the restart of the conquest (or liberation) of Britain. AND IT WAS ALL LUCIUS' FAULT!

Fortunately Lucius had been able to deliver the cash just days before he was arrested so Voldemort had the financing he needed to get his wands, do his thinking and make the usual plans for his organization. He also had a fortune should he need to make a fast getaway.

He needed a magical amount of Horcruxes. The cup, diadem and the locket were three and with that powerful number and safeguard he could reabsorb Nagini. But if the locket had been destroyed…. No it had to be found and found soon.