"Where do we start?" Lily asked the group as they sat discussing the new project they had brought home.
"Slughorn." James sighed, "He'll know him best. I think this is a job for you Lily."
"I agree." Sirius smirked, "He always liked her best."
"I think we need to go back home." Harry stated, "It will be easier to investigate if we're all in the same place as the information we need."
"We could go to your parent's house James." Remus suggested.
"I haven't been there for a while." James sighed unsure of this decision, "We'll have to go first and check it out. I don't want Lily or Harry there until I'm sure it's safe."
"I could let them know I got cured and we could all return to work." Ted indicated his family, "Then you only have to house yours."
"But is it safe for you to return?" Harry asked, "Won't Bellatrix want revenge on you for taking me in?"
"She doesn't know." Andromeda stated, "There was only us and Albus who knew where you went and no one is talking."
"What about Snape?" Harry was still worried.
"He never saw us there." She smiled, "Besides we have some really good wards on our home. Bellatrix would love to see me dead just because I tarnished the family name by marrying a muggleborn."
Harry conceded her point and they returned to the discussion at hand. James, Sirius and Remus all left to go and inspect the house that afternoon and returned with good news. The house was intact and not in bad shape. A few cleaning spells and new wards and they'd be ready for the five of them to move in. Sirius and Remus were staying with them for added security and to continue lessons. Andromeda, Ted and Nymphadora would come for some lessons too. It would also be easier to get lessons from the Headmaster and other professors that were in the order. Within a week they were packed and moved to the home of Harry's grandparents. Two months later they found themselves with more knowledge but no closer to stopping the mad man.
"Seven is the most powerful magic number." Remus shrugged.
"Sorry it took so long." Lily added, "He didn't want to tell me. I had to guilt him into it."
"We don't really have much then." Sirius sighed, "They could be anything."
"Not anything." Ted disagreed, "Voldmort thinks himself extraordinary. He would use only the best treasures he could get his hands on."
"And the diary was a treasure?" Harry wondered.
"It proved he was the heir of Slytherin and could kill our children any time he wanted to." Ted stated, "It served a purpose."
"So what other purposes did he need served?" Harry wondered, "We know he is an orphan. What would be a treasure to him? Where could he keep them safely?"
"We can look at the orphanage." Sirius suggested.
"I doubt he put anything there." Harry disagreed.
"Why not?" Sirius was exasperated.
"I wouldn't hide anything of value to me at Lestrange Manor." He pointed out, "I doubt he wants to remember a time he was trapped in that home full of muggles."
"That is a point." Lily agreed, "But we'll check it anyway just to be sure."
"I bet he has something at Hogwarts." Harry said thoughtfully, "If he hated the orphanage then when he got to Hogwarts he could have felt like he was in a place he belonged. For me Hogwarts will always be a safe place."
"The only place safer is Gringotts." Sirius laughed.
"Well let's hope Voldemort doesn't think so." Lily said, "I don't know how we'd ever get anything from there."
"Sirius did you dig anything up?" James asked.
"Well I broke into Borgan's shop and went through the records. Tom Riddle began working for them right after school. At first he was just a teller but when people brought things in for inspection he was always able to get them to drop their prices down. So he was promoted to a collector. His last job was at a woman's house who claimed to own Hufflepuffs cup." Sirius looked over the sheets he had copied, "I looked her up since there was no purchase of the cup in Borgan's records. She died a few days after his visit. Her children said she had the cup and a locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin but neither item was ever found. They tried to file a claim against Borgan and Burke's but nothing came of it because they didn't have either item on inventory lists."
"That sounds fishy." James scratched his chin.
"Those are priceless treasures." Lily pointed out, "Voldemort's inner Diva would really like that."
"So we have the book." Ted stated thoughtfully, "We think he may have gone back and murdered the woman and stole her treasures. So then we have the part in his body, the cup and the locket. Four items in all, so if the cup belonged to Hufflepuff and the locket was Slytherin's then two more could be something from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
"Gryffindore had a sword and Ravenclaw had a diadem." Andromeda added, "Neither has been seen for centuries, possibly since the time of the founders."
"We'll begin to trace back the purchases of the cup and locket." James directed, "Lily see if you can find out anything about the sword and diadem."
"Isn't he supposed to be the heir of Slytherin. Maybe you can find a place where his family had the locket and then sold it." Harry suggested, "Tracing from that direction may be easier."
"I can look up his family history." Sirius agreed heading to the floo, "We need to know who his parents were anyway. Oh and I already copied the inventory list for the last hundred years for Borgan's little shop I didn't want to have to go back."
"Look at this." Andromeda almost screeched shortly after Sirius left. She had taken the second batch of inventory records for Borgan and Burke's to look over, "He practically stole it."
"What?" James who had taken the first twenty years looked up along with everyone else.
"Slytherins locket. He paid just a few galleons to this poor girl." She growled, "He knew what she had and basically stole it from her."
"What's her name and I'll add it to the list." Remus turned to their parchment for the list of transactions pertaining to that locket.
"Marope Gaunt." She was calming some but not a lot, "Gaunt, I think I remember hearing that name before."
"You should." Sirius had returned quicker than any of them imagined, "I ran into Albus and he told me who Voldemorts parents were. A muggle named Tom Riddle, whom he was named after, and a poor pureblood girl that was indeed the last of Slytherin's line. Marope Gaunt."
"Well that took less time than I had imagined." James dropped his stack of papers.
"I'm almost glad he stole it then." Harry said, "His mother gets a fortune basically stolen and he gets it back."
"Did Dumbles say anything else?" James rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"He said the family had two treasures. The locket of Slytherin and a ring with what they claimed was the Peverell coat of arms." Sirius answered, "So now we have seven items. The book, one thing each from the founders, the piece in his body and finally this ring."
"We need to still look for other things." Lily scolded Sirius, "What if he never found the diadem or sword then what?"
"Peverell?" James asked, "We're related to them. I didn't know they had a coat of arms though."
"We're related to the Peverell family?" Harry asked astonished, "Don't you know what their famous for?"
"I didn't know they were famous for anything." James shrugged.
"Bellatrix was making fun of Rodolphus about them." Harry explained, "He believes the story of the Three Brothers is based on facts and the three Peverell brothers are the ones from the story. Most people consider anyone looking form them as a crazy loon, Xeno Lovegood is looking for them."
"Do you know of a coat of arms then?" Sirius asked.
"No." Harry pulled out a parchment and quill, "But they do have a symbol." He drew a straight line, "That stands for the wand that never loses." Then a circle over the line, "The stone that can bring back the dead." And then a triangle that encompassed both, "An invisibility cloak that never fails and can even hide you from death."
"Huh." James knew they were descendants of the youngest brother but the other two items were harder to believe.
"Now Rodolphus said there have been rumors for centuries about a wand of immense power one that has a very bloody history." Harry pointed out, "It's called the Death Stick I think. He also said the youngest of the brothers lived to be very old even by our standards."
"He was seeking them all?" James asked.
"No he just wants the wand." Harry said, "But Bellatrix said if you can find the wand we need the rest of them to give them all to Voldemort so he can be the master of death. Then he could decide who lives and who dies. Anyone other than their group of purebloods would be dead before nightfall. But it's just a myth."
"I don't know." James said to the shock of the others. He walked out of the room and came back carrying a cloak and before anyone could say any more he put it on and disappeared from view, "We are descendants of the youngest of the brothers."
"So if that ring with the Peverell coat of arms is the stone from the second brother then Voldemort has one third of the Deathly Hallows." Sirius gasped.
"Who has the wand?" Lily asked.
"No one knows." James sighed, "If it is the Death stick then it does have a very bloody history indeed. They think you must kill the person who has it in order to gain its loyalty. It has been in and out of history for centuries. The last it was heard of was in 1881 when someone killed Igorthoriam Crouch. It was also rumored that Grindlewald was looking for it in his early life."
"How do you know?" Lily was shocked.
"My grandfather was big into wand lore." James shrugged and held up his wand, "Dad saved all his notes and I had to read them before I went to get my first wand. He said he wanted me to have the proper mind set when it picked me."
"Well, if he got it then Dumbledore has it now." Sirius said jokingly, "It's just a good thing for us Volde is scared of Dumby."
"Dad." Harry questioned ignoring Sirius' joke, "Can I read his notes? It's too late for my wand picking but I'd still like to see what he had to say."
Crookshanks, who had been peacefully lying on Harry's lap until Sirius had returned took a suddenly leap at the man. Sirius fell over in surprise as the hissing cat jumped on him. After rolling around for a moment he yelled, "Crookshanks, you already know me. What are you doing?"
A few seconds later cat pounced on his head and started pulling on his hair.
"He's got something in his mouth." Harry pointed out.
James finally pulled the kneazle off Sirius and held up his hand so that the cat deposited a large black beetle with weird markings around the eyes. He handed the cat over to Harry and pulled out his wand to stun the bug. Setting in on the middle of the couch he threw the animagus reversal spell at it and in a few seconds Rita Skeeter was sprawled out in its place.
"Auror Black, remind me if I'm wrong but I don't think Ms. Skeeter is a registered animagus." James was growling.
"Correct you are Auror Potter, now what to do with her?" Sirius sighed, "Oh, let's get out that bug zapper thingy. I bet that would be a huge zap, very messy."
"Sirius!" Lily admonished, "Can we obliviate her? She really shouldn't be able to understand what we were talking about but if anyone reads her mind they might."
"I'll do it." Andromeda offered, "I am certified and it is legal since she enter a secret she wasn't asked into."
"Now what?" Ted asked.
"Well we're going to take her in and question her." James shrugged.
Before the middle of January Rita Skeeter was able to write an article about the horrors of Azkaban from the inside. However it would take her several years before she could publish it. They don't allow inmates to send articles to the newspaper.
"Sirius we need more space." Dumbledore sighed the night after Skeeter's trial, "That attack in St. Mungo's was very telling. I don't think Order members will be safe recovering there any longer."
"Can we borrow a few house elves?" he asked looking around at the dismal house that he had grown up in.
"Not until the Term is over." He sighed.
"We can start getting the dark stuff out first." James suggested, "Once that's done we could get anyone in to clean."
"After the dark stuff is gone I don't think there will be anything left." Sirius looked around gloomily.
It was late spring by the time they got to the room that held the cabinet that housed the locket. They soon had the second blow to Voldemort's immortality. The locket was quickly identified and Dumbledore was called in to take care of it. A few drops of basilisk venom to the back and the horcrux was destroyed. The party that followed that was one of the best that Harry could ever remember, even better than his first Halloween with his parents. That summer more people joined the order and Harry got to meet the rest of Ginny's family.
"Hi Harry." Ginny hugged him after she exited the floo. The two of them stood not far from the floo but they were talking quietly so no one else could hear.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Better than ever. The year went really well after we met." She gushed, "How about you?"
"It's been great." He smiled.
"Ginny?" Molly Weasley called concerned for her daughter, "Is that a friend from school?"
"No..." Ginny started but was interrupted.
"I will be doing introductions later." Dumbledore waved at them, "Take your seats everyone and we'll begin."
"Boys take Ginny and head up…" Molly ordered but was stopped.
"This first part is for everyone." Dumbledore insisted. Once everyone was seated he called the meeting to order, "I am very pleased to let you all know we have some very good news to impart this evening. I've known about this for a few years but there is now a need for all of you to know. James if you will."
"As you all know Lily and I have not had a really good time over this last decade." Nods of agreement were seen on all sides, "A little less than two years ago we got a tip that led us to realize that Peter was not killed the night that Harry was taken from us. In fact, it was found that he aided in Harry's abduction. Just before that information was received Lily was hit with a terrible curse. The person that gave us the tip about Peter also told us which spell Bellatrix had been boasting to have used on her. Luckily the counter had been found and administered before any permanent damage could be done." He was interrupted by a round of applause. "Thank you and as wonderful as it was it was nothing compared to the other information we received that night." He could hear whispers of what could be better than that before he could continue, "We found out where our son was. When we disappeared after that evening to look for Harry we were actually getting to know our son again, Harry stand up please."
A few people applauded including Ginny and Moody but most were staring in shock. Harry sat and Lily took up the speaking, "We've had a wonderful time getting to know him and we apologize to anyone we worried. But for Harry's safety we couldn't let anyone know. We had such a blow about Peter that same evening we were understandably upset and anxious."
"Understandably." Dumbledore added, "We had originally decided to have them seem to be searching for a cure for the curse on Lily. But many of you guessed correctly that we knew about Peter before he was captured. I just thought it best for Harry's safety to go with the story that Bellatrix had ran with him and that the Potters were chasing her."
"When in reality we had him and she was trying to find us." Sirius added, "We had one very close call but that was it. Having Peter turn out to be a spy for Voldemort has really knocked us for a loop. Fear invaded us for a while."
"While we are comfortable letting the order know now we aren't so sure about the rest of the world." James stated, "So Hogwarts is still not a viable option for us. We are going to continue to home school him. But, a year and a half with no one but adults is a little long. We want friends for him from the people we trust the most. So with that if all the children not in the order will follow Harry he will show you a place we've set up so you can all spend time getting to know each other."
Harry stood and Ginny was the first one by his side. Molly was the first one to put a halt to their departure, "I'm sorry but I have to ask. Wasn't Harry raised by Bellatrix Lestrange?"