AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited!

A special thanks to magitech, RebeccaRoy and VeltalO for giving me great ideas about how Hogwarts can improve. I still don't know which ideas I'll actually use in later chapters though I am very grateful for the inspiration that all they gave me.

I apologize for taking so long to update but my muse didn't want to cooperate and thus this chapter is not that exciting. Hopefully the next ones will be more interesting.

''Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.''

―Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

CHAPTER 7

After a light lunch, Florence worked on some paperwork from Gringotts and penned a few letters that she would send later if the next days progressed as she expected them to. She was quite confident that her initial plans would proceed smoothly and then she could really start her quest in changing this world's biased mentality. There was no time to lose if she wanted the magical world prepared against the dangers that were the muggles before it was too late to do something about it.

Later that evening, she left the manor to advance another of her plans. What she was about to do could be most definitely considered deadly dangerous if one was not the Mistress of Death. However, she had absolutely no need to worry about losing her life.

With barely a sound, she apparated a few metres away from the Gaunt Shack just outside of the village of Little Hangleton. The old house was filthier and more dilapidated than she remembered from the Pensieve memory that she had watched when she was sixteen, though she barely noticed it as she searched for possible wards around the Shack with her magic.

For a second, she was surprised to find that were none, except for a long-standing Anti-Muggle ward; although she quickly reasoned that it would be suspicious if this old and abandoned house was protected by powerful magic. Satisfied with this, Florence carefully stepped inside the rundown building that appeared as if it could collapse at any second. Even if she would not sustain any permanent damage if that happened, she would still feel the usual pain before Death's magic started to heal her body and that was something that was entirely unpleasant.

As she had expected, she felt the ring's magic from under the floor boards where once had been the kitchen. Its magic was positively Dark, both from the deadly Dark Curse created by Voldemort to protect it and from the Horcrux itself.

After magically levitating the floor board, Florence found a golden box sitting innocently underneath in that small hiding place. She could feel the curse beckoning her to reach out and take the ring from the box. It was like a demanding whisper that wanted to trap her magic and take over her mind and body as it promised that it could fulfil her deepest wish if she only touched the ring and put it on her finger. Admittedly, the call was very compelling and she wasn't sure that she could have resisted it if she hadn't been protected beforehand and hadn't known what to expect. It was something that she had wondered ever since she had been aware of its fate in her world: how could have Dumbledore, a wizard so powerful and wise, been so stupid as to put the ring on and almost die because of it, already knowing that the object housed a piece of the Dark Lord's soul? Now she could somewhat understand. The curse's call was truly alluring and almost impossible to resist and then adding to the fact that the old man had just found the Resurrection Stone where he had least expected – a magical ancient artefact that he had searched for and wished to own for so many decades – it was not really a surprise that he had surrendered easily.

Not wasting more time than necessary, she took a pair of special gloves from her right pocket and swiftly put them on. They were woven with many protection and containment spells mainly against powerful Dark Curses. They would absorb the magic on the object they first touched, though after that they would be rendered useless until they had been cleansed of the curse by a specific cleaning solution. These gloves had been created and developed until its present state by George Weasley after the Second Wizard War and had become a great hit in the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' shelves, being purchased mainly by Aurors and other Magicals that interacted regularly with hostile magic.

As soon as Florence made contact with the ring, she could sense the curse trying to reach out to her magical core and settle its 'claws' on her hands. It fought fiercely for several moments before she felt the magic loose intensity and the gloves work flawlessly. She felt a sigh of relief unconsciously leave her lips; for a moment, she had feared that this particular curse would be too strong to contain and she was very happy that her worry had been needless.

Inspecting the ring closely, she could see that the Resurrection Stone once embedded on it was now no more than a black stone without any magical power and the symbol of the Deadly Hallows had completely vanished. Florence knew that the same had happened to the Elder Wand – now no more than merely a powerful wand, but not unbeatable anymore – and to the Invisibility Cloak – now a normal invisibility cloak that would conceal its owner before starting to deteriorate like any other magical cloak – as the moment Florence had arrived in this world these three ancient magical artefacts ceased to exist in that fashion.

After making sure that the entirety of curse was gone, Florence conjured a plain, small wooden box and guarded the ring inside of it before putting it safely in her pocket. Next, she removed the gloves leaving them folded inside-out and being careful not to touch the side of the fabric that had made contact with the curse and they, too, were put in a pocket after being enclosed inside another small box. Lastly, she returned the floor board to its rightful place and banished the golden box where the ring had been found in and left the shack like the place had never been disturbed.

Her reasoning to this little adventure was fairly simple.

When she had started to make plans about travelling through time and dimensions, she had pondered what it would be the best approach to the 'Voldemort Problem'. Her first and impulsive solution to this was that she could simply gather all the Horcruxes – as she had already known all their locations it was a simple task to undertake – and then face the Dark Lord and kill him once again. She had already done it before when she had so little magical experience and was weaker than him, so it should be more than feasible now that she was so much more powerful and knowledgeable about magic. However, she was aware that this option was not so simple. Even if she had succeeded in defeat Voldemort, there was still the Death Eaters to consider as there would surely be someone eager to take their fallen master's place. As the Ministry was unwilling at this point to acknowledge that You-Know-Who had returned, the mass break-out that would occur in the beginning of the New Year – if this timeline continued similar to her own – would be blamed on Sirius Black and the Dark Side could keep advancing their plans unbothered from the shadows. Florence was not arrogant enough to even consider the possibility that she could defeat them all in her own in a matter of months. That was precious time that she could not afford to lose if she wished to start changing the wizarding world's narrow and naïve view about muggles and the danger that they posed to anything magical as soon as possible.

When Florence had first shared these thoughts with Ignotus, her only friend had asked her to explain in more detail what exactly she knew about the last two magical wars. What were the views of the Dark Side? And the Light Side? What was her honest opinion about all that? And was she certain that what she knew about both sides of the war was all true or was most of it speculation and whatever Dumbledore had told her?

She had been surprised at first by those questions, though she shouldn't have really been. She had come to learn that Ignotus was a very wise wizard; having had travelled around the world and lived for more than 250 years, he had had the opportunity to acquire a more perceptive view of the world that not many could admit to have. It was quite reasonable to be able to analyse both sides of a conflict before he made his educated opinion on the matter.

So, Florence tried to neutrally ponder about those points for some time and finally reach a solution that she thought could be the best on the longer term for the survival of the Wizarding World.

When she was younger and trusting, she had believed that being Dark was the same as being evil and no one around her – meaning mostly the Light Side – had ever stated a word against that biased view. However, from the day she had met Ignotus, she had quickly learned that the world was not so black and white and most often than not there were numerous shades of grey. Even Florence had a rather grey view of the world and people that she had not acknowledged until her friend had finally pointed it out to her.

The true was that she had been so brainwashed by the Light Side about what was right and wrong and good and evil that any different opinion she had about their 'normal' point of view, she had automatically kept them to herself and did her best to ignore them and simply agreed to what was generally accepted by society. Her desire to be 'normal' due to the Dursley's ill-treatment of her had contributed heavily to that way of thinking and Florence suspected that was something Dumbledore had counted on when he had left her on the Muggles' doorstep. After all, the old wizard could not have his precious pawn with a mind and opinions of her own that could clearly set them apart; he needed someone who followed his words without question and Florence bitterly admitted that the man had succeeded in accomplish that plan.

Since she had first stepped in Diagon Alley – and later Hogwarts – she had been told that Dark Wizards were irrevocably evil and that Lord Voldemort was the most horrible of them all. At the time Florence had no way or reason to even suspect, though later remembering those instances, she could see clearly that Dumbledore had not so subtly stated that it was her duty to fight against the Dark Lord and his minions. The old wizard had been preparing her since she was eleven to sacrifice herself for the 'Greater Good' with absolutely no care that the young girl was virtually ignorant about the wizarding world.

So what if Voldemort had killed her parents and tried to kill her as well? She had not been the only one to suffer because of him – in fact, she could even say that she somehow had avenged her father and mother right after he had killed them by banishing his body and forcing him to live as a wandering spirit for thirteen years, and that was something no one else could admit to have ever done – so why should be her, a clueless and inexperienced child, be chosen to fight the enemy when even trained adults cowered at the mere mention of his name? In hindsight, she realised quite appalled that Dumbledore had only done what he had deemed the barely necessary and had left the major and most dangerous confrontations and situations on her young hands to try and somewhat miraculously save the day. How had she not died or suffered any permanent damage was completely beyond her.

She had no wish in being the Minister of Magic or whatever official title that would give her complete power over the magical world. As long as they kept completely separated from the muggles and the prejudices against magical creatures and dark magic lessened, she was content in living her life without bothering much with politics. And those were some of the points included in the Dark Side's plans after taking over, which fitted perfectly in her plans as well.

In a sudden moment of enlightening, a startling thought entered her mind rendering her body frozen for a few heartbeats. What if the Dark Lord could somehow change his tactics to take control of the Wizarding World?

Florence was very well aware that Voldemort was practically insane ever since he had been resurrected in that graveyard in Little Hangleton. She was certain that was due to all the Horcruxes he had created in his mad and desperate path to avoid death at any cost. If she could somehow find a way to restore his soul – at least partly – she had a greater possibility to succeed in change the Dark Side's methods, as the Dark Lord would be much more rational and approachable to a potential alliance or whatever she would plan on doing.

She knew now that, though she was in the grey side of the spectrum, her views were much more dark than light and she was confident that she could in some way convince Voldemort in joining forces with her. She had witnessed what had happened when the Light Side had been given free reign of the Wizarding World and that was something that she was sure neither Voldemort or any other Dark Wizard wished to see, let even experience.

After sharing her considerations to Ignotus once again, he had beamed at her and said that there was indeed a way to return Horcruxes without the soul's owner being none the wiser; in fact, it was a fairly easy and quick ritual to do seeing as she was the Death Mistress and proceeded to lecture her on what she should do.

And that was what Florence was doing in a bare room in the basement of Peverell Manor right after she had returned from the Gaunt Shack. The drawings on the floor were quite simple with just the runes for Life, Death, Energy, Binding and Stability in each point of the previously drawn five-pointed star. Then, she carefully placed the ring in the middle of the star and started chanting the short verses of the Spell to join once more the soul's piece to his rightful owner.

After about two minutes of chanting and the feeling of the steady increasing of magic in the room to the point of almost suffocation, there was an explosion of light and magic and then there was nothing but silence and Florence's heavy breathing.

Opening her eyes (she had closed them against the onslaught of bright light) Florence saw that the runes and star had vanished, though the ring continued sitting innocently where she had placed it previously. Approaching slowly, she probed the object with her magic and was thrilled to confirm that she had been successful in liberating the Horcrux.

That night at a certain unplottable manor, the Dark Lord slept away in his king-sized bed utterly oblivious to the plans of one powerful and determined witch. He was unaware as well when a sliver of his soul, which he had previously split, returned to its rightful place and that would slowly and subtly make him once again the intelligent and logical wizard that he was in his youth.