Disclaimer: The characters and settings, including any sentences taken directly or partly from the books or movies, of Harry Potter are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, AOL Time Link and Warner Brothers. I do not make money from publishing my story.
The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix was anything but orderly. The whole mansion was crawling with people all with the same purpose, finding the house elf named Kreacher and detaining it in the house. Both Harry and Bellatrix were able to claim rights to Kreacher and the Black estate, in which the headquarters of the Order was currently residing, leading to their current predicament.
"Stupefy", Shacklebolt said, pointing his wand at the cowering house elf, who tried to sneak away behind the wooden paneling on the walls, through one of the larger cracks. The creature tried to drag the bindle with items through the hole as well, but at that moment was ambushed by auror Shacklebolt.
"I have him", the auror shouted from the attic. The words were quickly repeated several times, as a string of people called them throughout the mansion. The stunned house elf was then levitated to the conference room, the bag with belongings was following suit. As the elf lay unmoving on the table the Order waited for their leader to arrive. Mundungus was eyeing the sac fervently as others moved throughout the room to cater tea and biscuits for all.
"Please excuse my tardiness", Dumbledore said as he walked into the conference room. Molly had graciously taken his coat from him and was now putting it away in one of the cupboards, while Remus helped the man to some tea.
Dumbledore, however, declined to tea and seemed pleased and interested in the house elf caught by Shacklebolt. "We have just caught him, sir", the auror said politely, "He was sneaking away with Black family items." The Headmaster nodded affirmatively, but his mind seemed absent.
The Headmaster's wand appeared in his owner's hand and was quickly pointed at the immobile Kreacher. The elf was soon mobile again, at least partially. "Please excuse us for detaining you in this manner, Kreacher". The elf, still unable to move his lower limbs, realised that he was able to talk once more and glared at Dumbledore before ranting.
"Professor Dumbledore, Friend of Mudbloods and blood-traitors alike, Kreacher serves only the house of Kreacher's mistress", Kreacher ranted, "Kreacher won't betray his mistress, WON'T, Kreacher WON'T!" The poor house elf began to trash his arms in a feeble attempt to escape the spell that kept him bound. Kreacher's trashing was rattling the wooden table and everything on it.
Silently Dumbledore cast a sleeping spell upon the hysterical elf and laid him down carefully upon the table. "I believe it is best to see what belongings dear Kreacher was trying to keep from us", the Headmaster said as he twirled his wand once more, causing the items to float out of the bag one by one after which they descended upon the wood.
"I will be sifting through these myself, gentlemen", Dumbledore said addressing the people present in the room, "Please take care of Kreacher and see to it that he has everything he needs while he stays in Regulus' old room." The dismissal was smooth, but nonetheless very clear to those present in the room. As was the threat to Kreacher, the elf in question would be guarded 24/7, with no chance to escape, the Headmaster seemed to be in control of everything again.
Albus had been sifting through the items for a few hours now, occasionally someone had brought him tea, before they were just as quickly dismissed from the room. He had expected to find that most items would be cursed in one way or another and had therefore been reserved in his contact with any of them. Up till now, he had not found anything that would be a danger to them if given back to the house elf and through him find its way to the Dark Lord.
However, this changed as he began his thorough examination of the golden locket. The heavy locket had an inlay of emerald in the form of the letter S and seemed somewhat damaged by the hand of time. It was very old by the looks of it, but then again, the Blacks were an old family and had always been keen on keeping heirlooms. In this case, it was no Black heirloom that Albus Dumbledore was gazing upon at this very moment, no this was a Slytherin heirloom.
He was certain of it. As a young student of his, descended from Helga Hufflepuff herself, had once acquired it and had been kind enough, or at least boastful enough, to show this particular piece of her collection to him. The question was now: how did this particular locket end up in the hands of the Black family? "Kingsley", Albus directed to the door and quickly the large Auror stepped inside, "If you would be so kind to escort Kreacher down here."
"I have gathered you all here today because I believe that we have gathered the necessary means to bring young mister Potter back to us", Albus Dumbledore said, addressing all the order members in the room. "From the items the house elf Kreacher intended to take into hiding with him, we have acquired a locket that is very dear to Voldemort." While a shiver went through the room at the mention of the Dark Lord's name, all those present were intrigued with the idea.
"It is my believe that we may negotiate young Harry's safety if we are prepared to return the locket to him", already faces were starting to fill with glee at the prospect of having their friend and saviour returned to them, but the Headmaster was not done with explaining and of course if it was that simple what had they been waiting for.
"I wanted to keep myself from repeating the same mistake and therefore wish to involve you all into the decision", his tone was grave and slowly the glee melted from everyone's face. "The locket is not only a Slytherin family heirloom, it also contains a part of the Dark Lord's soul. Voldemort is of course aware of this fact, which presents both an advantage as well as a disadvantage."
Disgust and fear flowed through the crowed as if it were waves on the beach and a lot of people were murmuring among each other. Some were more brave and suggested quite loudly that they should immediately destroy it, while others were doubtful and wondered what kind of evil was in their midst.
"Voldemort will undoubtedly want the horcrux returned to him. However, if he is aware of the fact that young Harry is a horcrux as well, it would seem as if he would gain nothing from a trade.", Albus was laying out his arguments slowly and let his audience examine them carefully. "We shall have to vote on whether we want to attempt a trade with Voldemort: the locket for Harry Potter."
"However, there is also the matter that independent of the trade, Voldemort will have a horcrux in his possession that we are unlikely to ever get access to again. This means that we have to decide whether we want to destroy the horcrux inside the locket before we attempt the trade or if we leave the horcrux intact." Again people were voicing their opinions quite loudly and Auror Shacklebolt was the one to call them to silence.
"While destroying the horcrux would indeed be to our interests in vanishing Voldemort, we are unaware of the connection between the horcrux and Voldemort himself. He may very well be able to sense the destruction, swinging the chances of trading the locket for dear Harry out of our favor", Albus concluded his monologue.
With a few quick wand movements parchment, feathers and ink was distributed among all Order members. A black bowl was formed out of one of the feathers, before the Headmaster spoke again. "We will have a vote", the statement was loud and clear, "We will decide if we will trade with Voldemort, despite the danger and whether we will destroy the horcrux before we attempt to trade it." Dumbledore then took a piece of parchment and wrote down two words, trade and destroyed.
He was the first one to cast his vote, by putting the piece of parchment into the bowl and passing the bowl on to Kingsley, who was standing next to him. The voting was done in silence, but all were looking around to see if it was possible to see what they were voting by reading the faces of everyone present. Remus Lupin was the last to cast his vote.
"Remus, if you would pleases take out the votes one by one and read them to all out loud", Albus said, casting a spell that would tally the votes. Remus grabbed the first vote and read it, "Trade and intact". All the next votes were read in the same manner. It seemed most people were prepared to take a risk for themselves and wanted to trade with Voldemort to attempt to return Harry Potter. It also seemed that few people were willing to risk Harry's life in the process, as few were willing to destroy the horcrux when willing to trade.
"I believe it is clear", Albus said, the tone of his voice did not betray his own opinion, "we will trade the untouched horcrux for young mister Potter. That concludes today's meeting, everyone will be informed of their respective duties in preparation of the trade. We should all retire to bed."