Chapter Twenty-Four; The Fourth Horcrux

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"Wow Harry, where did you learn how to speak like that?" Hermione asked him as they walked out of the church together but he just simply shrugged at her.

"I'm not sure. I don't think I learned it from anywhere actually. I was just basically speaking from my heart." He told her.

"Well it was really good. I think that you're going to make an excellent Sunday school teacher, as well working with dragons." She told him as he grinned at her.

"Thanks. Now all I've got to do is decide what I want to do with them." He said as they came to a sudden stop and glanced up at the sky as snow started lightly falling out of it.

"Boy, it really feels like Christmas now." Hermione said excitedly.

"Yeah, but too bad we still have to worry about Voldemort. I mean I know what you said about it Harry and it's good that we still have our faith, but I still want to have my head when it's all over." Ron pulled up his hood before unlocking the driver's door and climbing inside of it.

"Please hurry up and turn the heat on!" Ron exclaimed after buckling himself in and starting to shiver. Harry placed his keys into the ignition and buckled himself in before putting his foot on the brake and pulling the car in reverse. He quickly turned to look over his shoulder and started backing up as The Little Drummer Boy came onto the radio. As soon as he was backed up he put his foot on the accelerator and rapidly turned the wheel as he started turning the vehicle around.

Teddy and Heather closed their eyes and started falling asleep on each other's shoulders. Harry stopped again when he came to the end of the driveway and put on his turn signal before turning to the right. "Oh look at the little darlings." Lily said softly while looking over at her youngest son and daughter and smiled lovingly at them.

"Just let them sleep, we have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow." Snape said while Harry continued driving along the road. About thirty minutes later they finally reached their house and Harry pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. "I'll get the twins the rest of you can go inside and warm up." Snape said after Harry had turned off the engine and threw off his seatbelt. Once he got inside he went into the living room to smoke a cigarette.

Cowboy raced a crossed the room and jumped up on it and laid beside him before Snape entered the room. "I just thought I should say how very proud of you I am right now. That was a wonderful sermon that you gave." He told him as Harry glanced up at him.

"Yeah, but I'm starting to think that Ron's right. I mean I may have God on my side but that still doesn't change the fact that Voldemort's back." He said.

"No it doesn't." Snape began. "But at least we know where the next horcrux is. And I know you're feeling scared Harry but I think you're a very brave young man. You're growing up to be a fine man and a very fine wizard." He told him.

"Thanks. I just hope that in the end I'm able to keep my promise to Ginny for coming back for her. I mean I know what I heard Voldemort say, and what I heard Slughorn say, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to live." He admitted as Snape sat down on the other side of him.

"What do you mean? What did you hear them say?" he asked him when suddenly Harry realized that he had forgotten to mention that part to him.

"Slughorn was telling Voldemort that his powers would cease to exist by the next full moon." He explained. "It was in another vision I had. Although I'm not quite sure what it means." He said. "All I know is that even though I want to dedicate my life to serving God and taking care of dragons in some form, my life isn't even worth living if I'm not with Ginny." He said blowing out one final puff of smoke and then flicked off the ashes before he got up and started walking down the hall with Lily watching him from afar.

Then she turned to look over at her husband. "He really loves her you know. Ginny is a very lucky young woman. I think he loves her as much as I love you." He told her as Lily just simply nodded.

"I know he does. Poor Harry, he has to go through an awful lot right now." She said.

"Yeah, don't I know it." Snape began while hanging his head and looking at the carpet. "It's just so hard to see my own son go through that much pain. That makes me wonder how God must have felt. But at least He knew that His son was going to die. It's a lot easier knowing than being unsure about it." Snape said looking back up at her. "Especially since I've known Harry when he was as small as Teddy was. Although it really doesn't seem that long ago it's been thirteen years, and my boy is now a man. I just don't know why it's so hard to let him go Lily.

I mean I am so proud of Harry. So proud to call him my son. He's everything now that I dreamed he would grow up to be. But I just can't seem to let him go." He said shakily while tears started rolling down his cheeks and Lily walked over to him and sat down next to him.

"It's alright Severus, that's how a good father is supposed to feel. I mean I feel exactly the same way that you do, but at least now we know that we've raised him right. And there's no doubt in my mind that he's going to make a great man, preacher, and possibly even father." She said. "Like you." She added with a grin. "Minus the preaching part." She said before leaning over to kiss him on the lips.

"Thanks Lily, I needed that." He told her.

"I love you Severus Snape." She told him while flashing him a warm and loving smile.

"I love you too." He told her before they both closed their eyes and started making out with each other.

….

"Grrr!" Ron growled as he, Harry, Hermione, and Snape walked through the snow together. "I still can't believe that we have to do this on Christmas day!" he yelled.

"It's the best time to do actually, that way we won't draw too much attention to ourselves and it won't be too crowded." Snape said as they stopped behind the bank.

"Did you bring the potion then?" Hermione inquired as Snape nodded and gave her the bottle while Harry tossed his invisiblty cloak over the rest of them. Hermione added some hairs into her potion before she closed her eyes, pinched her nose, and tilted her head back to drink it.

"I feel kind of dirty breaking in like this." Harry said.

"I know, but at least it's for a good cause. And at least we don't have to pour something that tastes like cat piss down our throats." Ron told him as Harry grinned and stifled a laugh. A few moments later Hermione had completely transformed into Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Well, how do I look?" she asked them.

"Great, nobody will suspect a thing." Snape began. "Now c'mon let's go." He said as they rounded the corner and entered the bank together even all three of the men were invisible. Hermione stopped as she reached the front of the desk while the goblin behind the papers peered down at her.

"I would like to enter my vault." She said using her best Bellatrix impression.

"On Christmas day?" he questioned her with disbelief.

"Uh,.. yes,.. well,.." she began with a pause. "I just wanted to make sure that it was safe and that nobody thought that they would get a little extra Christmas present." She said. "After all, since everyone else at home spending Christmas with their families, chances are it will be less likely protected." She said feeling rather guilty herself about lying to him but knew that it had to be done.

"Very well, this way Miss Lestrange." The goblin said before walking back around the counter and leading her away unaware that Harry, Ron, and Snape were trailing along behind them under the cloak. He led them onto one of the carts before finally reaching a vault that was marked three hundred and twenty six on it and slammed the door shut behind them. Harry pulled his cloak off them and looked down on the ground beside his feet.

A golden cup with a badger on the front of it was touching it. "The cup!" he exclaimed but as soon as he bent down to grab it the cup duplicated and since those two cups were touching each other it duplicated again. Suddenly the room began to fill with identical Hufflepuff cups as they multiplied over and over again.

"Any ideas!?" Ron hollered as Harry withdrew his sword from out of his belt loop. His eyes hadn't parted from the original cup since he had first spotted it. He started crawling and climbing up the mountain of cups as they continued to multiply before he took the blade of his sword and struck it against the original cup.