A/N: I LOVE YOU GUYS! You are all so amazing! Thank you so so much for all of the great reviews! A lot of you had some very good feedback for me, and I really appreciate it!
Once again, my email was full of alerts and favourite stories that it actually took me an hour to go through them all! I do try to reply to all my reviews (although I can't actually reply to the anonymous ones) but if I haven't replied, please tell me and I shall endeavor to reply next time!
Well done to the anonymous reviewer 'Hugendubel' who was the only one to guess that the line "when in doubt, know your way out" was from the movie Zombieland J I love that film so much!
And thanks to the anonymous reviewer 'a person' for the review that made me laugh the most. You actually almost gave me a heart attack when I first started to read the review, I honestly thought you hated this story :P
Okay, enough of this long authors note! Remember, any questions or queries, just leave me a review!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but a very lovely queen sized bed :D
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"We know about the prophecy and horcuxes."
This statement had only a small effect on the Order of the Phoenix. When they heard that they knew of the prophecy, several mouths dropped open. The Weasley boys and Hermione just looked curious while Molly and Arthur shared a panicked look with some other members. Moody had both eyes fixed on the young couple and narrowed suspiciously. Sirius and Remus shared a quick look with each other and Snape's sneer became more pronounced as he thought of the audacity the Potter brat had for meddling in issues that didn't concern him.
However, there was one reaction in the room that was completely unexpected. It was such a reaction that Fred and George actually wanted to shake their sister's and her husband's hand for achieving such a feat.
Albus Dumbledore gave a great gasp of shock and actually fell back into his chair.
The astonished people in the room stared as they watched the great leader of the light age right before their very eyes, his skin paled so much it began to look paper thin and the twinkle went out in his eyes.
"Horcruxes?" he finally rasped out in a croaking voice. "He made more than one?"
"Seven. He made seven horcuxes. He split it eight times." Harry answered.
Dumbledore sagged in his chair at this news. "Eight times?" his voice was barely above a whisper. Ginny nodded. Everyone else just looked perplexed. "What-"
"We will tell you. However, it is not something that everyone should hear."
At Harry's words, there was a great uproar. Everyone was shouting at the young teen, telling them that it was there business to know, and that he shouldn't have said anything if he wasn't going to tell them, and who did he think he was, telling them what to do!
"Shut it!" Ginny yelled over everyone, effectively cutting them off. "Do you not think that we have a good reason not to include some of you? This is something that not everyone can know! If Voldemort was to find out, not only will we loose the war, but he will kill you all personally! Now stop acting like children and grow up!"
Harry stared at his wife fondly. He loved it when she put people in their place. Her hands placed themselves on her hips, her eyes flashed and her hair seemed like fire. As long as her anger wasn't aimed at him, he was happy to let her stand up to the Order.
"So, what? You just want us all to clear out of the room? Pretend we haven't heard anything?" Sirius snorted. His arms were folded across his chest and he glared at the couple. Harry almost laughed; he looked every bit like a petulant teenager.
"Yes, actually. But some of you will need to stay." Harry smiled. "The people who we would like to stay are the professors, Remus, Tonks, Sirius, Moody, Kingsley and the Weasley's and Hermione."
Again, shouts of protests rang out until there was a very large bang. Dumbledore had once again stood up, but this time he had his wand out.
"Harry is correct. Only a select few will be able to know." his blue eyes then switched to Harry. "Are you sure my boy, that all of the people you named need to know?" Harry just nodded. "Very well then. Please would those of you that were not named leave the room."
Due to a great load of grumbles and a large commotion of leaving the room, nobody noticed Harry take out his wand.
As soon as the door was shut, Dumbledore waved his wand at it, resetting the wards that would not allow for any eavesdroppers.
"What the bloody hell is a horcrux?"
"Ronald!" Molly scolded. Nobody really paid any attention to her, they were all staring between Harry, Ginny and Dumbledore.
"Perhaps you had better explain sir." Harry said as he leant back in his chair and grabbed Ginny's hand.
"Hang on!" Molly interjected. Her face looked furious for some reason. "I will not have the children in the room! They are too young to be messing in matters tat are for witches and wizards who are much older than them! I will not allow it!" Before the twins and Ron could even think of a retort to that, Ginny heaved a great sigh and answered her mother.
"Mum, we have asked them to be here as they have a reason for knowing."
"And just what is this reason?" Both Weasley women had their eyes narrowed dangerously and the likeness between them was amazing. Harry decided to head off the argument before it started.
"Molly, we have asked them to be here as they will be a great help for us. They can help us plan things as Ron is a great strategist and the twins inventions are nothing short of amazing. Also, if it is needed, they will be able to provide cover for us at school and such places. Hermione is here as she has a great amount of logic will undoubtedly needed. Also, if we do not tell them, they will find a way to get the information they want and that could cause more harm than good." Hermione blushed at the praise while Ron puffed out his chest a little. The twins- in true twin fashion- merely stood up and bowed to the people in the room.
Mrs Weasley opened and closed her mouth for a few moments before actually speaking. "You just called me Molly."
"So I did." Harry smiled at her.
Snape snorted on the other side of the table. "Typical, Potter. When are you going to learn that there are much more able and talented wizards that have more right to order people around than you do."
"Professor," Harry said wearily. "If you do not have something constructive to say, please hold your tongue. It may save you some trouble." Snape swelled in anger.
"Why you insolent little-"
"Severus." Dumbledore warned. Snape instantly shut up, but directed his deadliest glare to both the headmaster and Harry.
Ginny leaned into Harry's side a little. "You know, I actually prefer him as a portrait." His response was a snort of amusement.
"Albus, if you could continue. I wish to know what these objects are." McGonagall requested as she turned her stern gaze towards the older man.
"Very well." he turned to look everyone in the eye before starting. "A horcrux is something that one uses to store a piece of their soul once it has been split. They are among the very darkest of magics and no decent person would ever think of making one."
"Why not, sir? After all, wouldn't it be useful to hide a part of your soul?" Hermione enquired. Her eyes were alight with curiosity and the sight made Ginny smile.
"No. The process of it is very painful- more so than the cruciatus curse. Plus, in order to create a horcrux, one must commit the most foulest and heinous act imaginable."
"Murder." Remus whispered. Dumbledore nodded at him. It was silent for a few moments as everyone thought.
"So that's how he was able to come back? He had a horcrux as a back up?" Tonks asked. Her hair had changed from her usual pink into a mousy brown.
At this, Dumbledore did not reply. Instead he looked at Harry as he did not know quite what to say.
"No. He had more than one back up." he grimly said. There were a few sharp intakes of breath at this.
"How many?" Moody growled quietly.
"He split his soul eight times."
"EIGHT?"
"But… but that means he…" Molly stuttered. Her face had gone white and she clutched Arthur even tighter. Harry idly wonder how long it would be until his fingers turned purple.
Dumbledore heaved a great sigh and place one of his hands to his temple. "Yes, my dear Molly. It would appear that eight of the murders he has committed were used to bank his immortality." His hand dropped again as he turned his gaze back to the black haired boy. "What I don't understand though, is why he split his soul into eight? With his obsession with magic, I would have assumed he would have stuck to the number seven."
"He did try to." Ginny added. She shared a brief glimpse with Harry before her gaze flickered back to the people in front of her.
"What do you mean by that? How can he try to make seven, but then make eight?" Sirius asked, his brow furrowed. "It's not as if he thought 'ah, one more can't hurt' did he?"
Ginny couldn't help her giggle and the twins let smirked identically.
"No, he didn't say that." Harry's mouth twitched and he cleared his throat to hide his laugh. "Voldemort was not aware of the seventh one he made. He made it by pure accident."
"The Dark Lord does not do things by accident." Snape spat at the two teens. "Every move of his is calculated, every plan is thought of from every different angle possible in order for him to gain the result he wants. He does not make accidents."
"With all due respect, professor, if Voldemort did not make mistakes I would be dead by now." The bluntness of the statement caused several people to wince and it had the effect that Harry was going for- Snape stopped talking. "Besides, Voldemort isn't even aware that he has made this last horcrux."
Everyone's heads snapped towards Harry and they all just gaped at him. Not even Dumbledore or Snape had anything to say to that.
"Well…. What on earth is it then, Mr Potter?" McGonagall snapped at him. Her Scottish brogue was more evident as her confusion and annoyance at the silence mounted.
"We will get to that. First of all, you need to know what the others are." Harry took a deep breath and turned to Ginny. Ginny did not look back, but the way she tightened her grip on Harry's hand told her how hard it was for her. When she had first found out what the diary had been, she had been distraught and the way she dealt with it was to close herself off from everybody. Obviously, Harry did not let that carry on for too long. After all, he would be a hypocrite if he didn't let someone brood for a small period of time.
"The first horcrux he made was his teenage diary."
To Moody, Kingsley, Remus, Tonks and Sirius, this piece of information didn't really mean anything; it was a diary, most teenage wizards had one. However, to the rest, especially the Weasley's, it was probably the worse thing they could have heard.
"NO!" Molly wailed. Her tears had started again with a vengeance. Arthur was clenching his jaw, his eyes closed and his hands gripping his wife's back. Fred and George were gripping the arms of their chairs so hard, Harry was pretty sure he heard them crack. They had ugly expressions on their faces which was a far cry from their usual jovial smiles. Ron had actually leapt to his feet and was now pacing the room.
McGonagall had taken out a handkerchief and had buried her face into it, Snape was taking deep breaths in through his nose and Dumbledore once again aged.
"What? What's so wrong about this diary?" Tonks asked quietly. She could clearly see that this was a very distressing subject for reasons unknown to her.
"Remember about 3 years ago? The ministry and the school's board of governors wanted to shut down Hogwarts?" Harry prompted in a small voice. A large pat of is attention was focused on the girl beside him who had started to shake. Her eyes were tightly closed and her breathing was shallow.
"I remember. I was told just before I started to teach at Hogwarts. Someone was setting loose a monster on the castle and a girl was taken down to…" Remus' voice drifted off as horror etched itself on his face. He looked around at the Weasley's and then to Ginny. Everything clicked in his mind and he carried on in a whisper. "Oh Merlin! I had no idea… I'm so sorry…"
"what? What happened? What monster? Who…?" Sirius also stopped speaking as he looked around the room. He didn't quite know what had happened, but he had an inkling that it involved his godson and the youngest Weasley.
Dumbledore once again sighed. "During Harry's second year at Hogwarts, a monster was set loose in the castle and it started to attack muggle-borns, leaving them in a petrified state. After I was asked to leave my position as headmaster, Miss Weasley was taken down into the Chamber of Secrets, the lair of the monster, by the heir of Slytherin." Gaps of horror echoed around the room as ever eye swiveled to Ginny, who tried her best to bury herself into Harry's side.
"Who was the heir?" Kingsley asked after a moment of horrified silence.
"Lord Voldemort."
This actually did not surprise most people. It was almost as if they knew it had something to do with him.
Sirius ran his hands over his face. "I need a drink." he murmured to himself.
"But how did You-Know-Who get inside the castle undetected?" Tonks questioned.
"By the diary." Everyone turned once again to Harry. "The diary was somehow slipped to Ginny and when she wrote in it, the soul of Voldemort hat was being kept in the diary started to possess her. Ginny was the one behind the attacks, but not of her own accord. I destroyed the horcrux by using a basilisk fang when I went into the Chamber to save Ginny. The monster was a basilisk."
The ones who didn't know this gaped at him.
"You.. You.. What?" Sirius exclaimed.
"That is a story for another time. The next horcrux he made was the Gaunt family ring, which is hidden at the Gaunt shack just outside of Little Hangleton." Dumbledore nodded his head slowly, as if something he had once thought was proven true.
"Why would he use something that has nothing to do with him? From what I can guess, You-Know-Who would use something of value to him." Hermione commented, her brow furrowed.
"You are indeed correct Miss Granger. Tom would use something of importance, which is what he did. The ring was a family heirloom of the Gaunts who believed it to show that they were direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Tom's own mother was Merope Gaunt." There were a few nods of people's heads and noises of acknowledgement as people understood. A few people looked slightly ill to think that once upon a time, Voldemort was just the same as they were and it was bizarre for them to hear of him having a family.
Harry continued. "Voldemort then used three very famous and well known legendary objects to create his third, fourth and fifth horcruxes." He paused for dramatic effect. Ginny nearly laughed out loud as people actually leaned forwards in their seats in anticipation of what these things could be.
"Well? Out with it Potter!" Moody barked. His patience was short enough as it was and the boy was not helping matters. Harry smiled at him, which annoyed the senior auror even more.
"They are the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem and Salazar Slytherin's locket."
He twins snorted.
"What's so funny boys?" Arthur asked them. Molly looked at them disapprovingly.
"Well, the thing is…" Fred started.
"Can you imagine…" George continued.
"Old snake face, wearing a great big necklace…"
"And parading it around in front of his band of merry men?"
Their suggestion caused many people to laugh or snort at the imagery. The one who laughed the most was Ginny. Even though she knew the horcrux had done a lot of damage to the trio's friendship, she couldn't help but laugh at the image of Harry and Ron walking around wearing that thing.
After a few moments, Dumbledore decided to get things back on track. "Where are these things, my dear boy?"
"At this moment in time, we do not know where the cup is." he held up his hands to forestall the questions he knew were coming. "The cup is in an unknown location. The only reason we were able to destroy it in the future was because it had been moved to some where else. As it has not been moved yet, we do not quite know where it is.
"The diadem is not as lost as it is rumored to be so. Voldemort found it during his time in the forests of Albania and he moved it to Hogwarts when he asked for a job teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"But he can't have hidden it there! Professor Dumbledore knows Hogwarts the best out of all of us. Surely he would have found it, wouldn't you sir?" Hermione pointed out in a superior manner.
Harry snorted. "Funny. You said the exact same thing last time."
Dumbledore chucked. "My dear girl, I do not know every secret Hogwarts holds. It is possible that I do not know if there is one in the castle or not."
"Oh, it's there alright. Has been since you denied his request. But I shall get into where it is later." Harry said. "The locket of Slytherin is actually in this very house."
Sirius' head snapped up in disbelief. "Say what? It can't be! Surely I would know…"
"How would you know?" Ginny cut him off. She was suddenly feeling very warm and the sickness was returning. She could not be bothered with all these questions- she just wanted to go and lie down as soon as possible. "You didn't even know what a horcrux was! All you need to know, is that it is here in this house which is a very good thing. We shall tell you how it got here later. The last horcrux he knows he made is his snake, Nagini."
Everyone stared at her- that was quite an outburst she had. Harry rubbed her arm. Ginny had been like this for the past few weeks before she found out she was pregnant. He just put it down to hormones.
"Erm… okay. So he made his snake one as well. That's all fine and dandy, but what was the last horcrux he made? The one he doesn't know he did?" Ron asked. He was wary of his sister's temper and thought that the details could wait until later. Everyone seemed to be in agreement.
Harry and Ginny shared a long look as though they were gaining comfort from one another. The depth of this look frightened everyone as it showed them that the unknown horcrux was something very bad. Dumbledore felt his heart drop as he thought of his recent suspicions.
Eventually, Harry sighed and spoke in a whisper.
"The last horcrux was me."
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A/N 2: Another cliffhanger! Dun Dun Duuun!
Now, I am so sorry this is late! I was catching up on my chores and then yesterday I was volunteering at a charity shop all day. Plus this chapter was a giant pain for me to write. :/ It's not entirely exciting as it was mainly about explanations you already know, but the next chapter should be good as it should have the trial, more hormones and a talk with an unexpected person! Can you guess who? Here's a hint- it isn't with anybody who is at Grimmauld place at the moment!
Now, I have something important to say. I may not be able to update much in this next week as I go back to school to finish the year and unfortunately it will not be a time of winding down L Also, I am going away on Friday for two weeks to go camping in a place where I will have no computer access or internet for those whole two weeks! Cry! I will try to update as much as I can this week though!
Review if you liked it!