AN: Someone commented on the previous chapter, which came after a two-month break in updates, telling me to 'please never take this long between updates again', so I thought it would be fair to clarify: this story has 153 chapters written in draft atm and is slanted to have 180-200 chapters in total, depending on how I decide to proceed. In other words, we are not even in the middle yet, and I can absolutely guarantee that before we get to the end, there will be long breaks in updates again. I will try to make them as few and far between as possible, but I know myself enough to know this with perfect certainty.

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"The first Hogsmeade trip is coming up, Seamus," Harry said one day as they were all sitting together in the common room.

"Um, yeah?" Seamus gave him a confused look. "Why are you telling me?"

"Well...who're you gonna ask?"

Seamus blushed scarlet and Ron laughed.

"Harry's right, mate," Dean pointed out. "You should ask Lavender. I bet she'd be over the moon."

"I dunno...won't it be awkward?"

"Why?" Sophie asked. "You like her, don't you? Do you want her to date McLaggen or someone like that again?"

"No!" Seamus said with emphasis.

"Well, there you are." To Sophie, the matter was closed.

"I don't know what to say..." Seamus wailed. "And what will Parvati do? I bet they planned to go together."

"You could do one of those double-dates," Sophie suggested. "My brothers sometimes do them. Someone just has to go with Parvati."

Seamus thought about it for a while. "Ron, you said she looked really nice, didn't you?"

Ron looked immediately terrified. "Um, yeah, but...I dunno if..."

"Come on, mate! I'm gonna be there! Do it for me!" Seamus almost begged.

"I guess," Ron relented at the pitiful sight of Seamus. "But how do we ask them?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "You go to them and say 'do you wanna go to Hogsmeade with us'?"

"Just like that?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Yeah, just like that."

"Would you...maybe do it for us?" Seamus suggested.

Sophie stared at him. "You want me to ask Lavender out for you?"

"Yeah..."

She exchanged a look with Harry, who only shrugged. On one hand, it seemed a little strange, on the other, he didn't blame Seamus for feeling intimidated. He certainly did, by the mere idea of asking a girl out. Not that he had a girl in mind or anything. The general concept was terrifying, without involving any particularities.

"All right," Sophie said slowly. "I can do that. Should I ask for both of you, then?"

Seamus gave Ron another imploring look, and Ron nodded. "If I don't have to ask her," he said, "I suppose it's not so bad."

Hesitating was not in Sophie's nature, and so she asked the very same evening, and the boys were able to receive the good news that, amidst lots of giggling, Lavender and Parvati had agreed to go with them.

Seamus fist-pumped upon hearing the news, and Dean clapped him on the back and loudly congratulated him.

Kiara, who was just passing the place they were sitting with Katie, stopped at that. "Whatever happened, it looks like it's big," she observed.

"Seamus just secured his first date," Harry explained.

Kiara looked around. "With one of you?" She asked, sounding a little surprised.

"No, with Lavender," Neville clarified.

Kiara frowned. "So...he sent her a note?"

"No, he had Sophie ask for him," Harry corrected her.

Kiara burst out laughing. "Sometimes a year can be a hell of a difference," she said.

"Are you going with someone?" Harry asked her.

"Wouldn't you just like to know," she replied with a smirk.

"Come on! Are you dating someone? I didn't know you were dating someone!"

"Curiosity killed the cat," Kiara only told him and continued on her way, making Harry completely certain that she was, in fact, seeing someone.

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Alduin requested a private audience with Mr. Smith when he visited, and once in his study, said: "You know my wife is related to one of the founders of Borgin and Burke's, I suppose?"

"Yes, of course," Smith said impatiently.

"Well...recently, as she was trying to trace an important heirloom through him, he dropped a hint that...caught her interest. She discussed it with me and I remembered our conversation some time ago..." Alduin trailed off, waited a beat for dramatic effect, and then asked: "Would one of the things that house-elf stole from your great-aunt happen to be the legendary cup of Hufflepuff?"

Mr. Smith froze. "How- how do you know?"

"Well..." Alduin opened his bag and took out the cup, putting it atop Mr. Smith's desk.

Mr. Smith was speechless for a good, long moment.

"Where did you find it?" He asked then.

"A private collector had it in their vault. I persuaded them to give it up, but it was, naturally, on the condition of anonymity."

"Naturally. So…?"

"Well, I thought you should have it back. It's your family's, after all."

Mr. Smith seemed to melt in his seat.

"Oh, thank you, thank you! I'm sorry my great-great-grandson is being rude to your ward, I really am! I promise I will speak to him, I do! And if you ever heard of the other thing that was stolen – a locket of Slytherin – why, then..."

Alduin only nodded. He was less certain about giving that back to the Smiths, if Dumbledore ever found it. Hepzibah no doubt bought it in good faith, but the way old Burke got it out of Merope Gaunt, from what Alexandra could discover, was certainly immoral, and the question of what should be done with it was more complicated. Bury it with her, maybe.

He let Smith talk himself out of this gratitude, then ended the visit and headed to Hogwarts directly afterwards, to talk to Dumbledore.

"It's done," he said, once he was seated opposite the Headmaster. "Another Horcrux was destroyed."

"Have you managed to preserve the cup itself?" Dumbledore asked with clear curiosity.

"Yes. It's back in the hands of the Smith family."

Dumbledore frowned, but didn't say anything. It was not surprising he wished he could do some experiments on the priceless object. Alduin certainly had done them, with Miss Brigit and Mercurius helping, given that the effects of the cup had to do with potions and healing and so Alduin's interest in them was pure superficial curiosity, while his friend looked like Christmas had come early. Miss Brigit, of course, was perpetually unimpressed with anything, but she did take interest.

"Have you had any luck with the locket?" He asked Dumbledore.

"I have not found it yet," the old man replied. "but I believe I am on track. Leave that to me."

"Very well," Alduin agreed. He supposed not every Horcrux would as simple to get at through his contacts as the cup had been. "What about the others? Two are destroyed, we know of another, and one piece is what was left in the body, of course. There are three more left to go. Any idea what they could be?"

"Well, the last two we discovered were Founder heirlooms. That could suggest a pattern..."

"...but he found them both at the same time," Alduin finished for him.

"Precisely," Dumbledore said with a nod. "We have no proof that he actively went looking for these, and you say that the one you destroyed first was just an ordinary diary. It might have been that he only chose the heirlooms because he came across them. We do not know if it was the diary that was the outlier, or the heirlooms. I am inclined to say the diary, since he got the job at Borgin and Burke's, but..."

Alduin considered. "No," he said, "you are right. The purpose of the diary was to communicate – apart from being a Horcrux, it led its owner to open the Chamber of Secrets. Presumably, the others wouldn't have this goal, so..."

Dumbledore blinked at the revelation, but refused to be sidetracked. "Very well. If we rely on this, than we could have leads on the following two. Something of Gryffindor and something of Ravenclaw. As far as Gryffindor goes, his only known artefact is his sword. What about Ravenclaw?"

"The diadem," Alduin said immediately, surprised Dumbledore didn't know. "It was supposed to enhance thinking faculties. But it's been lost for centuries...almost since the times of Ravenclaw herself, in fact, or so it seems."

"That doesn't sound very hopeful," Dumbledore conceded, "but it's a possibility. Do you have any idea whom to ask?"

"One or two, yes."

"Good. I know how to get at the sword, though it could be a little difficult to arrange. We will try to find them and test them. That would still leave us one Horcrux short, though."

Alduin nodded, doing his best to pretend to seriously consider the matter. After all, the Founder heirlooms might still prove to be a false lead. "If the diary was the outlier," he said, "then perhaps some other heirlooms he might have come across...maybe of some other great wizards and witches of history?"

And then, as he tried to contemplate what other famous artefacts Riddle could be interested in, he remembered Slughorn's memory, and that rather large ring on Riddle's finger. That rather large ring that had not been there in the diary memories.

"I think," he said slowly, "I might have an idea...just an idea, mind you. I'll have to check it."

Dumbledore inclined his head. "Then we both have two Horcruxes to work on," he said. "That should keep us occupied for a while."

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The slowly approaching Halloween, as well as Abdulaziz's enthusiastic and entirely unprompted lecture about the magical significance of the customs when they met in the library one day, motivated Harry to visit Hagrid again, wondering if there would be some more enormous pumpkins to be seen.

He was not disappointed.

"The Dementors give me the creeps," Hagrid complained as he poured him, Ron and Neville tea. "I have ter go pas' 'em every time I go ter the pub, an'...brings back bad memories."

"It's terrible, isn't it?" Harry agreed. "The idea that they bring back your worst...I've never had to live through it, fortunately, since Mr. Kingsley taught me the Patronus charm, but..."

"Lucky yeh! Right practical, that mus' be."

"We'll have to go past them to get to Hogsmeade, won't we?" Neville said, worried. "I really wish I could learn it by then...fat chance of that, I guess."

"It would be cool, though," Ron agreed. "It'd make me look good in front of Parvati."

Neville gave him a strange look. "Ron," he said, "Parvati knows exactly how your Patronus skills are. We all practice together."

Ron looked a bit depressed at the reminder.

"So yeh have a date already, eh?" Hagrid said.

Ron blushed. "It's just to help Seamus out," he said, and haltingly explained the situation.

"Well, good luck ter yeh," Hagrid said good-naturedly. "Girls can be tricky. And how are yer new classes? Tell me 'bout Creatures. That's the job I've always dreamed o' havin', teachin' that class."

Harry felt a little bad, hearing that.

Ron, who had no idea how close Hagrid had come to it, said cheerfully: "It's a great class. Might be the best one we have now. It was boring to start with, but now it's really fun, and I didn't think I'd say that about any class, trust me."

"That's...that's good teh hear," Hagrid said with a smile that seemed a bit bittersweet. "Dumbledore said sumethin' that sounded like I should get it in the summer, but then he told me he hired this new lady instead, so I'm glad she's a good teacher at least."

Harry internally grimaced. "Maybe you'd have been even better," he said. "What creatures would you have covered with us?"

Hagrid shrugged. "Didn' think much abou' it, did I? But...hippogriffs, I 'spect, they're good to start with..."

Neville's eyes got very big. "Hippogriffs?" He asked, sounding a bit choked.

"Noble creatures, they are," Hagrid muttered dreamily.

The boys exchanged a look. Well, Harry supposed Sophie wouldn't have thought that was boring, at least.

It was high time to change the topic before Hagrid asked them how they'd have liked that. "The class is especially great when compared to the other new one, Divination," Ron said after they all signalled each other to come up with something for a moment. "That's just such a joke."

"Why, what's wrong with it?" Hagrid asked, his attention thankfully caught.

"Well, the teacher told me I'd die this year during the first class, for starters," Neville replied drily.

"She wha'?" Hagrid exclaimed incredulously.

"Yeah. That was fun." Neville shook his head. "It gave me the creeps for a moment, but then Sophie started to make fun of her and the class in general, and I realized how silly it was. Especially when McGonnagal told us that Trelawney tells one student they'd die every year. Apparently, no one has yet."

"You'd think she'd stop," Ron said with a snigger. "Must ruin her reputation."

Harry didn't say anything. When he'd first heard about it, he was so angry. From where he stood, telling someone they'd die didn't seem so funny. Especially not his friend Neville, who wanted to go after the Lestranges.

He had even written to Alduin about this, and his cousin replied that, to his great regret, it wasn't in his power to get every bad teacher at Hogwarts fired, and that unless she did something to Harry, personally, he was effectively powerless.

Harry wondered that Trelawney didn't leave off with her prediction at least the year when Sirius Black was on the run. Surely basic decency should have told her it was in extremely bad taste? Even more than usual, that was?

He said the last thought aloud, and Ron replied: "Frankly I'm not sure she even know Black is on the loose. Right batty, that one."

"She's strange all righ'," Hagrid agreed, "but I didn' know she did stuff like that. It takes all kinds, I suppose."

Harry privately thought that they'd all be much better off without some of those kinds.

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The next step in Alduin's quest for Horcruxes was a perilous one, and he hesitated and discussed the matter with Alexandra for a long while before he took it. But he didn't see any way around it, and so in the end, he chose to take the risk. To that end, Alexandra asked Narcissa for tea again.

The Malfoy lady showed some surprise when she found Alduin in the drawing room as well. "I gather this is more than a social visit, then?" She said.

"Unfortunately," Alexandra confirmed. "We really wanted to leave you out of this as much as we could, for your safety as well as ours, but we see no other way around it. We have to refer back to what we erased from your memory half a year ago."

Narcissa set her mouth in a grim line. "Very well then."

"Voldemort ensured his immortality by using Horcruxes," Alduin announced bluntly.

Narcissa arched her brow. "Horcruxes? Plural?"

"Indeed," Alduin confirmed drily.

Narcissa pursed her lips. "That is certainly alarming, though I still don't quite see why you...oh." She blinked, once. "The cup was one of them, was it not."

Alduin merely nodded.

There was a short silence as Narcissa absorbed this, then she straightened a little and said: "Well, it was better for me not to know, I quite agree. What is so desperate for you to reconsider?"

"We are looking for the others," Alduin explained. "I have told you before that Lucius had another one."

Narcissa slowly nodded, this information fitting in with what she did remember of the conversation.

"We need to know if there were any other...any others who received objects of special value from Voldemort, apart from your husband and sister," Alduin elaborated.

"And you want me to ask Lucius, without letting him know what these objects are," Narcissa surmised.

"Precisely."

She thought about it for a moment. "Could you not have asked Lucius yourself?" She wondered. "Your relationship is...surprisingly good, these days."

"Yes, but his Occlumency is not, and he would never agree to me erasing his memories afterwards," Alduin pointed out.

"Ah." There was another short silence, and then with a sharp nod, Narcissa rose. "Well then," she said, "I will do my best."

Alduin desperately hoped he had not just doomed them all.