Harry flinched in agony as he slowly got to his feet, his body feeling like it had been put through a blender; he had never really gotten the hang of magical transportation despite finding useful manuals about how to take it, and he'd found most witches and wizards simply closed their eyes so then they didn't lose their balance. It was a useful tip, one he could have used before he made a fool of himself, but at the same time he followed the tips but he still lost his balance whenever he arrived at the other end.
Swearing never to ever use magical transportation again for as long as he lived, Harry stood up and he reached out and patted his bag, looked inside and sighed with relief. The locket Horcrux was still there, and he instantly felt its mental tentacles reaching out and touching his mind. Quickly he pushed those thoughts it generated inside him out of his mind, and he ran out of the alley. He didn't stop until he reached a car park.
A quick look around showed him he was alone, but to be on the safe side he waved his wand, "Homenum revelio," he muttered.
There was nobody around, to his relief. But to be safe, Harry cast some wards around him. As soon as he felt the wards were up, Harry took out the locket Horcrux before he reached into his bag for his dimensional trunk.
After a few moments of scrambling, he pulled out Ravenclaw's diadem which he'd found shortly before the end of his sixth year. Harry held on to it for a moment.
He had waited months for this moment.
He had found the Ravenclaw diadem shortly before the end of sixth year, just after Dumbledore's death. But at the time he was still mastering the spell which would end the Dark Lord forever, and he had agreed to go on this insane hunt for at least one other Horcrux because, irritatingly for him, the spell worked best if there was at least one other Horcrux nearby to make it more potent. And so he had been prepared to spend months in the company of Granger and Weasley, something he hadn't wanted to go through, but he'd decided to just get it over with, the sooner Voldemort was gone, the better.
Finally he laid it down on the ground and jabbed his wand at the locket and then the diadem. The spell he'd learnt which would destroy the Horcruxes would simply start a chain reaction which would exorcise the soul fragments from all of the Horcruxes, draining them of their magic while cleaning the artefacts of the dark taint, and then going on to wipe out Voldemort and the Death Eaters, since they wouldn't be able to live without their the spell, Harry gasped in pain as he felt a terrible pain in his scar, until it became all blinding.
And then it went black. But the last thing he heard was an awful scream.
-8-
Harry's eyes snapped open when he found three muggles going through his bag. Quickly and like a flash, Harry had his wand out, and he stunned and immobilised the muggles before he delved into the minds. Fortunately for Harry, the wards had only just dropped so he hadn't really been noticed, and even better it was dawn, so there weren't that many people about. Harry worked to wipe their memories and took whatever they'd taken out of their pockets.
He rubbed his forehead thoughtfully; ever since Harry had mastered occlumency, he had been aware there was a weight on his mind, and the only reason he could sense it was when he'd mastered occlumency.
But now it was gone, which meant-
The pain in his head….A Horcrux.
He'd had a Horcrux in his scar, the whole time, and he hadn't known. He could have ended the war at any time. Harry wanted to murder Dumbledore! The old man had so many stupid plans, and Harry had few ideas of what would have happened if he hadn't even found out about the Horcrux.
He should have had the scar checked out at Gringotts or looked deeper into the pains in his head instead of ignoring them.
"Is it over?" Harry whispered to himself before he left the car park and headed into town, flicking his wand and casting a glamour charm over himself so then he could get something from the bakers for breakfast. Once he'd gotten something, Harry headed for the station, bought a ticket, and ate on the platform while he waited for the train.
He needed to go back into the magical world and see for certain if Voldemort was gone before he finalised his plans. He wanted to get everything from the Potter vaults transferred, and he wanted to clear out the various Potter properties of portraits while keeping them locked down in case a Potter in the future decided to return and resettle here, although if that happened it would long be in the future. Harry never planned to come back.
Harry took another bite from his pastie, munching thoughtfully while he kept watch out for his train.
He wondered what was happening with Granger and the Weasel. The snatchers had appeared just as he was leaving with the portkey. They would have been taken by surprise, especially Weasley; the red-headed baboon was a deep sleeper that would need to wake up with a bomb. And what about the Order? What was happening there?
Harry shrugged his shoulders. He didn't care. But what he did care about was why Hermione had just sided with the Weasleys and would just feed him potions. If she had wanted to know more about magic, especially since they both appreciated that knowledge was power and they wanted that power, he could have granted her access to the Potter Library and the Room of Requirement.
-8-
He remembered how he had discovered how Hermione had betrayed him. He had been sitting in the Room of Requirement watching as Dumbledore spoke to Weasley during his first year; after the first three conversations between the two, Harry refused to trust the other boy. But shortly after he had rescued Hermione Granger, he was horrified. He and Hermione actually had a lot in common; both of them were reclusive, preferred being alone, both loved books and wanted the knowledge for the sake of it and for themselves, to be powerful.
When he had hugged her, he had frozen in shock, but he had relaxed into it and he had even developed a liking for Hermione's version of a hug since it was so welcoming, and warm.
For a brief time, he had entertained the possibility of welcoming her into his fold, but when he found her in Dumbledore's office, with the old bastard offering her knowledge and help in exchange for her watching Harry….Harry was hurt and confused when Hermione said she would, and from that moment on he kept her from learning too much.
So much for friendship.
-8-
Harry shook his head. He had asked the goblins to check if he was cursed or something, to see if there was something about him that poisoned every potential friend against him. But the goblins found nothing, and since he had worked out for himself Dumbledore and some of his lackeys were the ones responsible for the school kids rejecting him, for the teachers and social workers to suddenly believe everything with the Dursleys was a misunderstanding.
Dumbledore had wanted him isolated.
Dumbledore wanted him to be friendless, and from what he'd learnt about Riddle's past, it was not difficult for him to realise Dumbledore had wanted his childhood to mirror Tom Riddle's, only he would make sure the Boy Who Lived came out on his own side.
Harry just didn't understand why Dumbledore was so unfailingly dense. Why was it he failed to understand children who were abused developed cunning and sneakiness in order to survive if they were being abused? Two years ago, he had prepared to leave Hogwarts and the magical world behind. There was no reason for him to stay; after what Fudge had done with Umbridge backing him, the Ministry of Magic was an organisation Harry thought it best to steer clear of forever.
Ironically, the only person Harry remotely trusted was Voldemort himself. That was because Harry knew what Voldemort wanted, Harry's dead, but he was consistent about it. Dumbledore and his Order and Fudge were two-faced.
But his Horcrux research had hit a dead end since he had needed to find at least one that would really end the war forever, two at the most. Harry rolled his eyes, remembering how he had planned to knock Dumbledore down, which would have been easy, and then destroy the locket.
Harry hadn't even known his scar was a Horcrux, at least not until he had begun casting the spell. It made so much sense; all those pains in his head, those stupid visions, being able to sense Voldemort. It was a Horcrux. Harry hadn't joined the dots as he was so busy looking for new ways of getting out and solving his own problems.
Harry finished the pasty quickly when the train pulled in - the pasty was too basic to be a good enough meal, and besides he would be busy for most of the day - and he got on board.
