In the dark house at 12 Grimmauld Place, Ron Weasley was the first to voice all their frustrations, waving his wand in a hopeless gesture at the same time, "That thing could be anywhere! What are we supposed to do, say 'Accio Slytherin's real locket' and—? OW!"
From out of nowhere, a small magically summoned object flying through the air had just bounced off the back of Ron's head to then drop onto the floor.
The three teenagers stared down at the silver octagon with a golden, glass-like front where a capital serpentine 'S' in green jewels displayed itself on the dusty floor. Harry and Hermione then slowly looked up at where Ron was still gaping downwards at the locket all while rubbing the back of his head with a free hand.
After several more moments of awed silence, Ron brightened up and grandly flourished his wand once more: "Accio a million galleons!"
Nothing happened, leading Ron to eventually give a disappointed shrug along with, "Well, it was worth a try, eh?"
At that point, Kreacher popped into existence, pouncing onto the locket and gathering it up as he backed away, glaring defiantly at the startled trio.
"KREACHERS!" The wizened house-elf shouted. "You can't have it! Master Regulus, he said to destroy it! Kreacher tried over and over with powers, but nothing works! Blood-traitor wizards and mudblood witch don't deserve—"
Irked yet again by being insulted by an insane little mannikin that even Gollum at his worse around the end of the trilogy would've considered to be a total nutter, Hermione overrode Kreacher, "Yes, yes, we know! What Riddle ordered you to do at the cave, how Regulus Black switched the lockets, why you can't…"
Trailing off at an abrupt brainwave now bursting inside her mind, Hermione stood there, staring blankly ahead. The other three males glanced at each other in growing confusion, especially when a soft whirring sound manifested itself inside the house of Hermione's intellect powering up at full speed on every cylinder.
Soon, a very creepy smile passed over Hermione's face. She then purred at a suddenly nervous house-elf, "Kreacher, follow me."
After saying that, Hermione spun around and marched off down the hallway, pushing past Harry and Ron. With no other recourse, the two young wizards shot each other puzzled looks and trailed along after their female friend, leaving behind an equally bewildered Kreacher who soon joined the teenagers.
Kreacher got there in time to see how the mudblood stopped in front of Mistress' portrait and then pulled apart the shabby velvet curtains which revealed the animated painting behind these draperies.
Startled, the painting of an elderly woman in a black cap came to life and glared at Hermione, opening her mouth to begin loudly screeching an unending stream of invective at that mudblood—
Leaning forward, Hermione got there first with a quick torrent of information: "The Dark Lord is a half-blood named Tom Riddle, whose mother was a Gaunt witch. He split his soul several times to make horcruxes and your son Regulus died trying to destroy one of them, fully upholding the honor of the Black family with his sacrifice. That's the horcrux, right there," finished Hermione, pointing at the locket which Kreacher automatically held up to show to Mistress.
As for Mrs. Black herself…her mouth hung open as she tried to process all the incredible things the family matriarch had just been told. However, the elderly woman's eyes quickly narrowed in suspicion as she struck back.
"That's a lie, all of it! How dare you—!"
"Kreacher," Hermione calmly said, "Do a show-truth spell on me, if you please."
Sending an inquiring glance at Mistress, who after hesitating a moment did a commanding nod, Kreacher waved a finger from the hand not holding the locket towards Hermione. Right after that, a white glow momentarily appeared around Hermione's head, with the radiance rapidly fading away.
Mrs. Black was once more taken aback, sitting in her portrait and trying to come to grips with how that chit of a muggleborn girl had just been unconditionally verified by house-elf magic at everything she'd just stated. This wasn't the end of the shocks for Mrs. Black, however.
"Your portrait was done by Oliver Cartright, wasn't it?"
Blinking at this unexpected question, Mrs. Black answered in a far calmer manner than usual, "Yes, but how would you know something like that?"
"There's a monograph about it in the Black library," answered Hermione letting the unconscious insult from the older woman slide this time. There was much more important stuff to deal with today, and hopefully the next question would help carry out Hermione's latest plan to strike back against Voldemort.
"Does your portrait still have all the magical capabilities the monograph mentioned?"
"I suppose so…," Mrs. Black paused, carefully considering her answer. She might've been a bitter, seriously pureblood elitist in real life and even after being painted for her portrait, but nobody had ever said the woman in either case was stupid.
Hermione nodded with satisfaction. She pointed once more at Kreacher. "I'm absolutely certain that somewhere in this house, there's a basilisk fang. Mrs. Black, order your servant to stab the horcrux with this and then you know what to do!"
This time, the unnerving smirk then made by Sirius' mother was even scarier than Hermione's previous smile, as she barked, "Kreacher, obey your Mistress!"
Harry and Ron had only been indecisive bystanders throughout all of the past few very strange minutes, though the former was finally shaken from his mystification at the unbelievable actions about to take place. Opening his mouth to protest, Harry wasn't able to do this in time before Kreacher vanished from the hallway, reappeared just as quickly with a basilisk fang in one hand, and viciously stabbed the face of the locket with the sharp tip of the serpent's tooth.
Shattering the glass face of the locket, the fang penetrated deep into the keepsake, destroying both the silver object and the fang itself. In the very next second, a black cloud billowed upwards from where Kreacher had been holding the locket.
Instead of dispersing, the black cloud hung in the hallway, somehow shifting to display a very familiar visage upon the near side of the cloud which was balefully glaring at the trio of young humans and the single house-elf. Except, an instant later, the Voldemort image altered into a quite unfamiliar expression of…sheer disbelief?
That same astonished emotion was shared by Ron and Harry when they witnessed how the black cloud then began to slowly drift backwards from them in the hallway, in the direction of Mrs. Black's portrait.
Inside the painting, this elderly woman had her fingers crooked into clutching claws as she mimed pulling something towards herself.
Harry managed to croak at where Hermione was standing there, arms folded with pride across her chest, "'Mione, what'd you do?!"
Without looking at her best friend, Hermione watching it all with a keen gaze, answered, "Cartright's paintings can absorb magic. That's how they power the portraits inside there."
By now, the black cloud was touching the face of the wizarding canvas…and then began to slowly soak into it, no matter how Voldemort's miasmic horcrux tried to pull back.
Ron joined in their conversation with a horrified whisper, "Have you gone mental?! What if You-Know-Who takes over the painting, like his diary tried to take over Ginny?"
In her smuggest tone, Hermione said, "There's a big difference between those two events, Ron, in that a painting isn't alive. I'm sure Mrs. Black is going to enjoy demonstrating to Riddle some of her other abilities that Cartright gave her."
Indeed, with one last tug, the Black matriarch fully brought the cloud inside the portrait with her. The painting itself shifted in size to a landscape-style situation where two people were now standing there.
Mrs. Black was clad in her usual formal mourning attire with the black cap…and none other than a furious Lord Voldemort robed in all his reptilian glory several yards away now drew his wand with blinding speed and sent a Killing Curse at full volume towards his captor.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The sickly-green beam of light bursting from the tip of Voldemort's wand made a direct hit onto Mrs. Black's chest, with absolutely no adverse effects.
With an idle wave of her ringed hand, Mrs. Black shattered the Dark Lord's wand and yanked him up in the air several inches off the ground. Holding a futilely-struggling Voldemort there, Mrs. Black began strolling into his direction, a very wicked-looking long knife materializing in one fist clenched around this weapon.
"You are in my portrait where I rule, you disgusting Gaunt half-blood. Here, we shall discuss for as long as I wish your mistake of daring to kill a Black, and you most definitely won't enjoy the experience!"
Kreacher worshipfully observing Mistress about to bring doom to an enemy of her family as was only right and proper now became aware of the other humans in the hallway. Sending a disapproving eye at these intruders, Kreacher brought up both spindly arms and cast a banishment spell.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all swept off their feet and carried along by a sudden blast of wind towards the front door, which slammed open when they got there. Ejected from 12 Grimmauld Place in a fairly reasonably manner so they acquired no more than minor bruising when landing onto their backs on the sidewalk outside, the Hogwarts trio dazedly looked up at where Kreacher was standing in the doorway.
The house-elf imperiously announced, "Mistress is going to be busy for a while. No visitors allowed, please. Blood-traitors and not-so-much-mudblood-than-before, go away."
Stepping back, the front door of Grimmauld Place banged shut behind Kreacher, and the entire building magically contracted to vanish entirely from sight.
From where she was lying on the sidewalk, Hermione sighed up at the grey sky, "I think that qualifies as 'the power he knows not,' right, Harry?"
Author's Note: Just a bit o' crackfic where I had the idea of sticking a piece of Voldytoast inside Mrs. Black's portrait. Couldn't find any other example of this concept when I searched fanfiction for this, so if you know of one, send me a review about it. Thanks!
