I certainly have no rights to Harry Potter, but this won't stop me writing this story. However, you probably already know this. As it is my specialty, and as in my other big stories, this shows how things go if something went different right at the beginning. Please note that I'm not a fan of bashing and also don't expect the two main pairings to differ from canon. However, the path to them certainly will be quite different. I also want to try and subvert certain plots and things that became common in the fandom over the years.
Please note that due to the constant technical troubles of the site, the story is now also being published at AO3. The story will update every second Saturday until the year is done.
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Chapter 71: Elf and Slug
The revelations they'd experienced had everyone feel the need to process everything. After some minutes however, the more pressing issues had to be breached.
"Let us get our priorities straight. We have no idea how many Horcruxes Lord Voldemort has created until Horace allows his memory to be restored so we can get that information. Correct, Albus?" McGonagall asked the Headmaster.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, without the help of Horace, we will never know. Sadly, I fear me or any other adult trying to convince him to do so would rather result in him resigning and leaving Hogwarts."
"You mean to say that we have to convince Professor Slughorn," Luna said bluntly.
"It's not my wish to burden you with that responsibility, but I see little other discourse. Horace does not deal well with feelings of shame and guilt, thus why he has altered his own memory. However, if anyone has a chance to succeed, its the six of you." Dumbledore didn't seem proud that he essentially had to burden teenagers with a crucial task.
"Good, though for the moment it can wait. We know of four Horcruxes. One is already destroyed, one out of our reach and one we have no idea where it is hidden, which leaves us to deal with the locket." McGonagall gave Dumbledore a deep look. "How do we deal with the problem of destroying the Horcruxes, Albus? You never said."
"Now, for that I already have the solution..." That said, Dumbledore walked to a glass case. "Having known what we are dealing with for some time, I took the chance when a dead basilisk became available and had Severus set aside some teeth and a good amount of venom. Then however, an even better method revealed itself."
They saw that the glass case was the one displaying the Sword of Gryffindor in a place of honor. Harry remembered thrusting the very same sword inot the head of the basilisk. Everyone had just assumed it to be an old school treasure and little more than that. Dumbledore took out the sword and showed it to everyone.
"To my amazement I discovered that this sword has special properties and thus was capable of absorbing some of the basilisk venom when Harry pushed it through the skull of the basilisk. Though sadly I of course had no way to actually test it, I am very sure the sword now is capable of destroying a Horcrux with ease," Dumbledore explained his findings.
Luna gave the sword a closer look. "How interesting. With the locket, the cup and now the sword, three of the four founders of Hogwarts are now represented. Does Ravenclaw also have such a treasure?"
Setting down the sword, Dumbledore looked pleased with the question. "Actually, yes, though it has been lost for centuries. I do have a good picture of it in a book..." With the wave of his wand, one book flew out of the shelf and landed on the desk. "Right here... This is the lost diadem of Ravenclaw."
Everyone did take a closed look at the drawing. It depicted a beautiful diadem made of the most precious of metals, which was formed to look a lot like the wings of an eagle - the animal of Ravenclaw. In the middle of the diadem a big, blue gemstone was set where in a bird its body would have been. All it all a beautiful piece of art.
"I bet Voldemort would have loved to get his hands on this," Ron said while whistling at how well-made it looked.
"Considering his habits, I'm sure he would have. However, the diadem has been lost since the time of Hogwarts' founders, thus the chance of him finding it is remarkably slim," Dumbledore added.
"That's all well and good, but I think the most pressing issue right now is the fact that I have a damn Horcrux sitting in Grimmauld Place right now with us having no idea how it got there in the first place!" Sirius interrupted them. "You showed you have the means, so let's see if we can see if it's the real deal."
"Yes, we should do that... all of us." Harry then noticed the looks he got from the adults. "Oh no, after telling us all these things and everything we already went through, there is no way we will be left out of this."
"It was never our intention to keep you out of it. After all, it would be rather dumb to first tell you all of this and then expect you to do nothing. Still, it's good to see you being this decisive and not being shy to take charge," Remus commended Harry.
"Uncle Remus..." Harry honestly wondered if Remus had a hidden gift of making him feel flustered.
...shortly later in 12 Grimmauld Place...
Compared to the reason for their visit, the travel toward 12 Grimmauld Place was downright anti-climatic. Sirius had went ahead and unlocked the fireplace, so that the rest of them could use the floo network to quickly follow him.
"Hmm, is Kreacher not around? I thought he's taking care of the house during weekends?" Harry wondered, having learned of the time arrangement Kreacher was working with at one point over the years.
"Right now I don't want to disturb him in his work," Sirius said while they walked to the drawing room.
Finally, they looked at the locket in question, which was sitting inside a glass case. "It is the real one, no doubt about that. Unbelievable that it was here the entire time," Dumbledore remarked after a closer inspection.
"I honestly feel unwell being so close to that thing," Ginny said. "But... how did it get here? You think your parents...?"
Sirius however shook his head. "No, as much as they loved what Voldemort was doing and wished for him to take over, they also were cowards and shied away from getting their hands dirty. No way that Voldemort would have entrusted his locket to them, since in his eyes they must have been all talk and no resolve."
Remus gave Sirius a look. "What about your brother? Maybe Voldemort killed Regulus because he wanted to hold the Horcrux over him, but then was unable to find and recover it?"
"I think he would only entrust such things to his most important followers. After all, Malfoy Sr. ended up holding onto the diary," Hermione thought aloud.
"Reggie most certainly had not been in Voldemort's services for long enough, but somehow it must be connected to him." Sirius then looked to where the stairs were. "I haven't touched Reggie's room, just locked it and even gave Kreacher strict orders to not enter it. I know my parents didn't touch it, either. Maybe we'll find a hint in there."
Making their way upstairs, they quickly found the door to the room that Sirius' brother Regulus had used during his lifetime. A small sign warned to not enter without the explicit permission of Regulus Arcturus Black. The inside of the room, after Sirius had unlocked the door, was very... green.
"I get the very feeling that your brother was overly proud of being a Slytherin," Ron commented when seeing that the Slytherin colors of emerald green and silver were everywhere in this room.
"That's an understatement," Sirius snorted, pointing at the family crest and motto being painted over the bed.
While they started to look around - not all of them since the room was too small - Neville noticed a bizarre collage of newspaper clippings. "Those are all about Voldemort."
"Oh yes, Reggie had been a fan of him years before joining. I know he was acting on all the crap our parents were putting into his head after I had proven to be a 'failure' to them. That poor fool..." Sirius looked pained over what had happened to his brother.
"Now... this is interesting. Here, take a look," Remus then called. There on the desk was a book about the southern coast and the book was open on a page talking about the caves in the cliffs of a specific region at the coast of southern Devon.
"Interesting indeed." Dumbledore then addressed the others. "You remember in the memory how the matron of the orphanage talked about young Tom Riddle luring two children into a sea-side cave and how those children were never the same again? I was unable to locate that cave yet, despite me working hard on it, but it seems Regulus Black got the needed hint to do so."
"Maybe, but that still doesn't get us any closer to solving this mystery," Ginny pointed out.
Sirius however was thinking of something. "Perhaps it does. Follow me." He led them back to the drawing room. "There perhaps is one person who can answer the question. After all, he has been here the entire time."
"You mean Kreacher?" Hermione said, now ashamed that she had fallen intot the trap of forgetting about the house-elf.
It seemed Sirius saw her emotions clearly. "It's part of a house-elf's job to be as unobtrusive as possible. I don't blame you for forgetting about him for a moment."
"And you think he could know something?" Harry asked.
"He's been here the entire time, so it's worth a shot." Sirius then stood next to the case containing the locket, before he called "Kreacher!"
-pop- Kreacher appeared right away. "How can Kreacher... serve?" It was noticeable right away that he stumbled over his words when seeing how many people were present and how Sirius was next to the locket.
Sirius right away saw that something had to be going on. "Kreacher, we have questions... about this locket here. We know it belongs to Voldemort. Do you know how it did get here?"
All of a sudden Kreacher looked to be in a hell of a lot of stress. "Master Sirius is the Head of the House of Black... Kreacher must obey..." Kreacher looked pained, but finally said "The locket was given to Kreacher by Master Regulus."
They now knew for sure that there was a connection and Sirius took notice of how pained Kreacher looked. "Kreacher, did Rugulus tell you to never talk about it?"
"He did..." Now Kreacher looked close to tears. "Oh, poor Master Regulus..."
Seeing that Kreacher was getting quite distressed, they gently guided him to him of the chairs and he made no fuss about sitting on it. Sirius then knelt down so that he was on eye level with Kreacher. "Kreacher, I need to know what happened to my brother. Reggie... He might have made terribly wrong choices, but he still was my brother and it always bothered me that I didn't know what happened to him."
Kreacher needed a few moments before he finally looked capable of replying. "Kreacher failed Master Regulus so badly... One day, a year after he joined the Dark Lord, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus, ... he said ... that the Dark Lord required an elf."
"Voldemort needed an elf?" Hermione wondered, suddenly having a bad feeling about that, considering the attitude of conservative wizards towards house-elves, not to speak of Voldemort himself.
"Oh yes," Kreacher moaned. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do ... and then to c-come home." Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs.
"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake..."
Kreacher needed a moment to gather himself and Sirius looked to Dumbledore. "It has to be the cave we were talking about. The puzzle is putting itself together."
Kreacher then continued "There was a boat... There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it..." The elf quaked from head to foot. "Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible things... Kreacher's insides burned... Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Walburga, but the Dark Lord only laughed... He made Kreacher drink all the potion... He dropped a locket into the empty basin... He filled it with more potion... And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island."
Everyone looked in shock while watching the sobbing elf. It seemed the memories were so terrible that they were causing Kreacher to have a breakdown. It also was very much monstrous of Voldemort to use someone that way and not show a shred of remorse - instead laughing at the suffering he was causing.
"He left you behind to die...?" Hermione asked, again being shown how the worst parts of wizarding culture treated those they saw as beneath them - a category that included herself.
"Oh yes, that he did..." Kreacher looked haunted by the experience. "Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake... and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface... Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back."
The Six looked a bit perplexed at this non-sequitur.
"Eh, how?" Ron wondered.
Kreacher did not seem to understand. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he repeated, as if that was the most natural thing in the world.
"Elf magic is not like wizard magic, so while Voldemort most certainly has proofed the cave against someone using apparition, he most likely was way too arrogant to even consider that the magic of house-elves is different," Remus reminded everyone.
"Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice... It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't," Dumbledore explained. "His complete lack of empathy does show here. Due to him feeling that house-elves are little more than sub-creatures, he never bothered to learn about them and thought of them as weak right away."
"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," intoned Kreacher. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home."
"And, what happened after that?" Sirius wondered.
"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," Kreacher croaked. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then... it was a little while later... Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell... and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord."
"M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," Kreacher said, tears pouring down either side of his snoutlike nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets... And he ordered Kreacher to leave without him. And he told Kreacher to go home and never to tell my Mistress what he had done but to destroy the first locket. And he drank... all the potion and Kreacher swapped the lockets and watched... as Master Regulus... was dragged beneath the water..."
Now everyone looked horrified when hearing what had happened to Regulus Black, but Sirius was the one impacted the most. "Reggie... no, you didn't deserve such a fate..."
Kreacher needed some time to collect himself, before he could conclude his tale. ""Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon the locket," the elf moaned. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work... So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open... Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave..."
That finally answered all the questions. Kreacher for the moment was not in any condition to talk any further, but that wasn't needed anyway.
"Damn it, Reggie... You wanted to do the right thing. Why hadn't you come to me?" Sirius didn't bother with holding back his tears after finally knowing what had happened to his brother.
o
It took some time for everyone to recover from such a horrifying tale - Kreacher needing the most time. Dumbledore had left for a short moment to get the sword. Now that they were sure about the Horcrux, he wanted it destroyed as fast as possible and no one could blame him for wanting that. Everyone, not that they were aware of it, got a bad feeling off that locket.
"There is so much blood on that locket..." McGonagall said while looking at it where it sat in its glass case. "It has to be destroyed. It is a good that Albus is already getting us the correct tool to do the deed."
"Yes, but... How do we get the damn thing open? Kreacher and all of his magic didn't manage to do so," Harry reminded everyone.
Hermione sighed. "Logical deduction is not always your strongest skill, Harry... Think about it, the locket was created by Salazar Slytherin, and then it was held by the Gaunts. Think back to the Chamber of Secrets and the memories of the Gaunts."
Now it clicked for Harry. "Parseltongue? Could it really be that simple?"
"From everything I learned about him, Salazar Slytherin was quite the arrogant man. He would use Parseltongue because he would assume that it's exclusive to him and his line," Hermione explained her reasoning. "Also, it came to me after witnessing the Gaunts almost exclusively using Parseltongue and really struggle with English."
"Better not let Professor Slughorn hear that, Miss Granger, but you are correct in that that is the logical conclusion," McGonagall told Hermione.
That moment Dumbledore returned with the sword. "I can harbor the guess that you by now have also concluded how to open the locket?"
"Yes, and Harry most certainly does have enough practice with the language that he can tell it to open," Remus said, having observed Harry testing himself with snakes over the years.
"Yes, to me it's like speaking English, only that there is some kind of magical translator in my head that changes it into snake-speak. It does help if I have something snake-like to focus on, and the S on the locket does resemble a snake," Harry explained.
"We have to be careful. After the diary, who knows what kind of defense mechanism this locket has?" Ron warned, remembering the artificial Riddle all too well.
"Kreacher should do the deed," Sirius suddenly said, causing everyone to look to him.
"Master?" Kreacher asked with wide eyes.
Sirius looked to Kreacher, his expression showing... understanding. "Regulus gave you the order to destroy the locket and I now understand how much it must have killed you on the inside that you were unable to fulfill that order. I want to give you the opportunity to finally be able to do it."
Kreacher needed a moment before he understood what Sirius was offering him, then fell onto his knees before him, face near the floor. "Oh, Kreacher will serve you faithfully until the end of time for this, Master!"
"Kreacher, get up. There is no need to hurt your self-respect like that," Sirius reminded the elf. Getting up, Kreacher carefully dusted off his uniform, still looking like Sirius had offered him the opportunity of a lifetime.
Meanwhile, the glass case was opened and Remus took hold of the locket... only to then quickly drop it onto the floor. "Argh! Taking hold of it, it suddenly shocked me!"
"Considering it holds part of Voldmort's soul, you can guess his opinion on werewolves," Harry reminded Remus. "I think Kraecher was able to hold it, because Voldemort thinks elves are below his notice."
Everyone went into position in a wide circle around the locket while Kreacher was instructed to stab the inside of the locket with the sword as soon as it was open, since there had to be a defense to it. Harry for his part was looking at the locket, making himself ready for when to open it. Finally, everyone was is position and hoped for the best.
"Open!" Harry then finally commanded, and the locket did open, splitting in the middle and two small doors opened up to each side, revealing a terrible sight.
The gemstone in the middle of the locket was pitch-black and the small glass windows on the insides of the doors were actually holding eyes! Those eyes looked exactly the same as those that Riddle had before his transformation into Voldemort. The eyes looked at them and saw the elf holding the sword. All of a sudden it was like darkness emerged from those eyes!
"I have seen your heart and it is mine!" a voice hissed.
Everyone was taken aback by a sudden feeling of terrible dread, whispers appearing in their ears, saying the most hurtful things possible - the Horcrux somehow had seen the things that would bring them the most pain. However, it was the eyes that were the most menacing thing. The left eye was starting at Kreacher, as if feeling insulted that such a lowly creature was attempting to destroy it, while the right eye had quickly zeroed in onto Dumbledore, ignoring everyone else.
"I have seen your failures, Kreacher, how big of a disappointment of an elf you are. Your attempts have only heaped shame upon yourself."
"Oh yes, Albus Dumbledore, you hide many secrets from others. You are not what you want others to think you are. Your greatest secret is your greatest shame."
"Oh no, what is this?!" Hermione cried while voices whispered into her ear how she would never find her place, always be an outsider... unloved by the one she desired
The darkness pouring out of the eyes took the shape of two people. One was a young man, not even out of his teens yet, while the other was a teenage girl.
"A good elf always follows his orders. You have greatly disappointed me, Kreacher."
"M-Master Regulus," Kreacher croaked, looking in terror at the false image of Regulus Black.
"Albus, how could you?! It was you who brought that man into our house and see where it got us!"
It was frightening to see the otherwise collected Dumbledore start to cry. "Ariana... I know there is no excuse..."
"It is not real... not real! It sees which fears we hold in our heart!" Luna gasped while whispers of her being a mentally stunted freak who would always be more pitied than anything else and never find love, surrounded her.
"You not only disappointed me Kreacher, you also disappointed the House of Black. What would your Mistress Walburga think of your failures? A complete disappointment of an elf..."
"No, Kreacher tried... tried so hard..." Kreachers hold onto the sword became shaky.
"Oh no, it was you who welcomed Grindelwald. Both of you became attached at the hip. And how did it end? With me dead and my blood on your hands. You are responsible for my tragedy."
"No... Ariana... I never wanted this to happen..." Dumbledore now looked like a very emotionally broken man.
Sirius was caught in a storm of angry accusations by the voices of James and Lily Potter that it was his carelessness that caused their death, but trying to ignore it, he looked to Kreacher. "Kreacher! Remember my brother's order! It is the highest law!"
That reminder set free reserves Kreacher didn't himself knew he had. The order from Regulus Black still wasn't fulfilled, and it was the highest house-elf law to do the master's bidding. His mind switched to that single purpose and he rose the sword high, before finally plunging the sharp tip directly into the center gem.
-KRAAAIIIIIIIKKKKKHHHH- An ear-splitting scream filled the room and blew away the whispers and false images. Black blood shot out of the gem, while both eyes burst into more of that stuff. Then, finally, the screams ebbed away until there was complete silence.
-clang- Kreacher had dropped the sword and fell onto his rear, starting at the locket. The inner lining of the locket was soiled with the black ... something that had come out and the gem in the middle had returned to being a plain emerald, but now cracked like a spider-web, with multiple pieces having fallen out. There were no creepy eyes, it had returned to being a plain locket.
"Is... is it dead?" Ginny asked nervously, itching to blast the locket just to make sure.
Since Dumbledore was in no condition to do anything, McGonagall approached the locket and checked. "There is no magic left in it. It most certainly is dead."
o
The aftermath of the destruction of the Horcrux was strange. Kreacher was almost entirely silent, as if he still needed to process that he finally had done it, after years of feeling it was impossible, and now first had to think about the ramifications of this development. Dumbledore was only slowly recovering from his mental torture, leaving everyone to wonder who that young woman had been that the Horcrux had impersonated.
The other adults were carefully checking the locket after making sure the teenagers had not suffered any long-lasting harm. However, the locket indeed was now again just a locket, though severely stained and with a fractured center gem. Remus did raise an eyebrow when watching McGonagall cleaning the locket with a spell, removing the residue.
"Is there any particular reason for that, Minerva?" Remus wondered.
"Just like the sword, this locket is a treasure of the founders. While the center gem is fractured, the rest is still intact and will be part of the school's treasures once this madness is over, in its damaged state being a silent witness to the depths Voldemort has sunk," she explained her reasoning while carefully closing the locket before putting it away.
"Too bad you can't put it on display until after Voldemort is dead. Just imagine his face should he get the news it's on display..." Ron clearly was trying to lighten the atmosphere, but that was undercut by how he was holding Hermione close, the girl also not wanting to let go of him and still looking pale.
"Now that this is all over... Does any of you have an idea who that girl was that the Headmaster saw?" Ginny wondered while not letting go of Harry.
The adults looked at each other. Sirius and Remus looked completely clueless and McGonagall also didn't seem to know. "We honestly don't know. Dumbledore kept his private life always that: private. Perhaps we should not look any further into it, since it is not our business," Sirius suggested.
"No, they have a right to know."
That was Dumbledore, who seemed to have recovered. "Albus, whatever that was, it has to be a private matter..." McGonagall started.
Dumbledore held up a hand. "Perhaps it was that, but now their curiosity is aroused and will make them start to look further and come to their own, most likely flawed conclusions. All of you deserve to know what that was about from me."
There was some silence, before Neville asked the question. "Sir... who was that girl that the locket showed you?"
"That... was my sister Ariana." It seemed to take him some strength to say that name. "I see it in your eyes, while you know about my brother Aberforth, I had an even younger sibling, though very few people know of that fact."
"She... that image mentioned Grindelwald. What does...?" Hermione didn't dare to finish the sentence.
"I know, it sounds bad, thus I need to explain." Dumbledore seemed to prepare himself for the explanation. "Back when Ariana was six years old, she did accidental magic in the garden. Three non-magical boys from the neighborhood saw that and asked her to repeat the feat, which she couldn't. The following altercation left Ariana traumatized, but she could have recovered, if not for a chain of errors that would compound on it."
Now Dumbledore looked sad. "Our father was very protective of us, but sadly also had a short temper and lacked common sense. In a rage he murdered all three boys, who were not even ten years old. He never revealed the reason and died in Azkaban several years later. Our mother then moved the family to a different town and kept Ariana hidden from the outside world, as if to protect her from everyone."
Dumbledore then sighed. "Due to all of this, Ariana actively suppressed her own magic, which is highly dangerous, as it can and will result in violent outbursts of magic. One such outburst, when she was fourteen, killed our mother."
"I read about that. It is called Obscurus and highly dangerous," Luna said, remembering having read about it.
"Oh yes, it is. My brother had not finished Hogwarts yet, being close to the end of his seventh year, so I had the responsibility of taking care of her. I resented that responsibility due to it interrupting my own plans. Back then I was an arrogant and self-centered young man, full of dislike of the non-magical world."
They had real trouble to imagine Albus Dumbledore being like that, even in his now almost a century-away youth. The Six felt unwell when imagining a young Dumbledore who acted very much like Draco Malfoy. It was a disturbing picture and created the question how he had changed to the man he was now.
"Then, shortly later, a young man moved into our town. Gellert Grindelwald at that time was not yet what he later would become in life, but in retrospect it was foolish of me to trust someone with a history of violence and a known expulsion from Durmstrang. His words quickly enticed me and fell on fertile ground; he cultivated the hatred in me until we were ready to form a blood pact that together we would enslave the non-magical world."
He got shocked looks at that revelation and knew he deserved it. "My brother saw the madness and in worry for Ariana confronted us, resulting in a three-way duel. We have no idea who in the chaos fired the spell that did it, but it ended with Ariana dead and Grindelwald fleeing to evade the authorities."
Dumbledore then looked down, looking even older than he already was. "Aberforth never forgave me, but if anything, I can forgive myself even less. Only then did I realize that it was my own arrogance, my hatred and my lust for power that caused my sister to die. This bitter realization began to change me into the man I am now and made me realize that I simply can't be trusted with too much power."
The following silence meant that Dumbledore was done.
The Six hadn't had any idea that Albus Dumbledore, who to them always was a man with strong ideals and constantly working on improving the lot of others, did have such a dark past. It however also was sad that it took the death of his sister to make him understand how terrible of a person he had become. Just one look was enough to see how broken he was over all of it and that no punishment would be greater than that constant reminder for almost a century.
Dumbledore was punishing himself more than any other person could ever hope to.
There was soon enough a silent agreement to never speak of that again, since they saw how painful that had been for Dumbledore. Yes, he had been a terrible person back then, but the tragedy had changed him to the man he was now, and thus they should not make an issue of it.
Some time later, almost everyone had already returned to Hogwarts, leaving only Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore himself, who now looked to have recovered from his revelation. Sirius had asked the other two men to stay behind, before calling Kreacher over.
"Kreacher, you do know where to find the cave, do you? Even after all those years?" Sirius asked the elf.
"Yes, Kreacher would never forget the place," the elf said, the place pretty much burned into his memory.
"Padfoot, what are you planning?" Remus asked, having a feeling that he needed to inform Dora that something would eat into their time together.
"Reggie deserves to be brought home," Sirius said, leaving no doubt he would do it.
...sea-side cave, October 6th...
The winds at the cliff side where the entrance to the cave was located were especially tricky, but that was of little concern when using broom just above the surface of the ocean. They had Kreacher describe exactly where to find the cave and then told him to go head and wait for them while they would use brooms to enter, thus negating the need for some rather dangerous acrobatics or a swim in the icy ocean waters.
"Good thing we waited until the tide is at its lowest, otherwise the entrance would be full of water," Remus remarked while they slowly flew through the narrow connective tunnel until reaching an uphill slope that led into a cave.
"I assume besides history that this is the main reason for Tom to choose this place. Unless one knows where to look, no one would ever find this cave. Without the help from Kreacher, I would have needed months to locate it," Dumbledore said, now mostly recovered for the events of the previous day.
That's underselling it. It would be outright insane for anyone wanting to go in here, Sirius thought.
Inside the cave, Kreacher was already waiting for them. "Kreacher knows exactly where Master Regulus smeared his own blood to open the path," he told the three wizards while they dismounted their brooms.
"Show us exactly, where, Kreacher," Sirius taking out a small silver knife, having come prepared.
Soon enough they stood before what looked like a simple rock wall. However, Sirius then drew some of his blood and smeared it onto the wall, which then glowed and opened up into another cave which was dominated by a lake and a small island in its middle.
"This is where Reggie died?" Sirius asked and Kreacher nodded, feeling highly unwell in this place. "So, this lake contains at least several Inferi..."
Dumbledore meanwhile looked to the island. "I have no doubt that Tom devised a sophisticated way to reach the island. Thankfully, we have no need to reach it." He then looked at the lake. "Inferi don't eat their victims and considering how cold the waters are, a body would need way longer than twenty years to seriously decompose."
"Padfoot, those things will not release him willingly," Remus reminded his friend.
"I know, but I will force them to do so. It's not like we are trying to reach that damn island." Sirius looked at the dark waters. "Kreacher, you say Reggie was pulled down at the side of the island facing the entrance, right?"
"Yes, Master. It was the worst thing Kreacher ever had to witness," the elf said, still shivering at the sight.
"Then we'll do it as agreed upon..." Sirius then pointed his wand at the water. "Accio body of Regulus Black!"
Right away there was strong activity in the water. Sirius strained, feeling something trying to keep the body from leaving the water. Seconds later they saw a horrible sight of several zombies desperately trying to deny Sirius the body of his brother, holding onto it with all their might.
"Kreacher, you keep pulling!" Sirius told the elf, and as soon as he did so, changed spells.
Sirius and Remus blasted the zombies with severing charms, cleanly separating their arms from their bodies while Kreacher didn't stop to pull, until suddenly the body was released and nearly buried Kreacher. The zombies however now seemed very angry that one of their victims had escaped their clutches and started to emerge all from the water. It was at least a dozen of them.
"Albus!" Remus called to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore knew what to do and that it would take all of his concentration. Cursed flames came out of his wand and even managed to set the still partly submerged zombies ablaze while the water started to boil. The cursed creatures howled while being cooked and burnt to ashes and Dumbledore quickly cut off the spell before it could get out of control.
"I dislike using Fiendfyre, but it is the fastest way to deal with these cursed creatures." The use of Friendfyre had clearly exhausted Dumbledore.
Sirius looked at the corspe of his brother. He looked as if he had died only days ago, the cold and lifeless waters having preserved his body. Sirius couldn't hold back his tears and Kreacher was openly crying, in sorrow as much as in relief that they had managed to recover the body from the claws of those damned creatures.
"Kreacher... it's time to bring Reggie home..."
...that night...
The only thing illuminating the Black family cemetery were several floating balls of light, otherwise the overcast night was very dark. In a strange way it befitted the somber mood of those attending this secret funeral of Regulus Black.
The attendance also was very different compared to the last funeral on the cemetery over a decade earlier. Instead of a bunch of bigoted pure-blood families, the only people in attendance were five humans and a house-elf. Sirius understood why Diane didn't want to attend and instead watched the children. Andromeda on the other hand insisted on being present, and thus Ted was present as well. That in turn meant that Dora and Remus had to be there as well.
"We all knew he's dead, but it all feel much more real now..." Andromeda said while looking at the casket holding the body.
Ted held his wife a bit closer. "Andy back then was really hurt how she only learned second-hand that Regulus had died."
"I honestly am too young to have ever met him, but I can imagine Sirius being quite hurt by the news," Dora said, feeling really strange attending this funeral.
"And how he was hurt. Just like with Andy, they didn't even bother to tell Sirius directly. I was there when Dumbledore, who had learned of it, told him." Remus would never forget that despite everything which had happened before, Sirius had been shocked when hearing his brother was dead.
Sirius for his part looked down at the casket. "Reggie did not deserve this. If anything, I blame our parents. They put all that crap into his head from day one and only doubled down when I proved to not bend to their will. But Reggie did realize in the end how horrible the true cause is."
Kreacher for his part was saying nothing while using his magic to dig out the grave, feeling strangely at peace with the knowledge that Regulus Black's final resting place would now be in exactly the place which had been empty for so long. While for others it might be morbid to be the gravedigger, for Kreacher it was finally finishing all of this properly.
"I think your parents would turn in their graves if they knew that their 'proper' pure-blood son turned out to have turned against Voldemort," Andromeda commented, looking to the graves of Sirius' parents.
Andromeda, Ted and Dora of course didn't know how exactly Regulus had betrayed Voldemort, since that knowledge was dangerous. They at least knew that that information was secret for the moment and it was enough for them to know that it did happen and that Regulus had seen the error of his ways.
"Andy..." Granted, Orion and Walburga Black had been horrible to him once they'd learned of his courtship of Andromeda - not to speak of Andromeda's actual parents - but Ted felt they should be ignored, now that they were dead.
"Ted, there are wounds that will never heal," Andromeda told her husband.
"Even as horrible as her own father had been to her, she at least held a shred of affection for him until the end. How much worse must Orion and Walburga have been for her to still despise them long after their death?" Dora wondered, since normally her mother was open and warm.
"You told me of a Howler Walburga sent you when you were five years old, screaming what a disgusting freak of nature you are," Remus reminded Dora.
"Yes... perhaps Mum is right to dislike them even beyond the grave," Dora said with a sigh, remembering all too well how disturbed she had been for weeks after said Howler.
Finally, Kreacher had dug out the grave. "All is ready, Master."
"Now then... Andy, Ted, Moony, let's lower my brother to his final resting place," Sirius said.
Dora watched them manually lifting the casket and then slowly lower it into the grave with ropes. She had protested not being allowed to participate in that part, but Andromeda had made it clear that while pregnant women were not made of glass, they also most certainly should not do heavy lifting. Dora had accepted that reasoning, though she still fell a little babied.
When the casket was at its final resting place, it was Kreacher who then started to again fill up the grave, though this time he did allow everyone else to join in. Soon enough the grave was done and they knew people so seldom came to the cemetery that by the time someone did, the fresh earth would be overgrown with grass and no one would be any wiser.
"Goodbye, Reggie. Now you finally can rest..." Sirius whispered.
...Hogwarts grounds, October 12th...
"Mmmmhhhhh..."
If tongue-wrestling had been an Olympic discipline, Dudley and Millicent would have easily won the gold medal. They both had retreated into a secluded part of the grounds, knowing the weather would take a turn for the worse soon enough, and now were indulging in each other.
They were using this moment to completely ignore the dark outside world - the news at times were nasty enough that they did forego reading the newspaper at some days - and instead just concentrate on each other. They hadn't had any chance to do such things over the summer thanks to security concerns, thus they still had a lot of catching-up to do.
And catching up they did.
At the moment the castle was mostly empty, with most of the students being in Hogsmeade, thus the risk of someone walking in on them was even lower than it already would have been. They had gladly ditched this visit to Hogsmeade in order to have some private time with each other.
"You know, some would say we are living in sin," Dudley remarked after their lips had parted.
"Which would be rich of them. After all, we haven't gone beyond kissing and some fondling... yet," Millicent snorted. "Wouldn't be any of their business anyway."
"Well, you could call it 'some fondling' that I manually checked your cup size... Which by the way is very impressive," Dudley said with a grin, causing Millicent to blush a little. "You've made everyone who thought you would look like an ogre eat their words."
"Yes, this here is most certainly not an ogre," Millicent said, accentuating her big rack. "I do take a lot after Mum and many people call her an Amazon in the best way possible. ... Though it also helped that Daphne once gave me a makeover to show how much better I can do with a little effort."
"Oh yes..." Dudley remembered the difference said makeover had made, though it didn't add anything, only helped to accentuate what was already there. "Good thing your parents like me."
"It helps that they've had years to get used to the idea that their daughter started to get interested in a boy." Millicent then looked thoughtful "It helps that you saved my life as well."
Yes, that had been the best possible way for Millicent's parents to warm up to him. Thank all goodness they were not of the overprotective kind, knowing very well that their daughter was capable of defending herself. Also, having known him for years they knew he wasn't doing that just to get into her knickers; that was something that would happen on its own.
"When do you think we are ready for more?" Dudley wondered, blushing a little at the idea.
Millicent gave him an interesting look. "Curious what I look like just wearing my bra and knickers?" she asked him playfully.
"...yes," Dudley admitted.
Millicent felt flattered by that admission from her boyfriend. "Now that's an idea for a future day..." It seemed that she was honestly considering it.
"I honestly can't wait for the next Hogsmeade, despite all the security. I want to take you out on a romantic date, just the two of us," Dudley then said, looking to where the village was in the distance.
"I hope not at Madam Puddifoot's!" Millicent gasped, looking scared at the mere idea.
"Dear God, no!" Now Dudley looked horrified as well. "That damn place is more of something that breaks relationships with its horrible decor. That, and just looking at it from the outside made me associate the decor with Umbridge. You've seen how she decorated her office."
"Don't remind me..." After Umbridge had left, many students had become curious if the rumors about Umbridge's office were true, and so they had looked, only to regret it, since it was even worse than in the rumors.
"Just leave everything to me and I can get a reservation for a private room at the Three Broomsticks," Dudley promised, though he knew he would have to borrow Hedwig from Harry for that.
Both of them didn't know they had been observed.
Leaving when seeing that those two were starting to cuddle, she waited until she was back in her room, before she took off the invisibility cloak and stored in the false bottom inside her trunk. Pansy then let out a sound of disgust at what she had witnessed, acting as if that had been the most disgusting thing in the world.
"Bulstrode must be truly desperate! Then again, she has been with that mudblood for years, so she never had any standards," she told herself.
She had been using her invisibility cloak to scout out the grounds to determine their next steps, feeling the students being in Hogsmeade was the perfect time for that. After all, the items they got from Borgin & Burkes had to be used correctly and not get wasted. To her dismay she had stumbled upon Millicent and Dudley making out and due to some sort of perverse curiosity had watched. Now she regretted she had done so.
"And all that sugary crap... Damn, that felt like my teeth were rotting in real time," Pansy ranted, not seeing how hypocritical she was, since when she was privately together with Draco, both of there said pretty much the same kind of stuff.
Calm down, Pansy. This is getting you nowhere, she reminded herself.
The stress of the situation was a big part of her emotional imbalance. After the Dark Lord had scolded them for their rather poor first attempt, both of them had become more nervous that they couldn't risk to disappoint him like that again. After all, they knew that disappointing the Dark Lord had very bad effects on one's health.
Watching them do all that stuff got me all riled up... Pansy then made a decision.
Yes, she was an utter hypocrite that she first was shitting all over Dudley and Millicent for making out, but she saw nothing wrong with that causing her now being on the way to do exactly the same things with Draco. In her mind, that she was a teenage girl with needs was way more important and a certain itch needed to be scratched.
She also knew for sure that Draco wouldn't mind at all and could use a little distraction as well.
...October 17th, the Riddle House...
Narcissa must at least have some spine, otherwise she wouldn't have managed this without constantly crying, Bellatrix thought, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand while leaving the bathroom.
As eager as she was to give the Dark Lord as many offspring as possible, she would never find anything positive about the side-effects. Not only had the Dark Lord barred her from active duty until some time after the birth, which honestly caused her quite an amount of boredom since torturing prisoners only gave that much satisfaction, her body also was conspiring against her.
The healer could tell her as much as he wanted that this all was normal, she nonetheless was annoyed by all the side-effects, like her having vomited just minutes ago. Considering that at roughly a bit over three months she wasn't even showing much yet - though she knew that would change soon enough - it made her dread the shape she would be in, her ego rebelling.
"Watch it!" she hissed when Barty almost walked into her.
"Pardon, Bellatrix. Wouldn't want to run into you," Barty said, then saw he had said the wrong thing.
She gave him a look that could kill. "Are you implying I'm made of glass?!" She got no answer. "Better watch your mouth, Barty, since I'm in no mood for any smart comments. Try it anyway and let's see how much you enjoy looking for your tongue."
Watching Bellatrix leave, Barty couldn't help but to shiver.
My loyalty to the Dark Lord is without question and I highly respect Bellatrix. However, there is no way I'll ever feel comfortable around her... especially now, he thought, feeling that a pregnant Bellatrix actually was even more scary.
Truth to be told, trying to imagine Bellatrix as a mother caused Barty's imagination to fail. The two things seemed mutually exclusive. She's just three months in, that means six more months and who knows how much worse her mood will get...
Barty then and there decided that he would try to petition the Dark Lord for as much field work as possible. He was no coward and fully devoted to Voldemort, but there was a difference between having courage and being suicidally stupid. Wanting to be around Bellatrix while she was in such a mood clearly was the latter.
Bellatrix meanwhile had reached the doors to Voldemort's sanctum and knocked four times to show that it was her before she entered.
Voldemort looked up from the scrolls he was reading at his desk. How packed his desk was with paperwork was silent proof that even an evil Dark Lord had lots of mundane work he could entrust no one else with. Thankfully, a young Tom Riddle working ten years as a shop clerk had prepared him for mind-numbing, boring everyday work. After all, no evil empire ran on its own.
"Ah, Bella. How are you?" Voldemort greeted her.
"As much as it is a great honor to carry your offspring to term, my Lord, I do not enjoy the effects it has on me," Bellatrix admitted.
"The one trainee who needed three of her fingers re-attached is proof of your rather volatile mood at the moment," Voldemort chuckled darkly, enjoying that Bellatrix blushed like a girl that got caught stealing from the cookie jar. "But other than that, I assume all is going well?"
"There are no problems, I just anticipate the moment I again can be fully at your service," Bellatrix said.
"Impatient much, Bella?" Voldemort then got up from behind his desk. "Tell me, what is the latest news from Hogwarts... after that little failure?"
She knew he meant that rather lame first attempt from Draco and Pansy to cause trouble. Granted, using cursed fire was not per se a dumb idea, but the execution had been sloppy. If not for Snape cleaning up their mess, they would have been thrown out of the school already. She couldn't help but feel disappointed in them.
"If not for the fact that we already know that they know..." Bellatrix then answered the question. "The little brats are laying low, planning their next move. As much as I dislike Snape, his scathing report said it all. I do not associate those two with subtle."
Honestly not something you should complain about, Bella, Voldemort thought, since Bellatrix was very much a blunt instrument - though a very effective one.
"It might appear from the outside as if what they are doing is of no worth, but they both have to fulfill their role as the obedient little lackeys they are. It even is a bit amusing to observe how much they overestimate their worth." The slasher smile, which Voldemort made after saying that, even scared Bellatrix a little.
Bellatrix agreed with the idea wholeheartedly however "Those two need to learn where their place really is. They have to to learn the needed respect toward their superiors... And if they don't, they have to learn to suffer their wrath."
That was something they both fully agreed upon easily.
...Hogwarts, October 31st...
Considering their luck with previous Halloweens, the Six had expected something bad to happen - even something they would only learn about a lot later. Thus they had expected the worst, but strangely enough, nothing unusual had happened during the regular Halloween feast - unless one counted Myrtle pumping up her head like a balloon and then floating to the ceiling, much to the amusement of the younger students.
"Bizarre. I hope it's not something that is about to blow up in our faces later on," Harry remarked while they were leaving the great hall to attend their other commitment today.
Everyone grimaced at the reminder. It had been revealed by Snape much later on, that the fact that Harry was not chosen by the goblet in fourth year was the huge piece of bad luck befalling them, since it signaled Voldemort changing his plans in a way that was much worse for them. A convoluted plan to get Harry into the tournament to get his blood at least would have given a chance of the plan failing or being discovered early.
"Maybe it doesn't work anymore because of so many bad news?" Ron speculated.
That also was an unpleasant reminder.
Of course the war was raging on while they were in school and the news did keep coming in. They could read between the lines, and considering how much the Ministry got hollowed out, most of the foiled Death Eater plots had to be MI-X working in overtime. How serious the war was they had seen first hand when during lessons a Ravenclaw student had to be escorted out, being a complete wreck after getting the news that his parents got murdered by Death Eaters, complete with the Dark Mark being set above their corpses.
"We should concentrate on our current task. After all, we only have one try with this," Luna reminded them. "It is too bad I don't know of any magical creatures that would make Professor Slughorn more open to agreeing to our request."
Hermione rolled her eyes a bit when seeing, that even in such a serious situation Luna was true to herself. "Let's hope we can wing this, or we'll never learn the correct number."
That also was quite the burden.
For several weeks they had discussed and thought about how to actually convince Slughorn to allow his memory to be restored so that they would learn of the number of Horcruxes Voldemort had aimed to create. They had agreed fast enough that the little get-together with Slughorn after the Halloween feast would truly be the best chance they would get, but the problem of the how remained.
They were damn sure that just trying to breach that subject could very easily result in the man clamming up and no longer wanting them near him. They needed some way to steer the whole conversation into the right direction and actually make Slughorn agreeable before even mentioning that they knew of his little conversation with Tom Riddle. That he was ashamed enough to alter his own memory was proof of the strong emotions surrounding that incident.
In their desperation, they had asked Sirius and Remus for advice on how they could convince the man. The only thing they could think of was how very fond Slughorn had been of Harry's mother as one of his students due her great talent and ease with which she could connect to others. However, she had never been a member of the Slug Club, having denied the invitation on principle, though that had not stopped Slughorn's fondness for her.
That pretty much was the only way they had found to breach the man's defenses, so Harry had tried to learn as much as possible about the teacher-student relationship between Slughorn and his mother. Hopefully that would suffice, otherwise they would be at their wits end.
"Huh?" Ginny stopped and looked around.
"Something wrong, Ginny?" Neville wondered.
"I thought I heard something when we entered this corridor..." Perhaps it only was her imagination.
Reaching Slughorn's private office, they entered and saw that only a select few other members of the Slug Club were being present as well. It truly was a small get-together, most likely for Slughorn to vet them intensively.
Slughorn for his part saw them enter. "Ah, come in! Come in! Please join us in our cozy round!"
The door closed behind them and for the next few minutes Slughorn made idle chatter with them to get them into the right mood for everything that would come a bit later. However, just when Slughorn was about to get to the meat of the matter... -toc toc toc-
"Who could that be?" Slughorn wondered and waved his wand to open the door without having to get up.
The sight through the open door was... interesting to say the least. There was Snape, not looking very pleased while holding Draco and Pansy by their collars. He then marched them in. "I caught those two outside of the door, trying to listen in on you."
Why am I not surprised? Harry thought. They should have expected those two snooping into their matters.
Slughorn for his part looked very disappointed. "Violating the direct order to stay in the guest building and trying to spy on me. I can't express how disappointed I am." It was a bit scary how different a disappointed Slughorn was.
"Yes, we admit it! We wanted to find out what is so special about those meetings," Pansy then said, feeling no need to stay silent.
"Thought that, did you?" Snape asked, looking highly unimpressed.
"I can't express how much of an offense violating the privacy of a professor's office is." It seemed that was one of the things Slughorn took very seriously. "A punishment is most certainly needed."
It went by very fast and no one noticed the quick eye contact between Slughorn and Snape. That short moment was enough however to convey the message. "Slughorn, can you leave the punishment to me? I do not want those two miscreants to take away your valuable time," Snape then said.
"Most certainly," Slughorn agreed and Snape led them away.
Outside in the corridors, Snape then dropped the act. "What were both of you thinking, trying to listen at Slughorn's door? Be very glad that I was nearby, or he would have caught you and then you would be in serious trouble and at least a month of detention with no way to accomplish your mission during that time.
"We took precautions!" Draco protested.
"One of those cheap invisibility cloaks is hardly enough to fool an experienced wizard in close quarters, considering how easy it was for me to spot you. Without me, your cloak would have been confiscated as well, so better be thankful I hid it." Snape made sure that those two got the point. "How did you even get one where you both fit under?"
"We... we had to improvise. The only one we found in that size was made from two separate cloaks," Pansy admitted, not being proud of that fact.
Snape snorted. "No wonder the invisibility effect was so poor... I'll return that stitched-together mess to you, but if you want to make the Dark Lord proud, you need to stop messing around."
"Easy for you to say!" Draco hissed, losing his temper. "You already are highly trusted, so it's easy to criticize us! Just because mother wants you to play our nanny does not mean you can put stones into our path. The Dark Lord will soon enough recognize our worth."
"Of course you have to do what you think is right..." The way Snape worded that sounded rather ominous. "Be assured, I will report this to the Dark Lord. Also, both of you will have one week of detention with me."
"What?! But..." Pansy started to protest.
The hard look Snape was giving her was enough to silence her. "I have to keep up my cover as well, you dolts. Also, maybe I can use that time to teach you to be more subtle in you efforts."
They both knew there was no way to get out of that.
o
The little get-together had come to an end and the Six had asked for a little more time after the others were gone, saying there was something else they had to talk about. Slughorn for his part didn't seem suspicious at all, which was a testament to how they over five years managed to make Slughorn comfortable around them. They only hoped that their stratagem would work.
"This was a very productive evening, but I always have some additional time for some of my most promising students," Slughorn said after the door had closed behind the others leaving.
"Oh, please Sir..." Ron felt a bit uncomfortable with that praise, which was a stark contrast to his earlier years.
Slughorn however didn't want to hear such doubt, waving around a piece of pineapple. "No, no! Praise where praise is due. All of you will come far in life, that is for sure. Well, how can I be of help for you?"
"We most certainly appreciate it, Sir," Hermione said, trying not to show how nervous she was. "Harry did learn some things about the past where you could help us clarify."
"Oho, something of a more personal nature?" Slughorn speculated.
"You could say so," Harry said, knowing he had to be damn careful what to say. "While Sirius and Remus could tell me quite a bit about my mother, they told me that you were quite close with her as well."
"Oh, indeed I was, though she never was part of my special circle. She was a prodigy with potions but also of the firm opinion that it should be one's own work that should determine success, and not connections." Slughorn looked nostalgic. "I respected such conviction and thus never gave her the offer again, as she would have seen that as an insult."
They knew that Lily Evans did have her faults and that she had needed some growing up as well - like how Hermione had grown over the years and dropped some of her more obnoxious behaviors - but they of course wouldn't tell Slughorn so. Not when they just got him going.
"She sounds like a great person. It's sad I have no memory of her..." Harry knew he was playing dirty, but it had to be done.
"Yes, it's sad that she was taken from us way too early. She had not deserved such a fate..." Slughorn had paled a little, clearly thinking of Voldemort.
"Sir, was she that strong in following her convictions that she would even die for her cause?" Luna then asked.
Slughorn looked a bit uncomfortable. "Oh yes... she most certainly was. I remember some of the things she did in school. She told me... that it takes dedication to see something to the end."
Ah... there, they thought and looked at each other.
"Then she was really strong. She never gave in to Voldemort and gave her life to protect me. I'm sad I never met her, but I understand why she did what she did. She faced him and never gave in." Harry then looked to Slughorn. "Speaking of him, have you ever met Voldemort when he was still Tom Riddle, Professor?"
"Yes.. he was a student of mine... In retrospect I'm not proud of that fact." Now Slughorn looked nervous, like the topic was hitting too close to home.
"Professor Dumbledore once told me that he used to teach him as well and the one thing he regretted most, was, that he had not been diligent enough to warn everyone else about the kind of sociopath Tom Riddle is," Hermione told Slughorn.
"I understand Albus perfectly fine there..." Slughorn nervously took some pineapple to calm himself. "None of us teachers at that time had covered ourselves with glory when it came to Tom. He was just so good at wearing a mask... Fooled even me."
"You sound like you never really came to terms with that error like Dumbedore did." Ginny saw Slughorn grimace slightly. "You've done so much good to repair the damage in the school. Slytherin now is a much better and respected House again."
"But I fear it won't be enough, considering that I..." Slughorn froze.
Understanding what Slughorn had been about to say, Harry saw now was the time. "Professor, we know."
That startled Slughorn. "What?! What do you mean?"
Ron, who had not been part of the conversation yet, knew it was his part to be blunt. "Sir, Professor Dumbledore confided in us. We know that back in his school days Voldemort tricked you into revealing something you normally wouldn't have revealed. You've been beating yourself up over it ever since and even trying to blast the memory out of your mind didn't help - you have enough context in your head to still feel guilty and miserable over it."
Slughorn had become quite pale. "You- you know he...?" He didn't dare to finish the sentence.
"Yes, we know how he survived and we know how terrible the mere idea of a Horcrux is," Neville confirmed.
Slughorn now looked like an animal that had been driven into a corner. The Slughorn from several years ago would have chased them out and then locked himself into his office. But he no longer was that man. Events of the past years had changed him as well. Being confronted with the terrible truth of seeing a Horcrux in action and a memory of young Tom Riddle, defending students against a pack of werewolves, protecting his students from Umbridge and her cronies during the terror.
No, the Horace Slughorn sitting there was a different man from the one he used to be. The past Slughorn had been a big coward while the present Slughorn had been forced through several tough situations that made him to have more of a spine.
"I... I don't remember what exactly I told him. I know however that his honeyed words seduced me and that I said more than I should have..." Slughorn right now very much looked his age. "I tried to remove the memory... but it didn't help! I still know I told him something important that helped him gain immortality, but not knowing what it exactly it is, only made it worse."
"Now you are also wondering what you did that you can't forgive yourself for," Ginny realized.
"Yes... Now I'm ashamed of myself without knowing the exact reason, why." Slughorn then had to wipe his wet forehead. "Worse... Tom would want to kill me if he thinks I revealed whatever I told him to someone else."
They had little trouble to see Slughorn wrestle with himself. Now that that was dragged in the open, he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the status quo. However, he would still need to be shown that there was a way out of this nasty situation.
"Could you think what my mother would say had she known?" Harry asked Slughorn.
Slughorn sighed. "I know she would have been disappointed with me."
"Disappointed maybe, but all I was told about her, she would have told you that you can't heal while you don't know what you have to forgive yourself for," Harry said, actually meaning it. "She would have told you it's never too late to make the right decisions."
For the first time ever since his secret was revealed, Slughorn actually looked hopeful, though he felt of himself as weak that he had been unable to find the energy for such a decision on his own.
Of course it took more than just that to also convince Slughorn to actually go to Dumbledore.
Indeed, they needed almost twenty more minutes to convince Slughorn that the best course of action would be to let Dumbledore restore his memory, so that he could properly come to terms with what he had done, and give Dumbledore a copy as a start for atoning for his moment of weakness. Slughorn of course was nervous about the Headmaster learning those things, but seemed to have gathered enough courage to go through with it.
"I'm relieved we managed to get through this as easily as we did," Hermione said while they waited in the currently empty anteroom of Ms. Spencer for Dumbledore being done with restoring Slughorn's memory.
"Easy? Even after getting through to Slughorn, it took us quite a bit more to convince him to do this," Ron reminded his girlfriend.
"Not that we can blame him," Ginny threw in, feeling that Slughorn of course would have difficulties to make a decision after decades of carrying that burden.
That moment Slughorn appeared from the stairs.
"Professor, how are you feeling?" Harry asked.
"Ashamed, now that I know what I confirmed to Tom without meaning to." Slughorn, while looking exhausted, nonetheless walked like a man who'd had a revelation. "You were right, me not knowing only made it worse."
"You helped a lot with donating a copy of your memory," Luna told the man.
"I know... Hopefully it can help make up for my error. Better go upstairs. Albus surely wants to share the news with you. I know you know more than you want to tell me, and perhaps it's better for me not to know too much." Slughorn then sighed. "As for me... I have a lot of thinking to do." Slughorn then left.
"Oh, hello Lupin," he greeted on the way out.
Remus entered, giving the Six a look. "Albus called me, saying he got the unaltered memory from Slughorn. That's your success, isn't it?"
"Well... yes. We did manage to convince Slughorn to get his memories restored and then donate a copy. Guess the Headmaster wants everyone present when we watch it," Neville guessed.
"Let's not have him wait..." Hermione added.
They all walked up into the office, seeing that besides the Headmaster, McGonagall and Sirius also were present. Dumbledore looked up from where he had filled the pensive with the memory. "Ah, all of us are present. Please let me secure the office, and then we will see..."
Shortly later the office was locked and Dumbledore started the unaltered memory they got from Slughorn.
When that memory was over, everyone looked disturbed.
"That was... God, it was disturbing to watch Riddle fish information from Slughorn like that." Hermione looked a bit pale. She then looked to Dumbledore. "Sir... you said you are sure by that time he had already made a Horcrux?"
"Yes, after all you probably all have noticed how fond he had become of the ring," Dumbledore said. "He already knew all he needed to know about how to make a Horcrux, that I'm now sure about. No, Tom had grown a bit doubtful and needed confirmation on something first before he would continue."
"Sir... you mean the magical number of seven?" Luna asked and when she got a nod from Dumbledore, looked quite sick. "He decided to cut his soul into seven pieces? What has that done to his soul?" Untypically for her, Luna looked horrified, perhaps the mere idea of doing that overriding her usual calmness.
"His soul has been reduced to something you never want to see." It seemed, Dumbledore didn't even want to imagine that.
"That means he made seven Horcruxes... Damn!" Sirius cursed.
Dumbledore shook his head. "No, only six, since the seventh part is the remaining soul inside his body, regardless of the pitiful condition it undoubtedly is in now."
"That man has moved beyond the pale..." McGonagall then gathered herself. "Six Horcruxes. The book and the locket are destroyed. We can't reach the ring and have no idea where the cup is. That leaves two Horcruxes unaccounted for."
"Can't we make a good guess what it could be? By now we should have a good idea what kind of things Voldemort likes to use," Ron wondered.
"At least for one of the Horcruxes, Mr. Weasley, we don't have to. The reports I get from Severus have revealed a disturbing pattern that's leading me to a conclusion: Lord Voldemort has turned his snake Nagini into a Horcrux," Dumbledore explained.
Everyone flinched. While none of them had seen Nagini in person, the descriptions alone were enough to cause nightmares, as well as the mention that Voldemort was feeding children to that monster on a regular basis - a fact that Pettigrew had mentioned to Snape as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Can you even turn a living being into a Horcrux?" Ginny looked disgusted at the mere idea.
"Ginny, remember what was stuck in my scar for almost eight years," Harry reminded his girlfriend, causing her to go pale.
"Yes... as Harry mentioned, that indeed is possible. It gets even more tragic when knowing that Nagini is not a snake at all, but a human woman cursed to be in the form of one." Dumbledore saw the looks her got. "There is a long story behind it, and it saddens me how she has descended into becoming the very monster she had tried so hard to avoid to become."
"Albus, keep that story for a later date." Remus honestly could live without that story for some time. "So what can we do? The ring and Nagini are close to Voldemort, we have no idea where the cup is and one Horcrux is still unknown."
"Sadly, right now I don't know the answer to that, either..." Dumbledore admitted.
That was not the answer they wanted to hear.
to be continued...
Next Episode:
"The Elves of Hogwarts"
Notes:
Here the notes.
As you see, this chapter seamlessly continues where the previous one left off.
Again, I love putting pieces into place for later. In this case, Luna's interests and questions laid the groundwork for further parts of the quest. I hope you noticed by now that everyone in the Six is contributing to fulfilling the prophecy, often in very different ways (like Ron making the plan to trick Umbridge).
Oh boy, the whole thing with Kreacher and the locket took some serious space, but I felt it was absolutely needed. And Sirius' decision to have Kreacher destroy the locket is also important, because with this act, Sirius confirmed to Kreacher that he is taking him seriously.
I actually only came up with the idea of Dumbledore explaining his past when sketching out Year Six, it was not in the plans before. However, I realized I couldn't let this opportunity go to waste.
Finally, Regulus has found the correct resting place, with his grave no longer being empty. Sirius and Andromeda do find the closure that had been denied to them for so many years.
Dudley and Millicent are there to give some lightness to an otherwise heavy chapter. That also means we get indirect confirmation of what Draco and Pansy are doing in their leisure time.
Yep, pregnant Bellatrix is even more scary. Her and Voldemort however do shed some more light of the situation Draco and Pansy are in.
Of course the scene with Slughorn is the other big part of this chapter. Besides other things happening around it, I hope the way they do manage to convince him is believable enough and my explanation makes sense. More answers are found, but it also creates some new questions.