Maya turned her attention away from Narcissa Malfoy, who she could just tell was hiding something from her about her supposed godfather, and watched the three goblins who had just entered the room. Narcissa had only mentioned two families that Maya would supposedly inherit from so she wasn't entirely sure why three goblins had entered. Nor did she know why all three of them were staring at her so intensely, it was the same way the other two goblins they had encountered had stared at her. Maya wasn't sure what to make of it, but in her experience, people staring at you was never a good thing.

Two of the goblins were wielding axes and they took up stations against the wall of the room opposite the three witches. The third goblin was carrying an ornately carved stone bowl, that Maya could see was filled with some type of liquid when he placed it on the table. He was also carrying a piece of parchment that looked thicker than the ones Maya used at Hogwarts, and a small knife, both of which he placed down next to the bowl before sitting down directly opposite Maya's own seat.

"Good morning. I am Ragnuk, fourth of my name. Head of Gringotts Bank"

Out of the corner of her eye Maya saw Narcissa and Luna both stiffen slightly, before straightening up and giving the goblin, Ragnuk, their full attention. Maya figured out that this was one of those things about the magical world that she didn't fully understand, but she also knew to follow Luna's lead, so she too gave all her attention to Ragnuk. He met her eyes and gave her what she thought might have been the goblin version of a reassuring smile.

"I believe, Miss Potter that this is only the second time you have visited Gringotts?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well, you should have been brought to meet the Potter and Black account managers last year when you turned eleven. Since your guardians failed to ensure that you did so, and since the horde members who assisted you last year, also failed to make arrangements for this to happen, I would like, with your permission of course, to address this misstep."

Maya cast an unsure glance at Narcissa who nodded firmly, before nodding herself in answer to Ragnuk's words.

"Okay."

"Good. First of all, Gringotts policy requires us to confirm your identity. We will do so by adding seven drops of your blood to the bowl and then pouring the mixture onto the prepared parchment."

Maya wasn't enthused by the thought of adding another injury on top of the ones her uncle had given her, nevertheless, she reached for the knife Ragnuk had pushed towards her. She sliced a neat and shallow cut across the palm of her hand and squeezed it into a fist above the bowl allowing seven drops to fall inside before pulling her hand back. With gentle hands Narcissa took hold of Maya's injured hand and tapped it with her wand, healing the cut and vanishing all traces of blood.

Ragnuk, meanwhile, had lifted up the bowl and was carefully swirling it, mixing Maya's blood into the potion that had been inside already. Once it was fully mixed Ragnuk poured the liquid onto the parchment, making sure to cover every inch as he did so. As soon as the last drop of the potion hit the parchment, the liquid, which had remained in it's original form defying all laws of physics and treating the parchment like it was some sort of glass or metal tray, was instantly and fully absorbed into the parchment and writing began to scrawl across the page. Ragnuk waited until a flash of light erupted from the parchment indicating that the ritual was complete before picking it up and examining it.

"It seems Miss Potter that there are a few things we need to discuss, but you are the named heir to the Potter and Black bloodlines and therefore you are entitled to speak with Seratak and Katavar who are the account managers for those families." He raised his eyes from the parchment and gave Maya a grave look. "Before you do that however there is something much more urgent that we must address."

To Maya's left Narcissa straightened and gained a steely look in her blue eyes, on her right Luna reached out and took hold of Maya's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Across from them Ragnuk placed the parchment down on the table, his gaze never wavering from Maya.

"Miss Potter, do you know what a Horcrux is?"

An angry hiss came from Maya's left and for a second, she thought a cat had somehow gotten into the room, but a glance to her left showed her that it was Narcissa who had made the noise. The blue of her eyes had darkened into an almost black shade and Maya could see literal sparks coming off of the angry witches hair. She flinched back and shook her head at Ragnuk who was doing an admirable job of disregarding Narcissa Malfoy's display of temper.

"Why, are you asking, a twelve-year-old girl, about Horcruxes?" Narcissa bit each word out precisely and with clear anger in her tone.

"Because she is one." Ragnuk replied.

"What? How?"

Narcissa was horrified. Horcruxes were one of the most abominable magicks in existence. To think that someone had dared to do something as depraved as make a child into one was unconscionable.

"What's a Horcrux?" Maya asked, her head twisting to gaze at Ragnuk and Narcissa in turn.

"Would you like to explain, Lady Malfoy. Or shall I?"

Narcissa frowned and turned to Maya.

"A Horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." Narcissa's lips twisted as if she had tasted something incredibly foul. "It is one of the most despicable magicks that exist, and I won't go into detail. Suffice it to say that in concealing a part of their soul inside an object, or apparently inside a person, the witch or wizard who does so is made functionally immortal. As long as that sliver of their soul remains safe and intact, they are tethered to the mortal realm."

"And I'm… I'm one of these things? A… A Horcrux?"

Maya followed Narcissa's gaze to Ragnuk who nodded gravely.

"You are."

Maya fell silent, trying to fit the pieces together. Fit together what had been said and what very clearly hadn't into some sort of picture that made sense.

"Yesterday Lady Malfoy handed a diary to the Horde and requested that we dispose of it. That diary was a Horcrux, the Horde has come across such things in Egypt and other places where our curse breakers work and as such, we have developed rituals to destroy the objects."

"Why?"

"Because they should not exist child. Because they are an affront to Magic and to Death."

Oh. Maya nodded and looked down at the table, clearly, they were gearing up to tell her that she needed to be destroyed to rid the world of the soul fragment that resided inside her. Neither of them had said it but Maya was clever enough to put the pieces together. She had come face to face with him just a few months ago after all.

Lord Voldemort, clinging to the mortal world without a body. Maya a container for a fragment of soul making whoever it belonged to immortal. It was his, it had to be. Maya could think of no-one else it might belong to. The man who had murdered her parents, who had attempted to murder Maya, had left a fragment of his soul inside her.

"It's his, isn't it? Voldemort's?"

Narcissa let out another angry hiss and Ragnuk nodded.

"Yes. As I said Lady Malfoy brought us the diary yesterday. After a careful examination we confirmed that it was a Horcrux, that the fragment of soul inside belonged to the wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort. We also confirmed that there were other tethers, other slivers of soul, holding the spirit of the wizard known as Lord Voldemort to the mortal plane."

Ragnuk sighed, tapping his long fingers against the tabletop restlessly, it was not a subject he liked talking about, that any of the Horde liked talking about, but the child deserved to know the whole of it.

"When the Horde first discovered Horcruxes they believed that destroying them would be enough to banish the fragments of soul from the mortal plane. They were wrong. After a lot of trial and error they managed to develop a ritual that resonated with the other soul piece, enabling the Horde to locate the rest of the soul and banish them together. This ritual was used yesterday so that the soul piece of Lord Voldemort could be located, and the wizard could be dealt with for good. The result of the ritual was that the detection of six resonances."

"He split his soul that many times! No wonder he was completely insane by the time he supposedly died!"

Ragnuk shared a look of disgust with Narcissa and nodded.

"Indeed. The Horde has already managed to collect two of the other soul resonances, one had been placed within the LeStrange vault here in Gringotts. Their vault has been seized to compensate the Horde for this violation. Another was located in the village of Little Hangleton and was retrieved by a team of cursebreakers last night."

"And the others?" Narcissa queried.

"One is in Hogwarts; we are arranging to retrieve it. One is in Albania; we believe this one to be the main soul as Lord Voldemort was rumoured to have fled to Albania upon his defeat at your hands Miss Potter."

"He was at Hogwarts last year." Maya said, flinching back when two furious looks were trained upon her.

Narcissa and Ragnuk both instantly regretted their loss of control, neither of them had intended to frighten the child or to upset her any more than she already clearly was.

"Could you explain what you mean by that please Miss Potter?" Ragnuk asked after pausing a moment to regain control of his temper.

Maya and Luna exchanged glances and then between the two of them the entire story came spilling out. The words of both girls tumbling over each other as they went back and forth explaining everything that had happened at Hogwarts that year. Hagrid emptying the vault in front of Maya the same day Gringotts was broken into, then finding Fluffy and the trapdoor and figuring out he must be guarding whatever Hagrid had taken from the bank. The troll at Halloween, the cursed broom at the Quidditch match, Hagrid letting slip the name Nicholas Flamel, the Mirror of Erised, Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback, and the plan to send him to Romania with Charlie Weasley's friends. How they'd been caught out after curfew and had received detentions which had taken place in the Forbidden Forest.

Maya and Draco's encounter with the wraith drinking unicorn blood earned a frown from Ragnuk and a slew of curses from Narcissa. Then they spoke of their realisation that the wraith was Voldemort, that he was after the Philosopher's stone that had been hidden in the school, guarded by Fluffy and the teachers. Maya confronting Hagrid about the dragon egg and discovering he'd revealed to Voldemort how to get past Fluffy. Finding out Dumbledore had left and going after the stone themselves. And then finally Maya's confrontation with the Voldemort possessed Quirrel, how she'd got the stone out of the mirror and when Quirrel had tried to take it from her he'd burnt to ash underneath her hands and Voldemort had fled when confronted by a returned Albus Dumbledore.

Narcissa was fuming, not only had her son failed to reveal any of this to her, probably in a misguided attempt to protect his friends, but Dumbledore had clearly set a trap for Voldemort and used a child and the Philosopher's stone as bait. And then had had failed to do the sensible thing and provide proof of Voldemort's continued existence to the ministry. Cornelius Fudge might be a complete idiot, but Amelia Bones was not. At least Voldemort was being dealt with now, by herself and by the Horde, her husband and sister might have been foolish enough to enslave themselves to that maniac, Narcissa though was built of a stronger mettle than them. If it was the last thing she did, she would erase his existence from the world. No way would she allow him to be a threat to her child, her niece, or her young cousin, any longer!

"Where is the last remnant located? And how do you intend to get the soul fragment out of Maya?"

Narcissa's imperious tone earned her a raised eyebrow and a vicious grin from the leader of the Horde.

"There is a ritual which will remove the soul fragment from Miss Potter and place it inside another item until it can be destroyed. As to the first, it is located in London, at an address that we determined belonged to the Black family. We require your permission to enter the house and retrieve the item, Miss Potter."

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Excellent. I will send a team to retrieve it, and in the meantime, we can remove the remnant that resides inside you."

Maya nodded, eager to get the piece of her parents murderer that resided inside her out. Ragnuk had been fully prepared for her to want the Horcrux out as soon as possible and had already arranged for a ritual room and a team to be on standby. Maya was quickly shuffled through the halls of Gringotts to the ritual room and handed over to the mixed team of goblin and wixen cursebreakers that were waiting for her.

After changing into a white linen shift that had been handed to her, with a warning to make sure she wore nothing else, not clothes, or jewellery, or hair accessories. Maya drank down the potions that were handed to her and then laid down in the middle of the runic circle, wincing slightly as the hard stone pressed against the cuts and bruises that littered her back. Maya succumbed to the sleeping potion she had drunk before the ritual commenced and remained unconscious throughout.

The first thing Maya noticed upon waking up was the lack of pain, at some point whilst she had been unconscious, all the injuries she had accumulated since returning home for the summer had been healed. The second thing she noticed was a curious lightness, as if something that had been weighing her down for a long time had suddenly disappeared. The third and fourth things she noticed simultaneously; someone was sitting next to her gripping her hand tightly, and nearby people were arguing. Arguing about her.

It was this more than anything else that convinced Maya to keep her eyes closed and not give away that she was awake just yet. If living with the Dursleys had taught Maya anything, it was that sometimes the best thing to do was to keep quiet and listen.

"He was hurting her, Lord Dumbledore. And you want to send her back to that?"

"Obviously changes will need to be made to ensure that something like that does not occur again, but staying at her aunt and uncle's house during the summer keeps Maya safe."

"Tell me. Exactly what is safe about a house where a grown man beats a twelve-year-old child to the point that she can barely walk? Or where he whips her with his belt until her back is raw? What exactly is safe about that!"

"I had no idea. I knew they might not love her like they do their own son, but I had no idea they were causing her physical harm."

"Because you never checked on her! Because you failed in your duty, both as her guardian and as the headmaster of her school. A child you are responsible for was being abused and you did nothing because you didn't bother to check up on her once in the years since you left her at that house!"

If Maya hadn't been in total awe of Narcissa Malfoy before, she was now. She had never imagined anyone would have the guts to speak to Professor Dumbledore like that, not for any reason. The fact that Narcissa was doing it on her behalf, cemented her as one of Maya's favourite people.

"You are right of course Lady Malfoy, I failed in my duty as Maya Potter's guardian. Obviously, Vernon Dursley will need to be prosecuted for his crimes. But once Vernon has been dealt with, I see no reason why Maya shouldn't return to live with her aunt and cousin."

"You see no reason! You are being wilfully blind Lord Dumbledore! You must be to think that you can send her back to the house where she was verbally and physically abused and that there will be no consequences, just because her main tormentor has been dealt with. Her aunt and cousin may not have abused her in the same way as her uncle has, but they have done nothing to help either!"

"What would you have me do exactly Lady Malfoy? Petunia Dursley is her only living family."

"Only muggle family you mean! She has plenty of relatives amongst wixen, as I'm sure you know. She is the heir to two families for Merlin's sake! She should be living in our world and learning about her inheritance and her duties, not shuffled off to some abusive muggles because you would prefer her to be as sheltered and naïve as possible!"

"Our world isn't safe for Maya! You know as well as I do that Voldemort was not truly defeated that Halloween night, he remains a threat to her. As does every single one of his followers who avoided Azkaban! Residing with Petunia keeps her safe from Voldemort and his followers. It is why I took her there when her parents died, and it is why she must go back. I didn't make this decision lightly, but it has been made with her wellbeing in mind!"

"Really? Was it for her wellbeing when I found her being kicked and beaten by her uncle!"

"Perhaps it would be best to continue this discussion another time and with cooler heads."

A voice Maya recognised as belonging to Ragnuk spoke, interrupting the argument between Narcissa and Professor Dumbledore.

"There is nothing more to discuss. I am Maya Potter's magical guardian. She may remain with the Lovegood's for the rest of the summer and at Hogwarts for the Christmas and Easter break. This will give me enough time to ensure Vernon Dursley will cease to be a threat to Maya's safety and wellbeing, but she will return to her aunt's house next summer."

A sharp cracking sound followed Professor Dumbledore's statement and Maya once more had the pleasure of hearing Narcissa Malfoy hiss like an angry cat and let loose with a slew of curse words that Maya was sure the aristocratic Lady Malfoy would never normally use. Ragnuk too seemed amused by it when he spoke.

"Well, this certainly changes our plans. I take it you won't be able to challenge him for custody?"

"No. Given my husband's former indiscretions and my sisters actions against the Longbottom's, we would be laughed out of court, the general public would never allow a former Death Eater or his wife to have custody of the Girl-Who-Lived. The progressive's would vote against us for those reasons and the conservatives would vote against us because they won't want to risk being seen as sympathisers to the Girl-Who-Lived if he does come back. The marked will know he's still alive and the unmarked will suspect it."

"What of your other sister? Would she do it if you asked?"

"Maybe. But I'm not sure she'd be willing to defy Dumbledore, plus the fact that she was cast out of the House of Black would go against her with the Pureblood contingent on both sides."

"I have a solution, but it will need to be discussed with Miss Potter once she is awake and coherent and it will require a large amount of sneakiness if we are to pull it off under Albus Dumbledore's nose."

"I come from a long line of Slytherin's Chief Ragnuk. Sneakiness is an artform I had perfected long before I went to Hogwarts's."

"Let's go to my office and hammer out all the details."

Maya listened to their retreating footsteps. She hoped they figured something out, because there was no way she was returning to number four Privet Drive ever again. Not if Uncle Vernon got sent to prison because of her. He might have been the one to beat her, but she far preferred his brand of punishment to her aunts.

Petunia Dursley had made vindictiveness into an artform, no doubt she would blame Maya for anything that happened to her husband. If he was sent to prison and Maya was returned to her aunt's care, with all that vindictiveness turned Maya's way. Well, Maya doubted she would survive the summer, nor was it likely that she would want to.