It was a rough night, as it had been expected when Harry tiredly revealed that he and Voldemort had a run in before Harry arrived at the campsite, and the encounter, according to Harry, left Voldemort fuming with anger. That guaranteed Harry's scar pain, and with that always came headaches or migraines and if it was migraine; Harry ended up tired and nauseous. Little could be done to help Harry, but being in his husband's presence helped somewhat because of their bond. Harry didn't suffer nightmares, but the pain kept flaring and woke him up, plus the visions of Voldemort being quite destructive and yelling at people, torturing them; his own Death Eaters at that because Harry's stunt allowed for anyone at the ministry who had been under imperius to break free and escape.
Today was August 2nd, and it began the first day of the Horcrux Hunting group being out on their own to complete the mission of tracking down Voldemort's soul piece containers to be destroyed and that act would leave Voldemort mortal, like the rest of them, and if he was killed or his body destroyed; he could never return again. Only the Order of the Phoenix knew the truth about these Horcruxes, and about the task at hand. Voldemort's goal now would be ordering his people to track down Harry, and with them in hiding and moving constantly, it was unlikely that they would be caught if they were careful.
Between the remaining six adults, guard duty was easy. The adults obviously offered to take more time than the teenagers, and it was mainly split between Lucius and Sirius who had the longest shifts. Harry was last to wake up, forcing himself out of bed and looking around to find himself alone, but he heard voices and made his way to use the bathroom and then change clothes before exiting the tent to find everyone sitting around the fire.
"Harry, good morning…" Hermione greeted first.
"Hey," Harry made his way over to sit next to his husband.
"How are you feeling?" Severus inquired.
"Scar still burning, but it's just a headache and I'm still a little tired. Tom's mad, but someone must have calmed him down." Harry stated.
"Are you hungry?" Narcissa asked. "There's still plenty left, not much, but I tried."
"We're in less than ideal conditions, Narcissa…Please don't worry about the amount, nor quality." Harry told her.
"We're also used to having an elf do everything for us." Sirius shrugged.
"Mum did all the cooking in our house," Ron mentioned.
"My mother did as well when I was a boy, and now it's my elf." Severus claimed.
"I may know a lot, but my skill in the kitchen is not the best." Hermione blushed.
"So what I'm hearing is that none of you know how to cook without magic?" Harry arched a brow as they nodded. "That's…Mildly disappointing, and tragic." He admitted. "I'll take care of it from now on. I've been cooking in a muggle kitchen since I was six. Aunt Petunia taught me, that and how to clean properly, gardening. I know it was all to do work for them, but suppose it gave me some life experience." He informed. "But to answer the question, no…I'm not hungry just yet. I can't eat as soon as I wake up."
"I'd kill for some tea…" Narcissa stated.
"No one brought tea or coffee?" Harry blinked. They shook their heads. "Good lord…"
He got up and went into the tent, then returned with a metal rack and two metal containers. Harry set the rack over the fire then filled both containers with water, he set one right on the rack to boil, then on the second he added a piece of white thin paper that had brown powder in it before putting a cover over the top. It didn't take long for the water to be boiling in either, and one was giving off a light popping sound.
Harry pulled out a small case from his bag and enlarged it before opening it up for the others to see tea cups and saucers, then also coffee mugs. There was a jar of sugar, spoons, and in a side compartment was a small jug of milk and creamer. They had to be under cold charms or they'd have gone bad by now. In the box was also a cardboard box.
"There. Coffee in the black one, and boiling water in the silver. Mugs, cups, sugar, milk and cream. In this box is an assortment of tea bags, all different flavors. All you do is pour the water over the bag and let it steep for a few minutes." Harry informed.
"Harry, that's brilliant." Hermione beamed.
"I tried to think of everything. Just because we're hiding out doesn't mean we have to be primitive about it." Harry stated. "Help yourself." He invited.
It didn't take long for Narcissa to be first up to glance through the teabags and find herself one to use, then make up a cup to enjoy. Hermione also chose tea, along with Harry but the rest chose coffee to drink. Harry also had breakfast with his tea, and then everyone cleaned up to sit back and relax. It was about 10:45 am now.
"So what's the plan?" Draco spoke up. "Harry, are you sneaking into the ministry to get the locket from Umbridge?"
"I don't know how safe of an idea that is if the ministry has fallen like Kingsley's message said it did." Severus remarked.
"Definitely not safe. The Death Eaters have taken it over, have control over the dementors and set free the Death Eaters who had been imprisoned after the night Dumbledore was killed. Most of the people who work in the ministry who were there when the attack happened, were imperioused." Harry stated.
"Then we can't get the locket right now, can we?" Sirius asked.
"Right now? No…" Harry shook his head before pulling an object from his pocket. "Thank God I snatched it yesterday."
"Y-You went and got it?" Hermione asked.
"Had a feeling I wouldn't get another chance." Harry stated.
"I think you better tell us what happened yesterday, Harry," Draco remarked.
"After you guys were gone, I dueled it out with the two Death Eaters that attacked us and ended up apparating to Grimmauld." Harry began.
"Why didn't you come right to us?" Severus asked.
"Because when I went under the Cruciatus curse, I blocked the bond, so you wouldn't feel it." Harry told him. "From Grimmauld, I floo'd to the Ministry and went under my cloak. I made my way through the mass of imperioused people and ticked off Umbridge. I only revealed myself when I was close enough to stun and send her flying backwards. I grabbed the locket and stuffed it in my pocket then dealt with the other Death Eaters. Tom showed up…Then I pissed him off and escaped."
"I'm afraid to know how you hacked him off this time?" Lucius wondered.
"Well, started with confirming the rumor he heard that I'm protecting a few of his followers. I told him I not only protect them, but freed and removed their marks. Then I sassed him in Parseltongue that he wasn't the only Parselmouth, and I recreated his spell which let me reverse it. He tried to throw your spell at me, Sev."
"Sectumsempra?" Severus stiffened.
"It was thanks to our training I was able to block it, and Tom made a comment that he knew more than the killing curse, I told him so did I and used your spell right back against him. He, of course, was not so lucky to escape it. I know it didn't kill him, but he was pretty wounded. Then I announced to all his Death Eaters that he was a half-blood before promising him our next battle would be our last. Then I opened the bond to get back to you guys." Harry explained.
"No wonder he's out for your blood…" Ron blinked. "Bloody hell, mate. You outed him as a half-blood?"
"I'm sure there are plenty of Death Eaters now, who know they're not following a pureblood, but won't leave because they can't remove the marks without me and I took off. Wouldn't have been wise to linger longer." Harry said. "And Tom has no idea I took the locket. I don't think he knew Umbridge had it, which also works in our favor." Harry mentioned.
"I told you not to use those spells!" Severus groaned.
"You said not to try them out at random or with friends to show off. You said I could use them to defend myself!" Harry reminded. "I wounded him, he won't recover from it easily."
"How badly did it hit him? Show me." Severus asked. Harry showed them the memory of what happened. "Well cast, Harry…Non-verbal too. That will have him down for a bit, a couple weeks as he doesn't know the counter."
"But we need to watch ourselves because I'm sure he's sent his followers to find us." Sirius told the group.
"We'll stay vigilant and never remain somewhere too long. What's important is we have two horcruxes and four to find, that is including the one we assume is in Bellatrix's vault. I also have a theory that Nagini is one." Harry told them.
"The dark lord's snake?" Lucius inquired.
"There has to be a reason why he has her, and we know it was recent because he did not have her during the first war, nor even when he returned to his body." Harry revealed.
"I…Suppose that's possible." Narcissa admitted.
"Do you have any other reasoning behind why you think it's the snake, Harry?" Severus wondered.
"Because I seem to be connected to the horcruxes. I feel the dark energy, I hear the Parseltongue whispers. I'm linked to Tom so I think that's why I can sense the pieces of his soul. Nagini, on her own, shouldn't ring darkness to me…But she does. She has the same energy as the ring and the locket." Harry informed. "So I think she was a recently made one, and Tom keeps her very close to him all the time."
"It's a sound theory," Severus told the rest. "That leaves finding the two unknown ones, and hoping there is one in Bellatrix's vault."
"Well, don't forget Harry's other theory." Draco reminded. "That two of the objects were items belonging to the founders. The Diadem and the Cup."
"Given the items have been lost, it is very possible. Plus, Harry wasn't wrong about the locket being one before it was discovered in the cave. With that theory, there is only one unknown item. The other three are Nagini, the Hufflepuff Cup, and Ravenclaw's Diadem. We have the ring and the locket, and the diary was destroyed several years ago." Hermione stated.
"Well, we have the locket, so we should add it to the box Severus created to hold them." Narcissa remarked.
Severus pulled the box from his pocket and made it bigger before opening the lid and Harry placed the object inside, but noticed the spike in energy when the items were close together. "You know what…I don't like the energy they throw off together…It's stronger, dark. I don't think we should keep them in close range to one another." He removed the locket.
"So what are we going to do with it?" Ron wondered.
"Guess one of us wears it. Sal wanted me to have it, originally…" Harry slipped the chain around his neck.
"Now what? What's the next move?" Sirius inquired. "We have the ring, and the locket. We agreed not to destroy them yet in worry that the dark lord will figure out what we're doing and grab the others so we can't get rid of them. Not that it matters because we don't have Harry's Basilisk to be able to destroy them."
"We have to figure out where Tom would have hidden the others." Hermione advised. "That's what Dumbledore was doing, right? Narrowing down places to find the ring, and the locket?" She looked at the others.
"Yeah, that's right." Ron nodded.
"Nagini can wait until last, I suspect we won't get her until the final battle because Tom will focus on killing Harry; he'll abandon the snake, or assume we don't know what she really is." Lucius remarked.
"We have reason to believe either the Cup or the Diadem is what is in Bellatrix's vault. We have no hints as to what the unknown item is." Draco said.
"Dumbledore must have found…Links or something to narrow places down," Sirius stated calmly. "Not that anyone knew what went on in that old man's mind."
"But it's not his mind we need to be in. Dumbledore tracked things because of what he knew about Tom. Speaking of, why are we calling him that?" Narcissa asked.
"I think there's a taboo on his name," Ron informed. "How else would his Death Eaters be able to find us when we were among the muggles? We were using his name."
"Well, that's an interesting theory and could be true. I just use Tom because that's who he was born as." Harry shrugged. "And it pisses him off when I call him that, so it's more fun for me."
"Regardless…Dumbledore is gone, he's no help to us now…We have to figure this out for ourselves," Hermione reminded. "It's…Tom's mind we need to be in. There was obviously…Reasoning for his creation of these things and hiding them."
"Harry's the only one with a link to the dark lord." Severus told them. "And it's not safe for him to attempt to get into Tom's mind either."
"Well, what do we already know…" Harry began calmly. "Dumbledore said he found the ring in the Gaunt House, and the ring belonged to Tom's mother. She was a pureblood witch…It stands to reason that perhaps Tom did not resent her, and there was a certain amount of…Respect towards the woman. She would have been the reason he was a wizard since he swore off his muggle father's side of the family, as well his muggle heritage."
"Right, and the diary…" Ron paused.
"Had been entrusted to Lucius to guard," Severus offered. "At the time, Lucius, during the first war…You could have been considered Tom's second in command. That's why he left it to him to watch over; he trusted Lucius entirely."
"The same could be said about Bellatrix, knowing her undying loyalty to him. The woman did torture the Longbottom's to insanity trying to find her lord, and went to prison willingly. That would make sense why she has another item and chances are it's at Gringotts because no one has ever broken into there, plus the Goblins are neutral in the war." Narcissa added.
"The locket had meaning because Tom was Salazar's heir. A direct descendant from a connected link between the Slytherin and Gaunt lines…" Harry fingered the necklace in his hand.
"But that doesn't tell us the reasoning behind why he would possibly have used the other two founder's items. Nor the need for Nagini…" Draco mentioned calmly.
"Nor when she got involved with Tom." Lucius remarked.
"She was in the graveyard when Tom returned to his body. I remember her slipping out of some stone," Harry recalled, his eyes now closed. "And that entire year during the tournament, I kept having dreams of Tom before he got his body back…Barty Crouch Jr, Pettigrew…And Nagini were with him. They were always in some room, but they were definitely in Little Hangleton."
"That's where the Gaunt House was, perhaps another link to that?" Narcissa suggested.
"No…It's where Tom's father was buried. I think Little Hangleton was also where the Riddle's lived, and Dumbledore told me that Tom murdered his family as a teenager and someone else got blamed for it. I think it was his mother's brother, Morfin Gaunt. The Riddle's were killed in 1943…" Harry commented. "The house they were in was Riddle Manor. The Riddle's were a rich muggle family…There's obviously two meanings behind the ring's hiding place. It's where his mother lived, and his father."
"Doesn't tell us much on Nagini…" Hermione shrugged.
"It tells us that Tom likely got her around 1994…The reasoning behind why he chose her? She's a large, lethally venomous snake. Tom's a Slytherin, chances are she became his familiar. And didn't we say, Sev, that the snake venom could have been used in that body potion? The Rudimentary one?" Harry looked at his husband.
"That's right, we did say that. That must be how a physical form was obtained, using her venom in addition to unicorn blood to sustain the body until the night he was returned to his old look." Severus nodded.
"Okay, so there's something I don't get about the horcruxes. Murder is how you split your soul, how do you remove the soul piece to place it in the item?" Hermione inquired.
"There's gotta be a dark spell involved, and it goes back to what I said about there being meaning to his actions…The diary must have been the first horcrux Tom made, using the death of Myrtle to make it. Nothing else would make sense to tie the diary being used to possess Ginny to reopen the chamber to set the Basilisk loose, eventually taking Ginny down there to use her life to restore his own." Explained Harry.
"The diary had a young Tom within it, say sixteen or so and that's about how old he was when he talked to Slughorn about the horcruxes." Harry enlightened. "I think Tom knew what horcruxes were before he talked to Slughorn and the diary had been his first time making one. His real questions came in with Slughorn about making more than one."
"So you think that the next one he made was-," Severus started.
"In the memory we saw, Tom was playing with the ring on his finger. The Gaunt ring, his mother's. And the next time Tom killed was his father's family. I think he used the murder of his father to make the ring a horcrux, then hid the ring in the Gaunt house since he was already there. It has double meaning, killing the muggle side of his family and using the death of his father to make a horcrux out of his mother's ring. Like a massive…Fuck you to his dad for not wanting him because Tom's mother used a love potion on Riddle Sr. I don't know, it's Tom's mind and that's just a mess on its own. But if I was going for his version of how do I give this a screwed up sense of meaning, that would be how." Harry explained.
"It's got merit behind it." Draco shrugged.
"It's making my head hurt…" Harry muttered.
"Then we give it a rest for today. I know there's timing of the essence to get this done, but it's no good to anyone if we're burnt out." Severus told Harry.
"For now, let's just set up a plan of the places we're going to go to camp out. If we're found, we'll need to move at a moment's notice. Having a place in mind would be beneficial." Narcissa offered.
Everyone nodded in agreement.