Prompt: Graveyard
Chapter 29: Fate
This war was never going to end. Not as long as Voldemort lived. And Voldemort would continue to live as long as Harry continued to live. He understood that. He hadn't completely understood the prophecy the first time he heard it. It made sense once he learned what he was. What good were prophecies if they only made sense when it was too late to do anything about it? In frustration, Harry turned and fired a reductor curse at his bookshelf in his tent.
A sudden scream erupted. In horror, Harry worried his spell breached the canvas wall and hurt someone in the camp. The worry turned to fear once he realized what had happened. His spell hit the box where he stored the diadem. Examining the locked and enchanted box, the edges were scorched and the force of his spell had broken the permanent sticking charm securing it to the shelf.
No one knew he still had the horcrux. He learned how useful it was to have a bargaining chip if someone else he cared for ended up in the clutches of Voldemort. He wasn't planning to destroy it until he was certain he could get to the snake or until the snake was destroyed. The same with the cup. It was hidden safely in the cave where he kept the inferi. Thanks to Malfoy they tracked it down a few year previous. Ron and Remus believed both horcruxes were destroyed. No one else knew they ever existed. Ron and he had argued about telling others. His friend thought the more people who knew the real reason Voldemort hadn't been defeated during the first war, the better the moral and more effective they'd be in killing the snake. Harry was sensitive about the topic for good reason.
None of those motives were the real reason why he hadn't destroyed them. Ever since he opened himself to his horcrux, he felt a connection to the others. Destroying them would be like killing a part of him. And there was the additional possibility that he could might merge the three pieces together, making him even more powerful and unstoppable in a battle with Voldemort. That was just theory. Hermione would have known if that was possible. She also would have told him if it was. The thought of her hit him with a sharp stab of pain. Through the years he thought he saw her living a life of peace. Happy. Growing older. A bit of gray in her hair. A thinner face, more mature. Motherly. It was in his waking dreams. They always ended with reality.
Harry pushed the thoughts aside. Hermione was gone. She'd be ashamed of him if she knew what he had done to save the world and to avenge her murder. Waving his wand over the box, the lid opened for him and a large cloud of black smoke billowed out. A slimy residue clung to the edges as he opened the lid further. The horcrux was destroyed. Done in by a simple reductor curse. With some relief, he didn't feel a loss over it. Actually, he felt relief that it was gone. Stepping back, he wondered about the development. He had tried the same curse before on the locket and it had no effect. That was before though. Before the horcrux was a part of him. He had to know if it had been a fluke. Quickly scrawling a note on some parchment for Ron, Harry left it hovering above his desk. His friend would know he was off on a hunch and not to worry.
The back side of his tent was strategically positioned in the north end of the Order encampment. He had a secret exit that gave him access to the darkest parts of the forbidden forest. Slipping out, he nearly ran toward the cave. Ron knew about this secret too. And, like the other, there were parts that Ron didn't know about this secret. As far as Ron was concerned the inferi had been used just the one time in an effort to rescue Hermione. Harry told him they were sealed away forever. Which wasn't true. In addition to hiding the cup in the cave, he had found some uses for the undead over the years. Distractions mostly. The large rock blocking the entrance moved away at his approach. Harry lit the torches lining the walls to push the creatures back. The cup gleamed in the center of the opening. A stone pillar protecting it.
Harry felt his heartbeat speed up at the thought of destroying another horcrux. If he really could, they'd be down to the snake and himself. His hand shook as he brought his wand up, aiming it at the golden chalice. "Reducto," he spoke, not making too much effort, curious to know if the power of his previous spell had been enhanced or if it was simple that the soul recognized itself. Hermione said destroying a horcrux was a simple matter for the creator. As the smoke rose up around the remains of the gold, Harry understood he was the same as the creator now. Maybe he could have joined the pieces if he felt remorse. He had plenty of guilt. He didn't think he could muster the remorse needed over the life that had been killed. He didn't even know whose life had been used to make that fragment. It didn't matter now.
Backing out of the cave, Harry took care to seal it, then he focused his attention on Voldemort. He wanted to know where he was and if the snake was with him. He saw a familiar graveyard. At first Harry thought it was the cemetery with where Tom Riddle senior was buried and that's why it was familiar. He thought that until he was looking down at a gravestone he'd seen only one other time. His parents. Voldemort was in Godric's Hollow. He had amassed an army there, ready to take the village over. And the snake was slithering along with him. Harry wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He wasn't going to bring his friends to see them die for him. He'd go alone. Kill the snake and then he could die. It would be over. The acceptance of his fate had him relaxing. His fighting was almost over. He could cross over into the afterlife and join Hermione there. He would welcome death. He turned on the spot and apparated away to his fate.