"Okay, try it now," Harry said.

"All right. Sorry about this by the way. It should work this time," Neville said, pointing his wand at the levitated rat. "Spiritus Evanesca."

"Damn," he muttered. The rat died, just like several before it. He would not have asked Ron to help with the experiment, not after however many years of keeping Scabbers as a pet, even after he turned out to be an unmarked Death Eater. "Thanks. That should be all for today. You have to get back to practice with the others."

"Learn anything, Mate?" Ron asked when he rejoined him and Hermione.

"Spell creation isn't as easy as you would think."

"I didn't think it was easy."

"It's not as easy as you would hope, then."

"Yeah, that's more likely."

"Isn't Neville also working on something else?" Hermione asked.

"He is, but he can't seem to let go of a project once we start. I'm sorry I had to excuse myself- now, can we please catch me up on what we were discussing?"

"Well, Daphne went off to confirm with Blaise and Ernie that the recruits were recognized appropriately; she's sort of taken it on herself to keep track of ranks, at least some of the time," Hermione said. "The Order sent an owl."

"How did it find us?"

"Now you're asking the right question. Don't worry, though; there's actually a tree over in Suffolk where I've been sending Pig. The letters are encoded the old fashioned way; can't just wave your wand and have it straight again; pretty much only Terry and a handful of the older members of the Order can read them."

"What did it say, then?"

"They've noticed a divide. The fictional candidate is polling well, but there are a lot of people who would still rather not deal with the reality."

"Fudges, the lot of them," Ron muttered.

"Dumbledore had something of an encounter with Voldemort."

"Why didn't you say that before? You could have led with that."

"Well, they don't know much about what happened. This was all in a German-language newspaper."

"Germany?"

"Austria. It's where Grindelwald is being held. There was talk of letting him out after decades of good behavior and... basically a regime change in the magical government."

"Why would Voldemort care if they were going to let him out?"

"I don't know," Hermione said. "Like I said, the newspaper only reported that someone said they were fighting until one of them got away, and if Mr. Sturgis Podmore understands it correctly, it looked like Dumbledore was the first to show up."

"He could have been there anticipating Voldemort," Harry said.

"Yeah, Mate, or it could have been the other way around, and one or the other was just hiding until he had a visual. He must have thought it was important if it was worth getting spotted. There anything in the Prophet about it?"

"I'm sure they're dismissing it as a worthless tabloid piece," Hermione said. "I honestly haven't checked. The whole thing is from one person's account."

"Voldemort still wouldn't have let him live. Even if he knew the evidence was going to be dismissed."

"He said that he nearly died after being bitten by the snake and was only saved by a Healer who happened to be nearby after the two duelists disappeared."

No one said anything right away. Would it have been better to just read the article, or a translation of it?

"Well, that explains it, I suppose," he said after a moment, frowning. "We can't really use this information."

"Of course not," Hermione said. "That's why I wasn't going to mention it. It's an unreliable account, to start, and it doesn't really tell us anything even if we take it at face value."

"Is the only thing that might be of interest in Austria that old prison?" Ron asked after a moment. "There can't be any reason to think that he was there the whole time?"

"No, and nothing's changed about that prison in decades. The only reason he would be there is if he thought that Voldemort would be there."

"I have to agree," Harry said after a moment, sighing. It seemed like his friends were not in agreement about how useful the information was, but there was not much he could do about that; of course it was hard to just let it go. They had seen literally nothing of either wizard in an amount of time that no one could remember. "How many Horcruces do we think there are left?"

"No idea, Mate. S' why I think it's just as much of a lark at this point. Three of them practically fell into our laps; we're not going to get any luckier than that." He frowned a bit. "There's a lot of things that come in sevens."

"That's correct," Hermione said, taking a deep breath. "There is an Arithmantic advantage in the number. It is entirely possible that he made seven, but equally so that he only made six, splitting his soul into seven parts. If we've destroyed one and hidden three away where we can retrieve them, then there are either two or three left."

"He didn't make them all at once, did he?" Ron asked.

"No, everything we know so far suggested that he made them at different times over the course of his young adult life, starting with Myrtle. In the same way that he looked around for significant objects, he might have also been looking around for significant people to kill, but he could have compromised here and there. It is my personal belief that he would want to stop at six rather than going over, because that would give him the leeway to make another if need be."

"Moaning Myrtle was just someone no one else would have missed. The diary might not have been important to anyone else, but it was important to him; it was a confession to opening the Chamber." He frowned. "We're going to have to be really generous with what we use as a standard... for whatever these last two Horcruces might be."

"Well, Harry, I have to confess that this is just a theory, but... the snake that's with him all the time-"

"Nagini."

"Yes... doesn't she seem more intelligent than most snakes? Doesn't it seem like he has a greater amount of control over her than would normally be possible?"

"Well, there was the basilisk," Ron said. "That thing was listening to what a small piece of him-"

"It doesn't matter that it was just a soul fragment; it was the same voice that the same basilisk heard back in the nineteen forties. It was indebted to the Heir of Slytherin to follow his every command, and all Riddle told him to do was to live out his original purpose." She sighed. "I'm talking about something that's supposed to be a regular snake. We don't have a clue where he found it. Apparently, he didn't have it in the last war; that's what McGonagall said when I asked her."

It seemed like he had come upon yet another disagreement by his friends, and he tried to look at it both ways. He had used the mental connection between himself and Voldemort to see what the snake was doing once, and yet, it was as if he was inside the snake; it was as if Nagini was another body that the dark wizard could use whenever he liked. His fist clenched.

"Harry?"

"Hermione's right, I think." He was practically shaking.

"There something we can do, Mate?" The concern in his friend's voice was not entirely new, but it had been a long time since he last heard it.

"I have a question of the timing of things."

"Sure, Harry... anything..."

"Do you think that Voldemort would have considered my own death significant?" he asked.

"Well... " she started again in the same voice. "It's hard to get more significant than the fulfillment of prophecy... I don't know that he would have had the chance, though, because he died in the process." She frowned. "I would think that if he intended to use your death, he would have thought to bring some rare object with him, but he never would have had the time to put magical protections on it, so it would have been burned up in the fire that consumed your parents' safehouse." She shrugged. "It's a loose end, unfortunately. Nothing survived." She blinked. "Nothing except..." Her eyes widened. "That's not possible."

"I know it's not," he said. "But something... something's wrong. It's been wrong for years. I've known it all this time, but it's always been one thing or another-"

"You're not making sense, Mate. Just spit it out."

"I don't think that's for the best," Hermione said. "Harry, we've all had a rough time lately, and we've spent a long time dwelling on certain things, and we're starting to see connections that aren't there- I for one am sorry that we dragged you into various arguments that we've been having when you've been occupied with other things-"

"Is that why you have to hide things from me?" he asked.

"Haven't been doing that in a while, Mate," Ron said. "We couldn't hide our arguments if we tried."

"You've suspected it, though. That was why you decided to show me a few things; it was to earn my trust so that I wouldn't keep looking. You figured that as long as I thought I knew everything-"

"Harry, please, first of all, it's not because of your central nature. You're a brave, trustworthy man-"

"How can I be trustworthy if you don't trust me?" he asked standing up and looking around. Their private discussions were protected, as always, and for once he was thankful. It seemed there really were issues that had nothing to do with the others still. "Even if you can't tell me something, can't you just tell me that you can't-" His voice was shaking and he knew that he was losing it.

"I trust you because you have never once asked me what I've done with the Horcruces. I have never once suspected that you were under his control." She took a deep breath. "It is entirely possible that you cannot close that mental connection that you have. Occlumency helps, but getting yourself to a completely safe place may be impossible. I simply have no information on this subject."

"Wait, are you suggesting that Harry's-"

"It's only what we both suspect might be the case." She took a deep breath. "I know you may not believe me, but I only started to think about it after the idea of the snake came up. I was racking my brains to think of what others might exist, apart from the ones we had found, and I thought that if he sought to place them in significant locations, and ones that might be hard for an enemy to reach, by his side checked both boxes."

"He was using the snake's venom to keep himself alive," he said after a moment. "I don't remember if I ever said this or not, but in my dream, he was having Wormtail extract her venom. She ate the corpse of an old man."

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Mate."

"I woke up by then. That's just what I assume happened. He told her that she could have it, like it was just a rat that wandered in." He shook his head. "I can't imagine that old man's death meant a lot to him, but the snake... there had to be something special about it, something that made its venom not like that of a normal snake."

"I don't remember magical properties of snake venom in my potions books either, Harry, but I would caution you on that; if there were some dark ritual that used snake venom, it would not appear in anything we studied." She sighed. "There are times I wish I could have split my time at Durmstrang, but I think any more studying would have made me a dreadful bore."

It was hard to tell if there was yet more evidence of conflicts between his friends, but they had argued before. While it was not to his tastes to have so many arguments; he preferred things simpler, he supposed that was how they liked it. He remembered something else.

"Sirius said that he might have been able to escape from Azkaban because dogs didn't have complicated emotions like humans, even his mind was not the same in his Animagus form. It's unrelated magic, but it might mean that if only his soul was the same, then it would be fundamentally the same as what Voldemort was doing with the snake." He sighed. "Books on dark magic say that the mind is aware of both the soul and the body; that must be how he controls the snake."

"Does that mean that you could control it?"

"Maybe... but it goes both ways. It also means that he could control me. Our souls are linked through our minds. It would be better if it were completely severed."

"I have to agree," Hermione said after a moment. "I just don't think that's possible. I think Professor Snape has done a good job in getting you started, but part of his job might have been looking for Voldemort's influence."

"How would we know one way or another?" Ron asked. It seemed like he was getting a bit annoyed by the uncertainty. "I know you've suggested taking turns with the dark magic, but Ginny hasn't stopped and no one but you's really started. How are we going to know what exactly is going on?"

"Well... that's where it breaks down. This is already dark magic; no one can really claim to be an expert. Perhaps Voldemort read the works of Herpo the Foul, but we don't have them. I think we can rule out the chance that he intended to make a Horcrux out of you... it's especially dangerous to have one that can move around and think for itself. He underestimates you, as he always has, but I think when you failed to fall for his trick recently, he might have decided it was better to switch to a defensive way of looking at things."

"That was a mistake," Harry said. "If he had gotten closer to me and pushed harder... no, he might have thought that he was getting baited into it. He might have thought that we realized the vulnerability and tried to beat him at his own game."

"Not knowing where Dumbledore was... he could have thought he was with us." Ron shook his head again. As had ever been the case, he was not opposed to strategizing, but they were wandering off into the weeds of hypothetical questions. "We need to make progress on this. We need to have something ready that can destroy the other Horcruces."

"We're working on it. It's not easy. Technically, Fiendfyre would work, but we have no resources on learning how to use it, and there's no way back into the castle to get the rest of the basilisk venom, if there is any. It makes sense to assume that Voldemort would have put the greatest amount of magical protections that he could on each of his soul fragments, and those are the only ways to get through any of them, no matter what they might be." He took a deep breath. "We'll find the last one, and then... we'll have to deal with the snake when we deal with its master. There's no way around it. He'll realize what we've done when all of his Horcruces are gone. It'd be nice if we could be closing in on his position right as we had another team take care of the artefacts, but he'll be surrounded by his followers and we can't take any chances by dividing our forces." Harry might have taken another breath, but it felt rather like he could not breathe at all. "I'll destroy them, and then I'll die. I have no choice but to leave the rest to you two."

Hermione was crying, and Ron was in disbelief. Was it so much harder to accept because it had not happened yet? Was it so much more painful to look at a dead man walking, as opposed to a corpse? And yet, what argument could there be if he had been cornered into accepting that there was no exit strategy for when they retrieved that Horcrux from Hogwarts? Had they not told him that if they somehow managed to make a way for Ron to get out, it would only be after the mission was accomplished, and they could be sure that the rest of the DA would not be caught in the process?

Harry could not boast in any kind of argumentative victory. He did not look forward to his own death at all, and yet, the simple loss of his life was what perhaps scared him the least; he was unable to imagine telling the others how he would abandon them. At long last he stood up.

"It'll only be after we find the last one," he said. "I know it's out there... I just can't imagine where. We shouldn't be any longer, or the others will start to get jealous."

Walking out, he found that Ginny and Terry wanted to have a word with him, but each had been polite enough to wait.

"Sorry... that was all personal stuff. I swear I wasn't..."

"No matter. It is certainly the privilege of the Dragon Marshal to-"

"Call me that one more time and- We've promised to disclose all information that's merited by your rank and we're keeping that promise, even with the recruits. Soon enough we won't even have a distinction. That, back there, that was all personal. Now get on with whatever you were about to say."

"Very well," Terry said, his expression growing in seriousness. "There have been many prophecies in the past about Voldemort, and I believe we are in the middle of one right now." He took out the book and pointed to a section describing a basilisk and innocent blood. "With this having happened over fifty years ago, we are still in the pre-collapse era-"

"Wait, he's that important?" Harry asked. "There are books written about him?" He looked over at Ginny. "Sorry-"

"No, this is way more important. How could they have known what he was going to do?"

"At some level, it is easy to predict his actions. He is the one who flees from death, and so whatever he does is to put himself as far as possible from it." He shrugged. "It doesn't say every last thing he does, and when it mentions him, it's not in order, but things like making Horcruces... it makes sense when you have that piece of the puzzle."

"I find I can't focus on any tactical benefit this may have," he admitted. "Is he part of something bigger, or is he being built up as... I don't know, the most important dark wizard in the world?"

"It's hard to tell. There are... metonyms... names that could refer to the thing itself, or something closely related. There's a few times where something is called by a title, and I'm trying to figure out if it's a heritable title, or an honor that only be bestowed upon one individual in all of time." He shook his head. "One way or another, he's important. This books has had prophecies and histories from all over the world. In a pleasant delusion, one might think of Voldemort as someone who's just trying to take over a school somewhere, but both he and Hogwarts are more important than it seems anyone realizes."

"Does he know this?" Harry asked. "Does he know all this was written about himself?"

"I have no idea. Likely, though, he does not. It seems he is concerned with prophecy, and if he did know all this about himself, I should think that he would have already used it to his advantage. In my estimation, it seems the only reason these prophecies have a chance of coming true is because of his own fear, his own pride in being unable to conceieve of a world without him in it."

"How do you know he hasn't been using the prophecies?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, if he had, the world would have already ended," Terry said with a slight chuckle.