Author's Note: Thank you so very much for all the reviews and love you showed to my fic. I am glad that you liked my work, I read each of them multiple times and I am really glad that you liked my Haphne chapter so much. Even a simple "Good work, Dev." Works wonders for my motivation.

Next three chapters, and my super secret Discord server (Beware: Loads of Smut. Yeah, porn, lol ), check the Ending note.

Hearty thanks and congratulations to our first seven members of Guildmaster tier: Camo, I am Lord Dems, Stormf0x, RyanMK666, Lyrical, Tyler and HadesReynes.

"I am Talking."

'I am Thinking'

Spells

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

~ Sun Tzu (The Art of War)

INNOVATOR

-Dev Sagittarius Black

~~Chapter 36: Last of the Se7en~~

.

It took him about a month more than he had anticipated, still he felt quite delighted to finally be able to locate one of the places of that stupid wanker where the idiots were meeting to discuss their next targetted raid on another unsuspecting village. It was quite a hard thing to track them, especially since the men he had sent were working in a foreign territory with almost no knowledge of the individuals they were to track down.

But that doesn't mean that his men were idiots.

They were hunters, and if there was one thing that they specialised in, it was tracking their prey no matter who it was or how well it hid itself.

Beasten gave a feral grin, his golden eyes glowing in the dark with unbound energy when he felt the thrill of the hunt that was about to begin. From the corner of his eyes, he looked at his partner, the young boy of merely fifteen years of age, who was powerful enough to give him—the Guildmaster of the Creatures Guild—fucking goosebumps the first time they had met a month ago.

"You know about this place, boy?" Beasten asked him, his eyes focused on the black robed and white masked men that were entering the fancy manor which was the meeting place of the team that was supposed to go on a raid in a few hours.

"Parkinson Manor, ancestral seat of Lord Parkinson since the sixteenth century, one of the sacred twenty-eights." Harry nodded. "Currently belongs to Lord Edmund Parkinson, who is reported to be not in the country. If you were looking for places to hunt, you could've just asked me, Master Beasten. I could've easily told you about all the possible Death Eaters locations."

"And how would you, a school boy, do that?" Beasten asked again, interested in knowing exactly how a boy almost half his age was knowledgeable enough to know about the locations of safehouses used by the Death Eaters of Voldemort.

"I have my ways, Guildmaster." Harry smirked, enjoying the slow growl that emanated from his partner's throat. "Let's just say that I know someone who knows a lot and leave it at that. But next time you want a location, please do not waste resources in searching for already known ones."

The golden-eyed man chuckled loudly, he liked the kid. The more he learned about him, the more he found the young man to be interesting. It was a good change of pace for him considering the kind of people he had to deal with on a daily basis regarding the Guild's work.

'Honestly! I still think that Marcus would've been a better Guildmaster than me.' He thought, hand moving through his silver hair, as the two crouched under their invisibility cloaks. They waited patiently till the last masked man looked around himself before he closed the wrought iron gates. 'I am a hunter, not a fucking ass licking politician! '

"I hope you are actually ready for this, Potter." Beasten remarked, "Because in there, I won't be saving your skinny arse all the time, and things will get a bit more gruesome than just dragon slaying. I hope you can stomach that, eh?"

Harry just gave him a small smile, "Please, master Beasten, don't insult me like this." He summoned the elder wand in his hand and pointed it towards the main gates. "In all of my….skirmishes, the dragon left the least amount of blood on my hands."

The Guildmaster laughed boisterously before, he too, started to scan the wards that surrounded the ancient manor. He looked at Potter and was impressed when he saw that the boy was already working through them, dismantling them at a pace that would shame most of his own ward breakers in the Guild.

'No wonder they call you the sharpest mind on earth, Harry Potter…' He thought and began to work his way through sewing his own set of wards into the empty places that Potter was creating by eliminating the former ones.

That was their plan in the first place, Potter had said that he had some experience in ward breaking, which is why he had asked the boy to remove the extremely dangerous wards while he would work on sewing some like anti-floo, anti-portkey, anti-apparition and silencing ones in the empty sockets left by the previous wards.

According to what they had decided in the gathering, Harry and Beasten had been teamed up together to locate and destroy the safehouses of the Death Eaters, their other work was to locate the last Horcrux that Voldemort had hidden somewhere 'really safe' because even after a two months, there was no damn sign of the last horcrux.

After twenty minutes of meticulous work, the two mages sighed in relief. They had successfully removed all of the major intruder wards and had instead laid their own ones above them. The only thing left now was to attack the manor, kill the grunts in it and retrieve information from the one in-charge of the team that would raid tonight in a few hours.

"Alright then, Dragon Slayer." Beasten grinned at the face that Harry made when he heard the nickname. "Let's see what you are actually made of, don't make me wait." And with that, the hulking six and a half foot tall silver haired man dashed towards the manor's iron gates, his wand splicing the air as magic seemed to thrum around him.

Harry simply gave a smirk before he took off in the air himself. After all, there was no need to rush through the gates if you could just fly over them, right? Obviously.

Edward Tobias Knight smiled as he closed the door to the meeting hall behind him, he gladly welcomed the sweet silence over the din of the noises that he had just left as he moved towards the loo to freshen himself before they would depart for the special raid that they was about to begin in an hour.

Now, Edward was a happy young man of twenty name-days, and thanks to his foster parents—no love lost between them—he had been able to survive his childhood and his teenage years fairly well compared to a few other orphans in England. He had been given to them as an added responsibility, thanks to some weird connections and he was to be with them till he was eighteen, after which his dear father had, quite generously, kicked him out of the house to live on his own.

He had received his Hogwarts acceptance letter when he was eleven, and had been quickly sorted into Hufflepuff from which he had graduated two years ago. His marks weren't that good to get him a proper ministry job—like that of an auror or an unspeakable, but they had been decent enough to sustain him some sort of paid work in one of the upcoming foundations in Diagon Alley that was being built under the 'Potter Reformations Projects'.

It was in one such establishment—where he had been working as a part-time waiter—that he heard about the secret recruitment for younger wands and the recruiters would pay them as much as they wanted; it was an offer that a money-making mind, like his own, couldn't refuse. Which was why he eavesdropped on their private conversation long enough to know where they were about to meet.

The meeting had been fabulous, he had enrolled himself as a half-blood, and even though he didn't get to see him, Edward was happy enough to meet the master's right hand woman—Bellatrix LeStrange—who had conducted their first meeting, where she had told them about their goal of 'changing the world to make it a better place for everyone who deserved it'.

Their first few raids, which occurred last month, had been an achievement and—if he could say it— quite lucrative for him and the raid members. They went to the locations in groups, and raided the place as soon as they could. Looting things, raiding houses, sometimes even getting more than a bit handsy with the beautiful women of those houses. It was everything a young hot-blooded man like him could've asked for.

Edward smiled when he closed the door to the loo and dropped his pants down. He couldn't wait to get his hands on this 'special' item that their master wanted. According to Edmund Parkinson, the man who was leading the raid, they were to attack the Department of Mysteries for a 'peculiar thing' which had their master's name on it.

The reward was the Dark Lord's prized mark on his left arm given to them—personally—by their master, as well as a rise in their rank which would give the rewarded individual his own small battalion of soldiers, as well as powers to lead raids like other leaders before him.

Whistling at his happy fortune, the man flushed the toilet, and quickly used Scourgify to clean himself before he moved out of the chambers. He looked at the Parkison manor, it was his first time in such an old family manor which had been built centuries ago.

He trotted happily along the sleeping portraits of previous Parkinsons and other family members; under the small crystal chandeliers that lined the corridor, and torches that flickered with a bright green flame, illuminating the carpeted corridor which he traced back to the meeting hall that he had left about fifteen minutes ago.

It was absolutely beautiful, everything screamed of luxury, old money, and importance and class that the rest of the common world was devoid of. It made him think about his own poor life, and the way he had to earn his living working multiple jobs in the alley while Lord and Ladies like the Parkinsons, the grand house of Blacks, the Malfoys and even the LeStranges, Carrows and the Rosiers lived for generations without raising a single of their dainty fingers to work for the galleons that they spent.

'Well, soon enough I will make a name for myself and get something big as well.' He thought giddily, imagining a Gringotts vault in his name that would be filled to the top with galleons and heaps of rubies, emeralds and other precious stones scattered around it. The young boy placed his hand on the large iron handles of the mahogany door and opened it with a gentle push.

Only to enter a room that was submerged in darkness.

"Hellloooo?" He called out, "Is anyone there? Oh, c'mon! Did you guys leave already?" He walked inside the room, and mentally illuminated the tip of his wand so that he could look around for anything.

"What the—!"

Though what he did find wasn't something that he expected to find that night. Not so soon, at least.

Bodies.

Yes, dead bodies of his fallen comrades strewn in a haphazard manner throughout the bloody hall in a pool of their own blood and flesh that was growing by seconds. He didn't understand what had actually happened between the time he left the room, and returned.

'Did they all have a disagreement of sorts and ended up killing each other?' No, that seemed most unlikely of the options. 'And yet I can't find anything else that would support this… THIS!' he thought and looked at the devastating scene before him. He bent down and touched the body of one of the most recent recruits who had joined a few days after him— it was still warm, which meant that he had just died a few minutes ago.

It looked like a scene that was out of some werewolf movie that he had seen during his childhood. He could see pieces of bones and flesh in the pool of blood and on the wall, a few sticking out of the fallen men. There were a few with their heads chopped off, then there were a few who had claw marks on their faces and torso from where their organs had been ripped out.

He looked towards the head table and that's where he got something that gave him a little clue as to what had happened here. His mouth fell open when he saw the headless body of Lord Edmund Parkinson placed on the Head table with his hand pointing upwards.

Edward looked up and stumbled a few steps before he fell back on the ground, his eyes widened in utter shock because of what was written on the ceiling in blood:

Tell him, the Predators have changed. And soon, He shall join his fallen men.

Edmund Parkinson's head dangled from the large crystal chandelier, his bloodshot brown eyes glaring down at him as if trying to send a message that he immediately received.

'RUN… Run and hide!'

(Timeskip: 1 month)

Lord Voldemort glared at the cowering man who cried just a few steps away from his throne. According to Bellatrix, the boy was fresh out of Hogwarts and was one of his recent recruits that had been trained by McNair for the raid teams that were assigned to the man.

The Dark Lord didn't even bother to ask the boy's name, he didn't even know the boy's blood status, but that wasn't something that mattered to him, after all, he was a half-blood himself, no matter what people seemed to believe. The boy was a wizard, he had magic, knew spells and was trained to cause destruction and havoc.

For Voldemort, that was good enough to recruit him as a minor grunt, it wasn't like the boy was going to be bestowed any huge rewards anyway, and he had come to the conclusion that winning over a country as strong and as powerful as Great Britain with just purebloods was a fool's dream. It was why he had sought the help of the infamous 'Council of Paragons' last time as well.

Unfortunately, this particular boy, and a few before him, had brought almost the same news regarding the raid teams that were set to raid a particular village, or a town that night. He had first received the disturbing news about a month ago, and since then this was the fourth time when he was learning about his entire raid team being absolutely butchered with only one single message on the ceiling.

The leader of these raids teams would usually be tortured before he was killed and then his head would be stuck from the ceiling, eyes pointedly opened to glare towards the door of the chamber so that whosoever enters the hall would feel the glare of Death.

What puzzled the Dark Lord, wasn't the deed the intruder did to the men in that team, or even the leader. He was more intrigued as to why the men—because he was quite sure that a single man couldn't do all that on his own—would always leave a single boy behind them with the message.

Why not kill the boy as well? What was so precious about these boys that were left behind? What was the purpose of leaving them alive when the rest of their comrades were ruthlessly massacred?

After the first time, he had forbidden his men from leaving the premises of the meeting hall for even a second unless they had to go on the raid. Surprisingly enough, that hadn't worked at all. The person who was left behind had been knocked unconscious, and said that the attackers were invisible, and, also, that no amount of human revealing charm revealed their locations.

Which was another disturbing fact because that would mean these men weren't actually human. They were monsters, beasts or other creatures who were slaughtering his men. Also, the fact that these creatures weren't bothering with 'clean' deaths told him that they were probably creatures of the darker side who enjoyed the art of killing more than the killed ones.

'But why would a creature of the dark go against me at all?' Voldemort thought as he rubbed his chin, his attention focused on the cowering man. "So you're telling me that an entire team which comprised fifteen men, including McNair, was killed within ten minutes and none of you managed to even find who these… beasts are?"

The young man cried harder, "Ye-yes, my Lord." He bawled, trembling before the Dark Lord. "We tried our best, had even increased the security wards and had five men on continuous patrol as well. Still, they came in as swiftly as the air we breathe, and left li-like a… a tornado, Master. A tornado that destroys everything it touches."

"And yet, they left you…" The Dark Lord muttered, his red eyes shone in the darkness of the throne chamber. "Why did they leave you? What's so special about you?"

The man just stayed silent. He didn't know what he could say in response to that query. After all, he himself didn't know why he had been left while others in his team were absolutely butchered right before his eyes.

"Bellatrix," Voldemort called out. "Put a halt on these raids, and I want you to personally focus on training the new recruits yourself. I need a closer inspection of these scenes because I don't think that the message on the ceiling is the only thing that our dear friends left for us."

"As you wish, my Lord." The crazy woman bowed and was about to kick out the young recruit from the chamber when he abruptly looked up in their master's eyes.

"Ma-master, I th-think there's something else that you should know," the man whimpered, pondering whether he was doing the right thing by telling this or not.

"And what is it?"

The man gulped. "The… the words on the ceiling… I was there when they wrote it down, I-I had faked my unconsciousness but I was watching everything. When that message was written, it wasn't written by magic, my Lord. It was… it was written by hand."

Voldemort frowned at that, he hadn't bothered to watch the man's memory of the incident because before this all of them were either 'not there when it happened' or they were the first and only ones to have been knocked unconscious, so, when they woke up, the deed had already been done.

"What do you mean written by hand?" He leaned forward in his seat. "The words were written on the ceiling, not on the wall."

"I-I know, Master, I know." The man nodded feverishly. "Which is why I was shocked when I saw blood red fingers write the message. It was… It…" He gulped again. "It was as if the man was flying while he… he wrote those words."

All it took was a few seconds for the Dark Lord to guess the identity of his enemy, he gave an angry growl and the sheer force of his unstable magic smashed all the windows in the room with a loud bang.

Other than him, there were still a few men on the planet that were strong enough to not only fight but also kill these many men on their own, but out of them—including him — there was only one who had been strong enough to achieve true mastery over complete human flight. The one man whose glare had recently started to frequent his dreams and turn them into nightmares regarding death, destruction and unforseen calamity.

"Harry Potter…"

The young recruit who had been grovelling by his master's feet suddenly felt a huge amount of pressure that even cracked the stone floor beneath him. He looked up in surprise only to find his lord's wand pointed at him, soon a jet of crimson light smashed in his chest and all he could do was howl in agony.

"HEY! Watch where you are going!"

"Sorry!" He muttered and gave a hesitating smile. "Kinda late to somewhere!"

The second year Gryffindor who he had bumped into blinked in shock as he watched the fourth year celebrity rush towards the staircase in a hurry, weaving through the crowd of other Gryffindors that were walking through the corridor.

Alandale Potter rushed through the stairs, praying to any god that would listen to him so that his infamous Potter luck would work and hopefully, for once, in his favor. He ran through the stairs, jumping over the false steps, smiling at the onlookers who blinked in surprise and simply ignored the idiots who still held a grudge against him for how he had treated them in the past.

There was no time to think about these stupid things as he rushed to a really important meeting with his beloved brother who had been training him in DADA since their rather aggravated talk two months ago. Now they met thrice a week near his suite on the fifth floor at 5 pm sharp, from where they would go to the Room of Requirements where Harry would sometimes teach him spells or duel him, correcting things that he would have otherwise missed.

Unfortunately, after bugging her for one month, his best friend Hermione had finally agreed to teach him the basics of Ancient Runes earlier today. They had begun the lessons about two hours ago, and he got a bit immersed in the Egyptian symbols which had led to his current situation of running through Hogwarts to meet his brother on time.

By the time he reached his brother's door he was completely out of breath and obviously sweating buckets. He wiped his brow, used a quick drying charm on himself and was about to ask the portrait guardian to notify Harry when it swung open from inside.

"I am sorry, Harry, I know I am a bit la—huh?" He blinked in surprise at the gorgeous blonde Slytherin that came out of the suite.

Her baby blue eyes took his appearance with nothing but a slightly raised eyebrow before she gave a small nod of acceptance and turned her head towards the inside of the suite, "Harry, he's here!"

There was a slightly muffled 'Alright!' from inside which Alan recognised to be Harry's voice. He was confused as to why the girl, Daphne, came from Harry's suite. A place where not even he, the blood related brother, was allowed.

"He is working on something right now, so you will have to wait a few minutes." She told him as the door closed behind her and she walked towards him before stopping a meter away.

"I see." He nodded, that was a much better outcome than being scolded for coming late. "You are Daphne, right? Harry's girlfriend?"

Daphne couldn't help the small amount of heat that warmed her cheeks when Alan said that, but outwardly, she tried to control herself and gave him a small nod. "You don't have to say that to the whole world, just keep it to yourself…" Her eyes narrowed at him, "Or else..."

Alan raised his arms in a universal gesture of peace, "Yeah, Harry said the same when I asked him." He smiled when he noticed how quickly her demeanor changed from threatening to blushing again. "He trusts you quite a lot, you know. More than me, and I am the last of his family." He ran a hand through his messy red hair. "Well, it's not like I blame him, you know? I haven't done much other than antagonize him the last five years since I've known him."

"I know, he used to tell me whenever I met him," she admitted, "But he says you have improved a lot, and I can see that because I am actually surprised that you are talking so casually with me since I know that the former Alandale Potter would rather curse a Slytherin than talk with her."

Alan blushed when she reminded him of his past self. "Guess I grew up, eh?"

"We all did." She gave a small smile and looked back towards the door, thinking about the times when she wished Harry would one day accept her too. So much had happened in the span of one year that no matter how much she tried to deny it made it seem like some higher entity was meticulously planning all this.

"Talking about surprises, I was quite surprised myself when Harry told me about dating you," Alan admitted, looking anywhere but the girl beside him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, no offense but… the two of you have received way too many proposals which you rejected the moment you heard them. You are literally called the 'Ice-Queen' of Slytherin." He hesitated a bit and looked at her. "And then, you two didn't really meet each other before you started dating… or maybe that's what you wanted the rest of us to believe, huh?"

Daphne didn't say anything. After all, how could she admit that she had been the one trying to persuade that dork all these years, and she would have immediately stopped all that ice-queen persona if he had agreed even once!

"Some of the students even thought you two swung the other way. I mean, it's not a bad thing, and I don't have a problem with it but there are people who said that about you two," he mumbled before his eyes widened when he realized what he had just said. "I-I mean the ones who—!"

"WHAT?!" Daphne shrieked. "What do you mean we swung the other way?!" She grabbed him by his collar, glaring daggers at the poor boy.

"I–I mean it..it probably was just a rumor started by the ones who you two rejected!" He replied, panicking when it didn't seem to calm her down. "It-It's a natural thing to think of… when you, I mean, both of you have boys and girls throwing at yourselves and even then you just rejected them no matter how good they looked or–or how rich they were."

"That means we are sensible enough to not fall head-first with the first person that showed interest in us! Not that we swung the other way, you dumbhead!" She tried to calm herself.

"I-Yes! Of course that means what you said!" He gave a hesitating smile and slowly tried to get his shirt off of her death grip. "But-I mean, what about the second person? Or third? Or… er… seventh? I'm just saying that it wasn't unbelievable, alright?!."

Daphne narrowed her eyes at the youngest Potter, "And everyone believed this shit? Also why am I hearing this just now?!" She thought about her gossip of a best friend, and her sister who was in Ravenclaw, she was definitely going to kill the two insufferable idiots tonight.

"Well… the more people you two rejected, the stronger they believed it." He smiled and gently unlapsed her hands from his shirt. "And well… you two aren't exactly known for being social butterflies, and I don't know about you but Harry really has a bad temper, so I don't think Blaise or Cho ever had the guts to tell him otherwise. Actually, Blaise would have, but my brother would have thought it to be a joke."

..

Somewhere distantly in the castle, a certain Italian heir was busy snogging a veela. Unfortunately, it was at this moment when his nose tickled and he pushed her away to sneeze. The veela raised her eyebrow at the sheepish expression of her boyfriend but decided to ignore it for now.

She amusedly made a mental note to bring it up one day when her hormones acted up and she wanted to fight with him for no specific reason at all.

..

"That… that…" Daphne shook her head. "How stupid could they be!" She took a step back from Potter who sighed in relief. "Well, I hope the rumors are quelled now?"

"About that… when was the last time you acted like a couple in public?" He gave her a tight smile. "I only know about you because Harry told me, but how many people do you think he speaks with?"

Before Daphne could have replied, the portrait behind her swung open once more and Harry walked out of the door in his usual button-down forest green shirt and black pants.

"Daphne?" He asked her, "You didn't leave? I thought you said you had a practice dueling session with Beaufort?"

"Still do." She nodded before she pointed towards Alan. "Just wanted to finally have a chat with the other Potter. Surprisingly enough, he was quite knowledgeable about some things we should have known."

Harry looked at his brother who waved and gave him a cheeky grin, "And what are these things?"

"No-nothing!" Alan squeaked before Daphne could've answered, "It was nothing. Now, we should go for our own training, Harry. She has to leave too, right?" He looked at her like a puppy who had been kicked, pleading to her with his eyes to not say anything to his brother.

Daphne nodded and instead stepped towards Harry to give him a hug and a small kiss on his cheek, she smiled when his hands immediately encircled her waist. "I'll tell you later. For now, I want something from you."

"And what's that?"

"I want you to sit with me in the great hall for dinner tonight."

"What?"

"It-it is important that others know we are dating!" She blushed.

"It is?" Harry frowned in confusion. "I thought we were going to keep it a secret till things settled down a bit."

She shook her head rapidly. "No-no. We should do this, and maybe go to the library together, or maybe in classes as well." She mumbled, "It's important for a healthy relationship that we are seen together as well."

"And how would you know that?" He raised his eyebrow. "As far as I know this is your first time in a relationship too."

"I — well yeah, obviously! But that's why I read things!" She smiled brightly, trying her best to sound confident with the lie that she was spinning. "I read it in a book, the author was adamant that we must hold hands in public, and be seen by others as couples if we wanted a healthy relationship. You do want that, right Harry?" She gave him her puppy dog eyes, praying to that deity who, she presumed, had planned all this to make her wish come true.

Finally, after some time, Harry nodded and his lips curved up a little. "Alright, if that's what you want. We'll do it."

She squealed and gave him a tight hug before she waved both the Potters goodbye and left happily.

Harry turned to look at his brother with narrowed eyes. "Now, what did you exactly tell her?"

Alan just gave him a tight smile before he too started walking towards the stairs, after all, he came here to practice, right? RIGHT!

(Timeskip: 1 month)

"So these are the last four locations that he gave?"

"Yeah, he says he doesn't know about any others," he replied. "According to him, these are the last of those safehouses that were set up for raids and meetings."

"And what about the 'other thing' that I told you to ask him about?"

Sirius sighed as he rubbed his forehead. "We can't obtain that particular information, Harry." He shook his head, "Malfoy is bound by an unbreakable vow to never reveal it, if he does then he will die."

"Then, you can just use legilimency on him. I don't need him alive, Sirius, I need him useful," Harry said casually as he looked at the four locations that Sirius gave him, these were the last four safehouses that his godfather had retrieved by torturing their captive. Harry kept it in his pocket, he made a mental note to send a letter to Beasten so that the man could keep an eye on these locations and tell him when they were being used for another raid.

"I know that, but even killing him won't help us," Sirius pointed out. "You see, any information regarding 'The Council' is protected by some sort of strange magic that if we even tried to search his mind then the magic will kill the man, and our consciousness which is locked in his head at that moment will forever be trapped there, probably rendering us dead as well."

Harry rubbed his chin as he contemplated the weird situation, he looked at the calendar in his suite and noticed that it was June had already begun. Then, there was the third task that was being held on twenty-fourth, and even the Enlightened One had said that the rift must be closed before June ends or the army shall come through.

'Dumbledore and the Guild workers are still trying to locate Tom's last Horcrux,' he thought. 'And then there's Malfoy, I can't believe I am so damn close to getting inside the Council's headquarters and yet, I am so far!'

"Well, keep it up till he reveals at least something." Harry shrugged. "It's not like we have anything to lose, right?"

Sirius nodded and was about to stand up when all of a sudden the room was showered in an orange-yellow light while a melodious sound started to echo around the room. The two looked up and witnessed a bright flash of light which slowly revealed itself to be Fawkes.

"Fawkes?" Harry asked the bird who trilled in response and flew around his suite twice before settling on his shoulder, he dropped a piece of parchment in the boy's hand who immediately recognized the Headmaster's cursive handwriting.

"What does it say, Harry?"

The innovator looked up to his godfather, he couldn't help himself but smile at the words that he had received from the Headmaster. "It's from Dumbledore, I had promised to accompany him when he would finally locate the Horcrux."

"Do-does that mean what I think it means?" Sirius stood up from his chair in excitement, "Did Albus—"

"He did." Harry nodded and smiled when Sirius cheered loudly. "Dumbledore has finally found the place where the last of the seven is hidden by Voldemort. In fact, he is waiting for me to join him right now." Harry too, stood up from his seat and held onto Fawkes' tail feather. "I'll see you later, Sirius."

"HARRY! WAIT!" Sirius stopped him.

"What?"

"I-I want to come with you," his godfather admitted, and then stopped him from speaking. "I won't interrupt you two, I promise. I just want to see the beginning of Voldemort's destruction by my own eyes, he took a lot from me and..and I want to see him suffering, to feel the satisfaction that what we are doing is correct, and one day we'll avenge James, Lily and all others that left us alone."

"Sirius…"

"Please, Harry?" The man pleaded. "This is the one thing that I am asking of you, I swear that I won't stop you two at all. And-and you can even ask Fawkes to take me back if something bad happened because of me. Please? I just want to see it from afar."

The boy contemplated taking his godfather with him, it would definitely be risky. After all, he still remembered all those he had come across and none of them were exactly safe. They were used objets, and as much as he hated to admit it, Voldemort had done an exceptionally good job to protect them.

Still, it wasn't like Sirius was a newbie, right? He was a trained wizard who used to be an auror as well, Harry was sure that if push came to shove then Sirius would be able to handle himself quite well. With the decision finally made, Harry nodded to himself and reached out for the older man.

"Alright, hold my hand."

And with another cry from the legendary bird of fire, the two disappeared from Harry's suite only to appear on a small island with a cave on it.

Dumbledore, who had been waiting for Harry to arrive, was surprised when he noticed that the boy hadn't arrived alone. But before he could point that out, Harry pointed towards Sirius. "He wanted to come," he told the Headmaster as the two walked towards the mouth of the cave where the old man stood. "And he says he won't touch a single thing and be on his best behavior."

Dumbledore looked at the man who raised his hands in the universal gesture of peace. "I hope you do as he says, Sirius, because this cave… it feels way different."

"Different?" Harry asked as the two stood in front of the cave's mouth. "What do you mean, Professor?"

Dumbledore showed Harry his sliced palm, the cut had been healed but the scar was still quite fresh. "It needed magical blood to open the mouth of the cave, and for some reason…" The warlock looked imploringly at Harry, "It reeks of death."

The three men lit their wands as they gingerly walked through the broken stone pathway of the cave, they didn't bother to touch anything fearing that it might trigger a trap that had been set by the Dark Lord, and they would end up getting cursed, or much worse, killed.

Finally, after about ten minutes of walking, they came across a large lake. Its murky water didn't allow them to look past one meter in depth, and there was a stone pedestal on a small island at the very center of its surface.

"Is that a boat?" Sirius asked, pointing at the overturned floating piece of wood that was tied to a stone on the small island.

"It is, and I think we must bring it here somehow so that we can reach the isle." Dumbledore nodded, flicking his wand out so that he could summon it.

"I'll do that."

"Don't disturb the water, Harry!" The old mage cautioned him. "The lake is infested with inferi. Numerous, if what I can sense is true."

"Inferi?" Sirius gasped and kneeled near the surface of the lake to look at it more carefully. He was shocked when all of a sudden, a dead man's melted and blotched face came into view. He looked at a different location after that, and soon found out that Dumbledore had been correct.

The lake was filled with half dead humans, and they were probably placed here by the Dark Lord to protect the last Horcrux.

"I know, Headmaster." Harry nodded. "It was the first thing I sensed when I came here, but when I said I'd do it, I didn't mean I'd swim through the lake. What I meant… was this!" And with that he took off the ground, ignoring his godfather's childish 'woohooo!', he crossed the lake before stepping on the small island.

"Just untie the knot, I will summon the boat to us," Dumbledore announced from the periphery of the lake, "And don't touch anything till we are there as well."

Harry did as he had been told and waited near the stone pedestal for both of them to reach him. He did take a look at the pedestal, and was mildly disappointed to see that all it had was a stone basin that was filled with some sort of green water that had the same murky appearance as that of the lake, and a caudle near it.

"It's a potion, a really dark one and rarely found in any of the potions textbooks that are available now," Dumbledore said when he examined the murky liquid. "It's called the 'Drink of Despair'. You can guess what it does by the name itself, three sips and you feel an internal burning and a few more to relieve your worst nightmares."

"Why would he use such a thing here?" Sirius questioned the old man.

"Because of its special properties." Dumbledore sighed. "For all intents and purposes, the potion can not be charmed, transfigured, scooped up, altered or drained in any way. The only way to finish it is to drink the entire thing in one sitting."

"What the—" Sirius mumbled, too shocked to form a sentence. "But...didn't you say that the person who drinks it will keep on reliving their worst nightmares."

"I did, and that is true." The old man nodded. "The only way to stop the effect is to finish the potion completely once they begin drinking it. Due to this, we have one more problem that Tom used quite brilliantly to save his Horcrux."

"And what is it?"

"The more potion the drinker drinks, the thirstier he becomes. And well…" Dumbledore pointed towards the lake water that was infested with inferi. "You get the idea."

"Merlin… that-that wretched fucker!" Sirius exclaimed as he looked at the inferi infested lake and the potion. "What was wrong with that guy?!"

"The inferi aren't a problem." Harry shook his head, "I can simply drink the potion and then fly out of the cave. Inferi can't fly so I'll be safe. Problem is there should be someone who helps me finish the entire thing to cancel out the effects."

"NOW, WAIT THERE!" Sirius exclaimed. "If you are even thinking of drinking it—"

"You said you'll be silent, Sirius," Harry interrupted him but the man was going to have none of it.

"I did! Yes. But I am your godfather, Potter." Sirius glared back. "And I'd rather die than see you harmed with something like… like this! I… I will drink it!"

"Sirius…" Dumbledore muttered.

"No, Albus. I am not letting Hary drink that!" He replied, furiously glaring at the old Headmaster. "In fact, let me be the one to drink the potion. No, wait, hear me out!" He stopped both of them. "I can drink the potion, both of you are strong so you can make me drink it, right? And, by chance, if I do free myself and disturb the waters, then Harry can fly us out while you, Albus, could protect us. I think this is the best way!"

"But Sirius, this isn't a game, I don't think you understand that—"

"That I could die? You don't know how long I've waited for that, Harry." The man said, a soft smile blossoming on his face. "But trust me when I say this, the last thing I want is to watch you die because of this…this potion. And if you do, then I won't be able to forgive myself."

Harry still frowned at that, he cursed himself for bringing his godfather along. This would have been a lot easier if it was just him and Dumbledore.

"When I heard that you and Lily had been kidnapped all those years ago, there was only one thing on my mind and that was utter shame." Sirius looked down at his shoes. "I tried everything that I could, and yet all of my sources failed to locate the two of you which made me feel like an utter failure of a godfather. A man who couldn't even protect his own godson like he should have. And I swore back then, that if I ever met you again then I would dedicate my life to protecting you. I don't want to be a bad godfather to you, harry. Not again."

"Sirius…you know that's not true." Potter replied, "You have been one of the best people who have supported me through a hell lot of things. I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me."

"Then let me do this as well." He pleaded. "I can't let you do this knowing full well that you'd be in suffering in pain while I watch from the sides."

Both Harry and Dumbledore looked at each other, silently conversing with their eyes for a few minutes before the former sighed and nodded.

"Alright, Sirius, we'll do as you said." The veteran mage agreed and gave a signal to Harry who picked up the caudle and started filling it with the potion.

Dumbledore conjured ropes around Sirius' body, holding him close so that he could stop the younger man from jumping in the lake when the potion would eventually start to take effect.

Harry made sure that the caudle was filled with the emerald potion before he placed it over his godfather's open mouth. "Drink it all, godfather."

"STOP!" A new voice stopped them, and the three turned to look at the source of the voice which happened to be a translucent glow that slowly originated from the lake.

Both Harry and Dumbledore flicked their wands out, they immediately took a defensive stance as the person came out of the lake and floated above it. The innovator frowned when he saw that the ghost looked quite similar to someone who knew, while Dumbledore tried to think exactly where he had seen the man.

Out of the three, only one man had the worst reaction when he saw the ghost. He fell back on the ground, pale gray eyes wide in horror as only one word came out of his mouth.

"R-Reggie?!"

Ending note: There it was, the thirty-sixth chapter of INNOVATOR. And with this we are finally closing the horcrux arc of the story. But why is Regulus there in the cave? And, is it really Regulus or someone else? You'll have for the next weekend to know about it!

Once more, all I ask of you is a simple word of encouragement for me. You don't know how much it pleased me in the last chapter, and the amount of motivation it gave to write more, and finish the story faster for you. Even a simple 'Good Work, Dev.' is appreciated, still..those who don't want to review, it's alright. I am glad that you liked my story enough to read this far. 😇

The next three chapters and all the character sketches... are available on my p -treon.

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