Two days and two nanoseconds later, Steven Secret was back in Arthur's office.
"Arthur," said Steven seriously, "I have a theory about how Lord Voldemort will try to regain a body, and with it, power."
"You have come to inform me of how you think Voldemort will attempt his resurrection?" Arthur asked Steven to confirm?"
"Yes," replied Steven in a crystal clear voice, "I am also going to ask you to take some steps to prevent Voldemort from implementing his plan. However, it is VERY important that you do not publicize these actions. It is crucial that neither Voldemort himself nor anyone following or supporting him become aware of actions. Therefore, we must act discreetly. I also do not want the whole Ministry of Magic to know about this plan either. The fewer people who know about this operation, the better."
"How do you plan to keep news about this plan from spreading around the Ministry of Magic?" inquired Arthur.
"My intention, " explained Steven in a businesslike voice, "Is to inform the people who will be involved with this mission of what their tasks are in the Dark Magic room with only themselves present and Privacy Charms on the room at the time."
"Okay," said Arthur in understanding, "What are you thinking?"
"So," said Steven bluntly, "Horcruxes themselves can only protect the soul. They cannot play any role a Dark Witch or Dark Wizard regaining a body. Their role is ensuring the initial survival. As such, there would need to be a way for a Horcrux owner to be returned to his or her body at some point. Well, yesterday, I tasked Sabrina Stir, the biggest Potions nerd in the Department of Mysteries, with studying as many Dark Potions as she could to see if she could identify whether there was a Dark Potion capable of enabling a Horcrux owner whose first body had been destroyed to regain a body. Last night, Sabrina, looking very uncomfortable, informed me of the existence of the Resurrection Potion."
"Resurrection Potion must be used to return to a body," realized Arthur instantly.
"Resurrection Potion," piped up Steven slowly and carefully, "Achieves its goal through the interactions of three key ingredients. One is the flesh of a servant."
"Plenty of possible contributors there," sighed Arthur wearily.
"No doubt about that," acknowledged Steven, "Another of these key ingredients is blood of an enemy."
"Voldemort clearly wants to use Harry Potter's blood to regenerate," said Arthur matter of factly, "That's why Death Eaters and people on Voldemort's side are so keen to get at Harry Potter. There could be many reasons why Voldemort prefers to use Harry Potter's blood specifically."
"It could symbolic," nodded Steven, "Or it could be practical. He may well believe for whatever reason that Harry's blood would make him stronger than ever. But it's the third major ingredient that I want to talk about: bone of the father."
"You're saying," said Arthur slowly, "That for this Resurrection Potion to work, it must contain bone from the father of the Dark Witch or Dark Wizard to be revived."
"Yes," confirmed Steven, "Bone of the father is an essential ingredient in Resurrection Potion. And there's where I want to attack what I suspect is Voldemort's plan to use a Resurrection Potion to regenerate himself."
"Your strategy is to prevent Voldemort or his followers from accessing his father's bone?" said Arthur wryly, "How do you think you can manage that."
"By protecting his father's grave," said Steven in a very clear and very serious voice, "There are two primary ways I will go about that."
"Let's hear the first," piped up Arthur urgently.
"I wish to allocate a team of Aurors to go to Little Hangleton to keep watch over the grave."
"That would only work," warned Arthur, "If you sent enough aurors for them to work in shifts. They need to eat and sleep sometime. "
"That's true," admitted Steven, "My thinking is to send six teams of four aurors each to work four hours shifts. One auror would always been stationed at each side of the grave."
"I get it now," said Arthur in understanding.
"But," continued Steven, "It is also important to ensure that the grave cannot be tampered with from a distance by magic.'
"Anti-Tampering Charms that prevent unwanted access can be applied to just about anything," Arthur reminded Steven.
"That's right," said Steven seriously, "However, Anti-Tampering Charms are reactively temporary. They last an average of six hours, and some have been known to expire after about five hours. I will have the aurors regularly reapply the Anti-Tampering Charms at the beginning of each shift."
"OHHH!" realized Arthur suddenly, "If Voldemort cannot access his father's bone, he will not be able to use Resurrection Potion to regain a body. The longer we can prevent Voldemort from using the Resurrection Potion, the more time we have to study and destroy Horcruxes, including the Master Horcrux if there is one."
"That," declared Steven, "Is why protecting Tom Riddle Sr.'s grave is of the utmost importance. No bone of the father, no regaining a body via Resurrection Potion."
"Do you need anything from me?" Arthur asked Steven.
"Silence, "insisted Steven, "In the days to come, you will find that some aurors are unavailable because they are working on a secret mission for the Department of Mysteries. You may go into the Auror office and ask for someone, and he or she may be unavailable, possibly suddenly or unexpectedly. The aurors who will work on this project will be told not to tell other aurors what the project is, so an available auror may tell you that so and so had to go off for an assignment in the Department of Mysteries, but that the auror in question had said they couldn't comment further."
"I understand," nodded Arthur, "Some aurors will not be available for a period of time. As for me, I know not to say anything about what we have just talked about."
"Good," replied Steven, 'I think we have a good plan in place."
Arthur and Steven smiled at each other, both realizing that Steven was right about the importance of protecting the grave.
So, I wasn't on much in late December -or early January. I had planned to take some time away from here around Christmas and then I got sick late at night on December 26th from a stomach virus going around my area and spent most of the 27th in the hospital. I didn't feel too great until New Year's and decided to take it easy for a few more days after that. I also had a batch routine yearly labwork/bloodwork done on the 13th and went over the results with my PCP on the 20th. Most of it looked really good. The one thing my PCP was a little concerned about was that I have an elevated TSH level of 4.25. My T4 value was in the normal range and I'm not experiencing any symptoms of underactive thyroid. However, my PCP said she was less concerned about underactive thyroid and more concerned about the possibility of thyroid cancer. She gave my thyroid area a good look and feel and did not see or feel any large spots or growths that don't belong. She's having me redo that lab test in July and if it is still elevated, she's going to have me do an ultrasound to determine if thyroid cancer is present. I started the year here by updating my one shots threads. This is the sixth of my six "true" fics to get an update in 2025. With this chapter, all nine of my threads have a 2025 update! :)
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