A/N- This chapter has been edited and little changes have been made which do not affect the story at all.

Thank you, Hypergym. And you can blow your own horn when you do commendable work.

THE NEXT DAY, HOGWARTS INFIRMARY

Harry Potter was getting weary of the Hospital Wing. He had been a patient here so many times in the last 4 years that Madam Pomfrey named a bed after him. Perhaps he was the only person to have such a dubious honor. From the time he woke up, there had been a steady stream of visitors. Some just came to talk, and others to apologize for accusing him of cheating to get into the Triwizard Tournament. When the quidditch team dropped by, the chasers had some fun fussing over him and babying him. Angelina and Alicia were being fiercely protective of him while Katie teased him thus, making him feel better in all the misery.

Fred and George gave him a beautifully wrapped box of sweets, which Harry fortunately noticed was an assortment of the stuff they had been working on: ton tongue toffee, canary creams, braying butterbeer and so on. Most of it just transformed the unsuspecting victim into an animal for a minute or so, then wore off, but; the ton tongue toffee was nasty. He chuckled when he remembered what happened to Dudley when George "accidentally" dropped one and the great lump ate it.

Then there was that time they tried one out on that big fifth year McLaggen and he kept braying like a donkey, creating such a disturbance that Snape put him in detention.

Ron was there, being uncharacteristically silent. He didn't even help himself to the small mountain of sweets that Harry's well-wishers and visitors had left. When Harry tried to make small talk with him, Ron merely grunted in mono-syllables. Harry found this strange but having no clue about the reasons for the other boy's silence, he filed it away for later.

Hermione was anxious but kept herself restrained. He knew she was bursting to reassure him and to ask him questions about the private conversation from yesterday but Harry had not yet given in to her nagging.

Mrs. Weasley had not left his bedside for so much as one minute since yesterday. She kept up the pressure, trying to dissuade Harry from going off with the mystics to train. She went on and on about having his best interests at heart and being older and wiser than Harry. Even though Molly Weasley was the closest thing to a mother Harry had ever known, this attitude and the constant badgering was overwhelming for him. Although Harry knew that she was worried and she just wanted to keep him safe, she did not understand that this time, Harry had to keep her safe and everyone they cared about. Harry's parents told him that only he can defeat Voldemort once and for all. Although he did not wish to cause her any pain, he was determined and he would go.

The most surprising visitor was a girl from Slytherin. She was blonde with blue eyes, a sharp nose and an impassive expression. She turned up when no one else was around, offered her friendship to him and disappeared when she heard someone approaching. Although Harry had long since learned to distrust and even despise members of that house, this one seemed alright.

Then there was Susan Bones. She had been to see him five or six times since he woke up. Madame Pomfrey let Harry know that Susan had been up to see him as often as Hermione while he was unconscious. Harry knew Susan Bones as a friend who was fiercely loyal and hard had heard of how she had defended him when others accused him of being the heir of through this year she had shut her house mates down when they tried to taunt him or trouble was a perfect ally to have and Harry vowed to befriend her and get to know her better.

Neville was there when Harry woke up, looking anxious. He seemed to be carefully observing the people around them. He had been back to the hospital wing several times since then and Harry felt good about that. During the last minutes of his coma, Harry's father had told him that Neville was his god-brother. He was wondering why Neville had not told Harry this. That would be a question for later.

Among the many other students who had dropped by to visit and apologize was Ernie McMillan. He seemed quite solemn and sincere when he told Harry that he believed him and that, moreover, he would follow Harry where ever he would go.

"Harry", the head master's voice brought him out of his reverie.

He looked up toward the voice to find the Headmaster standing with Mr. and Mrs. Diggory. The grief and loss they shared showed in every line of their faces. Mr. Diggory, normally full of bluster and pride looked slumped and shrunken. Mrs. Diggory, gray and forlorn.

"Harry, Mr. Diggory and Mrs. Diggory want to talk to you about what happened to Cedric, if you are able."

It all went through Harry's mind in an instant: landing in the graveyard with Cedric; the precious moments lost while they both tried to figure out what happened; the unbearable pain splitting Harry's head when Voldemort realized that Harry was there; the frustration and terror as Harry fought against the pain and tried to tell Cedric to get the both of them out of there; The last split second of Cedric's life while he failed to understand or act; the rushing sound and green flash; and finally, the inert shell that had been Cedric crumpling to earth. Harry nodded his assent as he re-lived the tragedy and braced himself to tell these two people how their son and hope for the future died.

"Mr. Potter, I know that you have had a rough go of it and that this is hard for you, but; would you please tell us how our son died? ", as the tears filled his eyes, "We can't bring our son back, but perhaps, knowing how it happened will bring us some sense of closure. You were with him. Only you can tell us how it was at the …", he trailed off as his voice failed him.

Harry took a few moments to gather his thoughts and carefully consider what to say. These people had lost everything that mattered to them when Cedric died. Harry's own temporary discomfort lost all meaning and he knew that nothing he said would make much difference, but; he had to try. Summoning his courage, he began as gently as he could, "Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, There is nothing I can say to diminish your loss. Before I tell you how your son died, I want to tell you about how he lived. Everyone here liked him. He was a fierce but fair competitor. I remember that when he won that Quidditch game against my team and found out that I only missed the snitch because the dementors had caused me to fall unconscious, he wanted to call it off. You see, that went against his sense of fair play. Even though we were rivals at quidditch and in the Triwizard Tournament, he was kind and generous and a good friend. We will all miss him.", Harry took a few moments to collect himself again.

Mrs. Diggory spoke into the silence, her voice shaking, "That was our Cedric."

Then Harry began again, determined to get through the worst of it, "Cedric did not feel a thing. I'm sure that he didn't even realize what was happening until it was over." Then Harry, remembering, outraged at the brutality and senseless waste, turned and looked Mr. Diggory in the eye as he said, "Your son was murdered by Peter Pettigrew, using the killing curse, on Voldemort's orders (the Diggorys winced as he said the name) because he was there." Harry paused, gasping, "and… and, his light went out of the world", Harry concluded, turning his gaze to his hands and whispering, "He had no business being in the graveyard."

Mr. Diggory took put his arm around his wife's shaking shoulders and hoarsely began, "Thank-you Mr. Potter. We will leave you to rest now." And he began to guide his wife out of the hospital wing.

"Mr. Diggory", Harry called after them, "There's just a bit more." Harry took a breath looking to the ceiling, then to Mr. Diggory again, "I'm not sure how it happened, but while I was duelling Voldemort, something strange happened with our wands, and the shades of the most recent people he had murdered came out of his wand. I saw Cedric again and his last request was that I take his body back to you. His last act was to keep Voldemort busy so that I could escape. To the very end and even beyond, he was thinking of you and was a true hero."

When he was done, the Diggorys embraced him as they all three abandoned themselves to their shared grief. Some time passed before the trio separated again. Madame Pomfrey, knowing that Harry must be exhausted started making shooing motions at Mr. Diggory behind Harry's back. Mr. and Mrs. Diggory ineffectually employed handkerchiefs attempting to mop at their tear-stained and swollen faces, while Harry used his sheets.

"Well,", began Mr. Diggory, trying to employ the stiff upper lip, "I must thank you for bringing our son's body back to us, for telling us how he met his end, but; even more so for sharing what he meant to you."

Mrs. Diggory gave Harry one more hug saying, "Take care of yourself, young Harry.", then pulling back to hold him by his shoulders, looked him in the eye, saying, "Send that monster to the place where he belongs. I have the utmost confidence in you."

Mr. Diggory extended his hand for a firm handshake with Harry, "I believe that Madame Pomfrey would like to fuss over you further, so we must be going."

Harry returned the handshake and watched as the couple left. It seemed that Mr. and Mrs. Diggory were standing a bit taller now even if they did walk more softly. With an approving nod to Harry, Dumbledore seemed to merge from the shadows of the Hospital wing, then follow the Diggorys out.

Badger's Hole, Girl'sDormitories

Susan Bones was not sleeping well since Halloween when Harry's name came out of that infernal cup. She had been fighting with her house mates for giving Harry grief and even her best friend Hannah was not talking to her as they used to. Hannah had always been by her side, even when she was fighting with her housemates for calling Harry "The Heir of Slytherin". However, this year even Hannah was cold towards her and at times, she sided with her house mates leaving Susan alone. Perhaps if she were not the niece of the head of DMLE, she would have been hounded worse. Even her class mates had been avoiding her like the plague and although this bothered Susan, she stopped worrying about it when she learned that the champions had to face dragons in the first task.

From that time on, her only concern was finding any way she could to help Harry. She was unable to help with the first task because she didn't know anything about it beforehand. For the second task, however; it was all over Hufflepuff that it involved being under water for an hour in the middle of winter and she sought out Neville Longbottom who had decided to help her in this quest. They sought out Dobby, the house elf who was loyal to Harry and suggested that his master would need Gillyweed. Some might say that this was cheating, but; strictly according to the rules, "The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the Tournament." There was nothing in there about fellow students lending a helping hand. Cedric was from her house, but he was a seventh year and could take care of himself. She was much more concerned about helping Harry survive this madness.

After the second task, she helped him to learn more hexes and jinxes by regularly placing books on defensive and offensive magic on the Golden Trio's regular table and often watched him when he would have been there with him training alongside him but damn that Ron always got in her way and opened his fat mouth to insult her.

She had often thought that someone as kind and brave as Harry Potter should have a lot more friends and that he probably would have except that Ron kept chasing them away. Weasley seemed to be jealous and possessive of Harry's friendship and had dreadful manners. She often wondered if Harry was aware of the ancient great alliance. She also wondered if Harry knew anything about the history of his family or their position in the wizarding world. Because, if he did know anything about it, he was not doing anything to live up to his heritage or renew those centuries-old commitments.

When she spoke with her auntie about it, Amelia assured her that she would look into it. Susan was quite sure that she must have done so because Ron came and apologized to her and things became more bearable.

Since Harry woke up, she visited him at every possible opportunity and they had talked for hours. Auntie had promised that she would talk to Dumbledore and try to take over his guardianship this year. Susan wished she would be able to do that and hoped for her success.

Suddenly, Susan heard someone approaching and she closed the curtains of her four-poster bed and pretended to be asleep. Asleep or not, someone pulled her curtains aside and whispered in a rather hesitating voice, "Susan, can I talk to you for a minute?"

She tried not to show her surprise at hearing Hannah sounding so nervous. "Hannah, we have been friends since we could walk and if you need to ask permission to talk to me, I would think that things are very bad between us.", she said kindly.

Hannah smiled hesitantly and said, "I wanted to apologise to you.I know now that no one would willingly enter themselves into a tournament where they can be killed. I want to apologise to Harry as well. You think he will forgive me?".

Susan smiled at her. Hannah was a kind girl who sometimes pretended to be hard but Susan knew that there was no way that she could stay angry at her so she stood up and embraced her friend, "It is alright Hannah. I think Harry will forgive you."

Hannah was relieved that her friend had forgiven her but she winced as if she remembered something and freeing herself of the embrace, she pulled something out of her pocket and set it on fire with a simple Incendio.

Susan looked at her quizzically to which she replied, "The 'Potter Stinks' badge.I feel so wretched that I chose to wear that stupid thing."

"What is the time Hannah? I bet I missed dinner' she asked her best friend. 'May be I would have to go to the kitchens to find something to eat' she murmured to herself.

"Susan, I forgot to tell you and you missed the scene in the Great Hall today since you skipped dinner, perhaps mooning over a certain emerald eyed wizard. As we were sitting for dinner, Malfoy was being a git. Chang slapped the ferret in the Great Hall at dinner when he was being obnoxious, bragging about the Dark Lord being back and how he would kill the blood traitors and said something demeaning about Cedric and how Harry caused his death when she went all muggle on him. By the time she was done with him, he was lying on the floor with his nose and jaw broken. Pity that she got a detention and Ravenclaw lost 30 points.", said Hannah pouting.

Susan said nothing but giggled at her friend's antics.

Black Townhouse, London

Sirius Black hated the house. It contained all the bad memories of his childhood and he had hoped to never set foot here ever again. This place never felt like home to him but Potter Manor had that place in his heart. His grandfather Arcturus Orion Black had built this house when they felt the need for a house in London and the family moved in here from the Black Castle and many of the members lived there year around. Arcturus Black had left the town house shortly after Sirius was born because he could not stand Wulburga Black who was as obnoxious as she was foul and she had regularly belittled Sirius and treated him horribly. If there was anyone she ever loved, it was Regulus, his brother, the perfect pure blood. She often said that Regulus should have been the heir to the Black family and Regulus had more affinity to the Black family magic and even perfectly towed the line of the pureblood agenda spewed by the blood purists and even got the stupid mark and that was the end of the relation between the two. Sirius had tried to dissuade him from joining Voldemort but he had shunted him aside.

At the end of Harry's third year, Sirius had met Moony who updated him about his family. Arcturus had died 6 years ago, a few months after Wulburga died. His aunts had all either died or left Magical Britain for the continent or for the chateau in France and the others who had married into other families were either dead or had been blasted from the family tree by Lord Orion Phineas Black, the head before Arcturus Orion Black. Charis Crouch nee Black had died even before the war and so was Callidora Longbottom nee Black who had died shortly before the first war. Cedrella Weasley nee Black had been disowned for marrying a blood traitor.

The Blacks, once a large and influential family was reduced to him and his cousins: Andromeda who had been disowned for marrying a muggle born and had a metamorphmagus daughter Nymphadora, Bellatrix who was married to Rudolphus Lastrange and was imprisoned in Azkaban with her husband and brother in law Rabbastan Lestrange for torturing the Longbottoms into insanity and Narcissa who had married to Lucius Malfoy who was the biggest bigot and coward.

Sirius was not sure if he would be able to enter his family home and had no interest in doing anything with the Black family but after escaping from Hogwarts last year, the goblins had sent him a missive courtesy of Dumbledore and he was pleasantly surprised to know that his grandfather had declared him to be his heir in his last will and the same was never changed meaning he was never disowned. He had tried to take up the mantel of Lord Black so he could arrange a trial for himself but the family magic did not settle well with him thus making him a blood heir but incapable of becoming the lord and by rights the lordship would have passed from him to the next heir in line i.e. either Nymphadora or Draco if he had no heir but luckily, he had an heir in place. His Godson, Harry Potter, the son of his brother James. Charlus Potter and great aunt Dorea were more like parents to him than Cygnus or Wulburga ever were.

When Harry Potter had returned to Hogwarts at the end of the third task, Dumbledore had interrogated Wormtail personally and having confirmed that Voldemort was back, had reconvened the vaunted Order of the Phoenix. He sent out the call to all the old members and those who were alive and able had returned to the call but they were so were hardly 20 who answered the call. Good men who should have lived for long and change the world had fallen to that monster and his blood thirsty followers. Peter also told of his treachery in detail telling of all the times he snitched on the lives of Order members. He told of his role in the murder of the Bones, the Prewetts, the McKinnons and many other order members who were fighting on the side of light. Many of these were protected in many ways including wards and Wormtail told the death eaters of their location, the wards and every other little detail that could be helpful.

Sirius was misty eyed remembering all those brothers in arms who had fallen in the last war. The Prewetts were all gone. Lord and Lady Prewett had died before the war had escalated and Molly had been married to Arthur and with a child. The Prewett Twins, Fabian and Gideon, demons with a wand and never bested in an honest duel were killed in an ambush involving 10 death eaters of whom only 4 walked away from the duel but not before getting seriously injured. The twins were killed when Dolohov had cast his signature curse while their backs were turned.

Then there were Edgar and Ellie Bones who were killed by Voldemort himself to deter Amelia Bones, a senior Auror, from taking a hard-line approach against him but not before Edgar dueled with him to a standstill and was bested when Bellatrix had Ellie at wand point forcing Edgar to forfeit and consequently they both were killed. It was luck that Susan was at Amelia's place for the day or she would have died along with them.

The McKinnon's were also gone. The rumour was that the best fighters of Voldemort's inner circle had killed them but Sirius never found what had happened to them. He missed them and especially Marlene, his intended after he had promised her that he would marry her. She had been the calm in his chaos and the one whom he listened to. He never found her body or those of her family. By the time that Sirius arrived there, their manor was burnt to the ground and everyone was thought dead. Even their elves had valiantly died protecting them from the death eaters.

There was Dorcas Meadows, the only order member apart from the Bones and the Potters to have been personally murdered by Voldemort and they never found his body. The Ancient and Most Noble House of Sayre was all but gone with Lady Sayre escaping by the breadth of a hair who then left Avalon to settle in France away from the war and never deigned to return even after Voldemort was gone. Benjy Fenwick was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he happened to come across a death eater raid and they killed him for trying to oppose them. It took 3 of them to take him down.

Lastly there were Frank and Alice Longbottom who were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix, the Lestrange brothers and Bartemius Crouch Junior who were sentenced to Azkaban for their crimes. Frank and Alice never recovered because there was no known cure for their condition, not in all of wizarding Britain.

Many other Ancient and Most Noble houses had lost their heirs or scions in the war from the side of light. Most of them had been his friends in Gryffindor house and companion pranksters especially the Prewett twins. There was a sort of rivalry between the Prewetts and the Marauders and often they pranked the whole school together or while trying to beat each other.

So it was that when Dumbledore asked him if there was a place they could use as the Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix that Sirius willingly offered him Number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Now he was approaching it with the purpose of assessing if the house was fit to be used by the order. Reminiscing about the past, Sirius approached Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place and knocked the serpentine door knocker with his wand. After a few seconds the door opened and Sirius was overwhelmed with the stench of rot and neglect. The walls already gloomy had turned downright foreboding and the dust looked like it had not been removed in chandeliers were filled with cobwebs and everywhere he could see, there was an infestation of some kind of creature like doxies, spiders etc.

As he crossed the threshold, there was a loud crack and an elf appeared before him. The elf was very old, stooping, his shoulders hunched and he said in a low hissing voice, "You not welcome here, nasty master. Mudblood lover, blood traitor, broke my poor mistress's will Mistress say?"

Sirius knew of this elf who had never served him happily but always doted over his brother and worshipped the ground that Wulburga walked on. He should have been angry with this thing before him but he felt pity. He shuddered to imagine having an existence where no one talked to you and you lived only with memories. He had lived the same life for 12 years.

Kindly, he said to the elf, "How are you, Kreacher? I did not think I would find you here. If I did, I would have called you much sooner."

Kreacher was surprised at this was not used to kindness from Sirius and thus it thawed him a bit, but; not enough to let go of his rudeness, so, he did not answer.

Sirius started again, "Kreacher, I do not wish to have you against me. I am the only one left now and so are you. I want to restore the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black to its former glory. Will you help me with that?"

The elf was too surprised to say anything and overwhelmed with emotions so could only nod.

Sirius took that as a positive sign and ordered him to cook something for him to eat while he walked through the house. When he walked by a curtained off portrait in the front hall, the drapes flew aside revealing a life-sized portrait of his dear departed mother in her full glory. She screamed obscenities at him calling him blood traitor, shame of her flesh, wretched ingrate among other things. Sirius had no patience for this abuse when she was alive and much less from her portrait. With a red flash from his wand, the curtains slammed shut, cutting her off mid-word. In the blessed silence that followed, he summoned Kreacher who appeared with a crack.

"Kreacher, who put this portrait here?", he asked in the mildest tone he could manage so as not to offend the demented elf.

"That be Kreacher, Master. Mistress telling Kreacher to put it here so no can enter.", said Kreacher wriggling his hands.

"Kreacher, if that portrait is here and yells profanities at everyone who comes through that door, it will give a bad name to the House of Black. Do you want the name of Black to be dragged through the mud?", he asked playing upon his sentiments for the House of Black.

"No master", he said shaking his head firmly.

"Kreacher, I want you to take down this portrait and take her to the attic where you can keep it and look after it. And why is the house so dirty, Kreacher? You have not been doing your duty to the House of have disgraced the House of Black and your ancestors whose heads have been proudly mounted upon that wall", he said further goading the elf into shame.

Kreacher straightened and looking upon Sirius, said firmly, "Kreacher cleans the house Master. Yous be not worry."

Ordering him to clean his old bedroom first, Sirius approached a room he had never set a foot in. The room belonging to his brother, Regulus which was well kept and tidy without a trace of dirt. Perhaps Kreacher kept this room clean due to his attachment to him. There were photos of Regulus on the one of those walls, there was a photo of his Quidditch team where Regulus was laughing at the camera, looking innocent and carefree.

Seeing Regulus and his friend in the photo, he remembered that not only the light but the dark also had lost a number of their men in the war. His own brother was killed and he did not know who had killed him. House of Rosier ended when Evan Rosier was killed by Alastor Moody in a fight after Voldemort fell. The Notts had lost three of their sons including their heir.

The House of Crouch was all but finished with Barty Crouch Junior being in DMLE custody. Amelia Bones had plans to chuck him straight through the veil right after she finished squeezing the last useful drop of information out of him. That woman had an eternal grudge against death eaters.

The Wilkins had lost their son at the hands of Mad-Eye. The patriarch was killed duelling Sirius and James when the death eaters attempted to ambush Sirius and James on their way home from a muggle bar.

There were countless other faces who had died in service of Voldemort, some of them as examples when they failed to complete their missions, others when they attempted to leave his ranks. Such a waste of life and magical blood bringing the already dwindling wizarding population to a new low.

He never found out what had happened to Regulus but he thought may be Kreacher knew something about him, he summoned the elf. Kreacher tried to deny knowing anything, but; when Sirius made it a direct order, Kreacher started bawling. Crying he told Sirius about an underground lake, where The Dark Lord had hidden a locket and used Kreacher to test the defenses. Kreacher told Regulus of this, and asked Kreacher to take him to the lake where Regulus drank the elixir of nightmares and told Kreacher to take the locket which he had changed with a fake one and told him to destroy the original.

Sirius was shocked beyond belief with the courage his brother had shown.

His brother had defied Voldemort to the end. He collected a crying Kreacher into his arms patting the back of the still inconsolable elf, "Kreacher, I want to finish his work. Will you help me?".

Kreacher nodded and popped away and returned a moment later clutching a heavy locket in his hand which reeked of dark magic so much that Sirius was repulsed by it. He took the locket and looked upon elaborately carved S on it crusted with jewels. The locket looked very regal and reminded him of something he remembered seeing in a book once. A picture of the famed necklace of Slytherin.

Instantly conjuring a sack and securing the locket in it, he ran out of the house giving instructions to Kreacher to start cleaning. As he was out of the door, he disappeared into thin air.

Hogwarts

He appeared a little way outside of the Hogwarts gates and changing into Padfoot he bounded towards the gates and ran all the way upto the Headmaster's office and changing back, giving the password to the Gargoyle (Mars bar), he ascended the staircase and barged into the room where Dumbledore was in discussion with Harsh Vardhana.

"Sirius, is something the matter?I thought you would be busy for at least a week making the house habitable.", Dumbledore asked him, surprised.

Sirius related the whole tale of Voldemort to him along with how Regulus had died to ensure that Voldemort dies. As Albus asked him, he brought the locket out of his robes and put it on the table, Harsh Vardhana leaped back as if repulsed by it while Albus peered curiously at the locket and cast several detection spells while incanting under his breath and the locket glowed a nasty shade of red. He raised his head, his expression grave and looked towards Harsh Vardhana as if waiting for his opinion.

Harsh Vardhana sighed, "Sorry about my reaction. Such abominations always repulse me. It is such a sacrilege against Mother Magic that one cannot even fathom but only those evil of heart."

"What abomination? I confess that I feel this thing is truly evil, but; please enlighten me, what is it?", asked Sirius confused.

"Tell me mister Black, have you ever heard of 'Horcrux'?", began Harsh Vardhana.

Sirius answered, not realizing that Harsh wasn't finished, "Of course, I know what a horcrux is. I am a Black, the darkest family in Wizarding Britain. These things are described in a lot of books kept in the Black library. How do you know of them?"

Harsh Vardhana smiled softly, "only you British wizards classify magic. It is not evil or light, Mr. Black. It is simply that. What makes it evil or good is the purpose for which it is used. We know of Horcruxes and many other sinister things perhaps not described in your books."

Harsh Vardhana turned his gaze and looked curiously at the locket, staring at it with longing and anger, "What a waste of such precious artifact. Salazar would be rolling in his grave knowing what has become of his precious possession. He was quite proud of this locket and its powers.".

"You speak his name as if you were acquainted with him", said Sirius.

"As a matter of fact, I did but that is tale of another. What will you do with it, Dumbledore?", he asked turning towards Dumbledore.

"I plan to destroy it with Basilisk venom, like young Harry destroyed his diary."

"Basilisk? Did you say Basilisk, Dumbledore?And what diary are we talking about and what Harry had to do with it?", squeaked Sirius.

"The Basilisk young Harry killed when the Chamber of Secrets was opened", said Dumbledore and then proceeded to recount the tale of second year telling them how Harry had discovered he was a parseltongue, how he had found the chamber, killed the basilisk and saved Ginevra Weasley.

By the time he was done, Sirius's face was ashen while Harsh Vardhana looked intrigued by the tale.

"This means it is second of the five horcruxes he had made when we captured him.I wish we could have asked him for the location of the others but we could not find it', Harsh said frowning.

"What do you mean capture?And if you had captured Voldemort, why did you release him?", retorted Sirius angrily.

"Calm down Mr. Black. We do not keep prisoners, so we had no means to keep him subdued with, his fate has been so written that he would never fall to my wand. We had to release him before the future was altered", he explained.

Dumbledore decided to interrupt before Sirius could explode further, "What do you propose we do with this?We can destroy it with fiendfyre or with basilisk venom.".

"We do not resort to such crude methods, Albus my boy. If you had viewed the world in a larger perspective and treated magic as a sentient being, you would not have suggested this way. Do you know there is a way that we can pull the soul fragment out without destroying the locket?", he reprimanded Albus and Sirius snorted seeing the head master being berated.

Albus's interest was piqued. He could think of a lot of possibilities with such knowledge; however, the mystic spoke before he could interrupt as if he read his mind, "No, Albus we are not teaching it to you. It is our own magic not meant to be imparted to everyone and even among ourselves we do not teach it to everyone but those who prove themselves worthy."

Albus pouted at this which Sirius found a little hilarious but he had more work to do.

"Albus, I have seen the house and there is no way that I can clean it by myself. And no one can clean it without magic. The wardstones of the property are inactive and they need blood of the Lord of Black to recharge them.I cannot wield the family magic enough to recharge them. Harry will need to take up the mantel and do it before we decide to make it headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. I need an elf. Kreacher is very old and can use help.".

"There is an elf who can help you with this but I fear you will need to talk to Harry Potter for this elf is fiercely devoted to Harry Potter and claims to be currently free, but; I think he is secretly bonded to Harry. I propose that we all shall go to Harry and ask him if he would summon the elf, then we would know.", said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.

"Since I have nothing more to do, let's go find Harry Potter', announced Sirius.

Great Hall

Madame Pomfrey ran out of excuses to keep her patient in the hospital wing. With Harry's strength rapidly returning, even she had to admit that it would be good for him to get out and get some exercise. Besides, with all the visitors, it was starting to look more like Kings Cross Station than an infirmary. So it was that after giving Harry the strictest orders not to overdo it, that she released him.

Harry Potter was sitting in the Great Hall at the Gryffindor table eating his lunch and his friends were sitting around him. Ron was sitting on one side while Neville flanked the other. Hermione was sitting across from him while the Weasley twins were sitting flanking her on both sides. Ginny sat a few spaces further away from Harry and did not even try to steal any glances at him like she used to do. While Harry was used to them, her complete detachment was bothering him more. He had not seen her since he woke up in the infirmary and when asked Hermione had solemnly recounted Ginny's realization and her decision to stay away from Harry. There were only two days left in the term before they would all be going home for the summer holidays and Harry was elated that he would not be going to the Dursley's anymore.

Susan was sitting at the Hufflepuff table looking at him when she thought he was not looking. She had been coming to talk to him very often and he found it very strange but pleasant. The girl from Slytherin was sitting at her table with an impervious expression on her face while an auburn-haired girl sitting beside her was talking to her animatedly. Hagrid was sitting at the staff table and there was Professor Moody looking very haggard and tired, smelling a chicken before starting to eat it, however his hip flask was missing. Sirius had filled him in on how Moody had been imprisoned in his own trunk by an impostor who was a death eater in disguise. Professor McGonagall was sitting beside him looking at him unapprovingly while her lips were pursed into a thin line and Snape was sitting in his place with a boorish expression on his face and the trademark sneer in place. Seeing Snape, he remembered the message his mother had given for him and decided to go to him later in the day.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turning back, he found the trainee healer (he could not understand the mystic business) who was smiling at him and Dumbledore who motioned him to follow them out of the Great Hall to a room on the other side of the castle (which he had never seen) which was quite a way apart from the Dungeons. Perhaps this place was not even marked on the Marauder's. Albus went to a door with the Hogwarts crest, which melted at Dumbledore's touch and Harry followed the two men inside. Before the door could close, Snape and McGonagall came in with Padfoot who started jumping up and down trying to lick Harry who had to force himself not to laugh while he kept trying to keep Padfoot down. Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly, Padfoot turned into Sirius.

From Dumbledore's grave expression, Harry guessed that they were going to discuss serious (no pun intended) business. He started saying somberly, "Harry, it is time that I answer a question you had asked me in your first year that why Voldemort came after you. Shortly before you were born, a prophecy was made by Sybill Trelawney while I was interviewing her for the subject of Divination at the Hog's Head inn in Hogsmead. The prophecy was about a boy who will have the power to defeat Lord Voldemort and a spy of his was present in the Hog's head who heard the first half of the prophecy before he was caught spying and was thrown out of the inn. The spy hastened to inform him of the part he had was about a boy being born at the end of July who would possess power to defeat the dark lord. The prophecy also said a few more things which we will discuss …", Dumbledore was interrupted before he could continue.

"You think the brat can defeat him? He is nothing but a mediocre wizard, Dumbledore.", said Snape, sneering.

"It is my godson who has faced the monster 4 times and lived to tell the tale, Snivellus. So, you can shut your festering gob and avoid spitting all over the floor", snapped Sirius.

Before Snape could reply, Harry snapped, "Will you both please keep quiet? I can't stand listening to the two of you bickering like school children. Sirius, you have tormented him as much as he tormented you and Professor, you have never treated me fairly, thinking that I am just like my father."

Dumbledore chuckled at Harry chastising both of the men and continued, "From the information that Voldemort received from his spy, he decided to kill all the children to be born in the seventh month that year or the next year but he made this decision without knowing other important factors. From the information he had, he deduced that either of two children would fit the prophecy. Both had parents in the Order and were born at the end of the seventh month, you and Neville Longbottom. He chose you to be the child from the prophecy."

Harry's mind was reeling. There was was so much he did not understand, but; what he knew for certain was that he was the one who would have to kill Voldemort. This was the reason that his parents had gone into hiding. This was the reason that he was an orphan. He felt like the weight of the world was upon his shoulder. Sirius hugged him tightly and kept whispering encouraging words into his ear.

Harry croaked, "But, how can I defeat him?I have four years of magical education, but; he is more powerful and he has more experience than me.".

Harsh Vardhana who had been quiet all this while began to speak, "While it is true that your experience and knowledge is limited but your courage, valour and power is unfathomable and more than a match to him. You are already as powerful as Voldemort or Dumbledore and with the training that we would give you, you would be able to tilt the balance in your favour."

Harry was not satisfied but felt reassured by his words.

He turned towards Sirius, "But, if I go with him then I will not be able to come with you."

"Harry, you are only going away with him for a month or so. Besides, once we get rid of Voldemort, we will have a long life to be together. I want you to train hard with him and learn everything that you can", Sirius said.

"Do you have a place for us to live?", Harry asked eagerly.

Sirius smiled at him and said, "The Black family has many properties all over the world and we can live anywhere we want once this is all over."

"Professor, how are we going to India?", he asked the Headmaster.

Harsh Vardhana answered the question, "I want this to remain a surprise but you will like it, I promise.".

Dumbledore ushered Severus and Minerva out of the room while Sirius adopted a more solemn demeanour (if that was possible).

Once the others were out of the room, Dumbledore began, "Now Harry, there is something more that we have to tell you. You can tell your friends about it but I would advise you to very carefully consider who you decide to tell this secret. He did not die that night because he had several fail-safes in place which helped him to stay on this astral split his soul into many pieces hiding them in things which he hid away from everyone. Those things are called Horcruxes (Harry felt himself shivering on hearing the word) which keep a wizard alive."

"How do you split your soul?", asked Harry confused with the concept.

"By the act of supreme evil, murder.", he replied with no trace of joviality in his voice.

Harry shuddered at the thought and so did Sirius however Harsh Vardhana was impassive.

Dumbledore looked at him before continuing, "I had suspected that Voldemort had created them but it was finally confirmed when you brought me the proof."

"What proof?", he asked.

"The Diary of Tom Riddle which you brought to me when you had slain the basilisk. You described to me how he had come out of the diary, I was stumped at such a phenomenon and after a lot of research I came to the conclusion that he had created horcruxes. The theory was confirmed by Mr. Harsh Vardhana. He learned this when he captured and interrogated Tom Riddle, the self-styled Voldemort 30 years ago".

Harry looked at the mystic in awe. Anyone who capable of such a feat was a hero to him.

"When he came for you that night", Albus continued, "his soul was already fragile and when the killing curse hit him, a part of his soul tore off from the remaining portion and latched itself to the only living being in the room, you.", Dumbledore announced to the shock and dismay of Harry and Sirius.

"You mean I am keeping him alive?How do we get it out?Can we do it here?When can we get it out?", Harry spewed a lot of questions.

Dumbledore stopped the stream of questions with a silencing spell, then continued, "I discovered that you were a horcrux when you were brought to the hospital wing
after the dementor attack in your third year. I tried to exorcise it out of you after I fed you draught of living death, but; I found it to be latched too deeply to you and sucking on your magic thus hindering your growth and your magical energy. The exorcising process was too painful and you almost died so I did not try it again and you were enervated before the morning.I have been trying for the past year to find a way to exorcise it out of you without hurting you but could not find anyway. There was always the last resort of killing you."

Sirius interrupted, leaping to his feet, wand in hand, "are you out of your mind!? What makes you think that I would let you hurt Harry?"

"It would not have come to that Mr. Black. We had been keeping an eye on Harry Potter all this while and we were waiting for the right time to approach Dumbledore and offer our services to exorcise the foul thing out of here. However as it turns out we did not need that anymore", said Harsh Vardhana.

"If you know how to exorcise the damn thing, why haven't you already done it?", asked Sirius hotly.

"We did not do that because the process would have caused him extra ordinary pain and despite his pain threshold being very high, he would have been magically exhausted and his magic would have been unstable. Since he was in the tournament and constantly training, doing so would have put him in danger because without his magic being settled, he could not participate in the third task, thus forfeiting his life and magic.", he replied, "but we do not need to that anymore as when he was hit with the killing curse in the graveyard, it killed the soul fragment in his scar and he is free of any contamination. It was due to killing of the horcrux in the scar that he had his magical maturity earlier."

Harry was relieved beyond words but something Dumbledore had said was on his mind, "Professor, if we have killed the fragment in me, does it mean he can be killed now?"

"No, he had several horcruxes made and 7 being the magical number, I think he has made 7 of them however I will have to see someone to confirm my theory. As it goes, the Diary was destroyed by you, the one in you was killed by him, we have the locket of Slytherin and I think it would be prudent to assume that there are four Horcruxes remaining", Dumbledore replied.

"Now Harry, we have another little request for for you. Sirius needs a house elf and I suggested one for him.I was thinking if you could summon him?", said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling again.

"You mean Dobby", said Harry grinning.

"Did Harry Potter call for Dobby? How Dobby be serving the great Harry Potter?", squeaked the elf who appeared with a loud crack and hugged Harry's leg. Sirius snorted at the elf's antics and Dumbledore chuckled while Harsh Vardhana tried not to laugh.

"Uh, Dobby, I will need my leg thank you.I wanted to ask if you would like to serve my Godfather", asked Harry gently extricating his leg from the elf.

Dobby wriggled his hands and said rather hesitantly, "Dobby be honoured the great Harry Potter ask to help, but Dobby is be already bonded."

"That's great Dobby. Who are you bonded to?", asked Harry interested.

"I be bonded to the Great Harry Potter.", said Dobby nervously.

"Uh, Dobby, why did you do that? I thought you like being free. Not that I'm complaining." said Harry.

"Wes be lose our magic if not serve a magics strengthen our bond.", the elf replied.

"It's alright Dobby. I am honoured by your service. Do you know of another elf who can help me?", Harry asked while shocked that unwittingly he had almost caused Dobby to die.

"Winky not having a family is dying, great Harry Potter's dogfather (Sirius snorted) can bind her to his family", the elf replied enthusiastically.

Dumbledore summoned Winky and Sirius bonded her to house of Black then called Kreacher to take her to Grimmauld place and have her help in cleaning the house. Dobby decided to stay with Harry till he left Hogwarts since he had no wand (the wand he won from Wormtail was in the custody of the DMLE) and a house elf could use magic to defend their master as Dobby had once defended him from Lucius Malfoy.

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