A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thank you to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter sixty-eight and be on the lookout for sixty-nine soon!
Rabastan came to Grimmauld Place after breakfast on a Saturday, with plans to take her to Gringotts to visit his family's vault. Hermione had been excited to have a mission of sorts, when Regulus, Rabastan and her had planned it out.
But now, standing in front of her father dressed in a set of her finest robes, selected by Kreacher, she could feel nothing but anxiety hammering away in her heart. Orion pressed his hands to her shoulders and gave her an affectionate kiss to her forehead — far more demonstrative in his care for her than he ever had been — and told her how proud Walburga would be of her.
"You are everything that she longed for," he told her, his grey eyes liquid with melancholy. "She would be so pleased to see the woman you became."
Hermione felt the lump in her throat, unaware how much she'd wanted to hear the sentiment. "I don't think she would have fancied the thought of me poking around dangerous places, looking for horcruxes," she said. "Maybe... maybe I should stay home."
Coward. She was a bloody coward.
Orion smirked at her. "Perhaps," he agreed with her for a moment. "But Walburga absolutely hated Tom Riddle more than anyone, so I think she'd love the idea of you removing any horrible part of him that was stashed away in a good pureblood vault."
"Rabastan will be with you every step of the way or his life will be forfeit," Regulus promised, though his warning was more to his friend than to reassure her. "And Sirius is stationed in Diagon Alley should anything go truly wrong."
Hermione took a deep breath and knew that there was no point in putting it off any further. It wasn't as if Voldemort himself would be down in the vault. And, this was what she wanted, wasn't it? To be useful — to help Harry.
"I suppose we should get going then," Hermione said, looking to Rabastan.
Her betrothed nodded and wished the Black wizards well, promising to see them again soon, before he whisked her off through the Floo and directly to the wizarding bank. She was surprised to see the change that came over him as he strode up to the desk to demand entry to his vault. He looked dispassionate — bored almost — but almost daring the goblins not to comply. This was a tiny glimpse of the public persona of the heir of the House Lestrange.
A shiver raced up her spine when she realized what it did to her, surprisingly intoxicating to be on the arm of such a powerful wizard.
Their ride down to the lowest levels of the bank was surprisingly humbling. They clambered into a little, dirty cart that traveled along a confusing path of track, taking them through an enchanted waterfall. Rabastan subtly dried her clothes and hair, while whispering an explanation that it was meant to destroy enchantments.
Before she could blink, they were coming to a screeching halt in front of the Lestrange vault and Rabastan helped her out, before he and the goblin opened the door to the vault. Rabastan sneered at the creature, who stepped away once it was open, waiting for them in the cart.
"There are enchantments in here to prevent anyone who isn't a Lestrange from taking anything," he said, his voice low in the large room. "I'm not sure if that extends to someone who is formally betrothed, so it's probably best if you don't touch anything."
Hermione did not have to be told. She was too in awe of all the riches that his vault held. She couldn't believe that the Lestranges could be quite so wealthy. "You'll have to explain the curse to me later," she murmured, the oppressive warning of dark magic palpable. "I can sense it."
"What are we looking for?" he asked, not sure what would be hidden there, if a horcrux was hidden.
"I'm not sure," she answered honestly. "Just something that... doesn't belong."
Rabastan nodded and started off in one direction, poking through piles that hadn't been disturbed in a long time. It was unclear how well Rodolphus would have bothered to hide his object considering the limited number of people who could access the vault.
Hermione closed her eyes, letting her magic spread out and feel the magic in the vault. There was no mistaking the Lestrange magic, at this point familiar to her from her time with Rabastan, though she couldn't really explain how she knew. She wandered, letting her feet guide her wherever they would.
After a few minutes, she acclimated to the dark curses that blanketed many of the items, the feeling growing more tolerable as time went on. Still, she walked, trying to find something that didn't fit. Suddenly, she felt snagged by something that was distinctly more odious than anything else in the vault. Her eyes flew open and she gasped when she figured out what it was.
There, on a pile of treasure, was a golden cup, balanced precariously. "Rabastan," she called her betrothed to her side. Raising her hand, she pointed at the object. "There."
He was at her side in a heartbeat, looking up at the cursed object with some interest. It wasn't easy to get to, but he climbed up on an old dining set and was able to grab it. It didn't look particularly important, just a small golden up with two handles on either side, but she could already tell by the way that Rabastan held it at arm's length that there was something not right about it.
"This is dark magic," Rabastan said, grimly. "I can hear it festering away in my brain, whispering to me."
"Let's take it and leave then," Hermione said, hoping that her father would have some ideas about how to contain it. She didn't like the thought of it talking to Rabastan — or anyone for that matter.
Her betrothed agreed and he slipped it into the pocket of his robes, before grabbing some galleons in a pouch and a brilliant set of diamond earrings for her, so that the goblin would not find it odd that they left empty handed.
When he saw the glittering new jewelry in her ears, the goblin gave her a simpering smile. "Congratulations on your betrothal," he said, in a way that made it clear that he was not really happy at all.
They returned to the surface and then took the floo back to Grimmauld Place where Regulus and Orion were waiting for them. Hermione shuffled everyone into Orion's office, where Rabastan placed the cup down on the desk, looking like it had burned him.
"It was very foolish of you to just grab it," Orion scolded him. "If you'd seen Dumbledore's arm, you would have thought twice about the horrid enchantments he might have placed on it."
Rabastan shook his head. "He would have had to tell Rodolphus was he was hiding then," he said, sounding more confident then he looked.
"What is it?" Regulus asked, waving his wand over the cup, performing different detection spells.
"It's definitely a horcrux," Orion said, before performing his own set of detection charms on the object. "It oozes with dark magic."
Hermione bit her lower lip while she looked it over. Now that she had a bit more time, she realized that it was not as simple as it had once appeared. On one side, there was an image in the gold — a familiar badger. She hadn't gone to Hogwarts for seven years simply to forget what that crest meant.
"That's the crest of Hufflepuff," she said, astutely, drawing their attention to it. "But why would Voldemort want to put part of his soul into a Hufflepuff object."
"Maybe he was going for something simple, innocuous? Maybe he thought that if he hid this at Hogwarts, anyone who found it would assume it was just an old drinking cup, no longer in rotation," Regulus said, looking at it.
Her father made a noise of disbelief. "Not Tom," he said, assuredly. "He was always arrogant, even as a teenager. There is no way that he would hide part of his soul in something so simple. He always had bigger plans."
Again, Hermione wondered about what it would have been like to be at school with Tom Riddle. He would have been just a few years older than her father. "He certainly thinks extremely highly of himself," she agreed, thinking it over. "What if... what if this wasn't a simple cup? What if it belonged to Hufflepuff herself?"
"That would certainly be grand enough for him," Regulus said, derisively. "Imagine, tying your soul to history itself. Very auspicious."
When this sparked a thought, she left the three wizards alone in Orion's office before making a beeline into the library. Searching around on the shelves, she looked for a book that she knew they must still have. It had been so captivating to her when she had stayed at Grimmauld Place when she had just been Hermione Granger, before she had been sent to the past. It included glossy pictures, descriptions and sketches of famous artifacts, almost as a coffee table book.
It took her a moment, but she found it stuffed into a shelf at the end of a bookcase and grabbed it out, returning to the office. She paged through the book, until she found the entry for a Cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff. "Here it is," she said, feeling triumphant. "Apparently, it should be in the possession of Hepzibah Smith, if this is up to date."
"I wonder if he would have tried to get any other Founder's belongings to make into horcruxes," Rabastan mused, looking over her shoulder. "What other missing artifacts are there in that book? Something belonging to Slytherin, perhaps?"
"Or, Gryffindor had a sword, right?" Regulus mentioned. "Binns always talked about that in History of Magic."
Hermione waved them off. "It couldn't be the sword. For one, I don't think that Voldemort would deign to put a piece of himself in something of Gryffindor's, but Harry used the sword of Gryffindor to destroy the basilisk that was living in the Chamber of Secrets. Surely someone would have noticed if it was a horcrux. It can present itself to any worthy Gryffindor."
"Not exactly secure," Regulus mused. "I wonder if Sirius ever saw it."
"Saw what?" asked the aforementioned wizard.
"The Sword of Gryffindor. Apparently if you are worthy, it will appear for you," Regulus answered with a teasing smirk.
"Can't say that it has," Sirius answered, sounding amused. "At least we Gryffindors have something that proves we belong in the house. Unlike Slytherin."
Hermione ignored their brotherly banter and continued flipping through the book, looking for — she wasn't entirely sure what. Just something that sparked any recognition in her. If anything, she would at least gain more familiarity with important, missing artifacts.
"Why is Hermione wiping through an art book?" Sirius asked. "Hoping to find out more about the horcrux?"
Orion explained to his eldest about finding Hufflepuff's Cup and showed him the cursed object sitting on the desk. Sirius thought that their thought process about him using other Founder's objects made sense, too.
"Hey, wait!" Sirius said, after a moment. "Go back to that one."
Hermione turned the page back and found herself looking at the Diadem of Ravenclaw. It didn't have a picture, as it had been missing for centuries, but there was apparently a sketch that had a faithful recreation of the original thing. "Yes?" she asked, looking at Sirius pointedly.
He ran his hands through his dark, wavy hair. "I think I've seen that before...somewhere," he said, closing his eyes tightly as if he could see it now.
"Impossible," Regulus said with a snort. "That's the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw. Emphasis on Lost."
"No," Sirius countered, his finger running over the shape of the tiara as presented in the drawing. "I'm — I'm sure I've seen that before. Maybe at someone's house during a raid? Or, no — at Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Rabastan asked, sounding unsure.
"Yes, there is a room... full of forgotten things on the seventh floor. Sometimes I'd bring witches there to — well, anyway, I'm sure that's where I've seen that. Godric, I put it on Marlene once! We thought it was just a bit of costume jewelry."
Hermione spun to face her father. "Is it possible?" she wondered, her heart pounding out of her chest. She knew exactly what room Sirius meant... the Room of Requirement.
Orion looked grave and nodded. "We did say he might have hidden something there, tucked it away," he said, sighing deeply. "I think that it's time that we talked to Dumbledore...again. This is too important to let his biases get in the way."
"If he won't let us, I can just sneak into Hogwarts as Padfoot," Sirius said, sounding confident.
Hermione gave her family a grim smile. "Or maybe... we do it at the same time," she suggested, knowing that it would certainly take creative measures to get into Hogwarts a second time.