Chapter Fifty Four
They huddled in the centre of the room while Neville filled them in on everything they'd missed, as well as much laughing and hugging going on, especially between Harry, Hermione, Draco, Pansy and Neville. Harry knew everyone else in the room was staring at him and tried his best to ignore it.
"Where's Daphne?" Hermione asked, looking around.
"Daphne is still under cover out there." Neville sighed, "She's managed to keep them off her back, for the most part at least."
Harry nodded along, spotting Cho in the corner of the room, next to a very pink hammock. He walked quickly over to her and took her hands in his.
"Your hair has grown." Cho said softly, running her fingers through it.
Harry grinned, suddenly unable to keep the smile off his face, despite of the impending doom, "So has yours."
Cho laughed and nodded, "You should have seen it all prettied up by the centaurs, all woven with flowers and the most amazing lace that they make."
"I'd have liked to seen it." Harry said, imagining the bright whites against her shining dark hair, "Next time."
Harry let go of Cho's hand, feeling slightly awkward at the intimacy of it while everyone was staring at him.
He turned to face the crowds and cleared his throat, which didn't cut through the low hum of people chatting to one another.
"SHUT IT!" Thomas yelled, bringing silence to the room.
"Thank you." Harry said, dramatically rubbing his ear, "Let me just stop the ringing in my ear…"
A laugh swept easily around the room.
"So… thank you." Harry said, more seriously, "There is a lot I have to say thank you for; thank you for training yourselves, thank you for sticking together during what must have been… one of the worst years this school has ever seen. Thank you for trusting me, not demanding answers but giving me, giving us, time. Hermione, Draco and I have spent the last year-ish on a secret mission of sorts. We couldn't risk it getting back to You-know-who, that's why we didn't tell anyone but basically he used Dark Magic, very, very Dark Magic to split his soul, this allowed himself to become practically immortal."
Gasps and cries of fear echoed around the room, as Harry knew that they would. These people had a right to know though, besides it would be a lot easier to find what was hopefully the last missing object with their help. Between the fifty or more people currently in the room they must have been over every inch of Hogwarts.
Harry raised his hand to bring silence back to the room, "We've been destroying them, because once they are all gone he will be able to be killed, just like any other man."
"Please tell me you're here because you've gotten them all." a very worried Ron asked, "Because this will be a battle we can actually win."
"Nearly." Hermione said, forcing herself not to wrap her arms around herself protectively, "There are two, maybe three, more that we need. One is You-know-who's snake, Nagini. She'll be out of reach until the final battle anyway so just ignore her for now."
Lily felt a few pieces of the puzzle click into place for her, "I think I have something for you." she said quickly.
Harry watched as Lily walked over to her hammock and pulled a hat box from under her pillow.
"Dobby got this to me, from Narcissa, saying it must get to you as soon as possible." Lily explained, handing over the box.
Harry took it with slightly shaking hands. Hermione stood next to him, Slytherin's scram sax raised ready and waiting in her hand, they didn't want a repeat of the locket playing with their minds.
He unwrapped Hufflepuff's cup from the box and let out a sigh of relief, "This is it, number four."
Hermione didn't wait, plunging the scram sax into the metal, that crumpled at its touch, letting out a pained cry.
"This one didn't try and defend itself." Draco mused, "We were right about them having less and less of his soul in as he made them."
"And it makes sense, he made the locket first, he felt a connection to it, it was part of his heritage." Harry nodded.
The three of them became suddenly aware of the shocked faces watching them with wide eyes.
Harry let out a slightly awkward laugh and ran a hand through his hair, "So yeah… that's been our year." he gave them a little bow.
"You just have to stab them?" Dirk asked.
"No." Hermione said, "Strong magic like this needs equally strong magic to destroy it. The scram sax only works as it's goblin made, meaning that when Pansy killed the Basilisk in our second year it infused with the blade with the venom. It's the Basilisk venom that can destroy these things."
"We have just one more now, apart from Nagini." Harry said, "And we need your help as we're not even sure what it is. We're sure it'll be something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's but we don't know what. It'll also be something in the school."
Hermione and Draco exchanged a doubtful look, they still weren't so convinced the fifth Horcrux was at Hogwarts, however they trusted Harry, and he was convinced and had been since the beginning, so it was worth a try.
"Think about anything that has been missing for a while, stories passed through your houses… anything like that?" Harry asked.
Luna raised her hand slowly, "There's the lost diadem of Rowenna Ravenclaw. Daddy is trying to recreate it."
"If it's lost it can't be what we're looking for can it?" a younger Gryffindor boy sneered, Luna ignored him.
"What's a diadem?" Hermione asked.
"There's a gap in your knowledge?" Pansy laughed with mock shock.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes."
"It's an old word for a headdress." Harry shrugged, "Like an upside… an upside down tiara…" he closed his eyes, "Probably blue and bronze."
"Oh Harry…" Hermione gasped, covering her mouth, "You don't think…?"
Harry nodded, "Does anyone know what it was meant to look like?"
Cho nodded, "Of course. There's a statue of her wearing it in the Ravenclaw common room, every Ravenclaw knows what it looks like."
Harry pulled a pencil and scrap of paper from his bag and quickly drew out the 'upside down tiara' they'd seen in the Come and Go room last year, ironically while looking for books on Horcruxes.
"Did it look like this?" he asked, showing Cho and Luna the picture.
The Ravenclaws in the room nodded.
"Right… then we have a small problem." Harry said, letting out a heavy breath, "Good news is… we know exactly where the diadem is… bad news is we need to empty this room to get to it."
"Why?" Ginny asked, not relishing the idea of being back in the main body of the school again. She'd literally had to run away from the Carrows who chased her through the school until she managed to hide under the floorboards in one of the store cupboards until the heat died down and she could sneak to the Come and Go room.
"It's in the Come and Go room, but not this Come and Go room." Neville said, trying to explain the workings of the room he didn't completely understand himself, "And we can only get to the other one when this one is empty."
"Could we send you all back to the Hogshead?" Harry asked.
Neville shook his head, "Not a chance, with all these people… plus we never know when there are going to be Death Eaters in there."
"That's very true." Draco nodded, "We nearly got caught getting here."
"So we empty out." Neville shrugged, "We all knew we were going to have to sooner or later."
"Neville…" Thomas said slowly.
Neville shook his head, "Look, I know it's scary but we knew this day was coming. We all saw how quick it was for Harry to destroy that thing, the battle will be tomorrow, almost certainly. Those who can, spread the word that the big assembly will be tomorrow. Those of us who can't risk showing our faces, it's disillusionment charms or polyjuice potion time."
"You've prepared for this?" Alice said softly.
Neville nodded, "Hope for the best, plan for the worst."
Frank smiled and nodded, "We're very proud of you."
Neville grinned.
It only took a few minutes for about half the students to have left, returning to breakfast, lessons and their dorms, spreading the word about the big assembly.
The rest of the students downed polyjuice potion if they couldn't manage strong disillusionment charms and slipped from the room.
They'd arranged where to hang out, so that the teachers wouldn't see more than one of each student wondering around.
Those who could disillusion themselves did so, leaving the room as quickly as they could.
It was strange to see the door open and close to nothing but slightly moving air, sometimes totally invisible as everyone emptied out, lining up against the wall and hoping no one would come along and bump into them.
"Here Harry, this is yours." Neville said, handing the soft invisibility cloak back to Harry.
Harry ran his fingers over the fabric and smiled, "Thank you. You've looked after it well."
"It saved our necks a fair few times that's for sure." Neville laughed, "It's really good to see you."
"You too." Harry smiled, pulling him into a hug.
Harry threw on the invisibility cloak and was the last out of the Come and Go room, seeing the door melt into the wall behind him.
It felt so strange to be back at school, like he was an imposter or a ghost, walking halls that had both changed and stayed remarkably the same as they always had been. He just felt like he didn't quite belong, he wasn't a part of the school any more.
He gave the room a few minutes, it had been active a long time and really did deserve a break, before walking back and forth next to the patch of wall, asking for the room that held everything.
The door appeared exactly like he knew it would.
Harry waited until he was sure no one was coming down the corridor before reaching out and turning the heavy handle. The room overwhelmed him just as much this time as it had before.
"Oh my…" Lucius said, looking around at the never ending shelves.
"Yep." Harry said, puffing out his cheeks, "Don't look at it."
Hermione, Pansy, Neville, Cho, William, Draco and Lily had also followed them in.
"So what is it we're looking for?" Lily asked, pulling her eyes away from the shelves and back to her son, taking his advise of not looking at the never ending collection, "The diadem itself?"
Hermione shook her head, "No… we're looking for a wooden box. I accidentally locked it in there last year."
"I can't believe we were so close to it." Draco said, shaking his head, "We were literally holding it and didn't even know."
Harry nodded, "The locket… it felt evil, the diadem didn't."
Pansy nodded, "I liked it, it was pretty."
"Maybe I always knew." Harry sighed, starting to doubt his memories of the thing, "And that's why I always thought a Horcrux was at Hogwarts?"
"We've found it now." Cho smiled, "That's the main thing."
It didn't take them look to find the old box, still locked up tight. Hermione pulled it from the pile and dropped it into a free space on the floor, hoping the drop would jiggle the lock open.
Lucius and Lily both hovered their wands over it, muttering under their breaths but the lock refused to budge.
"We'll need the key." Lucius said, "Locks like this are not quick to break. We could go and fetch Nikka, or possibly William Weasley, they might have a better chance of getting in."
"I doubt it." William sighed, "This is old magic, not something new."
"I am unfortunately inclined to agree." Lucius sighed.
"Kreacher." Hermione said quickly.
"Where?" Harry asked, looking around, excited to see the elf again.
"No." Hermione laughed, "Kreacher might be able to open it. Remember, house elf magic works solely off orders, if you ordered him to open the box…"
"But if he couldn't it might hurt him." Harry pointed out, "Like when he couldn't destroy the locket, that hurt him for years."
"I don't think we have a choice." Draco pointed out.
Hermione looked horribly betrayed at him, "No! Harry is right, we can't risk it."
"We'll ask Kreacher." Lily said, interrupting the coming argument, "Then it is his choice if we order him or not. And what's this about a locket?"
"We'll explain later." Hermione said, waving her hand dismissively.
Harry nodded, "Kreacher, come here please." he called.
There was a loud pop and Kreacher flung himself at Harry, sobbing loudly into his shoulder, "Oh how I has missed you Master Harry!"
"I've missed you too Kreacher." Harry grinned, hugging him tightly.
"Why has you called me nows?" Kreacher asked, "I was busys in the kitchens. On Missy Lily's orderes…"
"We need to ask you to do something." Harry said, "Well, actually we need to order you but we don't want to do it if you don't want to as you might not be able to do it and we don't want to hurt you."
Kreacher thought seriously for a moment, "You destroyed the locket, didn'ts you?"
Harry nodded, "Yes. We did."
Kreacher smiled, "I knews. I felts it go… I is pleased. And I will be pleases to help you now."
Harry nodded and turned to his mother, it would be stronger coming from her. Only slightly, but still, they needed every bit of strength they could get.
"Kreacher, I order you to open this box." Lily said firmly.
Kreacher focused on the lock, his ears flattening against his head and reached out a hand, jerking open the lid.
Suddenly Harry felt himself thrown violently across the room, crashing into the nearest shelf. His ears popped horribly as he felt wind slash across his face with such force he felt sure he was going to lose his skin.
And then it stopped just as quickly as it started.
"What the hell was that?" Neville coughed, pulling himself to his feet.
Harry looked around and saw everyone had been similarly blown from their feet, with wind chapped faces, lips, hands and arms. Kreacher rubbed his head, his nose bleeding, but otherwise no more harmed than the rest of them.
"Kreacher are you all right? You're bleeding." Harry gasped, helping the house elf to his feet, all other thoughts about what on earth just happened vanishing from his mind.
"I is all right…" Kreacher said, slightly breathlessly, "I also want to know what's that was…"
"Unless I am very much mistaken, tempestate in speculo." Lucius coughed, helping his son to his feet, "A very old, very Dark spell. It must have been placed on the box to injure anyone breaking in… and to destroy the contents under such circumstances."
They rushed over to the box and saw the contents still in tact. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and reached to take out the diadem, that shattered in his hand.
"No… no no!" Harry cried as the bits of diadem melted like ice into nothingness.
"Harry… Harry!" Draco called, giving his friend a gentle shake.
"It's gone!" Harry said, hardly able to believe it, "It's over."
"Harry no." Draco said, "It destroyed it. It's gone, dead."
Harry perked up, "You're sure?"
"Yes." Lily said, "Tempestate in speculo is a fiercely powerful spell, along similar lines to Fiendfyre. It would have been more than powerful enough."
"You did it Kreacher." Harry laughed, tears pouring down his face, "You destroyed it! It's only Nagini to go!"
Kreacher forced a smile, "Thanks you. Now Kreacher must be gettings back to the kitchens."
He left with a loud pop, leaving the others sitting looking at the innocent looking box. Draco closed it back over and shoved it into a pile of stuff before wiping his hands together to rid them of the dust the room was coated in.
"So, back out. Get the Come and Go room back so everyone can stay in it and everyone back in?" Draco suggested, "I think we better leave getting You-know-who here until tomorrow."
Harry nodded, "Yeah… good idea. I just have to grab something from in here and then we'll change it back. You guys go ahead, I'll be two seconds."
Harry watched his friends and mother leave, shutting the door behind them before hurrying through the stacks to where he'd left his letters.
They were still there, tucked under the rocking horse. He pulled out the small vials containing his memories, whatever was in them, it was time to have it back.
He tipped the bottles into his ear, feeling them seep back into his mind through his skin like warm water.
The memories flooded through his mind, Severus saying goodbye, that it wasn't Severus who'd killed Dumbledore.
The rush of thoughts bubbled inside him, causing him to throw up what little was left in his stomach of the food he'd had at the Hogshead.
"It wasn't Dad…" Harry said quietly to himself as he cleaned up the mess with a quick wave of his wand.
He didn't have long though, meaning he just didn't have the time to work all this out right now.
"Dobby!" Harry called.
The house elf appeared quickly.
"Is Master Harry ills?" Dobby asked, looking over Harry's clammy skin.
Harry shook his very pale face, "No… not at all, in fact I feel better than I have in a while… I think. I need you to keep the letters on you from now on. I'm not sure how well this room will fair with what's coming."
Dobby smiled and nodded, "Dobby had plan on comings to gets them tonights anyways. Thanks you."
Harry smiled and nodded, "There are two vials in there, if… if I die. They need to go to Danica and my mother. Please."
Dobby nodded, "Of courses."
Harry waited until Dobby had left before pulling himself back to his feet, feeling lighter and more determined than ever.