Sirius and Amelia were sitting in a secret safe house drinking the last of Amelia's fire whiskey. "Sweet Merlin Sirius, how many more of these things are there?" She said with disbelief that someone could make even one, none the less multiple.
"We are aware of six total horcruxes, five now that this one is done for. There is a possibility of a seventh, but we don't know if Voldemort made it yet, or if he will." Sirius said still shaking slightly.
"Sweet mother of Merlin," Amelia said, eyes blown wide. "And who's idea was it to use the basilisk venom?" the stuff was hard to get ahold of, thankfully Croaker knew somebody in the department of mystery that had some they could use. They secured three drops for three different knives that Sirius brought.
"That would be Hermione's brilliance. I swear the girl is smarter than Dumbledore." Sirius said in admiration of his god daughter. "I should probably let them know we what we accomplished here tonight" Sirius said as he got up to leave.
"They have another one already?" Amelia asked Sirius as he was putting on his cloak.
"Yes, they currently have it safe and away from meddling crooked noses" Sirius said, no one would have any questions on who had a crooked nose, it was made well known that the Dumbledore brothers had a falling out at their sisters funeral resulting in Albus having a crooked nose.
"Would they like for it to be executed here? This one was quite loud; I would hate for it to disturb the students." Amelia suggested.
"Well, I was going to wait for this to be done at home, but I suppose we could ask them together, let me just check something out on my watch first." Sirius said, he was hoping not to have to explain the map feature tonight or have her want that kind of technology for the ministry. He didn't even know if it was possible for the map to work anywhere besides Hogwarts, as it used the magic of the school itself.
Noticing that the kids were no where to be found, Sirius made the connection that they were in the special room Harry had talked about, one that he was very interested in seeing for himself; he still couldn't believe the pup had found a place the marauders hadn't.
"Harry Potter" Sirius said clearly.
Amelia watched all this in curiosity, he obviously had some form of a tracking device on the kids so he would know they weren't in the company of prying eyes, and how did he figure out how to talk with the children while away at school? That, she decided, will be talked about after the conversation with the children ended.
"Hey Padfoot, what's up?" Harry's voice came from the watch, if that shocked Amelia what she encountered next blew her off her broom! Harry Potter's face was now being enlarged and placed on the wall.
Sirius had been working on a portable version of the full-size mirror and he figured he would try it out here. "Hey pup, who's all with you?"
"Oh, Hello Madame Bones, if you both want to discuss the Horcruxes then everyone here knows about them." Harry said while looking behind him.
"Who is all classified as everyone Harry?" Amelia asked using emphasis on his name, reminding him they were on a first name basis, "If you don't mind me asking, I was unaware that others knew about the horcruxes and want to make sure I know who I can talk freely around." she questioned.
"I don't mind at all Amelia, I'm sorry some habits are hard to break, at school everyone is professor or madame after all" Harry said with a little cheek.
"Completely understandable, I just want to make sure you know we are both on the same side, and that I understand your predicament and classify you as older than you appear." She replied.
"Thank-you Amelia, and to answer your question besides myself and Hermione we have Neville Longbottom and Fred and George Weasley present, and are the only ones who know about our traveling and the horcruxes here at school. Outside of school Hermione's parents and Remus Lupin are in the know as well for obvious reasons and I don't think we will be expanding any time soon, but I'll advise you if we should. Narcissa obviously already knew about the horcruxes and that Hermione and I are married, but not that we traveled back in time." Harry said as she heard everyone say hi in the background.
"Harry, I have made some modifications to the watch, if you would like grab a couch and turn the dial on the side four times, it will enlarge the screen, then you can levitate the image on a wall, like I'm doing right now." Sirius said hoping it worked and won't distort the picture.
Harry did as he was told and soon, he and Amelia could see all five kids on the screen sitting on a couch. Amelia tried to identify the room but couldn't, so she had to ask, "Harry are you guys someplace where others won't overhear you? I don't notice the room you are in, although judging by the colors I would guess Gryffindor commons?"
"You have a good eye Amelia" Hermione answered, "It is in fact a replica of the Gryffindor common room. We are actually in a hidden room in the castle that no one besides ourselves have currently figured out."
My word, Amelia thought, these kids keep surprising me.
"And don't worry" Harry added, "Hermione put up some heavy duty privacy charms just in case, and the twins here rigged it so we would know if anyone tried to enter the door, if they could even find it."
"Ahh, yes the famous Weasley twins" Amelia said with a smile as the twins had a shocked expression on their face, "Yes, I've heard of you two from Minerva, she let me know you two have a solid potential for me to keep an eye on for useful tools and gadgets, and your father let me know you two are looking to start your own joke shop, he's mighty proud of you two." She watched as the confusion turned into pride and thought Minerva might just have something here.
Before the twins could work themselves out of the roller coaster of emotions they were currently riding, Sirius got down to the reason for the call to begin with. "So, Amelia and I just finished off the diary. Bloody scariest thing I have ever seen, and I've been in Azkaban!" Sirius had to pause as he remembered the screams coming from the diary, his whole body convulsed once.
"Yes, it was quite horrible, but Sirius says you already have another one ready for destruction, what is it? Would you like to do it here, at our secure location?" Amelia asked while she herself hoped the shiver she let travel down her spine didn't show.
"That would be great, we know from past experience how loud they can be, so being able to do it away from Hogwarts would be amazing." Harry said, "The second one we have is a sort of heirloom, so we were hoping that you found a different way to deal with them, considering this isn't the only heirloom that Voldemort made a horcrux." He finished.
"What kind of heirloom are we talking?" Amelia asked curiously.
"The lost Diadem of Ravenclaw." Hermione answered solemnly. "We also know that he made horcruxes out of Hufflepuffs Cup and Slytherins Locket." She added on.
Paling Amelia felt her heart rate pick up. "Three founder items? But how did he find them all? The Diadem was supposedly lost when Rowena's daughter stole it, and the cup like the locket was handed down thru their blood lines."
"Tom was crafty, he talked the Grey Lady into telling him where she hid the Diadem, conned Hepzibah Smith out of the cup and eventually killed her, and he is the last living member of the Gaunts, which is the end of Slytherins line." Harry explained.
"Merlin" was all that Amelia could say.
"Which reminds me, Sirius if you want, we could wait till the holidays and we could do a two for one deal, maybe that would give us some time to figure out how to rid the item of the horcrux without ruining the item itself." Hermione suggested.
"Sure, we could wait, I'm not in any hurry to do this again." Sirius said honestly while staring at the destroyed diary. "Is the third one in an easy to obtain spot?" he questioned.
"Sure is, in fact why don't you get it now while we speak, and then Amelia can store it in her safe spot." Harry said matter of factly. "It's at number twelve, just call for Kreacher, but before you do here's a tip; he helped steal the locket from Voldemort when your brother figured out his secret about the horcruxes. If you demand to take it from Kreacher he will fight you, if you ask him for the locket that Regulus gave him and promise to help him destroy it he won't give you much of a fight."
Sirius did as Harry suggested and called for Kreacher, together Kreacher and Sirius cried for the loss of his brother, Kreacher's favorite master. Sirius couldn't believe that his younger brother was a turn coat. He was so proud that he stood up against his Dark Lord. Together Sirius and Amelia vowed to clear Regulus' name after everything was said and done. He also couldn't believe the turn around in Kreacher, one moment he was calling him a blood traitor the next he was 'Master' and off to clean the house.
Amelia placed the locket in a containment box then placed it into the safe that only allowed her magical signature to remove it unless she passed, then in that event only Sirius would have access to it.
"Sirius, we have one more thing we need you to do sometime this week." Hermione said suddenly, the confused look on Harry's face let Sirius and Amelia know this was one of those light bulb moments.
"Okay pup, what else can I be of assistance for?" Sirius asked in a joking way.
"I need you to go to Gringotts and take over possession of the LeStrange vaults by means of only available family, get Narcissa involved if you have to. It will save us from having to break into Gringotts again." Hermione said while she was writing something down on a piece of parchment.
"BREAK INTO GRINGOTTS?!" Amelia yelled, thankful for the seclusion of the safe house.
"That's quite a long story, remind us to tell you about it someday." Harry said while laughing. "For now, let's just say that the cup is in Bellatrix's vault and as she and her husbands can no longer access it the vault would fall to her head of house since both LeStrange brothers are imprisoned for life. I found out afterwards that I had access to it when I acquired your vaults after the war." Harry said.
Of course, Sirius thought, it's all under the Black family contracts. "Sure thing Pup, I'll get Narcissa to access the Vault as she has signer rights to it currently, then we don't have to wait for the paperwork to go thru."
"Just be careful Sirius, the Goblins hate these things as much as we do, if I'm not mistaken it's classified as a level 5 contract violation" Amelia warned.
Sirius was shocked he forgot about that, at Gringotts they have 6 levels of violation, anything over a level 4 brings about freezing of assets; he would have to be careful about getting this thing out of the vault, how Bellatrix got it in there was beyond him.
"Did you ask them about horcruxes Sirius?" Hermione asked. "Perhaps they have a way to remove the tainted piece of magic from the container?"
"I haven't, Amelia was my first stop as she had the actual horcrux. When I told her of your idea for destruction everything kind of fell into place right away." Sirius said thinking about the options. "I'll go there right after I'm done here and see what I can find out."
"Perfect, then we could possibly take care of three horcruxes and save some founders items at the same time." Harry stated.
They finished up a few more questions that Amelia had for the twins and set a date and time to all meet up, twins included over the winter holidays. Sirius and Amelia broke into a new bottle of fire whiskey before Sirius left for Gringotts.
"I will get all the paperwork started for the transfer of Vault 103 Mr. Black, and your wish to have everything scanned for illegal and dark magic with a full list to be given to yourself." Griphook stated. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Yes please, I have a very special request to be made to have an elder present along with yourself for the discussion I'm hoping to have." Sirius stated, careful to not offend Griphook, you never want a pissed off Goblin as your account manager.
"Of course, Mr. Black, what would the meeting be about? I need know the basics so that I can place you on the schedule for one of our elders to be present." Griphook said as he prepared to call for an assistant.
"It's about a level 5 violation that we think will be in the Lestrange Vault, I don't want myself or my cousin associated with that. Also, I am hopeful that you would be able to help me dispatch the object, as the only way that we can figure out how to destroy it concerns basilisk venom impregnated into a goblin made kitchen knife." Sirius said still not able to control the involuntary shutter that ran down his spine.
Griphook froze, if the object they are concerned about requires a blade of that magnitude it limits what the object could be, given that he already specified it at a level 5 told Griphook everything that he needed to know. "Mr. Black, I find myself curious, why would you need help taking care of the object if you already have a tried and true method?"
"Well, that is the other reason I wanted an elder present, as we believe that the object is a founder's heirloom, making it quite rare and very valuable, our method destroys the container completely." Sirius said honestly, not realizing that his use of container told Griphook exactly what they were dealing with; and my word there were multiple of them.
"Mr. Black, I have a pretty good idea about what we were talking about and if what you are inquiring about does pertain to a horcrux or what I can only assume are multiple horcruxes, then we are past needing and elder and will have to go higher." Griphook stated, hoping he was wrong, "Am I correct in my hypothesis?" he asked with fingers crossed.
The shocked expression on Sirius' face didn't leave much hope for Griphook, this would have to be brought before Master Ragnok, the leader of the British Gringotts. Giving Sirius a moment to gather his thoughts, Griphook prepared the note he was going to send to his leader with an assistant, it had to be worded carefully so as not to alarm anyone.
"Sadly," Sirius began, "you are correct. There are multiple horcruxes that we have some knowledge of and would like to destroy them, preferably without harming the container." Sirius confirmed.
Griphook used the circle on his desk to contact his assistant to run and see if Master Ragnok would be available. "I am unable to confirm nor deny that we have that availability, Master Ragnok will know best, and can advise us once we can get a meeting with him. I have just sent my assistant off with the request."
Ragnok was in his office, waiting for the meeting with the Singapore branch of Gringotts to take place, the time difference made meetings difficult sometimes. He was currently getting a some paperwork done when a junior assistant knocked on his door, frustrated at the disturbance Ragnok was a little more brutal than he should have been with such a young goblin, that was until he noticed what the note contained.
Griphook was a knowledgeable account manager, and the clues that he left within the note would only be understood by a select few among them, and definitely not by this youngster. "Advise Master Griphook that I will see him and his client immediately." Ragnok instructed the young goblin.
Watching as the junior assistant booked out of his office at a fast clip, Ragnok took the time to apologize and send his regards to the Singapore office, and advised them he would have to reschedule, after that he sent word to have a master of dark artifacts come to his office; if he pieced together the clues properly he would be required.
A knock at his door let him know his guests had arrived, he welcomed them in and introduced himself to the wizard, in turn Griphook made the introductions for his client and got down to business.
"Sir, I am sorry to have disturbed you, but the objects we are dealing with are well beyond my authorization, and Mr. Black doesn't want himself or his family associated with it. He believes there to be a horcrux of Lord Voldemort's in the LeStrange vault, even more so he believes to know the where bouts of several others."
My word there are more of them? Ragnok thought.
"Mr. Black here has found a way to destroy them, but due to the nature of the remaining ones he was hoping we would have a way to dispatch them without damaging the containers, as several of them are Hogwarts Founder heirlooms." Griphook finished reporting.
"So, Mr. Black, what is your method to destroy the horcrux?" Ragnok asked curious to hear the answer.
"My godson and his wife have discovered a few different ways, but most are hard to contain, the way we discovered worked best was to use a goblin made blade impregnated with basilisk venom and stab it. Now obviously these are extremely rare items, but as it turned out, my mother had a kitchen set of goblin made knives, and Madam Bones procured the basilisk venom. We have already destroyed one which was a diary, not nearly as priceless as the heirlooms." Sirius said while shivering, he didn't think that reaction would ever go away.
Ragnok noticed the shiver and understood, horcruxes were foul ways to keep one alive even if killed, you are literally storing a piece of your soul that you ripped in half in a container for safe keeping; the fact that the psychopath created multiple horcruxes was unheard of.
"How many are there?" Ragnok questioned.
"There is a total of six that we are aware of, and not sure if there is a seventh, as we believe that would be his ultimate aim with the last making it a magical number. However, one could argue that six plus his original piece would create seven." Sirius said truthfully, they didn't know if he made Nagini a horcrux already or if that too was by accident after he resurrected himself to keep the number the same.
"My god, do we know what the objects are?" Ragnok asked afraid to hear the answer.
"For the most part yes, we are, like Griphook asked, hoping that you have a better way of disposal that doesn't damage the container," Sirius paused, thinking if he should give out any more information, deciding it couldn't hurt anything he continued, "or host."
Shite! Ragnok swore to himself, please let it be an animal… please. "Host? Animal or Human?" he asked having a bad sinking feeling begin in his gut.
"Human." Sirius said simply.
A knock on the door broke the silence that ensued after Sirius made that announcement. Ragnok called for the Dark Artifact Master to join them, hopefully he would carry some answers with him.
After catching Eargit up with everything they had just discussed, Eargit requested a meeting between the three of them present without Sirius involved, he did explain that this was not meant to seclude him, but that he had to get authorization to the idea's he was going to put forth.
Sirius understood, and didn't take the meeting to heart, he simply agreed and asked where he would be available to wait. Ragnok walked over to the wall and pushed a couple of runes, Sirius was then encompassed in a dome like ward, and was provided tea and biscuits while he waited.
"Master Ragnok, how would we like to proceed with these abominations?" Eargit got right to the heart of the matter. "We have a ritual to remove the piece of soul from the containers, the host can sometimes cause some problems, however it is nothing that we can't overcome."
Thinking, Ragnok weighed the pros and cons of letting the knowledge of this magnitude get out. Then he thought about who was all involved. Sirius was the heir of a wretched woman who Gringotts despised. Griphook made mention that they didn't advise her to remove him as heir when she struck him out of the family for this reason. He was always very polite and had one of the bigger vaults in their bank. Amelia Bones was also a trustworthy individual who the goblins respected as being a fair witch. Neither would willingly give out, nor would they want to, information on horcruxes, not to mention their destruction.
"I say we do this, not only does it help out one of our more respected clients, but we too would be in danger should the self-proclaimed Lord return." Ragnok put forth his suggestion.
Both Griphook and Eargit agreed to Ragnok's suggestion, Eargit did make an addendum to it though; he would want to know who all would know of the ritual that would be performed, therefore would want to know who the host is beforehand.
All agreed to this, and decided to give Sirius the option, either way he would not be punished for the horcrux should he remove it from the vault if he didn't agree to the terms given today. Removing the ward with a touch of a rune saw Sirius sit up to pay attention.
"Well Mr. Black, we would like to place our terms out for you to consider before we take a step forward." Ragnok waited for Sirius to nod before continuing, "We do know of a way to remove the bit of soul from its container, and even possibly from a host; we would however like to know who the host is before we agree to help with that particular horcrux as it takes a strong willed individual to undergo the ritual." He finished up.
Sirius understood the trust that was being given here and he was damned not to blow this. "I understand Master Ragnok, however it is not my secret to give, would you permit me to make a call on my watch to my godson to confirm this with him?" Sirius asked hoping he didn't offend the Leader of the Goblin nation.
"By all means Mr. Black, we wouldn't mind that in the least. Would you like some privacy to make the call?" Ragnok asked politely.
Sirius confirmed this request so was once again placed in a dome. Sirius took a second to make sure Harry wasn't in class then contacted him via the watch. After getting confirmation that he could in fact let the Goblins in the know about himself, Sirius touched the panel that Griphook showed him to remove the wards after dispelling his own wandless ones, they weren't very strong, but only a fool would raise a wand with the goblin leader present.
"Thank-you" Sirius started, "I have gotten the approval to move forward and advise you of everything pertaining to the horcruxes. You see, the host that we are speaking of happens to be my godson, Harry Potter."
Eargit about choked, "Well then, that does change things a bit. If I'm not mistaken Harry Potter is soul bonded to his wife Hermione am I correct?"
Not understanding why that would be a problem, nor the fact that this goblin even knew this, Sirius confirmed that it was in fact correct.
"In that case we would need both of them to come in for the ritual as she would be effected as well due to their bond." Eargit informed the group.
Getting that out of the way made Sirius' day, he could rid his godson of the horcrux inside his head, as well as all the rest of the items, and be able to present them back to the wizarding world. Understanding that the Goblin's would request payment for their cooperation, Sirius wanted to show how much he appreciated them helping.
"I understand that to the goblin race, goblin made objects, like knives belong to the creator, therefore belonging to the goblin race as a whole. I also know and understand that your services come with a fee, to which I will agree to no matter the price as I know you are always fair. I would like to gift you the kitchen knives, as well as the three I have impregnated with basilisk venom, as they would make awesome daggers." Sirius waited to see how his gift would be received.
Ragnok was impressed, Sirius did not disappoint with his knowledge and understanding of the goblin ways. To gift the knife set back to them, knowing and understanding that there would be a fee, it amazed him.
"Thank-you for your understanding Mr. Black, the gift was not necessary, but we will accept it in the nature it was given, we understand family is more important than anything." Ragnok stated.
Setting up a date and time for them to perform the ritual saw the horcrux removed from the LeStrange vault without paperwork being done, as they didn't want this to get out to any witches, wizards, or goblins alike. A replica would be put in its place as a precaution because of this.
Sirius sent a patronus off to Amelia to meet with him as he left the bank, already agreeing to the location beforehand.
Amelia got to the safe-house before Sirius, even walking into it made her shiver, she needed to get this under control. What would her aurors say seeing their boss get the willies walking into a safe house?
"Amelia, conjure up one of those boxes will ya, this thing is creeping me out." Sirius said while walking in the room levitating a golden cup at an arm's length away from himself.
Amelia secured and placed the cup in a different safe before returning to the main room and taking a seat across from Sirius who was pouring himself a heavy serving of fire whiskey.
"Would you mind if we called the kids, I only want to have to explain this one time." Sirius asked.
Amelia agreed, so Sirius pulled up his watch and expanded the picture once more, this time it was only Harry and Hermione in the frame as they sat on a couch. "Hello Padfoot, Amelia, the room is secure and we made sure that our portrait won't allow anyone to come up. What's the news?" Harry said all in one go.
Amelia was confused at first until she remembered they were married and would have their own quarters and with that they would have been assigned a portrait as a guard as was the Gryffindor way.
Other houses were so weird, Hufflepuff's only had to tap a barrel that concealed their common room, true they tapped a specific pattern but still she felt this was the most normal one out of the houses. She knew from friends that Ravenclaws had to answer a riddle, she would never be able to get into their dorm, and Gryffindors had the famous Fat Lady portrait who sometimes refused to accept the password in favor of singing; Slytherins seemed to be similar to Puffs where in you only had one password for the year that was set up by your head of house and a door would materialize in a bare stretch of wall, heaven help you if you ever forgot the location of the wall, she only knew this because of Cissy, otherwise they were pretty hush hush with their entrance.
"Well, the goblins have a ritual that allows them to remove the bit of soul from a vessel or host with ease, apparently it involves placing it into some sort of animal, they prefer pigs, and then kill said animal; with a pig they simply slaughter it and feast on it. I was advised that it would be slightly different to remove the soul fragment from you Harry as your bond with Hermione complicates things slightly." Sirius paused to answer a few questions they had.
"Overall we should be rid of five out of the six known horcruxes before Christmas." Sirius finished up.
"I know where the sixth horcrux is, I just don't know what it would take to get it. Dumbledore got cursed in the last time frame, and I don't wish that upon anyone." Harry said honestly. "Not even Dumbledore, with all the wrong he did, I wouldn't want that to happen again."
"We will figure it out pup, maybe we can get the goblins involved with that one too. They have masters in damn near every subject, Eargit, the goblin I met with today, was a master in Dark Arts." Sirius said hopefully.
"It couldn't hurt to ask. We might also consider asking Dumbledore for help with it, he figured it out last time, he just fell to the enchantments on it." Hermione said with a yawn.
Securing their plans and watching as Hermione penciled them in on what they now knew was her 'to do' list and calendar. Sirius bid the kids good night and promised to keep them informed with any updates.
"Well that's that" Sirius said to Amelia.
Amelia, figuring now is a better time than ever to bring up the watches, then proceeded to question Sirius like he was on trial. In the end she conned him into giving her one to stay in touch, it would only be linked to his and Harry's watch, but it was a start.
Sirius decided to make his escape and head for home, he had just had a very long day after all. And he still had to tell Mick and Jean everything that happened today. Shivering once more, Sirius cursed and thought better of it. Maybe I'll tell them about it tomorrow? In fact, maybe I can get the kids to tell them. With that Sirius spun on the spot and apparated back to his self-contained flat at the Granger residence.
"I'm telling you Albus, they are up to something!" Severus said irritably. "Longbottom has been getting better in potions and the only way they could help him out that much would require a cauldron set up, one they don't have."
"Settle down Severus, you should be happy that your student is getting tutored and in turn doing better in your class, it does after all reflect on you." Albus said while stroking his beard. He had gotten a number of complaints from both professors and students alike on his defense professor and it was giving him a headache. I thought he would be better than this.
"Severus, what is your take on Professor Lockhart?" Albus asked curiously, knowing that Severus wouldn't mince words.
"He's a complete and udder joke of a professor. The imbecile is more concerned with his own appearance than his class. Did you know he gave a quiz on himself on the first day of class?" Snape spat while rolling his eyes.
Coming from the man who just complained that his student was doing well in class, Dumbledore had a little bit of a laugh at his potion's professor.
"Hm, it bears watching I suppose." Dumbledore said to no one in particular, the problem was that he had a hard time filling the role as potential candidates are now believing the position to be cursed.
Dismissing Severus, Dumbledore was just getting ready to start in on his paperwork when an owl delivered a letter from the Hogwarts Board of Governors, as he read the note a headache began at the base of his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, Dumbledore pushed aside his paperwork in favor of writing a response to the Board.
It seems a number of the students wrote a letter to Madame Longbottom about the capability of not only Professor Lockhart, but quite a few also showed distrust of his potion's professor, claiming prejudices to anyone who was not of Slytherin house particularly Gryffindors. They demand a meeting with himself in order to set up a time for someone to review the entire teaching quality at Hogwarts.
Sighing he set up a date and time to meet with the board and to see who they would appoint to review classes. It seems this year is going to be one giant headache for me. Albus was not aware that other things were brewing in the background that would give him a much bigger headache; at least a headache was a much better outcome than death.