kbinnz - Harry's New Home

Luna nodded. "The ghosts talk to me," she explained simply. "All of them. And the Grey Lady was so sad when she found out what you were doing, because she said you were going to miss one. So she told me all about it, and how she had finally, after all those years, trusted someone with the diadem's location, only to have him take it and use it for something terrible. She wanted me to make sure that you took care of it, before he came back and got it, like he plans."

"Thank you, Miss Lovegood," Dumbledore said kindly. "This is indeed very, very important. Will you give the Grey Lady my sincere thanks as well?" Luna nodded happily. "And I think 50 points to Ravenclaw is in order," he twinkled. "And for Gryffindor тАУ"

Harry shook his head quickly. "I didn't really do anything, Professor. It was all Luna," he explained. He wouldn't have felt right, accepting a reward when he hadn't known what was happening тАУ and still didn't understand, not really.

"You two should go wash up for dinner," Snape ordered, anxious to forestall curious questions from Harry. By taking advantage of Harry's Lovegood-induced state of confusion, he could entirely avoid having to explain. "And do not mention this to anyone тАжcorporeal," he ordered. "This is faculty business."

"Yes, Professor!" Luna sang happily, and taking Harry by the arm, tugged him unresistingly out of the quarters.

Dumbledore exchanged glances with Snape and McGonagall. "We are fortunate indeed that the Hogwarts ghosts are assisting us," he said somberly. "I would not have expected Tom to have located the Diadem."

"Well, once we destroy this one, that will be three horcruxes down," Minerva pointed out. "The Diary, the Ring, and the Diadem. And we have a lead on Slytherin's locket. Surely he cannot have made that many more?"

"Let us hope not," Dumbledore sighed. "Thank you, my boy. Minerva and I will go to dispose of this, then we shall continue our hunt."

Snape nodded as the two left via the floo. Three horcruxes! No wonder the Dark Lord was insane.

TBCтАж

*Chapter 57*: Chapter 57

To Snape's relief, Harry never did ask about the diadem. The boy seemed to consider the entire adventure as related to the alternate reality that Luna inhabited and decided that trying to sort it all out would have deleterious effects on his own sanity. In addition, he really didn't want to be reminded that a girl had flattened him with one punch, so he pushed the affair out of his mind.

Besides, there were too many other things to occupy his time. In addition to classes and tutoring, Padfoot was continuing his lessons so that eventually he could be an animagus, and he was still dueling with Professor Flitwick. He and his friends usually spent at least one night a week in the dungeons, helping his da with potion ingredients, and Hermione had managed to convince the Potion Master to start teaching her how to make Wolfsbane. Ron and he were both on the Quidditch team this year, and they found they had lots of time to talk about the game, because тАУ unlike last year тАУ they didn't have to keep dodging pranks from Fred and George.

After realizing that Deputy Headmaster Snape would have a zero tolerance policy for their usual antics, the twins had negotiated a deal that if the professor would help them with their potion ideas, then they wouldn't resort to pranks as a way to avoid boredom. Since trying their inventions on unwitting victims was a violation of their agreement тАУ and would, according to the professor, gurantee them a whacking by their mother and her wooden spoon in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room тАУ they had had to seek out a part-time job so as to have funds to pay willing test subjects.

Professor Snape had, with Arthur and Molly's permission, secured the twins after-school employment at Zonko's, and both had promptly become fascinated with the economics of small business ownership. They found Percy to be a helpful fount of information, and Ron was delighted to be ignored by the twins for the first time in living memory.

All told, the school year was proceeding with almost unheard-of tranquility, and Snape was feeling rather smug. That feeling evaporated when McGonagall and Dumbledore returned from their latest stage of the horcrux hunt.

Both wore uncharacteristic expressions of defeat as they took their seats around the table with Snape, Sprout, Pomfrey, and Flitwick. It was the night of the full moon, so Lupin and Black were otherwise engaged.

"What progress have you made?" Poppy asked hopefully.

Albus sighed. "Not as much as we had hoped. We were able to confirm that Tom had at one point gained possession of a locket belonging to Salazar Slytherin, and it seemed likely that he had used it to create a horcrux. We tracked the locket to its hiding place in a seaside cave that Tom had protected with a series of enchantments. Many of them were quite routine тАУ anti-apparition wards, invisible rowboats, that sort of thing тАУ but some were ratherтАж inventive."

Snape shuddered at the idea of what "inventive" might have meant for the Dark Lord.

Minerva took up the tale. "There was a basin with a green, glowing potion in it тАУ no, Severus, I do not know what kind it was," she added, seeing the younger man lean forward in sudden interest. "But it looked most unpleasant, and given its creator, I had no desire to find out more. It became clear that in order to empty the chalice and recover the locket, the potion had to be drunk." The others gasped in horror. "As usual," Minerva went on, rather acerbically, "Albus was willing to play the martyr and sacrifice himself, but of course that was unnecessary."

Albus twinkled at the stern witch. "Not all of us are as clever or imaginative as you, my dear," he gently replied. "You must not be cross with me for being so conventional."

The listeners goggled. Albus Dumbledore conventional? What on earth had Minerva come up with?

"Well, don't be so mysterious, Minerva!" Sprout exclaimed. "Tell us what you did!"

Minerva turned rather pink. "It was nothing," she demurred.

Albus chuckled. "This clever, innovative, and talented witch promptly transfigured several beetles into elephants and had them suck up the potion with their trunks and squirt it into a tank that Minerva also transfigured. That appeared to have satisfied the enchantment's requirement that the potion be 'drunk', even though the beasts did not, in the end, have to ingest it."

Minerva fluttered a hand dismissively at the others' admiring glances. "The difficult part was Imperiusing the elephants to drink the potion, and Albus did that. But even if they had had to consume the potion, it would have been easy to simply transfigure new elephants as needed. There were many insects in the cave, after all."

"Good gracious!" Poppy stared at her old friend with awe. "That was very, very clever, Minerva!"

"Once that was done, it was simple to pluck the locket from the bottom of the basin," Dumbledore explained.

"Unfortunately, once we had the locket and left the cave, we discovered we were no further ahead. Someone else had beaten us to it," Minerva sighed. She held out the locket and showed them the hidden note: " 'To the Dark Lord' " she read aloud, " 'I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more. - R.A.B.' So you see, after all that trouble, this locket is a fake, and we have no idea where the real one may be."

"Perhaps it truly has been destroyed?" Poppy offered hopefully.

"Perhaps," Albus agreed gently. "But without proof of its fate, we remain vulnerable. For all we know, Voldemort was able to recover the original and left this one as a decoy. With all due modesty, the enchantments in that cave would likely have proved fatal to less powerful or less experienced wizards than Minerva and myself."