Familiar: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

The soft whoosh from the fireplace signaled the arrival of Sirius. Harry and Valerie got up from the sofa and looked on as the headmaster arrived soon after Sirius exited the floo. The aged man waved his hand to dust off his magenta robes before greeting them with a smile.

“Good day, Harry, Ms. Swann,”

The two greeted him in kind with small smiles on their faces before frowning.

“Has Sirius told you everything, sir?” Harry asked. Dumbledore nodded.

“Indeed, my boy,”

“We were wondering if you could take a look into it, headmaster,” Valerie intoned, prompting Dumbledore to look at her and nod.

“If you would lead the way please?” He prompted. With a nod, Sirius started walking, and they followed him at a sedate pace. In no time, the party of four had reached the floor concerned and Sirius gestured for Dumbledore to enter.

With a nod, the headmaster of Hogwarts tapped his wand against the doorknob and muttered a few spells unknown to the three onlookers.

“Ritualistic containment wards,” Dumbledore elaborated, “the area has so much saturated magic that I can feel it even out here. Whatever your elf did inside, Sirius, it’s better it remains contained inside,”

Sirius gave a nod and Dumbledore entered the room followed by the three.

They reached the middle where the ritual had been performed. The entire floor was charred and blackened. Pieces of concrete had broken off the floor and were splattered around in a small area. A small spotless area remained that indicated where Kreacher had stood while performing the ritual.

With a frown on his face, the headmaster started waving his wand around in intricate patterns, his jaw set and his eyes closed as he softly muttered through his teeth.

Harry and Valerie stood to the side, holding hands and looking on as Sirius paced agitatedly near the door. Only now was he realizing what a fool he had been when he had disposed of Kreacher and that locket without thinking of looking into what dark sorcery that blasted elf had performed in this house.

Dumbledore pursed his eyebrows and sighed in short intervals as a few more minutes passed.

“Just what is this? Don’t you think this is taking too much time?”

Harry whispered to Valerie as he pulled her close by her waist.

“Ritualistic magic leaves hidden traces, Harry,” she whispered, “and given how much time it is taking Dumbledore, I think it’s safe to assume whatever Kreacher did in here was pretty serious,” she finished with a frown on her lovely face. Harry sighed.

“Ms. Swann is correct, Harry,” Dumbledore remarked, giving them a small smile before beckoning them to follow him. Without breaking his stride, he walked out of the ritual chamber. Harry looked at Sirius with a concerned gaze before shrugging. The marauder sighed before they followed the headmaster down the stairs.

Once they reached the living room, Harry summoned some drinks from the kitchen and they took their respective seats. Dumbledore and Sirius sat opposite on the single sofas while Valerie and he took over the longer one in the middle.

“So?” Sirius prompted Dumbledore to start.

Dumbledore frowned for a moment and paused his drinking before looking at Sirius.

“I have my theories, nothing concrete I admit. It’s just a hunch, one I feel I can confirm if you can do one small thing for me, Sirius,”

Sirius exchanged a look with Valerie and him before nodding.

“Please bring that locket here,”

Sirius sighed.

“You’ll make me go through all that garbage for a locket...”

Dumbledore chuckled.

“I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important, Sirius.”

“Alright, fine... Be right back,”

Sirius finished his drink in one big gulp and walked out of the room. Dumbledore turned toward them with a small smile.

“And how are you two? Settling well, I hope?”

They smiled.

“It’s been good so far. No one has suspected anything since we met each other, and we’re confident we can keep it that way,” Harry squeezed her hand softly as he spoke.

“I can’t express how sorry I am that you had to suffer that, Mrs. Potter.”

Valerie smiled sadly at Dumbledore’s sincere admission.

“It’s all in the past, headmaster. I don’t think about all that happened. It helps that I have such a caring and supporting husband,” she smiled at him softly.

Dumbledore chuckled.

‘What a remarkable young man you have grown into, my boy,’

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Dumbledore sincerely.

“What about Sirius?”

“What about him?” Harry asked with a frown.

“What have you told him?”

Valerie bit her lip with a frown as Harry admitted, “Nothing that others don’t know. It’s the same with him.”

Dumbledore sighed.

“I understand your position, Harry. I really do. But I would suggest you to come clean to at least Sirius in some time,”

He held his hand up when Harry looked like he wanted to speak.

“Let me finish my boy. You’ve known Sirius for only a few months now, and I understand that. So build a good relationship with him. From what I’ve observed, the man loves you, probably more than his life, and his trust and support will go a long way in helping you,”

“Well, he already knows we’re married, so there’s that,” Harry chuckled when comprehension soon dawned on Dumbledore’s face.

“Ah, the tapestry,”

Valerie nodded.

“I’d thought it would reflect my birth name. It’s good thing we did that ritual, headmaster,”

“It was the right thing to do, Mrs. Potter, something that would help divert numerous possible issues down the line,”

“I think you have more than earned the right to call me Valerie, headmaster,” Valerie smiled.

The sound of hurried footsteps alerted them to the arrival of Sirius Black. The marauder strode in, a charred and blackened locket levitating in front of him, which he placed on the table in front of Dumbledore.

The headmaster levitated it in front of him. He twirled it around, looking at it intensely, and cast various diagnostic spells on the ugly thing.

Harry looked at it intently. The locket was golden where it was not charred, with a gold chain attached to it. It was the size of three, maybe four galleons stacked together, hexagonal in shape, and Harry could make out a familiar snake motif that adorned the two sides.

“Is that?” He whispered.

“If I’m correct, this is the fabled locket of Salazar Slytherin,” Dumbledore confirmed with an odd look on his face.

“But why would that elf destroy this?” Valerie asked, frowning. She might not be a Slytherin anymore, but she had been one in the past and admired the traits that embodied the house. Seeing the founder’s heirloom destroyed in such a manner was disconcerting, to say the least.

“That’s what I would like to know as well,” Sirius muttered as he dropped down into his seat with a sigh. He looked at Valerie and Harry who were staring at him.

“What?”

“You stink. You didn’t dive into that garbage pool, did you?”

Sirius looked affronted.

“I’ll have you know that I am a fully capable wizard. Sorting through garbage doesn’t require me to actually touch it,” he stated imperiously before waving his wand around him. The stink receded.

“What I would like to know though,” he started, looking at Dumbledore who was inspecting the locket on the other end, “if that locket is Slytherin’s, why Kreacher would destroy it. The little fuck was besotted with anything bigoted or dark, and practically worshipped any Slytherin member that he came across in the house,”

Valerie internally agreed. She remembered how Kreacher used to bend over backward for any of their friends from Slytherin while being a downright S.O.B. to anyone from other houses.

“Looks like Dumbledore will tell us soon,” Harry gestured toward the headmaster who had finished his diagnosis.

“Well?” Sirius, impatient as always, probed.

“Before I explain, I have to ask something Sirius. I know Harry and Ms. Swann here have formidable occlumency shields as a result of their bond. But what about you? How are your shields?”

“Why don’t you try, Dumbledore?” Sirius invited him to invade his mind, looking at the headmaster in the eyes. Dumbledore was initially surprised, but agreed, his face curious, as he brought his wand up and pointed the tip at Sirius.

¨Legilimens,” it was uttered so softly that they had to strain their ears and focus to even hear it.

As quickly as it began, it was over, and the couple looked as Dumbledore rubbed his temples slightly, while Sirius smirked.

“Safe to say they will have to employ a literal army of mind arts experts to breach your defenses,” Dumbledore remarked to their surprise. That was the same thing the old man had told them when he had first checked the strength of their mental shields a few months ago.

“Well, when you work day and night to preserve your sanity in front of hundreds of soul-sucking monsters, there are certain side effects,” Sirius remarked casually, however they could easily see how hard his gaze was.

“As you know, this is, or rather, this was, the locket of Salazar Slytherin. What you don’t know, is what this locket really was,” Dumbledore began after a short period of silence.

“What the locket was?” Valerie asked, and Dumbledore nodded.

“Indeed. Tell me, what do you know about a Horcrux?”

Despite the grave nature of their discussion, Sirius snorted. The three looked at him askance, and he snorted once again.

“Nothing, just a bad pun I remembered after hearing that word. Continue please,”

Valerie just shook her head, giving Sirius a dirty look which prompted an innocent one from the older man. Harry simply sighed.

“Dirty mutt with a dirty mind,”

“Guilty as charged,” he held his hand up.

“As I was about to say,” Dumbledore began jovially before his face grew serious, “oh sorry, I forgot I asked something. So? Does anyone know what a Horcrux is?”

Everyone denied.

“Let me enlighten you then. Centuries ago, there was a wizard named Herpo. Herpo was obsessed with the higher magics, especially those branches which transcended the physical realm. Other worlds, time travel, soul magic and necromancy,”

Everyone hung on each word that came out of Dumbledore’s mouth.

“While he was not very successful in the first two, he made major strides in the final two. Soul magic and necromancy. You all must be aware of various necromantic creations, inferi, for example. They were created by Herpo. Several heinous rituals that deal with the dead or use them in some manner – a majority of them were developed by Herpo. But the area in which he made even more strides was soul magic.

“Herpo managed to do something that had never been done before,” Dumbledore stated, looking very grave, and they got a sense of foreboding. Valerie was gripping him tightly, as if aware that nothing good was going to come out of the ancient wizard’s mouth.

Dumbledore looked at them with a small smile.

“Herpo managed to devise a way to achieve immortality. Not in a conventional sense, but in a somewhat fragmented manner.”

“What!?”

Dumbledore nodded.

“Horcrux. It is, in simple words, a soul container. A witch or wizard splits the soul by committing a murder in cold blood without feeling any emotion whatsoever. This causes the soul to split. A blood ritual is followed by the sacrifice of something the creator has any sort of attachment to. This allowes the witch or wizard to split the soul which inhabits said container. This means that as long as the object is magically intact, the soul remains tethered to the realm of the living. Which means the person cannot die since the soul is unaffected.”

The three were horrified at Dumbledore’s words. What he had just said went against every moral view they had.

“It is very very difficult to destroy a horcrux,” Dumbledore continued as his listeners remained silent.

“Only a few items are known to be able to destroy one. You’ll remember, Harry, after all, you destroyed one in your second year,”

Harry’s and Valerie’s eyes widened while Sirius looked at him.

“Tom Riddle’s diary, the one Harry destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets,” Valerie whispered, and Dumbledore nodded.

“Correct, Ms. Swann. I assume you know that from seeing Harry’s life memories?”

Valerie nodded, gripping her husband’s hand tightly.

“Yes Harry, Voldemort also succeeded. Basilisk venom is one of the items that can destroy a Horcrux...”

Dumbledore was cut off when a hysterical Sirius stood up and looked at Harry with panic.

“B-Basilisk!? Chamber of Secrets!? What the fuck!?!?”

Harry looked wryly at Sirius before telling him what had happened down there and how he came to be in such a situation. At the end of it, Sirius was looking at Dumbledore with anger.

“What the fuck has happened to that school, Albus!? It’s supposed to be a place to learn, not a death trap!”

Dumbledore sighed.

“Believe me, Sirius, I know. But the circumstances have been out of my hands,”

Sirius thought it was bullshit from Dumbledore, but didn’t see the need to escalate the matter, so he sat down and gestured to the headmaster to continue.

“As I was saying, Basilisk venom can destroy a horcrux. And given the fact that Godric’s sword is infused with the venom now, I believe it can destroy one as well,”

“Goblin sllver. Absorbs everything that can make it stronger,” Valerie nodded.

“Correct, Ms. Swann. Another way to destroy an Horcrux is using Fiendfyre and dousing it in the flames. The cursed flames leave no trace of the actual object. The killing curse works on a living being which had been turned into a Horcrux. At least these are the ones I know, or rather, knew about,” Dumbledore frowned.

“A living being can be turned into a Horcrux?” Harry asked skeptically, and Dumbledore frowned.

“There was a reason your scar hurt when you were near Voldemort, Harry. There was a reason why you could sometimes feel his emotions when you were in your first year. And with time, I feel there could be even more connections you might have shared with Voldemort,”

“Wh-what are you saying, headmaster?” Valerie asked with slight steel in her voice. Dumbledore sighed.

“You were a Horcrux, Harry. A living one, and one he never intended to make,”

Harry looked numbly at the headmaster, as Sirius stood up, his eyes wide and a frightened look on his face. Valerie was glaring at the old man.

“No! I won’t let it happen! I won’t let anyone kill Harry!”

“No one has to kill Harry, Sirius. Calm down,” Valerie intoned softly.

“Huh?”

“He said Harry was a Horcrux. Which means the Horcrux is gone now. Can I assume it’s because of our ritual, headmaster?”

Dumbledore nodded happily.

“You have a very sharp mind, Ms. Swann. It will come to your help a lot, I believe. As you said, Harry is no longer a Horcrux. Hasn’t been for months now, ever since the ritual that had some unintended but welcome side effects for both of you, I believe,” Dumbledore remarked with a meaningful look at the couple.

Harry and Valerie exchanged looks between themselves before gazing back at the headmaster.

“Voldemort also created Horcruxes,” Dumbledore continued, and seeing the looks on their faces, he nodded, “yes, Horcruxes. The diary was one, Harry was the unintentional one, and another was the locket that Kreacher destroyed,”

“Why though?” Sirius asked, “why would that blasted elf destroy it? That didn’t look like a simple ritual. He went through a lot of efforts to discover a ritual that could destroy a Horcrux and then performed it as well. Why?”

“Can you think of no reason why the elf will show so much devotion to a task, Sirius?” Dumbledore smiled.

“That little vermin worshipped my dear mother, and always had a soft spot for my brother Regulus. But why would they ask him to destroy it? They were staunch followers of the Dork lord.”

This time it was Harry’s turn to snort in a serious setting, and even Valerie giggled at the name. Sirius smiled slightly.

“I have no idea why, but it seems that had been their order. A dying wish perhaps,”

The four sat in silence for a short while, drinking, their minds processing the influx of knowledge they had just gained.

“So Voldemort had three horcruxes, and all three have been destroyed. He’s mortal then?”

Dumbledore chuckled ruefully.

“My boy, we have no way to confirm if he made only three or if he managed to create even more...”

Dumbledore trailed off here, frowning heavily.

“Sir?” Valerie prompted, and Dumbledore, startled slightly, looked at them.

“Yes, that could work,” he muttered, looking at Harry.

“Uh... what could work?” Harry asked skeptically.

Dumbledore smiled.

“Tell me Harry, are you free the next Sunday evening? I would like you to join me on an errand,”

Harry exchanged a look with Valerie, who nodded.

“Sure, what kind of errand?”

“The find-out-the-number-of-horcruxes-Voldemort-made kind,” Dumbledore smiled.

*****

To be continued...