candyrosecupcakes-blog - Tumblr blog

candyrosecupcakes-blog · 4 years ago

Text

DH AU from halfway through Chapter 15

“What?” demanded Harry, low voice shaking with irrational rage and despair. No longer focused on what Ron was saying. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Ron reacting similarly.

“It’s not, it’s not,” Hermione repeated shakily, “it’s not a horcrux. See, it’s got a misery charm on it. Really just the opposite of a cheering charm. Actually not very complicated,” she trailed off, seeming to realise an explanation would not make things better.

The three stood, almost in a perfect triangle, looking at the locket in Hermione’s hand. Almost willing it into something evil. Because then there would have been some progress, some point, something accomplished. But, with a wave of Hermione’s wand, “finite incantum,” the trio felt the misery in the atmosphere dissipate. Slightly.

“It’s a strong charm,” she began again, “to have been applied with permanence to it. I won’t be able to break it fully.” They exchanged looks, “but there’s not much point in us wearing it anymore… is there?”

Was it possible to be upset that they would no longer be playing pass-the-parcel with a dark object? Harry couldn’t decide.

“So, who did this?” Ron eventually asked, breaking the uneasy silence that had fallen. “Umbridge? Do we think she’s hidden the real one? It was really easy to get after all.”

Harry was about to burst in that Ron could shut his mouth because nothing about that day at the Ministry had been easy, but Hermione interrupted, “No, I don’t think so. She’s the type to show off her trophies after all.”

“Dung?” Ron suggested, seeming to accept Hermione’s answer.

Harry snorted at that, “yeah right, he’s not that clever.”

There was silence again, before Hermione dared to speak. “Then who?”

And the rage that had exploded at Ron just moments earlier came bounding back into Harry, filling him up, pushing away rational thought and past arguments. Because, there was clearly an explanation. And it was clear that someone, or rather some being, had not been completely honest.

“KREACHER!” He yelled, blood pumping as his fists clenched and his face reddened.

CRACK!

The miserable house elf appeared in front of the trio. Harry could vaguely hear Hermione greeting him, but the swirl of noise didn’t register much over his anger. He grabbed the locket. Just a plain locket. Not a horcrux. And thrust it towards Kreacher.

Two months of being cursed by that thing. For nothing.

“Do you know what this is?” He said, voice low and deadly.

Kreacher looked up at him with his round beady eyes nervously. “Master,” he began, but Harry was not finished.

“I think you do. I think you do know exactly what this is. And I think you led us on a merry little goose chase. For what?” At this Kreacher glanced from side to side and then made a jolt towards the bunkbeds to bash his head against them. “STOP!” Harry yelled, freezing the elf in place. He found himself not caring if Kreacher hurt himself but rather wanting the truth without needless interruptions.

“Bloody Merlin,” he could hear Ron saying in the background.

“Kreacher, I am your master. You obey me and only me,” Harry growled at the disobedient elf frozen to the floor. Kreacher looked like he would happily die rather than continue this conversation, “what happened to the locket you removed from the cave? The real one?”

“Harry, you’re scaring him,” Hermione began but he just made a dismissive gesture towards her. He didn’t care. He needed answers. And the person that usually had the answers was dead. And if he couldn’t take his anger out on Dumbledore for this impossible task with next to no instructions or help, he would damn well release it on the elf responsible for Sirius’ death and the past two months of misery.

“Speak now.” His voice offered no compromise.

“Ma-aster,” Kreacher shook, “I could not, I was not-“

“Get on with it,” Harry said sternly.

“Miss told me never to tell. That it would be dangerous if others knew. And Kreacher promised.” His voice bobbed with his head. “Kreacher had to keep silence otherwise Master Regulus may have given his life for nothing. And Kreacher would not betray Master Regulus like that.”

The three exchanged a look, Harry’s stomach dropping. “How,” he spat, “could you not have betrayed Regulus by giving the locket to Narcissa Malfoy?!”

“Harry,” Hermione interjected, laying a hand on his arm only for Harry to shake it off, “I told you, he won’t understand it like that.”

But Kreacher had something to say about that, “oh, no Master. No Master, I couldn’t give it to Miss Cissy. She couldn’t destroy it.”

“You gave it to Bellatrix Lestrange then?” Ron replied, head hanging low at the thought.

Kreacher gave all three of them a funny look, as if they were the ones in the wrong. “No. Both Miss Cissy and Miss Bella wouldn’t do right by Master Regulus. They wouldn’t have been happy at Kreacher, not happy at all.” His head shook back and forth, ears flapping in the night wind. “Miss wanted it gone. She told Kreacher it was evil and had to go. So she took Kreacher and said they could destroy it just like Master Regulus wanted.”

“So, wait,” Ron said, bringing himself slightly forward so he was next to Harry rather than in the background. “You destroyed the horcrux?” At Kreacher’s look of confusion, he added, “the original locket?”

“Answer him,” Harry growled, when it looked like Kreacher would rather punish himself again than say.

“Yes,” a miserable Kreacher ground out. “But Miss said if anyone found out then the Dark Lord might make another and Master Regulus would not want that. So Miss made a copy and cursed it.”

“But the horcrux is gone?” Harry confirmed.

“Yes master,” Kreacher nodded, “Kreacher was happy to watch, but Miss said Kreacher could stab it myself, for Master Regulus. To fulfil my duty.”

Harry turned from Kreacher to look at Hermione with wide eyes. The horcrux was just gone? She looked as suspicious about it as he did. “Kreacher,” Hermione began softly, a deep contrast from Harry’s demands. “How do you know it was destroyed? They are really difficult to get rid of.”

Kreacher’s head bobbed once more, “It is gone. Miss opened it and oh so evil things came out telling Kreacher not to stab it, but Miss protected Kreacher and told Kreacher to stab it until they were gone.” The words unspoken in the night air were that, of course, Kreacher had complied with that instruction.

“But who did this?” Harry asked. He should feel thankful there was one less horcrux. Instead he just felt lost and confused.

Hermione and Ron looked just as hopeless.

Kreacher looked conflicted.

“Miss asked Kreacher never to tell,” Kreacher burst out. “And Kreacher never told. Until now.” He let out a wail.

Harry jumped forwards to grab Kreacher’s hands before he could hit himself repeatedly. “Kreacher. We are on her, and your, side.” He said, as gently and calmly as he could. “You know we wanted to destroy it too. So I am happy that it is gone. I am proud you destroyed it and I am sure Master Regulus would be too.”

It was all too much for the house elf who fell sobbing to the floor.

Several minutes passed where the only sound that filled the air was the high pitched howls coming from Kreacher. Eventually silence fell, interrupted by only the occasional sniff.

“But,” Harry tried to continue calmly, as if no time had passed at all. “There are more evil things like the locket out there. And we want to destroy all of them. For Master Regulus,” He held eye contact with the elf, nodding to express the importance of the task. “And to do that, we need as much help as we can get. And,” Harry paused, “and, it sounds like your Miss knows more than us.”

Ron let out a small snort at the expression on Kreacher’s face which implied that he did not think that statement to be a difficult ask.

“So, it would be very helpful if you could tell us who it is so we can ask them to help.” Harry finished, still desperately trying in his head to work out who it could be.

He was sure Tonks was out. She and Kreacher got along as well as Sirius and Kreacher had.

Professor McGonagall perhaps?

Someone from the Order that they didn’t know?

“Miss would have told Master Harry and his friends if she had wanted,” Kreacher said, as composed as he could be while sniffing and continuing to look pitiful up at Harry.

“Kreacher, I need to know.” Harry said desperately, “maybe she meant to and never got round to it. But you cannot keep secrets from me.”

The atmosphere seemed to build in suspense as Kreacher sniffed silently and seemed to be thinking of a way, any way, in which he could get out of responding. Eventually he tilted his head downwards and looking a bit like what Harry would imagine Hermione might look had she failed all her OWLs answered. “Miss Ginny.”

“What?!?” Erupted Ron incredulously, not that Harry was far behind him. “Ginny? As in Ginny Weasley? As in my little sister Ginny?”

Kreacher nodded along to each of those statements.

“No. No,” Ron said, shaking his head frantically, “you’re wrong. You’re mad. There’s no way…”

“Kreacher,” Hermione interrupted, “could you maybe tell us how Ginny found the locket and how you destroyed it?” She was the only one calm of the three. Harry felt his insides crumbling same as Ron’s. Ginny was meant to be safe. Ginny had no idea what was going on. It simply wasn’t true.

“When the bad Master wanted to chuck all of my Mistress’ things, Miss Ginny recognised the locket as evil. But Mrs Wheezy didn’t care and Master Sirius and her tried to bin everything. Kreacher stole it back.” Kreacher looked very unrepentant about that fact, and, in a manner of speaking, Harry couldn’t blame him.

“That night Miss Ginny came to Kreacher’s cupboard and said she would set fire to my Mistress’ portrait if Kreacher did not give her the locket.”

“Well, that certainly sounds like Ginny,” Ron said with a snort.

Kreacher gave him a dark look before continuing, “Kreacher tried to protect the locket for Master Regulus, and Miss Ginny got Kreacher to tell her everything. Miss said the cave was where the Dark Lord had first tortured someone.”

How did Ginny know that? Harry knew his mouth had dropped open, but he couldn’t find it in himself to correct.

“Miss told Kreacher that they would destroy the locket and then she took it to keep it safe. Miss told Kreacher what to do, and then when Miss returned to Hogwarts, Kreacher said things about Master Harry’s parents until bad Master Sirius told him to get out. That way Kreacher could go to Hogwarts. Miss took Kreacher into a bathroom and turned a sink into a tunnel.”

Ron’s mouth had similarly dropped open. The Chamber, he mouthed silently.

“Miss and Kreacher went into this flooded dungeon and Miss gave Kreacher a snake’s tooth to stab the locket with. Then Miss opened the locket by hissing at it and Kreacher stabbed it. Once Kreacher had done, Miss made a replacement and asked Kreacher never to tell.”

“Of course,” Hermione cried, “basilisk venom! Why didn’t we think of that?”

“When did this happen Kreacher?” Harry managed to get out around the massive lump that had formed in his throat.

“Two years ago master.” Kreacher replied.

Two years. Two years. Ginny, and Kreacher, had destroyed a horcrux, knowingly, two years ago. What was going on?

The trio once again stared at each other in shock. Kreacher was almost forgotten underneath them.

“We,” Harry began croakily. He paused, cleared his throat, and started again. “We need to talk to Ginny.”

1 note · View note

candyrosecupcakes-blog · 4 years ago

Text

DH AU from Chapter 14

They were in the middle of the woods. Damp. Cold. No hope of returning to the surprising warmth of Grimmauld Place anymore. Ron was gravely injured and bleeding out. Hermione still pale with dried tear tracks running down her face. The morning felt like a lifetime ago. Had it really only been three hours since they had left Kreacher with promises of steak pie for dinner?

“So have you got it?” Harry turned to ask Hermione, breaking the topic of conversation away from the fate of the Cattermole family.

“Got it?” She asked distractedly, still fussing over Ron, “got what?”

His patience wearing thin he replied a little testily, “oh, I wonder what I’m talking about? Only the thing we went to the Ministry to get in the first place! The locket!”

Ron immediately began to struggle to sit upright, “you got the locket!” he exclaimed, “blimey, no one tells me anything! Lets see it then!”

Hermione was more preoccupied with ensuring Ron lay back down again than complying with his, or Harry’s, request. But, once she was satisfied that he was not going to further injure himself, she removed the locket from a pocket of her robes and handed it over.

It was about the size of an egg, gold with small green stones in the shape of a ’S’. It was an ornate looking thing and Harry thought it looked as hideous as the first time he had seen it, perhaps even more so now he knew the significance of it.

“And that’s definitely it?” Ron asked, “there’s not a chance the Horcrux has already been destroyed?”

Hermione took it back to inspect it, “there would be damage if it had been destroyed,” she turned to Harry, who had the most hands on experience with horcruxes, “right?”

Harry thought of the diary, stabbed with a basilisk fang, and the ring, cracked with whatever Dumbledore had used to destroy it. “Yeah,” he began, although he did not exactly like that he was apparently the leading expert on the subject, “I think we have to get it open before we can destroy it.”

Even though it seemed almost pointless the trio passed the locket between them for a little while, each trying their own way of getting it open. Brute strength failed. Various unlocking charms failed. Throwing it against the metal pole of the bunkbed yelling “open dammit” failed.

“Well, we never expected it to be easy,” Hermione said finally in her matter of fact tone.

Harry, who felt like, for once, they deserved to catch a break and something should just be easy, decided not to reply.

“Can you feel it though?” Ron said, holding the locket in a clenched fist.

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked, suddenly looking like this was a classroom experiment rather than a life or death mission.

“I don’t know,” Ron sighed, looking down at the locket, “I just always imagined a horcrux would feel…” he paused, searching for the right word, “evil.” That hadn’t been quite what he wanted to say. “Wrong even. This, this just feels cold.”

Harry took it back off him, holding it tightly in his own hands. “I don’t think any of us know what a horcrux is supposed to feel like.”

Hermione looked crestfallen. “You held the diary?” She suggested.

Harry shook his head, “I don’t remember. We all held it, didn’t we?” Once again he was struck by a wave of annoyance for Professor Dumbledore. Here they were, in a tent in the woods, trying to remember details about a book they had found in a toilet nearly five years ago.

“The only thing I remember mate,” Ron said with a slight laugh, “is how barmy you were to keep hold of it. It came out a toilet remember, I would have chucked it immediately.”

“Of course Ron!” Hermione cried delightedly, bestowing the bed bound boy with a wide grin. Ron blushed, but she was too distracted to notice. “You felt a compulsion to keep it Harry. To use it, didn’t you?”

Harry shrugged, “maybe?”

Hermione apparently wasn’t too concerned with Harry’s answer or lack there of, “The items probably all have heavy charms on them that act as protections. Like how even after Ginny knew there was something wrong with the diary, she kept using it.”

Harry winced at the mention of his ex-girlfriend. He had been steadfastly trying not to think of her all day. And he especially did not like to link his thoughts of her with thoughts of horcruxes. Ginny deserved so much better.

Ron had flinched too and muttered something about how they should have noticed something was off. Five years on and the guilt the Weasley brothers felt over their little sister’s encounter with Tom Riddle was strong as ever.

“So,” Harry said, guiding the topic away from her, “what do you think the locket is protected with?”

“I don’t know,” Hermione whispered, distraught in her lack of knowledge.

The words hung in the air.

“I’ll look into it though,” she began again hurriedly, “I’ll start doing some research. Maybe there’ll be something in Magical Protections and Charms-”

Harry cut her off, “I think we should get something to eat. And one of us should keep watch. Not you Ron!” He barked as his friend attempted to move from his bed. Slipping the locket around his neck before hiding it under his shirt, Harry took up position at the entrance of the tent, staring intently into the empty clearing beyond.

Hermione, after giving him detailed instructions in what to do if Ron started sweating or bleeding, or looking even slightly worse than current, eventually left to find a muggle shop where she could get some food. While her bag had basically everything she could think of inside, there was no food.

And that was how they found themselves for the rest of the day. Hermione returned and cooked something before swapping watch with Harry who then curled up back inside the tent listening to a snoring Ron break the silence.

They had gained a horcrux. On paper they had taken a step forwards. So why did it feel like it was actually two steps back?

1 note · View note