Harry Potter and the Curse's Legacy

Harry trudged up the stairs after a particularly filling lunch prepared by Mrs. Weasley. When he reached the first landing, he glanced at Ginny's door and smiled, then turned to the opposite door and let himself into Fred and George's old room. The smell of gunpowder that pervaded the space a year before was thankfully gone, as were the storage boxes the twins had left behind. New maroon curtains hung at the windows and matched the new bedclothes. Mrs. Weasley, he presumed, had done her best to turn this into a proper guest quarters and the effort showed.

Dropping down on the bed nearest the door, Harry sighed with relief at the quiet. He'd taken in quite a bit so far today, and was looking forward to a few solitary minutes to unwind. Figuring that he might as well do something useful, he rose and opened his trunk and began moving his clothes into their proper places. Working carefully to not upset the sleeping Hedwig on top of the tall wardrobe, he absently wondered what lay inside the box Petunia gave him. I really should get some clothes that fit me properly, he mused.

He left it sitting beside his trunk as he continued organizing his belongings, setting quills, ink, parchment and books atop the polished surface of the desk and finally stowing his socks and pants inside the chest of drawers. He turned back to his trunk and peered inside; the only things left were some sweet wrappers and the remains of the mirror he'd smashed when it proved to be no use in contacting Sirius. One more unpleasant memory, he considered, flopping back down on the bed. Reasoning that he could get away with some minor spell casting in a known wizarding household, he prepared to banish the rubbish but stopped before actually doing so.

"Reparo," he muttered, pointing his wand at the fragmented mirror. Rubbing his eyes wearily, he picked up the mirror and set it on the nightstand, then banished the remaining debris.

"Hopefully it won't criticize my hair like the one in the loo," he mumbled. "Thanks for that at least, Padfoot."

As he spoke Sirius's Marauder nickname, the mirror began to glow softly. Taken aback by this new development, Harry staggered back against the wall.

"S-Sirius?" he whispered, inching toward the mirror.

"Took you long enough!" his godfather's voice barked from within the frame.

Harry fell to his knees beside the nightstand and felt tears threatening for the second time that day. His trembling hand reached out for the mirror, and he half-expected it to look perfectly normal.

His heart leapt when he saw Sirius's face beaming back at him.

"Sirius, are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

Sirius seemed to consider for a moment, then answered, "Kind of lonely here, but pleasant. How are you? Not sitting around mourning me, I hope."

Harry blushed, ashamed that using Sirius's nickname hadn't occurred to him before now. Of course they would use Prongs and Padfoot and not James and Sirius. It all seemed so simple now that he knew it. How could I have given up so easily?

"I'm sorry for getting you to follow us to the Ministry, Sirius. If I'd remembered the mirrors and hadn't run off without thinking everything through, you'd still be here!" Harry hated the anguished sound of his own voice.

Sirius sighed. "Harry, I was cooped up in that house for a year. This place is much more entertaining, and I can go anywhere I want. It's my fault for taunting my dear cousin and not watching where I was."

"Are my parents there?" Harry changed the subject anxiously.

Sirius shook his head. "No; I'm alone, as far as I can tell. I'm not sure what this place is, but it's comfortable, and has plenty of places to explore. It's a bit like having the whole world to myself."

Harry pulled himself up off of his knees and sat down on the bed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Why so glum, Harry?" Sirius peered at him concernedly.

"So much has happened in the past year, Sirius! First you died, then the Ministry started trying to get me to be their poster boy, and Malfoy let Death Eaters into Hogwarts and Snape killed Dumbledore. And now I have to find four Horcruxes and finish off Voldemort and I don't even know where to begin." Harry flopped backward on his bed and let out a quiet howl of frustration.

"Snape killed Dumbledore? That's not possible! I never liked him, but a murderer? Why on earth . . ." Sirius seemed to be struggling to find words to continue.

Harry sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today. "I was there, under Dad's cloak. I saw him do it. Avada Kedavra. And if that didn't do it, the fall from the top of the Astronomy tower surely finished the job."

Sirius continued shaking his head, processing the information that Harry just gave him. "What's a Horcrux?"

"A piece of soul, stored in an object, that keeps someone from dying when they're killed. It's why Voldemort didn't really die when the curse rebounded on him when I was a baby." Harry recited. He felt like he'd talked about Horcruxes far too many times recently. And there are probably more people I need to talk to, he mused inwardly.

Sirius appeared confused. "Why four? Wouldn't one be enough?"

Harry chuckled for the first time since his godfather appeared in the mirror. "Apparently not enough for Voldemort. He wanted to split his soul into seven pieces because apparently seven is the most magical number. The diary was a Horcrux, and it's already been destroyed, plus there's a ring that Dumbledore took care of, and the piece inside Voldemort himself – that leaves four to find and destroy." Harry ticked them off on his fingers and repeated his mantra. "The locket, the cup, the snake, and something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's." He then quickly summarized Dumbledore's theories about the significance of the objects, and his venture to the cave the night Dumbledore died. He choked up a bit talking about the happenings on the Astronomy tower, but made it through despite Sirius's increasingly disbelieving look.

"So you have the locket, then?" Sirius inquired.

Harry shook his head miserably. "It was a fake. Someone took the real one and put a decoy in its place, with a note inside." He then pulled the locket and note out of his pocket and read it aloud to Sirius."

To the Dark Lord
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.

Sirius shook his head even more vigorously than before. "It's not possible. No. He wasn't even twenty. No way."

Harry eyed Sirius curiously and spoke to break him out of his disbelieving reverie. "What's not possible? I have the note right here, and this isn't the same locket that was in the memory Dumbledore got from Hokey!"

"No, I understand that the switch happened. What I can't figure out is how Regulus managed it." Sirius was still shaking his head.

"You mean your brother Regulus?" Harry was dumbstruck.

Sirius finally switched from shaking his head to nodding. "My brother Regulus Arcturus Black."

Harry rubbed his eyes again, this time in disbelief. "I can't believe I didn't think of him as R.A.B. What if the locket is at twelve Grimmauld Place?" He stood up from his bed and strode to the door, then turned back to the mirror before opening it. "I'll be right back. I need to get the others."

Sirius nodded in agreement and Harry headed out of his room to find his friends gathered in the sitting room. Hermione was curled up with a book on the sofa beside Ron, who was playing Exploding Snap with Ginny.

Harry cleared his throat to attract their attention. "Er, guys? I have a, er, startling development to share with you." They all looked at him with identical questioning glances.

Hermione closed her book after carefully marking her place, and was the first to speak. "You've only been gone twenty minutes or so, Harry, what is it?"

"I know who R.A.B. is." He waited for that bombshell to clear before even trying to continue.

Ginny was the first to break the silence this time. "Who is R.A.B. and why is that important?" Her eyes clearly said that she did not expect to be left out of anything anymore. Harry crossed to her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her forehead.

"Ginny, you know that I wanted to protect you when I broke up with you." He raised his hand to stop her before she interrupted him, as her face showed she was preparing to do. "I've given up on that idea, so don't hex me. But there are some things you don't know. Dangerous knowledge. Knowledge Voldemort would kill to have." He paused, trying to decide how to delicately phrase his next statement, then looked directly into her eyes. "I understand now that you can take care of yourself, and don't need me to protect you, as much as I'd like to. But if you don't want to know these things, I completely understand. It makes things even more hazardous for you than just being my girlfriend."

Quirking an eyebrow at him, Ginny grinned and said, "I can't help you if I don't know, Harry. And I want to help you as much as I can."

He sighed and drew her closer, placing his chin on top of her head in a gesture that already felt second-nature to him. He stroked her hair with one hand and brought his other arm to circle around her waist. "It sounds so dramatic, but there's no other way to say it. I am the Chosen One, Gin. Dumbledore shared the prophecy with me that night after the Ministry last year, and it says that I'm the one who has to stop Voldemort." He squeezed her even tighter, half afraid that she would decide he was too dangerous to be with, half hoping she'd come to that very conclusion so she'd be safer.

She stepped back from him and looked into his bright green eyes. He tried to look away from her, afraid of what he would see reflected in hers. She grabbed his face in both hands and forced him to look back. "Understand this, Harry James Potter. I already knew you were the Chosen One, whether you confirmed it for me or not. This is not going to drive me away. I understand the risks, and I'm willing to take them to help keep you safe."

"But –"

"No buts. No ifs, no ands. No caveats or loopholes. You're stuck with me, no matter what dark and terrible secret you think you have."

Hermione and Ron watched the interplay like spectators at a tennis match.

"Ginny –" he interrupted.

"Shut up, you git. I'm not done yet. If you think that you can scare me away from you by telling me what horrible fate lies in store for you –"

"Ginny!" he said, more loudly.

She stopped and gave him an irritated glare. "Don't interrupt me!"

Harry grinned sheepishly and continued undeterred. "I was just going to say that I love you."

Hermione beamed at him more broadly than she had in the common room at the scene of their first kiss. Even Ron looked more amused than repulsed to hear his best friend declare his love for his sister in such a public fashion.

Ginny's look softened immediately. "Oh. Well, then I guess that makes me the git. I love you too, Harry." She reached up and drew him into a prolonged kiss that had Ron groaning and Hermione clapping happily.

When they finally broke apart, Ginny continued, "So, this still doesn't explain who R.A.B. is or why this person is important."

Harry glanced around the room before answering. "We should probably go upstairs. I don't want your mum to overhear any more of this." He held out his hand to Ginny and began to draw her up the stairs, with Ron and Hermione on their heels. When they reached the landing, Harry paused and warned them, "This is going to be weird. Very weird."

The three teens looked at him quizzically before following him through the doorway. Harry closed the door and cast the Imperturbable charm on it as well as a locking charm. Ron and Hermione took a seat on the far bed, and Ginny patted the bed next to her when he turned from the door. He joined her there, and took a deep breath.

He reached behind him and picked up the mirror and handed it to Ginny. She peered into it and squinted at it before handing it back to him. "It's a mirror, Harry."

Harry did a double-take and gazed into the mirror himself. Sirius was laughing at him. "No one can see me but you, Harry. I can see and hear them, though. The mirrors were charmed so that only James and I could see each other – I switched the charm on his to work for you, but it won't work for anyone else." Harry sighed. This is going to be more of a pain than I expected. "All right, Sirius says you guys can't see him, but trust me, I can."

At the sound of Sirius's name, the other three gasped and looked at Harry skeptically. "What do you mean, you can see Sirius?" Ron voiced the question that remained unasked by the girls.

Harry took another breath and explained the charms on the mirrors, and how he had tried to contact Sirius through his at the end of his fifth year. "When Sirius's name failed, I tossed it in the bottom of my trunk, and I was pretty angry, so it broke. I fixed it today and said, 'Padfoot,' and it worked. I can't believe I was too stupid to try that before."

Ginny patted him on the knee comfortingly. "You couldn't have known, Harry, and you were pretty upset at the time. Don't blame yourself." She gave him an encouraging smile. He smiled shyly back and continued on.

"So I was catching Sirius up on the whole Horcrux situation" he turned to address Ginny, "which I will do with you as soon as we're done with Sirius, I promise," He looked back toward Sirius in the mirror and continued, "and I mentioned R.A.B. and the locket. He says that his brother is Regulus Arcturus Black." Hermione gasped at the name, but Harry plowed on. "He was a Death Eater, and was killed on Voldemort's orders because he wanted to stop being a Death Eater." Sirius nodded along with Harry's recounting.

He looked at his friends. Hermione looked thoughtful, Ron looked confused, and Ginny was staring at him intently. She grabbed him and kissed him firmly. "A locket? Harry, we found a locket when we were cleaning, remember? And no one could open it! I wonder what we did with it."

Harry was elated by this revelation, and he reached out to Ginny and pulled her up on his lap. "Now I know it was the right decision to bring you in on this." He kissed her back, grinning madly. She beamed back at him and Harry, oblivious to Ron and Hermione's discomfort and Sirius's laughter and jeering from the mirror, kissed her repeatedly. "I'm so glad I get to do this again."

A loud cough from Ron broke them out of their intense moment and they blushed. Sirius was still laughing, so Harry glared at him. "What's so funny, Padfoot?"

Sirius shook his hair out of his face and beamed up at Harry. "I see that you finally wised up and realized that she's the one for you. I'm reminded of your parents in reverse."

Harry laughed at the thought of Ginny repeatedly asking him out over the course of his five years at school with her, as persistent as his father had been in pursuing his mother. "I guess it runs in the family." He grinned sheepishly and kissed Ginny once more.

Ron stood up and forcibly pulled them apart. "Enough snogging! What's with you two?"

Ginny studied Harry's face for a moment before turning to Ron. "Making up for lost time, prat." She stood up from Harry's lap and Harry was left wondering if he or Ron was the prat. She leaned over and kissed him again quickly, "You're not the prat, Harry." How does she do that? He wondered.

Hermione stood up and placed a hand on Ron's arm. "Let's leave these two alone."

Ron protested, "I'm not leaving them in here while they're acting like they're in heat!"

"I promise not to sully your sister's honor, Ron. Now go so that I can tell her about the Horcruxes." Harry scowled at him.

"Fine, if that's all you're doing." Ron pulled Hermione out of the room in a huff.

"I may sully his honor though, prat!" Ginny yelled after them. She waved her wand to slam and recharm the door.

"Gin, he's trying. We were being, er, demonstrative." Harry implored, pulling her back down on his lap and returning his attention to the mirror. "Sirius, do you have more bombshells to drop on me?"

"I think one a day is my quota, Harry. Get back to taking care of your girlfriend. I'm not going anywhere." He spread his hands and glanced around. "You know where to find me. Mischief managed." His image faded from the mirror. I guess "mischief managed" is the all-purpose Marauders code for turning off enchantments, Harry surmised.

"Now. Where were we?" Harry leaned into Ginny and took her lower lip between his teeth, burying his hands in her hair." She giggled against his mouth as he valiantly tried to ignore her pushing against him.

"Harry! Stop!" she gasped, still laughing, pushing away from him more vigorously. "Horcruxes, please. I really want to know."

Harry sighed dramatically and pulled his hands back, clasping them in his lap. "Okay, I'll be good."

Ginny smiled and arched an eyebrow. "I don't want you to be too good. I just want you to explain things to me first." She scooted off of his lap and sat beside him on the bed, taking one hand in hers and stroking it absently with her thumb.

"Well, you know I had those special lessons with Dumbledore last year?" Ginny nodded. "He was showing me things about Voldemort's past, and how he ended up the way he is now."

As he spun the tale of Tom Riddle's descent from handsome orphan to snakelike Dark Lord, Ginny listened with rapt attention. She was an excellent audience, gasping and sighing, even swearing at the appropriate moments. He only had to stop when he talked about the creation of the diary, and tears appeared in her eyes. He pulled her to him and held her as she sobbed against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Gin. That should never have happened to you. I should have been your friend sooner. I should have noticed the changes in you, instead of dismissing you as Ron's little sister."

Ginny's crying subsided, and she slowly pulled away from Harry, wiping her eyes. "It's not your fault, Harry. My brothers didn't notice anything strange about me either, except for Percy making me take that Pepper-Up Potion. Even if you'd been nice to me, you couldn't have known me as well as they do."

Harry smiled and lifted her chin, "But I want to now, Gin. I want to know everything about you. I want to be the first one to notice when anything is wrong with you, and the first one to help you fix it." She smiled through the remnants of her tears.

"Oh, Harry, that's the loveliest thing anyone has ever said to me." She leaned in and kissed him softly, stroking the side of his face with her fingers and tracing the line of his smile with her thumb. Harry kissed her thumb as it passed over his lips and pulled her to him again.

"It's just the truth, Gin." He kissed the top of her head and asked, "You ready to continue?" He felt her nod and inhaled her flowery scent before completing the sordid tale of Tom Riddle's quest for immortality with a deep, weary sigh.

Ginny leaned back and looked up at him. "So the night that Death Eaters attacked the school, you were with Dumbledore looking for the necklace, but it turned out to be a fake? That's what you were holding when I led you away from Dumbledore's, um," she paused, "Dumbledore."

Harry gulped and nodded. "That's when I figured out it was a fake, when I found it on the ground by his," he had to pause to swallow the lump in his throat, "by his body."

It was now Ginny's turn to pull Harry to her and hold him close. "It's not your fault, Harry. What happened to Dumbledore is all down to Draco and Snape and Voldemort. Dumbledore froze you to save you. That's not your fault." She stroked his hair and kissed his temple, crossing over to press her lips on his scar, where she lingered for several seconds.

Harry's emotions switched from the brink of grief to something more akin to lust in response to the contact. He tilted his head down to meet her eyes and almost growled, "I love it when you kiss my scar. No one ever touches it but you."

Ginny quirked an eyebrow and kissed it again, chuckling softly. Her hands plunged deeply into his hair and held him to her mouth and she smiled as she heard him gasp when her tongue flicked over his famous mark. She progressed from his forehead down the side of his face, planting tiny kisses as she went, until she reached his mouth. They sighed against each other as Harry's hands slid beneath the hem of her shirt around her back. He thrilled at the feeling of her skin beneath his fingers for the second time in the span of a few hours and took her lip between his teeth again. She responded by leaning back on the bed, pulling him over with her.

Merlin, this feels incredible, he thought as he found himself pressed against the entire length of her body. Her hands slipped down to untuck his shirt from his jeans, and before he could react she had her hands under his shirt as well, roaming the territory of his slim back. "Gin?" he questioned between kisses.

"Mmhmm?" she murmured, slipping her fingers beneath the waistband of his jeans and causing him to inhale sharply.

"I promised your brother that I wouldn't sully your honor," he muttered as he kissed her collarbone. "But I'm sorely tempted to become a liar." He started nibbling on the side of her neck, eliciting a gasp from his girlfriend. He let out a resigned sigh and rolled onto his back, pulling her along with him to curl into his side with her head on his shoulder.

After several minutes of toying with the ends of her hair, watching the light from the window reflect its highlights, he whispered, "Think your mum would let you sleep with me if I asked nicely?"

She stopped tracing circles on his chest with her finger. "You're going to ask my mother's permission before you shag me?" Propping herself up on her elbow, she gave him an incredulous look.

Bugger. He could feel the blush rising as he quickly corrected her assumption, "Not shagging. I meant actual sleeping, you depraved harlot." He poked her in the side, eliciting another giggle. "I was just thinking how nice it felt to lie here with you, and how it's a shame that we can't sleep like that."

She smiled at him and laid her head back on his chest. "Yes, that would be nice. Mum would have kittens though, so don't bring it up."

He laughed out loud. "Do you think I have a death wish?"

She tensed at his words, and he immediately regretted them. "I'm sorry, Gin, it's just a figure of speech." He stroked her cheek as he continued, "I don't have a death wish, I promise. I'm going to do everything I can to survive this mess. I do need to talk to your mum or your dad, though. Well, we do."

"What about?" she asked curiously, resuming her ministrations on his chest with her whole hand.

"Well, if you think we saw the locket at Headquarters, I need to go there and look for it." He felt her tense again, and hastily rephrased, "I mean, we need to go there and look for it." He felt her smile against his shoulder.