Trinity

Chapter 24

Harry and his friends arrived outside the gates of Hogwarts and exchanged disturbed glances before heading back up to the school. Their expedition had taken up the entire morning but none of them were hungry for lunch. They made their way up to the common room Harry and Hermione shared and set their normal spell. They settled into various chairs and couches and stared at the fire for some time.

"Did we get anything out of that other than the creeps?" Ron asked into the mournful silence.

"A location," Harry replied flatly. "The basement of the orphanage. We need to go and look there."

"What do you think Riddle did to them?" Hermione asked, her voice full of faint horror.

Ron quickly got up and sat down next to her on the couch, pulling her into his arms.

"I don't know," Harry replied, swallowing hard. "And frankly, I don't want to know. What scares me about it is that he did that before he even got to Hogwarts. He might not have known exactly what he was using but he knew he was capable of something."

"Does this cure you of your thought that you're just like Riddle?" Ron asked.

"It goes a long way," Harry admitted with a wry smile.

Silence settled in the room again though this time it seemed a bit lighter.

It was Hermione who broke it this time. "So when do we go?"

"As soon as I find out if Moody will let me," Harry replied with a slow grin.

"What?" Ron said. "Surely that's not still in force? He let you join in the ambush."

"Yeah but I think that was because he was there to supervise," Harry replied as he pushed himself to his feet. "I might go and have a word with him."

"Want us to come?" Ron asked.

"Nah," Harry said easily. "You guys haven't had much time together since school started. Why don't you do that now?"

Ron and Hermione blushed then smiled their thanks at Harry. He grinned back then headed out of the room and up to Moody's office. He knocked on the door and was surprised to here the former Auror call out permission to enter.

"I wasn't sure you'd be here, sir," Harry said as he walked in.

"Marking," Moody growled. "Can't believe how much time it takes."

Harry laughed and sat down in the chair in front of the desk.

"How did your little trip go today?" Moody growled as he pushed the parchments away.

"It was a bit...unsettling," Harry admitted. "Professor Stubbs was helpful but the other two were...well, still affected by whatever Riddle did to them."

"So what's the next step?" Moody asked, leaning back in his chair.

"The orphanage," Harry said firmly. "That is, if we're allowed out on our own again?"

Moody eyed him speculatively. "Hmm, well, you three did well during our ambush attempt against Malfoy and Snape. You sat through the whole time those two were there without doing anything stupid. Not sure if I liked you lot haring off after Snape the way you did but we were busy with Malfoy and you were in good position to do so." He nodded once. "Okay, I'll lift the suspension. What do you need?"

"Blueprints," Harry said promptly, not bothering to conceal his grin. "I want to know what the place is like inside. We're looking to go down into the basement. Both Professor Stubbs and Amy Benson mentioned that Riddle had some kind of hiding place down there."

Moody grunted and got to his feet. He rummaged around in cupboard for a moment then pulled out a series of blueprints. "Shacklebolt got hold of these for me as well as a bit of information about the orphanage. Very useful having him in the Muggle government."

Moody walked out into the DADA classroom and spread the blueprints out on the front desk. Harry joined him and they peered over them for a moment before working out what was what.

"It's not an orphanage any more," Harry said with surprise.

Moody grunted. "Yeah. Sorry, should have told you. It's an art gallery now. Muggle art."

"That's going to make things more difficult," Harry said with a grimace. "Those places usually have security systems."

"There are ways of getting around those," Moody replied. "I'll teach you and your cohorts before you go."

"Great," Harry replied absently as he turned to another part of the blueprints.

Moody pulled a second sheet of the blueprints over onto another desk and he and Harry settled into some serious planning.

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A week later and just after dinner, Harry stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom in Gryffindor Tower and adjusted the collar of his Trinity uniform. Ron was standing beside him, fastening his cloak over his chest. Both boys were full of a mix of apprehension, nervousness and anticipation. Finally they finished their preparations and took deep breaths almost in unison. They then walked out of the bathroom and headed down to the common room.

They found Hermione waiting for them near the entrance hole and the other members of their House watching with expressions of curiosity and worry. Harry gave the Gryffindors a tight smile that modulated into something warmer when he got to Ginny. She smiled back then gave him a single nod, fear lingering in her eyes.

The trio crawled out of the hole and headed down to the Entrance Hall. Professor McGonagall was waiting for them there along with Moody and Remus. She smiled grimly at them.

"Good luck," she said firmly. "If you haven't either returned or sent a message by two am we'll send a rescue party out after you."

Harry nodded; that was the agreement they'd come to with Moody. The two men also wished them luck and the trio headed out into the night. They walked down to the gates wordlessly then apparated to the rear yard of the Leaky Cauldron. They pulled the hoods of their cloaks up over their faces before walking into the pub. Harry inclined his head at Tom and gave a small wave to Fred and George who were sitting in a booth at the back and looking tense. The twins nodded back and the trio headed out into Muggle London.

The former orphanage actually wasn't too far from the Leaky Cauldron and Harry wondered briefly if that was why Merope Gaunt, or rather Merope Riddle, had chosen it. That it was the first one she found after leaving the wizarding world. About a block away, they slipped down an alleyway and approached it from a back lane.

"You know this would be a lot easier if we actually knew what we were looking for," Ron murmured as they walked silently along the lane.

"His greasiness isn't anywhere near close enough to find out what we need to know," Harry explained. He'd been able to sneak down to Hogsmeade three days ago and speak to the Headmaster. He'd returned yesterday to collect the reply from Snape.

"It shouldn't be too hard," Hermione said. "It's either going to be that small cup of Hufflepuff's or something that might appeal to a Ravenclaw."

"A book?" Ron suggested with a flash of grin.

"Maybe but I wouldn't think so," Hermione replied with prim amusement. "I'm sure Ravenclaw would have left her books to the school and Madam Pince would know if one had gone missing. I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out. If not, we simply retreat and wait for Sn...his greasiness to find out the information."

"Quiet down," Harry said as they got near the former orphanage.

There was a security camera located over the rear access door that opened onto the lane so Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out and gestured for Ron and Hermione into the shadows. They obeyed and Harry threw the cloak over his head. He slowly crept up to the back door and positioned himself in the camera's blind spot. He then pulled his wand out and edged it and his hand out from under the cloak.

"Caecus camera," he muttered.

A tendril of purple light drifted out of his wand and wrapped itself around the camera lens. Harry pulled his invisibility cloak off and beckoned for Ron and Hermione to join him. A quick Alohomora had the door open then they slid inside and Harry closed and locked the door behind them. They darted over to a large grey box that sat opposite the door and Harry pulled it open. Inside were the controls for the security system and he nodded to Hermione.

She stepped forward and traced the workings of the security system for a moment until she found the section she was looking for. She held her wand against the small panel and whispered, "Neglego populi."

There was a small flash the Hermione looked up at the two boys. "It worked, I think."

"You think?" Ron exclaimed in a quiet squeak.

"That's what was supposed to happen," Hermione said a little defensively. "But it's not like we get any other indication."

"Look, let's just assume it worked and get on with what we're here for," Harry whispered quickly in order to avert any potential argument.

Ron and Hermione nodded and the red head gave his girlfriend's hand a squeeze of apology. She smiled briefly back and the trio walked gingerly down the corridor towards the door that opened into the main gallery space.

"So where are the stairs down to the basement?" Hermione whispered.

"In the main gallery," Harry replied. "Over to the side. They should be gated so we won't be able to miss them."

Harry pushed the door open and they walked out into the gallery. The large room was dark but the moonlight shone through glass panels in the high ceiling. The walls of the room were festooned with paintings of all descriptions and there were odd sculptures scattered around the floor space. Suits of armour stood in various corners and skeleton of some kind of strange and probably entirely fantastical bird of prey made out of metal had been hung from the ceiling. The centrepiece of all of the artwork was a silvery orb that sat in a glass case and almost seemed to glow in the moonlight pouring into the dark room.

"Merlin! This place is creepy," Ron whispered as they walked across the room. "It doesn't seem right for the paintings to be so still."

"I think the Muggles would get a bit upset if the paintings started moving," Harry whispered back with amusement.

Hermione gave a quiet laugh then pointed over to one side of the large room where there was an ornate fence and gates. "That must be the stairwell over there."

The trio headed over to the gates and Hermione unlocked them with a quick Alohomora. They walked through the gates and Hermione pulled them closed but did not lock them. The three friends ppointed their wands down the stairs and used the Lumos spell to light their way. They walked carefully downwards and soon found themselves in front of a set of double doors. Hermione quickly unlocked these doors and the trio walked into a medium sized room. There were several sets of laden shelves in this room along with a number of full cases and several doors led off this room.

"What now?" Ron asked as they looked around.

"Start searching," Harry said firmly. "We're looking for something that might have the Ravenclaw insignia on it or something that might appeal to a Ravenclaw. Remember the spell that indicates whether something has traces of magic on it. If you find something with magical residue, call Hermione and she can use the spell that will let us know if it's a Horcrux." Harry looked around. "Stay in this room for the moment. We'll move onto the other rooms once we've finished in here."

"Do you think it'll be in the open?" Hermione asked dubiously.

"We'll start with the obvious," Harry replied. "If we can't find it amongst the gallery's things then we'll start looking for hidden places. Now come on, we don't have that much time."

Ron and Hermione nodded and the trio split up and started searching the room. They very quickly found that the search wasn't going to be as difficult as they'd first thought. Everything stored down in the basement also had several documents with them that turned out to be authentication papers as well as papers detailing the item's provenance. This enabled them to eliminate many items within just a few minutes. Only a handful of items required checking by Hermione and none turned out to be the Horcrux.

Once they finished their search of the main room, they headed for the side rooms. The first they dismissed immediately. It turned out to be an office, probably for some the administrative staff or possibly the curators of the gallery. The second room held paintings, none of which showed any signs of magic. The third held small items of statuary. Some of these items had traces of magic on them but in each case they were also accompanied by authentication and provenance papers that indicated that the statues had perhaps once belonged to magical families but had ended up in the hands of Squib members of those families.

It was in the fourth room that things started looking a little more promising. This room held items that the gallery had acquired but could not put on show due to lack of authentication and/or provenance. They slowly began to go through the items on the shelves in this room, examining each quickly but carefully.

"Harry! Ron!" Hermione said with excitement. "I think I might have found it!"

The two boys hurried over to her side and looked down at the object she held in her hands. It was a very elaborate piece; a decorative ink bottle with an equally decorative quill resting in the bottle. Both were made of bronze and the quill was inlaid with blue enamelling to mimic the barbs of a feather while the ink bottle was inlaid with what looked like sapphire. The papers accompanying the piece indicated that its provenance was unknown and they had not found any record of it anywhere and thus were unable to authenticate it. The papers also detailed that the object had been found in a small niche in one of walls during the renovations after the gallery bought the site.

Harry looked up from the papers and grinned at Hermione. "I think you might be right."

"Have you tried the spell on it?" Ron asked from where he was reading over Harry's shoulder.

Hermione shook her head then tapped the object with her wand, muttering a few words under he breath. The beautiful artefact glowed golden for a brief moment then faded.

"It's the Horcrux," Hermione said a little shakily. "What do you want to do?"

"We'll take it with us," Harry said, holding out his hand. Hermione gave him the object and Harry pulled a small velvet bag out of his pocket. "Moody gave this to me," he explained as he tucked the Ravenclaw object into the bag. "It'll keep it safe and secure no matter what happens."

"You don't want to disable it here?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "Aberforth's been busy the last week and we haven't had a chance to work on grounding magic yet. I don't want to risk another wildfire event in here. Professor McGonagall will be able to store it safely at Hogwarts until I'm ready to destroy it."

Ron and Hermione nodded as Harry tucked the velvet bag back into his robes. They walked out of the room, locking the door behind them then headed back up the stairs. They had just closed the gates and Hermione was locking them again when there was a sudden flash and a low humming noise began. Harry and Ron moved to protect Hermione while she finished locking the door and they played the light from their wands around the large room.

It was easy to determine where the flash and humming were coming from. The orb that was the centrepiece of the collection was now pulsing in a heartbeat pattern and humming almost inaudibly. Hermione finished locking the door and came up to flank Harry on the opposite side to Ron.

"What's going on?" she said tensely.

"I don't know," Harry replied, glancing around the moonlit room warily.

A sudden movement and a terribly cracking noise drew their attention. They looked up to see the skeleton of the fantastical bird of prey pull itself free of its bindings and start to flap it wings.

"Oh, that's just not possible," Hermione said as the skeletal bird began to circle the room.

"Hermione, you've been learning magic for the last six years," Harry said flatly. "How many impossible things have you seen?"

The bird screeched and in a lightning move, dived for the trio. They scattered in separate directions and shot a variety of spells at the bird. This turned out to be fairly ineffective, the spells all passing through the skeletal frame.

An inarticulate cry from Ron had Hermione and Harry turning in his direction. They saw the red haired boy caught in the embrace of a large abstract statue. The statue, which resembled something of a mix between a dead tree and spider, had dragged itself over from the corner they remembered it being in. The two friends made a move to help Ron but quickly found themselves caught up in their own battles. Hermione found herself cornered by two suits of armour that had been standing on either side of the main doors while Harry found himself suddenly wrapped in a thick tendril of black smoke that was emanating from one of the portraits near him.

Ron spared a quick glance over at his friends and realised that he could not expect help to come from that direction; they were far too busy with their own problems. He wriggled around in the grip of the statue then yelped when the statue picked him up and started moving. He glanced around and saw where they were heading. He drew in a sharp breath and started trying to pull himself free more fervently. The statue was carrying him over to the suit of armour that had been standing in the corner near the door where they had entered. The statue with the enormous axe; the statue that was now swinging that axe around with an almost obscene amount of enthusiasm.

Ron twisted his hand around at an awkward angle until he could point his wand at one of the 'arms' the statue was using to hold him then he said firmly, "Reducto".

He made a small triumphant sound when the arm dissolved into rubble and aimed his wand at another arm. He kept going with this tactic, glancing up from time to time to check their progress. Thankfully the suit of armour didn't seem inclined to come and get him and the statue wasn't exactly quick to move. But still their inexorable motion towards the suit of armour was too quick for his liking. He'd taken care of about half of the arm when he heard a whistling sound. He glanced around then yanked his feet up and out of the way just as the axe blade bit into the floor; had he left them their the axe would probably have taken his feet off just above the ankle.

Ron wriggled around in the statue's grip and realised he'd destroyed enough of the arms that the statue could not keep a tight enough grip on him. He quickly snaked out of the statue's grip and rolled free just as the suit of armour brought its axe crashing down on the statue. His eyes widened when the statue gave a low whining noise. It then leaned forward and its remaining arms began groping around, clearly looking for him.

Ron shuddered and levelled his wand at the statue and yelled, "Reducto!"

He grinned with delight when the statue froze then crumbled into rubble. The grin faded when the suit of armour turned in his direction and started pacing towards him, swinging its axe lustily. He scrambled to his feet and pointed his wand at the statue.

"Stupefy," he shouted and watched as the light from his wand impacted on the armour. It froze momentarily then started towards him again.

"Whoa!" Ron exclaimed as he darted out of the way of the suit of armour and its axe. He pointed his wand at it again. "Reducto!"

The armour's left arm turned to rust and crumbled to the floor and Ron gave a sigh of relief before systematically destroying the rest of the suit of armour. Once he'd finished he bent over and took several deep breaths before turning to see what was happening with Harry and Hermione. He couldn't see Harry anywhere but Hermione had been backed into a corner by no less than four suits of armour and was clearly hard pressed to defend herself.

When the two suits of armour closed in on Hermione, she threw a quick Stupefy and Expelliarmus at them then ducked around them to gain more space. The two suits of armour staggered under the spells but recovered and started to stalk her. She warily backed away from them then started when a harsh voice rang out from behind her.

"A strong one! More is needed!"

She whirled around to see that one of the paintings, a portrait of a sour-looking old man, had come to life. A clanking sound behind her captured her attention and she saw the two suits of armour that had originally attacked her had been joined by four others. She hissed under her breath and whipped around, levelling her wand at the portrait.

"Incendio!" she snapped then gave a grim smile as the portrait went up in flames, the old man cursing all the way.

She turned back to the suits of armour and slowly backed towards the nearest corner. She couldn't afford to allow the suits of armour to get behind her and a quick glance showed her the Ron was a touch busy right now and she couldn't see hide nor hair of Harry. Her back bumped into the wall and she concentrated on the suits of armour. She raised her wand and aimed it at the nearest suit of armour.

"Stupefy" she yelled then grimaced as the spell made the suit freeze for a moment but then it continued to stalk towards her.

She tried a Banishing charm which knocked the suit of armour she aimed it at backwards for a couple of feet then she tried the full body-bind. That froze the suit of armour she'd aimed it at but within a few seconds the armour had broken free. She grimaced as the six suits came closer and closer then she unleashed a blasting curse.

She bared her teeth in triumph as the suit of armour she'd aimed that spell at flew apart then she cursed and put up a quick protego shield as chunks of metal rained down around her. Making a mental note not to try that one again, she aimed at a second suit of armour.

"Reducto," she said firmly, suddenly remembering Harry's use of that spell during the Third Task to cut through the hedge of the maze.

She watched in satisfaction as the suit of armour crumbled into rusted rubble the Ron was bounding over.

"Can offer my assistant, my lady," he said. "Reducto!" The third suit of armour crumbled into nothing.

"Why, thank you, kind sir," Hermione replied with a grin as she took care of the fourth suit of armour. "But now that I've figured out how to get rid of the damn things, I think I'm pretty much done."

They destroyed the last two suits of armour then grinned at each other.

"Where's Harry?" Ron asked.

Hermione's grin disappeared. "He's not with you. I couldn't see him when I looked around just before."

Ron sobered and headed over to where he'd last seen Harry, Hermione on his heels. When they got there they found a few wisps of black smoke but no Harry.

"Harry?" Hermione called, frowning as she looked around.

"Hermione!" Ron gasped.

The bushy-haired girl turned to see Ron pointing at a painting on the wall with a horrified expression. The painting, which was of a fairly bucolic scene, now had a tiny Harry Potter sitting under a tree reading a book. Ron and Hermione stared at each other then back at the painting.

"What the hell do we do now?" Ron whispered in shock.

"I have no idea," Hermione replied faintly.

Ron stared at Hermione for a moment. "Should...should we call for help?"

"I think we should," Hermione said, swallowing hard. "We...may need to take the painting with us and we'll need to know if that's even possible."

Ron nodded and looked around. "I'll go out the back and send the message."

"I'll see if I can find anything here," Hermione said, not sounding very confident.

Ron turned and picked his way through the rubble of the suits of armour, heading for the back door. He was about six feet away when a hoarse croaking sound froze him to the spot. He looked up to where the sound had come from and saw the skeletal bird perched on top of a large statue. It was eying him beadily and as he stared at it, it opened its mouth and made that harsh, croaking noise again.

"Uh, Hermione," Ron called, not moving a muscle. "We've still got a little problem."

"What is it?" Hermione asked, sounding rather abstracted.

"Uh, could you please turn around and look up at what's on the big statue just near me?" Ron said with a bit more urgency.

He heard Hermione sigh and then gasp. "Oh, I forgot about that thing," she said apprehensively.

"Well, do you think you could do something about it now?" Ron said, tensing as the skeletal bird shifted its position. "I don't think I could get a spell off before it got to me."

"Okay," Hermione said and Ron heard her moving towards him. "Just don't move."

As Ron waited, he heard Hermione's footsteps stop then she said firmly, "Stupefy!"

He saw the spell hit the bird in the dead centre of its chest and for a moment it looked like it hadn't worked then it seemed to fold in on itself and slowly fell off the statue. It hit the floor and shattered, bones flying in all directions, some of them banging into Ron. He gave a huge sigh and turned to his girlfriend.

"Thanks," he said with relief. "I owe you one."

"I'll think of a way you can repay me," Hermione said with a wicked grin.

Ron returned the grin then continued on his way as Hermione turned back to the portrait. He quickly made his way out of the gallery and into the back lane. Once there he glanced around to make sure he was alone then he pulled out his wand and concentrated on the message he wanted to send to Professor McGonagall then cast the Patronus spell. He tucked his wand back into his robes and leaned against the door to wait for help to arrive.