God Bless the Broken Road

"Is there anything else you can tell us, Ms. Henderson?"

James had managed to get in touch with Alina, explained the situation, and arranged to meet her with Ed on her lunch break at a small coffee shop near Diagon Alley. Remus had recommended it; apparently he'd often been there in his younger days.

Alina was good; she managed to carefully avoid mentioning anything about magic, or anything that might puzzle Ed. Now she shook her head. "No, sir, I can't."

"All right. Get in touch with us if you hear from your cousin...leave a message with Bill Weasley, it'll get to us." Ed and James stood, paid the tab, and left the shop.

James pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Anything else?"

Ed shook his head and sighed. "Brick wall, pal. We're gonna have to keep investigating tomorrow...I'm heading back to the hotel. You?"

"Like I said, I'm staying with the Weasleys, so I'll be heading back there," James answered. "See you tomorrow, Ed."

"See you."

James returned to the Burrow to find the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and Remus deep in a serious conversation. "Can I ask what's going on, or would that be intruding?"

Remus waved him over to the table. "Difficulties. Between the Death Eaters and Voldemort, you'd think we had enough to worry about, but...have you ever heard of Horocruxes?"

"Yes, of course. Slughorn mentioned them once...just once...then looked dreadfully worried and shut up fast. But Sirius and I went and looked them up, just because we were curious. Isn't that the thing wizards put a bit of their soul into, to sort of extend their lives?"

Harry nodded grimly. "Well, Voldemort knew about them too."

"Will it sound stupid if I ask how he found out?"

"Slughorn told him," Harry said with a sardonic smile.

James sighed and sat down. "So that's why he didn't die all those years ago? There's part of his soul floating around somewhere?"

"Parts. Plural," Hermione informed him. "Dumbledore and Harry found out last year that he divided his soul into seven parts."

"Because of the magical properties of the number seven," James guessed. "Of all the numbers, it's considered the luckiest, even by Muggles. In Arithmantic sequences it means 'power'...it'll boost the power of whatever it's added to." He chuckled a little. "I guess some of Vector's lessons rubbed off on me."

Hermione half-smiled. "Well, yes, we think that was his reasoning. The problem is--where are those Horocruxes? How do we find them? And once we find them, how do we get rid of them?"

Arthur chuckled lightly. "We could use your master detective skills, James. The only way I can think of is to interrogate people...and I doubt that would work."

"I want to help, but I'm kind of in the middle of a case..."

"They might be one and the same," Bill said quietly. "Like I told you, Kenny Kissell was in my year at Hogwarts. But...well, he was in Slytherin. And he idolised a lot of the older kids who turned out to be Death Eaters."

James tapped his jaw thoughtfully. "I've a thought, but I'm not sure it'll work. Ed and Lenny offered to help me with my 'private investigation' if I needed it. Maybe they could help out. Ed and I are pretty good at the good cop-bad cop thing...and Lenny's got more experience than the both of us put together."

"But we'd have to tell them everything!"

"Aye, there's the rub. Still, it might be the only way. And these days, how much longer can we stay hidden anyway?"

All heads turned to Harry, who hesitated, then sighed. "Give 'em a call."

~~~

Lenny and Ed sat at the Weasleys' kitchen table, staring silently. Everyone had cleared out except James and Harry, who had explained everything, even showed the two Americans a couple of spells. Finally, Lenny broke the silence. "I almost can't believe it...but it sure explains a lot. Like how that guy, Macnair? How he got away."

"Was he in America?" Harry asked, startled. "He's a Death Eater...I thought he was in Azkaban."

"Is that like Alcatraz?" Ed asked.

The Potters nodded. "Built by the same person, actually--or designed by the same," Harry added. "Alcatraz was originally a wizarding prison...we talked about it in History of Magic once. There were three--Azkaban, Alcatraz, and Aftakhat."

"What happened to Aftakhat?" Lenny asked.

James shrugged. "Nobody knows. Some say it sank, some say it was destroyed." He hesitated. "Personally? I think it was stolen."

"What?"

"I know it sounds weird, but it's possible," James insisted. "You take a point in something--a trunk, a car seat, a pocket, whatever--and enchant it to expand and fit anything, while still retaining its shape. Like...have you ever seen The Sword in the Stone?"

"The Disney one? Yeah."

"Well, you know that bit where Merlin is packing everything in the room into one bag? That's pretty much what the spell does. 'Course, Walt was a wizard...everyone knew that. I think he studied at Salem."

Ed sighed. "It's a lot to swallow, but I'll buy it. If only because I've seen it."

"Hey, I'm not complaining." James sighed. "Look, I know it's gonna be tricky, but we've got to find--how many, Harry?"

"Four."

"Right. Four Horocruxes. Then we've got to stop Voldemort."

Lenny frowned. "I thought you said his soul was split into seven pieces."

"I did. Wait." James turned to Harry. "It was seven pieces, right?"

"Right." Harry held up seven fingers. "One was a possessed diary. I got rid of that before I knew what it was--stabbed it with a basilisk fang." One finger went down. "One was a ring--Dumbledore took care of that." He lowered another finger. "One is still in Voldemort." A third finger down. "That leaves four. One is definitely a locket--I just have to find R.A.B. The other three we have no idea about."

"R.A.B.?" James asked, piqued.

"Could he have been a Death Eater?" Ed asked, going into Detective Mode. "Maybe it was a revenge thing."

"Regulus Alterf Black!" James blurted. "Not bad, Ed. Regulus left--they'd promised him they could save his little girl, but she died. They didn't really even try to save her...he was crushed."

"Where can we find him?" Lenny asked Harry.

"Well, he's dead," Harry said slowly.

James brightened. "His widow might know something, though."

Ed stood. "Then come on, James. Let's go talk to the Black widow."