Harry Potter and the War of the Wands

Chapter 6 - The Gryffindor, The Slytherin and the Wardrobe

Vauxhall Road was a typical London street with the usual hustle and bustle of Muggle life; harassed businessmen and women scurried up and down the pavement as if the hounds of hell were after them, and no one had any time to notice the messy-haired teenager who was strolling along, apparently at ease. Harry, in an attempt to remain inconspicuous, had refrained from Apparating directly to the orphanage. Instead, he had made his way to the nearest train station from Godric's Hollow and travelled to London using Muggle transport. It took him a little more than two hours, and three stops, to get there, but he wasn't exactly in a rush. He was still unsure of how to get in to the orphanage to look for clues, in any case.

He'd also cleaned himself up and was dressed in more casual clothes so as not to draw any glances from passers by, although if anyone had looked in the hood of his zipper, they might have got a shock. Laranole had accompanied Harry on the trip, but was also slightly put out by the fact that he had to be hidden away in such an uncivil manner.

"Sssoo, you jussst exsspect me to lie here and sssay nothing?" Laranole asked dejectedly.

"I'm sorry, Laranole, but it isn't exactly normal to carry a snake around the streets of London," Harry whispered out of the side of his mouth. A passer by looked curiously at the young man who seemed to be talking to his own shoulder.

"Good morning," Harry said with a smile, as the stranger scurried past without a response.

"Humansss are sssoo rude sssometimesss...," Laranole piped up. Harry smiled and carried on towards the gates of the orphanage, which had just come into view. It looked very much like Harry remembered from his trip into Dumbledore's Pensieve.

"Well, here we are," said Harry in Parseltongue. "I'm going to try the direct approach first, I think." He made his way up the steps into what appeared to be a small reception area. There was a pretty young girl behind the counter who was working on a computer and hadn't noticed Harry yet.

He coughed slightly to get her attention, and she jumped in surprise.

"Oh, you gave me a little fright there!" the girl gushed, blushing slightly. "I was away in a world of my own. I need to get these reports put through straight away, or I'll be in trouble, and now my computer has crashed as usual." She looked pretty stressed.

"I'm sorry." Harry smiled warmly. He had a sudden thought. "Erm, I know a little bit about computers if you'd like me to have a look at it for you?" Never having had a computer of his own, and never being allowed to touch any of Dudley's, he really had no idea how to work one at all, but he did have his wand.

"Would you really?" she said, returning his smile. "That would be really sweet of you." She blushed again slightly. She spun the monitor around and pushed the keyboard over to him. Harry fumbled around with a few keys at first, and then, surreptitiously pulling his wand out under the counter, gave it a wave before sheathing it again.

The computer blinked back into life and Harry spun the monitor round again in triumph.

"There you go. That should do it," he said. "It wasn't anything major."

"Thank you so much. You've really saved my skin," replied the girl. "My name's Geraldine, by the way," she continued with a flutter of her eyelashes. It seemed that Harry had an admirer.

"Nice to meet you, Geraldine," replied Harry. "My name's Harry. I was wondering if you could help me out with something?" Harry, remembering one of his father's old habits, ran his fingers through his hair causing it to end up more tousled than before. He had thought it a stupid thing to do, but Geraldine smiled appreciatively.

"I'm trying to find out about my family tree. You see, my parents died when I was only a year old and I've been living with my mum's relatives ever since," said Harry sorrowfully. He felt bad about going about it this way, but it couldn't be helped.

"That's awful," Geraldine broke in sadly.

"I know," said Harry. "But, just recently, I found out some information about my dad's side of the family." Geraldine nodded, obviously engrossed in the story.

"Well, it turns out my grandfather was brought up in this orphanage, and I thought that there might be some records still around from back then that I could look through to find out more about him? His name was Riddle." He spoke hesitantly, not wanting to seem too desperate.

"I'm not sure to be honest," said Geraldine truthfully. "All of the old files are stored in the basement with the old furniture and stuff. Mr Jetterman isn't in today, and I would need to speak to him before I could try to find the files for you."

"The thing is, Geraldine, I'm leaving today to go travelling and really wanted to get hold of the files today, if possible," said Harry. "Is there no chance that I could just have a little look on my own? I promise I'd be quick, and no one would ever need to know." He flashed a quick smile.

"Oh, I don't know," she replied uncertainly. "I'd get into trouble if he found out. I mean, I want to help you out, but he can be very strict sometimes." She looked genuinely in a quandary as to whether to let Harry through.

"What if you just told me how to get to the basement and then turned your back for a couple of minutes. Then it wouldn't be your fault if someone slipped through," suggested Harry. "I can be very quick when I need to be. I bet no one would even see me." He was trying his best to be charming and it looked as though it was working, as Geraldine smiled widely.

"Okay, I guess that it wouldn't hurt," she said finally. "Well, the basement is directly under reception. You go through that door and down the corridor to the last door. The stairs there lead you back round to the basement door." She pointed over at the door to the right of reception.

"The basement door is always locked though, and I don't have a key for it here," she said. "I'd need to try in Mr Jetterman's office to see if he has a copy in his drawer." Harry smiled.

"Don't worry about that, Geraldine," he said. "I have a knack for opening locks." He winked mischievously and Geraldine giggled.

"Well, I'm going to make myself scarce for a few minutes, but I work here most days... if you ever decide to pop back in...," she said hopefully.

"I'll remember that, and thanks again. I really appreciate this," replied Harry with a smile. Geraldine went in to the little office behind reception, and Harry waited a second before pulling out his Invisibility Cloak and slipping it on.

****

He made his way down the corridor and through the door that led to the basement. Harry thanked his luck that there were no children roaming the halls and he was able to make it down the stairs without any trouble at all. He got to the basement door and tried the handle. As Geraldine had mentioned, the door was indeed locked.

"Alohamora," Harry waved his wand and the lock clicked open. He stepped inside the musty basement and closed the door behind him. It was pitch black as he fumbled for the light switch next to the door. Once the room was lit, he took a look around. Years and years of files were piled on top of filing cabinets which were clearly full. Broken chairs and other old furniture, which had obviously been dumped here out of the way, rather than disposing of it properly, littered the room.

He slipped off his Invisibility Cloak as Laranole stirred in his hood. "Isss it okay to ssspeak now?" he asked sulkily. Harry reached round, picked him out of the hood, and sat him gently on the floor.

"Yes, it is," replied Harry. "Look at the state of this place," he said whilst surveying the room. "It'll take ages to sift through this to find anything important." Harry was thinking of the best way to find what he needed.

"The older the information, the further back it will be buried," said Laranole helpfully. He slithered off towards the corner.

"I guess you're right," said Harry. He wasn't even sure what he was hoping to find, but this was the only lead he had to go on just now.

He had to climb over various broken pieces of furniture, and stacks of files, to get to the really old cabinets. He reached the back of the room and began to shuffle through the cabinets there. Just as he was opening the fourth cabinet, he noticed a very old and battered looking wardrobe in the corner.

He took a few steps closer, positive he could see a faint shimmer coming from it.

"It can't be," said Harry, to himself as much as to Laranole. Reaching out, he touched the wardrobe and all doubt left him. He could feel an extremely faint pulse coming from it.

"What isss it?" Laranole had slithered over by Harry's side.

"I've seen this wardrobe before," replied Harry incredulously. "This was where Voldemort stored the trinkets that he stole from the other orphans. I'm sure of it."

"How can you be sssure?" Laranole questioned him.

"I can feel the traces of the magic Dumbledore used on it to scare Tom. But, also, there's something else I just can't put my finger on." Harry turned the handle and opened the wardrobe. It looked bare.

"It'sss empty," said Laranole. "Perhapsss you are mistaken...," He slithered off to continue his search.

Harry stood staring at the empty wardrobe.

"I'm not so sure I am," he whispered to himself. "There's something here...," He knelt down and examined the bottom of the wardrobe. It definitely looked empty. He drew his wand.

"Specialis Revelio!" He rapped his wand against the wood. There was no change at all. Nothing magically appeared. Harry was confused. He felt so sure that there was something to be found here. Struck by a sudden idea, he scratched his thumb against a loose nail and let a drop of blood fall onto the base of the wardrobe. There was a few seconds of uncertainty, until the droplet disappeared into the wood and the base shimmered and disappeared, leaving behind a small, leather bound book.

Harry reached down and picked it up triumphantly. "It's always with the blood with you, isn't it," Harry muttered to himself. He opened up the book and read the first line.

This is the diary of Lord Voldemort, blood descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin

Harry nearly dropped the book in surprise. He had already destroyed one of Voldemort's diaries and Ginny's life, as well as his own, had hung in the balance on that occasion. This one, however, didn't appear to have any special characteristics like the Horcrux diary. Nearly every page had been used; filled with a neat flowing script from the hand of Lord Voldemort.

"I think I've found sssomething," hissed Laranole from the corner. Harry looked over and saw that Laranole had stopped his search in front of a small filing cabinet which was almost buried by files. "The datesss on thisss one would be around the time he wasss here."

"I've found something too. His diary," said Harry with a wave of the book. He stowed it away and checked the cabinet which Laranole had found. Sure enough, it covered the period 1935 to 1950 which would be just around the time Voldemort had been attending Hogwarts.

He pulled the drawer open and started sifting through each record. He passed by all the various orphans who had called Vauxhall Road Orphanage home; Jimmy Clarke, Doreen Willis, Amy Benson and Robert Miller to name but a few; he kept flipping through. He couldn't see Tom Riddle anywhere. Then he remembered something from his lessons with Dumbledore. A name was coming back to him. Hadn't Amy Benson been the young girl Tom had taken to the cave to terrorize? There was another name ... Dennis Bishop, Harry remembered. In less than a minute he had both of their files in his hand, but still could not find Tom's.

"I don't understand it, Laranole," said Harry irritably. "He was here at the same time as these other people, but his file is definitely not in here." He hit the top of the cabinet with the palm of his hand in frustration. The file rack broke and all of the files spilled out, one by one, along with a hitherto unseen file which had been stuck at the back of the cabinet.

Harry broke into a laugh. "Good old Muggle technique," he piped to Laranole. He lifted up the file which was marked with Voldemort's real name; the file seemed to be thicker than most of the others. "Right, well I think that's everything we need from here." He smiled widely, thoroughly pleased with both finds.

Harry crouched down and allowed Laranole to coil himself around his arm. He remembered back to his Apparition lessons, focusing intently on his destination, and with a spin on the spot, Disapparated.

****

When he opened his eyes again he was back on the hill on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow. Although he didn't have his Apparition License officially, he knew that there would be no way for the Ministry to track him.

The mid-afternoon sun shone brightly in the sky and the air was sweet as Harry strolled down the hill towards his cottage, almost forgetting that he was supposedly incognito. Fortunately for him, the few people in the village who were out pottering around in the sun didn't take any notice of him.

"I prefer the dark basssement of the orphanage to thisss sssunsshine," Laranole hissed from beside him. He was slithering from rock to rock trying to avoid the sunlight.

Harry laughed heartily in response. "Not me, Laranole. This'll do me fine."

Once they reached the cottage, they went directly through the fireplace into the secret room where his parents' portrait appeared to be eagerly awaiting their arrival.

"How'd it go, Son?" James's portrait asked as he sat up. He had been lying in Lily's lap as she stroked his hair gently. She smiled warmly at Harry.

"Hi, Mum," said Harry in response to his mother's smile. "It went well, Dad." He held up the files and the newly found diary. His father smiled down on him.

"This seems to be another diary that Voldemort wrote during Hogwarts," he continued. "I don't know which was first though. Maybe this gave him the idea for the Diary Horcrux."

"Or maybe the other way round?" James suggested. "He could have been so pleased with his Horcrux that he wanted to preserve a written journal of everything he did...,"

"I'll need to read through it thoroughly so I don't miss anything," said Harry in agreement. "I've decided to have a quick glance through the files too, but I'm going to send them to Hermione to look into. She'll be better at noticing any patterns or possible clues."

"Very sensible, Harry," said Lily. "You'll need each of your friends' talents and resources if you want to accomplish this." Harry nodded.

"Firssstly, I will need lunch before accomplissshing anything," said Laranole.

Harry rolled his eyes and grinned at the portrait. "Okay, you head out and catch your lunch. I'm going to start on the files."

Harry helped his friend through the bookcase exit and went back down to start his research, overlooked by his mother and father.

****

An hour or so later, Harry was finished with the files of Amy Benson, Dennis Bishop, and also Tom Riddle. They contained the usual information on health and details of any known relations. They also contained information on various infringements of the orphanage's rules. Tom's in particular, had many cases of suspected involvement in bullying, but no concrete evidence as Harry had already expected. The last page of each of them contained lists of possible job opportunities which the orphanage had helped organise.

The diary however was a chilling insight into Voldemort the boy's mind and motives. Harry had skimmed through much of it at first, to see if anything caught his eye, and had already surmised that Tom had written this second diary just after opening the Chamber of Secrets. It seemed that the Diary Horcrux was bought with the sole intention of securing the soul fragment inside. The diary that Harry had uncovered in the wardrobe was Voldemort's desires and plans for creating the Horcrux itself. Harry realised how invaluable this information would be in understanding how he went about splitting his soul and sealing it. It would possibly even assist in learning how to destroy a Horcrux when he managed to find one.

"I can't believe someone of my age could think like this," said Harry aloud. He had just pored over a passage regarding the Basilisk killing Myrtle in which Tom described his jubilance on her death.

I set my servant loose again tonight with marvellous results.

It came upon an irritating girl who was too inquisitive for her own good.

I will never forget the look of terror on her face as her life was extinguished.

It went on and on about how he was anxious to free the monster, again and again, until it cleared Hogwarts of all the students he deemed unworthy to be schooled in magic. Riddle, it seemed, took Slytherin's views on purity of blood straight to heart. The Slytherin instability from his mother's side was apparently ingrained in his whole personality. Harry wondered how he managed to hide his true nature from almost everyone since it was clear to him that here was a truly dangerous person. Only Dumbledore seemed to realise that something was not quite right with the handsome, intelligent orphan who had come to Hogwarts with nothing.

He closed the diary, deciding to continue his research the following day. Before he could concentrate on his training though, he would have to write a letter to his friends. He knew they would be angry with him for leaving the way he did, but also that they would be more worried that he was okay. He felt guilty that he hadn't let them know he wasn't hurt.

Picking up some paper and a quill, he set himself to writing something comforting to his two best friends.

Dear Ron and Hermione,

First of all, I'm really sorry guys that I disappeared like that. I know you'll understand my reasons though. I'll fill you in on everything that happened next time I see you, which I hope will be soon.

I can't tell you where I am just now in case the letter somehow gets into the wrong hands, but don't worry, I'm fine. I've made some progress in the hunt, and I'm sending something with this letter that I want you two to look into. I could really use the help.

You know I'm useless at this kind of thing so I'll just say bye for now.

Hermione, you look after Ron, and Ron, you make sure you win that Quidditch Cup!

Your friend,

Harry

For a change he was actually quite happy with his first attempt. Folding it carefully, he set to work on his next letter. This one wouldn't be so easy, he thought. He had to let Ginny know he was thinking about her, and that he missed her.

Dear Ginny,

I wanted to say something that would make you forgive me for running off the way I did but I don't really have an excuse. I only hope you understand why I need to be the one who catches Snape.

I'm fine, so please don't worry about me. I know that's a stupid thing to say because obviously you'll worry. Look after yourself and I promise I'll do the same.

I miss you, Gin, and I hope I see you again soon.

Love

Harry

It was the best he could manage so it would have to do. He had left Hedwig in the relative safety of the Burrow, but he had another idea for getting these messages and the files to Hogwarts, although he loathed it.

"Kreacher, come here," he said sharply.

There was a loud crack as the repulsive figure of the Black family house-elf appeared in front of Harry. He looked so scrawny and filthy that Harry actually felt sorry for him for a second, until he remembered Kreacher's wicked nature.

"The unworthy blood traitor whom Kreacher is forced to serve snaps his fingers and poor Kreacher must come running," the House Elf muttered mutinously. He wouldn't look Harry in the eye.

"Stop muttering," commanded Harry calmly. "I have a task for you to carry out, and I forbid you to betray me in any way." Harry wasn't going to let any loopholes interfere with Kreacher's instructions.

"I want you to take this letter and these files directly to my friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger at Hogwarts. These are the only people who you will give them to. Do you understand?" Harry asked deliberately as he handed them to Kreacher.

"Yes," answered Kreacher. "The blood traitor is so careful now that the unworthy son of my Mistress is dead."

Harry ignored the comment. "And I want you to take this letter straight to Ginny Weasley, no one else."

"Kreacher will obey," the house-elf spat venomously. He disappeared back to Hogwarts with a huge crack, leaving Harry with his parents again.

****

Now it was time for training, Harry thought. He began clearing some space in the middle of the room to allow him to practice.

"What type of spells are you going to practice, sweetheart," his mother asked. James had nodded off and Lily was watching Harry intently, as she had been doing since he came back.

"I'm not too sure just now," replied Harry uncertainly. "I was going to start on defensive spells firstly and try to improve on non-verbal magic." Harry remembered the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries and how neither had opened their mouths at all while they fired spell after spell at one another.

"There are plenty of books on defensive magic on the shelf, just help yourself," offered Lily.

Harry took a couple from the shelf and began practicing various variations of spells he already knew, as well as a few interesting ones he found in the texts. He tried to focus on performing the spells without speaking them as this was a particular weak point of his.

After two hours of intensive practice on defensive magic, he moved on to more aggressive spells. He transfigured some ornaments into snitch-like objects to allow him to practice against moving targets. They circled around Harry, occasionally attacking, and after a particularly impressive diving roll and Stunning Spell which caught the last one, his father whooped with glee.

"Bravo!" James shouted and applauded. He looked extremely proud. Harry stood up, panting, and smiled happily. His mother was applauding too, but also shaking her head at James's excitement.

"He's your son through and through," she said cheerfully. "I'm very impressed, Harry."

"Thanks Mum, but I've seen how a real duel is fought and I just don't measure up yet," he said.

"You seem to be focusing yourself on the physical aspect of the duel," she replied. "What about the mental aspect?"

"What do you mean?" Harry knew that wizards like Snape, Dumbledore and Voldemort himself could almost read a person's thoughts to anticipate the next attack. But was there anything else?

"Well, I know you said you weren't any good at Occlumency or Legilimency, but that was with Severus teaching you. What if you studied with me instead?" His mother had a good point, even if she did call Snape by his first name, thought Harry.

"Not all battles are fought with a wand, Son," James offered cryptically.

"Okay. Dumbledore thought it was important, and if I have you guys here for me, I'll try again," said Harry trustingly. Snape had taunted him during his escape about closing his mind. It burned Harry to think about the man, but he had a point. If he couldn't mask his emotions and intentions from Snape, then what chance would he have when he faced Voldemort. "What's the first step?"

"Well, we should start with relaxation techniques," replied Lily. "Although you obviously won't have time to meditate in the middle of a duel, these exercises will help you focus during your training. There is a book on the second shelf which begins with the basics." Harry retrieved the book. "Okay, we'll start slowly. Sit down, cross your legs, and close your eyes."

"I'll leave you guys to it," said James. "Your mother was always better at this than me." He spread himself on the couch and drifted off to sleep again.

"I want you to breathe deeply and try to let your mind empty of all random thoughts," said Lily in a slow melodious tone.

"Here we go again," thought Harry as he attempted to clear his mind.

****