Out of the Books

Chapter 24 - The Hunt begins

The man with the long dark cloak received strange glances from the lightly clad guests and visitors of the Gryffin Maid Festival in Godric's Hollow. The man stared back at them and the people quickly looked away and turned towards their amusement again, soon forgetting the strange figure.

Antonin Dolohov grinned wolfishly. It had been one of his easier tasks to locate Remus Lupin. If you wanted to find any person, you applied a tracking charm - a complicated and time-consuming procedure. If you wanted to find a werewolf, you only needed the werewolf by which the other was bitten. And Fenrir Greyback was very eager to help Dolohov find Lupin.

Dolohov had arrived in Godric's Hollow shortly after noon. It was easy enough to observe the werewolf in this crowd, especially since Lupin was not alone, but together with a bunch of people. The Potter brat and his friends were there with him, along with a family Dolohov didn't know and a large black dog. Dolohov was curious what the lot of them were doing in Godric's Hollow. They hadn't come for the festival. That much was clear. The mood in the group was rather downcast.

Inconspicuously Dolohov followed them towards the less crowded regions of the village. He had to stay further behind the group now, in order not to be discovered. But he wasn't afraid of losing his target, since a group of almost a dozen persons was hard to miss. So around twenty minutes later he watched Lupin and the others enter a wooden, run-down hut.

Dolohov quickly checked that no one was looking at him before he ducked around the corner of the house to peek through the dusty windows. He was just in time to see Lupin's girlfriend vanish in a fireplace. Dolohov cursed, stood up and entered the shed.

An old man with a small and wrinkly face approached him.

"Good day to you, sir." The edges of his colourless lips twitched upwards as he bowed his head just a tad. "I assume you are here for a wand or a staff?"

Dolohov ignored the old man, rushed through the open door at the end of the shop and stared disappointedly in the room with the public fire place. "Damn!" he cursed as he rounded on Hyalin. "Where have they gone?"

"Sir, this is a public fire place. If I was to remember the destinations of all travellers my head would be much fuller than I would care for." He shot the darkly clad wizard a cheeky and boyish grin.

Dolohov took an angry step away from the old man while pulling his wand. "Crucio!" he cried and watched in perverse satisfaction how Hyalin collapsed on the floor, shrieking and convulsing in pain. Dolohov held the curse for almost a minute until Hyalin had lost his consciousness. Then he stepped over the body into the other room, knelt in front of the fire place, and pointed his wand in the ashes. The spell, he was going to use, was not very reliable in public fire places, but as this large crowd had surely travelled to the same place, chances were that it worked. "Revelatio Destinatio," he said. And indeed, flames erupted and an image of the house, which had been surveyed by the Death Eaters for a long time, appeared in the fire. The house, where the headquarter of Dumbledore's rebellious group was assumed - Grimmauld Place No. 12.

Not so surprising, Dolohov thought disappointedly. The building was still heavily warded and the information that Lupin had gone there didn't help him, as he couldn't reach him there.

But who was the family which had accompanied Lupin, Potter and the others? If they were new members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dolohov had better find out more about them. He shrugged, cast a Silencio charm on the shed and returned to Hyalin to wake him up and question him some more.

***

The message, Voldemort had retrieved from Fletcher's memories was deeply disturbing. Did the Order of the Phoenix know about the Horcruxes? It was almost impossible. How should they have gathered knowledge about them? Still, why else should the werewolf have tried to collect information on Slytherin's Locket?

No, Voldemort did not want to risk his immortality. Therefore he set out to the cave where the Horcrux was hidden as soon as he had killed Fletcher.

The sun was slowly setting over the churning ocean, bathing the cliffs in a rich golden light. Voldemort, who had no eye for the beautiful sunset strode purposefully towards the edge of the cliff, hesitated only for a second before he flew down to the hidden entrance of the cave, where the Slytherin Locket was securely hidden. Of cause it would be securely hidden there - what else?

With frantically beating heart and slightly trembling hands - a condition no Death Eater would ever survive seeing him in - Voldemort pressed his hand against the rough and wet stone. The sealing spell he had used on the cave, required the person who sought entry, to have blood on his hands.

A silver arch appeared, forming an opening in the rock. Voldemort stepped through it and found himself in a large circular cave, which was mostly filled by a black and smooth lake. A weak green light, which came from the middle of the lake, illuminated the cave eerily.

A foreboding feeling of uneasiness threatened to overwhelm him. Someone had been here. His fear changed into searing wrath, as he stepped into the boat to float to the small island in the centre of the lake. The magic that allowed him to fly did not work above the dark and silent water.

Panic and desperate fury built up in him as he waited for the boat to finally reach the island, where the stone basin was filled with the emerald liquid, which protected one seventh of his soul, just as he had left it seventeen years ago.

He took a deep steadying breath. Everything was fine. It was still there.

Voldemort laid his hands on the opposite sides of the rim of the stone basin. Whispering the ancient spell in parseltongue, he watched how the emerald liquid rose upwards in a spiral and dissolved into green mist, which lingered above his head, further illuminating the island.

Finally the basin was empty.

Completely empty. There was no locket.

Voldemort tugged his hands away from the basin as if it had burned him. It was gone. The cave had been the perfect hiding place. And who would have known about the Slytherin's Locket being a Horcrux anyway?

A thousand fragments of thought were whirling through his head as he stared unseeingly into the now dry and bare sandstone-bowl. A deep fear, all-consuming, as he had never felt it before, wormed its way through his guts leaving utter numbness behind; until feeling - an uncontrollable, burning rage - rushed back into his body.

The ground, he was standing on, started to tremble and ripples were showing on the lake's surface, slowly growing to waves, as the water rushed away from the island, building up at the edges of the cave. Inferi which had been hidden by the dark water rose and stumbled helplessly towards the cave walls, as if shoved by an invisible force. Millions of litres of water and thousands of dead bodies were pressed all against the cave walls. Until the sound of rushing water and shuffling limbs ceased and for a few seconds there was silence.

Then the cave burst open with a thunder.

***

Sirius was still proudly holding his brother's journal in his hands, when suddenly Harry screamed and clutched his forehead. His knees buckled and James had to react fast to catch his son, so that he didn't drop to the floor. Carefully James lowered Harry, whose body convulsed, to the floor. Holding his head with both hands, he rolled back and forth jerkily, thrashing wildly with his legs.

Lily knelt beside him in an instant. "Harry! Harry, what's wrong?" She reached out to take his hand, but couldn't pry it away from his forehead.

"It's You-Know-Who," Ron whispered in a scared voice, staring anxiously at his best friend.

"Harry! Close your mind! Keep him out! Come on, please!" Hermione cried, tears in her eyes.

Helplessly, Leo and Amy stood together with the Weasleys, Remus, Tonks and Sirius and watched in fear as their parents and Harry's best friends were trying to help him somehow. But with Harry convulsing on the floor and not reacting in any way to their effort; and with the other adults standing there as clueless as Amy and Leo themselves, the twins felt that something bad indeed was happening.

More than ten minutes had passed, when Harry finally lay still, his body going limp as he slipped into unconsciousness. The quietness after Harry's screams pressed heavily on all of their ears; and Lily's suggestion to get a blanket for Harry and to put him into the living room sounded unnaturally loud.

However, when James and Sirius bent down to pick the unconscious teenager up, his eyes fluttered open. Harry stared at the crowd standing worriedly around him, as if wondering where so many people had come from. Finally he made to shake his head, winced and brought up his hand to hold his forehead.

Lily was with him in an instant and took him in her arms.

"Harry, are you hurt?" She felt his forehead. "You're covered in cold sweat."

Harry ignored her and stared at Ron and Hermione. "He knows," he croaked quietly.

"Who knows what?" asked James with a frown.

"Voldemort knows we are after his Horcruxes." Uncomfortable and worried silence greeted his words. Harry could feel how his parents and his brother and sister were torn between their desire to ask what had just happened, their worry about him and the realisation that he somehow knew Voldemort's thoughts and feelings. Of course they didn't know about the way his scar affected him, when Voldemort was feeling strong anger or happiness. He had never told them. Harry felt suddenly very tired and weak.

"Harry, what exactly have you seen?" Remus asked gently.

"He was in the cave. You know, where the locket was hidden. He found that it was gone and then he blew up the whole cave."

"I can see how that hurts, mate," Ron commented and Hermione shoved a sharp elbow in his sides while she threw him a glare.

Harry smiled weakly at his best friend and turned at Remus again. "I don't know what else happened, Voldemort was pretty mad, but after the cave collapsed, everything went black so I don't know what he is up to now."

"Maybe he didn't survive the cave-in," said Ron hopefully.

"No. I think I would know about that," answered Harry.

"Okay. That's enough now. Harry needs to rest." Mrs. Weasley stepped forward. Lily, who had been completely shocked and overwhelmed by the whole situation, smiled gratefully at the older witch and helped Harry up.

When Harry woke up the following morning, he felt knackered, but at least his scar didn't hurt any longer. Screwing his eyes shut against the bright sunlight, he remembered what had happened the evening before. Voldemort had found out about them hunting the Horcruxes. Now it would be even harder to destroy those which were left.

Harry counted the objects which were still on the list. The diary was gone. He had already destroyed it with the Basilisk's tooth in his second year. Dumbledore had found and destroyed the ring. Now they had the locket which had been hidden right here in Grimmauld Place. But so far they had no idea how to destroy it. That still left Hufflepuff's Cup, something of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor and Nagini.

It would not become easier to find the Horcruxes, now that Voldemort was warned. Sighing, Harry climbed out of his bed and got dressed. He would go downstairs to find out, what the others thought about their chances now.

Harry had just closed the door behind him, when he remembered that it was Ginny's birthday today. Grabbing the wrapped present for her, he made his way to the kitchen. Ginny met him halfway.

"Good morning. Feeling better?" She smiled at him and Harry noticed again how beautiful she was.

"Yes, thanks." Harry just realized that he hadn't been alone with Ginny since he had broken up with her. Suddenly he felt very self-conscious.

"Happy birthday, Ginny," he said, smiling. But as he gave her the present, Harry couldn't bring himself to look her into the eye. Thanking him, Ginny took the wrapped package and turned it over in her hands, her face slightly red.

"You can open it," Harry said nervously after an awkward pause.

Slowly and carefully Ginny removed the paper from the present and looked at the framed picture which showed her and Harry in their Quidditch gear, arms around each other.

"Thank you, Harry. That's a beautiful picture, and you made the frame yourself. I--I really like it. Thank you," she whispered, her eyes swimming.

"Ginny, you know that I had to break up with you. I didn't want to!" Harry blurted out suddenly. "But I can't stand the thought of you getting hurt because of me."

"I know," she said quietly. Then she abruptly turned around and ran up the stairs, disappearing into her room.

Helplessly Harry watched the empty stairway, wondering what he could have said or done better. He shook his head. No, it was best that he wasn't together with Ginny. Especially now. Voldemort knowing about his Horcruxes being hunted down was probably as dangerous as a wounded animal. Harry would never forgive himself, if anything happened to Ginny.

What a weird beginning of the day. Ginny, the Horcrux-hunt, his collapse from yesterday, Voldemort's unknown plans - all that was whirling around in Harry's thoughts and he had the feeling that he would scream, if things didn't become clearer soon.

As if in trance he continued his way to the kitchen. There he found his friends and family already sitting around the large table, discussing assiduously. The journal of Regulus Black lay open in between them.

"Harry, you're up! How are you feeling?" Lily and Molly stood up simultaneously to greet the exhausted-looking teenager.

"Mum, Mrs. Weasley, I'm fine, really. What did you find in the journal?" Harry ducked away between the two women and pulled up a chair, looking curiously at the others.

"My brother found out about the Horcruxes when he loaned Kreacher to Voldemort one day. Kreacher was supposed to drink some potion to protect the locket and then Voldemort left him behind to die. But as Regulus had ordered Kreacher to return to him after he has assisted Voldemort, the elf could escape with his life," Sirius informed Harry, while Lily was putting a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of Harry while Mrs. Weasley spooned a huge portion of scrambled egg on his plate.

"We have not read through the entire journal yet," Ron piped up, while Harry was pushing the egg around on his plate. "But it seems like Regulus was really pissed that Voldemort wanted to kill Kreacher - don't ask me why..."

"Ron!" cried Hermione outragedly.

"What? So, anyway Regulus wanted to find out more about all the stuff, and recognized the locket as a Horcrux," Ron continued, after he had rolled his eyes at Hermione.

"And, do you know what's best?" he said excitedly. "The Hufflepuff Cup is also mentioned in here!"

Now Harry was fully alert. "Does it say where it is? We have to find it, before Voldemort gets it back." Harry leaned forward and grabbed the book, leafing through the pages.

"Here, Regulus writes that he heard Rookwood talk about a silver cup and the Dark Lord going somewhere himself," said James. "That makes us believe that the Hufflepuff Cup is placed in the Ministry of Magic, as Rookwood worked in the Department of Mysteries, before he was captured."

Harry jumped to his feet. "So what are we waiting for? Voldemort will be on his way already to save all his Horcruxes. We have to be there earlier than him!"

In this moment the fireplace in the kitchen roared to life and a tall, black man climbed out of it. He was covered in scratches and dirt, sporting a deep cut across his right eye and a nasty burn on his left upper arm.

"Kingsley!" Tonks rushed towards the newcomer. "What happened?"

"There was an attack on the ministry," he began to recount in a strained voice, while he threw an uncertain glance at the Weasleys.

Harry let himself fall into his seat again. Too late. Voldemort had retrieved the Hufflepuff Cup already.

"They were trying to kill Scrimgeour," Kingsley continued. "They - they didn't succeed. Percy rescued the minister. He - he, I'm so sorry, Molly. He didn't survive."