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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters, ideas, and situations created by JK Rowling and owned by her and her publishers. I own the original elements & characters. No money is being made by me, and no trademark or copyright infringement is intended.



Chapter XIV

Draco Malfoy stomped into the parlor of the hovel his parents had forced him to come to for the summer. Of course, the fact that said 'hovel' had forty rooms and was staffed by three house elves meant nothing to Draco. "Mother! I insist you terminate that so-called flying instructor and engage a better one!"

Narcissa looked at her son with a cold eye. "You insist, do you?"

That brought Draco up short, knowing he had gone over the line. He was not certain how to retrieve his position, however.

"Although he did not say so explicitly, reading between the lines of Severus' report, I thought you might have turned into a spoiled, whinging child, and it seems he was right." Draco started to flush in anger. "Your father and I watched your practice just now. Señor Mendez is a very good, although not great, flying instructor. We asked him to join us in order to help you regain the position you claim you unfairly lost. We explained to you that he was of distinguished family and a well-known broom racer. You were rude and uncooperative. Your father is apologizing to him now for your behavior."

Narcissa's glare hardened. "Your father does NOT enjoy being put into a position where he needs to apologize. I suggest you stay out of his sight for the next several days."

Narcissa leaned back on her Victorian-era fainting couch, but did not relax. "We now realize that we trained you in arrogance as well as pride, without any balance. So, let me tell you a little secret, my son. Our blood, our position, our fortune; these give us an advantage. It is up to us to seize those advantages and turn them into more advantages, for ourselves and for the family. If you fail to do so, there are others who will leap ahead. Potter and his Mudblood dependent are two good examples. After three years of tutoring, what does it say about you that this Granger girl is first in your class, three Ravenclaws are next, followed by a Hufflepuff and finally you? That means you dropped four positions in one year, from second to sixth, while Potter was able to leap from twelfth to, I believe, seventh. There was no collusion, no conspiracy. It was your failure to at least keep your place. They worked hard, you coasted and complained."

Narcissa shut her eyes. "In fact, please stay away from both your father and myself. Your meals will be served in the nursery, for you belong in a nursery. Fly your broomstick, do your homework. I doubt you will do either. We'll see if your siblings can be more worthy of the family."

"Siblings?"

"That means 'sisters or brothers'," Narcissa said with contempt."We have decided that since we are in exile, and you are such adisappointment, we should occupy our time having another child and raising it with more care. Perhaps even two. Now, begone."Narcissa tried to relax. After Lucius' encounter the previous February, it had taken two months for the swelling to go down enough to show that he still had some fertility left, although he still had not had a full erection. They had always discussed the possibility of another child, a spare to the heir. They had decided they needed one, but wound up having to resort to Muggle treatments, to concentrate Lucius' now very low sperm count and to insure Narcissa's pregnancy.

It had been invasive and a bit humiliating, not even counting the fact that the Muggles could do something that magic could not. The best indications now were that Narcissa was carrying triplets, and she had to be careful.

Meanwhile, the very confused and hurt Draco had left the room.

*

Harry arrived back at the Brotherhood's tent near Hogwarts the morning of July 30. The original plan had been for Harry to spend three days with Sirius and Remus at the Black family house. However, Sirius had decided that the place needed far too much work, work he was not interested in doing himself, and which was beyond the capabilities of the elderly house elf which was found living there, at least within any reasonable time frame. The elf was therefore set to work in early June, in the hopes that the house might be usable by Christmas.

Remus and Sirius had spent the time since the end of the school term exploring Hogwarts, looking for any secret rooms or passages where Riddle might have hidden Ravenclaw's diadem. Snape was not present, as he and Sirius had gotten into a shouting match the very night the students had left. This had ended with hexes being used by both, with Snape coming up slightly ahead on total number of hexes hitting his opponent, but Sirius having caught Snape with acomplex hex which had turned his hair into huge oily pink Afro. Snape had therefore left the field, and the work, to Sirius.

Remus had stayed out of the fight in part because he had felt Sirius slightly more at fault in this case, and because Dumbledore had refused the offers from both the Druids and the Brotherhood to supply a Defense teacher. Everyone was glad that Lockhart had resigned. He had counted on selling a large number of books and taking things easy, but teaching had been much harder than he had thought it would be, and he had not counted on monsters. Instead, Remus would take up the position on a trial basis (the terms had been partially imposed by Snape, on the grounds that Remus might miss a large number of classes, should he have a bad transformation).

Sirius had taken the afternoon of July 30 off, and he and Jason accompanied Harry to Diagon Alley, where he and Hermione were in theory going shopping for their school supplies. 'In theory', because Jason and Sirius refused to let the pair go to the bookstore. They therefore only had to get their potion supplies and new school uniforms (the former were paid for by Jason, while Sirius bought Harry a larger set of school clothes than he really needed), after they had been treated to sundaes.

The quartet visited Gringotts, and then window-shopped for a while. Harry refused to enter Eelops, but Hermione did get him into the Magical Menagerie. Harry refused to buy a familiar, although he did chip in and help Hermione buy a very large and (to Harry's eyes) ugly kneazle-crossbreed named Crookshanks.

Harry came back to the camp happy with his time with Hermione, but wishing they had had some actual time alone. Jason and Sirius both realized this, and assured Harry (with a fair amount of teasing from Sirius), that Harry would have time alone with Hermione before the school year restarted.

That night, Harry got his first present, and to his shock, it was the house elf, Dobby. To the surprise of Sirius and many of the brothers, Harry insisted on freeing Dobby and then hiring him. Brothers Cobra, Scorpion, and Zara were the least surprised, and most proud of him. Remus congratulated Harry for acting much as his mother would have in similar circumstances.

Dobby was overjoyed at the train of events, to the point where Sirius thought the elf might start humping Harry's leg.

The next morning, the Brothers and Sirius were throwing Harry aparty. For safety and convenience, Dumbledore was allowing them to have the party on the lawn leading up to the main entrance of Hogwarts Castle. All of the rising Gryffindor third years had been invited, and all were coming except for Ron, as the Weasleys were still in Egypt. The rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and about a dozen other Gryffindors would be coming as well. About athird of Harry's classmates from the other three Houses had also been invited, and nearly all of them would be coming.

As July 31 was on a Saturday, many of the students' parents were also coming, including three sets of Muggles: the Grangers; the Thomas family; and the Finch-Fletchleys. The staff who were at the school and many of the Brothers and Druids would be invited as well. Remus had promised that the adults would, in general, keep their distance from the students. Harry had also insisted on inviting Sir Nicholas. The ghost was very touched, and spent most of his time entertaining (ie shocking) the Muggles.

Harry, remembering Dudley, had insisted 'no presents'. The four younger Weasley children had none the less sent him a small stone scarab, which had a slight enchantment for good luck. Luna had sent him a notice that he was to get a year's subscription to The Quibbler. Hermione had, of course, done her research. She did not give her friend Harry a gift. She did, however, give the Head of her Protecting House an appropriate gift, in this case a pair of crystal goblets.

The majority of the students were still too young to want to dance, especially most of the boys. Sirius had designed a number of different fun games, which broke the ice and got all the students playing together until luncheon was served at 12:30, followed by ahuge chocolate sheet cake and four types of ice cream, which everyone enjoyed devouring (although the Grangers looked rather guilty as they did so).

By 3:00, everyone was running low on energy, and the guests, other than Sirius, Remus, the Brotherhood, and the Grangers had all left by 3:35. At that point, Jason came back with Harry's knapsack, and Harry and the Grangers were transported back to the Granger suburban house.

After showing Harry the guest room, the Grangers made both teens thoroughly brush and floss. Dinner, which would be served at 7:30, would only be a small garden salad with balsamic vinegar, followed by a chicken Caesar salad, to balance out the red meat and starches of the birthday meal.

Several members of the Brotherhood had had a good time competing against each other in putting wards up and around the Granger property. As Harry had promised to stay on the property, they had no qualms about leaving Harry there for 48 hours.

The Grangers understood that while there had been no magical attacks on Harry during the summers for many years, it was best for him to stay out of sight of the general magical world. Therefore, while the Grangers went off to Matins Harry continued exercising in their fairly private back garden. When the Grangers returned, Harry took a quick shower while Hermione's father prepared brunch.

The Grangers were a hard-working professional couple. They worked four long days a week (7:30-6:00) and were available on their 'off'day for emergencies. They then generally played hard on Saturday and relaxed on Sunday. They would go to Matins and while Hermione's father prepared a nice brunch, her mother would start preparations for dinner, the only other meal they ate on Sundays.

As this Sunday was rather warm for southern Britain, Mister Granger prepared large omelets stuffed with ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, and three cheeses, plus a number of savory snacks. He also made them all Mimosas, although Harry's and Hermione's were mostly orange juice, and were very light on the Cava he used.

They ate in the kitchen, surrounded by numerous newspapers, and the periodicals which had accumulated during the week. The three Grangers traded stories, while Harry read through the latestQuibbler and enjoyed the domesticity.

After brunch, Harry and Hermione changed and went out into the back garden for some sun. This amused the Grangers, as Hermione had spent nine days on the Mediterranean shore wearing nothing but athong bottom, and they knew that Harry had spent some time on aGreek island, wearing nothing (information supplied by Jason at Harry's birthday party).

However, Hermione was wearing her fairly conservative two-piece suit, and Harry a pair of cut off shorts. Both were obviously very shy in each other's presence, which was just fine with the Grangers.

The Grangers had allowed their fireplace to be hooked up as a one-stop floo connection for the rest of the summer, connecting only with the Gryffindor fireplace at Hogwarts. Hermione would come through every morning for the day. This would allow her to practice magic on the school grounds, help a bit with the search for the diadem (although she did not know the full reasons why yet), and of course spend time with Harry while still spending time with her parents at night.

The Monday after Harry's birthday, the pair flooed back to Hogwarts, where they learned why they had not been allowed into the bookstore in Diagon Alley. Sirius and Jason took the pair to Hogsmeade, where there were two used bookstores and several other shops.

Sirius was a bit surprised that neither teen was overly interested in Honeydukes. They both liked chocolate, but neither was overly interested in other sweets.

What Hermione was most interested in, besides perhaps Harry, was knowledge. Hermione had been working on the fundamentals of Occlumency, starting with Indian meditation, for just over a year. She had read the basic manuals, and had the advantage of a very organized and controlled mind. With just a little tutoring by some of the Brotherhood, she was deemed an adept at Occlumency. While a Legilimens with sufficient skill, like Dumbledore, or ruthless power, like Voldemort, could break into her mind, none could do so and take her thoughts without a struggle.

Hermione was determined to improve past that point as quickly as possible. Therefore, once Hermione had sworn an impressive secrecy oath, Osiris had allowed Harry to decide what to share.

Harry shared nearly everything, and he knew that Hermione would learn the rest soon enough.

The knowledge of who and what the Brotherhood was impressed and slightly frightened the young teen. She was frightened, because she could see the pull many of the Brothers had on Harry. She was frightened because she did not want to lose her best friend to the quasi-immortality she was fairly certain they would offer Harry at some point. The youngest brother had been made at 24, she learned, and the typical age was between 30 and 33.

Hermione quickly lost the tinge of jealousy she had sometimes had when Harry out-performed her on practical work. She had accepted it in Defense their first year, and had accepted it in Charms their second. She did not like being out-shown part of the time and pushed hard the rest of the time in her speciality of Transfiguration. Now knowing Harry was two months older instead of ten months younger helped, as did a better estimation at how powerful her friend really was.

Hermione was also intrigued to learn exactly what it was they were looking for, and why. She approached the stack of notes the staff, Remus, Sirius, and the Brothers and Druids had made on their search of Hogwarts and organized it, cross-referenced it, and had it all plotted on diagrams and maps of the castle in just three days of working on the project part-time the second week of August. The two rather prissy librarians (one from the Brotherhood and one Druid) had been offended the first day, reluctant admirers the second, and Hermione's committed assistants by the end of the third.

Amused, Osiris and Dumbledore had called a general meeting of the searchers the next day.

"You've done all the obvious physical searches," Hermione told them. "However, you have not used two very important pools of information."

Harry had asked Nick to bring the ghosts along to the meeting. Hermione therefore addressed the Gray Lady. "Has Sir Nicholas told you of our quest, my lady?"

The ghost nodded in agreement.

"So you know if the statue's diadem, the statue in the Ravenclaw common room that is, is an accurate description?"

The ghost hesitated, and then actually answered. "It is," the ghost whispered.

"Do you know where the original is? Did you ever tell Riddle?"

She hesitated, and said, "I did tell young Riddle. It was hidden in a forest . . . in the southern region of a far off place called Pannonia." Seeing blank looks, she added, "I believe it was also once called southern Illyria."

Jason muttered, "By the gods." Everyone looked at him. "Albania."

Hermione pouted. "So that means. . . ."

"I bet Riddle came back to the castle at least once after leaving school, didn't he?" Harry asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, in the mid-1960s, soon after I was appointed. He said he wanted to apply for the Defense position."

"So, he didn't find the diadem at school and replace it wherever it was hidden. He found the spot while he was student, and hid it away," Hermione said, disappointed.

"Is so, he was cleverer than we were," Sirius pointed out.

"We already knew that," Remus said, making Sirius frown and Snape, who was there for the day, smirk just a little. "He apparently let a troll in through the dungeons in Harry's first year. We never found that entrance as students." They had, however, found it the week before.

"Does anyone have any ideas where else we can look?" Dumbledore asked the assembled group.

"No, but I know who else we can ask!" Harry said. "Dobby!"

Pop! "Mister Harry, sir?"

"Could you ask the head elf and the oldest elf to come here?"

"They is usually the same, Mister Harry, sir. Dobby will tell her she is wanted."

Less than two seconds after Dobby popped away, another elf appeared, old and stooped. "Young Master wants Old Sally?" she asked.

Harry quickly explained what they were looking for and why. "Do you know where it is?" he finally asked.

"No, Young Master," Old Sally said regretfully.

"Do you know where it could be?"

"House elves bound to Hogwarts may not tell," she said, her eyes shifty and her voice shaking.

Harry thought he recognized the tone. "No punishing! Could an elf look wherever and bring us the diadem if it's there?"

The old elf considered, and said, "Old Sally may for Young Master, as youse talks to Hogwarts, or for Headmaster."

Harry looked at Albus, who nodded and said, "Would you please, for both of us?"

Old Sally popped away, and the group spent nearly three anxious minutes before she came back, holding the diadem. Harry took it from the elf and thanked her, and Dumbledore did the same. Harry then held it out to the Gray Lady. "Is this it?"

"It is," the ghost replied in a barely audible voice.

Osiris approached, but Harry forestalled him. "It's one of Voldemort's Horcruxes," he said.

"Then let us destroy the Horcrux within it, leaving just one known object."

"So we still need to know who signed their named R.A.B.," Harry complained.

"You mean like Regulus usually did?" Remus asked with a frown.

"Who?" Harry asked.

"Regulus, my younger brother," Sirius said. "He was a Death Eater. He was killed by the Death Eaters for some reasons in late 1979. He died at home. . . ."

Dumbledore instantly sent Sirius, Remus, and several Druids and brothers off to Grimmauld Place to search for the real locket.

*

"It is imperfect, but it will do," Voldemort said. He had been alittle surprised before joining to Quirrell that none of his followers had searched him out. He had then discovered that those he would have considered the most devoted to him, as opposed to devoted to his cause, had been killed or imprisoned.

Finally, however, just over eight months before, one of his loyal young Death Eaters had found him. Young Crouch had found him aseries of young Muggles to possess. This had allowed Voldemort to mutate an adder for a familiar, beginning a process which had ended this day.

Yes, of all his followers, Voldemort had to admit young Crouch had done a better job than most. He had even managed to steal the wand Wormtail had hidden on himself when Crouch Senior had foolishly brought it home to examine. It had of course been Voldemort's own.

Now he had an improvised body, made of blood and venom. Although not fully stable, it was more so than his shadowy existence had been. Now, what should his next step be, when his goal was to regain his body?

Voldemort came to a decision. It was time to go back to his ancestor's lands. It was time to go back to Little Hangleton.