Curse Breaker Williams sighed as he sorted through what felt like his thousandth pile of Hogwart's accumulated junk. He vanished yet another piece of broken furniture. While a few pieces had been salvageable most hadn't been. He suspected that most furniture only ended up here after mending spells and transfiguration spells had proven ineffective.
That's not to say everything was vanished, there was plenty of the current style of school robes that were being donated to second-hand shops, though one of the other curse breakers, a Greek wizard named Alexis Makris, had taken a set of the latest style and set them aside with sets of historical styles and intended to make a display of how Hogwarts robes had changed over the millennia the school had been teaching.
They had also found plenty of what they suspected were stolen goods. Money, jewellery, and gemstones that had been hidden away by sticky-fingered students when they were looking for a place to hide something and then couldn't find the room again to reclaim their ill-gotten gains. The majority of it was impossible to trace back to anyone who actually owned it and was liquidated for cash that would inflate the school funds. Anything that had any kind of identifying features was currently being kept in an old expanded school trunk they had found and would be handed over to the D.M.L.E so they could attempt to locate the owners once they were back on their feet.
They also found books, questionable potions, cursed objects ranging from biting hair brushes to an ever-poisoned dagger, and bones. While they had found numerous bones of banned pets and strange breeding experiments they had also found the remains of two students. At least the students had been dead for centuries and whoever or whatever had been responsible would also be long dead. They had had to call in the D.M.L.E for that one even with the Ministry still being in total chaos. Williams was sure the remains were just going to be filed away as a cold case for the time being, but at least the Ministry would eventually work out who they were and they would have their names back and a proper place to rest.
He was just considering calling the others for a lunch break when an excited voice called out. "I think I found it!"
Williams recognised the voice immediately. It was Mildred-Don't call me Milli-West, an American witch. Immediately he dropped what he was doing and rushed to where he knew she was working today.
He found her standing next to an old battered cupboard with a glistening tiara sat on top of it. the older witch watched it cautiously as she waved her wand towards it casting what looked to Williams to be detection charms. They were soon joined by Makris and the fourth member of their team Tanaka Ami who came from Japan.
"Are you sure?" Makris asked. There had been a few times already they had thought they had found it and had been wrong. Because of that, they had learnt to be a little sceptical.
"Oh yeah. This thing just tried to mind control me into putting it on." West told them. "Actually took me a second to shake it off." That was a chilling sentiment, they were all master curse breakers who were on edge and knew they were dealing with a Horcrux. That meant they were ready for mind control. It was, after all, one of the oldest tricks used in tomb curses. Why curse a whole tomb when you can curse one spot and put a compulsion on it so that anyone who saw it unthinkingly touched it? It was something every curse breaker learned early on.
They all cast their detection spells and confirmed the results, they had finally found a second Horcrux. The next thing to do was to get the bloody thing out of a castle full of kids. "Tanaka, you go grab the Russian nesting boxes. West, you move off a little, if you have already thrown this thing off once I want you on stun protocol. Makris, you and I will do the transfer once Tanaka is back." Williams gave out his orders. The Russian nesting boxes were actually seven lead-lined boxes that each sat inside the other like Russian nesting dolls. That was why they fondly called them Russian nesting boxes despite them being in no way Russian but the joke name had stuck over the years.
The idea of the boxes was that each one limited the Horcruxes' effect on the world, each layer diminishing what managed to get through. It wasn't a long-term solution in any way. Such box's only ever slowed down the effects of powerful curses and dark magic, but it was the best solution for moving something as dangerous as a Horcrux.
When Williams looked back on how Black, Potter, and he had moved the Locket to the cottage he gave an internal shudder. Sure it was the best option they had had and a far better option than keeping the damn thing in a school full of kids, but it had still been a massive risk. One he didn't need to repeat now that they had the time to prepare before finding the diadem.
Tanaka rushed off to get the trunk and West moved off to cover them. Her job was to stun anyone who looked like they were losing any level of control to the Horcrux before they could hurt anyone, be that the rest of the team or even themselves. Luckily it didn't seem that such a precaution was needed this time. Tanaka slid the first of the open chests up against the cupboard and Williams walked around to the far side and used the broken handle of a broom to push the Horcrux into the chest which Tanaka quickly slammed shut before picking up the box and placing it directly into the next box proceeding until there were seven heavily warded lead walls between the Horcrux and anyone else.
"I suggest we wait for a while." Tanaka said. "The students are having their lunch break right now and I would rather wait until they are all back in front of their professors learning before we carry that through the school."
They all agreed with that, none of them wanted to be responsible for exposing any students to that level of dangerous dark magic. So they waited and planned exactly what they were going to do once they got the Horcrux to the cottage.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus was sitting at his office desk marking a stack of homework. It was rewarding in that he got to see how much his students were improving but it was also frustrating to see the same mistakes cropping up again and again even after he had already told them three or four times not to get the properties of newt eyes and salamander eyes mixed up.
There was a knock at the door. Charlus waved his wand and opened it. Standing in the doorway was Auror Belmont, one of the Aurors who had been on bodyguard duty last year and was currently assigned to protect the castle this year. "Auror, what can I do for you?"
"You have a visitor at the gate. It's Sirius Black. Unless you want us to tell him to bugger off you gonna need to come down and sign him in." The Auror informed him.
Charlus sighed and got to his feet. It had certainly become more bothersome with the fall of the Ministry. Now the floo fires couldn't be trusted. Instead of just stepping through the fire he would have to walk all the way down to the Auror checkpoint. As much as he understood the need for proper security, hell some of the people being protected were people he cared about on a deep personal level, it was still hard on the old joints.
The trip didn't take too long and soon Charlus was leading a tired-looking Sirius back up to the castle. "So how did it go?" Charlus asked. The trial for the captured death eaters was today.
"About as you would expect. They were all found guilty. Not one of them was found to be under any compulsion to fight for moldywart. Four were given the Dementor's Kiss for acts of murder. Seven were sent back to Azkaban with an additional ten years each added to their sentences. All refused to take the unbreakable vow not to break out again until they were informed it was the vow or the kiss. And the Wizengamot representatives who made up the tribunal chickened out over questioning them about Moldywart's location or confirming who is or isn't a death eater. And of course, all the prisoners refused to volunteer any information." Sirius gave Charlus the summary, skipping a lot of the long dry and boring procedure that would have been the reality of his day as a witness.
Charlus nodded along. He wasn't surprised the tribunal had refused to push the issue with the Veritaserum. There were two rather big motivating factors. One was simply that there was a strong possibility Voldemort would retaliate against any of the Wizengamot who voted to use it to question the people working for him. The second was that the Wizengamot was almost entirely pure blood. Even if they didn't agree with Voldemort they likely had family who did and they were probably terrified that they may hear the name of someone they cared for. If Charlus had been selected for the tribunal he would have pushed for it. No reason not to, Voldemort had already marked the house of Potter for destruction. Unfortunately because of his close relationship with Sirius who had been a big part of the plan, Charlus wasn't eligible due to it being a conflict of interest.
"Moldywart?" Charlus asked "So you have bought on to the kid's trick of using a stupid nickname rather than you-know-who?" Charlus asked.
"Dumbledore was right about one thing: fear of the name increases fear of the person. The kid's idea keeps it in perspective that despite everything Moldywart is just one wizard. Plus I have found it's a great way to spot the people who support him. They get quite upset when they hear the insulting name and even the most controlled of them have some kind of tell. I handed Bones a list of people to watch out for this morning. So what did you do today?" Sirius asked as they walked through the main doors of the castle and turned towards the stairs.
"Not much. Just helped the curse breakers move the item we had them looking for to the cottage." Charlus said as though it was the most casual thing in the world. He then waited to see how long it would take Sirius to catch on.
They actually made it up an entire flight of stairs before Sirius stopped and said. "Wait, they found it?"
Charlus turned and gave his nephew a grin. "They found it today during lunchtime. I cancelled my next class and took them to the cottage. So Tanaka, Makris and West are all in on the Fidelius now."
Starting to walk again Sirius had questions. "What about the Defence against the Dark Arts curse, is it sorted now? Have you told Harry yet? Where are the curse breakers now?"
"Well, the curse breakers are currently at the cottage. They are constructing a new containment circle that will let them keep the two items in the same array. Apparently, this will let them conduct their experiments without it being a toss of a galleon on whether or not they get killed, or worse, every time they try something. They are coming back to the school on Saturday because they want Harry's blood to power the arrays. They will check on the Defence curse then. They suspect it will take some time for it to fully dissipate but it should be measurable by then. Hopefully, it will be too weak to do anything by the end of the year."
"As for Harry, he and Hermione disappeared after lessons. They told Ron they were going to go and explore the castle. So I haven't had the opportunity to tell him yet." Charlus shrugged.
Sirius waggled his eyebrows and said. "I suspect 'exploring the castle' means the same thing now as it did when I was a teenager?"
Charlus rolled his eyes at Sirius. "Yes, Sirius the two of them have gone off for some alone time."
"We could always check one of the copies of the map. Unless he found somewhere new we should be able to find him. Or I can always sniff them out as Padfoot. Else I doubt you will see either of them before dinner." Sirius suggested.
Charlus shook his head. "Just leave them be Sirius. It's good that despite everything that has happened, and everything we are worried could happen, that the two of them are still finding time to be teenagers. I would hate for them to lose that and I checked, Harry already has his map with him. I don't think they will be taken by surprise and honestly given all the training they did last year I think they are safe enough as long as they are together."
Sirius gave a grunt conceding the point to Charlus. Taking away one of the few opportunities they had to just be kids would be cruel and it wasn't like the news couldn't wait a few more hours.
Sirius had been right, Charlus didn't see Harry and Hermione until they turned up in the Great Hall for dinner. Sirius had gone home a while ago and Charlus was eating his dinner when the teenage couple walked into the great hall hand in hand.
They looked oddly well put together rather than sporting the slightly dishevelled look he would expect from someone at the end of the day. They looked like they had only just gotten dressed for the day. Put that together with the goofy grins they were both wearing and he knew he really didn't want to think about what the two had been up to.
He considered putting off telling Harry until the morning, let the couple have the evening unspoilt, but decided against it; that was the kind of thing Harry hated Dumbledore for doing. Besides this was good news. So Charlus finished up his meal quickly and as he was leaving made sure to tell Harry to come and meet him in his quarters once he was done eating
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry was a little nervous as he, Hermione, and Ron made their way to his grandfather's quarters. Sure his grandfather had told him it was good news but he couldn't help but worry a little.
Ron was convinced it was just about the death eater trials that were today, but Hermione and Harry disagreed. The death eater's trials were pretty much a foregone conclusion as they were all escaped criminals from Azkaban. There were maybe some details to tell them, but that could easily have been done in the Great Hall. The information was bound to be in the Prophet tomorrow, so there was no point in trying to keep anything secret. So it had to be something else.
They arrived at the door to his grandfather's quarters and Harry knocked and walked in. Harry mused that he and Hermione had to be the only students in the school who had the right to knock and just walk into a professor's private quarters. That is until he remembered that Daphne Greengrass's father was the Headmaster and she likely had similar permission in the Headmaster's office and quarters. It was something that happened occasionally when professors had family as students. Then Harry realised he was letting his stray thoughts distract him and he led Ron and Hermione into the room.
"Ah Harry, you're here, good. How was your date after class?" Charlus asked, he was sat in his favourite chair by the fire like he usually was when he had some free time, a wireless playing some lyric-less melody that sounded vaguely familiar to Harry.
Harry and Hermione both blushed at that question. "It was, good." Harry answered praying to any god that would listen that his grandfather wouldn't ask any more about that. There were some things that were just meant to stay private.
"Good. Sit down, I have some news to tell you all." Charlus said, nodding to the other chairs around him. Harry and Hermione opted to take up the smaller two-seater leaving Ron to sprawl out on the sofa. "Well, first thing to tell you is the trials for the death eaters went as we expected. Some of them got the kiss and others have been sent back to Azkaban under an unbreakable vow not to leave again illegally."
"Well, that's good. I don't exactly like capital punishment but it puts a number of death eaters permanently out of the fight. Is Sirius planning on doing the same trick again?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, he and the Aurors are going to keep trying it periodically as long as the taboo is still in effect. They want the death eaters to be too scared to keep up the raids." Charlus answered.
"What's wrong with killing criminals who deserve it?" Ron asked Hermione.
Hermione shrugged. "Nothing. If someone has truly done something to deserve death, and I truly do believe there are crimes that deserve it." Then she started to get more passionate. "What I have a problem with is the systems that decide if a person deserves it. There is no such thing as a completely foolproof court. Innocent people are sent to prison all the time. And unless you can guarantee that no one who is innocent is going to be executed then nobody should be. Especially if you're feeding their soul to a dementor. Kinda hard to apologise and make it right if you find new evidence later on proving them innocent if you've completely destroyed their soul."
Considering how close that had come to being Sirius's fate nobody could argue the point. However, sensing how close they were to being sidetracked Charlus said. "As much as I'm sure we could debate the ethics of capital punishment, there was a second reason I needed to speak to Harry, though there is no point keeping it from either of you." He added with nods to Hermione and Ron. "Harry, curse breaker Williams and his team found the Horcrux they were looking for today."
"They did? Where is it? Is it still in the school?" Harry demanded urgently.
"Yes, they found it. It has already been moved to 'that place.'" He wasn't going to mention the cottage information in front of Hermione and Ron. They knew some general information, enough that they would know what he was referring to but they weren't let in on the secret as far as the Fidelius rules were concerned and the old man intended to keep it that way. "The curse breakers are currently working on a new runic array to contain two Horcruxes while monitoring the connections between them. However, they have asked for you to be included in powering up the arrays. They feel that just like last time having your blood involved would create a far more secure array."
Harry thought about it for a minute and was just going to say he would do it when Hermione said. "Can't Harry just give a vial of his blood to Sirius and have him pour the blood on the runes? That way Harry won't have to get close to two Horcruxes at the same time."
"Unfortunately it doesn't work like that and at least this time there will be four fully qualified curse breakers there instead of just one. And Sirius and I will both be there. We will be taking the sword of Gryffindor with us, if anything goes wrong I won't hesitate to use the sword to end the threat." Charlus reassured them.
That still wasn't good enough for Hermione. "Then I want to be there as well." She demanded.
"No." Said Charlus. "It's too much of a risk for no reason."
"If it's too much of a risk for me to be there it's too big a risk for Harry to be there." Hermione said flatly.
"All you being there would do is create more potential complications. Create more things that can go wrong. If it wasn't for needing Harry's very rare parseltongue and his unique blood Harry wouldn't be allowed within twenty miles of that place. I don't want any of you anywhere near those things, but for this to have any hope of success, for us to have any real chance at locating all the Horcruxes and being able to end the threat against this family I need to involve Harry. But I refuse to risk any more than is absolutely necessary."
Those words hit Hermione like a rampaging hippogriff. Not why Charlus was doing what he was, that had been obvious ever since they had learnt of the Horcruxes. No, the part that had her speechless was that Charlus called her family. Sure Hermione thought that one day she would be family rather than just a member of the House. She even had her dream that it would come about by her marriage to Harry. But to learn that the man she respected, even if she was disagreeing with him right now, already considered her family was overwhelming.
"I'll do it." Said Harry putting an end to the debate for now but he knew he and Hermione were going to be having a talk about it later.
-ϟϟϟ-
"Harry, I really don't like it." Hermione said, initiating the conversation he knew was coming. They were sat in the common room and it was late enough that most people had gone to bed already. Harry and Hermione were some of the handful of Gryffindors who were still up enjoying the quiet and calm atmosphere that the common room only ever had this late in the evening or when everyone else was in class.
Harry watched the dying embers of the fire wondering if he should add a few more logs and keep it burning for a while longer or just let it go out for the night. "It's not exactly a like or dislike scenario though, is it? It's more about how much it sucks and when. If I go on the weekend maybe something goes wrong and something bad happens where and when we are prepared for it. Or we let a madman who has marked everyone we care about for death to come for us at a random time in the future."
Hermione shook her head exasperated. "Harry, this isn't about you going on Saturday. I agree you need to do this. I don't like that it needs to be you, I wish it could be someone else. It's not fair and I don't like it but I understand it is the right thing to do. And if I'm honest I probably wouldn't love you half as much as I do if you were the type to shrug off such a responsibility. What I can't do is play the dutiful housewife type who sits at home wondering if her man is coming home, perfectly fine, hurt, or in a coffin. The not knowing and not being able to do anything drives me insane. I'm not some 1850s muggle housewife who can't defend herself. I am a witch. I use magic and I use it a damn sight better than a lot of adult witches and wizards I know. My place is by your side."
Harry felt her words tugging at his heart, they had had similar conversations to this before. He didn't want her in danger any more than she wanted him in any. The difference was for her it was actually avoidable if she would accept it but she wouldn't. Still in this case Harry didn't have to try and beg her not to try anything. With the Fidelius charm only one person could let Hermione know about the cottage and it wasn't him. "I will talk to my grandfather, see if I can get him to let you come but that's all I can do. I don't think he will agree but I can try."
It wasn't what Hermione wanted to hear but she knew it was as much as Harry could do. He couldn't refuse to go unless Hermione went, that would be wrong. But just the fact that he was advocating for her position was enough.