***
Harry paused by the door, listening to Tonks’s whining voice on the other side.
“Why can’t you love me back?”
“I do,” Remus said—and if Harry was in Tonks’s shoes, he knew that he would not be entirely convinced by this assertion. “But it’s not the same and I never pretended that it would be. You knew how I felt from the beginning; you said that you accepted it.”
“I had hoped…”
So Tonks and Remus were at it, again,
having another ‘discussion’. This time
it had already been going on for half an hour, and Harry was becoming increasingly
jittery with excitement over his discovery.
All he needed was for Remus to check through a translation of an ancient
text. Remus had promised to help him
after placating Tonks—which would be the third time that week—but the last time
they had had one of these little talks, it had taken them nearly four hours
before they had finished. As far as
Harry was concerned, he had waited long enough.
Silently pulling the kitchen door closed, he went back upstairs to
Sirius’s old room where the silver locket lay waiting
for him on the bed.
Over the past year, Remus, Tonks, Ron and Hermione had all been helping Harry to track down anything that had once belonged to the four founders—anything that might have been used as a Horcrux by Voldemort. So far, five of them had all been destroyed in one fashion or another, and now all that was left was the locket. This had been found in Kreacher’s cupboard along with several other items that the house elf had decided to pilfer. Harry had recognised it immediately as the Horcrux that should have been in the cave.
For all Harry knew, Voldemort might already be mortal. It all depended on whether R.A.B. had fulfilled his—or her—vow. But the locket, which had certainly been a Horcrux at some point, was proving to be a bit of an enigma. Due to a powerful Shield Charm that had been placed upon it by persons unknown, they couldn’t even find out whether the soul stored inside had already been destroyed, and if it hadn’t, the Shield Charm was doing a good job of preventing them from doing so now.
Harry had finally found a way around the Shield Charm, or so he hoped.
Magicartes Primartes. It was a book that had been in a box of
Sirius’s things, which Harry had taken from Sirius’s Gringott’s
vault and brought to Grimmauld Place. Written using a precursor
to Latin that was once used by Goblins, the book had evidently been ‘acquired’
by Sirius during his time at school, as Property
of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – Restricted Section was
printed inside the front cover. Not
having returned to Hogwarts for his final year, Harry resentfully acknowledged
that if it was not for Remus pushing him to keep up with his studies, he never
would have learned enough to carry out the translation by himself.
Harry hadn’t translated the whole book—just
going through a single page had taken him all afternoon. There was no indication why Sirius had stolen
the book in the first place, apart from a page where the top corner had been
folded over, and on a whim, Harry chose to work on that piece of text:
Soul Dislocation - to remove a soul from a vessel, or to switch souls between vessels
The incantation ‘Animae Extorquere’ may be carried out on two vessels separate from the caster, or the caster’s soul may be involved in the exchange.
If a soul-vessel is not present, the spell can be carried out using a proxy item owned by the soul in question, but a Restriction Charm is essential to limit the scope of the magic through time and space, forcing the magic to use a nearer vessel rather than one which may resonate with the soul more precisely.
The incantation ‘Animae Extero’ may be used to reverse the effect. But for this to be effective, all souls concerned, including the caster’s, must carry out the incantation.
It seemed the perfect thing to use in
separating the soul from the locket. The
middle section of the page did not make much sense, but not wanting to wait any
longer, Harry dismissed it as unimportant.
He then rummaged through Sirius’s things once more before pulling out
two copies of Advanced Herbology. One had obviously been bought as a
replacement for the other, as the first was covered in a variety of stains,
graffiti—with some very disturbing pictures, which Harry hoped his godfather
had not been responsible for—and had
several pages torn or missing completely.
It was this battered copy that Harry hoped to use. If he was right, the incantation would
transfer Voldemort’s soul from the locket to the
book, and then both book and soul could be eliminated using a simple
spell.
Besides Remus, the only other person who could check his efforts at translation was Hermione. It wouldn’t be long before she finished work and arrived at The Burrow, but Harry had no great desire to contact her there. Whenever Harry had the desire to be patronised—which, surprisingly, was not often—Hermione could be relied upon to fulfil that task. All it took was a request for help, or even just a moment of apparent hesitation, and she would be there giving Her Opinion Which Must Not Be Questioned. How Ron put up with it was beyond him.
Ron was now working at the Ministry, along
with Hermione, and it did not take a lot of common sense to realise just who
had been the driving force behind Ron taking the position. Although Hermione had insisted that it would
be useful to Harry for them both to be working at the Ministry, Harry was
positive that this was just a rouse to get Ron’s mind away from thoughts of a Quidditch career. Ron
hadn’t actively disagreed with Hermione in months, only giving muted objections
every now and then that were always immediately dismissed by her. What really irritated Harry was the lack of Quidditch practice with his best mate: Hermione certainly
had her opinions on them having fun when they should be spending every last
second dedicated to saving the world.
Part of Harry wished that Ron and Hermione
would start arguing again—anything from a break in the monotony of domineering
relationships that surrounded him. At
least he had managed to avoid being stuck in one himself. All he had to put up with was Ginny’s
incessant sulking, and luckily, he had a respite from that, because she had
gone to stay with Charlie in
Shaking his head to clear the negative train of thought before it really took hold, Harry found the page and drew his wand. It was time to sort out the locket once and for all.
As he said the incantation, Harry quickly became aware of the sheer amount of power that seemed to flow through his wand; there was no option of him putting any refinement into his casting, and he could only sit back and let it happen. He watched as a stream of purple light rushed out from the end of his wand and hit the locket; a slight twitch from his wrist, and the stream connected to the Herbology text book. His wand started to shake in his grasp and he held on tighter, his knuckles turning white from the effort. Then all of a sudden, the locket shattered with a bang, and the purple light rebounded, striking Harry hard in the centre of his chest.
**
The Daily Prophet lay on the table in front of him and his eyes gazed down at the page, but Remus couldn’t focus on any of the words. He had intended to spend his time thinking about the issue of Horcruxes, because something did not quite add up. But right now, he couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the latest bewildering conversation with Tonks.
He could not remember regretting anything as much as his decision to start dating Tonks. At the time, everyone had had an opinion on the subject, and it had been far too easy to be pushed into the unwanted situation. He had opened up to Tonks after Sirius’s death, admitting to something that was generally frowned upon in the heterosexist wizarding world, and he had mistakenly thought that she had taken it all in.
Remus knew from the start that a relationship with her would not be easy, and she had told him that it didn’t matter. But as time went by, Remus was left wondering exactly what part of ‘I am still in love with Sirius’ she had trouble understanding. It was definitely time to call it a day, for her sake, as well as for the sake of his sanity.
He gave a short,
hollow laugh at the thought of ending his relationship with Tonks. He could imagine what Molly would have to say
about it—not that her opinion should matter, but, good god, that woman loved to
stick her nose into other people’s business.
The sudden appearance of Arthur Weasley’s head in the fireplace brought Remus sharply out of his reverie.
“Remus, are you all right? Grimmauld Place has just lit up on the Ministry’s magic sensors like a Christmas tree.”
“What about the Fidelius Charm?”
“Whatever’s happened has just wiped the Fidelius out of existence. I think you should get out of there: it could be You-Know-Who’s work. Floo to The Burrow—the Protection Charms are still intact there. I’ll see if I can find out anything more, and I’ll meet you at home after I’ve finished work.”
Remus hurried out of the kitchen, sticking his head around the library door to let Tonks know what was going on. He then ran upstairs to get Harry, who was sitting on the floor of Sirius’s room, gazing down at a book and swaying from side to side. Next to him were the charred remains of the silver locket.
“You’ve done it,” Remus said with an enthused smile, but Harry didn’t seem to register that Remus was there. “Harry?” Still, there was no acknowledgement, and Remus grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him upright. Harry’s legs buckled and Remus nearly fell backwards from the extra weight that had slumped against him. “We have to get out of here.”
To Remus’s
surprise, Harry frowned at him and said in a slurred voice, “Bloody hell,
Remus, when did you get so old?”
Harry was not well known for randomly insulting people, but Remus didn’t have time to think about this sudden change in attitude. They needed to get away from Grimmauld Place before any Death Eaters arrived. Resigned to not getting any sense out of Harry, Remus dragged him downstairs and out through the front door to where Tonks was waiting.
“Do you think you can Apparate to The Burrow?” he asked Harry.
“Where?”
“Just hold onto my arm.”
There was a brief moment of panic as they had problem trying to Apparate, and then it was over and the three of them were hurtling towards the safety of The Burrow. Harry collapsed when they arrived at the end of the Weasley’s driveway, and Remus had to levitate him past the boundaries of the Protection Charms all the way to the house, where Molly was anxiously waiting. She bustled about, making the tea and repeatedly asking Remus and Tonks what had happened as Remus did his best to bring Harry round. There didn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with him that Remus, Tonks or Molly could tell, but Remus couldn’t help feeling that they were missing something.
Finally, Harry sat up of his own accord and helped himself to Remus’s mug of tea. “I appreciate the fuss and the tea,” he said blithely, as if he hadn’t been unconscious only minutes beforehand. “But why do you keep calling me Harry?”