Chapter 40: A Diadem and A Cabinet
Harry sat with Narcissa as the Express took them back to Hogwarts. At his side sat a small dragonhide attache case. A 'Christmas gift' from Cecil Croaker, inside it, was all of the paperwork he needed in case someone questioned his credentials. He was now, legally, Harry Fawkes born in Bristol and raised abroad. He'd gotten his magical education at a private magical school in Boston.
The marks were remarkably average. He had his Mastery in Defense, and O's in Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions. After those, however, it was a smattering of passing and failing grades. The point had been to make it look boring so that no one would read too deeply into it.
It would be enough for him to take his position next year as Defense Professor. I wonder how the curse will try to get me? He mused as the train continued to chug along the path. The compartment held himself, Narcissa, James, and Regina as well as Sirius and Lily. Remus had ridden in another compartment with Jane and as for Peter, Harry hadn't seen the fourth Marauder but James had told Sirius that he was riding with his cousin Conner Yaxley, a first-year Slytherin. I didn't know Wormtail was related to the Yaxleys. I wonder how Conner Yaxley is related to Corban Yaxley?
It had been an eventful vacation. Between his wedding and the explosion in the Alley, he had finally had a chance to meet with Dorea and her husband Charlus as well. Upon the advice of Narcissa and Bellatrix, he had gone with several vials to use in the Potter pensieve.
"So, you are-" Dorea had begun after witnessing the memories.
"Your great-nephew. My father is currently twelve years old and is dating a different witch than my mother." Harry explained, "Luckily since this was a timeline that was never supposed to have a Harry Potter in it, it doesn't really matter whom James and Lily decide they want to be with."
The Potters were sworn to secrecy. Harry didn't want to tell his grandparents or his actual parents who he was. As far as the world knew he was just Harry Fawkes and that was how he wanted it.
Harry was taken from his daydreaming as Narcissa curled closer to him, "After this year, I will have my time at St Mungos as an apprentice. Madam Pomfrey wishes for me to come back to Hogwarts to work with her." She said almost lazily, her eyes still closed as she lay against her husband.
"Well, seeing as how I am going to be the Defense Professor, it'll be nice to have you here with me," Harry said putting his arm around her and squeezing gently.
"Try not to die or get fired," Narcissa said quietly, "It's been over a decade since a Defense Professor has made it past their first year. Trevyan was supposed to stay, but with you taking his place, even he's gone."
"It was the same way when I went to school. Everyone said there was a jinx on the position." Harry said, "I'll talk to Salazar about it, the position can't have always been jinxed."
She made a sound that could have been in agreement but it was clear that Narcissa had nodded off at this point.
Scene Break
The Wiltshire Vampire Coven was a dark, dismal place. Cantankerous Nott hated it here. He hated the way the vampires stared at him hungrily, only his status as an 'emissary' kept them from killing him. There was only one of them he felt safe around, the servant of Lady Declan. The servant, Elizabeth, still used her 'mortal' name because she hadn't willingly become a vampire. She'd been turned into a slave by Lady Declan and the two, one a wizard trapped by his desire to be 'better' than the ones he considered lower and the other a vampire forced to serve the woman who had ripped the mortality from her.
He was in his quarters. The Coven had taken over a convent after murdering the nuns who had lived here. Now no one came near the place, and those that did weren't heard from again. Ostensibly he was here to help them coordinate when Voldemort needed the Coven's assistance. But he felt like meat in a locker with the way they eyed him.
There was a soft knock on his door, and a quiet, "May I come in?" Nott opened the door revealing Elizabeth carrying a small bottle of wine and a glass. "I brought you something," She said quietly, "I'd have brought two glasses but you know.." She smiled sheepishly and gave him the bottle.
He took it, pouring a small amount into the glass and drinking it, "Thank you. I sleep better when I'm too drunk to think about the others here."
"They won't kill you." Elizabeth said to him, "For one thing, you are a guest here, and for another, I won't let them." She sat down on the other chair in his quarters, "Admittedly, I'd probably die in the fight, but that would be better than staying here."
"Then why do you stay?" He asked her.
She sighed, "Because I can't leave until Lady Declan allows it, or she's killed." Elizabeth sighed softly, looking down at her feet, "I'm trapped here because I made a wrong damned turn."
"How long have you been here?" He asked her. When she didn't answer, he took another sip of his wine, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked that."
"It's been thirty-nine years." She said, "I was on a hike and found the place. It was pouring rain so I stayed in the chapel, waiting for it to clear up. By the time it did, my neck was opened and I was blue-lipped and dead." She smiled sadly, "You know what I miss the most? The sunrise. I used to get up early every morning so I could do my exercises in the morning sunlight."
The two continued to commiserate until Nott had to go to sleep. Elizabeth left his room and added another detection charm to the door before going out to hunt with the others.
Scene Break
"A curse on the Defense position?" Salazar repeated, his brow furrowing in thought, "There wasn't in my time. It would take a powerful bit of magic to continually thwart the Headmasters of the school. Have you spoken to Albus about this?"
"Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first." Harry said. "Could it be similar to the Goblet of Fire, where someone used a charm to affect the position?" He'd been thinking about it ever since Narcissa had brought up the fact that even now the position had been unfilled for longer than a single year at a time. That had gotten him thinking about his own time at Hogwarts. Something had to be the cause of this. But what?
"It wouldn't be anything connected to the school." Salazar mused, "But perhaps it is something connected to the actual position. Someone could have used a cursed object to put a hex on the title, rather than on any one person." The man paced inside his painting, "It would be a powerful object, something that could affect a person regardless of their own magical power, but be subtle enough that they didn't notice it." He stroked his short silver beard, "Rowena had a Diadem that could manipulate the intelligence of the wearer...if someone had found it, and placed a hex that worked with the Diadems abilities they could have used it to boost a jinx."
"So, could that be the thing we are looking for?" Harry asked him.
Salazar thought for a moment and then nodded, "Most likely. It's the only object I can think of that could be used in such a way. It could also be another Horcrux. After all, Riddle used items from two other Founders. It would make sense if he could get hold of the Diadem that he would use it. You need to speak to Albus about this theory."
Harry nodded and prepared to leave the Chamber. The ride up the pipe on the floating stone gave him time to think. If the Diadem was hidden here at the school, it had to be somewhere no one would think of looking. He thought back to his first year at Hogwarts Professor Dumbledore said he once found a room full of chamberpots...maybe the Diadem is hidden in a room like that! With that idea on his mind, he raced from the bathroom to the Grand Staircase to make his way up to the Headmasters office.
Inside his office, Albus listened as Harry described his idea. "A room, hidden from others? I found it full of chamber pots you say?" He asked the younger man.
"Yes sir," Harry replied, "At least that's what you told me." Harry watched as Albus stroked his beard in thought, the gesture oddly similar to the one Salazar had performed earlier.
"I believe," Albus said after a moment, "that there could be something to this." He stood up from his chair, "I require a House Elf, please." He called out and in an instant Wobbly, the House Elf that Harry had most of his dealings with at Hogwarts, appeared before them.
"Wobbly, is there a place where someone could hide something? A place where no one would think to look?" Harry asked the diminutive creature.
"Wobbly will go ask the others Perfessr Fawkesy," Wobbly said before vanishing again. He returned a few moments later, "You is wanting the 'Come and Go' room. Wobbly will take you there!" The Elf grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him out of the office and out of sight. Albus chuckled at the energetic nature of the House Elf and then followed along.
Wobbly stopped at a tapestry featuring a man teaching trolls how to dance. "You needs to walk past three times thinkin' of what you needs!" He explained to Harry. Harry looked at the Tapestry and began to pace back and forth.
"I need a place where someone could hide a magical artifact." He said aloud, "Somewhere no one would find it." On the third pass, a door appeared before them. Harry looked at Albus and then opened the door, finding a large room full of broken and useless looking junk.
In the corner sat a broken cabinet. "I was unaware we had one of these..." Albus said, "It's linked to a twin cabinet somewhere in the world. Were it repaired someone could bypass the wards that prevent someone from coming into the school without my knowledge."
"This is how they got in." Harry said slowly, "This is what Malfoy was working on. It has to be. He fixed this and that's how the Death Eaters got inside." A sudden rage overtook Harry at that moment as he stared at the object that had spelled the doom of his friends and family. Everything, from the death of Dumbledore at the hands of Snape all the way to Ginny's death six years later, happened because Draco Malfoy had found a way to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Now he was standing in front of it. His wand was in his hand and the incantation for a blasting hex was out of his mouth before he knew what he had done. The spell struck the cabinet reducing it to splintered fragments that he doubted anyone could put back together. Still, he knew that he couldn't leave it to chance and cast a burning charm, reducing the shattered cabinet to ashes.
"That seemed more personal than merely avenging my death," Albus said quietly.
Panting Harry looked at his wand and then put it back in his holster, "That's because it wasn't just you. This was the reason for everything that happened after Voldemort returned. If he couldn't bring the Death Eaters into the school this way, they would have had to use the tunnels. Which meant we would have seen them on the Marauders Map." He turned back, "Without this cabinet, we could have found what we needed and stopped Riddle."
"Perhaps. Or perhaps he would have found another way. It doesn't do much good to second guess fate." Albus said, "From everything you've told me, I believe I would have died that year regardless." He didn't elaborate on what he meant and so Harry began to look through the piles of garbage for the Diadem.
"Do you know what it's supposed to look Headmaster?" Harry asked once the realization that he didn't know what a Diadem was crossed his mind.
Albus nodded as he stood before a small bust upon which sat what Harry had discounted as an old tiara. "I do, according to historical depictions, this should be the Diadem."
Harry reached into his robes, pulling out the small dragonhide bag he'd used to carry the Ring and the Cup. He used his wand to levitate the Diadem into the bag. "Time to destroy this Horcrux. Do you wish to come with me?" He asked the Headmaster.
"I believe it would be a good idea to have someone with you when you destroy it. We don't know what sort of protections, if any Tom put on this." Albus said as the two men left the room and prepared to go back to the Chamber.
"When do you suppose Riddle had time to hide this? When he was a student maybe?" Harry mused, more to himself really than to Albus.
Albus shook his head, "I don't believe so. This wasn't the only time Tom has applied for the Defense position. The last time was about ten years ago. My best guess is that he used his time then to hide the Diadem."
Harry called the stone to come to them when they arrived at the bathroom, "What was he like?" He asked as they made their way down the pipe.
"Tom was a brilliant student and very polite to the Professors. Of course, he was polite because he wished for them to consider him a star pupil and not a threat." Albus said, "With the other students he made people believe he was their best friend easily enough, but I do not believe Tom Riddle has ever had a friend. Servants, yes, but never a friend."
Inside the Chamber, the destruction of the Diadem was similar to the others with one notable exception; as Harry brought the basilisk venom-laden tool down onto the Diadem he heard a woman screaming in pain though in the blackness that came forth he saw an older man with a drooping mustache. "That's it. The Diary, the Ring, the Cup, the Locket we saw him use up, and finally the Diadem. Do you think there are any more?" He said to Albus as they watched the metal twisting as if exposed to great heat.
"It's possible, but the only objects belonging to Godric Gryffindor are here at the Castle. His Sword and the Sorting Hat." Albus replied, "It's possible he will try to make more, but he would want items that feed his ego."
That left Harry with plenty to think about as Albus and he ascended the lift and went their separate ways. In his quarters, he found Bellatrix sitting on his bed. "I didn't think you would be here today." He said to her, "Weren't you going to stay home and work on the ward structure for the fields?" He asked his eldest wife.
"I was," Bellatrix said, "But I realized something important. The father of my child will be sleeping alone for the first time since his second wedding and I couldn't have that." She grinned and rose, coming to embrace him, "Did I forget to tell you that?"
She thoroughly enjoyed the stunned look on her husband's face. "I am pregnant, a few weeks along at this point." She took his hand and pressed it gently to her stomach, "Our first child..." She said before moving closer and kissing him.
"Between that and the destruction of another Horcrux, that's the best news I've had all day." Harry said, "We found the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw and destroyed the soul fragment inside." He explained.
"I will care about that in the morning." Bellatrix promised him with a smirk gracing her features, "For now, let's get to bed, Mr. Fawkes." She pulled him back to the bed and began to undress.
"As you wish Mrs. Fawkes," Harry said using his wand to kill the lights and doing the same. They had made progress and as long as they continued doing that, his children would grow up in a world where Tom Riddle was just a name in the history books.
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