Close To Truth

“How did it go?” Harry repeated, shaking his head in bemusement. “Bloody hell, I don’t know where to start. Wait,” he corrected, “I know exactly where to start. Ginny, that thing I gave you…?”

“Oh, right,” Ginny said, and pulled the tablet wrapped in the blanket. She set it down on the table, and Harry un-shrunk it.

“What is it?” Hermione asked curiously, reaching for the blanket.

“Wait!” Ginny yelped, and grabbed Hermione’s hand. “Er…is it safe to unwrap?” she asked Harry, remembering his admonition not to.

“Well, put it this way,” Harry said with a grin. “It’s probably safe for the three of you to touch, but I can’t lay a finger on it unless I want another headache.”

Hermione, Ron and Ginny looked confused for a moment, but then understanding dawned on Hermione’s face and she gasped. “Harry! You mean that this is—?” She stopped and simply stared at Harry, who nodded.

“Wait,” Ginny said irritably. “The only thing I can think of that Harry can’t touch is a Horcrux, since the locket made his scar burn. But you can’t mean…” she trailed off and gaped as Harry’s grin widened. “You can’t be serious!” she declared.

“I am,” Harry said, feeling slightly giddy. “Go on, unwrap it.”

Ron did the honors, pulling back the blanket to reveal the silver and copper tablet. “You really think this is a Horcrux?” he asked Harry. “Why?”

“Because the second I touched it my scar burned,” Harry told them. “What else do you know of that does that? Besides, you should have seen where I found it!”

“Yes, where did you find it?” Hermione asked, trying to pick up the tablet so that she could examine it closer. However, because of the Curse weakening her she had trouble with its weight, and Ron silently pushed it closer to her, turning it so that it was facing her.

Harry told them how he’d gotten into the Slytherin dormitories, and how he’d deduced that there was something unique about the particular statue. He did acknowledge that the discovery of the Horcrux itself had been lucky: “If I hadn’t actually touched it I’d probably never have figured it out,” he admitted.

“Harry,” Hermione breathed out excitedly, “you realize who this probably belonged to?”

“Yeah,” Harry answered. “If Dumbledore was right about Voldemort’s wanting to make Horcruxes out of one object from each of the Founders of Hogwarts, then this was probably Rowena Ravenclaw’s.”

Ron and Ginny seemed utterly gobsmacked; not surprising, since they’d grown up almost revering the names of the Founders. To have something like that in their possession was awe-inspiring. “Hermione, do you think there’s a way to confirm that?” Harry asked. “I mean, Voldemort clearly thought this tablet was Ravenclaw’s, but I’d like to be sure. Could there be a mention of it somewhere as something she was known to have made or owned?”

“Possibly,” Hermione said thoughtfully. “I’ll try to do a little research about it. The writing on this is ancient, even archaic. But I think you’re right, Harry—if Voldemort made this into a Horcrux he definitely believed it was Ravenclaw’s, and from what we know he wouldn’t have just jumped to that conclusion; he’d have had solid proof.” Harry nodded.

“This is brilliant!” Ron declared. “We’ll wrap this up in no time if you keep finding Horcruxes at this rate, mate! I mean, there’s only two more to go now!”

“Two?” Hermione said. “No, there’s three!”

“I thought there were three left too,” Ginny said.

Harry glanced around at the confused looks. “Uh, I dunno,” he said. “Dumbledore seemed to think there were six Horcruxes, plus what was still inside Voldemort.”

“But that makes no sense,” Hermione said. “Look, the first we knew of was Tom Riddle’s diary, right?” Harry nodded and smiled gently at Ginny’s scowl. “And the second was the locket—”

“No,” Ginny said. “The second was the ring.”

“Um.” Harry said. “Okay, hang on. We know there’s supposed to be one for each of the Founders.” He began counting on his fingers. “Slytherin’s locket, that’s one; the tablet of Ravenclaw’s, that’s two. Then there was Helga Hufflepuff’s goblet that Dumbledore showed me the memory of, and there’d be one for Godric Gryffindor; that’s four. The ring is five, the diary is six…oh,” he said as it hit him. “Right.”

“What? Ron asked.

“Dumbledore seemed pretty sure that Voldemort’s snake Nagini is a Horcrux,” Harry reminded them. “And that makes seven Horcruxes, plus Voldemort himself.” He grimaced. “Damn. So we still have to find Hufflepuff’s goblet, Gryffindor’s—whatever, and get rid of Nagini, and then deal with Voldemort!”

“Harry, don’t feel discouraged,” Ginny said. “You just found one of the Horcruxes! We have two of them and two have been destroyed; we’re more than half-way there!”

Harry brightened considerably when that was pointed out. “Yeah, that’s true,” he said. “We’re making good progress.”

As Hermione divided her attention between Harry and the tablet, Harry described the rest of the trip, including his conversation with the Sorting Hat. “Well, we knew that,” Ron said when Harry told them the Hat said Voldemort was obsessed with immortality. “Voldemort asking Slughorn about the Horcruxes all those years ago made that pretty bloody obvious.”

“Harry, what was the exact phrasing the Hat used?” Ginny asked.

“Er…” Harry paused to think. “It was telling me that Riddle was undecided about which House he wanted to be in,” he said. “Riddle had been favoring Ravenclaw, followed by Slytherin and then Gryffindor.” He smiled at Ron’s expression, knowing Ron was thinking that the idea of Voldemort in Gryffindor House was bizarre, just as Harry had. “I asked it why Slytherin had been a better fit for Riddle, and it said his ambition to be more than he was was the main thing. And then the Hat said ‘The secret he sought most desperately would be better found within Slytherin.’ I asked it what the secret was, and it said immortality.”

“‘Desperately’?” Hermione repeated, looking up from her studying of the tablet. “Did the Sorting Hat actually use that word, Harry?”

“Yeah, those were its exact words,” Harry confirmed. “Why?”

“It’s interesting,” Hermione said thoughtfully. “We all knew that Voldemort was obsessed with living forever, but I’d never really considered that he was truly afraid of death. It would certainly explain his willingness to do anything to achieve immortality—even ignoring his obsession with pure-bloodedness when necessary.”

“It’s also a weakness,” Ginny pointed out with satisfaction. “If Voldemort is so desperate to stay alive, we can use his fear against him. If he learns that his Horcruxes have been destroyed at just the right moment…”

“He’ll get careless,” Harry finished with an excited nod. “You’re right, Ginny! The first time I went to Hogwarts back when Ron was hurt and talked to Dumbledore’s portrait, he told me that Voldemort was easy to understand. That’s what he meant—that ultimately, Voldemort’s driven by one thing: his desperation to stay alive. If we can exploit that at the right time…” He smiled grimly.

“You looked right vicious when you said that,” Ron said to Harry, although he didn’t seem to disapprove.

“Yeah, well, the idea of scaring the crap out of Voldemort really appeals to me,” Harry said.

“Did Dumbledore’s portrait tell you anything else useful this time?” Hermione asked Harry, returning her gaze to the tablet.

“Not really,” Harry said with a shrug. “Pansy and I were in and out of there so fast there wasn’t time. I did tell him about the passageway from Honeydukes, and he said he’d tell Minerva so they could seal it up.”

“Seal it up!” Ron yelped. “Oh come on, what are the odds that Voldemort’s going to waltz through Honeydukes to get to the entrance?”

“That’s what Pansy said,” Harry told Ron. “And I’ll say the same thing to you I said to her: if Voldemort wanted to get inside Hogwarts badly enough, do you really think he’d hesitate to Stun or kill everyone in Honeydukes to do it?”

“Oh…yeah,” Ron agreed. “I mean no, he wouldn’t hesitate.”

“It is a shame that we can’t visit Hogwarts secretly any longer,” Ginny said. “We might need to again at some point.”

“Actually, we still can,” Harry said. “You remember that feather of Fawkes’ that Dumbledore gave me? The one I used to transport right into the kitchen here at the house? Dumbledore told me how to use it for more than one person, and he said that it would get us into Hogwarts. He said that it would always get its holder where they wanted to go, and there wasn’t any spell that would stop it.”

Hermione looked up again, utterly stunned. “Harry! That—that’s incredible!” she declared. “Oh Merlin—does anyone else know about it?”

“Er…yeah, Pansy was there,” Harry said, confused.

“You have to order her not to tell anyone what the feather can do or how to use it,” Hermione insisted, looking terrified. “Or even that it exists, for preference, although most of the D.A. knows about it anyway. Can you imagine something like that in Voldemort’s hands? He could walk right into Hogwarts! Or the Ministry, or Gringotts!”

Harry felt a chill go up his back, his reaction similar to Pansy’s at the thought of Voldemort having a Marauder’s Map of the Ministry or Diagon Alley. Riddle was powerful enough without that kind of weapon in his possession. “I’ll tell her straight after this,” he agreed, shivering.

“Be sure to thank her too,” Ginny said. “Without her you’d never have gotten into the Slytherin dormitories, and we wouldn’t have the fourth Horcrux.”

“I will,” Harry agreed.

As their discussion continued Harry saw Alicia Spinnet come down the steps out of the corner of his eye. He only half-acknowledged her; people came and went past the see-through wall all the time, and Harry had learned to ignore them so he wouldn’t get distracted. So he was startled when the conversation was interrupted by Alicia knocking on the door.

Ginny got up and opened the door. “Hi, Alicia,” she said.

“Hi,” Alicia answered, smiling at them. She glanced around, and then raised her eyebrows at Harry. “Are you ready to go?”

Harry looked blank. “Go? Where?”

“Um, to see Neville?” Alicia said, looking confusedly at Ginny. “You asked me to guard you while you were—”

“Oh…right!” Harry exclaimed, slapping his forehead with his palm. He’d completely forgotten that he’d arranged to meet Neville for dinner. Because of the Memory Charm, Neville didn’t remember anything about the D.A., and so they’d been guarding him from Voldemort in secret under an Invisibility Cloak; but Harry had thought Neville would appreciate seeing his old school friends, and he’d been right—Neville had leapt at the chance to catch up with Harry. So they were getting together at a restaurant in Diagon Alley.

Harry checked his watch; they had about twenty minutes before he was supposed to meet Neville. “It’s a good thing you came and found me, Alicia,” he said ruefully, getting up and heading to the magically sealed chest where they kept their most valuable possessions from the war. “Ginny, you were coming too, right?” Ginny nodded, so Harry fished around in the chest until he found the two Invisibility Cloaks Parvati and Lavender had recently used. He pulled them out and handed one to Ginny, and the other to Alicia.

“Why do Ginny and Alicia have to be under cloaks?” Ron asked. “I mean, Neville knows them too…”

“But he’s only expecting me,” Harry said. “And he’s friends with Ginny, but barely knows Alicia. Plus, there’s the element of surprise, and if something happens we’ll need it. Ginny and Alicia will be able to call for help before anyone even knows they’re there. In fact… Hermione, give Alicia your Galleon.”

Hermione pulled out her enchanted D.A. Galleon, and handed it across to Harry, who gave it to Alicia. “Don’t reveal yourselves at all until you’ve called for help,” he said. “That goes for both of you; if something happens, don’t to anything until you’ve used the Galleons to get help.”

Both Ginny and Alicia nodded their understanding. “This is going to be very boring, isn’t it?” Alicia stated.

Harry smiled apologetically. “Probably. But at least you don’t have to stand and watch Neville while he tends plants at his job all day.”

“No, I did that last week,” Alicia retorted. “At least tonight I’ll be able to watch the crowd for potential trouble.”

“Come on,” Ginny said resignedly, tossing the Cloak over her shoulders. “Let’s go.”