Of Butterflies in a Hurricane

*


Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked slowly back through the halls of the school, making their way to Professor McGonagall's office. They ignored the incredulous looks they received as they trudged through the corridors, their clothes singed and holding a glittering sword.

Harry felt wary of so many people watching so he hurried the other two along, stopping only to give the password up to the office. They stepped onto the revolving staircase and were brought to the top where they knocked on the heavy wooden door.

They were allowed entrance and they stepped in, immediately greeted by a gasp and more staring.

"Potter, what happened to you?!" Professor McGonagall stood up quickly, her voice incredulous.

"... Nothing," Harry said vaguely, knowing she wouldn't accept that answer.

He was right and they watched as her eyes gave a steely glint as she looked at them. Her gaze lingered over their singed clothes, and the still-smoking sleeve of Hermione's shirt.

"Nothing? Potter, you look like you've just beaten your way out of a fire!"

"You have no idea," Harry muttered under his breath. "I'm sorry, Professor, I just can't tell you."

"Listen here, Potter," she said sternly, shaking a finger in his direction. "I don't know what Dumbledore did to you, but you'd think you’d have enough sense to know when to tell authority figures what you're up to!"

Harry was about to reply when he heard a barely concealed chuckle coming from one of the painting. McGonagall turned sharply, glaring at the last portrait. "Oh, be quiet!" she snapped.

Harry turned to see the Dumbledore in the picture with his eyes twinkling, holding a hand over his mouth as if to signal that he wouldn't say another word. Though he made no more sound, his eyes still glittered amusedly in his portrait.

Harry felt better knowing that Dumbledore didn't find his silence useless. It seemed that he approved that he had kept it to himself, only sharing with Ron and Hermione as he'd been allowed to.

Harry lifted the glittering sword he still held in his soot-blackened hand and placed it carefully on McGonagall's desk. He stepped back with Ron and Hermione, who had been fairly quiet. They seemed to think Harry was doing a fine job of facing the Headmistress.

"Just as I found it," he said simply, and then turned and left through the door and out to the corridor beyond, leaving Professor McGonagall alone in her study.

She frowned at the sword for a moment then turned to the portraits on the wall, going directly to the last one. "Dumbledore, this is all your fault. If you would just tell him he could tell other people, he would!"

"I can't do that, Minerva. For one, I am no longer alive and my word does not hold the same power it once did. For another, I believe Harry has done well in concealing our secret thus far." Dumbledore smiled calmly at McGonagall, who only became more annoyed.

"Why can't you tell me, Albus? I'd like to know what was going on in my school at the very least."

Dumbledore chuckled softly. "Minerva, you always did want to know everything." She frowned. "But I'm afraid it's not for me to tell anymore. I feel Harry is doing well. He had made it this far and I believe he is succeeding."

"Succeeding with what?!" she exclaimed, annoyed at the former-Headmaster's riddle-some talk.

Dumbledore just smiled. "Enough talk, Minerva, how about we play a game of wizard’s chess?"

McGonagall sighed and rolled her eyes, ignoring the eccentric professor's request. Instead, she sunk into her chair behind the desk and put her head in her hands, wondering if any good could come out of this war.

*

Harry, Ron, and Hermione retreated from the office and walked slowly back to the Gryffindor common room. Harry felt only slightly better knowing that he had the Horcrux safely stowed in his bag. He still felt, however, that they needed to destroy it as soon as possible.

They made their way directly to the common room, not speaking to each other and brushing off anyone else who tried. Finally, they made it to the portrait hole and went inside to find the common room empty. It was like this most of the time, they had noticed. Either students were in class or they were shut up safely inside their dorms.

They stood in the middle of the common room for several minutes until Harry broke the silence. "Where should we go?"

All three of them looked around like they might find another hidden room somewhere in the common room. When none appeared, they looked at each other.

"I know," Hermione piped up. "We could go to my room. There’s no one in there."

"Great idea," Harry said unenthusiastically. "There's just the problem that we can't get up the stairs."

"Oh, there are ways around that," Hermione said dismissively.

"There are?" Ron asked suspiciously, eyeing Hermione carefully.

"Of course, there's a way around everything," Hermione said while walking over to the steps that lead up to the girl's dormitory. She took out her wand and waved it a few times at the steps, muttering something under her breath.

She stood back and they waited for a few minutes while nothing happened. Harry was becoming skeptical on if it would really work.

"Okay," Hermione said finally, starting to walk towards the stairs. She stepped on them easily, not surprising. Harry and Ron shared an uneasy look and followed carefully.

Harry stepped on the first step gingerly and, when it didn't scream and transform into a slide, took a few more steps. When he had made it halfway up, Ron seemed to be convinced it was finally safe.

He crept up carefully, coming quickly behind Harry as though the stairs might change their minds at any time and hurl him down. Together, they followed Hermione closely, finally coming to a landing where a door led off to the side and had a sign labeled, "Seventh Years".

They went through this door and into the room within. It was much like the boy's dorm, with the same beds and bedside tables. Hermione's was the only bed that was made up. The other few beds in the room looked desolate and empty in comparison.

Hermione had books piled all around her bed, over the tables and up to the windowsill. Harry picked his way through the towers of book and sat down gingerly on her bed. Ron stood awkwardly by the door as if he didn't know what to do.

Hermione pushed aside some books and came to sit on the bed with Harry. She watched with some trepidation as he removed the dark wooden box. He moved his bag to the floor and set the box in the middle of the bed before them.

Ron seemed to forget his unease of being in Hermione's room and came forward, stepping over the books strewn about the floor. He finally came to the foot of the bed and sat on it carefully, trying not to disturb the box, like it might explode if he shifted any.

For a moment, they all just stared at the box. It was entirely plain except for the sapphire paced into the wood on the top. Finally, Harry reached over and pulled it to him. Ron and Hermione watched, their eyes wide.

"Do you think we can open it?" Harry asked the other two.

"Try it," Hermione prodded. "I think it might be that whatever is inside the box is the Horcrux, not the box itself."

Harry nodded and placed his fingers at the edge of the box, hoping it would come apart easily. To his surprise, the moment he pulled, the lid slid off quite easily. All three of them leaned over the top of the box to get a closer look inside.

Lying on a dark blue velvet cloth was a long wand; ten inches, made of willow and Phoenix tail. The light from Hermione's bedside lamp flickered over the lightly-colored wood of the wand.

"Do you think it's really a Founder’s?" Harry breathed, not yet daring to reach into the box and attempt to pick up the wand just yet.

"Of course," Hermione replied promptly and Harry turned to her.

"How do you know that?"

"It says so right here," she said, pointing to an inscription on the top of the box Harry hadn't noticed. In a curly, elaborate script, it read, "Rowena Ravenclaw, Hogwarts Founder."

"Wow," Ron said in awe. He seemed unable to believe that they had a Founder’s Object.

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?" Hermione said. Everything always seemed to make sense to her, Harry thought. "The Ravenclaw house is known for intelligence. It only seems fit that V-Voldemort would choose the thing that best suits her house. Her wand is the perfect choice. It symbolizes everything Ravenclaws are; knowledge and learning. Voldemort prized those qualities in himself. Naturally, he would want it to guard his Horcrux."

Harry and Ron stared at her. Once again, she had exerted her incredible reasoning skills to their amazement. The more Harry thought about it, the more it made sense. Voldemort seemed to like Objects that were particularly significant to his connections and the Founder's with which he associated them.

Now, however, they were faced with the ever-present problem of how to destroy yet another Horcrux. Harry stared at the wand as though willing it to tell him the answer to his query. When no stroke of genius came to him, he sat back, discouraged, and tried to figure it out.

"Maybe we should try a spell," Hermione said slowly.

Harry looked over at her, a skeptical look gracing his features. "What kind of spell?"

"A simple one. I'm just curious..." Hermione said, sitting up straighter.

Harry gave her a questioning look, not sure he liked the sound of her suggestion. She was grabbing for her wand and put it into the box, touching the tips of the wands together. Harry now gave her an apprehensive look as she set her face.

"Priori Incantatem," she said firmly.

A smoky ghost of what looked like a lightening bolt rose out of the wand, flashing angrily in the air before them. Suddenly and without warning, the wand let out a screaming sound like it was being ripped in two.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared in horror, too shocked to even cover their ears from the terrible screeching. The lightening bolt flashed and shot down at the tip of the wand. Each time it made contact, the wand jerked and shuddered, screaming in agony.

They watched as a grey ghost of a snake-like face erupted from the wand, careening around in circles around the bolt of lightening. The wand screamed louder and Hermione was finally shocked to her senses. She wrenched her wand away from the other and in a puff of smoke, the ghosts disappeared and the wand laid still and quiet.

They were all deathly silent for a moment. Harry was unable to fathom what they had just seen.

Hermione finally spoke into the quiet. "We shouldn't have seen that," she said, her voice high and concerned. She reached over and seized the top of the box, slamming it on.

"What was that?" Harry asked, confused.

"That was how Voldemort makes his Horcruxes," Hermione whispered in horror.

Harry turned and stared at the box sitting so innocently on the bed. His mouth was open in silent disbelief. It wasn't enough that Voldemort had desecrated a Hogwarts Founder by using their possession to store a Horcrux, but he had actually used the wand to do it. The thought made Harry sick to his stomach.

Hermione stood up from her bed like she couldn't stand sitting next to the box anymore. Ron stood up as well, an expression of disgust on his face as he stared at the box.

"I--I think I'm going to go to the library," Hermione said quickly and left them alone in the room.

Harry hesitated but reached over and took the box, putting it back in his bag. He then stood up and followed Ron out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

***

The days turned to weeks as Harry, Ron, and Hermione lingered in the castle. They still did not attend any classes and rarely left their dormitories. The boys in Harry's dorm were beginning to become curious as to why they were there and seemingly not doing anything.

They weren't doing nothing, though. They spent most of their time trying desperately to figure out how to destroy the Horcrux that was nestled safely in Harry's bag at all times. He carried it with him everywhere now, just as a precaution.

Hermione spent her days in the library, buried up to her elbows in books. Books on Charms, Transfiguration, Potions; anything she thought might be helpful. She had even braved Professor McGonagall's temper and asked for an unlimited pass to the Restricted Section.

She spent hour after hour pouring over books, hoping to find even the slightest mention of what to do with a Horcrux. She had little hope that she might find anything. The last time she had searched for information on the subject, she had come up short. Even the Restricted Section bared no results.

Anytime Harry wanted Hermione, all he had to do was look for the largest pile of books in the library. This was where he found her, several weeks after the finding of the Horcrux.

Harry was getting increasingly frustrated at their inactivity. He felt like a lazy git, staying safely inside the castle while the war was raging beyond its walls. It killed him to think that Draco was still out there somewhere and he was sitting here in the Hogwarts library with no hope of actually accomplishing anything.

"Found anything yet?" he asked dully as he plopped down in the only non-book laden chair. Hermione came up from the book she'd been scouring looking distinctly ruffled as she glared around at the mountainous piles of books.

"Very little," she answered huffily, glaring at the books like they had done her a personal wrong.

"Well, what have you found?" Harry asked, resting his elbows on the table and placing his chin in his hands as he looked at her.

"That everyone is too frightened to write about it," Hermione snapped.

Harry didn't say anything for a moment, knowing that she wasn't angry at him, just incredibly frustrated by the lack of information.

"You know, Harry," she said a second later, "I think we just ought to revert back to our original idea."

"You mean that we have to kill them like mortal human beings?"

"Precisely," she said, pushing aside a mountain of books and clearing a space on the table. "How shall we do it?"

She looked at Harry expectantly and he started to laugh, the stress of the situation finally weighing down on him. Hermione just shook her head as he continued to laugh. He finally quieted down at a sharp reprimand from Madam Pince.

He turned to Hermione, still shaking with suppressed laughter. "You think I know?! Hell, if I knew, Voldemort would be dead and I'd be on a beach somewhere with--drinking Margaritas." He caught himself at the last minute and just barely stopped from saying Draco.

Hermione gave him an odd look but let it go as she returned to her frustration of the situation. "You must have some idea."

"I really don't, Hermione," he said with conviction. "You're supposed to be the smart one!" he burst out.

Hermione glared at him. "Thanks," she said acidly.

"You know what I mean," he sighed. "You're actually smart enough to figure this out."

"So are you, Harry," she said seriously. "You've found all the," she looked around and lowered her voice, "Horcruxes. You figured out how to get the last one. You've known where they've been."

"It's all luck!" Harry exclaimed, annoyed that it always seemed to come back to him and his skills.

Hermione just shook her head. "It isn't, Harry, no matter how much you'd like to believe that."

Harry merely scowled and said no more on the subject. He was tired of everyone assuming he was some sort of super person who could solve all problems and make everything better. They didn't realize that he was just a normal kid trying to live his life, except that his life happened to contain a madman who tried to kill him every year.

"Anyway," Hermione said, drawing the conversation back to its original purpose, "we've got to figure out how to destroy this."

"Well," Harry said, still feeling a bit displeased from the previous conversation, "I would say burn it, but we know that won't work."

"Yes," Hermione said, looking discouraged. She glanced around at the books, wishing there was something, anything, that would help them.

"Breaking it would probably do nothing."

"I wouldn't suppose. I doubt we could simply break it anyway."

"How do people get rid of wood anyway, if they don't use fire?!" Harry exclaimed, his frustration getting the better of him.

Hermione sighed, thinking hard. They sat in silence, Harry scowling at the table and Hermione thinking to herself. After a minute or two, Hermione's eyes lit up and she dived into the pile of books, digging through until she found one.

Harry barely got a glimpse of the cover before she ripped it open and hastily riffled through the pages. The title had read, "Plants of the Muggle World and their Weaknesses." Harry gave Hermione an odd look as she flipped through the pages at an alarming speed.

She finally found what she wanted and flattened it out on the table, reading quickly. "'There are many weaknesses of the Muggle Willow tree. Though fire is a major destroyer of its limbs, it is also subject to infections from other plants that aim to suffocate the plant from root up. The Willow tree is like most other Muggle trees, unable to protect itself against bark eating insects that can kill the tree if their number is too great...'" She stopped reading and looked up at Harry.

"What?" he asked.

"Harry, I think this is it," she said excitedly.

"What is?"

"Insects!"

"What?" he asked in disbelief. "Insects?"

"Yes, don't you see? Voldemort would never expect someone to want to destroy his Horcrux in a Muggle way. He would find it too far below him to do so. These insects would eat the tree, thereby releasing the Horcrux from its confines."

"And how are you going to get these insects?" Harry asked skeptically. It all sounded a bit dodgy to him.

"In the forest, of course," she said, as though it was obvious. She stood up, now positively bouncing with excitement. "You get Ron and meet me in my dorm in twenty minutes." With that, she sped out of the library, leaving Harry surrounded by her piles of books.

Harry shrugged and left the library, ignoring the angry glare he received from Madam Pince when he left all the books, unsorted, behind. He walked up to the Gryffindor common room and found Ron lounging in an armchair by the fire. He was surrounded by Dean and Neville.

"Harry!" Dean greeted him when he neared. "Want to sit down?" He took out his wand and made to conjure another chair but Harry's stopped him.

"No, that's okay," he said quickly then turned to Ron. "Ron, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" Ron asked.

Harry glanced at the other two boys, noticing how they were listening to the conversation closely. "It's about the..."

"The what?" Ron asked and Harry restrained himself from slapping a hand to his forehead.

"Just come on!" he exclaimed, grabbing Ron's arm and dragging him up the girl’s staircase.

Dean and Neville stared after them, identical looks of confusion and suspicion on their faces. Dean turned to Neville. "Something weird is going on."

"Yeah," Neville agreed, gazing up the stairs after them.

Harry threw Ron down on the bed and Ron sat up, looking disgruntled. "What, Harry?" he asked, annoyed at being handled so.

"Hermione thinks she's figured out how to destroy the Horcrux," Harry answered directly, having no desire to beat around the bush at that moment in time.

Ron's eyes widened. "She has? How? Where is she?!"

"She’s gone to get it," Harry told him.

Ron's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Get what?"

"It's--" Harry started but was interrupted as Hermione burst in the door, looking winded but exhilarated.

"I got it!"

"Got what?!" Ron exclaimed.

"You didn't tell him?" Hermione asked, turning to Harry.

Harry let out an indignant sigh. "I was trying to!"

Hermione frowned. "Well, never mind. I've got them. I really hope this works."

She moved over to the bed and took a small bag out of her pocket. It was wriggling slightly and Ron eyed it carefully.

"It's not spiders," Harry said, rolling his eyes. Ron relaxed a little but not much, still keeping a safe distance from the bag.

Hermione raised her wand and conjured a large glass jar once more. She then asked Harry for Ravenclaw’s wand which he unearthed carefully. He set it down on the bed carefully and Hermione slid back the top slowly.

She reached into the box and gently lifted the wand out. She gingerly placed it into the jar and picked up the squirming bag once more.

"I've put an Appetizer Enlarging Charm on them," she said, indicating the bag. "That will make it much faster."

Harry nodded and Ron continued to look confused. She opened the top and poured the contents into the jar. Harry watched as about five little brown insects tumbled into the jar, landing on the floor and immediately scurrying around, bumping into the sides.

Hermione screwed on the lid tightly, sealing it with another Unbreakable Charm. She set it back on the middle of the bed and sat back to watch.

Harry moved closer, squinting at the small bugs that milled about the bottom of the jar. They hadn't seemed to have discovered the piece of wood standing in the middle. As Harry watched, one of the insects bumped into the handle of the wand. It looked disoriented for a moment then seemed to realize what it had just hit.

Harry watched as the bug opened its jaws wide and began to chomp away at the wood. The wand gave an evil hiss as the other bugs found it and began swarming over it, biting into the soft wood, eating away at its outside.

They were all silent as they watched the insects devour the piece of wood. Little by little, the wand vanished into the chomping mouths of the insects. With each bite, the wand shivered angrily but the bugs paid no attention. Harry wasn't sure whether they could hear it or not.

With a particularly vicious hiss, Harry saw that the one of the bugs had bitten down to the core of the wand. He could see the golden-red color of a feather peeking underneath the light-colored wood.

The insect took another bite and the wand shuddered angrily and Harry knew it was happening. Just like the other Horcrux, a shadow of a skull pushed its way out of the hole and into the jar. The wand continued to spit madly as the insects chewed away at its outsides.

When the hole was large, the skull rose up into the jar, floating away to nothingness, vanishing in a wisp of grey smoke. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared in amazement as the skull disappeared. At once, the wand stopped hissing and allowed itself to be eaten by the ravenous insects in the jar.

As Harry watched the wand vanish into the stomachs of the insects, he felt a twinge of guilt for letting something like Ravenclaw's wand be destroyed. But he knew it had to be done.

Finally, there was nothing left in the jar but a few very sated bugs. Hermione picked up the jar, examining it closely. Not a splinter was left in the bottom of the jar.

"Cool," Ron breathed, finally moving in closer to look at the insects. Harry just rolled his eyes and sat back on the bed.

Only three more to go," he thought. "Cup, Snake, and Voldemort himself..."


~~**~~


A/N: It's been a while, got a little caught up in bandslash but that's how the world works. Oh and school started, that's probably more why updates have slowed. Hope you enjoyed :) Please review.