Harry had a long phone conversation with Hermione, the next morning. "I think we should tell Sirius that it was a Horcrux. We can then tell him that we suspect there's one in Bellatrix's vault too."
Hermione wasn't sure. "But how come we know about Horcruxes? We can't tell him about our future selves coming back, can we?"
Harry smiled, although she couldn't see. "Well, he might consider it a kind of prank, but really, we don't need to tell him about that. I told him that we found that book about curse breaking. I can say that the Horcrux was defined as 'the darkest of dark magic' where the spell to identify one was described. It's close enough to the truth, you know."
Hermione considered it. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt, when presented that way. Do you think he'll need us to destroy it or would the Goblins do it?"
Harry hesitated. "I'm not sure how the Goblins may react to such a dark object being put in their vaults. It may be safer to just take it to Grimmauld place and handle it there."
Actually, they weren't sure if there was a Horcrux in that vault, but it was a most probable guess. They knew that Ravenclaw's diadem and Slytherin's locket were two Horcruxes. They suspected Hufflepuff's cup was another, since Gryffindor's sword had not been compromised, as far as they knew.
Sirius only woke up in time for a late lunch, that Kreacher seemed happy to serve. Sirius still seemed pensive throughout lunch. He then asked Harry to join him in his study. He seemed to be deep in thought while Harry waited patiently in the opposite chair. Finally, Sirius spoke. "That was not simple dark magic. The locket contained something much more sinister than usual, didn't it?"
Harry thought this gave him the opening he needed. "It was something that the book described as 'the darkest of dark magic'. That's why it had a specific spell to identify it."
"A Horcrux?" Sirius asked.
"You know about it?" Harry had never discussed the subject with Sirius in his other self, so this was a certain surprise.
"The Black library contains books about all kinds of dark magic. My mother was proudly saying that there isn't a piece of dark magic that didn't appear in one of these books. Yet even she wouldn't consider creating such an abomination. Do you know who created the one you destroyed?"
Harry opened his mouth to answer, but Sirius stopped him with a gesture. "I suspect I already know. It was the Dark Lord, wasn't it?"
Harry shrugged. "I know of no way to find whose Horcrux one is, once found, but I agree with your guess. They say that none of the latest dark lords was as obsessed with immortality as he was." He gave it a moment of consideration and then added, "We've found one at Hogwarts and destroyed it as well. I suspect there are more."
Sirius gasped at the nonchalance in Harry's voice. "Did you tell Dumbledore?"
Harry shook his head vigorously. "No! The man keeps too many secrets that he shouldn't and some of his decisions concerning me and you are… questionable, to say the least. We shouldn't tell him anything as long as we don't need his help, or he may try to manipulate everything 'for the greater good' and foil it all."
Sirius became contemplative for a short while. "Well, his actions concerning me are quite suspect, really. He knew me better than most and he should have insisted on giving me a trial, at least."
"Maybe he wanted to gain control over me? After all, I'm 'the-boy-who-lived' and he may have made some plans for me 'for the greater good' of his, plans that you might have not accepted had you been my guardian."
Sirius nodded pensively. "That may be true..."
Harry returned to the main subject of their conversation. "About the Horcrux – I suspect he gave one to Bellatrix for safe-keeping. It might be in her Gringotts vault. Can't you check?"
Sirius thought loudly. "Since Bella and her husband are currently in prison, I can claim to be 'next of kin', but I'm not sure if that's enough... Well, as Head of House Black, I can legally gain access to the vaults of the rest of the family. Bella is still a part of the family, so I can probably access her vault with no real problem. As my heir, you may even come with me, I believe. What do you look to find there?"
Harry took a deep breath. This was now going to the heart of the matter. "I think we may find Hufflepuff's cup there. If Hermione and I are correct, then that would also be a Horcrux. Can we go there tomorrow?"
Sirius stood up. "Why wait for tomorrow? Let's go now!"
A short while later, after Sirius had to fill a few forms, they were standing in front of Bella's vault. "Don't touch anything. My cousin is crazy enough to put some lethal curses on each and every item in that vault. Keep your hands in your pockets and only point from a distance at whatever you need me to look at," Sirius instructed. Harry nodded seriously.
Harry was almost sure about the right cup, but he had to stand too far to really notice the details. There were two more cups in that vault – Sirius decided to take them all. He levitated each cup into a separate bag and then put all three in another magic suppressing bag, like the ones used at Grimmauld Place. After closing that bag securely, Sirius took another look around, making sure there was no other cup there, before nodding to Harry and leading him out.
Harry suggested they take the cups to Grimmauld Place. Sirius walked them to the apparition point and a moment later they were in the entry hall of that house. They walked to the room with the other dark objects and left the cups there. Even with that special bag, Harry could still sense the darkness of the Horcrux from one of the cups.
"Can Hermione come now to destroy it?" Sirius seemed very eager to get rid of that.
"I'm not sure. We may need to call her and ask."
Sirius put his hand in his pocket and drew out a few Muggle coins. "There's a public phone booth a bit down the street. Do you think you can use it?"
"I'm not sure I remember her number by heart. Can't we go home and call from there?"
Sirius smiled when hearing Harry call his new house "home". "We can, and I think that Kreacher may be able to help us."
He then called "Kreacher!"
The house-elf popped in immediately, looking eager to help.
"Can you take us both home?" Sirius asked him.
Kreacher lifted a hand to each of them. "Just hold my hands."
A blink of the eye later, they were back in Sirius's home. Harry rushed to the telephone to call Hermione. Sirius walked to the kitchen more leisurely.
"She has no plan for the next hour or so," Harry informed him when he came in. "Can we ask Kreacher to take her to Grimmauld Place and back?"
Sirius frowned for a moment. "I'm not sure if he knows where to find her. Besides, nobody should notice her leaving or coming back."
"She's currently alone. Her parents went shopping. Kreacher!"
The elf walked in immediately. Harry didn't wait for the usual interaction. "Can you bring Hermione to Grimmauld place and back to her home?"
Kreacher seemed delighted at the mention of Hermione. "Kreacher can bring Miss Mione. Don't you want to be there when she comes?"
Harry just talked to the phone. "I'll send Kreacher to bring you as soon as he takes us there."
He waited for her response and then said "bye," and ended the call, turning to Kreacher. "Please take us there and then bring Hermione to us."
Kreacher grabbed their hands, deposited them at Grimmauld Place and vanished, appearing a few seconds later with Hermione.
"Wow! That was fast," Hermione said. She then turned 'all business.' "What do you want me to do? I don't want my parents not to find me at home when they return."
It didn't take long for them to reach the appropriate room. Hermione levitated the three cups to the floor and cast the revealing spells. All three contained dark magic, but only one was a Horcrux. She levitated a piece of clothing from the pile left there the previous morning and had it wrap itself completely around the cup. It was quite anticlimactic in the end, despite the wails coming from the Horcrux being destroyed.
"I have enough time to remove some curses from other objects, if you like," Hermione told Sirius.
"Why don't you teach me that spell and let me do the work?" he asked. It seemed weird for a grown-up to ask a child to teach him, but Sirius was smart enough to notice that neither Harry nor Hermione were regular children. Despite acting like children most of the time, they were able to display much more maturity, when necessary. In a way, he thought they were more mature than him.
Hermione spent some time teaching both males. It took Harry about ten tries before he succeeded the first time and ten more tries until he was consistent in his casting. Sirius achieved the same level with two fewer tries. With her mission accomplished, Hermione was content to let Kreacher take her back home.
The two males spent two more hours removing curses from various items and then checking each to make sure it was fully cleansed. Kreacher was happy to help as much as he could. He then popped away for a short while. He returned when they were checking the last item in the room. "Will master and master like some dinner before going home?" he asked politely.
"Sure! I'm famished!" Harry replied for them both, making Sirius smile.
An hour later, with full bellies, Sirius suggested they returned home by Muggle means, after taking a walk in the park to let their meal settle down. When they finally reached home, Harry thought it had been a very good day.
\/\/\/
It hadn't been a good day for Snape for some time. Since that night, when Hogwarts refused him entry, he couldn't really concentrate. Dumbledore had made sure that the house-elves packed all of Snape's belongings and brought everything to him at the Three Broomsticks, where he was staying until things would clear up. Yet he couldn't claim many of the books that had been in his personal library since they were the school's. He also couldn't claim any of the expensive ingredients for the same reason. Although he'd managed to save most of his salary from Hogwarts, not having to pay for lodging or food while there, he didn't really have a place worthy of being called home. He still had that almost falling apart house at Spinners End, but that had never been a real home to him, not even as a child. He would have to overcome his feelings and invest quite a bit of his savings just to make that house habitable, and then he would also need to build a potions lab and start earning some gold. His savings couldn't keep him going for more than a few years.
Then, he also had another problem. When he came under Dumbledore's protection, he also vowed to help keep Harry Potter safe. Now, unable to be at Hogwarts, where Harry was spending most of the year, his vow came back to bite him. Had he known it was that kind of vow, he would have negotiated for a more relaxed version. Due to the vow, he kept being distracted as his magic was trying to direct him to Potter while his feelings wanted to go anywhere but to Potter, especially now, that Black took him under his wings. This internal conflict was his main problem, really. Without it, he might have been able to brew a few profitable potions even in his hotel room, but being so distracted, trying to brew potions was a sure way to disaster. He'd already seen what lack of concentration made his students do even with the simplest potions. He shuddered at the memory.
\/\/\/
Voldemort also didn't think this, or any day since that fool touched Potter's hand, was a good day. He was somehow stuck in this fool's body that kept whining about his missing arm. It served him right for his foolishness, except that it also affected Voldemort. He could no longer use that body. He actually lost control of it since those fools at the hospital asked for the help of the Department Of Mysteries. The unspeakables became very interested when seeing his face coming out of the back of Quirrell's head. They promptly moved him, along with Quirrell, of course, to one of their well-warded rooms under the Ministry. It didn't really matter. Quirrell, despite the healers' treatment, was as good as dead, and Voldemort couldn't leave his failing body, no matter how hard he tried. He wondered if he could leave once Quirrell died, which became more and more probable each day. He would have ordered Rookwood to kill Quirrell, had he been sure he could escape. Possessing a dead body seemed an even worse option than his current situation. It wasn't a good day at all, for him.