Dumbledore and Harry stood inside yet another abandoned classroom; this was their third of the day. The last three weeks had been a whirlwind of activity. Dumbledore had half been split between dealing with the DMLE and ensuring that he retained his position as Hogwarts Headmaster, and helping Harry look for the basilisk… so far no luck.
"Vestigium bestia!" Dumbledore exclaimed once again as he attempted to track the large beast. A few days ago, they had hit a small break as they had gotten a drop of the beast's magical signature. Ever since, Dumbledore had been using an old tracking spell to look for the beast.
"How can such a thing even hide?" Harry growled as he used his own selection of spells to look for anything.
"The basilisk, though great in size, is still a natural predator. It knows how to hide in the most unlikely places." Dumbledore summarized.
"Why don't we just send the sound of a rooster out through the entire castle? Kill the bloody thing stone dead inside the pipes and then find it?" Harry asked with barely concealed annoyance.
"Though the Rooster's wail is deadly to a basilisk, it must be heard clearly without any barrier. Lest the crowing is not strong enough and the beast will not succumb." Dumbledore replied courtly as he sighed, nothing once again.
"I should head to class, Headmaster. I know I can skip most of the years due to my advanced knowledge, but it will still seem mighty suspicious if I'm away for too long." Harry stated with a low breath.
"Go, join your friends. I'll retreat to my office, without a doubt some more paperwork will be waiting." Dumbledore replied as he followed his young friend out the room.
They split and Harry realized that they were hitting upon lunch as it was. His stomach growled and with a shrug, he changed directions towards the great hall, not minding the missed morning classes. He was joined quickly by Vanessa and, to his slight surprise, Luna. The two were talking as they sat and barely paused to greet Harry before the food appeared.
"Any luck?" Vanessa asked after a few bites.
"Damn thing is elusive, and whenever we think we have it, it slips away through some pipe or another." Harry replied with a sigh.
"Why are you hunting a basilisk, Harry?" Luna asked with her dreamy tone as she gazed determined at her shaking pudding, so she didn't hear the sharp intake of breath from the two older magicals.
"Luna," Harry began in a low tone, "how do you know that?"
"Is it not obvious?" Luna asked with a titled head and confused expression.
"Only to you, Luna, so keep it a secret, okay?" Vanessa asked with the calmest smile she could muster, but her expression told Harry everything.
' How in the hell did she know?!' Practically flowed off his fiancé in waves. Harry did not know either, Luna had always been unusually perceptive, but this was almost too much. He wanted to question her further, but the expression of the girl told him that he wouldn't really get anywhere… not for now at least.
A few days past and Harry found himself standing with Dumbledore in a corridor on the sixth floor, their eyes focused on a broken, exposed pipe.
"An access point for the beast." Dumbledore stated.
"It would certainly seem so. What does the tracking say?" Harry replied as he stuck his head inside the pipe and cast a silent Lumos.
"Vestigium bestia." Dumbledore mumbled to himself and watched as a fine thin mist spread out from his wand, a small part of it shaded red to indicate the current path towards his intended target. "It would seem… what!?" Dumbledore cut himself off with a yell as the mist thinned and vanished.
Harry whirled and saw Dumbledore attempting to cast the spell multiple times before giving up, an expression of rage now marring the aged Headmasters face.
"It's gone, the magical signature, gone." He whispered.
"How?" Questioned his young friend.
"I do not know, basilisk are resistant to spells indeed… but that shouldn't extend to tracking spells, especially not an ancient one like this." Dumbledore replied with barely concealed fury.
"I feel like the more we investigate, the deeper my grave becomes." Harry grumbled as he slapped his hand over his eyes.
"We have time, my friend. Though I supposes with Christmas merrily waiting in the distance, it might be best if we were too… step it up, as the muggles say." Dumbledore replied with a knowing grin as they continued down the corridor.
Their tracking eventually found them standing and speaking with some of the paintings near the stairwell leading to the second floor. A few paintings had heard from some other paintings, that had heard from a different painting… that had been told by a different painting … that they had seen the basilisk somewhere around the top floors.
"Good grief…" Harry grumbled, "How does anyone make sense of this?"
"You don't, really. Though the paintings can relay information quite simply, most of these are very old and their enhancements are slowly giving out. They can still provide the occasional piece of viable intel, but sadly most of them quite represent a looped parchment." Dumbledore replied with an aged grin.
Harry held a snarky comment on the tongue when his ears picked something up.
"IIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" That something suddenly grew a hell of a lot louder!
There was barely a glance passed between them before they were on the move. The portraits, showing the occasional use, guided them quickly to a corridor on the second floor. Harry felt his heart jump a little, as he saw the crimson hair of Ginny Weasley sprawled over the floor.
"No, no, no, no, no… come on Ginny… Ron might be an ass but I can't let his sister die." Harry rambled as he slid up next to her and checked her pulse.
To Dumbledore it looked like a giant weight dropped from his young friend's shoulders as he sagged back and released a giant breath of relief as he turned to look at him with a great big smile. "She's alive, just passed out." He said and Albus released a breath he had not realized he was holding.
Quickly scanning the area revealed that no one else was around, but surely, that was going to change very soon. Fawkes arrived as his young wizard called him and flamed the three to Madam Pomfrey's tender mercies. Dumbledore quickly departed to inform the Weasley children of their sister's condition. Harry stayed behind and watched over Ginny, hoping that she would remember what she saw when she awoke.
"Hello, Harry Potter." A dreamy voice rang out behind him. He turned to find Luna approaching him with careful steps, as she looked upon Ginny's, now sleeping, form.
"Will she be okay?" Luna asked, her concern for her childhood friend showing.
"She passed out, but Madam Pomfrey will keep her for observation until tomorrow." Harry explained with an assuring smile.
Luna's mouth formed an "o" before smiling. "She's going to be happy that her hero saved her. You know her crush on you haven't gotten any better."
"Hmm, I kind of figured. What about you Luna, what did you come here for?" Harry replied casually as he looked over his youngest friend to see if she was hurt.
"I seem to have over indulged on some of the sweets Vanessa got from her parents." Luna replied with a reddish tint to her cheeks and a sheepish tone.
"Mmm can't keep your hands off those sweets." Harry chided, Luna had always been like that.
"Miss Lovegood, what brings you today?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she came out from her office to find out who was talking in her infirmary.
"I came from some stomach relief potion. Too many sweets." Luna said sweetly.
Madam Pomfrey sighed in mock anger before smiling and asking the young girl to follow her to her office, she should still have a few vials left from her last batch. Harry watched them leave with a grin on his face, Luna would be Luna. He looked over to Ginny when his head suddenly snapped up and he stared straight ahead.
"Hold a moment… Her crush haven't gotten any better … she sounded so sure that I knew… but I'm not supposed to." Her turned and stared towards the office, that is the second time that Luna did something a little unexpected.
Then again. It was Luna, she had always been strange, a good strange, but strange none the less. He was looking too much into this, he was getting paranoid. Couldn't Dumbledore get the Weasley kids a little quicker so he could leave?
As if called upon, Dumbledore returned with the four Weasley brothers in tow. Harry rose and made his way around them, ignoring the look he got from Ron who still seemed miffed that he had ended up a Raven and not a lion so they could be "best mates" or whatever. He stopped by Dumbledore and gave one last look towards the group of red heads.
"You'll ask her when she awakes I assume?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore nodded once. "I will, should she prove incapable of remember I will skim the surface of her thoughts."
Harry nodded his agreement and set out towards the Ravenclaw common room. He had a few things to discuss with Vanessa about their training session tonight.
Halfway through their training session, Fawkes had flamed into the room and landed on Harry's shoulder. It didn't take long for the two to jump into the room provided shower and rinse off, before allowing Fawkes to flame them to Dumbledore's office. They arrived to a grim visage Dumbledore, glaring down at some paperwork on his desk that vanished in emerald flames just as he looked up.
"It is done." Dumbledore muttered darkly. "The last remaining ingredients for the ritual will be here by Christmas day. We cannot afford the secrecy any longer, so I called in some old favors."
"What did Ginny remember, Albus?" Vanessa asked as they took a seat.
"Not much, she saw a giant scaled tail slithering out of the hallway and she screamed and fainted. I took a peek at her memories of the event, whatever the basilisk had been out for; it didn't find it in Ginerva." Dumbledore explained with a relieved smile.
"So over Christmas it happens." Harry said under a breath.
"What will become of the soul piece in your head, Harry?" the old Headmaster inquired.
"You mean after the ritual is finished?" at Dumbledore's nod, Harry's lips fell into a thin line, "it will be weak, weak enough for me to forcefully expel it from my body. Though I will have to be quick about it, for as soon as I learn where the other Horcruxes is, so will the fragment in my head. It might try to escape and rejoin with one of it's brethren."
Dumbledore didn't look all too happy with the idea, mostly because of the potential risk involved. Silently he wondered if Harry hadn't excluded a part that could potentially bring around the younger Wizards death.
"I shall alert you both when we are ready to perform the ritual, until then I advise caution and to remain on guard at all times."
With those final words of the day, Harry and Vanessa departed for the Ravenclaw tower to get some much needed sleep. Through the night though, neither could get much of it. They ended up sitting in the common room at six in the morning, staring out one of the larger windows whilst just enjoying the other's presence.
"I don't suppose I could convince you to go home during Christmas? Leave me and Albus to deal with the basilisk?" he tried with a knowing smile.
"Not a chance. You want to risk your life, that's your choice. I'm making mine, and I'm staying right here with you."
"I figured as much." Harry sat up a little further so he could look at her, "I love you."
"Awww, I love you too." Vanessa then wacked him over the head, hard. "Don't speak like you are going to die, moron." Though she said it, that didn't stop her from holding on to him that little bit tighter than before.
"How are you feeling, Harry?" Dumbledore asked as he drew the last few runes in the air with his wand.
"Not entirely sure. Not every day you are about to use an old obscure spell to track down the pieces of a psychotic wizard's soul that is out for your blood." Harry replied dryly as he looked around the ritual room. They were using the Room of Requirement to fill out some of the harder parts to get.
"Young Miss Weaver didn't wish to be here for this?" Dumbledore inquired as the last flourish of his wand lit the final rune.
"She's running interference around the school. Listening in on the rumor mill and the like, hoping to catch something I suppose." Harry replied with a slight shrug.
Dumbledore nodded as he took a final turn around the room, everything was in place and it would seem they were ready. Taking his position in front of Harry, the old Headmaster took a deep breath and began gathering his magic, making it swirl around him as it manifested as a glowing blue aura.
"Ready, Harry?" he asked, his voice echoing with power.
Not daring his voice to hold up, Harry nodded and waited. Dumbledore muttered the spell beneath his breath and pointed his wand towards his young charge. A sickening crimson lightning arced out and latched onto Harry's scar.
"AAAAAH!" Harry screamed as he felt the spell take effect. He felt his mind being sucked from the ritual room and found himself standing completely surrounded by white once again. Off in the distance he saw a small black smudge, the Horcrux no doubt. Reaching up with his hand, he called it too him and as it came into his grasp he crushed it in his hands.
The world drowned in darkness as he felt his consciousness spread out further and further, stretching to parts of the world he didn't even know existed. Slowly the sensation grew smaller and smaller, until all there was left was what he knew to be Europe. A faint white trace of the continent spread out, various blobs of golden light scattered around. The strongest of these golden lights were in Britain, Hogwarts to be exact. Inside some of the golden blobs were small patches of darkness.
' The Horcruxes!' Harry reasoned when he saw the blurred form of one inside the school, 'Myself and the Diary no doubt.' However, to his everlasting surprise, there was a darkness to be found elsewhere. France to be exact. 'How did a Horcrux get to France?' he wondered privately as the map began receding. 'The Diadem, the Diary and Me. Nagini didn't appear… perhaps it isn't one yet.' Harry mused. As the last of the map vanished, Harry finished the list inside his head.
' The Gaunt Ring, found and ready to be destroyed. The Locket, destroyed by Dumbledore. The Diary, within the school. The Diadem… in France apparently. The Cup, found in Gringotts and cleansed. Me… just took care of that, I hope. Nagini, so far not an entity to be concerned about.'
Happy with the count, Harry began looking around once more. The white seemed to extend even further now as the darkness had gone completely. This was the part of the spell that he wasn't entirely sure about, the most important part about it begin that getting into the memory was easy enough… getting out, now that was another matter.
… rry!
He began walking in one direction, figuring that it was easier to think as he moved. He would need to bring forth quite a bit of focus to make this work.
… arry!
Of course there was also the magical aspect to think about, if he flooded his magical core with raw energy, it might be sufficient to wake him up again.
… Harry!
Was someone calling him?
… up Harry!
That sounded like Vanessa… is she in trouble!?
Wake up, Harry!
Harry screamed as he rushed to sit up, not realizing that his surroundings where not the ones he had left behind when he had entered into his mind. This was… his dorm, his bed in all actuality. How had he gotten here, and why does everything hurt?
"Oh gods, Harry!" Vanessa yelled as she jumped unto the bed and engulfed him in a hug.
He winched at the physical contact but managed to bring his arms around her waist. "Hey there, beautiful." He looked and found Dumbledore standing at the end of the bed, a relived look in his eyes. "How long was I out?"
"Four days, Harry. It's the 30th." Dumbledore replied. "We thought we had lost you. After the spell connected with your head, you just went limp. You were barely breathing and your magical core drained at an alarming rate, you've been hovering between life and death since then."
"That's one mean ritual…" Harry grumbled as a way of answer as he fell back down into bed, sighing in content at the soft sheets.
"Indeed. At the very least tell me you didn't go through that for nothing?" Dumbledore inquired with a hopeful voice.
Harry nodded slightly and raised a fist in a sign of victory. "I got it, the one in my head… gone, destroyed. I've found the rest as well, every Horcrux's location." The fist dropped and Harry looked oddly at the ceiling. "One of them is in France…"
"France?" Vanessa interjected. "How the hell did one of them get to France?"
Harry shrugged and sat up again while pushing Vanessa off him so he could sit up. Stretching a little he felt a familiar stiffness that came with being in a coma, he'd been in his fair share after all.
"So, we are going to France?" Vanessa asked.
"Sure." Harry replied with a shrug. "We could try and steal the Mona Lisa again."
Dumbledore sighed deeply and rubbed his old eyes as the two youths began cackling at their own joke. Sadly, to his health's great misfortune, he didn't think they were joking entirely.
"I shall arrange for us to go to France during the summer, I can make a few subtle inquiries about some of the latest acquisitions." Dumbledore suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Harry replied tiredly before looking for his wand. Finding it on the table next to his bed he quickly grabbed it and pointed it at his eyes. " Visio Restitute ." He mumbled and his emerald eyes glazed over for a second before focusing. "Much better," he said under a breath.
"That is a very advanced charm, Harry." Dumbledore said with no small amount of pride.
"Meh, it beat having surgery done. 24 hours of clear vision is a cheap trade as long as I remember doing it in the mornings." Harry replied with a smile.
"It would seem we have a plan of action." Dumbledore mused after a few quiet moments. "One we have dealt with the basilisk, the three of us shall take a trip to Paris."
Vanessa suddenly twitched and her eyes began sparkling in a way even Dumbledore would envy. Her hungry gazed turned on Harry and suddenly the young man felt an old fear grab at his heart.
"If we are going to Paris…" she started and Harry began dropping back into bed. "Does that mean I can go shopping?" she finished just as Harry landed back into bed and yanked a pillow over his face before groaning loudly.
Dumbledore roared with laughter as he felt his old bones shake. Now that was good for the heart!