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Family Means More Than Blood	By : WingsofaDream Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 59825 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 7
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its associated characters are property of J K Rowling, not me. This story is not being written for profit, just for the lols.

Chapter List
- 57
- 58
Hi everyone :)
Seiren - Yeah, Blaise is gonna be very, very useful from now on so I'm glad you like his introduction to the story :)
unneeded - Well, neither Sev nor Lucius know that Harry now knows. Draco only told him because he knew Harry would want to know and he wants to make him happy ^^
polka dot - Well, we're in the realms of purely my own imagination now and that can be a very unpredictable place XD
Sweets - With six chapters left after this, ya better believe the final showdown is fast approaching. As for Horcrux hunting, there's a bit in this very chapter :)
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11th October 1995: Night
The days had passed far too quickly for Harry's liking. One moment it had been September and the next it was well into October. The time had flown in the blink of an eye, bringing him one step closer to what he was destined to do.
Progress had been made with Blaise Zabini however, so the time had not been wasted. A sort of shakey trust had been formed between the Gryffindor and the Slytherin and although they were not on a first name basis they trusted each other to a degree. Harry was confident that the information Blaise gave him was accurate and Blaise was confident that Harry was not going to suddenly turn around and stab him in the back.
And it was at that moment that Harry was waiting for the young Zabini to meet him. He had found a note from the Slytherin when he had been taking out his books after all his lessons had finished for the day requesting his presence in the Astronomy Tower at midnight. For once the Gryffindor had managed to arrive before the younger teenager and so had decided to make use of the extra time by practicing with his staff. He was attempting some of the spells he had never really used before because they were attacking spells and he thought it best that he at least familiarise himself with them just in case the need for his staff when facing Voldemort rose.
"Alata(1)." Harry murmured quietly with a small gesture to his slipper which he had removed in order to use it as a target. A strong light shone from the pearl atop the staff and the rays which left it ran across the slipper like the blades of the fan. If the slipper had been evil, the beams of light would have shredded it quite neatly. When the light faded, Harry readied himself to try it again. However, a slight movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He instantly stopped all that he was doing and whipped his head to the side in order to look at whoever it was. It was only Blaise however and so the Gryffindor relaxed as quickly as he had put up his guard. "How long have you been standing there?"
"A few seconds." Blaise said with a shrug as he stepped closer now that there was no unfamiliar magic in use. "Was that your Elvish magic?"
The young man simply nodded.
"I've heard rumours about it but...Is it true that it let you kill the Dark Lord with one word?"
"No, sorry, that's a rumour with absolutely no truth to it." Harry answered with an amused grin. "I've never killed Voldemort."
"You're going to though, right?"
The Gryffindor sighed lightly. "Yes, I suppose I'm going to have to and then the rest of my life will be spent praying for forgiveness no doubt."
"Well, surely if you truly repent God will grant you forgiveness?"
"Hmm..." Harry replied, distracted, as that comment had reminded him of a query he had pondered before and which he desperately wanted the answer to. "Zabini, how did you find your religion? I mean, you're still young and I can't see your family being the type to hold information on that sort of thing."
Blaise gave a sigh and wandered over to where Harry was sitting on a ledge of one of the alcoves. "I have a Muggle friend who I met when I was fourteen on holiday in Italy, staying with my grandparents for a while." He admitted as he let himself fall into a sit on the floor just beside the leg Harry had hanging down. "She was Catholic and, well, I pretended I was as well to try and impress her. One Sunday we arranged to go to a service at her church and I just...It's hard to explain. I just...Felt something. I felt...Moved. Everything the priest said just made sense and he was so full of hope...When I returned to England I knew I had to look into it some more. I lied to my parents one Sunday and said I was going into Diagon Alley with some friends and instead I went into Muggle London. I don't know why I even bothered to lie really; they probably wouldn't have even noticed if I had just disappeared. Anyway, I wandered around for a bit and eventually came across a Catholic church. I went inside and attended the sermon that was being given and, again, I got that feeling of hope, of not being alone, of there being someone out there who wanted me to live a good life and cared whether I did or not.
"Then, when the service ended, I stayed where I was, sitting there, staring up at the front, at the image of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, thinking about my life and everything else. And then the priest who gave the service, Father McCormic, came over to me and asked if I was all right. Then we got talking about everything, my background, my life as it was at that moment, how my beliefs were changing. Then, eventually, he asked me my age. For some reason, I'm not sure why really, I lied and told him I was eighteen. Being tall for my age, he believed me and offered to baptise me as I was old enough to have it done without the permission of a parent or guardian. I jumped at the chance."
Blaise stopped then, having obviously finished and Harry studied the boy for several moments before speaking. "Your faith must be very strong if you're willing to take such a risk. Aren't you scared someone in your family or even one of your dorm mates will find your rosary beads?"
"I don't really care anymore. And soon it hopefully won't matter. As soon as the Dark Lord is defeated, my entire family will be thrown into Azkaban most probably and I'll never have to worry about them again."
Harry looked down at his companion with a sad gaze. He had never imagined the Zabinis to be a loving, nurturing family and so he was hardly surprised to discover that the youngest of them held no real warmth for his parents or sister. However, to wish Azkaban on them all meant so much more because that prison really was the worst place on the planet. The Gryffindor wondered briefly what it was Zabini had experienced with his family but quickly decided that it was probably best not to ask.
Instead, he gave a light sigh before asking: "So what's this information you needed to give me?"
"Oh yeah." Blaise said, apparently just remembering that fact again. "Apparently, there's something in the school that the Dark Lord wants and my dad in turn wants Bethany to try and find it and send it to him so he can pass it on. Something called Hufflepuff's Cup."
"You're sure that's exactly what it is that Voldemort wants?"
"Yep, that's what the letter said. Is it something important then?"
Harry thought for all of a second, wondering if it was time to perhaps trust the boy with some more information. And he decided that Zabini had trusted him with the story of how he had found his faith, it was only fair that he be trusted in return.
"Tell me Zabini, have you ever heard of a Horcrux?"
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12th October 1995: Morning
Normally, for Harry, waking up was the worst part of the day. It was a hard thing to do most of the time and it meant that there was a full day's work ahead of him. However, over the last month or so, waking up had changed from being a simple chore to something the Gryffindor actually dreaded.
The meetings with Zabini at least every other night were taking their toll on him and he was falling asleep the moment his head hit his pillow which was doing no good for bringing on visions as he often fell asleep before he could see anything. And waking up in the mornings had become almost impossible. Then, when he did succeed in dragging himself out of bed, he was useless for most of the morning, mainly focusing on not falling asleep rather than what was being taught in his lessons. Breakfast was no longer the first meal of the day for Harry, it was a chance to doze for a few minutes before his first class. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, this behaviour was not going unnoticed by the people he was close to.
"Harry?" Hermione said as she and Violet gazed at where he was half slumped over the table in concern. Carefully, the Fifth Year reached over to him and lightly shook his shoulder. "Harry!" She said a little louder.
It did the trick and Harry's eyes flew open in an instant as his back straightened and he lifted his head. "Huh?"
"Are you all right?" Violet asked her older brother, worry clear in her tone.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Hermione checked, her tone also thick with worry for her friend. "You've been like this for quite a while now, Harry."
"I promise you both that I am completely fine, there's nothing to worry about." He smiled to them both, as brightly as he could in an attempt to appear at least somewhat alert.
Neither girl looked particularly convinced but they luckily dropped it, obviously realising that if Harry did not want to tell them anything, they would be unable to get it out of him.
The rest of breakfast passed without further incident. Draco never arrived and, up at the front of the Great Hall, Severus, Lucius, and Dumbledore were also absent which led Harry to believe that they were probably doing something that involved Voldemort and Horcruxes. The mail arrived and Harry got a letter from the twins as well as from Marcia and Rhys as they had taken to just sending one letter from the both of them. Harry made sure not to doze off again to stop his two female friends from further worrying but it was not easy and by the end of the meal he felt as though he could quite happily have a nap standing up as long as it meant he could close his eyes for the next hundred years.
He said goodbye to Hermione and his younger sister as they went off in one direction, heading to their own lessons, as Harry continued on his way to Transfigurations. At least since he was on his own, he could allow his guard to drop. The moment he was sure that neither of the girls were looking at him, he allowed his shoulders to slump and his heavy eyes to close, resting them even as he walked along.
Harry probably would have walked to class with his eyes closed if it was not for the fact he bumped right into a firm chest as he turned a corner and arms came around him instantly, holding him in place. The familiar scent which invaded his senses told the Gryffindor exactly who he had bumped into and he did not try and fight the arms around him. Instead, he snuggled closer to the warm material against his cheek and brought his arms around the person in return. "You missed breakfast." He mumbled against the chest quietly.
"Had it in Dumbledore's office; we had a meeting." Draco's voice answered beneath Harry's ear, the sound vibrating through his chest and against the other young man's cheek. A pair of lips came down to press a kiss onto the head of long hair before they rose slightly and hovered just above. "You sound tired; did you not sleep well last night?"
"Hmm...I've been having bad dreams."
"Visions?"
"Mmm...No, I don't think so, just bad dreams."
"You should ask Sev for some Dreamless Sleep if you're having nightmares and they're bothering you this much." The Veela advised his mate but merely got another non-committal grunt in reply. The blond sighed before pecking a quick kiss to the side of Harry's head. He pulled away slightly and dropped one arm while the other stayed around Harry's shoulders. "Come on, we better get to class."
"Can't we just stand here for a few more hours?" Harry grinned weakly as he allowed himself to be led along.
"We'll hide out in my rooms during our free period and you can have a nap. You won't have to worry about bad dreams then, I'll be there keeping them away." Draco assured him gently as they walked down the corridor side by side.
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12th October 1995: Evening
Screaming. Pain. Hate. Panic. Fear. Anger. Bravery. Cowardice.
Masked, black-cloaked figures everywhere. No where was safe.
Who are they? What was happening? Flashes of green, people falling to the floor; dead.
Where was He? He could not remember. Where was His family? Where was home?
Another flash of green.
No more.
The second Harry woke up, his eyes were open and he was practically flying out the chair he had fallen asleep in by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. He earned himself several startled looks by the others around him but he paid them no mind, instead dashing straight over to the portrait hole. Bursting out of it with quite a bit of force, he narrowly escaped ploughing over a couple of Second Years and, probably a first for him, he did not take the time to call a quick sorry over his shoulder.
The vision he had just had, it had not happened. It would happen really soon, but it had not happened yet and that meant every second counted. One delay, no matter how small, could mean the difference between a life continuing or being lost. And Muggles as well! People who had no way of defending themselves against Death Eaters! It was terrible! And so many people would die, so many would be injured, and for what?
Harry would not let it happen. He would go to Dumbledore and then he could tell the Aurors and they could get there before anything major kicked off. The Aurors would protect the Muggles and they might even manage to capture a few of the Death Eaters and hold them for questioning. All he had to do was get to the headmaster's office as quickly as possible.
Upon turning a corner and abruptly colliding with someone, Harry fought the desire to swear at whoever it was. Then, when he saw it was a frantic Blaise Zabini he had bumped into, his irritation left him and he went back to feeling nervous and worried.
"They're going to attack Muggles!" Blaise almost yelled desperately, clinging onto Harry's arm fearfully.
"Yes, yes, I know." Harry assured him quickly as he gently pulled his arm from the Slytherin's death grip.
"You do?"
"Yes, I had a vision about it just now. I'm on my way to tell Dumbledore." The Gryffindor went to continue his run then but paused and looked back to Zabini. "Do you know anything else about it?"
"Erm..." The younger teenager hesitated uneasily, obviously trying to think on his feet. "It's gonna happen this evening, at five, somewhere in Manchester. Father wants Bethany to pass the message onto Spari, he's got a Portkey so he and several others can join the attack."
"Right, good. Do you know anything else? The number of Death Eaters roughly?"
Blaise shook his head, looking suddenly regretful. "No, I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter, you did good. Listen Blaise, I want you to go back down to the dungeons and tell your sister everything you need to. You have to act like nothing is different, like everything is completely normal, it's just another message from your father to her. I'll take care of the rest, okay? I don't want you to feel guilty or responsible for this." With that, he reached forward and placed a hand on the Slytherin's shoulder. "You've done your bit by coming and telling me about everything you can. Just remember to stay normal, right?"
Blaise nodded numbly but before Harry could offer more praise, a call from behind him caught his attention. He looked over his shoulder quickly and saw John and Ron heading his way quickly and he bit back a groan; this was going to delay him even more.
"Go now." He whispered to Blaise quickly as he dropped his hand and moved around the teenager. The Slytherin did as he was told and sprinted away, heading in the direction which would take him back down to the dungeons. Harry watched him go for a second before turning himself and starting to run again.
"Oi, Harry!" John called after him in protest, obviously thinking that his older brother was running away from him.
"I've no time at the moment John; later."
"But what were you doing talking to Zabini?"
"It was nothing." The elder insisted before disappearing around a corner.
Luckily, that was the last distraction and Harry did not have to stop again until he reached Dumbledore's office.
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13th October 1995: Early Morning
A long, drawn out yawn rushed past Harry's lips as he pulled back the curtains surrounding his bed. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers as a sharp tapping on glass, which was the original cause for him waking up, continued to annoy him. It had been an extremely long day, what with all the stress and drama of the Death Eater attack on the Muggles (which had thankfully been stopped before it could really begin thanks to the Aurors) and Harry had practically fallen into a coma the moment his head had hit the pillow. Now was not the time to be woken by incessant tapping on the dorm room window. How the other two young men in the room were sleeping through it was a mystery but was something Harry was insanely jealous of.
Harry plodded over to the window in a semi-conscious state, his eyes still half closed and his glasses still resting on the table beside his bed. Somehow he managed to get the window open without looking and allowed an owl, who had been the one pecking on the window, to enter and settle on the end of the bed closest to it. Without speaking, Harry simply glared at the bird and untied the roll of parchment which was attached to one of its legs. The owl did not move and Harry looked at it carefully.

"You can't seriously be waiting for a reply?"
The owl just gave a small hoot.
Harry muttered under his breath about people not respecting his sleep as he untied the cord around the parchment and unfurled it none too carefully. He brought it right up close to his face so he did not have to bother to put his glasses on and read the slightly fuzzy script:
I'm going mad down here, I need to see you right now

B.Z.
A reluctant sigh left Harry as he trudged over to his school bag which rested on the floor beside his trunk. He got down on his knees and rooted around inside it for a few moments before pulling out a quill and a pot of ink. After dipping the nib of the quill into the ink, he scratched a very simple "kay" at the bottom before dropping the quill back into his bag carelessly and putting the ink back in a bit more carefully. Then, he got back to his feet and tied the note back onto the owls leg before taking it over to the window and giving it a boost in its flight.
Without further delay, Harry plodded towards the dorm room door, grabbing his dressing gown as he passed it and pulling it on as he left. He all but trudged through the school, making little effort to put any real speed in his stride. When he finally entered the Astronomy Tower he was practically pounced on by Zabini.

"There you are! Merlin Snape, I am freaking out! I keep thinking about everything which might have happened and all the people who might've been hurt and..."
"No one was hurt." Harry interrupted him, his voice slightly slurred from his lack of sleep.
"Huh?"
"The Aurors managed to get there just in time; the Death Eaters had gathered but nothing had happened. There was a bit of a scuffle and an Auror or two received minor injuries but other than that things went fine. No Muggles were injured and several Death Eaters were arrested so, all in all, a triumph for the Light I think."
"Really?" The Slytherin asked, as though the information was too much to hope for.
"Yep, Dumbledore told me after dinner."
"Oh Harry, that's awesome!" Blaise said excitedly, obviously forgetting himself by using the Gryffindor's first name, as he bounced over to the older teenager. "We stopped them! We stopped them together! Thank you so much!" He gushed excitedly, stopping extremely close to the older teen.
And then, something Harry would never have expected happened; Blaise leaned in to kiss him. It was a complete surprise but one that the Gryffindor thankfully managed to recognise before lip contact was actually made. Instead, the young man easily leaned back as the younger teenager leaned forward. After a second, the Slytherin opened his eyes and looked at the older boy with a slightly startled expression on his face, obviously surprised to have been turned down.
"I really don't think that would be the best idea." Harry told him gently, slowly straightening back up and making Blaise copy him in the process.
A bright blush lit up the teenager's face and he quickly stepped backwards and looked away, obviously completely embarrassed by what he had just done. "Erm, yeah, right. I-I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking..."
Harry smiled very slightly in amusement but quickly hid it before, reaching forward and resting a hand on the Slytherin's shoulder. That stopped Blaise mid-sentence and then, very carefully, he lifted his gaze to look at the Gryffindor. "We'll forget about it. But I did like the fact you called me Harry. You can do that again if you want."
"Really?"
"Of course, just as long as I can call you Blaise."
"Sure!" Blaise gasped excitedly, then seemed to remember himself. He coughed lightly and went back to being slightly awkward and embarrassed. "That is, I mean...Um..."
Harry did chuckle then and, thankfully, the Slytherin seemed to appreciate it as he smiled as well and gave a small chuckle. The tension from before melted and left the two teenagers content and comfortable with the presence of the other.
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25th October 1995: Midday
It was freezing cold and it was snowing which, common sense told Him, meant He was outside. And, opening His eyes and looking around, it became clear that, indeed, He was outside. It was night time, the sky black and cloudy, the trees around Him nothing but black silhouettes and the snow almost glowing in the darkness.
He was on His knees, leaning forward to support His weight on His hands. There was someone beside Him with a hand on His shoulder. Turning His head slightly, He thought it saw a familiar shaped face and familiar brown eyes looking at Him in concern through the darkness.
Suddenly, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once, there was a horrible bang, a lot like a very heavy door smacking into something equally as solid and heavy. He stood from where He was kneeling, along with the person beside Him, and looked around slightly frantically to see a couple of dozen metres away from Him was a massive, dark, imposing building.
The person beside Him clutched His arm tightly and after that nothing moved. For long moments after that, nothing more happened but the nervous atmosphere did not relax. The stress getting to Him a little too much, He slowly walked forward, His arm falling out of the grip of the other and allowing Him to continue forward freely. Around Him it was silent again and the snow continued to fall, frequently landing on Him and chilling His skin. After a few moments of walking, He looked down at His hands and was unsurprised at the sight which greeted Him; they were stained with thick trickles of some black and viscous substance.
From somewhere in the darkness, an almost inhuman roared scream echoed around Him. He continued walking none the less. Everything around faded to black...
As the last few glimpses of the dream faded into nothingness, Harry became aware of one main fact; he was not in a bed. Instead, he was slumped over something hard and rather uncomfortable, sitting on an equally hard and uncomfortable seat. And then it hit him. He was in class!
In a second Harry's eyes were open and he was sitting up straight, looking around himself quickly to make sure no one had noticed. Unfortunately, luck was never on his side and the whole classroom, including Lucius as the class was DADA, was looking at him. His eyes flickered onto his godfather to try and gage his reaction but the blond man had his social face on and was giving nothing about himself away.
"Asleep in my class, Snape?"
Harry merely lowered his eyes and wished for the ground to swallow him. Next to him, he heard Draco give a low sound of annoyance.
"No answer? Then you'll just have to stay behind once everyone has left to explain yourself."
Harry felt slightly better upon hearing that; it was more likely that he was not going to get into trouble now. If his godfather had been really annoyed with him, the man would not have hesitated to assign a detention and call it a detention. The fact he said "stay behind" meant it was more than likely that he only wanted a word.
Despite believing that however, Harry still felt nervous and twitchy for the rest of the lesson. At several points, Draco had taken his hand under the table and given it a squeeze, no doubt as a reassurance of some kind, but it did him no good and he remained as nervous as before. Then, finally, when the class ended and people began to leave while Harry and Draco stayed seated, the Gryffindor's heart began to run a mile a minute. Even when he looked at Lucius and saw concern rather than anger it did nothing to help calm him. Things only got worse when Lucius stopped one of the students and asked them to take a message down to Severus in the dungeons. His heart just about burst out of his chest when he over-heard that.
"Love, calm down, you'll start hyperventilating or something if you don't." Draco told him in a calm tone as he brought a hand up to rub soothing circles on the dark haired young man's lower back. It did help and allowed Harry to keep his breathing under control but his heart continued to try and escape from behind his rib-cage.
"We'll wait until your father arrives to begin, Haryon." Lucius told him as he strolled over to the two young men and took a seat on the edge of the desk to their right. "There is little point in going over things more than once."
Harry said nothing to that but did manage to nod his head weakly. Once again, Draco took his hand and gave it a squeeze but then continued to hold onto it rather than let go as he had done so before. From then on, the three sat in silence, none of them looking at the others. Then, the silence was abruptly broken with the entrance of Severus.
The Potions Master took one look at the occupants of the room before sighing and heading straight over to Harry. "What is it that's happened now?"
"Haryon felt the need to fall asleep during class." Lucius answered, giving his godson a pointed look. "I don't know how long he was asleep for but I realised when calling on him for an answer and I got nothing in reply." He turned to Draco then and gave him a disapproving look. "Did you not think it wise to wake him up?"
"Look, if he needed the sleep badly enough to fall asleep in your class then I think he needed it bad enough to warrant not being disturbed."
"Have you been having trouble sleeping, Haryon?" Severus asked his son sympathetically, stopping the two Malfoys from getting into an argument.
Harry only nodded slightly.
"Why?"
"I..." Harry hesitated, knowing he could not tell the truth but still, for a moment, almost automatically saying it. From automatically lying just a few years ago, he was now in the habit of automatically telling the truth and to break that habit suddenly was rather difficult. "I've been having dreams."
"Just dreams?"
"I'm not sure. Some of them are visions and others...Others I'm not sure about."
A short pause took them over then as Severus thought over this new information carefully while Lucius and Draco waited for the decision. Harry shifted slightly anxiously just before the Potions professor spoke once again: "I feel I must agree with Draco; if you felt the need to fall asleep in class then things are obviously quite serious. That being the case, I want you to take the rest of the day off. Draco shall inform your teachers of why you are absent and, if any work is set he shall collect it for you. With your time off, I want you to return to your dorm room and try and get as much sleep as possible. However, I will expect to see you at dinner, understand?"
"Yes Father."
"If you have no luck in resting this afternoon, come to me after dinner and I will get you some Dreamless Sleep but that will only be if you have not managed to get a decent amount of sleep."
"All right."
"Good. Away with you now then and go straight to your dorm room."
Harry nodded once again as he stood and left without another word. He felt the eyes of the three Slytherins on him as he left and felt no surprise in the fact that none of them seemed to be making a move to leave the classroom as well; they were no doubt going to linger behind in order to discuss this 'new' development. Not that the Gryffindor was particularly offended by that or even cared all that much. After all, he now had his own secrets again.
The teenager was completely ready to do as his father had instructed and retreat to his dorm room for the rest of the afternoon. However, when he turned in the direction needed to lead him back to Gryffindor Tower, the world clouded suddenly as a vision took him over. For a few seconds, the young man just stood there with empty eyes, staring unseeing at nothing, and it was during this time that Lucius, Severus and Draco came out of the DADA classroom.
"Haryon, I thought I told you to go straight to your room." Severus began to scold him as he walked closer to his son. Upon reaching him though, he saw the blank look in his eyes and the way he appeared to be staring at something none of them could see. "Haryon?"
"What is he doing?" Lucius asked with a concerned frown.
"He might be having a vision." Draco pointed out as he rushed to his mates side, ready to catch the Gryffindor if he suddenly collapsed.
"Ugh, why is that bloody priest of his never around when you need him." Severus growled irritably.
Then, as abruptly as Harry's vision had begun, it had ended. He gave a small gasp as everything returned to him in the usual rush and his eyes widened with a look of realisation. Without warning, he turned in the opposite direction to what he was facing and then dashed off, towards the dungeons. The calls of his family behind him went unheeded as the Gryffindor ran quickly to where his vision had instructed him to go.
He had forgotten! He could not believe he had forgotten! Granted it had been years ago that he had seen it but it had been so suspicious at the time that it really was mind-boggling that it had been so easily cast from his mind. How could Dumbledore not know? It was there, right under his nose, for at least six years, and the Headmaster did not know about it. No one knew about it, until just that second when he had seen his vision. And now he had to get it as quickly as possible so it could be dealt with immediately, making them that one step closer to peace.
Harry's legs took him to the mostly disused part of the dungeons, more precisely to the classroom where he had heard Peter Pettigrew talking to Voldemort in the fireplace; Merlin that seemed like such a long time ago now. All the way he was followed by his family, Severus and Lucius lagging behind slightly but Draco right up there with him, never quite catching up to him but often getting very close. When the dark haired young man reached the door he needed, he did not even pause before grabbing the handle and pushing it open, allowing him entrance into the room. Again, he did not stop and instead ran straight over to the fire place. Once there, he got down onto his knees and began to push away the gathered soot.
Entering as quickly as Harry had, Draco skidded to an abrupt stop a foot or so behind where the Gryffindor was anxiously pushing away the soot. "Harry, what is it? What's wrong?"
Harry did not need to answer verbally as he found what it was he had been looking for. Carefully, he pulled the object out of the bed of soot and lifted it up. It was a golden chalice, though the gold did not shine and was dulled, no doubt by the soot. It was full to the brim with the black ash and so Harry held it over the fire place and emptied it out. When that was done, he began to search it, looking for the mark he had seen in his vision. By the time he eventually located the mark, Severus and Lucius had joined him and Draco in the room. Under their watchful gazes, Harry wiped away a spot of soot on the cup of the chalice, just below the brim. When it was gone, it left behind the revealed engraved letters of HH.
A soft, triumphant smile graced Harry's face as he looked down at the cup in his hand; five Horcruxes down, two more to go.
"Haryon?" Severus said carefully as he stepped closer to his son upon seeing that the teenager had stopped moving.
Harry remembered himself then and he quickly stood up straight before turning to the Potions Master. He gave the man a reassuring smile before holding out Hufflepuff's Cup for him. "You've been looking for this?" He said sweetly, his tone enquiring but in a purely innocent way.
Both Lucius and Severus hesitated at that, obviously unsure with how to proceed with the situation. After all, they did not know what Harry had seen in his vision or how much he now knew and they imagined that if the Gryffindor knew about the secrecy, he would be angry with them. And so, they continued to hesitate, Severus not accepting the Horcrux and Lucius looking as though he desperately wanted to explain everything and anything Harry wanted to know.
Harry did the decent thing however and saved the two men from themselves. He simply stepped forward, closing the distance between him and his father and pressed the chalice into the Potion Master's hand, quite willing to hold it there until the man accepted it. "Here you go."
"Haryon, this..." Severus began to explain but stopped when Harry shook his head.
"I don't need to know." Harry assured him gently before taking his hands away, leaving Hufflepuff's Cup in his father's hands.
No questions were asked, no doubt because the two men were more than relieved that they had not needed to explain anything or get into trouble with the young man. They all simply left, in silence, Lucius closing the door firmly behind himself as he was the last one to leave.
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(1) Alata: based on LotR Elvish for "radiance"
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Family Means More Than Blood