Gaunt Cottage

*** Present

Dumbledore looked Harry in the eye before speaking.

"I think I may have located a third one of Voldemort's horcruxes."

"Oh," Harry said, "That sounds like good news too."

Albus nodded gravely, "In a sense, it is, but I'm afraid I have a request for you..."

"What is it?"

"I would like you to accompany me to acquire this horcrux."

"Okay!"

"I know it's dangerous, and if you don't want to, I won't- wait, did you say 'okay'?"

"Yeah. Of course. I'd love to come with you."

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, "It is dangerous," he said, "I cannot go alone, that would be foolish and too dangerous. I would normally take Arcturus or Nicholas with me, but they are both busy with the war effort, and it would be far too suspicious to Voldemort for TWO of our leaders to go missing at the same time."

"Still, why would you pick me?" Harry asked thoughtfully, "Not that I'm declining the offer, of course, but I was just wondering."

"Old habits die hard," Dumbledore said simply.

Harry nodded in understanding, "You don't want to give the secret out to any more people than is absolutely necessary."

"So you're with me?" Dumbledore asked, ignoring Harry's semi-accusation.

Accepting Dumbledore's ignoring of his statement, Harry just nodded once more.

"Very good," Dumbledore started, before rising from his chair, "We're leaving now."

"Now?" Harry asked.

"Now," Dumbledore affirmed, "Or as soon as you can get your cloak, your sword, and your wand."

"Already have all three," Harry said, "I don't leave my bed without them."

With a wave of his wand, Harry lifted the disillusionment charm on the sword which was at his waist.

His own name glinted back at him from the hilt of his sword. Harry stowed his wand back into the holster on his arm.

"Very good," Dumbledore said before holding his arm out. Two broomsticks flew into Albus' hand.

The Headmaster handed one to Harry, "Not even the Headmaster can apparate on Hogwarts grounds," he explained.

Harry nodded his understanding and mounted the broom.

The duo left through the window in Dumbledore's private quarters, which were attached to the office of the Headmaster.

Harry felt the exhilaration of flying for the first time in a little while.

Quidditch had been cancelled the previous year, due to the fact that the Triwizard Tournament was taking place, and the season had been delayed indefinitely this year, due to security concerns raised by Iliad, who was still working on trying to fully secure the Quidditch pitch, as it would be a prime spot for attack due to being a congregation of all the students of Hogwarts in one small enclosed space.

The two wizards flew over the gates of Hogwarts, and Harry felt the borders of the wards wash past him, with a bit of a warning shock.

"I asked the wards to let you past," Albus explained.

Harry nodded that he understood.

The two reached Hogsmeade, and they stopped by the Hog's Head, where Albus left the two brooms with an untidy scowling man with a beard similar to that of Albus' own, who grumbled under his breath, but agreed to keep the two brooms nonetheless.

"Try not to get this one killed," was the only thing he said to Albus before the bartender of the Hog's Head slammed his door shut on Harry and Albus.

"Who was that?" Harry asked.

With a small smile, Dumbledore answered, "My brother."

Harry looked at the Headmaster incredulously, silently asking what had happened between the two siblings to cause such hatred, but Albus shook his head.

"It's a story for another day," he said simply, before offering his arm to Harry, "My lady," he joked.

Harry took Albus' arm, and with a barely-audible crack, the two of them disappeared from the spot.

*** Little Hangleton

"Voldemort hid his horcrux in a tiny-ass muggle village?" Harry asked, confused by Dumbledore's choice of location.

"We are headed to Gaunt Cottage," Dumbledore said.

"Gaunt...one of the sacred twenty-eight families," Harry said thoughtfully, "That line has died out, what does Voldemort have to do with their cottage."

"Voldemort's mother was Merope Gaunt."

"Merope? Never heard of her."

"She was nearly a squib," Dumbledore said, "And ran off with a muggle man under the love potion."

"Oh," Harry said, "I can see why she was struck out of the history of the Gaunts."

"And she had a son, Tom Marvolo Riddle," Dumbledore continued.

"Voldemort," Harry whispered.

"And that is why we are here, I believe that Tom returned to his mother's old home to leave behind a piece of his soul," Dumbledore said, still leading the way as the two walked down a small winding path which led out of the town and into a forest of sorts.

Harry and Albus walked in utter silence until they reached a small abandoned cottage in the middle of the woods.

The door was hanging on its hinges, and the cottage looked like it might collapse in on anyone who tried to approach it.

Harry walked towards the cottage, but Dumbledore pulled him back.

"Wards, Harry," Dumbledore said, with a shake of his head, "foolishness is not very becoming of you."

Harry nodded sheepishly, as Dumbledore pulled a bag of white powder out of his pocket.

"What is that for," Harry asked.

"Wait and see," Dumbledore replied before throwing the whole bag's worth of powder at the cottage.

Despite the duo being a good distance away from the cottage, the powder seemed weightless in a way, and kept floating in the direction of the cottage until it seemed to hit a solid wall just a metre outside of the cottage. The white powder turned red, as it seemed stuck on a barrier outside the cottage.

"That's the ward-line," Dumbledore explained, "That's where the wards start."

"What now?" Harry asked.

"Now," Dumbledore said, as he closed his eyes, "I try to break through them."

The wizened wizard raised his wand and began to murmur under his breath, as the tip of his wand glowed.

"Dumbledore," Harry said nervously, getting no reply.

"Albus!" he tried again, with more urgency.

Dumbledore opened his eyes with a look of annoyance, "I was almost there, Harry, what is it?"

Harry gulped, "I think we have bigger problems than just wards."

Dumbledore looked around, and suddenly saw what Harry meant.

They were surrounded by snakes of all shapes and sizes, which were slowly but surely closing in on the two of them. While some were the normal garden variety, most looked poisonous, and some were extremely huge.

"What are they saying, Harry?" Dumbledore asked the parselmouth.

"Um," Harry gulped again, "They're saying they want to rip us apart and report us to their master."

"So this is a trap by Voldemort," Dumbledore stated the obvious.

Harry whipped his wand out and shot a jet of fire at a snake which had reached close enough to lash out at him. It was burnt to a crisp, but there were hundreds more around.

Harry shot more jets of fire, but there was no way he was going to be able to take out all of the snakes which had surrounded the two wizards.

Albus took in a deep breath and raised his wand, "Get close to me, Harry," he said, and the young Potter scrambled towards his professor.

A pure wave of white fire came out of the end of Dumbledore's wand and surrounded the two of them.

It was only there for four seconds, but in that time, Harry's entire vision was enveloped by it. He closed his eyes, but could see the whiteness through his eyelids as well.

"You can open your eyes now," Dumbledore said quietly, and Harry did as his professor had said.

His vision slowly returned to him through the whiteness. It was as if he had been looking at the sun for a minute straight on a bright, hot, sunny day.

The snakes had been incinerated. As had all the plant life within a metre of the two wizards. Harry gaped at the power of the magic which Albus had used.

He finally looked at the Headmaster, who was breathing heavily, and seemed slightly winded, though not overly so.

"Woah."

*** End of Chapter