Harry Potter & The Black Sacrifice
Post 11: Snake and Cup
Chapter 9
Snake and Cup
Hermione shook him awake 2 hours later. "Harry.. Harry get up."
He grabbed his glasses and looked at her. "Why, what is it? Is something wrong?"
She shook her head. "No no, it's just that I wanted to get an early start." And with that, she threw some clothes at him and left the room.
He came downstairs to find her reading the Prophet at the dining room table. She looked up at him and smiled. "Take a look at this!"
He sat down next to her and his eyes widened at the front page headline. "Pettigrew…Ireland…wow." He read the entire article, then turned to page 2 to see if there was any more. There was not, but his eyes widened again at a smaller headline towards the bottom:
MALFOY'S BODY ARRIVES AT MINISTRY.
Hermione had gotten up while Harry was reading to make some breakfast. "Hermione! Did you know that Malfoy was dead!?"
Hermione walked back and looked over his shoulder. "No. I rarely look past the front page anymore, so they must have not mentioned it there." She skimmed the article. "They're going to conduct an investigation into his death. I don't know what they expect to find…"
"Blackpool…. Ever hear of it?"
She shook her head. "I doubt it means anything. Probably just a stop on his flight north."
Harry looked troubled. He had suddenly remembered a dream he had had the night before. A dream in which Voldemort had revealed the details of his plan to have 2 of the Malfoys killed. And the reason why.
"Hermione… I've been dreaming again…"
She looked up sharply. She didn't have to ask what he meant. "And your scar?"
After a moment, Harry nodded.
She sighed. "Harry!! This is not the time to be keeping that a secret again!"
"Well, it's only happened twice," Harry said. "The first time I didn't even dream, it was only the scar hurting."
"What was the dream about?"
"Voldemort… and Snape.. talking about both Lucius & Draco Malfoy being dead… and that Voldemort intended for them to die."
"Did he say why?"
Harry tried to remember, but that portion of the dream was drowned out by laughter. "He may have. I can't remember."
Hermione nodded. "O.k. Just put it out of your head for now I guess. We'll talk more about it later."
Harry looked around. "So what are we doing today? What did you want to get an early start on?"
"We're going to the Riddle mansion," Hermione said nonchalantly.
Harry gasped. "Umm.. why, exactly? Why today?"
"No time like the present Harry," she said. "Besides, unlike you, I've been reading Dumbledore's notes. The Riddle mansion was the next location he intended to investigate after the underwater cave."
"Will Ron & Ginny be joining us?"
"Molly flipped when Ginny came home so late last night, and Ron got the worst of the screaming. Best not to risk it."
"So… just you and me.. alone.. going to the Riddle house."
Hermione started to laugh. "Harry, don't tell me you're scared!"
Harry glared at her. "Hell yes I'm scared. Last time I went in search of a Horcrux, a best friend died indirectly because of it. Apparently you think it's funny that I'm in no hurry for it to happen again."
Hermione stopped laughing. "You're right, Harry, I'm sorry. We won't go too far in, o.k.? If we get even the smallest sign that there may be a Horcrux in that house, we'll stop and come back when there are more of us."
"Fine."
…
It had been decades since the Riddle mansion was considered the finest looking house in Little Hangleton, but Frank Bryce had at least managed to keep the house looking presentable. In the three years since he had died, however, the house and grounds had fallen into a permanent state of disrepair and ruin, adding to it's reputation as a haunted place.
The grass was overgrown, brown, and weedy. Many of the trees lining the driveway were dead or dying. The house itself was no better. The front door was hanging on one hinge. Most of the paint had peeled off the side of the house. A few windows had been broken by some of the braver adolescent boys of Little Hangleton. The house itself swayed in the wind as if it wanted to fall over and die. It looked as if it had been 300 years since someone had lived here, instead of just 3.
Hermione and Harry stood at the gate, gazing up at the 3 story house anxiously. They kept glancing at each other and then back to the house, almost as if daring each other to go on. Hermione was starting to feel as if she had been too hasty in coming here.
Harry had promised himself that he would not look down the hill to the graveyard, but his eyes kept straying there. The graveyard was the only thing in sight that looked well preserved. This thought made Harry uneasy.
Hermione took a big breath, then started walking up the driveway. Harry reluctantly began to follow.
They got to front door and Hermione peeked inside. She got her wand out, and Harry got out his. "Just a once over, okay? We look inside every room for any sign of the unusual. If we see anything, we'll come back later with more of us. We see nothing, we never have to come back again."
Harry nodded. "Where do we start?"
…
They saw nothing unusual in the basement or on the first floor. They started up to the second floor and began to hear a low hissing sound from the bedroom at the second floor landing.
"That's where the caretaker was killed," thought Harry.
Harry motioned for Hermione to stop. He kept walking up the stairs, and the hissing grew closer. Just as Harry was about to open the door, the hissing became words.
"Massssterrr… You've returned!"
Harry stopped and looked back at Hermione. He mouthed "Parseltongue" to her. She mouthed back "Go with it!"
"Yesss, I have returned. When did you expect me?"
"Monthssss ago Masssster. You told me you would return for me within a week… That was monthsss ago.. I've been trapped in thisss room ever ssssinccce."
Harry turned around, excited. He mouthed "Nagini!" Hermione mouthed "Duh!"
She slowly walked up the stairs to join Harry. Harry mouthed "Open the door on three…1…2…"
"MASSSSSTERR… WHO HASSSS JOINED YOU!?"
Harry mouthed a word that would have made Mrs. Weasley blush.
Harry was panicking, and said the very first thing that came to his mind. "My… wife hasss joined me.." Harry smacked his forehead. Voldemort with a wife? What a stupid thing to say.
"Thisss isss not the sssmell of a Pureblood, masssster," Nagini said. The first signs of suspicion were now in Nagini's voice. "Why does Narcissssssssssa smell of a Mudblood!?"
Harry's jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes grew as large as dinner plates. Why would Nagini think that Narcissa Malfoy was Voldemort's wife?
Then Harry realized an even bigger problem. Nagini knew that Hermione was not Narcissa based on her smell… yet thought he was Voldemort.
Hermione was growing impatient. All she had to go on were Harry's facial reactions, and they were making her extremely curious.
"Nagini… do I sstill sssmell the sssame?"
"You ssssmell the sssame asss you have sssince the night Wormtail ressstored your body, massster. You sssmell not of yoursssself, but of the Potter brat….the..Potter…POTTER!!"
Harry had no idea how smart snakes were, but he knew that Nagini had just figured out his ruse.
The door shook hard on it's frame as Nagini rammed hard into it. Harry knew that the door could not stand many more hits like that, and motioned for Hermione to have her wand at the ready.
After the fourth hit, the door broke free from its top hinge, and Nagini was able to peer through a crack at them.
"Ssssssstarving…."
While Harry had at least seen Nagini in his dreams before, Hermione had never seen her at all, and her mouth opened in a horrified O.
"I'll eat the Mudblood firsssst Potter. That way I can ussse you to get rid of the horrible tasssste.."
Nagini was moving in and out of view, and neither Harry nor Hermione could get a clear shot at her. She rammed the door one more time and that was all it could take, for it flew off the remaining hinge. Harry & Hermione both ducked and the door flew over their heads, then clattered down the stairs. Nagini saw her opportunity and wound herself around Hermione's leg.
"STUPE…" Before Harry could finish the spell, Nagini's tail had whacked him in the head and stomach in succession. Harry sat down hard; he was seeing stars and the wind had been knocked out of him.
"HARRY!" Hermione shrieked as Nagini pulled her off her feet. Her wand fell out of her hand as she hit the floor, and Nagini began to drag her back into the room.
Harry shook his head hard to try and regain his senses, but it wasn't working. He tried to stand twice and fell to the floor both times, all the while vaguely aware of Hermione screaming. Not knowing what else to do, he bit down hard on his tongue.
It worked. Distantly aware of the taste of blood in his mouth, he charged in to the room.
Nagini had coiled herself around Hermione's stomach and arms, and was getting ready to strike at her neck. "NAGINI!" Harry yelled. Whether it was in Parseltongue or English he couldn't say, but either way he gotten the snake's attention.
Harry pointed his wand directly at the snake's head. Hermione saw what he was about to do and began to shake her head no, but he knew there was no other way.
"SECTUM SEMPRA!"
Nagini narrowly dodged the spell and it hit the wall. Infuriated, Nagini sank her fangs into Hermione's leg. Hermione shrieked.
"NO!" Harry ran to Hermione's side and pulled at the snake's head with all his strength. He finally wrenched it free from Hermione's leg.
Without a thought in his head other than he needed to end this quickly, he stuck his wand into Nagini's open mouth.
"SECTUM SEMPRA!!!!"
Nagini's head exploded, and her grip on Hermione gradually relaxed.
…
Hermione was drifting in and out of consciousness. The wound on her was nearly as bad as the one Harry had received from the basilisk in his second year at Hogwarts.
"Hermione, I'm going to carry you outside," Harry said. "I don't want to apparate from inside here."
"No.."
"It's o.k. I just need to get you home to Fawkes and we'll get you fixed up."
"No… Harry…. We can't leave yet."
He looked into her face. She was breathing very fast. "Why not?"
"Because…. Nagini was not a Horcrux…"
Harry looked at her, shocked. "Of course she was. Why do you say she wasn't?"
She tried her best to calm herself. "Dumbledore wrote about… seeing.. the soul fragment leaving the ring upon … destroying it… nothing like that… happened this time…
"You're not thinking straight Hermione. Dumbledore burned those pages…"
"He wrote that… part in another … section.. so we'd know what to look for… you still have 4 Horcruxes left Harry….."
Harry groaned, but his mind was not changed. "So? What does that have to do with getting that snake poison out of you?"
"If there is.. a Horcrux here… it'll be gone when we come back…"
"What!? Why?"
"Dumbledore said….. that Nagini and… Voldemort… we're connected. Voldemort surely knows already that she is dead… if there is one here, you need to take care of it.. now.."
Harry stood on legs that were still a little wobbly. "O.k… maybe I can call Fawkes to you.. I've done it before."
He cleared his throat and said, "ALBUS DUMBLEDORE WAS THE GREATEST SORCERER WHO EVER LIVED."
Hermione looked up at him and smiled. "I'll wait here. You keep looking."
…
Harry's first thought was that Nagini must have been left in the room specifically to guard something in there. However, the room was mostly bare with no closets, and Harry saw nothing in the room other than the chair that he remembered from dreams.
There was nothing else in any of the rooms on the second floor, so he began to climb the stairs to the third floor.
In a disheveled sitting room, three doors down from the stairway landing, he found what he was looking for.
Harry's first thought was that he was looking at the Goblet of Fire. It was a goblet, to be sure, and it glowed a pale blue. It was sitting on top of a heap of dirty clothes in the corner of the room. He then remembered that he had seen this cup in Dumbledore's Pensieve last year.
He began to wonder what kind of magical protection must be surrounding it, but then remembered that Marvolo's ring had not had any protection around it. Harry supposed that extreme measures around only one of the Horcruxes would be enough. He ran over and grabbed it. He waited. Nothing happened.
He looked at the cup. It was gold plated, but still modest, with the image of a badger embossed into the side. He yelled in triumph, and ran back down to the second floor bedroom.
There, he found an attentive Fawkes standing watch over a sleeping Hermione. The wound on her leg was gone.
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