CHAPTER 13

Author's Notes

Hey, i think i'm doing pretty well, what with my exams and all. Hehe. So I just want to thank everyone for their support. Be it reviews, favs or follows, hey all give me some amount of support in my work, and makes me feel appreciated. Thanks everyone!

Ohh and any many thanks to my beta wanna!

000

Rain splattered constantly on the painted glass windows of the castle, and gloom seemed to hang in the air around them. Hermione sat in the corner of the common room. Religiously doing her assignment and as much as Harry wanted to strap down and do some good hard work, he found himself too bored to think of some trivial matters.

It was days like these that he wished there would be a little more adventure in his life. Not deadly mind you, but something that got his adrenaline pumping.

Quirellmort had so far been lying low, and Harry put on a show of being a merely average wizard when in his presence. The man had done nothing lately, but stutter around and make himself as inconspicuous as possible.

"Harry, aren't you ever going to get your homework done? Professor McGonagall said she'd collect it in a week's time!" called Hermione, snapping Harry out of his revere.

He shot her a grin and yawned widely. "I can't be bothered to do it all now, Hermione. I promise I'll finish it before the deadline," he said attempting to beg her off.

Hermione gave him a disapproving glance and turned back to her work. Sighing to himself he pondered on what he could do on such a gloomy day.

The answer came to him almost immediately, 'Horcrux'; he sat up like he'd been electrocuted. Noticing this Hermione gave him a concerned look.

"What's the matter?" she asked quickly. Harry shook his head and settled back down into a casual pose.

"Ah, it's nothing. I just thought that I'd forgotten to do my Potions essay," he lied; looking down at his half written Transfiguration book. Hermione looked at him in a way that said that she wasn't convinced.

Harry shrugged and gave her a half smile. "You know how Snape's always breathing down my neck," he said easily. Hermione's gaze darkened.

"I really don't know why they made him a teacher. He clearly has no love for teaching, or children for that matter," said Hermione frostily. "But, he is a good Potions Master," she admitted grudgingly.

Harry nodded in complete agreement on the latter part of her statement, although he knew exactly why Snape was working here.

Getting up he made a show of stretching and padded over to the window. The weather seemed to have worsened but he could still make out some blurry shapes zooming about on the Quidditch team. Wood never did know when to stop.

But that was the least of his worries now. He needed to get to that Horcrux, and he had no intention of dragging Hermione into the danger. And then it hit him.

Walking over to Hermione he sat down heavily in his seat and sighed loudly. He felt Hermione tense up beside him and grinned inwardly. Placing his chin in the palm of his hand and resting his elbow on the table in a lazy fashion, he drew in a deep breath and sighed again.

This time Hermione's head lifted up slightly and she hesitated a bit before going down to her work. 'Third time's the charm' Harry thought hopefully before letting loose a deep and prolonged sigh.

Hermione turned to face him, scowling at the disturbance. She leveled him with a glare.

"For heaven's sake, Harry! What's wrong?" she snapped angrily. Harry lifted his eyes to hers and pouted, crossing his arms over his chest quite adorably.

"I'm bored," he stated in a petulant pattern. Hermione seemed to hesitate for a moment, melting under his gaze, but held firm.

"Well, go do something fun then," she advised. The stopped herself. 'Fun? What had happened to her?' she thought in amazement.

Harry sighed again, before jumping to his feet. "Want to go drop a dung bomb on someone?" he asked with a cheeky grin. Already knowing what she would say.

"Harry!" she said sounding quite horrified about playing a prank on someone. "That's breaking the rules!" she protested.

He allowed his face to fall and he toed something on the floor, eyes downcast. "Fine," he muttered. "But, I don't want to sit here doing nothing. I'm going for a walk." he stated.

Hermione continued with her work. "I'll finish this and then I'll come with you," she said calmly. Harry smiled inwardly and then gestured at the portrait hole.

"Okay then, I'll catch up to you later then," he said making sure he didn't seem over eager. Hermione nodded absently and he walked out of the portrait hole.

Looking around the deserted corridor briefly, he started sprinting up the staircases. He needed to get to the seventh floor. And he needed to get rid of that Horcrux.

000

Draco Malfoy wasn't a happy person. When he had recounted his brief meeting with Harry Potter to his father, Lucius had told him to get closer to him and to try and become friends. But with his first offer of Friendship rebuffed he didn't quite feel up to approaching Potter again, and when he saw him with that Mudblood, he felt the need to distance himself even more.

Throughout the first week of his First year at Hogwarts he hadn't been able to catch Potter alone. He always seemed to hang around with the Mudblood and Longbottom. But today as he was walking closer towards the Ravenclaw common room he saw Potter dart out and begin speeding towards the staircases.

Eyes lighting up with the chance to get Potter alone, Draco swiftly pursued him, making sure to remain discreet ad always maintain decorum of distance between them.

Just as he thought that he would lose Potter (he really was fast on his feet) the boy slowed down. Looking around him, he realized that he was in the seventh floor corridor. Puzzled as to why Potter would be up here he squeezed in between a set of armor and watched.

Potter seemed to be pacing back on forth along the corridor in front of the picture of the dancing trolls and then suddenly after his third journey down the corridor he stopped his pacing and walked straight through a door that Draco could've sworn was not there before.

Once Potter was out of sight he pulled himself free of the armor and quickly rushed to the spot that Potter had earlier occupied. Looking around, bewildered, Draco couldn't find any door what-so-ever. So deciding to do what Potter did, he paced the corridor thrice, but no room appeared. Growling in frustration he ran a hand through his hair.

What had Potter done? He had paced the corridor, all the while with a look of concentration on his face. Maybe he had intoned a spell? But then he'd have had to do it silently and wandlessly. And no first year could do that, right? Draco didn't know, but he was going to get into that room.

Once inside the room, Harry surveyed the mountains of rubbish stacked inside.

"This place really needs a do-over," he muttered to himself. Wondering whether it was possible for him to do that he set about looking for the Diadem.

After his studies with the Founders they had taught him a method of extracting the soul fragment from the object and settling it into another. The process was strenuous and rather crude. But it would be worth it if he could save Rowena's Diadem. She would definitely appreciate it.

Closing his eyes, Harry allowed his mind to calm and then spread out. Raking through the enormous room and searching for the violently dark magic located in the Diadem. Because of the strong pulse of magic the Horcrux would occasionally give out wasn't too long before he found it.

Getting to his feet Harry followed the invisible path his magic had routed out for him until he came upon the tiara, sitting innocently on the edge of a worn out dresser.

Being careful to check the tiara for any nasty curses before he touched it, he picked it up gingerly and placed it on a small, cleared spot on the floor. Next to it, he placed a tattered old book.

He sat down, cross legged in front of it and regarded it for a few minutes. Then with a small movement of his hand he conjured a ceremonial dagger. Moving the tip of the dagger slowly towards his forearm, he twisted his hand and nicked his elbow. Allowing a generous amount of his blood to fall onto the glistening white tiara.

The tiara smoked slightly, but other than that, no other reaction occurred. Sighing in relief, Harry twisted his arm in a pivoted motion, all the while chanting a string of Greek under his breath.

The tiara began to wobble about dangerously and Harry immediately lessened the amount of magic he was channeling into the object, it wouldn't do for the ornament to break.

Slowly a blackish vapor began to flat out of the object. The smell reminded Harry greatly of that of burning rubber. When no more vapor evaporated, he carefully enclosed the vapor in a orb of his own magic and then slowly pushed it towards the book. Just as the misty vapor was about to settle into the book one of the nearby stacks of books fell. Startled, Harry's concentration snapped and the orb of magic used to keep the vapor from dispersing vanished. There was a flash of light and the dark mist vanished.

Draco was not one to give up on something so easily. And for 10 more minutes he continued to pace the corridor, but always drawing up with no result.

On the final time he made to pace the corridor, he couldn't keep Potter out of his mind. "Where the hell are you, Potter?" The boy kept muttering as he paced and this time when he turned to face the tapestry he found a door in its place. Beaming in triumph, he rushed over and quietly pulled the door open. Looking about for any sign of Potter, he entered the room and closed the door behind him.

The room seemed to be filled with junk, broken quills, old books, a broom or two, moth bitten fabric…you name it, every kind of rubbish could be found in this room.

'Wonder what Potter wanted around here,' he thought as he aimlessly wandered around the piles of junk, occasionally peeping around for any sign of Potter. Finally he heard a small puff of breath. It came from behind a stack of books.

Being overly cautious not to alert Potter of his presence, he snuck up to the stack of books that looked to be horribly unbalanced. He could make out that messy, black hair of Potters from his hiding place. Potter was bent over a grimy old book and a rather fine tiara and was obviously concentrating very hard on something.

Cursing his poor hiding spot, Draco wedged a hand in between a small gap between two piles and leaned even further forward. He could just make out a bluish orb with some black vapor in it before his hand slipped slightly and he fell; dragging the pile of books along with him as he landed on the floor with a resounding crash.

000

"Shit!" cursed Harry angrily. He stood up, looking around him cautiously. Now that the soul was unleashed, it could definitely be harmful. Edging around the fallen books Harry came face to face with a very flustered looking Draco Malfoy.

Surprised Harry drew back, and when he saw the guilty expression on the Malfoy scions face and the fallen books, he put two and two together.

"Malfoy!" he hissed as the glumness in the room began to get heavier. Subtle signs that the Horcrux was gathering power from any excess magic.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" snapped Harry, anger welling up inside him. Draco backed off, trying to look unfazed by the anger on Harry's face, but failing horribly.

"I-I don't kn-" he stammered backing into a wall. Harry could feel the hostility, thick and heavy. The back of his neck prickled and he had a very bad feeling about this. 'Of course, I have a bad feeling about this! An apparition of the Dark idiot could pop out at any second.' he thought bitterly.

"You need to get out of here Malfoy. As much as I hate your guts right now, I don't want you killed on my watch," said Harry hastily as he glanced behind his shoulder. He had to find where the vapor had vanished to, and he was feeling too panicky to concentrate enough.

Draco gave Harry an odd look. "What were you doing back there? What do you mean 'killed'?" he asked, an audible tremor to his voice.

Harry could almost feel the magic building up, somewhere further away from them, and the thought wasn't reassuring.

He turned back to Draco, whose eyes were scanning the room at a rapid pace. He looked pale and his eyes were wide and scared looking. Shit, he couldn't deal with Malfoy and the Horcrux at the same time.

"Look, I don't have time to explain, Malfoy. All you need to know for the time being is to get the hell out of here!" said Harry urgently. When Malfoy made no response, he grabbed the boy by the shoulders and shook him violently.

"Listen to me! Get out, and go to your house. Don't tell any teacher what you saw here. Do you understand?!" Harry yelled, making Malfoy snap his gaze to Harry's. The boy seemed to feel the dark magic too because he nodded frantically, a stricken look on his face.

"Good," Harry muttered. Grasping the boy by the arm, he walked briskly towards the door, all the while keeping his senses alert and keen. He couldn't blow this. There was more than his life on the line here. The only thing he could be at peace with was that Hermione would play no part in this.

They had almost reached the door when a heavy load of rubbish flung their way forward, effectively blocking the door. Both boys heard a resounding click as the door sealed itself shut.

With a growing feeling of dread, Harry began to turn, the hair at the back of his neck standing on end as he felt, more than heard, the familiar crackle of magic.

"Leaving so soon, are we?"

Harry turned fully and was met with a handsome face, a pair of red eyes and a sinister smile. Tom Riddle stood before him, a smirk splayed across his lips.

000

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