Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 237: Dumbledore Finds Out
Dumbledore guided him to the bottom floor of the castle, and after opening a secret entrance, he revealed a set of stairs leading to a basement. "Only the current Headmaster is allowed in here… I hope you understand how vital this place is. Without it, there will be no Hogwarts."
"Rest at ease, Headmaster. I know what I'm doing. And it won't take long," said James.
With his assurances that nothing would be permanently broken, Dumbledore allowed him access to the 'Core'.
The stairs went on for a long while. The basement was deep in the bowels of the castle, and the room was extremely spacious, almost as much as the Great Hall itself, where the entire student body could comfortably have all their meals.
Dumbledore snapped his fingers and hundreds of magical torches lit up, illuminating the entire room in a second.
Unlike the Great Hall, this massive chamber was almost empty. A colossal blue crystal hovered in the middle. It was shining with a soothing blue light as it rotated in place.
All around the floor of the chamber were white lines that shone with the same light, albeit not as bright. These lines converged into the crystal before traveling in all directions, feeding magical energies where the castle needed them, as the power lines used by muggles.
If something happened to that crystal or one of those lines was broken, the castle would stop working properly until the issue was fixed.
James didn't stop to take the sights, as this was something he had already seen before in his previous life, and in any case, time was too important to waste right now. Voldemort could arrive at his target location at any moment.
"You still haven't told me what this 'last layer of defense' is. What did the Dark Lord do that requires you to come in here?" Dumbledore said as he stood in the chamber.
James stopped for a moment and said something that made the Headmaster's blood run cold. "Do you know what a horcrux is?"
At first, he didn't. This was an obscure piece of magic. But over his long life, he had studied all sorts of magical tomes, and under the guidance of Nicolas Flamel, some of those texts weren't exactly approved by the Ministry of Magic. One of those books was written by a mad wizard who experimented with ways to protect one's life and extend it beyond its natural time by splitting the soul and storing it inside a container that would then be hidden away.
As long as this soul fragment was safely stored, it would serve as an anchor, preventing the rest of the soul from leaving the mortal realm, allowing the possibility of a resurrection to take place.
An altered copy of this book was then brought to the forbidden section of the library by the previous Headmaster. It didn't go into details, but it did mention the existence of this particular method.
Dumbledore's eyes moved to James. "You don't mean that he... he made one of those things?" This was terrible news. Because if they didn't know where the horcrux was, they could never completely defeat Voldemort.
It was then that James took something from one of his pockets and enlarged it before placing it on the floor.
Dumbledore watched James as he opened the briefcase and went inside it, wondering what he was doing now.
"I couldn't shrink the object itself, but as long as it's inside a dimensional container, there are no issues," the voice of James could be heard from inside the briefcase.
"I didn't know you had a dimensional case… those are hard to get," Dumbledore commented. "But is that what you are storing in th—?" The words died in his mouth when he saw James coming out with something in his hands.
It was a beautiful silver diadem with a large blue stone at its center, and it was being held on top of a wooden display with weird markings on its surface.
What Dumbledore found most shocking was that he recognized this particular diadem, as he had seen depictions of this jewel in many books. It was a very important relic that belonged to one of the founders of this school. "The Ravenclaw Diadem! But how… where did you get this?!"
"I found it hidden inside the Room of Requirement, but that is not the important part. Don't you feel something else?" James asked.
"Now that you mentioned it…" Dumbledore frowned. He could indeed feel something unpleasant being emitted by the diadem, and the closer he got, the stronger this feeling became. Right as his hand was about to touch it, he could even hear voices in his ear, but could not decipher what they were trying to convey.
James grasped the old wizard's hand before it made direct contact.
"Don't touch it… that could be dangerous." James had the diadem mounted in a special display that should contain the dark nature of the object, but it was still a bad idea to touch it. "Unfortunately for Rowena Ravenclaw, someone else got their fingers in this relic before me."
"But… what do you—" It was then that Dumbledore finally realized what had happened to the precious diadem. "A horcrux?!"
"Exactly." James walked closer to the crystal and placed the object on the floor.
"Did Voldemort find the Ravenclaw Diadem and turn it into a horcrux?" Dumbledore looked horrified by the magnitude of the offense. Anything can be turned into a soul container, but this person chose an extremely precious object for Hogwarts history.
"If only you knew..." James would rather not inform the Headmaster that this was not the only Hogwarts relic defiled by that man.
"Then we must destroy it! I know of a few methods that could work," Dumbledore said with urgency.
"If I wanted to destroy it, I would have done so a long time ago, when I found it."
"Why didn't you... wait, he didn't make more than one, didn't he?" Dumbledore sounded horrified at the idea.
"Yes, he definitely made more. And I have no idea how many or where they are. However…" He pointed at the diadem. "This one will help me take care of that problem. Which is why we are here…"
A.N: - Remember to comment, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the time. Those things help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.
You can Support me on P@treon if you like and get 20 advanced chapters. You can also find characters images to view for free in Collections/Invincible Stage Images
-patreon.com/Kriogenix
For donations and commissions, go to ko-fi.com/kriogenix