The meeting with Gringotts to give Bill a leave of absence had gone better than Sirius had anticipated. They had insisted on a penalty but it was much less than what could have been incurred and Bill was worth every knut.
"A fine team," commented Albus. "I remember Deborah Appleby's death; it was a tragedy."
"What happened to her?" Amelia asked.
"She was torn to pieces by Greyback." Sirius said tersely.
It was a hard reminder of what they were all fighting to prevent reoccur.
"We should put Greyback on our tag team list." Amelia said. "He was never Marked but he was certainly quick to ally with Voldemort. The problem is finding him."
"Good idea." Sirius said. He thought for a moment, debating with himself furiously before sighing. "I can get Remus to feel out his werewolf contacts; see if we can't track him down."
"In terms of progress; we have compiled all available research on these types of objects. Reassured that we wouldn't alert Riddle if we destroyed one, we have gone ahead and destroyed the two obtained by Lord Black, the locket and the cup which was found in the inventory of the LeStrange vault. Lord Black stood witness as did Amelia and Cornelius as they were burned within a high temperature furnace." Bertie said. "As young Mister Potter handled the diary, we are left with two objects we have clues for and one that we do not."
"It's remarkable progress in such a short time." Albus said brightly.
"And only achieved through the knowledge gained from Lord Black's brother about the locket and the cup." Bertie pointed out. "However, we have made good investigative progress in the last week cross-referencing that letter with your timeline of Riddle's history, Albus."
He stood up and unshrunk a board he set out with three sections.
"Item number one: unknown." Bertie began, tapping the first section which began to fill with information. "We believe that this item wasn't created at the time Regulus Black found out about the objects. We're fairly certain Riddle was waiting for the moment of his ultimate triumph to create the sixth and last one. We think Albus's defeat," he motioned with his wand in the vague direction of the other wizard, "or Bagnold's assassination would have been the original targets for the moment of triumph he wanted. But he changed his mind. We know he knew there was a prophecy for well over a year but didn't act on it…"
"Tom really didn't believe in Divination. I was quite surprised when the intelligence came that he intended to act." Albus admitted quietly.
"Lawrence came across an old magical theory involving Halloween and the sacrifice of innocent blood – a babe." Bertie said. "It is said to make the object created in the ritual indestructible."
"Sickening." Cornelius commented, looking faintly green.
"But hence why he moved against Harry that night." Sirius said grimly.
Bertie nodded. "We believe he took something with him to Godric's Hollow. However, his attempt went badly wrong, so we believe the object wasn't created."
"Excellent logic." Albus complimented Bertie but his blue eyes had lost their twinkle.
Sirius wondered whether Voldemort had accidentally made Harry indestructible by making him a horcrux…if he had the cleansing of the scar would probably not have worked, Sirius assured himself, and after all, Harry hadn't been sacrificed ultimately so the conditions of indestructibility hadn't been met.
"So, we're only looking for two others?" asked Amelia.
"Well, I'd like Bill and Caro to go to Godric's Hollow and check it out to be certain." Bertie said. "But I believe so."
"That can be arranged." Albus said.
Sirius sighed inwardly. Evidently being in charge at the ICW Conference had led to a resurgence of Albus's control issues.
Bertie simply looked to Sirius.
"Yes," Sirius said, "sounds like a good idea." Even if Harry had ended up as the unknown horcrux, they should check to ensure there wasn't another one; both James and Lily had died that night. He darted a glance at Albus. "Are there any special wards around the place that you need to arrange to take down?"
Albus shook his head. "Ah, no. I left an alarm ward specifically for Tom but otherwise the wards were erected by the DOM."
"Excellent." Bertie said. "So working backwards through Albus's timeline, we're onto item two: the Ravenclaw object." He paused and took a drink of his tea. "More research has narrowed it down to two possible things; the missing Ravenclaw diadem and Ravenclaw's eagle pendant that she wore at her wedding. Both were lost but we think the diadem was likely Riddle's target: the wearer was said to be gifted infinite knowledge."
"Tom would certainly have wanted it." Albus agreed. He set his empty tea-cup down and reached into his robes, pulling out a bag of sweets.
"The diadem has many myths and legends surrounding it. However, one that caught Bill's eye was the story of Helena, Ravenclaw's daughter, taking the diadem and running off to Albania." Bertie said with a small smile.
Albus smiled back serenely. "Yes, Tom does seem to like that country, doesn't he?"
"Forgive me, but didn't my brother's letter say the object was in Hogwarts?" Sirius questioned.
"According to Albus, Tom had just returned from Albania when he interviewed for the DADA position." Bertie explained.
"You think he hid something during the time he was interviewed?" Albus's eyes lost their twinkle again as he contemplated that Voldemort had succeeded in secreting a dark object into the school under his nose.
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