Harry put away the dishes from breakfast, he had made pancakes at Hermione's request, and charmed them to wash themselves. It was one spell he had looked up while being at Grimmauld Place the summer before his fifth year. It was simply so useful. And if there was one chore he disliked, it was washing and drying the dishes. The purchase of the dishwasher was one thing his uncle did that Harry whole heartedly supported. When they were moving, he sat down on his chair at the table. It was one week after they had left their previous camping spot and it was time to return to their hunt.
"Okay, Harry, while the last week was heavenly and massively needed, we need to get back to our task," Hermione said.
"I know. Let's make a board at the wall and list everything we know about the horcruxes, any places we know that Riddle was ever connected to and what we know about his character," Harry stated to the nod of Hermione.
"Alright, we know he was a fifth year when the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the first time. The memory in the diary said that. It was opened again fifty years later, in 1992. That means, he was in fifth year in the school year 1942/43. You said that the matron of the orphanage said that he was born at the end of the year, meaning December. Doing the maths he was born December 1926," Hermione started.
Harry wrote that down and pinned it at the left side of the wall.
"We know he grew up at Wool's Orphanage and the matron was called Mrs Cole," Harry continued and wrote that under the timeline he had drawn. Professor Dumbledore was the one to deliver his letter. By the time Tom was eleven, he could already control his magic somewhat. He could make other children harm themselves, kill pets and he tended to steal things as trophies. Meaning he was a kleptomaniac."
"Professor Dumbledore didn't accompany him to Diagon Alley, but he noticed that Tom didn't like that he shared his name with another person. He didn't like being like other people. Even at that age. He was sorted into Slytherin and managed to rise to one of the houses' leaders, despite the fact that they had to think he was muggleborn. Knowing how Slytherins work a bit, he must have shown incredible skill from the start and he probably revealed his ability to talk to snakes to his classmates. They would know that Salazar Slytherin had been a parselmouth and make the connection that Tom was a descendent. Tom might have spun a story how he was placed at the orphanage, but with how nobody knew his parents, they couldn't be sure of his blood status. Probably his ability of adjusting to things helped him pretend that he was at least halfblood if not a pureblood," Hermione analysed.
"Then in 1942 he opened the Chamber of Secrets and it ended with Myrtle being killed in 1943 by the basilisk. He realised that the school would be closed if the attacks continued or the murder of the girl wasn't solved, therefore he used his knowledge of Hagrid raising Aragog in a cupboard to push the blame of the whole incident on him and got him expelled," Harry continued.
"Yes, they gave Tom a shiny reward, supposedly to keep him silent, but I bet he found it terribly amusing how easily he had fooled everybody. Professor Dumbledore kept an eye on him from there on, but it only slowed him down. When he was sixteen, he also went to Little Hangleton and killed his father and paternal grandparents, blaming the whole thing on his uncle Morfin, who was the one that gave him the information on the identity of his father, calling him 'the muggle that his worthless sister fawned over'. He stole the ring from Morfin and made it his goal to also get the locket of Slytherin back. He was made head boy in the year 1944/45 and graduated with top marks. He managed to get the information on the possibility of making seven horcruxes from Professor Slughorn, who, out of shame, never told anybody how far he feared that Tom had gone. He then went to work at Borgin and Burke's for a while, which baffled countless people. He was expected to make a name for himself in the wizarding world with his talents."
"Probably he was interested in the knowledge about dark artefacts, which includes horcruxes, that only a place like that would offer. He probably also suspected that a place like that, that bought precious items from desperate people, would be a place where his mother might have gone to. He was proven right when he found Slytherin's locket on the lists of items sold to Hephzibah Smith. He charmed the old witch and not only could confirm the location of his family's heirloom, but also found Hufflepuff's cup, one of Smith's own heirlooms, in her collection. He arranged that Smith died from poison and made the old house elf look like the culprit. He quit his job and was gone before anybody could notice the missing heirlooms of the founders of Hogwarts," Harry finished.
The board on the wall was already filled with a lot of information.
"Professor Dumbledore showed you how Tom used important places to him as hiding places for his horcruxes. He had hidden the ring in the shack where the Gaunts lived, the last known residence of the Slytherin line," Hermione listed and Harry started a column of important places to Tom Riddle, "He also used the cave where he had once tormented the orphans for the locket, which Regulus Black had found thanks to Kreacher taking him there. Regulus lost his life getting the locket away, thinking that with the destruction of the locket he would deal Tom a devastating blow. But he didn't know that there were more horcruxes. The diary was already a horcrux when the locket was made one. Either Myrtle's death or the death of his paternal relatives was used for that one, as it held his sixteen years old self," Hermione stated.
Harry put those parts down.
"We know that he was gone for a bit over a decade and returned at the beginning of the seventies as a totally different looking person. And he managed to make people fear the use of his chosen alias so much that they even flinched when they all thought he was dead, just hearing the name. Why was that by the way?" Harry asked.
"I think I heard something about Death Eaters tracking those that said the name in a way. They could find them if they were close enough to them," Hermione pondered, "Do you think that happened in Tottenham Court Road? You used the name then."
"It might be. If they were restricted in range when they didn't have the Ministry resources on their side, it might now be that the limitations are gone. I think they would only need to modify the underage magic radars. They encompass the whole country," Harry realised with dread, "Thank goodness that we didn't say the name accidentally."
"What I want to know is what Dumbledore was thinking telling you that you should always use the name. It was basically driving you into a trap," Hermione scoffed, "He must have known that it was possible to use a spell like that if it was a reason why people feared using Riddle's alias in the last war."
"I have no idea and we can't ask him anymore. I just wish he would have given clearer instructions and clues. Thanks to his games, I lost a lot of time to prepare and if I hadn't realised that I was potioned, I would have wasted all of sixth year as well. He could at least have given me a way to destroy horcruxes or mentioned it. But no, he let me deal with Slughorn to get the memory he needed to confirm the number of horcruxes without using that time to teach me how to destroy them or to find them. We could have done both at the same time. Many things could have been done simultaneously. But like always, he sat on his information until he deemed it right to give it up. Well, that gamble didn't pay off. We could use the information he had now. But the man wouldn't ever give a straight answer," Harry huffed.
Hermione stood up and hugged him. He returned the hug, holding onto her like a lifeline.
"We're going to get through this and then we'll go to Australia and correct the horrible mistake I made by taking away their memories. I don't know what I was thinking at that time. I mean, sending them out of the country is something I still don't regret, but if I had only explained things properly to them, they would have gone without too much trouble," Hermione admitted, "I had such a close relationship with my parents, but ever since before fifth year, I spent so little time with them."
"I'm sorry, Hermione. You're right, we're going to end Riddle and his minions and then we can live the life that we want. You can get your parents back and catch up on lost time. And I can finally be free of this stupid prophecy," Harry said.
They held onto each other for a while longer and then went back to organising the information that they had.
"Okay, we know of the location of three horcruxes," Hermione started again, "The cave, the shack and Malfoy Manor. And we know that the involvement of Malfoy wasn't the only time he used one of his followers to hide a horcrux. He used Kreacher, the elf of the Blacks, to test the defences of the locket. So it might be possible that he also used another follower with a horcrux."
"Good thinking, Hermione. If that was true, then the ones most probable to be chosen are Crouch junior and Bellatrix Lestrange. Those two were the most fanatically loyal Death Eaters back then," Harry nodded along and wrote the names down.
"Well, I don't think Crouch would be chosen to hide something back then, as his father was head of the DMLE. Riddle wouldn't risk him finding out about his secret, so I think we can scratch that possibility," Hermione pondered, "But Lestrange is certainly a possibility. Where would she put a horcrux, even if she didn't know what it actually was? I mean Riddle didn't trust anybody and only used his followers to increase security of his precious soul pieces."
"I don't know if the Lestranges have a manor like the Malfoys. But I never heard anybody talk as if they were that rich. Only that they were insane," Harry commented.
"No, they're not among the truly rich pureblood families. Their star had fallen around 1742 already. They are only an ancient house as well, not a noble one," Hermione looked through Nature's Nobility – A Wizarding Genealogy to check that fact, "Yes, I was right. The house of Lestrange got the Ancient House label in 1698, but any attempt to gain noble status failed. They also lost half of their fortune in a scandal in 1742 when they tried to take over factual control over the access to potion ingredients in all of Great Britain. They owned thirty seven per cent of all supplying companies, but thought they could blackmail the others to either sell their businesses to them or outright kill the owners and force the heirs to sell, if the owner refused.
"The book says that an alliance of the Longbottoms, Potters and Blacks stopped the attempt. Those three houses are all considered noble ones and the Longbottoms were the second largest supplier of ingredients at that time. The Potters helped because they have been allied with the Longbottoms for centuries and the Black's heir was betrothed to the daughter of the head of House Longbottom. The Lestranges hadn't calculated for the involvement of the Blacks and lost the conflict spectacularly. They had to pay with half of their fortune once they capitulated. The three houses divided the spoils in three parts. House Black mainly wanted influence and got the Wizengamot seat of House Lestrange, which brought them up to three votes in the Wizengamot at the time. House Longbottom got the ingredient farms and greenhouses and House Potter gained two properties in Wales and Norfolk. One of them were very successful docks in Norfolk, which are in use to this day," Hermione read out loud.
"Wow, I never thought that a genealogy book would be such a good source of information on history. I mean, the bit of information you just read out beat Binns' classes by lengths," Harry exclaimed shocked.
Hermione giggled. None of the other Gryffindors had ever really shown an interest in history. She could admit though that with a better teacher that might have been different. Binns had had a strange fascination with wars against magical races.
"Of course, the goblins!" She suddenly exclaimed loudly.
"What have the goblins to do with anything?" Harry asked confused.
"Harry, the goblins run Gringotts. And the bank is considered the safest place to keep valuables, besides perhaps Hogwarts. But most people don't have the opportunity to use the latter, so they have vaults at Gringotts. And I bet Riddle would want to use the protection of one of the oldest family vaults. The Lestrange family came to Great Britain in 1249. It's why they are counted as an ancient house. All the old houses have vaults on the deeper levels of Gringotts."
"Brilliant, Hermione!" Harry cheered, "You're right, he would want to use such a vault. On top of the security aspect, he would have thought that having a vault there was a status symbol for a wizard. I mean, I remember how impressed I was when I saw Gringotts for the first time. It fits with his pride and arrogance to find a way to use one of his follower's vaults to have the goblins guard a horcrux. And Bellatrix would be a prime candidate."
He wrote Bellatrix's vault on the location list for horcruxes.
"That was great deducting. On par with figuring out what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was and how it moved around," Harry praised.
Hermione blushed and smiled happily. She was really happy to have contributed such a major point to the hunt. And it was great to see connections like that again. She had to admit that she had somewhat lost focus in fifth and sixth year. Otherwise she would have seen so many things much clearer earlier on. Stupid potions. She would love to hex some people badly for messing up her mind.
"Thank you, Harry," she said.
Harry added the three horcruxes that they knew of, but didn't have a location for on the list. Nagini, the cup, and something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
"This is good. We're making a lot more progress than before. Now, I still think that one location to hide something would be Hogwarts. It was the first place he saw as home and it is where all important wizards in Great Britain are taught. Not to mention that as heir of Slytherin he would think it only natural to place one part of him at the school his ancestor helped building. Not to mention that there is a strong obsession with the founders in itself, so the school is even more suspicious than any other place," Harry made a point that Ron and Hermione had previously denied.
This time Hermione seriously thought about it.
"But where would he hide it? I agree that he would have wanted to put it there, but the location inside the school would have to be unreachable for others. He would have had to be absolutely sure that Dumbledore didn't find it and figure out his horcrux plan," she wondered.
"There are two places I can think of that he might have used," Harry said.
"I guess one is the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione stated.
"Correct. The other one is the Room of Requirement."
"But that room is accessible to everybody," she quipped.
"But he would think that only he had found it, had unravelled the secrets of Hogwarts. Dumbledore didn't know what the room was and what it could do. He only mentioned it at the Yule Ball as one of the many secrets of the school that even he didn't unravel. And face it, with how many versions of the Room of Requirement there are, somebody looking for a specific room without knowing what to ask for would be lost. I learned that last year when I tried to find out what Malfoy was doing in there," Harry reminded her, "I only found out by coincidence that it was the Room of Hidden Things, because I needed to hide the Potions book. If that room was the one he used for example, you would be busy for weeks to find anything you're looking for, if you don't know what it is or where to look for it."
"The problem is getting into the school undetected. The passage through Honeydukes won't be easy to access with us being Undesirables and a bounty being on our heads. We would probably be caught and that isn't an option," Hermione mentioned.
"I know. And we don't know if they still allow Hogsmeade weekends where we could slip in undetected in the masses of students. We would only need to use some polyjuice. One hour would certainly be enough to get into the passage and with the Marauder's Map we could avoid any patrols in the school. Thanks to my invisibility cloak we would also prevent that the ghosts or portraits spot us, which would cause us trouble," Harry listed.
"So we basically need to make plans to break into the two most secure places in the wizarding world. Charming," Hermione groaned, "And that doesn't even include the snake."
"Yes, that one will be a problem on its own. But we can think about Nagini when we have dealt with the other two. We should also see if we can find out what kind of items are connected to Rowena Ravenclaw. Gryffindor only has the sword, which has basilisk venom on the blade, so it can't be a horcrux and I doubt he managed to get his hands onto the Sorting Hat," Harry stated.
"The Sorting Hat?" Hermione questioned.
"It was Gryffindor that found the way,
He whipped me off his head,
The founders put some brains in me,
So I could choose instead!"
Harry cited part of the song the Sorting Hat had sung in their fourth year.
"Merlin, you're right Harry, the Hat is an artefact of Gryffindor and it would have been a tempting target with all the founders pouring some of their minds into it to choose for them for centuries to come. It could be considered the ultimate founder's artefact," Hermione gasped.
"Yes, but as I said, I doubt he could get to it before he had created all his horcruxes. And he wanted to make six to have seven parts of his soul. The most powerful magical number," Harry said.
Hermione could only nod. He was right in that part.
"So, we would need to find a time when we can check out the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets. That will take time and I doubt we will get enough of it without somebody noticing anything," she mentioned.
"The Christmas holidays will be perfect. The school will be deserted. You can bet that any non-Death Eater family would call their children home for at least the holidays. We still have one and a half months left to plan for entering Hogwarts undetected. Perhaps we can even use the mess that the departure of the students always causes. Nobody would look too closely if we sneaked in at that time," Harry suggested.
"It might just work and having two weeks to search both locations should be enough. Gringotts will be much harder," Hermione agreed.
"Yes, the goblins have great security measures, but it is possible to break in and get out. Quirrell did it with Riddle's help in 1991 after all, even if the Stone was already transferred to Hogwarts. So in general we can manage. But let's first think about other options. I don't fancy facing goblin justice," Harry shuddered.
"Yes, that would be nasty," Hermione agreed.
"Another thing I have thought about a lot is continuing our education as much as possible. I know that we wouldn't be able to do practical parts in classes like Herbology, but we will certainly be able to practice brewing the potions on the NEWT curriculum if we organise the ingredients, and spell practice for DADA, Charms and Transfiguration is also easy to do. I don't know what you'd need to do in Runes or Arithmancy, but I think together we could get to the level where we can sit the NEWTs in any country once we have the time and peace of mind. If we get through this alive, we don't want to stand there with no proper qualifications," Harry told her.
"Oh Harry, that's a wonderful idea!" Hermione exclaimed and enthusiastically hugged him, "I have thought about that too, but with how Ron and you never really wanted to study, I never brought it up."
"I didn't want to escalate the situation with Ron, so I didn't say anything either. He would have complained that we weren't in school and therefore we had no reason to study," Harry admitted.
"Yes, he would have reacted like that. Lazy bones that he is," Hermione nodded, "So, we should set a few hours each day aside to work on our studies. Hopefully we can catch up on what would have been taught until now at Hogwarts."
"I don't think it would be too much of a problem. I have worked on my spell casting a lot last year, using the Room of Requirement and you've always been through our whole books by the time the year started. So with your advantage in theory and my knack for the practical, we should get where we need to be for the NEWTs. And they're standardised, so if we can't get rid of Riddle soon enough, we could take some time off after the horcruxes are dealt with to sit the NEWTs in Ireland for example," Harry informed her.
"Yes, and getting to Ireland would be possible. They also speak English, which means that we wouldn't have to deal with the language barrier," she pondered.
Harry nodded. He was glad that they were in agreement on this as well.
"What do you think about physical training? I would imagine that we'd have an advantage if we were physically fit. The Death Eaters would never work out physically, and in a duel stamina would help you out massively. Especially as most of them have years of practice with dark spells, but none with endurance," Hermione asked.
"Sounds like a good idea to me. The question is where we could train. If we still had Grimmauld Place, we could set up a gym in one of the larger rooms, but we lack a proper training facility," Harry said.
"Well, I might have an idea," Hermione replied, "My uncle moved with his family to the US in June, because he had got a new, better paying job there. He has always been a fitness junkie. Therefore he set a complete gym up in his large basement. And nobody knows that he's related to me, as he's my Mum's brother. That means that no Death Eater would watch the house. We could put it under a fidelius charm and use it as a new base. The house has all the normal appliances and my parents would normally have tried selling the house, but as I sent them to Australia, the house is still in the state it was in when they left in June. I didn't really think about it before, but then again, my mind was messed up," Hermione told him.
"That sounds like a perfect idea. Would electricity, water and gas be running?" Harry asked.
"Yes, because we never got to call off the delivery. A company has also renovated the whole house to have it ready for sale. It was built in 1863 and really needed some renovations and modernisations. From isolation of the walls to new windows. The building company had estimated that they would be finished in September, so the house is ready to move into," Hermione declared happily.
"That's perfect. And with just the fidelius we wouldn't fry the electronics," Harry commented.
"No, you need a large concentration of magic to influence technology. I never had trouble with the devices at home, like the telly or the VCR. I even had a computer in my room and it never reacted badly to my magic. Only places like Diagon Alley and Hogwarts create the problem. And I read that Diagon Alley got wards all around it that isolated the alley from the outside and didn't let the magic reach the muggle settlements around it. It's one reason why you have to open the archway with your wand instead of simply passing through the Leaky Cauldron. It opens the wards for a moment so you can enter and closes them directly afterwards," Hermione explained.
Harry smiled at her eagerness to tell him some facts that she had read about. It was really useful how much she knew. He thought it was endearing, now that she had lost her bossiness from her younger years.
Harry followed Hermione through the empty house. She was giving him a tour of the property and he had to say, he was massively impressed. This wasn't a house, it was more like a small mansion. There was even a swimming pool outside next to a large garden, which was currently very basic, as the redecoration of the garden had been planned to happen next year when it was warmer again. One of the best parts was that the mansion was about three kilometres outside of the next town, which was Littlehampton. It was a known tourist destination for its beaches and the mansion was only a ten minute walk away from the beach, which both teens thought would be great in summer.
But with the distance, nobody would come around regularly and they could easily hide the house under the fidelius and some muggle repelling charms. They could go shopping in Littlehampton for anything they needed. Hermione told him that her uncle was a very successful computer scientist and had earned good money with all companies installing more and more computers to ease the work. Harry could imagine, as he had seen for himself how Dudley had demanded a new computer at least every two years to be up to date. And Uncle Vernon had complained about new programs making the work harder for him, as he had to learn how to use them first.
The gym in the basement was extensive and had all kinds of machines that allowed you to work out, including a treadmill, machines using weights to train different parts of your body, a weight rack and simple mats. There also was a corner with a basketball basket and in a cupboard were several kinds of balls and skipping ropes. You could even set up a badminton net if you wanted to.
"Your uncle really loved fitness, didn't he?" Harry couldn't keep from commenting.
"Yes, whenever we came for a visit, he would drag Dad down here and I was roped into playing basketball with my cousins. I wasn't very good though," she admitted, "But I could beat them all the time with the skipping ropes."
"Sounds like fun. We should certainly see if you're still good at that," Harry suggested.
"I'll show you just how good I am. Carrying lots of books around all day certainly trained my muscles," Hermione declared.
"One thing I wondered about was why the house was fully furnished. Wouldn't it make more sense to not do that for the buyers to decorate to their likings?" Harry asked.
"Well, they still have the option. The plan was to see if they wanted to keep the furniture and as storing it elsewhere would have cost money, my aunt and uncle decided to wait. The renovation crews had stored the furniture in a container outside to work and then put it back into the former places, as was agreed upon. The bank had orders to transfer the money once they got confirmation from the final inspection that everything was alright and the appliances properly reconnected again. The next step would have been for my parents to start placing advertisements for the house," Hermione explained.
"Okay, well, it's good for us that it's still here," Harry commented, "Which rooms should we use?"
"I'll show you the guest rooms. We always stayed there when we were visiting and they're really comfy," Hermione said and led him upstairs.
The house had four floors. The basement, which was mainly taken up by the gym next to a technics room, then the ground floor with a large lounge, the kitchen, a small bathroom, a laundry room and a storage room, and two upper floors with a number of rooms that were used for different purposes, one being a kind of cinema to watch movies on a large flat screen. Harry was eager to see some movies with Hermione that he had always wanted to see, but never got the chance.
They chose rooms next to each other and then set to work to get the fidelius charm up. It was actually fairly simple to do. It only took a good amount of magic, which meant that Harry would perform the charm and Hermione would be the secret keeper. Hermione prepared four stones with a set of runes, which would mark the outer limits of the fidelius charm. As they didn't know how long they would be on the run from the Ministry, they decided to put the whole grounds under the charm. The grounds were large, but that would only give them more space to walk about when they wanted to spend some time outside. And it was just inside the limits of the charm, according to Hermione's book. As there were no magical interferences to consider, they could cover the whole grounds with one charm.
When he was done, Harry was exhausted. Hermione helped him get back to his room, holding him up, his arm over her shoulders, and put him into bed. He was out like a light after that and didn't notice how Hermione spent some time playing with his black hair and stroking his cheeks, after she had taken off his glasses and put them on the bedside table.
The next morning Harry woke up around ten, after a really good sleep. He went down to the kitchen, his room was on the second floor, and found Hermione reading a list of some kind.
"Good morning, Hermione," Harry greeted and walked over to the fridge, looking for some milk and not finding it, "Guess we need to go shopping again. We need a good number of things and with a fixed base we can afford storing a lot more things again."
"Morning, Harry," Hermione greeted him back, "There's some hot water for tea in the kettle if you're interested and the teabags are in the top cupboard directly next to the fridge. I agree, we need some more supplies. There's a nice supermarket that has everything from groceries to kitchenware in the town. We can simply walk over or I can see if there are some bikes left in the garage. If we behave like muggles, we shouldn't arouse any suspicion."
"Wouldn't the locals know that we're not from around?" Harry asked.
"They would, but Littlehampton gets so many tourists that the locals don't look strangely at them anymore. While most of the tourists come during the warmer months to spend time at the beach, there are a good number that simply like vacationing at the sea, no matter which weather. So we shouldn't stand out too much," Hermione explained.
"Okay, I trust you. You know this place better than I," Harry nodded and poured hot water over his teabag, "What do we have left for breakfast?"
"There's some bread and cheese and some jam left," Hermione answered, "I finished off the last salami when I made my breakfast. I didn't wake you because you looked so peaceful and were really exhausted after putting up the fidelius charm."
"No problem," Harry commented and made himself one piece of bread with cheese and one with jam.
He sat down next to Hermione and started eating.
"I think we should buy enough to get through two weeks at least," Hermione said, "We can also stock up on non-perishable items in bulk, like noodles, canned food and the like. I already checked with the supplying companies that the bills for electricity and so on are paid until next June. My uncle didn't expect my parents to quickly find a buyer and therefore simply left enough money on an account to cover everything that was needed to keep the house in good condition. And you can't show possible interested people around if the electricity has been turned off or if they freeze to death. Not with an object like this one."
"How much did your uncle want for the house?" Harry asked.
"I think Mum once mentioned that it was around four to five hundred thousand pounds. The high price is one reason why the building company had to renovate everything. You don't find anybody today that is willing to buy a large object like this one, if it costs too much money for heating and the like," Hermione pointed out.
"So, in galleons that would be up to ten thousand galleons. I know that the conversion rate is one to fifty," Harry calculated, "That's really a lot of money."
"Yes, but it should be possible to sell the house once we don't need it anymore. And my uncle is rich, so he wouldn't be harmed if it took a while longer for him to get the money," Hermione said.
"Okay, I would really feel bad if we were the reason why he got problems in the US waiting for the money that wouldn't come any time soon," Harry said relieved.
"Don't worry about that. I once heard Mum tell Dad that my uncle earned about ten thousand pounds after deductions a month and his new job would pay even better. While my parents aren't poor, they didn't earn anywhere near that much with their dental practice," Hermione pointed out.
"What did you do with that by the way?" Harry asked.
"Well, I arranged that a letter, in which I faked my parents' signatures, was sent to an interested dentist, who had asked in the past if he couldn't join their practice as a junior partner. I wrote to him that because of a sabbatical he could take over the practice for up to two years. He agreed, so when I can get Mum and Dad back, that part will be taken care of and they can continue where they left if they want to. He was quite happy with the deal, as it would give him some time to make a name for himself and gain experience in leading his own practice," Hermione informed Harry, "Should the worst happen to me, he would get an automated letter three months after that and get an offer to fully take over the practice. The money would be put into an account that I opened for my parents in Australia. I left some subconscious information in them that if the money appeared on their account, they would think it was the normal price for the property they had an estate agent sell for them."
"Good thinking, but how would the letter be triggered? I don't know of any spell that can achieve it," Harry asked.
"Well, it is a triggered notice-me-not charm. You can connect the notice-me-not charm with something else, in this case my heartbeat. If my heart doesn't beat for longer than ten minutes on end, the notice-me-not charm would break and the dentist that leads the practice right now would notice it. A weak confundus charm would make him believe that the letter was delivered with that day's mail," Hermione answered.
Harry finished his meal and put the dirty plate into the dish-washer.
"Perfectly planned," he complimented her.
"Thank you," she replied smiling, "So, what do you want to do today, except for going shopping?"
"Well, we should think about how to get into Bellatrix's vault without getting killed or noticed by the goblins. The best thing would be finding out more about the pesky kind of information that children raised in the wizarding world grow up with, but that is surprising for those raised in the muggle world," Harry suggested.
"Yes, perhaps we should even set up profiles for each Death Eater that we know about. That would give us an advantage when we have to fight them," Hermione added her input.
"That makes sense," Harry nodded, "As we think that probably Bellatrix has a horcrux that she keeps safe, let's start with her."
"She was born a Black and is the oldest of three sisters. Her sisters are Andromeda, the middle sister, who was disowned for marrying Ted Tonks, a muggleborn wizard. The youngest is Narcissa, who is married to Lucius Malfoy. Bellatrix is married to Rudolphus Lestrange," Hermione immediately said.
"Bellatrix is also a mistress of the dark arts, supposedly taught by Riddle himself. She brags about being his most faithful servant and I would guess from the devotion she shows him, she is somewhat obsessed with him. Perhaps it was love once, but it was twisted. Her favourite curse is the cruciatus, which she used on Neville's parents until they turned insane," Harry added.
Hermione was the one writing everything down.
"She is really good at duelling and if you don't take her serious, you'll fall. She doesn't know mercy and relishes in causing her victims pain. There is no way that she should be left alive, as it has been shown how dangerous she still is, even after being in Azkaban for fourteen years. She would do anything Riddle asks of her without question and we know that she has all the prejudices against non-purebloods and those of mixed heritage that the extremists are known for," Harry continued.
"Yes, she tried killing Tonks, just because she had married Remus, who is a werewolf. I she ever got the chance, she would kill both of them painfully. She has a short temper and the only thing she seems to fear is the anger of her master," Hermione pointed out.
"Yes, that means we need to find a way to capture her and either see if she can be controlled by the imperius curse or if we can polyjuice one of us to look like her to get into her vault," Harry said.
Hermione didn't look happy about the possibility of using that curse, but reasonably it was the best choice.
"How would we be able to catch Bellatrix? She's too dangerous and will normally have some lackeys around to do her bidding. And we don't know if she can fight off the imperius curse. After all, she knows occlumency, which she taught Draco, as you overheard in sixth year, and that could mean that she can throw off the imperius as well," Hermione questioned.
"That could be possible. What other way would there be?" Harry asked.
"Well, we don't know where her vault is at Gringotts and we have no way to find it out normally. That means, the only way to get there is by having a goblin take you to the vault. And that would only happen if Bellatrix had some business to do at the vault. It would be noticed if you simply shared the cart with them, so probably you would have to follow in another way," Hermione tried putting together a way.
"The only way I could match the speed of the cart would be on a broom. I would have to be invisible in a way that no spell of any kind could undo. And we would need to know what to expect if we went down to a high security vault of any kind," Harry told her.
"The only ones that we know that work for Gringotts are Bill and Fleur," Hermione said.
"And they would want to know why we're doing this. Though I wonder if involving them wouldn't be a good idea," Harry mentioned.
"But didn't Dumbledore say that you shouldn't tell anybody besides Ron and me?" Hermione asked unsure.
"He did, but honestly, he kept to many damn secrets. We would be a lot farther if he had simply straight out told me that the sword of Gryffindor could destroy horcruxes. If you think about it, you could push all the sessions we had to view the memories onto one weekend. Start with the earliest ones on Saturday morning and you'd be done on Sunday evening with the most recent. Then use the remainder of the year to tell me what to train in while you go out looking for possible hiding places for the cursed things. We could have discussed possible hiding places and looked through history books for items of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. We could have used your talent for research to find out anything we could about things like that and we would be a lot further now than we are.
"Probably he would also have known a way to get the horcrux out of Bellatrix's vault, and we would someday have reached that conclusion the same way we did now. We could have searched the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets while it was still safe. And sacrificing two days to get everything done in a timely manner at the beginning of the year would have been much more efficient than what he did. He didn't plan properly for the time where he wouldn't be around anymore to stall Tom from taking over totally," Harry complained.
"I know, he really didn't do things efficiently. Alone all the chances he gave to those that didn't deserve them," Hermione agreed, "Had he only curbed people like Malfoy when they bullied others all the time, they might have thought twice about joining Riddle. I mean, how often did they get away with causing trouble, when proving the opposite would have been easy? Why was Snape allowed to do what he wanted?"
"According to Dumbledore Snape massively regretted that he telling Riddle about the prophecy made my parents targets. I don't believe that one bit, but I couldn't really discuss it with Dumbledore, as the day that I found out about it, was the same day we went to the cave to find the locket," Harry explained, "Snape supposedly turned spy for the light over this."
"That is the most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard. I mean, if he had really changed, he should have been trying as hard as possible to not appear like somebody that treats all children from families that have fought against the Death Eaters horribly in public. I mean, if he was a real spy, it would have made the most sense to stay polite and try teaching properly. No other teacher with that behaviour would have been allowed to get away with that. In the muggle world he would have been fired within two weeks," Hermione ranted.
"Yes, it seems like one of Dumbledore's not thoroughly thought out plans again. Well, there's no use in whining about things we can't change right now. If we want to really question Bill and Fleur about Gringotts and perhaps even a way to destroy the horcruxes while not having the sword available, we need to contact them without tipping anybody off," Hermione stated.
Harry nodded and the two started thinking up ways to contact the couple.