Opening the door, Harry tried to get everyone to stay outside while he disabled the last trap, that was never going to work. Hermione pushed past him and then Bill followed both into the dilapidated house, careful to only step where they did. Hermione approached the massive stone fireplace that took up most of the end wall of the house and, using her wand, tapped specific rocks in a predetermined order. All three heard the magical release as a small trapdoor now became visible in the bare wooden floor.
As Bill now took over this part of the operation, Amelia was covering them with her wand from the doorway. "You two can get out of there now."
Harry's eyes never left Bill as he shook his head, Hermione answered for both of them. "Same reason why we need to be there tomorrow. If Bill needs a question answered, we need to be here to instantly supply it."
This was ably demonstrated when Bill had the trapdoor open but the small jewellery case inside wouldn't levitate from the hole it was placed in - it simply refused to budge. Harry saying §release§ in parseltongue saw the case float out the hole.
"Sorry Bill, Voldemort wanted you to open the box while it was still in there. The entire hole has compulsion charms layered on it to make you do that very thing, and reinforce the ones on the box and ring to get you to put it on. Putting the ring on in here would reactivate all the defences, and then we would really be in the shit. Bill, Bill?"
Bill was sweating and trembling, managing to croak out Amelia's name before the compulsions took over. She didn't hesitate for a second and stunned Bill. Hermione caught the box with a levitation charm before it could hit the floor, and set off those defences.
"Amelia, our bond is protecting us as the compulsions would need to defeat both Harry and me at the same time. Move well aside and let's get this out of here. Harry, bring Bill."
Amelia hadn't moved back far enough though and could feel the compulsions calling to her. As she mover toward the small chest, Sirius dropped her with a stunner.
"Guys, stay where you are. Hermione and I will handle this but be ready with a stunner if one of us reaches for the ring." Harry was levitating Bill and placed him beside Amelia, before taking the dragon hide gloves and basilisk fang from the curse breaker, then joined Hermione to do what was needed.
They were working silently but both Remus and Sirius were used to this now and could easily see they were in constant communication with each other. Hermione pulled on the left glove, with Harry wearing the right. He picked up the basilisk fang while their free hands joined and their fingers intertwined.
Hermione opened the box with her gloved left hand, Harry was slamming the basilisk fang into the box's contents a mere second later.
Harry dropped the fang as they both retreated from the box, sliding off their gloves too. They had reached Amelia and Bill, being joined by Sirius and Remus as smoke started to belch from the tiny chest.
Amelia was regaining consciousness when she heard screaming, this immediately focused her attention on a terrible sight. Smoke had formed into a face that she instantly recognised as Voldemort, those red glowing eyes were a bit of a giveaway. The terrible screams were coming from where this head's mouth should be, that mouth was rotting away though and the rot was consuming the rest of this horrible face. For some reason, those red eyes were the last thing to disappear, and then they were left in silence.
Silence and Sirius though were incompatible companions. "Fuck, and this was the easy one…"
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