Chapter - 16 : Healing and Hijinks part - 2

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"I've had a few bad experiences," Harry said. "They really hated me and tried their very best to kill me whenever they could."

"What in Merlin's name did you do to them?"

"My friends and I broke into Gringotts and stole something from Bellatrix Lestrange's vault," Harry admitted.

"What?" Sirius gasped in shock and then burst out laughing. "You… stole… Gringotts… Harry!" he choked out, clutching his stomach as he chuckled.

"We escaped by flying on the back of a dragon," Harry added, causing Sirius to laugh even harder, perhaps at the image of angry goblins waving spears while a fire-breathing dragon swooped overhead. Harry couldn't help laughing along with him.

"Ah." Sirius sighed at last, wiping his eyes. "I haven't laughed like that in… oh, almost ten years. Though really Harry, full marks for pure outrageousness and all that, but whatever possessed you to break into the most heavily guarded building in Britain? And cousin Bella's vault at that."

"I needed something from it. Helga Hufflepuff's cup to be exact," Harry said.

"What use would Hufflepuff's cup be to anyone?" Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise. "And why would Bellatrix have it? I mean, Hufflepuff! Come on! It's not as if Bella ever had any use for fairness and honest hard work."

"Not many people do," Harry said, considering the dismissive attitudes of the other Houses towards the Badger's House. He himself was guilty of it at times. "Voldemort gave the cup to her and ordered her to keep it safe."

Sirius grimaced in disgust. "And of course she obeyed her precious Master. I still don't get it though. Why did Voldemort want to have anything to do with the thing?"

"Well…" Harry glanced uneasily at the door of the hospital room. "Look, if I lend you my wand would you be able to cast a few more privacy wards? I've put up as many as I can, but my magic isn't trained enough for any of the really advanced spells. What I'm about to tell you cannot be overheard."

"All right, I can make sure of that," Sirius said, obviously curious about what Harry wanted to tell him. "It'll be good to do some magic again." He grasped Harry's birch wand and quickly began tracing runes in the air. Harry didn't recognise any of the spells he used. "Black wards," Sirius explained, catching Harry's confused look. "All old pureblood families have spells that they don't share with anyone outside the family. And since we Blacks have always been a bit paranoid – for good reason since we have a talent for making enemies – there are a lot of secrecy spells and offensive wards in our repertoire. No one could possibly listen in on whatever you're planning on telling me. Not without my knowing, at least."

"All right." Harry accepted his wand back and tucked it into his sleeve. He fiddled with his cuff, trying to decide on the best way to broach the topic. "You can't tell anyone," he said abruptly. "Okay? No one can know."

"I won't. I swear it."

"All right," Harry said again and took a deep breath. "What do you know about Horcruxes?"

"Horcruxes!" Sirius' horrified expression made it clear he knew what they were. Harry could see the man working it out; what he knew, what Harry had said, and putting it together to get the truth. "Voldemort split his soul… he's truly immortal," Sirius breathed. "And Merlin, plural, that means he did it more than once… He used Hufflepuff's cup for one, didn't he? That's why you needed to steal it."

"Yes," Harry confirmed.

"What were the others? How many?" Sirius stared at Harry, his fists clenched as if longing for a wand to hold. "I can't believe… You said, the first day we met, that Dumbledore thought you had to die in order for Voldemort to be killed… is that why? Were you…"

"I was a Horcrux," Harry said, his voice hollow. "Something went wrong that night when Voldemort tried to kill me as a baby. The Horcux ritual and my mum's sacrifice, mixed with the wild magic of Halloween, made the Killing curse backfire. Voldemort's body was destroyed and a fragment of his soul hid in me while the rest of him fled. I never knew. I grew up speaking Parseltongue and had visions where I could see through Voldemort's eyes and feel his emotions, but I never guessed the truth. Dumbledore told me he thought Voldemort had accidentally given me some of his powers… a half-truth as always. He was good at those."

"So Dumbledore knew?"

"I think he just guessed at first, but after my second year he knew for certain," Harry said. "It was then that I destroyed one of Voldemort's other Horcruxes - the Diary you saw in my memories. I managed to get rid of it using basilisk venom even though I had no idea what it was at the time. Blind luck, really. But it gave Dumbledore the proof he needed."

"How…" Sirius said weakly, slumping back in his bed. "How could you've survived with Voldemort's soul inside you? I've never heard of a person being used as a Horcrux before. It's… truly chilling to imagine such an... abomination. And how could Dumbledore have just let you die like that?"

Harry grimaced and gave a weak shrug. "I have no idea why I didn't end up insane or permanently possessed. Maybe it was my mum's sacrifice protecting me, who knows. As for Dumbledore's plan… well, in a way I can understand why he did it. He may have cared for me but his first priority was always going to be Voldemort's defeat. After all, what's the life of one orphaned boy compared to the survival of everyone else? As Dumbledore's favourite saying goes, it was all for the Greater Good."

"It's despicable," Sirius said harshly, his expression stormy. "You were just a child. No Harry," Sirius continued when Harry opened his mouth to object. "You were just a child when Dumbledore must have planned the whole thing."

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