chapter 10

Andromeda and Bellatrix Black were standing in the changing room of one of the smaller stores Andromeda was familiar with, a pile of clothing to the side. So far Andromeda was attempting to ease her sister into things, to show her some of the muggle world without burying her too deep in all it offered.

It was thus far met with mixed results.

Andromeda sighed at the blush that decorated Bellatrix's face while her sister stared at the items she offered.

"What… what manner of… I cannot even call this a garment!" Bellatrix declared, blushing furiously.

"A brassiere and panties," Andromeda stated blandly as she watched Bellatrix. "They're undergarments; for wearing under your clothes."

"Truly?" Bellatrix asked, staring back at Andromeda in surprise, then carefully, almost gingerly, picking them up. "But… how?"

Sighing, Andromeda showed her sister how to unclasp and then clasp the bra, then explained the panties. "There, now after you've got them on, we'll start with something simple."

Once her sister had stripped and donned the undergarments, Andromeda handed her a pair of jeans and a shirt. "On with these."

Bellatrix just stared.

Andromeda affixed her sister with a look. "Now what's the issue?"

"I… pants, sister? You wish me to dress as a man?" Even more confusion colored her face at that.

"Jeans," Andromeda corrected. "In the muggle world, they're worn by both men and women. These jeans were made to be worn by a woman."

"If you are sure…" Bellatrix slowly agreed as she worked to pull the garments onto her body.

Andromeda shook her head. Her sister was almost painfully reminding her of the way she herself had been. So she would start simply and then ease her sister into muggle society and culture.

Though she had to admit, the idea of dressing herself up to match was amusing. The look on the boys' faces alone… She almost giggled at the thought.

When Bellatrix appeared again a few minutes later, Andromeda looked over her sister then nodded thoughtfully. "Well, it's a start."

Slowly Bellatrix began to turn about, marveling at the way the clothes fit her body. "These are truly muggle fashion?"

"Casual clothes, yes." Andromeda agreed, tapping her lower lip in consideration. "I suppose you might find an affinity for them, considering your… predilections."

"Predilections, sister?" Bellatrix crossed her arms about her chest just below where the V-shaped neck of her shirt ended.

"Your taste for violence and destruction." Andromeda said flatly.

"Oh." Bellatrix paused there, considering the words, before she shrugged her shoulders just a bit. "Thank you for the consideration."

For a moment Andromeda could feel her jaw wanting to fall down in disbelief at her sister's frank admission before quickly shaking her head. "Right. Let's see how you look. Go ahead and try walking about."

As Bellatrix did so, with a look of wonder falling across her face, Andromeda reached up and slowly rubbed her face. This was obviously going to be a long day.

-o-o-o-

Albus Dumbledore slowly looked about the room of clutter, dust and miscellaneous items with a look of delighted fascination. "Remarkable. Simply remarkable. However did you find this room?"

"I asked a house-elf." Harry responded honestly with a shrug as he moved towards where he remembered the diadem being the last time he'd encountered it.

"Ah, remarkable indeed," Dumbledore agreed as he looked about the room with a curious eye.

There was still a sizable amount of various things all throughout the room, though Harry couldn't help but feel it seemed… smaller than it once had. The layout was different than it was previously. It was as if…

Then he froze as looked at a pocket sized portrait as a realization hit him. The war had ended families left and right. It had been one of, if not the most, brutal war to hit wizarding Britain in over a thousand years. Prior to it, most of the wars had been mirrors of the wars in the muggle war.

Wars fought between actual soldiers. There had not been a systematic purge since the arrival of the Romans to the Isles, back when the druids had tried to force them back out. Voldemort, though… he didn't target soldiers; he was a terror because he targeted entire families.

When a student died and there was no family left to claim their things… that made this room even creepier.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked curiously as he looked at the man.

"Just a sobering question," Harry responded as he looked over the room. "Wondering, how many of these things were left here because a student passed and there was no one left to claim them."

"I would like to believe that it would be remarkably few," Dumbledore stated quietly as he none-the-less looked around the room with an uncomfortable shift from one foot to the next.

"And from there I wonder how much more will be put here if Tom Riddle has his way." Harry stated softly and shook his head. "He already strikes at muggle families, so how long until he chooses to target those whom he deems… obstacles?"

Dumbledore frowned as he considered those words before turning uncomfortably and looking away. "I hope that is simply a more than pessimistic fear."

"I don't think it is," Harry stated quietly as he ran his finger through a layer of dust. "Why do you think I'm trying so hard to prevent it?"

Turning, he then moved back deeper into the room behind him and he could hear Dumbledore following. "Your diligence is commendable… though I still find myself wholly uncomfortable with your methods and philosophy."

"Which is why you're not being asked to take part in them." Harry agreed with a slight nod of his head as he looked from one side to the next, searching out for the diadem.

"And you're certain that the relic has been… corrupted by Tom?" Dumbledore asked again as he frowned. "Not merely hidden here to begin with?"

"Yes," Harry agreed with a nod of his head as he moved through the debris. "Ask the Gray Lady if you don't believe me. She's the one who stole it from her mother to begin with."

"The Gray Lady?" Dumbledore repeated, staring at Harry. "She is…?"

"Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena's daughter," Harry stated softly and looked off into the distance. "A tragic tale. One that is not mine to tell."

"There had long been rumors of her origins. But she rebuffed all whom attempted to ply the truth from her." Dumbledore stated as he studied Harry intently.

"All until Tom Riddle." It was a cryptic response as Harry stated it and he could feel the way Dumbledore blanched.

"Then how did he return… Ah. The interview," Dumbledore stated sourly as he slowly shook his head. "That… does coincide with when we had begun our yearly… lack of consistency in our Defense instructors."

"He is certainly creative when he comes to his plots," Harry agreed neutrally. "Though I wonder at his choice of targets and why he simply didn't target you since the curse is apparently so successful."

"Tom has always felt a degree of… caution, and likely even fear of me," Dumbledore admitted quietly as he looked off into the distance. "Once I defeated Gellert… Grindelwald, it became more pronounced. It is likely he simply did not believe it would affect me as he intended."

He paused before he looked back at Harry with narrowed eyes. "But you already knew that, didn't you, Mr. Potter."

"I thought the statement that you were no longer the only one he feared made that obvious." Harry answered without looking even the slightest bit sad about it.

"You are a most vexing individual, Mr. Potter. You are willfully obscure about things in a way that I find quite… disagreeable."

"Imagine that," Harry stated with a slightly amused drawl to his tone. "And of course you'd never do something similar to someone."

Dumbledore opened his mouth to respond before shutting it as he studied Harry far more carefully than he had previously. "Do you hold some sort of personal grudge against me, Mr. Potter?"

"Grudge?" Harry asked musing over the word before chuckling. "No, not particularly. Do I believe that you have moments where you're quite… misguided? Yes."

"And this leads you to being purposely… enigmatic?"

"No. The fact that I think being more direct would cause more problems than it would solve does. Your irritation at it is, I will admit, an amusing bonus." Harry stated before at he found what he'd been looking for. "Ah, here we are. The unfortunately cursed Ravenclaw Diadem."

"Wit beyond measure," Dumbledore stated with a kind of sad reverence. "… Must we?"

"I would have preferred to not do it, honestly," Harry agreed with a sad nod of his head as he withdrew the blade. "Sadly… what has been done to it, I know of no way to undo."

With a weary sigh Dumbledore nodded his head, steeling his shoulders. "If this proves to be something other than advertised, Mr. Potter…"

"Yes, I know," Harry agreed before, not pausing another moment, he brought the venom-imbued blade down upon the priceless artifact.

Immediately there was an inarticulate scream of rage, fear and pain filling the air as the blade cleaved through the shining metal, releasing an inky black muck, dripping down the stand it was set upon, and releasing an ugly black smoke into the air. With it came a release of tainted magic, clinging to the air that made Dumbledore shudder. Harry himself shook his head and carefully examined the blade with a satisfied nod.

"I take it my point was proved to your satisfaction?"

Dumbledore could only nod.

-o-o-o-

This, Voldemort quickly decided, was where he would begin. Not quite the most crowded part of London but with enough of the muggles to draw the attention of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. At least, eventually.

They were notoriously slow. It would be made even slower by the fact that there would be no obvious magic, at least at first. Once he was ready, he would call them forth.

And they would be slaughtered by his nightmares.

The thought brought a smile to his face, an almost childish glee tempered by a dark malevolence.

A few quick gestures and a notice-me-not charm covered one end of the street and then other. A moment later a muggle repelling charm followed. No one would get in, no one would get out.

It was one of the first tactics he'd taught his knights, throw the muggle repelling charms on all potential entrances and exits. Trapping them like the rats they were. Allowing you to work at your leisure to end them.

For a moment he simply savored the anticipation hanging in the air, the sense of what was coming. Then he gestured and suddenly series of cages appeared all around the street and on the roofs. Shortly thereafter the cages dissolved, letting loose their inhabitants into the streets.

-o-o-o-

Their presence was felt before they were even seen. A dirty, soiled feeling of wrongness that permeated the air, telling everyone that something that should not exist walked the land with them. Without knowing why people began to shrink back, eyes wild, hearts racing as primal instincts sent pulses of fear-powered adrenaline through their veins.

In the small boutique, Bellatrix looked up from her clothes and then quickly looked towards the door.

"Sister?" Andromeda asked, a careful, fearful wariness in her voice as she stared at the sudden rigidity of her sister's frame.

"Something's wrong." There was a pause as Bellatrix withdrew her wand, fingers gripping upon it as she looked at her sister from the corner of her eye. "Can you not feel it?"

"I…" Andromeda began, only to freeze when the miasma of wrongness permeated the air, wrapping itself about her with a whispering, wicked hunger. "What is that?!"

"I know not," Bellatrix stated before her eyes looked back at her sister, "but I mean to find out."

"In that?!" Andromeda almost squeaked out, and with good reason. She had finally managed to coax her sister into a mini skirt dress that clung about her sister's hips, with a pair of calf skin boots to go with.

"I do not believe whatever is out there will give me the courtesy of granting me room to change." Bellatrix noted dryly, but… something crashed through the door of boutique with a tortured scream.

"I suppose not," Andromeda agreed, her face pale and terrified as she beheld something ripped from fevered nightmares.

Bellatrix, however, was under no such restraints as her wand flicked out and hungry flames leapt from the tip of her wand to greedily splash upon the thing in front of them.

Its scream grew in intensity as flesh crackled and crisped, filling the air with a sickly scent of burning flesh. What the pair thought were eyes turned onto them and the sound that came out was filled with anger and despair as it opened its jaws impossibly wide and then lunged at Bellatrix.

Bellatrix was not idle, however, her dark hair flashing across her face as she twisted and snapped her want down, ripping the ceiling down with a single spell, smashing it into the creature.

Unfortunately, she quickly discovered, she'd pulled down little more than plaster and dust, doing little more than simply confuse the thing in front of her instead of doing seriously damage. With a growl Bellatrix quickly summoned forth numerous bits of clothing before banishing it at the creature. As it tried to shake them off, Bellatrix snarled and snapped her wrist against, sending out gout of flame that quickly splashed over the clothes and began to spread across them.

With an agonized scream the creatures' attempts to shake off the burning clothing grew more and more frantic.

"Sister! I do not believe setting the thing between us and the exit on fire is going to help!" Andromeda called out as she glared slightly at her older sibling. "Not to mention… must you burn the clothing!?"

"I'm a bit distracted with trying to kill this thing, Romeda!" Bellatrix snapped back. "It does not wish to be accommodating!"

"Imagine that!" Andromeda snapped back before pulling out her own wand and, growling slightly as she summoned forth a bra and panties, transfiguring them into sharp tipped spears and banishing them at the shrieking creature.

With a dull, wet 'thunk', each of the sharp tips contacted the creature and buried deep, causing its voice to grow several times in strength as it thrashed about.

"What're you doing?! This is my fight!" Bellatrix snapped at her sister before sending another banisher that shoved the spears deep into the creature's body, earning another howl of agony.

"I'm a little bit more interested in just surviving for now, Bella!" Andromeda responded as she pointed at the still squirming and now whimpering thing. "If you want to do something incurably mad as fight this thing on your own, kindly do so when my life is not similarly in danger!"

Bellatrix looked sourly at her sister before turning towards the ruined doorway, only to find another creature waiting there, this one with a gigantic maw, opened wide to reveal the caricature of a face, gaunt and deformed, surrounded by broken, jagged teeth. Just as the thing looked about to release another wail, Bellatrix banished the debris from the first creature's violent entrance at it. Jagged glass and wood flew at it, smashing into it with more of a random pattern than she would've liked.

"Now how did she do it then?" Bellatrix muttered while summoning the spears Andromeda had sent into the first creature, then banishing one at the creature shrieking in the door.

The spear flews at the creature, though it was not tip first, and ended up smashing the length of the half into the face.

"Sister! How did you manage to have your spears fly true?" Bellatrix asked as she looked back at her sister.

"… How the bloody hell do you think a spear flies true?!" Andromeda snapped as she let some of her fear bleed in to anger, as she flicked her wand at the remaining spear. "You have to aim the ruddy things, you god damned bint!"

The first flick had oriented the spear properly and then, with her declaration, she banished it towards creature, who spit out the first spear from its open maw just in time to have the second spear smash deep into the head and bury itself deep, causing the creature to freeze and then collapse into death.

"… I…" Bellatrix stood there a moment, frozen in disbelief as she watched her sister take the second kill herself as well. "Oh."

For a moment she just stood there, gaping, trying to process what had just happened before looking back at a still fuming Andromeda and whining a bit. "… Again, sister?"

"… Yes, sister, bloody well again! Now shut your damned gob and can we please get out of here?!" Andromeda snapped as she stood up and almost stomped forward. "I am not an insane, bloodthirsty maniac! I do not like to fight and I do not like being attacked by idiots and maniacs and monsters! I do not even like the utter rubbish that is pureblood society!

"I came here to indulge you in your new fascination's preference for muggle culture and dress," she continued standing up and stalking forward, dressed in a pair of bell bottomed jeans and a tight t-shirt herself. "Then I was going to shoo you off so I could have some time with my boyfriend.

"Except, of course, as soon as you got involved, everything had to go to bloody hell! We get attacked by some kind of obviously magical beast I've never even heard a hint of, and you're standing there, complaining because I want to bloody well not give them a chance to kill me?!"

"Um… Yes?" Bellatrix answered, more than a little uncertainty in her voice.

"… Sister?" Andromeda stated with an eerie calm.

"Yes?" Bellatrix repeated the word with a slight cringe.

"We are leaving." Andromeda stated flatly. "Now. We are going to find my boyfriend, then we are going home, away from whatever mess this is."

"Right…" Bellatrix agreed warily. "Where are we going to find…"

Suddenly a massive explosion tore through the street outside the shop, shattering the remaining windows as a male voice could be heard shouting, "TAKE THAT YOU FECKLESS BLIGHTERS!"

Andromeda paused a moment before sighing as a ghost of a smile crossed her lips. "That would be him now."

"As you say," Bellatrix answered in a daze as she stared at her sister, whom promptly walked past her, banishing the dead creature in the door way and stepping out onto the street.

Or, more precisely, what was left of the street, the entire length ruptured, as if exploding from below. Burnt and chunked bodies were tossed every which way. Out of the corner of her eye Andromeda could see movement. Turning her head she was treated to the sight of a young, half shaven man in a leather jacket banishing chunks of the broken street at some of the still moving creatures.

With a frown she snapped off a piercing curse at one of the creatures, only to see it barely dent the creature, mainly splashing off of it harmlessly. "And of course they are magically resistant."

"Rom!" the man called out as he caught sight of her before gesturing at his free hand, covering it in the debris from the street and promptly punching one of the rising creatures stirring nearby in the head, sending it crashing back to the ground. "What in the buggering hells is going on here? What in Merlin's blue balls are these things?!"

"Not a ruddy clue," Andromeda stated flatly as she stepped over one particularly brutalized corpse and fought to keep down the bile rising up in the back of her throat at the sight. "One minute I'm finally finished getting my sister into a mini and the next one of these things was blasting through door. I don't even know what happened to shop girls."

"And no dark Black knowledge to tell us what these things are?" he asked with a wink as he then brought his debris-covered arm up just in time to catch the mouth of a smaller creature that had taken his momentary distraction to attack. "Bloody hell! Can't I even get a mo to chat up my girl?!"

As he was knocked back onto street, he immediately tried to blast a number of spells into the things torso, to very limited effect.

"Ted! They're magic resistant! You have to actually hit them with something other than spells!"

"Well, fine then!" Ted put his wand up against the top of the armor on his arm and fired off the strongest banisher he could into one of the pieces, launching a chunk up through the soft tissue of its mouth and into its brain, causing it to suddenly go limp atop him. "Now get off, ya great lump!"

"Do I have to bloody well do everything for you, Ted?" Andromeda sighed in irritation as she made a gesture and a sizable stone shot out and smashed into the dead creature's side, throwing it off of him.

"Oi! Careful! I thought you liked that part of me!" Ted yelped as the stone hit just inches above his hips.

"Obviously not as much as you do," Andromeda stated sarcastically as she looked around the devastated street. "What the bloody hell did you do?"

"Blew the gas main," Ted stated simply with a shrug as he rolled up to his feet. "I figured it'd give me some breathing room at least."

"… Sister?" Bellatrix finally found her voice again as she stared at the rough looking and somewhat familiar young man, uncertain of exactly how to respond to what she had just witnessed.

Andromeda immediately went stiff as a board while Ted winced and looked down the street, before blinking and staring. Then he let out a low whistle as he turned his attention back to Andromeda. "Well, luv, I have to hand it to you, you do have taste. Don't suppose…"

"Not now, Edward!" Andromeda hissed out and glared at him before looking back at Bellatrix. "What, sister?"

"… Isn't… I…" Bellatrix just stared at her sister. "… I thought you hated dueling."

"I do." Andromeda agreed with a nod of her head.

Ted snorted and smirked. "She's right good in a brawl though. Even better in a fight. Almost as good as she is…"

"NOT NOW!" Andromeda almost screamed as she blushed a bright crimson Bellatrix had never seen on her normally composed sister. "Or have you forgotten we're surrounded by Morgana knows what!?"

"How… interesting." A new voice cut in smoothly, as a new figure made his presence known, one eye glowing a bloody crimson. "I must say this was rather… unexpected."

Voldemort was more than slightly irritated. His newest creations had, at first, been quite adept against the muggles. And, from the initial tests he had used against his followers, should have been just as adept against wizards and witches.

Only now the vast majority of his current crop of monsters had been slain. All at the hands of one teenaged wizard and a pair of witches.

"I had expected a better showing out of them. A pity," he stated before calmly holding up his wand. "Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to get rid of the evidence."

Only, immediately the seemingly shell-shocked witch he'd dismissed as a threat fired of a blistering string of curses that forced him immediately on the defensive.

"LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!" Bellatrix swore as she wove shrieking blurs of magic at the unknown man whom was apparently behind the attack.

Voldemort deflected them, dodging the few he couldn't, and the ground around him was quickly reduced to melting rubble as the curses struck. Acidic cutting curses, he had to admit, were a new one. Effective, too, he idly noted as the ground around him was slowly being decayed. Had he stayed much longer, he wouldn't be able to keep his footing.

"Enough!" he snapped back after deflecting her latest spell, snapping his wand up and sending a dark wave of magic forward, creating a furrow in the ground as it forced Bellatrix to break off her attack and move quickly out of the way. "I am now in a less than generous mood, little girl. So, now, when I end you three, it will hurt."

A dark smoke poured out of the hem of his robes and suddenly he rose up into the air, hovering there as it began to coil over his body. "Now, little ones… let's see you dance!"

Everything changed in an instant. The fury of spells poured down like rain as coiling tendrils of smoke lashed out towards them. Ted quickly transfigured pieces of debris in front of them into a solid wall of clumped together pieces of street just before the spells could hit it.

Chunks of the makeshift barricade flew through the air as the young couple ducked down. Flashes of every color they could imagine struck the barricade, eating it away piece by piece. In a matter of moments their cover had diminished significantly.

"Well, bugger," Ted noted as he kept summoning up pieces of the nearby debris to add back to the shrinking wall. "Ideas, love?"

"If Bella wasn't there…" Andromeda stated with a scowl. "I can't risk a blind shot."

"Pity," Ted agreed with a nod. "How long before the Aurors show?"

"Too long," she responded curtly. "Far, far too long."

"Well, we'll just have to last too long." Ted stated before twisting away as a piece of the wall fell, hissing and melting down next to him. "… I hope?"

Bellatrix found herself doing a reasonable impression of a dance as Voldemort rose up, hovering in the air high enough up to easily switch the barrage of spell fire between the two targets without much change. His hand flicked about in a blur of sharp, precise movements, directing his wand from one to the other as if they were the same target. Eyes wide, Bellatrix couldn't help but wonder if this was the strength of master of the Knights of Walpurgis, where did which leave the Storm Chaser?

"All that bluster and bravado," Voldemort noted before a wisp of fire rose from the tip of his wand, then cracked it downwards a flick of his wrist as a stream of fiendfyre, the tip shaped like a serpent's head, snapping inches from a scrambling Bellatrix. "Where ever has it gone?"

He paused before his lips split into an ugly grin. "Oh, I know."

A flick of his wrist sent the fire snapping out, wrapping over the wall of debris Ted and Andromeda before another flick tore it in half as half-melted pieces of red hot earth flew towards Bellatrix. "You realized exactly what it was you faced. Can you feel it, hmm? That inching sensation, scratching up from deep down inside of you."

He paused, letting the fiendfyre pool on the ground for a moment, turning it into a bubbling pool of molten earth, before he flicked his wrist again, sending it splattering towards both Bellatrix and the remaining cover. "Death comes for you now. Struggle all you want; you will not escape its grasp."

And with a clawing gesture Bellatrix could suddenly feel a pressure squeezing on her throat, lifting her off the feel with a slowly tightening pressure. Instinctively she reached up, clawing at her throat, only to do nothing but drag her own nails into the soft flesh. Her eyes almost popping out of her skull, she looked around, desperately lifting up her wand, directing it at where Voldemort held her without any apparent struggle.

Another flick of his and she let out a gurgled scream as the tip of the flame snapped out, snake head snapping into the back of her hand. Instantly she could smell the acrid scent of her own burning flesh as she reflexively dropped her wand. Dark, charred flesh spasmed and broke, revealing raw, bleeding flesh beneath it.

"Now, now, none of that," he stated with a smirk as he calmly gestured with his clenching hand, which caused Bellatrix to be used to block a number of rocks banished at him quickly from Andromeda, his lips widening as he heard another gurgling scream leave Bellatrix's mouth. "I don't know how much more of this your dear sister here will be able to take until she simply… breaks."

Andromeda stared up at her sister as she struggled for her life as Voldemort kept her helplessly struggling in the grip of whatever spell he was using. Her face twisting into a look of horror, Ted spoke up quietly. "Rom. Look away."

"I am not going to just…!" Andromeda started to protest angrily, taking a moment to glare at Ted, only to pause at the look on his face.

"Turn away and close your eyes, luv." he simply said as he looked at her meaningfully.

"How quaint. He knows how it's about to end and wants to spare your sister the agony of watching you die." Voldemort stated as Andromeda took one last look at her sister and then did as her boyfriend instructed. "Such a wonderful sensation, watching that look of despair…"

What he was going to say next was cut off as Ted snapped his wand in an arch towards him, sending a small glowing sphere of magic at him. Sneering Voldemort again moved Bellatrix to intercept where they arching spell would land between the two of them. Only suddenly his world was caught up in a blast of light and sound that sent him reeling, shattering his concentration.

"Rom! NOW!" Ted called out as Bellatrix began to fall, the spell holding her aloft shattered.

Wordlessly, Andromeda's wand was out and catching her sister, quickly summoning her back to them. Voldemort falling himself had no one to catch him. His scream quickly filled the air as he landed in the writhing embrace of his own unleashed fiendfyre spell.

Immediately the flames died out and slowly he stood up, eyes burning with hate as he snarled angrily. "Worthless little curs! I will strip the flesh from your bones! I will raise your corpses and send them to rip whatever you care for, whatever you love to pieces as your worthless souls are bound to watch!"

Ted tossed out another one of the same spells he'd used earlier, only to have it snuffed out with a slashing motion from Voldemort. "Well, bugger."

"You think a trick will work twice?!" Voldemort snarled as dripping blobs still red hot material rose up from the ground and then flew above their heads. Then it suddenly surged in size. "Now DIE!"

And with no small amount of satisfaction Voldemort watched as the molten earth dropped upon the three. They were not able to move out of the way. They were not able to dodge, they were not able to hide.

He watched as it landed with an almost splat like sound. He could hear a sizzling crackle as it made contact with the far cooler street side. His lips pulled back into a wide grin of sadistic triumph as the material settled and flowed down before beginning to harden.

There was no motion, no sound beyond that of the cooling, cracking material, the rustle of debris, and slowly encroaching sounds in the distance. With a flick of his wrist, he cancelled out the wards holding back apparition and port keys and, with one last sadistic smirk of triumph, vanished.

-o-o-o-

As he left the Room of Requirements, Dumbledore's face wore the expression of a man haunted by what he had just seen, skin pallid and looking more brittle than it had in years. It had only taken moments for Harry to do what he needed to do. Moments to watch the destruction of one of the most coveted treasures of history revealed to be a corrupted abomination that had to be destroyed.

"Not much fun, is it?" Harry noted with a slight nod of his head in an admission of sympathy towards the older man. "I can't say that I really enjoyed that myself."

"To have done such a thing to such a great treasure…" Dumbledore stated as he slowly shuddered. "How can he be both so intelligent, and so utterly foolish? He could have easily simply kept it, or declared its discovery and become famous or… Does he have no comprehension of what he did?"

"I always put it up to his ego, myself." Harry said simply with a shrug. "He considers himself greater than any other wizard or witch that has ever lived. As such, he 'obviously' doesn't have any need for such things."

"And he makes use of them as his horcruxes as he can't stand of using anything less than a priceless treasure." Dumbledore stated with a soft murmur.

There was a silence in the air as suddenly they realized they were not alone, finding themselves facing a grim faced Grey Lady, ghost of Ravenclaw tower.

"What have you done?" There was a note of something not easily placed in her voice. It bordered on neutral but hung with an undertone of something deeper beneath.

"Lady Helena Ravenclaw," Harry stated simply as he canted his head to her and nodded in slight acknowledgement. "I don't know if you truly want to know."

She withdrew at the title, flinching back as her eyes went wide for a moment, then narrowed into slits. "How do you know that name!?"

Dumbledore looked startled for a moment, mouth opening to respond only to have Harry cut him off.

"Tom Riddle figured it out," Harry stated evenly as he ignored the sour look on Dumbledore's face at the reminder. "I managed to get a number of pieces of information from him without him ending up aware of it."

She flinched back at the statement, shrinking slightly away from him. "Then you know."

"I had to clean up your mess, yes," Harry agreed simply. "If you want to be rid of the Baron, I'd suggest taking the time to explain the situation to the headmaster."

There was a pause as Harry seemed to debate things for a moment. "Perhaps he'll be sufficiently horrified by the thought of you being forced to suffer through the presence of your murderer."

"Pardon!?" Dumbledore stated, eyes widening almost comically as the Grey Lady stared at Harry, mouth hanging open.

"You know, the Bloody Baron?" Harry stated, looking at the headmaster curiously. "He killed her. Most of the blood on his clothes is from when he killed her before killing himself."

"I, but… then…" Dumbledore fumbled over the words as he tried to come to terms with that statement before sighing heavily and turning to the Grey Lady. "This is true then?"

"Yes," Helena stated faintly with a slow nod of her head.

"I will see what I can do," Dumbledore stated with a sigh and a note of weary resignation.

"It does help to actually tell people about the problem though," Harry noted casually before turning his attention back to Helena. "I would imagine a number of things could have been avoided if you had stopped running away and ignoring your problems."

That struck a nerve in the ghost as she glared angrily at Harry before turning and silently storming off as best a ghost could.

"And thus exemplifying my point," Harry noted with a sigh of relief and a shake of his head. "I swear, I'm not sure which of them I dislike more. Her or what I know of Slytherin."

"I… worry about how easily you can find new and previously unknown ways to disturb me, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stated with deep breath to calm himself back down. "It is an entirely unpleasant experience for a man who thought he had long outgrown such things."

"It's a gift," Harry declared flatly. "Where were we, though?"

"We were discussing Tom's violation of priceless artifacts to make his… abominations," Dumbledore stated with a quiet shudder of displeasure.

"Well, that or something of his own," Harry stated as he stared out into the distance. "There's one that's not a relic, another he may or may not have made yet that won't quite be either."

"Ah." Dumbledore slowly released a breath then stood up straighter. "But again this begs the question: How do you know all this, Mr. Potter?"

"What makes you think my answer would be any different from before, Mr. Dumbledore?" Harry asked back while arching a brow slightly before smiling at Dumbledore. "Come now, what kind of man would I be to burden you with such things? You more than deserve to enjoy your golden years in peace."

"… Have I done you some wrong, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes studying the man whom merely smiled back at him. "Because I find myself under the impression that you seem to be holding a grudge towards me."

"You simply remind me entirely too much of my own headmaster," Harry stated with a wave of his hand. "He thought it in my best interests to keep the truth from me in order to keep me from being worried and to 'allow me a normal childhood.'"

Harry paused for a moment seemingly lost deep in thoughts of the past. "In the end, I was less than prepared for what I had to face and had to rely too much on luck and guess work. And the childhood I had already was completely lost, so there wasn't much for me to enjoy there."

"I see," Dumbledore said in a tone that clearly stated he didn't. "I would then appreciate it if you would not…"

What he was going to say was cut off as Alastor Moody stormed up to both of them. "Albus, Potter. We've got a problem."

That immediately made both men stiffen as they looked at Moody expectantly.

"There's been an attack. Muggle shopping district. Place is a bloody war zone and some of the things there…" Moody's face immediately grimaced. "It's bad."

"Well, that didn't take long." Harry noted with a sigh.

"What exactly didn't take long, Potter?" Moody demanded with narrowed eyes.

"For something else to go tits up," Harry responded with a slight growl. "Now, come on and let's get past the wards so we can bloody well get there."