Chapter 14: Ask the ROR

"Hey, Sirius, where would you hide something in Hogwarts?" Harry asked his godfather a few days before school started. He wanted to get this horcrux business done with before the year started so he could have a calm school year.

"The Room of Requirements," was the immediate answer. "The problem was we never found it," Sirius said with a sigh. "And believe me we looked everywhere for it."

"Then how do you know it exist?" the teen asked, not sure how that worked.

"Because there are stories of it being used, but it just disappears after use. We know it's on the seventh floor and about where it is, but not how to get in it," the older man said, picking up his teacup and sipping. They were just finishing their lunch of French onion soup and turkey and Swiss cheese sandwiches.

"Oh, did you ask the house elves?" Harry wondered out loud. That's what he'd do. As a matter of fact, "Dobby?" he called. If anyone could get the answers, it'd be his little friend.

"Master Harry Potter is calling Dobby," the elf said popping in. He was dressed in little boy's clothes with fire engine red socks on his long feet.

"Do you know any Hogwarts' elves?" Harry asked his friend, leaning forward a bit to be on the same level as him. He always tried to treat the elves as equals. It worked better with Dobby than Kreacher, but he tried anyway.

"Dobby does," was the answer, complete with a bobbing of the head.

"Can you ask them about the Room of Requirements?" he asked, hoping to get a good answer.

"Dobby will," the elf said and popped away.

"That is a right smart idea," Sirius said, smacking his forehead that they had never thought of that. It was how they found the kitchens after all.

"I get them now and then," Harry said with a great deal of cheek.

"That you do, my boy, that you do," Sirius said, finishing off his tea.

Dobby popped back in and looked at Harry. "Yous needs to be going to the wall across from the tapestry of the mans that is being teaching trolls to dance. Then yous needs to being walking back and forth three times, thinking of what kind of room yous is being needing," the elf said with pride in his voice. His chest puffed out self-importantly.

"That's great Dobby, thank you," Harry said, getting off his chair and giving the elf a hug.

The elf blushed a bright green and then popped away.

"So, want to visit Moony?" Sirius asked, ready to get it over with too. There was no sense in waiting for school to start, when they could just pop over and get it done with.

"Yes," Harry said, standing up and running up the stairs to get his robes on.

The two made their way to the floo. Sirius flooed Remus's office. "Hey, Moony, we have a lead," he said when the ex-werewolf answered. Harry always thought floo calling looked silly, with one's head in the fire, and their butt sticking in the air.

"On what?" the confused man asked, looking at his friend strangely.

"What do you think," Sirius said, giving him a knowing look. "I'm not saying it over the floo," he added as a clue.

"Oh, that, why are you calling me?" Remus asked, then he remembered what Dumbledore said and his eyes went wide. "Oh, well, come on then," he stated, waving his friend to come through.

"About what?" the other man grumbled as he and Harry flooed to Remus's office.

"So, what's the lead?" Remus asked once they were all in the office.

"Harry found the Room of Requirements," Sirius said proudly, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Really? Is it where we thought it was?" the ex-werewolf asked, excited at the prospect. Like Sirius he was always frustrated that they never found it.

"Yes, we were correct in the location, just not the implementation," the dogman said, just as excited. "Now we're not sure the item is in there, but it's probably the best place to look," he added.

"Well, let's get going," Harry said, heading to the door. The other two following along. They all made their way to the seventh floor and looked for Barnabas the Barmy so they would know they were in the right place. They found him and moved to the wall opposite.

"Harry, you do the honors," Sirius said, nodding his head to the wall.

"Okay," the teen said, and then started pacing and thinking, 'I need a place to hide something.' Three times he did this, and a door appeared. He grinned and opened the door, only for his face to take on an astonished look. "I don't think I can clean all this," he said, his tone filled with awe.

"Why?" Sirius asked, coming to stand next to him, then he said, "Never mind." He didn't think Harry could clean all this either. Maybe, but he wasn't going to let him try.

"Damn," was all Remus said as he looked at the mountains of… stuff that formed the room.

There was everything under the sun in that room. Broken or otherwise. It was there. Piles and piles of junk and treasure. It would take forever to find what they needed. There was furniture, clothes, jewels, books, shoes, trinkets, coins, vials, cauldrons, brooms, wands, armor, trunks, wardrobes, and a sundry of other things.

"Harry, do you think you can do something to make this simpler?" Sirius asked, looking at the mountains of trash. It would take centuries to sort through this.

"Yeah, let's step out first," Harry said, getting an idea. He would ask the room to find the horcrux, and hope there was only one. Well, if there was more than one, he'd clean them all. It was just, if there was only one, it was more than likely to be Voldemort's.

So, they did, and Harry started pacing again. This time when the door opened, there was only one thing in the room. It was a tiara. It was a silver thing, that was designed with wings that folded to the center with a sapphire in the middle. There were words inscribed that said, 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure'.

"That's Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem," Remus said, rushing forward to pick it up. He wasn't being cautious, being a scholar by nature.

"Wait," Harry said, grabbing his robes, and pulling him back. "It's a horcrux," he added, using his magic to pull the man behind him. He then didn't even wait to cleanse the item of dark magic. His lightning flew from his hand and soon the scream of the dying soul was heard. "There, now you can get it," he told Remus, letting the man go.

The ex-werewolf rushed forward and picked it up. He wanted to see if it was still magical, so he waved his wand over it and noted that it was. "We need to get this to Professor Dumbledore," he said, holding it like it was the treasure it was.

"Is he here?" Harry wanted to know. He wanted to see if he could heal him yet. He didn't like the thought of the man dying. He still didn't understand why Fawkes wouldn't let him.

"This close to the first day? Yes, he is here," the other man said, leading the way to the headmaster's office. He held the diadem in front of him with both hands, like he was afraid of dropping it. It reminded Harry of how people carried the Crown Jewels.

They got to the gargoyle and Remus gave the password and they moved up the stairs. Remus nodded for Sirius to knock since his hands were full. They were bid to enter, and Harry opened the door.

"Albus, look what we found," Remus said as they entered the room. He put the diadem on the desk in front of the headmaster.

"My word, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem," the old man said, looking shocked. "Wherever did you find it?" he asked, looking at the three of them.

"It was a horcrux," Sirius said, not looking at Harry. "We cleansed it. No, we're not telling you how. It was here in the school. Again, we're not telling you where. Just know that it no longer contains any dark magic, and that we're returning it to you," he finished, folding his arms over his chest. He was still mad at the man.

"I see," Albus said, looking at the diadem with a bit of sadness. He knew the story of how it came to be lost, and it was a sad one. Now perhaps Helena could move on and rest in peace. "Very well, then I thank you for returning it to the school," he said, picking up the diadem and placing it on a bust that was to the side of his desk.

Suddenly Fawkes flew to Harry. They seemed to be having a conversation. "Fawkes says I can heal you now," Harry said to the headmaster, lifting his hand to do just that.

"No, do not," the old man said, raising a hand to stop him. "I will not ask you how you can do that," he said, shocking everyone there. The sign above his head said he was telling the whole truth.

"You won't?" Sirius asked, the most shocked of everyone. He knew the old man was a busy body.

"I will not," Albus confirmed. "However, I will tell you that I have come to terms with my death and feel that it is my time. I have settled most of my affairs and will go on my next great adventure knowing that I did my best to atone for my actions. If you were to heal me now, I would fall back into my bad habits, and I would have to atone for myself all over again," he added as if he had thought long and hard about this. His sign did show that he spoke the truth still. No sign of manipulation.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, not understanding how one could be at peace with death. He wondered if he should remove the sign, but then remembered what the man had just said about bad habits.

"Very. For someone who is as old as I am, it is much like taking a very long nap," was the cryptic response.

"If that's what you want," Harry said, lowering his hand. He could do it on the sly, but that would go against the man's wishes.

"Well, we're done here. That was the last of Riddle's Horcruxes. Harry is absolved of all involvement from now on," Sirius said, hoping that the wraith would just die out now. He'd keep his eyes open, but he was sure that that was what was going to happen.

"Then I bid you gentlemen a good day," Albus said, looking at the newest treasure of Hogwarts. "And thank you again."

"Good day," Remus said, standing and going to the door.

"Bye," Harry said, following Remus.

Sirius just nodded as he left.

"Thank you, my friend," Albus said to his phoenix, who trilled at him.

Hphphp

Slithering through a forest near Albania, the wraith of Voldemort was feeling weaker. He had been for weeks now. He knew what was happening, but he could do little about it. He had hoped that they didn't find them all, and he wanted to make one more they didn't know about, but he was unable to.

Right now, he was possessing a snake, one he had hoped to make a horcrux. Alas, there were no magicals around this forest. And it needed to be a magical that was murdered to make one. He was so weak that even if he found one, he didn't think he had enough power to cast the spell.

It was going on nightfall when he had his last thought. "Damn you, Dumbledore."

Hphphp

"We should clean out that room," Harry said, thinking of all the treasure they had seen.

"How?" Remus asked, though he thought the same. He had a few free hours today.

"The same way I got the horcrux. I can get the room to separate the good stuff and leave the junk in the room," the teen said excitedly, almost bouncing on his feet.

"You could find brooms for the school," Remus said, having heard Hooch complain about them just this morning. "Or books, or anything really," he added, rubbing his hands together.

"Yeah, but he can also get some stuff for us too," Sirius said, not wanting Harry to do all the hard work and not get anything out of it.

"I'll have to clean everything we pull out of there. Who knows what kind of magic is on it," Harry said as they made their way back to the Room.

"That's a good idea," Remus and Sirius said together.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Harry said, running ahead of them.

"I'm not so sure about that," Sirius grumbled, even though he probably wasn't going to be doing anything.

"Come on, you big baby, let's go," Remus said, dragging his friend along.

That's what they did for the rest of the afternoon, until Harry got too tired to carry on.

Hphphp

Albus and Alastor were going to the Hog's Head bar. There was one more thing that Albus wanted to do before he passed away. He still needed to return the wand, but first he wanted to reconcile with his brother. They were not sworn enemies or some such, but they were on the outs.

"I'm telling you, that that being stunned me. I did not faint," the one-legged man stated as they entered the bar.

"As you say, Alastor," Albus said, his sign showing he spoke mostly the truth. He believed the man thought he was telling the truth, but he himself didn't believe it.

"Bah, believe what you want," the crippled man said, waving a hand at his friend.

They continued up to the bar and sat on a couple of the stools. Aberforth came up to them and said, "Albus, Alastor, to what do I owe the pleasure." He continued to wipe the glass in his hand, though his eyes did stray to the sign above his brother's head.

"I have come to let you know that I am dying," Albus said, and his sign said that he was telling the whole truth.

"Are you now? Well, isn't that just lovely," Abe said, looking at the sign with a puzzled look. 'Who did that?' he wondered.

"Please, Abe, I want to make amends," Albus said, putting his open hands on the bar. He folded them in a pleading manner.

"Why should I let you? You've not given me any reason in the last couple of decades," his brother stated, knowing that Albus was a manipulative old arse. However, that sign did say he was not being manipulated right now.

"I am dying, I do not what you to have any unresolved issues with me before I go," Albus said, looking to Moody to see what he thought.

"He's telling the truth, lad," the one-legged man said, knowing that Aberforth could see that for himself.

"Aye, I can see that," Abe clarified, looking up. "Alright, Albus, say your piece," he added, putting a shot of firewhiskey in front of both men, and pouring one for himself.

"I had the Resurrection Stone," Albus stated, slugging back the shot. "I did not use it, however," he added, putting the glass back on the table and breathing some fire out.

"Why? I thought you always wanted to know," Abe asked, flabbergasted that his brother didn't use the stone.

"I will face my judgement without prejudice," was the answer.

"As it should be," his brother said, pouring him another shot. "Alright, Albus, since you are dying and all, I forgive you. I just hope Ariana can do the same," Abe said, making sure they all had a shot of firewhiskey.

"To family," Moody said, lifting his glass.

"To family," the brothers intoned, and they all drank.

"Now what's this I hear about you fainting," Abe said to Alastor.