409 So Just One?

"Harry?"

Chris ran towards Harry quickly as he swayed and stumbled. Harry held his forehead and let out a strangled choking noise. Everyone worriedly gathered around Harry.

"Harry, what's happening?" Sirius dropped everything and helped Chris to stop Harry from falling over. 

"Harry?" Hermione came in front of Harry with realization written all over her face. "Harry, You-Know-Who is in your head again. Block him, Harry. Don't let him in. Block him."

But Harry didn't look like he was listening. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his scar. Hermione tried to shake him.

"For Heaven's sake, block your mind, Harry. Block -"

"Hermione, he is in pain. Calm down a little bit," Chris stopped Hermione from shaking Harry.

"Right because that will help. Or do you want You-Know-Who to know our location?" Hermione snapped jerking off Chris's hands.

"Why would I want that? I just want everyone to calm down, crowding and yelling at Harry is not going to help him," Chris said calmly. She was a little surprised at Hermione's behavior.

"Yes, of course, because now you are the expert here," Hermione said angrily. 

"That's enough Hermione, Chris, both of you. Our focus needs to be on Harry, not on you two," Aurelia said in her low but commanding voice, and Hermione begrudgingly went quiet.

Chris did not have any intention to go on either, so she just looked at Harry, who looked still disoriented. 

"Sirius, whatever it is, he needs to sit down," Aurelia said and Sirius and Remus quickly moved Harry to the living room couch. Chris went with them and the rest followed. However, before they could make Harry sit down on the couch, Harry's eyes flew open. He looked around in panic and as soon as his eyes met Chris's, he blurted out,

"It's in Hogwarts. The -" He fell quiet when he saw everyone in the room. Chris realized he must have forgotten about others.

"You were in His head, weren't you, Harry?" Hermione said dryly.

"Yes, but -" Harry began looking guilty.

"Riddle wasn't aware of it, was he?" Chris asked to try to help Harry out.

"Yes, it was more of a . . . spontaneous thing," Harry explained.

"Never mind that now. Are you feeling ok, Harry?" Aurelia asked.

"Yes, I am ok now," Harry nodded.

"You sure, Harry? You look a little pale," said Tonks.

"Yes, I'm . . ." Harry trailed off looking at everyone in the room.

After asking him about his health, Sirius asked the question everyone was thinking. 

"So what did you see? Where was he?" Sirius asked and everyone held their breath for Harry to answer.

"He wasn't here. He just came back from . . . America, probably. He was looking for something there but I don't think he got it," Harry said vaguely.

"And what's in Hogwarts?" Remus asked next.

"It's . . ." Harry's eyes darted towards Chris and Hermione, and Chris clearly understood what Harry meant. Chris looked at Colin and Luna hoping that they understood as well.

"I think Harry needs rest for a little bit," Luna suggested in her dreamy voice. "He doesn't look good. His eyes are all foggy."

"Yeah, Luna is right," Chris nodded giving Luna a grateful smile in secret. 

"But he just said he is fine," Sirius began but fell silent looking at Harry.

"Harry, you don't have to cook," Colin said trading glances with Chris and Luna. "I will help you upstairs."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the attempt to get Harry out of there and joined in.

"I agree. This detour in You-Know-Who's mind takes a lot out of Harry."

Aurelia looked at Harry, Chris, Hermione, Colin, and Luna, and Chris had a feeling Aurelia clearly understood what was going on. In fact, probably everyone in that room did. But nobody protested or said anything. Sirius and Colin helped Harry upstairs and just before he turned away Harry mouthed at Chris, "We will talk later."

Chris nodded and went back to the kitchen with everyone else. Her mind swirling with thoughts of what Harry was going to say later. Was there really a Horcrux hidden in Hogwarts?

***

"There is a Horcrux hidden in Hogwarts?" Ginny almost screamed when she heard Harry after coming back from her family reunion. She said it went better than she thought, her parents were mostly happy and even though Mrs. Weasley was angry, she just couldn't stay mad at her precious daughter. 

All of the Weasley siblings came back in the afternoon (against Mrs. Weasley's order of keeping Ginny with her where it's safe), and while others discussed the news of the wizarding world, Harry pulled Chris, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Colin aside in the room to tell them about the vision he had.

"If there was always a Horcrux in Hogwarts, why didn't we know about it?" Ron asked. "I mean at least Dumbledore would have known."

"Dumbledore guessed that there could be one in Hogwarts but he never found it, I guess," Harry said.

"If Dumbledore didn't find it, it must be hidden pretty deep within the castle," Ginny supplied.

"Maybe in the dungeons, you know in the chamber of secrets," Colin suggested.

"It could be, we never searched the whole place," Chris thought back when she went inside that chamber of secrets for the first time.

"But we can't go back to Hogwarts, not now," Hermione said breaking Chris's train of thought. 

"Why?" Ron asked surprised. 

"Because You-Know-Who already knows we broke into Gringotts, Ron," Hermione said exasperatedly. "He knows what we are looking for, he got to know we are going to get the Hogwarts one next."

"Actually, he doesn't, Hermione," Harry explained. "I mean, he knows that we are after his Horcruxes but he still doesn't know how many of them we got. He is actually on his way to make sure his other Horcruxes are safe. Like the one, we found at that island with Dumbledore and -"

"The one I got from Kreature," Chris guessed. 

"Yeah," Harry gave a nod.

"So let's recap, how many of them do we have?" Ginny started counting. "The diary - destroyed, the locket - destroyed, the ring -"

"Not destroyed," said Hermione. "We didn't have anything to destroy it with."

"Ok, and what did you get from Gringotts?" Ginny asked.

"A goblet. The goblet of Helga Hufflepuff," replied Harry, and Ginny kept looking at him expectantly, so added, ". . . not-destroyed. I have it with me."

"So two destroyed, two you already have, the fifth one is in Hogwarts which leaves -" Ginny counted off her fingers.

"Just two more," Colin said with awe in his eyes.

"And I think one of those two is riddle himself so just one," Chris added.

"So just one," Colin whispered. He looked like he didn't even know what to say anymore.

"Just one after we get the Hogwarts one," Hermione injected bitterly. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Yes, Hermione is right," Chris agreed which surprised Hermione. But Chris didn't want to change her behavior in any way towards her just because of that argument. She could understand Hermione was upset for some reason. And now more than ever, Chris needed to stay focused. She was finally finding his goal back.

"Should we start by destroying the ones we already have?" Ron asked. "Now that we have the sword of Gryffindor."

"No, I don't think it is a good idea, Ron. Destroying them would mean alerting Riddle. We need to find a way to enter Hogwarts before we start destroying them," Chris explained.

"I will find out what is the situation in Hogwarts," Ginny said immediately getting up from her sit.

"How are you going to do that? You can't send owls there anymore, Ginny," Ron said and tried to joke to lighten the mood.

"Of course, I know that, I was going to use my mirror to contact Dra -" Ginny bit her tongue before she could finish.

"Who?" Ron asked surprised. 

Ginny avoided looking at Ron as she started to rummage through her bag. Luckily Harry noticed it and before Chris could save Ginny, he jumped in.

"You have a mirror to talk to people in Hogwarts?" Harry said turning to Ginny. "That's going to be a great help."

"Yeah, I will see how are things there," Ginny quickly said and left the room in hurry with her bag.

"Who is she talking to in Hogwarts," Ron looked at Chris and Colin. ". . . it's not Dean, right?"

"No, it's not Dean," Chris answered truthfully and looked at Colin.

"It's one of our friends from Hogwarts," Colin lied.

Chris wondered if the Weasleys were this much upset and angry now with Ginny's fake-death stunt, how will they react when they finds out their daughter is dating the guy from a family they all hate?

[To Be Continued . . .]