Horcruxes

"Minister, there's definitely something going on here! Why would I have any reason to attack the school using a diary as means of controlling a student?!".

Fudge seemed conflicted still as he listened to Lucius' rebuttal. It almost seemed to Oz that he didn't want any conflict to come out of this. Such is the coward that Fudge was.

"What if... she could have forged that memory of me! Minister as you know false memories appear in trials all the time at the mini-...".

"I'm afraid I'll have to stop you there Lucius. Miss Rose here is but a student in her 2nd year, she is hardly trained in magic let alone in such a complicated study such as mind magic. Only a witch or wizard with extreme control of their mind can forge memories. You're argument here is moot".

Lucius seemed at his wits end as he was desperately searching for a way out. Fudge was sighing deeply as he started to realise finally that all the facts pointed at Lucius being the perpetrator of these act. Oz continued to watch on in amusement before dealing the final blow.

"So I guess the question now would be... Why did Lucius do this? Did he just want to cause havoc in this school or was there a deeper plot at hand especially considering that the Chamber of Secrets being opened was a by-product of his meddling... Well as you know Lucius has a history of being involved with a certain dark lord...".

The fury in Lucius's eyes only grew as he looked at Oz give his explanation. The words he tried to come back with seemed to fizzle out as nothing he could think of would help in this situation.

"Oz my boy. Lucius was cleared of those crimes many moons ago. He's been helping the ministry ever since! Besides, the dark lord is dead now and the wizarding community at peac-".

As Fudge still attempted to defend Lucius, Oz lifted his hand ushering the minister to be quiet. Putting his finger to his mouth he looked at the minister.

"Allow me to finish my explanation minister before you give your opinion... As I said Lucius has a history of being involved with the death eaters and the dark lord himself. Only recently he was caught out using a dark artefact as a bartering item in order to gain information on me...".

As Oz was giving his explanation he grabbed the diary that was on the desk, Looking through blank and pierced pages Oz turned his head back to Dumbledore.

"Albus. You should know better than anyone the true name of Voldemort when he studied at this school. Care to give us a reminder?".

Dumbledore nodded his head at Oz's request as he looked around the room.

"Yes... When he was here his name then was Tom Riddle... To be more precise Tom 'Marvolo' Riddle".

Fudge listened on to the talking with confusion plastered on his face. The fact that he still couldnt see what Oz was getting at made Oz feel worried for the wizarding community as a whole. How did they let such a ditsy man be the minister of magic. Lucius however looked as if he was about to snap.

"Tom 'Marvolo' Riddle... I'm sure you two, Lucius and Fudge, both know that Tom Riddle was the dark lords true name before he changed it to Voldemort. Now I invite you to take a look at the back of this diary".

On que Oz threw the diary back onto the desk this time facing down instead of up. At the bottom of the diary on the footer of the back cover was a name written in gold.

'Tom Marvolo Riddle'.

The second this name was presented, Lucius reached for his wand however Oz reacted the second he made a move disarming him in an instant. Lucius looked on in horror as Oz then casted a spell at him.

'Petrificus Totalus'

Lucius' body went fully ridged, not being able to move anymore. Fudge looked down at the name on the diary in fear before looking at the now frozen Lucius. He sighed deeply before turning back to Oz and Dumbledore.

"With the evidence shown its clear that Lucius is indeed the root of the issues happening at Hogwarts as of late... With all of this evidence its enough to build a case against him. I'll be taking him back to the ministry to be sent to a holding cell until his trial. As for the half-giant we sent to Azkaban, we will send him back to you...".

Dumbledore nodded along with Fudges explanation of the situation. Oz just watched on calmly.

"Albus, if you could come on the trial date with that diary and the memory along with the pensieve then that would help a great deal in the case".

"That will be no problem Cornelius... Are you okay to escort Lucius here back to the ministry yourself?".

Fudge gave a confident nod as he went to push Lucius along towards the floo fireplace in Dumbledore's office. He underestimated how strong Oz's spell was though as Lucius ended up falling flat on his face instead of being pushed along. With a thud Lucius hit the floor and his nose broke. Oz let out a chuckle and also heard a snort from behind him. Dumbledore walked over to Lucius and lifted him up with a spell and took him to the fireplace along with Fudge.

"Thanks for that Albus... My old bones seem to be getting the best of me these days. I guess you could call that karma in a way for Lucius here. I'll be calling you to the wizengamot in the next couple of days so be ready".

As Fudge finished his sentence he held onto Lucius and used the floo powder to send them both back to the ministry. Dumbledore sighed as the duo left.

"It seems yet again you had everything in your palm Oz... I don't even remember telling you about the pensieve in my room".

"Well it worked out in the end didn't it? I never liked that damn Lucius as well anyway so him being the true culprit was a welcome surprise".

Dumbledore stroked his beard looking at the enigmatic boy. Looking behind him he saw that the girl he had brought along was still present.

"Miss Rose, you've helped us a great deal and been put through a lot in the past while. Don't worry about what's happened, your name will be cleared as you were only used by Lucius. You should run along to the hospital ward and seek out Madam Pomfrey, she will give a full diagnosis of you and heal you if need be".

Hearing that her name was cleared, Rose gave a quick nod to the headmaster with a grateful smile on her face. That smile grew larger as she look at Oz thanking him for saving her and helping her out. Oz simply nodded as he watched the girl run out the room. As he confirmed she had fully left, Oz turned back to Dumbledore.

"Albus, don't you also think its concerning that a piece of Voldemort's history has appeared here and even managed to coerce a student into doing such a thing? Don't you think there's a chance that something else is at play especially considering Lucius was involved in this plot?".

Taking in Oz's argument Dumbledore sat back in his chair and took another long look at the diary. His eyes seemed to flash as different ideas and theories came to mind.

"It's clear to me Oz that the magic in this diary is a sinister and dark magic. With it being connected to Riddle, it does indeed raise alarm bells for the future".

Walking back over to the desk Oz put his hand in his pouch and showed a certain, now destroyed, diadem.

"Oz isn't that-!?".

Oz nodded as he went on to explain.

"Yes, this is the diadem of Ravenclaw. You see, I sought out the ghost of Helena not too long ago to ask about my ancestor Merlin. She gave all the information she could however the majority of it was masked in mystery still. She mentioned in that conversation I was the second Slytherin to ever approach her so she was apprehensive at first. I managed to coerce the answer out of her about who previously approached her... can you guess who that was?".

Dumbledore's face grew grave as he looked back at Oz.

"Tom Riddle...".

"Correct. She mentioned how he had defiled her mother's diadem with a dark magic and hid it in the Room of Requirement. I decided to seek out the diadem as repayment to her and after extensive searching I managed to get it. When I charged into that chamber I noticed that the diary and the diadem had a similar 'aura' to them, almost as if they were twins...".

Oz set the diadem down next to the diary on the desk.

"Two artefacts both plagued with dark magic. Both connected to Voldemort in some way as well... I think you know what this is Albus…".

Dumbledore's face grew increasingly sombre as he understood what Oz was getting at.

"Horcruxes...".

"Yes, thats what I at least believe this to be. It's the only thing that makes plausible sense".

Dumbledore reached over to the diadem and the diary picking both up and looking at them in further detail. Oz simply stood in silence and allowed the old man to take his time inspecting them a bit more.

"If your theory is true Oz then the threat of Voldemort is much greater than I initially thought... How many of these items could he have created? Where could they be? What could they be? Although this is an important find its a find that is nonetheless disconcerting to say the least...".

"Even if he's created many more than these two, its a start that we've caught on now. It's just finding them and destroying them now isn't it?".

Dumbledore's grave expression seemed to lighten a bit as he looked up at Oz. Oz was sure that Dumbledore had long had an idea that Voldemort was still around however until the end of the fifth book he never confirmed the means in which he managed to stay around. Finding this fact out earlier meant that there could be more time in which they could search for Horcruxes. Oz was giving them a head start.

"I believe thats everything Albus… After killing what was in the chamber I'm feeling very tired so I think its time for me to head back to my dorm... Ah wait one last thing I need to ask".

Oz grabbed the diadem and put it back in his pouch as he started to talk. As he walked off he remembered one last thing he needed to ask Dumbledore. Dumbledore's ears perked up in curiosity as Oz continued.

"For my fourth year at Hogwarts, I'd like a leave of absence".

Dumbledore's eyes grew wide as he looked at Oz. He half expected soon that Oz would spread his wings and soar into the wizarding world but this seemed far too soon.

"Are you planning on searching for these horcruxes yourself?".

Hearing Dumbledore's question Oz couldn't help but laugh a bit before looking back at the headmaster.

"Albus, I believe that's your problem not mine. I have my own things I need to sort out. Of course, if I come across one of these horcruxes then I will destroy it by all means however I wont actively seek them out in my spare time".

Dumbledore sighed as he gave a knowing grin expecting this sort of answer from Oz. Oz gave one last wave as he left the room leaving the headmaster in his thoughts. Taking one last look at the diary he looked up to the ceiling of his office.

"I guess I should reconvene the Order for this...".

.

As Oz slowly took himself back to the dungeons he looked back on the events of the night. Everything seemed to happen so fast. Craig's death was something that still left a bad taste in his mouth despite his loose relationship with him. His helping of those people from the cellar back in the first summer he had after his first year lead to the death of a boy with a future, however if he didn't help those people then whilst Craig may have survived at least 20 others could have died instead including Rose.

Everything happened for a reason and whilst there would be pain especially in the group that Craig had now left this timeline seemed necessary to Oz in the long run. He still felt a debt was owed to the Taplin family though and hoped that the capture and prosecution of Lucius would be enough to help them cope for now.

'With me taking a leave of absence next year I need a way to keep tabs on everything here at Hogwarts as the plot could change drastically... Rose and Harry are probably the best candidates to keep me updated. I'll send a letter to Alfreda to see if she can procure me a two-way mirror for communicating...'.

As Oz planned his next year he recalled that this year still had a lot of time left. There was still some things he needed to do and some that he would like to do. With the threat of the basilisk gone now though it was mainly cleaning up that was needed to be done.

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A/N - Double upload as I have a night shift later so probably no next chapter till tomorrow night or so. Enjoy :)