Hufflepuff boy - Cedric Diggory x male oc x Viktor Krum

64

"Harry! Harry!" Hermione calls out through the place, glancing at Cayden who is still laying down on the couch, looking up at the Head Boy badge in his hands. She dashes up the stairs, seeing him and exhales in relief. "Ron! I've found him!"

Cayden sits up from the couch, placing the badge inside his pants pocket and walks to where Hermione's voice came from.

"Good! Tell him from me he's a git!" Ron shouts.

"Harry, you can't just disappear. We thought--" Hermione stops as Harry hands her the letter. She feels Cayden's body heat from behind her, reading the letter from behind her with her. "It's from your Mum. To Sirius. Bathilda Bagshot...?"

"Yeah. They knew her. She wrote A History of Magic, you know." Harry said.

"Did she now?" Hermione said with irony.

"I'm thinking maybe we should go talk to her. She still lives in Godric's Hollow. I'm thinking maybe she could help us." Harry said.

Hermione looks up, regarding Harry closely. "Harry. I can imagine why you'd want to go there, but... I don't think Bathilda Bagshot is going to know where Voldemort hid his Horcruxes."

Harry starts to respond but frowns.

Hermione reaches out, touching his face lightly.

"Hey! I think you three better come down here." Ron calls out.

The three of them walk down the stairs to the first floor, joining Ron who is peering out a curtain.

In the courtyard outside, two dark figures stand near a tree. Another sits on a bench.

"The two clinging to the tree are Death Eaters for sure. Dunno 'bout the bloke on the bench." Ron said, dropping the curtain. "Can't see us, of course. But we'll have to be careful coming and going. C'mon. There's something else you need to see." He said, leading them up the stairs and to a narrow doorway.

Beyond is a cramped bedroom, walls covered with eerie scrawlings and symbols of Dark Magic.

"Lovely." Hermione said.

Ron pulls the door shut. Affixed to the outside is a small sign, hand-lettered in a spidery crawl: Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black.

"Regulus Arcturus Black...?" Hermione questioned, then gasped.

Ron nods, extending his hand and taps the first letter of each name on the sign. "R... A... B."

≪ °❈° ≫

Harry removed the note from the locket, reading what's on the note. "To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this... I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it..."

"R.A.B. was Sirius' brother?" Ron questioned, sitting round the kitchen table with sloppy stacks of old Daily Prophets surrounding them.

"Yes. Question is, did he actually destroy the real Horcrux?" Hermione questioned.

Harry nods, then spots a shadow trembling on the wall just outside the kitchen. He scrambles up and out of the room. "Stop! I order you!"

Seconds later, Harry reappears, dragging Kreacher by one ear, who is mumbling foul oaths.

"Kreacher..." Ron said.

"Been spying on us, have you?" Harry asked.

"Kreacher has been... watching. Kreacher always watches." Kreacher said.