My Godfather

Chapter XXIX: The Horcrux

"Horcrux? Sirius, that is absolutely absurd." Regulus replied. "It's not. I wish I weren't right; but I am. This is bad. This is bloody terrible." Sirius mumbled to himself. "Sirius, Sirius; calm down for a second. Now, take it slowly. Tell me how on earth you arrived at this impossible conclusion."

Sirius took a deep breath and tried to stem the train of thought. "Look, do you remember what father had once said about horcruxes? A Horcrux is an object in which a Dark wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality. It can only be created by cold-blooded murder of an innocent soul. That has always been Voldemort's ultimate goal: immortality. When Harry destroyed that diary, he didn't just remove Voldemort's memory from it. He destroyed a part of his soul. That's why Voldemort's very weak now."

"Okay. But what in Merlin's name does that have to do with Harry?" Regulus was utterly baffled. "A person's soul is not something that can be easily scattered and forgotten about. Voldemort split his soul into a few bits. Although the pieces were hidden in different corners of the earth; they were still connected to one another. That's why, when the diary was destroyed, so was the horcrux inside it."

"So that's why Harry's feeling tired?" Regulus asked. "Exactly. Since the different parts of the soul are connected, the destruction of one of them affects the others as well." Although Sirius' voice sounded calm, his mind was in complete turmoil. He didn't know how Voldemort had done it but he had somehow managed to hide a part of his soul inside Harry's body.

His son was a horcrux. There was a piece of Voldemort's soul tucked somewhere deep inside Harry. Sirius wasn't sure if this weakness would escalate into something else but he wanted to nip this at the bud itself. His pup had been through a lot. He didn't want any more problems for Harry.

Harry's soul was pure while Voldemort's was the most evil, dark and heartless soul that existed. "So what do you want to do now?" Regulus inquired. Sirius shook his head, at a loss. "I don't know, Reg. I just don't know. I need to tell Harry about it, he deserves to know. As for a solution; I won't rest until I've found one." Sirius answered with a steely glint of determination in his eyes.

"We will find a way, don't worry. We're aware of the cause now; the solution isn't far away." Regulus assured him. "I hope so, Regulus. This is something entirely different from the problems we've dealt with so far. I can't believe I didn't know." Sighing, Sirius ran his hand through his hair, trying to control his emotions.

His thoughts wandered to the boy who was sound asleep upstairs. There had to be a way. "When did Voldemort do this?" Regulus asked, looking equally disturbed.

Sirius was about to reply that he didn't know but that's when the answer hit him. He did know! "On the night he murdered Lily and James." He replied quietly. "How do you know?"

Sirius wished he didn't know; but one by one, his mind was being bombarded with answers. "That was the only night he could've done it. After that, he lost his power. In the chamber, although he wasn't weak, he wasn't real either. He was just a memory. He wouldn't have been able to split his soul, because there wasn't anything inside him. The damage had already been done."

The man felt horrible. He had no idea what to do. He knew quite a bit about horcruxes, which meant that he was also aware of how to destroy them. But, they were all extremely dark and risky methods. He wasn't willing to take such a huge risk. "Hey, Sirius; listen to me. I know this is bothering you a lot but we're going to find a way out of this." Regulus reassured him once again.

I don't think we should tell Harry about all this right now." Regulus suggested. When Sirius was about to object, he hurriedly continued. "I know you're against the idea but it's just for a little while. He'll get awfully worked up and upset. I'm not saying that we must hide it from him. All I'm saying is that let's wait until we are closer to finding a solution."