Damaged Bridges

The Chalice and the Blade

Dora hadn't been much in the mood for eating the rest of the day, but by the evening she felt better enough to join the others in the library when she heard them finishing dinner. She entered the room stuffed from floor to ceiling with heavily laden bookshelves to see everyone either sitting at the table or lounging in the more comfortable armchairs, having just started a discussion.

She came in just in time to hear Harry saying, "...great to keep training and studying, but I feel like I've got to do something! I don't want to just sit around waiting for Dumbledore to come up with leads on where to find Hufflepuff's Cup. I don't see why we can't do a bit of brainstorming ourselves and come up with a place to start looking."

"Of course we should, Harry!" said Hermione. "That's perfectly sensible..."

"But where would we start?" asked Parvati. "Dumbledore already found the one where You-Kn... Voldemort's grandfather and mum used to live..."

"...and we found the one at Hogwarts," Hermione added.

"...and the one which was originally in a place where the Orphanage people had taken Tom Riddle to when he was a kid," said Harry.

"...and the one that horrible Mr Malfoy gave Ginny," said Luna, with a glance at her girlfriend who looked a bit disturbed.

"So besides the snake, which is going to be with Voldemort wherever he's hiding out, there's only the Cup left," sighed Harry, "and the others have already been in the most obvious places we could think of..."

"You don't think he could have hidden two Horcruxes at Hogwarts do you?" asked Parvati.

"It's doubtful," said Hermione. "I would think that he would want to hedge his bets by having all of them in different locations."

"Right," Harry agreed, looking frustrated, "and for the life of me, I can't think of any other place that Dumbledore and I have discussed which might have meant something to Voldemort..."

"Well," chimed in Ginny for the first time after taking a deep breath, "he did give the Diary to Mr Malfoy for safekeeping. Do you think he might have given Hufflepuff's Cup to another one of his top Death Eaters?"

"I dunno," said Harry, sounding a bit skeptical, "The Diary was the first one he made, and I could see him giving that one to a Death Eater to give to one of their kids to take to Hogwarts some day to open the Chamber, but it's hard to imagine that he'd give Hufflepuff's Cup to a Death Eater - it's a lot more special to him and Voldy's not a particularly trusting sort..."

"Hmm," said Hermione.

All eyes turned to Hermione, recognising that particular "Hmm" she made when she was on the verge of an interesting thought.

"...It's true that Voldemort's not generally trusting, Harry," Hermione continued, "but we shouldn't rule out the possibility that he might have given the Cup to one of the Death Eaters he trusted most! ... Didn't he consider Barty Crouch Jr to be one of his most trustworthy for not having 'sold him out' to stay out of Azkaban?"

"That's a good point," Harry agreed, nodding and frowning pensively. "So anyone else who had been sent to Azkaban was probably someone he trusted more than others, because they weren't the sort to deny him publicly. And there's one in particular who comes to mind..."

"...my dear Auntie Bellatrix," said Dora sardonically from the doorway where she had been hovering and listening.

Everyone seemed startled; they peered at Dora, looking a bit torn.

"Er... Are you feeling a bit better then?" asked Parvati, voicing the question which everyone apparently felt was the most important to ask her first.