The Wand of Ravenclaw

A Hollow Night

An illuminated clock tower stood like a blue-hued beacon against the black sky. Dense cloud and a drifting fog obscured from view any stars whose light was visible against the electric orange glow of the buzzing streetlamps or the subdued glimmer of the clock face. According to the hands it was nearly three a.m. To the one person awake in the little village it could have been any time at all.

For time seemed to have little meaning these days for Harry Potter. Nights spent fully awake, days filled with endless ponderings and poring over maps and antique catalogues, constant research into the possibilities and permutations of the mind of Lord Voldemort and into what sorts of precious objects the most evil dark sorcerer of all time would wish to diffract his soul.

This was the reason why he found himself here, in the middle of the night. He was somewhere in Wales, though he couldn't be sure where. He was no great geographer. In any case, he wouldn't have been able to pronounce it. Abercwmdyddderi, or something like that. The sort of place name that should have bought a vowel years ago. But that wasn't tremendously important. After all, it hadn't bothered his parents, so why should it bother him?

These night time wanderings had become a feature of Harry's recent life. On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, his last night at Privet Drive, he announced to the Dursleys that he would leave them the next morning to go off and join the war against Voldemort, and that it would most likely cost him his life.

He remembered the odd look of horror which flashed across Aunt Petunia's face at these words. It was a look that haunted his dreams. Even worse was the little sob she let out when he forced a 'thank you' from his mouth for allowing Dumbledore's magical protection to work for all these years. He thought it was what the great man would have wanted him to do, even though it cost him every ounce of humility he possessed.

It was then, at the very end of their connection, that Harry finally appreciated that deep down - very, very deep down - Aunt Petunia was, after all things, still a blood relative. On some well concealed sub level, she remained Lily Evans' sister.

Harry had strode from Privet Drive at exactly eight o'clock the next morning. Uncle Vernon had already left the house and Harry, accompanied by Hermione and Ron, said a last goodbye, informed Petunia and Dudley that the magical qualities of the house were now totally removed and then left with just a mumbled goodbye. He summoned the Knight Bus and headed straight for the Ministry of Magic in London.

Harry remembered the strained trip, the beginning of a strained relationship with those two closest to him. They bombarded him with questions about what he was going to do; well, Ron asked once and didn't open his mouth again after the verbal lashing Harry handed out. Hermione, though, was her usual persistent self, demanding an explanation and adding threats that she and Ron would leave at the next stop. Harry told them nothing was stopping them doing just that and he wouldn't stand in their way if they chose to abandon him. He secretly wanted them to. He knew his path would lead them into great danger and he had resolved to keep them away from it as much as he could. Still, the hurt look on Hermione's face at the suggestion still filled him with terrific guilt.

Once at the Ministry (Hermione's threats had proven to be hollow) Harry marched straight up to Level Six and after a heated discussion with Wilkie Twycross (which ended with Twycross being threatened at wand-point by Harry) a hasty Apparition test was arranged. Harry passed first time, apologised to Twycross and left with his license before anyone really knew what had happened.

This was crucial to Harry's plan. Already wracked with years of guilt for putting his friends in danger, Harry had decided to do as much of the actual Horcrux hunting as possible alone. He was content to let Hermione do the research (why deny the girl her first love?) and let Ron think up extraordinarily complex and highly ridiculous plans to destroy the various pieces of Voldemort's soul, but when it came to the really dangerous act of actually venturing into the world to find them, Harry was determined to do this by himself.