The Wand of Ravenclaw

Into The Locket

Author Note: Hello everyone. Im approaching a thousand reads, which is a nice little milestone and I'd like to thank all of you for giving up your valuable time to read this lil fic. Im humbled that you do, so thanks very much. Hope youre enjoying it.😀😀

Harmony Forever 😍😍😍

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Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall peered intently at the golden locket on the desk before them, scanning it, feeling its unmistakably dark aura. Snape would occasionally walk around the table, as though a different angle may give him a better understanding of the object in front of him. McGonagall had twice picked the locket up, examining every nuance of it. It was largely unremarkable to look at.

But it happened to contain a fragment of the tainted soul of one of the most evil men alive.

"You were right not to put this on, Potter," said Snape. "If you had, you would likely be dead already."

Hermione, sitting unfathomably close to Harry, squeaked in horror and gripped his arm tightly. Ron gave him a look which said, quite plainly. 'I told you so'

Harry shifted a little at Snape's words, so blunt and direct. So knowingly correct. And to think, he'd thought to try the locket on when Ron and Hermione weren't looking, just to see what would have happened. That was a close miss.

"Then it does have to be opened, to face what's inside?"

"That would be the logical conclusion," said Snape. "The Horcrux works in three parts, as does the process for creating one. There will be an obvious use, which is generally the first line of defence. Wearing the jewellery, writing in the diary, etcetera. Then there will be the piece of the Dark Lord you must face directly. Finally, there is the embodiment of the victim used to make the Horcrux. They tie into The Act, The Incantation, and The Consumption. The stages of Horcrux creation."

"The Consumption?" Harry asked dubiously, not sure if he really wanted to hear this explanation.

"Yes, Potter, the Consumption," said Snape, impatiently, as though this was something as common as a Boggart and their discussion just another classroom joust. "The Dark Lord needed to partake of the flesh of his victims to complete the Horcrux creation process. It is ancient, and powerful, magic."

Harry felt his jaw drop. A revulsion rose from deep inside of him, a sweeping nausea that lodged uncomfortably in his throat.

"Are you...are you saying...Voldemort had to eat the people he killed!" Harry could barely get the question out.

"To take in the life force of his victim, yes. To add life support to the fractured soul fragment held in the Horcrux receptacle. It is a practice long followed by magic folk the world over. The final stage that sealed the creation of his Horcrux."

"But that's disgusting!" shrieked Hermione. "It's vile, its...its..."

Ron suddenly got up and ran from the room, making audible noises of distress. Harry hoped there would be another sort of receptacle nearby for Ron to throw up into. He didn't feel that he, himself, would be far from joining him.

"So is that...is that why I'm not a Horcrux," Harry asked, choking back another wave of revulsion. "Because Voldemort didn't eat me? After he murdered my parents, I mean."

Snape looked at Harry as though he were a three year old. "Don't be ridiculous, Potter. How could you be a Horcrux? Didn't you just hear me say that to create a Horcrux is a complex, three stage process? Leaving the moral ambiguities aside, this is a considered, planned out operation. The Dark Lord merely meant to murder you on account of the prophecy, and of course your parents would try to defend you. They were expendable to him."