Mudblood & Me | Completed

Chapter 58 - You can't kill him boy

Harry's POV

Aberforth was immediately exasperated, he walked towards me so he was barely inches from my face and looked me dead in the eye. I wasn't sure what he was doing so I looked to Hermione who was watching him with interest.

"A job from my brother, I guess? Still handing out orders even from beyond the grave, I see. He always did like to be in control of situations. However, when he was in control of things, they went pear-shaped pretty quickly. Also knowing my brother I'm guessing it's a simple job? Easy to carry out? Sit at home and wait for Voldemort to tire himself out? No, of course not. So what is it then, Mr Potter?" He asked, watching me, with one eyebrow raised.

"I need to find Voldemort's last horcruxes and kill him." I said, I resisted the urge to take a step back so I had space to breathe but it would make me seem weak. That was not the image I was trying to portray right now, otherwise Aberforth would definitely think I wasn't up to the task. Which I had a feeling he did already from the way he was incredulously looking at me.

"Albus must have gone mad, you can't kill him boy. You're half his age and half his power, you haven't even finished school yet. There's no way, best you go home boy. And try to stay hidden until you're older." He said, taking a step back and turning to his stairs. 

"No." I said, mustering as much force into my voice as I could. He turned back to me, the look of exasperation now aimed at me. "I can't, it will only get worse. I can't sit around and watch him kill innocent people, I can't wait until I'm ready. I'll never be ready so now is the best time. Get this done, so that everyone can have their lives back." He came back over to me.

"There's no way you can beat him boy, even if you had the whole population of the world helping you. He can kill people, double your age, with double your skills, just with a flick of his wand." He said, his voice raising. 

"Well if you won't help us, we will find another way to get to the castle." I said, looking him in the eye. Hoping that maybe he knew a way to get there from Hogsmeade without being found, but maybe I was too foolish. We would just have to run and hope we were faster than the Death Eaters. He sighed deeply, muttering something about 'idiot', 'stubborn' and 'going to get killed'. He looked past me at the painting of his sister on the wall.

"You know what to do." He said, nodding at the painting. I looked to see the girl turning and walking away.

"Where is she going?" Hermione asked, looking at the painting. Unable to help her curiosity, this was something she hadn't seen before, so she had to understand it. Even Draco looked a bit quizzical, then there was Ron, just looking around the living room with a vague look of disinterest. I couldn't blame him there wasn't much to look at. A fireplace, a painting, a sofa and an armchair. Aberforth obviously wan't one for decorations but the room still felt strangely homey. Maybe the warm lighting or the fireplace. While I was thinking about the home decor, Ariana had begun to reappear in the painting. As a very small figure and it looked as though there was somebody with her. "Who is that?" Hermione asked, Aberforth still didn't respond sitting down in the armchair with a small huff. We all stood and watched the painting. As Ariana got closer and closer, Aberforth picked up a book and began flicking slowly through the pages. Suddenly, the painting swung open, revealing a dark figure who I couldn't see the face of. Then they finally stepped into the light and I saw it was Neville. 

"Neville?!" I said, taken aback. This portrait must somehow lead to Hogwarts, but how they had managed to do that, I had no idea. Snape knew about all the old secret tunnels so he must have had them all blocked. How had this been built without anyone noticing? 

"Nice to see you too, Harry. You guys have been keeping a low profile recently where have you been?" He asked, his eyes landed on Draco, but he quickly moved on. It must have been strange seeing him with us, but he trusted us so he would trust him too. Even though Draco had bullied him for most of his school life, Neville was too kind to hold it against him. Also Draco had bullied a lot of people however the majority of them wouldn't let it slide as easy as Neville did. 

"Here and there." Hermione said, with a warm smile. "We've been going to lots of places."

"Well, I guess now you want to come into Hogwarts, so let's go. I'll lead the way." He said, with a smile, turning back down the passage. Ron followed first, climbing up to the passage, then Hermione and Draco. I turned back to Aberforth who was reading his book.

"Thank you for helping us." I said, before following the others. He made no sound. Hermione was asking Neville questions about the passage, when I caught up to them. 

"- um, it was only built this term. Aberforth and the Order did it." He answered to a question I hadn't heard.

"Where does it lead?" She asked, looking around at the sloping dirt walls, it was lit by floating flames in little alcoves dotted along the walls. Ahead it turned to stone walls, and there was something black covering the end of the tunnel. The connecting painting I guessed, but Hermione's question was a good one. Where was that painting? There was no room for anymore paintings in the Gryffindor common room. And it would need to be somewhere private so no Death Eaters saw it.

"Now that would ruin the surprise Hermione, wait and see." Neville said, a smile on his face. "It was a good idea, Aberforth's actually. He might seem like he's given up but he's helped us a lot, that doesn't seem like somebody who has given up on the cause to me." But Aberforth had most definitely tried very hard to convince me against coming into Hogwarts. We reached the end, Hermione could barely hide her curiosity, she obviously wanted to push open the painting. But she let Neville do it, he pushed it open with a sweep of his arm. As if he was presenting us to somebody, I heard Hermione gasp but all I could see so far was a stone wall several feet away, paintings and banners lining it. Hermione, Ron and Draco stepped out the way revealing a large stone room, all the walls like the one I had first seen. The room was filled with beds, of all sizes and shapes and gathered in the centre of the room was the majority of my class mates and friends. When they saw me stood in the gap, they all started cheering and clapping as though I had won an award or something. We all climbed down the ladder, when I got to the ground people started hugging me and slapping me on the back. I felt a bit overwhelmed by this sudden increase in attention, finally everyone stood back and looked at me expectantly. Waiting for me to say something. I had no idea what they wanted me to say, some inspirational speech? Because I certainly wasn't prepared for that, there wasn't really much to say. I was here in the hope that Voldemort might turn up, I could destroy his last horcruxes whatever they were, wherever they were and finally kill him. But that sounded a bit aggressive and would only work if Voldemort did actually turn up, which I had a feeling he definitely would, when he found out I was here. 

"Um, so basically. I don't have much of a plan." I said, everyone's faces fell almost immediately. "I'm hoping that Voldemort turns up so I can fight him and hopefully kill him. But he still has 2 horcruxes I need to destroy. So does anyone have any idea what they could be?" I asked, hopefully. I doubted they would even know what a horcrux was because they shouldn't, Dumbledore had told me. There was some shuffling and Luna moved to the front of the group.

"What about his snake?" She said quietly. 

"What?" Hermione said, beside me.

"That snake, he always has it with him. Maybe it's to protect it because it's one of those things, a horcrux." She answered, I was not surprised that she out of all people would know what a horcrux was. 

"Nagini, that's a good idea Luna, thanks." I said, that was definitely dependent on him turning up then for Nagini to be killed, because they were never separated. 

"What is a horcrux?" Seamus said, his brown hair a mess like it always was. 

"Um," I said, unsure how to explain. "It's an object formed by dark magic that is used to achieve immortality by splitting a dark wizard's soul into separate pieces. It can be any object that a person chooses. And Voldemort had 7, now only 2. They need to be destroyed before he can die." 

"Well then what are you waiting for, find a way to get him here." Seamus said, as though it was as easy as that. Which it most definitely wasn't. But that was the aim.