Remorse Filled Love

Cunning Harry

Harry walked a meter into the Forbidden Forest. There were too many people in the Astronomy Tower and near the Black Lake today. Making sure that no one was noticing him going into the forest, he had sneaked between the trees. When he noticed that he couldn't see anybody from the place, he transformed into the large white eagle he was and set off for Hogsmead.

"There he goes to Merlin knows where." Peter said pointing at the large bird in the sky.

The Marauders looked at the white bird with the black bordered wings fly away with great speed; from the Astronomy Tower.

Harry landed in the lonely alley of Hogsmead and transformed back. Closing his eyes, he pictured the large house of the Riddles that he had successfully made up in the Great Hall and apparated away. When he opened his eyes and was steady enough to stand straight, he found himself standing in front of the large Manor.

"How ironical..." Harry muttered to himself.

He knew better that to just barge into place like that. He took out his wand and waved it to check for any kind of wards around the house. Surprisingly, there weren't any wards. His eyebrows creased in a single black line. It was really very funny of Voldemort to just leave the object lying inside the house without putting any wards. He hesitantly but slowly entered the house. As he entered it, he quite figured out, why there hadn't been any wards. It would be quite a task to find even a particular room in the house; let alone a cup. The place he reached after walking a long passage was a large hall with two sets of staircases emerging from both sides of the place. The staircases led to a line of rooms which seemed to be endless. There seemed to be two more passages going along from the sides of the staircases.

Harry closed his eyes in frustration. "How am I going to find the bloody cup over here?" he asked himself.

He took two steps forward in uncertainty. "It's impossible." He muttered.

Harry's gaze turned to the floor as he thought of some obvious places of hiding a horcrux—the kitchen, the library, Tom Riddle's room... Many possibilities were swirling into his head.

After half an hour of roaming the whole Manor, he felt a tightening in his chest. He immediately understood the feeling to be the result of being near to another horcrux. He walked around the room frantically. But he couldn't detect the exact position of the object. The place the tightening feeling was the most, didn't have any furniture nearby the place. The room was huge. Harry didn't know whose it was; but he concluded it to be Tom Riddle's own room; being it so big and filled with furniture. He looked around him frantically; he was growing impatient now. Where they could have hidden the cup? He thought for a while. According to his theory, the safest place to hide an object inside the room would be—under a loose floorboard. Something seemed to light up inside Harry's brain. He reached the spot where the feeling was the strongest, and crouched down. He tried some of the floorboards near his feet and finally found the one, which wiggled a bit upon touching. As he lifted the piece of wood, he found a shining cup under it. It was clearly made of gold, and had the enormous glow of the metal. He grabbed the cup. He didn't think twice before apparating back to Hogsmead.

He plopped on his bed tiredly and closed his eyes. He felt a bit relaxed, being his Horcrux hunting had come to an end. But still, his mind didn't rest a bit. It constantly nagged on the fact that the main job was yet to be done.

"Where were you?" a voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Harry opened his eyes and turned to see the blonde boy standing near his bed. "Nowhere, just—roaming about a bit," He answered thoughtfully.