We were after a specific horcrux, Grandpa told us. Not all of them, just one. He wanted us home by winter break so the others wouldn’t be able to see anyone had left. He said they weren’t quite ready yet. He had told us the information he had gathered already which was the horcrux in question was Salazar Slytherin’s locket. It had been passed down to Marvolo Gaunt, the same person who owned the ring. After Marvolo and his son, Morfin, were put into Azkaban prison, Grandpa assumes Marvolo’s daughter Merope was the next person to inherit it. Grandpa isn’t too sure what happened to the locket after that. That’s where we come in. Fred and I must journey and find out the path of the locket- who had it, how Voldemort got it, and where it is.
Only very few people knew of our quest: Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Grandpa, Grandma, and George.
We packed the necessities: a charmed tent, water bottles, granola bars, first aid kit, some more granola bars, a map, extra clothes, a spare wand for Fred (just in case), extra sneakers, more granola bars (and some other packaged food), a compass, two sneakoscopes, Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, decoy detonators, shield gloves and cloaks, and an invisibility cloak (one that Grandpa charmed for us).
Within a few hours of Grandpa’s request, Fred and I apparated back to Little Hangleton. It was decided we travel there first, to see if we missed anything on our last visit to the shack.
As we walked through the overgrown weeds, Fred muttered, “Blimey, they really need to have a restoration committee or something. “
I laughed, and we made our way to the remains of the home. What was once a door lay in pieces at my feet. Nailed into the door was a decayed snake. Gross.
“Obviously this lot was a bunch of Slytherins.” Fred mumbled.
I nodded and said, “Definitely. Anything that represented Salazar Slytherin, their heritage, or bloodline would’ve been priceless to them.”
As we looked around the ruins, I saw something reflect the sunlight out of the corner of my eye. Walking closer to it, I saw it was a picture frame. The glass was shattered, and the wood that held it was cracked. The picture it was holding was one of a family- a husband and wife, and their two small children. One was a toddler, boy, and the other was a girl infant. The man looked mean, and well, powerful. He looked like an aged monkey with broad shoulders, long arms, but a shorter torso. Around his neck was a necklace. That’s strange, why would a man wear a necklace? The locket had an ‘S’ engraved into it. The ‘S’ looked like a snake. It was a fairly large locket, and seemed awkward on the man. That must be Slytherin's locket. The woman was a petite thing. She seemed to have a look of… terror on her face. In the charmed picture, she edged away from the man next to her. He just kept looking at the camera with that mean look.
“Oi, Belle! I found something.” Fred shouted to me from across the debris. I walked over to him slowly, trying to see anything else in the mess.
In his hands Fred held a broken jewelry box. It was a black box, with green emeralds decorating the exterior. Engraved in the top of the box was the name Merope. It was rusty, and the top of the box that opens was broken, hanging on by one hinge. I removed the top, and looked inside the box. There was a picture of the woman who had been terrified only this time, she was smiling happily. She seemed to be several years younger than the picture I saw. I then found another picture of a young man. This picture was a Muggle picture, for the man didn’t move. He was handsome; his dark hair fell right above his equally dark eyes. He had a tall, lean build. The man seemed wealthy- he wore nice clothing and was riding a grey horse.
“You know what?” Fred suddenly said, looking at the picture of the man in my hands, “He looks an awful like Tom Riddle.”
“Voldemort?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I once asked Harry what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets, and he told me all about the basilisk, Ginny, the sorting hat, Gryffindor’s sword, and Tom Riddle. Pre-Voldemort, of course. Harry described him pale, with dark hair and eyes. He said he was a tall, lean boy. Just like this guy.” Fred pointed to the picture.
“Well, Voldemort is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, correct?” I doubled checked, waiting for Fred to nod his head yes. “Well the Gaunts were the only living descendants of him. Marvolo only had two children, and Morfin was in Azkaban, so he wouldn’t have had any children. The only one who could’ve had any children was Merope.” I concluded.
I pulled the first picture out of my pocket, showing Fred the family.
“This must be Merope.” I said, pointing to the infant girl.
“You think this girl is Voldemort’s mum?” Fred asked.
“Yes. I also think this man,” I said, pointing back to the picture of the man riding a horse, “is Voldemort’s dad.”
Fred pondered what I had said for a moment, and then finally said, “He must be Tom Riddle Senior then. Voldemort was named Tom Marvolo Riddle after his dad and grandpa. He hated his name because he was named after his Muggle father.”
“Wait, so then this man must be Tom Riddle! And that explains why the picture is still, not magical.” I exclaimed.
“There must be a bloody horcrux tied somewhere to this place.” Fred muttered, kicking a piece of wood.
“Well we already found one of them, the ring.” I mumbled. Grandpa had told me he had suspected Voldemort would only turn things important to him into horcruxes. Like the ring and it’s connection to his grandfather.
“Why don’t we scour this rubbish one last time, the set up camp somewhere? The sun is beginning to set and we have a few weeks to work on finding another horcrux.” Fred added.
It was getting dark, and he’s right. We have till Christmas break.
“Alright.” I agreed.
We looked around one last time, grabbing some things that survived all these years. We grabbed Merope’s jewelry box, the family portrait, and a small safe. Fred found the safe a few feet away from the rubble, tucked under plywood.
We gathered our stuff, and then I turned to Fred.
“Where are we going to camp out?” I asked. We hadn’t thought out our trip this far.
“Er, I’m not really sure. Why don’t we trek into the forest over there?” He said, nodding towards the woods a little bit away.
“Good idea. It’s close to Little Hangleton too, just in case we need to come back to the shack.”
It took us maybe thirty minutes or so to reach the forest, all the while Fred told me of pranks he did while at Hogwarts. I found the one prank on some woman named Umbridge especially entertaining.
We found an area big enough for our tent. It was hidden by some fir trees. After setting up our tent, I started a fire while Fred said protective enchantments around our campground.
It was a tad chilly, so I put on another sweater and sat closer to the crackling fire. Fred joined me, sitting exceptionally close to me. I blushed, and refused to meet his gaze. Instead I peered into the flames that seemed to be dancing a wild, dangerous dance, yet it was so mesmerizing.
“Love,” Fred said quietly, “I want to talk to you about our kiss the other night.”
Immediately I tensed. I was never one for confrontation. Still looking at the fire, I waited for him to continue.
“Well, I think truly I might be… falling for you.” He whispered into my ear, moving a piece of hair that had fallen into my face back behind me ear. I shivered from his touch.
He continued, “I wanted to know what your feelings are on the matter.”
Blushing, I took a deep breath in.
“I have feelings for you Fred, I’ll be completely honest. However, I feel like I don’t really know you all that well yet. I want to have time to explore my feelings about you. I only know you know for maybe over a month. You’re the first friend I’ve ever had, and I refuse to throw that all away because of, of a hormone infused night together.” I sputtered, stuttering at the last part.
“I understand completely. We’ll take it slow.” Fred said.
I let out the breath I had been holding in, and rested my head on his shoulder. I’ll be honest, his shoulder isn’t the most comfortable spot- it’s awfully boney.
“Thank you, Fred.” I whispered. I tried to stifle a yawn, but to no avail. Feeling tired, I stood up to go to bed. I gave Fred a quick kiss on the cheek, and ran inside.
Lying under my covers, I tried to settle down the butterflies in my stomach. I closed my eyes to go to sleep, but all I saw was Fred’s face.
Oh boy.
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I know I said I would update Wed, so sorry about the delay! I had basketball in the morning, and a game in the afternoon... we made it to playoffs! Not that anyone cares lol..
One thing I hate are stories that have the main couple getting together right away and falling in love like the day after they meet each other. If anyone gets that vibe from this PLEASE tell me!!
Anyways...
QCC?
:-)