"I've gone ahead and compiled a list of every student he went to Hogwarts with. We'll start with deceased Death Eaters and his classmates, and work our way through every person he's ever spoken to if need be."
"This will take forever," Sirius groaned, although he was a bit impressed with her efficiency and thoroughness. Again, he prayed for the world's sanity that she and Mad-Eye never met. "And it relies on him having told people his plans. He doesn't strike me as a talkative guy."
"He's a villain, he loves his monologues. I am optimistic. The diary was his personal one which earned his Heir of Slytherin personality. And the locket, I have discovered, is said to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin, whom Voldemort claims to be descended from. Which is clearly an important aspect of his identity, considering his whole blood supremacy thing. The third, I found residing within Harry, and I think the significance of that is obvious. They all have a connection to Voldemort, to his past, to his goals. Even if he told no one of their locations, if we learn all we can about the man himself, that should be enough for us to discover them ourselves."
"Hang on, wait. What do you mean that you found one inside of Harry?"
They delayed their discussion for several hours while Sirius came to terms with that lovely fun fact. Despite the reassurances that Harry was fine and that the horcrux had been extremely weak and had left him with no side effects, it was a horrifying thought that Voldemort would turn his infant victim into such a macabre trophy. Sirius dug around Grimmauld for some of his father's hidden stash of firewhiskey. This was no longer a conversation that needed to be had sober.
"Right," Alabasandria finally continued after a few rounds of alcohol had been consumed by her, and copious amounts more by Sirius. "So, Voldemort. We have to find out how many horcruxes he has." She plopped down onto the small loveseat in the Black Library. Her hair had fallen out of her bun, and when she raised her hands to count off their objectives, she stared at them a moment before she could remember how numbers worked. "I thought he'd stop at two. Three parts of a soul makes sense, I guess, if you're stupid. But you're only supposed to have the one horcrux, and clearly, no one told him that. So I have no idea how far he went."
"Fucking wonderful," Sirius grumbled. He took a swig straight from the bottle and sat down next to her. There was not enough room on the couch, so he kicked his legs over the armrest and crashed his top half onto her, laying across her lap. "D'ya have any good news for once, Allie?"
She swatted at him, but he was much too heavy and barely coherent enough to move.
"Don't call me that, and no, not really," she admitted. "It'll be easy to get rid of them once we do find them, so that's nice. Dark things are really susceptible to fire, that's why any necromancer worth their name gets good at fiendfyre. Your undead abomination can't get you if you kill it first."
"How reassuring."
"It will work," she told him. "But it will take time. The children didn't seem interested, and there's not much they can do while they're at Hogwarts anyhow. It will be just us, and you're stuck as a dog for the foreseeable future."
"Yeah, that's fine," Sirius said. "Harry has dealt with Voldemort enough, we'll let him have some normalcy for once. He can have a nice, quiet time at school and only worry about lessons and Quidditch."
She laughed.
"The boy attracts trouble, and he's never been normal. Don't get your hopes up. He's had three encounters with Voldemort now. But he's handled himself well. He is a powerful mage, and has a good head on his shoulders."
"He's too young," Sirius protested with a whine, doggishly shaking his head.
"Voldemort doesn't care. We can try to keep him out of this, but Voldemort and his lot don't care. He will have to fight eventually."
"Well, eventually doesn't mean right now!"
"I'm not eager for Harry to run off into danger," she argued, swatting him on the chest again. "That's not what I'm saying. But he'll have to fight eventually, so we had better start preparing him for it now."
"Did you fight in the last war?" Sirius asked suddenly. Turning his face towards her from where he was sprawled across her, he looked wild and vulnerable as he recalled the years leading up to his arrest.
"No. I had been abroad for a long time, and the news being heard internationally at the time was vague and implied things were not serious in Britain."
"It got pretty damn serious when I was in my sixth year." Sirius had a faraway look in his eyes. "It was awful and terrifying. I don't want Harry to go through something like that."
"Voldemort is not strong enough to return -"
"It wasn't just Voldemort, though!" Sirius shouted. "He was the instigator of a lot of shit people weren't allowed to say and do in public - but they were sure wishing they could, and Voldemort let them. There's a reason why things escalated so fast, and it's because a lot of people agree with him. Only a few were sent to Azkaban or killed. They didn't disappear! My entire family agreed with him, but only a couple took his Mark."
He reached for the bottle, but it was vanished away.
"You've had more than enough, Sirius. Breathe."
.....
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