ACT XXII: ELIMINATING OBSTACLES AND MAKING DISCOVERIES

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His daughter should not have to go through these traumatic times as he had suffered through, none of his children should. It should be adults protecting the children and not the other way around.

To achieve his goal, he must eliminate the horcruxes that he had purposefully neglected to get rid of for a while.

***

Cepheus looked at the remains of the overgrown basilisk and skillfully cut a bit from every part of the serpent and neatly bottled them or preserved them to gift to Severus for Christmas. Of course the rest was harvested in larger chunks and put in his special potions chest that he always carried on him.

The man spelled himself clean and casually walked out of the abandoned girls restroom and to the seventh floor, to deal with the next problem.

'I need a room where things are hidden.' He repeated three times passing the wall just as many times before a door finally appeared.

He stepped into the Room of Requirements and beelined for Ravenclaw's diadem, easily ignoring everything else.

There really was no need for the basilisk venom. Cepheus pulled out a bit of his deeply hidden death energy into the diadem making the object release a dark gas along with noseless bastard's shrieking scream of terror.

"Weakling." Cepheus muttered as he put the diadem back and once again spelled himself clean.

Once he was all done, he walked to the Gryffindor's Fat Lady and kindly spoke to the portrait as he arrived just in time to pick up his daughter for dinner before he left for home.

He backed up a bit as the portrait door swung open and Holly excitedly ran up to him with a group of fascinated first years.

Cepheus kindly smiled at the group of children as they smiled shyly or cheekily in response. Holly proudly guided everyone the Great Hall with Hermione who talked to Cepheus enthusiastically about the difference in teaching styles of when he attended Hogwarts to as of now.

Although Cepheus was a Ravenclaw himself (never mind he was a proud Gryffindor in his first life), he sat at the Gryffindor table quite comfortably surrounded by the little lions. He looked up towards the staff table and noticed a good handful of them were missing.

Noticing his look, a seventh year couldn't hold back and told him that the Defense of the Dark Arts professor suddenly collapsed on the floor clutching his head in agony, it was quite the spectacle for the Slytherin and Ravenclaw fifth years who witnessed it first hand.

'Quillmort must be extremely weak right now. The moment all his horcruxes are gone, what's left of his original soul will dissipate forever.' Cepheus thought to himself.

"I see...thank you mister?"

"Wiles. Anthony Wiles." The blonde seventh-year Gryffindor introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Wiles..."

The boy smiled, "No, thank you! It's such a pleasure meeting my idol."

Holly stared at the older Gryffindor, "my dad is your idol?" She asks confused.

"You don't know? Your father, Lord Potter is an amazing world class Dueler, better than even Professor Flitwick in his prime." He raved enthusiastically, catching the attention of the other Gryffindors who awed in amazement.

"Woah..!"

"Cool!"

"I wish my dad was as cool as Lord Potter." A second year Gryffindor told his friend in envy.

Holly smiled proudly and quite smug while Hermione rolled her eyes beside her.

***

After dinner, Cepheus bid his reluctant daughter and Hermione goodbye before leaving. Also Neville who was earlier helping Madam Pomfrey and asking her questions during dinner, ran up to Cepheus and gave him a hug before the man left.

When he arrived home, immediately two little boys clung onto his legs.

"Daddy!"

"Dada!"

"Ouch Harry!" Cepheus yelped when Harry suddenly bit his leg out of nowhere.

Cepheus picked up the little biter and softly scolded him, "Harry you can't bite people. Do you understand?"

Little Harry frowned and reluctantly nodded, "yes dada," he softly sighed in disappointment.

Henri patiently waited for his turn and smiled brightly when Cepheus picked him up as well.

"Did you eat dinner already?" Cepheus gently asked.

The two boys shook their heads, "we were waiting for you."

Cepheus smiled.

"Go wash your hands and let's eat dinner." The boys nodded and ran off to wash their hand in the bathroom sink.

Cepheus had already eaten dinner with his daughter so he spent his dinner time talking about his day trip to his two boys who listen in captivated by the story. He had to occasionally pause and tell them to continue eating.

***

"Goodnight" he laid them to bed, kissing their foreheads before walking to his office.

Cepheus pulled out the locket that he had snagged from #12 Grimmauld Place, with he himself carried a good deal of Black blood and Sirius keyed him in, making his journey to collect the horcrux quite easy.

Kreacher was the only obstacle but he calmed down after Cepheus agreed to destroy the horcrux.

The reason why Cepheus still had the locket was because there was something off about the locket. Besides the horcrux that was easily destroyed, there seems to be something living in it.

'A soul? Hmm...'

Although his human body limited his immortal powers, he could still use some of it but not as much or fully as he could if he was in his godly form.

His glowing hand phased into the small locket and forcibly pulled out the sleeping soul.

The sleeping soul laid quietly floating above the desk.

"Regulus Black?"

The soul's eyes opened suddenly at the sound of his name.






***
A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!

Also some of you might have noticed that Harry (Harrison) doesn't act mature for a person of his mental age, there's a reason for that and it will be explained later on.

And don't worry they will have more screen time eventually.

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