Junior Hallows

Chapter 6

7yrs

Draco and Neville sat watching intently as the goblin healers worked over Harry to remove the Horcruxe-infected scar from his forehead. Healers carefully used a crystal blade to cut into the boy’s skin, handing it quickly to the curse-breakers. Sweetfurrow wiped blood from Harry’s forehead, whispering a healing chant as she added a few drops of dittany to the wound, allowing it to heal properly and leaving unblemished skin behind.

Removing the scar was one thing, but the Horcruxe was now in a degradable container and that wasn’t going to work for the Hunters. Their plans needed all the Horcruxes in the one place at the same time as the original soul-mass. That wasn’t going to happen until the Hunters attended Hogwarts.

Healer Sweetfurrow assisted Harry to sit up and then gestured to Draco and Neville to join their friend. Nev sat, as always, on Harry’s right and Draco slid into his position at Harry’s left shoulder. Watching closely, Draco saw Harry trembling and then saw as the youngest lad began to slump, he made a choice.

A choice that no seven year old could make. But… Draco wasn’t really a seven year old, now was he? Harry was his friend and had been since they returned, but seeing the shock and fear on a face that he’d spent more than a decade staring at, forced Draco to take a split second and think. Think about what was going to happen once they’d done what Death and Merlin sent them here to do.

In that split second, Draco embraced his Gryffindor inheritance and he made his decision.

He slid closer to Harry and pulled the other boy into his arms and while he made sure Harry could watch the curse-breakers, he kept his arms strong around the most constant presence in his life. Technically they were seven years old but in their memories there was another 15 years worth of memories and over a third of that Draco had spent watching Harry. Add to that the last five and a bit years? And that Harry had made it clear that he was happy to have Draco around, he was happy to sit and talk with the older boy. Yeah, Draco now had a hold of Harry and he wasn’t letting go.

Neville looked at the two of them and other than a twitch of an eyebrow, made no comment, but the question was clear. Draco just nodded to his unspoken question and all three turned to face the goblin curse-breakers.

One after another the curse-breakers laid out the items containing the Horcruxes already gathered. The remnant of skin that had been Harry’s scar. The gold goblet with it’s delicate arms and the engraving of a badger. A heavy gold ring with a dark square stone, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows just barely visible within the depths of the stone. A leather-bound book, the dark brown cover unmarked by lettering, giving no indication of it’s owner or what was done to it. Finally the silver and amber locket with an S marked in emeralds inside a circle surrounds by runic writing, it wasn’t large, just the length of a man’s thumb, but it was big enough to house a Horcruxe.

The head curse-breaker, whose name was Shieldsplitter, lead the ritual. First placing a crystal embedded in a titanium mesh on the tiled floor, then he eased the piece of fragile skin from the silver tray down to the floor beside the crystal and a open phial of liquid. Taking a few steps back, he nodded to the circle of goblins and they began to chant. A golden shield enveloped the two objects and the phial rose, tipping it’s contents of basilisk venom over the piece of skin.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“It’s not exactly a ‘cure’, as such.” Harry warned.

“Then why…?” Remus began.

“What it does do is emphasise the natural wolf part of the were-wolf. As long as the wolf part of you feels safe, you aren’t any more dangerous than any other natural-born wolf or wolf Animagus. As long as you take the potion some time in the week before the full moon, you’re covered.”