Is It Over Now?

Chapter seventeen

The locket glared at the group as it sat on the table, each person's skin crawling just being close to the fowl thing, the creation that defies the laws of nature, life and death.

They'd had it for months now as summer had long ago become fall. Months of trying spells and mundan methods to destroy the thing that all resulted in the same: the locket perfectly fine and their frustration rising.

They had started with spells, harsh ones that they didn't truly think would work but had hoped that it would at least damage the locket, even if only on the outside. Explosion spells only made the locket jump and shrinking charms didn't even affect the chain.

They had tried potions, both successfully made ones and those that were intentionally ruined so that they had become corrosive. The Draught of Living Death which all of the wizards present had seen Professor Slughorn use only a drop of to completely destroy a leaf until there was nothing but ash, had so little success that it was almost laughable when they removed it from the cauldron that it had been sitting in all night. Even the bloody chain was still perfectly preserved.

They had left it with Remus on the night of a full moon, hoping that a dark creature such as a werewolf could destroy a dark object. They had thought that the wolf had only hated being locked up alone after having run with a park for so long, but when they unlocked the door in the morning the sleeping figure of their friend was curled up in the corner of the room as far away as Remus could get from the cursed object. It hadn't affected the wolf the same way that it does man, and instead had instilled enough fear to make a werewolf cower instead of anger.

They were a roadblock.

"I say we just burn it," Remus said, breaking a long stretch of silence that had been plaguing the five of them since they had walked into the living room that morning.

More than one set of eyes turned to glare at the man but he only shrugged.

"And what would that do?" Barty asks, his voice tinted with the easy anger that they all knew that they had the Horcrux to thank for and promptly ignored.

"Make me feel better," The wolf said flatly as flames danced across his fingers, the man's magic responding easily to his intention. As they watched it shifted and changed shape, a fox running across the wolf's knuckles, a dragon soaring an inch or so above. It was beautiful and dangerous, but most things were.

Evan gave a small wave of his hand towards the locker, silent permission for the former Gryffindor to do as he wished, knowing good and well that everyone within the house needed to blow off steam in one form or another before they let the locket become too much for them. Before they broke.

No one wanted to see what happened when the wolf lost control.

Remus figured he already knew.

Scarred fingers flicked just the smallest bit, but the cursed flames all but leaped to the cursed object, growling more and more in size as it took the form of a serpent that looked suspiciously like a basilisk as it coiled around the horcrux until it was completely covered by flames.

No sooner had the locket been consumed by the flames than did a horrible screeching sound fill the air, something ragged and sharp like a banshee's wail. Regulus looked at his lover in concern as Remus crumpled to the ground as he held his ears, his hearing much sharper than that of anyone else in the room. Black smoke started to rise from the flames, taking the shape of humanoid faces that whispered things that they all knew not to be true but secretly feared that they were.

They stopped when the flames consumed them too.

Everything was silent for a long moment, only the slight crackle of flames from where they had begun to lick at the table, but that too was soon ended by a light summer rain that Remus had co Jared from his spot on the ground, putting out the flames.

No one spoke for a long moment, but soon Dora reached out and grabbed the locket, holding it for a time before a slow smile stretched across the teen's lips.

"Only the faintest lingering trace of dark magic," the girl proclaimed with a smile so bright that it was almost blinding as she held up the tarnished and ruined locket for everyone else to see, the coloring of it now wrong after having been in the cursed flames. One never would have guessed that it was one of the founders' personal possessions just by looking at it anymore, but the five of them knew the truth.

"Woah," Barty muttered before sending a look to the eldest wizard, one that was both apologetic and filled with awe.

"Do you think he's mortal now?" Remus asked hopefully, but wasn't surprised when the three marked Death Eaters all shook their heads no.

"He's much too paranoid and ambitious to stop at one," Reg said solemnly, hating being right more and more as this war dragged on.

As more horrible things were revealed to them all.

"Three?" Evan guessed, "it's one of the scarred magical numbers."

Some of the others nodded at the idea, but Dora frowned. "Seven is the most powerful number in though," the witch pointed out, her voice much too serious for the girl that Remus had first met all those years ago now.

No one said anything. They all knew that she was right, none of them wanted to be the one to say it out loud though. To make it a reality that they would have to face.

But they had to.

"Seven is a lot to find, even for us," Regulus pointed out morosely, joining his lover on the ground and leaning into the older man's side, wishing that they were doing anything else on this fall day. Wishing that they were younger and back at school, running around the halls and lying to the other man's friends about what they were to each other as their hands wandered across each other's skin when they were alone together in the dark. "We won't be able to do this alone."

Remus's head turned quickly to look at the teen. "You don't mean..." he said slowly.

Regulus didn't say anything. It was answer enough.

"We're going to do something stupid, aren't we?" Barty asked as he looked between the pair.

"When are we not?" Evan asked, moving to lean into his partner's side as Dora joined the other two boys on the floor.