Dabbling With The Dark

Chapter 18

One Month Later

With a wide smile on his face and a chuckle in his voice, he ran his finger over the three items nestled inside the base of Salazar's statue in the secret chamber at the base of Gryffindor Tower. Each one glowed slightly recognizing the Horcrux inside of him as he did. All he had to do was take them upstairs to Dumbledore's office and make the old fool admit that he'd been right all along when he said that he didn't need the Order's help to get them. Dumbledore would destroy them and the only Horcruxes left would be Nagini and the one attached to him. That thought drained the smile from his face because the Order would target Nagini relentlessly in every fight from then on, and once Nagini was destroyed, he'd be the one they turned on next. Snape had already unwittingly told him the Order's plan months ago with one sentence:

You realize that may be the only option.

That one sentence and Snape telling him that his blood being in Voldemort's body was his way back to the living world if he were to die was the Order, and Dumbledore's, final plan. Once the other Horcruxes were destroyed he'd die one way or another and be brought back through that blood magic to finish Voldemort off for good. It was yet another reason why he'd never been brought into the Order to hear all their plans and why he'd never been taught more advanced magic. The last thing they wanted was for him to be strong enough to fight them off when the time came for them to kill him.

Sealing the Horcruxes inside the statue's base, he turned and headed for the door. The monitoring charm he set told him no one was in the corridor and he slipped out of the chamber with his broom in hand and headed towards the front of the castle and the moving staircase still wearing his padding and dragonhide gloves. Getting the chalice from the grip of yet another statue at Salazar's old home had by far been the worst and his scorched skin was testament to that. He should've nicked a better healing potion from Snape's store before he went to go get it.

"Going out, my boy?" Dumbledore asked in the Entrance Hall, Snape and Kingsley standing there as well.

"Thought I'd go flying for a bit before curfew," he lied. "If you'll excuse me."

"Not this time, Potter," Snape said and he raised an eyebrow at that.

"I believe what Professor Snape is saying is that we had a deal regarding your outings," Dumbledore said stepping towards him. "While we have received no evidence of what you say your intention is in them, other evidence of your activities is rather obvious," Dumbledore said cupping his chin and tilting his head to the side exposing another of the many marks he's had on his neck in the past month. He pulled his chin away and glared at all three of them. "Your friend, Lionel, is not entirely what he would have you believe."

"So what, he's nineteen instead of eighteen?" he asked, Lionel Cavot being the name Rosier uses in Hogsmeade when he's under Polyjuice potion. "He doesn't really live in Glasgow and goes to Hogsmeade for supplies for his great-aunt in Edinburgh? He doesn't work part-time at the bookstore about twelve blocks from where he lives with his brother? He's using a fake name? What's he lying to me about?" he asked using the airtight cover story Voldemort had created for Rosier a long while ago and made sure he knew by heart for just this occasion.

"And what do you know of his mother's parents?" Kingsley asked.

"Oh for fuck's sake," he snorted.

"Harry," Dumbledore said sternly.

"They were Voldemort sympathizers, yes, I know," he huffed. "His mum took off on him and his brother after his father was arrested for speaking out against the Ministry over and over again and formed a piss poor vigilante group in Edinburgh. His mum hasn't been seen in almost a year now and him and his brother scrape by on three part-time jobs between them and a small allowance his great-aunt gives them to supplement that income. He repays her doing that by running all her errands for her and usually ends up in Hogsmeade every two to three weeks doing that. I don't see anything wrong with that."