Seven Devils ★ T.M.R ★

Chapter Two

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
THINKING WITH FRACTIONS
╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

DUMBLEDORE SAT BACK in his chair looking troubled. Marina couldn't help but wonder if he was uncomfortable – they had been talking for hours and the chair looked like it was straight out of an early 2000s school gym back room. He had pressed her to be vigilant in how much she told him, concerned that unpredictable consequences could arise from changing the timeline too much. Marina wondered if it was really because of possible danger, or if he just knew that if they changed too much, her knowledge would become moot and he'd lose the upper hand he'd just gained.

"I always knew that Tom had strayed into magic far darker than most could even imagine, but seven Horcruxes..." he said quietly. "It is a miracle his soul even survived."

"Until the Horcruxes were destroyed, nothing could really kill him. Whilst part of his soul exists, he can't really die. That's what you and Harry do in his sixth year."

Dumbledore looked up at Marina sharply. "We manage to discover them?"

"You destroy them," she said, "well, not you, a few different people actually do the destroying –"

"How is it done? Destroying the Horcrux?" He said intently.

"Well, different ones are done in different ways. The diary was destroyed with –"

"The diary?"

"Oh right, yeah, Tom had a diary at school that he made into a Horcrux when he opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed Myrtle with the basilisk."

There was a pregnant pause. "The basilisk?" Dumbledore repeated, breezily.

"Yeah, that's the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Sorry," Marina added awkwardly, seeing the expression on Dumbledore's face.

"I suppose we shall cross that bridge when we come to it, as they say," he said bracingly. "You were saying?"

"Right, so when Harry kills the basilisk –"

"Harry opens the Chamber of Secrets?" Dumbledore said, looking alarmed.

"No! Well yes, but – sorry I'm not explaining this well. So, the diary is the Horcrux which made the first time the Chamber is opened. Then when Voldemort comes to power, he gives the diary to the M... to a family that follows him. They keep it safe until next year when they slip it into Gi... sorry, a new student's things before she comes to Hogwarts. She starts writing in it, not knowing what it is. The Horcrux thrives on proximity, especially the way she was writing in it. She didn't have any other friends or anything, so she sort of poured her heart into it. The Horcrux became strong enough to take over her mind, made her kill all the roosters and open the Chamber.

"Basically, long story short, Harry and his friends figure it out and he goes into the Chamber, meets Tom – oh sorry, I forgot to say, the Horcrux gets strong enough to have like a physical form again. Anyway, Harry kills the basilisk with Gryffindor's sword which he gets out of the Sorting Hat – I don't even know how to start explaining that one sorry, and yeah he stabs the basilisk in the head. He used a basilisk fang to stab the diary which destroyed it."

"I see," Dumbledore said. If that were true, Marina was impressed – she felt like her retelling of the events was butchering them beyond comprehension.

"Well anyway, after he stabbed the basilisk, the sword became sort of imbibed with the venom because, you know, Goblin made and all that. So later when you guys are hunting Horcruxes it becomes the number one weapon to use."