Harry's robes whipped around him as he shot through the air like a muggle bullet, the slight chill from the night air feeling pleasant on his skin when coupled with his current speed.
"I love this broom." Harry commented with a small smile that made him look more of his physical age. One wouldn't have suspected he had just finished robbing one of the most secure locations in the entire world, Gringotts Wizarding Bank. And sitting in Harry's bag was yet another of Voldemort's Horcruxes, the cup of Helga Hufflepuff.
The cup was made of solid gold with two handles to grip it from, and was covered in a carving of a badger surrounded by grass. Not only was it made by Helga Hufflepuff herself, but it had persisted throughout history for a thousand years before disappearing several decades ago after the death of the last known owner, Hepzibah Smith. And while supposedly the cup possessed numerous powers, none of the books Harry read could detail what those powers were.
Unfortunately, now the cup had been twisted and warped by Voldemort's demented dark magics. And because of that, it had to be destroyed.
Unlike the diary, Harry felt somewhat reluctant to destroy the cup when the time came. Mostly because of the amount of historical artifacts and treasures that Harry collected during the years he explored Skyrim. Hopefully, one of the theories he had come up with regarding dealing with the soul fragments within the Horcruxes would work while preventing the destruction of the object itself. Sometimes it paid to be so well-versed in necromantic magic.
Right now though, Harry was enjoying his flight as he zipped through the British countryside on his way home from London. And thanks to his Invisibility spell, Harry didn't have to worry about any muggles noticing him as he flew.
Even as he flew at the top speed, Harry's new Firebolt handled like a dream as he made impossibly sharp banks and dives with it. At one point, Harry even flew right through the middle of a town above the muggles heads. None of them even suspected he was there, but he knew his passing had created a powerful random gust of wind that would confuse them.
All too soon Harry could see the rapidly approaching Potter Manor, and he was forced to slow down as he prepared to land right outside the building, his feet touching down gently on the grass.
"Like a dream." Harry said as he dismounted and admired the Firebolt once again. It was easily his new favorite way to travel, and luckily for him he could store it in his bag with the rest of his stuff when he wasn't using it.
Also stored in his bag were a few other trinkets that Harry stole from the Lestrange vault in Gringotts as a smokescreen, so that if word of the theft reached Voldemort he wouldn't automatically assume that they had been after his Horcrux.
Pleased with his haul, Harry slipped back inside the manor with nary a single denizen stirring. Not even an elf.
Instead of going straight for a shower then bed as usual, Harry instead made his way to his office to store the cup of Hufflepuff away in his trunk like the Daedric Artifacts. Only, someone else was already in his office when he got there.
"Filthy half blood. Taking master Regulus's locket. What would master Regulus say to poor, poor Kreacher? Kreacher must get the locket back."
Harry watched as Kreacher tried, and failed, to break into his trunk for several minutes, curious as to why the normally lazy elf was doing this. But all he could think of was that he treasured the locket that Regulus, Sirius's brother, left behind when he died.
It wouldn't be too strange considering some of the things Harry had seen the elf doing over the last couple months, especially when they were cleaning Grimmauld Place.
"What are you doing, Kreacher." Harry finally spoke up, startling the elf as he actually jumped up off of the ground before whirling around to glare at him.
"The brat who supposedly defeated the Dark Lord... What does he want, Kreacher wonders." The elf mumbled to himself, seemingly unaware that Harry could hear every word that he was saying.
"I told you what I want. I want to know what you are doing. Now." Harry repeated himself, putting some force into the final word so that Kreacher flinched slightly since it could be considered an order. And since Harry was Sirius's godson, along with being his heir, Kreacher was bound to follow all of Harry's orders as if they came from Sirius himself.
"Kreacher was searching for the locket that master Regulus left behind. Kreacher needs it to fulfill master Regulus's final orders, and it doesn't belong to filthy half bloods and blood traitors." The elf snarled at Harry angrily, as if just answering his question caused him physical pain.
"And what was Regulus's final order?" Harry asked, his curiosity growing. But unlike before, this time Kreacher seemed to be overcome by actual physical pain as a strangled gurgle escaped his mouth.
"Must....not.... Promised.....not...to....tell.....Black...."
"I'm not a Black." Harry pointed out, and Kreacher literally froze as he seemed to digest this new information. Then all of the tension seemed to bleed out of his body as he slumped to the floor.
"It all began when master Regulus came to Kreacher one day..."
...
Harry opened the bedroom door to find both Sirius and Amelia sprawled out on the former's bed, both completely naked and glistening in the slight moonlight that filtered in through the open window after what must of been an intense session of fucking.
Harry almost hated to interrupt their post-coital slumber. Almost. But what he had just learned from Kreacher was too important to leave until morning.
"Wake up." Harry said while throwing a bucket of freezing cold water over both of them.
"Who's there?!" Amelia demanded as she jerked awake from the cold water, her Auror training kicking in while Sirius just sputtered and swore in alarm.
"Its just me. We need to talk, Sirius. Now. I'll be waiting downstairs." Harry told them firmly, leaving no room for argument before turning and leaving the room. Though he did hear a choice selection of words coming from both adults that followed him down the hall.
Harry was seated at the dining table when both Sirius and Amelia made their way downstairs, both dressed in robes. Not actual wizarding robes, but bathrobes.
"So, is there an actual reason for the rude awakening in the middle of the night?" Sirius asked irritably as he sat down in his usual spot with Amelia sitting on his other side, right as Sweets brought them both a cup of caffeinated tea.
"How much do you know about your brother's death?" Harry asked him seriously.
"Regulus? Only that he joined up with Voldemort, but didn't get very high up in the ranks. Made our mom and dad proud though. Then, according to some of the Death Eaters in prison, he got cold feet or something and died at some point. No one really had any details." Sirius said while frowning, even as Amelia put her hand on his in a sympathetic gesture.
Even if Regulus had been a Death Eater, he was still Sirius's brother. And Harry knew Amelia was well aware of the pain of losing a brother.
But there was something wrong with what Sirius had said.
"Regulus wasn't killed because he was getting cold feet." Harry told them, earning both of their undivided attention. "Regulus died, trying to kill Voldemort."
""!!!""
Shock colored their faces as Harry recounted to them everything that Kreacher had told him.
According to the elderly House Elf, Regulus came to him one night stating that Voldemort needed the help of an elf, that it was something that would bring them great honor. The reality of it though was that Voldemort took Kreacher to a cave on the coast, where one would need to pay a blood tribute just to access properly. Then within the cave was a lake that required the use of a hidden boat to cross.
In the middle of the lake had been an island, upon which a single stone basin had sat that was filled with an emerald green potion. Voldemort then forced Kreacher to drink all of the potion, several goblets full by the sound of it, until there was none left. And from the sound of it, the potion was the single most horrible thing Kreacher had ever experienced in his life. Not only had the potion inflicted upon Kreacher the most unbearable thirst and pain he ever experienced in his life, it also forced him to relive the most horrible and regretful moments of his life.
Once the basin was empty, Voldemort placed a locket into it and departed, leaving Kreacher to die.
Desperate for water, Kreacher tried to drink from the water of the lake, only for dozens of corpses to crawl out and grab him, then trying to drag him under to drown him. By all means, Kreacher should have drowned and joined the bodies within the lake at that moment, but then he had thankfully been called home by Regulus.
Upon seeing the state that Kreacher returned in, Regulus had become worried and asked Kreacher what had happened.
A short while later, Regulus had kreacher take him back to the cave with the lake, and then to the island within. Only this time, Regulus drank the potion after ordering Kreacher to swap out the locket for one he had prepared. And then leave without him.
"So Regulus..." Sirius began as Harry finished recounting Kreacher's story, his knuckles white from how tightly his fists were clenched, and Amelia's hand on his shoulder as she tried to comfort him.
"The last thing Kreacher saw was him being dragged into the lake by the Inferi Voldemort stashed in it." Harry confirmed.
Sirius took a moment to compose himself while Harry and Amelia waited, though he did notice the head of DMLE giving him a look that stated she had questions, and he WILL give her answers.
"What was it?" Sirius finally asked after he had a moment. "What was so important that my brother traded his life for it?"
At first Harry said nothing, he just pulled an item out of his robe pocket and set it on the table. A locket with an intricate S on it.
"If my guess is right, then this locket once belonged to Salazar Slytherin." Harry told them, having read about it when he was doing research on the cup of Helga Hufflepuff.
"Why would Voldemort go through so much trouble just to hide a locket? I mean, if it did belong to Slytherin then it would have historical value, but that's it." Amelia asked while looking at the locket warily.
"The reason for that, if I'm right, can NOT leave here if I tell the two of you. Do you understand?" Harry asked them, earning himself a couple of frowns.
"Harry, if this is something that I might need to bring the Aurors in on-"
"Its not." Harry immediately cut Amelia off. "This is a project that Dumbledore and I are working on. One that if word got out, could have disastrous effects on the wizarding world. As such, secrecy is of the utmost importance."
Sirius and Amelia shared a look, before the latter sighed and said, "Fine. If Dumbledore is a part of this, then I will bow to his judgement."
"Thank you. Now then, have either of you ever heard of a Horcrux before?"
The responses Harry got to that question were telling more than anything, as Sirius turned pale and Amelia gave him a blank look.
"Merlin's sweaty ballsack... That's how he did it..." Sirius uttered in disbelief.
"Who did what?" Amelia asked.
"Voldemort. That's how he survived that night eleven years ago." Sirius said. "In the Black family library, we have books from all over the world and all throughout history. Most of them detail all kinds of horrific black magic and rituals, and my mom used to make Regulus and I read them while we were home for the holidays. There was one though that mentioned Horcruxes, items that would house a part of the creator's soul. So long as it existed, they could not die."
Amelia paled as she too realized the implications of such an item, before she looked at the locket warily. "So this is one of those Horcruxes?"
"I believe so." Harry replied truthfully. "I'll have to show Albus when school starts up again to see what he thinks, but there is no reason not to suspect it is with the lengths he went through to protect and hide it."
"And Regulus wanted to destroy it?" Sirius asked.
"That was his final order to Kreacher, to destroy the locket."
Sirius Black, the man who usually had a smile on his face and a joke on his tongue, hung his head and buried his face in his hands as he tried to come to terms with everything Harry had told them.
"He's probably still there you know."
"!!!"
Sirius looked up sharply as Harry said that.
"Down there. In the lake. With all of those things. He might even have been turned into one of them." Harry told him, and Sirius's face hardened.
"Do you have any plans for the rest of the night, pup?"
"I will once you'reready." Harry said, as this was reason he woke Sirius up to begin with. He already planned to have Kreacher bring him to the cave to try and recover Regulus's corpse himself.
Harry swore that Sirius had gotten ready in record time as he came back down stairs only a few minutes later with Amelia, both of them dressed for combat.
"Ready?" Harry asked, and both of them nodded.
"Before we go, do we need to plan anything?" Amelia asked as they gathered around Kreacher.
"Inferi are basically just undead, right?"
"That's right."
"Then there'll be no problem. Now take us to the cave, Kreacher." Harry gave the command to the House Elf.
"Yes, young master." Kreacher replied, earning Harry a raised brow from Sirius.
A second later though, they all vanished from Potter Manor and reappeared standing on an outcrop of rocks surrounded by water on almost all sides, with a wall of rock to their backs.
"Over here young master." Kreacher said as Sirius and Amelia glanced around, leading Harry to a series of small footholds leading down towards the water, and then to a small fissure that the surf was flowing into.
"Come here, both of you." Harry called out, before placing his hands on both Sirius and Amelia's backs.
"What are you doing?" Amelia asked as Harry used magic on them.
"Its a spell called Waterbreathing. Obviously, it let's people breath under water, and I applied it for the next hour or so. We shouldn't need it, but with how strong the current is around here I prefer to play it safe." Harry explained while applying it on himself. "Kreacher, wait until one of us call for you to take us back to the manor."
"Yes sir." Kreacher replied while giving a bow so deep his nose nearly touched the rock.
As soon as Kreacher departed Harry dove into the surf with Sirius and Amelia right behind them, all three of them swimming directly towards the fissure that was little more than a crack in the cliff face.
'I need to start swimming more often...' Harry thought to himself as he struggled against the surf, once again cursing his younger body. Even when he went diving in the rough northern waters off the coast of Skyrim, Harry never had as much trouble as he did now.
Thankfully they didn't have far to go, and the current did help a little as it sucked Harry into the cave itself. Sending him directly to the set of stairs carved in the rock.
"Are you both alright?" Sirius asked as they worked their way further inside away from the water to the larger chamber.
"I'm fine." Amelia said.
"Alright here." Harry relied, making his deeper inside until he reached a dead end.
"What now?" Sirius asked as he and Amelia started looking around.
"Now, the payment." Harry replied, using the spell Bound Dagger to slice open his own hand to smear blood over the cave walls.
"Harry! one of us could have-" Sirius began, before he was cut off as Harry apparently found the correct spot, and an archway opened.
"Its fine." Harry said, immediately closing the cut with Regeneration magic before heading into the next chamber.
The next section of the cave was impossibly large with lake that stretched out further than any of them could see, while the ceiling also stretched so far above them that none of them could see it.
"What now? How are we going to get Regulus?" Amelia asked warily as they looked around.
"Both of you, stand back." Harry said as he stepped up to the edge of the lake, and used the Detect Dead spell. As expected, the lake was almost entirely filled with undead.
"There's got to be hundreds of Inferi down there..." Harry said to Amelia and Sirius with an incredulous tone.
"It was believe that Voldemort killed enough people, and turned them into Inferi, to create an entire army during the previous war. This must be where he stored them all..." Amelia said with gritted teeth.
"Well, we're about to see them." Harry told her, as he summoned a massive amount of magic power.
"Command Undead."
Necromantic power surged through the cavern as it flowed into the lake filled with enchanted corpses, prompting them all to stir at his command.
"What is that?" Sirius breathed while suppressing a shudder from Harry's spell.
"A necromantic spell I designed some years ago." Harry replied as the first of the corpses began to file out of the lake, taking position right in front of the three of them as they awaited his commands.
"Vampires are masters of Necromancy in Tamriel, so I worked with the foremost experts on Conjuration magic at the College of Winterhold to design this spell to turn their own foot soldiers against them. The base for it was the Command Daedra spell that already existed, which could give the caster control over unbound Daedra, or wrest control of them from a weaker summoner." Harry explained patiently while directing lines upon lines of undead to stand upon the rocky shore of the lake.
"You're a Necromancer?" Amelia asked with tension almost visible in her tone.
"Not recreationally." Harry replied without looking back at her.
"The College of Winterhold doesn't discriminate what practices it's members persues, so long as they don't kill other members of the college or worsen their relationship with the Nords that call Winterhold home. I learned Necromancy as a necessity due to how many tombs I had to explore throughout Skyrim, as well as how many of my opponents employ it. It saved my life more times than I care to recount."
Amelia said nothing as Harry finished speaking, but he could tell she didn't agree with his logic. Not that he could blame her. Even in Skyrim people were firm in what magic they considered to be acceptable, and which ones weren't.
Thankfully she didn't voice her misgivings and let Harry work in peace, bringing scores of Inferi up from the lake as they presented themselves for inspection. And Sirius as well was already looking at each and every one of them for his brother.
It was slow going considering how many Inferi there were to examine, giving Amelia time to examine them as well.
"Merlin's beard... It looks like nearly every single one of the people that vanished during the height of his power are here..." Amelia whispered as she too walked between the lines of corpses. "Wizards, witches, muggles, men, women children..." She continued, looking a little green in the face as she did so. Though, that might have just been from the dim lighting of the cavern.
"Ngh!"
Harry looked up as Amelia let out a sort of strangled noise as she stared at one Inferi in particular.
"Edgar...!" She exclaimed with a pained expression, before hurrying through the throngs of undead. "Mother! Father! Arnold!"
Now Amelia was running too and fro through the crowd as more and more shambled out of the lake, her expression one of increasing urgency as she identified several Inferi. Her attitude reminded Harry of a conversation they had earlier in the summer, where Amelia told him about how nearly the entire Bones family was wiped out by Voldemort, leaving only herself and Susan.
"Harry!" Amelia cried as she approached him, even as Harry was already directing the members of her family to the entrance of the cave. "The bodies here, all of them have been missing for a decade or longer! If we bring them out and return them to their familes-"
"Then we will alert Voldemort that we are on to his Horcruxes." Harry finished for her, and Amelia's expression fell.
"You have it now though. Does that matter?" Sirius spoke up from further back.
"It does since we know he made more than one. If we take all of them out of here then word WILL get back to him, and he will know that we're onto him. He will move the remaining Horcruxes before we can find and identify them." Harry explained, right as Sirius also found Regulus.
"So do you plan to just leave them all down here?" Amelia asked worriedly.
"I planned to destroy the place completely once the two of you leave, and I had a chance to check out the island in the center." Harry replied as he released his command over the Inferi, allowing them all to drop like puppets who's strings had been cut.
Amelia looked as if she wanted to argue, but Sirius beat her to it.
"Harry is right, Amelia. Now we both know for a fact that he is still out there, and we know there are those still loyal to him running around. We can't risk Voldemort figuring out that his secret is known." He said while taking her hand in his own.
"At the very least, you and Susan will be able to have closure with the chance to properly bury you family." Harry added as he tried to comfort her.
Amelia took in a deep breath with her eyes closed, before nodding slowly.
"You're right. Let me try to find the rest of my family, and then we can leave." She said while looking to the rest of the bodies that were now laying motionless.
"You do that while I check out the interior." Harry said as he pulled a pair of boots out of his bag, Ahzidal's Boots of Waterwalking. Sirius and Amelia then watched in amazement as Harry began walking upon the water's surface as he made his way deeper by himself.
"Do the surprises ever stop with him?" Amelia asked as they watched Harry vanish in he distance.
"I've learned to just go with it." Sirius replied seriously. He then worked together with Amelia to recover the rest of her deceased family while they waited for Harry to return. Aside from her brothers and parents, they also located their wives and even Edgar's children that were murdered alongside their parents.
It was heartbreaking to see them all reduced to this state after all of this time, but Amelia consoled herself with the fact that she and Susan would be able to give them all a proper goodbye now.
It was only after finding them and moving them to the entrance with Regulus and the others that Harry returned from his journey to the center of the lake, his skin pale and hands shaking slightly.
"Are you alright?!" Sirius asked with alarm.
"Let's just get home so I can down a bottle of ale and get to bed." Harry replied, stowing the fake locket he had acquired from the center of the lake into a pocket as he joined them.
"Kreacher!" Sirius called out, before the elf suddenly appeared with a crack.
"Master calls for Kreacher?" He asked, visibly suppressing a shudder from being back in the cave.
"We need you to bring us back home, to Potter Manor." Sirius told him, while also gesturing to the remains they were bringing back with them.
Kreacher ended up making three trips altogether. One to bring the remains back, a second to take Sirius and Amelia, and then the last one was to bring Harry after he finished the last thing he needed to do.
"Time to make sure that no one will ever be able to visit this place ever again." Harry muttered to himself as fire gathered in one hand, and lightning gathered in the other while a rush of Magika surged through him courtesy of the Secret of Arcana. Basically an ability that granted Harry what felt like limitless Magika for thirty seconds.
Lightning arched through the cavern and fire roared as gouges were carved from stone, rocks melted into slag, and corpses were reduced to ash within a matter of seconds as Harry utilized two of the most powerful Destruction school spells, Lightning Storm and Fire Storm.
When he was finished, also destroying the entrance, Kreacher also took Harry home to the manor, where he quickly chugged an entire bottle of whiskey before collapsing in his bed without either bathing or changing to sleep off the effects of the potion in the basin.
...
Sunlight filled Harry's room when he finally awoke, indicating that it was already late in the day compared to his usual waking time. Curiously, Susan was also in his room like when she usually woke him up in the mornings, but this time she was sitting in a chair as if she were waiting for him to wake up.
"Harry..." Susan uttered as he finally stirred.
"Susan. What time is it?" Harry asked as he sat up and stretched, feeling much better than he had when he went to bed.
"We already had lunch, if that tells you anything. But both Sirius and aunty told me to let you sleep." Susan answered, though Harry could tell there was more on the tip of her tongue.
"What is it-" Harry began to ask as he stood, only to be cut off as Susan suddenly wrapped him in a bone-cracking hug.
"Thank you." She said in a voice barely above a whisper, before doing something that truly surprised him. She kissed him on the cheek.
Susan held the contact between her lips and Harry's cheek for a moment, before pulling away suddenly as she hurried out of his room without another word, her face as red as her hair.
Harry watched her go silently as she practically fled his room, the edge of his quirked upwards slightly in amusment as a thought crossed his mind. When had he last seen such innocence from a girl?