"And you don't think you could do it based on what happened in the graveyard?"
"Not from ashes, no. And not from your memory of destroying it. That's no match for having the physical object."
"Do not refer to my son as a physical object—"
Harry raised his eyebrows a little as he stepped into the library and the discussion between his father and Aunt Andromeda abruptly cut off. "An ominous conversation that you stop when you hear me coming isn't a bad sign at all," he said.
Father cast Aunt Andromeda a steady murderous look. Harry was kind of impressed by how well his aunt bore up under it. She said, "Your father was asking if we could track You-Know-Who's Horcruxes using the ashes of the one he believes he destroyed in the graveyard. I was saying we couldn't. If the ashes are even left. It's not impossible that You-Know-Who found someone to come and clean them up afterwards. And we can't do it based on a Pensieve memory. It has to be the one in your head."
Harry breathed out slowly and straightened his shoulders, then wandered over to the chair next to his father's. They were in the library, and golden light coming through the windows slanted shadows over Father's face. "Okay. I can do that."
"She wants to use you in a ritual."
"Not as ingredients the way You-Know-Who was planning, Lucius! As a participant so we can track the others!"
"You're sure the snake was a Horcrux?" Harry asked his father, choosing to ignore Aunt Andromeda for the moment.
His father nodded stiffly. "I believe she was, and we cannot take the chance that she was not."
Harry just nodded back. Then he turned to Aunt Andromeda. "What would I have to do?"
"Stand in the middle of a ritual circle," she said at once, glaring at Father as if she thought he would try to interrupt. "Speak a short chant. That should be all you need to do. Rituals like this often proceed by carving runes into the central object, but since you're alive, we don't have to do that."
"Well," Harry said after a moment of stunned silence, "good, then?"
"You can't be sure what impact Henry's living status would have on the ritual," Father hissed, slamming an open palm down on the arm of his chair. He also shifted as if he was going to get up and block Andromeda from looking at Harry. "And I will not allow you to carve runes on my son!"
"Well, what exactly do you suggest doing then, Lucius?" Andromeda snapped. "You are the one who told me about Horcruxes and insisted that I be involved in the quest to find them. Unless you happen to have a spare Horcrux lying around—"
Father laughed.
Harry cringed a little. The laughter was cold and sharp-edged, and he could easily imagine it flaying the skin off someone. Aunt Andromeda's eyes widened, and she said, "Lucius, your son."
Father immediately turned around a little and came over to kneel next to Harry's chair. "If you were frightened, Henry, I apologize," he murmured, and bowed his head.
Harry swallowed. Honestly, the amount of power he had over Father when he was like this sickened him a little. No, he didn't want Father to change the way he acted naturally just because of Harry.
"No, it's okay," he said. "I just—imagined some things."
"And some of us would quite like to hear an explanation of your laughter," Aunt Andromeda snapped, her arms folded.
Father stood up and turned to face her. "I just might," he said. "I might have a spare Horcrux lying around."
"Lucius, talk sense."
"The Dark Lord entrusted me with something he found precious," Father said softly. "And very Dark. At one point, I made an attempt to get rid of it, because Weasley was conducting raids on my house." His voice lowered, but luckily, he didn't go off in a tirade about Weasleys. "But the attempt proved more disastrous than hanging onto the object would. I still have it. It might be a Horcrux."
"Well," Aunt Andromeda said, after a stunned silence of her own, "we might as well test it."
....
Do you want to read ahead by more than 60 exciting premium chapters?
Then join my p*atreon right now.
Link: p*atreon.com/Sonic_Spectre (Remove the *)
Free members can unlock upto 2 chapters.