Chapter 4: Horcruxes
Harry ran down to the basement, the others close behind. Of course, they're surprised; you just told them Voldemort was literally in your head and something similar in this random locket. And I just so happen to have something that can track that, for some reason. Harry jumped the last few steps and marched to the dining room's door, where this "meeting" was.
Harry's hand clutched around the shielded locket tighter. Some part of him wanted to destroy this thing, grind it down until the dust blew away in the wind. Kill it... that part of him demanded, though Harry was unsure how. But that was a problem for later. He grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door, but it refused to budge.
"Harry, it's locked," Hermione said. "Order members only, they won't let us in. Harry, just slow down, you're not making sense."
"I'll explain later," Harry replied stiffly, lifting his free hand in a clutching motion and wrenching it back.
The door followed, pulled out by his magic. He dropped the door and marched inside with a grim expression on his face. If the order wanted to fight Voldemort, they could start with whatever this was. The room he walked into had several people seated around a long table. Harry recognized Lupin, Moody, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Snape, McGonagall, Sirius, and others Harry didn't know. And most of them were pointing their wands at the door. Ripping the door off wasn't my brightest idea.
Sirius lowered his wand first; the others followed suit slowly.
"Harry!? What are you doing?" Mrs. Weasley shouted.
"I'm taking care of a safety issue," Harry said as he tossed the locket onto the table. The locket and its bubble rolled until it came to rest in front of Moody. "We found this upstairs."
"Potter, couldn't this wait until afterward or are you going to insist on barging into every meeting?" Snape drawled.
"If I wanted your opinion—" Harry was cut off as Twilight grabbed his shoulder.
"Harry, calm down, take a deep breath." Twilight took a deep breath, and Harry followed suit. "We need to explain everything in detail, we don't have to rush. You're not in danger, and neither are we. Calm down, please."
Harry closed his eyes and took another breath with Twilight. He reminded himself what he needed to say. Twilight's right. Just tell them the truth; ignore Snape.
"Right. We were upstairs and found this locket. We don't know what it is, but we do know it's very cursed."
Moody's magical eye focused on the locket. "How'd you figure that out? Hopefully, none of you tried to wear it. Several aurors have lost their lives to such a rookie mistake!"
"Of course not," Sunset said. "Harry only held it for a second, and the effects wore off when he dropped it. It seems to cause severe irrational anger."
"That's a rather mild effect for being as cursed as you think. How'd you find it anyways?" Lupin asked. The man looked more threadbare than he usually did; tired, to boot. He glanced at Sunset. "And if you don't mind me asking, who are you?"
"Her name is Sunset Shimmer, a friend of ours in Equestria. And as for how we found it, that was my amulet." Harry removed his amulet and tossed it to Moody. The auror caught it out of the air and inspected it with his magical eye. The amulet flipped open, revealing the crystal and its compass-like mark. "This was made for me by Princess Celestia before the Summer Sun Celebration. It was designed to sever my link to Voldemort, the link that kept giving me headaches and visions. I planned to open it outside of Equestria and let its magic fade away. It didn't work out as planned, and now it's acting like a compass. It's what led us to that locket."
Kill it...
"Fascinating," Moody said. He tossed the amulet back to Harry. "And what of this shield?"
Twilight shuffled forward. "That was my doing. I mimicked a ward Cadance used to contain Harry once. If this thing is like Harry's scar, love and Harmony magics are antithetical to it."
"I'm sorry, what was that about containing Potter?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes, I feel like we're missing some details here," Arthur said.
"It ought to be more fun than our meeting anyways," one of the other wizards said.
"Shove it, Mundungus!" the pink-haired witch scolded.
"We should wait for Dumbledore," Lupin remarked.
Harry agreed. Despite Dumbledore knowing (and not telling) about a prophecy that could be important, Harry trusted him enough to solve this problem. Surely in the course of trying to solve Harry's scar, something like a split soul was not unfeasible?
"Why should you have waited for me?" an old voice spoke. Everyone turned around to see Albus Dumbledore enter the room. The old man seemed to look everywhere except Harry. "I'm sorry for my tardiness, but there was an urgent matter at Hogwarts to attend to." Dumbledore looked around the room. "I do have two questions: why are the children here and why is the door missing?"
"Potter has been spinning whimsical stories," Snape said.
"I expected you to take this more seriously, Snivellus, but your grudge is getting in the way again. Or maybe it's that ugly mop of hair in your eyes," Sirius accused.
"If you two cannot get along, we will continue this without you; you don't have much to contribute," Moody scowled. He flicked his wand, lifting the locket. "Potter has made some grave claims. I'm inclined to agree, but I think you ought to hear this."
Dumbledore moved to take a seat at the head of the table, still avoiding eye contact with Harry. "Continue," he said curtly.
Harry tried to look at at Dumbledore's eyes, but he seemed insistent on not sharing eye contact. Harry sighed and rubbed his eyes. He could already tell this was going to be a long afternoon. He sat at the opposite end of the table, and the other teens sat down nearby.
"Where do I start with this?" he whispered to Twilight.
"Start with the Crystal Empire, then the amulet, then Tirek, in that order," Twilight whispered back. "If you need any help, I'm right here."
Harry took a deep breath. He didn't want to talk about Tirek. He still had dreams about his fight. bad dreams, even though Luna helped quell what she could.
After a moment to collect himself, Harry said, "I suppose I should start by answering McGonagall's question. During my second visit to Equestria, the one where you thought I was kidnapped, Twilight's friends and I traveled to the frozen north to visit a place called the Crystal Empire. When we arrived, we got to meet Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Twilight's sister-in-law. When we touched, her magic and my scar reacted. As the Alicorn of Love, her power is highly synonymous with love, the reason my mother's sacrifice could protect me from Voldemort. Due to the magic in Equestria, the dark magic tried to escape and take a physical form of its own. Cadance contained it until it weakened and retreated. That was our first hint as to what my scar was."
"Take physical form? You mean to suggest your scar has a will of its own?" Lupin asked. Harry nodded. "When— I mean— How did you figure that out?"
"That's where my amulet comes in." Harry held Celestia's gift so everyone could see it. "Princess Luna, Princess of the Night, was able to use her power over dreams to observe my mental link to Voldemort. The three princesses created this amulet to break the link, and then Celestia gave it to me before the yearly Summer Sun Celebration. That was how we came to learn the truth of my scar: it contained a portion of Voldemort's soul."
Everyone's eyes widened in astonishment. Some looked beyond skeptical, others were fearful. Harry couldn't tell if they were scared of him or for him, but at least he had their undivided attention. Some, such as Snape and Moody, had their hands deep in their robes' pockets. Sirius, Lupin, McGonagall, and the pink-haired witch looked concerned for Harry. The Weasley couple were confused. Harry couldn't get a read on Moody's face, but skepticism seemed likely.
Dumbledore, however, looked deeply troubled, more so than Harry had ever known the man to be. Still, he refused to meet Harry's eyes. Harry grew cross at Dumbledore's lack of input.
"Voldemort was possessing you?!" Moody demanded furiously.
"Not anymore, he's gone," Harry said quickly.
"How can you be sure!? The dark lord is a cunning manipulator, how can we be certain you are even the one talking to us?" Mood scowled. He walked around the table, staring down at Harry.
Twilight and Sunset moved between Harry and Moody.
"Because I believe him," Twilight said firmly. "I've known him longer than anyone, I'd know if my friend was possessed."
"You have a problem with him, you go through us," Sunset added. A small fireball ignited in her open palm, a threatening and protective message.
The stare-down continued until Sirius said, "Mad Eye, back away from my godson. If he says Voldemort's gone, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt until we hear the rest."
"Yes," Dumbledore spoke slowly, "we can validate Harry's identity later."
Moody backed off and Sunset extinguished her fireball. Harry breathed a sigh of relief; that meant the hard part was done. At least Dumbledore had spoken in his defense.
"Harry, I need you to understand how serious this is," Dumbledore warned. "If you have something to tell us, now is the time. How did you get ahold of his soul?"
Harry nodded and began to explain. "I only carried a piece of it. Princess Celestia and I believe that when Voldemort first tried to kill me, his soul was fractured when the killing curse rebounded. A small piece of it latched on to me. When Princess Celestia gave me this amulet, it removed his soul fragment and trapped it. Once again, the plan was to open it away from Equestria, where it should fade without a host."
"Does your amulet still hold a piece of that soul?" Lupin asked.
Harry shook his head. "Not... not anymore. Not long before I returned, there was an... incident." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Harry felt Twilight wrap a hand around his. "This is where things get confusing, even for me. My memories are smudged, I don't remember the full picture. I'm still trying to piece everything together, but I'll try.
"When I was in Equestria, there was an attack by a centaur named Tirek. He tried to conquer Equestria thousands of years ago, but his brother, Scorpan, betrayed Tirek after Scorpan befriended a unicorn in Equestria. Tirek was imprisoned for his crimes. Not long ago, he escaped with the sole purpose of stealing every bit of pony magic in Equestria."
"Pony magic? I'm pretty sure there'd be a market for such a thing if they had magic," Mundungus said.
Harry rubbed his eyes. "I'm talking about Equestrian ponies; they have loads of magical properties. Tirek rampaged across Equestria, stealing all the magic he could. Even the capital was attacked. The last place he visited was Ponyville, the place I've called home since the end of school last year. That's when he... he..." Harry shuddered. He could remember the feeling of his magic draining vividly, even if everything after was foggy. "He stole my magic."
Looks of confusion passed between the adults.
McGonagall looked terrified and confused. "That's impossible. Magic can't be stolen, that goes against everything we know about it. It's something we're born with, it can't be removed by anything. Even muggle-borns and squibs are born with and without magic, they don't lose or gain it."
"She's right. Harry, that doesn't make sense," Hermione commented. "We've all seen you do magic, how's that possible if your magic is gone?"
Harry shrank a bit as the adults continued their litany of questions. This was much harder than he thought it would be. Why was it so hard to talk about Tirek, it wasn't like he hadn't almost died before. Except that time my friends were closer to death than ever, and I couldn't do anything.
"I'll take it from here, Harry," Twilight said to him.
Harry muttered a quick thanks and stayed quiet.
Twilight continues Harry's story by saying, "As unbelievable as it sounds, Tirek did learn to steal magic thousands of years ago; it's why he had such an unnatural lifespan. That brings us to the last part of the story. I wasn't there, but my friends told me what happened. After Tirek drained Harry of his magic, the magical imbalance around Tirek caused Harry's amulet to fail. Voldemort's soul fragment escaped and entered the nearest host: Harry. After possessing Harry, Voldemort used a spell to learn Tirek's ability and steal magic for himself, challenging Tirek. Voldemort was no match for Tirek, who managed to recapture Voldemort's soul in the amulet with Discord's advice."
Harry found his voice, saying, "As I understand it, Voldemort got his— our— my? He got my body hurt, badly. Disapperation was the only thing that saved me from being turned to ash, not that it mattered."
"I'm just glad Tirek trapped him instead of the alternative," Twilight said.
"So where is this 'soul fragment' now?" Moody demanded.
"Gone," Twilight said. "Tirek used Voldemort's magic against him and destroyed the soul fragment. Whatever part of Voldemort that was in Harry is gone, forever."
Everyone in the room (sans Harry and Twilight) took a moment to take in everything that was said. Harry could only take wild guesses as to what they were thinking. They were likely comprehending that Voldemort's soul was splintered, and pieces of it existed outside his body, one of which used to be in Harry for over ten years. He had (briefly) returned to power by possessing Harry. Voldemort was the most dangerous wizard of the modern era, and he was demolished by a centaur older than modern civilization after a significant power-up. That centaur also violated their conventional understanding of magic. And then, there was the amulet Harry placed before them, claiming it was the same.
Kill it...
"That's... quite the tale," Arthur said slowly.
"A rather unbelievable one at that," Snape snarked. "It violates rules of magic, highly unlikely. Potter doesn't understand what he is suggesting."
"So says the man who can't get the Defense Against the Dark Arts job," Harry muttered.
"You are still exceedingly arrogant, like your father, spinning tales of grandeur."
"Has anyone told you you have an unhealthy obsession with a dead man?"
"Enough, both of you." Dumbledore snapped.
Harry and Snape broke eye contact, but tensions remained high in the room. The adults appeared to still be mulling over the tale. It felt like an eternity before anyone else spoke again.
"So he's gone, or at least, that part of him is?" Lupin asked.
"Near as we can tell, yes," Twilight answered. She pointed at the locket on the table. "That's why we were so alarmed by this, we think it might be similar. WE don't know if it's Voldemort's or something else, but we know it's cursed."
"Why would someone split his soul? To what end?" a tall black wizard at the end of the table spoke.
"I can guess, and none of them are good," Sunset said.
Dumbledore drew his wand and pulled the locket closer. "A fragment of a soul?" he muttered, inspecting the locket.
"Then it's possible, what Harry says?" Hermione asked.
"I don't think so, Miss Granger. I daresay it's impossible," Dumbledore said.
Disbelief mixed with outrage in Harry. That thing held a soul fragment, he knew it!
Dumbledore looked at the locket once more before saying, "The fragmentation of Voldemort's soul upon killing Harry was a unique event. However, caution is always a good policy with cursed objects, its properties are likely similar. I would like to talk with Harry alone in the drawing room."
"I'm coming with," Twilight said.
"I'm afraid these matters are for Harry's ears only," Dumbledore said.
"Well, too bad. The Dursleys transferred Harry's legal guardianship to the Equestrian government, he's under my authority," Twilight declared.
"Hold on, I'm Harry's godfather, don't I get a say?" Sirius asked.
"You're a fugitive, you can't legally claim him," Twilight countered. "Harry has Equestrian citizenship and is still a ward of the state until he ages out."
Sirius swore.
"Your ward?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Try loyal subject. It's a weird power dynamic," Sunset said.
"Sunset!" Twilight yelped.
"Sweet Celestia, you're all almost as pushy as Rarity," Harry grumbled. "I don't care if it's about that blasted prophecy or my link to Voldemort, Twilight gets to hear what I get to know. If you don't tell her, I'll do it anyway," Harry said firmly.
"Who told you about that!?" Mrs. Weasley shouted, practically jumping out of her chair.
Harry spun around, baffled. Did she mean to say—
"You all knew?!" Harry exclaimed. The adults glanced at each other, their posture said it all. "Since when, and why wasn't I told?!"
Dumbledore's mouth pressed in a thin line at Harry's tone. "I see Celestia told you, just as I said not to. If you can't be persuaded, Twilight, and only her, may follow."
Dumbledore gestured for them to leave with him, still holding the orb. Harry and Twilight exited the dining room, went up the stairs, and into the drawing room where they found the locket. Dumbledore stood and pointed to the couch, asking Harry and Twilight to be seated. Dumbledore sat on the opposite couch.
"First off, I'm appalled Celestia told you about the prophecy," Dumbledore said. "I told her the prophecy only because she took you in over the summer; I needed her to understand the implication of taking you in. I suppose you want to know more now."
"Headmaster, I don't know what the prophecy is," Harry said quickly. "I told Celestia I didn't want to know, I thought it was better not to know an uncertain future. But I am upset that you never told me; I want to know why."
Dumbledore was silent for a moment, looking surprised.
"I thought you might obsess over it, as Voldemort did."
"That was my choice to make," Harry insisted, "not yours."
"Yes, and I hope you'll forgive an old man for his doubts," Dumbledore said. "Many would do anything to know their future. I am pleased you've chosen the wise decision. However, there are more pressing matters," Dumbledore said. Dumbledore held up the locket in its bubble and didn't speak for a long while. "Harry, what I tell you must never leave this room. Every person who knows risks Voldemort learning the truth, and his ignorance is our advantage."
Harry and Twilight shared a look. Dumbledore had been serious on the night Voldemort returned, but now he looked paranoid. Harry realized this was more severe than Celestia might've realized.
"Now, Harry, you must understand that what you are suggesting is possibly the foulest of magics to ever be conceived. The soul was never meant to be damaged, much less split into pieces. If you believe this locket to hold a piece of a soul, then you have found something known to very few: a horcrux. A horcrux is a word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul, tethering themselves to the living world. I suspected Voldemort might've created one, but I couldn't find evidence of any; that was until you handed me one in your second year."
A memory from Harry's second year came to mind— A memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years.
"Tom Riddle's diary! He put a part of himself inside it; that was his horcrux!" Harry exclaimed.
"That was his first," Dumbledore said gravely. He held the locket between them. "If your hunch is correct, it proves he's done the unthinkable and made multiple. Each one split his soul and kept him from staying dead. So long as they exist, he cannot die."
"That must've been why his body crumbled when we used the Elements!" Twilight exclaimed. She brought the locket to herself and started pacing around the couch. "If we can destroy this one, we'll be one step closer to stopping him! The only problem is how many he's made."
Harry held up a fist. "Well, let's count. First, there's the diary." He held up one finger.
"The locket," Twilight said. "But the amulet pointed to something in that bank, that might be another." Harry raised two more fingers.
"Then it is out of our reach, for now," Dumbledore said. "Are there any more suspicions?"
"His snake is probably one too," Harry said. "When I got to Equestria, I had one more vision, with the snake. That makes four so far, not counting me." Harry raised his fourth finger. "We just don't know how many he's made."
Twilight sighed. "If Voldemort's soul was damaged enough to break off a piece during his attempt to kill you, the snake could be his last one. We need to destroy this one."
Kill it...
Dumbledore shook his head. "I doubt it will be easy. Horcruxes are powerful in their own right, but so important that they will undoubtedly possess additional protections. Until a proper path can be determined, I will take the locket for safekeeping." Dumbledore held out his hand and Twilight deposited the locket in his palm, shrinking the bubble to barely be bigger than the object it concealed. Dumbledore put the horcrux in his robes. "For now, there is still work to do," Dumbledore said. "There will have to be a change of faculty this year. There is someone who may have the key to what we need."
"I wonder if the Dark Arts position is still jinxed," Twilight muttered, still inspecting the locket. "Harry's told me no one can keep that job more than a year. Have you considered swapping teachers halfway through the year so no one can keep it?"
"I have not considered that approach, though I have adapted many others. I have changed the classroom, syllabus, and class name several times. I can work something out before school starts."
"Sir, there's one more issue," Twilight said. "I know this is going to sound weird, but Sunset and I are kind of... stuck here. We can't open a portal home for some reason. I'm going to ask Celestia to open a portal, but for now, we can't go home."
"Yes, Celestia and I talked about a lot of things while she was here last year. One of those was the alibi that Equestria is a country." Dumbledore spoke calmly when he said, "Celesita told me the truth, that you exist in a world separate from ours."
Twilight and Harry shared a surprised glance.
"I understand you'll want to get home," Dumbledore said calmly. "Until you do, I have a proposition." Dumbledore pulled out two letters with a familiar seal on them and handed them to Twilight. "I don't think the board would object to the proposal. That is, of course, if you'll accept."
Twilight held the papers out for her and Harry to read.
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Teaching Assistant Application."
"Oh, and this was delivered to me earlier today, addressed to the three of you," Dumbledore said, handing over one more piece of paper. "I was wondering if you might know them."
"Good luck.
—D."
Harry and Twilight looked at each other. Discord.
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So you made a workaround to make it so Nagini is a horcrux without killing Bertha Jorkins?
11867707
Good question. Bertha Jorkins is dead, as she was in the books. She was killed in 1994, before Voldemort got his new body. Harry could see through Nagini in GoF, so she had to have been a Horcrux by this point. An interview with JK confirmed it, one which has yet to be contradicted.
Doc Rids?
Doc, you made a Time Machine, out of a Delorean?
Well, I hated all that electrical stuff for the engine I needed all the power for the time circuits, so I got rid of the E.
Please remind me why Snape is there. He wasn't a member of the order, he's Dumbledore's double agent.
11868092
Also a good question. I thought Snape was to act as Voldemort's "secret agent" in the Order while working as a double agent for Dumbledore. He did visit 12 Grimmauld Place from time to time (I don't have the book on me as I'm writing, so I checked the wiki) and he was also feeding information to both sides simultaneously.
I wonder, do you happen to know a YouTube channel by the name of SuperCarlinBrothers?
They have this long-running playlist of videos, titled "what if...?", where they explore a range of possibilities, mainly in the Harry Potter books, if at a certain point, they changed how a scenario plays out.
Anyway, the point being, they have a rule to always try to stick as close to the original story as possible, as they go through each and every story beat, that happens afterwards. One of these rules for example, is that any prophecy made in the original story, must also remain true in the "what if...?" story.
I'm asking, because I'm wondering if you are following a similar ruleset.
11868092
Yeah, that doesn't seem to track! Snape wasn't there even in the original story!
You called Dissy a background character. You know that risks tempting the multiverse to have him reach out of your screen and give you a right booping, right?
11868142
Okay, so I went back to the book, and found this.
Chapter 4:
Chapter 5:
Chapter 6:
I wasn't sure before, but Snape was there. I wasn't sure if was a Mandela effect or something for a moment. Between chapters 4 and 6, his name occurs only 9 times, so it's a blink and you'll miss it.
11868141
I have a similar ruleset. Things shouldn't change unless prompted, a rule some stories struggle with. Some stories repeat events in canon despite introducing people, events, or MacGuffins that logically prevent them from happening. I try to follow canon only as far it can go given the circumstances. For example, Voldemort's plan in the last story went differently due to the dominos laid out by Twilight's existence, resulting in an altered outcome. Everything before that had no reason to change, so it didn't.
The only real exception so far was the unicorn mini arc I wrote, which was more due to me (at the time) not understanding the implication of sapience, a common pitfall for writers. But, seeing as unicorns, pegasi, thestrals, and hippogriffs have relatively minor roles in the books, I didn't think much of it.
A good question nonetheless.
11868395
Well damn! Guess you got me there! I thought for sure he wasn't there! Movie difference maybe? Idk
Replying to your second answer:
Definitely agree there! The mini arc with the unicorns, thestrals and hippogriffs really added a lot of character to the story! I hope we'll get to see them again!
Why would Dumbledore say this when he knows full well what a Horcrux is and what Riddle was up to?
11868537
He's lying so that as little people as possible know about the horcruxes.
I can believe that there could be teacher asistants if Prefect or Head Boy don't help, but I can also believe that it could be solved with magic or the board of governors (if not Dumbledore) not allowing Teacher assistants.
Let's see how long the power of friendship can go against the power of corruption and toads
11868262
Q delights in his background character status since it allows him offscreen time to mess with things
11869967
I stand by my statement.