Molly, Harry, Hermione and Ron, all dressed up in Muggle clothing, got off at Vauxhall underground station. Hermione led the way, gripping a slip of paper and glancing at it frequently as she wound her way through the crowded streets of London. The other three trailed after her, Ron fidgeting frequently and plucking at the straps of a lumpy rucksack he wore on his back. Every now and then, the lumps in the rucksack would shift around and reappear in new places, drawing surprised glances from other pedestrians.
They stopped in front of an old, rambling building surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Hermione glanced from the address numbers mounted on the gate to the paper in her hand and nodded. "This is it."
They walked up the path. Hermione rang the bell. After a brief wait, a curly-haired woman answered the door. "Hello," she sang out cheerfully. "Can I help you?"
Hermione said, "Hello, I called yesterday--"
"Oh yes," the woman responded, "you're the one who called on behalf of your mother?"
"That would be me," said Molly, reaching out her hand. The two women shook hands. "Good afternoon," said Molly, "I'm Molly Weasley and these are my three children."
"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Sarah Rather. Do come in."
As they filed into the main hallway, Sarah turned to Hermione and said, "Yes, I can see the mother-daughter resemblance."
"You can?" Hermione responded in surprise.
"Oh yes, everybody remarks on it," Molly said airily, "but you know teenagers, it's the last thing she wants to hear."
The two women shared a chuckle and a shake of heads over the ways of teenagers while Ron positioned himself with his back to the wall so that Sarah wouldn't see his rucksack go into a sudden convulsion, which he covered up with another flurry of strap-adjusting. Molly spared a moment for a quick, meaningful look at Hermione, who mouthed, "Sorry," back at her.
"Well then," said Sarah, "I believe you want to see Tom Riddle's old room?"
"That's right," said Molly.
"Any particular reason why?" Sarah asked curiously.
Molly shrugged. "Sentimentality I suppose. I'd like to get some idea of how my father lived, growing up. The children too. We're also hoping he might have left something behind, something personal. Perhaps that's a bit of a foolish hope after all these years, but..."
"I see," said Sarah thoughtfully. "Well, you're in luck, in a sense. Tom's room's been empty ever since he left the orphanage in 1944. You probably have a better chance finding something in that room than in any other."
There was a pause. Ron's rucksack rustled gently. "Since 1944? Really?" murmured Molly.
"Oh yes. Not that we couldn't have used the space. Some of the children have to share bedrooms. But no child could stand to stay in that room. I was sceptical of the stories when I first arrived, and I tried to move children in, but... they were so frightened of it." Her brows knitted. "Especially of the wardrobe. I don't know how many times I showed them it was empty. It didn't matter," Sarah concluded distantly as Molly glanced nervously at Ron's rucksack. "Most peculiar."
"Indeed," said Molly. "May we see the room then?"
"Oh. Yes, of course. This way please." Sarah started down a hall. They followed her up a flight of stairs. "I can give you a tour of the facilities if you'd like," she offered.
"That's very kind of you," Molly responded hurriedly. "Perhaps afterwards."
"Oh. All right then." Sarah opened a door, and they peered in. It was just as Harry remembered from one of his Pensieve dives: the narrow bed, the wardrobe against the wall, the otherwise bareness of the room. Nothing had changed. The back of his neck prickled.
They filed into the room. Molly looked back at Sarah, waiting at the door. "Do you mind if we have some time alone in the room?"
"Alone? I don't see why that's necessary," said Sarah crossly. Ron's rucksack chose that moment to burst into a flurry of agonized activity that made Ron's shoulders quiver. Sarah's eyes moved to him. "Is something wrong?" she asked.
"N--No," exclaimed Ron, turning red under his freckles. "It's just... a muscle spasm." Hermione was hunched over near the wall, fiddling with something.
Sarah's eyes narrowed suspiciously. She turned to Molly. "I should have asked before," she said. "I realize you go by your married name, but... I wonder if you have any older identification, showing that you are the daughter of Tom Riddle? I hate to have to ask, but..."
Hermione straightened up and approached Sarah, extending her slip of paper towards Sarah. It had carried an address; now it was perfectly blank. "Here," she said. "This should make everything clear."
Sarah stared at her, took hold of the paper and looked at it. Her shoulders relaxed, her eyelids drooped and a dreamy smile played on her lips. "Oh yes, so it does." She handed the paper back to Hermione. "Thank you, dear. Just come by my office when you're done. It's the door at the far end of the hall." With that, she wandered off.
Hermione closed the door. Immediately, Ron croaked, "Thank Merlin you got rid of her!" and thrashed out of his rucksack like an eel. Molly cast an Imperturbable charm on the door while Ron knelt, undid the buckle on the rucksack and flipped it open. Dobby crawled out.
"Ahhh..." sighed Dobby with relief, stretching out his arms, followed by each leg in turn.
"Bloody hell, Dobby, did you have to kick me so much?" Ron complained.
Dobby looked contrite. "Dobby didn't mean to. Dobby sat still as long as possible but he had to move sometimes to bring feeling back into his legs."
"I'm sure it was very uncomfortable," Hermione said sympathetically. "You can't blame him, Ron."
"Yeah well, if you think it's fun to carry a house-elf around on your back, you should try it," Ron retorted. Dobby, meanwhile, was turning in slow circles, his big round eyes taking in every detail of the stark white room.
"Fortunately, we won't have to do it again," Hermione pointed out. "Dobby, are you ready? Have you seen enough to Apparate back?"
"Dobby is ready," Dobby assured them with a nod. "Dobby will return with the others." He Disapparated with a crack.
Four soft pops heralded the return of Dobby and the arrival of the other elves. Pat!k took a quick look around and headed straight for the wardrobe. He patted the aged, discoloured wood with his small hand. "Behind here. The horrcr!k is behind this."
Upon Pokey's translation, Ron approached the wardrobe, saying, "We'll have to move it then." The wardrobe looked rickety, but when Ron placed his palms on one side of it and pushed, it didn't even rock. Ron strained against the wardrobe until his feet were sliding backward, but it didn't budge.
"I didn't think it would be that easy," Harry commented.
"It felt as if it moved a bit," Ron said. He was slightly pink from the effort.
"No, Ron," said Hermione, restrained laughter in her voice, "your feet slid backwards."
"Oh." Ron turned pinker. He straightened up and looked at the wardrobe, then back at the group. "It didn't move at all?" he cried, distressed.
"You might as well try to push an oak tree," Molly commented. Her eyes didn't move from the wardrobe.
Hermione played with her hair and eyed the wardrobe thoughtfully. "A spell, then," she stated.
"Well, yeah," said Harry, "but which one?"
Hermione looked at Pokey. "Does Patuck have any idea?" she asked.
"Pat!k says no," Pokey replied.
Molly said, "Patuck had that vision. In it, did he see anything of how we would retrieve the Horcrux?"
"Pat!k says no," Pokey said again. "He saw the horrcr!k, ah, the Horcrux, and he had a feeling that his daughter would be needed to retrieve it. But no, he had no vision of the process."
There was a disappointed pause. "Bugger," said Ron.
"What about... what about his daughter? Does he know how she'll be needed?"
Again the answer was no. Molly flashed Pat!k an irritated look.
"Oh well," said Hermione, drawing out her wand, "we may as well experiment."
"Be careful, dear," murmured Molly.
Hermione pointed her wand at the wardrobe. "Wingardium leviosa," she said. The wardrobe didn't stir.
"All right, that's not it," Hermione remarked.
Ron strode in front of the wardrobe and pulled out his wand. "Accio wardrobe."
Nothing.
"I'm glad that didn't work," said Hermione acerbically. "I didn't really want to see you get flattened by a flying wardrobe."
"I can dodge!" responded Ron indignantly.
"Would think you'd have learned your lesson from 'accio brain,'" she muttered.
"I didn't hear that," said Ron.
Several spells and a continually motionless wardrobe later, the four of them sat on Tom Riddle's old bed, thinking. Harry had his head lowered and both hands shoved into his disarrayed hair. Hermione leaned her chin on one hand and tapped her lip with the butt of her wand. Ron leaned back on the footboard with his arms crossed. Molly just stared at the wardrobe fixedly. Ch!kch!k began to fuss.
"We're going about this the wrong way," said Hermione. "We need to think like Tom. What would he use?" The three of them slowly turned their heads toward her.
"You know," said Harry, "I was wondering why Tom would have put a Horcrux here in the first place. It's a Muggle building. I wouldn't have thought he considered it worthy of one of his Horcruxes."
"But he grew up here," Hermione noted.
"Yes, but he wasn't happy here, was he?" Harry retorted. "He was only happy to leave, to go to Hogwarts--" he stopped, staring past Hermione to the white wall behind.
"What?" said Hermione.
"What?" said Ron.
"That was his one happy memory here," said Harry thoughtfully. "When Dumbledore came to tell him he had a place at Hogwarts. And when Tom wanted proof that Dumbledore really was a wizard, Dumbledore cast a spell that set the wardrobe on fire, but without damaging it."
"So," said Molly softly, "perhaps we need the spell that Dumbledore used to create the illusion of fire."
"Yeah!" said Harry, smiling hopefully. His smile faded. "But what was it?"
"Do you remember if Dumbledore said anything when he cast it?" asked Molly.
"I think it was a non-verbal," Harry replied.
"It's not one I'm familiar with," said Molly.
"But would Tom have known either?" mused Hermione.
"Well, not at the time, obviously," Ron broke in, "but he became a very powerful wizard, so I bet he knew by the time he planted the Horcrux."
"Hmm," said Hermione. "But it wasn't dark magic. It wasn't the sort of thing he was interested in, really. Tom liked to do damage. This spell left the wardrobe undamaged."
"He didn't only learn dark magic, Hermione," said Harry. "I mean, he went to Hogwarts, he would have studied everything we studied--"
"We didn't learn how to make a fire that doesn't consume," Hermione pointed out.
"But obviously, he didn't limit himself to the Hogwarts curriculum, he learned all sorts."
"Still," said Hermione, "I wonder if we don't just need a simple Incendio." She stood up.
"Wait just a moment," cried Molly, leaping to her feet. "Let's not burn ourselves up here."
"I can put the fire out again if it gets out of hand," said Hermione calmly.
"Just in case," said Molly, pointing her wand at the wardrobe, "I'm going to be ready to perform the counter-spell."
"Fine," said Hermione, raising her wand. "Incendio."
The wardrobe went up in flames like a torch. Molly let out a little shriek, and almost said the counter-spell, but the flames were not spreading. The wardrobe disintegrated in seconds, leaving nothing behind, not even ashes. Then flames burst out in a new spot, a few feet to the right. They roared almost to the ceiling, then died away, leaving an identical, undamaged wardrobe in their place.
"Oh! That was odd," said Harry. He gazed in disquiet from the brilliantly white rectangle where the wardrobe had been (making the rest of the wall look yellowed and dingy by comparison) to the wardrobe itself, standing a few feet away. "That was really odd," he repeated.
"Why?" asked Hermione. "It worked. It's like you said, he chose something connected to his one happy memory of this room."
"Yeah, but... it was like a phoenix. That wardrobe acted kind of like a phoenix, being reborn." Harry remembered the time he had seen Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix, burst into flames and then be reborn from its ashes. He shook his head.
"Let's not concern ourselves with that now," said Molly, standing up. "Hermione," she patted her on the shoulder, "that was really well done."
Hermione smiled. "Thanks, Mrs. Weasley."
They all turned and looked at the bright white rectangle.
Pat!k looked confused. "It should be there," he said.
Tadatada slowly approached the rectangle. She reached out her right hand. Her fingers brushed the painted surface. "There is something there," she murmured. "I feel it." All watched as she trailed her fingers back and forth across the wall. They drew lower, and the size of her sweeps decreased until she was right in the centre of the rectangle, close to the floor. "Yes. Here." She traced her index finger in a slow, inverted U from the spot where the wall met the floor, to a height of two or three inches, then down to the floor again. When she took her hand away, a thin inverted U of silver gleamed on the wall.
The others edged closer. "That's a very small door," said Harry.
Molly looked at him. "That's a door?"
"I think so. The same sort of thing happened in the cave. Dumbledore made the door appear on the stone, just like Tada just did."
"But what could fit through a door that small?" Molly wondered.
"How about a rat?" said Ron darkly.
"Wormtail," Harry and Hermione said simultaneously.
"All right," said Molly. "How do we open the door?"
"Well, in the cave, Dumbledore used his blood," Harry said softly. "I offered to use mine, but he said mine was too valuable."
"I suppose it will have to be mine," said Molly briskly. She pulled out her wand and, wincing, made a small nick in the side of her index finger. She rubbed her hand on the wall, leaving a small red smear inside the silver line. The wall bounded within the silver line, vanished, leaving a hole.
"Yep," said Ron. "Looks like a rat hole."
Ch!kch!k crawled forward and tried to reach inside the hole, but Tadatada seized her hand and held it back.
"Well, it's open. How do we proceed?" asked Molly.
"May as well try an Accio," said Harry, standing up. "It probably won't work, but... it might show us what the defence is." He raised his wand.
"Accio Horcrux."
Something silvery flashed into view, bounced off an invisible barrier, and rolled back into the darkness.
Ch!kch!k squealed at the sight, and reached out her other arm. Tadatada grabbed it with her free hand, then bundled the child into her arms and backed her away from the rat hole. Ch!kch!k began to whine. Pat!k watched the two of them with an unreadable expression.
"It could be worse," remarked Hermione.
"Why? What did you have in mind?" asked Ron.
"Well... I had this picture in my head of a chopper coming down and cutting off the hand of whoever reached inside," Hermione explained, "but it looks like it's just a magical barrier."
"Like the one around the basin in the cave," Harry said.
"Yes."
Ch!kch!k let out a piercing scream of fury. Everyone in the room winced. Pat!k's eyes moved from the shrieking child to Tadatada. His gaze was penetrating. Tadatada averted her eyes and held Ch!kch!k tighter.
"You'd need a pretty small hand to fit in there, wouldn't you?" said Ron. "Hey! I just had a thought." He stuck a finger in one ear to dampen Ch!kch!k's cries and leaned towards Hermione and Harry.
"What if you have to have a rat to get the Horcrux? I mean, think about it. You-Know-Who must have had Wormtail put it in there in the first place, so maybe he was planning on using Wormtail to get it back out again."
Harry shook his head. "I don't think so," he said. "Voldemort wouldn't want to make himself dependent on Wormtail."
"But how then?" argued Ron. "His own hand wouldn't fit in there."
"House-elves have small hands," noted Hermione.
"You think You-Know-Who was going to bring a house-elf here?" asked Ron.
"Maybe."
"What is wrong with that child?" cried Molly, clasping her hands in distress. Tears rolled down Ch!kch!k's face as her arms flailed in the direction of the rat hole.
"You are going to have to let her go," said Pat!k.
"Are you crazy?" cried Tadatada. "Let my daughter put her hand in a mad wizard's hole?"
"I told you at the beginning that Ch!kch!k would have a vital role to play." Pat!k rose his voice over Ch!kch!k's screams. "That time has come. She knows it. Look at her."
"I thought you cared about my child," Tadatada cried accusingly, "but obviously you do not!"
"Oh dear," said Pokey.
"Of course I do," Pat!k responded angrily. "She's my child too!"
"What are they saying?" asked Ron.
"Pat!k is saying that Tadatada must let Ch!kch!k go, and Tadatada is saying he doesn't care about the child's welfare," Pokey summarized.
"After all," Tadatada continued, "you didn't do anything when that horrible woman was going to hit her with a stick."
"Tireelah's eyes!" Pat!k swore. "Have you been saving that one up all this time?"
"You swore to protect my child, but your vows are nothing but ash in the wind, are they not?"
"That is not true," Pat!k protested. "I read in the woman's eyes that she would not do it. She was just making a show, to scare us off."
"Oh, you read, you read," Tadatada echoed mockingly. "You read nothing!"
"She was a mother too," Pat!k reminded her. "She would never kill another mother's child."
"If you cared about your daughter," declared Tadatada, "you would do this in her place."
"I told you, only she can do it. I cannot..."
"Try!" screamed Tadatada, stamping her foot. "Try!"
Pat!k looked darkly at her, but knelt and aimed his hand at the rat hole. Ch!kch!k stopped crying and watched, her face tear-streaked, her lower lip quivering. All the humans and house-elves likewise fell silent and watched as Pat!k's hand repeatedly bounced off the invisible barrier at the mouth of the rat hole.
"You are not really trying," Tadatada snapped. She stalked up to the hole, holding Ch!kch!k away with the other arm. Her fingers, too, repeatedly bounced away as she tried to thrust her hand into the hole.
"It's not letting me in," she said.
"It will let Ch!kch!k in," said Pat!k.
"I will not let Ch!kch!k in," declared Tadatada, standing up and pulling Ch!kch!k back. The child promptly began to cry again.
"Children!" cried Hermione. "Not rats, not house-elves... children!"
Harry and Ron turned to her. "What?" they said simultaneously.
"I have told you the consequences if we do not fulfil this mission," said Pat!k. "I will not tell you again. You must let her go."
"Well, he's always used children, hasn't he?" said Hermione. "When he was young, he tormented the other children in the orphanage. He used them to feel powerful. Then through the diary, he used Ginny to open the Chamber of Secrets."
"I am her mother. I will not let her go," declared Tadatada loudly."
"So," continued Hermione, "why not use a child to get a Horcrux?"
"Such is motherhood," said Pat!k, his voice trembling. "First it brings forth life, then, it sits on that life until it has smothered it."
"How... DARE you!" cried Tadatada.
Pokey had stopped translating. "What did he say?" asked Molly, hearing the rage in Tadatada's voice.
"He said... nothing flattering," replied Pokey cagily.
"Well, it's an orphanage, after all. He'd have his pick of children," Hermione pointed out.
"But he couldn't know that the orphanage would still be an orphanage fifty years later," said Ron.
"I don't think it would matter," said Harry. "He could just grab some Muggle kid off the street."
"It is true," said Pat!k. "All too true. It is why children need fathers--to free them from the mother's choke-hold."
Anger loosened Tadatada's grip. Ch!kch!k felt this, wrenched her hand free, and darted forward. Tadatada snatched for her and missed. Ch!kch!k's hand slid into the hole.
To Tadatada, time seemed to slow as Ch!kch!k pulled a gleaming object from the dark depths of the hole. As toddlers tend to do, Ch!kch!k opened her mouth and aimed the object towards it. Tadatada reached for her, but Pat!k had been standing nearer to the hole, and he reached her first. He plucked the object from Ch!kch!k's hand and inserted it into his own mouth.
Gasps sounded throughout the room. Silence followed as everyone took in the sight of Pat!k with his mouth covered by a silver disk, which bore the image of a lion.
Ron broke the silence. "Blimey," he breathed. "The last Horcrux is... Gryffindor's pacifier?"
There was a pause as they all stared at Pat!k with the pacifier in his mouth.
"Looks like it," muttered Harry.
Pat!k began to choke. "Oh no," murmured Hermione.
"What do we do now?" asked Ron, as Pat!k doubled over. His hands scrabbled at the pacifier.
It was clear that Pat!k was unable to get the pacifier out of his mouth. "We have to get it out," said Hermione, moving forward. Molly seized her by the arm. "No!" she cried. "Don't touch it!"
Ch!kch!k was starting to cry again. Tadatada took hold of the pacifier ring and pulled. Nothing happened. Then she let go with a scream of pain. Pat!k reeled backward, hit the wall and slid to the floor with his legs in front of him. The ring was now glowing white hot.
"OK, OK," said Harry, yanking his wand out of his pocket. "We need a spell then. Er..." He pointed his wand at the pacifier. The silver circle fell from Pat!k's mouth and hit the floor with a clang. Pat!k slumped back against the wall and let out an audible sigh of relief.
Hermione stared openmouthed at Harry. "That... that was really good," she said. "Which spell did you use? Was it a non-verbal?"
Harry shook his head. "N-No," he said, flustered. "I didn't do anything. I was still trying to think of something."
Dobby walked up to the pacifier and picked it up. "It's cool now," he announced. He turned it over, and they saw that the rubber nipple was gone. All that was left of it was a rubbery ring with tooth marks in it.
Pat!k turned to Pokey and spoke. "He bit it in half and swallowed the part that was in his mouth," Pokey explained. "He said it was the only way he could think of to make the voice stop."
"Does this mean," said Hermione in a hushed voice of mingled horror and awe, "that Patuck now has a piece of Voldemort's soul in his stomach?"
Everyone turned and looked down at Pat!k's belly. Even Pat!k looked down at it.
"How do you feel?" Pokey asked him.
"Much better, thank you," Pat!k replied.
"Maybe Horcruxes can be destroyed by stomach acid?" Ron suggested.
They left the room shortly afterwards. Molly opined that they should leave the room as they had found it (minus the Horcrux of course), so Ron again put his shoulder to the wardrobe, and had no trouble sliding it back in place in front of the rat hole. No trace of magic was detectable now. It was just a bare and shabby room in an orphanage.
The elves Apparated themselves back to the Burrow while the humans went in search of Sarah Rather.
"Did you find what you were looking for then?" asked Sarah as she showed them the door.
"Yes, we did," said Molly.
"Oh?" Sarah looked at her expectantly.
"Thank you very much for your help," said Molly firmly as she walked out the door.
Harry turned back. "Why don't you put somebody in that room?" he asked Sarah.
Sarah's forehead creased. "Yes, why don't we? Some of the children are sharing rooms. I don't know why that one's been left empty." She passed a hand over her forehead.
"It's all right," said Harry. "You won't have a problem with that room anymore."
"No, I don't see why we should. Why should we have a problem?" She looked in puzzlement at Harry. He shrugged and smiled.
"What an odd lot you are," Sarah murmured. "Right then, I'll move Linda there. She'll be so pleased, she and Cindy don't get along... goodbye then." She closed the door.
Harry Potter and the Wild Elves by VivianU
Chapter Notes: Getting there... can I get it all up before DH comes out? Ooh, I hope I can I hope I can I hope I can...