Chapter 25: Phoenix Rising

The room was frozen for what felt like hours as the occupants of the room stared at the remains of two of Voldemort's horcruxes.

When Voldemort finally looked up, they jumped. "Barty, Lupin, Tonks, Blacks, Malfoys and Harry stay, the rest of you leave. NOW!"

The Death Eaters scrambled to exit the room as fast as possible just in case Voldemort decided start torturing people whilst they were still within Voldemort's cursing range. When the door finally slammed shut behind Macnair, Voldemort stood up from his chair and began stalking in front of the fireplace.

"Who," he said dangerously, "Was foolish or treacherous enough to tell Dumbledore about the horcruxes? Was it you?!" He rounded on Regulus.

Regulus flinched from his furious gaze. "If I had any intention of telling Dumbledore about the sodding things I would have done it sixteen years ago and saved myself the agony of watching my son grow up calling someone else father. Don't try to blame me for this one."

"Have you ever thought that perhaps your grand master plan of immortality wasn't quite as clever as you would like it to be?" Sirius said, stepping in front of his brother. "After all, if a nineteen year old can work it out on the basis of very few clues why not Albus Dumbledore?"

Voldemort did not grace that with a response and instead returned to glaring at the fireplace, leaving the room awkwardly silent. Maggie glanced around the room. Sirius was scowling at the Dark Lord's back while Harry's eyes flicked between Voldemort and Sirius. Remus and Tonks were attempting to reassure him, but it could not be more obvious they were terrified. If anything was to be accomplished, they would have to risk Voldemort's wrath.

Another look. By 'they', she meant 'she'.

"Let's think about this logically" Maggie said slowly, "We can't reverse what Dumbledore has already done but we can plan ahead and protect the others can't we?"

There was a visible attempt by Sirius to covertly slip out of his chair and leave the room, hindered by Marius glaring at him as he tried to surreptitiously convince Harry and Remus to leave with him. Maggie held her breath for what felt like an eternity as the furious Dark Wizard turned to face her.

"I must," Voldemort said coldly. Maggie relaxed. Voldemort was not beyond reason in his anger, and there was still hope that they could regain control of this situation.

"So, the other horcruxes, my lord" Lucius said, "What would you like us to do?"

If Voldemort had possessed a nose, it would have flared in anger rather than just causing a spasm in the middle of his face that made Maggie wonder for a brief moment if essentially immortal dark wizards could still have strokes.

"There are only three horcruxes left: the cup—Hufflepuff's, Nagini, and my grandfather's ring." He stroked the snake, who lovingly flicked at his face with her forked tongue. "The cup and Nagini are safe." So where is the ring?" Sirius asked impatiently, "It's no good being mysterious and secretive about it if we don't actually know how we can help you."

Maggie began to mentally write Sirius's eulogy.

"The ring is hidden at my grandfather's house a few miles away." Voldemort said stiffly.

"Great!" Sirius said bounding up from his chair and moving quickly towards the door, dragging Harry and Regulus behind him, "We can go for a walk to go for a Christmas afternoon walk to go and walk off dinner…"

"Where do you think you are going Black?"

Sirius turned, his hand on the doorknob. "To help you get back the ring?"

"Do you even know where my grandfather's house is?" Voldemort snapped.

"No, but I was going to head the exact opposite direction and go to the pub for a few hours."

Maggie interrupted before Sirius actually got murdered. "There's no point in us going right this instant; we've all had slightly too much to drink and it's dark and cold outside. We'll go first thing tomorrow when we can more safely curse-break. "

Voldemort scowled but nodded his assent. With a flick of his wand he encased Nagini in a protective bubble and floated her ahead of him.

"Black, unless you wish to spend Boxing Day in St Mungo's I suggest that you move away from the door."

Sirius and Harry sensibly moved out of Voldemort's way and he stormed out the room, slamming the door behind him and causing the fairy on the top of the Christmas tree to faint.

"Well," Marius said. "That was an utter shambles."

"Agreed." Lucius muttered.

Regulus stood and walked towards the pile of burned objects. He picked up the diadem, turning the tarnished tiara over in his hands to look at it properly, a strange expression on his face.

"Reg?" Maggie asked, coming to stand next to him.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure. This was the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, it was supposed to enhance the wearers intelligence, enchanted by the greatest mind the wizarding world has ever known. Now lost forever because Voldemort decided it would make a good storage facility."

Maggie tensed when Barty, usually Voldemort's staunchest follower, spoke, but he said longingly, "Lost for centuries, recovered by our Lord. Imagine the wisdom it could have brought us."

"And Slytherin's Locket and Hufflepuff's Cup," Lucius said.

"I'm sure Helga Hufflepuff would have been offended by the use of her cup." Maggie replied.

"I don't imagine that Ravenclaw would have been much happier either. They should all have been protected and preserved to promote the Dark Lord's cause." Barty said.

For a while they stood, the six of them, and regarded the destroyed artefacts, as if taking a moment of silence for them and the brilliant witches and wizards who created them.

"He never acquired the sword of Godric Gryffindor." Marius said finally.

"Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin were all married with children to inherit their possessions," Regulus explained, "Gryffindor was actually magically bonded to the welsh king Math fab Mathonwy but as neither had any close magical relatives, instead of allowing the sword to pass to Math's great-nephew, Gryffindor concealed the sword somewhere."

"In the sorting hat," Harry said, "enchanted so that only those who showed true courage were able to pull the sword out of the hat."

Regulus looked at Harry in surprise.

"I pulled it out of the hat in the Chamber of Secrets." Harry blushed. "That's how I defeated the basilisk."

"Is there anything that you haven't done?" Barty inquired in an amused voice.

"Seen a chimera?"

"Greece next summer, anyone?" Remus grinned.

"How about we save holiday plans for the other side of tomorrow's horcrux rescue?" Marius said. "I suggest that we all get some sleep. Tomorrow will be an early start."

The Next Morning

Marius had not been exaggerating. Voldemort woke them all at three am and despite the fact that it was pitch black outside had forced the residents of Riddle Manor who was not the small group that surrounded Harry and Maggie to Malfoy Manor and had summoned back Bellatrix. Narcissa and Lucius had left in a foul mood to ensure that Malfoy Manor was not trashed. Harry and Draco were also furious. They had been packed off to stay with Marius and Agalia at The Barricade and were enormously resentful of the adults excluding them from the crisis management. However, as even Sirius had agreed that allowing the boys to accompany them to the Gaunt hovel was not advisable; they had been packed off to Sussex with the promise of more information (Harry) and more presents (Draco) in exchange for their reluctant cooperation. When everyone else had departed, Barty, Sirius, Regulus, Bellatrix, Remus, Tonks and Maggie were left huddled in the front porch of the Riddle House while Voldemort impatiently waited for the first glimpse of the sun.

"This is preposterous," he muttered

"What is my Lord?" Bellatrix asked eagerly

"It does not matter Bella. We shall rescue the ring soon and then Albus Dumbledore will cease to have any advantage over us."

"My Lord. Antonin and I were wondering: the boy is still a potential weapon for Dumbledore. Surely it would be better to you to remove that threat." Bellatrix licked her lips. "If my lord desires an heir I would be honoured…"

Sirius made to launch himself at his cousin, but Voldemort's cruciatus reached her first. Bellatrix writhed in agony in the snow.

"Cease your discussion of such matters, Bellatrix. Now is not the time."

Maggie looked at Voldemort in alarm; Barty placed a hand on her arm to stop her from commenting.

"Bellatrix and Antonin have descended further into madness than I thought was possible and I was under the imperious curse for twelve years; for the time being, let it be, Maggie." He whispered in her ear.

She frowned, "But..."

"You're concerned about Harry and that's understandable but he's safe at the Barricade and he'll be back at Hogwarts soon enough." Barty awkwardly put an arm around her.

"Yes, with Albus Dumbledore." She retorted, not shaking the arm off.

"Albus Dumbledore may be a manipulative old goat but he's far less likely to kill Harry at the moment than Bellatrix is."

She nestled into his shoulder for a moment and he slightly uncertainly gave her a hug.

"Thanks, Barty."

They stood huddled together for three hours bickering about whether Machiavelli was genuine in proposing that immoral means were acceptable to achieve glory, whether digestive or hobnobs were better biscuits and whether the ballpoint pen needed introducing to the wizarding world. Maggie did not notice Sirius' struggles to both avoid murdering Bellatrix and perform a victory dance at Maggie and Barty's embrace. Finally, after far too long stood freezing in the bitter Yorkshire weather the first glimpse of the sun emerged. They transfigured their clothing to something that wouldn't break the Statute of Secrecy and set off on a brisk march down the hill.

"My Lord," Bellatrix protested, "surely we don't need to wear the clothes of Muggle scum. If we apparated—"

"Because Bella," Voldemort said impatiently dusting snow of the shoulders of the expensive looking black coat he was wearing, "There are a series of curses and wards.,even apparating near the hovel is enough to set them off. If you attempted to apparate directly into the hovel you would find yourself as multiple hunks of dead flesh scattered across the British isles. Now cease your moaning and walk."

They staggered through the blisteringly cold wind down into Little Hangelton, very nearly concussing a young woman collecting for the Salvation Army due to lack of visibility. Maggie shoved £50 in the disgruntled woman's charity box to prevent a scene.

As they began the mile's walk from the village centre to the Gaunt hovel, a pair of elderly gentlemen trudged through the snow towards them. The taller of the two wore a long black coat and trilby hat with a fluorescent blue scarf and appeared to be somewhat out of breath. The other man was dressed in a tweed suit. He was short and heavy set with a thick gingery white beard and was leaning heavily on a black walking stick to support them both. They looked like an odd pair walking towards them and all of them surreptitiously went for their wands, suspecting that it was Dumbledore and Moody walking towards them.

"Good day to yous." The taller man said in a thick Irish accent, wheezing slightly as he talked. The shorter man repeated the sentiment in an identical accent.

Maggie relaxed. Just some elderly Irish muggles, then.

Voldemort looked them over and adopted the air of a local gentry. "We don't often get visitors around Little Hangelton, what's your business in these parts?"

"Visiting family in Greater Hangelton. We just thought we'd get a walk in before the match this afternoon. Didn't we, Brendan?" The taller man said, his eyes darting about and his hand shaking a little.

"Certainly, Mick." Brendan replied, "How far ahead is Little Hangelton? We wouldn't mind a drink if the pubs open in this weather. Mick here overestimated how far he could actually walk, the berk."

"It's another five minutes ahead of you and The Hanged Man is the first building you see in the village square."

"Cheers!" Mick said more cheerfully, "Merry Christmas!"

The two elderly men moved off as fast as they could and for a moment the seven of them stood there in bemusement. Then, out of nowhere, a projectile hit Barty on the back of the head.

"What the f…" Sirius bent down to pick up the familiar hip flask off the floor and saw the dregs of polyjuice potion dripping onto the snow.

As they turned towards the elderly Irish gentlemen, the two transformed back into Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody. They barely heard Moody yell "Merry Christmas you feckless bastards!" before he apparated away with Dumbledore.

Sirius swore loudly and profusely and Voldemort began running towards the shack. Maggie staggered behind him, praying that they weren't too late.

The Gaunt Hovel was a ruin, a rotting wooden shack that stank of decay. There was a large crater in the middle of the hovel that Maggie suspected had been recently caused by magic. As they ran towards the crater, Maggie pictured Dumbledore's injured look and remembered that Moody had had to side-apparate him. Maybe, just maybe, the wards had prevented Dumbledore from taking the ring.

Underneath a pile of wood in the centre of the crater there was a small metal box, which had the letters T.M Riddle engraved in one corner. Voldemort frantically opened it and began throwing objects out. It must have had had an undetectable extension charm placed on it because she had to duck to avoid being hit by a yo-yo, a harmonica and a taxidermy rabbit. Voldemort threw the box down in disgust and pushed past Sirius to search through the ruins while Maggie stood frozen, praying.

But ten minutes later, Voldemort let out a terrible rage-filled shriek that seemed to rock the shack.

Albus Dumbledore had Marvolo Gaunt's ring.

Sorry that this has been a while, I've been rather busy with University work. However, I'm going to aim to write a lot more this summer and aim to get it done as soon as I can. Thank you to my incredible beta UniquelyMi ~TheRealRitaSkeeter