Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

“Yes, my Lord, we’ve found it,” the Dark Witch replied in an eerie voice, seemingly undeterred by Voldemort’s threats.

“Excellent. At last, some good news today. You’re far more useful than those stupid servants of mine,” said Voldemort, as though praising her, but only Harry knew he wasn’t sincere. “So, when can we begin? Once you complete the spell, I’ll fulfill my promise, and you will receive a special reward.”

“Thank you, my Lord, I’ve never doubted your promise, and I eagerly await the day when the new order arrives. However, unearthing the complete spell will take time,” said the Dark Witch. “And I must remind you once again, the spell alone won’t be enough to open that door. We also need… power!”

“I will bring a greater power,” said Voldemort, narrowing his red eyes. “The power of Death.”

Harry’s eyes snapped open, yanking himself back to reality, back to the dim kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

Everything was exactly as it had been when he’d left. Before him, Evan and Hermione were still studying Hufflepuff’s cup and the Slytherin deeds, their table piled with books and rolls of parchment. Across the table, Elaine sat idly licking a bloody-red lollipop, staring blankly into the flickering fire in the fireplace.

Harry shuddered and straightened up. The sharp pain in his scar flared again and again, forcing a sound from his throat and drawing the attention of Evan, Hermione, and Elaine.

From the looks on their faces — the quick shift from concentration to alarm — he knew they’d realized what had happened: he had slipped once more into Voldemort’s mind.

“Harry…”

“He knows!” Harry’s own voice sounded strange and low after Voldemort’s high screams. “He knows!”

“What?”

“Harry, what did you see?” Evan asked, setting down the golden cup. “He knows we took it?”

“Well, they rescued Bellatrix and found the four Death Eaters imprisoned in the upstairs room of the Leaky Cauldron. He interrogated a goblin and easily found out what was missing from the Lestrange family vault,” Harry gasped, and then he remembered the killings and added, “He was furious!”

“It’s not surprising. Everything in the Lestrange family vault is registered by the goblins. They only had to check to know what was missing,” said Evan thoughtfully. “We could have taken anything, and we chose the Cup. The Dark Lord must have understood that we knew about the Horcruxes. Well, what else did he do?”

“He was so angry he started killing people, many of them, including Death Eaters who didn’t have time to escape, about a dozen or so,” Harry continued, recalling the horrific massacre. “He couldn’t figure out how we’d learned about it, and then he thought of the other Horcruxes. The first was the diary, which had been destroyed. He thought it was an accident. The second was the ring. He seemed to think we couldn’t find it because no one knew about his relationship with the Gaunt family, and he had erased all traces of it.”

“Ha, we really should let him look into the memories in Dumbledore’s Pensieve and see if he would still be so confident then,” said Evan. “According to that logic, he should have thought the other Horcruxes were safe. How could we possibly know about the cave, or that he hid the diadem in Hogwarts? Yet we’ve already found and destroyed them. It’s ridiculous — he’s too arrogant. But it also proves something else: he can no longer sense his Horcruxes. Even when we destroy one, the main soul feels nothing. His soul is so fractured that it’s completely severed from the pieces he tore off.”

“Doing this is nothing short of self-destruction — the power gained from splitting his soul has already driven the Dark Lord down a path of no return.”

“That’s right. Now, all we have to do is find a way to destroy the remaining Horcrux — that evil god statue —”

“There are two, Evan. Besides the statue, there’s another Horcrux,” Harry interrupted quickly.

“What?”

“He just thought of it. The Horcrux is a spell.”

“Harry, you mean an actual spell? Not another object,” Evan asked sharply, “like the golden cup or the ring?”

“No, I’m sure of it,” said Harry firmly. “His soul fragment is bound to a piece of magic itself — he’s turned a spell into a Horcrux.”

“But how’s that possible?” said Hermione in disbelief. “How can a Horcrux be a spell? I don’t understand, is that even possible?”

“It sounds like a fantasy!” said Elaine, finally shifting her attention from the bloody lollipop in her hand and joining the conversation.

“It’s theoretically possible. Just like the magic on the Sorting Hat, the Four Founders of Hogwarts each injected a piece of their consciousness and thoughts into the Hat and, together, cast a powerful spell upon it. Similarly, soul fragments can be preserved within magic, but the prerequisite is that the magic must be powerful enough, just like the magic on the Sorting Hat. Only with sufficient magical power can the magic be sustained for a long time,” Evan replied, carefully considering the principles of Horcruxes. “Without that level of power, the spell would fade, and the soul fragment bound to it would vanish along with it. It’s a huge risk.

“The Dark Lord is powerful, but he can’t have that much magical power, unless he’s found some way to keep feeding the spell with magical energy, to sustain it. Either he’s made someone periodically renew its power for him… or he’s discovered some other method to replenish it —” Evan paused.

The thought of a vast source of magic replenishment suddenly reminded him of the Philosopher’s Stone.

The Philosopher’s Stone left by Gryffindor!

Voldemort had indeed discovered the Stone and placed a curse on it.

Besides the curse, could there also have been another kind of magic upon it — a spell containing a fragment of Voldemort’s soul, a Horcrux spell?

This was very possible, but Evan was certain that the Philosopher’s Stone was currently devoid of any magic, let alone a fragment of Voldemort’s soul.

Perhaps it wasn’t the Philosopher’s Stone after all. He dismissed that line of thought.

The news Harry had brought was terrible, utterly terrible.

The appearance of a new Horcrux could make all previous efforts go to waste.

Voldemort had told Slughorn that he intended to create seven Horcruxes, meaning he intended to split the soul seven times.

The ring, the diary, the locket, the cup, the diadem, the statue, and Harry.

Exactly seven, but Harry was a complete accident, not part of Voldemort’s plan, and he had no idea of the existence of this Horcrux.

The information Harry brought just now also revealed that Voldemort could no longer sense the other fragments of his soul.

So if he still intended to carry out his original plan — to divide his soul seven times — then…