Sirius cancelled his charm and walked inside. The room he entered in was a wreck, with furniture in pieces and scattered everywhere. Broken dishes littered the floor as well. While he was looking around Harry had taken a small box out of his pocket and set it on the floor. He opened it, revealing the basilisk fang he had taken from the Chamber of Secrets, but did not yet remove it. Instead he began pulling on a wooden plank on the floor that reluctantly gave way and showed a small space that had been concealed under it. A small, golden box was laying in the hole and Harry lifted it up and placed it next to the other box.
"What do you have to do to open the box? Something crazy, I'd imagine." Sirius asked.
"Just open it." Harry laughed. "The real danger is inside." Harry opened the box, revealing a golden ring with a large stone set in the face. The stone had an odd symbol on the front but was otherwise fairly plain.
"Give me the ring, Harry." Sirius said with a slightly dazed look on his face. "I need to put it on."
"No!" Harry yelled at him. "There's a compulsion charm on the ring, Sirius. That's what is making you feel that way. I should have warned you before I opened the box, I'm sorry."
"No need to apologize." Sirius replied, his reason finally having returned. "I really should have known better."
"It's ok." Harry said. He then turned his attention back towards the ring, which still had given no indication it was cursed in any way. Harry knew that was part of the trap though and did not drop his guard at all He picked up the basilisk fangand used it to lift the ring out of the box and place it on the floor. Already the spots where the poison had made contact with the ring were sizzling as if they had been exposed to a very hot flame. "Here goes nothing…" Harry said as he lifted the fang into the air above the ring and then brought it down with all his strength. The force of the blow, combined with the power of the basilisk venom, was enough to break the ring into two pieces and knock the stone free. The ring itself was slowly consumed by the venom and melted away until nothing remained. The stone, however, appeared to be untouched.
"Is that it, or do you have to destroy the stone too?" Sirius asked.
"The Horcrux is dead, but I expected the stone to break or something. I wonder why it didn't." Harry said thoughtfully. He cast the few diagnostic charms he knew on the stone until he was confident that there was not a curse on it before picking it up to look at it closer.
"I guess that means it's safe." Sirius said, surprised that Harry had picked it up.
"It should be." Harry answered. "There's something weird about this rock… I think I'll take it with me."
"Fine by me, but let's get out of here." Sirius replied. "This place just bothers me."
"We'll have to walk back to where we apparated in, Voldemort had alarms that would tell him if anyone apparated closer. Those charms have actually probably worn off by now, but there's no reason to risk it." Harry said. Sirius nodded and together they walked out of the house, leaving it looking almost exactly the same as it had from the outside. Their success so far had encouraged their hopes that they could destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes before he even noticed. The others would be more difficult, but they were dedicated.
...
Later that day Harry sat in the living room near the front entrance of 12 Grimmauld Place watching as Order members began to arrive, most through the front door but others throught the floo connection that was also in the room. He knew he would not be allowed to listen in on the discussion as it happened, but he would learn the important details later on anyway. Some of the people he knew, such as Arthur and Molly Weasley and Professor McGonagall, had stopped to ask him how he was doing and to tell him they were sorry about Remus' death. He had told them he was doing fine and thanked them for their concern in response. It felt odd for him to be the center of attention for this, but he knew he would just have to deal with it.
Harry was quite surprised when he saw Cedric Diggory and his father, Amos, arrive via the floo. Harry rose out of his seat to greet former champions. "Cedric, what are you doing here?"
"Hey Harry." Cedric answered as Amos wondered into the other room where everyone else was waiting. "Dad and I joined the Order, are you in it too?"
"Nope." Harry said. "They think I'm still too young."
"That's bollocks. You weren't too young to win the Triwizard Tournament, were you?" Cedric replied. "This is the first meeting I've come to, I wonder what they're like."
"Not too exciting, apparently." Harry answered. "So what are you doing now that you graduated? Playing Quidditch? A lot of people said you were good enough."
"Nice of them, but I'd never get past the practice squads on a pro team." Cedric said with a laugh. "I got on with the Nimbus company in their broom design department. They're even going to pay for me to get my charms mastery."
"Wow, that sounds like a great job." Harry replied excitedly. "I never even thought about doing something like that."
"You're only a fifth year now, Harry. You can put off worrying about that for at least another year or so." Cedric said. Harry nodded in agreement, but he was just thinking about how hard it was probably going to be for him to make it to Hogwart's graduation, let alone something beyond that. "I guess I better get in there. Talk to you later, ok?"
"Yeah, later." Harry answered as Cedric joined the other Order members who were about to start the meeting. He knew he wouldn't gain anything by hanging around so decided to continue cleaning the basement. The sooner he got that finished the sooner he could resume his training. He left the Order to go about its business, knowing they probably would not accomplish much.
....
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