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It's done. The Roman Eagle is destroyed. Fairly certain our basalisk fang is tapped out, though.

It was a far more difficult task than the cup was. The thing inside of it really didn't want to go.

Worse yet, we had to put down the elf, Winky. Even after obliviating her, she was frantic about having done a "bad thing" that her Master wouldn't like. She couldn't remember what she'd done - the specifics were gone, but the guilt wasn't.

Hermione had a capsule in her holding bracelet. Hemlock and a strong sedating potion, for emergencies. It seemed like the most humane method available.

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How awful.

Yeah. Well, no choice in the matter.

But it was still pretty unpleasant.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to hear you had difficulties, but it is a relief to hear that it's all over and done with.

I agree -- it doesn't seem like there were any other options available to you.

Daphne, your work has been utterly invaluable here. Thank you. Do you think Crouch will notice Winky's absence?

I'm guessing that Daphne won't be able to answer, since she's with Barty tonight, but I don't think Barty will notice Winky is gone for a while. He's almost never at Marlborough, and when he uses an elf for anything it's usually Berry, Dolohov's elf. But mostly he doesn't use them.

That's a relief.

Albus, we may try to leave some breadcrumbs to try and direct him to you once he finds it's missing.

If we're very lucky, Voldemort will be angry enough to take care of our problem for us, but I do want us to do our best to make sure we at least buy Daphne some time should she need it.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who was involved in this accomplishment.

Yeah.

George and I devoutly hope it means NO MORE FECKING INFERI.

Or at least, His Ponciness won't find it as easy to pull them out of his back pocket when his Aurors run into a spot of trouble.

That's wonderful to hear. I'm sorry you had to do that to the elf though--there's so much I just don't understand about them.

And good show, Daphne, when you see this. Literally none of us could have done what you just did.

I hope you understand that when I thank you all, I don't mean to slight in any way the pain of the decision you had to make concerning Winky though, Hermione dear. I know that must have been dreadfully difficult for you, and I'm sorry for that.

I'm sorry about the elf, Hermione. I'm sure it was a painful decision.

But well done, all of you. Thank you for moving us one critical step closer to our goal of taking him out entirely.

How is she coping? Would she like some tea or anything? Brandy?

Off and on, I guess. She'll be okay for a bit and then start crying again. She's not feeling guilty, mind, it's just that the elf was such a sad, helpless thing.

And the stuff the horcrux said was no treat, either.

A slug of brandy couldn't hurt, I reckon. I could use one, too.

Yeah, I could tell it was more than just grief over what had to be done. I'll come up, then, and not send Kreacher with it.

Earlier today, Bea found a stash of old jigsaw puzzles from when Reg and I were younger. We've picked out one with a dragon and we're getting it all organised.

We could use help with the flames, they keep jetting and making it hard to sort the pieces properly. Let's see if we can tempt her. It might help to do something that requires a little concentration, but not deep thought.

All right, I think she'd probably be up for that.

That's ace that you got rid of the Roman Eagle.

I'm sorry about Winky. But yeah. Any other way of getting it -- it would've meant a lot more death.

When you say the thing inside didn't want to go --

Did it talk to you? Or was it worse than that?

It talked to both of us.

Why, what could be worse than that?

Cor, that looks rubbish. "It talked to both of us." As if talking were so frightening. But you know how it goes, the thing has a way of getting inside your head.

Yeah, it told Ron and Justin they were basically already Death Eaters and talked about everyone they'd killed.

It wasn't talking to me because I wasn't standing over it about to cast Fiendfyre. So, I don't know what it would've said to me.

Yeah, it was going on about how I was a failure as a Malfoy, that I'll never be able to properly redeem myself. And that I won't ever have a proper family because I can't resolve the differences between my parents and my love life.

And it said awful things to Hermione, too. But that's private, so I'd rather not say. I don't mind you knowing about the rubbish it spewed at me though.

You're not a failure as anything, but I'm not surprised that thing tried to convince you that you were.

I've been meaning to write to you

I mean, I keep sitting down to write it and then not finishing it because it feels like writing it down will make it more real, which is crazy.

But I'm pretty sure I know now what Voldemort is planning for me, after NEWTs.

What? Why, what'd you find out?

I had Linus do some research for me (I didn't tell him why). But, there's a spell or a rite or something that lets an older, powerful wizard take over the body of a younger wizard. Completely take it over, like -- he'd kill me, but keep my body alive, somehow, and move in. Like he moved into Buckingham.

It explains a lot. Like why he adopted me, because you need the younger person to be a relative.

And why he never let anyone do anything to me that might cause real damage.

Like possession, but you'd be gone for good, forever?

Wish I could say I'm shocked but I thought it was probably something as bad as this. Just, I've never heard of a spell or rite that works that way. But then he's kind of an expert in reviving obscure magics and twisting them to his own end.

Good thing we've only got one more horcrux to destroy. He won't get an opportunity for his rubbishy "rite."

Yeah, that's exactly it. Like possession, except permanent. I wouldn't be in there with him. I'd be gone, completely.

Anyway. Yeah. We're going to find and destroy that last horcrux, and then kill him, and that'll be it. He'll be gone, forever.

That's weird. And eerie.

Too bad we've not got a clue where that last one is. But yeah, we'll work it out soon.

Meanwhile, if he invites you to any dark rituals, you'd best politely decline.

Yeah, we'll find it.

And too right. I'll just claim I have a prior engagement, he raised me to be polite, didn't he?

Yeah, which is mental, seeing as he's such a sodding, mannerly bastard himself.

The important thing is to not let him know you're on to him, lest he decide to move more quickly.

Yeah.

I keep thinking about how soon NEWTs will be over, and then OWLs, and then I'll be going back to Buckingham. It might be our best chance at finding the horcrux but what if he's planning this as soon as I come back there for summer?

Yeah, what if?

Well, we could cruciate you and cast all other manner of crippling curses, so that he thinks you're useless. Except you probably don't actually want to be useless, and who could blame you?

Guess we've got ourselves a deadline, then.

Yeah, permanently cursing my own wand arm off is not my first choice, though certainly given the choice he'd take no nose over no wand arm.

Rachel Brodie said she'd cruciate me if I really wanted to give it a go, but I didn't take her up on it. Anyway, I think it would take quite a bit of cruciatus to convince him I'm not worth taking over. Enough that possibly I'd rather lose an arm.

Killing him before he kills me would probably be my first choice.

Wonder why he didn't just put you in some kind of magical stasis, instead of letting you run all 'round Hogwarts and Buckingham and the like.

I guess he wanted to make sure you were healthy and physically strong or something?

And yeah, just one more. Can't believe we're so close.

Well, if he was going to move into my body he'd definitely want it to be strong and healthy. If you want to be able to fly well you have to practice it to strengthen the right muscles, and the same goes for everything else.

If he could've put his own mind into me from the start -- well, I suppose he tried, didn't he? He gave me the diary.

Yeah, what a idiotic plan. As if some twelve year old boy is going to pour his heart out to a ruddy diary.

Of course an eleven year old girl got into it, instead.

Yeah, I'll hand it to Daphs, it was a pretty crafty set-up. Not her fault elves can't be obliviated properly.

Pity about the elf, but good on you lot for getting it done.

Well done.

So... the last one?

Your guess is as good as mine.

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