Paternal Instincts

Chapter 41

I made a MISTAKE last chapter. I forgot that parseltongue was needed to open the Locket and destroy it. I have made a small alteration last chapter to reflect this.

Regulus was introduced to his sister in law, nephew and niece. He was touched that his nephew was named after him. That night, the Marauders and Regulus were looking through the books at the Grimmauld Place library when James heard Harry call him through the mirror.

"Hey son! How was classes today".

"Alright, especially since Malfoy hasn't returned to classes or the Great Hall yet," said Harry. "Dad, are you at Grimmauld Place?"

"Yeah. We're just researching certain things for Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore told you about Regulus and the locket?" James asked cautiously.

Harry nodded as he narrowed his eyes and raised his eyebrows. "I was shocked. I mean .. I thought ..."

"Yeah. So were we."

"The locket ... " Harry began turning white as he wrung his hands together. "I had to open it with parseltongue and it began showing me all sorts of scary things like you ....

"Me dying?"

Harry nodded again. "And also that Ron and Hermione no longer wanted to be friends with me and me being expelled. But Professor Dumbledore then destroyed it with the sword". He began taking rapid, shallow breaths.

"Son, it's alright. You're safe now. Breath in. Breath out."

Harry obeyed as he brought his breathing back to normal.

"Are you alright?"

Harry nodded.

James felt a surge of guilt and an uncomfortable churn in his stomach as he ran his hand through his hair. He hated that Harry had to go through that and wished there was some other way. "I'm sorry son. We wouldn't have put you through that if it weren't for that fact that we could only open the necklace with parseltongue."

"No dad. It's alright. I'm glad to help. Professor Dumbledore said it was infested with Voldemort's dark magic and could give him power if not destroyed. But it's destroyed now. That's good right?"

As much as James was relieved that the horcrux was destroyed, the guilt felt earlier returned. He wanted to to be open about the existence of horcruxes but Dumbledore told him Harry was too young to know the details. James supposed Dumbledore just gave Harry a brief version of it being dark magic. "Yes certainly" James smiled.

"Is Regulus there?" asked Harry.

"Yes" said James. "Regulus" He hollered. "Could you come over here for a bit?"

Regulus strolled over. "Did you find something, James?"

"Harry, meet Regulus. Regulus, meet Harry".

Harry and Regulus exchanged greetings that were slightly awkward but pleasant for the most part.

"James, I couldn't find anymore information on horcruxes but I found this and think it might pertain to the recent thefts at Belleview and St. Mungo's," came Remus's voice.

Remus only noticed Harry in the mirror once he had reached James and Regulus. "Oh, hello Harry. Didn't see you there." He had a large book in his hand. "How have you been?"

Sirius had also made his way to them. "Harry, how have you been?"

"I'm good ..."

"Harry, we'll speak to you tomorrow alright." James cut him off.

"Dad, if you trust me at all, please let me hear about what Uncle Remus found".

"Alright. But you promise not to do anything without consulting me?"

"I promise". Harry crossed his heart.

Remus handed the book he was holding with it's intended page open to James who read it out aloud.

Godric Gryffindor's Lost Family Heirloom

The sword of Gryffindor left at Hogwarts isn't the only Gryffindor family heirloom. Godric Gryffindor was known to have a stone that held the power of youth and healing, called the Stone of Gryffindor. It was passed down the line to the eldest son in each generation until the twelfth century, when the last holder Cyprus Gryffindor and his wife, Megara Gryffindor were killed by those attempting to steal the stone. The murderers were however unsuccessful in retrieving the locket. It is rumored that the stone was secretly placed with Cyprus's infant son, Branderick Gryffindor. Baby Branderick's nurse had managed to escape with him and confessed to placing him in the orphanage. Till today, no one knows what happened to the child who was the last remaining Gryffindor in the male-line. It remains unknown if Grynffindor's bloodline still continues.

"Twelfth century. Orphanage. Powerful heirloom. Doesn't it paint a pattern? Seems like the thief who stole St. Mungo's twelfth century birth records and Belleview's twelfth century records were looking to trace the chain of the heirloom's possession by finding out what happened to Branderick Gryffindor," said Remus.

"Doesn't the stone sound a lot like the Philosopher's Stone?" asked Harry.

"Similar, but not the same. The Stone of Gryffindor holds the power of eternal youth and healing," said Sirius.

"Do you think that Peter is trying to find The Stone of Gryffindor for Voldemort just like Quirell tried to do with The Philosopher's Stone?" asked Harry.

"Maybe but I doubt he can trace the chain of possession down that many centuries," said James.

Sirius turned red and clenched his fist. "We still need to find that rat and stop whatever he might be planning".

"By the way Harry, I heard how you saved the Philosopher's Stone and what you did in the Charmber of Secrets. I must say they were truly admirable," said Regulus.

Harry blushed. "Thanks but I had a lot of help, really. And I'd say what you did in defying Voldemort was equally if not more admirable."

"Thanks Harry. What I don't understand is how the Gryffindors in possession of the stone still died instead of staying young." said Regulus.

"They probably thought using it to stay young or immortal was unethical," suggested James.

They continued theorizing for sometime but could only speculate and were at a dead end as to the truth. The only thing they all almost firmly believed was that Peter and Voldemort were trying to get the Stone of Gryffindor. Harry bid them goodbye before filling Ron and Hermione in. Always thirsty for knowledge, Hermione was eager to check out the rare books from Grimmauld Place with information not found in the books at Hogwarts.

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Draco Malfoy didn't return to class until their Monday afternoon Potions class. He had a sling on his arm and Harry was sure he was pretending and playing up his injury. Snape told Draco and the Slytherins inquiring about his injury to settle down. This annoyed Harry to no end. He doubted that Snape would tell the class to "settle down" if Gryffindors were late. He most certainly wouldn't have if Harry was late. He'd have used it to give Harry detention and deduct House points regardless of the circumstances. Draco manipulated Snape into making Ron do his work with his pathetic bit of acting. They had to listen to him make jabs about Hagrid potentially being sacked all through it while resisting the urge to punch him or hex him.

Neville as usual, had trouble brewing his potion and Snape as usual, being the jerk he was, gave him hell for it. It was a shrinking potion and Snape, looking at the state of Neville's clearly unsuccessful potion announced that he would feed it to Neville's pet toad, Trevor. This put poor Neville in a awful state. However, Hermione managed to mutter instructions to Neville behind Snape's back that enabled him to fix his potion. Harry had to admire how Hermione fixed that potion with her covert instructions. Snape suspected Hermione had helped Neville and being bitter that he didn't get the satisfaction of seeing Neville fail and Neville's toad harmed, took five points off Gryffindor on the pretext of Hermione helping him.

=to be continued=