Wish Upon A Star

Goblin's Revenge

The food supply ran out fast. A week ago it looked like it would never drain out, and Ashlyn hadn't bothered checking the stock for the last two days. All of them ended up feeling extremely stupid. 

Though they didn't have the Horcrux with them, arguments were not scarce. 

"Where to next?" Ron would ask all the time as though expecting the others to do all the work.

Hermione's cooking was terrible, and the lack of proper ingredients was a major problem. Ashlyn could only help in making the mushrooms cooked in a billycan look appetizing, but once they tasted it, the illusion was destroyed. Harry was having frequent visions into Voldemort's head, and every time he said the name Ron would lash out. Ashlyn wasn't letting them in on what was supposed to happen either, no matter how many times they begged her to.

They kept moving randomly, Ashlyn would just shrug when consulted and told them to follow their instincts.

Harry and Hermione were suggesting places Voldemort could have hidden his Horcruxes.

"Yeah, let's go to Albania. Shouldn't take more than an afternoon to search an entire country," said Ron sarcastically.

"There can't be anything there. He'd already made five of his Horcruxes before he went into exile, and Dumbledore was certain the snake is the sixth," said Hermione. "We know the snake's not in Albania, it's usually with Vol —"

"Didn't I ask you to stop saying that?" Ron hissed. 

"Fine! The snake is usually with You-Know-Who — happy?

"Not particularly."

"I can't see him hiding anything at Borgin and Burkes," said Harry. "Borgin and Burke were experts at Dark objects, they would've recognized a Horcrux straightaway."

Ron yawned pointedly. 

 "I still reckon he might have hidden something at Hogwarts."

Hermione sighed.

"But Dumbledore would have found it, Harry!"

"Dumbledore said in front of me that he never assumed he knew all of Hogwarts's secrets. I'm telling you if there was one place Vol —"

"Oi!"

"YOU-KNOW-WHO, then!" Harry shouted, goaded past endurance. "If there was one place that was really important to You-Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!"

"Oh, come on," scoffed Ron. "His school?"

"Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special; it meant everything to him, and even after he left —"

"This is You-Know-Who we're talking about, right? Not you?" inquired Ron.

"You told us that You-Know-Who asked Dumbledore to give him a job after he left," said Hermione.

"That's right," said Harry.

"And Dumbledore thought he only wanted to come back to try and find something, probably another founder's object, to make into another Horcrux?"

"Yeah," said Harry.

"But he didn't get the job, did he?" said Hermione. "And we already found the one in Hogwarts,"

"Okay, then," said Harry, defeated. "Forget Hogwarts."

Without any other leads, they travelled into London and, hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, searched for the orphanage in which Voldemort had been raised. Hermione stole into a library and discovered from their records that the place had been demolished many years before. They visited its site and found a tower block of offices.