Story: Moira
Chapter Thirty Two: The Mysterious Parcel

Harry waited in vain in the Forbidden Forest that night. Bellatrix never showed up. This increased his anger that he wanted to torture her when she would finally decide to come.

He left to the ship, dejected, after waiting for hours in the midst of shuffling sounds of wildlife and eerie rustling of the leaves. The same routine continued for several days until the day before the third task when he received an owl from a Death Eater.

Harry was in the Great Hall that morning. Casually dining with Ginny and his friends had become a rare occurrence to him as he was always filled with depressing thoughts about the left out horcruxes. So when an owl stooped low and dropped an apparently invisible letter to him, his adrenaline started rushing through his blood in excitement.

"Blimey! What did that owl drop?" Draco asked, eyes widened in horror. Harry slowly slid the letter, which was invisible to everyone but him, towards his lap then pocketed it stealthily.

"'Adwich," Ron mumbled with food in his mouth. Hermione snorted.

"How many times have I told you–"

"'Ot 'o 'alk 'wi 'ood in mah math," Ron completed in gibberish for her.

"You seriously have to cultivate table manners, Ron!" Hermione reprimanded. Ron shook his head.

"I ain't dad!" he said, this time clearly. Ginny face palmed as Hermione made to retort.

"What, this joke is getting old mate!" Draco grinned. Ron grinned back.

"You both are turning old," Ginny replied, sarcasm evident in her voice. Harry grinned into his glass of pumpkin juice as Ron and Draco started complaining simultaneously.

"I'm not old, he is!"

"What, you are elder to me mate!"

"By three ruddy months!"

"Guys, can I wish for something please?" Neville interrupted their banter.

"What?" Ron and Draco asked in unison.

"Can you both shut up and let me have a peaceful breakfast? It goes for you too, Ginny," Neville answered with a glare at the three mischief causing students who threw him a dirty look. Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and Harry smiled beneath his mask of expressionless face: Ron was doing the same. He caught Hermione's eye for split second before he looked away. The siblings looked so very identical.

"Nev, sometimes peacefulness is just not meant to be," Luna's dreamy voice spoke as she slided into a seat between Hermione and Neville. "But fun and mischief is the solution!"

As soon as she said it, Draco and Ron burst into a dance, laughing and shaking in a synchronized manner. Hermione was red with embarrassment although a small smile was apparent on her face. Ginny joined the two boys, trying to get Harry to dance as well who sat as still as Snape, his face contorted with struggle to not laugh at his friends' antics. Neville looked dumbfounded for a minute before Luna started waving her hand around her head, as if shooing something away.

Before Ginny could drag Harry into the craziness which was attracting several eyes, he politely excused himself under the pretext of training for the next day's task and walked to the Room of Requirement.

After comfortably sitting on a sofa provided by the room, he carefully opened the letter with trembling hands and read it.

Young Master,
I apologize deeply for not obliging to your expectations. I will be on the grounds tonight for completing the final minute checking for tomorrow's ritual. I hope to meet you at the same spot.

Yours,
Bella

Harry closed his eyes to control his temper and panic. If Bellatrix were to bring him the third to last horcrux the night before the finale, he would have no choice other than to destroy it that night itself and stay unconscious for a good few hours.

He felt like tearing his hair apart; he was yet to know about the penultimate horcrux. Taking deep breaths, he tried to remember something, anything about the last devil. He had to find the similarities among all the horcruxes.

He began recounting them one by one: his Master's diary which was obviously written in before being turned into a horcrux; the locket of Salazar Slytherin which seemed obvious given the fact that his Master was a Slytherin himself: he would have liked to store his soul in an object of utmost importance to his house at Hogwarts; the tiara, which, after further reading he discovered was actually Rowena Ravenclaw's (the founder of Ravenclaw house) lost diadem, did not really give any clue to him; Nagini was his Master's pet and therefore highly prized. What could the other two horcruxes possibly be?

If his suspicions of the Four Founder's objects being turned into horcruxes by his Master was right, it would mean that the other two objects would be Godric Gryffindor's ruby hilted sword and Helga Hufflepuff's venom purifying cup.

One question still clung onto his mind. He hoped he would get at least one of them from Bellatrix then where would he look for the other one in such a short time if he were to destroy the one which she would bring him? Such questions haunted his mind as he walked back to his dormitory, wanting peace and silence for a while.

However, the peace and silence which he wished for was sent up in suspicious amplitudes as he saw a parcel addressed to him, sitting on his desk, oblivious to everyone but him.

For a moment he thought it was from Bellatrix who had somehow gotten to know he was hunting horcruxes and therefore decided to send him one. This seemed too foolish to believe in and the handwriting on the letter attached to the parcel seemed strangely familiar. It was neat and slant but he could not place the handwriting.

Dear Harry,
You may not know who has sent the parcel but know one thing: I am on the side of the Light.

I have decided to help you not because I am for the greater good but because they are probably after me. I might even lose my life so this might be the last time I will be writing to you. That, of course, matters not.

A ring, the Gaunt's ring to be precise, is enclosed in the parcel herein. It is, as you may have guessed, Voldemort's final container. It has been destroyed so worry not.

I ask you to fight for what you believe in is right. After all, the choice is left to us and we must know whether to choose the right or the easy path.

Yours sincerely,
Your Well-Wisher ▕⃝⃤

Harry's eyes glazed over in thought. If this person knew about horcruxes, how many more did? How many more knew whose side he was on? What was this symbol along with the signature? It seemed like Grindelwald's symbol. Does that mean that Grindelwald sent him the letter? But wasn't he in the top most cell of Nurmengard? 

How did he or she know that Voldemort was a descendant of the Gaunts? It had not even crossed his mind that Voldemort's name was Tom Marvolo Riddle; Marvolo being his uncle, Marvolo Gaunt's name.

Pushing away the thoughts, he began to tear open the tiny parcel with a beast like hunger. Every inch of his skin was tingling in excitement. Then, as he saw, sat a small red and gold velvet box. Beside it was a rather long gold and red box. He opened the smaller one with trembling hands and nearly gasped beneath his mask of expressionless face.

There sat an ugly looking ring, innocently as if it never housed any sinister quality in itself. He took it with trembling hands and found no dark aura. He half expected it to attack in some or the other way but it sat as still as the dead. Its gemstone glittered in his eyes and he saw the same symbol which was inscribed on the letter: a weird looking triangle eye.

Harry silently placed the ring in his rucksack along with the other horcruxes. He did not know how but it seemed correct to him that the ring was the penultimate horcrux. Whoever this person was, Harry was truly grateful to him or her.

His eyes caught the taller box and he fiddled it around, trying to open it. When it made no move to open, he tried opening it by magic but in vain. On the side was a small inscription which made his heart beat faster and his brain ponder like it never did before:

Power is a tricky thing,

Only suited for those who never seek it;

Unite the three,

Destroy the ambitions of thee;

 ▕⃝⃤

______________

That night, Harry strode down the path to the Forbidden Forest. Bellatrix was waiting for him with anxious eyes. He approached her with power emanating from him and an angry glint in his dark eyes.

"Young Mast –"

"Crucio!" he bellowed. Bellatrix fell to the ground, writhing and moaning in pain. The familiar feeling of warmth flowed from his mind to his wand. "Crucio!" The sense of heady control that flowed directly from his brain, through his veins and capillaries, to his wand almost swallowed him. This was it: the thrill of using dark magic. His face turned to that of a smirk. "How now, Bellatrix. Finally decided to show up, are we?"

"I-I am sorry Master. I had to complete the necessities for the ritual." Her stammers roused him even more to torture her but he managed his self-control.

"What are you up to?"

"Setting u-up the portkey, my Lord!"

"Crucio!" Harry bellowed again, unable to keep his temptations down. After satisfying groans of pleads to stop, he lifted the curse but did not stand still. "Imperio!" Bellatrix's dark eyes glazed over and Harry smirked to himself. He would get the penultimate horcrux soon. "Has Master given you anything to keep safely? I mean really safely?"

"Yes, my Lord," Bellatrix answered lowly.

"Go and get it for me, Bella. Take not more than five minutes of my time for it lest you want more punishment," he ordered. Bellatrix bowed before Disapparating with a resonating crack.

When she finally appeared back, Harry looked at his watch. "Took seven minutes, did we?" he asked her as she handed a cup: the magical cup of Helga Hufflepuff, to him. Bellatrix bowed again in attempts to please him. "I'm only letting you off because you gave me such a treasure. Obliviate!"

And then he was gone.

There ends the chapter! I think I'm gonna make this a duology if it exceeds more than fifty chapters. Let's see.

The final ultimatum is here!

Your thoughts on this chapter?

Thank you for reading!

Miyoko x