The Intelligent Potter

*** Present

The snakes had been incinerated. As had all the plant life within a metre of the two wizards. Harry gaped at the power of the magic which Albus had used.

He briefly moved his eyes over to the position of the Headmaster, who was breathing heavily, and looked slightly winded, though not overly so.

"Woah." Harry breathed out.

"Back to the wards," Dumbledore said simply before dedicating himself to working on the wards once more.

Harry watched the old professor work on the wards, and wondered how he could generate the necessary calm to sit and work on wards immediately after being attacked by snakes.

However Dumbledore managed it, manage it he did. The powder which was still glowing red, suspended in mid-air, turned white and fell to the ground.

Dumbledore opened his eyes, and with a flick of his wand, all of the powder returned to the small drawstring pouch from which he had taken it out.

Albus and Harry approached the ward-line carefully, both of them with their wands out. While Harry simply had a spell on the tip of his tongue in the case of a confrontation, Albus' wand was being waved in patterns to detect if there were any more possible wards which he had not already taken out, or any traps which were still left to be triggered, such as the snake trap which they had just escaped.

The two of them entered the cottage.

The inside of the cottage was entirely empty. There was no furniture. The entire cottage was one room. There was evidence of walls and shelves and such but it had all been torn down, the only inkling of there having ever been any construction on the inside of the house being the indentations left on the walls, which Voldemort - for only he could possibly have done this to the place - had neglected to clean up with magic.

"Harry, Wai-"

Dumbledore could not finish his sentence for there was an explosion, which was like a landmine had gone off underneath Harry's feet.

The Headmaster of Hogwarts summoned his young student towards himself just in time to save Harry from the worst of the explosion, protecting the two of them inside a protective bubble of magic.

"You have to be vigilant!" Dumbledore growled at his charge, quite uncharacteristically, "That could have been much worse than a mere explosion, you foolish boy!"

Harry nodded, shaken, as Dumbledore ran his wand over him, fixing the small burns and such which he had received from the explosion.

Looking around, the entire cottage appeared to be just fine. The walls didn't even look to be slightly scorched by the fire caused by the explosion. Harry guessed that Voldemort probably wanted his protections to be reusable.

Harry glanced up at his mentor, who was not surveying the walls of the place, but rather the floor. Harry shifted his own gaze to look where the Headmaster's piercing blue eyes were focused.

There was a perfectly-round small, quaffle-sized hole in the wooden floor, which Harry knew had not been there before.

Harry peered into the small hole, thinking there might be something inside of the hole.

A purple velvet jewelry box, with an ornate clasp, which Harry thought might be made of real gold, rested upon a small raised pedestal inside the hole in the floor. Harry felt ever so slightly drawn to the box. The conditions of the ramshackle house seemed to fade away to Harry's notice, and the beauty of the velvet jewelry box entranced him.

Harry shook his head, slightly confused, he wasn't one to be charmed by jewelry.

"Bingo," Dumbledore said quietly, once again waving his wand and muttering, to try and dispel the enchantment protecting the box.

It did not take as long as the previous time, and Dumbledore stopped after merely a half-minute of waving his wand at the protections over the jewelry box.

Albus reached into the hole and pulled out the jewelry box.

"This has to be it," he said.

Harry took in a breath.

With his thumb, Dumbledore flicked the clasp up, and it came undone.

"It seems like Voldemort didn't expect anyone would be able to best his traps thus far," Albus mused, "Though I suppose, after all that, a simple lock on this would not be of much use."

Harry gave a non-committal response, but he was more fixated with the box, it still seemed to be trying to draw him in. He was beginning to feel slightly suspicious.

He noticed Dumbledore was simply staring into the box, with a bit of a look of wonder in his eyes, like Harry had not seen before.

Harry looked into the box, wondering what the old man was so enamoured with. The wave of longing hit him like a truck as well.

He had to have it.

It was a ring. A simple band of gold with a black pearl embedded in it. It's plainness was in stark contrast to the ornate nature of its box, but somehow, the pearl seemed to embody beauty itself.

It was the most precious thing Harry had ever laid his eyes upon.

If he had bothered to look at his old mentor, he would have seen the same look of absolute want in his eyes, exacerbated even more by the fact that the old man actually recognised what was embedded within the ring which was a horcrux.

Harry reached towards the box, intent upon grabbing the ring - the beautiful pearl - for himself. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he made out Dumbledore gunning for the ring too.

Suddenly his suspicion from earlier flooded back to him, and the young Potter shook his head, trying to drive out the temptation.

"Professor," he said, trying to be calm, "Remember what you said about being vigilant?"

He got no response from the Headmaster, who seemed to be moving to take the ring in slow motion.

"Headmaster Dumbledore!" Harry said more forcefully, "Get away from the ring."

This just worked to speed up the Headmaster, who made a quick grab for the ring.

Thinking quickly, Harry banished the ring away from himself.

With a snarl, Dumbledore turned to Harry. His blue eyes were glazed over his want. Harry shuddered to think that he may have been the same way only a few moments earlier.

"You do not understand the importance of that ring, boy" The Headmaster swung his wand in a wild arc, sending a gust of wind so powerful that Harry could not counter it, sending the boy into the wall.

Harry grunted at the impact, before falling back onto his feet, winded but not too hurt by the attack from his own mentor.

The young Potter pulled out his wand, uncertain whether he wanted to, or even could, take on one of the greatest wizards of all time, but trying to be cautious nonetheless.

Thankfully, it seemed like he would not have to fight his Headmaster, because he too was vigorously shaking his head.

"Are you okay?" he asked his pupil in a soft voice.

Harry nodded once, but did not respond verbally.

"There is a curse of temptation on the ring," Dumbledore stated, "Which means there must be some further protection on the ring."

Harry shook his head, "The temptation curse is on the pearl."

Dumbledore's expression clouded slightly, again.

"The Resurrection Stone," he said grimly.

"Like from the fairytale?" Harry asked, not sure as to what a random book of fairytales he and Hermione had looked at in the Hogwarts library once had to do with one of the horcruxes of the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore nodded, "It is real."

Harry frowned, "Really?" he asked sceptically.

"I-I researched the Deathly Hallows in my youth." the Headmaster admitted quietly.

Harry snorted, "And here I was thinking all you did was defeat Grindelwald, apprentice under Nicholas Flamel, and discover twelve uses of dragon's blood."

Harry noted that Dumbledore seemed to flinch slightly at the name of the very Dark Lord whom he had defeated.

"It can bring back the dead," Dumbledore said, so quietly that Harry knew he wasn't talking to him, but rather himself.

Nonetheless, Harry answered by shaking his head, "Let the resting rest."

Suddenly, the ring began to shake, and a high-pitched shriek came out of it, from where it lay on the floor.

Both wizards' eyes whipped over to the ring, where a wraith of Voldemort was emerging from the ring.

Harry panicked.

"It doesn't seem to be coming willingly," the Headmaster said, peering over at the shade.

Indeed, it did little more than scream. As soon as the entire wraith had exited from the ring, it began to dissolve, until all of it had gone. It went screaming all the way.

Dumbledore began to cast spells over the ring.

Finally, he spoke.

"The ring is no longer a horcrux."

Harry gaped, "What?"

Dumbledore was still looking at the ring, pondering.

"It was Death," he said simply, "but why now, why wait for our arrival?" he questioned.

Harry went over to the ring again. He still felt some kind of connection between himself and the stone, but this time it was different.

Instead of him being attracted to the stone...Harry felt like the stone was being attracted to him.

Harry picked up the ring.

*** End of Chapter