Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. This is purely for my own enjoyment.

Hermione and Ron awoke to find Harry already moving about.

"Morning," Hermione said sleepily.

Harry startled at the sound of her voice.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"It's alright. I just didn't expect you guys to be up for a while. Morning, Ron."

Ron grunted in return.

Hermione giggled at Ron's reply. He's definitely not a morning person, she thought.

"So what are your plans for today, Harry?" she asked as she stood to gather clothes to wear.

"Well, I don't know how much we can do. I'm not exactly allowed to leave the house, and we don't have any reference books here." Harry shrugged and moved to sit on his bed.

Instead of sitting in silence, Hermione made her way to the bathroom to change. She came back a few minutes later to find the boys in the same positions she'd left them.

"We could always search our history texts for important artifacts. Hogwarts: A History has sections on each of the founders. It could be helpful."

"What, you don't have it memorized completely? You only quote it all the time."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's comment and went to retrieve the book from her trunk.

"Well, c'mon. Get your own copies and start reading." Hermione flopped down on her makeshift bed and began to read.

The next few days passed in a very similar fashion. Hermione bossed the boys into helping her research historical artifacts that had belonged to the founders. She had taken charge of creating a list of possible objects that Voldemort could have used to make Horcruxes.

The locket was on the list as another Slytherin remnant. It seemed that when Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts all those years ago, he had taken nothing with him.

Rowena Ravenclaw was going to be the most difficult to find the correct object. She had been a bit of a packrat. She had numerous trinkets and other bits that were considered important.

Helga Hufflepuff was easier. They knew for certain to look for the cup. Her wand seemed to be the only other object of worth that had belonged to her.

Godric Gryffindor was another story. The sword was a possibility, but that had been locked in the Headmaster or Headmistress' office for some time. Finding out whether Voldemort had access to it was going to be difficult, but it was their best guess.

Hermione sighed and went back to reading about Rowena's favorite paperweight.

Three days after they arrived, Remus, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks and Bill Weasley came to escort them to number twelve, Grimmauld Place. They were all going to walk to Mrs. Figg's house then travel by Floo to number twelve.

As they were leaving, Petunia stopped Harry and asked, "Are you going for good?"

"Yes. Dudley can have his second bedroom back."

Petunia sighed. "Take this, it's not much, but it's something." She shoved a small wad of money into Harry's hands.

He looked down at the money and back up at her, but she was already heading toward the other end of the house. Harry glanced around as if he didn't know what to do. Everyone shrugged, so he pocketed the money and turned to leave.

The entourage moved quickly down the street. Hermione was in between Ron and Harry, who were surrounded by the others. Mad-Eye was behind them, Remus and Tonks were on the left and right respectively, and Bill Weasley was leading. Remus had already Apparated their belongings to Grimmauld Place. Everyone was on edge until they reached Mrs. Figg's house on Wisteria Walk. As soon as they stepped onto the grass, Mrs. Figg opened the door and rushed them all inside.

"Good day, Arabella," said Remus with a slight nod.

"Remus, good to see you!"

"The fire is connected, correct?" growled Mad-Eye, never one for pleasantries.

"Yes, yes. But shan't you stay for tea? The house is quite secure."

"Thank you, but we really must get going," Remus replied kindly.

"Oh, very well. Harry, my dear, I do hope things go well for you. I understand you won't be coming back. Good luck then. Mr. Tibbles will miss looking after you," she rambled.

Harry looked distinctly uncomfortable at becoming the center of attention. "Thanks, Mrs. Figg. I mean thanks for everything, not just the use of your Floo."

"Harry, stop chattering," Hermione whispered.

"Heh, guess we'll be going then."

"All right, Potter and me first," Moody said, stomping over to the fireplace while dragging Harry along.

A whoosh of green, and they had disappeared. Hermione found Tonks taking her arm and leading her to the fireplace next. Before she could say anything to Mrs. Figg, she was swirling through the multiple grates between Surrey and London. Ron and Bill came through a few seconds after Hermione had gotten out of the way, followed closely by Remus.

Seeing that everyone was safe, Remus said, "Your stuff is in your rooms. Everyone has the same rooms as before. If there is anything you need, there is always someone in the kitchen." He smiled at them.

"Thanks." Harry looked at Hermione and Ron, nodded to Remus and headed upstairs.

She and Ron waved goodbye to the others and followed Harry upstairs. They caught up with him in the library.

"There are lots of books here that can help us. Though I think we have a pretty good idea what type of objects we're looking for, I don't have any idea as to what to do with them once we have them." He looked at Hermione expectantly.

"Let's get to work then. I don't have any more of an idea than you, Harry." With that, she started pulling any books from the shelves that could be helpful.

"Harry, have you given any more thought to who R.A.B. is?" Hermione asked suddenly, the next afternoon.

Harry's brow furrowed. "Not really. We've been so busy with looking up the objects; I haven't had much time to think about anything else."

"Why, do you have an idea?"

"I just thought that we'd have as good a chance as any finding a reference here for someone with the initials R.A.B."

"Wait a minute..." Harry trailed off.

"What? What is it?"

Harry didn't seem to hear her. She looked at Ron, but he looked just as confused as she felt. Harry was heading toward the door. They got up and followed him out to the drawing room. Opening the door with a little more force than was necessary, Harry rushed through and moved straight to the Black Family Tapestry.

Hermione followed his gaze and landed on the name Regulus. Regulus Black. Could it really be that easy? she thought.

"I remember Sirius saying something about his Uncle Alphard. What if Regulus was partially named after him?" Harry asked the room.

"Then the locket may be in this house!" Hermione exclaimed, looking around as if she would be able to find it.

"Didn't we move a locket when we were cleaning the house a few summers ago?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, it was heavy. I wonder what happened to it," Harry replied.

"Let's go look in the cabinet," Hermione said as she crossed the room to look into the glass cabinet that had held all of the miscellaneous items.

"Oh no," she said barely above a whisper. "They're empty!"

"Damn! I bet it was in the stuff Mundungus sold." Harry whirled around and started pacing.

"Where's Dung now?" asked Ron.

"Azkaban. He was sent there for doing something stupid a few months ago," Hermione spoke cautiously.

"We need to talk to him. I have to know where that locket went."

"Harry, please be reasonable. We can't go rushing off to Azkaban with all of V-Voldemort's followers in there." Hermione tried to calm him.

Harry let out a growl of frustration. "You're right, Hermione. We were so close to having one more Horcrux out of the way."

"I know. Let's go downstairs and talk to Remus. We'll have to tell the Order about the Horcruxes anyway. Better to let Remus know before we have to tell everyone at once."

Harry nodded and the three of them made their way down to the kitchen. When they entered, they saw that Remus was talking to Tonks in a low voice. The two of them didn't notice the others come in until Harry cleared his throat. Remus' head snapped up and Tonks went reaching for her wand.

"Whoa," Harry said, holding up his hands. "It's just us."

Tonks laughed a little uneasily, but the tension left her body.

"We have some things that the Order needs to know, but we would like to tell you guys first; that way not everyone is shocked at once."

Harry spent the next hour explaining about Voldemort, his Horcruxes and what little information they knew. Finally, Harry got to the part about the locket and R.A.B. Remus was furious with Mundungus after Harry's explanation.

"I'll go to Azkaban first thing tomorrow," Remus stated after Harry finished talking.

"Thanks, Remus. I wanted to go, but Hermione talked some sense into me." Harry at least looked sorry about his earlier suggestion.

Remus smiled at Hermione. "Thanks. We really didn't need to be chasing after you three so early on."

Hermione shook her head and laughed.

Author's Notes: I want to thank both of my wonderful betas – GinnyW and snarkyroxy. I can't thank you both enough.

This story is completely written and about halfway done with edits. You can expect a new chapter at the beginning of every week.

Reviews are very welcome and appreciated.