The subway that the five of them had entered was still teeming with visitors and English residents as the five friends continued to make their way quickly through the station. They tried to not make their movement too suspicious. Harry finally struck up a conversation, asking a question they had all been wondering about in the first place. 

"How is it that they knew we were there back in the coffee shop?" 

"Who knows," Ron answered. "Maybe you've still got the Trace on both of you?" 

"Impossible!" Annie objected. "It was removed today! That's our birthday! It's the Wizarding Law, isn't it?" 

Hermione gasped loudly, halting in her tracks. Everyone else did the same, backtracking to the girl behind them. 

"What?" Annie asked. 

 Hermione picked up her pace again, looking devastated. "Harry, Annie! I'm so sorry! Ginny, Dante, and I — we'd prepared a birthday cake for the both of you! We were going to bring it out after the wedding was over! Oh, I can't believe that we didn't get the chance to celebrate your birthday properly!" 

Annie was about to speak up but Harry beat her to it. "Hermione, Dante? Annie and I appreciate the thought — we really do. But given to the fact that we had almost been killed the Death Eaters just a few mere minutes ago, that's probably the least of my worries right now." 

"Besides!" Annie insisted. "We've got more birthdays to come. We have a proper birthday celebration after this stupid war is over. Don't beat yourself up about it, Hermione."  

Hermione blushed, looking embarrassed. "Right. Perspective. I agree, Annie. You do have more birthdays to come." 

"We've got to get off the streets somehow," Dante butted in. "Get somewhere that we know is perfectly safe." 

An idea came to Annie head. "I've got an idea. Come on!" 

They quickly hurried to the one place they knew was safe from Death Eaters and the Outside World. 

They came into the little metroplex on the far side of London. Annie smiled when she saw the familiar neighborhood of Grimmauld Place. Harry took out his wand and put in the password, which had been switched after Sirius' death, given to Annie shortly before they left to bring their brother home safely from Privet Drive. 

They entered the dusty old home. A gas lamp suddenly sprung to life, startling the friends. Everyone glanced nervously at each other before Harry took a careful step forward. A sudden voice caught them off-guard.

"Severus Snape?" said a deep, growling voice that made them stop in their tracks. 

Annie and Harry glanced at each other. 

"Mad-Eye?" Harry finally asked. 

The dust and dander began to transform itself into a ghastly, spitting, scary image of the deceased Albus Dumbledore. Annie shrieked in fear and hid her face in Dante's shoulder. In return, Dante held her protectively close to her. 

When it got seconds away from them, it finally dissipated. Annie finally took her head out of Dante's shoulder, carefully peeking out.

"What was that about?" Ron asked. 

"Mad-Eye's doing, I suppose," Annie answered, pushing her hair out from her face. "Just in case Professor Snape came snooping around. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case."

Hermione raised her wand. "Homenum Revelio." Nothing happened. "It's a spell to reveal human presence. But there's nothing from what I'm feeling. We're home alone." 

They all made their way to the drawing room. Despite the fact that Grimmauld Place was completely safe with its magic surrounding the place, nobody felt safe to be alone, so they all agreed to stay in one room. 

The next morning dawned, and Annie noticed that Dante had his head resting gently on her shoulder, snoring softly. He had grabbed onto her arm, clutching it as though she was a teddy bear. She smiled, knowing that Dante felt safe. 

But her content was soon ended when she noticed that Harry was missing. She sat up and anxiously shoved Dante in the shoulder. She really didn't want to wake him up, but she felt terrified. She was scared that her brother had left them in the middle of the night, without telling them a word. 

"Dante? Dante, wake up! Harry's missing!" 

She continued to hiss words at him until he woke up. He did not look too happy about being woken up at this time in the morning. He scowled and sat up, rubbing at his eyes. 

"Jesus, Annie. Did you really have to wake me up for no reason?" 

Annie rolled her eyes, scowling. "That would be just plain old mean if I woke you up without reason, wouldn't it?" 

Dante still did not look too pleased with her answer. "Mind telling me why you decided to wake me up at six o'clock in the morning, then?" 

Annie motioned to her brother's empty sleeping bag. Dante's eyes nearly popped out of his skull, and Annie gave him a dull smirk. 

"Shit, you're right! Let's wake up Ron and Hermione." 

He scrambled out of his sleeping bag before rushing to wake up the rest of his friends. They scrambled around the house, trying to find Annie's brother. Annie and Dante finally found him in Sirius Black's room. 

"Ron?! Hermione?! I found him!" she screamed over the railing. The duo were checking for Harry down in the kitchens. 

"Well, good!" said Ron, who was clearly frustrated about the fact that he had to wake up to find his best friend missing. His voice was muffled from several floors below them. "Tell your brother, from me, that he's a git! Got it, Annie?!" 

Annie rolled her eyes. "Harry, you can't just disappear on us like that! You had us terrified! Next time, please just —" 

She was cut off short when her brother shoved a letter into his sister's hands. She stared at him, confused, before furrowing her eyebrows at him. 

"What —?" 

"Just read it," said Harry with a grin. 

Annie frowned before reading through the letter. She finally smiled at the end of it. 

"It's from our Mum. God, she's got such pretty handwriting! It's to Sirius. Wait . . . . Bathilda Bagshot? The one Auntie Muriel was talking about at the wedding?" 

Harry nodded. "Yeah. They knew her, apparently. She wrote A History of Magic, y'know." 

He prodded at the old history book near her. Annie smiled, remembering the time where she and Hermione knew everything there was to know about in A History of Magic. She was sure that her parents would be proud of her for the young, strong lady she now was today. 

"I'm thinking that we should go visit there, Annie," said Harry. "To Godric's Hollow, I mean. This was the place where we were born, wasn't it? I'm thinking that she still lives down in Godric's Hollow. Maybe she can help us." 

Annie could hear the hint of hope that he had in his voice. But she felt doubtful. Sure, it would be nice to go see if Bathilda Bagshot knew anything about the Horcruxes and what secrets she knew about Dumbledore. But she had a bad feeling about going there. 

"I can understand why you would want to go visit our birth home, Harry. But I highly doubt that Bathilda Bagshot would know where Voldemort would have hidden all of his Horcruxes. He would have only told his most trusted alliances. His inner circle." 

"Like Lucius Malfoy once did?" 

"Yeah. And that completely backfired." 

Annie could not help but smirk at the last sentence. 

Ron's voice slashed through the air. He sounded startled. 

"Hey! I think that the four of you gits should get your asses down here, now!" 

The four of them glanced at each other before thundering down the stairs, leading to the drawing room where they saw Ron glancing carefully out the curtained windows. Annie peered through it as well. Two figures were sitting against a tree, looking watchful and alert. 

"Those two by the tree definitely look like Death Eaters," Ron pointed out. "I dunno about the bloke on the bench, though." He dropped the curtain closed, plunging them into near-darkness again. He frowned. "Can't see this house, of course, though. But we'd have to be careful, coming in and out of the house. But that's not why I brought you guys down here. I want to show you something that I just found. C'mon!" 

They followed Ron throughout the house again, only to stop at a closed, black door. Beyond them, Annie could see a cramped room that had foreign Dark Magic words that were scrawled on the walls. Annie scrunched her nose in disgust. 

"Lovely," she commented sarcastically. 

"That's not all, though," Ron pointed out. 

He closed the door shut and pointed to a sign on the wood. Annie aimed her lit wand to the scrawling letters on the message. It read: Do not enter without the express permission of Regulus Arcturus Black. 

"R.A.B.," Harry muttered thoughtfully under his breath. 

"Wait," said Dante as he continued to squint at the words in front of him. "I remember Dad talking about this R.A.B. dude to my Mum. From what I remember, R.A.B. was a close friend to my Dad when they were intent on joining the Death Eaters during their time together at Hogwarts. But he never mentioned his actual name. He always used a code name like that. All I knew was that they were trying to bring You-Know-Who down after discovering his secret about the Horcruxes before they got themselves bloody murdered." 

"Let's re-read that locket again!" said Harry enthusiastically. 

They bounded down the stairs to the kitchen. Harry whipped out the Horcrux and read aloud the message again. 

"'To the Dark Lord. I know that I will be dead by the time you read this. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend on destroying it as quickly as I can'." 

Ron sat there, stunned. "R.A.B. was Sirius' brother?" 

"I should have known," Dante muttered thoughtfully under his breath. 

"Yes," Hermione agreed with Ron. "But the question is, did he actually destroy the real Horcrux, though?" 

A loud, clattering noise was heard from the old burner. Harry aimed his wand at the burner before wrenching the door open. Dante lunged forward to grab none other than the Black's horrid house-elf, Kreacher, by the pillow case that he wore. The old house-elf squealed in protest, shouting insults at Dante. 

"Filthy Blood Traitor! He dare touch Kreacher?! Oh, my poor, poor mistress! If she ever knew who had been touching her beloved elf —"

"Oi!" said Annie indignantly. "Shut your dirty mouth, okay?!" 

"Kreacher!" said Ron accusingly. 

"Been spying on us, haven't you?" Harry demanded. 

The elf gave the teens wary looks. "Kreacher has been watching. He's always watching over this house." 

"Maybe he knows," said Dante softly. 

Harry gave Dante a look of surprise before he realized what he had been talking about. In one swift movement, Sera's brother snatched the locket, where it swung back and forth in front of Kreacher's eyes. 

"Ever seen this before, Kreacher?" 

The elf's eyes narrowed. He seemed to be too arrogant to answer the new head of the Black house. 

"Kreacher, I now own this house," Harry reminded him. "Sirius left it to me. At apparently, that means that I own you, too." 

The elf did not look too pleased. But he finally admitted, "That was Master Regulus's locket." 

"But there are two, aren't there?" Harry insisted. The elf nodded. "Where's the other one." 

"Kreacher doesn't know where the other locket is." 

"But was it here? Did you ever see it in this house before it was taken?" Dante asked hopefully. Kreacher spun and turn to face Dante. His eyes hardened and he let out a growling hiss. 

"Filthy Blood Traitor!" he howled. "The Death Eaters will be coming for you!" 

"They already are," said Dante calmly. 

No one was surprised by the elf's outburst. But Annie had enough. Although she didn't technically own the elf, she was the next in line for the Black inheritance. She grabbed the elf by the scruff of his pillow case shirt. 

"Blood Traitor Potter as well!" he howled, trying to get out of Annie's grip. But she continued to keep her hold firm on the elf. If she could keep a firm hold on Dobby, then she's surely bound to keep a firm hold on this outrageous house-elf as well. 

"You will never call Dante Knightley a Blood Traitor again! Do you hear me?!" Annie growled threateningly. 

"Annie, Annie!" Hermione pleaded desperately with wide eyes. 

"Sis, let him go," said Harry calmly. Annie reluctantly did as she was told. Harry then added, "As the master of the house now, I demand you to answer Dante's question." 

Kreacher did not look too pleased, but he had no choice. "Yes. It was hidden here in this house. A nasty, terrible thing, it was. The most evil thing." 

"How do you mean?" 

"Before he died, Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to destroy it. But no matter how hard Kreacher tried, he could not." 

"Where is it now, Kreacher? Did someone else take it?" 

The elf's eyes narrowed dangerously with hatred. "He came into the night. He took many things including the locket." 

"Do you know who it was, Kreacher?" Harry asked eagerly. 

A sneer of disgust formed on Kreacher's lips. "Mundungus Fletcher." 

Everyone gave each other gleeful looks. Harry finally turned to face the elf again. 

"Find him." 

Kreacher smirked, snapped his fingers, and vanished.