Chapter Text

Chapter 12: The Criminal’s Loop

They arrived smack in the middle of the main road, a quarter of a mile outside of town, and spotted what looked like a small jungle about 50 yards ahead of them on the left.

“Well, I think I know where we’re headed,” Sirius said with an uncomfortable laugh as they began to cross over.

It took them a minute to even find the gate to the property, if it could even be called that anymore. It was part of the remains of a peeling white picket fence, hanging on by one rusted hinge. The whole property, as they predicted, radiated magic. It was the same almost prickling sensation they got as they approached Hogwarts, though not nearly as pleasant.

Sirius paused outside the entrance and began to inspect the ground around it.

“Wards?” Isabella asked.

“Just trying to see if I can locate the ward stone or stones. I’m worried they’re buried.”

Isabella joined him on his hunt. Between the two of them, they had the N.E.W.T. qualifications of a curse breaker, and had spent the better part of six months now reading up on the Darks Arts. The biggest challenge was practical application of textbook knowledge.

It took them only a minute to find the ward stone, not buried, but leaned against the dilapidated fence, positioned just out sight under an overgrown bush. Either the Dark Lord had conviction that no one would come to inspect the property, or he had the hubris to believe that no one could circumnavigate the runes that he’s transcribed.

Looking closer at the transcription, it seemed the latter was likely the most accurate.

“Outside of the simple anti-muggle wards here,” Sirius pulled the ward stone out into the open, pointing to a curve that looked almost like an afterthought, “it seems the main wards are layered. Starting with the edge and working around, it looks like they severely disorientate anyone who passes through the property line. Essentially, if you enter, you won’t just forget why you’re there, but you’ll forget who you are, how you got there, and most importantly, how to leave. This next layer then prevents you from accidently wander off the property line, keeping you bound between the fixed points. And finally, and this is probably the most relevant, it seemed to be linked to an external source, like a notification system. We studied rudimentary versions of this in school where you would link it to a coin, for example, and the coin would heat up when the notification was triggered. This is not a rudimentary version. He clearly wanted to know who was coming here and why.”

“Can you break the ward?”

“No, I can’t,” he said flatly. “Save for Dumbledore himself coming to the Gaunt property, the Dark Lord was right to think there was no need to bury the stone.”

“Well, fuck,” she gave a puzzled laugh. “What – what’re we supposed to do now? Are we just screwed?”

“Not exactly. There is… another option.”

“I don’t think I like the way you just said that….”

Sirius glanced up from the ward stone. Despite her words, Isabella didn’t look the least bit worried. If anything she looked vaguely intrigued. She knew exactly where he was going and he knew she wouldn’t object.

“See - Secrets of the Darkest Art described something called ‘The Criminal’s Loop’ -”

“I recall the name…”

“- which essentially allows the user to temporarily bypass any runes.”

“And you think it would work?” Optimism slipped into her otherwise casual demeanor, and if he wasn’t mistaken there was a hint of excitement too. “I mean, if something like that works, why would it not be extremely commonplace?”

“Well, for one, how many copies of Secrets of the Darkest Art exist? Ours? And maybe a second if we’re operating under the assumption that that’s where the Dark Lord learned about horcruxes and he didn’t somehow have our copy. And it’s a dark bit of magic; I think the after affects are pretty unpleasant.”

“How unpleasant? Veritaserum, unpleasant?”

“I mean… does it matter? We won’t die,” he said, maybe more flippantly than he should’ve. “It’s not like we have multiple options to choose from here. Depending on how bad it is, we’ll go to James’ and he can watch us.”

Isabella stared at him for a moment, her eyes locked in his, before nodding ever so slowly.

“Fine.” Her lips curve up at the corners. “What do we need to do?”

“The Criminal’s Loop is done by carving a spiral around the runes, the longer the spiral, the longer you have, though worse the after effects, so we’ll want to create one long enough that we have time to do what we need to, but short enough that… well, you know. You then feed the spiral the blood it’s designed to protect, so in this case yours and mine. It’s similar to how you’d create a blood ward, so enough blood to thoroughly trace the loop.

“Then, it requires animal blood. Any animal will do but probably bigger than a mouse and smaller than sheep, and you hang it over the ward stone so that it’s blood drips into the spiral. As the blood fills it, it acts as a clock for the remaining time until the enchantments are restored. Because of the connection between your blood and the spiral, at least as I understood it, you’ll have a sense of the time remaining so you don’t need to keep an eye on the stone. Once the time is up, the spiral will completely disappear so there’s no signs that it’s ever been tampered with. You need to be completely out of the warded zone at that point. And then get rid of the animal, and it should be impossible to see that you’ve been there at all.”

Isabella nodded along, “The sacrifice; any particular type of sacrifice? Any incantations or specific cuts?”

“No, I don’t believe so. I think it’s the death and the blood that’s required.”

“Okay, for that we’re best off slitting the animal’s throat. Easy cut, fast death, and can control the bleeding.”

“I’ll leave that up to you, love.” He gave her a weary smile.

She was the only one in his life that would hear that explanation and proceed as if it were merely cooking instructions. But it was exactly what he needed from her right now.

Sirius got down to carving as Isabella went off in search of a rabbit or another woodland creature. The lines weren’t perfect, but pretty close to it, and no breaks. A quick diffindo sliced the tip of his pointer finger on his left hand – always smarter not to use a wand hand for anything blood related - and he carefully traced the blood along the spiral, making sure to evenly coat the line as he went. Once done, he attempted a quick episkey just to discover it did nothing to the cut.

Of course, he thought to himself.

He heard Isabella laugh behind him, before casting a stunning charm and doubling back.

“Look what I found!” She announced her return in sing-song voice, lifting a stunned badger high in the air.

“You just had to, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah!” She grinned. “I saw a rabbit first, and then I saw this guy and realized I couldn’t possibly pass up the opportunity.”

“You’re hilarious. Really.” He rolled his eyes, but it didn’t hide his obvious smile. “Here, drop it for a minute and give me your finger.”

She dropped the badger with a thud and handed over her left hand. She pushed the blood to a bubble before she too traced the spiral. Just as he had done, she attempted a quick episkey to no avail.

“Not for this type of magic,” Sirius explained, lifting up his still-bleeding finger.

She sighed, “Typical.”

“I’m going to put the ward stone back under the bush, and we can hang the badger from the fence. That way as we’re leaving, we only need to worry about getting rid of the animal, not moving the stone as well, sound good?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Isabella lifted up the badger and un-stunned it before swiftly slitting its throat and holding it open until the bleeding slowed slightly. Death was less meaningful when the creature didn’t know it was dying; it wasn’t worth risking it for something like this. Sirius transfigured some branches into twine as she went and they strung up the badger by its feet at a very slight tilt, allowing the blood to drip at a consistent pace.

“Is it working?” She looked up at him.

“I guess we just have to hope, right? I’ll go first and if I fail, just summon me back or something.”

He cautiously opened the broken gate and took a step forward.

Nothing.

It was working.

He beckoned her onwards.

The trees and plants were so overgrown, it made the evening sky look like it was the dead of night. Winding up the narrow pathway towards the shack, it was hard to imagine that anyone had ever lived here, even 35 years ago. It appeared as though no one had updated the property since the turn of the century.

“Oh MERLIN OW!” Isabella shouted, clutching her left wrist.

“Fuck thaaat!” Sirius replied. “You felt that too?”

“What was that?!” She rolled up her sleeve and stared in horror. “Oh Merlin, it’s the clock.”

There, on the top of her left wrist, was the beginning formation of a spiral, in the form of a burning, bloody scab.

Sirius glanced down at his own inflamed wrist, “Well isn’t that convenient. I feel like it failed to mention how it would keep us in the loop.”

“Was that a pun? Right now?” She rolled her eyes. “Maybe you just didn’t read that carefully.”

She sped up along the path, leaving him before he could even formulate a witty enough reply; he knew it would likely only get worse from there.

As they approached the door, they noticed something strange.

“Is that – is that a snake?” Isabella asked.

“Isn’t that what you theorized?”

“Merlin no, I read that Slytherin used to have gold snake door knockers, not live snakes nailed to their door with rusty nails!” She looked disgusted as she approached. “I mean, this tells me a lot about the state of their wealth though. It doesn’t seem like the gold made anywhere near this generation…”

“Could it be a replacement? If the gold snake knocker is somewhere else?”

“I mean… I don’t think so. Just look at the state of this home; that would be entirely out of place. And wouldn’t that imply that at some point then the Dark Lord decided to come back, take the knocker, and then spend a few extra moments nailing a snake to the door himself? That feels deranged and weird.”

She got closer to the door.

“Be careful – it might still require parseltongue to pass. Wanna try and throw a stone at it or something first?”

Their wrists stung again, worse than the first time. It felt like it was radiating up his arm.

“No time,” Isabella replied, “let’s just force our way in.”

She cast a silent opening charm that caused the door to burst open. The snake hissed, clearly a charm was keeping it alive, but it made no effort to strike. With the door itself now effectively between the entrance and the snake, the couple made their way in.

The state of the Gaunt hovel made the Riddle House look like it was ready to host the Minister for Magic himself. The main room was small, cramped, and in absolute disarray. The furniture and the floors looked like they were trying their best to become one, and ceiling looked like it was ready to come and join it. There weren’t too many spots that could hide a horcrux. No closets and the cabinet doors in the kitchens were almost all off their hinges, but they looked through them anyway. The floorboard creaked and squished with every step, making it seem like a likely area, just as they had checked at the Riddle House.

Their wrists flared up again, signaling that about a third of their time had passed. This flare up sent bouts of pain across his side and lingered for longer, creating an immensely burning and itchy sensation underneath his clothes. Isabella looked equally in pain.

Collecting themselves, they stood very still, trying to see if they could sense any additional presence or dark magic. There was definitely something else there with them, and it felt it was coming from beneath the floors. They spent the next five or so minutes taking slow and deliberate steps around the shack, checking under any floorboard that creaked or cracked or bent under their weight, repairing the broken pieces as they went. About two thirds of the way through the living room, they were stopped in their tracks – not just by the creak of the floorboard, but by the spontaneous, yet immense desire to get at something under the floor.

Their wrists stung again, sending shockwaves through their bodies. And thank Merlin. The intense pain pulled both of them out of the trance for just long enough to realize that something was very wrong. They needed to proceed with extreme caution.

Prying the floor board back, they discovered an untarnished gold box sitting in a pile of dust and dirt. The couple cast a continuous barrage of spells, testing for jinxes and curses, as well as shooting a number of precautionary counter-curses. Once they were convinced that the box as least was safe enough, they pulled it out from the floor and rested it next to them, patching up the floor board to make it look like nothing had changed.

With a confirming glance to his wife, Sirius opened it up. There, nestled in a jewelry pillow, sat a gold Head of House ring with a black stone. But it was not the Slytherin crest engraved in the stone.

“I – I don’t think I understand,” Isabella whispered, staring intently at the ring.

“Well, this proves you were right, it’s definitely the Family-Focused theory then, right?”

“Yes, but the symbol. That’s not Slytherin, I don’t know it. Do you? Is it a rune?”

“I don’t think so? You don’t think…” He went to reach for the ring and Isabella smacked his hand away.

“Don’t touch it! We have no idea when the ring was created. If he created the ring right when he murdered the Riddles, this might be the most powerful horcrux of his. We cannot touch it.”

Their wrists stung again; this one worse than the previous times combined. Sirius gasped as Isabella let out a shriek in pain.

“It’s – it’s not stopping! Why is the pain not stopping?!” Isabella shouted.

Sirius glanced at his wrist. Time was almost up.

“Come on, we need to leave now. Grab the box and I’ll take care of the rest.”

She carefully shut the box, dragged herself off the floor, and took off down the path towards the entrance. Sirius followed suit, slamming the door behind them and hurrying after her, limbs weak from the pain. They cleared the fence at the bottom of the property with only a minute or so to spare.

It felt like his body was covered in stinging nettles, and it was the oddest sensation that it was coming directly from his clothes. Sirius cast a quick evanesco on the dead badger over the ward stones and grabbed ahold of Isabella’s hand.

“We’re going to the Potter’s; I don’t know what’s happening but I feel like my clothes are on fire and it’s burning me to the bone,” he said through gritted teeth.

Isabella nodded and grabbed his hand as he apparated them and the box away.

They landed in the Potter’s front yard with an ungraceful thud.

“I think it’s my coat,” Isabella said while trying to take a deep breath to not absolutely lose it. “If I can just take my coat off, my skin won’t be trying to bubble off of me.”

She threw off her belt and her coat in the Potters yard and Sirius quickly followed suit. The spiral on her wrist glowed bright red – if they were being searched for, it was a brilliant tool for spotted a criminal just after the act.

“Coat’s not enough, the fucking sleeves… of this damn shirt… are…” Sirius couldn’t even get the words out before getting into a wrestling match with his oxford shirt to get it over his head as quickly as possible.

Isabella was clearly in agreement as she was already half-way through taking off her boots.

-----------------------------

By the time Lily realized that something was amiss in their front yard, the couple had shed almost every layer that they could. And despite running out as quickly as possible to grab them, by the time the she ushered her strange friends inside, they were down to just their underwear, clothing strewn across the yard.

They were just the people they needed to see but clearly in no state to talk.

“What the HELL is happening?!” James joined his wife in the kitchen, staring at his friends in horror.

“I have no idea. I found them like this in the front yard. They haven’t said anything, they’ve just been scratching and taking off more clothes.”

James turned his attention to the Blacks, hoping for a better explanation.

Isabella gave a sound kind of like a whimpering animal as she flopped the top half of her body against the cool countertop and stuck her left hand under the sink faucet, hoping the water would turn on despite the fact she left her wand outside with the rest of her things.

“What is that?! On your wrist?! Both of you!”

Sirius had moved to laying prone on the cold tile floor. “The Criminal’s Loop. Blood magic. Secrets of the Darkest Art. It’s the after-affect. It’s wearing off though, sloooowly.”

“And look, in his defense, it worked; we got a horcrux.” Isabella lifted her head. “Oh MERLIN! I left the horcrux outside!”

And with that she bolted from the side door in the kitchen back into the front yard.

“You have a horcrux?!?” James and Lily gasped, still struggling to process the scene in front of them.

Sirius had shut his eyes as though he was posing as a dead man.

It took only a few minutes before Isabella marched back in, wearing at least a few more layers than the last time they’d seen her and carrying Sirius’ clothes as well, which she tossed in his direction.

“Well, sorry about THAT one! It was the strangest sensation – like our clothes were made of stinging nettles and all I could think to do was get them off of me. It was awful. I imagine it would work wonders though if you robbed a bank using The Criminal’s Loop and then you’re running through the town center naked with a bright red spiral. Merlin, magic is a give and a take, isn’t it?” she laughed.

There were about a hundred other questions circling through Lily’s mind – chiefly amongst them was what the hell they were doing messing with that kind of magic – but Isabella seemed to glide past that as though it was merely an afterthought.

“I was right,” Isabella placed the gold box on the countertop in front of them, “it’s the Family-Focused theory. Only it’s - ”

“Wait what?” Lily interrupted; James’ confused expression matched her tone.

“The – the Family-Focused theory?” Isabella said again, only this time a little less confidently.

“That’s not… that’s not possible,” said James.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the Four Horcruxes/Four Houses theory. We confirmed it.”

“What?” the now-dressed Sirius chimed in.

“We confirmed, just last night.”

“That’s impossible – we have a House ring…” Isabella tried to get back to her point.

“What? No,” Lily continued, “see you were right to wonder about Hepzibah Smith’s antiques. When Voldemort killed her, he stole two things from her collection. He stole Salazar Slytherin’s Locket and Helga Hufflepuff’s cup.”