Harry nodded and continued, "Of what is known of Riddle and his flunkies: Besides always immediately apparating or portkeying away when Neville turns up on Dumbledore's heels, they've still managed to do a lot of harm; those muggle-borns and half-bloods being the most affected. However, after Riddle broke his so-called faithful out of Azkaban that first Christmas after I went through the Chappa'ai in the DoM, four of those who were sent to prison based on that night are dead during attempted assassinations of Bones, trying to break into here or through attacking other wizarding homes such as the Luna's and the Greengrasses'. All such places having war wards up, which Dumbledore later railed against as being inhuman and... dark! Even going so far as demanding Luna's father, Xenophilius, for one pull them down. Which he didn't do. It's currently believed Malfoy and Dolohov are the only two of that night still alive.
"Unsurprisingly, there have been sightings of the Ferret, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle and a few others from Slytherin who have joined Riddle's side. Surprises to me, though, are those like Michael Corner from Ravenclaw. "During the breakout, Umbridge was also freed but apparently killed by either Riddle or one of his flunkies a few days later; tortured to death. Forgive me if I'm not bothered by that in the slightest. So, too, was Snape; but he's believed to still live.
"While Dumbledore had raced to the prison to help, though his presence was both not required or appreciated by Scrimgeour, someone managed to get into Hogwarts and kidnap Trelawney. From that, it's believed that's how Riddle now knows the full prophecy.
"Dumbledore, closing the gate after the horse had already bolted, strengthened the wards at Hogwarts to block those with ill intent towards the students and staff. Then was utterly shocked when about half the Slytherins, a quarter of the Ravenclaws and a few each from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff got ejected at the gate when the Express arrived to bring the students back after the Christmas break. Utterly surprising to me... and, apparently, quite a few others... he didn't pull those new wards down again.
"No," said Luna. "And the Board and the Minister refused to allow him to. They also threatened to immediately strip him of the post of Headmaster if he still went ahead and did it, replacing him with someone who'd be ordered to put them right back up again."
"Which is probably the only reason he didn't," nodded Harry.
"Then there's the issue of Horcruxes: Almost immediately after I went through that really old version of the Chappa'ai you, Sirius, together with the goblins figured out Riddle had made Horcruxes. Luna believes there are... or was... seven of them. They were; the diary, the cup, the locket, the ring, the diadem, my scar and one other. Of those, I destroyed the diary in my second year at Hogwarts and Sirius has had the phylacteries of the cup, the locket, the ring and the diadem stripped of theirsoul fragments. The fragment behind my scar was destroyed while I was in the wormhole between Earth and Hadrian; I know that, now. The 'one other', according to Luna, I will destroy 'soonish'. The Horcruxes are also how Riddle managed to remain tethered to this plane of existence and was revivified at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
"For Riddle to actually die that last Horcrux will also have to be stripped from its phylactery or the phylactery is to be destroyed. Luna believes I will destroy the phylactery, thereby destroying the Horcrux within it, just as I did with the diary in second year.
"You also know Dumbledore knows about the Horcruxes because you had a hidden alert and recording ward attached to the Gaunt shack in Little Hangleton; and the recording ward picked up that Dumbledore went there the summer after I disappeared, looking for something." "It had to be the phylactery," said Sirius. "There was nothing else there. Even the shack was a collapsing ruin."
"Which means he's probably also gone looking for the others," nodded Harry.
"And he's been constantly on my back to be allowed back in here," added Sirius, "Because, as he claims, he's left something behind in here and only he can search for it. He was utterly shocked when I told him the place was completely stripped out, scrubbed clean and rebuilt. Then he demanded to know what happened to what was here before that.
"I used the excuse of forcing Kreacher to strip it all out, as punishment, before I killed the little... thing... to tell him I didn't know and didn't want to know what he did with it all. That caused the old man to almost completely panic." "Thereby confirming that Dumbledore has to be hunting for the phylacteries," nodded Harry. "It must frustrate him, no end, to know someone has either beaten him to them or they've become utterly lost to him."
He then sighed, leaned right back in his chair and carded his fingers through his hair. "I bet the bastard has known about them for years before I went through the Chappa'ai; and was probably waiting for me to hunt them down and destroy them."
"That was exactly what he was doing, Harry," said Luna. "Dumbledore figured out there were Horcruxes involved once he figured out the truth about the diary. He'd had it confirmed that Riddle had made either three or seven of them that summer.
"After you went through the Astra Porta... your Chappa'ai... he mind-raped Professor Slughorn for the truth of how many there actually was, seven; as Slughorn was the one who gave Riddle the answer that one shouldn't attempt to make any more than seven."
"Here's an idea," said Harry, still leaning back. "How about we grab Remus and Tonks and, with us three, we head for that island Sirius stayed at during my fourth year to recover. At the moment, as far as I feel, the whole naffing lot of them can go kill themselves off.
"The trouble is, though, Riddle and his Death Eaters are eventually going to go one step too far with the muggles and this little civil war of magical Britain is going to go global; with the muggles coming in and wiping everyone out.
"I mean... bloody hell... in the United Kingdom alone there are over one million active military service personnel across four different branches of armed services. And you can add to that another one hundred and twenty thousand active police. If the muggles get serious and decide enough is enough, wizarding Britain won't last a week! Once they do that the rest of the muggle world's combat and police forces are going to descend, en masse, on their own magical communities.
"I have no idea just how large those magical communities are, but I really don't give them all that much longer than the week I give wizarding Britain."
"A little longer than that, Harry," said Luna. "However, the muggles won't find everyone. Twenty years later the magical world will rise up, once more, and try to take back everything they'd lost. This time, however, there'll be no winners. The world will be destroyed."
"Greeeaaatt..." moaned Harry. "So we can't just run for the island, either."
"No," she replied.
With another sigh, Harry sat back forward and said, "Alright, Luna. You seem to know what is going on. How about you tell us what I need to do next." She smiled and said, "I cannot tell you much as the knowing of something changes that something; and, in this case, not for the better.
"Can you See a future where I win and manage to get rid of Riddle for good?" he asked.
"Many such futures," she replied with a smile. "If anything, there are far more such futures than futures where you would lose. Those latter ones, where I can, I am actively blocking by changing things so they won't happen."
"Any of them where I finally get all this behind me, marry, have kids, that sort of thing?"
Her smile widened into a grin. "You're going to make a greatdaddy."
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