"Possibly. They already largely dislike him, but are officially staying out of the war - they don't like either side, sadly."

"That would be too much to hope for."

"Still, your point that it might sway them against him is a very good one."

"Could we tell them they can have the sword back if they kill the horcrux in it?"

He smiles a little. "I'd want to be involved at least some - enough to determine that does happen, since the horcruxes are known to be able to possess those near them. They also would find it... Insulting, really, to be asked to perform extra labor to have their property returned to them." He glances away, humming. "They'll likely be best pleased by returning it with repayment for the extended time it was overdue, and an extra bonus for damages..."

"A considerable amount of damages. The cup did not survive very well."

He inclines his head. "The short term cleaner solution is avoiding telling them about it, but, well. That requires me being able to handle it alone."

"Does Fiendfyre not work?" Fay asks.

Dumbledore shakes his head. "I tried that. It doesn't - perhaps not too shockingly, since Hogwarts itself is immune to that spell."

Fay frowns. "The Killing Curse?"

"I haven't tried," Dumbledore admits, "It's not my strongest spell, and I'm suspicious some of the wards on it might be reflective in nature."

...Sigh. "Easy enough to put on a shiny piece of metal..." Fay says. "And it makes sense if you're taking a sword to a wand fight, to have something you can parry with."

"Exactly so," Dumbledore says. "Undoing the wards is an ongoing issue - and one problem is that the sword absorbs the properties of anything it slays, and possibly outright anything it's placed in... And I'm not sure if Voldemort was able to get the horcrux woven into that spell."

"...Basilisk venom?" Ellie offers. "That's also supposed to kill everything. Could milk Gormlaith and stick the sword in a tub of it."

"...Huh," Fay says. "I'm not familiar with the sword's exact lore yet, but..." She turns to Dumbledore, who has his bushy eyebrow raised.

"A rather excellent idea, Miss Potter," he says. "I believe it likely enough to try, and also I doubt it'll make the situation worse - basilisk venom can additionally degrade anchored magic, which will make the protections easier to remove even if the horcrux itself isn't destroyed."

She nods. "We'll collect some when we go back, then."

"Is there anything else tonight?" Fay asks Dumbledore.

He shakes his head, and - "But if you all are willing to stay up, we can start working on the venom for the sword. I'll need special containers first, but I should be able to Transmute those."

"Yeah, we can go get it tonight."

"Alright. Thank you."

He then thanks Bellatrix and Elodie for their time, and notes that getting them into Hogwarts would likely be a bit prohibitive.

Naturally. They'll wait for news.

He'll return here after if they want to wait around, yes.

(And back to Hogwarts with the others - they can go through his office, since he modified the Hogwarts wards to let him floo straight to Grimmauld Place.)

And once they get the containers, she and Anathema can pay a visit to the Chamber and Gormlaith.

Gormlaith is a bit grouchy about being milked - it makes her teeth ache - but she's actually rather curious about the idea of horcruxes, and especially about the idea of dropping 'that berk Gryffindor's' sword into a vat of her venom. (She doesn't have strong negative emotions towards him - he was perfectly nice - but, well, he was really dumb and yet somehow got a really cool sword.) She insists on examining the sword while she's being milked - that requires a bit of juggling, since the sword is extremely cursed and Anathema's the only one who can meet her gaze without dying. Dumbledore ends up laying the sword out on a platform with rods poking out from it to keep anyone from getting too close, near enough where Anathema's doing the milking for Gormlaith to examine it. Everyone else backs up behind an opaque barrier while Gormlaith emerges to be milked, Fawkes cooing uncertainly from Dumbledore's right shoulder, constantly craning his head to eye the Headmaster (who, it turns out, has what look like wrist-brace gloves on, limiting his mobility, especially in his right hand - he smiles wanly when Anathema's gaze lingers. He says he's managed to give himself writer's wrist, and at his age Poppy thinks he should just brace it and let it rest, rather than keep straining the nerve by repeatedly healing it when he'll just get it inflamed all over again).

Soon enough they have enough venom to submerge the sword entirely. Dumbledore conjures a one way mirror for Gormlaith to lurk behind so she can watch the proceedings without hurting anyone, and then -

Carefully, having everyone else stand well back behind protective barriers - Dumbledore hasn't been letting anyone else near the sword, let alone touch it or anything it's wrapped in - Dumbledore lowers the sword into the venom, unwrapping it as he goes. It slides in with a hiss and a cloud of dark smoke that flares around Dumbledore - he's keeping it from him somehow, but he's focusing more on the sword, more on keeping it from the spectators -

The venom seeps into the sword even before it's submerged like ink into a sponge, and the sword begins to scream -

(Ellie's scar has been hurting the entire time she's been near the sword, even with it so well shielded. Now her head feels like it's splitting open, the scream echoing through her mind.)

Dumbledore gets it under the surface of the venom without touching anything, and the venom boils and hisses - Dumbledore steps back - the scream rises into a shriek, a dying gasp of a wail, and then fades, and winds swirl around them, preventing the released smoke from reaching anyone but Dumbledore.

The air clears, Dumbledore drops the barrier for the non-basilisk spectators, and Fawkes flies over to him with an annoyed shriek, trying to get him to stop coughing, tilt his head back, and open his mouth enough Fawkes can cry into it. (This works, at least.)

She almost gasps with the way the pain disappears.

Anathema had been holding her already, but she squeezes now, stroking Ellie's back.

"...Think that worked."

She nods. "It sure seemed like when the diary was destroyed..."

Still, she hangs back with Ellie.

Fay approaches instead, checking on Dumbledore briefly then helping him retrieve the sword from the pool of venom - the system they set up ahead of time has Dumbledore Transmuting vents in the bottom of the container to empty the venom into another below it (with the intent of sealing and burying the mess in case it's cursed). That leaves the sword behind, which - looks untouched, except for a dark green shine along its blade.

Fay and Dumbledore take turns casting diagnostic spells over it, piecing apart the runic wards...

"The horcrux is destroyed, I'm fairly sure," Fay calls out. "And it looks like all of Voldemort's additional wards were removed, but none of the original ones. Still..." She glances at Dumbledore.

Who shrugs, cautions her to stand back with Fawkes, and picks up the sword with his left hand. It rises readily for him, blade gleaming more than it should in the Chamber's low light, and he smiles at it, giving it a few test swings. "The sword does indeed appear free from any influence," he says, cheerfully.

"Yep."

It's kind of pretty, for a sword.

Anathema's eyeing it like someone with a very healthy appreciation for sharp bladed objects. "What're you going to do with it now?"

He smiles at her. "I'll keep it for observation for a little while, to make sure there's nothing hiding out in it, then, well - if it's clean, I suppose the right thing to do is return it to the goblins."

Anathema nods, definitely not pouting. "Okay."

Dumbledore chuckles, and - "I do believe it's getting to be past curfew, though."

"Will you write us a pass?"