AN: As always I have to give credit to Ms. Rowling for all of her brilliance and apologize for borrowing her amazing characters and rich world for my own frivolous purposes. Also I would just like to warn my readers of a few changes to the story I intend to make. Firstly, to make things not messy, there was never a romance with Ginny and Harry. Secondly, my story will for the most part start in the middle of book seven and will drastically change things while hopefully still make sense.
Hope you enjoy!
The morning of Albus Dumbledore's funeral, Harry Potter found himself unable to sleep. Whether it was grief or anxiety he did not know but he did know that while it was three in the morning and he should be sleeping, he couldn't. Harry slipped out of bed, crept out of the dormitory ignoring cranky comments from the Fat Lady and pulled on his invisibility cloak. He had walked the halls of Hogwarts alone, invisible, at night many times during his stay at Hogwarts but this time felt very different. He knew it would be his last and he was caught in feelings of nostalgia and sorrow.
When he arrived at the stone gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office, he realized he didn't have a clue how he would get in. He removed his cloak and said "Er, hello." The gargoyle allowed him entrance with a sad, knowing look on his face. Harry ascended the spiral staircase and hesitated at the wooden door, unsure what he wanted to find. The office had been draped in black cloth yet everything else remained the same as it had been the night they had gone on their adventure. Harry stood in the entranceway for a few minutes, unsure what to do or why he was even there. He slowly crept toward the desk he had sat at so many times before, feeling like an intruder. He noticed, as he'd guessed, the phoenix was no where to be found. He also noticed with a ping of sadness, the portrait of Dumbledore was not in his frame. Harry had thought it might have been nice to speak to him, although he was not too sure exactly how much of Dumbledore would be in his animated portrait. Harry dragged his hand across the desk and was about to sit in the chair opposite, where he would have sat on his many meetings with Dumbledore, when a letter sitting on Dumbledore's desk caught his attention. The envelope had a muggle stamp and had been processed through the postal system. The return address read:
Grace Jones
31-30 30 Street
Astoria, NY 11102
Harry stared for a long time at the envelope wondering how it had come to Dumbledore and this Grace person must be He flipped the envelope open to see it had already been opened but the envelope was empty. Harry began frantically searching through papers on Dumbledore's desk hoping to find the letter that must have been in the envelope. He couldn't find the letter this Ms. Jones had written but he found a the beginnings of Dumbledore's response to this woman:
My dearest Gracie,
I am so glad to hear from you. I must ask your forgiveness once again for not coming to see you like I usually do. You must be sick of me telling you this but work has kept me busy these past few months. I am delighted to hear that you are well and adjusting to life on your own although I wish there was more I could do to ease your pain and frustration with your chosen career path and your time of transition. Know that we have all gone through a bit of what you are going through and that you will find your way. Once again, I must postpone the discussion I promised you earlier. I have so many things that need to be said yet they are the kinds of things that must be explained in person. I promise, my sweet girl, all will be illuminated very soon. I just hope that when you hear what I must tell you, you can forgive me for -
The letter ends there. Harry stared at the familiar curly handwriting of his headmaster and couldn't help but wonder who this Grace person was and what was so important that he tell her in person. Did she know that Dumbledore was no longer with us? A woman living in the muggle world in a country across the sea, would she know that Dumbledore was dead, killed by someone he trusted? Harry felt a wave of fresh grief. He was beginning to understand how little he knew of his mentor. Was this Grace woman a distant relative or a woman whom Dumbledore had a romance? Harry had a difficult time imagining the old wizard having a relationship with a woman however he was only human. Could this person, though she does not have his name, be his daughter? Is it possible that Albus Dumbledore had a muggle daughter living in a different country?
As many questions about this girl that came to Harry, he still did not feel his usual curiosity. Something compelled him to take the empty envelope and the half finished response. Harry felt somewhere, for reasons he could not explain, that this girl might be important to him on his mission. As the light of the sun began to peek through the heavy black curtains, Harry made his way reluctantly out of the office and back to his dormitory where the rest of his classmates were slowly waking up and making sure they were completely packed. Harry decided he would wait until the train home to share with Ron and Hermione his findings in the headmaster's office. It was time to pay his last respects to the man who had given him so much knowledge, advice and wisdom.
