Disclaimer: JKR owns the game and the ball. She set up the play, I just grabbed the Quaffle and ran it through a hoop that I conjured on the sidelines.

Chapter 2

Catching up

Darkness

I awoke with a start. I knew exactly where I was, I was in my tomb. I felt around in my pocket to reach my wand, found it and, with a voice unused in several months, spoke.

"Lumos!"

As the light flooded the sepulture, I took stock of my condition. I was hungry, but other than that, I was in surprisingly good health for a dead person. I suppose Fawkes was correct, I need to pay more attention to him. Even my arm had healed. I reached out and felt the connection with Fawkes. I felt his great joy as he picked up the connection. I decided to leave the tomb, however the wards were very complicated, and I really did not feel like studying them at this point. Fawkes picked up on this and, with a flash, appeared in front of me. I took hold of his tail and asked him to take me someplace I would not be recognized.

The next instant I found myself in a house that I recognized very easily. It was Malfoy Manor, but it looked as if it had not been inhabited in quite a while. Most of the furnishings had been removed, and there were signs of a hasty exit. Even the Malfoy house elves were gone. I wandered through the house until I came across a box of Honeyduke's chocolates. With a sigh of contentment, I settled down on the floor in a corner to assess my situation.

Most importantly, I sensed that Severus was dead. This is what had lifted the remnants of his spell from me. I wondered how it had happened, and hoped that he had not suffered. In another time, I would grieve for him, but for now I needed to find out what was happening in the world without being discovered. I was sure that the war was not over, it could not happen that easily. I had no idea of the date, and had no plan of action. This would come after I was able to gather my resources together. It was time to catch up on what I missed.

Summoning Fawkes, I explained to him that I would need him to transport me so that no one at the ministry would discover my magical signature should I apparate. He trilled in agreement, seeing the wisdom in staying incognito at least until I could discover what circumstances Harry and the Order were in. I had Fawkes transport me to my cottage in Brighton.

I looked around, satisfied. The cottage had not been discovered during my absence. Since Fawkes was not limited by human magic, he transported me inside the wards. I tested them to make sure they were intact and found them in good condition. I asked Fawkes to go out and convince an owl to assist me. He returned a few minutes later with a very peeved looking barn owl which agreed to carry my request to the Daily Prophet. I tied a pouch with a galleon onto his leg along with a note, gave him an owl treat and sent him off. I would soon have several back issues of the Prophet to help me catch up on news.

When the owl returned several hours later, he was not alone. There were two other owls assisting him in carrying a large pouch with several back issues of the Prophet. There was also another owl who was carrying a letter. I relieved all of the owls of their burdens, then gave them all treats and released them. The original barn owl decided to stay in the area in the event that I should need him. I gave him an extra owl treat, and he took up residence on my porch under an eave. Setting down the newspapers, I took the letter and read it with surprise.

Albus Dumbledore

The Hidden Cottage

Brighton

Dear Mr. Dumbledore:

Following your apparent death several months ago, the Ministry attempted to seize your assets, claiming that you had no surviving relatives. Your brother has been incapacitated for several months due to being attacked by Death Eaters on the night you were assumed dead. He is currently in the long-term care section of St. Mungo's.

Since you have not made an announcement of your resurrection, we have assumed that you do not wish for your condition to become public. In this vein, we have informed the ministry that we have frozen your assets in order to pay for the care of your brother as per your instructions. We will hold your status in full confidence, and would like to offer you the option of moving the bulk of your accounts to an offshore branch which would be untouchable by the Ministry. We can, of course, open this account under any name you wish to use. Please reply with your wishes in this matter.

Yours in service,

Grimcastle,

Personal Account Manager,

Gringott's Bank

To say I was flummoxed would be an understatement. While everyone else believed me dead, Gringotts had ignored the obvious and had not been fooled. I smiled a bit as I thought of the Ministry being foiled in their attempts to steal my money and leave poor Alberforth destitute. Well, this could be taken care of simply. I quickly wrote a note to Grimcastle, making arrangements, summoned Fawkes, and sent him to Gringotts with the message. I didn't send the owl, too much danger in him being intercepted. I then took the stack of newspapers and began to read.

Two hours later I set down the last paper. The news had been mixed. The paper had confirmed the death by execution of Severus. It seems that he had been driven insane and probably did not even know that he was going to his death. With a sharp pain of sadness, I vowed to someday clear his name, however this was not the time. The other interesting news was that Harry had dropped out of sight, and the rumors were flying. No one seemed to know where he was, and anyone who might was not speaking about it. There was also an article claiming that his cousin had dropped out of sight soon after Harry did. His parents thought he was at University, but the reporter had verified that it was not true. I hoped that if this was part of Minerva's plan that the press would not foul it up.

The biggest shock was that Hogwarts, my beloved Hogwarts, was to be closed for the next school year. This is something that had not happened since the founding. Even during the darkest hours, the school was the one constant in the wizarding world. The other surprise was the expose of Tom Riddle. I mentally commended the journalist for his bravery. It seems that someone was turning up the heat on this particular Dark Lord, hoping to separate him from his source of recruits. Whoever thought of this deserved a promotion, should they live through it.

Just then, Fawkes flashed into the room carrying some papers from Gringotts for me to fill out. Taking them from him. I asked him to shadow Minerva McGonagall and bring back whatever information he could discover. He trilled assent and flashed back out of the cottage.

Fawkes had been a veritable font of information. Since I sent him to shadow Minerva and the other members of the Order, he had more than fulfilled my wildest expectations. For starters, it seems that everyone is confused about my status, since my portrait is still slumbering. I decided that I would leave them that way. Fawkes had brought me the basics of Minerva's plan, and it was a good one. I would have never dared to come up with something so audacious. There was much more to Minerva McGonagall than met the eye.

The bad news was the crisis that had made this particular plan necessary. The fact that Harry was being driven insane by Voldemort and had to be put in the same sort of stasis that I had been in was particularly disturbing. My heart went out to him, but I saw that it would not be in the best interest of either Harry or the Wizarding world for me to interfere. If it looked like there would be problems with the plan, then there would be time for me to give my opinion.

I already knew about young Mr. Dursley being a bound wizard, however I never believed that he would ever be an asset to the wizarding world with his background and prejudices. It just goes to show how wrong a person can be and still be revered. Minerva's idea to fast track his training under the American wizards Jack Stevenson and Pablo Morales was nothing short of brilliant. I had heard of these two gentlemen by reputation, but I never dreamed of attempting to involve them in this war. I wondered where Minerva had met the two. Probably on one of her holidays to the colonies. I wondered what they would be teaching Harry, this was something that Minerva would not speak of to anyone, just that the training was going according to plan.

I was quite amused when Fawkes recounted the story of Mr. Dursley receiving his wand from Olivander's shop, blasting a hole in the floor that, according to Fawkes, "you could throw a cat through". The mental image that this presented was such that I began laughing, unable to stop. It felt good. It had been so long since I have had a good belly shaking laugh that I realized just how much I missed it. This war had dragged on through 3 cycles of Hogwarts student, and it was high time that we were able to find some enjoyment in life. Even during the time that Voldemort was incapable of action, his cadre of Death Eaters had been working quietly behind the scenes to destroy everything that was good in our world. His return had only exacerbated the situation and given them someone to rally behind.

The weeks in the cottage was also a time for some serious introspection. Years ago I had gotten interested in the study of ethics, and in particular two muggle philosophers named John Stuart Mills and Emmanuel Kant. It seems that most people unconsciously use parts of either one of their ethical systems or the other, unable to really join the two opposing systems into one. I came away from those studies with a new respect for the people of the non-magical world. Our world had never seen the importance of ethical systems, we had light and dark magic and the wielders of those magics. True ethics never really came into serious study.

The system of Mills, called Utilitarianism, was a very cold, calculating system, one that would serve a Ravenclaw or Slytherin well. To boil it down into two concepts, it would read, 'The most good for the most people', and 'the end justifies the means'. The Kantian system however, takes every rational being and forbids doing wrong to them, even if it results in unwitting harm to others. With Kant, you are only responsible to the individual. I always agreed more with Kant than I did Mills.

I realized with a shock however, that no matter how I treated others, I had used Utilitarianism on Harry. I had known from before the time of his birth that he would play a pivotal role in the war against Voldemort, and when he defeated Tom at the tender age of one, I did not treat him as I would have another. That was the reason that I did not have him grow up with a wizarding family, instead of subjecting him to years of abuse under his muggle relatives. He was not really real to me, he was a tool that would save our world, much like I had to do fifty years previous. I gave him just enough information as to keep him in the dark about my real motives. That is also the reason that I put so much protection around the Dursley house. Harry had to grow up to fight on, even if he was an unwilling soldier. I knew that Voldemort had not died in Godric's Hollow, had I been, Harry could have had a normal childhood with people who would have loved and nurtured him. It was only his inherent goodness that allowed him to think as highly of me as he did. Had he known my true motivations, he would not been faulted had he spit on my tomb.

In my shame, I realized that one fact shone through. In spite of everything that I had done, in spite of the childhood that I had stolen from him, I had, against my cold, calculating will, began to love him. He was the son I never had. And I mourned for the loss of innocence that he had undergone. Harry had gone beyond being a talented wizard and, through luck and skill, had become 'The Boy Who Lived'. I wondered what the 'other' Harry would have been like.

In this, Minerva had also outshone me. From what I had gathered from Fawkes, she was holding nothing back from Harry. The messages being sent back and forth between herself and Jack Stevenson showed that she was being completely honest with Harry, treating him as a rational human being, not as a symbol or a tool. "Truly, my day has passed", I thought. "I do know that there must be something that they will need help on, but I will have to bide my time, this is Minerva and Harry's show now."

A week later I got the news that I had been waiting for. Harry and his cousin, Dudley had returned from America, and were living at Hogwarts with the other members of the group that would be essential in defeating Voldemort. Using the psychic connection through Fawkes, with him sitting quietly invisible to all, I 'sat in' on one of their strategy meetings. I was amazed with what I heard. The plan was somewhat rough, but all in all, it was absolutely brilliant, and moreover, I would never have been able to come up with it, so bound was I to traditional wizarding warfare. I saw only one flaw in the plan, and that was Voldemort's use of Giants in a final attack. In this realization, I knew what I must do. I would work behind the scenes to make sure that there would be no interference from that quarter. This was something that I could do without letting anyone know that I was still alive.

The other item that interested me was the Native American Indian sweat lodge that Harry was building at Godric's Hollow. The very concept greatly excited me, being as old as I am. In our culture, we have very little idea of what lays on the other side of life. Other cultures do not seem to have this handicap, and I believe that we could learn much from them. I made a vow to myself to visit this structure as soon as possible.

A/N: If some of this seems unfamiliar to you, that is because it is part of the Alternate Universe I built around my story, "The Best Defense". I strongly suggest that you read that one first, then all of my other stories will make sense.