Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe still belongs to JKR.

The Next Morning

Harry woke in an unfamiliar room. He did not panic, knowing quite well that he was at his parents' house. He remembered everything from the day before up to the point where Dumbledore had told them to go home and sleep. As if that was the command his brain had been waiting for, he had at once felt dead-tired and his memories of leaving the house in Godric's Hollow, apparating side-by-side with his father to his parents' house, being shown a room by his mother and waiting for his bed to be prepared by a friendly old house-elf were rather sluggish.

By the light coming through the window he assumed that it was already rather late, mid-morning. He was so hungry that he could eat a hippogriff, having eaten nothing in 24 hours. He saw fresh clothes and towels lying on a chair, while his wands and other personal things were on the bedside cabinet and he remembered being told by his mother that there was a bathroom next door. He got up.

15 minutes later he left his room in search for the kitchen. Walking by an open door, he found his parents in a room that looked like an at-home office with two desks and lots of well-filled book shelves. His mother saw him standing in the doorway and got up. They stood a little awkwardly in front of each other, before she pulled him into a tight hug. "Good morning. We decided to let you sleep as long as possible, but I would have come to wake you in fifteen minutes anyway as Sirius, Remus, Albus and Hagrid are due in an hour."

James joined them, hugging Harry as well. It was a strange feeling to be hugged by his parents. From the older people of his surrogate family, only Mrs. Weasley had hugged him on a regular basis and those hugs had felt different. Well, the physical feelings were different (Mrs. Weasley was smaller and rounder than both Lily and James), but the comforting sensations were similar.

"You are probably hungry, right? I was always hungry at your age, still am, come to think of it, although I am not as bad as Padfoot … Kabby can make you some breakfast in the kitchen. She is our house-elf, I don't know if you got her name yesterday …" James was rambling a little, unsure about what to say to this semi-stranger who was his son, but he assumed that food would help. That's what his mother always used to resort to in a crisis. He got a small smile from Harry (who was thinking about Ron's constant hunger and Mrs. Weasley's attempts to cure everything with food).

"Yes, I am hungry. I was searching for the kitchen."

"Come, we will show you. After breakfast we can give you the grand tour of the house, before our visitor's arrive. Did you sleep well? Was your bed comfortable?" Lily had been worried how he would sleep after the day he had. She herself had been unable to fall asleep for hours and had had very strange dreams, always running behind a shadow without being able to reach it. By the tired look in James' eyes, it had been the same for him.

"I was so tired I would have slept well on a glacier. And since the camping trip from hell, I don't have too high standards in sleeping comforts. But the bed was very comfortable, thank you." He did not like the formal sound of the last sentence, but could not change it. Harry assumed that getting familiar with his parents would simply take some time getting used to.

When the others arrived, they all settled down in the living room.

"Shall we begin? First of all, Harry, did you think of any additional information you need to give us which might be important when we try to destroy the horcruxes?" Dumbledore was aware that it must be difficult for Harry to remember everything at once while telling his story, especially since the people he was telling it to had already known big parts of it in his own universe.

"Not really … although I came up with a reason why Voldemort's soul might not have split when he was defeated. The Dumbledore in my universe thought that Voldemort had intended to create a horcrux from my murder that night. He saved that for special kills and it had to be prepared well, but as I was `the one with the power to defeat the Dark Lord´, as the prophecy said, I might have counted as special enough and he had had time to prepare the whole thing while he hunted us. I don't know exactly how a horcrux is created, but I know that you have to do the killing first and then do an incantation to fix the split part in the object that is to become a horcrux. If he wanted to create a horcrux from murdering me, he was attempting to split his soul with that particular killing curse and it is no wonder that it worked. But if he killed me accidentally with a curse intended for Mum and Dad … I think his soul would not have split itself due to that curse, because it was never his intention to use it to create a horcrux. And the second killing curse, the one aimed at my parents that rebounded on him, was not meant to split his soul either, because he had planned to make a horcrux from murdering me, not them. Does that make sense?"

Everyone thought about it. Finally Dumbledore spoke. "Yes, I think that might be a good explanation why Voldemort's soul did not split in this universe. But we still have to make absolutely sure. We cannot risk being wrong there, for James' and Lily's sake as well as for the success of the whole undertaking."

"I thought about that one." Remus spoke up. "Harry said that one horcrux was hidden in the Room of Requirements. I think if I went there and tried to find it, that should be a good test of whether the werewolf can sense dark magic while being caught in a human body or not."

"That's a great idea Remus. I can tell you what to ask of the room and one could spend days there without finding the diadem, if one doesn't know exactly where to search for it. But wait … It is a place where everyone put the things they needed to hide, there are probably more dark magical things there. Won't that confuse the werewolf?"

"Not necessarily, he would only have to find the darkest of all." Dumbledore smiled. "It is a good test and if it works we may save ourselves countless hours of research, although I do not doubt that we will research the topic to the best of our abilities anyway. Remus and I can go to Hogwarts and try to retrieve the horcrux; if we are not successful, we will just call Harry and he can follow us there."

"I think you should take someone with you, who has never been a teacher at Hogwarts if you want to find that particular specification of the Room of Requirements." Sirius grinned. "If I remember the situation correctly, one would feverishly wish for `a place no teacher will ever find´ when trying to hide something."

"Ah, yes. Hagrid can help us there, although that non-teacher state will not continue for long, if we manage to open the Chamber of Secrets and kill the basilisk in there." Hagrid looked absolutely surprised at this. "Did you think we would not try to clear your name, now that we have a way to do it? You must think badly of me, indeed."

Harry could hear the teasing in Dumbledore's voice, but Hagrid had not noticed. "Professor Dumbledore, sir, I would never think badly of you, after all you have done for me! I never …"

"But Hagrid, what I have done for you was merely watering down the harsh consequences of being accused of a crime you did not commit, and rather poorly I did it. I could not stop them back then from expelling you or breaking your wand, but I can help to clear you name now."

Hagrid looked like he would break into tears of gratitude any moment now, and Lily cautiously padded his back. Everyone else politely pretended to be interested in something else.

"While Remus, Hagrid and I go to Hogwarts to retrieve the diadem and to fetch Griffindor's sword, Harry and Sirius can deal with Kreature and get the locket. Since you inherited him in your universe, Harry, I assume that you know him well enough to find a way to make him cooperate. Do you agree?"

"Yes." Harry was thankful that it would not be necessary to debate about his wish to be the one talking to Kreature. Sirius was less eager, but if returning to Number 12, Grimmauld Place would help to destroy Voldemort, he would do it.

"Lily and James can contact the old members of the Order of Phoenix in the meantime. We will hold a meeting tonight. Please make sure that they understand that there is no immediate danger. Hearing from the Order in times of apparent peace will be disturbing for them. We will include Harry's friends. I think it would be best if I contacted those to make sure they understand the importance of it and do come. If we start now we can meet again in about two hours and hopefully destroy our first two horcruxes. Agreed?" Nobody spoke against him.

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