Hi, this chapter will get the Hogwarts side of the story forward. The MOB gets his due. Thanks to those that left reviews, even if a few more would have been nice. I know that many more have read the story thanks to the hits. Well, you can't have everything.

Now I wish you happy reading.

The Death of Albus Dumbledore

Conan sat on his seat in his maths class and was bored out of his mind. He really wanted to just leave and learn magic. He needed the practice and he only had time until they found a permanent antidote to the poison he had been forced to take. Harry had some ideas based on the blood sample he had taken from him, but it would take some time to really find an antidote without having the poison itself to work with. For the sake of retaining his cover, he had to attend primary school again. He had managed to deceive all the ones who knew him from his 'previous life'. But the way to easy lessons were getting to him.

The only positive thing right now was that it was the last lesson for the day and he would be going home to Harry's very soon. They would spend their time today with charms from third year classes. He was really getting the hang of magic. And he had noticed that Harry was really good at teaching. Perhaps he should pursue a career in the field. From his story about his fifth year at Hogwarts he had managed to prepare his fellow students for their Defence OWL exams well enough.

Finally the saving bell rang and Conan packed his things into his bag and left the class with his friends Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta. As they had the same way home, Conan accompanied Ayumi regularly and the other two followed them. To Conan's surprise Harry was standing at the gate of the school waiting for him.

Hi, Conan, how was school?" Harry asked.

"Boring." Conan answered honestly.

Harry winced in sympathy. He couldn't imagine how hard it had to be for someone of Shinichi's intelligence to be forced to sit through primary school classes.

"What are you doing here, Harry?" Ayumi asked curiously.

"Well, originally I had planned to meet Conan at my apartment, but Uncle Simon brought his new girlfriend home, so that isn't that good a place to be at right now." Harry said a bit embarrassed.

"Why not?" Genta asked clueless.

"That is something you will understand when you are older, Genta. Just let it rest and know they want to be alone." Harry told him, getting a scowl from the boy.

Harry understood the reason well; every child hated being told 'You will know when you are older'. But it would be very bad form to talk about sex with a six year old.

"So what are we going to do now, Harry?" Conan asked.

Without the wards around the apartment they couldn't train magic.

"I thought we could use the time to visit the botanic garden." Harry said, indicating to Conan that it would be a magical greenhouse.

"Sounds okay to me. There isn't really much else to do." Conan agreed.

"Oh, can we come too?" Ayumi asked.

Harry hadn't expected this and tried a way to find a way out of this. He couldn't take muggle children with him into a magical garden.

"Uhm, normally I would say yes, but I know that your mum wanted to take you clothes shopping today, Ayumi, and if I remember correctly Genta has to help at his family's restaurant on Tuesdays."

Both Ayumi and Genta looked as if they had just remembered those details.

"Tell, you what, I will leave you three with a little riddle for you to solve. If you manage to find the solution without anybody helping you until Friday, I will take you on a little camping trip. I am sure the Professor will also come with us." Harry offered to distract them.

"Really?" Mitsuhiko asked excitedly.

"Yep." Harry answered.

"Okay, but it isn't one of those bad word-play riddles Professor Agasa gives us all the time?" Genta asked cautiously.

Harry laughed, he knew those riddles and they were really bad.

"No, I promise it is not one of them. But you might want to write the details I give you to help solving the case down. Otherwise you might forget something important." He advised them.

Mitsuhiko quickly took a notebook out from his schoolbag ready to write down the clues.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

All three nodded.

"Okay. During the maiden trip of the ocean cruiser 'Pride of Spain' the cook prepared a majestic gateau. It was meant to adorn the table of Queen Isabella who was gracing the ship with her presence during the trip. Finally it was time for dinner but the gateau was gone. The cook was frantic and looked all over the ship for his masterpiece but he was unable to find it. Finally he resigned to having to tell the queen that the gateau was gone and there wouldn't be her favourite dessert today.

"But just when he wanted to leave the kitchen, he found a note with a coded message. The message was as followed:"

Here Harry wrote down the coded message as he couldn't speak it. He gave the piece of paper with the message to Ayumi.

"The cook knew he had perhaps ten minutes to find out what the message said and find the gateau before the Queen would get angry. Now all you have to do is decode the message and afterwards tell me where the cake is hidden, why the thief stole the gateau and who was the thief. As I told you, you have until Friday after school and as I showed Conan the method to decode the message earlier he is forbidden to help you." Harry explained.

"Uh, that's unfair." Genta complained knowing that Conan was the best at solving riddles.

"I am sure you three can find the solution. After all you have some days left. And you are only forbidden to ask others for help to solve the riddle, but you can look up things everywhere you like. Okay, now go home." Harry said grinning.

"Okay, bye Harry, bye Conan." They said and left to go home.

"What message did you give them to decode?" Shinichi asked.

"It's a simple code. All they have to do is replacing the numbers of the code with their counterparts in the hiragana alphabet. And with Mitsuhiko on the team, they will find that bit out before Friday." Harry informed Conan.

They walked around the school into an abandoned shack that had once been used for sports equipment until the roof got damaged and a new shack was cheaper to build than repair the old one. Harry put up a muffliato charm.

"Okay they should be able to do that. So for today we are doing Herbology?" Shinichi asked in a low voice.

"In combination with Potions. The place we are going to is in the possession of my Potions teacher. He likes to grow his own ingredients. He has a double mastery in Herbology and Potions. Next to the greenhouse is a completely equipped Potions lab. As we normally skip over Potions to maximize your time to grow your core, I thought this would be the best way to deal with Sirius' new love interest." Harry answered equally.

"So it is the place where your snowy owl is staying. Who is Sirius' new flame?" Shinichi asked.

"He met her while he was analysing some curses that were placed on a cave where the goblins suspected hidden treasure on one of the sparsely populated islands south of Kagoshima. She was one of the appraisers for the treasure. Her name is Akako Tokuyama. They hit it off and are seeing each other irregularly. From what Sirius told me, she is visiting the Tokyo branch of Gringotts for a week." Harry informed his friend.

"So, will we have to find other things to work on this week?" Shinichi asked.

"No, they will be out the next two days therefore we can use the apartment. And from what I know they planned to make a trip to Kyoto on the weekend." Harry answered.

"Good to know. How will we get to the greenhouses?"

"I will apparate us." Harry said.

"I hate side-along apparition." Shinichi complained.

"Tough, it's the only way we can use. And it is faster and a lot less sickening than Samurai Travel." Harry countered.

"Point." Shinichi admitted.

Samurai Travel was the Japanese version of the Knight Bus in England and it was horrible to travel with it. Obviously being incapable of driving was a requirement for the driver.

Harry held his arm out and Shinichi took it. Harry spun on the spot and vanished.

Ron and Hermione stood in Dumbledore's office and listened to his new information.

"I have found a location that is probably the hiding place for one of Voldemort's horcruxes." He informed his two spies.

Even if Harry wasn't at Hogwarts anymore, the two Gryffindors kept him informed about the climate within the student body and any plots they found out about. They didn't find out much anymore though, as most students stayed away from them and especially the interesting ones that Neville Longbottom rallied around him.

"That's great, headmaster. Where do you think it is?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"In a cave near the coast where the orphanage took the children every summer. I know from Mrs Cole, the matron at the time I visited Tom Riddle to give him his Hogwarts letter, that there was an incident with some children and Tom in a cave. The children came back frightened. I went there and found traces of magical concealment. I want to take one of you with me, while the other one keeps an eye on things here while we are gone." Dumbledore informed them.

"Alright. I think it would be best if Hermione stayed here and I went with you. I am physically stronger than her and if we are searching a cave that might come in handy." Ron said.

Hermione was a bit miffed at having to stay behind, but Ron's statement was true.

"He is right. I will keep an eye on things here and inform you when you return if anything strange happens." She said.

"Very well. Mr Weasley, please follow me to the gates, we will apparate from there." Dumbledore said.

Dumbledore didn't inform them that he already knew how to undo the protection around this horcrux. While he didn't know which one it was, he had already investigated the cave and knew that the potion that protected the horcrux was a vile one. He had considered just taking a house elf to drink it, but with Weasley coming he could fake his own death better. The curse had nearly run its course and he had to get a new body fast.

The ritual was ready. He had instructed Severus about the steps he had to follow once his body was dead. It was a stroke of luck that he had managed to bind the Potions master to him seventeen years ago. While Severus never was light, the bond he had unknowingly built kept him under Dumbledore's control. All the components were ready and he just needed to add the last core ingredient, flesh from his dead body. The ritual was a mix of necromancy and bloodmagic. Of course it was illegal but that didn't concern Dumbledore. He would return more powerful than before and would take care of Tom afterwards.

Dumbledore and Ron apparated at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea.

"Well, this is the cliff where the cave I found is in. I have done some checking for the protections when I found this place first, so I know how to undo them. I must stress nonetheless that past the first set of protections I don't know what Tom will have come up with. So I want you to promise me that you will follow my orders without question." Dumbledore said looking sternly at Ron.

"Of course, Professor Dumbledore." Ron answered.

"I mean it, even if you don't understand the reason for my orders, they are to be followed. If I say run or stop, do it immediately." Dumbledore added.

Ron nodded.

"Very well, we need to climb down this small path over there the muggle way. Tom put up wards to prevent any apparition closer to the cave than this point where we are." Dumbledore explained.

Ron followed Dumbledore down to the cave, twice nearly slipping from the narrow path which was slippery from the sea water. Dumbledore really regretted having to take the fool with him, but he needed him as a witness and while Hermione Granger would have been better for the enchantments Ron was better for physical exertion. Finally they reached the bottom of the path and stood in front of a cave, which was soon giving way to a large lake.

"We will have to swim through the lake to get to the place where the horcrux is hidden, Mr Weasley." Dumbledore said.

Ron frowned but said nothing. This was his chance to be a hero and not be overshadowed by Harry. Both went into the water and began swimming, Dumbledore's long hair and beard drifting on top of the water. When they reached the other end and climbed out of the water, Ron was already breathing heavily. Swimming in full robes was not something he was used doing. And for all his bragging about being a great Quidditch player, he was not the best in physical fitness.

Finally Dumbledore used a drying charm on Ron to stop the redhead from shivering violently. Really, the boy needed to improve his spell repertoire. Dumbledore analysed the wall in front of him, all for the show effect of course, until he stopped over the spot where the tribute of a little blood had to be paid. It was very clever. If Tom ever checked on his horcrux, he would know who had been there. If he wasn't already planning his death and resurrection he would have made Weasley do it. But now this would only boost his greatness in the eyes of the boy.

They entered the next cave with another lake in it after the wall was opened with a little of Dumbledore's blood and him telling Weasley that it must be Tom's idea of weakening his opponent to gain entrance. What he didn't tell him was that if Tom had been better at blood based wards this could have been the death of anybody but Tom.

Dumbledore led the boy around the edge of the lake to the place where the boat was hidden underwater. He needed to find a way to get the boy notice the inferi without him endangering the mission.

"Alright, I will try something before we go further. Accio horcrux." Dumbledore called out.

As he had predicted, some inferi jumped out of the water as if to intercept the spell. Ron screamed at the sight of the inferi.

"Hm, so that is Tom's next obstacle. Inferi. Well, he always had a morbid sense of humour." Dumbledore commented. "Ah, here it is." He added triumphantly, pulling on the chain of the boat.

"Give me a hand, Mr Weasley; we will get the transport device Tom thought of to get over the lake."

Ron snapped out of his stupor and helped pulling. Ron didn't realize it, but Dumbledore didn't really use any power to pull, no, that kind of work was for underlings. When the boat was out of the water, he told Ron to climb inside and then went in himself. The boat began floating long over the lake and they were silent, except the occasional whimper from Ron when one of the inferi drifted along the boat.

"Whatever you do, don't touch the water, Mr Weasley. The defence mechanism is set to activate once the surface of the water is touched by anything but the boat." Dumbledore warned him.

Finally they reached the island in the middle of the lake and Dumbledore started to inspect the pedestal with the basin on top of it intently. Ron was watching the surroundings as if the inferi could attack anytime.

"Ah, yes. I see how we have to do this." Dumbledore finally said.

"How sir?" Ron asked.

"Well, the potion in the basin has to be drunk. And the only way seems to be the goblet. The horcrux is at the bottom of the basin and you can't grab though the potion to get it, the potion has to be completely taken from the basin. Now listen, Mr Weasley. You will force me to drink the potion no matter what I say or do to stop you. I have taken some antidotes for different poisons before we started as a precaution and now it seems to come in handy. If I had you drink it we couldn't be that sure. Do you understand?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir." Ron answered sounding relieved.

"Well, then let's do it."

Dumbledore took the goblet and began filling it with the potion. He drank, immediately feeling the need to stop and drink some water. He took the second goblet full of potion and after it let it fall to the ground. Ron obediently filled it again and again, forcing the potion down Dumbledore's throat. Dumbledore was reliving his worst memories, most of them being when he was stumped in his quest for fame and wealth.

"No, not her, not him, I can't lose them." He moaned out, remembering what he had felt when Aberforth had interfered with his plans and he had been forced to fight Gellert.

The murder of Arianna was one of them. It just wouldn't have done for him to leave instead of grieving for his dead sister. His good image had depended on it. All the plans for dominance of wizards had depended on the image of the charismatic, reliable leader. That event had thrown him back for two decades. He originally had planned to join Gellert, gain the Deathly Hallows and charm his way into the trust of the powerful people in Europe. Then, once the power base was secured, he would have propagated the swift and decisive action that would have gained them control over Europe.

It would have been so simple. With Europe being the powder keg it had always been, the many monarchies were simply unable to peacefully co-exist, you just needed to convince the magical population that soon the muggles would return to their practices of witch hunts. The second world war, which Gellert had used to get rid of his opponents and as cover for the wizarding war on the continent, would have been perfect to prove the thesis that only wizards could lead the world into a peaceful future. Then he and Gellert would have been the powerful leaders. But no, he was stuck in England, pretending to mourn over his sister and refusing power to rebuild his image.

And Gellert didn't even manage to be in a strong enough position to not be taken down. Oh he gained power and influence, but he had seen the signs which way the muggle war would take in 1945. The Germans were losing and they were caught in a pincer attack from all sides. The Allies had won more and more ground. Gellert and his war would have been noticed immediately and with four powerful muggle nations already having their weapons placed to take the wizards out there was simply no sense in wasting the chance to gain power for himself. So he had taken Gellert out in a manipulated duel. Of course nobody knew of his manipulations. It had been the point of change in his life. Being the defeater of Gellert Grindelwald his rise to power in England was open.

But the time had not been on his side. He had underestimated Voldemort. Stupid boy. If he wouldn't have wanted to slaughter all muggles, he could have become an ally in Dumbledore's quest for wizarding supremacy. But no, the boy didn't get that they had to do something about the horribly mismatched numbers between muggles and wizards before something could be started. Why did he think he (Dumbledore) had propagated for better integration of muggleborns? Not because he liked them so much, that was for sure.

His plan had been to strengthen the old bloodlines by having powerful muggleborns marry powerful purebloods. In Tom Riddle had been shown that a halfblood that got fresh genes in addition to a powerful bloodline could be capable of incredible feats. He also encouraged those pureblood marriages that were sure to produce powerful children to have as many children as possible. But nobody saw the logic in his actions of course. Why did the pureblood supremacists not understand that to preserve their lines they needed as many children as possible? They could easily afford to raise them. If only all those that were fertile had four children or so, the number of powerful witches of wizards with pure blood would have been so much higher now.

But no, families like the Weasleys were mocked for their poverty due to having to feed so many mouths. Did nobody see how powerful the children of Molly and Arthur were? He had noticed it early on. First William, who easily mastered even difficult spells and was now a curse breaker and about to marry a quarter veela, which would again bring powerful fresh blood into the equation. Or Charles, restraining and working with dragons took power and intelligence. Percival, while too authority loving and blindly following the Ministry, still a powerful wizard. The twins were highly capable as well, as was Ginevra. The only exception was Ronald, but that was more based on laziness than bad genes.

Others as well. Harry Potter, while the brat was a nuisance for his plans, was very powerful. The match between James and Lily had been perfect. If only they could have lived longer and had more children. Severus Snape. A genius and a powerful wizard at that. No, the potential was clear and more children raised by his ideals would have meant an army once he was ready. No one but him had seen the problems that turned up and the only way to have enough people to even think about overtaking the muggle world was having enough skilled and powerful wizards and witches to keep them under control. And with Voldemort killing so many, those plans were again delayed.

Finally Ron gave him the last goblet of potion and the horcrux, the locket was visible. Ron for once not being stupid took it out before the potion refilled. His attempts to give his headmaster water with the goblet though were pitiful. While he tried to fill it with the aguamenti charm, he didn't produce more than a few droplets of water. Not that it would have helped. So the stupid boy ran to the lake to get some water from there. Didn't he remember what he had told him about breaking the surface?

Predictably once he pushed the goblet under the water, the inferi began attacking. The boy screamed and tried to pitifully hold them at bay. Really, he knew that Severus had covered inferi in his sixth year class and had told the students that only fire would work against them. So he had to save the stupid boy to keep his witness for his great demise. He forced himself to push the effects of the potion aside and shot a fire vortex at the inferi, freeing Weasley.

Obviously the boy realized what he had to do and started doing incendio spells. Was that the only fire spell he could do? A first year spell? He really should have taken Granger on the trip. At least she had a big repertoire of spells. He managed to get both of them into the boat and had Weasley take them out of the cave and undo the blood protection this time. He just gave into the weakness and let himself be dragged away. The potion was more powerful than he had first estimated. His precautions didn't really help.

Once they were through the first lake and at the entrance of the cave, he knew Weasley would never be able to get them up to the top of the cliff without killing them. And he needed his body being brought back to Hogwarts for Severus to kill him and start the ritual. So he produced with an enormous amount of concentration a portkey from a tissue. He had Weasley touch the portkey and activated it. It brought them back to the entrance of the school

Weasley once more proved to be an embarrassment of a wizard. Instead of levitating his body up to the school, he dragged him there the muggle way. Sometimes Molly Weasley's attitude was doing more harm than good. With her refusing to let her children do simple spells over the holidays, they had it ingrained in their brains to not use magic for the most logical things. After all, all pureblood children should know that in magical residences the Ministry couldn't determine who did a spell. They gained an advantage on muggleborns by that and when a powerful match was made following his plan, the pureblood part of the marriage would easily be the one who dominated the marriage.

But then when they nearly reached the entrance doors to the castle, there was a not expected problem. Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and Augustus Rookwood were standing there, wands pointed at them.

"Expelliarmus." Draco shouted.

Draco fired his spell at Dumbledore and his wand was flung out of his hand and landed in Malfoy's. No, this couldn't happen; he couldn't lose the allegiance of the Elder Wand. He had fought too hard to get it.

"Petrificus totalus." Rookwood added and took Weasley out.

The boy fell to the ground without ever even pulling his wand out.

"Well done, Draco." Rookwood commented.

"Hello, Albus. Oh, is the mighty Leader of the Light a bit sick?" Bellatrix mocked.

Dumbledore stared at the three.

"Bellatrix. I have to say I didn't expect any of you here at Hogwarts. May I inquire how you managed to get inside?" Dumbledore asked strained.

"Oh, you poor trusting old man. You never saw the flaw in your great plans. We used the easiest way. We came through the floo in Severus' office." Bellatrix said with a crazy laugh.

Severus let them in? No, he hadn't allowed him to let any Death Eaters into the castle. That was impossible. Severus was bound to his orders.

"Are you thinking about your pitiful oath, with which you bound him? You should have realized that it was void the moment the Dark Lord had to kill the mudblood Lily Potter." Rookwood asked.

Dumbledore was shocked. They knew about the oath. And now from the shadows behind them Severus came into the open.

"Severus." Dumbledore pleaded.

"Don't waste your breath, Albus. Your great plans failed and the Dark Lord will be very pleased with our achievements. And for your little ritual, it would have failed either way. I inspected the stone; it is a very good fake. It can turn metal into gold of low quality, that is true, but it doesn't produce elixir of life. I don't know if Flamel ever let you have the real stone or if Potter did something about it. But when you failed to protect Lily, I knew you were too weak to ever really oppose the Dark Lord. He knew I went to you under the pretence of regretting my actions.

"How could he not, it had been his plan after all. I don't deny I wanted to have Lily for me. But not out of love. She was the most beautiful, most powerful and smartest witch of our generation. I wanted her to breed her and satisfy my desire. The Dark Lord approved. We would have had powerful children which would have been raised to follow his teachings. He is an intelligent man after all. We didn't expect your oath trap though, but the Dark Lord knew a way around that obstacle as well. Well, I don't regret anything. My loyalty always lay with the Dark Lord. Why would I ever want to serve the Light when it is so pitifully weak?" Snape sneered.

Dumbledore didn't believe it. The reason he had always trusted Severus had been the oath he had tricked him into. But he had clearly overlooked that he had broken his part of the oath and therefore destroyed the bond when Lily Potter died. It had been the stipulation of the oath that Severus would do anything if Dumbledore kept Lily safe. He had been so busy with ensuring the prophecy didn't activate against him, that he forgot about that detail.

"I see you now realize your mistake, Albus. Well, it is too late. You are the last obstacle the Dark Lord has in Britain. Farewell. Avada Kedavra." Snape shouted.

The green light hit Dumbledore in the chest and he fell lifeless to the ground.

Malfoy pointed his wand at Ron.

"You are a pathetic excuse for a wizard, Weasley. I really miss Potter. He was at least a worthy opponent; he had smarts and was fun to argue with. You are just stupid." He insulted Ron.

Rookwood lifted the full body bind on the head so Ron could answer.

"What are you talking about?" Ron shouted. "Harry was an idiot."

"Crucio." Rookwood shouted and Ron began screaming.

If he hadn't been in the body bind he would have thrashed around too. Finally Rookwood ended the curse and Draco spoke up again.

"Oh, really? Then why did he manage to get away from you and the other blood traitors? I have to admit, I only had a few suspicions over the years, but there were clear signs that he was onto you. And contrary to you he only acted on my taunting when there was something to gain for him or those he considered his friends. Almost Slytherin of him." Draco said.

There were sounds of running close to them.

"Oh, it seems the backup is here. The only reason you are still alive, Weasley, is to report the exact details of our little chat and what happened with Dumbledore. Don't make any mistake. The Dark Lord will take over the country soon and bloodtraitors like you will be the first to die." Snape sneered and the four left running for the gates.

But before they apparated away, Bellatrix turned around, facing the ones following them and shot the Dark Mark into the sky.

"Morsmordre." She cackled and then turned on the spot to leave.

So there you have it. I thought Snape should be really dark in my story and so I came up with a plot to explain Dumbledore's trust. How did you like it? Till next time.