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Chapter 21

Once, Harry could remember listening to Dumbledore speak with something like awe. Oh he had always agreed that the headmaster was a little bit mad, just as Percy had confirmed at his very first Hogwarts feast, but he had always firmly believed that Dumbledore was a great man who deserved respect and admiration.

He'd still believed that after the horror of his second year and even more firmly so after his third year when he had helped them free Sirius and Buckbeak. Sometimes, Harry had to wonder if he had changed or if Ally had changed him. Had his perception of the old headmaster changed so much because of Ally or had he noticed the flaws in the man he had once so highly respected because, for the first time, he had another perspective?

Harry would like to believe that he would have come to view Dumbledore in the same way even if he had not met Ally until later. He couldn't comprehend how manipulative Dumbledore would have been had Harry not taken a stand of his own. It wasn't something he wanted to waste his time thinking about but sitting in the ADADA student office with Dumbledore just across the desk there were a lot of thoughts tumbling through Harry's mind that seemed to have come to a head.

Dumbledore didn't seem to notice the silence or the distraction of Harry's thoughts. He was watching him with such a thirst that Harry only then realised that the old man had truly been worried. His eyes roved over him, checking for scratches, wounds, any sign of what might have landed him in the Hospital Wing for two weeks.

McGonagall had clearly done a good job of keeping the headmaster in check. The way he was looking at Harry, the absolute relief at seeing him alive and unharmed could only mean that he honestly hadn't managed to get in to see Harry while he was unconscious.

It was Harry who finally broke the silence, it had been a long time since the two had last spoken and it had been even longer since they had spoken with complete honesty. Actually Harry couldn't be sure Dumbledore had ever been completely honest with him. There had always been secrets that Dumbledore held back, things he hadn't felt Harry was ready for.

There were still things he was holding back. If it had been up to Dumbledore Harry doubted he'd yet have any idea what a horcrux was or how to go about finding them let alone destroying them. He felt that was significant information that he could have been using for months to fight back against Voldemort, perhaps even years.

'I don't really remember what happened,' Harry began, 'if that's what you wanted to know.'

'It is,' Dumbledore conceded, 'but it is not all I wish to know.'

'Do you remember when I asked you about my mother when I was in my very first year here and you told me that I wasn't ready to know the answer?' Harry asked.

'I do,' Dumbledore acknowledge with a nod of his head. 'And I stand by what I said, you were not ready to know at the age of eleven that there was a prophecy about you and that it was the reason for Voldemort coming after you.'

'Did you think I'd blame myself for my parents death or just spend the rest of the summer brooding over my fate?' Harry wanted to know. Then he changed his mind when Dumbledore opened his mouth to explain. 'No, don't answer that, its done. Let's just look at it this way, you can ask but I can't guarantee I'll answer.'

That didn't seem to please Dumbledore but he also seemed to recognise that his own words and advice were being used against him. His first question was an interesting one, one Harry hadn't actually been expecting. Sometimes, with the way they all grumped about him, they forgot that he truly was a brilliant wizard.

'You stole a horcrux from the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange, did you not?'

'Hermione and I went with Malfoy when he visited his aunts vault,' Harry conceded. 'There was concern about what curses she might have left behind and he wanted a little extra muscle.'

Not a lie, exactly, but it wasn't the answer Dumbledore was looking for.

'Harry,' the headmaster sighed, looking older and more tired than Harry had ever seen him. 'If you know something, anything that might help me uncover what Voldemort has done, you must tell me.'

'Why?' It wasn't the first time Dumbledore had said something like that and it wasn't the first time Harry had ever questioned it but it was the first time he felt he might get an honest answer or at least an answer. 'Why is it so important you know when I'm the one supposed to kill him?'

'Because I don't want you to have to make that choice, Harry, there are things you don't know, things you don't understand about Voldemort and what I suspect he has done.'

It wasn't like Harry had been very patient to begin with but he was quickly losing what little he'd come prepared with. 'These things I don't know and understand are things you are refusing to tell me. You show me a single memory to give me something to think about and then you wonder why I ask questions, why I seek answers elsewhere?'

'Harry,' Dumbledore began but Harry cut him off.

'I've known about horcruxes since the beginning of last summer,' Harry informed the headmaster. 'I inadvertently walked right in on one of Voldemort's darkest secrets and though I only caught a glimpse, it was enough to get one word.'

'Horcrux,' Dumbledore correctly guessed.

'It took us months to figure out what one was, months in which you've had the answer but were too afraid to share it. Do you know, I almost feel sorry for you,' Harry said, suddenly changing tracks. You've become so secretive, so sure that what you are doing is too much for others to handle, that you have become nothing but a lonely old man. Tell me, sir, is there anyone you trust?'

Dumbledore's eyes widened ever so slightly and he once again made to protest or speak in his defence but Harry wasn't finished.

'I have spent years putting together a team I can trust, I have trained with these people, shared my secrets with these people, I have trusted them to have my back when the worst is occurring. These are the people I call friends, professor, people who I know will never tell my secrets and share my same desire to save the wizarding world. Some of them I would never have thought could be trusted but they have worked to earn my trust just as I've had to work to earn theirs.

'Right now, sir, I trust Draco Malfoy more than I trust you. At least I know where I stand with him.'

Mercifully, there was a knock on the outer door so Harry didn't have to sit there for one more minute considering the look he'd just left on Dumbledore's face. He couldn't have looked more surprised if Harry had actually leant across the desk and slapped him. As tempting as that idea was Harry did have some restraint.

'I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore, that'll be Abby's next appointment.' As polite as possible, Harry rose from his chair and motioned toward the door. Dumbledore hesitated but Harry closed off his expression, making it very clear they were done and that if Dumbledore wanted to get some answers he was sure as hell going to have to give some first.

The poor first year Hufflepuff on the other side of the door let out a startled squeak when Dumbledore pulled open the door and swept out, robes fluttering behind him in a very dramatic fashion.

'Don't mind him,' Harry said cheerfully, 'He just didn't get the news he was hoping for.' And he motioned the girl inside before closing the door lightly behind her. 'Won't be a sec, I'll just grab Abby.'

Barely had the door closed behind Abby before Hermione was taking him by the arm and tugging him over to Luna's desk. 'I think I've figured out what this does although why Voldemort had it I'll never know. I'm not even sure how he knew it existed.'

Harry just sort of looked at her blankly, waiting for her to realise that she'd started that conversation seemingly half way through and that he had no idea what she was talking about having only just entered the room.

'The gold sphere from the hospital!' she exclaimed excitedly. 'Luna and I have figured out where it came from and how Voldemort got it.'

'Just not why he'd have thought to look for it in the first place,' Harry supplied the last of her explanation.

'Exactly!' she told him brightly. 'You remember that cave with all of the old Department of Mysteries workers? The one with all of the weird traps and the most fascinating collection of research and books?'

'Yes,' Harry confirmed slowly, still not quite following.

'Well that,' she jabbed a finger at the copy of the writing Luna was pouring over, 'was described in one of the texts we found. Voldemort must have looked for it after he got into that cave.'

'The curse breakers at Gringott's found it a hundred years ago,' Luna supplied. 'They handed if over to the Ministry but they didn't have any idea what it was so they put it in some museum to gather dust.'

'Sounds about right,' Harry nodded. 'So Voldemort found some reference to it and went looking for it. My question is why? What's it supposed to do that he wanted it so badly?'

'Exactly what it did,' Hermione said in a suddenly quiet voice. 'It created an impenetrable ward around St Mungo's that no one, no magic, could get through. I think it was supposed to stop you Harry.'

'But it didn't,' he said, 'I went straight in just as I always do.'

'I know,' Hermione agreed. 'But Ally couldn't get in, whatever allowed you to get in is special about you.'

'And you've no idea what?' Harry guessed.

'Not a clue,' Hermione replied sounding far too cheerful for such a statement. 'But we're going to find out.'

Research was something Hermione understood and, much like the manner in which she'd tackled the search for a way to destroy horcruxes, she was going to tackle this with a great deal of enthusiasm even in the face of frustration. It was good to see that despite all she had been through, a little of the bookworm he'd first met was still able to break free now and again.

Harry didn't make it back to the couch and his journals before Emmy and Stephanie walked up to him and looped their arms through his. 'Can we borrow you?' Emmy asked.

'I suppose so, where are we going?'

Stephanie pointed to a place on the map and Harry closed his eyes and tried to picture it in his mind. 'That is where Horace Slughorn lives,' Stephanie explained as they waited for Harry to fix the location in his mind. He was a lot less likely to burn them if he had a good idea of where they were going before he tried to leave.

'The old potions master?'

'The very same,' Emmy confirmed. 'He's been hiding out all over the country, constantly on the move but we finally managed to track him down.'

'Let me guess, we're going to see if we can't pry the uncorrupted memory from him.'

Although most of the memories they had copied from Dumbledore's collection had been straight forward, the one Slughorn had provided had obviously been tampered with. As the memory as it was didn't tell them anything more than they already knew its corruption hadn't been something they were too worried about. Now that the destruction of the horcruxes seemed a very real possibility they were once again eager to get a look at the true moment from all those years ago.

They arrived just in time to see the house Slughorn was staying in go up in flames, the roof seeming to leap free of the walls. All three of them were knocked backward by the force of the blow but they were on their feet an instant later.

'Ow!' Stephanie complained, rubbing her elbow. 'Guess we're right on time, then.'

It was the first fight Harry had been in since the incident at St Mungo's and if either Emmy or Stephanie hesitated, chancing glances at him, he didn't notice. He was already striding around the house, following the sounds of shouts and spell fire.

An older, portly man who must have been Slughorn seemed to have been caught sleeping if the striped pyjamas and slippers were anything to go by. He was being held by two burley Death Eaters that matched Crabbe and Goyle in stature while a third was interrogating him.

Harry cut down the third Death Eater without a word of warning as twin spells shot passed him on either side, knocking the other two out cold. Emmy and Stephanie hurried to restrain the two living Death Eaters while Harry stripped the one he had killed of his wand and his anonymity. He didn't recognise the face under the mask but someone at the Ministry would track down his relatives.

'You alright?' Harry asked Slughorn once he and the girls were sure they were alone and that there weren't anymore Death Eaters ready and waiting in the shadows.

'Perfectly fine,' Slughorn replied, straightening his pyjamas and his robe before bending to pick up his wand. With a casual wave of his wand the flames engulfing his home vanished and Harry was left looking at a perfectly ordinary house. The whole explosion and been an illusion, an attempt to fool the Death Eaters.

'Neat trick,' Harry commented. 'Do you know why we're here?'

'I'm guessing not just to save me from being captured and taken to You-Know-Who?' When Harry said nothing, Slughorn sighed and invited them inside.

There were only a few personal items in the house and a lot of things that certainly didn't belong to Slughorn. He appeared to be squatting in a muggle home.

'Did Dumbledore send you?' Slughorn demanded as he busied himself making tea.

'He doesn't know we're here,' Harry assured the old potions master. 'Though given what Sirius and Remus have told me about you, chances are he would have tried to send me eventually.'

Slughorn made a sound that might have been agreement but could just have easily been offense. Harry laid a glass phial on the table and looked Slughorn right in the eye. Slughorn's face twitched, betraying his nerves.

'It won't help you,' he sighed, sinking into a chair. 'It's far too late for that.'

Now, more than ever, Harry wanted to get a look at that memory. 'Let us be the judge of that.'

They stared at each other, neither willing to back down; Harry didn't even blink. Finally, after what felt like minutes had passed, Slughorn reached for the phial and uncorked it. Grabbing his wand, he placed the tip to his temple and drew it away, trailing a silvery smoke of memory behind. Directing it into the phial, he jammed the cork back into place and pushed it across the table to Harry.

'I'm so sorry for the part I played in this.'

Harry just nodded. They left without drinking any tea and it wasn't until they were back in the ADADA offices viewing the memory that they realised just how wrong Slughorn had been. His memory told them everything they needed to know.

Seven. There were only seven.