This chapter was a lot longer than I intended it to be. And one of my favourite lines that I've ever written is in this chapter, uttered by Sirius. I'll let you spot it. Please review.

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Secrets We Keep

Cole arrived late to his meeting with Dumbledore. He'd found the letter on his desk earlier that day, which happened to be the same day that he returned from San Francisco after dealing with Gideon. He was surprised to see Harry sitting in the chair across from Dumbledore.

"Ah, Cole, you've arrived," Dumbledore greeted, a hand outstretched, "and not a moment too soon. We are a little pressed for time, so we must move along quickly. I have two more memories to share with you both this evening, each obtained with great difficulty, and of the second of which, I think, is the most important I have collected."

Harry said nothing, but Cole, still standing, did speak. "I presumed this discussion would be about Gideon, Professor."

"No discussion needed, Cole. We were wrong to trust him, but it happens sometimes and he came to us under circumstances that negated our need to do so. Needless to say, nobody, not even I, saw this coming."

"That's all you can say!" Cole spurted out. "We're lucky that he wasn't in league with Voldemort."

"He would not have been, Cole. He believed that what he was doing was right. A delusional man, nevertheless, but it would have never led him to seek out an evil as great as Voldemort for assistance. It would have spelt the end for the Order, you, me and the Charmed Ones."

"You may be right, but that we should spend this time debriefing everybody who came into contact with Gideon. He had vital secrets about the Order."

"And he took them with him to the grave, Cole," Dumbledore reasoned. "I know that you need closure, but I need you ready to move on. This is very important and can determine the course of our future. Gideon is in the past and talking cannot change how you feel about him."

Cole nodded, conceding defeat. "What do have to show us tonight?"

After recounting their recollection of Tom Riddle's journey thus far, from his birth to his acceptance into Hogwarts and his declining of Dumbledore's offer to accompany him to Diagon Alley. The aging professor explained Riddle's nature as he progressed through Hogwarts and then on to his difficulty in tracking down those with memories of him. It would seem that Dumbledore had spent much of the last forty or so years tracing Voldemort's history back as thoroughly as he could. The professor stood and continued to speak of Marvolo Gaunt, the wizarding family to which Tom Riddle was born.

"I was very lucky to collect this," he said as he poured the gleaming mass into the Pensieve. "As you two will understand when we have experienced it. Shall we?"

Harry steeped up to the basin first and bowed, followed by Cole, and they both sank their faces through the meniscus of the liquid and into the memory. Cole recognised the Gaunt house immediately, but he could see that Harry was thrown by its appearance. It was a lot dirtier than the last time they'd seen, in a memory not too long ago with Tom Riddle's mother, who was constantly beaten on by her father and brother.

They saw a man, appearing to be asleep in an armchair, until he heard a creak and jumped up madly, his wand in one hand, a knife in another. The door behind them creaked open and there stood a boy that Harry immediately recognised. It was Tom Riddle, the one he knew from the Diary in his second year.

After Gaunt tried to attack Riddle, then stopped and skidded into the dining room table, they had a conversation in Parseltongue. Harry understood every word, of course, but Cole had to rely on Dumbledore's translations. As it turned out, the Gaunt was not Marvolo but Morfin, although Cole somewhat expected this given the timeline. They discussed the Muggle who lived down the road, Tom Riddle, Voldemort's father, and then his mother, who had left them after she ran off with the senior Riddle. Cole guessed it was because she fell pregnant with Tom. But they did not get to find out what happened. It became unnaturally dark and Dumbledore grabbed both Harry and Cole and pulled them out.

"Is that all? Harry asked at once. "Why did it go all dark? What happened?"

"Because Morfin could not remember anything from that point onwards," Dumbledore replied, gesturing for them to sit. "When he awoke next morning, he was lying on the floor, quite alone. Marvolo's ring was gone."

"I'm sensing an 'and'?" Cole put in. "Was this the same night that the Riddle family was killed in Little Hangleton?"

"Yes, it was, and the Muggle authorities were perplexed."

"They had no C.O.D.—cause of death," Cole explained to Harry, who, he himself, was looking a little perplexed. "I don't believe that they know to this day how the Riddles died."

"The Ministry, on the other hand, knew this was a wizard's murder," Dumbledore continued, "and that a local wizard-hater who had attacked the deceased Muggle before lived in the area. So the Ministry called upon Morfin. He admitted to the murder on the spot and gave details that only the murderer would know. They led him off to Azkaban without a fight and lived out the remainder of his life there."

Cole was quite sure of what happened then. And he knew that it was Voldemort's doing. Harry and Dumbeldore discussed Morfin until, finally, the headmaster retrieved a vial, containing the same crystal liquid as before, and Harry fell silent at once.

"This will not take long," Dumbledore told them. "We'll be back before you know it."

They fell through the silver ceiling once more and landed in front of a much younger Horace Slughorn. In his office, they stood, with half a dozen boys around him, all in their mid-teens. Harry, once again, recognised Tom Riddle immediately. Their conversation started out fairly normal—Slughorn was joking with Riddle, thanking him for the box of crystallised pineapple, and then something happened. The room changed and swirled around them, and they could hear Slughorn's voice through the mist, unnaturally loud: "— you'll go wrong boy, mark my words."

The kit changed back to normal. Slughorn was dismissing the boys, but Riddle stayed back to speak. "Sir, I wondered what you know about ... about Horcruxes?"

And it happened again. The room swirled and they heard Slughorn through the mist. "I don't know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! Now get out of here at once and don't let me catch you mentioning them again!"

"Time to go," Dumbledore announced. Their feet fell to the floor of Dumbledore's office and Cole immediately shook off any feeling of dizziness.

"Is that what really happened, Sir?" Cole asked inquisitively.

"Not entirely," he replied. "It was fixed, by Horace Slughorn himself, and, unfortunately, I have not been granted access to the real one. So for the first time, I am giving you two homework. It will be your job to persuade Professor Slughorn to divulge the real memory, which will undoubtedly be our most crucial piece of information of all."

"Of his own free will? Or can we take it by force?" Cole asked.

"I do not wish you to do the latter, it may drive him away from Hogwarts, which I certainly do not want. I have faith that you two will concoct another way. So good luck... and goodnight."

Harry was a little taken aback by the abrupt dismissal, but he followed Cole out nonetheless. He waited until they had left the office and walked down the stairs to discuss anything with Cole. "How do you propose we do this?"

"I don't know yet," Cole replied, "but we have some time to figure out a way. Listen, Harry, I can't stay and talk about this now. That meeting ran later than I anticipated and I promised to share something with Phoebe this evening."

"Understood, sir," Harry replied, a little disappointed. "So I'll see you in class tomorrow?"

"Definitely," Cole replied. They separated at a junction and Cole headed off towards Hogsmeade so that he could shimmer back to the Manor.

oOo

Phoebe was not sure why Cole had brought her to the most deserted place on the planet. It wasn't ugly, by any means, but the dense forest somewhere in the north Ural Mountains was chilling her bones. He had told her it would be very cold, so she wore thermal underwear, but this went beyond very cold.

"Why are we here, Cole?" she asked, her teeth chattering. He gave her a loving look and immediately she started to warm up. She wasn't sure what he did, but it worked.

"You'll see," he told her.

A swirl of orbs appeared in front of them and Phoebe expected to see Paige or Leo, or another Elder. She definitely didn't expect to see the face of somebody she knew—somebody she thought she'd lost. "Sirius?"

"Yes, good to see you again, Phoebe," the whitelighter said warmly, despite the chilling weather.

"You're a whitelighter?" she questioned.

"Why does everyone find that so hard to believe?"

Cole laughed and then turned to Phoebe. "This is where I've been going, mostly. Sirius has been my eyes and ears on a lot of things."

"Right," she said understandingly.

"Cole's just using me for my orbs," Sirius told her.

Phoebe burst out laughing and Cole tried, but failed, to hide his smile.

Sirius was baffled. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, never you mind, Sirius," Cole answered. Phoebe was still in a fit of giggles. "Do you have anything for me?"

"Well, there was some mention of and I quote 'The Guardian of Magic' existing, but it wasn't anything I could verify with any degree of accuracy. How did your research go?"

"Well, since what happened with Gideon..."

"Yeah." Sirius understood his meaning. "The Elders are concerned about Leo. I hear he's gone off the rails. Should I be concerned?"

"Leo's fine," Phoebe told him undisputedly. "He's just going through a rough patch."

"He's looking for Barbas," Sirius commented, unconvinced by Phoebe's argument.

Cole shrugged. "If Barbas helped an Elder dispose of one of my sons, I'd kill him too."

"So there are no issues at the Manor?" Sirius asked.

"Well," Phoebe answered unsurely, "Piper hasn't left it in weeks. I mean, sure, Chris is only two weeks old, and we already lost him once, but she won't leave and won't let anyone babysit. Dalton and Paige mainly take care of the other boys, while I'm at work, that is."

"I don't envy his job," Sirius proclaimed. "Four boys, three of them toddlers in the terrible twos stage, such that it is." He shook his head.

"I know," Phoebe agreed. She looked at Cole. "We should have a girl."

"What? You and me?"

Sirius started to edge away from them. "I can tell I'm not supposed to be in this conversation."

Phoebe snapped back and stared at him. "Well, do you have any other news for Cole?"

"Yeah, the reason I haven't heard any more on this Guardian is because all the Elders are now concerned with a new threat that may be looming on the horizon," Sirius answered.

"Could it be Lord Voldemort, Sirius?" Cole stated plainly.

The whitelighter just glared back at him. "Do you think?"

"Okay, so we still have Voldemort to deal with, as well as this ambiguous new threat that has the Elders in frenzy?" Phoebe asked.

"Pretty much," was Sirius' reply.

"That's just great," Phoebe muttered sarcastically, a sour look upturning her nose.

"Well, if that's it, I'll be going," Sirius told them. "The Elders have been keeping a closer eye on me lately. I think they know that I've been passing you information and if Odin ever got proof..." He shuddered slightly. Odin, the most outspoken and rule-dictated Elder, would not look at all kindly on Sirius' exploitation of the closely guarded secrets of the Whitelighter order.

"Take care of yourself," Cole told him.

Sirius smiled. "Take care of your family." And he orbed out.

"I'm going to guess that I can't tell anyone that he's a Whitelighter," Phoebe said as they watched his orbs fly above.

"Not yet. His death gives the Order strength and purpose. Meaning. To have cheated death will give them a false sense of security. So I vowed not to say anything until after Voldemort is defeated, and now so should you."

"Okay. What about your meeting with Dumbledore tonight? How was it?"

"I can't really discuss it, but I know that Dumbledore plans to divulge certain information with you and your sisters soon, and when he does, I can bring you up to speed."

"Right," Phoebe pondered.

"So did you mean what you said about having a girl?" Cole asked, intrigued.

"No, it was a figure of speech. I mean, of course, our lives are way too busy at the moment. It's just, that in my vision last year, I had a daughter and I've been wondering when that's going to happen."

"It's not like we even have a definitive relationship. Not with everything that's been happening and my work at Hogwarts and your work with your sisters."

"I know that, Cole. Trust me, I know that. And I would like to give our relationship some... some... definition! We were married once."

"Well, do you wanna get married?"

"I presumed that wasn't an option until we defeated Voldemort."

"Why? He doesn't dictate our lives. And I'm sure that once he's gone and if we're still alive to see that day, then there will be another threat to good magic."

"So we're going to get married?" Phoebe asked shrewdly.

"If that's what you want, then sure."

"Wait a second." She was waving her arms in front of him like a mad woman. "That's it. If I want to get married, then that's what we'll do. You proposed last time, albeit in a puddle of demon dung, and you pushed for us to marry. And now all you're saying is if I want it, then we'll do it."

"What do you want me to say, Phoebe? I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life, however long or short it is, with you. And with our sons. But I know that there's water under the bridge and considering the circumstances of our last marriage, I thought you would be the one with more reservations than me."

"Yeah, but you were the Source of All Evil last time," Phoebe argued. "But if you're not going to ask, then I will."

"You will?"

"Yes, Cole. Will you marry me... again?" She felt a little awkward saying it.

Cole smiled and tried to hide his laughter. He grabbed her around the shoulders quickly and brought her into his warm embrace before kissing her passionately. They broke apart laughing.

"So I'll take that as a yes?" Phoebe asked rhetorically.

"Let's get outta here," Cole told her.

"Where?"

"Well, I have a few ideas..."