Harry crashed on the ground, the head of the golden wizard that had served as a Portkey rolling on the ground. He glanced around and saw that Dumbledore's Portkey had sent him to Dumbledore's office. This made him angry. Why hadn't he been sent to the Hospital Wing where Hermione would soon be?

Raising up on his feet, Harry walked toward the exit and tried to open the door. He couldn't. The door had been locked. He tried a few times before he gave up and kicked it in an angry huff. He stood in front of the door; his eyes closed. Memories of the evening were creeping back up. He kept seeing Hermione get hit by that damn curse and Sirius falling through the Veil. He remembered blowing up and accidently killing Dolohov with a Reductor Curse, the Death Eater who had sent the curse at Hermione. He hadn't planned to kill anyone but his curse had been overpowered by Harry's anger and it had hit the Death Eater's head instead of its torso as he had intended.

Harry couldn't avoid the guilt that crashed through his body. There was no escape. It was his fault that Sirius had died, his fault that his girlfriend was inches away from death. Hermione had told him that it was probably a trap, and Harry hadn't listened to her. It had cost Sirius his life and might have cost Hermione's hers as well.

The fireplace flared green and Dumbledore came out of it. Harry wanted to ask how was everyone, how was Hermione but the words were stuck in his throat.

As if he knew what Harry was thinking about, Dumbledore spoke up. "Well, Harry. You will be pleased to hear that none of your fellow students are going to suffer lasting damage from the night's events." Harry let out a breath, slowly relaxing. Hermione was safe! She was safe... He tried to say "Good." but, again, no sound came out. "Everyone else should make a full recovery as well but Miss Tonks might need to stay a few days at St. Mungo's."

Harry closed his eyes and said "I want... I need to see Hermione."

"Miss Granger is currently in the Hospital Wing." said the Headmaster. "You will be able to visit him, once I talked to you."

"About what?" said Harry, dryly.

Dumbledore sighed sadly. "I know how you feel, Harry."

Harry snorted. "No, you don't." he said, his voice suddenly sounding venomous.

"There is no shame in what you are feeling, Harry. On the contrary, the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength..."

" My greatest strength...? " said Hary calmly, yet with a tone of hidden anger. "You haven't got a clue... you don't know..."

"What don't I know?"

"I don't want to talk how I fell, all right?"

"Harry, suffering like this proves that you are still a man! This pain is part of being human..."

Harry finally snapped and released his anger. "THEN I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN!" he shouted before seizing one of Dumbledore's silver trinkets laying around on a small wooden table and threw it across the room. The trinket shattered into multiple tiny pieces when it hit the wall. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE..." Harry took another trinket and threw it in the fireplace before he took the whole table and threw it on the wall, making it break apart.

"You do care." said Dumbledore, not looking shocked at Harry's display. "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL, YOU... STANDING THERE... YOU..." he said but it was too much. With an angry shout, Harry turned away and went to the door. He tried opening it yet again but it didn't bulge. "Let me out."

"No." said Dumbledore simply.

Harry glared at Dumbledore. "Let. Me. Out. I need to see Hermione."

"No." repeated Dumbledore with a sigh. "Not until I have had my say."

"Do you think I want to listen to you? Do you think I give a shit about what you want to say? I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY YOU OLD FOOL! I NEED TO SEE HERMIONE SO LET ME OUT!"

"Harry... I will promise you that once you have listened to what I need to say, you will be able to go see Miss Granger at the Hospital Wing. Now, please, take a seat."

Harry glared again at Dumbledore and continued to do so while he was slowly making his way to a seat.

"Now, Harry, I owe you an explanation..."

To Harry's surprise, Dumbledore started by blaming himself for what had happened that night. It helped Harry slightly, knowing that he didn't share all of the blame but he still feels horrendously guilty about what had happened to Sirius and Hermione, especially Hermione who had followed him to the Department of Mysteries just because Harry had refused to believe in her warnings. She had been the one in their group to bear the cost.

Then, Dumbledore shared the suspicions that Voldemort would try to bring him to the Ministry to get the Prophecy and his failure to share them to Harry as, like he had said, if he had shared them then Harry would have realised it was a trap. Harry had told him how Hermione had realised this as well but Harry hadn't believed it anyway. Dumbledore had simply retorqued by saying that Harry already had convinced himself that his vision was real and that nobody could have dissuaded him from his belief. The only way it could have changed was if Harry had known it advance that Voldemort was likely to try something like that.

Dumbledore told Harry that when Voldemort had tried to possess Harry, he was seeking out his destruction at Dumbledore's hand, hoping that the Headmaster would have sacrificed his student for Voldemort's death. That Harry had managed to fight him with his love for his friend, for his godfather but most importantly: his love for Hermione.

The two wizards then talked loudly about Kreacher and Sirius until they finally arrived at the point of this whole talk. The Prophecy.

"...the thing that smashed was merely the record of the prophecy kept by the Department of Mysteries. But the prophecy was made to somebody, and that person has the means of recalling it perfectly."

"Who heard it?"

"I did," said Dumbledore. "On a cold, wet night sixteen years ago, in a room above the bar at the Hog's Head Inn. I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher, though it was against my inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all. The applicant, however, was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous, very gifted Seer, and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself."

"Wait, you mean Professor Trelawney?" asked Harry with shock. Then he remembered what the Headmaster had told him in his Third Year after he witnessed Professor Trelawney fall into a weird trance. He had told him that she had done her second true prophecy.

"Yes Harry." said Dumbledore, raising up on his feet and bringing his pensieve on the desk. "This is what it says..."

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. … The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies. …"

Harry palled. "I have to kill him? Either he dies or I do?"

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. The only person who has a chance of conquering Lord Voldemort for good was born at the end of July, nearly sixteen years ago. This boy would be born to parents who had already defied Voldemort three times."

Harry closed his eyes, a tear leaking out of his eye. It was too dangerous to be close to people. Now that he knew that Voldemort really was after him, and that Harry was his number one target, he knew that no-one could be allowed too close to him. Maybe it was better... Hermione wouldn't suffer again...

"I know what you are thinking Harry, but pushing your loved ones away will not help anyone, especially not you."

"I'm too dangerous. People could die... people have died because... because of me. Cedric! Sirius! And nearly Hermione today!"

"Harry, I believe that ' The Power the Dark Lord knows not' is Love. Love is one of the strongest magics on earth and pushing away people you love would lower your chances to succeed against Lord Voldemort. I have no doubts that Miss Granger will tell you the same thing when you next see her."

"Okay..." he said. He would forget about it for the time being.

"When I learned what had happened in Godric's Hollow all those nights ago, I realised that Voldemort wasn't gone forever. I knew not whether he would come back in then, twenty or fifty years but I was sure he would do. Knowing that he wouldn't rest until he killed you, I brought you to your only remaining family, the Dursleys. There, you would be protected by various powerful enchantments of ancient magic, of which he knows and despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated, to his cost. I am, of course, speaking about the love of your mother, a protection that he never expected. I therefore put my trust in your mother's blood and delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative..."

Harry snorted. "She doesn't love me." he said. "She doesn't give a damn..." However, at the back of his mind, something was starting to wake up.

"But she took you in." Dumbledore cut across him. "She may have done so unwillingly but in doing so, she sealed the charm that I placed upon you. Your mother's sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you."

"What do you mean?" he asked, the weird feeling becoming stronger.

"You probably wondered why couldn't some wizarding family have taken you in? It was simply because while you could still call home the place where your mother's blood dwelled, you couldn't be touched or harmed by Voldemort. Your mother's blood became your refuge. As long as you could still call it home."

"Other families wanted to take me in?" he asked. He didn't know why he did so but he felt like it was important.

"Yes. Some good families such as the Weasleys, Diggorys, Tonks or Longbottoms had offered to take you in but some others like the Lestranges, Malfoys and Averys." said Dumbledore. "Thankfully, I managed to deal with all of their offers so that you would be able to stay with your family."

Harry frowned. Then, it clicked.

"Why?" said Harry in a hurt, betrayed voice. "I-I don't k-know." cried Hermione. "I-I wanted to s-say yes b-but before I d-did so, I s-suddenly felt angry at my p-parents' idea and I s-said no."

"Thankfully, I managed to deal with all of their offers so that you would be able to stay with your family."

Harry raised to his feet, trembling in rage. Hermione had said many times that she had never understood why she suddenly felt angry at the idea of having Harry live with them. She was never able to explain it to her shame and embarrassment.

"Did one of these families happened to be the Grangers?" he asked quietly.

Dumbledore frowned for a bit before his eyes suddenly widened in surprise. It was confirmation enough for Harry.

"What did you do?"

"Harry... I did what I had to do so that you could live with your family..."

"What. Did. You. Do?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I learned that a muggle family wanted to adopt you. The day I decided to see who they were, I found them in the nearby park, sitting at a table of an ice-cream parlour. When I heard Miss Granger's parents talk about moving out of town and wanting to adopt you to bring you with them, I put a Confundus Charm on Miss Granger to refuse the idea and one on her parents so that they would move out the next morning." said Dumbledore. He dared looking ashamed!

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR ACTIONS DID? NOT ONLY DID YOUR ACTIONS SEPARATE US OF OUR ONLY FRIEND, IT SENTENCED ME TO SIX YEARS OF ABUSE! NOT ONLY THAT BUT HERMIONE DIDN'T TRUST HERSELF TO HAVE ANY FRIENDS IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHY SHE HAD SAID NO SO VIOLENTLY, WHY SHE HAD BETRAYED ME AND IT WAS THE SAME THING FOR ME! I DIDN'T TRUST ANYONE TO BE MY FRIEND AGAIN! YOU CLAIM THAT MY GREATEST POWER IS LOVE YET WHEN YOU PUSHED HERMIONE AWAY, I STARTED BELIEVING THAT I WASN'T WORTHY OF BEING LOVED! THAT I WAS A FREAK! IT WAS BECAUSE OF YOU THAT HERMIONE AND I DIDN'T BECOME FRIENDS AGAIN UNTIL HALLOWEEN WHEN I NEARLY DIED SAVING HER FROM THE TROLL WHO JUST SO HAPPENED TO BE IN THE SAME BATHROOM WHERE HERMIONE HAD HIDDEN IN AFTER RON HAD INSULTED HER BECAUSE SHE HAD ANNOYED HIM TRYING TO BECOME MY FRIEND AGAIN WHILE I DIDN'T WANT TO BECAUSE I FELT LIKE SHE HAD BETRAYED ME!" he shouted.

Dumbledore closed his eyes. For the first time in Harry's life, Dumbledore wept. It was very hard to stay angry at someone who was crying which, ironically enough, made him even angrier. "I want to see Hermione and this time; I'm not taking no for an answer. If you have more to tell me then you will have to wait."

Dumbledore nodded before Harry heard a 'click' from the door. Harry walked toward the exit and was glad when the door opened. He slammed it shut behind and made his way toward the Hospital Wing.