"Harry, please. Come on out. We've been out here for hours, you have to talk to one of us mate." Ron shouted, his fifth attempt to get Harry to open up throughout the day, and the thirtieth of the group as a whole.

"No." Harry whispered through the door, it was the first sign of any response from Harry that any of them had received, which spurred Ron onwards.

"We need you and you need us, we're all grieving the loss of Professor Dumbledore."

"You weren't there. I was too late to save him, too late in getting help."

"You can't have known mate." Ron answered sympathetically.

"I should have given him a ring, then he could have signaled for help if not outright call me and ask for help."

"It didn't happen like that and I'm sorry Harry, but please don't shut your family out." Dudley spoke up, hoping for a reply.

"I need time."

"Let one of us in, even if we sit in silence until you're ready to talk, it will really help you." Daphne said sorrowful at hearing the distress in her boyfriend's voice.

"Dudley and Theo, they're who I want to let in. Only them."

"We'll come in, just the two of us." Theo answered and a moment later the door opened for the two and slammed shut.

/-_-^_^-_/

The Room of Requirement had adjusted itself to accommodate three inhabitants, including adding three bedrooms with their own bathrooms as well as a table to eat food, which is sent from the kitchen whenever they ask.

Harry hadn't come out in a week and so Dudley and Theo passed the time by talking a lot, mostly about mundane stuff but also about much deeper topics.

"Why do you think we're the two he chose?" Theo asked one day after the two finished sparring.

"We both lost our fathers, under vastly different circumstances yes, but that is something we share."

"That makes as much sense as anything I suppose. Do you think he'll be okay soon?" Theo asked when a moment had passed.

"Harry is strong, stronger perhaps than anyone I've ever met. He will get through this and he will be stronger on the other side, though I do expect we will have to prepare for pain while duelling him when his sorrow turns to anger."

"Harry is my friend, I accept any pain that he can offload onto me."

/_-^_^_-/

"Harry? Professor Dumbledore's funeral is happening in under an hour, will you be attending?" Dudley asked, knocking on his brother's bedroom door, which swung open to reveal Harry.

"I'm going under my cloak, I can't deal with other people right now." Harry responded as he slipped the invisibility cloak on and left the Room of Requirement, walking slowly and shamefully towards the grounds.

The entire time he watched the burial service there was one thought circling through Harry's mind.

"If you hadn't cut off his finger then he wouldn't have died." The self-accusatory statement not allowing any other thoughts to surface. It became so overwhelming that he ended up leaving before the ceremony concluded.

He flew past all of the stairs and made it to the seventh floor in mere seconds, flying down the hallways and activating the door to the Room of Requirement and retired to bed, placing various locking and silencing charms on the door and drinking a dreamless sleep potion.

/^-^_/

"Why didn't you interrupt the ritual to bring me to his aid, or drag one of the newly initiated Elementals to his side?" Harry questioned loudly as soon as he saw the telltale sign of Fate's realm.

She wasn't alone, for Magic and Dumbledore themselves sat before him, the latter looking much younger than Harry had ever seen him in life.

"Hello young Harry, I suppose you have many questions." The late Headmaster said once their eyes met.

"Albus? Is it really you, or is this one of Fate's tricks?"

"Even in my shallowest form the essence of what makes me me is the same, alas I am however Albus Percival Wilfred Brian Dumbledore. However my mind is having problems assimilating a long life of memories, and the fact that I died, as well as…" Albus trailed off when Fate rose.

"I couldn't do anything more than I did, by making sure you didn't mess up the ritual I was able to ensure that you were at least able to keep your Headmaster company in his final moments."

"Thank you for being there for me in the end Harry, I'm sorry you had to see me die."

"What are we going to do now Professor?"

"Former Professor Moody is now the Head of my Order of the Phoenix, and McGonagall will now be the Headmistress of Hogwarts. Life will carry on and though it hurts, I shall never truly leave you, in the literal meaning I shall be in this realm for quite some time, while in the figurative sense I shall be with you in your heart during every beat."

"It is all my fault." Harry whispered, feeling the overwhelming emotions of grief building back up.

"I can't remember the end of my life, maybe one day soon I will, but I remember one thing clearer than anything else. You have helped me even when you didn't have to, you made me feel as if the world was going to be okay."

"You're just trying to make me feel better."

"Yes I am, but that doesn't take away from what you've done. Slytherins and Gryffindors are studying together as friends, older students are helping the younger ones, and you have brought back a power that even I didn't believe in. What other Fourteen year old would walk willingly to resurrect the most powerful dark wizard of the modern age, only to turn him to the light side by imprinting your personality upon him."

"You can't make my every action appear to be good, I brought down the Orphanage from my childhood and allowed Voldemort inside my mind while I did it. I killed Vernon Dursley in cold blood when Voldemort was part of my scar."

"Those are bad, yes, but let's go through them one by one. Wool's Orphanage was already an awful place when I went there to bring Tom Riddle to Hogwarts, I can't imagine how bad it got towards the end."

"It was you who came to Wool's and discovered Tom?"

"I can show you, if you'd like."

"I want to see." Harry responded and the scene around them faded, only to be replaced by a very familiar building.

/_-_^_^_-/

Albus Dumbledore stood in front of a Muggle Orphanage in London, the younger man's hair and beard being both shorter and shockingly ginger. He walked jovially in a deep plum suit, unaware of the many looks he received for his unusual dress sense.

He walked through a set of iron gates and past a very dank and filthy courtyard, leading to a very tall square building. He knocked at the door and a few minutes later it was answered by a small boy.

"What?" The youth, who couldn't have been older than eight asked.

"Good afternoon young lad, I have an appointment to meet with a Mrs Cole, am I in the right place?"

"Yeah, one sec. OI MRS COLE, COME HERE!" The small boy shouted at the top of his lungs, earning a smack from the aforementioned matron.

"Watch your attitude Billy." The matron was much younger than Dumbledore had expected, though he didn't allow that to influence his interaction with her.

"You've really come? When I first got your letter I assumed that it was someone playing tricks on me."

"Is young Tom here?"

"He is sir, why are you interested in him? Are you his father?"

"I am simply a teacher, I have been asked to come here and ask if he would like to attend our school."

"He hasn't got any money to his name, are you intending to finance his education?" The matron asked, not wanting to be forced to foot the bill.

"His education will be paid for in its entirety and he will only reside here during the summers between school years. What can you tell me about the boy's history, was he born here?"

"That would have been when my mother was still with us, God rest her soul, but yes, he was born here. His mother passed away during the birth and died after naming him Tom, for his Father, Marvolo, for her father, and Riddle for his father again. My mother told me that her last words were about hoping he looked like his father."

"What was he like as he grew up?"

"He was a strange child. Nothing I can say will stop you from taking you to your school will it?"

"He already has a place at the school."

"He is weird, always scaring the other children."

"How so?" Dumbledore asked the lady, who looked around as if to see if Tom was around.

"I think there is something wrong with that boy, he murdered the rabbit of the small child who opened the door to you."

"Oh dear." Said Dumbledore quietly to the lady, who took his horror to indicate that he was on her side.

"On top of that he has permanently changed two of our residents, once a year we take them on a little holiday to the seaside for a bit of fun, Tom put a stop to that by disappearing into a cave with two other children and came back out a little while later, even a year later they haven't spoken a word."

"That is quite troubling, could I talk to him please?"

The matron's face went pale as she nodded and whispered.

"Of course."

She led him up the stairs, to the same bedroom that Harry had lived in for his decade here, and inside to speak to Tom, closing the door and leaving once the Professor had walked in.

"Hello Tom." Albus greeted him enthusiastically, earning himself a bored look from Tom in the process.

"Another doctor here to find out what is wrong with me? You're all the same." The small boy pouted, turning to look away from the older man.

"Not quite, you see, I am a Professor at a school named Hogwarts and we would like to offer you a place there."

"A school for crazy people, is that what she is resorting to?"

"I assure you that Hogwarts isn't a school for the mad, but for the magic."

That was the first thing that made Tom turn to look at the man.

"Magic you say? Prove it, prove you're not just as crazy as I am." The boy taunted, his arms folded in annoyance.

In response to Tom's challenge, Dumbledore set his wardrobe on fire, as something rattled around inside.

"Thievery isn't tolerated at Hogwarts Tom. You will learn to control your magic and become a great Wizard."

"Is that what I am, a Wizard?" Tom asked, uncrossing his arms and sitting up to listen eagerly, making Albus smile for the first time since he entered the Orphanage.

"Yes Tom, and if you come with me, we can go to Diagon Alley and shop for your supplies to prepare you for school."

"Okay, let's go." Tom answered with no hesitation and the scene faded back to Fate's realm.

"Did you know, back then I mean?" Harry asked Albus.

"Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous dark wizard of the modern day? No Harry, he just seemed like an innocent child who was lashing out at the world. "You are not him Harry, you never have been. Don't mourn me any longer, I will be here for some time."

"Thank you, Albus, for everything."

"No, thank you, Harry. You are the best of us."

When Harry woke up it was with a smile on his face, he knew he didn't have to bear this weight by himself.

"I can do this." Harry said to himself as he rose to leave the Viper's Arena and go for breakfast.

When he walked into the Great Hall the volume of the voices went down but nobody shouted any accusations at him, there was just a unified display of grief. The connection forged by the loss of such a great Wizard made Harry smile slightly, maybe the Wizarding World will change soon, but the future was bright if Hogwarts was anything to go on.