Hey all, glad to be back. Recovering from my cold (though my resistance to germs is piss poor, so this is only the first of many this season, lol)

I'm really loving all the reviews and theories and feedback. It's honestly quite encouraging to see people come into this story so late in the game and not be scared off by the chapter count. And of course all of you who have stuck with my from the beginning and are still dropping reviews, you rock!

Glad everyone here found humor in the last chapter's predicament. And yes, part of Severus's refusal to find humor in the subject is that if the roles were reversed, he would be crushed by the idea of the girl he loves having been intimate with someone else on something of value to him. Severus is growing emotionally guys, woo!

If Someone Cared Enough

Chapter 133: Circumspection

Dumbledore held the invisibility cloak in his hands, eyeing it with intrigue and a tad bit of reverence, the twinkling in his eyes more prominent than usual.

"Quite an incredible feat, isn't it?" he mused aloud, placing the cloak down on his desk and examining the Deathly Hallows insignia, "Rarely do cloaks last even a generation; the best barely make it to the original owners grandchild. To think someone could make one so powerful it could stand the test of time. Truly remarkable of Ignotus."

"So you think this is the real deal?" Severus checked just to be sure, "Not a replicate or someone trying to pass it off as the original?"

Dumbledore smiled, running a long finger across the cloth, "It would appear that this is genuine. You're theory has proven correct, Severus; James did inherit Ignotus Peverell's cloak through his mother's line."

Severus let out a sigh of relief, "That's one less thing to look for, then."

Lily too looked relieved, "Mark that off the checklist. So what do we do now, Headmaster?"

"For now," Dumbledore said, carefully folding up the cloak, "We return the cloak to Mister Potter."

"What?!" Severus overturned his chair as he jumped up from his seat, "Return it? We literally just got it. It's a Hallow, Albus!"

"Yes, I do believe we've already established as much," Dumbledore said in amusement.

Lily eyed Dumbledore skeptically, "Headmaster, forgive my impertinence, but isn't it rather…risky to trust the cloak with James? He does just rather bring it everywhere with no regard. That sounds like a good way for it to get stolen."

"Case in point; we stole it," Severus said, sweeping his hand out towards the cloak in annoyance, "He'd misplace it again in a heartbeat."

"But James has never lost it before," Dumbledore stated calmly, "And now, for the first time ever, he has. Something like that is sure to unnerve him; to lose something you've always had by your side would unsettled anyone. It's a loss of security, of surety."

Dumbledore sat down, lacing his fingers together, "James has never been given reason to question how he treats his possessions before. Through sheer luck and the reliance upon his friends, the items that matter most to him have always been in safe hands. Now, through an error of great folly, something valued not only by him but his family has turned up missing after a night of careless use with it."

He leveled Severus and Lily with a meaningful look, "I strongly believe that this might be a hard lesson for James on the importance of taking better care of his things instead of abuse their use to get around rules. If he were to receive the cloak now, from say his concerned Headmaster—who impressed upon him the value of such a priceless, irreplaceable family heirloom—perhaps he may…be more careful with it from now on."

"You're wagering the safety of a Deathly Hallow on the chance that Potter might learn from his mistakes for once?" Severus asked in angry disbelief, "Are you mad?!"

Dumbledore didn't appear offended in the slightest by Severus's outburst, smiling congenially at the teen, "But he's already learned from some mistakes, has he not?"

Severus faltered.

Still smiling, Dumbledore went on, "He has learned to place his friends feelings first instead of after his own wants and desires; losing Remus and Peter due to his own singlemindedness was a harsh blow against him. He has learned to value their opinions and take others words more seriously; as shown by his realization that Lily would never even consider him a friend so long as he continued to hurt you, Severus."

Severus pointedly looked away, arms folded over his chest.

"The learn curb for James is slow and gradual, yes," Dumbledore conceded, "But it is there none the less, and he can be taught to take better responsibility for himself and his actions."

"But we shouldn't be using something so gravely important as a hallow to be one of his 'teachable moments', Albus," Severus doubled down, "Ask him to pet sit someone's cat. Or look after an unfertilized Hippogriff egg for a week without breaking it. Those are things that imbecile could potentially handle. But we're leaving too much up to chance if we trust him with the cloak."

"But it stays a better kept secret so long as James has it," Dumbledore said cryptically.

Severus frowned, "What?"

"I'm confused too," Lily confessed, "How do you mean, Headmaster?"

"When the cloak is in James's possession," Dumbledore explained, "He kept quiet about it, to avoid detection and detention for its use presumably. So long as he had it, he made it his mission to ensure no one knew he had it."

"We knew," Severus muttered.

Lily grimaced, "Only because Remus told me ages ago since he felt bad about James nicking my diary in fourth year. I was the one who told you."

"So despite cavorting with it all over the castle, Potter wasn't brandying it about for others to see," Severus surmised with slight reluctance, "Okay, so he was decent at keeping it secret; not his fault his friends didn't treat it the same. So what?"

Dumbledore hummed patiently, "What I'm saying, Severus, is that James managed to keep most of the school from knowing of the cloak's existence. That includes your housemates with…darker allegiances."

"However," Dumbledore continued, steepling his fingers, "With the cloak missing, James is going to be looking for it. Asking others if they've seen it, accusing those less trustworthy. He'll impress upon others the importance of the cloak; lament losing something his family valued so greatly."

Dumbledore fixed Severus with a knowing look, "Do you honestly believe we are the only ones who would question how a simple invisibility cloak has lasted through the entirety of the Potter family line?"

Severus eyes widened, "Most barely last a generation."

Dumbledore nodded, "James himself doesn't seem to grasp the unlikeliness of his cloak having been around so long and still working, but that doesn't mean that out of everyone in this school another won't piece together the rarity of such an occurrence, especially with James shouting it from the rooftops as he desperately searches for it. The risk there is that those who start asking questions might not be the sort of people we want taking notice."

"You think someone could run off and tell You-Know-Who," Lily guessed.

Again, Dumbledore nodded, "Either intentionally or by accident; it's unlikely the average student would make the connection to the Hallows. But Tom would, I dare say he'd find it most interesting to learn of a cloak that survived centuries without it's enchantments ever wavering."

"Okay, so as long as Potter it missing the cloak he'll be inadvertently advertising it to everyone else while trying to find it," Severus summed up, "So he needs to find it so he'll go back to clamming up. I get that, but why can't we just let him think he found his cloak? Give him a different invisibility cloak. He'll never know the difference and we can keep the real Hallow safe."

"True as that may be, I believe it's for the best that the cloak stay in James's hands and out of ours," Dumbledore stated.

Severus was flabbergasted, "What? Why?"

Dumbledore folded his hands, eyeing Severus calmly.

"Tell me, Severus," he said after a moment of silence, "What is a goal with the Hallows."

Severus blinked, "To keep them out of You-Know-Who's hands."

Dumbledore nodded encouragingly, "And how will we do that?"

"By finding them?" Severus honestly couldn't see where Dumbledore was going with this line of questions, "If we find them first, we can keep them from him."

"But would it really be so wise to hide them all here?" Dumbledore asked, "With the two people he's most concerned about causing his downfall?"

Severus opened his mouth to retort, but found no rebuttal forthcoming. He turned to Lily questioningly, unsure what to say.

Dumbledore pushed on, "You and I hold the greatest threat to Tom, Severus. He's always known that of me; he's recently come to recognize it of you as well. Two of his horcruxes have been destroyed by your hand, another now rests in my possession thanks to you, though it is unlikely he knows that yet. We are already putting much at risk by housing the locket within the school, but alas, we cannot destroy it until we've found the others or run the risk of him sensing its demise and hiding the others deeper still. I feel putting all our cards in one deck could be folly."

"We intend to find the stone of resurrection," Dumbledore went on, "As there is no living relative of Cadamus aside from Riddle himself, it will need to be kept here once it is found."

"And…the wand," Dumbledore added, his face clouded over by some indiscernible emotion Severus couldn't quite place, "If…it should be found, it would be yet another Hallow in our midst. Severus…Hogwarts is near impenetrable, but would it really be wise to gather all the items Tom needs to succeed in one place should he ever breach these walls?"

Severus and Lily sat there shaken, their faces rapidly paling at the thought. Hogwarts was a safe haven, the one place that children innocently trusted as guardian from the dark, the place parents put a naïve amount of faith in to shield their children from the growing war. It was the very reason Severus's and Lily's families had even deigned to return them to school; steadfast in the belief that it was the one place You-Know-Who couldn't reach them.

To think of that security crashing down around them was horrifying.

"So you think it best to keep the Hallows in scattered locations rather than all here," Severus said, swallowing thickly, "Hence keeping the cloak with Potter, who for all his boisterous ways is still barely a footnote in Riddle's book."

Dumbledore opened his hands and gestured outwards with that irritating merry eye twinkle, "How does one not attract a dragon? By not being the one with the most gold."

"Pretty sure that's just a Tolkien thing about dragons," Severus muttered, "But I suppose you have a point. We're already one dangerous horcrux too many just by having the necklace here. Once we get the ring and Hufflepuff's Cup, we'll be overloaded with dark magic."

Lily was more optimistic, "On the bright side, those can't be used against us if You-Know-Who got in and found them. They're only for bringing him back when he dies. All he could do with them is hide them again. It's finding all the Hallows that would be disastrous, if they truly do make you Master of Death."

Severus nodded, "That's true. Still, we'll want the horcruxes destroyed as soon as we gather them all; he may not be able to use them on us, but that doesn't mean him hiding them again wouldn't be a huge detriment to our plans."

"That and if he finds us with them he'll probably kill us horribly in retaliation," Lily added.

Severus gave Lily a dour look, "Gee, you think?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "Come now Severus, you must learn to laugh at your hardships. Otherwise one might go mad."

"So you're barmy demeanor is because you didn't giggle enough as a teen?" Severus huffed.

Lily smacked his arm, "Severus!"

"He willingly runs a school next to an acromantula colony, understandably territorial centaurs, easily angered mermaids, and a tree that kills people," Severus stated grumpily, "What part of that says sane?"

Dumbledore only chuckled more, unperturbed in the slightest, "There's also unicorns, thestrals, and a very friendly Giant Squid."

"So horses with swords on the heads, carnivorous horses, and a giant sea beast that could crush you even with a gentle pat on the back," Severus ticked off on his fingers, "You're right, who wouldn't want to run this place."

Dumbledore stared at Severus with amusement dancing in his eyes, "To be fair, much of these dangers were here since the school's founding. The mermaids and centaurs have long held territory in these parts."

"Yes, but who planted the Whomping Willow?" Severus questioned, arms crossed.

Dumbledore feigned innocence, "Do you honestly think the students would stay out of the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack if I just put a sign that said 'keep out'?"

"But a murderous tree?" Severus tried, "I've seen that thing pummel birds and smash a hare to death. And don't get me started on Hagrid releasing Aragog into the forest."

"Hagrid has always been one to strive not to let his views of others be clouded by preconceived notions," Dumbledore said affably, "As someone with a giant for a mother, it's understandable that he'd wish to disregard stereotypes and other beliefs of others and judge them upon his own interactions with them. When Hagrid freed Aragog, I'm sure it was with the thought in mind that if Aragog was harmless and kind to him, then sure he would be to others as well. It was…unfortunate that this is not the case."

Severus harrumphed, "He brought the thing a wife and now the forest is over run with them."

"Well everyone who wants a soulmate should have one, don't you think?" Dumbledore question with his ever-annoying twinkle in his blue eyes, "You of all people should know how valuable such companionship is."

"Yes, well…" Severus looked away, "Lily and I won't be having hundreds of offspring that eat people."

Lily pouted, "Well that sounds sort of dull. It's like having a large family like the Von Traps but no running away from Nazis."

"We're already running from Nazis," Severus said sardonically, "Except ours have magic…and are British."

Lily giggled.

Dumbledore let out a soft laugh, "I see I can always count on Ms. Evans to soften your edges, Severus."

Severus scowled at Dumbledore, "Our relationship is not the topic of conversation right now."

"Yes, of course," Dumbledore said merrily, standing up and folding the cloak, "I suppose I should bring Mr. Potter his cloak now before he razes the whole school in his search for it or calls attention to how old it is and raises suspicion. I trust the two of you can find your way to lunch on your own, yes?"

"Obviously," Severus said sarcastically, "Unless the stairs are no longer the only thing in this place that randomly move."

Dumbledore gave a good-natured chuckle, "Certainly not. Enjoy your day, you two, and a belated happy Samhain to you both."

He stopped them as Severus and Lily went to leave, "It would be wise to stop by your dorms and put on your actual uniforms. Your transfiguration skills are impressive enough to fool your classmates, but I dare say Professor McGonagall would easily recognize an attempt to hide that you've been out all night."

Severus and Lily blushed, looking down at their transfigured costumes from the night prior, magicked into jeans and pullovers.

"We will, Headmaster," Lily promised, hastily pulling Severus from the room, "Thank you."

The gargoyle statue moved into place behind them when they got off the spiral staircase, resealing the entry to Dumbledore's office.

"Okay, did he basically just say he knows we're shagging?" Severus blurted out eventually.

Lily shushed him with an indignant squawk and ushered him along the corridor.

I'm sure some of you are wondering what the hell is wrong with Dumbledore to trust the cloak with James, but remember...he trusted him and Harry with it in canon when it's evident he may of probably suspected it was a Hallow for quite some time. My theory is he felt objects of power were safest in the hands of those least likely to known their worth and therefore unable to misuse them to the ultimate degree. James pranking people is a far cry safer a use for a hallow than voldy mastering death.

Review y'all!