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A horrified silence filled the sitting room, not a single soul aware of what they could say. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.

But it was.

"We already know human Horcruxes are possible," said Harry. "It might have been unintentional, but Marvolo made me one of his more than two decades ago. It's pretty much unheard of, sure, but Marvolo's spells confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that I'm harbouring not just a piece of his soul inside me, but a piece of Dumbledore's as well."

"However," said Marvolo a little tensely, "the soul piece inside Harry is too small for it to be Dumbledore's first Horcrux. But it is small enough to be his second."

"So-so there's another Horcrux?" said Hermione, eyes wide. "Another one besides the one in-in Harry?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "And that one has half of Dumbledore's soul in it. Like we were saying earlier, that Horcrux is probably the one behind at least some of this."

So it was that then, huh? The shade likely possessed the real Lord Coyote and made him prepare some of these things. Then it stole as much of his life energy as possible, was able to take physical form, killed the lord who was likely close to death anyway, and did what else needed to be done to bring them here, not to mention well, everything else that happened in this manor since their arrival.

Severus' eyes widened suddenly as he was hit with a sudden realization. "I am mostly unfamiliar with Horcruxes," he said, looking at Marvolo. "Is it possible for the shade in one to take on other forms? Can they, for example, take on the appearance of another?"

Marvolo regarded him closely, but whether he understood why Severus was asking, he didn't say. "I don't have an answer to that," he admitted. "Nothing like that was ever mentioned in any of my research, but I suppose we also cannot rule out the possibility."

Severus nodded slowly, his frown deepening as he thought. "I see…" he murmured to himself.

"Fortunately for us," said Marvolo, going back to their previous conversation, "the Horcrux has to be somewhere in this manor, because even after taking on a physical form, the shade cannot move very far from its container. If we are able to locate and destroy it, the shade too will die, for a lack of better terms."

Fred frowned. "But if Harry's also one of Dumbledore's Horcruxes, doesn't that mean that even if the Horcrux the shade is attached to is destroyed-"

"-Dumbledore will still be alive?" George finished for his brother when he cut himself off.

"Yes," said Harry. "That's exactly what it means."

"Then how will we be able to take down the real Dumbledore?" asked Draco, "wherever he's hiding?"

"There's only one real way," said Harry.

Remus paled, understanding immediately. "No..."

"Yes, I have to die."

"No!" cried Hermione, jumping to her feet.

"You can't, Harry!"

Harry just shook his head. "It has to be done. It's the only way."

"But-"

Unable to stop himself, Harry smiled slightly. "Don't worry, Hermione. Do you really think we're going to do something like this without a plan?"

"You never plan things, Harry."

"...True. But hey, now we've got Marvolo and a bunch of other Slytherins on our side. They can do the planning."

"Harry, I can't tell if that's reassuring or terrifying."

Ron laughed. "Probably terrifying."

And so they began to plan.

The reason Harry's scar hurt around the Snitch was because he could feel Dumbledore's magic. So, if they used that to their advantage, they would, theoretically, be able to locate the other Horcrux.

Unfortunately, Harry would have to feel pain to do this, but while it would hurt, the pain, in this case, would be a good thing. The worse it got, the closer they were getting. Or so the explanation was.

Marvolo used a spell to sever the siphon's connection, giving the younger ones their missing magic back, and then he used another spell to destroy the Snitch, just in case. Even if the siphon managed to reconnect somehow, nothing could be done if the container itself was broken.

After that, Marvolo and Harry headed out together to search for the Horcrux, while the rest of them split into twos to look for the shade.

Harry and Marvolo walked through the manor in tense silence, occasionally passing some of the other groups, though they didn't stop to talk, everyone too on edge, only giving one another a shake of the head to signal that none of them had found anything yet.

The storm outside continued to rage.

That's it for now. Sorry it's a short one, but you'll get the next one in another two or three days. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!