"Chocolate Frog."
The gargoyle stepped aside and the wall split open in front of Harry. He stepped through onto the spiral staircase and let it carry him upward. The door was open, but Harry knocked anyway. He didn't hear any response.
"Professor?" Harry stepped through into Dumbledore's office. There was no sign of him. Fawkes was sitting on his perch watching Harry calmly. "Is the Professor running a little late today?" asked Harry.
"Yes, sorry about that." Harry looked up and saw Dumbledore coming down the stairs from his private rooms. "I was held up by some other business."
"I'm a couple minutes early anyway," said Harry. He drew his wand, and took a deep breath to clear his mind, ready to begin.
Dumbledore smiled at him. "We won't be starting right away today. There is another matter we need to discuss. You have been making excellent progress though. I must say that it is most unusual for a pretty girl to improve a boy's concentration."
Harry blushed. "Er, what do we need to talk about?"
Dumbledore sat in his desk chair, and waved for Harry to have a seat too. "You are aware that the Wizengamot has completely cleared Sirius Black of all charges?"
Harry sat down. "Er, yes sir. I saw that in the Prophet."
"It took a little while to sort out, but many of his assets were seized when he was first convicted—all of the ones that anyone could find. Those assets have been returned to his estate. It is a fairly tidy sum."
"Er, yes sir, but what has that got to do with me?"
"Sirius also left a will with me a couple of years ago, in which he named you as his sole heir. It also specified where to find all of his assets that hadn't been seized."
"Me? But I— I don't want it. I don't need it."
"I am aware of that Harry, but none the less, you have it."
"Er, just what… What do I have?"
"In addition to a rather large amount of cash—nearly as much as your parents left you—the main asset is number twelve Grimmauld Place, and most of its contents."
"'Most' of its contents?"
"Yes, well that doesn't include any personal items belonging to members of the Order of the Phoenix that happen to have been left lying around, but everything else in the house is now yours." Dumbledore smiled. "You are now the Order's landlord. You can kick us out if you want."
"Oh, no!" said Harry. "Go ahead! Keep using it! Do whatever you want with it!"
"There is one…item in that house that presents a special problem, I'm afraid…and it isn't that portrait of Sirius's mother."
Harry thought for a bit. "Kreacher."
"Precisely."
"I now own a House Elf. Hermione will kill me. I can't free him. He knows too much about the Order."
"I am afraid that Kreacher already managed to betray most of what he knew about us last Christmas," said Dumbledore. "We have certainly made sure that he hasn't learned any more since we learned of his betrayal, and he will still be bound by the Fidelius Charm. He will not be able to reveal the location of the house, or the identities of any of the members."
"So I give him clothes," said Harry. "What then? I doubt if anyone else would take him on. What would happen to him? Would you take him here, like you did Dobby and Winky?"
"No," said Dumbledore. "Especially if he were freed, I would not want him within the walls of Hogwarts." He smiled bitterly. "I may be famous for giving second chances, but the person has to want the second chance."
"I can't just throw him out in the street, I couldn't do that to him either."
"It is a difficult problem."
"What do you think I should do?"
"If I saw a solution that appealed to me, I would tell you," said Professor Dumbledore.
"Are there House Elf Retirement Homes?" asked Harry.
"I'm afraid not," said Dumbledore. "They may take on lighter duties as they age, but they refuse to retire. There is one old elf here at Hogwarts whose entire job consists of cleaning my glasses every night. If I were to suggest that she stop doing it, I think it would kill her."
"I don't know what to do," said Harry.
"There is no urgency," said Dumbledore, "but I thought it best that you were aware of the problem. Give you a chance to think about it. You have come up with excellent solutions to difficult problems in the past." He drew his wand. "Now, it is time to resume your Occlumency lessons."
Harry drew his wand, and took a deep breath, centering himself. "Ready."
"Legilimens!" said Dumbledore.
Occlumency training with Dumbledore was a lot different from what it had been with Snape. Snape had taken an approach very much like teaching someone to swim by throwing them into the deep end of the pool. He had assaulted Harry's mind, digging for the deepest and most terrifying of memories.
Dumbledore had taken a gentler approach. He had started out with a light touch, barely caressing the outer edges of Harry's mind, and only increased his power as Harry's ability to resist him had increased. They had also started with more innocuous memories: Harry's first taste of chocolate, or what he'd eaten for dessert last Tuesday. At the end of the last lesson Dumbledore had asked Harry to pick a more emotionally charged memory for them to work with today—good or bad, the selection was up to Harry. Memories with strong emotion tied to them were more difficult to keep buried.
Harry felt Dumbledore probing his mind, tickling free memories, looking for the one Harry was trying to keep hidden. Dumbledore pushed harder, and a series of memories from last night flashed through Harry's brain: the look of surprise on Dawn's face when she'd discovered their surprise party… Dawn stuffing a hamburger into her mouth… her leather pants… applauding the fireworks, the final wave and smile she gave him before going up the stairs to her room. The sequence of memories flashed through his brain again: other people at the party… the final exploding dragon… going up the stairs to his room…
After several minutes Harry felt Dumbledore leave his mind. The Professor sat back in his chair and smiled. "Very well done, Harry. I know something happened between you and Miss Summers between the end of the fireworks and your return to your room, and I can make a very good guess about what it was, but I can find no direct memory of it. I doubt if that was your strawberry lipstick you were tasting when you licked your lips when going up to bed though."
Harry blushed. "Well, um, no, it wasn't."
"Next, we will begin to work on hiding that you are hiding something," said Dumbledore. "Actually knowing that there is a hidden memory is more than half the battle when trying to uncover it. It would not take me long to force that memory out of you, now that I know it is there. One way to cover that you are hiding something is to hide more than one something. Everyone has memories they want to keep hidden, so you can use one secret to conceal another. Hide a secret that can kill you if discovered behind another secret that will shame you." Dumbledore smiled. "Embarrassment is much preferable to death, but once your interrogator finds the embarrassing memory, they may stop looking for the other."
Dumbledore got up from his seat. "I'm afraid that we must cut this session short today. I am expected at the Ministry of Magic for some rather tiresome meeting about the school budget for the upcoming year." Harry got up too, and Professor Dumbledore escorted him to the door. "For our next session, I want you to have selected two memories to keep hidden from me. One to hide, and one to keep the hidden memory hidden."
