Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update. I hope you all like how the story is developing. Thanks to my beta Sydney for editing my story, I don't know what I'd do without her. Also thanks to my other beta, Veronika. R&R!

Chapter 8

He's Not Dead

"I'm going crazy. Bloody hell, I'm imagining things," Harry contemplated his sanity out loud to himself. He then closed his eyes, expecting the person to disappear, to prove that it was his imagination. But when he opened his eyes again, he was still standing there, smiling at him.

"I see you beat me on this one; I didn't expect you to get here so early, I thought you would at least wait until a month after the school year started; after all, you still have the other horcruxes to find. I must say I was surprised to see you here."

"P...P...Professor Dumbledore? Is that really you?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yes Harry, it is me. You are not going crazy," Dumbledore said, chuckling.

"It can't be you. You're dead. This is one of Voldemort's nasty tricks, it has to be. Making me believe my headmaster is alive, getting my hopes up, and then crushing them again. You're probably some Death Eater who wants to do me in. I don't trust you one bit," Harry said, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Harry, Harry, remember my letter? There is more than meets the eye!" Dumbledore once again smiled at him.

"How do I know this isn't an imposter? I haven't been acquainted with Mad-Eye Moody for nothing, you know."

"We went looking for the locket last year, before the incident at the school...and besides, how would I know of the horcruxes?" Dumbledore half explained, half questioned, trying to prove that it really is him.

"How did you...what did you….where did you…" Harry didn't know what to ask first.

"Exactly the questions I thought you would ask," Dumbledore grinned at him. "Well, it's a long story. Let's go back to Grimmauld Place, we can talk there. Ahem…since I don't think you can legally Apparate yet…ahem...though I know you can…you might want to side-along Apparate with me this time," Dumbledore said, looking amused and slightly entertained. Harry smiled at him, and grabbed Dumbledore's arm, which wasn't burnt anymore, and they Apparated away.

When they arrived at Grimmauld Place, they ran inside the house, and shut the door behind them. Fawkes sat on Dumbledore's shoulder, and they all sat down on the couch.

"So…" Dumbledore started, "I'm guessing you want to know what I'm doing here? Or what I'm doing alive?"

"Yes, that definitely would be helpful to keeping myself sane," Harry replied.

"Well…it started when Professor Snape made the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy. Of course, Severus told me about it right away. He was to protect Malfoy and help him with whatever task he was to complete on his master's orders. His task was to kill me," Dumbledore said gently. "As you might remember, he made various attempts; the necklace, the poisoned wine from Professor Slughorn's office, and that night we went to look for the locket. He failed all of them, so Severus had to do it for him. A couple weeks before that night, Severus and I argued. I made him promise that he would fake my death for me, and he claimed that it was too much to do, that he was risking his name and that he would be on the run from then on; he knew he and Draco would have to go into hiding, and he despised that thought. Nonetheless, he agreed to do it. That time came, and Severus knew his time was up; he had to do it that night, or else one of the Death Eaters would really kill me…and he would die for not completing the Unbreakable Vow. The Vow is a tricky thing…but if it seems as if the Vow is completed, and everyone believes it, then the Vow is considered to be completed and all responsibility of the people involved cancels. Therefore, if the world thought I was dead, Severus would be freed of his responsibility, and then I could then come back."

Harry didn't know what to say to this; it was too much information to process, and none of it made sense.

"But…but Snape…he cast the Killing Curse on you!" Harry exclaimed; his expression was filled with disgust, "how come you're not…dead?"

"Again, you are forgetting what I wrote in my letter. There is more than meets the eye, and sometimes the eyes mislead us. It seemed as though he killed me, but he really didn't. You see, non-verbal spells are much more powerful than the verbal ones. If you say one spell, but think another, the verbal spell is automatically cancelled. He said Avada Kedavra, but what he was thinking was actually Expelliarmus. That's why I blasted into the air; didn't you find it unusual that I didn't just drop dead, especially after being so weak? His Expelliarmus was just extremely powerful, so he blasted me out of sight, which gave me time. Enough time to transform a rock into the body of myself, and escape. I wasn't a transfiguration teacher for nothing," Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry, who looked completely lost in thoughts. "I left the horcrux with my transformed body, because I knew you would come take it."

"Does anyone know that you're alive?' Harry asked, but he was sure he already knew the answer.

"No; no one but you, Severus, Fawkes, and I," he smiled at Harry. "And I must ask you to keep this a secret."

"I promise Sir, I won't tell anyone. But…how did you know that I was alive? I mean, the article in the Daily Prophet reported me dead, and I didn't correct them. The whole Wizarding World thinks I am dead, including Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

"Dead! They think you are dead! Goodness gracious, Harry, that's one risky thing to do!"

"I know Sir, but if I told anyone I was still alive they would never let me go search for the horcruxes…especially since they don't know about them, do you really think the Order would let me go on my own to look for something without them knowing where I am or what I'm looking for?" Harry then handed him the article in the Prophet and Dumbledore began reading.

"Death Eaters attacked you? Here? But how? I am the Secret Keeper!"

"I wondered the same thing…but I guess once it seems as if one is dead, that is cancelled, just like the Unbreakable Vow. The attack wasn't bad, one of the Death Eaters hit me with a spell that I couldn't recognize, and I couldn't find the type of injury in any kind of book, so I couldn't heal it. It still hurts occasionally, but nothing serious."

Dumbledore didn't like the sound of this; he didn't like it at all.

"Harry, please show me where the curse hit you," Dumbledore said, sounding worried.

"I don't know where it hit me, I don't think it really hit me anywhere in specific… but my whole body ached after it, it was worse than the Cruciatus," Harry said, confused as to how this might be relevant. He didn't want to worry Dumbledore; he was just glad Dumbledore was alive, and would be with him. He missed him so much, and Dumbledore's letter, the one he found about a month ago, really touched him. I love you Harry, always remember that. Now, Harry understood that they always had a relationship closer than one of a student and a headmaster. And he now realized that he truly loved Dumbledore. He was a father…or a grandfather…whichever one, he was a parental role in his life, and that meant more to him than he could ever explain.

"Harry…you shouldn't feel this way. I want to be concerned with what happens to you, I care about you. Worrying about someone isn't a bad thing. And, Harry—I really do love you. I've always loved you, son or grandson. And I'm glad you feel that I am a parental role in your life; it is what I intended to be."

Harry blushed; he wasn't expecting Dumbledore to use Legilimency on him, yet he wasn't completely surprised.

"Harry…I want you to tell me exactly what happened the night you were attacked. It's important that we find out what hit you because something coming from a Death Eater can't be that simple as to do almost no harm."

"Well…I was Stunning Malfoy and Lestrange, and I thought all the other Death Eaters were gone…but there was one more, and he did something when my back was turned to him…so Malfoy and Lestrange were stunned with their backs to me, they didn't see what happened. The Death Eater said something like 'muerto' and then I passed out. I don't quite remember anything else…all I know is that I woke up a few minutes after that happened only to find Malfoy and Lestrange still Stunned. I went back into the house and went to sleep, because I couldn't find anything about that spell."

Dumbledore looked at him sadly. "I'm afraid I do know what that spell is. It is the only spell that has a Spanish origin, 'muerto' meaning death. It causes the victim to die within a year of the spell being cast, unless the victim kills someone first. That is the only way the victim can live."

"Then…that means…that I have to kill Voldemort within the next year?" Harry asked, though somehow he already knew the answer to that question.

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore replied gravely. Long silence broke between the two, until Dumbledore asked, "So, how have you been doing on your search for the horcruxes?" trying to divert Harry's attention from the newly learned fact.

"Actually…it's been easy; well, easier than I thought it would be. You probably don't know about this yet…but the horcrux we got that night was a fake one. It was simply a replica of the real one. A person called R.A.B. whom I later found out to be Regulus Black, Sirius's brother, found it first and destroyed it. He left the real locket here, in Grimmauld place, but he already destroyed Voldemort's soul from it. All that was there was a note, since he already destroyed that horcrux. I still have it somewhere, but basically it said that Hufflepuff's cup was destroyed, and that he, himself, was a horcrux; he destroyed the locket in 1980. He did not manage to find Riddle's Diary or Marvolo's ring, and he did not succeed in killing Nagini, but he ended up killing himself, meaning he destroyed one more of Voldemort's horcruxes. Since I destroyed the Diary, and you destroyed the ring, the only thing that was left for me to do was kill Nagini…and I did. So now, all that's left is to kill Voldemort. And I still have no idea how I'm going to do that," Harry added, sounding depressed.

Dumbledore looked dumbfounded; never, under any circumstances, did he expect this. Nevertheless, he was relieved at the thought of all of the horcruxes being destroyed.

"Well done, Harry! You have done an extraordinary job, I am very proud of you! I will help you train for the final battle; don't worry about that right now. Lemon Drop?" he asked, his eyes twinkling once more.

"Thanks," Harry replied while he took the Lemon Drop from his professor.

"And… Harry?" Dumbledore added.

"Yes, professor?

"Thank you," Dumbledore said, smiling at the boy.

"For what, sir?"

Dumbledore just kept smiling at him, giving him a figure-it-out look.

At that moment, just before falling asleep, Harry realized what Dumbledore had been talking about. Harry truly was 'Dumbledore's man through and through,' and nothing could ever change that.