Once it was just the 5 of them, they all sat down around a small table on which Dumbledore served them some tea and cookies (prepared by Dobby, who was eager to be of service to his famous, and first human, friend Harry Potter).
For the next few hours, Albus told Harry and Rose about the prophecy and the boy's destiny. He explained that he didn't tell Harry the truth sooner because he wanted to protect him, because he grew to love him like a grandfather loves his grandson and he wanted to try and keep him in a bubble of innocence for as long as possible. Then, the headmaster told the four of them about his suspicions about Voldemort making 7 Horcruxes, also explaining as well as he could what an Horcruxe was.
The only thing he didn't tell them was about Snape's role in protecting Harry. He had made a promise to keep it a secret until the end and he would do it, even if he thought it was a stupid decision.
"So Harry will have to kill Voldemort on his own?" Sirius asked for confirmation.
"I'm afraid so." Albus nodded sadly, making sure they knew he had hoped it wouldn't be so.
"But we can all work on the Horcruxe thing, right? It doesn't have to be Harry who destroys them all?" Rose asked.
"Yes, Rose, you're right. I'm presently working on locating them, collecting memories from people who knew Tom to try and understand what it could be." Albus replied.
"The basilisc's fang destroyed the journal… We could get more to destroy the others, right?" Harry asked.
"Well, for the moment, Gryffindor's sword will do. It absorbed some of the venom when you used it to kill the snake. It should destroy the other Horcruxes." Albus replied.
"But we can never be too sure, the sword can leave to appear to someone else if that person needs it and is deemed worthy of holding it. It would be better to have a few fangs just in case we need it." Rose argued.
"You're right." The headmaster nodded with a smile.
"I could go and get some now. It wouldn't take long." Harry offered, eager to help.
"I'll go with him. I can't wait to meet Moaning Myrtle. Did Harry tell you that he has a ghost in love with him?" Rose told Sirius and Remus who chuckled while Albus smiled too.
"Why don't we all go with you, Harry? I am curious and would like to see the Chamber of Secrets myself. Maybe there's something left there that could help us out in our task." Albus suggested and they all headed toward the chamber with broomsticks so they'd be able to fly back out without problems.
Serenity followed Rose and so Fawkes decided to come along as well. Not wanting to be left out, Hedwige came along too.
"Why do you think she changed so much when you turned 8 years old?" Harry asked Rose while they walked, knowing the adults would hear.
"I'm not sure... We were shopping in a muggle supermarket, an old woman dropped her credit card, so I bent to grab it and gave it back to her. She thanked me and saw 'my mom'. She told her that I had been raised right, that she should tell my mother what a great job she did. Then Jenny replied that she was my mother and the old woman apologized, saying that since we didn't look alike at all, she couldn't know. Then she said something about adoption being a great thing and Jenny got angry and snapped that she hadn't adopted me, which I guess is true. That day we left the supermarket without any of the groceries we needed and she stayed angry a long time... That's when she took the decision to move us to France. I never understood why she was angry at me for this woman's remark but she was and her anger toward me never calmed down after that... It's the very first time she made a remark about my hair, telling me I looked like I had rust all over my hair and meaner things..." Rose explained.
"It's her loss." Harry said to try and comfort her.
"If you wish to visit her in jail, I could arrange it, you know." Albus declared.
"No, after everything she's done and said to me, I don't want anything to do with her anymore. She did raise me pretty well until that day, but even before that she was starting to be a bit meaner, less loving. The last birthday she celebrated was my 5th birthday. When she brushed my hair, it always hurt... I think she did it on purpose, she wanted me to hate my hair the same way she did. I don't remember her ever telling me she loved me and after that day... Even food... She would feed me less, telling me I was too fat even though I was thinner than most girls my age..." Rose shook her head.
"Don't worry, Molly Weasley will only be too happy to help you fatten up." Remus comforted her with a chuckle.
"You can always change your mind later, Rosie, if you feel you need it." Harry added and Albus nodded.
Eventually, they arrived in the right bathrooms, where a depressed ghost was surprised to see them, but definitely happy to see Harry. Sirius had a great time mocking Harry when the sad ghost started flirting with him and told him that if he did die this time, her offer to share her bathroom with him still stood.
"Well, next time there's a ball, you don't have to look too hard to find a date, Harry, I'm sure she'd only be too happy to go with you." Rose told her brother who rolled his eyes with an amused smile.
"And you'd be sure to make an impression on people." Sirius added.
"I should have thought of that before I tortured myself to find a girl. At least Rita Skeeter would have had something fun to write about me other than the lies she sprayed." Harry smiled, amused as well.
.
Once in the chamber, Harry retold them, mainly for Remus and Sirius since the other two knew, what had happened in the chamber of secret, where the snake had come from, where Tom stood, everything.
Sirius and Remus started taking all of the Basilisc' fangs from the corps, deciding to keep one with them, in their house, just in case.
"Do you think that maybe the curse that's on the Defense Against the Dark Art's teacher's position is hidden somewhere here?" Rose asked Dumbledore who looked seriously at his surroundings.
"I do... It should stop being effective when Voldemort truly dies, but in the mean time, it would be nice to be able to keep a decent teacher longer than a year." The headmaster nodded.
"Be careful what you wish for ALbus, imagine Sirius takes the job and you get rid of the curse on his position, you coul end up being stuck with him for years!" Remus joked, amking everyone, including Sirius, chuckle.
"Tom seemed to walk from out of there..." Harry showed a wall to the Headmaster.
They all looked and managed to find a hidden and locked door. Harry used Parseltongue once more and managed to open the door.
Inside, it was very dark, humid, cold and a bit scary. There were old books and notebooks that seemed very old and seemed to not have been touched by time or its surrounding.
"They are protected magically. A simple but efficient spell." He declared as he took them in his hands.
"They were his, right?" Harry asked and the headmaster nodded.
"I think so. Though this book should be in the library... Last time it was seen was, if my memory serves me right, about two months before Tom came to ask for the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher's position. It's about teaching, a guide, simple enough. It was mostly used by students who think of becoming teachers themselves." He replied as he pointed the the biggest of the books.
"Do you think that it could hold the curse, Albus?" Remus asked, not seeing anything himself.
"Well, there's definitely magic inside it, it's very possible and if it does, we'll have to work carefully about removing it, maybe even get Ministry Officials to take care of it, experts..." He shook his head.
"Maybe there's another hidden chamber." Harry suggested, willing to keep on looking around.
"We'll see. In any case, you have to go. Now that I know how to come in, I'll be able to come back later. I think I'll manage to open the door on my own now." The old headmaster replied.
Once they all stepped out of the chamber from the bathroom, Sirius and Remus laughed when the depressed ghost told them, obviously disappointed:
"Oh, you're still alive... You've managed to survive again... How sad!"
"It's not like there was any danger in there!" Harry shook his head, thorn between his amusement of the situation and his annoyance at her antics.
.
A few hours later, Harry and Rose were being driven to the Dursley's by Remus and Sirius, still in shock over the revelations Dumbledore had dropped on them but happy to be in the known and to be together.
Harry still had a hard time believing that everything had really happened. If Voldemort wasn't back and in full power, he would have thought that he was dreaming. Sirius being free and being able to live with him, with Rose and with Remus, seemed like a dream to him, though he couldn't help but keep Cedric's death in the back of his mind. He felt responsible for the boy's death, no matter how everyone told him that he wasn't.
Rose was wondering why they didn't simply destroy the prophecy and be done with it but apparently, the Ministry of magic had rules and no prophecy, even the ones that were done and had been accomplished for centuries, could be destroyed.
"Well, maybe we can use that to attract Voldemort in a trap or something." Rose suggested at some point during the drive in a brand new car Sirius had bought.
"We'll see." Sirius replied while his best friend drove.
"Anyway, Rose, are you sure that you can teach Harry the basics of Occlumency?" Remus asked the new Potter.
"Yes, of course. I learned it a while back to protect my mind against an intrusive teacher and to see if I could do it. Kind of like a challenge to myself. We won't be able to test it until we see Professor Dumbledore or Professor Snape again but he'll learn the basics of it." Rose nodded.
"Good. Because if Dumbledore is right…" Sirius started to say with a frown.
"Don't worry, I don't really fancy Voldemort going through my head either and if it can stop my scar from hurting, I'm all for trying to close my mind." Harry replied with a smile.
"By the way, you don't mind keeping Serenity with you while we're here, right? I don't think she'd like being cooped up in this room too much, even for just a week." Rose asked.
"No, of course not. She'll come with us to the Weasley's and will be happy there until we can find a house for us." Sirius nodded.
"Maybe you should take Hedwige as well, she doesn't like it either at the Dursley's and only stays because I'm usually alone. She'll be happier with you as well and since it's only for a week..." Harry asked.
"Of course. Plus, you'll always have the double way mirrors Sirius just gave the two of you if you need something. It'll be much quicker if you need to reach us anyway." Remus replied.
"So, where do you think you'll search for a house?" Harry asked his Godfather.
"I would like it to be near the sea but maybe I'll look for a vacation home near the sea later. To live every day, I was thinking somewhere not too far from the Weasley would be good. Actually, I do already have a house that I've inherited from my mother, it's in London but I don't think we'd like to live there in the long run. We'll have to go there and clean it a bit, make it livable because it's well protected and The Order will be able to use it in case someone needs to be protected but I'd rather we didn't have to live there at all." Sirius replied.
"Sirius already bought a large brand new deluxe tent that is set in the Weasley's yard. When the seller recognized Sirius, he guessed that Harry Potter would be using it and gave us a large discount and lots of free options. It has a bedroom for each of us and a kitchen Molly has forbidden us to use." Remus replied.
"Forbidden?" Harry smiled, knowing Misses Weasley well.
"Yes, she insists that she cooks for us and that we eat the meals with them. We wouldn't want to insult her by refusing. It would be too rude and apparently, we're both incredibly underfed and in need of good meals." Sirius replied.
"Especially since she's such a great cook." Harry chuckled.
"We'll have to find a way to thank her later." Sirius told them.
"Yes, she's done a lot for me. She sent me my first Christmas gift, in my first year, when I told Ron I didn't care that much for Christmas because I never got anything. She sent me my first present and every year since then she kept on sending me one, the same package as she sends her children each year for Christmas and Easter. She's very generous." Harry told them while his sister held his hand.
Deep down, Rose was a bit disappointed. She had hoped she'd be able to cook the first meal the four of them would take together but apparently it would have to wait until they have their own house.
.
When they arrived in front of the Dursley's house, everything was quiet in the street, as it very often was.
Harry and Rose got out of the car with a backpack each. They saw no point in taking all of their things for only one week. They just needed a few change of clothes.
Suddenly, an old woman walked past them on the other sidewalk, her arms full of groceries, and nodded their way.
"Hey Remus, isn't this old Arabella Figgs?" Sirius asked his friend.
"You know her?" Harry asked him.
"Of course, she's a squib and a member of the Order. She moved here to keep a distant eye on you for Dumbledore. I thought you knew." Remus replied.
"I didn't but it explained why she took me in every time the Dursley left when everyone else was afraid to because of the reputation they gave me." Harry nodded.
"She did her best to be as nice as possible to you without letting you have too much fun or the Dursley's wouldn't have let you come back. She's nice though." Remus replied and Harry nodded.
"I'll go and say hi to her later then. Let her know that I know before I leave and thank her for everything she's done. Ready?" he asked his sister.
"Ready." She nodded.
They had their wands and the two way mirrors that Sirius had gotten for them.
"I know that you're not allowed to use magic but always keep your wands with you. If something happens, use it to defend yourselves, and then warn us." Sirius advised them.
"Try to warn us before you have to use them if possible, it would make the damage control much easier for us all." Remus added with a small half amused glare to Sirius and the teenagers both agreed.
"Come on Moony, you know how it is when you're in the heat of action, you don't always have time to call for help before you have to act." Sirius replied, defending his opinion and making everyone chuckle.
QUESTION: I ask in the previous chapter if you had ideas for the animagus form of the potter twins, and maybe their friends. Don't hesitate if you do.
Also, how would you like for me to have some Dumbledore/ Grindelwald moments? Grindelwald will be in the story, later, but it could be a short appearence or a longer one...
Review please!
Already 45 chapter written, so i'm publishing a bit more frequently.
Lorelei Candice Black