AN: Happy Sunday! Hope everyone has had a great weekend - it's been pretty sunny where I am which is lovely. But I also get hayfever - which is not lovely. Oh well.

So...this chapter feels like it's not my best. I'm not going to lie, I struggle with Dumbledore a lot. So if things feel a bit...flat...I'm sorry. I'm working on it but it'll take time. I hope you enjoy the chapter.


Chapter 31: I never gave up playing Golden Child


Albus hadn't felt so tired in a long while, and as he sat waiting in his office for Halley Potter, he tried not to despair. But he had lived far too long to fool himself into placating thoughts. Something was very wrong.

From the moment that Miss Granger came to him with tears falling from her face, to the alarms sounding, to Severus being missing, Albus had felt drained.

And now, Halley was in his office looking…bad. Her hair had all manner of foliage in it, she was streaked with dirt and had cuts all over her - one particularly long one on her cheek had stopped bleeding, but would probably get infected if Poppy didn't get to it soon. And her uniform was ripped in exposing places.

Her eyes were glassy and unfocussed, and she'd carried herself into the office with heavy, limping steps. She looked shell-shocked.

Albus immediately got her to sit down and conjured a cloak for her to wrap around herself. Her shaking seemed to lessen somewhat, but she still had glassy eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Professor Snape is - he might be hurt."

Albus' eyes sharpened behind his half-moon glasses, and he leaned forwards in his chair. "Where is he?"

Halley blinked wetly. Her own unfocused eyes started darting around. "He - the shack - the one near Hogsmeade - he - I'm worried Professor Lupin may have bit him."

At her words, Albus acted quickly. "How long?"

"I -" she stumbled over the words. "Since 9'o'clock maybe - I don't know."

"Was anyone else there?"

"Sirius Black."

"Is he still on the loose?"

Halley frowned. "I don't know."

He summoned his Patronus and spoke to it. "Minerva, Filius, Poppy, Pomona - Severus has possibly been hurt in the Shrieking Shack. Possible bite wounds from Remus. Be careful - Black is on the grounds, and the Dementors are restless tonight."

The phoenix flew in a trail of blinding light, and Albus was left with Halley once more.

"I think you're going to need to explain some things about tonight, Halley."


Auror Amelia Bones placed a dull grey ball on the desk between her and Halley and tapped it with a wand. As the ball lit up in a blinking grey, Albus looked at it with a mixture of distaste and resignation.

"Would you be able to state your full name for the record, Miss Potter?" Amelia asked. She spoke in a caring voice, and she kept a safe distance from Halley, careful not to do anything that would further frighten the girl.

"Halley Eileen Potter."

"And can you say what happened tonight?"

"Again?" Halley looked at the ball with a blank stare. She was tired, he could tell, having already told her story to him twice before.

If he could, he would send her to bed and tell Amelia what had happened on his own. But Amelia was thorough. When the war had ended, there was no trust between anyone anymore. Purebloods, Halfbloods and Muggleborns alike watched each other warily, waiting to see where the ashes of Voldemort's actions would fall. But Amelia used her thoroughness and integrity to build her reputation as someone to trust.

She wouldn't risk that now because Albus asked her to, and he didn't really want to ask her to do so.

"I know it's hard. You've been very brave. Are you sure you don't want your guardians here?"

Albus stepped in. "Halley's guardians are Muggles, but I will stand in loco parentis until she leaves for the summer."

Amelia looked at him with a fixed stare, but nodded, allowing them to proceed.

If he'd had his way, Amelia wouldn't have been there at all. But too many things had happened to keep the already tenuous grip he had on the board. Too many things were at stake for Albus to not play the political game, and if calling Amelia in would keep parents and governing boards placated then so be it.

He needed to keep Halley safe. Even if she was lying to him.

"This will be the last time I ask you this, Miss Potter. I promise."

Halley nodded, keeping her head down and wrapping her arms around herself. She looked so small in his high backed chair - and the purple made her look pale. Almost translucent.

But she had calmed down significantly since the first time she'd told her tale. Now, when she spoke, it was almost robotic.

"Black came after me. He'd been following me for weeks now - watching me. He was half-mad - rambling about killing me - about my parents - about…about He Who Must Not Be Named. And he threatened to hurt my friends if I didn't go with him. So I did."

"You did well, Miss Potter. You were under a lot of stress," Amelia prompted.

Halley nodded slowly. Sleepily.

"Black knew how to get in and out of Hogwarts through tunnel systems. He took me to a portrait that was a passageway and led me to that shack. Then he held me at wand-point."

"Was Professor Lupin already there?" Amelia asked.

Halley shook her head. "He came later."

"What did Mr Black do while he held you captive?"

"He…he just kept ranting about how he'd failed. He said that…he was going to finish what he started that night if it was the last thing he did."

"And is that when Mr Lupin came in?" Amelia asked.

Halley faltered slightly. She looked to the dull ball of light that was recording her and then to Amelia once more. Very slowly, she nodded.

"He just came in. When he saw Black, he immediately tried to subdue him - and he did. But then…they started talking."

"About what?" Amelia was sitting slightly more forward now.

"They…knew each other. From their school days. Professor Lupin was angry at Black for giving Jam - my parents up to You Know Who. And I think he was angry that he'd come back to Hogwarts to do it. But they weren't talking for very long before Professor Snape showed up. He blasted through the door and tried to attack Black. But Black had a wand and he stunned the Professor."

Halley bit her lip and looked at Amelia. "He flew across the room and I think he hit his head. He…wasn't moving."

Then, Halley turned to Albus and he saw a concerned child - one that had been placed in a difficult situation tonight - regardless of whether he felt she wasn't being wholly honest.

"Professor - is he ok? Did the others find him? Was he -"

"Madame Pomfrey is taking care of him as we speak. We don't know the extent of his injuries just yet, but he will get the best care we, and St Mungos, can give him."

He hoped that she understood she should try not to talk about Remus' condition, but he wouldn't expect the girl to lie for him. Maybe she would for Remus. It wouldn't matter either way; Remus wouldn't survive the attacks from the Board. They would have him Kissed before they knowingly let a Werewolf into their school.

"Right," Halley responded quietly. "Ok."

"Do you think you can continue?" Amelia asked.

"Professor Lupin started acting funny, and Black seemed like he understood what was going on because he started muttering quietly and looking around. Professor Lupin started yelling in pain and Black got worried. But…I…I used that as my chance to escape and I ran."

She shuddered and put her head down. Amelia sighed but spoke very gently. "You don't need to feel any sort of shame or embarrassment. People two or three times your age wouldn't have handled the situation as well as you did."

"But I saved myself. I didn't even think about Professor Snape or Professor Lupin."

"But you came to the Headmaster and told him immediately, didn't you?"

Halley nodded.

Albus' lips tightened imperceptibly on reflex, but he tried to remain neutral. There was more to this story than she was letting on, and her timings didn't work out. Not once, despite the fact that she'd stuck to her story.

"What else happened?"

At those words, Halley pulled the cloak tighter around herself, clutching her fists so tightly that what he could see of them were bone-white and straining.

"Dementors."

Amelia inhaled sharply.

"They - they were close and when I escaped I ran right into them. They - I - they got to me. And…I can't make a Patronus. I -"

"You don't have to -"

"It was close. But someone saved me. I don't know who but I'm grateful to them."

"But how did you even move?" Amelia asked. "They - you're only -"

"I've built up…not a tolerance. Maybe a resistance," she said bitterly. "I don't know. They're drawn to me - it's worse."

The look on Amelia's face marked her displeasure at what Halley had just said, but before she could say anything else, Halley continued talking.

"There's one more thing," she said. Amelia nodded as a way to encourage her. "Black is an animagus. A dog that looks like a Grim. I think that's how he escaped - and how he's managed to stay away from the Dementors."

Halley blinked up at the two of them groggily, like the information wasn't at all relevant, but it was more important that she could have understood.

"What do you mean?" Amelia asked abruptly.

"He kept talking about it. Dementors don't sense animals as well as humans, so he can hide."

"When would he have even been able to become one?"

"They all were," Halley said tiredly. "James, Peter and Black were unregistered Animagi."

"Did he tell you that?"

Halley nodded.

Amelia was quiet for a moment that was longer than necessary, but eventually she nodded. "I wouldn't take the words of a mad man, Miss Potter, but I will definitely follow up on the theory. If it's true, it's a loophole the Ministry will need to account for going forwards. Is there anything else?"

She waited for Halley to say no, and then Amelia tapped the recording device once more with her wand. The grey grew duller until it was off, and she packed it away, not once looking at him.

Though perhaps one good thing would come of this.

Amelia had collected everything she needed to tighten up the search for Black, and Albus had no doubt that Halley's information would go a ways towards the Dementors being called away from the school. If what she said was true, then there was no point putting the children in danger when Black had found a way around the Dementors sensing him.

At the very least, it would mean the school was free of their presence.

Amelia was escorted to the fireplace, and then was gone in a billow of green smoke. Albus closed his eyes in resignation. Things were about to get a whole lot harder for him now. If Amelia believed he knew that information and hadn't told them then he would be watched more carefully.

And Albus hadn't been sure. He had suspected, but Remus hadn't confirmed it one way or another.

He should have asked. He should have made sure - but how was he to know that animagi allowed for some immunity to Dementors? Sirius Black had been checked by the guards thoroughly and there had been nothing etched into his skin or hidden in his body that would allow him to perform any ritual that could stop the Dementors from affecting him.

Albus could think of no other way that he could compartmentalise his mind; not even Occlumency could work that well after 13 years of being surrounded by the foul things.

And now Black was on the run and wanted something to do with Halley. Poppy had confirmed that Severus had indeed been scratched by Remus, and Albus was quite certain he'd have some form of governmental authority watching him more closely - be it the Ministry or the school's Board of Directors.

"Can I leave now, Professor?"

And Halley was still concealing something.

He only hoped she wasn't doing it purposefully.

Albus turned around to face the girl, and while he wanted to let her go for some much needed sleep, he had questions he needed answering. "Miss Potter, I do not wish to alarm you, but this is the second time in as many years that you have been at the heart of something malevolent."

Halley looked down and shrugged, but then what other answer was she supposed to give? He knew she didn't deserve having her life to go the way it had.

"I appreciate how tired you must be, but there's one more thing I should ask you."

He waited to see if she would object, but she just shrugged again.

There were so many ways he could ask her, but perhaps the direct path was a better one with Halley. So Albus dived in. "A student came to me tonight in distress saying you'd stolen something of hers. That student was Miss Granger, and the item was a time turner."

Albus looked carefully, but there was nothing to indicate that she'd even heard him. "Halley, please look at me."

She looked up.

"Why did you steal Miss Granger's time turner?" he asked.

There was a moment between Halley opening her mouth and speaking the words where she looked him right in the eye and Albus took advantage of it. As gently as he could, he pushed into her mind. He needed to know what she was hiding from him.

Halley didn't have particularly strong barriers to pass through, though he noted there was a little resistance there. But Albus passed through them as easily as a warm knife through his breakfast butter.

But on the other side of it, it took him a moment to realise he was staring at himself.

"I didn't."

There was no fallacy in her words, in fact it rang through her mind with a strong belief. But all he could fully focus on was the fact that there were no memories in her mind.

Just the images she was seeing being reflected back at him. Like a mirror.

It startled him, and so it took a moment for him to find the exit. But when he left her mind and came back to his own, Halley was still looking at him and he was left no less confused than before.

"Alright, Miss Potter. You're free to leave."

She nodded and lifted herself up, the cloak he'd conjured still wrapped around her shoulders.

Halley left, and Albus was left with the ringing sensation that she was hiding something. Halley may not have felt like she was lying, but he'd never experienced a mind like hers. A thirteen-year-old would not have been able to conjure up defences like that.

Someone was teaching her mind magic. He just didn't know why.

It was disappointing to hear she hadn't sought out support. Albus didn't expect her to come to him, nor Severus if he was being truthful. He'd hoped that Remus could have been the adult she began to trust. But he'd seen very little progress with Halley.

The Sorting Hat had warned him that she'd felt a strong desire to not be taken advantage of, and Albus had hoped that being away from the Dursleys and surrounded by Hogwarts and her peers would have helped her feel more comfortable. To see that she could live in a world with some sort of peace and kindness.

But the world had not shown her that. Perhaps it was time to be a little more proactive.

If she had a desire to learn Occlumency, then perhaps he could reach out a helping hand. It was probably a good idea she learn it from a safe source. If nothing else, Occlumency had the ability to calm the mind. And he was not blind to her behaviour this year; the frantic anxiety, the twitchiness, her constant looking over her shoulder.

The matter with the Weasley twins had not helped, but it was not the cause. Halley's behaviour had been a constant whirlwind since the start of the year.

A calm mind would no doubt help her. But Occlumency learnt the wrong way - like any other branch of magic - had consequences. If she wasn't careful, Halley could end up locking too much of her emotion away, and that was not a good thing.

Albus had wondered if perhaps that had been the cause of her losing her memories in the Chamber of Secrets. Nothing else seemed to make sense.

He'd gone down to investigate with Aurors only to find the charred remains of the basilisk and a diary pooling ink that resembled blood. The Aurors had ruled the whole thing a case of Fiendfyre - probably caused from Halley's accidental magic. There were no signs of Ginevra Weasley.

Albus wasn't entirely sure that it was as it seemed, but when he'd picked the diary up and seen the remnants of the word Riddle, splotched over in the ink, he was even more wary.

But with the basilisk dead - the cause of the petrifications - the school was deemed safe enough for the students to return, and Albus was tasked with the daunting responsibility of helping a family deal with the loss of their youngest child.

The diary was still in his office, and occasionally he tried to understand what it was. To piece together what could have happened that was locked away in Halley's mind.

Yes, Occlumency would be useful. If she could remember what had happened that night, pieces of the tragic event could be unlocked, what possible threat Voldemort had left behind, and perhaps Halley could gain some much needed closure.

He would reach out to her next year amongst the Triwizard Tournament, but for now he had something he needed to do.


Not long after Halley would have gotten herself to bed, Albus hurried to the hospital wing. Poppy had rather firmly suggested that Severus be moved to St Mungo's but Albus has pushed against it.

Severus deserved to be told of any possible side effects first before he bore the brunt of society's scorn for something he couldn't have helped.

It had taken an equally stern reminder from him to make Poppy listen. It wasn't like she was incapable of caring for Severus; she'd spent her early Medi-witch training years in Peru where werewolves ran far more rampant than they did here. At least half of her training was spent caring for the wounds of people attacked by wolves in various stages of the lunar cycle.

It was why he'd hired her when Remus came to Hogwarts.

Poppy still glared at him when he entered the room. Even after the numerous enchantments he'd put up to quarantine Severus in case he woke up, she was unhappy that he was putting the students in immediate danger.

He understood her well. He even agreed with her. But he'd made so many mistakes with Severus that Albus owed him some small comfort.

"What is your assessment of the situation?" he asked.

"Severus seems to have been bitten," she said, her factual tone and stony level gaze not changing, even at Minerva's severe gasp. "The wounds aren't consistent with claw marks, but they are similar in length which leads me to believe that Remus' teeth nicked him at some point.

"His wounds aren't deep, but until we are fully aware of what stage of transformation this occurred at, Severus could present any number of side effects, from lupine tendencies to full transformation."

"How could that even have happened?" Minerva asked thickly.

"Who's to say?"

"Halley's account would suggest it happened after she ran. Severus was merely stunned when he arrived."

Minerva frowned. "Why would Black merely stun him? There was no love lost between the two, ever."

"This is irrelevant," Poppy snapped. "Severus needs to know what will happen to him during the next full moon and the only one that could remotely answer that is not here!"

"What did you find when you went to the shack?" Albus asked.

Minerva frowned. "No signs of where he went. The normal amount of damage and -" her eyes cut sharply to the man besides them. "There were howls coming from the direction of the forest, but he could have gone anywhere. Who knows where he is now, or…"

Once more, Minerva was right and the consequences were incredibly concerning. "Did Hagrid hear anything?"

"He was asleep," she responded curtly.

"So we have no way of gathering any information other than waiting," Poppy said.

"It seems that way," he said.

Poppy drew herself upright into rigidity and turned on him with anger. "That's not good enough! I understood your hands were tied with the Ministry, I understood that you wanted to provide Remus a fair chance, but it was under the promise that no one would be hurt. And now, a colleague is in my charge and is facing an unknown future."

Faced with her wrath, Albus could do nothing else but agree. "I'll find him. It will be dawn soon enough."

An alarm sounded from somewhere in the infirmary, and Poppy looked towards the source. She frowned, but stayed there long enough to give him one last hard stare. "Bring him straight here, Albus. I swear, if you start to interrogate him before he's been cared for and I've gotten the information I need, I'll resign, and you'll be down three staff members next year."

She only left to attend the alarm once Albus nodded.

A tense quiet came over the two of them. It would have been easier to let the silence fester than to break whatever illusion of peace there was, but he needed to know.

"Were you able to calm Miss Granger down?"

"She stopped hyperventilating after the tenth time I told her she would assume no consequences for the time turner being stolen," Minerva said.

Albus nodded and moved a little closer to the bed, but he couldn't bring himself to look down just yet. "I'm glad to hear that. Did she say anything else about who may have stolen it?"

"She was quite firm on the fact that it was Potter."

He hummed. "Is it possible she could have been mistaken? A way to ensure that the blame couldn't be placed on her?"

The atmosphere changed in the room as Minerva tensed. Nothing so dramatic as an influx of power, but the anger of a scorned woman was nothing to ignore either.

"Miss Granger did not lie. I sat with her for hours after you heard her claims, and she cried until she all but passed out from exhaustion!"

"So Miss Potter ripped the time turner from Miss Granger's neck in the girls' dorms in the Gryffindor common room?" he asked, keeping any emotion out of his voice.

Minerva shifted slightly from side to side. "I didn't say that I - Miss Granger believes that's what happened and she's very firm on the matter. What did Potter have to say about it?" she asked, guardedly.

He sighed. "She didn't even know what I was talking about."

"That…does not make sense. Did she seem like she was telling the truth?"

Albus waited a few moments before answering purely because he knew what her response would be. But it had to be done. "I believe someone has taught her to Occlude her mind."

"How do you - Albus! Tell me you didn't!"

"All she did was reflect the images she was seeing at that moment back to me. But there was no underlying fallacy to her answer."

She looked at him from behind her spectacles intensely. Her brow furrowed and her lips pursed in a way he'd seen very often around the students who broke rules. "You're crossing some unethical lines, Albus. Remember - you are not infallible."

He shook his head. "The timeline doesn't add up."

"She is a child! One who has been under an inordinate amount of stress." Minerva looked like she was about to say something more; her mouth opened, but then quickly closed back into its firm line. Albus took that as a sign to continue.

"Perhaps. But I cannot help but wonder why she cannot remember an event that Miss Granger recalls so vividly. And why could she not remember anything from her night in the Chamber of Secrets?"

"She's blocked out the memories. Black tampered with her mind. She was unconscious. Any number of things could have happened - it doesn't mean she's hiding something from you."

Perhaps, but Albus couldn't shake the feeling that there was something very wrong with the whole situation. Too many pieces were being left out of the puzzle, and it was enough to make him wonder. To make him cautious.

"She's not Tom, Albus."

The words startled him out of his mind, and he looked at Minerva. She refused to look back at him though. Minerva had barely looked at him throughout the entire conversation.

"I don't believe she is."

"I don't know if that's true. You see the similarities far more than the differences. But Tom was not your fault, and you cannot put his sins on her shoulders to bear because you are overly cautious," she said firmly.

Was that what he was doing? Was Albus truly looking for things that weren't there?

No, he had learnt from those mistakes. And he was not infallible - he would never believe himself to be, for that was the ignorance of his youth that had led to Arabella's death. But too much was happening that fell into the lap of coincidence, and it was too convenient for someone .

Something felt orchestrated. It had since Halley had stepped out of the Chamber.

Minerva sighed. "I can see it, Albus. You refuse our council when we're only trying to help you," she said.

She was frustrated - he could hear it in her voice. But just as he would not allow himself to be infallible, Albus would also not permit himself to stray too far from the instincts he'd honed around Gellert.

"I listen, Minerva. But I don't always agree."

He looked at her, trying to have her understand. And in that moment, Albus felt so incredibly lonely. The emotion ate at him, sat so deep that he wondered if it came from his very soul. In that moment, all he wanted was for Minerva to understand - to get that he couldn't always do what was good if things needed to be put right.

But she still wasn't looking at him.

Instead, she walked towards Severus and stood at his side. She reached out to him and gently tucked the covers of his bedspread into the sheets. "Severus argued against Remus coming. I thought it was just childhood resentments. That Remus was able to control himself."

"This was an anomaly - a terrible accident -"

"Yes it was," she interrupted. "But if Remus wasn't here - if we had taken the castle breach more seriously - you cannot argue this wouldn't have happened."

"We cannot predict the future," he said.

"But we can account for the variables in the present," she said, finally facing him.

Minerva looked tired, and disappointed. In him.

He felt a surge of anger that he quickly clamped down behind years of practice. Minerva believed he was shirking his accountability for the night. For the year. As if Albus hadn't sat there this entire evening thinking about how it was his fault .

"You disregarded the safety of everyone in the school," she continued.

"Should I have laid Remus to waste, then?" he asked. His anger was held down, but the word seemed sharper, even to his own ears.

"Don't act like you didn't seek him out of your own accord! Someone else could have taken the position," she snapped.

"You know as well as I that recent events have made it increasingly difficult!"

Minerva scoffed, but they both knew he was right. Word of the cursed post had been spreading for years, but Quirrel's sudden disappearance, and Lockheart's very public 'accident' had been enough to seal the reservations into unwillingness in the academic sphere.

He couldn't be sure, and he wouldn't have asked, but Albus had wondered if it was for that very reason that Remus had come out of isolation to take the position. For a chance to end his curse on acceptable terms.

"You brought him here to dangle in front of Potter's face," Minerva argued. "You used him to tempt her with something…familiar."

"And what is so wrong with that?" he finally snapped. "What is so wrong with giving her some sense of connection? Of normalcy? After everything she's been through."

Minerva shook her head in disbelief. "Is that the only reason, Albus? Truly?"

The events of the day had finally worn him down, and Albus was starting to feel all of his 113 years sink deep into his bones. "You read into things far more than you allow yourself to believe Minerva. I only want the best for her. For all of them."

She bristled and then, without another word, Minerva turned and left and Albus was alone once more. It was only his thoughts and the tempered breathing from Severus that kept him company.

Albus finally looked at the man now that he was alone and he could let himself breathe. Severus was laying on the bed, still and as pale as a statue in the moonlight. Guilt pulsed through Albus. "I'm truly sorry, my friend."


AN: Hope you enjoyed it. If you have any constructive feedback on Dumbledore, I'm all ears. Gotta learn from other's perspectives to get better at something, right?

Have a good week all. I'll see you in a couple of weeks with the next chapter.