Insignificant piece

On the first weekend Hermione noticed that she felt generally happier this year. They finally had a proper Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Umbridge was gone.

Neville seemed happier too, albeit for different reasons; His spell working had improved dramatically.

"Neville, did you get a new wand?" asked Hermione upon seeing improvement in his work at Transfiguration.

"Yeah, my father's broke at the Ministry. I think it happened when I fell, trying to stop you guys." he answered.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Harry.

"It wasn't completely broken, so I just used a tape to hold it still. Grandma saw it and she became upset that it was damaged, but a broken wand is apparently too dangerous to keep on your person." Neville sighed, "It was my dad's, so I was expecting her to get really angry, but she was cool with it. It is usually better to face your fears instead of running away, as our new DADA instructor says."

"Neville, what Moriarty did-" said Hermione.

"Ah Hermione, what professor Moriarty did," said Neville, correcting Hermione. "Was to teach me something important. I cannot live in fear Hermione. I have to confront my fears or I'll die."

"Okay, that was too harsh, Neville." said Ron distractedly. Apparently he was trying to add two more lines to his Charms essay. Harry was wondering if he had managed to add even a word. "I mean die!?"

"No, it's not." Neville disagreed, "Look, I loved how Lupin taught us, but for the first time in our life, someone is teaching us fight properly. He might be harsh with his students, but he's teaching them what Dark magic is, and how they can truly fight it. We were always looking for ways to confront something we didn't know much about. He's teaching us how to understand it to protect ourselves."

"He's essentially teaching Dark Magic. I mean look at my paper. I have explained in detail how to make an Inferius." said Harry darkly. "We usually don't write papers like that."

"I've actually categorised the different types of Inferi." said Hermione. "If you consider the way they're made."

"Don't change the subject, love." he continued, "I mean this is potentially dangerous."

"I agree." said Ron.

"On what, Mr Weasley?" inquired McGonagall behind him.

"Nothing, professor." said Ron faintly. He immediately hid his incomplete essay under the desk.

"Good. Mr Potter, Hermione, a moment please." she guided them to a less crowded area. "Professor Moriarty is having his first Occlumency session today at six. He's asked for you two to be his assistant. Would you agree to help him?"

They looked at each other briefly before Hermione answered, "Of course, we do, professor."

"Except, then I'll take you to Professor Dumbledore after the class."

When the class was over, McGonagall guided them to Dumbledore's office without any further explanation. Harry and Hermione entered his circular office after McGonagall.

Dumbledore wasn't alone. On a comfortable pink sofa sat Lucinda Malfoy and their DADA professor. Lucinda and Moriarty were staring at each other intensely. Dumbledore was busy with a very odd tool which looked like a tiny cube. He was so frustrated with it that he didn't even notice them enter.

"Uhm, Professor Dumbledore?" McGonagall called him.

"Not now." said Dumbledore with a low voice.

"Just wait a bit until we're finished." They heard Lucinda's voice, but she hadn't moved at all.

"You're one cruel bastard, James," said Lucinda with a coy smile as she broke eye contact.

"You're even more cruel to call me James." said Moriarty.

"I didn't know you could do that, Lucinda." said McGonagall apprehensively.

"Sorry to scare you out, Minerva." apologised Lucinda. "Our Legilimency is a power of different colour."

"You'd asked for Harry and Hermione, Professor Moriarty."

"Ah yes, you should come and take a seat."

He gestured toward an empty place and three chairs. popped into existence. "We'll discuss everything here since it's the safest place from snooping."

"Surely you're jesting, professor," said Lucinda. "Just take a look at those guys." She pointed at the paintings on the wall.

"They're napping and they don't report anything to the outside world," said Moriarty as he took a lemon drop from Dumbledore's desk. "Now, I hear you're getting married. To a natural Occlumens, of course."

"It has nothing to do with that."

Lucinda stared at his eyes. He smiled wickedly and nodded.

"That's not appropriate, Lucinda. What if Black found out." he teased.

"Oh, he suggested that you might want to see it." she said innocently.

"Such a dishonorable man, he is." he smiled and faced Harry and Hermione. "I believe you two are going to help us teach. Do you have any idea what we want you for?"

"We don't have time for your twenty-questions, Jim. Let's get to the point." said Lucinda, "We need Hermione to use her Legilimency with us. There are many people in the class, so we have to find those who have to potential and weed out those who can't do it. Harry will be the decoy who will pretend to do Legilimency. Harry, you will be trying to do it. It can be a good start since we plan to actually teach it to you. We'd like to see who can detect the best. Those will be the people we can work with."

"Remember not to penetrate to subtly. We want them to notice." said Moriarty. "Just be careful not to harm them, Miss Lestrange."

"You obviously have zero confidence in Hermione." Lucinda accused him.

"So untrue," he responded swiftly. "You know how trusting I am."

It seemed that Lucinda and Moriarty shared history. Hermione and Harry decided to ask Lucinda about that later.

"Jim, can't you reconsider? I wouldn't mind this generation hating me, but I really don't want them to hate Hermione, too." Lucinda said.

"Lucinda, practice brings control and discipline. Don't you trust your mentor who taught you how to control your powers?" Moriarty argued.

"Look, I appreciate your wisdom. I learnt this the hard way-" Lucinda tried to say, but she was cut off by an intentionally loud cough

"A natural should always learn." said Moriarty firmly. For a moment his eye became very serious and there was a really scary glint in them. Lucinda remained quiet.

Hermione tried to make sense of the situation. Moriarty seemed to be the same age as Lucinda, how could he have taught her?

"Lucinda, I believe we should trust Professor Moriarty on this matter." said Dumbledore. He had finally put the odd cube aside.

"You would say that, Dumbledore." Lucinda said. "After all, your proficient in Legilimency is a courtesy of Jim."

"Sorry for interrupting," Hermione couldn't stop herself from asking Moriarty, "But how old are you, sir?"

"The answer is: enough, Miss Lestrange. That much I can tell you."

"Are you a vampire?" asked Harry.

Dumbledore and Lucinda burst into laughter.

"That's what I'd expect from James Potter's son." Moriarty responded, "No, I'm not a Vampire. My longevity is the result of an incident I'd rather not talk about."

Dumbledore looked at them with a warning glare. He immediately changed the subject.

"Harry, I know that you're busy this year, but I'd like to make a request." he said, "Last year you started a defense club. Miss Lestrange helped you to maintain the club after my departure. I'd like you to hold the club once again this year."

"Ah that reminds me." said Moriarty cheerfully, "Dolores says "hi," Miss Lestrange. She's very upset that she cannot see you anymore. You've left quite a large impact on her."

"I miss Madam Umbridge too." said Hermione in the most ingenious way possible.

"You almost tempted me to make a proposition to the Wizengamot regarding Legilimency." said Moriarty seriously. "I would have done so, if Dumbledore hadn't agreed with our little Occlumency sessions here."

"So this is what it's all about!" exclaimed Harry, "You're not worried about Voldemort's inner circle. You're just-"

"Harry!" bellowed Dumbledore and Lucinda.

"You know what, Mr. Potter. That's right. I'm worried that Legilimency is becoming the new Imperius curse." said Moriarty harshly. "I can't have people puppeteering our society with their minds. You would be either ignorant or misguided to get angry at me for that."

"I am ignorant, yes! Like the time I actually believed that you guys didn't know Death Eaters want to infiltrate the Department of Mysteries?"

"Precisely, you decided to come and almost destroyed a carefully planned scheme." said Moriarty angrily. "For which I am sorry. It was my responsibility to make sure children wouldn't get involved. All I'm trying to do, is keeping children safer."

"If that's the case, why have me in your class probe people's minds?" asked Hermione calmly. Her natural Occlumency had kicked in and killed all the emotions. Moriarty looked her in the eyes and something clicked inside her. Her rage exploded and everything in the room started to rattle, the exception being the odd cube on Dumbledore's desk.

"What have you done?" Lucind asked him.

"Turned off the damn switch." he snarled.

Hermione could feel the danger; she could not control her emotional distress, and she was about to harm everyone. She tried to breath and calm herself down. The rattling stopped.

"You are an arse, professor." she said once she calmed down.

"I know dear." he said with a brought smile. "Lucinda has told me many times."

"Why would you do that?" asked Lucinda incredulously. "Do you know how ridiculously dangerous that was?"

"I know. Constant reliance on natural Occlumency is even more dangerous, my dear Lucinda." he said, "Miss Lestrange, I want you to teach students a way to protect themselves against the likes of yourself, Lucinda and me. We three here, all have good intentions, I hope. Others, I'm afraid, are not so careful or well-meaning. Even those who do could be changed; I have taught many people Legilimency and Occlumency ,so they could one day stand against me if I stray from my path. I've fought evil beyond your imagination, Miss Lestrange. Voldemort is only a low rank Dark Lord."

"What do you really want?" asked Harry. "There is no way you're here just for Hermione."

"Well, I guess you'll have to see, Mr Potter. You'll know very soon."

He stood up and dusted his shoulder. "Now, I will be going back to my office. See you three in half an hour." he said and left the office.

Harry didn't get any calmer after he left Dumbledore's office.

"That man is an evil prick." he said loudly.

"I'm sorry, guys." said Lucinda, "He could have totally omitted the part that - well you know."

"Lucinda, I've got no idea how to feel about him." said Hermione, "He's so uncaring and cruel yet I cannot hate him for what he does."

"That my dear is because he's lived for at least a couple of centuries. Living that long isn't nearly as nice as you might think it is." Dumbledore explained, " He's been through a lot and he actually tries to do the right thing. Arthur Conan Doyle used to say. 'We're the most fortunate, for the perfect villain is the ultimate hero.' "

"Okay, that's not funny." said Harry. "Are you saying that Professor Moriarty's character was based on James Moriarty, who is currently teaching defense?" he asked as if he couldn't believe Headmaster's words.

"Wait a minute. You knew Canon Doyle, professor?" Hermione asked.

"Of course. He was in his fifties and I was barely eighteen. It was Professor Moriarty who introduced me to Doyle and asked him to educate me in anatomy. We secretly spent some time with him in Paris where I also met Nicolas Flamel and Erik Weiss."

"Eric Weiss, you mean Harry Houdini?" Harry's eyes were about to pop out.

"Yes, Weiss was also a friend of Moriarty. He visited Doyle in Paris and offered me a job in his crew." Dumbledore said as he laughed at the absurdity of the idea. "Weiss was a talented wizard in business of discrediting false magicians. It was a part of MACUSA's elaborate plan to debunk magical powers and the existence of magic publicly. Houdini was probably their best shot, and it was somehow effective. Of course, no matter what we do some Muggles will always believe in magic."

Harry looked at him with admiration. "Professor, you're a legend."

"Harry, contrary to popular belief that I am the greatest wizard of our time, I'm simply an overachiever." He responded, "Nicolas and Weiss on the other hand were true geniuses. I would deem them worthy of the title legend."

"We don't have much time, Albus." Lucinda warned.

Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded. "We'll be quick then." he said as he put the odd gray cube in front of Harry. "They must know."

Dumbledore looked at Harry and smiled kindly. "Harry, can you guess what this is?"

"No, sir." Harry answered. It was a small cube, twice the size of a walnut.

"What about you, Miss Lestrange?" Dumbledore asked Hermione.

"No, I can't either, sir." Hermione responded.

"Sir, is this the thing you and professor Slughorn brought to headquarters?" Harry asked.

"Ah, you are perceptive indeed. Harry, this is a Dark Detector. I was very lucky Horace had one of these in his stash. They're quite rare."

Harry was surprised because this cube had no similarity to Moody's Dark Detector.

"Modem models are more like aggression detectors than Dark Detectors." Lucinda explained, "Not many know this, but Dark Magic is different than aggressive magic -"

"We know." Harry and Hermione said remembering Moriarty's class. Lucinda and Dumbledore seemed pleased.

"We're going to use this to find other Horcruxes." said Dumbledore, "Horcruxes are significantly dark since a portion of soul is sacrificed in the process of its creation. This Dark Detector will be tuned to Voldemort's previous Horcruxes to find the location of the others."

Harry reached the gray cube. The moment he touched the cube, it emitted an angry dark violet light.

"Why?" Lucinda asked Dumbledore.

"Harry's blood is very unique Lucinda. Lily sacrificed herself for Harry. His blood holds her sacrifice in itself." Dumbledore explained.

"Come on, Dumbledore. Many people died before their children were killed. How come Harry is the only one who survived."

Dumbledore didn't have an answer but Harry did.

"Because Voldemort told her to stand aside." Harry said bitterly. "Voldemort wanted me only. He was not interested in my mother's death. He likes talented people so he tried to spare her."

"Evans chose to die?" asked an amazed Lucinda.

"How do you know?" she asked him.

"When Sirius broke out of Azkaban, Fudge sent dementors to protect Hogwarts. They didn't do much protecting, since Sirius did get us eventually." He explained. "When I saw them for the first time I heard a scream. Later on it became clearer and I remembered my mother's death. I did remember the Green flash of the killing curse before but I had no idea what it was."

"What an amazing memory retention." whispered Lucinda, "It's as if…"

Lucinda seemed to be extremely upset. Dumbledore was troubled too. Harry could see each was upset for different reasons. Hermione suddenly disturbed Harry's thoughts by hugging him and kissing his cheek.

"Sorry, professor." said Hermione remembering that they weren't alone.

"Never be ashamed of love, Miss Lestrange. It's what makes us human." Dumbledore said kindly. "Lucinda and I could leave you alone if -"

"That wouldn't be necessary, Albus." Lucinda came to their rescue, "Since Harry cannot use the Dark Detector, I think Hermione can be of assistance."

"We believe a horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts." Headmaster explained, "The cube confirmed my suspicions a week ago when I brought it here. If it's in proximity of a horcrux it will vibrate and shine."

"Hold on." Harry said. "Did you just say that it will shine when it's close to a horcrux?"

"Harry!" Dumbledore snapped at him. "Don't you dare-"

"Cutting to the chase, am I a horcrux?" Harry asked blatantly.

"Harry that's impossible!" cried Lucinda, "He just told you that was not why it shined."

"Technically." Dumbledore answered curtly and uncomfortably.

"You manipulative bastard." Lucinda yelled at Dumbledore, "You said Harry wasn't possessed."

"I did and he isn't." he said confidently.

"I don't know about you, but when there's a soul in something that originally didn't belong to that thing we call it possessed." Lucinda said indignantly followed by a sarcastic smile.

"I'm aware of that fact. However, if we are talking about practical aspects of possession. The said soul must be in control of the host." Dumbledore responded in his defense. "At least that's what Jim Moriarty says."

"Ah I see. So you guys are basically saying 'Harry, isn't possessed because he hasn't attempted homicide or suicide, yet.' " Lucinda laughed hysterically.

"I assure you that the spirit within Harry isn't a soul. It is, in simple words, an insignificant piece of a maimed soul, cut off by the killing curse rebounded that night and which crept into the nearest living host." Dumbledore told her calmly, "Such a tiny fraction would never act like a real soul. The Dark Detector didn't vibrate as you noticed. Trust me. It's harmless, but bearing it isn't easy."

"Professor, do I have to die?" Harry asked unceremoniously.

"No!"

"That's a very morbid sense of humor you have."

"Not yet." Were the answers he heard.

Harry looked at Dumbledore's sad face. He seemed genuinely upset.

"So how do we do it?" Harry asked. "I kill him and then blow my head of to finish the job?" Harry said with a straight face.

"I'm afraid you're right, dear. Harry does have a morbid sense of humor." said Dumbledore, "Chocolate?"

Harry took what appeared to be an ordinary Mars bar. It tasted much better than he had expected.

"What does this mean now?" he said.

"I didn't mean for you to find out until we were close to the end." said Dumbledore, "But I was wrong earlier about not telling you about the prophecy. I should have told you the very next day you saved the Philosopher's Stone. When Moriarty realised that I hadn't told you-"

"Hold on!" said Lucinda.

"Not now, dear. Harry, the only way you can survive is to let Voldemort kill you himself. At the end, once all of his horcruxes are gone, you must let him and only him kill you."

"Why?" asked Hermione. "I'm sorry but I don't understand. What's so different about him."

"His blood." said Lucinda with a hopeful face. "He foolishly took Harry's blood. He won't be able to harm him directly. If he tries to kill him, the curse will destroy the bond and Harry will live."

"Lucinda, I don't mind -" said Harry but Hermione's furious eyes stopped him.

"I do mind, Harry James Potter." she said angrily. "You will not throw your life away."

"Yes, ma'am!" Harry squeaked.

"We don't have much time, Albus. It's almost five." Lucinda warned.

"We're almost finished. All Hermione needs to do is take this cube with herself." He gave Hermione the cube. "Don't let other people see it."

Hermione nodded and disillusioned the cube. Lucinda and Dumbledore saw the cube vanish. Lucinda was so surprised that she reached for the cube and felt its cold metal surface.

"That's incredible, Hermione. When did you learn that?" Lucinda asked.

"Over summer." she replied. Her jaw was too stiff.

Lucinda immediately understood what she meant. Either Voldemort or Bellatrix had taught her. She smiled at Hermione who put the cube in her pocket. The pocket was probably charmed too, because there was no visible bulge.

"Feather-light Charm and Extension Charm." Hermione answered her unasked question.

"That's N.E.W.T level my dear girl. You're, of course, aware of that." said Dumbledore, "I must admit I'd never seen someone disillusion an object like that."

Harry was about to tell Dumbledore that Hermione once had done that to herself but Hermione pressed his palm with her fingers.

"You two go. I'll be right behind you." said Lucinda, "We have to talk about Order stuff."

Harry and Hermione left the room reluctantly. Hermione gave Dumbledore one last look and she knew that Dumbledore was not looking forward to his conversation with Lucinda.