"Harry, there are a few things that you must know first. Things that perhaps I should have told you sooner."

"What? What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore steepled his fingers in front of his face as he leaned back in his armchair. "Harry, my boy, have you ever wondered why you share a connection with Voldemort?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"We must get rid of that connection before Lord Voldemort can be destroyed."

"Ok," Harry frowned. "I guess that sort of makes sense. But why?"

Hermione gasped. "But- Professor Dumbledore, does that mean-"

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid it does, Miss Granger."

"Wait, what?" Harry looked confused. Hermione turned to him, tears beginning to glisten in her eyes. "Harry, I think your scar is a horcrux."

"Wait," Ron interrupted. "Does that mean Harry has to die?"

"Not necessarily."

"But how?" Harry burst out. "How is my scar a horcrux? Why in Merlin's name did Voldemort do that?"

"I don't believe it was intentional, Harry. My theory is that, when Voldemort went to kill you as a child, his soul was so fractured and broken that when his killing curse rebounded, it broke an extra piece off of the whole. That piece of soul attached itself to the only living thing left in the house: you. This explains how you have always been able to sense Voldemort's emotions and how you are a parselmouth."

Harry had grown white. He sat down suddenly in one of the chairs. "I have to die, don't I," he said softly.

"Not necessarily," Dumbledore repeated. His eyes twinkled mysteriously.

"You know, it's not necessary to be so dramatic," Terence interrupted. "The plan is for you to overdose on the Draught of Living Death," he said to Harry. "Resulting in a temporary cessation of life, and then you would be resuscitated using a combination of the Wiggenweld potion and the muggle method."

"You mean like CPR?" Hermione asked.

"Exactly," Dumbledore twinkled.

"Great," Ron said. "It's a plan. But who's going to be the one to off Harry?"

Harry winced. "Can we please not talk about this so flippantly?"

"I mean," Ron continued, "There's no way I could do it. And I don't think Hermione would either. So how are we going to do it?"

"Ah, yes," Dumbledore said. "That is another thing that I must discuss with you."

Harry frowned. "What?"

"I believe Severus would be willing to do it." The trio stared at him in shock before Ron broke. "Of course he'd be willing to kill Harry, it's all he's ever wanted! And then he'd go running back to his master, to brag about how he'd kill Harry, and how could you even consider it!" he yelled the last bit at the portrait, accidentally getting spit on it. Dumbledore didn't seem to notice the Weasley spittle freckling his portrait.

Hermione grimaced and cleaned the portrait with her wand. "Ron's right. That's a horrible idea. Right, Harry?" she turned to him. He had a pensive look on his face. "Harry, tell me you're not considering doing this."

"I don't know," Harry said slowly. "Do we have any other solution? What do you think?" he asked Terence.

The mysterious man had a look of disgust on his face. "I think this would have gone much smoother if I had come alone." He ignored Dumbledore's hurt look. "Severus Snape is a spy."

"He killed Dumbledore," Harry stated coldly, his eyes unbelieving.

Dumbledore spoke up. "Because I asked him to."

"Why would you do a stupid thing like that?" Ron asked. "I mean, that's a really stupid thing to ask someone to do. Why would anyone do that?"

"Your arm," Hermione said, a look of dawning realization growing on her face. Dumbledore nodded sadly. "Miss Granger is correct. The curse on my arm was fatal. It had been contained for the interim, but in the end, I would have died from it within less than two years."

"So you thought that Snape-assisted suicide was your best option?"

"Being the death eater to kill me, Voldemort's greatest enemy, has sealed Severus' spot in Voldemort's inner circle for quite some time. And, I must confess, I hoped that Severus would be named as the new headmaster so that he could protect the students."

"I thought Harry was his greatest enemy."

"Well, I wouldn't really say that," Terence said. "I don't think that Riddle fears Harry so much as he fears what Harry might become. He's more like Riddle's obsession."

"But Snape hates Harry," Ron whinged, returning to the previous topic. ""How can we trust him with this?"

Dumbledore peered over the tops of his spectacles at the three, looking through the painting at them. "Severus does not hate Harry as much as he seems to."

"Oh, that's a relief," Ron grumbled. "'Not as much as he seems to'. Cause he sure seems to hate Harry an awful lot."

"There is much about Severus that you do not know.' He smiled mysteriously. Ron stared at him. "Are you going to tell us?"

"No," Terence interrupted, "He's not. That's Severus' personal business, and he should be the one to choose what you know and what you don't."

"Of course," Dumbledore said. "I wouldn't dream of breaking his trust."

"There's nothing we can show you to prove that Severus is on our side," Terence said to the three Gryffindors. "You will just have to take our word for it."

Hermione stood up. "Excuse us." She grabbed Ron and Harry and dragged them out of the room. They had a whispered conversation in the corner of the room, a hastily cast muffliato protecting them. Terence and Dumbledore watched placidly from the portrait. After a few minutes, they finished their conversation and returned to the portrait. Harry glanced at the two others at his side and squared his shoulders. "Ok."

Dumbledore's face brightened. "You believe us?"

"I- I guess, yeah, we do." Despite Harry's statement, Ron still looked slightly disgruntled.

"Wonderful!" Dumbledore beamed. "I shall go fetch Severus and tell him that you agree with our plan." He left through the side of the portrait, presumably back to his painting in Hogwarts, leaving Terence behind.

"Wait," Harry said. "When he said fetch Snape, does that mean he's going to bring Snape here? Now?"

Terence looked at him thoughtfully. "That was the plan. We do need to make a few plans." He eyed their expressions. "Do you need some time to think about things first before you see Severus?"

The three exchanged glances, and then Harry answered for them. "Maybe it'd be best if we just got this over with."

Terence smiled. "Wonderful. Albus and Severus should be here in just a few minutes then."

In the end, maybe it would have been better if they had waited to see Snape again. Despite the fact that they now had Dumbledore's reassurance that he had asked Snape to kill him for whatever asinine reasons, there were still a lot of hard feelings all around. As it was, wands were drawn at multiple times and only the peacemaking skills of Hermione and Terence stopped the actual shedding of blood.

But now that Harry knew the truth about what his connection to Voldemort was, he really just wanted to get things over with, so they started making preparations to free him of the horcrux as soon as possible.