Author's Note:

Well, the chapter we've been all waiting for. It's time for Harry to find out the truth! Most of the truth… some of the truth…

Reviews and Comments: To Shamelessnweird: Thank you! To alix33: Yes, Dumbledore definitely understood the terms of them returning to the Chamber and he wasn't going to let anything stop them, having a support system for Harry and Ginny was important and he knew that. McGonagall is totally classy and I loved her just making a beautiful arch with the rocks. Zee had the mystical cage shrunk down in her satchel. Yes, like a pre-packed kit for Magizoologists, exactly! Thank you! To Steelcode: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the return to the chamber. Will telling Harry go easily? I don't know about that. To Sholmes3431: Thank you for saying the family dynamic of ASC is wonderful! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

To AntiCreator: Sirius is very annoyed with Snape and definitely isn't happy with what he's hearing. Yes, Snape needs to deal with his own crap. To Claire Fraser: Thank you for saying it was such an interesting twist to go back to the Chamber of Secrets. I thought it was important for Harry and Ginny to not only be there for each other, but to have a strong support system in friends and family. What is the necklace? You will find out soon. Thanks! Yes, Snape is definitely a rotter! To supersandman86: Thank you for catching up! Yes, there is a lot more to go as they are barely into Harry's third year. Thank you for saying that Sirius and Remus have done a fantastic job at raising Harry. Thank you! To Guest: Yes, Snape is an asshole and Sirius will definitely attempt to knock some sense into him. I'm glad you thought the secret Slytherin room was so cool. Thank you! To septemberbells: Yes, Sirius found out Snape is still a git. I'm glad you enjoyed the adventure! Thank you!

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN:

The One Where Harry Finds Out

Ginny hurried down the hall to the dormitory of the Head Boy and Girl after saying goodnight to her brothers. She smiled at the portrait of the wise wizard with his tall hat and low sitting frames perched on the end of his nose.

"It is very late, young lady!" he scolded, his eyes on her as if displeased she would approach him at this time.

Ginny only lifted her chin higher. "I know what time it is. I need to see the Head Boy."

The wizard sighed and disappeared from the portrait. She was well aware that it was late. It was after midnight and she knew that she should have returned to her room after going back down into the Chamber of Secrets, but she immensely didn't want to. Her memories were close to the surface and even though going back had helped her truly come to grips with everything that had happened last year, she wasn't ready to go to bed after such an endeavour. She knew what she needed and she hadn't even hesitated before she had run off to the Head dormitory.

It was only a moment later when the portrait wall was pushed open and Penelope Clearwater stood there, her dark curls hanging down her back.

"Ginny, right?"

She nodded. "Hi, I know it's late, but is Percy still up?"

Penelope invited her inside the small common room. It was cozily decorated in deep reds and golds with bright blues thrown in to showcase their two houses. One side was covered in bookshelves. There was a grand fireplace in the middle of the room with a large sofa, an armchair, a coffee table, and a generous throw rug. A small breakfast nook was on the left side just up a few steps with two stools to sit. The door to the bathroom was open on the left and the two bedrooms were on the opposite ends of the common room.

Penelope smiled warmly at her. "I was just heading to bed. That's the door to his room there. I think that he's asleep as he went to bed over an hour ago."

Ginny thanked her and moved over to Percy's bedroom door, knocking on it as Penelope closed her own bedroom door behind her at the opposite end of the little suite. When she heard no movement, she knocked a little louder.

It was only a moment later when the door was thrown open and Percy stood there, shirtless in his pyjama bottoms. His curly hair was a tousled mess on the top of his head and he was squinting without his glasses.

"Ginevra?" he asked, bewildered to see her. "Everything all right?"

Ginny smiled at him. "Come on out and have some hot chocolate with me."

Percy stared at her for a moment and then he yawned and simply went back into his room for a jumper, tugging a chocolate brown sweater over his head with a big gold P on the front as he followed her into the little breakfast nook, shoving his glasses on his face. He watched her make two mugs of hot chocolate as he took a seat on one of the stools at the counter. She easily found her way around the small kitchen and he yawned again, watching her warily as she presented the cup to him.

"Everything all right?" he repeated.

She nodded and took a drink, smiling when the chocolate hit her system. "I just came back from the Chamber of Secrets."

Percy's eyes widened. "What? Why did you — what?"

Ginny smirked at him. She knew that he was half asleep, but that had definitely caught his attention.

"Harry and I both went. It was a chance to put it behind us, Perce, you know? Bill and Charlie came all the way to Hogwarts just to come down with me. Ron, Hermione, and Neville all went down for Harry. Then Na'eemah came too, and Sirius and Tonks and Zee and Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Lupin… it was quite the little party."

Percy nodded, his blue eyes on hers. "I'm glad that Bill and Charlie were there for you, Ginevra. You could have asked me, you know?"

Ginny moved to sit on the sofa and Percy followed her. She waited until he sat next to her before she spoke. "I know that I could have asked you."

"But you wanted Bill and Charlie, I get it," he said.

"I wanted Bill and Charlie because they've been helping me with Na'eemah not because I chose them over you."

He frowned. "Are you all right, Ginny? Going back there… it couldn't have been easy?"

"It was surreal, Percy, to go back."

His eyes were wide as he listened to her tell him about how they found all of the snakes and more Basilisk eggs; how Harry had seen the rotting corpse of the snake and had thrown up. He listened with rapt attention, smiling at her as she told him how much better she felt after going back.

"You think it helped?"

She nodded. "More than I ever thought would be possible. I was so scared to go back, but I'm so glad that I did! I think I finally can… I can put it all behind me once and for all. It's just another part of the castle, Perce. It's not… the evil that was there; that was… it was the diary, and Harry destroyed it."

He smiled at her, reaching over to touch her arm. "You just wanted to come all the way over here to tell me all of this at midnight?"

Ginny grinned sheepishly. "Yes. I thought that you'd like to know." She moved closer to him on the couch, taking his arms and wrapping them around her, her face pressed against his heart and he chuckled.

"Oh, you just wanted my body heat," he said with a laugh. Her arms were chilled and he summoned a blanket over to wrap her up as she cuddled into him. He kissed the top of her head. "I wish that you would have come to me last year, Ginny. I'm sorry that I wasn't around for you like I should have been. I would have come with you today, too, if you needed me."

Ginny shook her head, hugging him close and tugging the blanket up to her chin. "You were. I just didn't reach out and I'm sorry. Na'eemah has helped me understand that I was addicted; that the problem came from the power that Tom held over me — that I let him hold over me. And I know that you're always here when I need you, Sir Percival. That's why I'm here now because I needed you."

"I never should have read you the story of the Knights of the Round Table," he mumbled.

Ginny grinned up at him. "You should tell it to me again."

"What? Now?" Percy asked, completely bewildered.

Ginny smiled against his shoulder. "Yes, please. I don't want to go back to my dorm, not yet. I'm not ready to try to sleep after tonight — not yet. Please, Percy, will you tell me a story?"

Percy sighed in annoyance, but Ginny could feel his heartbeat and she knew that he wasn't really cross. Percy was really good at putting on a show of annoyance, but in reality, he liked to be asked. He shifted a bit, stretching his long legs out to sit on the coffee table and tilted his head back to rest on the couch.

"You'd rather listen to me tell you a story then go get Fred or George to entertain you? Or even Ron?" he asked, looking at her in disbelief.

Ginny only smiled at him. "No, I want you. I wanted you to hold me and to make me feel better. You were always the best at stories, Percy. Please tell me a story."

He sighed and he smiled at her, a pleased smirk on his face that she had chosen him to keep her company tonight over their brothers. "You are an annoying little brat. I was sleeping, you know?"

She smiled. "Uh-huh, but you wouldn't want to deprive your favourite sister of hearing you tell a story now, would you?"

Percy grinned at her. "You're my only sister."

She grinned widely. "Want me to go?"

Percy's arms held her tighter and he kissed the top of her head again. "Absolutely not. You came to me for comfort and a story and that's exactly what you're going to get. Now, let's see… once upon a time, there was a famous kingdom known as Camelot…"

Ginny smiled against him, listening to her big brother's soft voice. Coming to Percy was exactly what she needed, she thought. The last thing that she remembered was hearing Percy talk about the Lady of the Lake before she had drifted off into dreams.

When she woke the next morning, there was a pillow under her head and she was wrapped up tight in the blanket that Percy had summoned for her the night before. She stretched and smiled at Penelope, who was throwing books into her book bag.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Penelope said with a smile. "I'm off to the library. Determined to get an early start on my studying this morning. Percy said that you fell asleep here. Everything's all right, I hope?"

Ginny nodded, smiling warmly at her. "Oh, yes. I just needed some quality big brother time."

Penelope smiled brightly. "That's very sweet."

"Where is Percy?"

"He's in the shower, but if you don't feel like breakfast in the Great Hall, there's some oatmeal in the breakfast nook that you can have."

"Thanks," Ginny said, standing up and stretching some more. "I'll go down and eat though." She scribbled a quick note for her big brother thanking him for the story before stealing his brown jumper with the gold P on it. She pulled it over her head before she hurried back to the Gryffindor common room.

She almost ran into Harry as she went through the portrait hole. "Harry!"

He grinned at her. "Hi, Gin," he took in Percy's oversized brown jumper and her black velvet tights and frowned. "Where are you coming from?"

"I fell asleep on Percy's couch," she said with a grin. "I told him where we went last night and… I wasn't really in the mood to go on up to bed, you know? I had… too many thoughts."

Harry nodded. "I hear you, but I slept great. I think going back was a really good idea."

"Me too," she admitted with a smile. "Where are you off to so early on a Saturday morning?"

"Breakfast," he said with a grin. "Uncle Siri and Uncle Rem want to talk to me about something. Want to come down with me?"

She nodded as her stomach rumbled at the mentioning of food and he smirked at her. "Yes, please. Let me just run upstairs and freshen up."

"Gin?"

She turned on the bottom step to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Does Percy that know you stole his jumper?"

She grinned widely, her brown eyes twinkling. "Be right back!"

Harry chuckled and leaned back against the wall to wait for her as she rushed up the stairs. He scratched his chin as he wondered what it was that his fathers wanted to talk to him about. Having gone back last night and taking everything in, accepting what had happened, knowing and understanding that he had faced Voldemort down there and come out still standing, made him feel good and it made him feel powerful. Having his friends and family there, standing beside him, had been everything that he had needed, and hadn't known he needed, at the same time.

Maybe they were finally going to tell him what Narcissa Malfoy had spoken to them about? He sighed and scratched his neck a bit. He was starting get a few hairs there and they made him itchy, but there clearly wasn't enough hair for him to shave it off and it was rather annoying. He sighed as Ginny came bouncing down the stairs in dark blue tights, black combat boots, and a long purple jumper with her hair in a long braid down her back.

"I'm ready!" she said and he grinned at her. "I'm starving! I hope they have some strawberries."

"If not, we can probably get some in the kitchens," Harry said making her grin.

Ginny smirked at him. "Don't tempt me, Harry!"

He grinned as he they made their way down the stairs. "You okay after last night? I mean… seeing the Basilisk definitely took me for a turn."

She nodded. "I am. It was all of the other snakes that…" she shuddered. "I don't think I will ever be a fan of snakes again."

"They don't really bother me, considering," he said thoughtfully. "Though, you think they would after that Basilisk attacked me."

Ginny chuckled. "But you can understand them so, I imagine that would make them much less scary."

"Yeah, maybe," he said with a thought as they jumped across to avoid the staircase that was beginning to move. "I feel like it's really over now."

"Me too," she said, letting out a long sigh. "I feel like now I can really begin to put it all behind me. I talked to Percy about that last night. He's a good listener."

"Never really would have guessed Percy on that front."

Ginny smiled up at him. "He is. Percy is just really ambitious and he knows exactly what he wants, which is great for him, but he's so scared that because our family isn't wealthy, he won't be able to accomplish his dreams — and I know that he pushes away a bit because of it."

Harry frowned. "Well, that's stupid of him."

"I agree," she said. "Which is why I do my best to tell him so on a regular basis."

Harry laughed. "Of course you do."

Having Ginny as a friend again made him feel lighter in ways that he couldn't quite explain. When she started to talk animately about how she had convinced Sir Percival to tell her the story of King Arthur, he listened with a smile.

He was really glad to have her as a friend again.

~ ASC ~

Sirius ran his hands through his hair and put a quick cleansing charm on himself as he stepped out of the Floo into Remus' suite of rooms at Hogwarts with Marauder at his side. He had barely slept all night and he wasn't sure how he was going to approach this situation. Being down there yesterday and actually seeing it… actually looking at the giant corpse of the Basilisk that his twelve-year-old son had fought and killed with a sword, was more than enough for him to spend the rest of his life worrying about what kind of trouble his son could get into in the future. The thought of telling Harry about the prophecy and the Horcruxes… it all just seemed like too much.

Remus stepped out of the bedroom, tugging a jumper down over his tee shirt. Tonks stepped out behind him in nothing but one of Remus' dress shirts, which almost reached her knees.

Sirius smirked. "Better put some clothes on there, Tonks. Our boy should be coming soon."

Tonks simply shot up two fingers and headed into the breakfast nook to make herself some coffee, Marauder bounding after her as if hoping for a snack.

Remus nodded at his friend. "Did you sleep as shitty as I did?"

"How the hell are we going to tell him this, Rem? We can't…"

Remus nodded, moving to embrace his friend. "We have to. We can't keep this huge secret from him anymore. He's going to find out eventually."

"Eventually sounds great, like years down the road — perfect!"

Remus chuckled. "I'd like to say that I agree with you. But we decided on telling him."

Sirius nodded, moving to sit on the chesterfield. "I know that we did and there's a part of me that knows that we have to tell him and I want to tell him. I know that he wants to be involved, that he wants to help, and he has asked enough about what Narcissa had to say."

"But we don't have to tell him everything," Remus said, quietly.

Tonks sat on the edge of the chesterfield next to Remus, blowing on her steaming mug of coffee, smiling when Remus put his hand on her knee. "Rem and I were talking about it last night and maybe you shouldn't tell him about the Horcrux being a part of him."

Sirius nodded. "That's the part that I'm most afraid to tell him, if I'm being honest. How are we supposed to explain to him that Voldemort put a piece of himself inside of him that way? That's not exactly news that he wants to hear and God knows it's only going to drive him mad knowing it… he's only thirteen and… with the prophecy… I want him to live his life not be… it's too much!"

"We tell him about the prophecy; keeping that a secret is… he needs to know why Voldemort wanted to kill him when he was a baby. He needs to understand why." Remus insisted. "I think that's the one thing that we can't hide from him."

"And the Horcruxes themselves?" Sirius asked, his eyes on his friend. "Can we really tell him everything?"

Remus let out a slow breath. "I think that we should tell him everything about the Horcruxes, except that one thing… knowing is only going to destroy him, Padfoot."

"So, a lie of omission then? We know it's not technically a Horcrux since it wasn't officially created as such by Voldemort, but it is a piece of his soul and therefore still has to be destroyed," Sirius said carefully. "I fucking hate lying to him, Moony."

"I do, too," Remus said quietly. "But Padfoot, how can we tell him that one day he might have to sacrifice his own life to save the world? I won't tell him that and Merlin knows I won't stand back and watch him do it either."

"Well, that's one thing that we're in perfect agreement on. We will find a way to get that fucking thing out of him, Moony, I swear it. I will find a way."

Tonks kissed Remus' cheek and stood up. "You blokes are going to have a long morning ahead of you. I'm going to hop in the shower and get ready for work. And for the record, if I was Harry, I wouldn't want to know that last part. Not until it was absolutely necessary."

Remus watched her walk back into the bedroom before he turned to Sirius. "So, we're in agreement then?"

Sirius nodded, breathing slowly. "In agreement. Is it too early to start drinking Firewhiskey, Moony?"

Remus chuckled and stood up. "I'll add some to our tea. I think we're both going to need it."

~ ASC ~

When Harry let himself into Remus' suite of rooms an hour later, he found himself a bit curious as to what his fathers wanted to speak to him about. He had thought that the venture down into the Chamber of Secrets had gone pretty well himself, better than he had anticipated, and after talking to Ginny that morning, he knew that she felt the same. He had slept dreamlessly for the first time in months and felt well rested and alert.

He smiled when he saw Sirius sprawled out across the chesterfield with Marauder lying on top of him, happily getting his belly scratched.

"Marauder!" Harry exclaimed in surprise, grinning when the dog barked and ran to him, jumping up to lick his face in greeting. Harry hugged him tight, laughing as the dog tried to lick him everywhere, so happy to see his boy.

Sirius smiled from his spot on the couch as Remus came out of the breakfast nook with two steaming cups of tea. "I thought that you might like to see him today."

Harry hugged his dog happily, grinning at his godfather. "Thanks."

Remus placed the two cups of tea on the table and smiled. "Want a cup of tea, little Prongs?"

Harry nodded and moved to lift Sirius' legs up so that he could sit down, rolling his eyes when Sirius simply stretched his legs out across Harry's lap. Then he winced when Marauder merely jumped up on top of both of them and made himself comfortable.

"How did you sleep last night?" Sirius asked, adjusting himself into a sitting position to avoid being squashed by the over excited golden retriever.

"Good," Harry said, honestly, as he scratched Marauder. "No dreams. I felt really good when I woke up. I'm glad that we went back."

Sirius smiled at him and leaned over to kiss his forehead. "You were so brave going back there; you and Ginny both."

"Did you go through the chest yet? What else was inside?"

"No, not yet. I'm going to help Dumbledore with that later on this week, as is Auntie Minnie. We have some important stuff to talk about first."

"What kind of important stuff?" Harry asked, his eyes moving to Remus as he passed him a cup of tea.

"Did you eat breakfast yet, little Prongs?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, I had kippers and eggs," Harry told him as Remus budged him over so that he was sitting between the two men. Harry looked between his parents. "What's going on?"

"There's something very important that Uncle Remus and I have been wanting to speak to you about," Sirius said carefully. "Something that we've been beating back and forth between us, should we or should we not tell you, and we've decided that we can't keep it from you anymore. I don't like keeping secrets from you, Prongslet."

"What secrets?" Harry asked, looking between his two fathers in concern.

Remus let out a slow breath. "We're both not sure that you're ready to hear this, Harry. But like Sirius said, we don't like to keep secrets and we agreed long ago that the three of us don't lie to each other."

Harry stared at them. "Are you finally going to tell me what Mrs Malfoy came to say?"

Sirius opened his mouth as if to respond and then sighed. "Harry, the reason that I said that I wasn't going to tell you about Mrs Malfoy was because I didn't want to put these thoughts into your head until I myself had made sense of them; until we had a better understanding… a plan of some kind."

"What kind of plan?"

"About what to do when Voldemort comes back."

Harry stared at them, his eyes wide. "Has he come back?"

Sirius shook his head, hooking his arm around Harry's forearm. "No, he has not. Mrs Malfoy believes that her father-in-law is working to try to restore him to his body with the help of Pettigrew and Lestrange. As you know, he is out there in a spiritual form; not able to really live in his form, but forced to possess others. If they were to restore him, he would have a body again. He would have strength and substance to once again, rise to power."

"Restore him how?"

Remus sighed and gently touched Harry's other arm. "That's one of the things that we don't know."

Sirius draped his arm across Harry's shoulders. "Back in June, after you told me about what happened down in the Chamber of Secrets, and after you went up to bed that night, I went to Hogwarts to give Dumbledore a piece of my mind. I was so furious that you had almost died and that he hadn't even told me what had happened; that he just insisted that you were fine and cheerfully sent me on my way — you were not fine."

"Uncle Siri, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you right away."

Sirius shook his head. "No, I was upset with him, not you. He should have told me. He should have told me what you and he spoke about afterwards; about the diary and about the likenesses between you and Riddle."

"Professor Dumbledore said that Voldemort put a part of his magic inside of me by accident and that's why I can speak to snakes."

Remus nodded, his eyes meeting Sirius' for a moment. A part of his magic was definitely the right turn of phrase, he thought. "And that's one of the big things that we want to talk to you about."

Harry looked between them in confusion.

Remus still holding Harry's arm, reached forward to gently brush the hair our of his eyes. "Do you remember how Uncle Siri and I said that the diary seemed to possess Ginny strangely? That it sounded like something more serious than a regular possession?" When Harry nodded, he continued, "Uncle Sirius picked up on that right away as it reminded him of something his grandfather had once shared with him; an old tale about dark magic and an attempt at immortality."

"I went to Dumbledore to speak about the Chamber of Secrets, but also to tell him of my suspicions about the diary and how I thought that it was the same type of dark magic as the locket that we found in Grimmauld Place many years ago."

"You told me during the summer that there was a connection between the two of them. That you had thought Voldemort probably made both of them," Harry said.

"We now know that he did, Prongslet. He made both the diary and the locket in his attempt at gaining immortality."

"He used very old and ancient magic — dark magic — and very dangerous magic. Something called a Horcrux." Remus said quietly.

"What is it?"

"It is an object that holds a piece of someone's soul."

Harry stared at them for a moment, his face a mix of bewilderment and interest. "How do you take a piece of your soul away and put it into an object?"

"By committing murder — a crime so violent and so terrible that it tears the soul into pieces," Sirius said quietly, closing his eyes and leaning his chin down on Harry's head.

Harry's eyes widened and he shifted away from Sirius to look between the two men in horror. "You think that the diary and the locket were these Hor-thingies? So… when it was taking Ginny's soul from her it was… does she know?"

Sirius hesitated. "Yes."

Harry stared at him for a moment. "You told Ginny before you told me?"

"Prongslet —"

"No!" Harry exclaimed, interrupting his godfather. "I'm the one that bloody-well saved her! I'm the one that destroyed that diary! If anyone should have known what it was, it should have been me!"

"Prongslet —"

"Harry!" he exclaimed, glaring at his godfather. "My name is Harry! How could you tell her and keep it from me? What is wrong with you? I should have known what it was that I destroyed!"

"I didn't tell her!" Sirius yelled back, softening his voice when Harry finally looked at him. "I told Na'eemah."

Sirius outlined every detail of his discussion with Dumbledore about the Horcruxes, about his writing to Na'eemah and telling her that he thought the diary was one, about Bill's research on them, and about Dumbledore's research into the past of Voldemort. How it was all to try to figure out how and when he made them and from what objects. When he was finished, Harry just stared at him.

"Seven of them?"

"It's what we believe that he was aiming for, but whether or not he made seven is another story all together, but we think that it was his ultimate goal so, it's what we're going with."

"So, as long as he has these Hor-thingies, he can never die? Like ever?"

"Like ever," Sirius said solemnly, draping his arm around Harry again and tugging him up against him, hoping that he wasn't going to pull away again. "Uncle Moony and I didn't tell you right away because we wanted to be sure. We wanted to have a game plan in mind before we told you. We're going to hunt down these objects, Harry. We're going to work on destroying them one by one."

Harry nodded, his eyes on Sirius. "I want to help."

Sirius sighed and let out a slow breath. "I know you do and the best way that you can help us is by letting us do this."

"Uncle Siri —"

"— No," Remus interrupted. "You have to trust us to try to find them and destroy them, Harry. You already got rid of the diary and that was brilliant, but we think that we should work on these ones. There's something else, little Pr-Harry."

Harry looked at him. "Something worse than Horcruxes?"

Remus sighed, "Do you remember asking us and asking Dumbledore about why Voldemort wanted to kill you, an innocent baby, in the first place?"

Harry stared at them, his hands shook a little and Sirius took them in his, squeezing tightly. "You know why?"

Sirius leaned in and kissed his son's temple. "Dumbledore told me when I spoke to him in June. He said that he had kept it a secret from Remus and I because he thought that it would hurt us to know the truth — and he was right. I don't want to tell you this, Prongslet, in fact, I would very much like to lock you away and throw away the key."

Harry snorted at him. "I can handle it, Uncle Padfoot."

Sirius sighed and kissed his son's temple again. "Damn right you can and that, Prongslet, scares me even more. You're thirteen years old and you have already made it through a difficult obstacle course protecting the Philosopher's Stone and came face to face with Voldemort. You escaped an army of Acromantulas, saved your friend from a possessed diary, and killed a Basilisk. No one is saying that you can't handle it, Harry."

"Just tell me," Harry insisted.

Remus moved to wrap his arm around Harry. "There was a prophecy that was made before you were born…"

Harry stared at them as Remus finished explaining about how Trelawney had made this prophecy the year before he was born, his eyes wide and he swallowed. "So I… in the end, I have to… I have to be the one to kill him? I have to become a murderer or he'll murder me?"

Remus and Sirius each held him tight, cradling him like a child between them and it was Remus who whispered, "Yes."

Harry pushed away from them and stood up, making Marauder bark. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, his eyes flashing and to his horror swimming in tears. "I don't want to kill anybody!"

"Prongslet," Sirius began, holding out his arms. "Come here."

"My name is Harry! I'm not a sodding child, Uncle Sirius!"

Sirius nodded and stood up. "Harry, we are well aware that you're not a child or we would not be telling you any this. You know how much we love you and we are not going to let you fight this upcoming war alone. Right now, Voldemort is not a threat. He is nothing and we are ahead of the game. We know that he made Horcruxes — we've already destroyed one of them, and we have a second one in our possession. And we ultimately know that he marked you as his equal — he transferred some of his powers to you."

"Dark powers!" Harry exclaimed, tears in his eyes. "I don't want to be a dark wizard!"

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed, grabbing Harry and tugging him into his arms despite his protests. Harry's face pressed against Sirius' heart and he dropped a kiss to the top of head. "You will never be a dark wizard! There is no dark and light power, Harry. Power is power and it is how you choose to use it that makes you the wizard you are. You're a powerful young man, who has already bested Voldemort in getting the Philosopher's Stone, you fought and slayed a Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor, and you destroyed a Horcrux… you are so fucking brave and strong and I love you so much."

Harry clung to him, his hands fisting in the back of his jumper. His words were muffled and came out in a whisper, but both of his fathers heard them. "I don't want to die."

Remus jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around his son so that the three of them were huddled in a big hug in the middle of his living room, kissing the top of his head. "You're not going to die, Harry."

Harry wiped furiously at his tears and he pulled away from Sirius, sighing as he leaned back against Remus' chest. "I can't fight him! I'm only thirteen!"

Sirius leaned in and kissed Harry's forehead. "We're going to train you to be the best that you can be. And this isn't going to happen tomorrow, Harry. Voldemort is nothing right now, remember that. He is nothing! And if we destroy all of the Horcruxes before he even obtains a body, we are golden… he will fade away as if he had never been."

Harry nodded. "Neither can live while the other survives."

Remus kissed his cheek, his hands resting on Harry's shoulders. "After Christmas, we're going to start giving you extra lessons."

"What kind of extra lessons?"

"All sorts of charms and spells and jinxes, things that you wouldn't learn until later years. Anything that we can to help prepare you."

"I can't even stay upright when I see a Dementor!" he protested, his eyes wide. "How can you prepare me to fight Voldemort?"

Sirius kissed the top of his head again. "Uncle Moony is going to teach you the Patronus Charm for that. You know that we use the Patronus Charm to communicate sometimes? Well, the ultimate use of a Patronus Charm is to fight the Dementors. Usually one doesn't learn it until seventh year, but, we're going to teach it to you now."

Harry nodded. "Who else knows about this? Just you two and Professor Dumbledore?"

Sirius shook his head. "We have a few more people on the team." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Read that and memorize it."

Harry glanced at the paper and saw the words: Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

"Use the Floo to go home. Uncle Moony, and I will meet you there and finish explaining everything."

Harry nodded and grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the fireplace and stepped into the flames. He spun out and landed in the living room of Black Cottage. He looked up when Sirius and Remus came out behind him with Marauder.

"We have to Apparate to this location I'm afraid. Floo travel is not authorized," Sirius told him as they headed outside of the cottage just past the wards.

Remus tugged Harry close to side Apparate him and they arrived in Claremont Square, a Muggle neighbourhood in London. Sirius appeared next to them a few seconds later and the three of them carefully crossed the street.

"Remember what that paper said, Harry?"

Harry nodded his eyes moving from Number Thirteen to Number Eleven and he frowned. The moment that he thought about where Number Twelve was, the house seemed to appear out of nowhere; squeezing itself in between its two neighbours, completely unbeknownst to the Muggles nearby. Sirius ushered him inside with Remus closely following and led him down the hall, down the stairs and into the brightly lit kitchen to be greeted by an ugly house elf.

"Master Harry! Master Sirius! Master Remus!"

"Hi, Kreacher," Harry said carefully as the elf bowed to him.

Sirius took out his wand and pointed it at the wall.

Harry's eyes widened as he took in the timeline written around the kitchen walls: From the first creation of a Horcrux to the birth of Voldemort up until the escape of Pettigrew and Lestrange. Then his eyes fell on the operation name and he smirked.

"Operation Fuck Up Voldemort's Plans?"

Sirius grinned and tugged Harry close to him. "It's our team name. The team so far consists of me, Uncle Remus, Dumbledore, Auntie Minnie, Bill, Zee, and Tonks. We're going to maybe talk to Alastor Moody, as he used to be a great Auror before he retired, and maybe a historian — especially considering what we found down in the Chamber of Secrets, but we haven't approached them yet. And the historian will only be on a need to know basis, not part of the operation itself. We're going to find out everything that we possibly can about who Voldemort is, what he did in his past, what he could be doing in his present, and how to stop him in the future. I can't promise you that this will work, but I can promise you that we will do everything in our power to defeat him. Just because the prophecy states that it has to be you, Prong-Harry, that doesn't mean that it has to be only you. We're a team."

Harry smiled at him and rested his head against Sirius' shoulder, his eyes on the blackboard. "How did you find out all of this stuff?"

"Dumbledore spent the summer doing research on his past and some of the stuff he already knew and some of it is just a guess," Remus explained moving to the board. "Like this here? We don't know for sure if Merope Gaunt gave the Muggle Tom Riddle a love potion, but it makes the most sense considering that he left her high and dry seemingly as out of the blue as them getting married had been."

Sirius kissed the top of his head. "All right, Moony, start from the beginning, Harry and I are listening."

"Prongslet," Harry said, quietly.

Sirius smiled widely at him and kissed his forehead, tugging him over to the bench to sit down, his arm still draped around his shoulders. "My Prongslet," he said with a smile. "Now, let's listen to Uncle Moony tell us about Operation FUVP. If you have any questions, ask them."

Harry nodded as Remus began to go through the timeline they had orchestrated about Voldemort's life.

By the time that Remus was finished, Harry didn't know what to say. He felt like all of his unanswered questions about why Voldemort had ever wanted to kill him as a baby had finally been answered and at the same time, he felt like he was left with a million more questions that he couldn't quite put into words. Learning about Voldemort's life and the things that he had done, the people that he had killed. He had only been two years older than Harry was the first time that he had killed someone — at least the first time that Dumbledore was aware of.

It was a terrifying thought.

Not to mention the idea of him creating these Horcruxes. Those scared him more than he wanted to admit. He remembered the moment that Sirius had touched that locket; the pain in his scar, the horror that he remembered. It was definitely something that he didn't want to experience again.

And the wizard who had created the first one had managed to live for almost nine hundred years! What were they going to do if Voldemort managed to live that long? It was unthinkable!

"Any questions, Prongslet?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes intently on his.

Harry started to shake his head before he realized he did have one. "Yeah, why does my scar hurt? When I… when I sometimes get close to a Horcrux — why does my scar hurt?"

Sirius let out a slow breath. "We don't know why exactly, but we think that it's because it's a cursed scar and the Horcruxes are a piece of the wizard who gave you that scar. That's Dumbledore's theory on your scar and I have to agree with him as it makes the most sense. No one else in the world has ever survived the killing curse, Prongslet, so we can only guess."

Harry nodded, his hands fiddling in his lap. "Oh."

Sirius kissed his temple, his arm coming around him again. "We love you and I know that this is a lot to take in. Remus and I have been struggling with it for a few months now and we're still not okay with it, which is why we didn't tell you right away. We didn't want to keep this from you. We just wanted to make sure that you had dealt with everything that happened in the Chamber of Secrets and were ready to hear something like this… and Merlin knows that I'm not ready for you to hear about this, but Uncle Remus and I both agreed that keeping it from you was wrong. We will keep you updated as much as we can and if you have any questions, you can ask us at any time."

Harry simply nodded as Remus took a seat across from them. "I don't really know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," he said, kissing his temple again.

Remus kept his eyes on him. "We're keeping this as need to know only. We're using Grimmauld Place as our HQ because it is very well guarded and we don't want all of this at Black Cottage. It's slow going, but we are working on something and every little bit helps."

"If I have to fight him, I want to help."

Sirius sighed. "I know you want to help, Harry, but you have to leave this part to us. The best way that you can help is by letting us train you to be the strongest wizard that you can be. By going to class and doing the work to learn everything that you possibly can in school. If — if one day it does come to pass that you and Voldemort have to… you'll be ready. We'll make sure that you're ready."

Harry wanted to protest. He should be more involved with the Horcrux hunt and be helpful there, but the thought of learning more in order to help defeat Voldemort one day had its appeal too.

"Only a few people know, right? So, I shouldn't tell anyone or talk about it?"

Sirius sighed. "If you want to tell your friends; if you need them to know — we trust you. This is a lot to take in and your friends have always been there for you. That is your decision. And Ginny knows a little bit because of the Horcrux in the diary, but that is all she knows, Harry. She doesn't know anything else or the fact that there's more of them out there."

"What about Neville?"

Remus half-smiled. "I don't think telling him at this point is going to do anything, little Prongs. It could have been Neville, but ultimately Voldemort chose you."

"Why? What made me different from Neville?"

"Dumbledore thinks that he chose you because you were more like him, a half-blood and he understood what that was like. It was nothing you did. You are not to blame. You are not at fault."

"I just won the worst lottery ever," Harry muttered under his breath.

Sirius chuckled kissed his temple again. "I love you."

Harry sighed and let Sirius snuggle him close, knowing that his godfather needed to hold him and he very much needed the contact himself. "I love you both, too, but… you should have told me the moment that you found out."

Sirius nodded. "I wanted to protect you just a little bit longer, Harry. I'm sorry."

Harry stared at the wall for a long moment and then his gaze moved to Remus who was smiling fondly at he and Sirius. "Uncle Moony, can I start learning the Patronus now? Why do I have to wait until after Christmas?"

"Well, the holiday is only a few weeks away," Remus said with a smile, tugging Harry to his feet to hug him close. "And I am going to be busy helping Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Sirius go through the stuff that we found in the Chamber of Secrets. Why don't I lend you a book on them and you can start reading up on the Patronus? Then when you come home for Christmas, we'll talk about it?" he suggested, kissing the top of his son's head.

Harry nodded, wrapping his arms tighter around his father. That seemed like a good plan to him. Not to mention the fact that he had a lot to think about.

~ ASC ~

After Harry left that afternoon, Sirius filled Remus in on what had happened the night before with Snape, and they had both discussed it in passing. Sirius knew that Harry didn't want him to do anything about it. He knew that his son was determined to handle Snape on his own, but that didn't mean that he couldn't butt his head in just a little — subtly of course.

He went home that afternoon lost in thought about what Harry had told him the night before, about how Snape had treated Harry upon catching him with Sirius out in the middle of the night, and he stretched out on the sofa and closed his eyes.

He had always done his best thinking while alluding to napping.

Twenty minutes later, he had a perfect plan in mind.

And Snape wasn't going to know what hit him.