A/N I'm not dead! I know it seemed like it, but between life happening and my muse being stubborn, plus rewriting most of the second half of fifth year, it has been a trial. But I'm back, and going to be publishing slower than before my hiatus, but still pumping out chapters for all my lovely and supportive readers. And everyone else too I guess. So, without further ado, her you go!

52 An Overdue Conversation

BONG!

"They are persistent, aren't they?" Hermione commented idly. "That's the third time they've tried to apparate in together."

"It was rather funny to see Dumbledore's face when Snape failed to arrive. It's even better he departed again so fast without letting us explain that Snape can't enter at all. I almost wish we had set the redirect to somewhere interesting rather than just the origination point," Harry sighed as his wife snuggled deeper into his side.

"Any bets on when… Oh, hello again Headmaster."

"Mr Potter, there seems to be a problem with the wards here. Professor Snape doesn't seem to be able to join us. I tried to side-along him but we were unable to enter. Please find Sirius and have him lower whatever ward is causing this," Dumbledore said in a tone that sounded kind and grandfatherly, but the undertone was definitely an order.

"Why, Headmaster?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why do you require the potions master's presence? Does he have vital information you don't know?"

"No, but-"

"Is he pivotal to one of your many plans concerning us?"

"No but-"

"Then why do you require his attendance? If he isn't vital nor has information to impart, what does he provide other than an additional point for that information to leak from? One that has provided aid to the dark before I might add."

"Professor Snape has my fullest confidence, Mr Potter. His presence is vital to our discussion."

"But you just admitted he wasn't vital, and while he may have your confidences, he most certainly does not have ours," Hermione answered acidly, then paused. "I take that back, we do have one confidence in Mr Snape. We are confident he will use any chance to attack or demean both of us. Any chance to cause us harm will be taken with glee. He has proven unable to separate my husband from his father, and passes on every bit of hatred and anger he feels towards him to my husband."

"That is why he is specifically barred access to this house, as well as any property we might live in," Harry explained. "He is not welcome anywhere I call home, nor the home of any of my family."

"Nonetheless, I must insist on his presence," Dumbledore spoke confidently, as if his word was the final say.

"Then we find ourselves at an impasse. As we have time and are not in danger of losing our magic, we shall let you decide: insist on Mr Snape's attendance and miss your deadline, or proceed without him," Harry said simply, then sat back calmly.

The old man floundered, obviously trying to think of something, anything to force his way to be accepted. The couple facing him however, seemed calm and collected, sitting side by side with each other on the couch. Their apparent unconcern, both for Dumbledore's desires, his self importance and his magic, was disconcerting for him. The fact that they basically had him over the barrel was unacceptable to him, yet he could find no way to change that.

"Very well, if you insist on depriving yourselves of a valuable resource," Albus tried to ignore the snort from Harry. "Then we should begin."

"Let us start with this: Why did Tom Riddle attack my parents all those years ago?"

"I.. well… he didn't, not really." Albus shifted uncomfortably as he felt his magic compelling him to continue. "I'm afraid he was after you, not your parents."

"Why?"

"There is a prophecy, given shortly before you were born, that states you are the one to defeat him," Albus explained, his tone saying that was all he felt needed explaining.

"And what was it?"

"What was what?"

"What is this prophecy?" Harry spoke as if speaking to a young child.

"That is a bit far afield…"

"If you're confident enough that you'll keep your magic…" Hermione's sweet tone fooled no one, nor did Albus' muttered curse.

"Very well. Rather than merely speak it to you, I offer you the use of my pensieve to view it in its original form," Albus spoke kindly.

"We accept," Hermione agreed. "However, for the time being, please tell us what it says so we can apply it to the rest of what you tell us today."

"Very well," Dumbledore sighed. "The prophecy is this: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."

"And you think this means Harry is the only one that can defeat him? And that it hasn't already been fulfilled?" Hermione challenged as Harry sat back in apparent reflection on what had just been revealed.

"Already? My dear girl, how could it be fulfilled when the Dark Lord lives?"

"October 31, 1981," Hermione said definitively. "Harry vanquished him. The prophecy doesn't say kill, though how he survived is another question we have for you. Voldemort was definitely vanquished that night. Harry was marked with that scar, so possibly that is the marked as his equal bit. Then there's whatever actually killed him, or whatever, which I'm fairly sure no one knows what that was, so power he knows not. If I recall correctly, prophecy spheres go dark after they have been completed. Did you check this one after that night?"

"I, well…"

"I'll take that as a no then. What about confirming that Voldemort was actually dead, did you try anything there?"

"He was dead."

"Yet our first year you set a trap for him in the third floor corridor, so what changed?" Hermione was relentless, and Harry had to hide a smirk as Dumbledore floundered under the assault.

"That isn't precisely true…"

"Okay, so you set it up to test Harry as well, but part of it was to trap the Dark Lord. Do you deny it?"

When Dumbledore didn't seem to know how to answer her while keeping his secrets but was forced to by his magic she pressed her advantage, to the old man's horror.

"Why did you allow everyone to think Harry was the Heir of Slytherin?

Why did you keep the school open when you knew a Basilisk was roaming the halls?"

"Why did you never get Sirius Black a trial?"

"Why did you insist on Harry living with his abusive relatives?"

"Why didn't Voldemort die that night in Godric's Hollow?"

"What exactly is a Horcrux and how many did Voldemort make?"

"What do you most want us not to know?"

The questions kept coming, and Dumbledore's magic kept forcing him to keep answering. The next six hours were some of the most painful of Albus Dumbledore's life, not just because he was being forced to reveal far more secrets than he ever wanted to, but because Hermione Potter would not let anything go. Every time he tried to steer the conversation away from subjects he'd rather not give details about, she grabbed on and shook it out of him anyway. Almost two decades of planning and preparing, laid bare in an afternoon.

"So, is he bughouse or just senile?"

"I'm not sure… maybe both?" Harry glanced at his wife, then paused to consider her words. The information they had just gotten from the headmaster was both valuable and very convoluted. Many odd occurrences and happenings were now explained, yet others were even more confusing. His insistence on Harry not marrying because he needed no attachments to the wizarding world when he sacrificed himself to complete the prophecy was mind numbing. His expectation that Harry would eventually have a child with someone like Ginny Weasley before he died so Dumbledore could control the Potter fortune as caretaker until the child's majority was obscene.

"Have you ever heard of Victory syndrome?"

"Muggle thing from the time of the Grindelwald war, isn't it?" Amelia asked as she and Croaker emerged from the hidden room they'd been observing from. "Something about overconfidence after things go right for you or something?"

"It's actually much older than that, but close enough," Hermione agreed. "Basically it involves getting so used to winning you stop planning and just expect it. I wonder if he got too much power and prestige and forgot that he too is fallible."

"A lot of people do simply accept his opinions as facts just because he is Dumbledore," Croaker agreed. "Led to a lot of skewed laws and findings as well."

"Figures. So what now?"

"Well, unlike our esteemed Headmaster, I don't believe in holding all the cards," Harry said. "Boss, can you spare a few operations guys to start hunting these Horcruxes? Start with the area around that ritual, should have his mother's house nearby."

"I'll get a couple folks to work on it. Any other ideas where they could be?"

"Well, if he entrusted one underling with one, why not more? Madam Bones, if you had an extremely valuable artifact, how would you protect it?" Harry turned to the DMLE Director.

"Well other than a few items in a family safe room most of the really valuable stuff is… Oh shit."

"In Gringotts is where you were going with that, isn't it?" Hermione asked, following the logic.

"Yes, and that is going to be impossible to get to. Damn damn damn."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure you've noticed, the goblins aren't the most accommodating beings. Getting them to search all the former Death Eaters vaults for something we can't even tell them what it is will be impossible."

"No, it'll be rather easy," Hermione smiled. "What do Goblins thrive on most?"

"Gold," Croaker supplied.

"Spite," Amelia added.

"Honor," Harry answered, earning him a smile from his wife.

"Exactly Harry, though you also have a point boss." Hermione smiled less brightly at the head unspeakable. "But my point is this: A Horcrux is a piece of soul, a soul defines a magical being. If they have a Horcrux in their vaults, it not only violates the lease agreement every vault owner signs, but they have had a being that hasn't paid rent in at least fifteen years."

"You're saying…." Croaker began, then chuckled. "We tell them this, they will search everything for a soul shard just to charge it rent?"

"Well, since it is there illegally, it is technically trespassing, and what is the goblin punishment for trespassing? And bear in mind if it was in a vault they would consider it attempted theft as well," Hermione's grin grew as both Bones and Croaker went white, then grinned evilly.

Delores Umbridge sat back in her office and smiled. Everything was going wonderfully, even if she couldn't get the Potter brat into detention. She had enjoyed several other mudbloods serving detention, but it was frustrating not to be able to torture the one who deserved it most. The insolent little shit needed to be put in his place, but her latest brainstorm should help with that.

Educational Decree number 53 sat on her desk, the ink still wet. The decree would empower her little Inquisitorial Squad, previously merely a spy organization, into an actual power wielding force. They would have power to assign detentions and point deductions, even to prefects and the Head couple. And every one of them was loyal to her and hated the brat.

It had been a stroke of genius to recruit young Draco, so full of pride and proper pureblood righteousness. His friends were less intelligent, but still useful as they fed her information. Now they could handle things themselves, and if their decisions were questioned, it would no longer be her having to defend them.