In the living room of the manor he had occupied, Sirius was sitting on the comfortable sofa with his back arched and his eyes closed raising his occlumency shield to the best of his ability.

Sirius was trying to achieve the state of total emptiness: with every inhale he collected every stray thought that popped inside his head, and with every exhale he threw those thoughts out. He kept repeating that technique until no more distracting thoughts popped up and all his emotions were muted.

He held onto that state and opened his eyes, and while it would have been quite an arduous task for a beginner. After a month of practice, Sirius felt that he could hold onto that state indefinitely as long as he kept a sliver of his mind concentrating on holding his shields.

The chair on the other side of the table in front of him had been occupied sometime during his mediation by his friend who was reading a book while drinking tea.

Remus looked up when he noticed that Sirius had opened his eyes, "Is he coming today, Sirius,"

"Yes, his letter said that he would arrive before 9 today..." Sirius said before he looked at the clock on the wall and said, "So he should be here any minute now,"

"I should go prepare some tea then," Remus said while putting his book on the table.

"Is that really necessary,"

"It's only polite," Remus said back, and Sirius shook his head at his roommate's Englishness while looking at him go toward the Kitchen.

Instead of waiting for the headmaster idly, Sirius decided to utilize the time he had enhanced control over all his mental faculties, due to occlumency, wisely.

Taking a few deep breaths, he went through the process of changing into his Animagus form and woke up the grim inside of him but just before his body could start to grow in size he stopped the process prematurely and just allowed the extraordinary strength and stamina to fill every part of his body.

He held onto that mid-way state for about 2 minutes before fur involuntarily started to grow on his hands and he halted the process immediately, snapping the grim back inside of him.

After a few minutes of break, he went back at it switching the half-grim form on and off. It required quite a delicate amount of control to command the grim to only get the associated benefits without changing into the form, but the occlumency helped a lot.

A ping suddenly went inside his head and brought Sirius out of his exercise, he had just felt someone enter the wards.

After Checking that his occlumecy shields were at their best he went toward the front door with Remus joining him midway.

Sirius opened the door, and there standing on the other side in all his bearded glory was one of the most powerful Wizard of Magical Britain. His back was turned as he was looking at the sky above the forest surrounding the manor, and just at that moment, Buckbeak decided to fly over while screeching.

"Professor Dumbledore," Remus said and the headmaster turned around.

"Sirius, Remus how are the two of you this fine evening," Dumbledore said while nodding at both of them, "Hagrid will be glad to know that his favorite hippogriff has found such a good home," he said while waving at the sky behind him.

"Please, Come in,"

"Very lovely place you have here," Dumbledore said while walking behind Sirius toward the living room, "I assume it's yours, Sirius,"

"Yes, courtesy of my Nice family," Sirius sarcastically said while showing him to the sofa and taking the seat opposite him while Remus went toward the kitchen.

"Ah yes," Dumbledore said while rubbing along the length of his long beard after sitting on the sofa, "The Blacks were well known for their hideouts and... if I am not wrong almost every generation had one or more who paid goblins to get a new one warded,"

"Well, I am sure they were doing perfectly legal things inside these hideyholes," Sirius said while Remus came from the kitchen with tea and some snacks.

"Tea, professor,"

"Yes, please two sugars," Dumbledore said while smiling graciously at Remus before tuning back to Sirius, "You look healthy Sirius, I am glad you made good use of the last month,"

"Thank you, Dumbledore,"

"Now, your letter mentioned that you wanted to discuss Harry's education," Dumbledore said while sipping his tea, "Lovely bird, by the way, Fawkes seemed to like him a lot,"

"Over the summer I've been in contact with Harry," Sirius said while leaning forward, "and after learning that his mother took Ancient Runes as her elective course at Hogwarts, he expressed that he wanted to also take that as his elective instead of continuing with Divination,"

"Oh, and has he been preparing for that or does he want to sit with his juniors and take the classes he missed,"

"I've been going over third-year Ancient Runes notes with him over the last month and he's worked very hard at them," Remus said confidently, "And while he is still rough around the edges, I am sure he has enough knowledge to match an average student,"

"Oh, then that is good, while I am certain that Professor Bathsheda would like to take her own test, the word of a former professor should go a long way to reassure her that it's not a whim," Dumbledore said with a small smile, "And I am very pleased to hear that Harry is taking his education seriously,"

"Thank you," Sirius said with a sigh of relief, "Harry will be very delighted to learn that,"

"Of course," Dumbledore calmly said before he put his teacup down and his hands on his lap, "Now, I am sure it wasn't the only reason you asked for my visit. This could have been easily taken over mail,"

Sirius took a deep breath and looked Dumbledore straight into his eyes before asking bluntly, "I wanted to talk to you about the reason Lily and James went into hiding,"

The atmosphere in the room immediately changed, and Dumbledore's eyes instantly lost their customary twinkle while his whole body tensed.

Sensing the sudden tension in the room and feeling that his presence would not be necessary for the upcoming conversation, Remus immediately stood up, "I will leave the two of you to talk," he said politely before leaving for his own room.

"I am not sure what you mean," Dumbledore said neutrally after they were alone for a while.

"Let's not play this game Dumbledore," Sirius said seriously, "Jame told me about the prophecy before they went into hiding,"

Dumbledore's eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed, "I don't think this topic should be talked about so casually,"

"I think I can protect my thoughts adequately if that's what you are concerned about,"

"I had noticed that you were employing Occlumency," Dumbledore said, "But I don't believe they would prove to be very useful against him,"

"Oh come on," Sirius rolled his eyes, "Voldemort is not going to come strolling down the next street in the next moment,"

"I had stressed to James quite heavily about the importance of keeping this a secret... But Alas," Dumbledore sighed while shaking his head.

"James and Lily were practically my only family, they felt that I needed to know about it as Harry's godfather,"

"Very well, then," Dumbledore said while taking off his glasses and cleaning them with his robes, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I asked Harry about his life until now as well as his years at Hogwarts and some of the things he told me made me very... worried," Sirius said calmly still using Occlumency, "So I wanted to ask you—What is your End Game?"

Dumbledore sighed deeply while looking a bit tired, "You know in my youth I had read somewhere that 'You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain,' I didn't quite understand it at that time, but as I grew older...*Sigh*"

"Yes, I have been hoping for a long time that harry would become the savior the prophecy said he would be," Dumbledore admitted, "I was just tired of fighting wars and didn't want to suffer through another one so when I heard the prophecy, I felt that finally, I can pass on the torch and finally the people will no longer look toward me to fight battles and defeat Dark Lords..."

"So when Harry arrived for his first year, I prepared the castle with a bait to lure Voldemort out of hiding, and to see if he was alive at all or was it the delusions of an Old man. I never wanted Harry to be in danger, the traps were placed inside Hogwarts, and I felt that I would always be near in case of any danger, but... Tom turned out to be smarter than I thought and lured me out of the castle which led to the events that happened at the end of Harry's first year,"

"So you made him a bunch of obstacles for him to play a hero and to see if he fits into the narrative of the prophecy,"

"A bit of simplification but yes," Dumbledore said, "But one thing I can say is that I never forced him to go on any of the quests he did, and the only reason he went was from the goodness of his heart and his nobleness... I know it's a feeble excuse but it's the only one I have,"

"Was placing him with the Dursleys part of your plan too,"

"Oh god no," Dumbledore denied vehemently, "When I had gotten hold of harry, it was a very dark time as I am sure you remember and the Death Eaters were still out there looking for their master vanquisher desperately and violently and some of them were as dangerous as him, so I had wanted to place him in a safe place,"

"But I didn't have many choices—I believed at that time that you were the secret keeper so you were out of the question, the Longbottom's were in hiding under fidelus so even I couldn't find them, James had lost his parents during the war so he had no immediate family left and, Remus was so devastated that one of his friends had betrayed the others that he was in no position to look after a toddler, so the only option had been Harry's last living relatives... the Dursley's,"

"And coincidently the protection that Lily had given harry on that Halloween night, would also be enhanced immensely if he was placed with lily's blood. So I placed him there because I thought considering they already had a single child, the Dursleys will find it relatively easier to take care of another,"

"And no one would think to look for him in the muggle world, so that would be another form of protection, so at that time I thought that place to be absolutely perfect for Harry,"

"So my answer is that my priority was to keep him alive and he was in more danger than anyone but myself realized, everyone else had thought Voldemort to be gone except for his most ardent supporters,"

"And Voldemort's knowledge of magic is perhaps more extensive than any wizard alive and I knew that even my most complex and powerful protective spells and charms were unlikely to be invincible if he ever return to full power,"

"And what about how he was abused in that place," Sirius asked.

"After placing him there I had tried to remain detached from him as much as possible and not form any emotional attachments. I thought it would be hard for me to do what I must if I came to care for him... It would be hard for me to allow him to fight against the strongest dark lord of his generation,"

"So I didn't keep a tab on him, and when he came to Hogwarts, the protection from his aunt had already been solidified. So I thought that less than a month of stay at an unpleasant place in exchange for protection for a year was an adequate exchange,"

"So you made him your pawn all because of some shitty prophecy that Trelawney made," Sirius said, a sliver of emotion breaking out of his Occlumency.

"Don't dismiss a real prophecy out of hand Sirius," Dumbledore serenely said, "You do not understand it, but it is a very strong and mysterious branch of magic. This magic works in ways I don't think any human could ever comprehend. There is a place in the Department of Mysteries and its full of prophecies and without fault as long as a prophecy has appeared there, it would come true in one form or another,"

"Why didn't you train him then if you wanted him to be 'The Saviour,'" Sirius said sarcastically, "Why didn't you prepare him for all he would have to face,"

"You were just admonishing me for being too cruel to him but now you are telling me that I should have made him a child soldier," Dumbledore sighed and shook his head, "I will not deny that the thought had crossed my mind, but ultimately I wanted him to have a childhood as much as possible, without carrying the burden of prophecy,"

"Then why not start when he started Hogwarts when he was old enough?" Sirius asked.

"When I saw him laughing and having fun, enjoying himself with the new friends he had made. I just couldn't bring myself to take all of that away from him," Dumbledore said

"Don't give me that crap!" Sirius said standing up, "I know there is more to this than that—What are you hesitating to tell me now—Dumbledore"

Dumbledore surveyed him through his glasses, "I don't think you quite understand what you are asking for Sirius. I am not sure you are ready for this kind of information,"

"Just tell me!"

"Very well," Dumbledore sighed massaging his forehead, "Did Harry ever mention what happened during the end of his second year," Sirius nodded and Dumbledore continued, "Well when he presented me the diary, one of my worst suspicion had come true. I finally had confirmation of how he had managed to survive all those years ago... The diary was a Horcrux,"

"So that's how," Sirius whispered quietly.

"You seem to be aware of what they are,"

"The blacks have been taught about them at a young age about how they were an abomination and how even thinking about making one would be enough to get you kicked out of the house. Something about tainting the whole line or some rubbish—" Sirius muttered, "Any way you were saying..."

"Harry has a connection with Voldemort that is uncanny and very unusual and it was only when he handed me a soul container that I connected the dots..." Dumbledore hesitated here before he took a deep breath, "Harry's scar contains a fragment of Voldemort's soul,"

Sirius just sat there with a dumbfounded look for a while before he finally found his voice and croaked, "So what— are you raising him as some kind of pig for slaughter,"

"It must be easy for you to stand there on the other side and judge me," Dumbledore said emotionally, "Who cares if some number of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in some vague future, who cares as long as the one child whose face you can see, was happy and alive,"

"...But you see, Sirius— I can see all those nameless faces in my imagination," Dumbledore said tiredly, "I remember every face that passed through Hogwarts and I can see it very clearly in my mind, who would be one the to get slaughtered first, who would be Voldemort's prime target, how many mothers who I've seen grow up would lose their child, the children who would be orphaned first..."

There was silence for a while before Sirius asked quietly, "Is there no other way? There must be some kind of solution! Maybe the goblins know something?"

"You think I haven't been searching for that everywhere ever since I found out?" Dumbledore said, "All my free time, all summer holidays I get, I've been looking for a solution—In the muggle world, In the goblin nation, In ancient texts—"

"And you didn't find anything?"

"No there was no concrete solution that I found but..." Dumbledore paused before saying, "There was a lead that I had been pursuing for quite a while but with the tournament being organized, I haven't been able to find if it would pan out,"

"What was it?"

"Do you know about Herpo the foul,"

"Yes, an ancient dark wizard, said to be the inventor of basilisk or something,"

"Well, basically yes," Dumbledore said, "He was said to be one of the pioneers of the Dark Arts, and he was famous for inventing a lot of vile spells that the Dark Lords that came after him used liberally but one of his lesser know feats is that he was the creator of Horcruxes,"

"While searching for the solution, I came across something that makes me believe that located inside a jungle hidden from muggles for centuries, lies the final resting place of Herpo the Foul, his tomb,"

"And you think that the solution to Harry's unique situation could be there,"

"Yes, I am fairly certain that we could find information there that would be mighty useful," Dumbledore said, "And if that doesn't pan out then I had one more resolution in mind but that one would be quite complicated and... dangerous,"

Sirius already knew the solution Dumbledore had in mind from his metaknowledge, "So why didn't you find that place yet,"

"The forest is very huge Sirius and while I've been going there every time I could myself free, but without months of rigorous searching I don't think it would be possible to find the place very soon,"

"Well I am your man for the job then," Sirius said standing up, "If you need time then you are in luck because I've got plenty of that,"

/

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