Chapter Nine: Conversations and Warnings

The following evening, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione all arrived at Grimmauld Place. They had spent the day at the beach and it showed. They walked into the kitchen where the meeting was about to take place.

'Good evening, everyone,' said Dumbledore.

Everyone was the Potters, Weasleys minus Charlie and Percy, the Longbottoms and Hannah Abbot, Sirius, Tonks, Remus, and finally Professors McGonagall and Snape.

Harry and his three friends took their seats next to Sirius and could feel the contemptuous and envious looks being sent his way by Douglas.

'Good evening, Headmaster,' said Harry. 'Now, I know we caused a bit of a stir yesterday and I wish to clarify our intentions and position. Our intentions are to attend Hogwarts as fifth years. Now, we may have Masteries in each subject, but neither of us has taken our O.W.L. Exams, Nic felt it was pointless, so we didn't. Also, we will not be aging ourselves down using any of our abilities. We have decided on our courses and the four of us will be taking the core five with Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. We won't be wasting our time with Divination, History of Magic or Astronomy. Divination is a load of shite in our opinion, whereas History of Magic with Binns will put three quarters of us to sleep. There's a good chance that we may not attend every single lesson, after all we know it all already. I trust you, Headmaster, to inform the rest of your staff.'

'I will; is there anything else you wish to address?' replied Dumbledore.

'No but I do need to speak to Snape and yourself in private, Headmaster, and our talk can wait until the end,' said Harry

'Of course, Harry,' said Dumbledore.

Harry then turned to face Snape and said, 'May I have a word with you outside, Professor?'

Snape gave a stiff nod and followed Harry out of the kitchen. Harry closed the door behind them before casting a charm for their privacy and spoke.

'I know that you treat my twin like something you just stepped on, I just want you to know that I do not care how you treat him.'

Snape raised an eyebrow before saying, 'I see.'

'However, I need you to know something, something important. There is a good chance that neither my friends nor I will be sorted into Slytherin. Now, I'm warning you, if you attempt to treat me with the same contempt as my twin, Ginny, my wife, will hex you. She is very powerful and her Bat-Bogey Hex is not to be sniffed at. If you treat Ginny with any contempt, I will hurt you, and in more ways than you can imagine. If you give Ron any of your shit, Hermione will humiliate you, she knows more about Potions than anyone alive, and finally, if you give Hermione any shit, Ron will kill you. End of story. Ron will end you. He'll rip off both your arms and beat you to death with them, I promise you, he's very protective of his wife and does not know his own strength and has the infamous temper most redheads do, any questions?' said Harry.

'No, you have made yourself very clear, Potter,' said Snape.

'Good, you may leave for there is nothing else that you need to be made privy to given your proximity to Voldemort,' said Harry.

Snape gave another stiff nod before making to leave.

'Oh, one more thing, leave Neville, Hannah and the rest of the Gryffindors alone too,' said Harry.

'Very well, good day, Potter,' said Snape before he left.

Harry then walked back into the kitchen to re-join the others.

'Everything sorted, mate?' asked Ron.

'Yep, all sorted, brother,' replied Harry before he turned back to rest of them and said, 'I need the Potters, Weasleys, Longbottoms, Hannah, Remus and Professor McGonagall to leave now, please.'

Once they had left the kitchen, it was just Dumbledore, Sirius, Tonks and the four left in the room when Harry spoke again.

'Tell me, Headmaster, do you have any theories as to how Voldemort survived his own Killing Curse all those years ago?'

'I do, and I was planning on sharing the information with your brother until your reappearance and confession last night. I know now that I made a huge mistake and I ask you not to hate me for it, please, Harry,' said Dumbledore.

'I used to hate you for your mistake, but then if you had not made your mistake, I would never have asked Sirius to help me become what I am today, and therefore, you are forgiven. Now, your theories, please,' replied Harry.

'Well, Harry, as much as I appreciate your forgiveness, I do not want my suspicions to become public knowledge,' said Dumbledore.

'I appreciate that, but I trust Sirius and Tonks to the hilt, and I should not have to tell you the same goes for my wife and my true brother and sister,' said Harry as he indicated each person in turn.

'Very well, but before I give you my theories, I must tell you my intentions. Due to the connection Douglas shares with Voldemort, I will be keeping my distance from him, at least until he can learn Occlumency. Of course, I cannot teach him myself so I shall have to delegate the task to Professor Snape –'

'Pardon me for interrupting, but that won't do any good, Snape and Douglas hate each other, a great deal of trust is required when learning Occlumency the hard way. I will have Ron teach him,' said Harry cutting across Dumbledore.

'Bloody hell, Harry, why me, what did I do to you to deserve that?' said Ron.

'Because I trust you, and because I don't trust Douglas with the girls, and I won't ask Sirius to do it either,' replied Harry.

'Fair enough, but if he gives me any shit, I get to hurt him, okay?' said Ron.

'Agreed,' said Harry. 'What else do you intend to do, Headmaster?'

'I have already sent Hagrid to speak with the few remaining giants, I have also set up a guard over the entrance to the Department of Mysteries to stop Lord Voldemort from stealing the record of the Prophecy –' said Dumbledore but again was cut off by Harry.

'There is no need to do that, the record of the Prophecy has been removed and destroyed already,' said Harry, 'it has been replaced with something that will alert us to his presence in the Hall of Prophecy.'

'I see, then all that remains is for me to tell you of my theories … it is my belief that Voldemort made Horcruxes, as in more than one,' said Dumbledore.

'Blimey!' murmured Sirius.

'Nic was right …' said Harry.

'Um, excuse me, but what the hell are Horcruxes?' asked Tonks.

'A Horcrux is the name given to an object in which a person has encased a piece of their soul,' said Hermione, who was met with a sharp look from Dumbledore.

'In order to fight the Dark Arts, it helps if you have knowledge of them,' Hermione said coolly.

'Quite right, I apologise, Hermione,' said Dumbledore.

'I still don't understand,' said Tonks.

'In simple terms, Nymphadora, if a wizard has successfully created a Horcrux, he splits his soul in two, when Voldemort was hit with his own Killing Curse, he survived because a Horcrux can make you as close to immortal as you can get. In short, as long as his Horcruxes survive, Voldemort cannot die,' said Dumbledore.

'Okay, I understand that, but how the hell do you split your soul?' asked Tonks.

'By committing murder, killing rips the soul apart. Basically Voldemort has made himself stronger by killing people,' said Ron.

'So, now we all know what a Horcrux is, however, we cannot pat ourselves on the back just yet,' said Dumbledore, 'what we need to know is how many Lord Voldemort actually made.'

'Eight,' said Harry flatly.

'What makes you say that, Harry?' asked Dumbledore.

'Well, I think a seven part soul would appeal to Tom because seven is the most powerful magical number, six made on purpose and the last bit would be inside him, however, there are the two he did not mean to make; Douglas and me,' said Harry.

'An interesting hypothesis, Harry, and I may have some ideas as to what some of the others might be,' said Dumbledore, 'would you consent to help me with your opinions and see if the conclusions I have drawn seem likely?'

'We would be delighted, Headmaster,' said Harry.

'These Horcruxes have to be destroyed, am I right?' said Tonks.

'They do,' replied Dumbledore.

'Okay, so how do you destroy a Horcrux?' asked Tonks.

'Fiendfyre or basilisk venom,' said Ron and Hermione together before sharing a smile with each other.

'You have to put the Horcrux beyond magical repair,' said Dumbledore. 'Fiendfyre and basilisk venom are very destructive substances.'

'This is correct, however, I feel this would be something we should discuss another time as it is getting late and I'm sure the others will want to see us before we leave,' said Harry.

Dumbledore and the others agreed and so the meeting was brought to an end.

When they were joined by those who had left the meeting earlier, Ron and Ginny were peppered with questions from Bill, Fred and George, as Harry took questions from his parents and Remus, about what their lives had entailed, including their training with Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel. They answered as best as they could, but eventually someone asked Hermione what her parents thought of her being trained by the Flamels.

Hermione merely said, 'I have the best parents in the whole world.'

It was then that Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione decided to leave.

'We'll see you all in a week; we're off on a short trip somewhere hot, so, cheerio!' Harry told them as he saw another look of envy on his twin's face.