Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for the reviews!

I know, it took a little longer than usual, I'm soo sorry! But I had finals, and AP exams, and the ACT, and all that jazz but now school is over and I hope (hope) to have quicker updates!

Chapter 30

"Enter."

I opened the door to Dumbledore's office cautiously after actually having taken the time to knock – for the first time in what felt like ever. I didn't even notice him look up at me, but when I closed the door he said,

"I wondered when I'd be seeing you again Miss Potter." I stood near the door staring at him for a few moments, until he put his quill down and looked up at me through his half-moon glasses. "I assume you came here for a reason aside from staring at me. Have a seat." I slowly walked forward and sat down across from him.

"Did you know that Riddle is going to make an army of students from Hogwarts?" I blurted before I could stop myself.

"Well of course I know," Dumbledore said. "What other reason would he be at Hogwarts all the time, going to classes and actually doing the homework?"

"And you're just going to let that happen?" I said, raising my voice. I didn't want to yell, but I was distressed, and I have a horrible temper, and I just couldn't stop myself.

"Of course I won't, we'll take measures to prevent it –"

"You can't prevent it!" I screamed, pulling at the ends of my hair, frustrated. "He just told me he was going to threaten them, or their families, or use the Imperious or even kill them if they refuse!"

"We can stop it –"

"No we can't! There's no way to stop it!" I yelled. Dumbledore furrowed his eyebrows.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

No, I thought. How could I be? Everything that could possibly go wrong in my life had. Everything. Except at least Regulus was still alive. I couldn't bear to think of what would happen if he wasn't.

But I had literally just admitted that all to myself – there was no way I could admit it to Dumbledore.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied easily, waving a hand.

"I don't think you are."

"Well…I'm okay, I suppose," I corrected myself. Even that was a lie. Dumbledore looked at me. "I'm just…stressed, confused, worried." He continued to stare at me. "What?" I asked finally.

"You needed to tell me something, correct?" he asked. I nodded slowly. "I'm just waiting for you to tell me." I sighed.

"I just…it's…I…I'm pregnant," I stammered.

Dumbledore stared at me. But not in shock. Not really. He almost looked like he expected it, or like he already knew. But unless somebody else told him, there was no way that he had known.

"Oh yes," he said after a moment. "Sirius told me."

"What?" I snapped. "I told him not to tell anybody!"

"I suppose I'm not just anybody," he said simply. I blinked. I felt bad. How long had he known before I told him? It almost made it seem like I didn't care enough to tell him, as if it didn't bother me at all.

"When did he tell you?"

"Just a few days ago." Dumbledore shrugged. "I understand that you didn't tell me right away, no need to worry, it's not like I'm a close friend or something."

Way to make me feel worse.

"It's not like I've known for that long either," I said, trying to make myself feel better more so than him. He nodded.

"I understand. No hard feelings. But I have to ask…what do you plan on doing about Voldemort?"

"Well, I mean, Riddle already knows," I said. He raised his eyebrows. "I, er, I accidentally let it slip."

"And…?"

"He was pissed," I answered quietly after a moment. "But I just saw him now and he didn't really mention it…Actually," I corrected, "he thought I was lying. Or, Bellatrix did, and he didn't know if he believed me or her."

"Does he believe you now?"

I nodded.

"I think so."

"But what is your plan once you start gaining weight and you still have to go see him?" he asked.

"I…I really haven't thought about it all that much," I replied honestly. "I can figure it out when that time comes. It all just depends on how Riddle reacts to…to everything."

"If you're sure you can handle that, then I guess there's nothing to worry about –"

"I don't!" I exclaimed suddenly, surprising even myself. "I mean, I think I could handle it if I was stuck in that situation and I knew that I had to, but…I don't know, I keep getting stuck in situations that I think I can handle and I just…I just can't."

"Look, I understand if you're under a lot of stress at the moment and you want –"

"No!" I exclaimed. "I'm not going to leave Harry and Draco to deal with him – I'm not going to do that."

"It's the safest option," he said calmly, despite the fact that my voice had rose several notches. "If you want to keep yourself and your baby safe from Riddle, you have to stop going to see Riddle and doing whatever he tells you to."

"But if I leave, I'll be putting Harry and Draco in danger." I shook my head quickly. "I couldn't do that, they're still children."

"You seen to be forgetting that you're still a child too," he pointed out. "In fact, you're younger than them."

"Yeah, but I'm more mature –"

"I beg to differ," he contradicted. I stared at him, not quite understanding what he meant.

"What do you –?"

"As somebody who knows all three of you on a very person level, I beg to differ," he stated plainly. I didn't say anything. "Draco and Harry are so much more mature than you give them credit for. They knew what they were getting into before they did, even before I explained it all to them."

"Okay, well, I know they're very mature, but are you saying I'm not?"

"I'm not saying that you're not mature –"

"It kind of sounds like you are," I said matter-of-factly.

"I'm not saying you're not mature, I'm merely saying you're not quite as mature as they are."

"What makes you say that? I think I'm very mature, thank you very much," I said, sticking my nose up in the air.

"Not quite," he said, shaking his head slightly. "You still think you're better than everybody else, a very childish move in my opinion. You think very low of everybody else, including your own brother."

"No I –!"

"You think that without you there he won't be able to protect himself at all," Dumbledore said. "You have trust issues, which is easy to understand, I must admit. You put yourself in danger for useless reasons, almost as if you like it. You –"

"Okay, okay, enough, I get it," I said quickly, cutting him off.

"In other words," he said, ignoring me. "You act just how anybody would expect any sixteen year old to act." I stared at him blankly for a moment.

"But…" I said quietly. "But I can't act just like any sixteen year old."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not just any sixteen year old!" I exclaimed. "I wish I was, I do, but I'm not! First off, I'm engaged and pregnant, something most sixteen year olds are not, and I'm undercover against the darkest wizard of possibly all time!"

"That doesn't mean you have to act any different from normal teenagers."

"But if I don't act a certain way, Riddle will get suspicious and –"

"I don't think you realize that this whole war isn't about you," Dumbledore interrupted. I stared at him yet again, unsure what he meant. "While I realize that, yes, you were the one who defeated Voldemort last time, that doesn't mean you have to this time."

"I'm not saying I'm going to defeat him," I said suddenly. "I just…I want to help as much as possible. I know him better than anybody else."

"I know you do, but putting yourself into a dangerous situation like the one you are currently forcing yourself into isn't going to help anybody."

I sighed. He had a point. I didn't have to defeat Riddle this time, there were a lot of people who could and would if they had the chance. I shouldn't be so focused on me. Maybe Harry and Draco were more mature than I was.

"Let your brother and Draco take care of Voldemort for a little while, alright?" he added quietly after a moment.

"I…" I hesitated. "I'll think about it," I said finally. "But that doesn't mean I'll stop going to see him in the meantime." Dumbledore nodded slowly.

"I figured you'd say that," he said. "Just don't…don't think that nobody's going to help you defeat him, because you have quite a few people backing you up in this war." When I was silent for at least three minutes, he said, "You can go if you'd like." But I shook my head slowly.

"What do you plan on doing about the army of Hogwarts students he plans on making?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I'm not sure," he said. "If what you said is true, that he'll force them, I suppose we'll just have to be sure he's dead before that can happen."

"But sir…he plans on doing that within the next month."

"We'll just have to be quick, then," he said. "Besides, the quicker we get rid of him the better, don't you agree?" I nodded slowly – of course I agreed, how could I not agree? But less than a month to kill him seemed an awful big feat, a nearly insurmountable one.

Dumbledore must've seen my hesitation on my face.

"A lot can change within a month," he said. "You know that as well as I do. A little over a month ago you were more concerned with wedding plans than you were about Death Eaters. A month and a week ago, the Death Eaters had just escaped Azkaban."

That was only a month ago? It felt like eternities had passed sense then.

I sighed and shook my head slowly. "I guess you're right…it still seems hard, though. Only a month to kill somebody so crazy and powerful? That's like trying to gain control of Hitler and the Nazis in only one month…only harder…"

Dumbledore was silent for a moment while I rubbed my head. I was starting to get a migraine from all that had happened. It was late, and a long nights rest with no work tomorrow sounded lovely.

Too bad I did work the next day. But the day after that was a Saturday and I was off.

"It seems you need to get some rest," Dumbledore said after a moment.

"Tell me about it…" I stood up slowly. "I won't be a stranger anymore, I promise." Dumbledore merely smiled as I headed for the fireplace.

I was so fatigued I expected sleep to come easy that night. But I remained awake, tossing and turning and thinking too much, long after Regulus' breaths had steadied. I just couldn't get my mind off the fact that Riddle would have to be killed within a month.

Dumbledore was loosing it if he thought that could happen.

We would be lucky if we could kill him within a year.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Saturday is supposed to be a day for rest, right? I had expected that, and I had anticipated it for a whole five days previously.

Of course it didn't happen.

Riddle had sent me an owl ordering me to meet him at the "usual spot" at noon on Saturday. "Make any excuse to get away that you have to so nobody asks questions," he had written.

Regulus was the only one who asked. I had merely told him the truth.

It was a few minutes after noon. I was sitting in the usual chair, with the usual chains around my wrists – and ankles this time, which surprised me slightly. But what was unusual was that Riddle wasn't there yet. I had arrived at precisely noon and sat down, without thinking about the chains until they had secured.

He didn't enter until a good fifteen minutes later.

"Did you bring it?" he snapped after the door shut behind him. I could already tell he was in a horrible mood. Something had ticked him off– and it was hardly any after noon.

"Nice welcome," I said sarcastically. He had come up from behind me and unexpectedly tilted the chair I was sitting on onto the back left leg and spun it around to face him so suddenly that my hands clamped on the ends of the armrests so tightly they turned white immediately. "What the hell are you doing?" I screamed as he glared down at me.

"Did – you – bring – it?" he asked again, leaning forward to rest his hands on the armrests, his face mere inches from mine. I stuck my nose in the air, refusing to answer if he insisted on being so rude. The act caused my nose to bump against his lightly. He leaned in even closer – so much his nose nearly smashed mine and I had to turn my head so our noses were side by side.

I still refused to answer.

"If you think I'll go easy on you because you're pregnant," he snarled, "then you're sadly mistaken."

"I'm just trying to get you to be nice," I said calmly. He wrinkled his nose.

"Don't make me even more angry than I already am."

"Don't make me angry either."

We were at a stalemate. Neither of us would stop. He was in a bad mood. I was pregnant. We were both too stubborn to be the one who had to give in.

Finally, he tilted the chair back on the same leg as before and spun me around again. While I had expected it this time more so than last, that doesn't mean it didn't scare me again. I found my hands clenched on the chair again as he swooped around the chair and sat down on the table directly in front of me.

At first I expected him to say something. I waited while he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his chin on his hands. His eyes bore straight into mine for several minutes, his face expressionless, until I finally raised my eyebrows and asked, "What?" He licked his lips, shaking his head.

"Just trying to figure out what I'm going to do with you," he muttered. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"What do you…what do you mean?" I asked, confused. He shook his head again, a smirk curling onto his lips.

"Nothing," he said, finally leaning back. "Anyways," he said, now seeming to be less angry than before, "did you bring it?"

"If you were smart, you would've just looked at my left hand." His eyes shifted from my eyes down to my left hand, where the fake diamond ring he had already cursed rested on my ring finger. He smiled mischievously as he gently pulled it off my finger.

I waited in silence while he held it up to the light and examined it for several moments, muttering things such as "yes, yes, very good," to himself every now and then.

"Very well," he said finally, putting it down. "Have you figured out what I wanted with this?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I have a few theories." I paused. "But knowing you, it'll probably be something I don't expect."

"What're your theories?" I ran my tongue over my teeth, hesitating while I thought.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not going to tell you." I knew I was pushing it – though he wasn't quite as angry as before, he was still angry. And the look in his eyes said he was getting angrier again.

"Fine," he snapped, shoving the ring onto his little finger – the only finger it would fit on – and leaning toward me again. "I just won't tell you what I plan on doing with it. You don't need to know." I swallowed – I really did need to know. Or wanted to so bad that it felt like I needed to know.

"You're going to use it as a Horcrux, aren't you?" I asked quietly. Riddle smirked again, leaning even closer to me.

"Perhaps," he said. I took that as a yes.

"When?" I asked, my voice slightly hoarse.

"Well, I was going to today, but somebody didn't get me the victim I was going to use to make it, so it's being put off for the time being." He paused. "Trust me, you'll know when I make it because you'll be here." My eyes widened. "Not like that! I'm not going to use you to make it! But I will have you here."

"Are you only making the one?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't get too suspicious at my questions. I asked a lot of questions a lot of the time, so hopefully he would just be used to it.

"No, now that you mention it, I want to make the seven again. First the ring, then the sword of Gryffindor – you'll bring it next time you come, as well – and then that old snake I had last time. I already have her, she's caged and just…waiting."

As far as I could tell, he didn't think anything of my questions.

"Is that all you wanted, then?" I asked after a moment.

"How's the baby?" he asked, not answering my question.

"Good…"

"Do you know if it's a boy or girl yet?"

"I'm two months pregnant," I pointed out. He blinked, and I rolled my eyes. "No, you find out at four or five months." He nodded.

"And how's the old man?" I stared.

"James?" I asked. He nodded again, and I shrugged. "Alright, I suppose, why?"

"No reason," he said. I didn't believe him.

"Why?" I repeated.

"Oh, it's just that he was the one I was going to use to make the Horcrux with."