A/N: I do not own nothing

A/N2: I would like to thank Shade. of .Grey13 for taking some time off his schedule to read through the draft.

TWENTY

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Scotland

Harry knocked once on the door. The Duke, however, did not care to wait for anyone to answer him because right after he finished knocking, he entered the room.

He blinked when he saw that the room was nearly empty, and then he smiled that, of course, the room would be empty.

Early in the morning, Al had approached Harry and Hermione – who were having their breakfast – and asked for Harry to meet with him in his office. Harry would have brought Hermione with him – there was nothing that the two of them do not do together after all – but Al had asked the Duchess to meet with Francesca so that they would review her marksmanship skills.

Harry held a smile back after that. The Duke knew that Hermione was a better shot than him, and Harry guessed that that was because Hermione's father was with the Royal Navy. The Duke was not sure how much of her father's shooting skills his wife had inherited, but Harry was forced to concede that it was more than enough.

Harry remembered that Hermione had grudgingly accepted Al's offer to have Francesca – whom, Harry and Hermione had learned, had been assigned as Hermione's personal bodyguard – run her through a course. Of course, both Harry and Hermione knew that Francesca had been ordered by Al to do this, which practically told Harry and Hermione that whatever it was that Al wanted to talk with Harry about, it was something that Al was not sure if Hermione should be a part of.

Entering the office, Harry found it completely bare. Harry had been in the office of the DADA professor before, at least once for every person that had occupied this room with the exception of when Quirell occupied it – Harry doubted that anyone had been in the office then.

During the time of Lockhart, the room was covered with life size images of the fraud. That was the time when Harry hated the DADA office because he could not stand having one Lockhart looking at him, far less a dozen.

During Lupin's time, the office was an amazing place where you were very likely to come across a strange creature that the werewolf professor had procured for his classes.

During Moody's time – the fake one, that is – the classroom was filled with dark detectors. The man was paranoid about his safety, so that was understandable. In retrospect, Harry realized that he should have noticed that the Moody that occupied the office was fake when he learned that the man had destroyed his sneakoscope, but then again, the man had a point.

Now, it was empty. There was not even a desk or a cabinet in the office, only bare stone walls that seemed to convey loneliness. It was just as Harry had expected because he knew that Al was not staying at this place. The commander was staying with his men at the makeshift camp that they had erected near the Black Lake.

A flash of movement to his right caused Harry to throw himself to his left. Just as he threw himself, a sword slashed through the air, right where he was but a few moments ago.

Harry summoned the sword of Gryffindor and prepared to defend himself against his unknown assailant. Al walked out of the shadows, his own sword in his right hand and pointing obliquely towards the floor.

Harry smiled when he saw that, aware that that was Al's preferred opening move when using a saber. This was because he looked as if he was not about to do anything when in reality, he was already formulating the best way to kill you.

"Lady Hermione?" Al asked, almost casually.

Harry smiled, "You asked for her to go with Francesca" he replied, "I imagine that the two of them are having fun on the range right about now" he inclined his head towards the sword that Al was carrying, "Is that the reason that you asked for me?"

Al smiled, suddenly, he lunged forward toward Harry. As the battle wizard was lunging, he brought his sword up in an upward slashing motion. Aware that he could not block the attack, Harry stepped back, but at the same time that he did, he prepared to counterattack.

Harry allowed Al's sword to slash the air in front of him, and then when that was done, Harry executed his own upward diagonal slash. Al, aware of this, used the momentum of his earlier failed attack to execute a one hundred eight degree turn to evade Harry's attack. By the time that he recovered and was again facing Harry, his body was perpendicular to Harry's and he held his sword horizontally and level to his neck.

"Yes and no" Al replied with a smile, he charged forward again, this time, trying a single thrust for his attack, Harry sidestepped to evade the attack and as he was doing so, he brought his sword up and tried to do a horizontal strike against Al's unprotected back.

Al evaded the attack by moving forward. He shot past Harry and in short order; the two men had exchanged position, "Why did you ask for me then?" Harry asked.

Al grinned, "Well, aside from the fact that I wanted to see if you could last against me now – you barely lasted a minute against me the first time that we tried this, if I may so politely remind you – I wanted to talk to you about how Voldemort was able to remain alive even after getting hit by the killing curse"

Harry nodded, this time, he took the initiative and initiated his attack first. Harry approached his sword mentor at a run, and then at the last possible moment, he sidestepped and tried a horizontal slash towards Al's unprotected side.

Al, however, was more than prepared for this and easily evaded the attack by again running forward, thus, the two men again changed positions, "Why is Hermione not here then?" Harry asked as he recovered, "If this had something to do with how Voldemort managed to do what his name implied, then I think she should know"

"She would, Your Grace, I assure you" Al replied – a little too tensely, in Harry's opinion – "but I wanted to run it with you first because we are sure that at this point in time, it is no longer just a theory, it is a very likely possibility"

Harry blinked, he hefted the sword of Gryffindor towards Al and asked, "And are we to have this discussion while we are attempting to hit one another?"

Al merely smiled as he inclined his head towards the Duke, "I figured that we can hit two birds with one stone should we discuss what intelligence I found while I test your fencing skills, my Lord" he replied. He lunged forward, Harry evaded by stepping back.

"And why should you run it by me first before you tell Hermione?" Harry asked, he lunged forward, but again Al evaded by stepping forward, though this time, as he was moving forward, Al spun his upper body giving him a completely unobstructed and unprotected shot at Harry's back.

Harry felt the stinging hex on his backside, telling him that – once again – he had lost the match against his mentor.

"That was fun" Al said as he and Harry sheathed their swords. The battle wizard glanced at the Duke and smiled, "We should try that more often, you know" Harry glared at the older man but nodded, "Now, to your question" Al said, "I am not going to tell Lady Hermione"

"But you just said…." Harry began to protest.

Al held up his right hand, cutting out whatever protest that Harry had in his throat and said, "I am not going to tell her, you are" he replied, he sighed, and Harry could tell that it was a tired sigh, though the Duke was sure that it had nothing to do with their bout – Harry had witnessed Al take down twenty men in as many seconds without breaking a sweat with his sword – rather, it looked as if Al really did not want to say whatever it was that he was about to say, "What do you know about Horcruxes?"

"First time that I am hearing it" Harry admitted.

Al nodded, "Quite common in the East, if you would believe" Al replied, he sighed and then added, "Simply put, a Horcrux is a container that houses a soul of a person, for so long as it exists, then the person cannot die"

Harry blinked, "And Voldemort…?" he asked.

"Created at least two of them" Al nodded, "We suspect seven, surprised the lads and lasses at intelligence, let me tell you that"

"I take it that this is not something that you just decide to do after a round of beer with your friends" Harry commented.

Al smiled, "Yeah" he replied, he sighed and then added, "To rend one's soul into two, one must perform the ultimate desecration" he looked straight at Harry's eyes and said, "Murder"

"Well Al, it's not as if Voldemort is incapable of killing seven people" Harry replied.

Al smiled, "You don't understand Harry" Al began after a few moments of looking at him as if he had lost his senses, "It's not an easy procedure, rending your soul, and to rend it six times? No wonder Voldemort was insane"

Harry nodded, "We really do not have time to wonder about his sanity Al, we need to destroy him" he replied, he looked at the Battle Wizard and asked, "I assume that intelligence has identified at least some of these containers?"

Al nodded, "We think that one has been destroyed already, by yourself" at the confused look on Harry's face, Al continued, "The diary"

Harry blinked, "That was a container?" he asked.

"It was what made us assume in the first place" Al replied, "Intelligence took a good look at all of your memories, and we realized that we are dealing with a Horcrux. Since Voldemort did not disappear after you destroyed his diary, we assume that there was at least more than one, and since seven is a powerful number, well…there you are"

"These containers?" Harry asked.

"Hogwart's Founders Items" Al replied, he sighed and then said, "Using our connection with HM Government, we were able to secure a search warrant against the vaults of everyone in the Death Eater list. The Goblins were not happy about it, and they were angrier when we found one of these items in the vault of the Lestranges"

"I take it that the goblins do not like these items any more than we do" Harry commented.

"Quite" Al replied, he waved his hand and two chairs appeared out of thin air. The battle wizard motioned for Harry to take a seat and Harry did so, followed by Al, "Hufflepuff's Cup" Al said, "The goblins have a process of forcing the soul out of the item, so the item was not destroyed, Gringott's curse breakers then took care of the soul" Al smiled, "Rather, Gringott's curse breakers were supposed to take care of the soul, but then the Goblins found out, the piece of soul in the cup had already been destroyed"

"And?" Harry asked, sensing that there was something that his chief bodyguard was not telling him.

Al was positively gleeful as he added, "They estimate that the soul occupying the item was destroyed the same day that you and Lady Hermione shared your first kiss" he said, he began laughing as he added, "Sirius and Remus then informed me that Lemon-Drop had always thought that you had a connection with the Dark Lord"

"Harry" Al continued, "You had a connection with him because you were a Horcrux"

Harry blinked, digesting the information. After a few moments, he nodded and replied, "I take it that is the reason why you did not invite Hermione"

Al nodded, "I cannot imagine what fuss my Lady Hermione would have put up if I were to announce to her that you were a Horcrux" he admitted, "but that is the key point in there, Harry, you were, not you are, you were"

"Explain in detail" Harry demanded.

"Well, I cannot" Al admitted, "I do not have the necessary background of understanding of these items, you see, but our own curse breakers have a theory"

"Out with it" Harry demanded once more.

Al smiled, "No matter how much you rend your soul, there would always be a connection between the soul piece and the original soul, that is the reason why you had a connection with Voldemort," he explained, "but after sharing your first kiss with Lady Hermione, and after we witnessed the golden bond between the two of you, we theorize that the love that you share with her was more than enough to drive the spirit away"

"Dumbles always did say something about that" Harry realized, he looked at Al and said, "It was my mother's love for me that drove him away during my first year"

"Well Lemon-Drop got that one right" Al said, "Voldemort cannot stand love, he flees from it. The love that you share with Lady Hermione forced his soul piece out of you, but said soul piece put up quite a fight."

"Riddle was not one to give up" Harry said, realizing where Al was going, "And because the soul pieces are always connected, the soul piece in me tapped into the other souls, draining their own power, but it still was not enough" he looked at Al, "the power discharge was so high, Voldemort did not have enough power to maintain it and his soul pieces died one by one"

Al nodded, "We also theorize" he continued, "that the main soul piece, the one that Voldemort has in his magic body, was able to sever the connection"

"If he did not, then he would be dead" Harry finished for Al, and then he nodded, "And since the Dark Mark binds the soul of the marked to Voldemort, so would his other Death Eaters"

Al smiled, "Precisely" he replied, and then he sighed, "I guess that we can say that the prophecy was correct, Lord Harry, you have the power that Voldemort-knows-not, and you used it to render him mortal again" Al's smile broadened as he added, "Intelligence have petitioned the American government to question Lucius Malfoy and all other Death Eaters that we have captured and handed over to them, between the intelligence that we can get from them, we are reasonably sure that we will find the Dark Lord soon enough"

"Air strike?" Harry asked.

Al nodded, "Why should I endanger the lives of my men when we can just bomb him to oblivion?" Al asked rhetorically, "I would have loved using a Fuel-Air Bomb on his ass, but I guess that would depend on where he is"

Harry nodded, "Then we are done?" he asked, he elaborated, "After we kill Voldemort, Hermione and I can live in peace?"

Al sadly shook his head, "Unfortunately, no" he replied, his eyes turned serious as he added, "Dumbledore is still in the equation, and we need to handle him with care"

Harry nodded, "He is widely respected by the magical world" he admitted, "they would not accept the fact that he is also a Dark Lord" he added bitterly, "I just want to live a normal life with my wife and, hopefully, have children in the future"

"I do not envy that" Al replied.

Harry looked at Al and asked, "Are you getting over her?" he asked, Al blinked, unsure of where Harry was going, necessitating the Duke to elaborate, "Hermione told me about the way that you and Irina looked at each other"

Al smiled, "Irina" he replied, he sighed and looked at Harry, "We are lovers, I would not deny that, but there is a reason why we cannot be together," Harry opened his mouth, no doubt to ask why, but before Harry could push the words out of his mouth, Al continued, "You best ask her yourself because I promised her that I would not reveal it to anyone" Harry noticed that Al's right hand had moved to his neck. With a smile, Al pulled a heart-shaped locket from within his shirt.

"This is Nica" Al said, opening the locket and showing it to Harry.

The Duke accepted the locket and looked at it. It was a standard heart-shaped locket with two portraits within. The portrait to the right face of the heart, Harry instantly recognized as Al, but the portrait to the left face, Harry studied.

Veronica Charlotte Karstens was written on the side of the heart in a neat script, and Harry guessed that that was her full name. She was beautiful, with long medium-blonde hair draping both of her shoulders in the portrait, chocolate-brown eyes, and a very beautiful smile, "She's beautiful" Harry said.

Al smiled, "She was my everything" he admitted, and then he smiled, "I do not think I can find anyone else that would replace her"

There was something there, Harry noted, something that Al was afraid of saying, so Harry just nodded.

Slytherin Common Room

Draco Malfoy was desperately trying to rally the students that had volunteered for the special mission that their Head of House had given them, but he was finding that difficult at the moment as the team talked with one another and debated whether or not this was such a good idea.

"Come on guys" Draco said, "We are going to go against a mudblood, and there are more of us, we do not need to fear him"

"He is not a mudblood, Draco" Pansy Parkinson said, "He traces his bloodline back towards the days of Merlin"

"Then why does he serve Potter, the half-blood bastard?" Draco asked, he smirked, "Don't worry, he is just covering up, we can take him"

"You don't understand Draco" Vincent Crabbe said, "He took down Madam Umbridge without even raising his wand"

"Theatrics" Draco replied, Crabbe was about to remind Draco that there was nothing theatric about those lightning bolts coming out from the sky, but then realized that of course Draco would think that it was nothing more but theatrics – the blonde ponce was not there when Al York took down Umbridge, "Professor Snape ordered us to take him down, we are Slytherins, we can take him down"

"What's your plan" Theodore Nott asked, "I mean, we sure as hell cannot take him head on"

Malfoy nodded, "We are Slytherins" the blonde ponce announced proudly, bringing himself up to full height and proudly pushing his chest out, "We ambush him, he won't know what hit him"

Thirty Minutes Later

Al was walking along the long narrow hallway that lead to one of the side entrances to the castle when he felt it.

The DADA professor smiled – or at least, his lips curled up – as he identified the twenty different signatures that had assaulted his mage sight. He easily identified nineteen of the signature as belonging to Slytherin students, while the twentieth was indiscernible.

The fact that it was imperceptible had allowed Al to identify the owner of the signature. After all, there was only one person in the entire castle that Al had not met.

Al paused, he was careful not to spring the ambush that was planned for him so he made it look as if he was unaware that there were now twenty wands pointed at him. The former SBS member then studied the chosen fatal terrain and found himself congratulating the Slytherin students, for they appeared to have had some familiarity with what Sun Tzu had said in his Art of War.

The chosen fatal terrain was perfect for an ambush, as it was narrow and provided the ambushers with enough cover. Al imagined that the students were frightened of coming up head-on against him, but then again, Al reminded himself that he would be frightened of coming up head-on against himself, and he was a holder of four masteries, a dueling champion during his day, a dark-creatures hunter, and a former member of the SBS.

Al continued walking, placing himself in harm's way, though Al knew that there was nothing that these students could do that would seriously harm him. As he was walking, Al extended his mage sense forward and sure enough, he was able to identify Snape close-by. A feral grin crossed Al's face as he realized what Snape's plan was.

At that moment, a curse flew from one of the places where Al had already identified an attacker. Al allowed the curse to hit him – he knew that it was the torture curse – and then paused. The first torture curse was followed closely by no less than fifteen other torture curses, and Al allowed all of them to hit him.

If the students were expecting him to scream or to drop on the ground, however, they were sorely disappointed, for Al just stood there after receiving no less than fifteen torture curses. Indeed, Al looked as if not a single one of the curse had hit him, and from the students' point of view, the DADA professor had not even raised a shield.

Lightning flashed outside and all of a sudden, the temperature in the hallway dropped considerably. A chilling wind started to blow all around Al and it extended from him, slowly transforming into a slow whirlwind as spare parchment thrown on the floor by students returning from their classes were picked up by the wind.

Draco Malfoy was smiling when he saw the DADA professor accept the fifteen torture curses, he was the first one to fire. The blonde thought that they had taken down the DADA professor, but then, when he saw the whirlwind forming – and Al York just standing there – the blond pureblood wet himself as he felt the sense of dread spreading around his body.

He was hardly the only one who did, and quite a few of the female members of the ambushers began crying.

"Fire again!" Draco ordered, momentarily regaining control of himself.

Curses were fired towards Al again, and again, Al just stood there and accepted the curses fired against him. "Again!" Draco shouted, sending his third round of the Cruciatus curse against Al.

"What is happening here?" Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout and the Headmaster had all felt the magic levels being exerted. A few moments later, a team of twelve Aurors – with Kingsley Shacklebolt on the lead – appeared in the hallway. The devices in the ministry had detected the curses being fired several times and they were dispatched to see why an unforgivable was being fired in a school.

There was another flash of lightning, and all of a sudden, the whirlwind died, spare parchment fell to the floor. There was silence for a few moments, and then twenty loud thuds were heard as twenty students wearing the Slytherin green fell out of the broom closets and wherever else they were hiding, stunned.

Snape was gleeful as he approached Al, "Attacking students is not behavior apt for a Hogwarts Professor" he said, he looked at Dumbledore and said, "Headmaster, I am afraid that I must ask for Professor York to be terminated as he attacked my students"

"What were your students doing here in the first place?" Professor McGonagall said.

Snape's smile faltered a bit, but before he can answer, Al replied, "That is quite alright, professor, we both know that Professor Snape has asked his students to ambush me, and as I was defending myself, I am within my rights to attack them" he smiled towards the Potions Master and summoned the wand of Draco Malfoy by just pointing at it, "Auror Captain" Al said, handing the wand to Kingsley, "Please?"

Kingsley took the wand and cast the Priori Incantantum spell upon it. The last five spells came back as two cutting spells and three torture curses, "Whose wand is this?" Kingsley asked.

"Draco Malfoy" Al replied with a smile.

Kingsley nodded and turned towards the Headmaster, "Headmaster" he said, "When the boy wakes up, please inform him that he is under arrest for using the torture curse against his professor" the Auror then motioned for his team members to start testing the other wands. After all wands returned positive for the torture curse, Kingsley turned towards Dumbledore and added, "Inform all of them that they are under arrest for the use of the torture curse against their professor"