Discoveries and Damnations

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter.

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November 13 - 30, 1995 Hogwarts

In the end, it took two full weeks for Hogwarts to be fully repaired and for anyone to have time to attend to Dumbledore's affairs. Harry had found it somewhat sad that the Headmaster apparently had no family to do it, and had instead left it to McGonagall.

No one was quite prepared for what she found in the Headmaster's effects.

There was what amounted to an autobiography of Tom Riddle. Who his parents were, speculation on how they'd gotten together, his life at an orphanage. Notes about occurrences during his Hogwarts years.

That last had utterly enraged pretty much everyone. Because Tommy boy had opened the Chamber, and Dumbledore had known it ... and made no attempt to see true justice done for poor Hagrid. Nor had he made any attempt, once he became Headmaster, to safeguard the area he knew the entrance to be in.

It was a bitter, bitter blow for Hagrid, who had all but worshipped Dumbledore for 'believing' in Hagrid's innocence and 'giving' him the job as groundskeeper so he was not left without a knut to his name. McGonagall had gone on a ten or fifteen minute rant. After that, McGonagall had gone on an unholy tear with the classes. Some of it would not start until the next school year, as mid-year was a bad place to make drastic changes, but other parts of it were taking place immediately.

Binns was sacked, the class moved, and another teacher hired on. DADA was dropped from the syllabus in an effort to break the curse on the position. A new class, Dueling, was created, placed in an entirely different classroom, and a teacher hired. The class syllabus had changed drastically as well, at least in the short term, focusing on actual dueling, in light of the war waging. The more children that could defend themselves, the better, and they'd still be learning vital information about 'dark' beasts in the process ... it would just be done in an entirely different format. If it worked, the class would, once the war was over, essentially become DADA, without being called DADA. Muggle Studies was filled, not with a pureblood who'd seldom stepped into the Muggle world, but a young Muggleborn who'd graduated only a few years prior.

Divination would continue for OWL and NEWT students this year, but after that would not be offered as a class. Trelawney would stay on, in the event of a student enrolling who was a Seer and needed training, but as McGonagall pointed out, "You either are a seer, or you're not, and if you're not, not all the teaching in the world will make you one." After due deliberation, Astronomy was dropped, as its applications had more to do with Divination than anything else, though a teacher was found to finish out the year for OWL and NEWT students. In its place, not one, but two different classes were created. One, called 'Magical Cultures' was an in-depth study of the cultures of various sentient magical species like goblins and centaurs. The second class, 'Wizarding Culture' was Muggle Studies' counterpart, a class for muggleborns and raiseds to find out all the ins and outs of the wizarding world. They would not be offered until the coming year, however.

While McGonagall was having a fine old time restructuring Hogwarts' academics, the rest of them were still sifting through the raft of information on Tom. After Hogwarts, the information was more than a bit sketchy, rumors and possibilities only, though Dumbledore was sure he'd travelled rather extensively before returning to Britain as Lord Voldemort and beginning his campaign.

Interspersed through all the reading was, of course, dueling practice with the increasingly mobile teachers and Order members. Given how badly things were starting to go, everyone was wanting to get back into (or get into in the first place) fighting trim as quickly as possible, and a great many of them were willing to teach the New Marauders whatever tricks they knew. Good news came in the form of basilisk hide ... yards and yards of it. Severus and whatever house-elves (or whoever) he had drafted to the cause had gotten the basilisk dealt with in early November, but it had taken time for the hide to be treated and made into armor for as many people as possible, so Severus hadn't said anything until it was all ready. Included had been a half dozen daggers made from its fangs and the 'replacement' fangs tucked up into its gums waiting for when the existing ones got snapped off or worn down.

Even better news, at least on a personal front for Harry, was the fact that towards the end of November, he'd been able to wean off the vision-blocking potion. The altered Occlumency barriers were holding, keeping Voldemort's thoughts and emotions out of Harry's head unless he went looking, much to his relief. Snape had, incredibly, managed to be tolerable throughout the teaching. They'd never be friends or anything ridiculous like that, but something that resembled grudging respect had grown between them, and they were both willing to just let be.

Additionally, all of the New Marauders were finally beginning to make progress on their animagi forms, though the progress was uneven. Ron, despite being one of the last to discover his form, was the furthest along, able to both bring up his fur and change both arms into badger legs and paws. He'd come in for a bit of teasing that his badger stubbornness must be coming in handy for mastering the transformation. Most of the others could make themselves all furry, and even transform a hand into a paw, though the amount of time and effort it took varied widely. Harry was lagging behind somewhat, thanks to all the trouble he'd had with the visions, and had thus far only managed to coat himself in feathers, which never failed to bring Hedwig out of nowhere to preen him, which had cracked him up the first few times it happened.

The New Marauders had also been working with Hagrid, to catch him up on the magical training he'd missed as best they could. They were all deeply fond of him, after all, and it was the least they could do. Fortunately, Hagrid, having been around magic despite not being able to use it (officially speaking, anyway, as Harry could attest to the fact he'd used his broken wand more than once), he'd caught on fairly quickly.

Then, at the end of November, they found the last of Dumbledore's diaries, the ones that concerned the years since the Marauders and Severus first went to Hogwarts and Voldemort started really causing trouble.

Harry really didn't know what to make of the revelation that Snape had been the one to tattle about the prophecy to Voldemort. Part of him wanted to hate the man, but the rest of him reckoned that Snape had been making up for that screwup ever since. It helped that the diaries made it clear that Snape was little more than a chess piece to Dumbledore, to be moved and manipulated at will. Harry had honestly been surprised that Snape hadn't thrown a fit when that bit came to light, but he eventually realized that Snape had probably figured it out already by then. It also helped that Snape had realized what he'd done and gone to Dumbledore in an effort to stop it, so while things got a bit more strained between them, Harry didn't storm off in a snit or try to hex Snape into the next millennium. Sirius, however, was an entirely different matter, and the only reason he didn't end up on the floor bleeding (Sirius was, after all, relatively out of practice, whereas Snape had been keeping in fighting trim all these years) was the fact that McGonagall was there and threatened to end the Black line if he got out of hand. From the gleam in her eye and the way Sirius reacted to the threat, she hadn't meant killing him, either. Sirius had settled for calling Snape a backstabbing coward and stormed out to cuss and fume in peace.

From there, things got uglier, and in a lot of ways, Harry was glad Sirius wasn't in the room for the next bits, because as explosive as the man's temper was, he'dve blown half of Hogwarts to bits. Dumbledore had suspected Pettigrew was the leak for months before the Potters' deaths, but done nothing to confirm or deny the suspicion. There was a section about 'that' night, that explained how Hagrid had got to the cottage so fast. It was something McGonagall had heard about and wondered at, not to mention Hagrid himself, given how things had fallen out where Dumbledore was concerned. It turned out that Dumbledore had had a portkey created just before the Fidelius had been cast. The lunacy of that ... if the portkey had somehow fallen into the wrong hands! ... was astounding. Dumbledore had planned, from the very beginning, to use whichever child was marked to the utmost, but when things happened the way they did that night, he'd seen an opportunity.

The child was, after all, supposed to be Tom's equal. Therefore, they would need to be raised in as similar an environment as possible. To that end, Dumbledore had allowed Sirius to waste away in Azkaban, ignored the Potters' will, and immediately placed Harry with the Durselys, whom he knew would never feel so much as a jot of caring and affection for Harry. There was at least some relief to be found in that at that point, Dumbledore did not think the Dursleys would stoop to abuse, just a lack of caring an affection.

He was able, in the months that followed, to discover just how Harry had come to be protected. It turned out that both James and Lily had performed a rare, ancient ritual designed to protect children from mortal danger at the hands of others. The ritual had, back then, been performed as a matter of course, and for many, that was the end of it, as the protections never got triggered. But if the child found themselves under direct attack, the ritual would defend them from harm in the moment, and from future attack by the same person that had attacked them if they tried again in future.

Sadly, the ritual hadn't been quite strong enough to completely stop the killing curse, which is why Harry had the scar, but it had shielded him from death, and marked Voldemort as an enemy to be dealt with harshly if he ever attempted anything with Harry again, hence the whole mess with Quirrell in first year.

It wasn't until nearly a year later, when Dumbledore's investigations into just how Voldemort could had survived that night (he was quite sure Voldemort had done so) that he stumbled across Horcruxes. From the notes Dumbledore had made, it looked as if the protection wouldn't have been strong enough to destroy Horcruxes on its own, but that was a moot point anyway, now that Voldemort had his blood now.

From there, things got more than a bit dodgy, as somehow, Dumbledore convinced himself that Harry was a Horcrux, despite the fact that the one text he'd found that had information on the foul creations made it clear that a living thing could not be a Horcrux. Carry a Horcrux, yes, be one, no. It was clear to Dumbledore that the only way for Tom to be utterly defeated was for all his Horcruxes to be destroyed. Including Harry. This caused more than a bit of a hue and outcry, not least from a horrified Harry.

"So wait, he thought ... " Harry fairly squeaked, then, turning an alarming shade of green. "Are we sure I can't be? And he really meant for me to ... " He swallowed. " ... die, trying to fight Voldemort? That's why he wasn't letting me know anything, or getting me taught stuff I'd need to fight?"

"Positive." The reassurance came from, of all people, Snape. "I have hear of Horcruxes before, in my studies. A living being cannot become a Horcrux. An item can be made into a Horcrux and then put into a living being for additional protection, but the being themselves are not Horcruxes. They inevitably become tainted by the presence of one ... " Snape trailed off, as if something had just occurred to him, then continued. "Given the instantaneous nature of the Dark Lord's downfall, there was no way a Horcrux item could have been forced into you, nevermind it being your scar!"

Dumbledore poked, prodded, and did do an immense amount of research, until he finally put together what he thought was a reasonable possible list of things used as Horcruxes. Given what Dumbledore had written about Tom up to that point, Harry actually found himself agreeing with the conclusions Dumbledore came to ... namely that the items used would have some great significance to Tom, and wherever possible, Hogwarts. Founder Heirlooms, if he could find them.

Snape spoke up again at that point. "I believe I may know what one of the Horcruxes are." He said, which got everyone's attention.

"What?" Harry wanted to know.

"Nagini, the Dark Lord's familiar. She is a venomous snake, yet she is the size of a full-grown python. That is not possible, not even with an engorgio charm ... animals cannot stay engorged for long, or their bodies self-destruct under the strain. If, however, she had a Horcrux forced into her, it would explain a great deal. And it keeps to the theme. Parselmouth was, insofar as the Dark Lord knew, a unique skill of his. It would have pandered to his ego to have a snake housing one of his Horcruxes."

The others were nodding in agreement. "Going to make getting rid of her right tricky, though." Moody growled.

"We're going to have to figure out what the others are, find them, and get rid of them, quickly." McGonagall decreed. "I shall make a list of Founder's items that are known to still exist so we can begin to eliminate them as potential Horcruxes."