'So I gather that the prophecy orb in the Department of Mysteries was kept under guard just to mess with Voldemort?'

Dumbledore looked at Harry with a mix of surprise and approval as he eased himself into his office chair. 'I wouldn't put it that way,' he said. 'But yes, the guard duty was put in place mainly to frustrate him and his followers. I had the feeling that it would have kept him far too busy to be doing much of anything else. I am glad that I was right to an extent. Besides,' he winked. 'I have been the headmaster of a school for so long now that I cannot fathom giving information away for free!'

'That was a terrible joke, sir,' Harry said blandly.

'Now, about the discussion we were having this morning…'

'Right,' Harry scratched his head. 'I was telling you what I saw after that Killing Curse hit me.'

'Yes, you had arrived at what turned out to be King's Cross and met your dearly departed parents and recently, but no less dearly, departed godfather.' Dumbledore replied.

'Ah, yes,' Harry paused. 'Did I tell you about the baby that I saw then?'

'I do not believe you had.'

'Right. Well, the first thing, erm, person I saw was this very ugly looking baby before I met my parents and Sirius. It was scaly, with red eyes, and was bawling quite pathetically.'

'I see,' Dumbledore said mainly to keep the story moving on.

'So, in short order, I was sitting at a table talking to my parents and, funnily enough, eating a steak made by my mother.'

'Fascinating,' the portrait of Phineas Nigellus said snidely. 'Now, how about you get around to talking about those Horcruxes, boy.'

'Patience, Phineas,' Dumbledore said mildly. 'Let Harry tell the story in his own pace. There is no need to rush such matters.'

'Right, well, they said that Voldemort was immortal because he had split his soul and made a Horcrux, possibly many more.' Harry said, trying to regain his momentum. 'Apparently, Sirius' younger brother, Regulus, had found out about it through Kreacher and had died in the attempt to steal it from some cave. It should be still in Grimmauld Place. That is if Kreacher hasn't destroyed it yet.'

There was a short moment where Dumbledore had a look of frank astonishment on his face before he rallied. 'Well,' he said quickly. 'We must make haste to secure the object in question, for I am not too sure if Sirius' death has affected the Fidelius Charm. For all we know, the property could have passed onto the next member of the Black family which would be Narcissa Malfoy.'

'Yeah, Sirius told me that he ensured that the house is going to pass onto me. The will is in his bedroom.' Harry said helpfully. 'I even get the elf,' he muttered darkly to himself.

Clearing his throat, he called for the aforementioned house-elf. Kreacher appeared in short order, throwing a very noisy tantrum that had Harry clapping his hands over his ears.

'Will you shut up?!' Harry barked. Glaring at the elf who was (now silently) returning the favour, Harry said quietly. 'You are now mine, whether you like it or not. I order you to return to Number 12 Grimmauld Place and stay there. I also order you to take all the movable objects in there and put them in a room which you will then guard against anyone else except for me and the headmaster till I return. Do you understand?'

Harry watched as the elf processed the orders it was given. A scowl told him that he had all loopholes covered so far.

'Good, now go do what I told you.'

'Any other revelations, Harry?' Dumbledore remarked mildly after the elf disappeared. 'I certainly am hoping for an exact number of Horcruxes, their identities and locations. As it is, I only recently considered that he may have used Horcruxes as a means to achieve his immortality.'

Harry blinked. 'I was under the impression that he had made only one,' he said slowly. 'That is what my parents told me.'

Dumbledore did not immediately reply. 'Clearly, the dead do not know everything that goes on in the realm of the living.' He finally said. 'I wonder how this works out?' he asked contemplatively. 'Regardless, we can figure that number out.' He smiled encouragingly at Harry. 'We have one, and you destroyed another in your second year.'

'The diary was a Horcrux?' Harry commented. 'Huh… anyway, getting back to the topic, remember that baby I was talking about before I met my parents?'

'Vividly.'

'Well … turns out that was the piece of Voldemort's soul that was residing in my scar. So I guess we know of three Horcruxes of Voldemort's.'

Dumbledore took a deep breath and leaned back.

'I must confess, the thought of you as a Horcrux was one that I found frightening, and something I really did not want to consider. But given the nature of the connexion you were sharing with Voldemort this past few months, it was something that I was being forced to consider as reality.' He waved his wand, revealing a small bookshelf behind him. 'In the past three years from the end of your second year till now, I have only managed to accumulate one book on the subject.' He waved a hand at the solitary tome sitting there. 'It hasn't been terribly informative on living Horcruxes, or on how to safely destroy one without irreparably damaging them.'

'Just one book?' Harry couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice as he said that.

'Horcruxes are a rather obscure subject, Harry. Splitting one's soul is not something regular Dark Arts practitioners would consider. I am fortunate to have found so much knowledge in such little time. Also,' he added, 'This book is courtesy of the Hogwarts Library. I had removed it decades ago.'

'But you said that you found out that Voldemort had used Horcruxes recently.' Harry pointed out.

'I only removed the book from the library decades ago, and it was my first act as headmaster because it was quite revolting, containing knowledge that is best left forgotten.' Dumbledore replied. 'That doesn't mean that I read it till much later or that I considered that Voldemort would have come across the same book before I had or that he would have tried following the instructions within. In fact, I attempted to forget all about it till recently.' He flicked his wand again, hiding the bookshelf from sight. 'Creating a Horcrux isn't advisable by the author of that book either. It makes your soul very unstable. Naturally I did not think Tom Riddle would be bereft of caution to ignore this warning, let alone do that repeatedly.'

'Ah. Well, you don't have to worry about the piece of soul in my scar anyway,' Harry replied.

'It has been taken care of then? That is good news!'

'… I suppose.'

Dumbledore considered his student inquisitively. 'You seem to be having some reservations about that.'

Harry looked distinctly ill. 'Remember how I mentioned that I was sitting with my parents at a table and eating a steak?'

'Prepared by your mother if I recall correctly.'

'Yes … well, where do you think she got the meat from?'

There was a very long pause as Dumbledore processed that information. Some of the portraits behind him had looks of open revulsion on their faces.

'Well, this certainly puts that vomit flavoured bean I encountered in my youth into perspective,' the headmaster finally said.

Till next week!

That's when you will find out the first of two popular fan fiction themes this story is going to be centred around!