Secrets

by Potterworm

There were supposedly only four people there the night that Voldemort came to the Potter's house. By the time the night was over, two were dead, one was vanquished, and the other, a baby, remembered merely a green light and a laugh. So how, exactly, did everyone figure out what happened in Godric's Hollow? A series of drabbles on different answers to that question.

5. Dumbledore

V. Dumbledore

Kneeling underneath the gaping hole in the ceiling of Harry's nursery, Dumbledore closed Lily's eyes.

When the devices in his office had begun to whirl, Dumbledore knew that something had gone terribly wrong in Godric's Hollow. He made his way over immediately, but it was too late.

Dumbledore looked over at Harry, who, thank Merlin, did not appear injured aside from a small scar on his forehead. He was hardly crying anymore, though he had been before Dumbledore walked into the nursery.

Dumbledore waved his hand at Harry, and the child fell into a magical sleep. No need for the child to relive the last hour.

Then, in a feat of magic that perhaps only Dumbledore would know how to do, he waved his hand over the nursery. Like a hologram, time reversed, and he watched the scene play out.

Lily flung the door to the nursery open – quickly, desperately. She held her wand tight – fingers turning white around it. "Harry, Harry, Harry," she said, repeating his name again and again and again, like a supplication.

Dumbledore felt a tear forming in his eyes. Lily and James were not the first of his students to die in this war – and he still wasn't positive they would be the last – but still – Dumbledore very rarely witnessed these moments.

When Tom entered – mere seconds later – Dumbledore was momentarily surprised to see him offer Lily a chance to walk away. Then, he realized that Severus must have asked. (Intriguing that Tom would have listened, Dumbledore noted.)

The sound of Lily's voice pleading for her son's life would stay with Dumbledore for the rest of his life.

When hologram Lily dropped to the ground, she disappeared, but then Voldemort turned to Harry. Dumbledore was confused for a moment about what could have happened, but waited, patiently, and watched.

Then, perhaps the most intriguing turn of magic Dumbledore had ever witnessed, and the ceiling exploded upwards, and Voldemort's soul fled his body, which disintegrated in the nursery.

The holograms ended then, but Dumbledore spent a long moment staring at the space where the scene had played out.

And then – then he smiled. Peace, at least for now.

He would have Hagrid take Harry to his aunt's and uncle's home while he spread the news, and then he would meet the boy-who-lived there.