Part 33/?

Harry sighed and then turned to glare at his oblivious father. He was beyond frustrated, and not even sexual frustration. Well okay, there was an aspect of that in there too, but it had long since taken a back seat to his descent into complete annoyance, and he was heading straight into anger.

They'd arrived back home five days or five hours after they left, depending on the time you had lived through. Harry had been happy to see his father and friends. He'd been worried about Dumbledore's disappearance and alarmed by the explanation those left behind had come up with: that it was possible Dumbledore had placed compulsions upon *every* graduating student of Hogwarts for the entire time he'd been Headmaster. Or at least the past fifteen years. It hadn't been thoroughly proved at this point, but the evidence was pointing that way. It was known that Dumbledore had a private conversation in his office with every student before they graduated.

Ehlana had come with them. Aine had decided that she needed more exposure to the outside world. Of course, the fact that she and Draco seemed to be getting along well, and that Aine was still determined to marry her foster daughter off early, had nothing to do with it. She had been sorted into Hufflepuff, but even that hadn't turned Draco off.

Connor was also back. He'd settled back into his spot as DADA teacher with no outward problems. However, he seemed to have become slightly clumsy, especially when it would embarrass him in public. The fact that the Gryffindor and Slytherin Houses seemed to have declared a prank war in his class, and only in his class, a prank war he always seemed to *accidentally* get in the middle of, might have something to do with why he was currently turning a bit paranoid.

Harry was actually waiting for Connor to snap. He had the feeling the Houses were going to be sorry when that happened. They seemed to be forgetting that their Professor was a fully capable wizard of a type different than their own. He had the feeling they'd find a new meaning for Practicals when he finally had enough.

Considering how carefully O'Feahr was treating him, he didn't expect he'd be getting caught in the middle of the conflict; also he was not an active participant, only an observer, so he was planning on just sitting back and enjoying the entertainment.

Madam Faire had settled in easily as a second medi-witch and school nurse. From all reports, Madam Pomfrey was happily sharing her Infirmary. Harry wouldn't know of course. He wasn't allowed anywhere near the woman or her rooms. Madam Faire now had a room set up down in the dungeons instead of the Chamber, and that's where Harry's examinations were taking place. At least she didn't believe that chocolate would heal all ills. Not that Harry had a big problem with chocolate, but he really didn't appreciate it as much as his friends seemed to think he should. Once he'd gotten over the whole 'I can have it whenever I want' syndrome, he'd found that too much of it was just too much. Too many years of no sweets had left him with only a small sweet tooth in most circumstances.

Professor McGonagall was currently Headmistress of the school, with Severus as Deputy Headmaster. It wasn't a job he particularly wanted, but he didn't completely trust the Transfiguration Professor to be impartial, especially to his Slytherins. It was worth the extra aggravation to make sure his students got what they deserved.

Several warriors from Nuada's ranks had entered the Overworld and were spending much of their time tracking down Dumbledore. A number of Aurors were doing the same thing. Personally, Harry didn't think any of them had a good chance of finding the ex-Headmaster. The warriors were too hampered by not knowing much about the outside world, and were having trouble navigating around. The Aurors either had a hard time believing Dumbledore's guilt, or were suspect because they had gone to school at Hogwarts during his reign. Some, of course, were both.

There had been no reported sighting of the man since he'd disappeared, something that worried everyone in the know. Approved articles had appeared in the papers soon after Harry had returned. The reaction was decidedly mixed. It turned out that the Minister of Magic didn't have the authority to fire the Headmaster, even if he was under arrest. Thankfully, Salazar had been around. The portrait had been far more helpful than anybody could possibly have imagined.

It turned out that Rowena Ravenclaw's spirit portrait was in the secret room Blaise and Roan had found. They had pulled her out and she was currently hanging in the Ravenclaw common room. From all accounts, she was greatly enjoying the company. Harry had managed to talk to her for a bit after Salazar had brought her by. He found her to be a charming woman who was just a *trifle* ... absentminded. It wasn't that she was flighty... she just always had other things to think about. She was much different than the far more two-dimensional copies of her that had been around the school previously. Once she'd been brought up to speed on what had been going on, she and Salazar, as two of the Founders of the school, were able to suspend Dumbledore and revoke his invitation into the school. He'd have a hard time getting through the wards now... assuming, of course, that he hadn't done something to them.

They still hadn't found any reason for the way Dumbledore was acting. Unfortunately, he hadn't left out any incriminating evidence. There were no journals where he'd written all of his thoughts. Nor was his Pensieve out where it could easily be found.

None of these however, had much to do with Harry's state of mind at that moment. Instead, it had everything to do with what had happened *after* they'd gotten out of the public eye. Severus and Lucius had had a fight. It hadn't been a surprise; everyone who knew the two of them had been expecting it. Hexes and insults had flown hard and fast between the two of them. Harry had tried to interfere and mediate between them, but had been shouted down. Finally, he threw up his hands and went to talk to Blaise's newest interest. He later came to regret that decision.

He didn't know what had happened between the two of them after he had left. All he was sure of was the fact that they currently weren't talking to each other, except in the utmost formality. The worst however, was that they were using him against each other. Both of them seemed to be spending a good amount of time trying to get him to choose between them. Any time he had to spend with one of them would be quickly interrupted by the other, with something that absolutely had to be taken care of immediately. He hadn't managed more than twenty minutes of uninterrupted time with either or them in the past two weeks, and even when he did, they always seemed to have something they had to do while he was with them.

On top of that, it seemed as if he was permanently restricted in where he was allowed to go. He understood, sort of, why he wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade on the student weekends, but it was getting to the point that he was expected to be in either Severus' rooms or the Chamber at any time he wasn't in class. If he decided to hang out with one of his friends, he'd either be interrogated both before and after, or Severus would actually go to get him. He wasn't even supposed to go outside of the castle itself. After all, now that he couldn't fly, he had no reason to be out in the sun and fresh air, right?

Harry had managed to keep his temper so far, but he wasn't going to be able to do it for much longer. He was about ready to pull out his hair. He knew things were about to get worse. He'd received another death threat. If he didn't tell his father about it, and Severus found out, he'd be grounded. Not that there was much difference between the two at the moment. If he did tell... what the heck would be the difference? Oh yeah, if he didn't tell, he'd have to write one of those reports. That answered that. It was bad enough he was already under what was pretty much house arrest; having one of those reports on top of that would be worse.

"Dad?" he sighed.

"What is it, Harry? I'm busy!" Severus snapped.

Harry's head reeled back. He hadn't expected that. His eyes narrowed. He'd been good for long enough.

"You're busy?" he hissed, stalking forward. "I know you're busy. You've been working non-stop for two weeks. The only time you aren't busy is when you're trying to make sure I don't have any time with my husband. That's okay, though, because he's doing the exact same thing! I don't know what you two said to each other. The only thing I do know is that I'm sick and tired of being in the middle! I've been good. I've been patient! I've swallowed everything I've wanted to say. I figured you two were adults and could deal with whatever the problem was between yourselves. Obviously, I was wrong. You're being more immature than I believed possible. I am not a prize to be grabbed away from each other.

Okay, you're mad at Lucius for leaving you behind. Why are you taking it out on me? He's mad at you for letting Dumbledore go. Guess what, he's taking it out on me too!"

Severus was looking at him with a blank expression.

Harry threw up his hands and muttered under his breath. He threw down the death threat he had received. "Here," he snapped. "This is what I interrupted your *important* work for." He slammed out the door before Severus could respond.

Severus rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Mood swings," he sighed, turning back to his work. It was several hours before he remembered the letter Harry had slammed down.

Harry headed out the front doors as fast as he could. He needed some fresh air. He was practically smothering from overprotective family and friends.

The only thing good about his being kept in his rooms was that not many people had had the chance to talk to him. It seemed as if only moments after he exited the front doors and settled down on a grassy spot near the lake, that he was practically inundated by students with questions.

It was several hours later before he was able to escape back into the school.

He'd had enough. He wanted to find somewhere no one else could bother him. He didn't want to leave the castle; as much as he'd like to get away, and as annoyed with his father and husband as he was, he still didn't want to worry them by leaving. He could have gone to the Manor, but there was a chance Lucius would be there, and right now he wanted nothing to do with him. He headed over to a spot where Salazar and Rowena seemed to gather often. Sure enough, there they were.

"Hello Salazar, Madam Ravenclaw," he greeted them politely.

"Good afternoon, um... Harry, isn't it?" Ravenclaw answered.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, smiling.

"Is there something the matter?" Salazar asked.

Harry shrugged slightly, looking down.

"Obviously there is, Salazar," Rowena said comfortingly. "Tell us all about it, child."

Harry shook his head. "It's nothing and a lot of things all at the same time. I was really just hoping you'd know somewhere I could go to get away from everyone. I don't want to actually leave the castle, but I don't want anyone to be able to find me, either."

"I have just the thing," Salazar answered. "Haven't you wondered about Godric's secret rooms?"

Harry perked up. "Sure," he answered easily.

"Follow me," Salazar answered, heading off.

Part 34/?

Severus' eyes went wide. Carefully, he read and reread the paragraph in front of him. That was it! Finally! He carefully enunciated each syllable of the spell. Once finished, he sighed in relief. For two weeks he'd had to live with that accursed hex. He'd simply never had the time to research it with everything else he absolutely *had* to do. The hex had been absurdly simple. It made him feel a small pain, such as if a splinter was just under the skin. The main problem was that it moved periodically. He'd lived with it in his hands and feet, arms and chest. It had simply made him more irritable than usual. But he'd lived with pain for most of his life. For the past six hours, however, it had been stuck in his right eye and he'd finally decided enough was enough.

He looked around the room for his son and frowned when he didn't see him. Only then did he remember the confrontation earlier in the day. He winced. He knew he hadn't been fair to Harry for the past couple of weeks. His kidnapping had scared him and he'd reacted badly. He fully admitted, at least to himself, that he'd overreacted and he'd been pushing, and probably punishing the boy for no reason. It hadn't been Harry's fault. He knew that. But he'd start feeling anxious whenever he wasn't sure where Harry was and then he'd have to go find him.

He remembered what Harry had said about using him against Lucius. He frowned. He hadn't been doing that... had he? Only as he thought back over the last couple of weeks did he realize exactly how many times he'd interrupted the two of them. He wondered if Lucius was feeling the same way about letting Harry out of his sight, because Harry was right, the blonde had been doing the same thing. They weren't being fair to the pregnant young mage, and they'd have to do something about that.

He looked for whatever it was Harry had been trying to give him. Obviously it had been important to the boy. He found the letter, still in its envelope and frowned. Where had he seen an envelope like that before? He opened it quickly. His eyes narrowed as he read over the note inside. He'd almost forgotten the death threats Harry had been receiving. He hadn't received one since being back at Hogwarts and they'd both thought that whoever it was had given up now that Harry was a Snape.

Obviously they were wrong.

Severus shot to his feet and was headed towards his bedroom. He needed to know where Harry was, and he needed to know now.

A knock at the door had him turning towards it, but then he turned back to his room. Whoever it was could wait. Harry wouldn't knock, and no one else mattered right now. The door opened behind him and he spun with his wand in his hand.

"Severus," Lucius murmured, ignoring the wand pointed at him. "Is something the matter?"

Severus didn't answer. Instead, he scowled, replaced his wand and strode back to where he was going before he was interrupted.

Lucius strode after him.

Severus headed to his chest of drawers. This was where he left everything he kept with him while outside of his rooms. Including a certain piece of paper. He found it quickly and touched it with his wand. It was a tracer spell, anchored to Harry. As he watched, green letters spelled out 'Harry Snape - Hogwarts'. He sighed in relief.

"What's going on, Severus?" Lucius asked. "Is something wrong with Harry?"

"He's fine," Severus replied. "He's in the Chamber."

"No, he's not," Lucius answered, his eyes narrowed. "I just came from there." He held up his cane as proof.

Severus looked at it. It was the snake headed cane he'd carried for a while. The blonde had shown up with it almost a week ago, asking Harry to charm it so it could open the door to the Chamber. Severus absolutely did *not* want to know why Harry had blushed beet red upon seeing it. Nor did he wish to know why his friend had been smirking and leering at the time. He really, really didn't.

He looked back down at the tracer spell. The only times he had ever gotten that response, just the word 'Hogwarts', was when he was in the Chamber. "Did you look through all of the rooms?" he asked thoughtfully.

Lucius considered. "I did not," he admitted. "However, he is most certainly not in the apartment, nor the main Chamber. I do not think any of the other rooms are of interest to him."

"Perhaps not, but I would prefer to check," Severus settled his robes around him and swept out of the room. Lucius followed behind him.

"What brought on this sudden urgent desire?" Lucius asked as he moved up beside him.

Severus glared at him. "That accursed hex you used on me in our fight had moved to my eye. Today was the first day I had time to research a cure. I was... irritable. Harry tried to tell me he had received another threat, but I was not in the mood to listen. Once I finally found a cure and was able to look around without a burning pain every time I blinked, he was gone." His voice was venomous.

"Do *not* be blaming this on me," Lucius said in the same tone of voice. They reached the entryway to the Chamber and Lucius tapped it with his cane, causing the snakehead on the end to hiss out the order for the shadow snake to open the room.

They split up to quickly check through all the rooms. They hadn't moved more than a step or two when a house elf popped up in front of them. She looked up at them worriedly.

"Is Harry here?" Lucius asked.

Cattie shook her head. "Cattie hasn't seen Mistress Jade since Cattie made breakfast for Mistress Jade," she explained.

"Check again," Lucius answered. She blinked and disappeared. "She can look faster than we can," he explained.

Severus nodded and decided to take the conversation back up to where it had been. "Why shouldn't I have blamed it all on you?" he asked acidly.

"I was not the one to start that fight," Lucius growled back.

Severus snorted. "You were the one who threw your power around," he practically spat. "You are the Minister of Magic. You should have been the one who stayed here, where your responsibility was."

"I trusted you to take care of it," he argued in a hard voice.

"It wasn't my job," Severus replied heatedly. "I did the best I could. At least I realized that leaving him here, when there was no way to know how many compulsions he had placed on the staff, was a bad idea. Something you certainly didn't consider."

Cattie interrupted before they could begin the fight once more. "Mistress Jade is not within the Chamber," she announced.

"Where else could he be?" Lucius barked at Severus.

"Perhaps the Ravenclaw secret rooms," Severus suggested thoughtfully. He turned and swept out of the room without another word, Lucius on his heels.

He silently led the way up to the Ravenclaw dorms and used his teacher password to enter the rooms.

"Professor Snape!" a second Year squeaked.

Roan Blankenship moved forward from where he was studying in one corner of the room. He hoped his status as the boyfriend of the professor's son's friend would protect him at least slightly from the man's wrath. He did not look happy, at all. The fact that Harry's husband was following him did not lighten his mind at all. "May I help you?" he said as strongly as he could. He knew from things Blaise had said that neither man would respect someone who was too servile.

"Is Harry in the Ravenclaw rooms?" Severus asked.

Roan shook his head. "I haven't seen him, and I've been here all afternoon. There's no other way into the rooms except through this room. Unless he snuck in, I don't see how he could be here."

"He's not here, dears," a voice said from over them. They turned quickly, hands going to wands before they realized that it was not a threat, but instead a familiar portrait. "I believe Salazar was planning on taking him to see Godric's rooms." She turned back to the book she was reading.

"Why?" Severus bit out.

"Hmm?" she said distractedly. "Oh, the poor boy was getting overwhelmed by people asking questions and wanted to go somewhere where no one could bother him."

Lucius' eyes narrowed. "Did Dumbledore know where those rooms were?" he asked harshly.

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I don't know, honestly. It wouldn't surprise me, though. Of all of us, Godric was the one who was least concerned with privacy, well, when it came to members of his House and the one most likely to think only good of the Headmasters of this school."

"Where are these rooms?" his tone was ice cold and carried a deadly threat.

"Off of Gryffindor tower, of course," she sighed and put down her book. "I suppose I'd better show you. I'll meet you in front of the entrance to the dorms." She walked off, muttering under her breath about always getting interrupted just when she was getting to the good parts as she moved off the frame.

This time, Lucius was the one striding quickly out the door with Severus behind him. They were also followed by a Seventh Year Ravenclaw, who both wanted to make sure Harry was alright, and find out where the Gryffindor hidden rooms were.

"Why are you suddenly so concerned?" Severus hissed out as they moved swiftly down the corridor, ignoring the student who had to run to keep up with their quick strides.

"If Dumbledore knows where Gryffindor's rooms are, what are the chances that those rooms have emblem portkeys, the same as the Slytherin rooms?" Lucius answered back sharply. "The wards don't react to things that happen within those rooms. We would have no way of knowing if Dumbledore was there, or if anything happened to Harry there. The Slytherin rooms are not a problem. We know for a fact that Dumbledore does not know where they are, and all of the emblem portkeys are accounted for. But, when it comes to Gryffindor's rooms, we have no way of knowing that."

Severus asked no more questions as they rushed through the corridors leading up to Gryffindor Tower.

Part 35/?

Lucius moved quickly towards the stairs leading to the Gryffindor dorms. He tried to keep his anger at his friend hidden. Why didn't the man just tell him the hex was still on? He would have taken it off days ago if he'd realized.

Of course, it wasn't as if the two of them had been talking much lately.

He refused to believe he'd made the wrong choice. He'd made the one that was right for him and his family. That was all a man could do. So what if Nuada had obviously considered it the wrong one. So what if Harry and Severus, even Draco, had questioned his decision. It was right. He wasn't going to argue any more about it. He had enough on his plate.

Admittedly, he hadn't bothered to tell anyone of the problems he was having. In fact, he'd gone out of his way to make sure those at Hogwarts had no knowledge of exactly how bad the reaction to things had been. When it came to Dumbledore, the wizarding world seemed divided. Half believed what had been written and were outraged at how they'd been duped and were demanding answers and that the old man be caught. As if he weren't already doing everything he could to capture the mage! The other half thought he was making it all up in order to get the politically hot Dumbledore out of his hair. And he was getting the grief from both sections.

Then of course, there was his marriage to Harry and the news of their child. Again, reactions were mixed, bad and worse. He believed he'd made it very clear what would happen to anyone bothering Harry. He was sure his young husband had no clue about how bad things were getting. He was having trouble getting the cooperation he needed, since everyone he met seemed to believe he was using Harry. Either that, or harming him. There were even howlers complaining about him having cheated on that nice girl he went to the ball with.

And every time he came to Hogwarts, hoping to have some time with Harry, Severus would come bursting in. He'd even found his snake headed cane, hoping Harry would take his challenge from their night Underhill and come stalking after him with a collar. However, even if his young husband had any such intention, Severus had kept interrupting them.

He reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, who was talking easily with Rowena. "Well?" he asked harshly, as they seemed to be gossiping.

"You can wait a moment, can't you? He'll still be there when we get there," Rowena explained. She obviously hadn't heard the conversation between he and Severus.

"No, I can't, and no, there's no such guarantee," Lucius hissed, eyes gleaming with malice. "Now lead us to him, or I'll stick you in a room where there's no books at all, and no one to talk to but gossipy old queens!"

Rowena blinked. "Fine, fine, there's no need to get nasty," she said hastily. "It's just down this corridor, here."

She moved from portrait to portrait before stopping across from a small alcove in which an urn was displayed. "Well?" she said, impatiently. "You were in such a hurry to get here; go on in."

"In where?" Severus asked, confused. But not so confused that he didn't immediately start looking into the alcove. He picked up the urn, and then he saw it. A small door, no bigger than a mouse hole. "And how, exactly, are we supposed to go through that?"

"Touch it with your wand, of course," Rowena suggested.

Both men did so, but it didn't seem to do anything.

"Oh, of course, you have to be Gryffindor," Rowena blushed lightly. "I had forgotten. Godric was always a bit of a ... well let's just say he was always a bit House-proud. Really, as if courage could take you very far without brains."

"I might not be a Gryffindor, but I am a teacher in this school as well as the Deputy Headmaster, and I expect the school to acknowledge that," Severus bit out, pouring power down his wand. Whether it was the magic or the words that did it was unknown, but suddenly the door expanded from seven inches, to seven feet.

There was no knob on the door; instead there were a number of carved pictures.

"He's in the library," Rowena explained. "Press the book."

Severus found the picture of the book and pressed it strongly. The door quickly opened. Lucius pushed his way past the professor and into the room. "Harry?" he called out immediately.

"I'm over here," Harry said. His face was down, looking at a parchment, so he didn't see the expressions of relief momentarily visible on the two older men's faces.

"What are you doing in here? Didn't it occur to you that Dumbledore might know about this place?" Severus asked, angry from the scare, now that he knew his son was safe.

"He did," Harry said softly. He looked up. "He left me a letter."

The older two men moved towards him immediately. Harry nodded over to an open book. "There's a prophecy in there about both me and the baby... I think. Dumbledore definitely thought so."

"Do you?" Lucius asked, not even bothering to look at the book.

Harry closed his eyes and thought. "I don't know." He suddenly looked resolved. "No," he said firmly. "I don't believe it. I don't care what Dumbledore says."

"What does he say?" Severus asked, sitting down across from his son, leaving Lucius the spot next to him.

All of them were completely ignoring the Ravenclaw student who had followed after them. He settled own in one corner, pulling the book they were talking about over to read.

Harry picked up the letter and started to read aloud to his family.

"'My dear boy,

'I know that things I have done or allowed to be done to you have made you think badly of me. I'm sorry that these things were necessary. I did what I believed to be best for the wizarding world. If you have found this room, than I am certain you also found the book I left out by this letter. It is a book of prophecies left here by Godric himself. You are in it.'

'Several people have suggested that I allowed you to stay in the situation you grew up in because I wished for you to turn evil, perhaps become the next Dark Lord. That is certainly not true. I allowed you to grow up there because it was necessary that you not know of the wizarding world that was your birthright. I had several trusted Aurors that watched over you, to make sure you were never seriously harmed.'"

Both Severus and Lucius had things they wanted to say after hearing that, but Harry shook his head at them. He continued reading.

"'I did not do all of this so that you could live to defeat Voldemort. I am sure that would have happened no matter how you grew up. You have too much of your father in you to allow injustice like that to continue. Instead, I wished to, among other things, steer you away from the path you are treading now. The path that will lead the entire world, wizarding and muggle, to destruction.'"

"And how is that?" Severus snorted.

Harry just took a deep breath and continued reading.

"'For one mage to be born and come into his power causes reverberations across all wizarding magic. The more mages that gather together, the worse it is. If I'd had any idea that both Lucius and Draco Malfoy were mages, I would have tried my best to separate them.'"

Lucius growled at the thought.

"'There is a reason that mages have not gathered together since the Founding. That much power, reverberating through the magic fields, disrupts the fields badly. This can, if it continues long enough, cause problems with the Earth itself. By allowing you to be raised in the muggle world, it kept us separated enough that our powers would not interact. It also, I must admit, kept you from using your power to its fullest extent while here at Hogwarts, which also helped keep our magic from interacting.'

'If it is so dangerous, just to have two mages in the same section of the country, can you imagine the consequences of having two living together? Even worse, are the proven ramifications of having two mages create a child. I tried to stop this prophecy from coming true. I failed. I tried to derail it before it could come to fruition. I failed in that as well.'

'I left the information here with you. Please, look it over. Understand it. And do what is best for not only the wizarding world, but also the world as a whole. It's up to you. I know you'll do the right thing. As much as it pains me to say it, the child must not be allowed to be born.'

"'Albus Dumbledore' et cetera and so on." Harry finished reading. He looked up into several utterly shocked faces.

Part 36/?

"Hogwash!"

Everyone's eyes jerked up to where Rowena Ravenclaw was glaring down at them. "What?" Harry asked.

"I said, 'Hogwash!'" she exclaimed again. "What utter and complete rubbish!"

"But..." Harry tried.

"Don't you believe a word of it, young man!" she ordered. "The four of us lived together for over half a century and not a single bad thing happened! Well, besides Salazar and Godric's arguments, of course. But I don't think anyone could consider them Earth-shattering."

"Well," Salazar said thoughtfully, "There was that one..."

"You, hush," she commanded. "I don't know whether that Dumbledore of yours believed this nonsense or not, but you aren't going to. Because that's all it is, nonsense!"

"But..." Roan put in diffidently. "According to this prophecy of Godric's..." He was interrupted as well.

"Prophecy? From Godric?" Salazar laughed. "Godric couldn't stand prophecies. Thought they were all... well to use Rowena's words, rubbish. He was a little too... stuck-up to believe in anything he couldn't see."

"Now, now, Godric was a good man," Rowena demurred.

"I never said he wasn't," Salazar said. "But he could also be a moralistic, sanctimonious, self-righteous prig."

"He was a knight," Rowena reprimanded.

"And all that iron he wore rotted out his brain," Salazar argued. He sighed and looked down at the only Gryffindor in the group. "He wasn't always that bad," he admitted. "He had all the virtues of a chivalric knight, but he also had all the problems. He tried to help everyone, and he did a lot of good. I'm not disputing that. But he refused to believe ill of anyone who was thought to be on the side of 'Good'. He got taken advantage of a lot, but could never see it. His world was very black and white."

"I mean, just think of his House! He honored courage above common sense! Courage can be a very self-defeating emotion if it isn't paired with common sense, or at least a very good sense of survival. He drove me so crazy sometimes. He could be extremely single-minded; especially once someone convinced him it was for the good of the wizarding world. I was always surprised he didn't die protecting some village from a rampaging dragon or something of the sort. That's the kind of person he was."

"Is his portrait here?" Severus asked, interested.

"Nope," Salazar admitted easily. "It's probably at Godric's Keep... which of course, is in Godric's Hollow."

Harry perked up. "That's where my parents died. Though, I think the whole place burned to the ground."

"Not likely," Salazar told him. "Godric's Keep had so many anti-fire, anti-age, anti-practically-anything-you-could-imagine charms on it, that I don't think there is or ever has been anything that can destroy it. But, it's also hidden. It's the only thing he had that he wouldn't share with anyone that wasn't family. I doubt anyone except he, his wife, and their children, had any idea where it was."

"To get back on track," Rowena said reprovingly. "Godric didn't hold with prophecies. He didn't even want there to be a Divination teacher at the school. Wherever *that* came from, it wasn't from him."

"What about what it says here, about when two mages have a child?" Roan asked.

"Well," Rowena said, thoughtfully. "It's very rare. Actually the only one I know about was before we were born, but as far as I know there were no problems with the birth." She smiled slightly. "I believe they named the boy Merlin. Of course, I don't know if there have been any since then."

By this time, Severus had taken over the book and begun reading it himself. He frowned. "I'm really not seeing anything here to say this is about Harry. Yes, it *could* be about him. Assuming of course, that it wasn't about someone five hundred years or so ago."

"So the assumptions that Dumbledore must have made, if he actually believed what was written in that letter, were that Godric left that here, that whoever wrote that prophecy actually had the Sight, and that it had to do with Harry," Lucius tried to get his thoughts together.

"Do you think he actually does believe it?" Harry asked.

Severus, Lucius and Harry all shared a look. "That's the question now, isn't it?" Lucius murmured.

Severus looked up at the spirit portraits. "Were there many collaborations between mages before you four gathered together?"

"Of course," Salazar said immediately. "Two or more mages could do *far* more than an equal number of wizards. If something really big were necessary, mages would come from all over Britain to work on it. It didn't happen often, since under most circumstances, one mage, or even a dozen wizards, could take care of the problem. What I don't understand is, why do you seem to be unsurprised that he would want to keep mages apart?"

"Because until Severus, Draco and I worked together to defeat Voldemort, that's what people thought," Harry explained. "Mages weren't supposed to work together, they were dangerous to each other. At least, that's what Draco said he was taught."

"It's what we were taught, as well," Lucius murmured.

"That makes little sense," Rowena remarked. "Mages are rare, yes, but there should still be at least a dozen, in Britain alone, at any one time."

"It's very hard to tell whether someone is a mage or not," Lucius reminded them. "It's entirely possible there are more mages around than we know, but there are only five known mages right now."

Rowena just shook her head. "Very strange," she muttered. "And I'd really like to know how this decree of non-cooperation on the part of mages came about."

"Obviously, sometime in the past thousand years, something, probably something completely stupid and having something to do with the Skeeter family, convinced everyone that mages should stay as far away from each other as possible," Harry considered.

"It wouldn't surprise me at all," Lucius admitted. He turned to Severus. "Read the prophecy. Maybe it will give us a hint of what Dumbledore is thinking."

Severus nodded and began to read.

"'When Darkness covers the land,

A Child of Light shall come forth

With Power borne in hand.

Away the Darkness shall fade

From the coming of the Light,

And will hide within the Shade.

The Darkness shall return

When the Hidden Light is free,

And set the World to burn.

Dark Defeated, once again no more

By the Child of the Light

All the World shall roar.

This warning must be heeded,

That when the Child has a child,

No more will some be needed.

When the World begins construction,

Then mage to mage combine to be

The symbol of Light's destruction.'"

"It does kind of sound like me," Harry said softly.

"I'm interested in that last line," Lucius admitted. "Is it the symbol of the destruction of the Light, or the destruction of the *symbol* of the Light? Because there were really two symbols of the Light before all this began. Harry... and Dumbledore."

"You think the whole thing might have been prophesying *Dumbledore's* being taken down?" Harry asked, surprised. Of course, he could see where his husband might get that idea. "So was he trying to keep himself safe, or what?"

"Unfortunately, at this point there's no way of knowing exactly what he was thinking," Severus reminded them. "He might have believed this to be prophesying the destruction of the Light, and was trying to save it. He might have thought it meant him, and was trying to save himself. He might not have believed any of it, and is just trying to manipulate us by making us think he isn't the unmitigated bastard we've believed him to be. Does it really matter? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Whether his intentions were good or not, doesn't really matter, because it's obvious where he's headed."

How could anyone argue with that?