Chapter 12: Chapter 12
A/N: Hey here's a new chapter for you readers.
Review, review, review… It makes me happy.
"May be it will be best if I would be the one to explain it to them, Alastor." They heard a voice which was unmistakably Dumbledore's coming from the mirror. Sirius's mouth fell open in surprise and Remus froze in astonishment.
"Oh! My Merlin." Hermione whispered in shock looking at the mirror lying on the table.
"He has come out in open!" Harry said incredulously as he recovered from the shock.
"Sshh." Remus shushed all of them as she heard Dumbledore's voice again coming from the mirror.
Tonks was shocked too. To say it mildly that she was blown out of her mind, like someone had performed a "Reducto" to her head. She didn't fail to notice though that Molly and Arthur were standing back of the room looking at all the others with smug expressions over their face. "They knew." She thought grimly.
"Silence." Dumbledore called out and the reaction was immediate. Everybody stopped their talking and Tonks from her musings, making everyone stare at him.
"Albus, you are alive." Professor McGonagall exclaimed after a brief period of silence.
"Indeed Minerva." He replied looking very amused at her reaction.
"But how is this even possible?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked him in his deep, heavy voice, surprise pasted on his face.
"That is a very interesting question Kingsley."
"Then Begin." Tonks spoke up now urging him to continue, and a little irritated, worried and anxious by the sequence of happenings now.
"Why don't you all sit down? It is after all a long story." He answered as he waved his wand and materializing chairs for all of them.
"Comfortable?" A murmur of approval was heard.
Clearing his throat he started "Well as you all knew that the day I was 'killed', I had been out on a mission with Harry. We both were not present in Hogwarts for a couple of hours. Thanks to Severus, I had already known in advance that the Death Eaters would take over Hogwarts and they had planned to kill me; and Draco Malfoy was the one to do it. You see it was like a test for me, weather he could do this task for his master and was also a punishment for him, a punishment for the mistake which was done by his father; Lucius Malfoy. So I started planning, that particular day was planned by me very carefully. I had to 'kill' myself to show Voldemort that I had been killed because I knew he wouldn't stop until he did 'kill' me. It took me a couple of weeks in advance to plan everything out, what had to be done when. The plan was to go with Harry to the place from where I had to retrieve something, something very important."
"What?" Kingsley asked him.
"Forgive me; but I won't be able to reveal that." Dumbledore said when he saw many order members opening their mouth to argue with him when he spoke up again not allowing them to interrupt him "I will tell you, but not now. You will all come to know at the right time, don't worry."
"What is he talking about?" Sirius asked instantly to Harry and Hermione as he heard Dumbledore say at the other end of the mirror.
"We'll tell you later Sirius." Hermione said not once looking away from the small book as she took down notes of what was happening in the meeting in her book.
Sirius looked at them doubtfully "We will Sirius, we swear." Harry reassured him and throwing him a glance and then looking back at Hermione's notes, adding something here and there in case she had missed something to write down. Sirius accepted his defeat and nodded his head and listened to Dumbledore again.
"So after Harry and I returned to Hogwarts; with Harry's help as he apparated us both to Hogsmeade and then we flied to Hogwarts to my office directly, I immediately came to know that the war had started; I saw the dark mark floating in the air. I had asked Severus to put it up so that I would know when it all starts. We both landed in my room and I knew that it wasn't long that the death eaters would come up here with Mr. Malfoy so I made Harry hide behind my desk and petrified him and put his cloak upon him so he would be invisible, safe and out of the war zone, I also did that so that he wouldn't interfere in what I had planned for weeks. As here everyone knows that he has a saving people thing, very well said by his friend Ms. Granger-"
"Sorry." Hermione mouthed to Harry when he looked at her as Dumbledore was saying this. Harry simply shrugged and squeezed her hand.
"-What Harry didn't know was that when during the time I hid him I made a doppelganger and made myself invisible."
"Ingenious." Someone whispered from back. Dumbledore heard and just smiled back.
"So that means that Severus-"Minerva spat his name out "killed your doppelganger, not you." She clarified.
"Yes Minerva."
"But didn't Harry notice your doppelganger, Dumbledore?" This times Tonks spoke up.
"Yes, he did. It took me some time produce my doppelganger."
"Then why didn't Harry remember any of-"Tonks stopped in mid sentence and the answer came to him immediately "You oblivated him!"
"I was necessary at that time." He spoke to a disbelieved Tonks. Tonks did not say anything still shocked at what he had done.
"Albus!" Minerva chastised him but he didn't answer back to her.
"So what about Severus then?" Mad eye asked him then.
"Alastor, he was simply doing what I asked him do, nothing more."
"Did he know that he killing your doppelganger?"
"Yes, he knew this, otherwise he wouldn't do it."
"And Malfoy?"
"Mr. Malfoy was ordered to kill me by Voldemort, he had no choice but do that."
"If he wouldn't do it, then what would be the consequences?" Mad eye asked.
"His mother would have been killed." There was a collective intake of breathe at that.
"So what now?" Kingsley asked interrupting the silence after some moments.
"Will you come back, Albus?" Minerva asked. "To Hogwarts?"
"As much I want to Minerva, it won't be wise to return back there."
"But why?"
"You already know the answer to that Minerva. I can't go back, because everybody thinks that I'm dead. How can I go back?"
"Then what will you do?"
"I will go into hiding."
"But there are so many rooms in Hogwarts you can stay there and not be found out." She argued.
"Minerva, I have to frequently come and go out of Hogwarts irrespective of the time." He tried to explain.
"I think it is better if he doesn't stay in Hogwarts." Molly Weasley spoke up for the first time "You can never be careful in Hogwarts, there are plenty of chances of someone seeing him."
"Then where will he live?" This time Kinsley asked Dumbledore but turned towards Molly.
"Kinsley, if I told you the place, it wouldn't be called hiding." Dumbledore answered him.
"What about Harry?" Tonks said then.
"About about Harry, Tonks?"
"Shouldn't he know- that you are alive."
"He will, but not now."
"But-"
"Not now Tonks." Tonks shut her mouth a frown marrying her face.
"I think that I have taken your time already, you are free to leave but you have to take an oath first." He spoke up again as he saw many order members becoming restless, looking at their watches.
"What kind of oath?"Mad eye asked being his suspicious self.
"An oath which will not allow you to speak about me being alive to anyone except to those who already know about it." Everybody took the oath without any resistant. Tonks immediately left not wanting to stick around in the hose any more. She apparated back and walked toward the hose. She soon felt being sprinkled by water and after a minute or so she was inside the house.
"Tonks." Remus said as he saw her entering the house and went and gave her a hug.
"I'm fine Remus." She said still hugging him. They broke apart and sat on the sofa.
"You heard the oath right?" Tonks spoke up once she settled down comfortably.
"Yes, but you can speak to us because we already know about him being alive." Harry said.
"Yes that's what I figured or else I wouldn't have done it." She said realizing a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"You wouldn't have any choice, but take the oath." Hermione said now.
"If I would have said no, then?"
"You would be oblivated." Sirius answered her.
"Would Dumbledore really do that- sorry a dumb question." He hastily said as he saw other's faces.
"Dumbledore will do anything to get his work done his way Harry; legal or illegal." Sirius spoke up.
"Yes, I know; but it doesn't make it any easier to believe it."
"I know, I have idolized him since I had stepped into Hogwarts and now he is doing all this its little difficult to take it." Hermione said agreeing with Harry. None of the others spoke anything else about it.
Changing the subject Tonks announced "The Weasley's know everything."
"What do you mean?" asked Sirius.
"Well when Dumbledore came into open, Molly and Arthur were sitting at the back of the room, I sneaked a glance at them and they looked anything but surprised seeing him instead they looked smug as though they had an upper hand it, like they know something we don't."
"It's not so surprising, actually." Remus said.
"No it isn't." Sirius agreed with him.
"So what now. Harry asked. Every one turned towards Hermione to know her views about it. Hermione's cheeks turned red when she saw all the attention was now on her. Clearing her throat she started "Well first we should find out where Dumbledore is planning to hide and think of a way how we can get the information from the Weasley's too."
"Why?" Harry asked her.
"Harry, once we know where he is staying we can keep an eye on him; and by knowing what the Weasley's know we will have an upper hand then."
"Where do you thing he can stay?" Tonks asked as she started at the fireplace deep in thought.
"The Burrow?"
"No, not up to his standards and it would be too obvious." Remus said.
"The Grimmauld Place."
"No, too dark…and dirty."
"Hey!" Sirius objected. "Dark-yes but not dirty!" Tonks snickered at this.
Remus started to say something when Hermione spoke again "You should know about the Horcrux's"
"The what?" Sirius asked baffled.
"You know what Dumbledore was talking about, for which we both had left Hogwarts that day." Harry explained.
Hermione looked at Harry, he nodded and she started "Horcrux is a receptacle in which the Dark wizard or witch has hidden a part of his or her soul for the purposes of attaining immortality. With part of the soul stored, the wizard or witch becomes immortal so long as the Horcrux remains intact, even when the body of the wizard or witch is gravely injured. Horcruxes are typically hidden in a safe location, some place which is not known by many so that they don't come in contact with anyone. Even if the wizard's body is destroyed, a portion of his soul will remain preserved within the Horcrux. "
"So what happens when the wizard who has made a Horcrux dies?" Remus asked looking very, very interested.
"When the wizard dies, it leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without a corporeal form."
"But why didn't I come across it in all the books I have read?" He asked again.
"Because the Dark magic involved in the creation of a Horcrux is considered most despicable and is therefore rarely published, even in books devoted to the Dark Arts."
"That explains it." He said nodding his head.
"But what does that got to do with Voldemort?" Tonks asked and immediately answered "Oh! My Merlin, he has made a Horcrux." Sirius and Remus looked worried too.
"How is it made?" Sirius asked.
"To create a Horcrux requires one to commit a murder, which, as the supreme act of evil, rips the soul apart. After the murder, a spell is cast to infuse part of the ripped soul into an object, which becomes the Horcrux."
"So how can Voldemort be killed then?" he asked again.
"To kill Voldemort you have to destroy a Horcrux, which will destroy the fragment of soul contained within it. Once they are destroyed, then Voldemort will be able to die a normal death when he is mortally wounded."
"So how do you destroy it?" Tonks asked.
"Well until few weeks ago I did not know the answer but then after I found Dumbledore's diaries, he had written in them that to kill a Horcrux, it should suffer damage so severe that repair through magical means would be impossible"
"And with what can you do that much damage?"Remus asked puzzled.
"I don't know." Hermione said sheepishly. "But I am trying to find it. But the problem is I don't know where to start."
"The dairies, what's written in that?" Harry asked.
"Only that the Horcrux should be damaged severely but there is nothing about how to cause the damage."
"Maybe..." Sirius started as he thought about something.
"Maybe what?"
"Maybe, you can check out the Black library. The library will have many Dark Arts books. You can read through them." He suggested.
While Hermione was esthetic to read all the amazing, old authentic books, she also knew that those books were dark. She was reluctant to do it when Remus said "Yes, and I will help you too. It will be faster that way"
"Okay." She agreed.
Suddenly Tonks said "So we destroy one Horcrux and then we kill you-Know-Who and he dies… forever."
"Not one Tonks but seven." Harry said.
"Merlin." Sirius whispered.