Disclaimer: God bless JK Rowling for such lovely characters.

Dedication: to Jebus and the Easter Bunny. Many more years of holiday bliss to them.Happy Easter!

XxXxX

Aly swallowed hard as she knocked on the door. She had never examined the surface of this door, possible the most important door in the whole house. Never in all of her 13 years of existence had this door held such prominence. She normally would have just run through it and knocked something over in the process, but, today, she knocked. This had to be formal. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of knowing it wasn't.

She had first gone to the school and when she hadn't found him there she went to the house. Funny, she thought, always the house, never "home." This was her second obvious choice of where he would be. He rarely was found anywhere except his two offices.

"Yes?" his puzzled voice came through the sturdy wood.

Aly paused, licked her lips, and turned the door knob. He was standing as if to investigate the knock when no one replied to his call. He stopped mid-air. He was in a mid squat-mid standing position. He stood up straight and looked at her.

Neither said anything and Aly moved further into the room. "I'm not bothering you, am I?"

"Not at all," he replied without any evident emotion.

She had planned everything she was going to say on her way over and now that she was face to face with her father, Aly stumbled. Everything she had thought of went out of her head as if magically erased. She opened her mouth but then closed it. She had absolutely no idea what to say.

"Sit," he instructed her and so she slid into a seat facing him. "I'm not sure where to begin," he informed her looking slightly embarrassed.

"How about when you decided to send spies to Lily's," Aly supplied trying to keep the enmity out of her voice, but failing. She reminded herself she had come to apologize, not to fight.

Dumbledore sighed. "I had to,"

"No," Aly cut him off, "You could've sent me a owl or something."

"Yes, but to send you something solid, like a letter, would have just ended in you ripping it up. Correct me if I'm wrong," he peered at her over his glasses.

Aly's back stiffened as she silently resided against letting him know that he knew exactly what she would have done with a letter.

When she didn't reply, Dumbledore continued, "It was the most logical thing to do. You couldn't ignore a person and I knew if it was myself you would've just slammed the door in my face. So, I sent some of you friends."

"They aren't my friends," Aly stated shortly.

"Very well, we won't argue the point, but it was effective, was it not? You are here talking to me."

Aly suddenly felt the hatred she had been feeling for this man reappear as quickly as a match being struck. His voice rang with triumph from their on-going battle. Aly had lost and realized it was by her own doing. She had come crawling back just like he had hoped. She jumped up swiftly and the chair toppled backwards. She paid it no heed.

She started shouting, the words coming in short burst as she tried to control her anger subconsciously. "You can't just sit there and—thinking you know me so well—you, you don't even understand me! You couldn't even being to understand me, you've never tried. And you sit there, smiling! Thinking you've won, well, you have. You made me come back, but I still don't take it back. I HATE YOU! And I'll say it again and again until it sinks in!" His face fell right before her eyes and she felt her own victory. "Don't make that face—you have no right. You don't love me, you never have. You didn't even want me when I came and you still don't. Why the hell should I care about you if you don't care about me?"

She turned on her heel and stormed to the door.

"Don't go," he was standing up.

Aly paused, her hand on the door knob, and turned back.

"Please sit down," Dumbledore pleaded. Aly, startled, hesitated and then strode back over to the chair and, after picking it up, sat down in it.

"You can yell all you want, but you shouldn't yell things that aren't true." Aly just starred at him. "You say I don't understand you and you may be right. I'll be the first to admit that I don't truly know what goes on inside another humans mind, much less that of a thirteen year old girl. But you also say I don't love you and that is not true. You know it, or at least I hope you do. And then you say," he said slowly, "That I didn't want you."

"It's not a lie is it?" He looked at her as he tried to calculate how much to actually tell. He finally decided that the truth would be better to tell than a sweet story to cover-up a black mark in his life. He sighed and Aly braced herself for what was coming. She could tell it wouldn't be good since his face told her plainly that this was paining him to think about.

"No, I didn't."

Aly's mind went into shock. It was one thing for her to say it herself, but to hear from his mouth was a slap in the face. "What?" she gapped.

"Let me explain," he implored. "You were a great surprised to me. I had a very comfortable life. I was going to be given the role of head master the next school year. I was happy with working and then going home to your mother and living very simply." He looked down at his hand and examined his long fingers as he said this as if too mortified to meet Aly's eyes. "At first I was angry at you. You were the greatest scapegoat in the world. I could blame you for upturning my life.

"Your mother started picking out room colors and toys and things like that. I, however, was harboring a greathate for this—this thing—growing inside my wife. I soon became mad at your mother. She was always pushing me about names and doctor appointments. Then this little bulge appeared on her stomach and I blamed you for making my beautiful wife fat."

He chuckled, "I was so ignorant. But I remember," his voice was light-hearted as if amused at the memory he was about to embark on, "Yes, I remember one night sitting in bed with Patricia and she was poking her stomach. She liked to do that. She said it was stimulation so you'd walk earlier or something like that. Anyways, I was grading papers, which I hated doing, and I remember mumbling, I always did that when I graded papers. Well, your mother suddenly gasped and I jumped up and remember being very disoriented because I didn't know anything about babies. For all I knew, she could've been going into labor. She laughed at me and took my hand and told me to 'Feel'. So, with my hand on her stomach, I felt a small twitch."

He chuckled again. "I, being the baby acknowledgeable person I was, asked her what the movement was. She laughed at me again and told me, 'It's the baby.' That was the first time I felt slightly excited about your coming. As your movement became more and more visible and then when your mother brought home a sonogram picture was when I became the most excited."

"I remember the day you arrived," his eyes clouded and his voice lost its carefree tone and it became thick with emotion. "I woke up and your mother told me 'Be careful. It's Friday the Thirteenth.' I kissed her on the head and went to school." His face looked dark and forbidding suddenly and his jaw looked set as he continued. "I got an owl later in the day and went home immediately. I found out later that she was already in labor when I left. I only got the owl at the very end on the whole ordeal. When I got home, she was bleeding horribly and she was screaming. They gave her a potion to ease the pain.

"You were born at about 4 pm. I remember the horrible rip sound that echoed through the room. Then it went silent. I heard a little cry and they put you on your mothers chest so she could see you." He smiled again, "She smiled and touched your head of hair with one gentle curl on top. The healer asked for your name and your mother told her, 'My little Aly cat'."

"That's where my nickname comes from," Aly said in surprise.

"Yes," her father nodded. "She instead you be Alyson with 'y'. She said it gave you character, even though she knew, with your genes, you wouldn't need much help with the character department. I gave you the Patricia, for her, after she passed. She handed you to me and told me to love you like I had loved her.

"And . . . that was it. You feel silent. It was if you knew to be quiet. And that leads us to where we are today. So, you were right when you said I didn't want you then. However, that is far from the truth now."

Aly looked up at him and caught his eyes. "Really?" she whispered.

He looked shocked as he said, "Of course, Aly. I love you." He got up and walked around to the front of his desk. He leaned onto the edge of it and said, "You are the most important thing in the world to me. Despite what you may think at times."

A quick click from the back of Aly's mind happened and she mumbled, "Which makes me most susceptible to Voldemort."

Dumbledore eyebrow raised, "I guess your right."

"Alright, what are we going to do about this?"

"This what?" he asked rubbing his chin, messing up his beard.

Aly stood up and was now pacing across his office.

"Everything," she mumbled, watching her feet as she went back and forth, back and forth.

He smiled at the figure she made, knowing that she had picked up this habit by watching him do it so often. "Ok, for starters, you could come home."

"No," Aly said simply, not stopping. "I find our relationship works best if we have separate time. We spend September to June together, that's enough."

Dumbledore wanted to push the subject further, but stopped, knowing it would only make her anger again. "Ok, then what else is there?"

Aly stopped. She bit her bottom lip as she thought. She turned to him finally and said, "This Voldemort guy, you think he'll be bugging me anytime soon?"

"No, you aren't any use to him yet."

"Well, then we can discuss him at a later time then, right?"

"If that's what you'd like."

Aly thought he was being too kind and too vague with his answers, but decided not to say anything. She was getting her way. "Then I better go," she finally said. "No one knows I left. They might worry."

She started to leave, turned and went over and hugged her father briefly. "Bye dad," she said departing. "Just let me know if I should be extra careful of Voldie."

And with that she was gone from his life, again. Little did she know that he had placed charms on her as she left. At least now, he would be able to watch her safety from distance.

XxXxX

Let's "keep it simple, stupid." Review. Blunt and to the point, the best way to put things.