The next morning, a large envelope arrived for me. The damned package nearly knocked over my coffee. I wouldn't have been able to forgive the owl had that happened. My Gryffindor chums did not need to see me in a full-on spilled coffee rage.

My name, Francis Stewart, Lord Karnak, was spelled out on the paper in perfect script. It was quite beautiful, and I was a little scared to open it. I did anyway.

The first line on the first sheet read, "Vault Inventory: Karnak". First up were books. A lot of them. Including some that sounded rather interesting.

"What's 'Dover Skeckly's "Amazonian Herbs and their Magikal Uses" first printing, signed'?"

The curly-haired girl beside me sighed in a very sexual way, and said, "That's a book that you're going to loan to your favorite witch. Me."

"Um, why am I going to do that?" I had to ask because I was baptised Full-Gospel Instigator after I was born.

"Because, I'll be very happy if you do." She smiled, and I hope the other kids didn't see the heat in her eyes.

"Your happiness is nice, but I'd like to know more. I feel like I'd never get it back if I let you borrow it."

Oh my God, did she huff and puff!

"Fine! That tome is legendary…" Hermione began.

Neville interrupted.

"There're only three copies. Or, at least, that's what they say." The lad looked amazingly sheepish. "I'd be pleased to borrow it after Hermione does...If you let her, that is."

"Ah," I said, and moved on to another item. Next up were magical items and their properties.

"Gown of unmentionable seductions." I smiled from ear to ear. That sounded like a grand old time! "Makes the wearer irresistible to all."

The pretty girl who often shared my bed looked at me with steely eyes and commented. "You're stingy with your books. You'll likely be cursed for that. Really. A curse that causes 'persistent vile body odor," I bet."

"Mirror of Unending Horrors." I shuddered. "I probably need to take this list to Dumbledore and find out if any of the other objects are dangerous."

"PERSISTENT vile BODY odor," Hermione hissed, and then turned her back on me.

"Oh, somebody's in the dog house today!" Ron chuckled. I ignored him.

I mumbled something and followed it with "Galleons." That got attention.

"How much money have you got now?" Seamus asked, eyes gleaming.

Harry looked over my arm and whistled. "More than enough. Lots of other stuff, too. A manor house on top of it all!"

I grumbled at him about privacy and giving me a chance to give it a serious read.

"Well, you should've never opened it at breakfast," Hermione chided, still quite annoyed with me.

"Ah well, I'm going to rectify this by finding a nice quiet place to read. Have a good morning everyone."

I picked up and left without even saying another word.

On my way elsewhere, I ran into Dumbledore, and pulled him aside to ask about some of the items on the inventory. He raised his eyebrows a few times, and pointed out some things I definitely needed to be aware of, and probably report to the Ministry of Magic.

Dumbledore explained that "Weenis Pagliacci's 'Concordance of Venomous Curses' first printing, DaVinci illustrations" is a very dark text indeed, and should be confiscated for the Ministry of Magic.

I was crestfallen. Da Vinci illustrations!

"The Skeckly book is just as rare as young Neville says. Small wonder he and Hermione would want to get their hands on it, if only for a short while." The old man gave me a warm little smile. "I think it might be more appropriate when they're Seventh Years. No one wants charmed vines slithering around the water closets."

"I'm still a little sad about the Da Vinci illustrations," I mumbled. Then again, I could just save those pages and destroy the rest. Thoughts.

We went over the rest of the list, and I learned that I have a "sketch for a larger work" by Michelangelo in the vault.

"Well," the professor smiled, "that's quite nice, isn't it!"

"Oh, my."

I thanked him and wandered off to do more contemplating, nodding as he reminded me of our later meeting.

-**HPDEB**-

I could hear them arguing from several hallways away. Harry and Hermione never argued. I picked up my pace, enroute to my meeting with Dumbledore.

"I'm telling you, Hermione, Malfoy isn't acting like himself! You saw that for yourself. He walked right by us without calling you a...a...well, y'know."

"Honestly, Harry, how many times will we have this conversation? Malfoy is NOT a Death Eater. He's a 16 year old boy, like yourself. What use could Voldemort possibly have for him?"

I watched Harry droop and was surprised at how harsh Hermione was being. I'd never seen her like this. Perhaps she was having a bad day?

"I hate to break it to you, Curly, but you're wrong."

Hermione started, and I realized they didn't know I was behind them. She turned and stared up at me like I'd grown a second head. Harry, however, looked like he'd won the lottery.

"Frank! Are you serious? How do you know?"

Hermione glanced around and scowled. "We shouldn't really have this conversation here."

She marched away into a deserted classroom, waiting for us to follow her before casting her normal privacy spells.

"Now, Mr. Stewart, what, precisely, are you trying to say?" Mr. Stewart, that was never a good sign. She was probably still miffed from earlier, as well.

"Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater. Has been since I got here. Who knows how long before that."

Harry's face lit up, but Hermione beat him to saying anything. "And you know this, how, precisely?"

"I can see it. He's covered in a sickly cloud of magic, just like Snape. Those two are the only ones with that blue color." She looked ready to protest. "And Dumbledore has confirmed it."

"And you told me not to go to Dumbledore! I told you I wasn't barmy, Hermione!"

I decided to cut Harry off before he started a victory dance. They should know the position the resident Death Eaters are in. "Draco is also afraid for his life. I've noticed his smell change over the time I've been here." Harry and Hermione looked strangely upset by that revelation.

"Afraid for his life? How do you know? What's this about smell?"

"As you well know, Harry, I have senses beyond that of an average human. I can smell fear. Malfoy has been steadily growing more fearful. It's a stink. He literally reeks of fear."

"He's afraid of you, of course." Hermione declared, arms crossed, and still somewhat indignant.

I told her that she's wrong. It didn't go over well.

"He smells that way even when I'm not around, or when he doesn't know I'm there." I stared back at the woman I slept with just as fiercely as she stared at me.

"Bloody hell, you two! Stop it before someone catches fire." Harry stepped back a few paces and pretended to wave smoke away from his face.

"Well, if he is a Death Eater, what's he doing?"

Harry answered simply. "He's a spy. I wager Professor Snape is, too. Dumbledore would be dead now if he were more than a spy."

"The Headmaster is vastly more powerful than Snape." Hermione gesticulated vigorously. "Besides, Frank has utterly terrorized the man."

"I like to think I do my part."

Harry whistled, "You do! I think he quivers when you walk by."

I put my hands in my pockets and replied, "Snape and I have powerful differences in opinions."

"Frank, would you kill him, or even Draco, if they threatened Harry?" Hermione asked me..

My answer was flat and immediate. "Yes."

"You know I don't like Draco, but if he's been forced to be this way, he's still got a chance to change."

"Harry's got a point. I'm not sure about Snape, but Draco's still a kid." I scratched my head. "Anyway, I've got an appointment with Dumbledore. I'll see you guys later."

I messed up their hair and strode from the room.

"He really likes messing up people's hair," Harry commented; I could still hear him.

"Mm-hm."

"Does he mess yours up?"

"Harry Potter, don't you grin at me that way!"

** - HPDEB - **

Frank arrived on time. "Professor, before we begin, I have a few questions for you."

Dumbledore eagerly grasped at the chance to postpone this difficult conversation.

"By all means, Frank, ask away."

"I had a long conversation with Harry on Sunday, about his life. And Hermione has mentioned things here and there as well. I'm concerned about him. About his education, or lack of it. He shows no real enthusiasm. On top of that, you aren't training Harry. No one is. You're letting him coast through life. He should be pressed to be the top of his class. Instead he's near the bottom of the middle."

Dumbledore's voice was low. "It is not essential."

"The boy has a madman after him! How is it not essential for him to be prepared?" Frank was almost yelling. He wanted to howl.

Dumbledore sighed, and suddenly looked much older. He knew Frank wasn't going to like what came next, but it was time he was told the most sensitive part of Harry Potter's story.

"Professor, you do not look at all comfortable." A true observation, and a massive understatement.

"I am not." Dumbledore wasn't given to pacing, but he walked back and forth across his office floor, trying to figure out a way to broach the topic properly.

"I've told you much of Harry's story, but there is still more. You may, seeing how attached you are to the boy, find it quite unsettling."

"Sir, from what I've seen of this world so far, I wouldn't expect it to be roses and High Tea." Frank leaned against the desk and attempted to look relaxed. It was nearly impossible, Dumbledore was so agitated.

"The night Voldemort tried to kill Harry, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded on Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort's soul, which was already so unstable, was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself onto the only living soul left in the vicinity: Harry. I believe Voldemort was planning to use Harry's death to create a final Horcrux, a soul container, so his soul was already prepared to separate.

"However it happened, part of Lord Voldemort lives inside Harry, and it is that which gives him the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with Voldemort's mind that neither has ever truly understood."

"While that fragment of soul remains attached to and, in essence, protected by Harry, Voldemort cannot die."

** - HPDEB - **

"So you're telling me that Harry has to die in order to permanently kill Voldemort?" My voice was flat. A feeling was oozing up from inside me, and I couldn't tell which one it was.

"Yes. It is the only way for Voldemort to be vanquished."

"How can you be certain? How many have you told this story? Who have you consulted?" I felt they were reasonable questions.

"This knowledge is dangerous. I cannot risk others knowing."

I had to work very hard to stay still. "You're telling me that you have decided, entirely on your own, that Harry Potter must die."

There it was, anger. I snapped inside.

"I don't expect you to understand–" Dumbledore began.

I stood, just to give myself something to do. I couldn't keep my voice neutral. "No. That isn't a valid argument. You cannot possibly know everything. It simply isn't possible for the human mind to hold all of that information. There could be possibilities in the Muggle world, like plastic surgery. The Goblins could have some secret ritual. Perhaps your bird could cry on it! Or there could be little known knowledge hidden in one of those myriad of books in the library downstairs. If you're going to offer up Harry as a sacrificial lamb for slaughter, you'd best be damn certain that there is no other way!"

I needed to get out of there before my technology decided to eliminate a threat.

"Harry is my charge, Headmaster. Anyone wishing to harm him must go through me. Anyone."

"You act as though you have the right to decide what's best for him."

That did it. I grabbed Dumbledore and pinned him against the nearest wall. A small part of my mind made sure I didn't cause too much damage to him.

"You are doing precisely that. You've never asked his permission, his advice, or even his general thoughts about the things you've done and put him through. YOU ARE NOT INFALLIBLE! You are just as capable of making mistakes as the rest of us!"

I could see fear in his eyes, but it was held in check by his overconfidence.

"The boy must do his duty to our world."

"HE'S JUST A BOY! HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY DUTY YET!"

"MISTER STEWART! What are you doing!? Let the Headmaster go!"

I'd been so angry I'd completely ignored my heads-up display. McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout were all standing in the doorway.

"Frank, you must stop," said Flitwick.

"It is quite alright, just a little misunderstanding," said Dumbledore.

"Misunderstanding? Misunderstanding? TELL THEM! Tell them what you've told me. What you've done!"

The three professors stared at us like deer in headlights. This, more than anything, alerted me to the fact that I needed to leave.

I set Dumbledore down and speared him with a look that left only fear in his eyes. And perhaps regret. "You tell them your idea of Harry's future. You tell them how you've come to this decision."

I walked out, stopping just outside the door.

"Oh, and Headmaster, I give you until dinner to change your mind about Harry's fate, or tell him the price he'll pay for being dutiful. He deserves to know you see him as little more than a pawn to play with."

As I walked down the stairs, I could hear Dumbledore quite clearly. "But it's our only hope." I also heard the Professors begin to bombard him with questions.

** - HPDEB - **

Students got out of the way when they saw Frank in the halls. No one was sure where he was going, but they didn't want to be there when he arrived.

Hermione, Luna and Parvati saw him. They didn't move.

"I've never seen someone so angry. Death Eaters don't even look that angry!" Parvati whispered.

"My goodness!" Luna stared at them with saucer-sized eyes. "The Ponpolites are bursting into flames all around him! The loss of life is terrible!"

For her part, Hermione kept her mouth closed. Frank had a meeting with Dumbledore earlier, but what the Professor could have done or said to make him so furious...She couldn't imagine.

Later, maybe in an hour or two, she might try to find him and help if she could. For the moment, staying away seemed like a good plan.

** - HPDEB - **

A few minutes later, Draco saw Frank approaching and promptly ran away.

Professor Snape, who had been speaking with young Malfoy at the time, prepared to chide him for being rude. He looked up as Frank passed by and understood why Draco disappeared.

"That was disturbing," Snape said out loud in the vacant hallway, "and I don't ever want to see it again."

** - HPDEB - **

Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, Supreme Mugwump, and Chief Warlock, stood at his office window. Frank was striding through the courtyard with a terrible will. Dumbledore was certain that the winter grass would wither more under those terrible strides.

"Have I gone too far?" He asked himself. "Have I been too proud?"

The great man turned away from his window.

"What have I done?" It was a broad, and very painful, question.

"Tell us, Professor Dumbledore." Flitwick said, all business. "It appears there are things we need to know.

Dumbledore did as he was told, after swearing them to secrecy, and prepared to accept censure afterward.

Minerva McGonagall stared, open-mouthed, when he finished the story. Flitwick hissed and rocked back on his heels. Pomona Sprout simply wept.

Flitwick was the first to regain his ability to speak. "Dumbledore, I must agree with Frank. There has to be another way."

"Dumbledore…Albus," McGonagall said, her voice cracking, "please, please…oh, please…"

Sprout stepped forward, mopped her face with a dirt-encrusted hankie, cleared her throat, and slapped Dumbledore.

"You are not all-powerful and all-knowing. The lad is going to suffer for your pride, and that is…beneath you. Find another way."

"There isn't one!" Dumbledore threw his arms into the air, ignoring his burning cheek. "I have done all that can be done!"

"No. You. Haven't." McGonagall had regained some of her composure, but her Scottish burr still rang far stronger than usual. "And you've never given the boy a choice. I would never have allowed things to go so long had I known Harry Potter was ignorant of his fate."

"The way I see it, Headmaster," said Flitwick, "you either become open to other answers, or die at the hand of the man you set in place as Harry's protector. If, for some reason he shows you mercy, you will have lost our respect, regardless."

Flitwick turned and walked out the door. Sprout followed him. Only McGonagall remained.

"I will be back before dinner," she told him, spun on her heel, and left him alone.

He dropped to the floor the moment the office door closed, and stayed there for some time.

** - HPDEB - **

I wanted to do a lot of things, none of which could possibly do Harry, Hermione, Dumbledore, or me any good. Anger had me. It had me so hard that I almost stopped caring about anything or anyone.

Not a good place to be.

Instead of punching holes through walls, stones, people, furniture, or the like, I took a walk. It just ended up with me underwater in wintertime. I'd reached the lake and didn't care. My feet carried me for fifty feet before the ice shattered and I fell into the frigid depths.

Didn't matter that I hit the bottom. I felt gills forming, and webbing growing between my fingers. Leave it to my body to adapt.

I have to say that I'm very, very grateful to the giant squid in the lake. When I saw him, my mind cleared in an instant. When he reached out and gave me a loving hug, I lost everything that resembled anger in my heart. Instead, I worried that he might not let me go.

Hurting the big guy was out of the question, and I don't speak Giant Squid.

Panic set in a little when he tried to nibble on me with his scary beak. Passing through a squid's digestive track would take time. And hurt. Luckily, I'm not tasty, so he threw me away.

An opportunity to exit a touchy situation without hurting anyone is worth taking. I walked along the bottom of the lake until my head slapped against the ice. I broke it, and strolled back to dry land.

The gills and webbing reabsorbed, and my lungs started working normally. I felt very thoughtful as I stood there, letting my body do what it does so well.

"Squid hickies were not on my bucket list."

** - HPDEB - **

Frank appeared during Quidditch practice. Harry could see him from the air quite easily, and Ron pointed him out when he flew by the rings on a long loop around the stadium.

He could see them, for sure. Harry smiled and goaded his broom just a little harder. It was amazing having someone who feels like an older brother.

Frank was proud of him. He knew it like he knew water was wet, but he didn't know HOW he knew.

** - HPDEB - **

I watched Harry execute a stomach-tormenting turn on his broom and threw my arms into the air. Thumbs up! All the way up!

Things clicked. Suddenly, I saw the shape of my purpose and another path that needed to be explored.

"Oh my God," I said, "this is going to be ugly."

I waved at the team before I walked away. They waved back. It was a happy moment.

Better to store them up ahead of what might become a slash and burn operation.

** - HPDEB - **

Albus paced his office. Dinner was not far off, which meant neither was a confrontation with the most dangerous person in the world.

"There is no better solution. There can't be." He paced and clenched his hands. "I've explored everything. Harry has to die. Death will take the horcrux in payment for his life, and Harry will be revived."

Dumbledore froze. The moment had come. He had to convince Frank of his convictions and clarity of thought, or fall.

Frank didn't bother knocking.

"Dumbledore."

"Frank."

"Tell me you've come up with another solution. Please."

He was surprised. The "please" was genuine.

"I've thought everything through, just as I've done since Lily and James were killed." He held his hands upward, placating, reassuring. "Harry has to die."

The temperature of his office plummeted as Frank walked towards him. He only had one card left to play, one secret left.

"Harry will survive death."

Frank stopped in his tracks, perhaps ten feet away.

"How in the Hell do you figure that, Dumbledore?"

"Death takes souls. The moment Harry dies, the fragment of Voldemort's soul will be released. Death will take his payment in the form of the horcrux, and Harry will come back to life."

"You are a dangerously megalomaniacal old man. How egotistical you are, deluded, to even think you can bargain with Death." Frank started to walk forward again.

Albus drew his wand, hoping against everything he knew that magic could save him.

Minerva McGonagall walked through his office door. Frank had left it open.

"Frank Stewart, stay your hand," she said, and drew her wand.

"Stay out of it Minerva," Dumbledore warned, "no one else needs to be involved."

"What is going on here?" Snape hissed from directly behind McGonagall. He'd followed her, just to see why she was speeding down the halls in such an undignified manner.

"Leave, Severus!"

"No"

The professors aimed their wands at the same time, ready to do anything to save their headmaster, even die in the attempt.

"I agree with Dumbledore," Frank told them, "this isn't about you. Walk away."

"Never, you monster!" Severus Snape stood tall and readied himself for the killing curse, and what could come after. "I may not always agree with him, but I will not let you kill an innocent man."

** - HPDEB - **

The words left Snape's lips and I lost my temper.

"INNOCENT MAN?" I bellowed at the top of my lungs. "How blind are you? Are you that desperate for redemption that you can't see he's wrong?"

"How dare you judge? This isn't your world!" Snape yelled at me.

"Because HOGWARTS brought me HERE!"

"What?" Dumbledore whispered. "What did you say?"

I rounded on him. "Hogwarts brought me here. The Room of Requirement IS Hogwarts. Hogwarts IS the Room of Requirement. Harry's not the only one who needs me."

"You egomaniac!" Snape snarled. "Do you propose to know the unknowable as well?"

"I know what I need to know." I hissed right back at him, perilously close to killing out of anger. "I made a vow to protect Harry Potter. I've come to love him like my brother."

The wall inside me cracked right down the middle and the words came out through my closed throat, up from the rubble in my heart.

"Goddamn you all! I will not let him die!"

Dumbledore spoke to me in a very quiet voice.

"I knew I wasn't wrong about you. I thought that through as well. Can't you trust me? Will you not extend that to me?"

"No."

"Why Frank? Don't you know I love him too?"

It took everything I had not to break down or surrender to the demons inside me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to kill.

"You love being right more than you love him. You left him, a child, with a pack of abusive hyenas called 'relatives'. I dare you to tell me that was right."

"It was necessary."

"BULLSHIT!"

I threw the old man against his bookshelves again. My ability to be measured in my use of force was quickly crumbling. I could feel his pulse, and knew precisely how it would feel to squeeze the life out of him.

"Stewart," Snape called out from across the room, "how can Potter be saved when the greatest of us cannot see that path?"

I looked back over my shoulder and pinned him with my eyes.

** - HPDEB - **

"He's going to kill me right after he kills Albus. There isn't anything I can do about it, either," Snape said to himself.

"See, Severus. That's the problem. You've spent too much time worshiping Dumbledore to notice that he's still human. Humans make mistakes. Leading a boy to the slaughter is one of them," Frank said to him.

"You cannot know more. You cannot see more. You have only just arrived." Severus spoke in the most even tone of voice he'd ever tried to use. He was hoping to get out of this without any loss of life. Dumbledore was essential to the light.

"So, you knew about this." Frank hissed, "Another conspirator appears. Tell me Severus, if this was Draco, would you let one man with only one answer control his life?"

Snape rocked backwards on his feet, right into the door. The answer welled up in him along with the first tears he'd shed in decades.

"No," he said, and it was the truth.

"Then you understand my position. There will be another way." Frank nodded as a thought occurred to him. "There is another way."

McGonagall spoke to him. "You propose to save him. How will you do it?"

** - HPDEB - **

"I can make him like me. Voldemort used magic to saddle the boy with a fragment of evil. If Harry were like me, he'd be immune, and the magic wouldn't hold. The Dark Lord would die without hope of ever coming back."

"You cannot do such a thing!" Snape yelled. The prospect of another undying monster in the world was more than he wanted to imagine. "His magical core could be destroyed! The boy would be as good as dead!"

"I can. But unlike you and Dumbledore, I'll let Harry make an informed choice about his life and death." Frank's mind was working very fast. Making various connects in fractions of a second as he calmed down. "But before I do, I'm going to tear apart every horcrux I find and see how they work. If I can peel evil out of them, then I can peel it out of Harry.

"And if I can't do that, I'll cut the damned thing out of him. I can heal such a wound."

I walked towards the door. Snape got out of my way.

I turned back and said, "Do not get in my way. Do not become a threat to Harry's safety. Don't make me keep my promise."

I left them there, and I didn't go to dinner. I wasn't in my room for Hermione to find that evening. I was sitting on top of the highest tower at Hogwarts I could find, contemplating how to bring down everything and everyone. I would rip the Wizarding world apart to keep Harry safe and alive.