A date that suited Muhammad, Sarabeth and Mrs. Gerard Ollivander was arranged, and they all came over one evening, unclear on what exactly it was Alduin needed from them, only knowing it was serious. The dinner was spent in pleasant conversation, chiefly taking apart the recently published response to that legendary Transfiro book. The problem in his equations was finally discovered. As it turned out, his theories about time-travel changing the past had one little drawback: it only worked when no one was aware that it happened, rendering it essentially useless.

"Can you believe he didn't catch that?" Sarabeth asked.

"Well, the equations did check out," Mrs. Gerard pointed out.

"True enough," Muhammad agreed, "but you'd think that common sense would drive him to check every possible loophole. It was just so unlikely!"

"I suppose that when you make what seems like a ground-breaking discovery, you aren't took keen on second-guessing yourself," Alexandra opined.

Immediately after dinner, she retreated back to her room and the rest of the company relocated to the drawing room, where they were offered their drinks of choice and Alduin finally spoke. "First, I need the word of all of you that you will treat this matter as fully confidential," he said. "It is extremely sensitive information."

They all assented. Alduin truly wished he could ask an Unbreakeable Vow from them, but that, of course, would have been an unforgivable affront. Instead, he just look at each of the in turn to indicate his seriousness before he spoke again. "As you know," he said, "I'm the guardian of Harry Potter, my first cousin once removed. You also know that Harry has been left with a scar after his unique survival of the Killing Curse. I have discovered, at the beginning of this school year, that the scar in question was more than simply dead tissue. Harry told me that it reacted to the presence of Quirinius Quirrell, his Defence teacher at the time."

By the looks on their faces, he realized they were working out the implications, but they didn't interrupt him and he continued: "I later discovered that Quirrell had been possessed by Riddle at the time." There was a gasp from Sarabeth. "So it is not difficult to deduce that the reaction was, in fact, to the one who has caused this scar to appear in the first place. I have done some research on the topic, and it seems to me that it can either be some sort of warning spell put there by whatever Lily Potter did to save her son...or some sort of unintentional partial possession by Riddle. But if so, it would seem like a possession the possessing was unaware of, and nothing I've read indicated such a thing existed. However, I'm not an expert in the field of mind and soul, so I asked you here to consult the matter with you."

There was a short silence after he finished, looks of varying degree of horror on the guests' faces. Mrs. Gerard was the first to speak. "I know this is very far from your specialization," she said, "but have you ever heard of Horcruxes?"

"Yes, of course," Alduin replied. "They are one of the recognized ways to make killing one more difficult, aren't they?"

"Yes, the one that works best second only to the Philosopher's Stone."

Alduin frowned. "How are they relevant?"

"Well...it is known that Riddle attempted to cheat death, is it not? This is one of the ways he could have used, and given its reliability, the most likely one, since he'd have hardly balked at the murder required for it, nor, I believe, would he be able to appreciate the disadvantages. At any rate, I believe it could…" She paused. "It is a pity Valerius isn't here, mind and soul is his specialization, though I understand why you refrained from asking him. But from what I understand, this could account for the unconscious possession business."

Alduin frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Simply that from what I know, the two fragments of the soul aren't aware of each other, though they might react in some way, and so if Mr. Potter was possessed by only a part of Riddle, the Dark Lord wouldn't be aware of it."

"Are you trying to tell us that Harry Potter is Riddle's Horcrux?" Sarabeth asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Only that he might be," Mrs. Gerard corrected pedantically.

"So the idea is," Muhammad said slowly, "that Riddle heard the prophecy – supposing there is one – and decided it was the perfect opportunity, turning the chosen one into his vessel of immortality?"

"No, no, no," Mrs. Gerard said immediately. "It wouldn't have been intentional. The whole point of Horcruxes is that you hide part of your soul in something durable, not in the body of a fragile baby."

"But surely...I mean, I don't know much about this, but I'm pretty certain Horcruxes are supposed to be created by a rather complicated ritual. You don't just make one accidentally," Muhammad objected.

"He must have been wanting to make use of the Chosen One in an ironic fashion, like you said," Mrs. Gerard said in answer, "to use his murder to create a Horcrux. And something went wrong. I don't know enough about it to know what, but it'd tie up with whatever Lily Potter did, certainly."

"Let's not forget that part," Muhammad added. "Like Alduin said, there's another option, apart from this weird possession. It might be a warning spell set up by Lily Potter. We don't actually know the scar is a result of the Killing Curse. Everyone just supposes so."

"Finding out, however, would require extensive experiments on Harry." Alduin pointed out, "direct magical ones on his scar, and exhausting Legilimency of his suppressed memories to see if there was anything left about that night, anything about what his mother did. I'm unwilling to let him undergo either."

"So you prefer not knowing?" Mrs. Gerard asked sharply.

"As long as it's not immediately relevant, yes. Especially considering the implications of the Horcrux option." There was a grim silence, then Alduin said with a heavy sigh: "That reminds me...Muhammad said, supposing there was a prophecy. Well, there is. I've heard it."

Sarabeth gave him a sharp look.

"Yes," he said, "I had rather hoped you could help me with that." And he repeated the wording.

Sarabeth frowned. "That is pretty ambiguous even as far as prophecies go," she said. "Of course, if there is a Horcrux in Harry, we know what 'mark him as his equal' means, so that's another point for that theory, I'm afraid. But what exactly can 'neither can live while the other survives' mean...I'll have to do some research on that. I can't tell you off the bat. It might, very well, be somehow connected to the Horcrux as well..."

"That sounds more like the direct opposite, though," Muhammad pointed out. "I mean, if Harry is Riddle's Horcrux, it's more like Riddle can't live unless Harry survives, isn't it?"

Sarabeth gave him an arch look. "Which one of us," she asked, "is an expert on prophecies?"

He raised his hands in surrender. "You are, of course. Forget I said anything."

"I understand why it sounds strange to you," she conceded, "but you have to concentrate more on the interconnection of their lives and deaths that is implied by the wording. That sounds like it could very well express something like a Horcrux. But like I said, I'll need to do some more research."

Alduin nodded. "I'd be very grateful to you...but please, be extremely careful with that research. If this got out..."

She gave him an irritated look. "Of course. I'm not an idiot."

"Very well. Alexandra looked into some historical prophecies to try and compare the wording, maybe you could get together on this?"

"I'll contact her as soon as her confinement is over."

Alduin gave her a grateful smile. "I also have a question for you, Muhammad," he said then, turning to his best friend's father. "I spoke to Dumbledore about the prophecy, and he insists that 'the power Dark Lord knows not' is love. Any insights?"

Muhammad considered. "Yes, it could be. It very well could be. Certainly if something has enough of a destructive potential to bring Riddle down, love would be it."

"Fine, but in that case – how do I prepare Harry? I want to train him to fight, in any case, but apart from that? Dumbledore seems to believe I should encourage his friendships and open expressions of affection and things like that."

"That sounds, if you forgive me, very Dumbledorish." Muhammad frowned. "It's not wrong, per se, but rather amateurish. I'd like to look into it as well, however, before giving you anything definite. If that's okay?"

"Of course. I can't do anything until Harry comes home form the holiday, in any case."

"Very well, I'll do my best to have something for you by then."

The evening was concluded shortly afterwards, and Alduin wandered through the dark manor to his study for a large glass of whisky. Why, he asked the universe, can nothing ever be easy? Why? Just send some help, he muttered, because I can't do this. I'm too tired.

At first, he dismissed the Horcrux option. Yes, now that Mrs. Gerard had suggested it, he could see how it was an obvious way for Riddle to gain immortality. It was very likely there was, indeed, a piece of his soul hidden somewhere. But in Harry? She herself had said it was stupid to make a human into a Horcrux, and an accident just sounded unlikely.

But the more he thought about it, the less certain he was. Not one of his friends had ever heard of any other way to create a possession where the possessing was unaware of it. It seemed that if that part of his theory was right, it had to be a Horcrux. He could, of course, concentrate on the other option, like Muhammad had suggested, but…it always seemed like the less likely one, if he was being honest.

He was a little stumped here by not knowing the exact circumstances of Lily's death, of course, but still. If it was a warning mechanism, it was an extremely unreliable one. It had only hurt Harry strongly once. After that, from what the boy said, it was only small twinges, such he wouldn't have probably even noticed if he hadn't been looking for them. It hadn't seemed to protect Harry in any way when they were in the Mirror chamber. It didn't even hurt there, apparently. Of course, if this was a random byproduct of a different spell, it could have this sort of blotchy result, but Alduin wasn't aware of any similar cases, and none of his friends looked like it was familiar to them either. And they were all very widely read friends.

The more Alduin thought about it, nursing his glass, the more it fit. There was the way it agreed with the prophecy, like Sarabeth had said, and it explained the reactivity of Harry's scar very well of course, but there was another thing, too, as he just realized. There was Harry's parseltongue ability. It had worried him for a long time and he had been unable to find an explanation. Now he realized with horror that this was the perfect one.

He didn't know what more evidence he could ask for, except for direct experiments.

In all likelihood, Harry had Riddle's Horcrux inside of him.

Alduin gave up on his glass, and drank directly from the bottle instead.

-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-

Dean's birthday was coming up, and Harry turned to Seamus for advice on what they should do for the boy. "I think he'd really like an opportunity to fly," Seamus replied. "I mean, he really enjoyed the classes while they lasted, and likes watching Quidditch, but he doesn't really get to play and..."

Harry nodded. "A brilliant idea," he said. "I can lend him my Nimbus for the day, and we can organize a three on three match. Are you in?" He asked the others.

Seamus, Ron and Sophie nodded, but Neville shook his head awkwardly. "I really don't like flying that much, sorry, Harry," he said. "I'd spoil your fun. If you ask Parvati and Lavender, I'll just sit with them and watch you and cheer."

Harry frowned. "Okay, fine, but that'd mean there'd be five of us, and that's a really awkward number..."

Ron considered this. "We could ask Fred and George," he said, "but that wouldn't really help, we'd still not be even."

"Yeah, but they're really good friends with Angelina, aren't they? Could they ask her to join us?"

"I guess..."

"Fine, so that's settled. I'll stop by in the kitchens for some food, and we'll have a great afternoon."

The weather apparently agreed with their plan, because it was relatively warm and sunny when it was put into practice. The first years' classes ended early on that day, so they sat on the pitch, enjoying the food, and Dean was flying around on Harry's Nimbus as they waited for the older students to join them.

Fred and George arrived with both Angelina and Alice, which made Harry groan. "Now we have odd numbers again," he complained.

"We can take turns," Angelina replied. "I wasn't gonna go flying without Alice, she'd be too jealous."

"Too right," Alice agreed. "And I'll rememberer that you singled her out, too," she added, but she was laughing as she said so, so Harry gathered she wasn't really offended. He'd only done it because he thought Fred and George were better friends with her!

They played a few games, Fred and George and Angelina and Alice taking turns, and as the sun began to set, they all landed and sat down again to chat, Dean asking Fred and George eagerly about their last year on the team and the matches they played.

Sophie was chatting with Angelina and Alice, and Harry could see that he'd been right, they understood each other very well. "I'd tell you to try out for the team next year," Angelina was saying, "but, the thing is, you'd have to take one of our places, so..."

Sophie laughed. "I think I like Keeping better, anyway."

"That gives you a better chance," Alice mused, "Oliver will graduate sooner than we will."

"But you might have to compete for that position with Ron," Angelina added. "He seemed to enjoy it as well."

"I know," Sophie nodded. "We've talked about it already. But it's still years away, so one of us might decide they hate Quidditch or something, by then."

Angelina looked horrified. "You wouldn't!"

Sophie giggled. "I was actually thinking about Ron," she said. "I mean, his brother gave it up to concentrate on dragons, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Angelina said with a frown.

"Angelina still blames him," Alice said with a smile. "I actually feel sorry for the poor guy. The last two years, each time after Gryffindor lost, everyone was blaming him and lots of people even stopped talking to him."

"What? That's terrible!" Harry said, affronted.

"Yeah. He seemed pretty cool about it, and of course his really good friends were never part of it, but still. It was stupid."

"I just think he could have managed to combine his work preparation with playing," Angelina muttered.

"Well, it was his decision," her friend pointed out.

"Hey!" Fred exclaimed, their end of the conversation running dry and him hearing the end of the one the girls led. "No badmouthing our brother...without us!"

"I kinda blamed him as well," George added, "but then I saw the dragon reserve during Christmas break and...it's super cool. I can actually imagine giving up Quidditch for that."

"Traitor," Angelina said.

"It doesn't matter anymore," Fred pointed out. "Harry flies at least as well as he did, so we've got the victory in the pocket once more."

Harry blushed, and George clapped him on the back. "Embrace it, mate," he said.

-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-

AN: Alduin really can't catch a break. Or rather, it's more like Harry can't catch a break, but he doesn't know that yet.