Harry spent the time between lunch and the last lesson going around to all his professors and getting their homework assignments. After class, he went straight to the library to begin working on an essay on preservation charms for Professor Flitwick, where he was soon joined by Hermione, Ron, and (only a little surprisingly) Susan. Apparently, Ron's girlfriend had volunteered to help them catch up.
At dinner time, the quartet walked into the Great Hall and stopped dead. Sitting at the professors' table was none other than Albus Dumbledore, the man who was not supposed to be in this castle at all. The only saving grace that they could see was that he wasn't sitting at the Headmaster's position, nor at any of the Head of House positions, but on the end next to Hagrid. They had no idea what this meant, but it was definitely making some of them nervous.
Susan gave Ron a quick peck on the cheek and made her goodbyes to go sit and spend some time with her friends at the Hufflepuff table. The trio made their way to the Gryffindor table, and while each of them kept an eye on Dumbledore, they filled their plates with pieces of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and gravy. "Why do you think Dumbledore is back in the school?" Hermione was the first to ask.
"It's got to have something to do with the breakout. Voldemort frees his followers, and not even twenty-four hours later Dumbledore is in Hogwarts. I would have thought the Chief Warlock would be needed elsewhere," said Ron.
"Maybe we'll be lucky and he was just here to show Headmaster Greengrass something to do with the wards after the breakout and got invited to stay for dinner," Harry suggested, but didn't sound like he believed it. Still, it didn't hurt to hope.
Once most of the students were in the hall and the Headmaster couldn't expect there to be any more arriving before students started to leave, he stood up and addressed them all. He explained about the new position that the Ministry had created called the High Protector of Hogwarts and how it was in response to the Death Eater escape from Azkaban. He stated that Dumbledore was chosen because of his reputation as a duelist who could strike fear into Voldemort and his followers. However, Dumbledore was not employed by the school, but the Ministry. He didn't have the power to assign detention, take House points, or even to speak with a student without the Head of House, Headmaster, or a parent there outside of an immediate emergency.
"A galleon says Dumbledore will corner me and try to speak with me in under a month," Harry said.
Ron let out an amused snort. "Please, that's a sucker's bet. I wouldn't give it a week," he said.
"Well, whenever it happens Harry you should leave and go straight to Uncle Charlus. Don't worry about being rude, just leave and get to him or one of the other professors," Hermione advised.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus relaxed into his favourite chair and poured himself a measure of scotch. He had just sent the trio off to go back to their common room before curfew, as they wanted to ask him about Dumbledore being in the school. He had told them everything he knew, including the fact that the only reason Headmaster Greengrass was letting him in the school was because if he didn't, then it would risk the family business, and with it the gold they spent on their youngest daughter's medical expenses. Needless to say, all three of the teens were outraged that Dumbledore or the minister would threaten something like that to get their own way. Unfortunately, when it came to fast politics, the stick was often far more effective than the carrot.
He was just thinking about turning in for the night when there was a knock at his door. Charlus let out a long sigh. He didn't even need to look; he knew exactly who was on the other side of the door, just like he knew he didn't particularly want to talk to the man. Unfortunately, what he wanted and what he got are rarely the same thing. He set his half-drunk scotch on the table next to him and opened the door with a flick of his wand. Sure enough, Dumbledore was standing in the open doorway, clad in ridiculous robes that were a mix of peach and yellow and with his usual friendly smile on his face.
"Ah Charlus I was hoping to have a word," Dumbledore said, seeing Charlus sitting in his chair across the room as he stepped inside.
"I don't suppose the word 'Goodnight' would be enough to satisfy you?" snarked Charlus. It had already been a long day, and he just didn't want to deal with this now.
Apparently Dumbledore had decided that discretion was the better part of valour and ignored Charlus's statement. "You know, I'm surprised you decided to stay on as the Potions professor."
"I enjoy it more than I thought I would. And Harry's here," Charlus answered.
"Most parents are happy to get their kids out from under their feet," Dumbledore said while walking over to Charlus's liquor cabinet and surveying the available bottles with curiosity.
"Most teenagers need to learn some independence from their family. Harry already has independence in spades. What he needs to learn is that there are people that you can rely on. I imagine that has something to do with him being left with people who don't care about him. I wonder, who was it who did that again?" Charlus really didn't want this conversation with Dumbledore.
"I did what I had to to keep him safe," Dumbledore said dismissively.
"You charmed them so that they would never see Harry as one of their own," Charlus accused.
"And you charmed them to hand themselves into the police. I know it was you who did that, so don't go claiming some moral high ground." Dumbledore tried to flip the script.
"Oh what bullshit. You charmed muggles to keep them from forming a bond with a boy in their care, leading to Harry growing up in an abusive home." Charlus snarled. "If I charmed them to hand themselves into the authorities and admit to their crimes, it wouldn't even be a tenth as immoral.
Dumbledore didn't even try to deny it. "While unfortunate, it was necessary to have some distance between Harry and his relatives, but I never thought they would go so far from just not loving the child." Here Dumbledore lost a lot of the energy he normally exuded and looked very tired.
"Then, once Harry told you of his home life, you continued to send him back every summer," Charlus added to his grievance with the man.
"The protection from Lily's closest blood relative was far too important. It literally saved Harry his first year. Was I supposed to bin such a potent shield for a few weeks of discomfort a year?" Dumbledore defended.
"Harry was only in danger because you decided to hide the Philosopher's Stone in a school full of children when you knew a homicidal madman was after it."
"A decision that I will remind you delayed this war by three, almost four years. It wasn't a good decision, but it was the best I had available."
"Don't give me that 'best decision you had available', that is a crock of shit and you know it. All you needed to do was buy a house or any other property and put it under the Fidelius Charm," Charlus said with derision.
"That wouldn't have worked. If I had done that, Voldemort would have still come to the school. His plan then would have been to hold the students hostage and kill as many as he felt he needed to in order to show me he was serious that if I didn't surrender the stone he would have killed them all. By putting a solvable puzzle in front of him, I distracted him from more destructive, more Gryffindor plans. Voldemort will always choose the Slytherin option to do something if it is possible."
"This is beside the point, what the hell could be achieved by making Harry grow in a loveless environment? If we accept your premise that all you intended was withdrawn parents instead of abuse, what ultimate evil was staved off by making absolutely sure Harry didn't get enough hugs growing up?" The sarcastic tone was practically driving from Charlus for the last two sentences.
Dumbledore just looked at Charlus and said, "Such information is too dangerous to spread."
Charles stopped and thought for a second before deciding that he was going to take a calculated risk. "I already know of the Horcruxes Dumbledore."
Dumbledore's face went slack in shock. "What?... How? Doesn't matter, what matters is you know the effect that Horcruxes can have on those around them. I had to create distance between Harry and his relatives to keep the dark magic from infecting them," Dumbledore said.
Charlus rolled his eyes. In one sentence Dumbledore had revealed more about what he was doing and thinking than he had since Charlus had rejoined regular time. Though he had to admit, that was probably more because he already suspected Dumbledore of knowing things and had spent quite a number of hours speculating over the implications. "Except that is complete bullshit. One, you still had the responsibility in that situation to go and check and monitor Harry's life. Two, Harry never had an effect like that on people around him, something that should have been incredibly obvious to you from Harry's first year here and the close friends he made." Charlus's voice conveyed just how pissed off the old man was.
Dumbledore stammered, "B-but all the texts warn about the effects Horcruxes have on people around them," he defended himself.
"You complete and utter buffoon. The effects on the people around them are not a product of the shard of a soul. People spend their time around other souls all the bloody time, just a soul doesn't do things like that to people. So why would a fragment have more power than a whole soul? It wouldn't! The effects that Horcruxes have on people are a byproduct of all the defensive magic that is placed upon the item before you stick a shard of soul in it. Think about it – if you are trying to become immortal by securing a piece of your soul, you wouldn't just put it in a jam jar. You need to hide that thing from Death itself; you need to protect it against damage as much as possible, so you put every conceivable protection on that object. Those protections were never done on Harry, we know this because Voldemort intended to kill Harry. You don't put a lot of protections on someone just to kill them. So, although Harry had a fraction of Voldemort's soul in him, the protections that would have influenced the Dursleys and anyone else were never there. You had a child abused for no greater good than your ego." Charlus had been active during the Grindelwald conflict and had some inkling that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were friends for a time before the conflict, so he used Grindelwald's slogan intentionally.
The words "greater good" had a large impact on Dumbledore, and the man seemed to visibly deflate. "Where did you find out about Horcruxes?" he asked, not wanting to focus on what he had just been told.
Not seeing any reason to lie about this, Charlus said, "The Black family library."
Dumbledore just nodded. "I will have to talk to Sirius about destroying those books. It's better if all knowledge of the abominations is removed from the world."
" You never learn, do you? You still think you're the one with all the fucking answers. Did it ever occur to you that the fact that people like you were destroying all the information is why people don't know how to fight these things? You can completely wipe out all references and knowledge of Horcruxes from the world and there would be nothing to stop some demented magical from inventing them again. As a society, we are far too focused on looking at the past and getting our answers from our ancestors. We forget that our ancestors are the ones who invented the spells for themselves. The Black family maintains a collection of works on Horcruxes so that they know how to destroy them!" Charlus was half shouting at this point.
"The Black family destroys Horcruxes?" Dumbledore sounded genuinely surprised and curious now.
"It's not my history to tell, but the family had a run-in with an individual generations ago and vowed to destroy as many as they can find. Fun fact, if you had actually done your job and executed my son's will as it should have been, Sirius would have raised Harry and probably would have found and destroyed the Horcrux sooner. All your interference has only made everything worse."
"That's twice you have referred to the Horcrux in Harry in the past tense. Truly, that's impossible. The only way for it to be destroyed is if Harry dies."
"Like if he was hit by the killing curse at the end of last school year, perhaps?" Charlus didn't have the energy to keep up the fight. He was already tired before the old man disturbed him. "Just go away, Dumbledore. You have caused enough problems for everyone else to sort out. Just leave and try not to make any more. I'm going to bed, I actually have work to do in the morning."
Dumbledore left to go to the rooms that Headmaster Greengrass had assigned him, on the ground floor as close to the main doors as it was possible to get; a constant reminder that the new headmaster wanted him to leave. As he walked, Dumbledore's head was spinning with the revelations his talk with Charlus had produced. He couldn't help but remember the first time Harry had asked not to go back to the Dursleys at the end of his first year, and it felt like a punch to the gut. Had he tortured a child for no reason? Had everything he had done only made everything harder? He considered the secrets he still held, was it even worth keeping them a secret now? He had a lot of thinking to do.
-ϟϟϟ-
Sirius appeared at the end of a driveway with a loud crack. The driveway led to a fairly large home that, from its style, looked to have been built maybe two hundred years ago. The House and a few out-buildings around it were the only structures for miles.
He walked up the path and knocked on the door. Technically he had the permission of the owner to just walk in, but given what the house was currently being used for he felt a more cautious approach was in order. After about a minute, Curse Breaker Williams opened the door with a look of curiosity on his face. Once he saw it was Sirius the curiosity was replaced with a more welcoming expression. "Warlock Black, please come in. How is Harry doing?" They walked into the kitchen and Williams, in the habit of the British, immediately filled up the kettle and set it to boil.
"As of yesterday, Harry is finally out of St Mungo's and back at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, with the breakout, the boy who did it has escaped," Sirius informed him.
"What breakout?" Williams asked. It turned out the curse breaker had been in the house for a few days now without leaving while he worked on a project. Because of that, he was completely unaware of the mass breakout from Azkaban. Sirius informed the man of the news, and though he found the news upsetting, Williams wasn't overly concerned for the moment.
"Well I'll be working here or at Hogwarts for the foreseeable future. This place, although bought with Potter gold, was bought from the muggles and through the muggle system so the chances of any of You-Know-Who's people finding out about it are slim. Security through obscurity and all that. And Hogwarts is warded enough that it would take a prolonged siege or an all-out Ministry assault to bring down the wards." Williams said as poured hot water into two mugs with tea bags.
"Speaking of Hogwarts, do you still suspect the source of the curse on the Defence position is a Horcrux?" Sirius asked as Williams handed him a cup of tea.
"Oh yeah. Not just a Horcrux but one of You-Know-Who's. The magical signature is almost arithmetically identical, and the differences are consistent with using different magical artefacts as the base for the ritual."
"When will you be able to return to the search? I don't like the idea of leaving something like that in a school," Sirius asked.
"I have sent a few letters to some experienced colleagues. I won't take amateurs on a Horcrux hunt. They have current contracts to finish up first, but I suspect that they will be ready within a few weeks. I had to make some assumptions on their compensation though." Curse Breaker Williams sounded a little nervous.
"What kind of assumptions? What are they expecting? We already assumed a team of master level curse breakers wouldn't come cheap," Sirius asked.
Williams told Sirius the number expecting him to blow up at how outrageous it was, but Sirius just nodded. "A hundred thousand Galleons may be a lot, but for everything you and they will be risking and the peace of mind it will bring my family, it's a bargain. I'm not sure if it will be the Black or the Potter family who will pay you in the end, but you have my word as Warlock Black that you'll get paid. Now, with that out of the way, how is your research into the locket going?"
Williams shook his head and looked tired. "Limited. You-Know-Who was rather crafty when he used the Locket. The Locket itself isn't the Horcrux, it's something inside it that has the soul imbued into it. But the Locket as a whole is almost indestructible, and worse, it's warded to only be opened by a Parselmouth. No matter what I tried, I could only get the most basic information about it. We will need to find a way to open it if we want to get anything about it and figure out how it can be destroyed."
Sirius's mind immediately jumped to Harry, but he didn't know if Harry had tried to speak to a snake since the Horcrux was removed from his scar. It was entirely possible that Harry had lost the ability. "I may have someone who can speak Parseltongue we can trust. I want to check with him before I say anything though, as I may be wrong."
"Very well. If your guy can't handle it, I know of a guy in India who can come do it, though as you can imagine paying to bring him here will of course cost more gold," Williams offered. The two men chatted about more social things for a while. Williams was not a natural recluse and a few days on his own had left him a little chatty. Sirius left about half an hour later with a mission. He had to find out if Harry could still speak to snakes.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the library catching up on all the work they had missed. Susan had been with them for a while explaining what they had missed in Charms, but now the trio were just writing the essays they had planned and Susan had her own friends to catch up with.
"You should take your potion Harry," Hermione said, noticing Harry had been wincing when he shifted his left arm.
"Later, it makes my head foggy and I need to concentrate," Harry insisted. The potions for his pain were effective, but they also made it hard to think. Harry had idly wondered if that was what it was like to be Crabbe, Goyle, or even Dudley.
"I'm sure Professor Flitwick will understand if your essay is a bit late because of the potion side effects." Hermione was concerned for him, he knew that; considering she had been working herself sick while he was in the hospital, he understood she wanted to do everything she could to help now. He also made a mental note of the irony of Hermione Granger saying it's okay to put off homework.
Still, it didn't hurt that much as long as he didn't move his arm, he just needed to shift the weight on it occasionally. "It's fine, let me just finish this essay and I will take one," he offered. He would need to take one soon anyway, getting to sleep while in pain was next to impossible if he wasn't exhausted.
Hermione wasn't exactly happy with it, she didn't like seeing any of her friends in pain if they didn't deserve it and it was avoidable. Harry may have earned a few stinging hexes in the past, but he certainly didn't deserve to be stabbed. But she accepted the offered compromise.
"Ugh, who cares this much about preservation charms anyway? This has to be one of the most boring bits of charms we ever studied," Ron said, giving his essay a glare that suggested that he wanted the thing to spontaneously combust. Or he was trying to do it wandlessly; you never could tell with Ron.
Hermione made an exasperated sound before falling into her lecture mode. "Ron, preservation charms are a cornerstone of magical civilization. Nearly every bit of food we eat, every potions ingredient we brew with, every book of spells passed down from one generation to the next, once had or still has preservation charms on it. It's one of the only reasons the magical population was able to outcompete the mundane world for thousands of years. In fact, it's only in the last hundred years where mundane science has made real progress in the area of food preservation with the widespread use of electronic refrigeration."
Hermione realised she had gone off on a bit of a tangent and refocused. "Without preservation charms, you wouldn't be able to eat half the food you enjoy. The milk you had for breakfast was probably milked a week ago by the time it got to Hogwarts. Without preservation charms, it would have gone bad in under forty-eight hours. Even the painkiller potions Harry has would go bad in under a week if it wasn't for the preservation charms built into the vials they are in. In fact, almost every job in the magical world requires some level of competence with preservation chams. Even workers at the Ministry need to use them on important documents before they are filed."
Hermione was going to continue, but Ron threw up his hands in surrender. "Okay okay. I get it, preservation charms are important. I'll do the bloody essay. Now if only there was a charm to preserve my motivation," he joked.
"That's what coffee is for." Harry added.
The three of them returned to their work, and it wasn't too long until they were finished. They were just packing up when Charlus came into the library and walked up to them.
Given that they weren't in lessons, Harry simply asked, "Is it Professor Potter or grandfather?"
Charlus chuckled at Harry and answered, "It's grandfather for now."
Harry smiled and asked. "Then what can I do for you, grandfather?"
"I need you to come down to my office, Sirius and I need to talk to you. Ron, Hermione, you can come as well," Charlus told them, and so they packed everything up and followed Charlus to his office.
Ron insisted that he carry Harry's bag as Harry couldn't sling it over his shoulder without it either putting pressure on his left shoulder or knocking his left arm about. Technically he could have carried it in his right hand, but Harry was understandably a little paranoid about not having his wand arm free after he was attacked.
Hermione wanted Harry to take his painkiller like he agreed, but he again put it off. If grandfather Charlus wanted to speak to them in his office and not in the library, then there was a good chance a foggy mind wasn't a good idea. When they got to Charlus's office they found Sirius waiting for them. "Hi Sirius!" Harry said, happy to see his godfather. He hadn't seen as much of the man as he had last year, as there was no training for the Triwizard Tournament.
"Hey pup. Take a seat." He gestured to a comfortable sofa that wasn't a normal part of grandfather Charlus's office space. Harry sat on the left so his injured arm had an arm rest and Hermione settled in next to Harry with Ron on her other side.
"So there are a few things we never told you before you…uh?" Sirius hesitated.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Got stabbed. You can say it."
"Right, before you got stabbed. A few things were happening and it was all a rush, next thing we knew you were in a coma. After that you were in the hospital and you don't talk about such things in hospitals."
"Okay Sirius, you have covered your ass for waiting so long, I'm sure Harry won't be mad at you," Ron snickered.
"Okay Harry, first things first, can you still talk to snakes?" Sirius asked.
"Why wouldn't I still be able to?" asked Harry, confused by the question.
"Well, have you tried since the piece of Voldemort's soul has been removed from your scar?" Sirius asked. Harry now understood the power to speak with snakes had come from his connection to Voldemort. With that connection severed, it was entirely possible that Harry had lost the ability.
"No, I haven't tried," he answered honestly.
"Are you willing to try?" Charlus asked.
"Sure, as long as it's with a normal snake and not something like a basilisk. I can only speak to snakes when I have a snake to talk to," said Harry
Charlus pulled out a cage that had been behind his desk and put it on the table. Inside was an adder, one of the only snakes naturally found this far north in Great Britain. The snake was agitated, it obviously didn't like being taken from his home, stuffed in a cage, and dragged about. Harry moved to kneel in front of the desk and said "Hello?"
"That was English Harry," said Hermione helpfully.
He tried again, this time really focusing on the snake. "Hello?"
"Speaker!" The snake said back to him. "Please great-one, these two legs have stolen me from my home and trapped me here. Please help me."
"My apologies for my grandfather, but bringing you here to speak with me was necessary. I promise you will be returned to your forest shortly with a nice rat for the trouble of disturbing you."
The snake was happy enough to be told he would be going home, but didn't like the cage. After getting the snake's word that he wouldn't try to hurt anyone, Harry opened the cage and let the snake coil around his right shoulder and arm. The snake did smell the dried blood in Harry's wound and asked about it. Harry told him about the healing wound and asked the snake to be careful not to irritate it.
When Harry returned to the sofa Sirius was the first to speak. "So I guess you can still speak Parseltongue."
Harry nodded. "It's harder, but I can still do it."
"Good, we need that ability because we have found a Horcrux."
There was an explosion of sound from the three teens, and the snake arched back ready to strike on reflex. A few quick words from Harry were the only thing that kept them from needing to look for an antidote to the snake's venom. Once everything calmed down enough, Harry demanded to be told everything.
Sirius recounted the whole story of how his house elf had been holding the Horcrux for years while trying to figure out a way to destroy the foul thing. He explained how he had brought it to the school to consult with Charles on what to do with it. He told them about the curse breakers and how, with the information they shared, they were able to determine that the source of the Defence Against the Dark Arts curse was another of Voldemort's Horcruxes. It was Ron who realised when Sirius was explaining about the one curse breaker quitting that it was that witch who gave Malfoy the window to use the knife on Harry. All five of them were upset by that realisation.
Sirius finished by explaining how the curse breaker was having trouble opening the locket due to it being Parsel-warded, which made everything fall into place for Harry. "So when do you want to take me to this cottage so I can open the locket?" Harry asked before they could ask if he would do it.
"Well I was hoping Saturday," said Sirius. "You won't have any lessons and it shouldn't take an hour."
"Fine, but if I get hurt I'm setting Hermione on you," Harry joked.
With that decided, they chatted for a few minutes before the snake started to show signs of restlessness again, and Harry decided it was time to take them home.