After the main Order meeting had concluded, after the Weasleys had gone home and the others had dispersed with minds still reeling from the bounty announcement, Dumbledore asked three people to remain behind: Snape, Harry, and Ariana.
The atmosphere in the quiet London flat shifted, becoming heavy with the weight of unspoken secrets. This was the inner council, the ones who knew the full, terrible truth.
"There are two Horcruxes left," Dumbledore began, his voice grave as he looked at Harry. "One is the serpent, Nagini. The other… the other is the one that was never intended."
Harry's hand instinctively went to his lightning-bolt scar. He had long suspected, had long feared, especially after Ariana had explained the Horcruxes to him. He looked at Dumbledore, ready for the confirmation.
"When Voldemort's Killing Curse rebounded that night," Dumbledore explained gently, "his soul, already mutilated and unstable, shattered. A fragment of it broke away and latched onto the only living thing in that room. It latched onto you, Harry."
The truth, spoken so plainly, was still a physical blow. Harry felt cold, violated. A piece of the man who murdered his parents was living inside him.
Snape watched Harry, his expression unreadable, a complex mixture of his old animosity and his new, vow-driven duty to protect the boy.
"So I have to die?" Harry asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Is that what it comes down to? For him to be mortal, I have to die?"
"That has been my fear for a very long time," Dumbledore admitted, his eyes full of a deep, sorrowful pain. "That for the prophecy to be fulfilled, one must kill the other. But now..." He trailed off.
"Now, the situation has changed." Her voice cut through the despair in the room like a diamond blade.
The three wizards turned to look at her.
"You are all operating under the old paradigm," she continued, her gaze moving from Dumbledore to Snape to Harry. "The paradigm where the only way to destroy a Horcrux is to destroy its vessel. We have already proven that to be false."
She looked directly at Harry, her periwinkle eyes clear and full of a powerful, logical confidence. "Harry, you are not a Horcrux. You are a living being who is hosting a soul-fragment. A parasite. The same way Astoria Greengrass was hosting the Maledictus curse. The same way Professor Lupin hosts the lycanthropy virus."
"The procedure would be more complex, more dangerous, by an order of magnitude," Ariana said, her mind clearly working through the variables. "But the principle remains the same. A magical anesthetic to induce core dormancy. A runic siphon keyed to your scar. A containment sphere. We do not need to kill the host to remove the parasite."
She was proposing to perform soul-surgery on Harry Potter himself.
"The probability of success is high, provided the primary operator has sufficient power and control to manage the transference without causing psychic schism," Ariana replied calmly. She then looked at Dumbledore. "Which brings me to another update I have not yet shared."
She took a quiet breath. "During the assault on Bones Manor, in my direct magical confrontation with Voldemort, my own magical core underwent a significant event. It was… a second maturation."
The silence that followed was absolute. A first maturation was a sign of a powerful witch or wizard. A second was a mark of true, historical greatness. It put a wizard on a level of raw power that few had ever achieved.
"Two maturations," Dumbledore whispered, his voice full of a staggering awe. "Before the age of seventeen."
"It appears my unique lineage, combined with direct exposure to extreme magical conflict, acts as a powerful catalyst for growth," Ariana stated simply. "The result is that my current magical output and control are… considerable. I believe I now possess the requisite power to perform the extraction from Harry safely."
She stood before them, a quiet teenager who had just calmly announced that she was, in all likelihood, now more powerful than Lord Voldemort himself.
Snape stared at her, his usual sneer completely gone, replaced by a look of pure, unadulterated shock. He was in the presence of a level of power he had only ever seen in two other people: Dumbledore and the Dark Lord.
"Now," Ariana said, her tone shifting back to business, her focus absolute. "The final Horcrux is Nagini. The snake is perpetually at Voldemort's side. To get to her, we must first get to him.
Professor Snape, your access as a spy is our most valuable intelligence asset. Where is he now?"
Snape, still reeling, forced himself to focus. "After the debacle at Malfoy Manor, he has retreated. The last I heard, he was using the old Lestrange family estate as a temporary base, one that was not seized, simply because it holds no value whatsoever. It is remote, heavily warded, and protected by his most loyal followers."
"Good," Ariana said, a plan already forming in her mind. "The bounty I placed on his head will keep him there. He will be paranoid, unwilling to move or trust anyone. He will keep his forces close. He will keep the snake even closer."
She looked at the three men, her expression one of grim, unshakeable determination. She had the method to save Harry. She had the power to do it. All that was left was the final piece of the puzzle.
"I need Nagini," she stated, her voice quiet but ringing with the force of an unbreakable vow. "I need to get close to her. Not to kill her, but to cure her. Once she is free of the Horcrux and her curse is suppressed, she will be a powerful ally with perhaps an intimate knowledge of Voldemort's mind and plans. She is the key."
Her final plan was revealed, and it was the most daring of all. She was not just going to destroy the final Horcrux. She was going to steal it. She was going to walk into the heart of the enemy's fortress, confront the Dark Lord on his own ground, and heal the very serpent he used as his ultimate protection. Her gaze moved to the lounging panther in one corner of the room. It was a plan of such beautiful, terrifying, and utterly insane logic that only she could have ever conceived of it.