Of course Tver could not just leave Marvolio to his own devices, so when Dumbledore threw that burden onto him, he had no real way to object.
"I'm not you. How could I possibly stand by and watch him go down the wrong road?" Tver said, taking a mildly irritated jab at Dumbledore.
Before, he had let things slide because he had not cared enough to argue. Besides, he had his own matters to handle, so he had simply let Dumbledore get away with his little maneuvers.
But this time, Dumbledore really had annoyed him, so it was only natural that he was angry.
Dumbledore gave a wry smile and did not argue back.
"I bear an inescapable responsibility for Tom becoming what he is today. So resolving the problems Voldemort has caused, and resolving Voldemort himself, is the best way for me to make amends for the mistakes of my past."
Tver shrugged indifferently.
"So? Aren't we already doing exactly that?"
"No. There is still one very important matter left to address, Tver," Dumbledore said gravely.
"If we want to deal with Voldemort, then we first have to deal with his Horcruxes. According to my research, Voldemort may have made six Horcruxes. Including himself, that would make seven pieces of soul in total."
"You have already dealt with five, and along with the diary Harry destroyed, that makes six Horcruxes destroyed altogether."
"I know Marvolio can no longer really be considered a Horcrux, but the problem is, Tver, Voldemort very likely made one more Horcrux without even realizing it himself..."
"Oh?" Tver finally showed some real interest.
So Dumbledore meant to talk to him about Harry after all.
Tver had originally thought Dumbledore planned to handle Harry's situation by himself, but in the end, he had still come looking for him.
Still, he had not expected that Dumbledore had come not only to clarify Marvolio's situation, but also to confirm whether Marvolio still counted as one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Typical Dumbledore. He really did think everything through.
"Starting last year, Sirius began writing to me to say that Harry's scar had been hurting from time to time."
"And even that he had been seeing strange visions..." Dumbledore stared at Tver so intently that it left him feeling slightly awkward.
"Ahem, I know all that. Harry told me himself. But that's hardly my fault. After all, whose idea was it to make your office require a password to get in?"
"It's all right." Dumbledore looked away and sighed, his expression both grave and helpless. "The important point is that this connection between Harry and Voldemort is very likely caused by the piece of Voldemort's soul left inside Harry."
"When Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a baby, his Killing Curse was rebounded by the magic Lily left behind."
"But in the process, a fragment of Voldemort's soul split off without even Voldemort noticing, and attached itself to the only living being there, Harry Potter..."
"Harry is Voldemort's seventh Horcrux. If we don't resolve that, then Voldemort can never truly die."
"That's not necessarily true..." Tver said unexpectedly.
"What?"
"I mean, if we could reproduce something like Marvolio's situation with the soul fragment inside Harry, letting the Horcrux take the dominant position, then naturally Voldemort could be destroyed."
Tver was not especially confident, but he still voiced the thoughts he had been turning over for a long time.
Harry's problem was unavoidable, so naturally the solution had to be thought through as early as possible.
As for the method Dumbledore used in the original story, honestly, the result was excellent, but the process was also dangerously risky.
One slip, and Harry's fragile soul would have vanished together with the Horcrux.
"You mean weaken Voldemort's soul, let the Horcrux take the dominant position, and then destroy Voldemort the same way one destroys a Horcrux?"
Dumbledore was far too intelligent. With his immense knowledge, even without knowing the full details of Marvolio's revival, he still worked out the theory and method that could have brought Marvolio back.
"But how can you guarantee that the Horcrux inside Harry wouldn't grow stronger because of that, or even turn around and control Harry?"
"You can't," Tver said bluntly.
"But at the very least, controlling a Horcrux soul is safer than the other methods..."
"No. That's far too dangerous," Dumbledore objected, frowning.
"And yet it's still safer than letting Voldemort cast the Killing Curse at Harry, isn't it?" Tver said with exasperation.
"Hm!"
Instead of refuting him, Dumbledore looked strangely energized as he started considering the possibility.
That reaction, more than anything, left Tver puzzled.
"You mean you hadn't thought of any suitable way to solve Harry's problem?"
"No." Dumbledore was still lost in thought from the previous idea and shook his head absently.
"That's exactly why I came to see you. I wanted to ask whether you had any good ideas, and I never expected you to come up with such a perfect solution."
"Have Voldemort cast the Killing Curse on Harry himself. With the two of their souls entangled..."
"One of them is bound to die," Tver finished irritably.
He had long since thought through the drawback of that plan, or rather, the drawback was obvious at a glance.
"If it's the Horcrux that dies, then wonderful. But if Harry is the one who dies instead, then we really will be facing two Voldemorts."
Dumbledore's excitement cooled a little. Naturally, he did not want anything to happen to Harry, even if it meant Voldemort's destruction.
"You're right. We can't gamble with Harry's life like picking at Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and hoping for the flavor we want."
"But we also can't simply discard this method. Honestly, this is the best solution I've heard in quite some time."
Dumbledore seemed newly fired with purpose. He got to his feet almost at once and began pacing back and forth through the office, muttering to himself as he went.
"The relationship between Harry and the Horcrux is complicated, but the Horcrux has been suppressed for a long time and only woke recently because of Voldemort's resurrection. In a contest at the level of the soul, the Horcrux cannot possibly be a match for Harry..."
He kept talking, breaking down the relationship between Harry and the Horcrux, and thinking through several ways Harry's soul might be strengthened.
Tver found himself with nothing to say.
He had never expected his offhand complaint to catch Dumbledore's attention, much less that it would inspire him.
"But are you sure Harry can bear all of that? Especially since I've heard you've been avoiding him lately..."
Dumbledore stopped pacing at once and let out a helpless sigh.
"I'm not deliberately avoiding the boy. I'm just afraid that if I look into his eyes and see Voldemort there, I won't be able to stop myself from hurting him."
"But that doesn't solve the actual problem, and you know it. Harry is already sensitive by nature. If you keep treating him like that, you'll only make him more volatile."
Tver spoke with great earnestness, stopping just short of outright spoiling the plot to Dumbledore and telling him to stay farther away from Marvolio.
"You're right." After a moment of thought, Dumbledore saw the point as well. "It seems I need to find a different way to deal with Harry."
"After all, I don't want to make the same mistake a third time..."