A/N: Here's the neter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the ce to vote on the dire of the story!

  To set expectations for this chapter, I don't subscribe to Evil!Dumbledore theory. Well-meaning but old and sometimes inpetent is where I'm at with Dumbledore.

  -x-X-x-

  Albus Dumbledore had been around the block a few times, as the kids might say. To borrow another bit of on parnce from the younger geion, he was not used to being ‘thrown for a loop’ so to speak. He was not so egotistical ant to believe he knew everything there was to know about everything, to be fair. But at the same time, he usually liked to think he had his finger on the pulse regarding the things happening in his own backyard.

  … The events of the st few days had made it abundantly clear that he did not. No, rather, it was more like the events of the st year if he was truly being ho with himself and self-refleg. Even if things had certaied massively over the st few days, first with the seemih of the Dark Lord and then the discovery of his followers all dead in their homes or pce of business, the truth was, it had started long before that.

  Everything had started when Harry’s name had e out of the Goblet of Fire. Not only had that been beyond Albus’ expectation, but even young Harry’s rea had been… a little off at the time, if he was being ho. The Headmaster had chalked that up to being in a state of shock, but givehing that had transpired since, Albus had to wohings… were not adding up.

  He liked to think he had a fairly good idea of what kind of young man Harry Potter was growing into. Certainly, Albus had put a lot of effort into ensuring the sort ht, upstanding, and ceous wizard that they would o face off against Voldemort whenever he began g his way back.

  That was something Albus had known for a long time now to be a possibility. It wasn’t until after young Tom’s inal defeat that he’d heard whispers of the other wizard’s efforts towards achieving immortality, but once he’d begun to research the topic, Albus had entered incredibly disturbing implications that had in turn morphed into truly horrifying clusions.

  Tom Riddle… had engaged in the heinous and horrible act of creating horcruxes. Not just a horcrux, but multiple horcruxes. One was bad enough. Poor Myrtle… it was a shame that even to this day, the public didn’t quite know what happeo her, but at least between the death of the Basilisk and the destru of Tom’s Diary, she’d been avewofold by Harry.

  As soon as he’d found out about Tom’s horcruxes, Albus had begun hunting them. He even had a general idea of where a handful could be found. Only… he wasn’t getting any younger. Defeating Dark Lords was a young man’s game and Albus, for all his power and magiew full well that his time was running out. As well, there was the prophecy.

  Havihe only oo hear the ey of Sybill’s True Prophecy, Albus knew better than most to think he could possibly tackle Tom on his own. Sometimes it didn’t matter how much power you had. Sometimes Fate ainy had other pns that didn’t involve you.

  With that in mind, Albus had done his best to prepare Harry for the trials ahead. But at the same time, he’d also wao give the young man as close to a normal Hogwarts experience as possible. Perhaps that had been a mistake. Perhaps Albus would have beeer off taking Harry on as his apprentice right off the bat. It wouldn’t have likely surprised that many people if he’d done so. The Boy-Who-Lived, getting direct tutege from the wizard who dealt with the st major Dark Lord?

  It would have fit quite well into the fantasizing minds of the Wizarding World’s popuce. Like something right out of a storybook, really. But the real world didn’t work on stories. It didn’t fun on fantasy and make-believe.

  Albus had only wanted what was best for Harry… and what was best for the world. For the Greater Good, he’d been hoping to walk a thin liween preparing Harry for dealing with Tom ond for all… and having something approximating a normal life with friends and loved ones. Obviously it wasn’t perfect. Mistakes had been made here and there. But Albus had heless had the best of iions.

  Now though? Now the aging Headmaster didn’t know what to think. It had only been three days sihe Third Task of the Triwizard Tour, and Albus was still reeling from the events of that night, as well as what had happened in the days that followed. Here he sat in the Hogwarts Headmaster’s Office, trying fruitlessly and tiredly to make sense of everything.

  Tom had made a successful return. He’d subverted them from start to finish, repg Mad-Eye Moody of all people with a loyal Death Eater who shouldn’t have even still been alive, let alo of Azkaban. It erfect, in a way. Albus would never suspeyone was capable of taking Moody’s pot wheired Auror preached ‘stant Vigince!' above all else.

  A, while Harry hadn’t known it at the time because Bartemius Crouch Junior had dropped the polyjuice wheried to kidnap the younger wizard… it was what had happened all the same. They’d found the real Moody locked in a magically erunk in his office after his disappearance was finally noticed, aold them everything that had happened.

  From the very beginning, Crouch Jr. was behind everything. From Imperiusing his own father, to putting Harry’s name in the Goblet under a ent fourth school, to charming the Champion’s Cup to teleport the first to touch it to a graveyard in Little Haon instead of the Champion’s Stage outside of the hedge maze.

  Yes, Albus had suspected almost immediately which graveyard Tom would have brought Harry to, if he’d performed the Dark Ritual that Albus suspected to return himself to full power. He would have needed not just Harry’s blood, but also his own family’s bones. Albus erhaps one of the only people who kly who the Dark Lord Voldemort really was.

  As, when he’d goo the graveyard after the fact to iigate, he hadn’t found much. There’d been remnants of the ritual and potion that had brought Tom back, just as he’d suspected. But… not much else. Almost as though someone had at least partially ed the area up. The taste of magi the graveyard had been palpable all the same, however.

  A, all of that wasn’t even the half of it. Albus could barely ceive of a situation where Voldemort returning to power was the least of his worries, but that was exactly the situation he found himself in now.

  Mostly because… well, Tom’s return had apparently been very short-lived. Seeing Harry appear on the Champion’s Stage with Tom’s corpse had been… eye opening to say the least. Albus still didn’t quite uand what had happened, but he was starting to put together a theory. Ohat he didn’t like… not o.

  He had been hunting Tom’s horcruxes for years now. It wasn’t until the Diary that he’d actually mao get his hands ohough. While he had suspis about some of the locations, he knew he couldn’t risk expl them without taking all the necessary precautions first.

  Even still, ever since Harry had started at Hogwarts, Albus had begun to wonder about that scar on the younger wizard’s head. That the scar was cursed had been obvious even when Albus held Harry in his arms as a baby. However, a few diagnostic spells at the time had revealed the immense prote that Lily’s sacrifice had availed upon Harry. Knowing evehat Tom’s return otentiality, and that trying to se the Curse Scar would also require sing Lily’s prote first, Albus had ultimately decided to leave it be.

  … Now, that felt like a mistake. A rather rge mistake, truth be told. Because if Albus’ suspis were in any way correct, then Harry Potter… was Tom Marvolo Riddle’s st horcrux.

  That night, when the Dark Lord had tried to end a young Harry’s life with the Killing Curse, only to have it rebound ba his fad end him instead… he hadn’t just cursed Harry. No, Tom had done something far worse and far more foolish than that. He’d iently used his owh to split his already frayed soul yet again and lodged a fragment of his soul in poor Harry’s head in the process.

  If Albus was correct about that, then it stood to reason that Lily’s sacrifid the protective magic she’d bestowed upon Harry with her death had probably held back the malevolent influence of Tom’s soul fragment all Harry’s life. However, not evero of magics st forever. And as brilliant as Lily Potter was, Tom Riddle was just as brilliant in his own terrifying way, on top of being far too powerful for his own good.

  Albus ’t see any other way around things. Looking at the events of the st year, from Harry’s growing fideo his performan a number of avenues… it seemed obvious at this point that Lily’s prote was slowly but surely degrading. Tom’s soul fragment had begun to seep through and… alter Harry’s mind.

  Oh, don’t get Albus wrong, he was well aware that Harry was and had always been a powerhouse. The young man was at least on the level of Albus, Gellert, and Tom when it came to his innate magical power. Summoning a Patronus strong enough to hold back a hundred Dementors in only his Third Year had proven that.

  However, the one way in which Harry had always differed from Albus and the other two… was ambition. He cked ambition in a way that Gellert, Tom, and even Albus himself did not. Albus had always admired Harry for that. Even envied him, really. That bition was what made Harry the perfect terbao Tom and his schemes.

  But while Harry’s mother had given her life to help her so as far as he had without Tom’s influence seeping through, her sacrifice could not st forever. Everything that had happened in the past three days, as well as in the past year, made more sense when viewed through that lens. The soul fragment lodged in Harry’s curse scar was beginning to seep through.

  Now to be fair, Albus didn’t think Tom had fully subsumed Harry’s mi. In fact, it ossible that the ient horcrux the Dark Lord had made literally couldn’t pletely take over Harry’s mind. While Harry’s as over the past year, now viewed through a different lens, were quite uncharacteristic at times… he also hadn’t been ag like Tom would have in his pce.

  Saving and healing Cedric Diggory for instance, while an incredible feat of magic, was not something that Tom Marvolo Riddle would have ever even sidered doing of his own volition.

  No, Harry was still there, mostly. But there was simply no denying Tom’s influence was growing. From all of the suddeing into politics, to sying the Dark Lord himself, Harry was ing into his power far, far too fast now. He had always been powerful, but never before did he have the fidenor the ambition to make the moves he was making now.

  But there was still time, as Albus saw it. Tom was almost certainly still alive, of course. Harry might have stopped him from ing back yet again, but the horcruxes meant that the Dark Lord could not be permaly killed. Knowing what he knew, it fell upon Albus to pull things back together, up this mess, and right this sinking ship.

  One might think that started with fronting Harry and doing whatever possible to remove the horcrux from his head before it could influence his mind further… but that would be ‘jumping the gun’ as the muggles liked to put it. Ah but he did so love their little sayings.

  Harry was doing alright for now. Until he started exhibiting darker tendencies, Albus didn’t o step in just yet. And… the more information Albus could get on the subject of Tom’s other horcruxes, the better equipped he would be to help Harry ond for all. After all, in all of his research, Albus had never e across talk of a Living Horcrux before. It bore further study, to be sure.

  In the meantime, if he could get his hands on even one of Tom’s horcruxes, and ohat still held a fragment of his soul uhe Diary, then Albus could study it and figure out how to destroy it while leaving the receptacle intact… uhe Diary.

  That was the main goal at this point, because whatever else Albus thought of his as, Harry would be a vital force food and Light in the Wizarding World in the decades to e if he could be cured of Tom’s corruption. Long after Albus was gone, Harry would hopefully remain to shepherd their people into the right dire.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t all bad news. Despite all the nonsense going ht now, despite all the chaos… Tom had faced yet another setback. And eveer, Albus knew of two potential locations for the currently weakened Dark Lord’s horcruxes.

  Knowing what he knew now about how limited their time was, Albus could no longer put off searg those pces, even though the danger was sure to be extreme. Harry was on a timer now after all.

  All that the Headmaster had to decide… was which pce to search first.

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [X] Iigate the Gaunt House first - 77%[ ] Iigate the Cave first - 23%

  -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories!

  If you'd like to tribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon./Cambrian

  Thanks for reading!