Chapter 12: Another One Down

It was a week later that they got another visit from the headmaster. Dobby answered the door again, but this time didn't hinder him entry. He instead led him to the living room where everyone was discussing what they were going to do for the day.

Albus was accompanied by Fawkes, who seemed to go everywhere with him now. "Sirius, Remus, and Harry, it is good to see you all well," he said when he entered the room. His sign said that he spoke the truth.

"Headmaster," they all said with nods of their heads. Sirius waved the man to sit in one of the comfy chairs.

"What brings you by?" Sirius asked, still upset over their last conversation, but ready to see if the truth spell had taught the man a lesson. That and the sign would tell them if he tried to manipulate them again.

"I am dying," was the blunt answer, with the sign flashing that it was true. "I have many things I need to atone for, and one is the way I woefully mistreated many of you," the old man said, looking at all three of the men in the room.

"How? I mean, how are you dying?" Harry asked, wondering if he could cure him. He started to raise his hand when Fawkes screaked and flew in front of him. This startled Harry so bad he almost fell off his seat. Seeing this the bird cooed, but didn't move from his spot, until Harry righted himself and lowered his hands to his lap. Then he flew back to Albus's shoulder.

"Whatever you were about to do, do not," Albus stated, looking at Harry queerly. "Fawkes thinks it is my time and refuses to let me be healed," he added as an afterthought. "I have caused a great deal of pain to many, and it is time for me to make amends. Not that I can to a great many that are dead due to my neglect," he stated remorsefully. The sign said it was true, but there was a mild manipulation going on.

"I concur," Sirius stated, knowing there were many things that he would not forgive the old man for, especially what he had done to Harry. He was glad Fawkes had stopped Harry. The teen might be forgiving, but Sirius was much more pragmatic.

"Sirius," Remus said, with a bit of reprimand. For all the man's faults, he didn't want to see him die.

"Nope," was all the dogman said, folding his arms in an unforgiving manner.

"He is correct in his assessment," Albus said, looking at the man he had done so much wrong to. "There is too much sin for him to forgive. If not for my negligence, he would have been a free man ages ago," he stated, knowing that if he had stood up for Sirius in the beginning, he never would have spent a day in prison.

"That and what you did to Harry," Sirius said, glaring at the old man.

"Alas, there is that as well," Dumbledore said, hanging his head. "However, I did not come to beg for forgiveness, I came to tell you there are things that need to be done to prevent another war," he said, sitting up straighter.

"Like?" Remus asked, trying to move the conversation along. All this morbid stuff wasn't good for his digestion.

"You know of the horcruxes," Albus said, waiting for the nods. "There are five that I know of. One was destroyed by Harry last year. One is hidden in a cave, a necklace I believe. One is a ring, that I have destroyed. One is a cup, that I believe is in Bellatrix's vault. One is Ravenclaw's diadem, which I believe is hidden in Hogwarts, though I don't know where," he stated, counting them off with his good hand. "There was the one in Harry's scar, but I do not believe that Voldemort knew of that one."

"That leaves two," Sirius said, thinking of how to get into Bella's vault. He didn't return those goblin-made items, that might work as a bribe. That and he was the Head of House. They didn't even need to take anything out, just have Harry zap the whole vault.

"We'll be at Hogwarts to look for the last one," Remus said, thinking along the same lines as Sirius about the vault.

"You have already destroyed one?" Albus asked, flabbergasted.

"Yeah, it was here in the house. My brother had rescued it from the cave. He died in the process," Sirius said, grief tinted his voice.

"I am very sorry to hear that," Albus said, and his sign stated that that was true. "From what Remus stated, you have decided to take up the DADA position?" Dumbledore said, looking at the ex-werewolf.

"Yes, Sirius will cover for me the days I need to rest," Remus said, nodding to his friend.

"I will have Severus prepare the Wolfbane potion," Albus said with a winning smile, happy that they decided to take the post. His sign stated as much.

Harry was half tempted to take the sign away, but he decided that it would be best to leave it up. Just because the man was remorseful didn't mean he couldn't slip back into lying again. After all, the man had been manipulating people his whole life. He had just admitted to such.

"Since you have this well in hand, I will take my leave," Albus said, slowly getting out of the chair. "I have many things to do before my demise," he said, though his sign did flash that that was manipulation.

"Don't try and guilt us with you dying, Albus. Somehow, I have a feeling you brought it upon yourself, or your phoenix would heal you," Remus said, pointing his finger at the bird who was glaring at his human.

"I apologize," the old man said, slumping his shoulders. "Old habits," was all he said as he left the room.

"Well, that was an interesting visit," Sirius said, picking up his now cold tea and taking the cup to the kitchen. "So, Gringotts?" he said as he put the cup in the sink.

"Might as well," Remus said, following him with the rest of the tea set.

"What are we going to do there?" Harry wanted to know.

So, Sirius laid out his plan to him as he gathered up the goblin-made items to trade for the admittance to Bellatrix's vault. That done they got ready to go and made their way to Diagon Alley. Gringotts was rather empty today.

Sirius went up to the teller and said, "I'd like to speak to Gutrot."

"He's busy," the teller said, stamping a piece of parchment.

"He'll want to see me today," the dogman stated, holding up his sack of items, shaking them as if the goblin could guess what was in it by doing that.

"Oh, and what do you have that he'd make time for you today?" the goblin said, peering at the sack like it had something interesting in it. It did clink of metal, which was always good.

"Things you lot would like back," Sirius said, dropping it back to his side with a smirk.

The goblin called another to let the Black manager know that his client was there, and then he directed them to sit by the doors. They did so, and they waited to be called back. It wasn't a long wait, and they went the same way they had gone before. The room was the same one, but only one goblin was seated behind the desk.

"What do you want?" the surly goblin asked, shuffling around papers, like he was too busy for their interruption.

"I have some goblin-made items here, that I will willingly give back, for a small favor," Sirius said, holding up the sack like it was a prize.

"You should give them back without wanting anything as a reward," Gutrot stated, putting down his quill and glaring at the man.

"It is a small favor," the dogman said with a huge smile. "We won't even be breaking any rules. Just taking up a bit of your time," he added, shaking the sack again.

"Fine, what do you need?" Gutrot asked, pointing at a spot on his desk for Sirius to put the sack.

"A moment in Bellatrix's vault. We won't even take anything out, just look around," Black said, putting the sack down, and standing back.

"Agreed," the greedy goblin said, getting up and going around the desk and waving them to follow. They made their way to the tracks and got into the one of the carts. Gutrot pulled the lever and off they went into the bowels of Gringotts.

It was quite a way down to Bella's vault, and it was guarded by a dragon, which made Harry feel bad for it. He waved his hand and healed it some. He wanted to release it, but he couldn't figure out how without causing an incident. Maybe he'd put a thought to it and do it another day.

"Let us alone for a moment," Sirius told Gutrot. "We promise not to touch anything," he added, looking around and nodding to the goblin.

"I have an accounting," the goblin warned, but closed the door.

"Harry," was all Sirius said to the teen.

Harry nodded and let forth his lightning and covered the whole vault with it. It shot everywhere and encompassed everything, jumping from item to item, and cleansing everything. The entire room lit up like noon, and it smelled like ozone. There was a lot of dark items in there. Then they heard what they came to hear, which was the scream of a horcrux dying. With that Harry stopped sending his magic out.

All in all, it took about a minute. Then as a joke, he added a prank to the coins. If anyone touched them, they went chibi for an hour. Then Harry waved his hand and the heavy stone door opened.

"All done," Sirius told the goblin, who looked and sniffed the ozone smell.

"What did you do?" he asked, never having smelled that smell before.

"A little spring cleaning," the dogman stated with a smile.

"Whatever," the grumpy goblin said, leading the way past the dragon and back up to the top of the bank.

"Now what?" Remus, who had been quiet the whole time, asked.

"We can do whatever we want," Sirius said, looking around Diagon Alley. They didn't get mobbed like they used to anymore. The news had gotten old, which they were both thankful for. That and the news that both Harry and Sirius were suing people had broken out, and that lowered their popularity. Harry was upset about that, but Sirius was okay with it. He never cared what people thought about him, even with as vain as he was. Narcissistic he thinks they call it.

"We're going to go shopping with the gang next week, so I don't want to do that. Let's get a movie," Harry suggested. He hadn't seen one in weeks. Not since his birthday, and he wanted to see another.

"Sounds like a plan. We can have pizza again too," Sirius said, he liked pizza.

"I'm okay with that," Remus concurred, never one to turn down pizza.

So that's what they did with their day.

Hphphp

Dumbledore, for all that he was trying to make amends, was finding he was having a hard time of it. He found that to make those amends, he had to confess his sins. That is where he was getting tripped up.

"Alastor, please, you must understand, I only did what I thought was best," he tried to explain to whom he thought was one of his oldest friends.

"You have been withholding information from me. Me. Your oldest friend. For years. And now you expect me to forgive you for that?" the paranoid man exclaimed. Not sure how the sign above the man came about, but he was happy for it. It showed the man was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. It was like pulling nails with the sponge to get the truth out of the man. "You still haven't told me everything," Alastor stated, slamming his hands on the table.

"There are things that must not see the light of day," Albus protested, not sure how the man knew that.

"Such as?" was the leading question.

"The horcruxes," Dumbledore sighed, knowing it was going to get out sooner or later. Snape had said as much.

"How many?" Alastor asked, thrumming his fingers.

"Five that I know of, only two remaining. Sirius says he can take care of one. The last one is in Hogwarts. Somewhere," Albus said, his head lowered in shame. His sign showing this was a mild manipulation.

"How did you come to be dying, Albus?" the crippled man asked, wanting to know.

"I tried on one of the Hallows," the old man sighed, knowing that to hide this fact from Alastor was futile.

"You know where they are?" was the next question. Not that he wanted them, but if Albus knew, that might be hazardous.

"I do, but I do not have the third," Albus said, his sign showing it was true.

"But you have two," Alastor stated, more than asked with an almost accusing tone.

"I have two," Dumbledore said with a nod.

"What do you plan on doing with them?"

"I want them to die with me," was the answer.

"You know that will not happen," Moody sighed, thinking a lot could happen in the time before they bury the headmaster.

"I know," Albus sighed as well.

"Then you need to figure out a better plan," the one-eyed man said, pointing his finger at his friend.

"Can you help with that?" the old man asked, surprising even himself with the question.

"Aye, I can," Alastor said, sitting up a bit straighter.

They planned what to do with the two Hallows. It would be late when the two old men separated, they would be on better terms, but still there was tension that had never been there before. Trust was easily broken and hard to regain.

Fawkes watched with a knowing eye. He'd do something with the Hallows if they could not come up with a viable plan. He would never let the likes of Tom Riddle have them, as long as he knew where they were.