Conflict of Interest

I would like to thank my beta, AvidReader2425, for his help in this chapter.

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19th March 1995, Hogwarts

(Dumbledore POV)

Albus Dumbledore was scared. Although he would never admit it, Nicholas' visit terrified him. Knowing you had a literal clock on your chest, knowing he would die was very unsettling. The worst thing isn't even the fact that he was dying, it was the wait. To know exactly when it will happen is torturous and after only a couple of days, he was already sick of checking his chest every hour or so. As Nicholas said, the first two line have slowly faded away. Every day, he had one less line. His days were counted but if the Morrigan or whatever it was, wanted him to lay down and just die, they were wrong. He will die fighting; he will not go quietly to the afterlife.

Albus had dedicated the last day to research more about the Morrigan. The mysterious entity has been seen every few centuries and wherever it was seen, death followed. And we're not talking about a couple of dead but death on a biblical scale. No one has ever reported ever hearing it speak. Everyone described it the same way, a figure that seemed feminine, in black, face hidden by a hood. They said that she was made of shadows. It seems like a rudimentary illusion but the fact it was so long ago was impressive. She was often seen with a large black bird that the locals mistook for a Crow. But from the rudimentary drawing Albus could find, it was some sort of magical species. It had a disturbing resemblance to Fawkes, but Albus shook his head at the idea. No phoenix would ever ally himself with such a disgustingly dark creature like the Morrigan.

The name Morrigan is mainly related to Celtic mythology but there were mentions of her earlier. He researched what Nicholas told him about the Asgardian's relationship with the Morrigan and found more details about the battle between Princess Hela of Asgard and The Morrigan. The Morrigan defended the celts from an attack of over ten thousand Asgardian soldiers, fifty thousand draugr, basically Asgardian inferi that are very magical resistant and the princess Hela herself, who was riding the giant wolf Fenris. The Norse goddess of Death alone could have decimated opposition by herself, but Albus guessed she wanted to make a statement of some kind. The battle wasn't clear, but it ended with every Asgardian Soldier dead and the Princess of Asgard in chains. Odin arrived after the battle ended to retrieve his daughter who had apparently tried to revolt against his rule and had massacred the Valkyries when Odin ordered them to retrieve her. He imprisoned his daughter then and there into the empty and desolate realm of Helheim for all eternity.

But before then, there were stories about the Morrigan, especially in ancient Egyptian where a very old family, called the Grimm family, who were descendants of Atlantis, described a hooded figure that was present during Atlantis' sinking. As powerful she may seem, none of the feats described was impossible using magic. There was a chance that this Morrigan is just a very powerful witch that has achieved some kind of immortality. It was possible according to Nicholas. And how it was a surprise how Morgan Le Fey was still alive, he wished to live through the Morrigan just to defeat Merlin's slayer. Killing her would put him up there with the greatest there was. But it wasn't the time for this. He had to survive a millennia old powerful witch at best or a genuine Goddess of Death at worst. Either way, the chance of survival was low, and his only chance was the Hallows, of which he had no idea how to find the resurrection stone. If he was honest with himself, if he had learned of the existence of the Morrigan, he would probably be planning to kill her.

But now, he had to make sure that, in the event of his death, he would have to make sure that he had a successor that would continue his work and to do that, they had to defeat Voldemort when he returns. He will have to create a list of what he knows of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Suddenly, the wards in front of his office alerted him that Nathan Potter was attempting to enter his office. The boy kept yelling out the names of candy like a madman and Albus chuckled in amusement. It was one of the pleasures of being old is to watch young wizards and witches embarrass themselves. After a couple of minutes, he took pity of the boy and allowed the gargoyle to move and let him in.

Albus composed himself and put back the pile of texts he was using to research the Morrigan. It would not do to show weakness to his probable successor. He had envisioned his sister being his successor, but she was very resilient and didn't trust his guidance. The boy was, surprisingly enough, very taken with him. Even the Potters started to trust him again. He hadn't expected them to forgive him so readily for what happened to their daughter. It was very surprising that all he had to do was summon the girl and they acted as if their relationship has never been strained.

He sat back at his office and waited for the boy to knock and with a wave of his wand the door opened to show a heavy breathing Nathan Potter; he must have run all the way here.

"Hello, Nathan, my boy. You wanted to see me?" Dumbledore asked.

"Headmaster, you were right." Young Nathan answered.

Albus was confused about the answer. The last couple of days had distracted him of his duties as headmaster and his lessons with the boy.

"As old as I am now, I have been right about a great many things and wrong about even more so. Just the other day, I even tried to eat a new delicacy called Werther's Originals, it was recommended to me by a former muggle born student of mine. It was a bit of a disappointment; it wasn't sweet enough and it was too hard on my old teeth. I think I'll stick with my sherbet lemon. Do want any, my boy?"

Albus was doing his best to not burst out of laughter at the boy's expression. He looked so incredulous that he probably forgot about what he came to talk to me about.

"No, thank you, Headmaster. No, I meant you were right about Jasmine."

With that name, the boy had his attention. He had to admit that the Potter girl has been a bit of a nuisance ever since he had summoned her. If he hadn't secured the Potter family and their block as his allies, he wouldn't have done it. Already, the girl had sank her claws at her younger sister. Young Rose has been shown to almost worship her older sister. That influence was something that worried him in case she would do the same with Nathan. Thankfully, the boy was first nervous about approaching her, which allowed him to subtly warn the boy from getting too close to someone unknown. After the second task, he became distrustful of her and started to follow her using his invisibility cloak.

"Elaborate." The jovial old man was gone and all that remained was the defeater of Grindelwald.

The boy shivered at the pressure of his magic and immediately answered the question, "I noticed that Rose was missing during lunch and looked her up with the Marauder Map. I found her with Jasmine in an empty classroom. First, they were paying some sort of game with a beater's bat but then Rose started asking personal questions, but this time Jasmine answered. She said a bit about her life, nothing really important other than the fact that she's a Parselmouth and adopted into some important family in America. But she said that she was a dark witch, sir. She even showed her some dark magic, it was nothing I've ever seen before. I don't want my sister to become a dark witch too."

This was a great opportunity to get rid of the girl. It would be the Potter's decision not his. He hadn't asked him to spy on the girl so whatever Nathan found out was the boy's own idea. Still, Lily had desensitized the boy about dark magic, much to Albus' dismay. It took a lot of subtle hints to make the boy instinctively dislike dark magic. Young Nathan didn't even care about dark magic except when the curses cast were very dangerous.

For him to be so scared, what he had seen must have been very bad. He lamented that the boy knew occlumency and so he couldn't get a memory of what spell the girl cast. He couldn't just ask someone for a memory; it's a big taboo in the magical world. A memory is more than just sight and hearing, the emotions and thoughts of the person experiencing them are also broadcasted inside. It was why Slughorn had been so outraged when Albus asked him for the memory about his discussion with Tom Riddle about Horcruxes. He ended up just stunning the man and delve into him mind to retrieve the memory. He obliviated the man afterwards but now he knew how many Horcruxes Voldemort created.

"This is grave news, my boy. When I suggested that Jasmine go to the Dursleys, I knew I was condemning her to dark and difficult years. Both your parents and I knew that she wouldn't be happy in that house, but she would be safe, whole, and innocent. We never expected that your aunt and her husband would react so negatively to her presence. I expected a timid girl, that would do anything to reunite with her family. We partly succeeded in this. Jasmine is now safe and whole. I had hoped she would remain innocent even after what she went through. I should have known that being around so much hatred would make someone attuned to the dark arts. I guess it was just a foolish old man's hope that she stayed the innocent she was." Albus said somberly.

"It's not your fault, sir." The boy protested.

"Oh, but it is. I have made more mistakes than any other person alive. And giving your sister to your aunt is definitely one of them. But, alas, I cannot change the past, no matter how much I wish I could." Albus responded.

The boy stayed silent for a few seconds, "Where do we go from there?"

"Sometimes, my boy, there are time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right. This is one of them. I will speak with your parents in a few days, and we'll come to a decision for this situation. Now, Nathan, I believe you're late for your transfiguration class. Minerva will be very displeased if you miss it. The woman is absolutely terrifying when you're not punctual, I forgot a meeting with her once and ended up spending the rest of the day as a goat in my brother's tavern."

The boy still looked incredulous to my story and just shook his head and accepted his dismissal. This was good news in a way. With a little push, Jasmine Potter will now be separated from her family. As for her becoming a dark witch, he was already planning her demise to regain the mastery over the elder wand. No one would miss a dead dark witch anyway.

Now back to the Horcruxes, he took out his pensieve. He was studying Morfin Gaunt's memory to confirm the existence of the ring Horcrux. It was curious that one could understand Parseltongue in a memory if its owner was also a Parselmouth. He paused the memory for a second to take a better look at the ring. There was something familiar about it, the stone on top emanated a strange sort of magic. It was cold; it reminded him of the ... elder wand. He practically looked at the stone to see it better. It was faint but he could see it. On top of the stone, the symbol for the deathly hallows was carved. He was sure, this was the resurrection stone. Perhaps he has a chance after all.