A duel and realizations!

{Headmaster's office, Hogwarts}

{10:43 PM, 31st Oct 1981}

Dumbledore was a secretive man, a chess master hidden behind his grandfatherly persona, most of the time no one would be able to tell what he was thinking about. But at this instance, anyone could see that the man in front of them wasn't the goofy ol' Hogwarts headmaster, but rather the wizard who put an end to the terror of Gellert Grindelwald.

"Expecto Patronum~" his voice gave, the elder wand swished as a phoenix Patronus emerged from the wand, unlike any other, it vanished towards its destination without prompt.

"Fawkes" he spoke once again before vanishing from the office as his trusted phoenix landed on his shoulders.

------------------

{Godric's Hollow}

{10:44 PM, 31st Oct 1981}

The scene in which Dumbledore arrived was disheartening, the front yard was blasted apart, pieces of the door frame were hanging by the hinges, and the second-floor nursery was visible as the wall was collapsed.

"Homenum Revelio~" Dumbledore's eyebrows rose as he got several pings that he wasn't ready for. He hurried into the door and found James lying on the floor, a quick diagnostic spell indicated he was injured due to blunt trauma to the head, he had already lost several pints of blood, but nothing a quick trip to St. Mungo's won't fix.

"JAMES!!!" Sirius ran into the house at this very moment, he looked devastated, already expecting worse but Dumbledore was thinking along a different train of thought, as far as he was aware, Sirius was the secret keeper. The only reason Tom could have possibly found out about this hideout was if Sirius betrayed them. The life of Sirius black flashed in his mind before he quickly dismissed this idea.

"Who was the secret keeper Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, his wand still trained on Sirius just in case.

Sirius hurried toward James and answered as he came close, "It was Peter, It was Peter, it's all my fault, I thought it would be a good diversion, no one would ever think Peter was the secret keeper... it's all my fault..." after that he kept mumbling, his eyes flashed with madness so Dumbledore quickly intervened, "It's okay Sirius, no harm done, everything's okay, James is okay he just needs some blood replenishing potions and a quick patch up..." he lowered the elder wand and then trained it back to James.

"Episkey~" the gash on his forehead and back of the head were healed, "Sirius run to the potions cabinet and get James some Blood replenishing potions, then renervate him, I'll go check on Lily and the kids..." Dumbledore quickly rushed towards the stairs, all the rooms were untouched, it seems like Tom directly went for the Potter twins.

The nursery was in bad shape, everything was blown away along with a meter-wide hole in the wall. All three Potters were knocked unconscious, Lily it seems like had taken the worst of it all, her right leg seemed broken as she was sprawled between the door and the kids. Dumbledore then saw a dark robe made of finest silk pooled in front of her along with a bone-white wand lying beside it.

"Phew~" he let go a breath he didn't know he was holding, before composing himself and casting diagnostic charms on all three of them. He filtered through the information before he calmed down and pointed his wand toward Lily.

"Renervate~"

Lily Potter awoke with a painful gasp, her right leg was screaming and her head was pounding, she was seeing two Dumbledore standing in front of her with a wand pointing at her.

"Harry, Charlus" she cried as she tried to turn around but her leg screamed at her to stay put.

"They are alright Lily, both of them are..." Dumbledore reassured her as he cast several transfiguration spells to transfigure nearby debris into a workable splint for her leg, it was a little awkward but at least her leg wasn't twisting anymore, as soon as she was done she turned around and stumbled her way to the crib which miraculously was the only thing to have survived the carnage.

Seeing two chests rising and falling, tears started falling from her eyes, she shakily leaned forward and hugged both of them in her arms. That's when it happened, Lily will forever remember the day, the moment she realized that she couldn't touch her son anymore.

Harry's skin started showing blisters, his face went pale, then started turning blue which she noticed so she hurriedly backed away, Dumbledore stepped forward upon noticing the abnormality.

"Something's wrong Prof. Dumbledore," she screamed, still holding Charlus in her arms but her eyes were fixed on Harry. Dumbledore started casting several complex diagnostic charms while muttering in Latin but he had to stop midway because the reaction worsened.

"Stay here Lily..." Dumbledore said with a grave expression, the results of his charms weren't good. Harry's magical core seemed to be broken, it wasn't able to absorb magic from the surroundings, the earlier diagnostic charms had already overloaded his body with magic, thus showing these adverse reactions. He swiftly held Harry in his hands, concentrating to keep his magic tightly coiled in his core, he walked out of the room.

"Professor, what happened, is Harry okay," James was struggling to stand up, he looked pale and started fidgeting when looking at his oldest covered in blisters.

"Not now James, go on up, Lily and Charlus need you...Harry's fine I've got him." Dumbledore assured him before exiting the wards and walking to the nearby house.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

It took a minute for the door to open and a middle-aged woman stood in front of Dumbledore, before she could speak Dumbledore hit her with a confounds charm, her strained smile relaxed as a dumb expression appeared on her face.

"Legilimens~"

Debra Davies was a simple woman, she was in her mid 40's, her child had already gone to study at a university, separated from her husband, she spent her time knitting sweaters and gossiping with the village council.

"Confundus~" Dumbledore focused his intent and the woman put her hands out and Dumbledore carefully put him in her hands. The blisters stopped progressing and his face showed signs of improvement, even though Harry was okay for now Dumbledore froze in dread as his mind was already working through the several clues trying to figure out what happened.

"I'll take little Harry for the night," Debra smiled and Dumbledore nodded before hitting her with another confundus charm. He knew he was breaking several laws as well as his own moral codes but nothing matters right now. He needed to somehow find a cure for young Harry and needed to check on Charlus, to complete his hypothesis.

There were several members of the order already there, he had called for them when he received the news that the dark mark has almost vanished. Ares Jones was among the first ones to step forwards along with Arthur and Moody.

"Dumbledore, is it true? The Dark Mark is gone?" Moody asked, his eyes spinning and scanning the surroundings, Dumbledore, on the other hand, was looking at the absentees, as expected Peter wasn't there, "Where's Alice I need her help, also can someone go and get Poppy from Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore was about to go back and check on Charlus when he stopped, a feeling of dread overtook him as he figured out why Alice wasn't there.

"Moody, Ares, let's go, Frank and Alice are under attack, the Dark Lord probably won't leave anything to chance, there should be another attack happening tonight...Fawkes-" The beautiful phoenix appeared on his shoulder.

"Arthur, inform Lily and others that we'll be back in a few minutes, form a perimeter, no one is to step foot in the potter residence today nor the house next to us...Moody and Ares, gather the Aurors and come to the Longbottom manor as soon as possible, I'll go and hold off any attack happening..." with that a bright flame erupted from Fawkes and Dumbledore vanished from everyone's vision.

"AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!" a bone piercing scream along with the maniacal laughter of Bellatrix Lestrange greeted Dumbledore as a furious expression appeared on his face.

"Diffindo~"

A normal cutting curse was turned into something dark with the slightest application of intent, one scream stopped and the other began as a pale white hand flopped to the ground.

"Dumbledore~" Frank breathed out a sigh of relief as the three Deatheaters turned around to face the furious headmaster. Rabastan and Rodolphus's hands immediately went towards the necklace containing their emergency portkey's but they didn't work. They noticed Dumbledore going through various wand movements as several wards were put in place. Realizing that they were trapped and they needed a hostage if they wanted to walk out of this alive, several shields appeared in front of both Alice and Frank as Dumbledore started walking toward them.

"Avada Kedavra~"

"Terra~"

And with that a short-lived battle began!