Dabbling With The Dark

Chapter 26

Saturday Afternoon

"Ah, Harry, my boy. You have returned rather soon today. Is there a problem?" Dumbledore asked when he stepped into the old man's office as soon as the door opened. Dumbledore and Snape were the only two in the office for a change and he closed the door behind him before he walked up to the old man's desk.

"No problem for me, but I'm sure Professor Snape is going to have one in a few minutes," he smiled widely setting his Horcrux hunting bag on the chair he usually sat in and pulled off his dragonhide gloves. Snape raised an eyebrow at him and he grinned even more opening his bag. "I seem to remember a bet we started just after Christmas," he said pulling the last Horcrux box from his bag. "What was it again? Or I remember now," he grinned and set the box down in Dumbledore's desk in front of the old man. "If I didn't find and retrieve the chalice, bracelet, and locket before the end of term then I had to clean and pack away your entire classroom by myself," he said, reached forward, and opened the box. "But if I did you'd give me an O in the next assignment in potions."

"Bloody hell," Snape groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"And as promised, I don't have a scratch on me this time," he grinned. Snape groaned again and Dumbledore's twinkled in amusement.

"Now, now, Severus, a bet is a bet after all," the old man said picking up his wand and circling the locket in the box with his wand. "And the amount of dark magic contained within Salazar's locket most assuredly means that Harry has indeed kept his part of the bargain. Well done, my boy. Well done," the old man said happily.

"You purposely waited until now to bring that here as the only assignment left in Potions is the final exam," Snape snorted.

"Yes and no," he sniggered. "Yes, I probably could've gotten it when I went out Wednesday, but it was already late and there were some tricky wards and two curses attached to the stone shelf it was on. Since I'd already sat classes half the day and I really didn't want to end up cursed again, I left the wards and just dismantled the curses before I came back. Today I just had to go back and deactivate the wards, which were a bitch by the way. Voldemort is a sadistic arse and he's got a hell of a lot of faith in his Death Eaters risking their arses to get these things just to bring him back if he died to have that much magic guarding them."

"Then it was best that you did wait, though I will pretend I know nothing of a wager between a student and one of my professor whereby a students receives a grade they did not in fact earn," Dumbledore smiled.

"Probably end up with an O on the exam anyway if I could get a night and day to myself to study now that all the Horcruxes that I can get to are in your hands," he replied.

Your manipulation of that old fool knows no bounds, Harry, Voldemort said in his mind, but he didn't reply. He knew he really had to focus on what he was saying to get this plan to work and he really wanted it to work. Dumbledore knew where he was going, too, because the old man sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Harry-"

"Please," he said softly, seriously. "I need some time to myself to clear my head, Professor. The last ten months of my life have been ninety-five percent about getting my hands on all three of the jewelry Horcruxes. I'm still doing well in my classes because I made sure I did so that you couldn't say that going after them was interfering with my studies, but I'm burned out," he sighed putting both hands flat on the edge of the old man's desk.