A/N: Hello everyone! So obviously I'm back! I've been posting new chapters left and right and working on even more every day! I just wanted to take a quick minute to thank misswitlock16 for her review of Chapter 77, and to thank each and every one of you reading, favoriting, following and reviewing this story! I hope you enjoy Chapter 78!

"That blame lies with me, and me alone." Dumbledore informed us gravely.

"Am I do understand," Phineas Nigellus interrupted. "that my great-great-grandson, the last of the blacks, is dead?"

"Yes, Phineas." Dumbledore replied, his voice laced with sympathy.

"I don't believe it." the painting frowned. With crossed arms, Phineas marched out of his painting and disappeared.

"Please sit down." Dumbledore invited, turning his attention to Harry and I once more. I did as I was told and immediately sat in one of the empty chairs that faced the Professor's desk. Harry on the other hand looked from the shattered remains of the table he'd smashed, to the magically secured doorknob, and over to us. He seemed to weigh his options for several second before giving the doorknob a fleeting glace, and throwing himself into a chair.

"I'm afraid I owe you both an explanation." The Headmaster began. "An explanation of an old man's mistakes. For I see now that what I have done and have not done, with regards to the pair of you, bears all hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannon know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was like to be young. And I seem to have forgotten lately. I guessed, fifteen years ago when I saw the scars on your foreheads, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be a sign of a connection between you and Voldemort."

"You've told us this before, Professor." Harry snapped.

"Yes." The Headmaster nodded slightly. "Yes, but you see it is necessary that we start with your scars. For it became apparent, shortly after your public introduction to the magical world, that I was correct, and that your scars were giving you warnings when Voldemort was close to you or else feeling powerful emotion. And this ability of yours, particularly in you, Harry, has become more and more pronounced since Voldemort returned to his own body and full powers." Harry gave an aggravated nod.

"More recently I became concerned that Voldemort might realize that is connection between you exists. Sure enough there came a time when you entered so far into his mind and thought that he sensed your presence. I'm speaking of course of the night you witnessed the attack on Mr. Weasley."

"Yeah Snape told me." Harry hissed.

"Professor Snape, Harry," Dumbeldore corrected him. I thought that was a bit uncalled for seeing as Harry was already fuming, but clearly the Headmaster felt it necessary. "But did you not wonder why it was not I who explained this to you? Why I did not teach you Occlumency? Why I had not so much as looked your way, either of you, for months."

"Yeah." Harry mumbled. "Yeah I wondered."

"I just assumed it was because of Umbridge." I explained. "We knew she was doing a bit of poking around for the ministry, and you've been getting accused of favoritism by the Prophet."

"That is precisely the explanation I gave to others when they asked, Allison." Dumbledore nodded. "But I'm afraid it doesn't paint the whole picture. You see, I believed it could not be long before Voldemort attempted to force his way into one of your minds, to manipulate and misdirect your thoughts, and I was not eager to give him more incentives to do so. I was sure that if he realized that our relationship was, or had ever been, closer than that of Headmaster and pupils, he would seize his chance to use you as a means to spy on me. I feared the uses to which he would put you, the possibility that he may even try to possess one of you. I believe I was right to think that Voldemort would have made use of you in such a way. I was trying, in distancing myself from you, to protect you. An old man's mistake."

"Voldemort's aim in possession you, as he demonstrated with Harry tonight, would not have been my destruction. It would have been yours. He hoped, when he possessed you briefly, that I would sacrifice you in the hope of killing him." The Headmaster sighed.

"That seems so desperate though." I interjected. "He couldn't have honestly thought that plan would work."

"I'm afraid he did." Dumbledore frowned. "Harry, Sirius told me that you felt Voldemort awake inside you the very night that you had the vision of Arthur Weasley's attack. I knew at once that my worst fears were correct, Voldemort from that point had realized he could use you. In an attempt to arm you against Voldemort's assault on your mind, I arranged Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape."

"I've wondered about that too." Harry groaned. "Why just give me lessons? If Voldemort was trying to take one of us over, what made you so sure it was me? How come Alice never had to..."

"Allison didn't not show the same...side effects as you. She did not witness the attack of Arthur Weasely, nor, to the best of my knowledge has she ever claimed to have visions in her dreams. Naturally, I was curious as to the reason behind this, so I spoke with your sister's guardian. You may be aware of this yourself Alice, but you were raised studying the basic principles of Occlumency."

"I knew." I told them. "I knew because I asked. When Professor Snape came to Grimmuald Place to speak with Harry, he and I got into a sort of shouting match. I wanted to know why I wasn't to be included in the lessons."

"Ah, I see." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. He took a beat to digest this information before speaking again. "Professor Snape made a discovery of his own during his lessons with you, Harry. He learned that you had been dreaming about the door to the Department of Mysteries for months. Voldemort, of course, had been obsessed with the possibility of hearing the prophecy ever since he regained his body, and he dwelled on the door, do did you, though he did not know what it meant. And then you saw Rookwood, who worked for the Department of Mysteries before his arrest, telling Voldemort what we had known all along; that the prophecies held in the Ministry of Magic are heavily protected. Only the people to whom they refer can lift them from the selves without suffering madness. In this case, either Voldemort would have to risk revealing himself or one of you would have to take it for him."

"And he chose me." Harry guessed. "Somehow he knew I'd be weaker. I didn't get better at Occlumency because I didn't practice. I didn't bother. I could've stopped myself having those dreams. Alice and Hermione kept telling me how important it was...If I had, he'd never have been able to show me where to go...and Sirius wouldn't...Sirius wouldn't..." Harry's sentence trialed off. It seemed he still couldn't bring himself to say that his godfather had died. "I tried to check he'd really been taken. I went to Umbridge's office, I spoke to Kreacher in the fire, and he said Sirius wasn't there. He said he'd gone!"

"Kreacher lied." Dumbledore stated plainly. "You are not his master, he could lie to you without even needing to punish himself. Kreacher intended you to go to the Ministry of Magic."

"He-he sent me on purpose?" My brother stammered.

"Oh yes. Kreacher, I am afraid, has been serving more than one master for months."

"But how, Professor?" I questioned. "I thought he hasn't been out of that house for years?"

"Kreacher seized his opportunity shortly before Christmas. When Sirius, apparently, shouted at him to 'get out'. He took Sirius at his word and interpreted this as an order to leave the house. He went to the only Black family member for whom he had any respect left, Narcissa, Bellatrix' sister and wife of Lucius Malfoy."

"How do you know all this?" Harry wanted to know.

"Kreacher told me last night." Dumbledore explained. "You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the department of Mysteries. He, like you attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place. When, however, the pair of you and Miss Granger did not return from your trip into the forest with Dolores, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort's. He alerted certain Order members at once."

"Moody, Tonks, Kingsley and Remus." I listed off the Order members who had arrived at the Department of Mysteries.

"All were at Headquarters when Severus made contact and all agreed to go to your aid at once. Professor Snape requested that Sirius remain behind, as someone was needed to tell me what had transpired. But Sirius did not wish to remain behind while the others went to search for you. He delegated to Kreacher the task of telling me what had happened. And so that when I arrived, shortly after they had all left for the Ministry, it was the elf who told me, laughing, where Sirius had gone."

"He...he was laughing?" Harry's rage seemed to surge a new.

"Oh, yes." Dumbledore frowned. "You see, Kreacher was not able to betray us totally. He is not Secret-Keeper of the Order, he could not give the Malfoys our whereabouts or tell them any of the Order's confidential plans that he had been forbidden to reveal. He was bound by the enchantments of his kind, which is to say that he could not disobey a direct order from his master, Sirius. But he gave Narcissa information of the sort that is very valuable to Voldemort, yet must have seemed much too trivial for Sirius to think of banning him from repeating it."

"Like what?" Harry and I asked at the same time.

"Like the fact that the person Sirius cared most about in the world was Harry. Like the fact that Harry in return has come to regard him as a mixture of father and brother. Voldemort knew already that Sirius was in the Order, that you knew where he was, but Kreacher's information made him realize that the one person whom you would go to any length to rescue was Sirius Black."

Harry didn't deny the statement as it hung stale in the air. He looked down at his lap, refusing to look at Dumbledore or I; and I probably should have been hurt by this, but in all honesty I understood where he was coming from. He may be my brother, but Harry and I didn't even know each other existed until we were eleven years old. Sirius had raised him. They'd been together as far back as he could remember. It was natural that he was the person Harry wanted to protect the most. The same could very well be said about Severus and Remus for me. Harry and I sort of had this mutual understanding that we could take care of ourselves, it was our guardians we worried about. Always.

"So..." Harry began, "When I asked Kreacher if Sirius was there last night..."

"The Malfoys, undoubtedly on Voldemort's instructions, had told him he must find a way of keeping Sirius out of the way once you had seen the vision of Sirius being tortured. Then if you decided to check whether Sirius was at home or not, Kreacher would be able to pretend he was not. He injured Buckbeak the hippogriff yesterday and at the moment when you made your appearance in the fire, Sirius was upstairs trying to tend to him." I wanted to ask Dumbledore if Buckbeak was all right, but Harry was shaking again looking as if he were about to overturn another table.

"And Kreacher told you all this...and laughed?" He choked.

"He did not wish to tell me." The Headmaster assured us. "But I am sufficiently accomplished Legilimens myself to know when I am being lied to. And I...persuaded him to tell me the full story before I left for the Department of Mysteries."

"Hermione kept telling us to be nice to him!" Harry snarled, his hands curled into fists.

"She was quite right, Harry." Dumbledore insisted. "I warned Sirius when we adopted twelve Grimmauld Place as our Headquarters that Kreacher must be treated with kindness and respect. I also told him that Kreacher could be dangerous to us. I do not think that Sirius took me very serious, or that he ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings acute as a human's..."

"Don't you blame...don't you talk...About Sirius..." Again my brother was shaking with rage.

"No one's blaming Sirius, Harry." I said putting a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged me off and continued to snarl.

"Kreacher's a lying foul...He deserved..."

"Kreacher is what he has been made by wizards." Dumbledore interrupted him calmly. "Yes, he is to be pitied. His existence has been as miserable as your friend Dobby's. he was forced to do Sirius' bidding, because Sirius was the last of the family to which he was enslaved, but he felt no true loyalty to him. And whatever Kreacher's faults it must be admitted that Sirius did nothing to make Kreacher's lot..."

"DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT!" Harry erupted, jumping to his feet. "What about Snape?" He panted. Oi! I stuck up for your guardian, don't you go attacking mine! I rolled my eyes. When all else fails, Harry has to lash out at Sev. "You're not talking about him are you?" My brother continued to rant. "When I told him Voldemort had Sirius he just sneered at me as usual..."

"Were you even listening to the Professor Dumbledore?" Now it was my turn to sneer. "What did you expect Professor Snape to say in front of Umbridge? 'Oh Harry, there's no need to worry, I'll pop over to Headquarters and check on your godfather right now!' He told the Order as soon as he left the office! He's the one who figured out that we'd never came out of the Forbidden Forest!"

"How can you defend him!" Harry hissed. "Snape! Snape goaded Sirius about staying in the house! he made out Sirius was a coward..."

"Sirius was much too old and clever to have allowed such feeble taunts to hurt him." Said Dumbledore.

"Snape stopped giving me Occlumency lessons! He threw me out of his office!"

'I am aware of it. I have already said that it was a mistake for me not to teach you myself, though I was sure, at the time, that nothing could have been more dangerous than to open your mind even further to Voldemort while in my presence..."

"Snape made it worse!" My brother complained. "My scar always hurt after lessons with him! How do you know he wasn't trying to soften me up for Voldemort, make it easier for him to get inside my..."

"I trust Severus Snape." Dumbledore insisted firmly. "But I forgot, another old man's mistake, that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father. I was wrong."

"But that's okay, is it?" Harry yelled, still standing. "It was okay for Snape to hate my dad, but it's not okay for Sirius to hate Kreacher?"

"Sirius didn't not hate Kreacher." Dumbledore argued. "He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike. The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward."

"SO SIRIUS DESERVED WHAT HE GOT, DID HE?" My brother exploded.

"I did not say that nor will you ever hear me say it." Dumbledore said in his serene calm. "Sirius was not a cruel man, he was kind to house-elves in general. He had no love for Kreacher, because Kreacher was a living reminder of the home Sirius hated."

"Yeah, he did hate it." Harry's voice cracked and he started pacing the room. "You made him stay shut up in that house and he hated it, that's why he wanted to get out last night. people don't like being locked up! You did it to me all last summer!"

Dumbledore closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands. I looked over my shoulder to see that Harry had stopped his pacing. We didn't know what to do. We had never seen any sign of exhaustion or sadness or weakness at all from our mentor before. Harry looked over at the door as if thinking of trying the knob again. I turned back at the Headmaster as a silence seeped its way through the room. Professor Dumbledore seemed to collect himself as his hands slid from his face.

"It is time." He sighed. He replaced his half-moon spectacles on his nose before continuing. "Harry, Alice, it is time for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago. I am going to tell you everything. I ask only a little patience. You will have your chances to rage at me, to do whatever you like, when I have finished. I will not stop you."