Dumbledore met the impassive green eyes of the father in front of him with some shock. He had been suspicious of the Halliwells’ interest in Harry from the start, and the fact that he not only had the same age but his middle and preferred name was the same as the Halliwells’ late son’s had not escaped his notice. When Wyatt Halliwell’s name came out of that goblet his suspicions were confirmed. Why would a boy young Harry just met be as important as his best, his first friend? Unless that boy was something else, something else Harry always craved; family.

But that in so little time the Halliwells would have realized what took him years to find out and confirm was shocking. He had always suspected Voldemort had done something to cheat death, but the theory of Horcruxes only crossed his mind when he was presented with Riddle’s diary two years previously. From there to realizing Harry was one was very quick, and suddenly the prophecy made sense, how Voldemort marked him as his equal. Why they had to face each other. Dumbledore believed that Voldemort had to be the one to destroy the Horcrux in Harry and by doing so it would cause his downfall.

He always knew of course, thanks to the prophecy, that Harry would have to face Voldemort. And he took steps to make sure Harry felt compelled to. Yes, he should have confronted Quirrell. He should have let Harry know that with the Philosopher stone being inside the mirror Voldemort would never be able to get it. But he thought that if he let it play out, he would know where Harry’s heart lay at, and he was not disappointed. Harry, as the champion he needs to be, rose to the occasion. He regretted it afterwards, how close he came to losing the boy. How his heart constricted as he saw the boy thrash in nightmares in the Hospital Wing. But his theory had been proved right. His mother’s sacrifice gave him protection and placing the boy with Petunia instead of a loving family had been justified. He had to think of the big picture. Not the small boy under those white sheets.

He told himself that and yet he spent the nights by the boy’s bedside asking for forgiveness.

And when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened he knew Voldemort was behind it, but he didn’t know how. And to his eternal shame, when Lucius Malfoy kicked him out of the school once again he placed the burden on those small shoulders, and once again his mind said he had to but his heart berated him. So when the next year he saw that Harry was finding his own way to Hogsmead he let him, a feeble attempt to make up for everything he stole. And when at the end of the year he realized that in his drive to ensure their champion, he had not only condemned Harry to a hard life but he’d condemned another innocent man, he had no problem breaking the law to help Sirius escape and then went to Remus’ cottage, knowing Sirius would go to his lover, and without the two men knowing he erected the strongest repelling wards he could manage. No one who had not been told by either Marauder, after he put up the wards up, how to get there, would be able to. He made sure of that. He made sure Sirius was safe. But it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough. Because even trying to find a way to save Harry, he had not wavered at the notion that in the end, no matter how much it hurt him, he would sacrifice the boy if needed.

But with the same certainty that he knew that, he also knew that the green eyes, Harry’s green eyes, staring back at him won’t and he knew that if he doesn’t want to lose the war he needs to work with them, and hope, that they find what he hasn’t. A way to save Harry.

Leo stared at him firmly and said, “We’ve found the location of the other Horcruxes and other three have been dealt with. We only have a problem with one that is in a vault in Gringotts, a vault Sirius could access if he were innocent,” and the slight at Dumbledore was not lost in him. “And one that currently is near Voldemort. Unfortunately we are not able to say precisely where that is. We just know they are together.”

“How?”

“Paige. She sensed the piece of Voldemort in Chris and from there sensed for the others. The one that belongs to Voldemort and his last one are protected, she can sense them but she can’t pin point a location. We believe he might have warded himself against Whitelighters because of our presence here.”

Dumbledore was shocked, in just a few months they had managed to find what he hadn’t in two years, if they could destroy the other Horcruxes before Voldemort found his way back to a body he would move on. He only realized he said that out loud when Leo said:

“Chris saw him holding a wand in his dream. Which means he already has a body, even if not a good one. And before you go thinking of sacrificing my son, we are already working on a way to rid him of the Horcrux.”

“How-“

“None of your business,” Leo answered shortly.

“I am not the enemy here.”

“Depends on the point of view,” Leo said coldly. “If you want our help you can’t be wanting to sacrifice Chris.”

“Fair enough,” Dumbledore conceded defeat. “But there is a prophecy-“

“That we want to hear…and then we can decide what it means.”

Dumbledore nodded accepting defeat. He was wise enough to realize that now that Harry had a family behind him things would be different.  Truth be told he had wanted to tell Harry the prophecy long ago. His plan had been to tell him once he had established that Harry would indeed fight against Voldemort, at the end of his first year. But when looking at that young face he was unable to bring himself to destroying whatever was left of a childhood he had had so much part in destroying already.

He rose and went to a cabinet in his office. He retrieved a Pensieve and as he walked to the desk he said, “This will allow you to view my memory of the day the prophecy was said.”

“Wait a second,” Leo said getting up. “There are other people who should hear this.”

“Leo, in wrong hands-“

“My family, Remus and Sirius are not wrong hands Dumbledore. Get used to something Dumbledore, we Halliwells operate as a family. We might keep things from the children because they aren’t old enough, but not from the adults. Be sure that right now, every single adult in this family knows about the Horcruxes, as a matter of fact it was Sam, Paige’s father, who reminded her she could trace the other pieces of Voldemort’ soul with her Whitelighter’s ability. And it was Sirius who found the location of another Horcrux and realized he could access Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault if he was able to go to Gringotts. Some times more heads thinking on the problem is a good idea.”

“Fine,” Dumbledore nodded knowing that even if he just showed it to Leo the others would know. “When can you gather everyone?”

“Give me an hour.”

---

An hour later, true to his word, Sirius, Remus, Phoebe, Paige, Piper, Coop, Henry and Leo were gathered in Dumbledore’s office.

“I believe you haven’t met my sisters and brothers-in-law yet Professor,” Piper said gesturing towards them.

“My pleasure,” Dumbledore said nodding towards them. “I was under the impression that Ms. Mathews was married to a Muggle.”

“Yeah,” Henry smirked raising his hand, which had been holding Paige’s all the time. “We found a way to bypass your wards.”

Dumbledore couldn’t help but smile, maybe Leo was right. And having more heads to think would be good. He had been so used to doing it all alone. For everyone not only to defer to him but actually expect him to have all the answers for so long that he had stopped even considering the possibility of asking for other opinions. But sometimes, an outsider could find a simple solution, such as to hold a witch’s hand to bypass the Muggle repelling wards.  

“I believe that once inside you don’t need to hold your wife’s hand anymore,” Dumbledore said and Henry shrugged.

“I like it.”

“We’d like you to know that even though they couldn’t be here, my father and Sam will be informed of whatever we learn,” Piper added and Dumbledore nodded. 

“Please take a seat,” he said conjuring chairs for everyone and removing a memory from his temple and into the Pensieve as he sat. “There is a record of the prophecy in the Hall of Prophecies at the Ministry, but I was the one who witnessed it being done by Sybil the day I interviewed her for the post she holds today. Just a few short months before Harry was born.”

“Wait a minute; Trelawney!” Remus cried in shock and a little disgust. “You mean to tell me that this is all over something that fraud said?”

“Sybil might not have the sight as she claims, but she does have seer blood in her family and has made two real predictions. Trust me to know the difference between a real prophecy and one of her false claims Remus,” Dumbledore chided.

Remus huffed a little but said nothing. Dumbledore poked the Pensieve and a figure of Sybil Trelawney emerged from it.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”

 “At first I thought only one boy fitted the description, Neville Longbottom, but then, James and Lily announced that they had a two-months-old baby. That they had kept the pregnancy hidden and since Lily had been doing more research from home than being on the field for some time,  I had no reason to doubt them. And therefore Ha- Christopher,” he corrected nodding towards Piper “Fit the description as well.”

“Lily had been depressed after she found out she couldn’t have children due to an injury she sustained on a raid,” Sirius explained. “Actually, the Healer who tended to her, Madam Pomfrey, is the only one who knows Chris is adopted, and she is bound by her confidentiality vow. She doesn’t know who the biological parents are though. She supervised the blood adoption.”

“Poppy often tended to my Order Members back in the war. She was a member and I could trust her. There were so many infiltrated Death Eaters that I didn’t trust the care of my most targeted members to St. Mungo’s,” Dumbledore nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Yes, so after she found out, Lily had a real tough time before James managed to get her out of her funk convincing her to adopt a Muggle child. There were the orphans from the war, but as close related as the Wizarding community is it was rare to have one who didn’t have some living relative. Slowly she came back to help in the Order but she remained doing research and James didn’t complain. She had come close to dying and he was scared of her being in the field again. So when they announced Chris, no one batted an eye,” Sirius finished.

“And he fit the description, both James and Lily had defied Voldemort three times and he was born as the seventh month dies,” Dumbledore added.

“But he doesn’t,” Coop said, “The prophecy says “born to” and even adopted Chris was born to Piper and Leo who didn’t-no!” he said his jaw dropping when he saw his wife and sisters-in-law flinch.

“If you count the fact that Leo was our Whitelighter or even as an Elder he still took care of us as charges at the time and we operate as a group, than yes. Both parents did,” Piper said.

“They were accidents; we crossed paths with him when pursuing other demons, got in a scuffle, escaped and then went after our demon. He never came after us afterwards,” Paige tried to defend herself.

“He wasn’t stupid to. Going after you would mean the Wiccan community would have to interfere and that was a whole other ball game he didn’t want to deal with,” Leo said.

“Two of those times were when we were after demons future Chris sent us after,” Piper said pensively. “And one of those times future Chris was with us.”

“Which means he’s been defying Voldemort even before he was born,” Phoebe snorted.

“I always believed Voldemort chose Chris and not Neville for the similarities between them. Voldemort was a half-blood and he believed Chris was one too, by his standards,” Dumbledore clarified.

“But he got the right kid, didn’t he?” Henry who had been quietly thinking spoke for the first time. “No, listen. Think about the words. The prophecy says Vanquish, which is what you girls call what you do. You don’t call it killing the demons, you call it Vanquishing them. And the prophecy didn’t say defeat. It said Vanquish, so maybe the power he knows not, has to do with Chris being a Wiccan witch and not a Wizard. Maybe the power isn’t even just his powers  alone but all of you together. Maybe that’s his power, his family.”

“I always thought it was love, which is something Lord Voldemort does not understand, but you’re right, family. Family love, is something he doesn’t understand either. Or else he would have never underestimated Lily’s love for her son,” Dumbledore looked at Henry impressed. He surveyed the people in his office seeing their determination. Leo had been right, he had been working alone for so long and for all his brilliance he had taken years to make the advances this group had made in just months, by working together. And somehow by seeing the determination in their eyes he knew they’d find a way to save Chris and then maybe the boy would have a chance to the life Dumbledore denied him, and then may his conscience could ease a bit. Yes, the power he knew not was exactly that; love, family.