Late that night, Dumbledore sat behind his large desk rereading the journal that he had found in Salazar's library. After a while he sat back and rubbed his eyes before he turned to Fawkes with a look of profound sadness. "As much as it saddens me to say it, I was right about that diary confirming my suspicions old friend. Tom was researching Horcruxes," Dumbledore picked up one of the books that had been near the journal, a book from Salazar's personal library. It detailed the workings of creating a horcrux. "What's more horrifying though is that he was pondering the question that if other wizards have created Horcruxes and still died, would it be better to create more than one Horcrux to further protect himself." The Headmaster leaned back thinking just how old he felt at that moment. He looked down again and reread the last passage written by Tom Riddle all those years ago.
"…but how many Horcruxes? To ensure my continued survival the more I can make would be the better, but what of the magical properties of numbers? Would it be better to have my soul divided into a particular strong magical number of parts? Wouldn't that insure a stronger soul than a single one?"
Dumbledore looked again at the date on the journal entry. June 10th, 1943. He had checked the dates of what happened that year when Harry had explained about the diary. Riddle had accused Hagrid on the 13th of that month.
"And Tom was afraid to go back to the Chamber after that because I was keeping an eye on him," Dumbledore thought remembering again what Harry had said two years ago. "I never gave him a chance to finish his thoughts in his journal. But if he had returned, this journal would probably not still have been there," His thoughts turned to Arithmancy, "If he did divide his soul into parts equal to a strong magical number, what would it be? Three, seven, and thirteen all have strong magical properties. Three would be the easiest for him to accomplish, but thirteen would ensure the most safety, while seven is considered the strongest magical number to exist. Can the soul be divided thirteen times and still be considered living?"
Dumbledore's thoughts turned to Harry and a sense of hopelessness descended upon him. Two years ago when Harry had shown he could speak parseltongue it confirmed to him that the young man had somehow acquired some of Riddle's powers. With the diary confirming the existence of Horcruxes he had started developing a theory on how that had happened. Now with the knowledge that Tom made more than one Horcrux and most likely made many of them, it all but confirmed that Tom's soul had been so unstable the night he tried to kill Harry, an innocent baby, that a part of it snapped off and embedded in Harry. Dumbledore had for so long hoped the prophecy could have been interpreted in some other way, but it was not to be. With Harry being a Horcrux, he would have to die before Voldemort could die.
Tears watered the Headmaster's eyes as he thought of the young man he had just seen a few hours ago. Even after the childhood he had experienced, he had turned into a fine young man, a young man who had finally found some happiness in his life. He had found love.
"Do I tell him my suspicions? Tell him of the prophecy? To what end?" The Headmaster thought to himself. "It might be years, decades or even a lifetime before it might come true. Do I tell him and have him looking over his shoulder the rest of his life waiting for Riddle to kill him never getting to enjoy the life he has, or let him live a life free of that burden?" One final thought occurred to him, "How will Harry's death affect his bondmates? Will they themselves be condemned?" Dumbledore thought of Professor Berceau, but quickly dismissed the idea of asking her. "I can't ask, not without questions being asked of me that I can't answer at this time."
It was sometime later before the Headmaster made his way to his bedchamber only to restlessly lay awake the whole night as three numbers kept rolling into his mind, "Three, seven, thirteen."
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