Harry gasped and sat up. His heart was pounding and he was breathing hard. His head pounded and he winced as he rubbed his temples. There was a burning sensation in Harry’s chest and every breath felt like he was breathing in sawdust. Harry looked in front of him and saw the rapidly dissolving body of Professor Quirrell. What the heck had just happened?

Harry just touched him and he started dissolving. Then he cast that green spell at Harry and Harry blacked out. He shook his head and slowly made his way to his feet. He had dropped his wand on the ground, but as soon as he touched it his arm flared up in pain and Harry gritted his teeth. Harry endured it until he got the wand back in his robes, then panted a little in relief once it left his hand again.

“Potter, are you alright?” Harry turned to see Snape rushing forward, his black cloak billowing behind him as he ran.

Harry pointed at the lump of ash on the floor. His voice rasped as he spoke. “I think Professor Quirrell is dead. I just tripped into him and he dissolved into ash. He cursed me…”

“...Potter? Potter?”

Huh? Harry tried to focus through his pounding head. Everything was wavering and there were spots in his vision. Harry’s lips felt heavy and his voice came out slightly slurred. “What was it, professor? I should go to bed. I’m very tired.”

Harry stumbled forward before drunkenly recovering to walk forward.

“Foolish boy! Listen…”

Harry stopped walking and stared at Snape. His words filtered through Harry’s confusion.

“Follow me… Now, no time…”

Harry blinked. “Ohhhhhkay. I will follow.”

Snape started moving, and Harry stumbled after him. He had to put all his focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Snape led Harry to an abandoned classroom. He blinked and suddenly Dumbledore was there. The old man’s voice came to Harry in fragments.

“Cover up… Wait for an hour to separate events… fine.”

Harry blinked. Snape was arguing with the headmaster. The headmaster was standing over him, glowing wand pointed at Harry's forehead. Harry blinked and he was alone in the room. Harry was slumped against a wall and he slowly slid to the ground and closed his eyes. Time to sleep.

— — —

Dumbledore quickly collected the piles of ash into a ball and cast several tracking spells on it. Sure enough, there was a trail leading into the air where Voldemort’s spirit must have escaped. The spirit would be long gone by now.

Dumbledore cast a few more spells to test the dust and confirmed his theory, the dust was saturated with positive emotion magics. What most wizards didn’t know was that Voldemort hadn’t been there to kill Lily or James Potter on the night he was defeated. He had been there to kill a baby Harry due to a prophecy that pointed to Harry Potter as the one who would defeat Voldemort in the future.

Lily Potter was skilled with emotional magic, and it had been Albus’ theory for many years that she had sacrificed her life to empower her child. A ward of such power that it defended the boy from the killing curse of Voldemort, powered by her love for her child. It remained to this day under the boy’s skin, protecting him from its target Voldemort. It's protection against Voldemort was absolute while it completely ignored the actions of anyone or anything else.

But it had been passive before now, barely noticeable to those who were not looking for it. But now when this ward, made to defend from the dark lords' attack so many years ago, encountered Voldemort again… It had reacted to lash out and dissolve his possessed servant into dust. A remarkable piece of magic.

— — —

But now was not the time to marvel over a unique piece of magic. Albus waved his wand and buried the dust deep under the ground where he could retrieve it later. He couldn’t allow the ministry to learn of this, it would put Harry in too much danger if the boy were blamed for the teacher's death.

Albus quickly moved to his office where Severus already waited with the unconscious Harry Potter. He quickly swept in, “Albus,” Severus began, “The boy is injured, we must treat him soon. This injury is beyond me…”

Albus waved his wand and the fireplace lit up with green flames. “Wait one more hour. The order of events must be foolproof. We must cover up Quirrell's death. We must wait for an hour to separate the events for the ministry, the boy will be fine.”

Severus glanced between the headmaster and the slumped over boy, looking nervous. “Hurry up, I have no idea what this condition is," Severus said, "Even my potions only treat symptoms. If he takes a turn for the worse then I will take him regardless of the plan.”

Albus gave Severus a stern look. “No. One hour exactly. He can survive until then, or the Ministry may well put him in Azkaban.”

Albus stood over the slumped over Harry Potter and pointed his wand at him.

“Obliviate.”

The boy’s memories of the last day should be erased.

“Albus!”

Dumbledore waved off Severus’ protests. “I’m going to set up the culprit. One hour, then he will go to St. Mungo’s. Do I have your word, Severus?”

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Snape grumbled, but after a few seconds agreed.

“Very well then,” Albus said, “I’ll be off then. Do you have the Polyjuice potion?”

Severus nodded and handed Albus the bottle. Albus carefully levitated a piece of Quirrell dust into the potion. It was still part of Quirrell even if it was also laced with the emotion magics attempting to decay it. Albus drank the bottle and quickly shifted into the appearance of Quirinus Quirrell. He left the headmaster's office after conjuring clothes similar to the ones Quirrell had been wearing, wrapping the turban around his head quickly.

Dumbledore quickly rushed to Hogsmeade and once he was there apparated to Diagon Alley. He made sure to affect the same stutter that Quirinus was known for as he briefly greeted a few people there. In another life perhaps Albus could have been a stage actor. Albus turned to the side and went down a staircase into a dingy and dark alleyway. Knockturn Alley where the dangerous and less legal elements of wizarding society resided.

Albus ducked into the shop, acting as if one hunted. He had already placed the illegal bounty on himself and used an old contact to make sure it was backdated to being placed over a week ago. The bounty hunters would be after him in moments. Sure enough, a group of six rough looking wizards came from the entrance of Knockturn Alley, eyes roaming the crowd. Dumbledore left the shop when they were close enough and started hustling away, pretending to not see them.

The bounty hunters shouted as they spotted Albus and pushed through the crowd. The natives quickly cleared out at seeing the confrontation, knowing better than to involve themselves in trouble. The group chased after Albus until he turned into an alley that he knew was a dead end.

Albus had secretly contracted this group of bounty hunters because of their ill reputation. There were many rumors of muggle killings at their hands, but they were never prosecuted because they were useful to the dark faction. So Albus had no remorse for framing them for what was about to happen next.

Albus continued into the alley until he reached the wall. It was between a cursed objects emporium and a butcher shop for exotic and illegally imported magical beasts. But just a normal butcher shop if the Aurors ever came around. The six bounty hunters crowded the exit of the alleyway and slowly closed in. Albus turned around as Quirinus and pretended to tremble.

“Who– Who are you? I’m just — just a Hogwarts teacher. Let me– me go!”

The sneering leader waved his wand lazily. “A teacher? Nice try, no teacher gets a bounty this nice. Unfortunately, the client specified that you have to be dead, Mr. Teacher. Goodbye.”

The man raised his wand as Dumbledore put his wand to his throat and shouted still in the voice of Quirinus. His voice boomed as Albus used his voice amplifying spell.

“HELP! THEY’RE GOING TO KILL ME! I…”

“Reducto!” the leader of the bounty hunters shouted. The blasting curse shot towards Albus and he cut himself off, ducked, and apparated to a nearby roof. He immediately cast a disillusionment charm to render himself almost invisible so he wouldn’t be detected and quickly cast two more spells.

First, Albus cast an illusion of the cowering Quirrell where Albus had been standing seconds ago, the blasting curse still approaching it. In the same instant, Albus levitated a pig's carcass from a nearby cooler and threw it in the path of the curse. The curse hit the pig's body and Dumbledore cast a silent spell of his own to explode the body from the inside, sending gory bits and blood splattering around the alley. Dumbledore quickly cast a few vanishing spells on the more recognizably pig chunks such as the snout and hooves.

“Ho— Holy shit, Bert. You fucking exploded him like a melon!” One of the bounty hunters said with wide eyes.

The leader Bert stared down at his wand in confusion. Dumbledore assumed that his blasting curses weren’t normally nearly that powerful. Most wizards blasting curses would create a mess but not blow a man into pieces. As the other bounty hunters hesitated at their leader's lack of response, Bert spoke up.

“Goddamn right! That’s why I’m the leader. Now get to work before I do the same to you sorry lot. We gotta clean up the evidence before the Aurors show up.”

Albus’ anonymous tip would take care of that. Just as the crew finished casting their amateurish transfiguration spells to clean up the blood and had left the alley, a full squad of five Aurors descended upon them from up the street.

“Freeze! Hands off your wands!” one of the Aurors shouted.

Bert turned and glanced at his comrades. “You know the drill, boys! Scatter!”

All six men began running in different directions at once and the Aurors cursed and settled on chasing down the apparent leader, Bert. Albus watched, apparating rooftop to rooftop to observe. It looked like Bert might actually manage to get away. The Aurors were hesitant to fire their spells as Bert reached more crowded areas and shoved people aside as he fled causing chaos in the crowd. The denizens of Knockturn were giving the Aurors unpleasant looks, they were not welcome in these parts.

Albus couldn’t have the man actually escaping, so he flicked his wand and the man’s foot appeared stuck to the road for an instant. Just long enough for him to fall and be sent sprawling on the ground. Before Bert could recover, the Aurors managed to get a clear shot and stunned him with their spells.

Dumbledore could hear more shouting in the distance as more and more Aurors apparated into Knockturn Alley to chase down the rest. Work done, Albus apparated back to Hogsmeade still in Quirinus’ body. Under the disillusionment charm, Dumbledore made his way back into his office where Severus and the unconscious Harry Potter still waited. Dumbledore revealed himself and Severus quickly handed him the counter potion.

Albus quickly returned to himself and got dressed in his usual Headmaster's robes in his private quarters. Albus returned to his office where Severus looked impatient.

“Now we can take him, Severus. You know the story?”

“Yes, Headmaster. Found him like this a few minutes ago by the lake. Rushed him to your office, and then we left. We know nothing of Quirrell. Now, can we go?”

Dumbledore nodded and his fireplace lit up again. Severus lifted the unconscious Harry Potter and levitated him through before following quickly behind. Albus began writing yet another letter to the minister. The man would be having a fit when he read it, especially after Albus’ past assurances that there would be no more events or attacks at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore made sure to only mention the mysterious attack under investigation and nothing of Quirrell. Dumbledore prepared himself took a deep breath and drew his most recent memories into a vial.

Albus was a good actor, but there could be no suspicion at all of him. Albus placed the vial containing his mist-like memories of the day under his pillow in his quarters. His altered self would know enough to review those memories when it was safe.

Then Dumbledore cast a memory charm on himself and…

Suddenly Dumbledore was worried about yet another attack on Harry Potter. Who could have done it? Why had whoever did it run off without finishing the job? Albus leaned over and continued writing his letter to Minister Fudge. It was of utmost importance to get the Minister’s support yet again before things spiraled any further out of control.

Albus finished the letter and sent it off by owl. Then he started writing his next letter. This would be another one of those sleepless nights. Albus almost wished sometimes that he really was just the headmaster of a school. Things would be much simpler if that were the case. But this was the burden he put on himself for the betterment of wizards and muggles alike. A few sleepless nights were nothing in comparison to his ideals.