open RP: Albus Dumbledore returns

[lemondrop_party]

(( Approved by the mods, jumped through the appropriate hoops, et voila ))

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[lemondrop_party]

Being within the popcorn was like being a child in utero, in some respects. Auditory stimuli were present, but no reasoning mind to receive and process them. Echoes, ghosts of utterances, to him in memory as maddening as the words of a half-heard song in a foreign language just enough like one's own to almost make sense. He would need a Pensieve and soon. At present he could only take in what Lily told him.

She had been a spy for him, in the Order. Her information was reliable.

At the same time, it would not do to point out just how much was a blank for him. Albus had always understood that his children (was it patronising to think of them as his children? but they were, all his students, all his past students too, regardless of age) needed him to seem strong perhaps even more than they needed him to be strong.

So he only smiled, gently, the creases in his face deepening, well-used lines for a smile, because Albus smiled often. There were so many things he loved, things that delighted him, to which a smile was the most natural response.

"I have been gone longer than that, Lily," he said. What she meant by implying he had been here at some point before her arrival he could not yet tell, except that he suspected there was more to it than the fact he had outlived her. "I missed much, from the sound of it, and some of it I would have liked to see for myself. What a joy that my students find the education of the young as worthy an endeavor as I have always believed it to be. Minerva, and Severus, and Remus, and now you a professor. I am so very proud."

He paused, taking her by the shoulders and holding her at arm's length so he could look into her face. The gentle smile faded into something sadder. "This is not a simple afterlife, Lily. If James cannot be with you, it is as it must be."

[lilypotter60]

She had been a spy. A now out-of-practice spy, but Lily was well used to taking bits of information and piecing them together, presenting them as a whole. And that half-forgotten instinct was coming back to life. Taking a moment and a breath to process, Lily tried to think how best to explain.

"What I've been able to gather is that some form of you was here, as a student, before you turned into popcorn. That version apparently," Lily hesitated, eyes flicking up to Albus almost apologetically, "married Voldemort, who was also a student. I...have to admit, I didn't press for many details on the matter. In any regard, both the version of you and that version of Voldemort popcorned before either I or Sirius arrived."

Pausing, she ran one hand through her hair. Her tone was measured and calm; she was violently reminded of standing at the head of a table, surrounded by Order members, giving a report. "Sirius apparently came back from Reno." Dumbledore knew her well, he would see the flash of something else in Lily's eyes. She didn't know how much of that she believed; and there was a large part of Lily that now thought he may have fallen through that curtain not into America but into some afterlife. He may have died. "Harry is here as well. Remus recently turned to popcorn, though; but McGonagall is Transfiguration professor."

Lily's expression didn't change one bit at Dumbledore's mention of Snape, except for the tightening of her jaw. But she simply added it to the list of questions to ask later and continued in her roll call. "Molly Weasley is also here - I'm given to understand she joined the Order the second time around?" Not really waiting for a reply, Lily went on. "Some time ago, Voldemort came back. He never made a move and hasn't been seen in months. I can only assume he's either popcorn, left, or simply doesn't care."

At his words about James, that tight hold of control that Lily had frayed just a bit. "I know." A smile curved up one side of her mouth. "Nothing is simple anymore, sir. Everything I thought was black and white I've come to find out are so many shades of grey." It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him about Peter, but she stopped herself. It could wait. "I'm glad you're back," she said instead.

[lemondrop_party]

A flicker of disquiet crossed Dumbledore's face as Lily recounted the story of 'his' marriage to 'Voldemort'.

Though Lily likely would not have understood this, what unsettled Albus was not so much the notion of being wed to the former Tom Riddle, or of letting such a union be publicly known. It was the notion of himself being wed at all.

To his former student and comrade in arms, who diligently recited to him what she had learned just as she would have done in a tutorial or at a debriefing, Albus said only: "That shadow of myself is not what I am now. I will need to know what he did, and you need not be afraid or embarrassed to tell me about it. Nor need you be embarrassed," he added, the gentleness again faintly tinging his voice, "at anything regarding Sirius Black." Albus had not missed that earlier hesitation, oh, no, and he knew those little signs as intimately as any father confessor.

"So Remus has gone to rest," he said, after Lily had finished her little impromptu report. "Perhaps he will need it, before all is said and done." The implication, which he knew would not be lost on Lily, was that Albus himself had enjoyed some rest as popcorn, some regeneration. It was an untrue implication.

Albus was not above the planting of untrue implications.

"Minerva, here and teaching, that pleases me well," he said. "I shall call on her shortly, then. As for your son, it makes me happier than I can say that you know him. You have a fine son indeed, Lily. Like his parents, he is a fighter." His blue eyes fairly radiated approval.

[lilypotter60]

It was one of the curses of having red hair and fair skin that Lily blushed fairly easily. One swept over her now at the mention of Sirius, but other than that her face was impassive. Ignoring the remark altogether - she knew she would have to have some sort of conversation with Dumbledore about it in the near future, but she and Sirius hadn't even told Harry, yet; and Lily did feel that this discussion was something the two of them should do together - she simply nodded. "I honestly don't know much. But it will probably be easier for me to gather information on it than you - people tend to be more honest behind a person's back than they would be to their face. Give me a day and I'll see what I can dig up, yeah?"

Of course Lily inferred from his remark on Remus that popcorn allowed some measure of respite, and a glimmer of tenseness about her shoulders faded slightly. "He'll be back," she said, tone brokering no argument. Allowing not at all for the possiblity of any other outcome. Too much guilt was still associated with Remus - for how they'd suspected him, how that mistrust had lead to so much heartbreak, and how wrong they'd all been - and Lily couldn't allow herself to believe that he was really gone. It felt like another betrayal; one more on top of too many.

The subject of Harry, though, lit up Lily's face with the fervent love and pride only a mother could have. "He's brilliant. Everything James and I could have dreamed of. Albus, he's grown into such a man. In spite of - "

And then Lily cut herself off. In spite of how he'd been raised. In spite of all he'd been through. In spite of the fact that the one man Lily had trusted above all others seemed to have placed the good of the cause ahead of her son. Lips thinning slightly as she pressed them together, swallowing back a tide of words and questions, unwilling to breach that dam just yet - because if she did, Lily knew she wouldn't stop for some time - she shrugged. "My son is an amazing Wizard. A good man. I'm glad I got to see him again."

Letting the subject rest, for now, Lily reached out one hand to rest it lightly on Dumbledore's arm. "I'm sorry, sir, here I am babbling on and you probably would like to clean up and rest. I'll walk with you to your room." It occurred to Lily that she hadn't the foggiest where Dumbledore would be living - or, rather, where the other Dumbledore had been - but she wasn't planning on leaving her mentor's side any time in the near future. They'd figure it out.

[lemondrop_party]

It was for the best that Dumbledore did not know where the other Dumbledore had been living. Other-Dumbledore had been cohabiting with other-Voldemort. This was something that Albus's investigations would turn up in time -- yes, Albus's investigations. Lily could inquire where she liked, and she would, he had no doubt, and he would be grateful for her efforts as he always was. That did not mean he would sit idly by and wait for reports. Eyes and ears existed in places few people other than Dumbledore knew, and to those too he would resort.

For now, he simply said, "I imagine my former rooms have been taken by the current headmaster or headmistress. Any little corner in Gryffindor will do."

It was unthinkable that even a Hat gone mad could have sorted Albus anywhere but Gryffindor.

[lilypotter60]

Lily held no delusions that her quest for information would be the only one - or even the most profitable. This was Dumbledore, and he often seemed to pull knowledge out of thin air. The prophesy, that thrice-cursed prophesy, was one such example. He'd gone out on what had not even been an Order mission and returned with news that, hopeful as it had seemed at the time, had destroyed her life. And Lily knew, as she knew little else in the world, that Dumbledore had not told them the full story behind said prophesy. She didn't even know if she'd heard the whole sodding thing. But Dumbledore had given her and James the information he'd thought they'd needed and, unquestioningly, she had acted on it.

But she would do what she could. Because he was Dumbledore and she was Lily and it was easy, too easy, to fall back into the pattern of mentor and student, of leader and follower. As they walked along, Lily looked up at him, a slight smile curving her lips. In all honesty, she hadn't expected to see him again. And, despite all the shouting she knew was yet to come - Sirius, as she recalled, had some unspoken problem with Dumbledore that he'd refused to even tell her about - she was glad to have been proven wrong.

"The other Dumbledore wasn't headmaster," Lily told him, feet tracing a path that was slightly less familiar - she no longer had any reason to visit Gryffindor with any regularity. "I do believe, though, he was Charms Professor. A post that was held by Narcissa Malfoy," she couldn't stop the sneer in her voice as she said the name, though it wasn't as violent as it once may have been, "but she recently popcorned. Along with Lucius." That name was said with all the venom possible behind it. Narcissa may have been Sirius' cousin, and Lily may have held some grudging respect for the woman because of that, but Lucius held no such distinction. He'd been a foul Death Eater of the worst kind; Lily held nothing but abject disdain for him. Popcorn was too good for him, especially if rest of any kind might be found.

[lemondrop_party]

(( sorry it took so long! *offers cool boots as apology, or perhaps crisper drawer privileges* ))

There was no venom in Albus for the Malfoys to match Lily's distaste, only a deep sorrow that quenched his eyes' habitual twinkle. "We may have some respite while they are kernels," he said quietly. "I noted that both a Tom Riddle and a Lord Voldemort appeared on the annals of the popcorned." The plaque would not have escaped his notice. In truth much of his mysterious talent for producing seemingly miraculous information was no real mystery at all: Albus was blessed with a prodigious memory and a capacity for really processing sensory input most people might overlook. "We may have a precious time to prepare, Lily. No whit of it will go to waste."

He stroked his beard as he thought even though his thoughts wandered nowhere near Mithrandir. "How interesting my shadow should have chosen to teach Charms." Dumbledore had been Transfiguration professor, early in his career. Certainly he could have taught Charms, had he so chosen, but why should he? Such a subject would be a post relatively easy to fill from a larger pool of competent applicants. "My, he must have been a bit short-sighted." The twinkle returned, albeit dimmed, as he indulged in the joke, and adjusted his half-moon spectacles the slightest bit.