Word of Dumbledore's collapse spread quickly through Hogwarts.
The headmaster had suffered a magical attack, it was said. He was recovering, but would need to take time away from his duties. In his absence, the school would be run by the other professors.
But Dean knew the truth. Dumbledore was dying. The curse on his hand, combined with the damage Dean had inflicted, had accelerated his decline. The old man had perhaps a few months left at most.
And Dean had no intention of waiting for him to die naturally.
But first, he needed to absorb the last Horcrux. He needed to complete his transformation.
Using the same ritual he'd perfected over the past year, Dean absorbed Nagini's Horcrux. This one was different from the others. It was older, more powerful, more deeply embedded in Voldemort's consciousness.
The integration was painful, more painful than any of the previous ones. For a moment, Dean felt himself drowning in Voldemort's consciousness, overwhelmed by the dark lord's memories and power.
But he pushed back. He'd spent a year preparing for this moment, building mental walls, creating compartments where he could contain the invading consciousness. And as the ritual continued, he felt his own will asserting dominance.
When it was over, Dean was no longer just a wizard who'd absorbed Horcruxes. He was something entirely new. A being who contained pieces of Voldemort's soul, but whose consciousness was entirely his own. A being whose magical power was so vast that it made the most powerful wizards look like children playing with toys.
And he could feel the last Horcrux calling to him. The one in Dumbledore's possession. The one he'd overlooked in his research.
No, not overlooked. There was one more Horcrux he hadn't found yet. One that Dumbledore had been keeping secret even from his most trusted allies.
Dean realized what it was almost immediately. It was Harry Potter himself. Or rather, it was the piece of Voldemort's soul that had been split off when he'd tried to kill Harry as a baby.
That piece of soul was still in Harry's body. Still in Dean's body.
But Dean had already integrated it. He'd made it part of himself years ago, or so he'd thought.
No, Dean realized. He'd only integrated the Horcrux in the scar. The piece of soul that had been split when Voldemort tried to kill Harry was something different. It was a fragment, not a full Horcrux, but it was still there, still connected to Voldemort.
And Dean needed to absorb it completely to achieve true power.
But to do that, he needed to understand exactly what it was and where it was hidden.
He turned to Snape for answers.
"There's another Horcrux," Dean said, meeting with the Potions Master in his private chambers. "One that Dumbledore created, or that came into being as a result of Voldemort's attempted murder of Harry."
Snape's expression was unreadable. "You're correct. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry Potter, his curse backfired. The rebound didn't just destroy his body. It split his soul. One piece went into Harry, creating an accidental Horcrux. Another piece scattered into the void."
"Where is the piece that went into Harry?" Dean asked.
"It's woven into his very being," Snape said. "Into his magic, his soul, his life force. It can't be separated and destroyed. It can only be integrated."
Dean understood. He needed to perform a ritual that would pull that fragment of Voldemort's soul fully into himself, merging it with his own consciousness.
It was dangerous. If he failed, he could lose himself entirely, could become nothing more than a vessel for Voldemort's consciousness.
But if he succeeded, he would achieve something that no one else had ever achieved: he would become the true master of Voldemort's power, with none of the madness or hunger for immortality that had driven the dark lord.
"Help me," Dean said to Snape. "I need your knowledge of soul magic."
Snape studied him for a long moment. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Very well. But know this, Potter. If you fail, I will kill you myself. The world doesn't need another Voldemort."
"I won't fail," Dean said with absolute certainty.
_______________________________________________