The music was rough, the crowd nearest too drunk for its own good, and even the barkeep looked uninterested in keeping the people under control as they cheered roughly to the tune the house-elfs were straining to keep up with.
Ignotus frowned as he fingered the stone uneasily within one pocket, still feeling the unwelcome presence of the man in the forest.
Antioch looked just as unhappy as he shrugged beneath the two cloaks, one invisible draped carefully into the lining of the lesser and mud-caked other on the outside.
Only Cadmus seemed bemusedly interested, and he examined the menu before them with a critical eye before rising and approaching the owner. "We request only simple water this night. Our journey has been too long and too wearying to endure the presence of even the richest mead." he said.
The middle-aged bartender frowned. "If its water you want, we have a trow out back for the horses." he answered dismissively. Cadmus frowned in turn and returned to his brothers table empty-handed.
"It would appear he cares more for the rowdy fools about us, perhaps all the easier to pick-pocket in the crack of dawn." He told them.
Antioch stirred angrily and was held down by the other two. "I'll show him who's worthy to drink like a common horse!" he bit out through clenched teeth.
"No, you won't. You can not." whispered a cool tone in his ear as a fourth presence made itself known at their table. Ignotus leaned back in caution and beneath the table Cadmus drew the Elder Wand warily.
"You still follow us?" Antioch hissed.
"That I do, brothers Peverell. I do not doubt you to make mistakes; the bond is fresh and newly sowed. In time it will prevent you from errors; I do not care to risk them in this otherwise." He answered.
"If you were to challenge the bartender you would gather the attention of the entire troupe of enemies all about you, and in the insuring melee could you guarantee the cloak would go untorn, unbroken and unstolen? Of course not. Your interests would be in defending yourself first and foremost." He continued.
"No, it is best to do as he instructs. Take your water from the trow and transfigure it into something more pleasant for your path to Godrics Hollow." Harry told them firmly.
Cadmus slowly pushed up to his feet. "You know more than you let on, then, if so easily you may predict what is to come with such surety." He stated seriously.
Beneath the charm Harry nodded, despite the fact that no one could see him clearly. "Aye. I have given you but three gifts of absolute magic on this night. The Hallows rest in your tenor until the end of days; their lessors I keep within my own folds." He told them.
"Very well." Ignotus stood up as well. "You will be our continual shadow until your own end, aye?" and without awaiting an answer, rose to his feet and departed for the doorway. Only a moment later Antioch and Cadmus followed, and at their backs and unseen Harry made sure their arrival and departure went unnoticed by any within the bar before stepping out afterward.
"What is the world like, where you came from?" Ignotus finally asked as they crept over the land only a few hours later. The unwelcome foot steps confirmed they were yet still accompanied by the unseen and so far unnamed man, aside from that ridiculous title.
"Desolate. Decayed. Crumbling to the desires of the bureaucratic fools who allowed two wars in thirty years to consume the wizarding world." His voice answered carefully from the shadows.
"Go on." Ignotus urged him after several long moments of silence. Harry nodded to himself and trekked forward quicker, long strides bringing him up to pace with the youngest Peverell brother.
"I will not speak the name of the man that caused such misery to spread across the world, least he gain any further fame. But he took steps no sane human being would ever choose to embrace, and indeed they were too few to succeed where Prophecy is invoked." Harry told him softly.
"My youth was spent depraved and ruinous at the hands of that mans actions, and so it was well into my adulthood that I saw friends and allies undone in his will to survive. I spent much of the last decade of my life merely researching ways to overcome a centuries advantage and lead that he possessed." and here Harry fell into silence again.
"Thus... ?" Antioch unwillingly questioned from ahead, unable to ignore the story. It meant the man they had faced was indeed a human, or once might have been.
"Thus?" Harry repeated quietly and shook his head to clear it. "I slew him. I tore his soul to remnants and burned those into ashes. His name has been eradicated from history and his magic taken unto my own. Before I came here this night his birth was sacrificed to ensure the necessary triumph and jump to this age could be done." his voice did not unduly change or waver as he spoke of simple cold blooded murder as though it were an everyday occurrence, but a subtle and sub-human note crept into it from beneath upon certain words.
All three brothers turned toward where he was at and directed their wands, retreating together to put distance between them and he. Harry laughed. "If I wanted to kill you three it would have been done as you were born. No, in my time the Peverell's had splintered and become extinct. I reject this outcome; you will live, and you will thrive, and at the end of many centuries your name will be spoken of with not only respect but awe. I will build you into masters of magic unseen in three hundred years." He stated with an unseen grimace crossing his face.
"And you will become as to legend, brothers Peverell three. I will see to this if it takes eternity. Now watch as you walk and take care to note the acromantula nest this time. I have seen you all die quite readily at this point of the journey in your haste and fear to escape me." he forewarned in a sharp tone.
The threat of the monstrous arachnids was enough to temporarily distract them from the even more monstrous thing before them, and Cadmus turned to face the pale pathway ahead slowly. His eyes scanned the branches and soon caught sight of that which would slay them.
Chapter one completed.
