Chapter 2 already but really chapter 1. I was hoping to release this within the same month as the first chapter. I guess that it just wasn't meant to be. I really hope that everyone is enjoying it so far and I truly appreciate the follows, favorites and the review that I have received on this story already.
Disclosure: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned. Any bits of the story that you recognize belong to J.K Rowling and any that you do not recognize are Obviously mine.
Please remember that this story is Un-Beta'd.
Chapter 1
The room appeared empty, the only light coming from several candled sconces on the wall reflecting on the three caskets that sat side by side. One was a deep dark mahogany in color, smooth and embellished with a sketch of the moon, a stag, a dog and a wolf. Another was ebony black with runes depicted on its lid and the one that sat in-between the others was a light vinewood color, not white or cream but almost a tannish grey. It was beautifully decorated with embossed leaves similar to the ones that had appeared on the wand of the witch that it held.
There was music being played softly by an enchanted harp that stood in the corner and flowers were tied in small bunches that lay atop of the caskets perfuming the room with the subtle scents of orange blossoms, monkshood and lilies.
In the doorway stood a wizard wearing silvery gray robes with moons and glittering stars upon them. On his head was a matching hat and upon his face sat half-moon glasses that magnified the twinkle in his eyes if you looked closely enough.
Lightly scanning the room and not seeing anyone within, he entered and proceeded to walk up to the caskets and stood at the end of them. Smiling lightly, his eyes twinkling he rested his hand upon the one in the middle and softly spoke to his trapped and non-complaining audience.
"Oh Miss Granger, I did not expect for you to be one of the fallen. I thought for sure that I would see you come out of this war well and attached to Mr. Weasley as planned.
You were too intelligent of course for him, but he would have grounded your know it all traits and I am sure kept you pregnant for the next 20 years rendering your tireless quest for knowledge useless."
"Not a happy ending for the Brightest Witch of Her Age but certainly fitting for a third of the Golden Trio that couldn't leave well enough alone. Of course now that you are dead you will have died a martyr protecting Harry Potter "The Boy Who Lived Again and Mr. Weasley the love of your life". I am the only one who knows the truth Ms. Granger and apparently the truth set you free rather than love saving you. The soul mate nonsense is just that."
Walking over to the coffin etched with the images of three friends, Dumbledore laid his hand upon it for a moment and continued. "Mr. Lupin, you actually outlived your purpose years ago keeping those damn Marauders together. I thought for sure that the werewolf packs would have taken care of you time and time again or at the very least Greyback would have shut you up. Even the loss of all of your friends would have killed a lesser person but you were so stubborn and your wolf had such a fierce desire to live. I guess that I should have taken care of that myself and let you play hero with your friends, one of the Death Eaters would have gotten you, if not Severus himself."
Walking and stopping beside the third coffin he said in a low voice. "Severus my boy, you served your purpose well over these eighteen years. You knew that you were never meant to survive. You of course lasted much longer than I anticipated but that was very useful over the last two years in helping me rid myself of the curse from the ring. You also kept Mr. Riddle from Hogwarts while Mr. Potter and his little friends completed their mission. I must in turn thank you for your tenaciousness in keeping Harry on edge with your hatred of the boy no matter what your vow. I of course provided my own help in perpetuating that so that you would only see James when you looked at him and not his dear departed interfering mother. You thought that I would save her when you begged for my mercy but her death was already foreseen. If Tom hadn't gotten rid of her I would have."
"Each and every one of you have all died as martyrs, but of course it was for the Greater Good."
With that he walked away towards the end of the aisle and as he was about to leave he turned to his audience of the deceased and with a slight smirk and an unholy twinkle in his blue eyes he said to the room. "I will now find Mr. Potter and inform him of my miraculous resurrection. I will see him together with Ms. Weasley as it should have been from the beginning and put the next part of my plan together. I will of course play mentor to the new Lord and Lady Potter, maybe push them towards the ministry for the new millennium and then look to the future and what the three of us can develop together.
We will" Always" remember to thank you for your service and your sacrifices. "
With that said he turned once more towards the door to leave the room but was stopped by a figure leaning lazily against the doorway, hands in the pockets of his trousers, messy black hair and piercing green eyes looking at him intently with just a hint of a smirk on his own face.
"Professor Dumbledore sir, how surprising to see you here alive and breathing amongst the deceased this evening, The last time that we met I believed that I was dead and had a choice to return or go onto my Next Great Adventure. You are looking good for a ghost."
"Oh Harry, so good to see you my boy, so good to see you so well and safe. I am so very pleased that you came through this war with Tom both safe and sound." Exclaimed Dumbledore
"Yes, through the war with Tom, well, safe, and sound you say. I don't know if I would quite agree with you there professor." said Harry, with a bit of a grimace on his face.
"But look at yourself son, all in one piece. Safe at last, no concerns for Tom coming after you, you can have the life and family that you have always dreamed of. I must say that I have always thought that you and Miss Weasley would make a lovely couple. "Twinkled Dumbledore
"Safe at last, with the family that I've always dreamed of," Replied Harry slowly, his hands tugging on his hair a bit before coming down and resting against the back of his neck. He looked beyond Dumbledore at the caskets behind him. "The family that I have always dreamt of is lying behind you Professor."
"My best friend, sister whom has never walked away from me, even when I wasn't always the nicest person to her, that gave up her family for me, lies in that middle casket."
"My father's best friend and my honorary uncle, best friend to my dead Godfather lies in that casket to the left. He left behind a son, just as my parents did. "
"And in that casket on the right lies my mother's best friend, the man that has tried to protect me for the last 7 years to the best of his abilities. This was the family that I dreamed of Professor. Along with my parents, my godfather, my grandparents. That was the family that I dreamed of. Not of the future children that I may have, but for the family that loved me already, that cared for me and wished for my happiness."
"But Harry, my boy, so many people love you and care for you, the Weasley's, your Hogwarts professors, all of the people that you have saved by ridding the world of the Voldemort, myself included." Exclaimed Dumbledore
"But my family is gone, professor". Said Harry tightly, his eyes hardening and hands clenching into loose fists. "My family is gone; all of them are gone professor. And I believe that you had quite a bit to do with that."
"Harry, why in Merlin's name would you think that or say that? I have always tried to keep everyone safe, including you all of these years." said Dumbledore, trying to sound innocent.
"I don't think that you want to go there with me Professor." said Harry quietly as he stood up straighter and looked directly at his former headmaster. "I could be here for ages talking about how you left me on the doorstep of my aunt's house in November in England with just a blanket and a note, with people that absolutely despised magic and anything different." I didn't even know that I had a real name until I had to be registered for school."
"How in my first year at Hogwarts I almost died, what was it four times? Second year four times, third year at least four times that I can recall. Fourth year I don't even know where to begin with fourth year….No Dumbledore we won't go there right now."
"You see, one thing that I have learned from both you and from Tom Riddle is that both of you like to pontificate your thoughts, your actions, your plans. I knew that if I just waited and listened long enough that your intentions would become clear, the fact that you were speaking to three dead people doesn't say much for how sound you have come out of this war with Tom as you say. Frankly I don't believe that you went into this war with Tom that sound to begin with, or even the one with your former lover Grindewald. Have you ever been sound sir, were you sane before Ariana died or did this insanity begin after her death, when you thought that with the Deathly Hallows you could bring her back?"
"Enough, Mr. Potter, how dare you imply that I have not had the best interests of the Wizarding World at heart all of these years. I have done and seen things that you could not even imagine!" huffed Dumbledore his eyes narrowing.
"And I have done and seen things that no seventeen year old should ever see and most of those things lead directly back to you and your Greater Good." snarled Harry breathing heavily.
"What? No more Harry my boy? No more Harry, my son? Back to the days of Mr. Potter now are we? Is that how you got to know Tom Riddle? My boy, my son Tom and then Mr. Riddle?"
"Planning on making me your next Dark Lord Albus? If I don't fall in line with your little plan to marry me into the Weasley family, a light family that follows and believes everything that you say?"
"If I don't take you on as my mentor with the ear of the Minister of Magic? I have already been called delusional, a liar. Will you paint me as the next Dark Lord for my actions during war?"
"Harry, I only wanted what is best for you. I want to show you how far you can really go, what you can really do. With me by your side we can change the wizarding world for the better, for people like Ms. Granger, for werewolves like Mr. Lupin. We can create a utopia, the three of us a true triad of power."
"What is best for me and the wizarding world you say? For people like Hermione and Remus? But they won't benefit will they? Because they are dead!" yelled Harry his eyes lighting up like the killing curse. "Along with about forty percent of wizarding Britain! By your actions and inactions almost half of our people are gone! Your quest for the Deathly Hallows overrode your reason and allowed Voldemort to return in the first place!"
"You had at the very least sixteen years to destroy the Horcruxes! As soon as you suspected what he had done, you began collecting memories like people collect rubbish to support your theory and instead of ridding the world of those abominations; you decided to wait for me to grow up so that I could defeat him or die trying. Even ignoring the one in my scar for all of those years just for the chance to find the Deathly Hallows and bring back dear, deranged Ariana." growled Harry
"Enough!" snarled Dumbledore "You have no right to speak her name, to bring her up to me. You wouldn't have survived if I hadn't made sure the Dursley's wouldn't kill you. You owe me for getting you out of Godrics Hollow before you could be claimed by your most hated professor or brought up by that lush and womanizer of a godfather or god forbid that werewolf Lupin."
"My family you mean, you supposedly saved me from a family that would have loved me, to make a martyr for your pathetic Greater Good."
"Voldemort did teach me something worthwhile Dumbledore, there is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it." I'm not weak, nor am I afraid professor, and maybe I do owe you for what you have given to me. You found and gave me all of the Deathly Hallows. That little trick wand in your hand is not the Elder Wand. I never would have put that back in to your tomb where anyone could take it including you! I have the cloak, the wand and the stone. You crowned me The Boy That Lived, a liar and a martyr but now I am The Master of Death and you Albus Dumbdore are nothing!"
With a blinding white flash of light Harry Potter was gone and Albus Dumbledore was left alone looking slowly around the room, for the first time afraid of what he had created. By providing The Boy That Lived with the tools that he never intended him to have, he had in turn created a much more powerful being then he himself and that would not do at all.
Turning to leave the room and hopefully hunt down the Weasley family before Harry had a chance to speak with them he was stopped by the sound of a voice in the room of the dead that he was not expecting. As he turned around to look at this new intruder he was shocked to see Luna Lovegood in front of him dressed in bluish robes with her silvery eyes glowing from within and a gentle smile upon her lips.
"Miss Lovegood, I apologize that you had to witness Mr. Potters break down. I am hoping to be able to help him find his way back to the light…" he said before he was interrupted.
"For the Greater Good that you have touted for decades?" Luna questioned in her soft and whispery voice. "Everything that you have done has been for the Greater Good you say. Every move of the witch and wizard chess pieces, every child that you endangered, every soul that you sacrificed as unfeeling as a dementor sucks out a soul, has all been for The Greater Good?"
"Ms. Lovegood is one of the names that I answer to sir, or Luna or even Looney on occasion." she said with a smirk in her voice. "But those are not my true name. "
"And dear girl what would you have me call you if those are not your real names?" asked Dumbledore as if he were talking to a slightly for lack of a better word looney girl.
"Fate" replied the being that looked and sounded like Luna Lovegood with a grin on her face and a mad twinkling in her eyes.
"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore , upon the day of your birth the fates declared you to be magical, a wizard with the ability to perform magic, occlumency and legilimency with a special gift of seeing the strings of bonds. You were foretold to be a great wizard, a strong leader and a believer and supporter of good. You were also given free will by our creator. The gifts that you were given would in a light or grey wizard provide a safe and peaceful world for wizard and non-magical life alike. By the decisions that you have made and the bonding strings that you have deliberately cut between these three individuals as well as many more, you have disrupted the fates of too many for us to allow you to continue. The protection of several of The Deathly Hollows has prevented us from interfering in your nefarious plans. Now that you are no longer in procession of those tools and by agreement of Harry Potter the Master of Death himself we will be correcting things and as he said, you Albus Dumbledore will be nothing. You will have nothing and you will know that it was by your actions that your fate has come about."
And with that declaration and a flash of white light the one that looked like Luna Lovegood but answered to Fate disappeared as well as the room with the caskets of the three bonded souls and Albus Dumbledore and the beginning came again but this time with a slight twist because Fate Intervened.