Chapter 3
The night before the battle tensions were high. Everyone scared for what tomorrow would bring, but eager to finally put an end to this vicious war.
Dumbledore was busy preparing the castle for the entire day before. When night came he had made all his preparations possible. So now all that was left was to wait.
Harry was wondering around, trying to find someway to help and be useful. After being rejected many times, he wandered up to the clock tower, to see if he could notice anyone, looking from above, who needed help. When he got there however, he found one Leonel Kämpfer sitting on the edge looking at the stars with a notebook in his lap.
"What're you doing?" Harry asked Leonel.
"Drawing." He responded.
"Drawing?! Of all things you could be doing, of course, your drawing!" Harry exclaimed with a disturbed look on his face.
There was a moment of silence, as Leonel stopped drawing, and turned to look at the aged teenager.
"Are you going to sit there and yell at me all night or are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Leonel stated.
"Who says anything's wrong?" Harry responded.
"Harry, I am thousands of years old. I've met thousands upon thousands of people and have fought in many, many battles. It is pretty obvious that something is bothering you. I probably even know what it is." Leonel explained.
Harry gave him a challenging look.
"Ok challenge accepted. You are probably thinking about the battle tomorrow, and how so much is has been put at stake all for this one, unpredictable fight. As you're thinking this, you start to let the 'what if's' plague your mind. 'What if our defenses aren't that good? What if he has more people than we originally thought? What if I'm not that strong? What if? What if? What if?' Then you start getting restless. You start asking the 'Should I's'. 'Should I do more to prepare? Should I learn some spells? Should I help fortify the defenses? Should I go spend more time with my family? Should I? Should I? Should I?' And then you start to go around bugging people asking what they are doing, and if you can help. With everyone either, busy doing something else, not needing your assistance or spending time with their loved ones; you came upon me asking what I was doing. Discovering that the only thing that I am doing is drawing, you got frustrated that I'm not doing anything significant towards tomorrow. But considering that all the preparations that could have been made, have been made, and I have no family; I choose to indulge in a habit that I have retained for many centuries, used as a means to keep my self calm, plus I greatly enjoy it. I also strongly suggest you find something to ease yourself with as well. Considering how much you love your family, and the fact that you have one why don't you go relax with them, and just enjoy the evening together." Leonel explained. "As far has worrying about tomorrow, don't. What will happen tomorrow, will still happen tomorrow. The only thing that we can do is to deal with it then and there. But for right now, enjoy the company of your loved ones.
Harry just had this kind of surprised look on his face, and then grew a little sad.
"What happened to your family?" Harry inquired. Leonel chuckled.
"Well I have yet to meet someone I can share my heart and soul with, and my mother, as you can imagine, past away a very long time ago. My younger brother chose to live out a life with someone he had grown to love with his very being, and the son they later birthed, and my little sister is still in the stasis we have chosen to undertake. Other then that-" but he was cut off by Harry suddenly exclaiming: "You had a little brother and still have a sister?"
"Yes lad, I do."
"O, well would your little brother be anyone in history I might've known of?" Harry asked.
"No. He and his wife were still very secretive about their lives, considering who he was, or rather what he was. But my nephew, you've definitely heard of him. He was a remarkable young man, who we were able to awaken and teach a lot of magic too in his time." Leonel stated with a look of nostalgia on his face.
"Well what was his name?" Harry asked not quite ready for the answer.
"O sorry. His name was Merlin." Leonel stated simply. At this Harry's eyes bulged out and opened to an abnormal size.
"MERLIN?! You're Merlin's uncle?! Holy shite. That's…uh…. Well that's … uh….. incredible." Harry exclaimed with surprise laced on his every feature.
"Hahahah yes. You wizarding folk are always very surprised when I explain that. Anyways, why don't go see to your family and spend the rest of the night sleeping or with Ms. Granger." Leonel added with a wink.
At this, Harry blushed a very nice shade of red and got up to walk away, before turning back and saying: "Goodnight Professor. Thanks for the talk. I'll see you in the morning." And with that he took off towards his family, or Hermione, one of the two.
As Leonel stared off at Harry's disappearing figure he said quietly "You gonna stay there all night Dumbledore or are you going to come out and talk?" Speaking almost as if to the air.
A very kind chuckle filtered through the air as Dumbledore stepped out of the shadows.
"Blast! I was hoping I could finally sneak up on you." Albus stated continuing with his chuckle.
"Hahah nice try old man, but you're centuries too early for that." Leonel jested, with an amused look on his face.
Albus sat down next to the ancient powerful being who had aided him in the war against two dark lords, and hopefully the defeat of both of them.
"You know he looks up to you. You're his idol." Albus stated simply.
"I know. I do my best so that he can achieve a happy and full life." Leonel started before continuing, "He's well on his way to achieving this, if only this war was not in the way, stalling it."
"Yes, but we will do everything in our power to make it so that it's no longer a problem for him, or any of today's youth." Albus explained.
"Yes we will." Leonel stated before pondering for a few moments and saying, "You've had it fairly rough Albus, first the war with Grindelwald, now this. It's easy to say that you've done your fair share."
"Yes this is true. I have had a very trying life. But you know, there were a couple decades in there, where I was happy, truly and utterly happy. Just watching the years go by as a teacher, preparing kids for the lives they could obtain and imparting upon the knowledge of magic as best I could. Those were the days." He explained before continuing, "I have to say that I have lived a happy, full, and satisfying life, despite the two wars, well, three technically. Each student and the opportunities they represented, it still brings a smile to my face." He finished with a very bright and joyous smile on his face.
Leonel smiled at this before stating, "You have done much in your life Albus. More than most men I have met on my walk on this planet. I am happy to have met you."
"Thank you, old friend." Albus answered.
And with that they sat in silence; Albus just staring at the stars, cycling through all of his happy moments with a smile on his face, and Leonel just continuing his drawing of Hogwarts at night. They sat like this for two hours before they heard the rush of footsteps.
They turned towards the entrance ready for anything, until Harry burst through the door, with a huge smile from ear to ear on his face.
"Headmaster! Will you marry Hermione and I?"
And Leon just burst into laughter.
Two Hours Earlier:
Harry was strolling over to his family, after his talk with Leon. He was thinking over what the Sorcerer had said; 'He's right. I shouldn't waste time I could be spending with my family and friends. Especially when this could be-' He stopped himself there; not wanting to bear with the thought that he could lose anyone of them tomorrow.
He added a little pace to his walk.
When he entered the Great Hall, he scanned the area looking for his mother and father.
Finally, he spotted them sitting together on the steps in front of the staff table, locked in a comforting embrace.
"Hey Mom, Dad." Harry stated.
"Harry! We were just talking about you." His mother exclaimed.
"Yeah, well whatever it was I swear it wasn't me." He responded with a smirk.
"Haha. No we were just reminiscing about your younger days, and how you would get into so much trouble with Ron and Neville whenever Tonks came over to babysit you guys. Then about all the great things you accomplished here at school." James explained, before smirking and saying, "and how much you would go on and on about Hermione." James explained.
At this Harry blushed.
"O hush up James. Stop teasing our son. Anyways Harry, we have some wonderful news." She paused as she looked at her husband, "Harry, I'm pregnant."
Harry looked from his two beaming parents with utter shock on his face. He always thought that he would be an only child. At first he was overjoyed at the news, but then he remembered tomorrow's battle.
"But what about-"
"I won't be fighting Harry. Your father has asked me to go back to Order Headquarters with the few that are unable to fight, and have no where else to go. It's up to you and James to make sure Voldemort and those Death Eaters of his know what it means to mess with the Potter's." Lily explained.
Harry looked at his mother for a few moments before wrapping her in a loving hug for several long minutes. After they broke apart they started chuckling and Harry hugged his father. As he did so, he whispered in James's ear, "What took you so long?" Harry asked.
James looked shocked at first before laughing and replying, "You know me, always waiting for dramatic effect."
At this, they all burst out laughing, all with joy in their hearts before the dark day that would ensue soon after.
After about half an hour, and several more jokes in which Remus and Sirius joined in on, Harry left to go find Hermione.
Spending several minutes of looking and asking for her, he finally found her in the common room of the Gryffindor dorms.
"Mione. What are you doing up here by yourself?" Harry asked, breaking her concentration on the fire.
"Nothing. Didn't have anything else to do so I just came up here." She replied.
"I saw you with your family, and didn't want to interrupt." She continued.
"You wouldn't be interrupting, Mione. We would have, more especially I would have, loved for you to join us." Harry stated.
She merely grunted in response.
"I know you miss your family Hermione, but you will seen them again." Harry explained.
"You don't know that Harry. I might be killed tomorrow."
"Don't you dare say that Hermione. I love you too much, to lose you now." Harry exclaimed with a disturbed look on his face.
"I know Harry, and I love you to, but-"
"No buts. I'll protect you with all that I am. And besides, you know more about magic then pretty much all of Voldy's men and woman. You're a tough, strong, amazing, and very beautiful witch, Hermione. With the two of us together, we can do anything." Harry exclaimed.
Hermione smiled at him as he wrapped his arms around her and they lay together on one of the couches in front of the fire.
"You and me against the world?" She asked.
"Yes. You and me against the world."
And they stayed there for a long hour, taking comfort in each others presence and each others love.
Finally Harry broke the silence with a rather surprising question;
"Hermione, will you marry me?"
She looked at him with a very shocked look, before replying; "Of course Harry. We'll marry as soon as this is over."
"Why wait? Let's marry tonight. I love you so much Hermione and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"But Harry we shouldn't bother everyone with this right now." She explained.
"O to hell with that. Come on." He replied.
They rushed out of the common room and raced to the Great Hall where they made the announcement and asked if an impromptu wedding could be done.
"Yes! Let's do it. I love weddings." Sirius exclaimed.
"Yeah and Dumbledore can marry you." Remus finished.
With that they rushed off to find Dumbledore and the wedding began.
It was a wonderful ceremony with many cheers and some tears.
When they got to the exchanging of the rings they realized they didn't have any.
And that's where it comes in handy to know a very powerful and ancient being of magic.
He created two gold rings, with the phrase "You and me against the world," engraved on the outside.
When they put them on they began to glow a very bright white.
"What was that Professor?" Harry asked.
"That my dear boy was a magic that helped seal your love for one another. It glowed white because white is pure, untainted by other colors, just like love is pure and untainted. It means that you two truly love each other. The final test to show it." Leon explained with a smile.
"Just out of curiosity, what would've happened if either one of us didn't truly love the other?" Hermione asked.
"Always the inquisitive one. They simply wouldn't have glowed, and would've just been ordinary rings on your fingers. The rings also offer a protection. The kind of protection that only love can achieve." Leon added with a wink at them.
Then Hogwarts celebrated. They celebrated love, life, friends, family, truth, freedom, and happiness.
There was music thrown together by the few who could play an instrument.
And there was lots of dancing to go with it.
After a few hours everyone called it a night, and Harry and Hermione spent their first night together as husband and wife.
Afterwards, while everyone was sleeping, Leon was sitting on the steps in front of the staff table smoking a cigarette and enjoying a fine beverage with a peaceful smile gracing his face. Looking upon all the peaceful sleeping forms in front of him, he said to no one in particular;
"O the beauty of life."