Harry grunted as he rose to his feet. A quick look around confirmed that he had successfully apparated to the German forest where he and Daphne had discovered the truth about her heritage. Zephyr was nowhere to be seen, having immediately gone back to the enclave to help with the evacuation, leaving Harry alone with the two most powerful men in the world. Already, he could feel the stifling force of their respective magic as they regained their bearings, and he scrambled for a plan on how to keep them occupied until the evacuation was finished.

"Potter," Riddle hissed as his baleful red eyes fell on him. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked incredulously. "What are you doing here? It's far too dangerous!"

"You're too late," Harry said, preferring to remain ambiguous in who he was addressing. "The Oracle's already dead."

The moment he stopped speaking, Harry felt both the tidal wave of force and the barrage of surgically precise stabs at his mind from Riddle and Dumbledore respectively as they bore down on him with the full weight of their magical forces in an attempt to break through whatever mental defences he had to confirm what he said and find out if he had learned anything. Rather than try to fight them off, he only offered up a token resistance before willingly dropping his defences, allowing both of them to stumble into the geometrically impossible labyrinth that he had developed to organize and visualize his mind.

With both of them occupied trying to navigate the incomprehensible pathways of his mind as well as the multitude of traps and internal defences set up through the labyrinth, Harry took the time to discretely start transfiguring his skin into the dark fur of his lion form, in preparation for doing whatever he had to in order to survive.

"Well, it seems that yet again you have proven to be a thorn in my side, Potter," Riddle declared after several minutes of fruitless searching. "Regardless, my patience has apparently been rewarded anyway as I now have the unique opportunity to do away with both you and Dumbledore."

"Big words coming from the one I've been beating since the age of eleven," Harry taunted.

"Your mother's protection won't do you any good now, Potter," Riddle hissed. "Thanks to you and dear Barty Crouch, I have transcended such paltry defences. And now, you've trapped yourself with nowhere to run."

"You seem to be forgetting that I'm not alone, Tom," Harry retorted. "Did you really –" He was cut off as the branches above him creaked and groaned before reaching down and wrapping around his biceps, yanking him up off the ground. To his surprise, it was Dumbledore who had made the first move and was conducting the forest to abduct him. He knew that he and the Headmaster were on separate sides, but he thought that they would at least be able to work together against a common enemy. Instead, Dumbledore turned back to Riddle, determination gleaming in his eyes as a thick branch wrapped itself around Harry's neck and started to squeeze tighter and tighter. Without another word, Dumbledore suddenly started throwing everything he had at Riddle, his wand a blur as it slashed through the air, unleashing a flurry of destructive magic that Riddle countered with his own while branches started to ensnare Harry's ribs, crushing the life out of him.

Within minutes, the forest was ablaze and there was a ring of utter destruction surrounding the two powerful wizards. Harry's lungs were burning and his vision darkening by the time he managed to concentrate enough to wandlessly cut his way out of the arboreal ensnarement and drop to the ground with a thud, only to look up just as Dumbledore redirected a massive serpent of Fiendfyre at him. Thinking fast, Harry unsheathed his sword and slashed through the flames, channeling his dragon magic through the blade as it seemed to consume the flames before he slashed it up diagonally, sending a wave of magic that both of his enemies managed to block while it sliced through the trees behind them before plunging his sword into the ground, discretely casting the Bubble-Head Charm as the remaining grass around them ignited before the earth beneath it started to glow. Transfiguring his skin from the Nemean Lion's fur to wyvern scales, Harry was able to withstand the heat from the close proximity to the lava he was creating even as his clothes started to ignite. Unfortunately, he was couldn't properly transfigure his eyes and was forced to shut them tight as they quickly started to burn while Dumbledore and Riddle dealt with the noxious fumes and cataclysmic heat surrounding them. This proved to be a mistake, as he barely registered the magic of two powerful curses being hurled his way by the two master magicians. His concentration broke and the lava quickly started to cool as he dove to the side in an attempt to avoid the Cruciatus Curse Riddle had hurled his way, throwing him directly into the electric blue spell Dumbledore had used. Despite his best efforts, the spell still managed to strike Harry on the outside of his right thigh, causing a wave of pain to shoot through his leg as the scales there flaked and fell off, breaking his concentration and forcing him to revert to a fully human form where he saw a patch of flesh on his thigh about two inches in diameter had turned a disgusting mixture of black, green, and yellow. His distraction cost him again as a cloud of arrows descended upon him like a swarm of insects, grazing his ribs and impaling his left thigh and bicep before he managed to conjure a wall in front of himself.

Leaning against the wall, Harry took a deep breath and snapped the arrows sticking out of him. He knew he was completely outmatched in terms of skill and power compared to either of his opponents – much less both of them – so he decided to resort to the one advantage he did have and pulled his Invisibility Cloak out from his seared robes, happy to see that it had somehow survived the battle so far. Sheathing his sword and casting all sorts of concealment charms on himself, Harry threw the Cloak over his head and reverted back to first year as he levitated objects from various points around the battlefield and launched them at both Dumbledore and Riddle causing them to turn towards where they thought he was hiding and providing the other with an opening. With the help of the charms on him and the roar of the fire blazing around them, Harry was even able to apparate to different points on the battlefield and shoot a variety of simple hexes in order to trip up the two of them as they tried to get a lock on his location while fighting each other.

He continued like this for as long as he could, ignoring the screams of pain coming from his body as the sky gradually grew darker. Even with the simple spells he was casting, Harry was starting to feel the drain on his energy as the battle dragged on while Dumbledore and Riddle were still going strong. Eventually, though, he tripped up, and everything around him seemed to reach a synchronized lull just as he stepped on one of the broken branches that had tried to crush him to death, resulting in a Body-Bind and Cruciatus Curse hitting him nearly at the same time. Harry fell to the ground, part of the Cloak slipping off of him, as every molecule of his being seemingly ignited, the pain only intensifying when he found he was unable to move in any way, forcing him to suffer in still silence.

He felt his consciousness fading as both Riddle and Dumbledore turned to his half-exposed form, and forced his mind to push through the pain, the determination to imagine golden hair and the smell of vanilla, parchment, and blood before he died forcing away any fear he may have had, making him barely even notice the flash of light around him as he sunk into the comforting darkness.

*(OoO)*

The only thing keeping Daphne from killing someone was the effort it took to keep both Bella and a recently returned Kyddris from doing the same. When Harry had finally arrived back at the safe house with the help of Zephyr, he was in the worst shape Daphne had ever seen him after a fight, and both Nicolas and his wife had been sequestered with him alone in the two weeks since trying to keep him from succumbing to his wounds. In the meantime, no one was allowed to see him if for no other reason than there was a massive, angry dragon lying between Harry and the many people who had come to the safe house in order to avoid the warzone that had become the veela enclave and its surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the presence of so many veela in one place did not mix well with the humans, either due to the reactions to their allure, or the fact that wizarding society was prejudiced no matter where you went. On the bright side, Daphne had been getting quite a bit of practice in with her own charms, as she was frequently trying to break up fights or deflecting fireballs thrown from angry veela.

She was so busy, in fact, that she rarely had any opportunity to find more blood. It was only thanks to Rosie and Kyddris (when he could be convinced to leave Harry) that she didn't succumb to the mixture of thirst and frustration and attack someone. When she wasn't settling petty arguments or savaging a carcass like a wild animal, Daphne found her thoughts constantly going back to what the Oracle had said before passing away.

"Without the guidance of a queen, a lady, and a heart, you will lose your way, and this world will be plunged into an era of despair the likes of which it has never seen."

This made her think back to her fourth year, when she had stumbled into Professor Trelawney on her way to Harry's office.

Queen of White, Lady of Black, Heart of Knight. Over ocean and desert lead boy-turned-man toward birthright.

"You seem rather deep in thought."

Daphne yelped from her position against a sleeping Kyddris, and looked up to see Professor McGonagall approaching her. Kyddris raised his head, being careful not to disturb the sleeping Bella splayed across his snout and growled, but after quickly sniffing her, laid his head back down to doze, allowing her to conjure up a chair and take a seat next to Daphne.

"Professor!" Daphne exclaimed. "I didn't notice you there."

"That's quite alright, Miss Greengrass," McGonagall replied quietly. "You've been rather busy since we got back from the enclave, I don't judge you for wanting a moment for yourself."

"I've been thinking about what the Oracle said," Daphne admitted.

"I presume you are referring to the bit about the world being plunged into an era of despair the likes of which it has never seen?" McGonagall asked.

"And the bit before that," Daphne added. "I've shown you the memories of the other prophecies that I saw, and you can't deny the similarity between the one Trelawney made to me in fourth year and what the Oracle said."

"No," McGonagall said, shaking her head. "I don't. It's clear that you, at least, are meant to be one of three women to help guide Harry through whatever trial he will face next. However, I'm quite sure that you would be there for him regardless of what a prophecy said, and for that I can't begin to say how grateful I am."

"You make it sound like standing by his side is some sort of chore," Daphne teased.

"Considering the trouble that boy finds himself in, it might as well be."

"I don't know how Harry does it," Daphne groaned quietly. "More and more refugees are coming by the day, expecting to see the Great Harry Potter, yet none of them seem to feel any kind of sympathy for the fact that he dueled against the two most powerful wizards in the world and needs time to recover. If it weren't for Kyddris, they'd have woken him up and demanded he get back on the front lines as soon as he got back. I've no doubt that they aren't going to be happy when he leaves to go wherever it is the Oracle wanted to send him."

"He'll do it the same way he always has," McGonagall replied. "With those he cares for by his side."

A/N: Hello all! I apologize for the long wait, but with exams and the holidays, I haven't had much time for writing. My family and I are about to go on a vacation, so I don't know how much time I'll have for writing until I get back to my apartment, but I wanted to post something at least to let you all know that I haven't in fact abandoned this fic. It's not much, but hopefully you all liked it and can bare with me until I get back and have time to write regularly once more. Either way, thanks to everyone who left reviews saying how much they didn't want to see this fic end, as it gave me enough motivation to get off my butt and write a quick something for you all which I hope you liked. Now, I don't know when I'll be able to get the next chapter up, but I will see you all then!