Disclaimer: HP belongs to JKR/Buffy to Whedon/OCs to me

Chapter 52: The Worst Mistake

31st October 2005

By four-thirty, Mione was unable to bear the wait any longer and, after speaking to H.J. via the fireplace, was told to come over.

On entering the family room at Potter Place, Thomas was barreled into by Cammie. "Whoa, you almost knocked me over."

"I've missed you so much," Cammie said as she happily hugged Thomas.

"I imagine you've probably missed the Island and the airplane more," Thomas remarked wryly as a grinning Cammie moved to hug Mione.

Mione couldn't help but stare at her niece. "You've really grown."

"So everyone keeps telling me." Cammie yawned. "Sorry but I'm still tired after yesterday."

Harry Potter walked into the room and Mione held out her arms to him. "I think you deserve a hug."

Harry went red as Mione embraced him. "I just did what anyone would have."

Thomas doubted that very much. "I suspect that's quite untrue." Thomas then reluctantly but politely held out his hand.

Harry shook it. "It's good to see you again, Sir."

"I didn't imagine that our next meeting would be quite like this." Thomas knew that Harry had no idea that Thomas had expected their next meeting to have been that evening when he should've been removing Harry's Dark Mark.

"Neither did I." Harry glanced at Cammie. "Then again I didn't imagine when I met her that Mie would turn out to be my cousin."

"I expect you didn't. Tell me, how does it feel to know that you're responsible for relieving Dominus of Cammie's presence?" Thomas asked, noting the shadow of the Dark Mark showing through Harry's white shirt sleeve. Seeing it there only deepened the mystery as to how Harry had managed to escape the inevitable.

"Good but I'm just glad that she'll never have to go through anything like that again," Harry answered modestly.

"Thanks to you." Cammie smiled adoringly at Harry. "If you hadn't been so brave, I'd still be stuck in Castrum House with him."

"How were you treated there?" Thomas wanted to hear it directly from Cammie.

Cammie's smile vanished. "Okay."

Mione was a little worried at the loss of the smile. "Did he hurt you badly?"

"No-one laid a finger on me, not unless we were dueling," Cammie revealed. "If I misbehaved, if I wasn't being deprived of the odd meal, then my punishments were more of a visual nature."

Mione didn't understand. "What do you mean by visual nature?"

Cammie shivered as she remembered her last punishment. "A week ago I was practicing my dueling with Dominus and I managed to get past his defenses. Unfortunately I failed to hide how pleased I was."

H.J., who had been allowed to defer his punishment for a day, was stunned by what his daughter was revealing. "You managed to hurt him?"

"A nick on his neck," Cammie revealed. "But I went too far by showing how delighted I was."

"Can we see?" H.J. was interested to view the memory.

Cammie shrugged, not positive she wanted to share the memory. "I don't have a pensieve."

"I'll ask Harry to fetch his." H.J. went over to his brother and passed on his request.

Mione turned to Cammie as Harry Sebastian vanished. "How do you think you managed to get past his defenses?"

"You'll see from the memory."

Thomas had told Cammie why she had managed to get by his usually formidable guard. "I'd be interested to hear it from your point of view."

"I'd rather show just you," Cammie said, and she was glad when Harry returned with the pensieve a few moments later and extracted the memory from her.

With everyone's interest now piqued, it was a far bigger group who entered the pensieve than had listened to Cammie's revelation.

Once inside, Cammie asked her uncle, 'can I begin?' showing exactly how familiar she was with a pensieve and its inner workings as, when Harry nodded, she started the memory.


"Are you ready?" The gold-masked individual asked as he took his place opposite the young woman.

"Yes, Sir."

"On the mark of three." Thomas' wand flicked out and large numbers appeared.

Cammie readied herself. As soon as the countdown ended, she hit the floor, while at the same time sending a disarming spell at Thomas.

Thomas decided to start easy and sent the same spell back. "That's child's play, Cammie."

Cammie immediately stepped up her attack as Thomas taunted her. "Reducto."

"Conseco." Thomas sent back a slicing curse even as he deflected Cammie's attack.

As the spell connected, Cammie cried out but didn't drop her wand, instead sending back a curse at Thomas. "Fervefacio Cruor."

"You were stupid," Thomas chided, as his shield absorbed the blood-boiling curse. "Next time shield, girl."

Cammie did just that as a heart stopping curse headed her way. She then vanished, reappearing behind Thomas. "Cultellus."

Not expecting Cammie to use apparition, Thomas had to swing around in an attempt to dodge the curse. He was successful but missed Cammie's whispered second attempt, the curse catching him on the side of the neck.

Cammie stopped casting spells in disbelief. "I did it. I hit you."

Thomas also stopped and walked over to Cammie. "You most certainly did."

"Yes!" In her delight, Cammie totally forgot about how dangerous the man in front of her was and she punched the air. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I ..." Her words trailed away as Thomas' hand settled on her shoulder.

Thomas had been about to congratulate her but irritation set in instead. "Aren't you going to finish the sentence, my dear?"

Cammie knew that whenever Thomas used the phrase 'my dear', she was in trouble. "No, Sir."

"A wise decision." Thomas' voice was silky smooth. "I think it's time for your next lesson." He then apparated them to his rooms and took out his pensieve, before inserting a memory.

Cammie had little choice but to take Thomas' hand and allow him to pull her inside the pensieve. "What am I about to see?"

"My attack on the French Ministry." Thomas began the memory. "Now watch."

Cammie was shaking and white by the time the memory had ended. "You absolutely massacred them." Cammie glanced at the cut that was still visible on his neck. "You let me hurt you to prove a point, didn't you?"

"No, I was barely paying attention to your efforts as my mind was on other things, and I didn't expect you to disapparate. It was my arrogance that you wouldn't be able to bypass my defenses that led to your minor victory, just as it was their arrogance that led to their deaths. Do you understand today's lesson?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good." Thomas pulled them out of the memory. "Now return to your rooms."


Having only seen a partial memory of the attack on the French Ministry provided by Claudette, the sole survivor on the floor where the attack had happened, Harry shook his head in disbelief, now having viewed the entire attack thanks to Cammie. "I can't believe they were actually stupid enough to taunt him."

"They didn't know who they were dealing with," Sirius remarked, his hand automatically straying to his throat. "If they had, they would've kept their mouths shut."

Cammie was grateful when Harry Potter put his arm around her. "Which was one of the warnings behind my lesson."

"Are you okay?" Harry had seen how pale his cousin had gone viewing her own memory.

"I'm fine," Cammie reassured him.

Harry Sebastian hesitated, not wanting to upset his niece, but aware that memories like this could play a vital clue in giving him some more insight into how Dominus now fought. "Cammie, did he always use memories like that one to provide lessons?"

"Yes. I've seen quite a few."

"Such as…?" her uncle prompted.

"One of the earliest memories I was shown was of his recruitment meeting and how he dealt with his opposition. I think he was trying to teach me some obedience when I refused to speak to him." Cammie left the pensieve and withdrew several of her memories, before placing them in it.

"Did he teach you how to do that?" Sirius had stepped out with her, intending to help her, only to discover she didn't need his help.

"Yes." Cammie then revealed why. "He liked me to use a pensieve to review my dueling lessons to see where I was going wrong."

The pair re-entered the pensieve and Cammie began the first memory. "This is the first meeting."

Harry Potter pointed himself out. "That's me, and you'll have no problem working out which one is Mum."

The group then watched in silence, and, after the memory ended, Mione unknowingly derided her husband's feat. "Beating three men is hardly a major accomplishment. Harry could easily do that."

"Maybe so, but it was enough to convince everyone to join him," Cammie informed her aunt. "My next memory is one I don't totally understand. But I do know it has to be something to do with what Uncle Harry told me about Dominus on the night I helped him to escape. And it was actually the very first memory Dominus ever showed me."

"What was the lesson behind it?" Mione asked, aware that there had to have been one.

"Don't bite off more than I can chew." Cammie smiled wryly. "And for doing that, my first real-time visual lesson was viewing two guards being portkeyed into a cell with a werewolf for allowing Uncle Harry to escape. A few days later, Dominus made me watch the memory I'm about to show you."

The group watched as the memory began and in it a dark-haired man turned to a crowd of Death Eaters. "I've agreed on a little demonstration for you all. No-one is to interfere or I'll make your family suffer for your interference while you watch. Do I make myself my clear?" Hurried assurances spilt forth from the mouths of the crowd.

Recognizing the memory, H.J. immediately halted it, aware of what it would mean to Mione. "Mione, are you happy for everyone to see this?"

When Harry Sebastian smiled encouragingly at her, Mione hesitated and turned to face Thomas. "Thomas, I know we said that we wouldn't discuss our pasts and, while this memory isn't linked directly to me, it is linked to my past."

"Is this important to you?" Thomas asked, resigning himself to the possibility that he'd have to lie to his wife after watching the memory, whether he wanted to or not.

Mione erected a privacy bubble before answering, "Yes it is. And I need to warn you that you're not going to be happy when you find out the truth about me." She bit her lip. "And I'm afraid you're going to reject me when you do."

"I'd never reject you." Thomas put his arms around Mione's waist. "No matter what you tell me about yourself."

"You can't say that." Mione thought Thomas was being a little naïve, and she used the most extreme example she could think of to test him. "What if I said that I was Dominus? You couldn't turn around and tell me that you'd never reject me then."

"Mione, even if you told me that, I'd still love and want you. I really don't care about your past, just our future," Thomas answered honestly. He then decided to use the situation to pose a question of his own, Atropos' words of the previous night weighing more heavily on his mind than he cared to admit. "Mione, if I said the same to you about Dominus, would you still love me?"

Mione immediately responded, "Of course."

"Don't just answer automatically." Thomas' face was serious. "Would you still love me no matter what I'd done?"

Believing he was just using Dominus as she had done, to prove a point, Mione nodded. "I'd love you no matter what."

Although he knew that she was still unable to deal with the truth, no matter what she had just said, Thomas experienced a measure of pleasure at Mione's words and he pulled her tightly against him. "You have no idea how much hearing you say that means to me."

"I think I do." Mione returned the embrace. "I love you so much."

"And I love you." Thomas kissed her firmly on the mouth. "And no matter what I see in this pensieve, nothing is going to change that."

Feeling reassured and hopeful, Mione dropped the bubble and turned to the others. "Okay, we can go on now."

H.J. turned to face the memory and pointed out the frozen Harry Lupin. "Just for those of you who don't know, that's actually me."

Harry Potter had been staring at the young man who was frozen in the tableau. "He sort of looks like me, except his hair is a little longer and he's not wearing glasses."

"He is you in a manner of speaking," Harry Sebastian answered. "But at that moment he's also H.J., even though he's not really."

"I don't understand." Harry Potter couldn't stop staring as he spoke.

H.J. could see that they were freaking the young man out, and he began to explain. "Let me start at the beginning. As hard as it might be to believe, I'm not from this world. And in the world I was born in, I was born Harry James Potter, and, just as you exist here, Harry, I existed there as did Voldemort or Dominus as you know him. Unlike you, however, I was destined to have to face him to try and defeat him. Unfortunately, because the fight against Voldemort was going badly and we were about to lose, I ended up invoking a time-travel ritual but it didn't turn out as it should have. Instead of my soul merging with an earlier version of myself, I ended up surviving as a separate soul sharing a body with him instead."

"So there were two souls in one body?" Cammie asked to make sure she had understood H.J. correctly.

"Yes, thanks to the ritual I botched. However, I lay dormant and had no idea I even existed. Then, one day I found myself no longer dormant when the body's owner, another version of me, was under massive stress. And then, after I came through when Harry was facing off against that world's Sirius Black in a duel, I proved to be a far more efficient fighter than he could ever hope to be, at least then anyway, and so I was deliberately brought through to face off against Voldemort."

Harry Potter looked over at the memory. "And this is that?"

"Yes," H.J. confirmed. "The memory Cammie's about to show everyone involves what happened to Voldemort. I pushed him through the Propylaeum, which you know as the death arch, but instead of dying as we thought, he fell through it into this world and became Dominus. In some respects he had it easier than I did. After banishing Voldemort, I spent a short time in Azkaban for sealing a group of Death Eaters in the Death Chamber with a werewolf. Obviously none of them survived."

Cammie wondered how her father had managed to get out of Azkaban if he had essentially committed murder, albeit via another's hands. "How did you get out?"

"I blackmailed Minister Fudge with a little help from a friend." H.J. felt a little uneasy discussing this with his daughter, but he believed she needed to know the truth. "When I returned to the mainland, I had to give the body I was using back…"

Harry Potter interrupted him. "What do you mean by give the body back?"

"Given that that timeline's Harry Potter's soul was the predominant one, after I was returned safely from Azkaban, I agreed to allow the merger to go ahead that should've taken place when I carried out the time-traveling ritual, meaning I didn't exist as me anymore, I just existed as part of that Harry Potter's personality and I helped in some respects to shape the man he became."

"So how did you get here?" Cammie asked, intrigued by what her father was telling her.

"Three women known as the Fates did it. The last thing I remembered was closing my eyes just before the merging ritual, and then the next thing I knew, I found myself in the Death Chamber being offered a second chance at life if I came after Dominus. And so I took the Fates' offer of Jamie Potter's body and the opportunity for a second chance in life. However, I couldn't face looking like him, so I now wear a glamour."

"Who's Jamie Potter?" Harry Potter asked.

"He is." Harry Sebastian pointed out a young man standing on the dais. "Let's watch the rest of the memory, and I'll explain some more afterwards."

However, before he could restart the memory Harry Potter stopped him. "Hold on. If H.J. is in Jamie Potter's body now, what happened to him?" Harry Potter pointed at his doppelganger. "Did he die?"

"No. He's actually standing next to you." H.J. pointed to his brother.

Thomas sucked in his breath as shock ripped through him, and, even though he now knew the truth, he still asked the inevitable question. "You're both from that world?"

Harry, who rarely detected any strong emotion from Thomas, could now feel surprise. "I know it's hard to believe but it's the truth. It's also where Mione is from."

"So why isn't she there?" Cammie pointed at the frozen tableau.

"Because I was in a coma," Mione explained. "I interrupted a pure-blood duel believing I was saving my father, and I paid for it with my life."

"Your life?" Harry Potter and Cammie echoed together.

"I died." Mione tilted her head back and gave Thomas a frightened look as this was what she had been most afraid of telling him, feeling reassured when he kissed her on the forehead and murmured that it was all right.

"So how can you be here now if you died?" Cammie asked, as she was by now completely confused.

"Let me show you a memory of mine." Harry Sebastian left the pensieve and, when he returned, he played out the memory of his time with the Fates, and the initial meeting with H.J. and Mione.

Cammie couldn't help but stare in shock at Mione and Harry. "You two were together before you came here?"

"We were married," Harry revealed reluctantly. "But as she said, Mione died, and I ended up remarrying, but in the end I gave everything up because I hoped that I might be with Mione again. However, over twenty years had passed and we were two
different people, so it didn't work. Then Mione met Thomas, and I'm well aware that she couldn't be happier." He glanced at Thomas. "You should know that anything there once was between us is now just pure friendship. My future lies with someone else." He looked over at Cassandra, who smiled at him.

Thomas was well aware of how much Mione loved him. "I've never once my doubted my wife's love for me, Harry." At Thomas' words, Mione couldn't help herself and she turned to face Thomas, burying her face against him as she struggled with her tears.

Watching Thomas and Mione together, Camille thought about Harry's former wife. "What about the woman you were married to before? Why did you marry her if you still loved Aunt Mione even though she had died?"

Harry decided to be brutally honest. "After Mione died I went off the rails for a while, and I didn't treat women as respectfully as I should have. And while I cared about Seville, I slept with her not because I was in love with her, but because I wanted her. Unfortunately I got her pregnant, and so I did the right thing and married her."

"So you didn't love her?" Thomas queried, wondering what his daughter's marriage must've been like.

"I did care about Seville but I was never in love with her." Harry sighed. "And I respected her as the mother of my children but that's it."

Thomas found himself unable to drop the subject. "And was she in love with you?"

"Yes." Harry knew that when they had first married, Seville had been. "But over time I think we became more of a habit than anything else. She had her work and I had mine, and the time we spent together grew less and less, so I stayed with her until our daughters were old enough to deal with my going."

"What instigated your leaving?" Thomas knew that Mione had been quite clever in hiding this from him, and he had never suspected anything.

"I'd been having dreams about Mione for some time where she was asking for my help, and with every dream she'd move closer to the Propylaeum." Harry then told them how long he had left it before going. "I waited until only her fingertips were visible before leaving."

"Do you regret it, Uncle Harry?" Cammie could see how sad Harry looked.

"Sometimes, when I think about my children I do," Harry admitted. "But I wouldn't have met Cass if I hadn't."

"Can I see my cousins?" Cammie asked.

Harry was unsurprised by Cammie's request, particularly given her need to belong to family, which because of the spell she had spent in Castrum House, was now stronger than ever. "I don't see why not."

After Harry had picked a memory that was a favorite of his, Thomas watched an older Harry laughing and joking with three girls and a boy, who Harry explained he had adopted. "They look like you, except for the youngest."

"Seville was thrilled that Tara looked like her." Harry had to resist the urge to reach out and touch his daughter, well aware that his hand would go through the image if he did. He then ended the memory. "And before you ask, yes, I miss my children terribly. But I knew that they would have Seville and vice versa. So I bid my family goodbye, picked up the few items I planned to bring with me, promoted my brother Orion to replace me, and then left to go to the Death Chamber."

"So what did you do in your world?" Thomas was now trying to ascertain what was the truth and what wasn't. He knew now that it was unlikely that he could believe anything that Mione had told him before their wedding or what Harry had told him when he had been torturing him, as both had been able to lie convincingly.

"Head of Auror Division." Harry watched Thomas' expression change to one of understanding. "Now you can see why I was able to give a demonstration as I did at USAD."

"What were you like then?" Cammie was lapping everything up and she wanted to see more. "Dad said you can be quite nasty now."

Cassandra grinned at her boyfriend. "He still is, Cammie." She then shared a quick mischievous look with H.J. "I'll let you into a secret. Some of the trainees call him Sebastian the Sadist."

Harry swung around when H.J. sniggered. "You started it?"

"I didn't have to," H.J. responded. "But you can be a complete git, Harry. You could cut us a little slack sometimes."

Harry shook his head in dismay. "Didn't our duel yesterday morning teach you anything, H.J.?"

"That you push too hard sometimes," H.J. responded.

"Because pushing you hard is what's going to keep you bloody well alive," Harry snapped, more than a little pissed off at H.J.'s attitude. Watching as his dismayed niece slipped her hand into Harry Potter's, Harry curbed his temper, and he lowered his voice. "Experience and practice are everything."

"Your demonstration at USAD proved that." Thomas backed Harry's premise, amused at Harry taking H.J. to task.

"That's true but what H.J. seems to keep forgetting is that no matter how good I know I am, I'm also aware that…" Harry brought Cammie's secondhand memory of Voldemort back up and pointed at the dark-haired man, "…he is better."

"And in case you've forgotten, I managed to beat him after that duel," H.J. reminded Harry.

"You didn't beat him," Harry argued. "You sent him here."

"I didn't know what would happen," H.J. countered. "I thought I was killing him as one of us was destined to do."

Cammie latched on to the word 'destined' and asked her uncle a question. "You also mentioned that you were destined to kill Dominus when I rescued you. What did you mean by that?"

Harry explained. "In my world there were two prophecies relating to me and Voldemort, and we believe they've been fulfilled. But the one from H.J.'s timeline is very different, and it's this one that we believe relates to Dominus, as well as to H.J. and myself."

"What is it?" Thomas asked, having a vested interest in finding out.

James and Tonks chose that moment to join them. "What are we missing?"

Harry Sebastian brought them up to speed. "And I'm just about to tell everyone about the one prophecy that we're not sure has been fulfilled yet."

"I'm all ears," Tonks said, and she proved it by growing her ears to a large size before shrinking them again.

A smile on his face at Tonks' antics, H.J. then began to recite the prophecy that he still knew by heart.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

H.J. glanced at Harry Potter. "We also believe it could possibly apply to you as well."

Harry Potter denied H.J.'s supposition. "My parents haven't defied him thrice."

Cammie then reminded Harry about the first meeting where Lily had openly challenged Thomas. "Your mum has, at least twice."

"But Dad hasn't," Harry Potter pointed out.

James agreed with him. "That's true."

"And you do bear his Mark, don't you?" Thomas remarked, his mind going over what he had just learnt.

Harry let go of Cammie's hand to rub his arm. "Yes, but that hardly counts as marking me as his equal as stated in H.J.'s prophecy."

Cammie wondered how H.J. and her uncle had been marked. " Dad, how did he mark you and Uncle Harry as his equals?"

"Harry has a scar on his shoulder." H.J. removed his glamour. "Both Jamie and I had a lightning bolt scar on our foreheads as a result of an attack by Voldemort. And because this is Jamie's body, I still do." H.J. replaced his glamour, noting that Harry Potter had gone pale. "What is it?"

Harry Potter put a hand on his leg. "As Mum's apprentice, I sometimes dueled with Dominus. Once he used a slashing curse on me, and I wasn't allowed to heal it with magic to punish me for being so sloppy."

Cammie guessed what the scar looked like. "It's in the shape of the lightning bolt, isn't it?"

Harry nodded. "But that doesn't mean he considered me his equal."

"If he was dueling with you one on one, he did," H.J. said wryly. "So it looks as though it's the three of us in this together."

Harry Potter still disagreed, and repeated what he had said about James. "Dad has never defied him, not even once, so you're wrong."

"By hiding you here he's defying him," Mione pointed out. "So there's your first occurrence, and as we have no idea who Dominus is, they could have already met and James could've unintentionally defied him in some way."

Thomas knew his wife had no idea how right she was. With Harry and Lily as part of his entourage, he had also made the same offer to James, but he had been refused, which had led to Aditi approaching Harry Sebastian. At the time, still wanting to keep his presence below the radar, Thomas had done to James as he had done with Harry Sebastian when he had refused to join him, and had obliviated the elder Potter and sent him on his way.

While Thomas was acknowledging to himself his wife's correct deduction, Harry Potter was responding to her. "Maybe so, but I still wouldn't stand a chance against Dominus. I haven't lasted any longer than a few minutes on any occasion I've dueled with Dominus."

"Then perhaps I should start giving you lessons," Harry Sebastian decided.

Harry Potter really had no wish to take on Dominus. "But you said yourself he's better than you."

"He's beatable. I managed it," H.J. reiterated his earlier statement.

"That was luck," his brother reminded him. "Perhaps a little refresher as to what happened to you before you 'beat him' would be beneficial." Harry restarted the memory that had begun the entire revelation in the first place.


H.J. held out a hand. "I need a wand."

"Give him a wand, Jamie," Voldemort ordered.

Jamie did so, and H.J. winked cheekily at him. "I'll try not to break it; then again I'm not promising anything."

Voldemort walked down the steps and H.J. followed him, before holding up the wand he had borrowed. "My terms are that if I win you let Lily Black leave unharmed, and if I lose I will freely offer you my blood."

"Agreed." Voldemort then touched his wand to H.J.'s before moving to the first level step of the benches. H.J. bowed and Voldemort did the same.

H.J. immediately sprang into action and sent a Reductor Curse at Voldemort's arm, which missed as Voldemort side-stepped it while sending the same curse at H.J.'s legs.

H.J. jumped into the air and returned fire with a freezing curse, which Voldemort dispersed with a spectacular display of pyrotechnics. H.J. then threw up a reflective shield and watched as Voldemort did the same, the flames harmlessly rebounded off H.J.'s shield, some of them heading towards the crowd and others back towards Voldemort.

H.J. sent another spell as Voldemort lowered his shield. "Lente Mille Vengradis Sectum."

Voldemort merely grimaced as small cuts began to make themselves known over his body. "Reparo Iniuria."

As the small cuts dissipated, H.J. fired off yet another spell. "Nebulosus."

Voldemort used a heat spell to cut his way through the fog that H.J. had instigated, and sent a spell towards him. "Toxicum Talum Milia."

H.J. defended with a shield and the tiny darts dropped to the floor. "Steal that from Amicus, did you?"

Voldemort snorted. "No. He stole it from me. Saxum Silex."

As a salvo of large stones headed towards him, H.J. managed to stop them with his rapidly weakening shield. Having already been depleted by the stones and the darts, Voldemort's second spell overloaded the shield, and a hail of small rocks flew through it towards H.J.. H.J. swore as hundreds of tiny razorblade sharp stones cut into his skin. "Screw this." H.J. let rip with a barrage of pain spells, who didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat. He finished his attack with the Cruciatus curse.

Voldemort smirked as he easily defended against all of the spells H.J. had sent his way. "My turn."

H.J. was hard pressed to hold out against the volley that Voldemort began to fire off. As Voldemort took a breath, H.J. hit out with a spell Severus Snape had invented. "Sectumsempra."

Blood bloomed from the cut that appeared from Voldemort's neck to his waist, but it was immediately stemmed as Voldemort incanted his next spell. "Stringo Fluo."

"Pestifer Locusta Augustus."

Voldemort didn't move as a large cloud of locust spread out, before coming together in a single column and heading towards him. Raising his wand, Voldemort sent forth a small whirlwind to crush them out of existence. "Turbo Contero."

H.J. was almost knocked off his feet as the whirlwind flew by him. He erected a shield, Voldemort using a spell that would sever H.J.'s wand hand if it hit him.

Not giving H.J. time to recover, Voldemort started sending powerful blasting spells at H.J.'s shield. As H.J.'s shield collapsed under the bombardment, Voldemort took advantage of it and delivered his penultimate spell. "Corium Abeo Renevo."

H.J.'s skin subsequently began to turn to dust before beginning to regrow itself as he sent a blasting curse at Voldemort. However, it was obvious that he was unable to concentrate on anything except for the spell affecting his entire body as H.J. missed, hitting one of the watching Death Eaters instead.

Voldemort used one final spell on H.J.. "Obscurum Visum."

As well as obviously being in agonizing pain and unable to concentrate, H.J. was now also effectively blinded, and Voldemort casually walked up to him before placing his wand to H.J.'s bleeding head. "Do you yield, Harry?"

H.J. gasped out his words. "I yield."


Silence filled the pensieve as the memory served as not only a reminder for H.J., but for everyone else there, just how little effort Voldemort had put into the fight with H.J.

Harry Potter was the first to say something. "He didn't even bat an eyelid at the injuries you managed to inflict. And to be truthful I think he let them through. And he's even more skilled now, as Cammie's memory of that attack on the French Embassy proved. We're so screwed."

H.J. disagreed. "No, we're not. Just as Dominus has improved, so has Harry. And out of the three of us, he's the one who stands the most chance of taking Dominus on and succeeding."

"I'm not that good." Harry still stood by his own assessment of his skills compared to Dominus. "He's far more powerful than I am."

"Show them the memory of you at USAD." H.J. had seen it but he was aware that not everyone else had. "Let them be the judge of it."

Cassandra agreed with H.J. "I think it's only fair, Harry."

Harry reluctantly left the pensieve, but he only included the first demonstration he had given, and when he returned the memory began playing.

Cammie was awestruck by the end of the memory. "You were brilliant, Uncle Harry."

Harry brushed off Cammie's remark. "As I've already said it still doesn't mean I'm capable of beating Dominus, Cammie." Then he abruptly changed the subject, before H.J. could say anything different. "As everyone else is due to arrive shortly I think we should end this here for tonight."

Sirius promptly excused himself, having arrived early to question Cammie and told everyone he was going to collect his family.

Cammie, however, had wanted to see more and it showed on her face. "But I want to see some more memories."

"And as you're not going to be leaving this house for the foreseeable future, you'll have plenty of time to view any memories I think you need to see," Harry informed his niece, not willing to let her view everything. "And the same goes for Harry. He's stuck here for the next six months, so he too can view the memories with you, and you can both train together." He then turned to Thomas. "Mione can fill you in on a lot of what's happened, but if you need to see any memories she can't supply, then just ask. If they're not personal, you're welcome to view them."

"Thank you." Thomas could already think of several memories he wanted to look at but knew he'd have to wait until Mione brought up the relevant subject.

"You're welcome. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm hungry." Harry vanished out of the pensieve, the others starting to follow.

After leaving the pensieve, Mione stopped Thomas from leaving the room with the others. "Thomas, wait."

Wanting to give them some privacy, James herded everyone into the dining room to wait for the other arrivals.

Thomas took Mione into his arms. "I meant what I said earlier, Mione, about not changing my mind after what I've seen here."

Mione's voice quavered as she asked, "I don't disgust you?"

Thomas kissed her tenderly. "Not at all."

"But I'm different than everyone else." Despite his reassurance, Mione could still not quite bring herself to believe Thomas.

"Tell me how you're any different from me," Thomas challenged her. "You eat, sleep and breathe, just like I do."

"My breathing is just an illusion." Mione held up her hand. "I wear a ring that creates it."

Thomas remembered how Mione had already told him this and had claimed she was unable to remove the ring. He decided to see if she had been lying or not. "Take it off."

Mione tugged at the ring, which she never ever tried to remove, not wanting to see what she knew would be revealed if she did. "It won't budge." Her face looked slightly panicked. "I can't get it off."

"Perhaps it's not meant to come off," Thomas suggested, aware that his wife had indeed told him the truth about the ring. "Perhaps it's giving you the life you didn't think you had."

Mione stopped trying. "I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with what the Fates did to me."

"Does it matter? You're still you." Thomas brushed Mione's hair away from her face. "Let's go eat dinner, and later we can talk as much as you want to."

Mione closed her eyes as Thomas kissed her again. "I love you."

"And I'll always love you," Thomas promised as they headed into the other room.


In the early hours of the morning, Thomas scowled as he climbed out of the shower. He had spent most of the night sitting up and talking with Mione, who was now sleeping soundly, exhaustion and tears taking their toll on her. "Atropos, I thought I told you yesterday to leave."

"But this is a brand new day and I decided your comment didn't apply to it." Atropos smirked as Thomas wrapped a towel around him. "Don't do that on my account."

"Just get on with whatever crap you've come to tell me," Thomas snapped as he secured the towel more firmly.

"It's about Mione." Atropos sat down on the edge of the bathtub and revealed that she had been spying on Thomas and his wife yet again. "And her ring."

At the mention of the ring, Thomas found his interest was piqued, if somewhat unwillingly. "Did you mess with it?"

"Neither I nor my sisters are capable of that kind of feat, but my mother is."

Thomas sighed heavily. "Great, another one of you."

Atropos knew then that Thomas had no idea of who her mother was. "She's nothing like us. Our powers pale into significance next to hers."

Thomas challenged Atropos' statement. "So if she's so powerful, why hasn't she stopped me?"

"Even immortality has its limits, and I'm not sure that she's able to interfere with you," Atropos revealed. "But I do think she's the one responsible for Mione's ring becoming permanent. And with that permanence comes the possibility that Mione could now be killed like any other mortal."

"So what do you want for telling me this?"

"Nothing." Atropos rose fluidly to her feet. "Just remember it for future reference." Having less than eight hours left of mortal time and not wishing to use it discussing Mione again, Atropos vanished.

And for the second time in a row, as he climbed into bed next to his wife, Thomas found himself considering what Atropos had told him, and as before, her words were far from welcome to him.