Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

WARNING: This chapter contains a brief, mostly general description of a disturbing nightmare and some violence in the second half of the chapter.


Chapter 51: The Soul of Destruction

While Harry's personal world was rapidly changing and shifting, the rest of the world was settling into the new world order of peace (or at least trying to). The E.S.S.C. was growing stronger and a constitutional charter had been drafted, revised (thrice), and signed by the leaders of the various Colonies and more than two thirds of the Earth's nations. Those countries that had not signed were either broken countries with no current leaders or small countries that had not been able to send a representative to the convention for one reason or another (the latter group including the newly born and as yet unnamed Wizarding Nation). There were also the handful of nations that still supported the broken Alliance or OZ that were trying to cause trouble but the U.P.F. was working to bring those small factions to heel.

The agreed upon disarmament was slowly being enacted as military munitions factories were slowly closed down and production stopped. Heavy armaments were gradually being gathered and shipped to central locations where they were either being dismantled or set aside for use by the U.P.F. depending upon the condition and age of the equipment. Out in space, those factory satellites that had been producing mobile suits and dolls were also being shut down and their machinery switched out so they could resume production of the manufactured goods that they'd formerly produced before OZ had taken control of them.

The Winner Corporation played a huge part in the switchovers (both on Earth and throughout the colonies); Winner Corp the outright owner of a number of resource satellites in space and mines on earth and holding stock in several of the companies that owned the factories.

It would take years before the disarmament was complete but it was a start and those nations and civilians that supported the newly formed E.S.S.C. were encouraged by the steady if slow progress that they were making. That they had made so much progress (relatively speaking) in such a short time was nothing short of a miracle considering how much the various leaders had disagreed in the beginning. Part of it was the chastisement the older members of the conference had received from the youngest members and the other was that they truly longed for peace after the series of brutal wars that had been fought over the course of the last fifty or sixty years.

The U.P.F., temporarily based out of Hogwarts, worked tirelessly to end the numerous disputes that arose, provided aide to those nations that had been hardest hit over the course of the past two years of the war, and kept careful inventory of the various weapons, military equipment, and munitions that were collected. General Po worked tirelessly running and organizing the Universal Forces so that they could respond to emergencies without delay. The five Gundam pilots helped as best they could but their duties often pulled them in different directions; all five of them working to help bring about the peace they had so often dreamed about as well as trying to help Taliesin rebuild his legacy with Quatre additionally helping his sisters and father to run the family business and organize the changeovers of the various manufacturing facilities.

The last remnants of the White Fang (those few who had escaped the destruction of the Libra or those that had been scattered throughout the Colonies and on Earth) were either terrified that the Demon of the Stars would hunt them down or were itching to take revenge against the Demon that had destroyed Quinze. Those that still wished to fight would rally around Dekim Barton, who'd been one of Heero Yuy's aides before Yuy had been assassinated by Odin Lowe (the young Heero Yuy's father). The Barton Foundation, under the leadership of Dekim, planned to continue the work of the White Fang but unlike the Alliance operatives and the remnants of OZ, Barton planned to slip back into the shadows and regroup so he could attack from the shadows the moment the E.S.S.C. and the U.P.F. let their guard down.

On the other side of the coin, the Romefeller Foundation had all but been disbanded. Duke Dermail Catalonia had lost his will to fight after his power had been broken and his granddaughter 'taken hostage' by the Demon of the Stars. That Dorothy had turned her back on him in the process had angered him at first but the more he thought about it the more he was convinced that the Demon had tricked or forced his granddaughter into betraying him against her will. He had had no idea whether or not she was even alive until he received a coded e-mail from Treize Khushrenada (his step grandson) telling him that he'd found her safe and sound but still firmly 'under the spell' of the Demon. So Dermail had done the only thing he could do to free his granddaughter; he'd began negotiations with Valder Farkill (a former member of Zechs Merquise's military unit) who was more widely known as the Dark General of Destruction.

Valder Farkill wasn't actually interested in being saddled with a wife. He did, on the other hand, greatly desire to have the vast Catalonia fortune at his disposal so that he could personally lead OZ back into a position of power. It had long been his desire to challenge Treize and defeat the one time leader of OZ so that he could take his rightful place as the leader of the Organization of the Zodiac. He had actually been disappointed (and more than a little angry) when the Romefeller Foundation (and Dermail in particular) had removed Treize because it had denied him a chance to prove himself.

He'd been most angered when Dermail had basically surrendered to the Demon of the Stars after the failed sacking of the Sanc Kingdom. By accepting Dorothy Catalonia's hand in marriage, Valder would not only finally obtain that which he felt was rightfully his but he could payback Dermail for daring to stand in the way of his (Valder's) rise to fame as he had when he'd removed Treize.


Harry leaned back in his chair and walked one of his throwing knives over the knuckles of his right hand as he stared down at the contract sitting on his desk. Sitting beside the contract parchment was a short black quill with an extra sharp iron nib and three small vials of potion (which would bind the non-magicals to the contract through their blood). He was currently waiting for Heero and Wufei to escort Khushrenada, Une, and Shelby (the honorable Captain Muttonchops) to his office so that the three of them could sign the contract and have their memories altered before being removed from Crystal Valley.

As he waited, Harry couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier when he'd confronted Khushrenada and he furrowed his brow as the earlier feeling of dread he'd felt returned. That familiar flash of tainted magic bothered him far more than he wanted to admit but he couldn't quite place what exactly it was that he had felt at the time. Feeling agitated, Harry tucked his knife into the hidden pocket he'd pulled it from and rose out of his chair. He gave the chair a gentle kick to move it out of his way before he began pacing back and forth behind his desk.

He turned his thoughts inward in an effort to find the source of his unease but before he could focus on what it was that had been bothering him, the outer office door opened and all five of his brothers plus Haddock and Zechs escorted the three individuals he had been waiting for into the room. Harry stopped mid-step and turned to face the door as a frozen mask of indifference slid over his face and he once again locked away all of his emotions. Quatre gasped softly, his blue eyes widening in surprise, as he glanced at Harry in concern.

"Good, you're finally here; I was getting tired of waiting," Harry stated as he hooked his foot around the leg of his chair and pulled it back into place before sitting back down. His eyes immediately sought out the man that had been his enemy from the moment he threatened Trowa's life in an attempt to bend Harry to his will. "Allow me to tell you what is going to happen. I have a non-disclosure contract here that you are going to sign and then you are going to leave. You can, of course, refuse to sign the contract but should you do so; your life will be forfeit and I will not hesitate to strike you down where you stand."

"What…? Why…?" Shelby asked in confusion as he glanced between Harry and Treize.

"I will not allow those who threaten my family to remain in my home nor will I allow those who are loyal to them to remain behind in order to spy on me and mine or carry out any harm on my family. Khushrenada crossed the line this morning when he threatened my fiancée and my unborn child and as a result the three of you are no longer welcome in my home."

"Your pathetic little contract won't change anything; it's far too late for you to hide your crimes," Treize sneered as his eyes flashed red for the briefest of instants.

Harry stiffened for a split second as the memory of a pale skinned monster rising out of a cauldron flashed before his eyes and he saw again the newly reborn visage of Voldemort. He felt a flash of fear shoot through him as he recalled how helpless he'd been in the graveyard that night before he shoved it aside as he climbed to his feet and braced his hands on the desk. When he once more glanced up to meet Treize's eyes, Harry saw the triumphant gleam of red and the superior sneer on the man's face as Treize's visage was once again overlaid with Voldemort's. Harry then slowly began laughing (without any humor) as he finally understood what had been bothering him and what had happened as the memory of a bleeding diary briefly flashed before his eyes.

"Taliesin…?" Heero asked in a voice that had a hard edge to it.

"I see," Harry murmured once his laughter faded away along with the emotionless mask he'd been wearing while his eyes began glowing softly as he unconsciously opened his connection with Wolfstar. "There was always a small part of me that knew you'd find a way to come back, Tom; but I never imagined you'd be so desperate as to try and posses the soul of a muggle. I would have thought that that would have been beneath you."

"What could a little brat like you possibly know about me?" Treize countered causing both Une and Shelby to snap their heads around to stare at him in shock because the man had sounded nothing like himself. "Besides, this body was only ever temporary; you've already gone and created me a perfect replacement and I just have to rip it out of the pathetic woman that you planted it inside."

"The last time you tried to steal another's body and life force you failed," Harry pointed out as he straightened up and crossed his arms. "I will protect my child from you just as I protected the school from you the night I slew the basilisk and destroyed the diary that had possessed the youngest Weasley. All I have to do is locate the object you used and destroy it."

"It's too late for that now, boy."

Harry laughed long and low, making shivers dance up more than one spine as he whipped out his wand and sealed the room. A silent summoning charm pulled Treize's weapons from their hiding places and another silent spell transfigured them into useless ribbons. Harry then flipped the possessed Treize upside down and bounded his hands behind his back with another couple of spells.

As the man dangled in the air, a gold locket dropped out of his shirt and dangled by a chain from around Treize's neck. Emeralds set in the shape of an 'S' adorned the front of the locket along with etched vines that wrapped around front to back. Harry narrowed his eyes and leaned closer to the locket but didn't actually touch it and after a few minutes he recognized it as one of the items he'd reclaimed from the Black Manor in London.

"Found you, Tom," Harry crowed softly as he attempted to use a severing charm to break the chain but it simply ricocheted off the chain and hit the wall above Trowa's head (the green eyed teen having dropped to the floor the moment the light shot towards him). Harry frowned before he cast a detection charm on the necklace and scowled when it came back as unreadable. After another few seconds he murmured a soft, "Sorry about that, Trowa."

"You can't remove me with magic," Treize smugly stated as he twisted around in midair to face the wizard and smirked as his eyes turned red once more. "If you want to save this man, then you will have to remove me with your bare hands and the moment you touch the locket you will be mine and I will rise again through your magic."

"Are you sure you want to risk that? The last time I touched a host you were possessing he turned to ash and you were banished for another three years. A simple touch from me might just melt that gaudy hunk of jewelry you're attached to."

Une pushed her way between Harry and Treize, holding her arms out to the side in order to prevent Harry from easily getting around her. Her eyes were filled with determination and fear as she blurted out, "Please, don't burn him alive! You can't! I won't let you."

"Put a sock in it, Une," Harry ordered as he hit her with a leg-locker jinx and levitated her out of his way. "If I don't do something to save him from the spirit possessing him than there will be nothing left to save of him because his soul will have been consumed by the one possessing him. I'd like to know how the insufferable idiot managed to break into the storeroom in order to get his hands on the locket in the first place though and how long he's been wearing it. It took Tom almost a full year to drain Weasley's life force enough to create himself a body out of her magic but that might be because Khushrenada has no magic with which to protect himself."

"What are you planning?" Wufei asked as he slowly put away the sword he'd drawn the moment it was apparent that there was going to be a confrontation.

Harry didn't answer as he stared down at Treize, his mismatched eyes still glowing red and gold as the connection with Wolfstar continued to pull on his magic. He tipped his head slightly to the left as he crouched down to study the locket once more as he mentally reviewed his memories of the night he'd fought the basilisk beneath the school. A slow grin made its way onto his face before the memory even finished playing out and he raised his wand to fire a stunner at the possessed man, hitting him in the face.

"You killed him!" Une shrieked as she pulled out her gun and made to shoot Harry in the back.

Duo jumped in front of her and knocked her arm upwards, the bullet ricocheting off the ceiling before crashing into the side of Harry's desk. Heero knocked her out with a well placed chop to the back of the head a second later and Duo caught her before laying her gently on the ground. Shelby drew his gun as well but unlike Une he neither pointed it at any one nor fired it as he warily eyed everyone in the room.

"Relax, Khushrenada still lives; I simply knocked him unconscious in the hopes that I can deal with the locket without the spirit of Voldemort interfering and harming the idiot further," Harry explained softly as he rose from his crouch and made his way around his desk to open the bottom drawer. When he stood up, he was holding what looked like a rather small letter opener shaped like a miniature sword in his hand.

"Is that what I think it is?" Heero inquired softly as he stared down at the deceivingly innocent sword in Harry's hand.

In answer, Harry tapped the sword with his wand to return it to full size. Heero took a step backwards, the pilot recalling what Harry had said about the blade being poisoned by the venom of the basilisk and how even the smallest nick would kill a grown man. Harry snickered for a moment before he grew serious as he slipped the sword into his belt to free his hands as he approached the possessed Treize once more.

"I need everyone to back up and away. No matter what happens from this point forward; do not under any circumstances come near us or touch the locket until I give the all clear," Harry ordered as he gently lowered Treize onto the floor and secured him to the floor with conjured chains that he fused directly into the stone floor.

He then attempted to levitate the locket away from Treize's neck but the magic just slid right off of the enchanted locket and Harry sighed as he'd half expected that to fail. Setting his mouth in a grim line, he drew Gryffindor's sword from his belt and prepared to use it to lift the chain only to pause and return the sword to his belt. He then lifted the necklace of trunks from his neck and resized the supply trunk before slipping down inside to riffle through his supplies of potion ingredients in order to dig out several slices of bezoar as well as a couple of whole ones just in case. When he returned to the surface (leaving the trunk full sized in case he was injured while dealing with the locket) he handed the entire lot to Trowa and quickly told him when to give them to the unconscious man.

"There is a slight chance I might scratch him when I am removing the locket; especially if Tom's spirit wakes up when I move the locket and attempts to prevent me from breaking the connection. If I do, give him one slice of bezoar for each scratch and if he should be sliced deep enough for his blood to flow freely, then give him a whole stone. I don't know if it will be enough to clear the venom from his blood but it will at least give him a chance to survive the ordeal."

Knowing he'd done everything he could think of to prepare for the coming task, Harry walked back to where Treize was chained to the ground and knelt beside the man as he pulled Gryffindor's sword out once more. He held the hilt in his right hand and placed his left hand in the middle of the blade in order to hold it steady and help guide the tip of the sword so that it slid between Treize's neck and the chain that the locket hung on without touching Treize's skin. The moment he lifted the chain from where it had been touching Treize's neck, the man's eyes flew open and he began screaming obscenities at Harry as he thrashed around in an attempt to break free from the chains that held him down.

Harry clenched his jaw and tilted the tip of the sword up and away from Treize's neck in an effort to keep the chain on the blade and prevent the sharp edge from slicing through Treize's skin. The chain was soon pulled taut and Harry barred his teeth at the shade in Treize's body as he jerked the sword upwards and to the side. The thin chain was no match for Gryffindor's finely wrought blade; the enchantments that protected it from spells useless against goblin forged steel that had been imbued with the destructive nature of the basilisk venom and who knew what else. The moment that the chain parted, the locket went skittering across the floor as the chain shattered the moment the enchantments that had preserved it crumbled.

Treize let out a cry of agony the moment his connection to the locket was severed and his body spasmed several times before he slumped back onto the floor as he passed blissfully into unconsciousness once more. Harry growled and scrambled up onto his feet and chased after the locket as it began glowing with an eerie green light. His magic flared out in a visible aura as he slid to a stop directly over the foul bit of jewelry, gripped the hilt of the sword so that the point was facing down, and rammed it down as hard as he could as he dropped down onto his knees; piercing both the locket and the stone floor with the blade.

A shockwave of magic burst out of the locket and knocked everyone in the room but Harry (who was already down on the floor and still holding onto the blade) off of their feet. Blood and a foul blackish green liquid oozed out of the locket from around the blade of the sword and struck out at Harry, wrapping around his hands and arms over the sleeves of his shirt. The moment the tainted substance touched his shirt, it began burning its way through the fabric and digging down into his flesh (eating through the leather of the glove on his right hand and arm as well) and Harry arched backwards in agony as he swallowed the scream that rose up in the back of his throat. The moment the taint reached his blood, the jagged lightning bolt scar on his forehead split open as Harry's head exploded with pain much as it once had whenever Voldemort had been near.

Harry's magic and soul fought viciously back against the attempted possession for a seeming eternity before the living taint that was roughly one quarter of Tom Riddle's soul turned to ash as Harry rejected it completely. Panting, Harry sagged forward and pressed his forehead to the hilt of Gryffindor's sword as he allowed his eyes to fall shut. Both of his arms ached from where the foul ooze had tried to burrow its way into his body and a steady flow of blood dripped from his hands and arms onto the floor and slid down the blade where it splattered on the blackened locket still pinned to the floor. Another river of blood bisected his face and was rapidly soaking the front of his shirt as the broken scar continued to weep.

"Taliesin!" several voices cried out as his brothers and his friends scrambled back up onto their feet and made their way towards him; completely ignoring the wizard's earlier order in their concern for their little brother.

Trowa stopped just long enough to make certain that Treize was unharmed and still breathing before he helped Wufei pry Harry's hands from the sword. Exhausted from the intense (if rather short) battle over his body and soul, Harry did nothing to hinder or help his brothers as they laid him out on the floor and Trowa began cleaning his injuries so he could determine how severely he'd been injured.

"Remind me to hex you for disobeying an order later. In the mean time, I have to purge the dark magic from the wounds before you treat them," Harry rasped wearily as he felt Trowa tug the remains of his ruined glove from his hand. "If one of you could help me to my trunk, I can pull the potions I will need."

Wufei and Trowa were quick to oblige him while the rest of his brothers, Zechs, and Haddock stayed in the room in order to keep an eye on Treize, Une, and Shelby. Once inside the trunk, Harry spent nearly fifteen minutes sifting through the various healing potions in order to find the ones he needed in addition to picking up a roll of gauze. His brothers then practically carried him back up to the room above where they deposited him into his chair where it would be slightly easier for Trowa to take care of his injuries.

Harry first cast the spell to remove dark magic on his arms before drinking down a shimmering blue potion (the same purger that Sirius had fed to him while he'd been unconscious the night Voldemort had been reborn). He shivered and gagged over the cold and unpleasant taste of the potion before leaning back in his chair while he waited for the potion to activate. Ten minutes later, he felt a wave of searing heat rush through his entire body and he hissed in pain before gasping in relief when the pain was gone an instant later; the potion once more believing that the remnants of Riddle's magic were part of Harry's core and merely cleansed the last of the taint from the magic before pulling it into Harry's core where it was added to the overflow reservoir of magic.

He waited another five minutes before drinking a general healing potion, a blood replenisher, a rejuvenation potion, a mild pain reliever, and a Pepper Up Potion while silently signaling to Trowa that he was free to treat his still bleeding wounds. Trowa used a disinfectant potion to clean the open wounds on Harry's hands and arms before smearing a healing cream over the open wounds and a burn paste over the burns. He then wrapped Harry's arms in gauze before turning his attention to the open scar on Harry's forehead. By the time his brother finished with that, the potions had erased Harry's fatigue and soothed the pain from his injuries and he sighed softly and relaxed into the chair.

"What will you do now, Taliesin?" Zechs asked as he sat down on the edge of Harry's desk and peered at the battered wizard.

"Nothing," Harry replied emotionlessly as he pried his eyes open to glance first at Zechs before letting his gaze slide to where Treize was still chained to the floor. "He'll have to be closely monitored for at least a week in order to be certain nothing of Riddle's spirit lingers within him and that the dark magic that he was exposed to doesn't kill him. Chances are high that he won't remember a thing from the moment he placed the locket around his neck or some point shortly after that. I suspect that his confrontation with Dorothy this morning was spurred by the possession and not Treize himself though it probably used Treize's dislike of me to push him into saying the things he did."

"Shall we move him down to the infirmary so Iria can watch over him?" Quatre asked.

"Might as well. Make certain he still has a constant guard and that he doesn't leave the infirmary at any point over the next seven days; regardless of whether or not he appears unharmed."

Harry slowly climbed up onto his feet and shuffled over to the older man so he could remove the bindings and cleanse the dark magic from the man. His earlier fury with the man over his threats had dimmed somewhat now that he knew that Treize had been possessed but that didn't mean Harry trusted the man or that he wanted him hanging around any longer than necessary. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Harry cast a few diagnostic charms on Treize to make certain that there wasn't any more tainted magic clinging to him.

When the results came back negative, Harry made his way over to the ruin locket and Gryffindor's sword where he cast the dark magic cleansing spell several times in a row to clean away the tainted magic clinging to the entire area. He then cast a small containment ward around the entire mess so that no one could be harmed by anything that clung to the locket before he could analyze and clean the mess. The last thing he did was unseal the room so that the others could leave. Returning to his desk, Harry dropped heavily into his chair and leaned back as he tucked his wand into his back pocket and closed his eyes.

The sound of the door closing several minutes later had him opening his eyes just wide enough to determine that the room had emptied of everyone except Quatre, Heero, and Captain Shelby. Sighing, Harry closed his eyes once more and thumped his head against the back of his chair while he tiredly waited for Treize's man to say his piece before hopefully leaving him in peace. Of course, Harry knew his brothers would most likely interrogate him before they allowed him to slink off to his bed in order to sleep off the lingering exhaustion (the potions he'd taken only taking the edge off his fatigue and not curing it).

"Was this whole meeting staged?" Shelby asked after a few minutes. "Was that whole 'sign the contract or I will kill you' speech nothing but a ploy to do whatever it was you just did?"

"No… I fully intended to see to it that the three of you signed the non-disclosure agreement before I banished you from Hogwarts or killed you if you refused to sign," Harry admitted softly as he reluctantly sat up to meet Shelby's gaze. "Khushrenada threatened me and mine and that is something I will not tolerate. It doesn't help that I never particularly liked the man because he'd threatened to harm or in a few cases actually harmed me and my brothers. I included Une in the order because I know she practically worships the ground he walks on and I included you because I know you are loyal to the man and I had hoped all three of you would just sign the contract because I would have taken no pleasure in killing any of you."

"So what will happen to us now?"

"I will make certain the possession did not cause any permanent harm to Khushrenada and find out how much he remembers from the moment the locket came into his possession. After that…? Who knows?"

"I see, thank you for being honest with me."

Harry watched the man walk away and felt a stab of guilt for lumping him together with Treize because he respected the man for the way he had treated him while he had been a prisoner of White Fang and the part he'd played in the failed escape attempt that Treize initiated. Sighing, Harry shook his head and glanced warily over to where his brothers were watching him.

"Relax, Taliesin," Heero admonished as he caught the look Harry had directed his way. "I just stuck around to make certain that Shelby didn't try to retaliate due to what happened with Khushrenada."

"He would not have attacked me without reason," Harry countered with a negligent wave of his hand. "He is a man of honor and while he is loyal to Khushrenada he doesn't follow the man blindly like Une."

"Are you going to be alright?" Quatre asked a few minutes later.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I hadn't been expecting to do battle with a ghost from the past but I am glad that this one was much easier to eliminate than the last one I faced. I'm also glad this one didn't have a basilisk to call upon. As much as I dislike the very idea, I'm going to have to dig through Dumbledore's memories and the rest of his journals in order to learn how that shade of Riddle managed to survive for over half a millennium. If only to determine if there is any chance that there is another part of him still lingering around. The last thing I want is one of the children or some other hapless soul coming into contact with a fragment of Voldemort's spirit at some point down the road because I can't be certain that they will all be that easy to deal with."

"Let us know if you'd like some help going through them," Heero offered and Harry nodded in acceptance.

"Taliesin…" Quatre started only to cut off nervously. After a moment he tried again, "About this morning…"

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have let my temper get out of my control," Harry contritely apologized as he interrupted the blonde empath. "You're the one who always suffers when I can't control my emotions."

"Actually, I wanted to ask you how you managed to block your emotions so completely that I couldn't even sense if you were in the castle or not," Quatre countered as he searched Harry's face.

"I locked them away so that I could control my temper. I wasn't trying to hide from you or anything; I just needed to be able to think rationally without my anger and uncertainty clouding my mind."

"I take it that the ability to lock away your emotions is one of the benefits of the Mind Magics that you have been studying over the past two years?"

"Yes."

"How much magic do you need to use the Mind Magic? And can you use them to block out someone else's emotions?"

"I'm not certain… if you want, you're welcome to sit in on the lessons I'm giving to Ayame and Naruto to see if Mind Magic can help them control their telepathic abilities. Come to think of it, I should have offered to teach you Occlumency a long time ago to help you control your empathetic abilities. Why didn't you say something sooner if you were interested in trying to learn?"

"I didn't know Mind Magic could affect one's emotions or I would have," Quatre replied with a smile. "And up until recently you've been so busy and I didn't want to impose."

"I would have made time for you."

"I know and that is why I didn't ask."

"And here I thought Taliesin was supposed to be the stubborn one," Heero dryly remarked as he made his way towards the door.

"Oy… I resemble that remark!"

"Of that, I have no doubt."

"I'm just not as stubborn as you," Harry added with a small smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Heero drawled as he paused in the open doorway to glance back over his shoulder at Harry. "By the way, I heard congratulations are in order."

Harry mumbled incoherently under his breath as he dropped his eyes to the desk, a hint of a blush creeping up the back of his neck and turning his cheeks red. The sound of both of his brothers laughing at his expense only made his face turn redder as he dropped his face into his hands in mortification.

"Cheer up, Taliesin; we're all happy for you," Quatre assured him as he leaned back against the desk and let his chuckles die. "We were a bit shocked when we heard the news because we actually didn't even suspect that you and Dorothy were seeing each other on the sly but so long as it makes you happy that is what is important."

"I wish I felt as certain as you sound."

"What do you mean?"

"She confuses me to no end and just when I think I've got her figured out everything changes again and once more I'm floundering because I don't know which way is up. I always feel so clumsy and stupid around her and at the same time I feel as if I could do anything. It almost feels like I've known her for my entire life and that she has always been by my side when we fall asleep wrapped up in each other's arms and at the same time it is always a surprise when I wake up to find her still by my side because I was so used to sleeping alone."

"And the nightmares?"

"I haven't had any," Harry whispered hesitantly, as if admitting that out loud might cause the nightmares to fill his dreams. "By the time I fall asleep each night I'm so exhausted, between taking care of everything that needs to be done and taking care of James during the night, that I haven't dreamed at all."

"Does Dorothy know about the nightmares?"

"Yes… I warned her about them after the third time she spent the night with me because I didn't want her to get hurt or be worried if I woke her up with one at some point."

"Alright, I'm glad you aren't trying to lock her out for her own protection," Quatre stated as he pushed away from the desk and reached forward to ruffle Harry's hair. "I suppose I've grilled you enough for the moment considering that you look like hell on top of looking like you're going to pass out any second."

Harry glanced down at the soot, grime, and blood stained shirts that he was wearing and grimaced as it was readily apparent that both of them had been ruined. That was after he'd destroyed another pair of shirts that morning when his wings had caught fire in his rage. He gave an apathetic sigh over the need of cleaning himself up and changing his clothes yet again. Quatre chuckled and pulled him up out of his chair and gave him a push towards the door that led to Harry's tower. Harry huffed in exasperation before smiling and shaking his head as he obeyed the unspoken command.

Not really paying attention to his surroundings, Harry was halfway across his bedroom heading towards the bathroom when he froze in his tracks the moment that he heard Dorothy calling his name. Completely forgetting that he looked like hell and was covered in blood, Harry turned around and gave her a tired smile. Dorothy took one look at him and the blood drained from her face as she covered her mouth with both hands and just stared at his bloody shirt as tears slowly trickled down her face. Furrowing his brow, Harry glanced downwards and groaned when he took in his ruined shirt once more. Two seconds later, he was wrapping Dorothy in his arms and pulling her close as she clung to him.

"Shh," Harry shushed gently as he ran bandaged wrapped fingers through her hair. "I'll be fine; it's just a couple of cuts and burns and no one else was hurt."

"I'll kill the bastard," Dorothy hissed with a vehemence that caught Harry off guard as he pulled back just enough to frown at the now angry woman in his arms.

"Dorothy…?"

"I don't care if he is family; I will kill him."

"The one responsible is already dead."

"You killed Treize? Or was it Une who did this to you?"

"Neither," Harry replied as he immediately understood why she was so angry now. "It was dark magic that attacked me; Khushrenada managed to get into something he shouldn't have and he was being possessed by the shade of a monster that I'd thought was long dead. I destroyed the cursed object and freed him of the possession and was only lightly injured in the process."

"Lightly injured? Lightly injured!" Dorothy hissed as she grabbed hold of Harry's shirt and glared at him. "Your face is streaked with blood and your shirt is practically swimming in it and you say you were only lightly injured!? Do you have any idea how… how terrifying it is to see you covered in blood and acting as if it was nothing!?"

"It only looks bad because my scar bled and I'm certain you know that head wounds always bleed profusely no matter how big or small they are. I already took a couple of healing potions and Trowa treated my cuts and burns as soon as it was over; a good night's sleep and I'll be just fine."

"You'd better be; because if you die and leave me and our baby alone I will never forgive you!"

"James is sleeping?" Harry asked softly as he ran his thumb tenderly along Dorothy's jaw. When she nodded silently in response, Harry kissed the tip of her nose before he murmured, "Then come with me and you can see for yourself just how fine I am."

A few quick charms to make his bandages waterproof and a monitoring charm in order to remotely watch over his sleeping son saw Harry spending the next two hours making love to Dorothy and soaking in the bath tub. Dorothy helped him wash the blood from his hair, face, and chest before she washed his wings (an intimate act in and of itself and something that Harry had not allowed her to do previously when they had shared a bath or shower). Afterwards, Harry carried Dorothy to his bed and the two of them curled up together beneath the covers before drifting off to sleep; the potions that Harry had taken earlier wearing off and leaving him feeling the brunt of his exhaustion once more.

Hours later, Harry bolted upright with a strangled scream poised on his lips as he woke from a nightmare. Collapsing back against the headboard of his bed, Harry closed his eyes and groaned as he felt as if his head was about to split in half due to the pounding headache he had. Reaching up with one hand, he wiped his eyes and grimaced when his hand came away coated in blood as he realized that his scar had once again split open (the bandages around his forehead having been knocked off at some point while he slept). He wasn't certain if the reason his scar had split open yet again was strictly because of the nightmare he'd just had or if it had something to do with his earlier battle with the ancient shade of Voldemort.

He felt a brief flash of concern that he might have hurt Dorothy during his nightmare before he woke up only to find that he was alone in the room. He guessed that his fiancée (and how strange it was to refer to Dorothy as such when they hadn't exactly reached the boyfriend/girlfriend stage even though they'd been lovers for months now) had woken up at some point earlier and left him to sleep off his exhaustion. Slipping out of bed, he made his way over to James's crib on slightly unsteady feet to find that his son was missing and after a split second of abject fear, realized that James must have woken Dorothy up earlier and that she had probably gotten up to take care of him to allow Harry to rest. There was one way for him to quickly verify his assumptions and he didn't hesitate to do so.

"Winky?"

"Master Taliesin called for Winky?" Winky inquired eagerly as she popped into his room a few seconds later only for a look of horror to cross her face as she caught a glance of Harry's bloodied face. "Master Taliesin be bleeding! Winky not know healing magic, Winky will fetch Master Taliesin's Mister Trowa to save Master Taliesin!"

"Please wait, Winky," Harry called quickly before the elf could pop away. "I'm fine, it's just a little blood from the scar on my forehead and I'll clean it up in a bit. I'm sorry if I worried you, I should have cleaned myself up before calling you. The reason I called you was to find out if you know who has James and where he is right this moment."

"Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy has little Master James and Master Taliesin's Missus Dorothy is giving little Master James a quick bath because he dirtied his nightclothes," Winky answered slowly as she twisted her hands together worriedly, her large eyes glued to the still weeping scar on Harry's forehead. "Master Taliesin will let Winky fetch Master Taliesin's Mister Trowa now?"

Harry sighed, somehow knowing that the young elf wasn't going to let go of her worry until she was given permission to notify his brother of his injury. Crouching down, Harry beckoned to the reincarnation of his elfish friend and wrapped her in a hug when she scampered up to him without any hesitation. He could feel her shaking slightly and he recalled how distraught she'd been when she'd thought that it was her fault that Dorothy was sick and knew if he didn't let her bring him help she'd blame herself for his scar bleeding no matter how many times he assured it wasn't her fault simply because that was the mind-set that seemed inherent in the house elf genetics.

"I really don't need someone to fix my scar, it will stop bleeding soon enough," Harry softly assured the elf as he pulled back to meet her worried gaze. "However, if it will put your mind at ease, you may inform Trowa that my scar split open again while I was sleeping and you may ask him if he has time to come take a look at it later tonight when he is not busy. Once you are finished delivering your message, you may return to my room and tidy up my bed this one time since I owe you an apology for making you worry needlessly. In the mean time, I am going to take a shower to clean myself up."

"Winky do as Master Taliesin orders. Winky be back soon."

Harry sighed a second time as the diminutive creature vanished with a pop. Rising slowly to his feet, he cradled his still pounding head with one hand as he made his way to the bathroom where he grimaced at his reflection the moment he caught sight of his face in the mirror. No wonder Winky was so worried when she saw me, Harry silently mused as he took in his blood smeared face and realized that his scar must have split open long before he'd woken up based upon just how much blood was caked on his face beneath the fresh blood that still flowed sluggishly from the cursed scar.

Turning away from the mirror, Harry turned on the water in the shower and dug out a clean towel. He then slipped down into his supply trunk to drink a headache relieving potion and grab a jar of healing cream. He took a moment to strip the bloodied gauze from around both of his arms in order to check on the current status of the wounds he'd gotten in the short battle with Voldemort's shade before he grabbed another unopened roll of gauze so he could rewrap his arms and hands later. He was particularly concerned with his right arm since the new injuries had done further damage to the frostbitten nerves of that arm; if the throbbing pain he felt in that arm was any indication.

Returning to the bathroom with his first aide supplies in hand, Harry set everything on the sink beside his towel and stripped out of the shirt and sweats that he'd thrown on earlier and scowled at the blood stains on the shirt. Good thing Padfoot packed me so many clothes, otherwise I'd have run out of things to wear in less than a month given how often I seem to destroy my clothes without even trying. Snorting over the rather ironic observation, considering his childhood had been spent meticulously taking care of the rags that he'd been given by his aunt and uncle, Harry stepped into the shower and sighed appreciatively when the warm water washed over his head and face. Seconds later he hissed irritably when the same hot water came into contact with his recent wounds and damaged nerves and set his nerves singing with pain.

Gritting his teeth, Harry ignored the pain as best he could as he washed his hair and face before carefully washing both arms. The soap stung as the weak scabs that had formed during his nap cracked open and he couldn't rinse them out fast enough. Once he was finished with his arms, it didn't take him long to finish washing the rest of himself and just three minutes later, he shut the water off and rested his head against the tile wall of the shower for a minute as he stared blankly at the watered down stream of blood that flowed from his arms and face, down his legs, and into the drain. A swirl of conflicting emotions swept through Harry as he stared at his blood; shame for not being stronger, anger over having faced Voldemort yet again, disgust for not having picked up on the possession sooner, frustration over getting caught up in old nightmares, and irritation over his latest injuries.

"Are you going to stand there all night staring at your blood pouring down the drain or are you actually going to get out of the shower so that I can redress your wounds?"

"I hope you didn't drop anything important just because Winky told you I was bleeding," Harry countered without looking up.

"No, there is nothing more important than making certain you are alright," Trowa stated as he tossed the waiting towel over the top of the shower door. He leaned back against the sink at that point and waited as Harry dried himself off halfheartedly before wrapping the towel around his waist and exiting the shower. Trowa took in the blood still streaking down Harry's face and arms, discoloring the towel, before he met Harry's mismatched eyes with concern as he softly added, "I thought you told Heero and Quatre that you weren't having any nightmares."

"And I wasn't; right up until I jinxed myself by saying that out loud and after coming face to face with the shade of the man… no monster that murdered my parents and helped destroy the entire wizarding world. Then again, I think this was the first time that I have truly been alone while sleeping for a long time. Every other time, since I returned from the mess with White Fang, I've had the phoenixes, my son, my squad, Wolfstar, or… or Dorothy nearby or in most cases curled up with me and I think my magic suppressed the nightmares because I am unconsciously afraid of hurting one of them should I lose control during a nightmare."

"How bad was it?" Trowa asked softly as he worked on drying and treating Harry's right arm.

Harry didn't answer, choosing instead to close his eyes as he tried to push down the bile that rose in the back of his throat as the images from his nightmare flashed before his eyes once again. He gave out a soft, pained whine that had nothing to do with his injuries and everything to do with the raw, open wounds that his nightmare had inflicted upon his heart. Wounds than ran deeper than any of the scars that littered his body and that he'd carried within his very soul since before he'd been torn out of time by his godfather.

"When you are ready to talk, you know where to find me and the others," Trowa murmured as he finished wrapping Harry's right arm in bandages and moved to work on his left arm.

"It was the graveyard all over again," Harry whispered roughly as he tensed his shoulders and his wings shifted until they were half poised for flight as they reflected Harry's inner turmoil; the wizard feeling no need to put off the inevitable and long used to pouring his heart out to each of his brothers but none more so than Quatre and Trowa. "Only, this time it wasn't Cedric's sightless eyes that accused me of getting him killed. It was yours, Heero's, Duo's, Quatre's, and Wufei's all telling me that it was my fault that you were all dead; that I had been too stupid, too weak, and too slow to protect you. Cedric was there too but he just laughed as he stared at me with those dead eyes; his flesh rotting as it fell from his bones."

Harry drew a ragged breath as he opened his eyes and stared down at his right hand while his entire body began shaking as the next words slipped from his mouth in a voice so low that Trowa would have never been able to hear him if he hadn't been standing right next to the wizard, "And then I could suddenly see myself standing amidst your corpses, holding Dorothy in a deceptively loving embrace as I cut our unborn child from her womb and killed him before discarding his body off to the side where it landed beside little James's mutilated body. Then I looked right at myself and I could see Voldemort's pale features overlapping mine as I mocked myself for thinking I could defeat him."

"You still fear becoming like him, don't you?" Trowa asked softly as he glanced up from the arm he was in the middle of wrapping with bandages to meet Harry's anguished mismatched eyes.

"Sometimes," Harry replied wearily as his wings sagged so that the tips were now pooling on the floor as he leaned sideways into the sink counter as Trowa resumed wrapping his left arm. "Mostly I fear that I am too weak to protect everyone and after earlier this evening I fear that he will be back again. He tried to steal my soul, Trowa, he wasn't just trying to posses me; he was trying to take over my soul to steal my magic and my body so that he might live again. I'm frightened that there might be more objects out there that will give him yet another chance and because I have no idea what they are or how to find them to destroy them, I'm terrified that I will be the one to give him that opportunity."

"I guess that means we'll be doing a considerable amount of research here soon."

"Not this time, Trowa, no way, no how, no chance; I am not willing to risk your souls in the event that we stumble across that damnable shade once more."

"You don't have a choice, kiddo," Trowa tossed back as he reached out and thumped Harry on the back of the head. "Or have you already forgotten what happened the last time you took off without a plan?"

"Trowa…" Harry warningly started as he snapped to attention to glare at his green eyed brother only to stop and deflate once more as he gave a single, long suffering sigh. "I suppose I might as well give in so that I can keep an eye on you; least the five of you do something incredibly stupid that would require me to hex you for said stupidity."

"Glad to see you can be trained."

"I can still hex you just for the hell of it, you know."

"You and I both know you have more fun hexing Heero and Duo," Trowa countered with a small grin as he stepped closer to Harry and began cleaning up his face so he could inspect the still weeping scar. He frowned a bit when he prodded the lightning bolt shaped mark and the scar seemed to split open wider as blood started flowing more freely.

"What the hell!" Harry yelped as he jerked his head away from Trowa and slapped both of his hands over his scar as it felt like someone just stabbed him in the forehead. It was the black, tar-like substance that began pouring out of his scar at that point that made both Harry and Trowa freeze though. The moment the last drop of thick, disgusting goop slipped free from his scar and it started bleeding again, the open jagged wound slowly sealed itself until all that remained was a thin, faint line. Feeling more than a little confused and scared as hell, Harry loudly blurted out, "What the fuck just happened!?", as he stared in horror at the foul black ooze that covered his bandaged hands once he'd lowered them from his face.

"No idea but the fact that the stuff that just poured from your scar looks disturbingly similar to the stuff that attacked you after it poured out of the locket you stabbed earlier bothers me; a lot."

"Not as much as it bothers me to think that that shit was stuffed inside my skull behind my scar for who the hell knows how long," Harry hissed as his lip curled up in disgust. "Do you think you can help me get the bandages off without getting any of that crap on my open wounds? I know you just replaced them but there is no way I want that stuff on me for even a minute longer than it will take to change them again."

"Yeah, give me a minute."


AN: And now you know what happened to yet another one of Tom's horcruxes as Harry's past comes back to haunt his future in one of the worst possible ways imaginable. We also saw a short glimpse of what is happening with the rest of the universe while Harry and those closest to him are caught up in the drama that is Harry's life.

The next chapter is mostly ready for posting and will hopefully be up fairly soon. Some of you may have also noticed that I finally posted the second chapter of WWYR2 and chapter three of Discovering the Heart. This week has been a busy week for me as far as posting goes. A nice change seeing as how I'd had a three month dry spell again.

Anyway, the poll for which story I post once this one is finished is still open and will stay open until the end of the month; so, if you haven't done so already, you still have some time to influence my posting schedule for the next twelve months or so. Also, if you don't want to log in to vote on the poll but still wish to make your opinion known, please don't vote in a review as I'll probably miss it. You are more than welcome to PM me with your request (so long as it is for one of the choices listed on the poll and not something completely different) so that I can easily keep track of them.

I do hope that everyone has enjoyed the past three chapters… I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that for the first time ever I've not even read any of the reviews posted for the past two chapters. I'm frustrated enough with the way my muses have been running hot and cold that even the mere possibility of negativity has made me leery of reading reviews. Which kind of sucks because I know most of the responses to this fic have been positive and the reviews you leave me always push me to do my best with each chapter I write and post.

I will read and reply to those reviews during the next week though, so if you haven't heard from me yet, you can expect to do so soon. =) I will make an effort to reply to everyone but as always, keeping track of whose reviews have been answered whose has not is rather difficult using this site's review system so I'll apologize now if I somehow miss yours as I go through them over the next week. Even if I don't answer your review, your words are appreciated (unless you were just badmouthing my story because you don't like this or that).

I left some dango in WWYR2 that you are more than welcome to help yourselves too as well. And yes, that was a shameless plug for another story or rather series of mine. Not something I usually do but I'm tired and wired on coffee… ~ Jenn