"Alright." Harry rubbed his eyes. "This is your oldest prophecy. What are your best three or four interpretations?"
"We will need time. Your presence may change them. If you would work with our analysts they could explain better than we can."
"Answer one question," he said and waited for her nod. "Did you summon me to meet a friend or decide on the best method for removing a foe?"
She bared her pointed teeth in another wolfish grin. "Yes."
Night had long since fallen by the time Harry apparated them all to his livingroom in Hogwarts. They had spent hours going over the prophecy with the historians. All the theorising boiled down to them assuming the prophecy talked about Harry. His recount of the vision Firenze and Harly shared with him changed their interpretation that the prophecy had been talking about a few people into a few possibilities of that moment in the forest. In the last line, "sight" could refer to Luna, "fire" to Hermione if Dumbledore's phoenix and the queen's Samsara were accurate, and Harry had been referred to as the champion of light a few times. He assumed the blight referred to whatever the conglomerate had planned. Seemed straightforward as prophecies went, but he knew it meant whatever happened would be unpleasant, difficult, and someone would probably die. He had to make sure that someone was more a thing than a who.
The three of them had been too tired for a night on the town and relished the idea of curling up on the couch while elves cooked them something delicious. Besides, Luna thought sending Draco and Neville away would have been rude.
On their arrival, Thor and Notch came to greet their humans, who they were used to spending all day with. Luna's firefox cracked one eye and returned to her nap curled dead centre of the armchair. Of all the animals, she remained rather independent and willful, a good fit for the dreamy Luna who probably would not remember the complexities of a finicky animal, no matter how much she adored it.
"How did you two get to Gringotts?" Hermione asked.
Draco shrugged. "Apparition. Tonks snuck us out."
"She what?! She's here to protect students, not help them break rules." Hermione fumed.
"How did you know I wanted you there? or what she looked like?"
"Luna," Draco said. Neville nodded. "She sent the image and attached a compulsion of sorts to come".
"Compulsion is a strong word," Luna said. She sighed. The picture carried too much of my mental signature, she thought bitterly. Her hope had been that the boys would assume their loyalty bonds to Harry called them, as they had last time.
Harry kissed Luna's forehead. "Thank you. And thanks for coming," he said to the boys. "I needed your help politicking. I can manage the ministry, but my style is a little- "
"Abrasive?" Hermione offered.
"Blunt," he finished.
"I get the chance to show off my skill set and you steal my spotlight," Draco grumbled and shoved Neville's shoulder. "With baking? Sissy."
"Skill set? You were just flirting with her!"
" jealous?"
Neville grabbed Draco by the base of his ponytail and brought his face to within an inch of his own. "Yes," he growled and crushed his lips against Draco's. When he came up for air, he said, "You're mine."
Before Draco could utter the snide remark forming in the twist of his lips, Neville sunk his teeth into the blond's arched neck. At his yelp of pain, he switched to sucking almost tenderly before he disengaged with a pop. A large purple splotch outlined with clear teeth marks lay on his pale throat.
Neville beamed. Draco's stunned expression morphed from something close to bliss to horror.
"You oaf! How am I going to explain this?"
"You pretty much only hang out with us," Harry pointed out.
"I go to class. People will talk."
"And speculate who the lucky rebound girl is," Hermione pointed out. The news of Draco breaking his contract with Daphne spread so fast Hermione had heard from Padma before Draco got a chance to tell their group. "People here are incredibly close minded. No one will assume it's Neville. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if some attention seeking bimbo doesn't take credit within 24 hrs."
"Brilliant," Neville said with a chuckle.
"Me," Luna said.
"Excuse me?" Harry and Draco said in unison.
"It has to be me."
"Like hell," Harry growled.
Neville and Hermione looked on with twin expressions of contemplation.
"Neville and Draco want to keep their relationship a secret. Daphne can't be his beard anymore and, as Hermione pointed out, a new one is the safest way to keep rumors safely shooting blanks."
"That expression doesn't have anything to do with accuracy," Draco said.
"More importantly, that doesn't explain why you think you should play the role," Harry said.
"I'm the only one for it!" Luna said. "People have started to whisper about us, Harry."
"What?"
"You need to keep your image as the golden boy to be the change Hogwarts needs. And Neville needs Draco to have a fake girlfriend who can snog him in public without feeling a twinge of insecurity."
"Snoging?" Draco said.
"Yes," Luna said. "Not often, but once or twice. To sell it."
"No," Harry said.
"Yes," Luna said.
"She's right," Hermione and Neville said, then laughed at each other.
"Has everyone lost their marbles?" Harry asked. He looked to Draco for support, but found a brow furrowed in thought. "Not you too."
"A beard would make things easier. And, I mean if you don't trust me, your gay best friend sworn on my magic to be your loyal servant, then you can trust your soulmate, can't you?"
"It isn't about trust."
"Then what is it? "Luna asked with a cocked head.
"Jealousy. I don't-" He took a steadying breath. "I don't have a lot of family. Hell, having this many friends is sending my mind through a loop. I tend to be fiercely protective. Maybe a little possessive."
"Harry." Luna held his face between her hands, but he couldn't meet her eyes. "This solves a lot of potential problems down the line. Hey?" She shook him slightly and waited for him to look at her.
"I don't like it."
"I've seen it."
His breath left in a rush, shoulders deflated. "Alright," he said.
"Off to bed," Hermione said after an awkward moment. "Today dragged on too long and tomorrow we've got to work on that book." She groaned. "I'm going to miss this entire week of classes."
As the boys left, Neville held Draco back from entering the common room.
"No one saw us enter and it's too late to risk being caught in the halls. Want to spend the night?"
Draco worried his lower lip.
"You can walk out with Luna in the morning. Say Harry unlocked another room for you somehow."
"We should get some actual sleep."
"We will," Neville blushed but plowed through. "I've never slept as well as those few hours in the Room of Requirement with you using my chest as a pillow. I just-" he let out a sigh. "I just want to cuddle."
"That's gay," Draco said with a grin and opened Neville's door for him. Could it possibly be that easy to say his feelings? I think I might love you, Draco thought. He even opened his mouth as Neville passed, but his heart shat a golf ball into his throat.
He choked. Neville thumped him on the back. He shut the door. They went to bed.
Neville wrapped him in his bear arms, and they fell asleep.
Well, Neville fell asleep.
Draco lay in the crook of his arm watching the rise and fall of his chest as his heartbeat thumbed through his ribcage to send tingles up Draco's fingers. For hours he mulled over the irony of having found a genuine family composed entirely of people he'd spent years tormenting because one man had handed him a scrap of parchment on the train a couple months ago. The bleak images of what his life would be in this moment rose unbidden.
Despite hating the man, Draco would have continued to be Lucius's picture perfect son out of fear and familiarity. He'd be in Slytherin surrounded by yes men he'd never cared for any more than a queen cares for the pawns on the front line. Daphne and him would be engaged to be married in the summer, or her and her sister would be dead because he led them to the forest. To his father.
That dark oozing presence, what they'd all started referring to as the Conglomerate, would be powerful. Fully fed off the completed sacrificial ritual. Perhaps it would even be the corporeal Dark Lady Harry had described from his vision. And Draco would be her thrall.
He would bring murder, destruction and pain wherever he went. With a twisted sense of self worth, he would equate his ability to mete out suffering with power.
He would not be watching Neville's stubble grow. If he ever entered this room, it would be to cut the man's throat.
The man he might love.
Neville crushed him to his chest in his sleep. With his thoughts squeezed from his mind with the breath from his lungs. Draco hummed his contentment and drifted off.
The next day, Harry woke his girls to multiple orgasms, then dressed to the sounds of their protests.
"You can't leave before we make you cum," Luna whined.
"Bring your delicious cock back to us," Hermione said.
"I've got to go break Snape out of whatever holding cell I'm sure they've got him in."
"What?!" Hermione sat bolt upright in bed.
"I need his help restoring the book," Harry admitted and buttoned up his shirt.
"You can't break someone out of the ministry."
Harry blinked. "I got Fudge deposed with four wards and have enough combat training that I could take out every magic dependent auror in the ministry without a single spell before they could figure out they were under attack. With magic, I could knock out every magical in the building from two blocks away."
Hermione and Luna shivered at the cold detachment in his expression and knew that, if anything, he was downplaying his abilities.
"But I was exaggerating for comedic effect and to see your reaction." He winked, his usual warmth suffused his face and mischievous smirk reclaimed residence. "You did not disappoint. I'm going to talk to Amelia. Want to come?"
"Yes, "Luna said.
At the same time, Hermione said, "What about class?"
"You'll catch up. Amelia likes you. If I show up with Luna and you aren't there to back up my claim that you slept with her to begin with, she might castrate first and never mind asking questions."
Hermione huffed and began to get dressed. "How important is it that we retrieve Snape? The sub has been much nicer."
"And you'd rather the sub fall prey to whatever plague has been targeting Defence teachers?" In truth, he could probably fix the book without Snape, though it would be easier with him. Much, much easier if his hunch proved correct. What he really needed Snape back for was an update on Dumbledore, information about other dirty work he had delegated to Snape over the years, plus whatever curse had discarded several teachers needed to be dealt with. Having the current mark in the school would help locate the last.
Of course, Hermione might not come with if he admitted he didn't need Snape. He would tell her when they got back, but for now testing how many classes Hermione would skip for him proved too much fun.
This time, when they entered the reception area, the bimbo behind the desk shot to her feet.
"Lord Potter," she purred. "How can I help you?"
"We are here to see Amelia." Harry smirked as each of his women took an arm.
"Ms. Bones is very busy what with the transition." She slunk towards him. "Perhaps I could schedule an appointment? For you, I could shuffle her schedule and get you in tomorrow evening." Her tone of voice suggested what she offered would require great deal of skill and hardship.
In all reality, it probably would. How many fires had Fudge left burning for her? Knowing Amelia, she still did half her old job while Kingsley Shacklebolt learned the ropes.
"Unfortunately, my issue is time sensitive and pertinent to taking the serial killer she's hunting off the street."
"Oh." She clutched her throat. "How awful." She lay one hand on Harry's chest. One of his eyebrows hitched up. "You're so brave. Thank you for- Ow let me go you crazy bit- ow ow ow. Please."
Luna had grabbed the receptionist's wrist, swept her feet out from under her, straddled her ass, and kept her arm pinned to her back at a painful angle.
"Touch our man again," Luna said in a sweet sing-song voice, "and I'll rip out your manicured nails to make a charm bracelet." She leaned in to whisper, "they're my favorite shade of pink."
She hopped off the girl, took Harry's hand, and smiled up at him sweetly.
"That," Amelia said from the hall where she'd heard the tail end of the conversation and been in time to witness Luna's maneuver, "was impressive. Tell me young lady, have you ever considered becoming an auror? I could use a dozen able to handle themselves in physical altercations."
"Oh no ma 'am. I detest violence. My father is protective and had me trained in martial arts after my mother died. Besides, Defence Against the Dark Arts is my worst subject."
Amelia waved her hand. She ignored the soft sobs of her receptionist who now cowered behind her desk cradling her arm.
"Grades can be overlooked in exchange for certain skills." She caught a glimpse of the girl's bracelet. Her eyes widened as she looked from the bracelet to Harry and back. At his grin she added, "or gifts. Well come on. Each of you can grab a box. I'm moving up to the Minister's office." She sighed. "I'll never forgive you for this Harry."
"Hey, I got you a promotion."
"You gave me a magic-resistant migraine disorder. Let's go."
Once they had helped move Amelia into her new office, she perched on the giant oak monstrosity and turned to give Harry a hard stare.
"So," she said, "What's all this 'our man' nonsense? I didn't think a soulmate bond would allow for anything like whatever this is."
"Luna and I also share a bond," Harry said.
"Hermione and I believe we do as well," Luna added. "We were together before Harry came to Hogwarts."
Amelia pinched the bridge of her nose hard. "You'd think I'd get used to you breaking the laws of magic, boy."
Harry grinned. "You're going to love Luna, Aunty."
"I'd love her more if she'd train cadets for me," she grumbled.
"Okay," Luna said with a smile. "Sounds fun. I need to keep up with my school work though. Harry is opening up a University you know."
"I like to think he's doing it for us," Hermione said.
"In part." Harry kissed her cheek, then Luna's.
"Wait, you'll train them?"
"Sure. I don't like violence, but our police force should be able to defend themselves. Plus, I've been getting rusty at school and practice is great exercise."
"You're right. I do like her. When can you start?"
"My weekends are free, that is if you let us take Snape so we can use him to restore a book of power and track down that dark ooze masquerading as Lucius Malfoy."
"That should be fine," Amelia said. "He's already given his testimony. He's done some shady things for Albus Dumbledore, all compelled by a bond of loyalty and subservience he traded for Albus to keep him out of Azkaban."
"Did he tell you why he joined the Death Eaters?"
"For Dumbledore, ironically enough, as a spy."
"Of course. That old bastard is a puppet master."
"We'll need you and Hermione to be witnesses for his trial."
"When?"
"Tuesday. Rushed it given the severity of his crimes and how important Hogwarts is to my citizens. The public is already polarizing over the issue. We need to get this over and done with yesterday."
"We'll be there. Well, you know, if we aren't fighting bad guys."
Amelia sighed. "I'd say the hearing is more important, but I would lose a lot of good people against that thing if it's half as powerful as you said your vision showed."
"I'll ask for back up if I need it, but I believe we can handle it. There's a prophecy involved." He flinched. Amelia laughed.
"There always is with you. It's been good seeing you, but I've got a million and two things to do today. I'll have Snape brought to the apparation area. You know the way? Good. Luna, send me an owl with your availability. I'll send someone to collect you."
"No need. Harry can bring me." She smiled at Harry so sweetly he agreed without a thought for how busy he'd been recently.
Amelia smirked. That girl would have Harry training her cadets her first day, a feat Amelia had failed to accomplish for over two years.
At the castle, Harry summoned Draco, Malfoy, Minerva, and Babbing. He even had Draco bring Daphne. It had only been a bit over a day, but no whispers about them searching for a book of power hard reached their or the faculty's ears, Babbing and Minerva assured him before Draco brought her into the empty classroom. Time to tempt her with a show.
Minerva and Babbing had been shocked and, surprising to Snape, pleased to have him back.
"But how did you convince the minister?" Snape asked.
"I told her I needed your help to track down the Conglomerate."
Snape raised an eyebrow. "And do you?"
Harry grinned. "You'll make fixing this easier." He pulled Riddle's diary from his cloak and set it on the table. The women looked perplexed, Daphne and Neville curious, and Draco and Snape paled.
"Where did you get this?" Snape hissed, though his venom lay toward the book.
"From the clutches of a near dead Ginny Weasely in the Chamber of Secrets in her first year."
"So it's true," Minerva said. "Voldemort was the heir of Slytherin."
Harry nodded. "And nearly succeeded in wresting control of the castle from me. Had he known of the hearthstone, he would have connected and drawn enough power to establish a physical form. At twelve, he would have killed me."
"But he did," Minerva said, alarmed. "Despite my objection, Dumbledore showed him the stone in his seventh year."
Harry shook his head. "This piece was too young."
Harry pointed to the date embossed on the front. "My guess is he found out how to create a horcrux in his sixth year."
"There aren't any books on horcrux creation even in the restricted section," Babbing pointed out.
"He charmed professors. easily, right? Who favored him most?"
"Slughorn," Minerva said with narrowed eyes. "If I find out he taught that pretentious dark twat how to make Horcruxes..."
Harry laughed at hearing the stern matron curse. "No need. The past is done and I'm sure Slughorn punishes himself more severely than you could."
McGonagall's gaze accepted the challenge with dark anticipation.
"How do you believe I can help?" Snape asked. "According to you I'm not qualified to teach Defence."
Harry waved him off. "You're not, but you and I both know you could pass your International NEWT if you applied yourself."
Snape squashed the unexpected jolt of pride at the praise.
"More important than your knowledge, is your allegiance." Harry fixed him with a hard stare. His voice took on the solem timber he used while leading rituals. "Do you fully reject Voldemort and all he stood for?"
"Yes."
"What act did you commit willfully in order to earn your mark?"
Snape winced and shook his head. He couldn't meet Harry's gaze. Lily's gaze.
"It's important."
"I can't."
"Severus," McGonagall said with a kind expression "this is the road to redemption. If it were easy there wouldn't be any darkness left in the world."
Snape wilted, but began to speak.
"I had been an inductee for a long time under Dumbledore's request, but I hadn't done anything too dark and certainly had not enjoyed the acts I had. The war grew worse and we became desperate to have someone in the rapidly expanding inner circle. Voldemort had taken an interest in me and had begun to suspect. When he got word of the prophecy, he knew the Longbottom's also had a son that could be the chosen one. He also knew of my history with Lily and James." His tortured eyes met Harry's.
A weight fell into the pit of his stomach. No.
"That is how he chose between you."
No.
Neville looked almost as stricken as Harry.
"He brought me with him that night and said I could get the parents out of the way. If I wanted to. I did."
His whole life, he had known Voldemort had killed his parents. And now that Snape and him had, against all odds, begun to find some common ground, the cosmic rug had been pulled from beneath his feet. Several minutes of silence past while he spiralled.
Then Luna took his hand.
"Continue," Harry said.
When Snape only looked confused, he cleared his throat.
"You need to confess your sins for this to work," he said. "And I need to know." His voice cracked.
Luna squeezed.
"I subdued James first. Had him bound, but conscious. Lily didn't raise her wand. She reasoned with me. Pleaded. Begged. Reminded me of our friendship. I cried and nearly let James go, when you woke up. She hadn't mentioned you once. Even in that high stress situation she kept her brilliance front and centre. She knew you would set me off. Not that she had a kid. But that she had a kid with James.
"You were extraordinary even then. You didn't fuss, you used wild magic to pop to her arms. And you looked just like him but with her knowing, curious eyes that judged me and found me lacking. She only had you a moment before she sent you away with the elf.
"It was enough.
"I broke." Tears ran freely down Snape's face and he struggled to spit out the words. "I raped her while James screamed."
Harry's aura ignited into the visible spectrum as he burned magic off in fiery silver blue light to keep himself from vaporizing Snape.
"I made her watch James die slowly. And then I - I made her feel my sick joy. I forced her to watch the memory over and over while I made her orgasm with magic. Her mind couldn't take it. I stood too far away to stop it. Wallowing in self pity in a corner while my enchantments did the work. She moved so fast. She ripped the kitchen knife from Jame's corpse and killed herself."
Harry burned but felt as if his heart was chipped from ice and riddled with cracks. Around them, the room descended into chaos. The walls turned from stone to obsidian to lead and stuck as pure gold. Desks and chairs became animals and birds that hunted each other and burst into burning confetti when they died. The floor and ceiling went crystal clear, condensed into mist, and then refracted the brilliant light of his aura.
Not only his. Luna's aura of sunflower yellow shot through with lavender and the green of Harry's eyes burst to light. Hermione took his other hand. Her pure gold aura burned. Wings of fire sprouted from her back and a song of loss poured from her throat with the voice of a bird.
That song, heart-breaking, beautiful, and hopeful pulled him back.
The remaining animals became desks and all three of their auras went out. The song ended on an angelic note of peace and her wings folded into her back.
The ceiling and floor continued to reflect the golden walls and flickering torch light.
"Everyone alright?" Neville asked.
As they all murmured in the affirmative, McGonogal remained too shocked to realized she should have asked. The walls were perfect gold. Later, she would get a goblin in to confirm. He wouldn't admit it to her, but he couldn't tell it from natural gold, something that had hitherto been an impossible feat for transfigured gold.
After a moment, Harry spoke.
"Do you regret your actions?"
"Every single day. That's why I convinced myself I hated you. I hate myself and you are a painful reminder of why."
"Do you renounce your old master and pledge to dedicate your life to opposing those who would commit the same injustice?"
"I swear."
"How will you show an outward sign of an inward change?"
Snape blinked, but without much hesitation, rolled up his sleeve. The Dark Mark twisted as it hadn't since Voldemort lived. It sensed the change.
"Can you cut it off?"
Harry pulled out the gold dagger from the vault. As he traced the outline of the mark he said in Voldemort's dialect of parsel tongue, "Release this soul from renounced loyalty to the dead. Through confession and rejection of the Dark, this redeemed soul sheds the shackles of servitude. Purge the mind, body, and soul of sin but leave the memory to keep his purpose clear."
As he spoke, the blood welling on Snape's arm ran black and seeped into the pages of the diary that lay open below.
Harry had warned the people in the room that he would be borrowing their power and had instructed them on how to let their core fill them without casting. Holding power right under the skin for a long time without release could be dangerous, but not with
Harry there to redirect it. This way, he could use everyone's power without draining them, something he had practiced numerous times with his cover. Babbing had the largest magical core of the teachers, McGonogal offered a portion of the rest of the faculty's magic through her link to the school, Neville had a shockingly large core to match what Harry's had been before he began absorbing power, Luna and Hermione also had larger cores than the impression he'd gotten a few weeks ago, and though closer to average, the power Draco and Daphne provided was nothing to sneeze at.
Everything they had went into the book. Not enough.
Harry poured everything he had left in his own reserves into the book as well.
Paper began mending, but too slowly. It would not be whole before they all passed out and possibly damaged their cores.
Power rushed into him from Lily. Through her, he felt all of his elves transferring her energy from the ley lines. Through their special bond, that raw elf magic converted into something he could control.
It would be enough, it had to be.
As Harry's vision grew dark around the edges and he saw the leather cover still sported a dime sized whole, he despaired.
Then the simultaneous flash of lightening and crack of thunder lit the room and set the book glowing.
Thor coiled around Harry's neck. "Silly human," he hissed. "You could have killed yourself for a book."
"Thank you Thor. We need it to stop something bad. It's a special book."
"If you die who entertain me?"
"If I don't kill this thing, it will kill everything in the world."
"Hmmm I suppose a world of nothing be boring too."
Harry picked up the book as if it might explode. It sat whole and unblemished in his hands. Not so much as a scorch mark or ink stain.
A dark aura clung to it, but the book was blank. If Tom Riddle had come back to the pages, Harry would be able to feel it. All he felt was power.
Power flavoured with Voldemort's accent. Hopefully that would only help when it came time to track the twisted conglomerate of souls that Voldemort' scrap of a soul had been absorbed into.
The others caught their breath, most on their knees. Daphne flat on her back, unconscious, but fine. Snape stared at his forearm.
"How does it feel to be free? "Harry asked.
He turned the flat of his arm to show him. Right where Harry had drained the Dark Mark, stood a beautifully rendered golden gryffin, which stared straight out of Snape's arm with its wings spread in defiance.