"This is getting ridiculous. Gellert, if you wish to hold the hallows then just ask. I don't want you to become bitter and angry watching me holding them and preventing you from using them."
"You would let me hold the Hallows? All three of them, at the same time?"
"You won't become the master of death and so I have nothing to fear in handing you them. First we have the Resurrection Stone, turn it thrice in hand to recall a shade of a lost one." Harry handed the stone to the man, who inspected it with a small sad smile. "Here is the elder wand, though you have already wielded it before I was born." Gellert took the wand with great care, his eyes shimmering with joy.
"Lastly we have the cloak of invisibility, the only one of the three that I have any emotional connection with." Gellert placed the cloak around his shoulders, with the Elder wand in his right hand and the resurrection stone in his left. As Harry waited to see what Gellert would do, the shade of Albus Dumbledore appeared before the pair.
"Gellert? I didn't expect to see you until your passing, I must confess that seeing you on the light side this time is shocking." The shade of Albus commented, smiling at his former lover.
"I didn't expect you to die so suddenly, I thought I would have felt your passing but I guess it wasn't to be."
"That will be the oath we took to Magic, it turns out that our oath was accepted. It took young Mr Potter here for me to finally realise that the entity known as Magic does in fact exist."
"Why didn't you come to see me Albus? You used to come to visit once a year, though that suddenly stopped two decades ago."
"I was scared Gellert, scared that I would look into your eyes and no longer see the man I once loved."
"Once? Has your love for me finally dried up?"
"Never." Albus whispered.
Harry stood there feeling very awkward, stepping out of the room to give the two old friends their privacy.
"Ah Harry, there you are… why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Dudley asked his brother, concerned for him.
"Dumbledore's spirit is in Gellert's room and the two are having a rather depressing reunion, I've decided to just leave the Hallows with Gellert until they finish their catching up."
"You dont have the Hallows on you! What if you get killed again?"
"I can summon them to me at any time."
"Oh, that makes sense. I don't want to have to rely on miracles again."
"I've been meaning to ask you about that, why were you so certain that I would come back?"
"Luna believed in you as well, long ago she and I heard a song being sung by Magic itself, as well as the creatures of the forest. The song was rather long, but there was a small part of it that has stuck with me."
"Could you tell me the words?" Harry asked, sounding uncertain of himself.
"Of course. Sleep now, Viper, you will wake.
In this slumber, Death, you won't take
Our hopes and dreams, so lower your eyes.
You hold no power, for the Phoenix will rise.
His name is Potter, he is here
To bring us back, so have no fear.
In the Father's embrace he will prevail
Gives him the strength to cross the Veil
Ripped apart and born anew, unspoiled heart, life renewed."
"What could that possibly mean, like I get some of the lines but…"
"You know what it means, it means that you are under another prophecy. Voldemort spoiled your mind by infecting you with the Horcrux, but now that you have a completely new body, you are free of that infection once and for all. It means that he has no way into your mind beyond the usual means for a wizard, you've already given the dragons new hope, freeing them from fear and allowing them the freedom to live their lives. Sure that is only Bulgaria but what about the butterfly effect, it has made international news with their radical new approach to dragon-handling. Face it Harry, you have changed this world dramatically, and you will continue to do so."
"I'm still a bit weirded out by the idea that hugging my dad was predetermined by a song." Harry joked, though the words of the song were bouncing around inside his mind for the rest of the day.
He and Dudley decided to gather those who were present and interested for a Quidditch game in the back garden, trying to break the monotony of war. They were glad that the Order of the Phoenix had joined them at Nott Manor, with the house that Sirius gave them to use being a backup base, with the addition of the Order came the arrival of the Weasley twins, who had never looked more different in their entire life.
"I fancied a haircut, and a style change." George explained numerous times after being questioned by everyone about his radically different look from Fred.
"You are planning to use your proprietary Weasley twin spells to confuse people even more now aren't you?" Harry asked the pair on the way to the garden.
"Perhaps, although it is entirely possible that I've been Bill for the last seven months and am slowly changing George's appearance to resemble my own."
"As long as you don't pierce his ears then I'm sure he won't have any issue with you cutting his hair… though Bill usually wears his hair long so it would have to be Fred that was Bill and out of protest George is trying to signal to the world that his brother is an imposter."
"That's… oddly specific." Fred joked, ruffling Harry's hair and mounting his broom, zooming away from the pair.
"If I happen to be spot on then blink twice." Harry said to George, who copied Fred's conversational deflection tactic and left Harry standing at the back door.
The twins' antics were always good for a mood boost, and so Harry mounted his broom with a smile, feeling a bit out of practice.
/_^_/
"Stop screaming you Muggle scum, nobody is going to rescue you." An imperioused man in a mask threatened a small group of muggles, with the oldest muggle being levitated into the air with a magically conjured rope.
The Death Eaters only realised that something was wrong when the faces of their prisoners became more saturated with fear.
"Leave those people alone, Voldemort is going to lose and you will be punished for any orders of his you've followed." Harry Potter threatened, holding his sword out as a warning.
"Crucio!" The Death Eater in control of the Imperius curse shouted at Harry, who simply lifted his sword and reflected the curse back at its caster, breaking his concentration as he screamed and twitched on the floor.
It was a testament to Harry's reactions that he managed to cushion the landing of the Muggle man with a rope around his neck.
"You freed me! Thank you." The masked man shouted, running at Harry to properly thank him. Unfortunately for the man Harry was in no mood to risk someone running up to him and attacking him. He angled his sword so he could see the eye-holes of the Death Eater mask, flashing his Basilisk gaze and petrifying the man.
The man who had cast the cruciatus was still twitching and screaming, clearly unable to focus on anything but his pain for long enough to cancel the curse.
"You can surrender or join your friends on the floor." Harry called out to the last man, who threw his wand in Harry's direction and dropped to his knees. Harry simply knocked the man unconscious and disarmed the screaming man, stunning him as well.
"You don't need to worry anymore, I am here to free you." Harry calmly spoke to the frightened family.
"You stopped them without touching them, what is going on?" The man with the rope around his neck demanded, putting himself between Harry and his children.
"I can explain once I get you lot home, we are in Wales currently, where do you need to go?"
"They dragged us here from our house, it is no more than a fifteen minute walk." The man responded, seeing that Harry was still a boy and immediately viewing him as less of a threat.
"I'm Harry, my brother will be here soon to help heal any injuries you may have. We can begin heading to your home, he will be able to follow." Harry explained, smiling at the family who had nearly died.
"Well then let's not waste any time." The man responded, shaking Harry's hand and thanking him before they left.