Chapter Four—Truth of Family
Two weeks later, Harry was thoroughly well-versed in Hylian society, religion, and history; Hermione was in the process of reading the book from cover to cover, and was currently on "Chapter Twenty-five: Earth;" and Ron had learned all the interesting and relevant information from Harry, with details added courtesy of Hermione. All three of them were quite keen to know why Dumbledore had given Harry the book to begin with. But, of course, Harry couldn't ask until he was ready to return it, and Hermione would kill him if he tried to do so before she was finished with it. Besides, it helped to have someone like her thinking over this information; they got into heated debates over historical details (which always made Harry feel like a complete nerd and bookworm), and had compiled a list of questions they would have to ask Dumbledore. It was usually Hermione who came up with the most interesting ones.
All of Harry's earlier questions, about the pictures, had been answered, and he felt much better about them. He learned that Link was not a Kokiri after all, but a Hylian orphan whose mother, wounded and dying, had left him to grow up in the forest. Saria had raised him, though he didn't realize it at the time and simply considered her a friend.
Harry also learned that Link and Zelda's life spans were normal in length; the reason the other figures had so outlived them was that they were Sages, divine beings with extremely potent magical powers, who weren't very susceptible to disease, injuries, or even the aging process.
However, Zelda, too, was a Sage, and so this would have led Harry to question why she had died so young…except that the book informed him that neither she nor Link ever had, in the conventional sense of the word, died. When they were both 74 years old, they had made the decision to be magically suspended in time, in a dimension between Hyrule and the world of the goddesses, by the Sages. They had anticipated that they might be needed centuries later, and the reason for this was the most interesting story of all.
King Ganondorf Dragmire had been sealed in time as well, by Link and Zelda themselves, when they were teenagers. He had taken over Hyrule by stealing for himself the power of the goddesses, and only the Hero of Time and the Princess of Hyrule had been able to stop him, for they, too, held the divine power. It came in the form of the Triforce, those triangles that Harry had seen on the first page. Ganondorf had attempted to steal it, but by so doing, had accidentally fulfilled a prophecy which caused it to split into three parts. Ganon retained the Triforce of Power, while Zelda obtained the Triforce of Wisdom, and Link, the Triforce of Courage.
As long as Ganon did not have the full Triforce, he could never take complete control of the divine and mortal worlds; but as long as he had the Triforce of Power, and as long as there was no one to take it from him, he could never fully be defeated. For this reason, Link and Zelda had never managed to kill him, only to seal him away.
Three times, across centuries, he had broken out of the seal. At these times, Link and Zelda had been reincarnated to fight him. They always had different bodies, usually those of their descendants, along with different personalities and no memories of their previous selves, but they always had the same spirits, and the same destiny to hold the Triforce pieces. At least once, they and the rest of the world had thought they had really killed Ganondorf, but this was not the case. It never could be.
All this fascinated Harry immensely, and that wasn't even considering the other elements of the legend: tales of musical instruments and songs that could control time itself, journeys between universes and dimensions, and much more. One artefact which particularly caught Harry's attention was the legendary Master Sword, which only Link could wield by pulling from its pedestal.
"It sounds like King Arthur," Hermione had commented when she read that part of the story. "You know, pulling Excalibur out of the stone and becoming king?"
Having grown up with the Dursleys, Harry was not exactly knowledgeable about mythology from any culture.
"Er…yeah," he said evasively.
In actuality, he rather thought Link reminded him of someone else. An orphan, growing up in a world he didn't know he didn't belong to, never fitting in, learning he was special, but not knowing for several years that he was fated to fight an epic battle against the greatest evil the world had ever known, an evil which had already begun to spread over the world like a plague, killing and destroying…an evil that only he could purge forever…an evil that he had to purge, if the sacrifice his mother had made, to die so that her baby son could live, would not have been in vain.
And then there was that legendary blade, evil's bane, the Master Sword, that only the True Hero could draw from its secret hiding place and use to conquer dark forces…
"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat," Dumbledore had said to Harry more than three years ago, when Harry had defeated Salazar Slytherin's monster with Godric Gryffindor's sword…
But no. Surely Harry was reading too much into mere coincidences.
As he often did when he was thinking, Harry was at the moment staring into the common room fire. Ideas played randomly through his mind as his quill hovered over his Potions essay in mid-sentence.
Potions. Yes. That was what he was supposed to be thinking about. He looked down at his parchment and tried to remember what he had been writing, although there was a part of him that didn't care. Snape made dark hints in each class that he had been forced to take Harry into the class against his better judgment, and Harry was beginning to wonder what Dumbledore was trying to accomplish by inflicting them upon each other when they had come so close to saying goodbye forever. That was another question he would have to ask when he returned The History of Hyrule.
Harry reread his last few words: …to accomplish this, but may include… He remembered that had been writing about which animals had body parts with magical properties that could be used in Delayed Memory Loss Potions. Yes. What was a Delayed Memory Loss Potion? He blinked. That, he had forgotten.
"Hermione, what do those things that we're studying do?" he asked.
"What things? Why subject?" She was reading; she turned the page without looking up, and Harry saw the heading of "Chapter Twenty-six: Human and Wizard Evolution."
"Potions."
"Oh, those memory ones… They make it so that the drinker will forget anything that happens to them in the hour after consumption, as soon as that hour is over."
"Right. Thanks."
Harry returned to his essay, but first he needed his copy of Magical Properties of Magical Beasts, so he began rummaging through his bag. He felt annoyed about something, but he didn't know what—
Then, abruptly, pain shot through his scar, and a wave of panic gripped his stomach as he sat straight up, throwing his head back and gripping the arms of his chair as if he were being consumed by some deadly force. He let out a short cry, trying to hold back a violent scream, and felt someone strike him across the face. The common room swam into focus when he opened his eyes, only realizing then that he had closed them, and he took in the sight of Ron standing over him.
"Did you hit me?" Harry asked. It was the first complete thought to come into his stunned mind.
"Yes," Ron told him, unabashed. "You-Know-Who was in your head, wasn't he?"
"How did you know?" Harry asked, shaking slightly as he rubbed his scar.
"I've seen it happen to you enough times," Ron told him grimly. "What was it this time?"
As he habitually did when Voldemort penetrated his mind, Harry answered the question instantly, though the words were not his own. They simply came out of his mouth, and he knew they were true.
"Someone did something he didn't want them to, and now he has to hurry on something he wanted to take his time to do properly. He's angry that he has to do it differently from how he wanted. It's like he's…panicking, almost."
Hermione had looked up from her book and was staring, white-faced, at Harry.
"I'm okay now," he assured her. "It happens, it's no big deal." He gave his forehead another rub with the back of his hand before pulling the book he needed for Potions out of his bag and turning to the index. Ron was still standing before him, and Hermione was still gripping her book tensely with her eyes on him. Neither of them seemed to believe that there was nothing to worry about and that he was simply returning to his homework.
"Tell Dumbledore," said Ron. "He'd want to know anything you can tell him."
"It's true, Harry," Hermione agreed, nodding.
"Well…yeah," Harry sighed reluctantly. "When I go to give the book back when you're done with it, I'll tell him then."
"I'll be done tomorrow," Hermione vowed, snapping her eyes firmly back onto the old, elaborate pages. Her eyes were darting back and forth as fast as he had ever seen them go.
"Well, okay, then," said Harry, a bit thrown. He exchanged a quick look with Ron, who simply gave a slightly lopsided shrug, before they both returned to their work.
"There."
With an impressive wham, Hermione dropped The History of Hyrule onto the table. Harry looked up at her, surprised.
"You finished it?" he asked.
It was an unnecessary question; her eyes were puffy with the obvious tiredness of a girl who had read her way through the night. She dropped into the seat on Harry's left at the house table in the Great Hall and began helping herself to scrambled eggs.
"Now you can take it back to Dumbledore and tell him about your scar last night," she said.
"Why are you so eager for me to do that?" Harry asked slowly. "It's not as if this is a new thing."
"No. But I just think that for Voldemort to be feeling something like panic… It's strange, isn't it?"
"I guess…"
"Then it is a new thing. And probably very significant. And we learned last year that…that when you don't talk to Dumbledore…and maintain communication with each other…bad things happen," she finished rather weakly.
There was too much truth in this to ignore. Harry nodded.
"We've got a while before Potions," he said, checking his watch. "I'll go now."
He picked up the large book and hurried out of the Great Hall; he didn't exactly know why he was hurrying, except that he wanted Dumbledore to know that for once he was doing what he was supposed to. Not like staying in the school when the world thought there was a murderer after him, not like preparing for the Triwizard tasks, not like Occlumency…
It was the last one which had proven to him the importance of not trying to take his own interpretation of instructions. He had been practicing it diligently this year, and thought he now it understood fairly sturdily. On the other hand, his scar had burned again, and that wouldn't have happened if he had truly mastered the art of closing his mind.
Looking down, he found he had arrived at the stone gargoyle which marked the entrance to Dumbledore's office.
"Chocolate," he said. The gargoyle jumped aside instantly, and Harry stepped onto the newly revealed moving staircase. He heard quiet voices speaking as he reached the door, and wondered if they were the talking portraits or if Dumbledore had company. He knocked politely, just in case it was the latter.
"Come in," came Dumbledore's voice calmly, and Harry obeyed.
Dumbledore was writing something, but he looked up when one of the portraits said cheerfully, "Ah, the Potter boy is here to return your book!"
Nodding approvingly, Dumbledore asked, "You've finished it all, then?"
"Yes, sir," Harry said, sitting in the chair opposite the Headmaster's so that he wouldn't have to hold the weight of the volume any longer.
"I hope it wasn't too dry for you. Tell me honestly, Harry, did it bore you?"
"No, sir," Harry replied, placing the tome heavily on the desk. "That is…I did have trouble starting it, but once I did, it was interesting."
"I'm very glad to hear that. You read it quickly, too, despite the time constraints of your homework and your role as Quidditch captain. I must tell you, Professor McGonagall and I hesitated to appoint you to the role, knowing as we did about the circumstances of your life. You're not finding it all too much?"
"No, sir. Hermione's helping me out with organizing and stuff."
Dumbledore smiled. "Miss Granger must be an invaluable friend when you have such needs."
Harry smiled, too. "I'll say."
"How much time do you have until your next class, Harry?" Dumbledore asked suddenly, lowering the quill with which he had been writing when Harry arrived.
"Oh…quite a bit. It's Potions." Harry mentioned this fact casually, but in the hope that Dumbledore would offer some explanation, and the Headmaster seemed to read his mind. He regarded Harry with his clear, blue eyes full of unfathomable wisdom.
"You must be wondering why you are continuing with Potions when you did not meet Professor Snape's rather high standards for his NEWT class," he observed calmly.
"Yeah, now that you mention it," Harry said, trying to sound casual. He knew, however, that Dumbledore could hear the edge in his voice.
"Perhaps you guessed that I stepped in on your behalf? And perhaps you wondered further why I would force Professor Snape and yourself to endure each other's company any more than you have already had to?"
"Yes, I did, actually," Harry answered quickly, folding his arms, but not aggressively. It was more of a defensive posture. His and Snape's animosity had reached levels this year that were almost frightening, and Hermione often had to kick Harry under the desk to remind him to control himself.
"The reason is quite simple," Dumbledore said unperturbedly. "You both have lessons to learn from each other. You must learn to ally yourselves for the common good, since you are both essential parts of the battle against Voldemort. In addition, it is crucial that you personally learn to overcome your weaknesses rather than giving up on them…and you should learn to make potions as well," he added, with the trademark twinkle in his eye.
This made more sense than Harry cared to admit.
"And what does Snape have to learn from me?" he asked. "There's got to be more than just…being allies for a common good or whatever…"
Dumbledore paused before answering carefully, weighing his words as he spoke them.
"You know as much as—indeed, more than—you really ought to know about Professor Snape without his consent. I shall not, therefore, give you any more information. However, since this also concerns you, I shall say that Professor Snape must learn from you to overcome certain weaknesses of his own."
Harry would have wagered his Firebolt that one of those weakness was an utter inability to forgive ancient wrongs committed against him by James Potter, but didn't say so.
"Now, let us leave the present for the time being," Dumbledore said in a far more comfortable and less cautious voice, laying down his quill and leaning back in his chair. "We shall return to the past, thousands of years ago. Other than to know why I wanted you to read this book, do you have any questions?"
This was what Harry had been waiting for: answers. "A few," he said, trying to decide which to ask first. He chose the one that was simplest, and had sparked the most debate between himself and his friends. "Are Link I and Queen Zelda I related?"
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "What makes you ask that?"
Shrugging, Harry told him simply, "They look alike." He didn't feel like outlining the two different sides of the argument.
"I suppose they do, don't they? You're very observant, Harry. Yes, it's a little-known fact, but Link and Queen Zelda were full first cousins. Their mothers were sisters."
Despite the fact that Dumbledore had proven him right, Harry couldn't help being horrified; his jaw dropped.
"But they were married!" he exclaimed in horror. "If they were cousins, why…?"
"Ah, the book doesn't explain that aspect very well," Dumbledore chuckled. "Their marriage, if you will check the dates, was very brief. It was an arranged political union, of which they both disapproved, and by all accounts, they behaved after marriage just as they had always done before. That is to say, more like friends or siblings than like husband and wife. Even though they didn't know the truth of their heritage, their marriage was a disaster from the start." Dumbledore paused to shake his head, his beard twitching, before he went on. "Matters of the heart are always so complicated. You see, Link was in love with another woman."
"Oh, yeah. He had a second wife after Queen Zelda, didn't he?" Harry asked, drawing from his memory.
"That's right. She was a rancher's daughter named Malon, and Link actually fathered her child while married to Queen Zelda."
Harry didn't know whether or not to laugh. "She must have been furious," he said in what he hoped was an objective tone, struggling to keep his face straight.
"Queen Zelda? Oh, by no means. Remember, she didn't love Link any more than he loved her. She knew about the situation from the beginning, and it never bothered her. In fact, she was just as thrilled as he was when they learned about their respective parentages and therefore obtained an annulment."
"And then Link married Malon," Harry said slowly, trying as he spoke to recall such details. He had paid more attention to the wars and epic conflicts than the romantic aspects. "And Queen Zelda married someone else."
"Link's half-brother, Chezdon, to be exact."
Harry's head spun; that hadn't been in the book. "Wouldn't he be her cousin, too?"
"At first glance, you would think so, but no. Link and Queen Zelda were connected through their mothers, but Link and Chezdon were connected by a common father."
After a moment's consideration, Harry understood this. "Oh," he said finally. "Weird."
"Rather, yes," Dumbledore agreed. "It becomes complicated because the population of the communities in Hyrule were so small that all the families, especially the noble ones, became interrelated."
Harry remembered Sirius saying something very similar to this about pure-blood wizard families, and though that topic itself wasn't depressing, it still caused him yet another dull stab of grief. He latched onto another question.
"Another thing I was trying to figure out… Nabooru and Ganondorf, they were on opposite sides, right?"
"They had completely different political and religious ideologies and alliances, yes," Dumbledore agreed with a nod.
"But then how is it that they were the king and queen of the Gerudo? At the same time? The book said that Ganondorf took the throne when he came of age and Nabooru was his second in command, but why did that happen? Did he overthrow her or something?"
"Ah. Well, if I explain to you a bit of Gerudo culture, perhaps you'll understand. This is covered in the book, but not in one of the areas I had you read."
Thinking now that he probably could have simply asked Hermione this one, Harry simply listened.
"The Gerudo were a population of people living in the western desert of Hyrule. They were all very highly skilled thieves and warriors—more skilled than Link, some say, though that is open to debate. They were also all women."
"What?" Harry blurted. "But…Ganondorf was one of them, wasn't he?"
"Allow me to finish. They were all women, with a single exception. Every one hundred years, a male Gerudo was born, and he became their king when he came of age. It's very ironic, considering that the Gerudo hated men utterly.
"So Ganondorf, being the lone male, was automatically entitled to be king. However, there was also a royal family, and Nabooru was the heir to that line. She took the throne when her mother, the preceding queen, died, because Ganondorf was only a child at the time. Then, when Ganondorf came of age, she couldn't simply be shunted off of the throne, so she remained queen, but he was the higher ranking authority.
"Nabooru was a strong woman," Dumbledore went on with a smile, "and a very good leader for her people. She was comfortable enough with her power to stand up to Ganondorf, whom she recognized as an evil man. And there wasn't much, if anything, that he could do about her."
"I like her," Harry said, smirking.
"So do I," Dumbledore agreed, a twinkle in his eyes. "Was there anything else that you were confused about?"
"No," Harry said slowly, thinking as he spoke to ensure this was the case. "There were some things I was kind of thinking about, though." It was true that there were a few things that had peaked his curiosity, inspired not only by the book.
"And what would those be?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well… Like, I wondered if Link was a Seer," Harry offered hesitantly. "Or any of them, really."
Furrowing his brow almost suspiciously, Dumbledore inquired, "Why do you ask?"
Harry didn't want to mention his dream, which he was quite sure was a severe breach of Occlumency. As long as he kept it in mind, it couldn't be much of a problem. "I was just interested."
Dumbledore was looking closely at Harry, and it was a moment before he answered.
"Such things would be difficult to prove, or to disprove, since so many ancient cultures kept inaccurate records of divination processes. It is probable, though, that the Sages Saw, for two reasons. First of all, they were close enough to a divine state that they may have had flashes of such knowledge as the goddesses have. Second, we know that Queen Zelda was a Sage, and we also know that she was one of the most gifted Seers in history. However, that proves only that she was a Seer, no one else."
"So then we don't know if Link was?"
"Many believe he was, and if the gift is hereditary, as magic is, then it is quite probable. I have never seen any definitive proof to that effect, but that does not by any means mean that he wasn't. In short, no one knows. I'm sure you read about the many difficulties with researching Hyrule that have come up over the centuries."
Harry nodded with a smile. "Like Plato and the Atlantis thing," he commented.
According to The History of Hyrule, Plato had been the first human to discover evidence of the ancient kingdom of Hyrule, long submerged since the last incarnations of Link and Zelda. He had discovered a few fragments with Hylian writing on them, and one word came up more than any of the others. Plato had logically concluded that this was the name of the oddly advanced civilization, but hadn't realized that it was in fact something else entirely. Nor had he realized that he was reading it backwards. As centuries passed, the name changed, and what had once been "Adlez" turned into "Atlantis."
Dumbledore nodded as well. "Precisely."
Harry was unsatisfied with this explanation, but he knew he could expect no better.
The last question was the most difficult to explain properly. He looked at his hands as he mumbled, "Professor…er… Do you remember…when I was in second year, how we talked about…similarities? Between me and Tom Riddle?"
Looking up hopefully, he saw that Dumbledore was looking back at him, completely still, his blue eyes piercing.
"I do," he said, quickly and softly.
"Well…well, I was reading …about Link. And I thought…I mean, I noticed…"
He trailed off, hoping Dumbledore would pick up the train of thought.
"I am impressed, Harry," the Headmaster said quietly. "You have brought up the very thing I intended to discuss with you."
Harry didn't quite know what to say. Was that confirmation of his suspicion? But then again, he didn't exactly know what his suspicion was in the first place.
"Let me explain it to you like this. The legends of Hyrule require two things of a True Hero: that they possess the ability to wield the Master Sword, and that they bear a close resemblance to the first Hero, the Hero of Time. As you read, there were three True Heroes since the time of Link I. They were all named Link as well, they all were left-handed, they all came from humble backgrounds, and there were other minor similarities as well. The first two were his descendants, and the last, while not a blood relative, bore a striking physical resemblance to him.
"However, this absence of a blood relationship was important. It proved that the winds of fate in the world were changing, the old ways becoming less important… And after sealing Ganon away beneath the waves, Link and Zelda IV left their own legacies behind as well."
"And Hyrule was destroyed," Harry finished, recalling the book. "The goddesses ensured that ancient Hyrule would remain beneath the waves forever, and a new civilization began."
"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "But what happened to Link and Zelda IV?"
Harry paused, thinking. "The book didn't really say, did it?"
"Only in passing. The historians of the time didn't think it was significant information, and that fact in itself proves that it was." Seeing Harry's blank confusion, he explained, "You see, Princess Zelda IV gave up her Royal identity, as there was no longer a Hyrule for her to be queen of. She returned to the life she had lived before learning her own story, that of a pirate captain named Tetra. Link IV as well took to the seas, exploring the ocean and charting the new world the goddesses had created. While their predecessors had always remained close after defeating the evil, the last Link and Zelda lost touch entirely, with each other and their own true identities. The historical record of their lives ends at that point."
"Not completely," Harry spoke up. "There was the story about Noah's flood, the one in the Bible. It said in this book that the goddesses cleansed the world again, and Link was Noah."
"That is true," Dumbledore said. "At least, it appears to be. You can understand that the recording of an apocalypse would be poorly documented. For example, we have reason to believe that Noah was not the name Link took, but the name he gave his boat. Consider this, Harry. The name comes from two ancient Hylian words: 'notei,' meaning lion, and 'ahkai,' meaning red."
"Oh, right," Harry said instantly. "Like the boat he had before, when he was fighting Ganondorf. It was called the King of Red Lions, wasn't it?"
"Very good, Harry, yes. Link IV's nickname was the Red Lion," Dumbledore confirmed. "But now, to conclude the story… Since that time, thousands of years ago, there have been no True Heroes."
Harry knew this already, but he still felt deflated at hearing Dumbledore say it. Part of him, he suddenly realized, had expected the Headmaster to say that the record was wrong, and there had been dozens of True Heroes in the years since the second great flood, Noah's flood, had left behind the first humans, and a few survivors of the Hyrulian race who would become later witches and wizards. The news that The History of Hyrule was right struck Harry as counterproductive. If nothing else had happened, if everything had changed, then why did Harry have to learn about it?
"Do you know why there have been no Heroes?" Dumbledore inquired.
Harry drew a blank. "No."
"Think of it this way. In the past, why did Heroes come to Hyrule? When and why?"
"They came to reseal Ganon when he escaped… Oh, so they haven't come because he hasn't escaped."
"More than just that," Dumbledore corrected him. "They came whenever an evil force was trying to use the Triforce to control and destroy the world of the goddesses' creation. No one has touched the Triforce because it remains at the bottom of the uncharted depths of the ocean, in the spirits of Ganondorf, Link I and Queen Zelda I, who are suspended in time. It was a mistake to leave them that way, because none of them can rest eternally while the strength of the Triforce binds them together. Until their heirs can take the pieces of the holy relic from them, the great conflict, which has been alternately dormant and active for millennia, which now lies buried beneath the ocean, will never end."
Something struck Harry in a flash of realization.
"Off the southeastern coast of Ireland…" he whispered.
"I beg your pardon?" asked Dumbledore, frowning slightly.
Harry blinked; he hadn't realized he had spoken out loud. Now he would have to tell about the dream anyway.
"Professor Dumbledore, a few nights ago I had a…sort of a nightmare. About Voldemort. I've been practicing Occlumency, I swear, but it just—"
"I understand that you have not yet mastered the art, Harry," Dumbledore told him, clearly not finding this fact a problem. "But you know now the full consequences of these visions, so they are not as dangerous as they once were."
He gave a sigh, and Harry felt a brief glimmer of grief trembling at the edge of his consciousness, towards the empty place where Sirius had been. He pushed it away forcefully, refusing to let it consume him as it was constantly trying to do.
"Please, continue," said Dumbledore, clearing his throat.
"Right. I dreamed that one of his Death Eaters—I think it was Nott—gave him a map of where to find…someone. A man, I think. And Nott said…off the southeastern coast of Ireland."
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, and Harry could see that he was trying not to betray what he was thinking through the look on his face.
"But that's not even the weird part," he went on. "After that, I sort of woke up into a dream where I was Link. I mean, Link had woken up and he had just had a dream about Voldemort…"
He explained the rest of the dream, including the meeting with Saria, and how she had had a dream herself, about Ganondorf.
"And all this was before I even read the book," Harry finished.
"This is why you wondered if Link was a Seer, I imagine?" Dumbledore asked, looking impressed.
"Er…yes."
"Well, Harry, to judge by this evidence, I would say that it seems likely that he was. I should say, is. He did not ever really die, and nor did Saria. They simply moved on to the next stage of existence."
Harry was relieved at Dumbledore's mild reaction. He hadn't expected anger, of course, but perhaps concern. He decided to tell the rest of the story as well, as Ron and Hermione had instructed him.
"There's more," he said. "Last night I got another one of those flashes. You know, about Voldemort's mood. My scar hurt, and he was…panicking about something. Someone did something he didn't want them to, and now he has to hurry in his next plan."
Dumbledore didn't answer; he was apparently thinking, his fingers tented near his chin. "Thank you, Harry. I am always glad to hear these things. New information is an invaluable gift, and you have unique resources which are quite inaccessible to me."
Harry didn't quite know what to say to this. "Er…you're welcome."
"However, there are also many things that you cannot learn simply through your innate gifts. The History of Hyrule taught you many of those things, but it does not continue the story very much beyond the demise of the ancient kingdom. I would like to bring you into the present, Harry, to offer you the connections that span those many centuries."
Now Harry could feel his anticipation building. There was something great coming now, he could tell.
"I have not yet really answered the question you asked me a few minutes ago, because there is a great deal of information that comes along with the answer. Let me be blunt: The many parallels between yourself and the Hero of Time are not a coincidence."
Something exploded in Harry's stomach. Something shouted out: I knew it! All he said aloud, however, was, "Why, then? Why do they exist?"
"The answer is a simple one, but important. Allow me to explain it fully."
He moved to the glass case behind his desk and opened it. Inside was a brightly shining sword with a ruby-encrusted hilt, and the words "Godric Gryffindor" engraved on the lower part of the blade. Harry knew that sword; he had used it in second year to kill a deadly Basilisk. Now Dumbledore handed it to him again, saying, "Do you see what is engraved below Gryffindor's name?"
Reading aloud, his breath having stopped in his chest, Harry said quietly, "Notei Ahkai."
"Red Lion," Dumbledore translated. "And on the other side of the blade?"
Harry turned the weapon over, anticipating what he would find—an image of the Triforce, and two lines written in the sharp, cryptic letters of ancient Hyrule.
"What does it say?" he asked, his mouth dry.
"It is difficult to translate," Dumbledore told him. "But, roughly, it says, 'Farore's courage and Hero's strength; Evil's bane and Time's vessel.'"
"And…it's…" Harry's voice died.
"The Master Sword," Dumbledore finished quietly.
Harry couldn't think of what to say. He wasn't sure how much of this was going where he thought it was, but he knew it was a surprise…or he thought he knew it was. Maybe it wasn't really so unexpected.
"But I…this…Link…" he stammered.
"You are a descendant of Link I," Dumbledore said softly. "And, by continuing his bloodline and by so resembling him in your own life story, you have more than proven yourself worthy of becoming the next True Hero."
"But—if Ganon and Link are still sort of alive…"
Dumbledore nodded. "Very observant. I will come to that, but there is yet more to say. The name on the sword, the one with which you are familiar."
"Godric Gryffindor," Harry agreed. "Red Lion… Was he a True Hero, too? No, he couldn't have been."
"You're right, he couldn't have been, because Ganondorf never lived during his time, and Salazar Slytherin, while we may disagree with his beliefs, was not by nature evil. However, Gryffindor was also a descendant of Link's bloodline, and one of your ancestors."
"How could this be his sword? He wasn't a Hero, he couldn't use it!"
Dumbledore sat down again behind his desk before he spoke. "When first this sword was forged, it was sealed in a stone pedestal from which only the True Hero could retrieve it. This was the case until the era of change that followed Link III."
"Oh, yeah," Harry said slowly. "The book mentioned something about how he changed everything, him and Queen Zelda III. But it didn't say what they did…"
"Did you not notice? What did they do that none of their ancestors had?"
The answer to this was obvious. "They got married," Harry replied instantly. "But why would that matter?"
"Because it tilted the balance of history. It united the bloodlines of the Triforce of Courage and Wisdom, and upset destiny."
"How did it happen, then?" Harry asked. "I thought nothing could happen if it wasn't destined…"
Dumbledore was shaking his head even as Harry spoke. "You know destiny is never that simple. Your own destiny, the prophecy you learned only a few months ago, shows that such matters are sometimes open to interpretation and different possibilities. But let me explain this further: Why could the first Link and Queen Zelda not marry?"
"Because they were cousins."
"Which means?"
Harry couldn't devise an answer. He had no idea, so he simply shrugged.
"Which means that they were both nobles," Dumbledore finished his own sentence. "They were of a common bloodline, and their mothers were noblewomen. Yet it was the destiny of the True Heroes to never be of noble backgrounds, and so destiny caused him to leave the world into which he was born and live his life as an ordinary man. His descendants, too, were always common people."
"Until Link III broke the mould by marrying into royalty," Harry finished, beginning to understand.
"Precisely. The marriage defied destiny, and yet, in a strange way, also followed the patterns of destiny by bringing the bloodline of the True Heroes back to the noble family from which its first member had sprung, many generations before. The result was change."
"Change… Changes like the fact that anyone can use the Master Sword now?" Harry suggested, thinking back to what had started this conversation.
"Not exactly. It is true that Link IV, the Hero of Winds, was not in any way connected by blood to the previous Heroes, but he did have the traits of a True Hero nevertheless. After his time, anyone could hold the blade, though there remained the stipulation that only a True Hero could use it against evil. In the hands of any other, it would not possess the magical capability to defeat evil definitively. It would simply be a dull blade. So, to answer your question, while Godric Gryffindor did possess it, he never used it. He may have believed himself to be a True Hero, though. Look at this. Accio."
In a single movement, one of the many books that lined Dumbledore's walls flew down and fell open in the desk, facing Harry. There was a picture of a blond man with fathomless blue eyes, and the shadow of a beard across his chin.
"That's Link," Harry said, "only he looks older than he did in the other book. Maybe forty or so?" He looked up at the Headmaster for confirmation; Dumbledore simply nodded at the book, so Harry looked down again and read the caption.
Godric Gryffindor.
Harry's jaw dropped.
"Yes," said Dumbledore, a faint smile visible beneath his beard. "So you can see why, given historical precedent, Gryffindor would have retrieved the Master Sword from the ruins of Hyrule in anticipation that he might need it."
"Yeah…" breathed Harry, still staring. "I mean, that's just—just incredible."
After a moment, Dumbledore said, "There is yet more to say, if you're ready?"
Tearing his eyes away from the picture, Harry managed, "Right."
"I am sure you have guessed this, but… Of course you understand that if a True Hero has emerged, then of course he must have someone to fight."
"Voldemort," supplied Harry. The words were barely out of his mouth before he blurted, rather louder than he had intended, "Voldemort is related to Ganon?!"
"Precisely," Dumbledore agreed, a hint of a wistful sigh in his voice. "And there is also the fact that you are descended of not only Link, but also Queen Zelda."
This news struck him like a physical blow, though it seemed obvious as soon and Dumbledore said it. Of course; if Link III and Zelda III had married, then they were both his ancestors.
"The epic battle continues, Harry," Dumbledore was now saying. "You are the new generation."
Harry's head was spinning. The new world now depended on him to survive, just as the ancient kingdom of Hyrule had depended on Link.
"I'm sure you'd like some time with this information," Dumbledore said calmly, "and I'm sure your next class will be beginning soon. So, you of course know that you can always approach me with any questions you might have, but we'll leave our conversation here for today, shall we?"
"Yeah…yeah, okay." Harry knew from experience that when Dumbledore said a conversation was over, it was over. "But…just so that I know, is this information between you and me only?"
"What I have told you about Hyrule is not classified information, simply uncommon. You may tell your friends as much or as little of it as you choose. Perhaps Miss Granger would like to borrow my book?" he asked, a smile playing across his face as he waved towards The History of Hyrule.
Grinning sheepishly, Harry admitted, "She already did. I couldn't have kept her away if I tried."
"I would be lying if I said that surprises me," Dumbledore told him, "or if I said that I wasn't expecting such a thing before I gave the book to you. Did she read only the chapters you did, or the entire book?"
"All of it."
Nodding approvingly, Dumbledore said, "Again, not unexpected. But you really should be going now to your class."
"Yeah. See you.
"Goodbye, Harry."
As he closed the door behind him, Harry heard one of the portraits say, "There is more to that boy than meets the eye, Dumbledore."
"More than you or he knows," came the Headmaster's voice in reply.