Chapter Eight—Confronting the Other Side

"Hey! Stop!"

Harry came to a halt at the Fat Lady's portrait, which Zelda had run directly past, Link following her closely. At his shout, however, both Hylians stopped in their tracks and turned to see what he was indicating.

"This is the way to the Gryffindor Tower," Harry explained, pointing to the portrait.

"Oh, really?" asked Link, intrigued. He and Zelda had ended their chase as quickly as they had started it, and walked back to where Harry stood. "Secret passage, huh?"

"Password?" asked the Fat Lady. Zelda raised her eyebrows.

"I've never seen a painting that talked!" she said.

"I have," Link scowled. "Or, more accurately, several paintings that came to life and tried to kill me."

Harry chose not to ask, and Zelda didn't look terribly concerned, either. There weren't many sorts of things that had never tried to kill Link at some point or another. The Fat Lady gave him a bewildered expression before turning back to Harry.

"Who are they?" she demanded. "They're not students, they're too old!"

"We're seventeen," said Zelda, sounding dignified but slightly hurt.

"Sort of," Link amended.

The Fat Lady opened her mouth to reiterate her protest, but Harry cut her off.

"They're with me. Antipodean Opaleye."

With a slightly grudging wave of her hand, the Fat Lady's portrait swung forward to reveal the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, and Harry entered, Link and Zelda just behind him.

Since it was still fairly early in the evening, Ron and Hermione hadn't yet gone to sleep. She had apparently talked him into doing some homework (a task he had been avoiding since the end of the term), and they now sat facing each other on a couch by the fireplace as she tried to explain the finer points of a new spell they were learning in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"It's like…" she paused thoughtfully. "Oh, I know! It's kind of like the Furnunculus Curse."

"Really? I thought it looked more like…" Ron waved his wand experimentally.

"No, not the wand movement, the inflection on the incantation," Hermione corrected.

"I'm back," said Harry, by way of greeting.

"Oh, hi, Harry," Ron said casually, looking up with a small wave. He did a comical double take when he saw the two other people standing there, eyes bugging. Hermione had to turn all the way around in her seat to see what he was staring at. When she did, she let out a gasp. Harry laughed at their identical expressions of blank shock.

"Link, Zelda," he said, nodding towards his friends, "this is Ron, and this is Hermione."

Link waved. "Hey."

"Pleased to meet you," Zelda said with her trademark courteous smile.

"Yeah…hi," Ron said faintly. Harry suspected Hermione would have been growing jealous of the way he was looking at Zelda if not for the fact that she was looking at Link the exact same way.

"Nice to meet you, too," Hermione managed. Snapping her gaze onto Harry, she asked, "What's going on?"

Harry explained briefly what he and Dumbledore had done, and that the two Hylians were part of the battle against Ganondorf and Voldemort.

"So, until Dumbledore decides what to do next, they're going to be living here, in the guest dorms?" Hermione asked.

"Well, it's more than just that," Zelda pointed out. "We still have so much to learn about this world. I mean, we can't go charging into battle without knowing a thing or two about the time and place where we're fighting, and who and what we're up against."

"But for now, Dumbledore said we're pretty much just supposed to make ourselves at home," Link added.

"They're going to get a lot of questions when the new term starts," Hermione warned Harry as the three new arrivals took seats near the fireplace; Harry and Zelda took two of the free armchairs, and Link took the third seat on the couch, next to Hermione.

"Like who are they and what are they doing here," Ron offered. "What are you going to tell everyone?"

Harry shrugged. He hadn't given this much thought. "The truth, basically, I guess," he suggested. "Me and Dumbledore brought them here, and they came from Atlantis."

"We came from what now?" asked Link, raising a curious eyebrow in Harry's direction.

"Kind of a long story. It's just a really bad mistranslation of Zelda's name that people started using to refer to Hyrule."

"There's little stuff that's gonna make people wonder, too," Ron went on. "Like what's up with the ears."

"Ears?" Link echoed, looking at Hermione's as Zelda touched her own self-consciously. "Oh, yeah… You have Gerudo ears."

"But they don't have Gerudo skin," Zelda observed. "Does everybody look like you three?"

"Well, some people have different skin colours, but the ears are all the same," Ron explained with a shrug.

"I wonder why we're different," Link thought aloud.

"Hylians have long ears because they can pick up a greater range of sounds that way, over greater distances," Hermione volunteered in her usual textbook style, sitting up straighter to speak and looking mildly surprised that no one else knew this. "And in the cases of people with magical powers, this also grants them telepathy."

Link stared at Hermione, clearly surprised and impressed. "Ah," he said, "there you go."

He smiled, and Harry noticed that she blushed slightly as she smiled back. Ron tore his eyes off of Zelda long enough to scowl slightly, and Harry had to hide a grin. Link did seem like the type who could flirt without knowing it, as he would bet money Sirius had been as well.

Zelda half rolled her eyes before saying pointedly, "Why don't the three of you show Link and me and around the tower?"

"There's not much to show," Harry answered. "This is the common room, and the dorms are over there." He pointed to the two staircases on the far side of the room.

"Well, we should show them where they're staying, shouldn't we?" Hermione pointed out, looking at Harry as she rose to her feet. "You and Ron can show Link the boys' and I'll show Zelda the girls'."

"Yeah, okay."

"Sure."

"Good idea."

They left the common room, splitting up. As soon as they were out of earshot of the girls, Link asked Ron, "Are you and Hermione…?"

"Yes," Ron answered instantly. Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he asked, "Why?"

"Just wondered. You seem like it. From my experience, you can always tell people that just click like that."

Ron continued to look doubtful, although Harry felt he was being paranoid. Link didn't seem to notice, but perhaps he did, because he added, "Zel always said me and Malon were like that."

"Malon?" Ron asked. "Your girlfriend?"

"Wife," Link corrected, "and the mother of my children."

"Your—What?!" Ron blurted. "But you're hardly older than us!"

Shaking his head with an expression of amusement at Ron's shock, Link corrected him, "I look seventeen. I'm actually nine thousand and something. And I was eighteen when I got married the first time, and about nineteen when I had my first daughter."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look; it was strange to hear someone their own age discussing his wife and kids, and even stranger to imagine being a husband and father so young.

They ended up discussing Link's life story more than anything else, relaxing in the guest dorm for a long story filled with action and interspersed with funny anecdotes. He told them how he spent his childhood in Kokiri Forest: "Mido hated my living guts. Of course, I later found out it was because Saria had a crush on me and he had a crush on her. He didn't believe me that we were just friends. And then, of course, he got everyone else hating me, too, because I was the one kid in the whole forest without a fairy partner. That was rough."

"You think that's bad, you should meet my cousin Dudley."

"Yeah, Dumbledore told us all about your family. But did Dudley ever frame you for murdering your own god?"

He went on to talk about his first adventure, searching for the three Spiritual Stones: "Princess Ruto was perfectly willing to give me the sapphire I needed, but according to her people, that would make us engaged. She's not even my species! I agreed, though, because I had no choice, and then I disappeared for seven years."

"Oh, there's a really good plan."

"Hey, I was ten! It was either that or marry her! She was pretty mad when I came back, though…"

He painted a vivid picture of what life was like when he returned to Hyrule as a teenage after being sealed away for seven years: "I didn't think I would ever be an adult. I was a Kokiri, Kokiri don't grow. You can't even imagine how weird it is to wake up one day and just be grown up all of a sudden. In my head, I was still ten."

His quest to defeat Ganon the first time was action-packed and complex. He related stories about how none of his friends recognized him ("I think they thought I was dead or something, because they were all wondering what had happened to me. At least Mido felt bad for everything he did to me when I was a kid."), about being arrested by the Gerudo ("Don't ever let anyone tell you there's any shame in losing to a girl. Not if it's one of them, anyway. Some of them fought way better than me, and I was definitely not expecting that."), about the elusive Sheik who turned up to help him ("Of course, when he told me he was a she, and not just any 'she,' but Zelda, all I could think was, 'Oh, goddesses, I hope I never said anything I shouldn't have said in front of her.'"), and about the various demons and monsters he had battled ("They're mostly not too dangerous. Well, except Wallmasters, and Like Likes, both annoying as hell. And Redeads. Those'll kill you every time."), including the most challenging conflict he had ever fought, against a solid shadow of himself called Dark Link ("Besides the fact that he knew all my tricks, do you know how hard it is to slash at yourself with a sword in the neck, the stomach, the legs… It's a nightmare, killing yourself and living to tell the tale.").

Then he told them about his life after Ganon's fall, when Zelda had taken the throne. Specifically, he told them about his family, including his two daughters.

Saria II, named for the Sage of Forest, was born out of wedlock, named a princess, kidnapped as a toddler, and raised on the streets; when she was older, she found out her true identity and returned home to her family, but shortly thereafter she accidentally killed her cousin, Zelda's oldest daughter; when she grew up, she became the next Sage of Light, and even more shocking, married Ganon's adopted son.

Nathana was a demi-goddess, worshipped by the people of Hyrule along with Zelda's demi-god son, Danion, and another demi-goddess, a girl named Hanya; the three of them were normal kids at home, except that they aged more quickly than mortals, had magical powers almost equal to those of the goddesses, and once used those powers to obliterate the Gerudo race.

"Wow," said Ron, when he reached the end of the tale. "That's impressive."

Link nodded proudly. "Those are my girls. And your ancestors, Harry. Well—Saria is. Nathana ascended to the Sacred Realm as a deity, so she didn't have children."

Harry started in surprise. He hadn't thought of that as he had listened to Saria's long list of accomplishments. "Oh… Yeah, I guess that's true. Cool."

Ron let out a massive yawn as Harry spoke, and Link looked at them both with the same disapproving expression.

"You two should be asleep. Have you got school tomorrow?"

"No, not for three more days," Harry answered.

Glancing out the window at the moon, Link informed them sternly, "Still, it's past midnight."

"But it's not—" Ron began, but Link cut him off.

"No arguing. Bed."

As they trudged off to their own dorm, Ron muttered, "Shouldn't've got him talking about his kids. We got him into dad mode."

Harry supposed he should have expected it. The presence of the Hylians triggered more nightmares.

He was flying, rushing up at an uncontrollable speed through thousands of miles of what couldn't be air; it was far too dark, cold, thick and heavy. No, it was a liquid of some kind…water, he thought…no, it wasn't that, either…

Then Harry exploded to the surface, and realized that it wasn't thousands of miles deep, either. In fact, he was standing in liquid that didn't even reach his knees, in a large metal bowl.

How degrading, in a pathetic sort of way.

Looking up, he saw that he stood on a grassy cliff, overlooking crashing ocean waves. There was no one else here, except for one man standing before him. That is, he was almost a man. He looked too strange for Harry to be sure that the title of "man" could apply to him. His skin was unnaturally white, whiter even than that of the accursed Hylians, and his eyes were vivid red, like a Sheikah. He looked like a living skull, a hideous mutant; the only reassuring aspect of his appearance was that he didn't have the long, pointed ears of the foreign people, but the short, round ones of Harry's own race, the desert people. He also had the dignity of a royal. At least he was nobility, not like that brat of a so-called Hero of Time that had been Harry's downfall so many eons ago.

In one hand, the strange man held a long, thin stick that looked like it had been sleekly shaped into its current perfectly straight form. In the other, he picked up an ordinary rock from the ground. Touching it with the end of his strange stick, he said in a high, cold voice, "Portus."

The rock turned blue and vibrated briefly, before falling still and looking perfectly normal again. The skull-faced man looked at Harry and said, "Come with me. There is much for us discuss."

Before he could object, Harry found the man grabbing him by the arm. His protest died in his throat as he felt the strange sensation of a hook pulling from behind his navel, forcing him forward in a swirl of colour.

When his feet hit the ground again, only moments later, they did so in what looked like a mansion, a house with heavy, dark and expensive-looking décor, lit dimly and giving off a similar burning vibe of dangerous power as that inside the crater of Death Mountain, an active volcano. He landed on the richly-carpeted floor so suddenly that he nearly fell over, and he growled with rage as he ripped his arm out of the grip of the other man, preparing a furious tirade against him.

Then he caught sight of a mirror…and he liked what he saw.

He was tall, strong, dressed in the armour of the kings of his people. The gem which designated him as a powerful and important figure glimmered in its setting on his dark brow beneath his fiery hair. He smiled widely, his teeth looking unnaturally white next to his tan skin; this was the body he had been born with, that he hadn't truly inhabited in who could say how many centuries. He looked like the power he was. He let out a low chuckle, and turned to face the man who had brought him here.

"Who are you?" Harry demanded in his deep, commanding voice. "Do you know how it is that I have come here?"

The red-eyed man merely smiled.

"You are Ganon," he said, "one of the greatest—perhaps the greatest—of my ancestors. I have returned you to your body after millennia of suspended animation, for I, like yourself, am endowed with greater powers than typical mortals…including the ability to escape death."

Harry rolled his information over in his mind before speaking again.

"So my line has reached you."

"I am the last of your descendants."

"And what is your name?"

The man paused before her answered, "Like yourself, I was given at birth a name that did not adequately express my power. So, just as you became known simply as Ganon, I am simply Lord Voldemort."

"Lord Voldemort," said Harry thoughtfully. "And you have brought me here to help you?"

Voldemort hissed.

"As often as you have been inhibited by a young boy who likes to imagine himself the saviour of the world, so too have I. It will take both of us to destroy the one who can only be the next destined True Hero."

Harry felt an anger that had been dormant for centuries swell within him at these words.

"Another Link," he growled disapprovingly. "Yes… he must be destroyed."

And as Ganon and Voldemort's enthusiastic rage rose, an intense pain seared across Harry's scar, reaching an agonizing pitch—

"NO!"

Harry woke abruptly, and found himself in his four-poster bed at Hogwarts, his entire body rigid. He slowly relaxed, but he could still feel terrified adrenaline surging through him. He tried to return his mind to the present place and time; only then did he notice that Ron had slept through his shout. Perhaps he was learning to ignore Harry's too frequent nightmares. Closing his eyes, Harry tried to focus on Occlumency so that he could do the same thing.

Think of nothing. Think of nothing. Think of nothing. Think of nothing.

Sleep refused to come peacefully. Though Harry never sank into a deep enough unconsciousness for Voldemort and Ganon's images to return to him, his confused thoughts did bring him a blur of other images.

Sirius was a young boy dressed in green, dancing in the forest at the full moon to James' ocarina music, with a wolf that Harry knew to be Remus bounding in the clearing as well and howling in tune to the forest melody. Laughing, he tumbled onto his back in the grass, and Harry jerked awake.

Moments later, sleep teased the edges of his awareness anew. Link stood before a stone door set in an arch on a raised dais. He played an ocarina song, and the door receded into nowhere, revealing a veil that hung over the now open stone arch. The silhouette of the Master Sword was visible through it, and Link approached the doorway, brushing the veil aside to step through it. Harry's heart leapt into his chest in panic, and his eyes shot open.

In the early hours of the morning, he decided once and for all that sleep was never going to come to him. He climbed out of bed silently, thinking he might sit in the common room and be alone with his thoughts.

As he entered the common room, however, he heard a voice.

"Hey…I thought I told you that you should be in bed."

Sitting in Hermione's usual chair by the fireplace, hands folded in his lap and hair hanging in his eyes, was Link. The dull glow of the dying fire gave his features a sinister and shadowy illumination as it half shone through him.

"I couldn't sleep," Harry said, dropping into his own chair. "I'm guessing you couldn't, either?"

"Souls don't really need sleep," Link told him, "but I was trying to rest. I just couldn't get comfortable, which is weird, considering that I've gone months without a proper bed before. This whole world is just so different, though, and I miss Hyrule… But never mind me. What kept you up?"

Harry hesitated to confess that something as simple as disturbing dreams were keeping him awake; then he remembered that Link had suffered from them as well.

"Nightmares," he admitted.

"Oh, really? About what?"

"About…" Harry paused. Which nightmare was more bothersome, the one about Ganon and Voldemort, or the ones about Sirius and Link?

"About you, actually," he confessed awkwardly when he had decided.

A slow, uneasy smile spread over Link's face, like someone who wasn't sure if he got a joke. "Me?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Do I scare you?"

"No," Harry answered. "But you do…remind me of…someone."

Now Link's expression reversed; he furrowed his brow and frowned. "You're not telling me the full story here."

Harry sighed. He didn't want to tell it, but he wanted Link to know it. "Well…" he began, "you're a lot like my godfather. Sirius Black."

"Oh, yeah? I'd like to meet him."

"You…you can't," Harry muttered, lowering his gaze. "He died—He was murdered—last June. I saw it happen."

Link was very still. "Oh, Farore…I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Harry told him, hoping to drop the subject. A moment later, though, he changed his mind. He hadn't yet vocalized his thoughts on his godfather to anyone, not even Remus. But he could talk to Link about them.

"It's more than just that," he sighed, rubbing his face. "You know what it's like to not have parents, to not have anyone. Sirius was in prison until I was thirteen for crimes he didn't commit, but he escaped, and so even though I met him, people were hunting for him, so I barely got to see him, and I couldn't even write to him without having to watch my back. I only knew him for two years, but he was the closest thing to a father I ever had, and…and then I lost him. Just before his name was cleared. Just before he could have gotten his life back."

Harry could feel Link's eyes upon him as he watched the glowing embers of the dying fire.

"You know," Link said slowly, "if everything goes according to plan here, I'm going to die soon."

Of course. Harry knew this on an intellectual level, but he hadn't really thought about what that meant. He blinked and looked up at the Hylian before him. Link's tone was strangely calm as he discussed his own inevitable death.

"Aren't you scared at all?" Harry asked slowly.

Link shook his head.

"How—I mean, why not?"

"Two reasons," Link answered, holding up as many fingers. "First, because I have the Triforce of Courage, which keeps me from being scared of anything." He paused to give a small smile before continuing. "Second, because I know what there is after death."

Harry's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

"Again, a couple of reasons. Most of what I know comes from Zelda, because with her magic combined with the Triforce of Wisdom, there isn't much she doesn't know or hasn't seen. But I've also seen it myself. I've been there. It is possible to go to the world of the dead sometimes, but it takes powerful protective magic to ever come back."

Leaning forward in his chair, Harry appealed to him, "Tell me about it. Please."

Link hesitated. "I don't know if I'm allowed… Plus I only saw a small part of it…"

"I just want to know where Sirius is! You can't just tell me you know what's after death and then not tell me anything else! It's not like I want to know for myself or something, I want to know for Sirius! And my Mum and Dad, too! Please, Link, you have to tell me! You never knew your mother, but you know where she is…you can't not tell me about mine."

Harry couldn't help noticing that Link was wearing a pitying expression. Normally Harry hated whenever anyone felt anything remotely like pity towards him, but in this case, he simply hoped that the appeal to emotion would move Link to speak.

"Okay," he finally relented, though there was a grudging undertone in his voice. "Do you want to go for a walk? Maybe grab a bite to eat?"

"I could use a drink, I guess," Harry consented. "We'll go down to the kitchens, and then you'll tell me everything?"

He looked, almost threateningly, at Link for confirmation.

"All right," he sighed, pulling himself up from his chair. Harry followed suit, satisfied.

As they made their way down to the kitchens, Link explained.

"Well, there's three…worlds, or dimensions, or planes of existence, or whatever you want to call them. Realms. One is this one, the Mortal Realm. Another is the world of the goddesses, the Divine Realm. The third is halfway between the two, joining them but belonging to neither. It's called the Sacred Realm.

"There are a few specific places where you can get into the Sacred Realm by following specific magical practices. Once you get there, though, you can't get back without very powerful magic, the kind that only the goddesses and the Sages and people like that have, which is much more than ordinary wizards. Ironically, if you don't have enough magic to get out, you also can't stay there, or else you'll die, because that world isn't designed for mortal habitation. So basically, don't go there unless you're sure you can take it. Now, I got into the Sacred Realm by pulling the Master Sword out of the Pedestal of Time and all that, and the goddesses immediately put me under Their protective power. Ganondorf also followed me in there, and that could have killed him, except that he quickly found and took hold of the Triforce. That couldn't give him enough power to survive in the Sacred Realm, but to did allow him to get out of it. He was one of the most powerful wizards in the world to begin with, and with the Triforce of Power…"

Link paused, apparently lost in thought, then shook his head.

"Anyway, like I was saying, the rules of who can get in and out of the Sacred Realm are confusing. Basically, the souls of the dead go there and can't get back, and the living can't go there or else they'll die. Whenever I was there, I was protected by a combination of the Triforce of Courage and the magical powers of the Sages or the goddesses.

"I only ever went to one place in the Sacred Realm, the Light Temple, which is even more tightly and magically sealed than the rest of the place."

"We're here," Harry interrupted, stopping before a painting of a bowl of fruit and reaching out to tickle the pear. Link watched with his mouth hanging open as the pear giggled and turned into a green handle, which Harry pulled open to reveal the massive kitchens.

There were only a few house-elves left, cleaning a few dishes from dinner, and Harry didn't see either Dobby or Winky among them. All of them, however, were eager to please, and several scurried forwards.

"Good evening, sirs!" one squealed, making a little curtsey. "Can we get you something, sirs?"

"Yeah, two Butterbeers, and…did you want something to eat, Link?"

"Wha—? Oh…I don't really need to eat, I just thought you might be hungry." He was still looking around, bewildered, at all the attention.

"Just the two Butterbeers, then," Harry told the house-elf, who curtseyed again before hurrying away.

"So, this is the kitchen?" Link asked, looking in awe at the sheer size of it all.

"Yeah," Harry agreed; answering a question he knew Link must have been thinking, he added, "and these are house-elves. They work here."

"And what's Butterbeer?"

"Oh. It's a drink."

"Anything like real beer?"

Harry shrugged. "It's really good, you'll like it."

Within a moment, a house-elf was handing them each a bottle and squeaking, "Here is your Butterbeers, sirs! Thank you for coming, sirs!"

"Thanks," said Harry, and he turned to go, Link following right behind.

As soon as they had stepped into the hall, Link exclaimed laughingly, "They're such weird little things! And friendly, too, huh?"

"Uh-huh," Harry agreed, opening and taking a sip of his drink. Link did the same, and made an impressed noise in his throat.

"Good stuff, Harry. I'm gonna want more of this."

"Maybe we can stop for some on our way back," Harry suggested. "But first…the Light Temple in the Sacred Realm?"

"Oh, right. Well, the only way to get in there is to either be a Sage or have a Sage bring you, and it's the same trying to leave. So the souls of the dead can't get there any more than the souls of the living."

"And that's where you went?"

"Yes."

"But then…you don't know what's after death! You don't know what the rest of the Sacred Realm is like!"

"Yes, I do, just not firsthand. The Sages are all friends of mine, and one of the demi-goddesses is my daughter. You can talk to Zelda if you want to hear from someone who's been all around there, but she'll probably just tell you the same thing she told me."

He paused to sip his drink. They had arrived at the large, oak doors of the Entrance Hall. Pushing them open, they stepped out into the cool darkness of the grounds. Link's colour diluted slightly in the absence of light, but the sword on his back was as bright and solid as ever in its blue and gold sheath.

"What did she tell you?" Harry pressed.

Looking thoughtful, Link took a moment before he answered.

"She told me it's like Hyrule, only…better. More real, was the way she described it. And it changes according to the needs of the people, so she thinks it just appeared as Hyrule to her because that's the world she knows and loves, but to different people, it would look like their homes.

"Also, because everyone's just souls, they don't have the biological needs of their bodies, food and sleep and breathing and stuff. The Sacred Realm just meets their emotional needs, I guess, by being whatever they want it to be. People have all sorts of magical powers, even if they didn't while they were alive, the type of stuff that's probably no big deal to you. They can fly or turn into animals or speak telepathically or conjure things out of thin air… Souls are magically powerful, and in the Sacred Realm, they can use their powers without the restrictions of the Mortal Realm. But nothing's actually solid, of course, it's made of the same stuff I am. That soul substance that looks and acts almost exactly the same as solid matter would do in the same circumstances, but isn't."

Harry tried to visualize this world, but it was a difficult concept, so dramatically different from anything his imagination could conceive of. Still…

"That sounds really great," he said, feeling a small weight lift off of his chest. Somewhere, his parents and Sirius were safe and happy.

"It does," Link agreed. "That's why I'm not scared. And your godfather…I'm sure he's doing fine there."

"I just wish I could talk to him," Harry said quietly, looking out over the smooth surface of the lake as they walked past. It was still the full moon. "To all of them. I never got to say goodbye."

They walked in silence for a moment, then Link asked, "What would you say?"

Harry took a deep breath to give himself a moment to think before he answered. "To Sirius… That I miss him. That I'm still fighting. That I…I'm sorry for every stupid thing I ever did, like not practicing Occlumency…but I can do it pretty well now. And that I wish he'd been in my life for the first thirteen years. And I wish he was in it now. And…he was the best godfather I could have asked for. Having him really was like having my father back."

There was another silence, during which Harry fought against the tears threatening him. Then he went on.

"I'd tell him I hope he's happy, and free, and…I hope he gets to be with my dad and mum all his friends again for the rest of time. And because I didn't get to say it before, I'd say…goodbye."

Link nodded slowly. "What about your parents?"

That was an easier question, because Harry had considered it before. When he heard Link speak, his mother and father's images appeared before him, smiling out from the elaborate frame of the Mirror of Erised.

"That I love them, I miss them, and I wish I'd known them. They're what I'm fighting for. I won't ever forget them, and I won't let the rest of the world forget them, either. I'd tell them I hope they're happy, too, and thank them for loving me and protecting me. And I'd say goodbye to them, too. Goodbye for now," he corrected himself in a low voice. "Until I die."

There was another pause, before Link nodded again and said, "Well… When I die, I'll let them know."

Harry, who had been staring past whatever was in front of his eyes, at the faces of the loved ones he had lost, jerked his head round so suddenly that he saw Link start next to him. "What?" he demanded, his voice oddly strained.

Link didn't look back at Harry as he explained, "I can honestly say that I know exactly how you feel. Like you said, I know what it's like to not have anyone. To be the kid everyone makes fun of and beats up…"

Harry couldn't help letting out a laughing snort.

"Yeah, yeah," Link muttered, rolling his eyes, but allowing his mouth to twitch into a smile as well. "I know. But I was a little shrimp. Remember, Mido was the size of a ten-year-old when I was five and six and seven…he was horrible to me for a long time before I was big enough to fight back. But you know what that's like. Even when you finally can, you kind of don't want to, because you're not used to being the strong one."

"You're so used to being the weak one that you've started to believe it when people tell you that you are," Harry added, "and you don't think you would be able to handle being strong."

"Until someone comes and tells you what you've always been wanting to hear, that you aren't a freak and an outcast, but you can actually do something," Link said with a fond smile. "So you find a whole new world, with friends, and people who care about you…"

"Except it's not as good as it looks," Harry interrupted darkly. "There's always someone trying to hurt everyone else…"

Link didn't answer a first. He sipped his Butterbeer again, before saying in a matter-of-fact voice, "But that's what we're for right? It's up to us to protect the world and everything in it."

Harry gave a small grunt. Maybe Link thought that their shared destiny was a noble and worthwhile calling—but he personally would rather have just had his family back.

"Heroism's not all it's cracked up to be, huh?" Link observed.

Frowning up at him, Harry began, "I thought…"

"That I like it? Nah. Oh, sure, you think about how great it would be to save the world when you're little. Then everyone's bound to like you, right?" He gave a short laugh, shaking his head. "No, sometimes it just plain sucks to have the weight of the world on your shoulders. And the battle never ends."

"It'll end soon for you," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, it will. But it began before I was born, and it will continue long after I die. Good never truly conquers evil…we just cause them intense irritation by delaying and foiling their plans indefinitely." He smirked.

"What if we don't win in the end?" Harry wondered aloud.

"We won't," Link answered promptly.

Harry choked on his Butterbeer. "What?"

"I said we won't. And neither will they. No one can win, because no one has the right answer. When I say that good never conquers evil, that's because there is no good and evil."

"Lord Voldemort said that once," Harry said, almost against his will. He could hear his nemesis' voice in his mind. "It's not true, it can't be."

"Let me finish," Link admonished him patiently. "There is no true good, there is no true evil. There's only Power, Courage, Wisdom—and what you do with them."

He said nothing for a moment, but sipped his drink, letting this statement float down into Harry's mind.

When he spoke up again, he said, "Like I said, it won't end. There's pauses in the active, visible war, but that's it. So people win the battles, but no one will win the war. It's not about the victory, though. It's about the fight."

Link's word's rang through Harry's mind. It's about the fight…and James, Lily, and Sirius had all died fighting. And so would Link and Zelda.

And maybe he would, too…

Suddenly he came to a halt, realizing that he had traced the route he had taken with Dumbledore earlier that very night. They had returned to the graveyard. He drew in a sharp breath, and immediately hated how much it had sounded like a gasp of fear.

"You don't need to be afraid of this place," Link said quietly, apparently sensing Harry's desire to run as far and fast away from the graves as he could. "Maybe it's a little eerie, but it's not evil. You know, the Sheikah had a place of worship in a graveyard… 'course, it got all twisted and corrupted, and I ended up having to ransack the place completely to get rid of the monsters there," he added. "Creepy as hell. Literally." Frowning slightly, he muttered to himself, "'Shadow Temple… Here lies Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred.'"

Harry was half listening as he looked over the names on the tombstones. Pale grey angels who looked down to the earth or up to the sky, and elegantly carved animals whose curves looked unnatural in the medium of stone, guarded their charges; most of these were either lions, eagles, badgers, or snakes—the four animals of Hogwarts. At the far end of the graveyard, in fact, were four noble mausoleums, each decorated with many examples of one of these animals, and Harry was willing to bet that these were the final resting places of the four founders of Hogwarts.

"Do you know anyone here?" came Link's voice, interrupting Harry's thoughts. He jerked slightly, and noticed that the Hero had left his side, wandering between the graves and looking unnervingly like a ghost. As the light moved over him, his body faded in and out of view, only the sword on his back and the bottle in his hand remaining convincingly solid.

"I don't know," Harry managed, with unusual difficulty, to answer him. His mouth was very dry. "No."

Link came to a halt before a wide tombstone with a small statuette atop it whose shapes Harry couldn't distinguish; he was looking at them through Link's form, and so they were unclear. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Something in his tone made the small hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand on end, and he found himself walking towards Link almost against his will. He made out the shapes of the statuettes before the words—a stag and a doe, curled beneath a willow—and was aware, when he saw the two names, that they shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. Yet they did, and every part of his body, the very blood and air that that flowed through him, suspended itself as he read:

IN MEMORIAM

James and Lily Potter

Husband and wife

Father and mother

Beloved friends

Harry wondered, the thought feeling oddly practical as it quivered through the pure emotions that flooded through him at the sight of these words, who had written the inscription. He wondered who had stood here the day this small monument had been erected. Then he remembered that Sirius had been in prison. And Wormtail had been in hiding.

In Harry's mind's eye, Remus stood here. Alone. Perhaps with Dumbledore at his side. But still… Alone.

Something rose within him, and it had escaped before he realized that it was a dry, painful sob.

"I think we've gotten off topic," Link said, firmly yet gently. Glancing into his bottle to see that it was empty, he added, "Come on, let's go get seconds."

Harry took a deep breath, one that heaved his entire body, and let it out shakily, nodding as he did so. Link fixed a strong arm around his shoulders, and led him away.

After a moment, the Hylian spoke again, in the closest thing to a normal voice that was appropriate at the moment; Harry managed to force his mind to focus only on the present, Link's voice and words and meaning. "All right… So we're the heroes that have to save the world, at the expense of our own normal lives. And I was saying that since I'm going to the Sacred Realm once we get this fight all settled, I can pass along your messages to your family. Deal?"

"Ye— But how will you find them?" Harry pointed out. "Everyone who's ever died will be there, won't they?"

"That's true," Link admitted, "but the only ones present in my version of the Sacred Realm will be the ones I want. I mean, it'd be a pretty crappy place to spend eternity if you couldn't find anyone you know, or if you ran into someone you hate and they wouldn't leave you alone…"

Harry wasn't listening; he felt slightly dizzy. A chance to tell them anything… It was more than he could have hoped for… But it wasn't enough. Like the Mirror of Erised, it would never be enough. But at least it was real.

"Link…" he managed, the words lodged in his throat, "this is…"

He shrugged. "No problem."

They returned to the castle in silence, detouring back to the kitchens for two more Butterbeers before making their way back up to Gryffindor Tower. Harry was now thinking of everything he wanted to say. He would not get a response, he knew, or even confirmation that Link had passed on his words, but he was sure this would work. The mere fact that it was such an imperfect shadow of what he really wanted was proof enough for him.

"Antipodean Opaleye," Link said.

It occurred to Harry to ask another question, when they reached the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Link… What will you tell…the people you love…when you see them again?"

Half-smiling as he stepped through the door, Link replied, "Well. I haven't seen my mother since I was maybe one year old, nine thousand years ago, so first I'll find her, and tell her absolutely everything I can think of. I've got eternity, I'm sure I can cover it in that time. And then I'll ask her to tell me everything. Then I'll do the same with everyone else. I want to know everything they've done since I last saw them, and I want to meet my grandkid's kids, and their kids, and everyone else, right down to your parents. And I'll tell them all about this, of course. All about you and this world." Laughing, he concluded, "There's gonna be a hell of a lot to say, now that I think about it…"

They had arrived at Link's dorm, and he stopped to lean on the doorframe thoughtfully. "It'll be different with Malon, though," he decided seriously. "I won't have much to say to her."

This news startled Harry. "Why not?"

"She'll know already, everything I could tell her. I'm sure she won't have much to tell me, either, because I can guess what she's been doing. Singing, riding, everything she loves. So we won't talk much."

"What will you do, then?" Harry asked slowly, though he could have guessed the answer.

In a very practical voice, Link informed him, "I'll have to visit her last, because as soon as we see each other, I'm gonna hold her and kiss her, and not let her go until long after the end of time."

There was a pause, during which Link stared off into space, and Harry reflected on the intense love that was obvious every time Link talked about Malon. He wondered if his own parents had loved each other that much.

To break the serious silence, Harry commented, "You could give lessons on all the romantic stuff that girls like. I mean, where did you pick it up?"

Laughing, Link replied, "When you grow up surrounded by females, you figure out what women want. Here, I'll sum it up for you." He counted off on his fingers. "Don't repeat anything that results in getting slapped. Do repeat anything that results in getting kissed. Not to mention the fact that having 'world saviour' on your résumé is something of a plus, especially if you do something for her personally, like help her regain control of the ranch that rightfully belongs to her in the first place."

Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"And, if all else fails," Link added with a smile, "ask another girl for help."

"Like Hermione."

"Sure. But I suggest the fairy who lives in your hat."