Paid In Blood - REVISED (Originally by Zaterra02)

by FrostyTheDopeMan

An aged Dark Lord Harry Potter sends his soul and that of his most loyal friend back in time to prevent multiple tragedies. This time, he won't be forgiving everybody who wronged him. 4th Year AU. Zaterra02's fanfic, rewritten to correct grammar & language issues.

11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"What exactly do you mean by 'Voldemort made his move'?" asked Daphne.

With a sigh, Harry explained, "Dumbledore died while we were aboard the Express. We didn't even hear about it until the day after, when it was reported by Daily Prophet." Daphne's head was swirling as she considered the implications.

"How?" she asked, and Harry snorted.

"It was announced as natural causes, but we knew it was because of the Rotting Curse and the potion. What we didn't know was that he had some help from Snape, and all because of Malfoy."

"What do you mean?" asked Daphne.

"I mentioned that Malfoy was attempting to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts, but did you even wonder why?" he asked her, and she raised an eyebrow. "It was to help him kill Dumbledore. That was Malfoy's mission."

Daphne gaped at him for a moment, then replied, "You're joking." The whole idea seemed so farfetched.

"Oh, no, the idiot actually confessed later on," Harry replied with a snort. "His mummy and auntie dearest managed to convince Snape - who was also a Death Eater, by the way, although he spied for our side - to make an Unbreakable Vow that he would help Malfoy kill Dumbledore. It turned out that Dumbledore knew all along, and he actually begged Snape to kill him. The old bastard knew he wasn't going to live much longer anyway, so he figured Snape could help save Malfoy from himself while also solidifying his position as a spy," explained Harry.

"We didn't learn those details until much later, though," he added.

While Harry was speaking, Daphne couldn't help but notice the disgruntled look on his face whenever he mentioned Malfoy. "If you hate Malfoy so much, why do you even tolerate him?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Malfoy fancies himself a leader, but in reality, he's a spineless coward that hides behind his daddy's money and power," Harry snorted. "He's a little shit that doesn't even deserve my attention, let alone my respect."

"It's hard for me to disagree with you there," Daphne allowed.

"I've been tempted to make him cause his own death by breaking the oath from my first night as a Slytherin," Harry responded. "Why I haven't yet is beyond me. My only excuse is that I want to break him first. I'll make him see what a pathetic wizard and a person he really is, and then I'll crush him once and for all," he said, his eyes glinting.

"However, I do have more important things to deal with at the moment, so he'll have to wait his turn," he added, as an afterthought.

Daphne gave him a slight smirk and considered his words carefully.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about what happened to Lucius Malfoy, would you?" she asked, again raising her eyebrow. Harry sat back and examined his fingernails, considering his next words.

"The thing about that is, Dobby and I needed some equipment to start collecting the Horcruxes. One night, we decided to pay a visit an armour shop in Knockturn Alley, and who should we come across but dear old Lucy? He was rather inebriated at the time, so Dobby and I decided to help sober him up."

"Go on," Daphne said. She tried to give him a stern look, which was undermined by the obvious amusement in her voice.

"Dobby beat the crap out of him first, as payback for the horrific treatment he received when he served the Malfoys. After that, I may have…hypothetically…damaged his magical core?" he said, saying it more like a question, since he was a bit uncertain of how she would react.

Harry didn't have to worry though, because it didn't seem to bother Daphne at all. If anything, she was curious about what he did and how he did it.

"You can do that?" she asked.

"You can, but it takes time and power," he said. "We brought Lucius here, and I completed the ritual to damage his core, then Dobby took him back to the alley. Assuming I did everything right, he'll eventually wake up when his magic is fully drained, then he'll have to live as a squib with no memory of what happened to him."

"Of course, if I made a mistake with the ritual, then he might not wake up at all. I may have been in a hurry and forgotten to take all the proper precautions...oops," Harry added in mock concern.

Daphne was speechless for a few moments, before a few snickers escaped her.

"Fitting," she said.

"Nothing that he or his worthless son don't deserve," Harry snorted. "I completely despise Draco. I had to tolerate him for a time, but I never stopped hating him."

"I agree that both Malfoys are terrible, but for you it feels like there's something extra there, just like with Longbottom and Granger. There has to be more to it than that, so tell me what it is," Daphne demanded, her expression leaving no room for argument. Harry just looked at her in wonder, once again impressed by her perceptiveness.

"You're right, as always," he said with a small smile. "I never needed a reason to detest Malfoy, but he did end up doing things that made him irredeemable in my eye." Daphne just waved at him to continue.

"Lucius died in the war. As soon as Tom's victory was in doubt, Narcissa and Draco turned their backs on him. Between their 'change of heart' and a lot of gold, they managed to secure pardons for themselves and even help rehabilitate their image. He actually got married to a nice girl, and I was forced to be civil to him," Harry said, with a sigh of frustration.

"His wife had a complicated pregnancy with their second child, a daughter. They discovered that the baby had a damaged core, which meant she would in all likelihood be a squib, or at best a very weak witch. The bastard got drunk one night and killed their baby point blank with a Killing Curse. His wife actually ended up killing him for it and got herself sent to Azkaban. Their firstborn, a boy, was a total copy of Draco, and he hated his mother for killing his father. He ended up dying young, and he refused to speak to his mother even after she got out of Azkaban."

Daphne was horrified. "Do I even want to know more?" she asked, and Harry actually looked at her as if he was deciding whether or not to tell her.

"The marriage was a lie. She only got together with him because she'd been dosed with potions," Harry replied, looking at Daphne and seeing her disbelief. "The only reason she ever discovered it was because they wore off while she was in Azkaban. Once they did, she never once regretted killing the bastard, although she did, of course, regret being ensnared by the love potions."

Daphne suddenly felt a pang in her heart as she recalled the memory of their wedding.

"Tori?!" she exclaimed, not wanting to believe it. Harry nodded and held her close.

"I don't know much apart from what Tori told me years later, but she made him suffer. He..."

"Don't," she said, burying herself into his hug. "I'd rather not know for now," she said, almost begging him.

"That's fine, Daph."

She stayed in Harry's arms, processing everything he'd told her, when she suddenly became angry and pulled away from him. "Wait, he used potions on my sister? I'm going to kill him!"

"No, you won't," Harry said, regaining her attention. "I'm not saying we should let him live, but first he needs to suffer, and nothing will hurt him worse than to let him watch his power dwindle until he finally understands that he's nothing. When the time comes, I'll be the one to kill him. I owe it to Tori."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile, and then froze when she realized what he had said. "Wait, you don't mind killing?" she asked uneasily. Regardless of what she had just said, she wasn't sure that she could ever actually kill someone.

"I learned my lesson fighting the wars," Harry stated. "The Battle of the DOM was the turning point for me, after a fashion. Fighting the Death Eaters and watching them revive each other forced me to realise that in order to survive the war, I'd either have to kill or be killed." Harry looked into Daphne's eyes and asked her, "Wouldn't you, if you knew it was either you or them?"

A look of steely resolve slowly appeared on Daphne's face, and she looked back at Harry and gave him a determined nod. Harry smiled at her and reached up to caress her face.

"I know you would. You insisted on drilling that lesson into me during our fifth year. That's one of the reasons why I wasn't that injured at the DOM - I didn't hesitate. I still held back from killing back then, but like I said, I learned my lesson," he told her.

"What was the other reason?"

"That's easy, I wanted to get back to you. I needed to get back to you," he said sincerely, making her heart flutter. With a chuckle he added, "Dumbledore was right all along, love was the power he knew not," but more to himself than to her.

Daphne frowned slightly at the last part, not really understanding what he meant.

"Wait, did you say wars?" she asked, breaking the moment. "As in more than one?"

"Yeah, that's what I said," he sighed quietly. "There was the Second Wizarding War, also known as the Second Blood War, which is what they called Voldemort's second rise. Then there was the Third Wizarding War, which later became known as the Magic-Traitors War, and then the last one, the Culling, or Witching Wars," he listed, and Daphne stared at him with wide eyes.

"What... What does that all mean?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"I'll tell you, naturally, because it's all part of the story," he sighed, sounding slightly exasperated. "Let's get back to the original topic, all right?" Daphne agreed, but she wouldn't forget what he said. "Taken off topic because of Malfoy, this is priceless," he mumbled sarcastically, playing with her hair and making her giggle.

"Go on, then. What happened after Dumbledore's death?"

"I was at Durzkaban, as usual. I knew something was wrong when I suddenly got letters from you, Longbottom and Granger, the Order of the Phoenix, and the Weasleys all within minutes of each other. At your insistence, I had an emergency portkey with me that would take me to the Longbottom's. I packed everything I needed and took the portkey to Longbottom Hall, where you were already there waiting."

It was a harsh blow for everyone, but especially for our little group. We didn't attend the funeral for safety reasons, but I did get one last package from Dumbledore with some items he had bequeathed to me, Granger, and Weasley. Mine was the first snitch I ever caught, Granger got an original copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Weasley got the old man's Deluminator. He also gifted us his notes on the Horcruxes, along with clues about possible locations."

Noticing her puzzled look, he just shrugged. "I don't know what the old man was thinking," he said resignedly, and Daphne just scowled. "By then we were missing Hufflepuff's cup, Ravenclaw's diadem, his snake, and myself," Harry said, standing up and inviting Daphne to follow him. With a hiss of Parseltongue and a wave of his wand, he opened the sealed container, revealing its contents: a diadem, a locket, and an old sock. As she looked into the container, Daphne was overcome by the feelings of revulsion, of wrongness radiating from the box.

"Are those...?"

"Yeah, three of the bastard's Horcruxes," Harry replied. "I think the diadem would look good on you, but I don't think I'll let you try it on yet," he joked.

Daphne gave him a look, and with a grin he closed the box and they both went back to their chairs. After they sat back down, Harry didn't say anything for a while, seemingly lost in thought. Daphne waited patiently for a few minutes before deciding to get his attention.

"Harry?"

"Sorry, I just thinking about how best to tell you everything," he murmured.

"We laid low for the next several weeks. I stayed at Longbottom Hall for the remainder of the summer, but you and Granger visited often. The only other people who knew our location were Weasley and a few Order members. We spent most of our time planning out the best way to track down the remaining Horcruxes. We still needed to find the cup and the diadem, knowing that the snake would be with him."

"Voldemort and his Death Eaters conquered the Ministry in July. They didn't even have to do much; their people had been infiltrating it for years, and many of them had been in place since the first war. With Voldemort's supporters already entrenched in the Ministry and the Wizengamot, all it took to take over the entire country were a few key 'disappearances' and liberal use of the Imperious Curse."

Daphne couldn't believe it. "That's unbelievable!" she exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief. "You make it sound like nobody even put up a fight!"

"It's scary when you realise how fragile our way of life really is," Harry lamented. "The coup was virtually silent. Those who would resist were swiftly dealt with, and the rest just kept their heads down and tried to go about their lives."

"I was declared Undesirable Number One by the new regime and had a large bounty on my head, so I couldn't show my face in public. Those were really dark times. Then, around half July you told us you wanted to bring some of your friends into our group. The others initially rejected the idea because they were Slytherins, but I trusted your judgment more than anyone's. You set up a meeting with Tracey, Theo, and Millie, who were the friends most opposed to what was happening."

"What about Blaise?" asked Daphne with a frown. "He isn't one to be a bigot."

"He went away to Italy, I believe," Harry replied, and she nodded. "The plan was to meet them at the Leaky Cauldron and convince them to join us. I went with you so I could watch your back, but I stayed under my Invisibility Cloak at first," he recalled. "The meeting went well, and I can tell you that Theo earned my utmost respect that day."

"What did he do?" Daphne asked, and Harry smiled sadly and brought his wand to his temple. He removed a memory and placed it in the Pensieve, then extended his hand to Daphne.

They entered the Pensieve together, and Daphne saw her older self sitting in a room along with Millie, a sullen-looking Theo, and Tracey, who seemed to be distracted.

"We all know what is happening out there," memory Daphne said to the other three.

"What do you propose we do, then?" sighed Millie. "You know me, I'm not a blood supremacist, but we all know what will happen this year. There are rumours that Death Eaters will take over teaching positions at the school, and you know what that means for the muggleborns."

"If they're even allowed back at Hogwarts," supplied Tracey, who glanced over at Theo, who was sitting with his arms crossed.

With a sigh, memory Daphne tried again, "Look, you know I don't believe in pureblood supremacy, and I know none of you do either. What I'm suggesting won't be easy, but change has to start somewhere."

"So what, then? Are you suggesting we put our lives on the line against the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters?" Theo spat. "The four of us against a bunch of animals that show nothing but contempt for those they consider beneath him?"

Theo's tone was so cold and vicious that it made real Daphne shiver. She had known Theo for years, and she had never heard anything like that from him.

"Do you have any idea what they will do to you if they find out?" Theo added ominously. "What they will do to us, or to our families?"

"Theo, I know your father is a Death Eater..." Daphne started, but she was quickly cut off by Theo.

"Don't you dare mention that bastard in my presence again!" he shouted, leaping out of his chair. Tracey stood up and tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and moved over to the window overlooking Diagon Alley. Tracey's face took on a pained expression, and she went to him and hugged him from behind, crying softly. Theo turned around and embraced her, and they both held each other in silence while Daphne and Millie exchanged looks.

"Tracey, Theo… What happened?" asked Millie, and Tracey just sobbed and buried her face more deeply into Theo's chest.

"Two days ago, Tracey was at my house... and my father came home from a meeting, drunk." Theo hesitated, then held his girlfriend a little tighter before continuing. "He tried to rape her while I was using the toilet," he grimly revealed, and Tracey started shivering.

"I heard her screaming and ran back to her, only to find the fucker already on top of her, trying to push her skirt up. I pulled him off of her, but... He started ranting about me. How I embarrassed him by 'cavorting around' with half-blood whores instead of proper purebloods, and how his friends mocked him and constantly asked when I was to take my place among Them," Theo spat the last word in anger, making it clear about whom he was speaking.

Theo was trembling with anger and holding on to Tracey for support. "He ordered me to rape Tracey in front of him. He said if I didn't, then he would, and that she was useful for nothing more than pleasing her betters." He scoffed in disgust while Tracey buried herself further into his hug.

"I Crucio'd him," Theo admitted, making the others gasp in shock. "I don't know what happened, I just snapped and couldn't take it anymore. I hated him. Always calling me a bastard, an embarrassment, a failure, beating me for..." Theo hesitated and looked softly at Tracey.

"All that I could deal with, but having him do that, to Tracey..." Theo hesitated again. "I had him under the Cruciatus Curse for over thirty seconds, and the bastard actually laughed at me. He called me a failure and a disappointment, again, because my Crucio had nothing on the Dark Lord's. He actually got up and ordered me to move away, saying that he would take care of the half-blood bitch by himself if I wouldn't, and that he and I would be having a proper discussion later about me being a man and doing my duty by taking the Mark."

Theo scoffed again, still trembling in anger. "I hit him with a Reducto in both knees, vanished the bones in his wand arm, cast another Cruciatus, and the fucker was still laughing at me. He kept calling me a failure and a blood traitor, all while he was on the ground bleeding and spitting blood. I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take anymore of him, and I... I didn't cast the Avada, I... I cast a Diffindo across his neck, and then it was my turn to laugh as his precious pure blood poured from his throat."

Memory Daphne and Millie just stared at him in stunned silence.

"Once he was done bleeding out, I vanished his body, and it was all over," Theo revealed, starting to break down. "Merlin, Trace, I'm so sorry," he begged in a whisper.

"It wasn't your fault," she sobbed. "You saved me! You have nothing to be sorry for!"

"I don't regret killing him," Theo declared to the room, looking directly at memory Daphne. "Do you understand? They only respect you if you're on their side. If not, you're nothing to them. To them you're nothing but a blood traitor, and they believe it's their Merlin-given mission to put you in your place, and they will rape, torture, or kill you just for their amusement," he spat in anger.

Memory Daphne nodded.

"I'm fully aware of what I am getting myself into, Theo," Daphne replied with a glare. "I don't want to live in a world like this," she stated. "Do you?"

"No, but I have my own priorities," Theo snapped, glaring at the blonde. "I have to lay low until September, and then I have to protect Tracey from them. The only way for me to do that is to go to Hogwarts and stay with her at all times. I don't have time to protect people who are meaningless to me."

"Theo, please," Tracey whispered, and Theo looked at her.

"No, I've had it! I don't give a fuck anymore. Not about the old bastard who called himself my father, not about this country or its people, the Dark Lord, or Potter. All I care about is you, and I can do that far away from here. I'd leave now if we could, but that would only make us targets. After this seventh year is done, I'm taking you away for good. We'll find somewhere we can be free and safe, away from all this shite."

The three girls gasped at Theo's declaration, and real Daphne was stunned. She'd never seen this side of him before. She looked over at Harry, intending to say something about it, but he was still focused on the memory and looking at Theo with no small amount of respect, so she chose to remain silent and turned back to the conversation.

"Theo, I..." Tracey started slowly, with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to run away."

"What? Why?" he asked, although he already knew the answer.

"This is my home," she cried, "and I don't want to be forced to leave it by a bunch of arseholes. I want to stay and help in whatever way I can." Theo sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration, but memory Daphne smiled softly at her friend's devotion to her home.

"Yeah, I'm not too fond of the idea of living in a society like the one rising in our country," Millie agreed, glancing at Daphne and giving her a nod. Millie wasn't one for making speeches, but she was outraged by Theo and Tracey's story. She knew she wouldn't have anyone to save her if she ever got into a similar situation, and she decided to actually do something about it, even if it meant ignoring her own self-preservation instincts.

Theo sighed and looked down at the floor.

"Theo, I love you, I really do, and I wouldn't say no to being with you forever, but I... I need to do this. I need to help. I want you to stay with me, but I won't ask you to do this," Tracey said, looking down as her tears fell to the ground.

"I'm not a hero," Theo replied, looking up at Tracey.

"You're MY hero," she whispered hopefully, and he sighed again.

"I don't give a fuck about cowards who can't help themselves and allow THEM to just round them up for slaughter," he said again with a sneer. Tracey nodded sadly, and a tear ran down each of her cheeks. She kissed him softly on his lips and left his embrace, turning her back to him.

"I understand, Theo," she said again, and walked away from him.

"I don't care about them...but I care about you," he said, and she turned back to him expectantly. "If you really think I'm letting you do this without me, you're sadly mistaken. You mean more to me than you even realise." Tracey jumped into his arms and kissed him passionately, while Daphne smiled, and Millie blushed.

Once they separated, he rested his forehead against hers and added, "And I'll kill anyone that tries to hurt you, no matter what."

"I can honestly say I have no objections to that," a disembodied voice announced, one that real Daphne recognised as Harry's. He emerged from under his Invisibility Cloak and materialised next to memory Daphne.

"Potter?" Millie gasped, and Theo drew his wand and pointed it at Harry, who responded in kind.

"Daphne, what the hell?" asked Tracey, looking back and forth from Harry to Daphne.

"Harry Potter, meet Millicent Bulstrode, Tracey Davis, and Theodore Nott, Jr.," she said, gesturing to each one in turn. "Everyone, this, as you know, is Harry Potter, who also happens to be my boyfriend since the end of fifth year." The girls' jaws dropped, but Theo never took his eyes off Harry, both of them still pointing their wands at the other.

"Boys, put your wands away," sighed Daphne, lowering Harry's arm with her hand while Tracey did the same with Theo's. "We're supposed to be allies."

"Allies who spy on each other?" Theo asked with a glare.

"How else was I to ensure my girlfriend's safety?" Harry responded with a shrug. Theo looked at him suspiciously, but at the same time seemed to understand. The two continued to stare each other down, when Harry spoke again.

"I can't promise you that she'll be safe. Our world isn't a very safe place at the moment. As much as it pains me to admit it, I can't even guarantee Daphne's safety, but what I can promise is that we will stand together. We will watch each other's backs, and we will do whatever it takes to protect one another."

"And if you need to kill?" Theo asked in a cold voice. Harry looked at him appraisingly.

"They offer no mercy. Why should I?" Harry responded in an equally cold tone, which seemed to surprise everyone but memory Daphne.

"You're not what I expected, Potter," Theo said with a nod.

"You know nothing about me, Nott," Harry replied. "Tom has been intent on killing me since before I was born. I want to live and have a family of my own, preferably with the hot blonde next to me... damn woman, that hurts," Harry complained after an elbow to the ribs from a smirking Daphne, while the other girls snorted.

Memory Harry turned and looked into Daphne's blue eyes. "If I'm ever going to live the life I want, I have to win, and in order to win, I have to be willing to do whatever it takes to succeed." He turned to Theo again and their eyes met, and in that moment an alliance was made. "Can I count on you?"

Theo looked first to Millie, then to Daphne, who were both looking back at him expectantly. Theo felt Tracey's hand intertwine with his, and he knew his answer.

"This better be worth it, Potter," Theo replied.

The memory ended, and the pair found themselves back in the Chamber. Daphne was still trying to process everything she'd seen in the Pensieve.

"I knew Theo's father was abusive, but I never expected that..." she mumbled, and Harry nodded.

"Turns out Theo and I have a lot in common," he replied. Daphne looked back at him expectantly, but all Harry would say was, "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything more than that. It's his tale to tell, not mine, and I won't betray my brother's trust."

Daphne raised an eyebrow.

"Your brother?" she asked in surprise, and Harry nodded.

"Theo and I became good friends in my past life, and he stood by me until the end," Harry supplied with a smile. "Everything we went through forged a bond between us, and in time I came to see him as family."

"I see," Daphne replied, sitting down in her chair and thinking about what she had seen. "What about Blaise?"

Harry smirked.

"Well, Blaise ended up coming back to Britain, and he finally asked Millie out the moment he saw her. He said something about getting his courage together, or something like that. Mind you, he was spluttering so incoherently that he had to repeat everything five times before she even understood what he was asking her. Once they started dating, she asked him to join your group, and he agreed."

"What do you mean my group?" asked Daphne.

"Theo, Tracey, and Millie gave an oath not to talk about our meeting with anyone else, unless they had your permission. After that, the four of you all started planning what to do in Slytherin that year. We dorks were kept out of the loop, and you were the only one who went to our meetings about the Horcruxes."

"Why? You didn't trust the snakes?" she asked with a glare.

"No, Daph, I trusted you above anyone, and by then I already respected Theo. It had nothing to do with that," replied Harry with a sigh. "It's called compartmentalisation. Having multiple people with knowledge of the Horcruxes living in the castle with a known Legilimens was too dangerous, and your mission in Slytherin was too important to risk. You know damn well that Slytherin is a focal point at Hogwarts, and keeping the house under control was the best way to protect the students." Daphne thought about Harry's words and couldn't find any fault with them.

"Fine, what else then?" she said, moving on.

"Well, there was a wedding. Fleur's wedding, actually," Harry said, which got Daphne's attention. "You didn't attend, and I was there under Polyjuice. Death Eaters crashed the reception, and I had to make a quick getaway back to Longbottom Hall. Nothing really serious happened, the Death Eaters just made a mess of the place and questioned some of the guests. They assumed I must be there since I was close to the bride and groom, so they just appeared and demanded Harry Potter be handed over to them."

"Who did she marry, then?" Daphne asked casually, remembering what he told her earlier about his fallout with Delacour after her husband's death. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Harry Potter's future self was somehow involved, and the fact that he tried to hide it from her meant it was personal to Harry.

"Bill Weasley," Harry replied, continuing on with his story. He didn't notice his blonde companion's eyes grow wide at the name, or the fact that she was no longer listening.

"Weasley…Weaselette?" she wondered to herself, while Harry was saying something about the Horcruxes. "So, the Veela's husband died avenging Weaselette, who was an accomplice to a murder?"

"Daph, are you alright?" Harry asked, and Daphne snapped out of her reverie and looked at him.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she asked, and Harry looked back at her quizzically, not understanding the question. "It was you who killed Weaselette and her brothers, which explains why Delacour became 'less than polite' to you, as you so put it," she stated, crossing her arms defiantly and staring intently at him.

Harry sighed.

"Daph, I..."

"Look, Harry, I like you," she said, resisting a blush. "I like you a lot, and as you're telling me these stories, I find myself liking you more and more... and I just realised I sounded exactly like a fangirl," she mumbled in embarrassment, making Harry smirk as she recentred herself. "The story you're telling me is truly incredible, but I do believe you. I'm also starting to hope that I can one day become the woman I saw in your memories, and I'm sure that you want that too, or else you wouldn't be wasting your time on me."

"Daph, I..." he tried, only to be interrupted again.

"I'm grateful, Harry, I really am. Grateful that you trusted me so much in your past, and for all the time you spent helping me. I'm grateful that we fell in love, and..." she said, her eyes suddenly watering, prompting Harry to get up and take her hand. "Grateful that you're doing it all again, that you came back just to be with me again. I-I want to trust you, Harry," she said, a tear falling from her eye, "But you can't hide things from me, please. You said it yourself; you told me everything in our future."

"I am telling you everything, Daph," he insisted, and she slowly nodded.

"Then why did you hide that you were the one who killed Delacour's husband? That you were the one who killed his sister, who was an accomplice to a murder?"

Harry looked at her calmly and asked, "Does it make a difference if I was the one who killed her?"

"No," she answered, shaking her head. "And I believe you already know that. I am a pureblood, and I was raised to understand the laws regarding bloodrights and honour duels. I understand that people have to protect themselves and their families, and sometimes that means other people have to die."

"Your grandfather and your grandmother," he said.

"Yes, my grandfather, who died from a Death Eater's Gouging Curse during an attack, and my grandmother, who died trying to take as many of the bastards as she could with her," she confirmed. "I never met them, but I learned from their deaths. I learned to stand up for what I believe in and protect the ones I love."

"You told me about them," Harry replied. "And trust me, I agreed with you," he added, and she gave him a soft smile, which he returned.

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to scare you," he admitted, kissing her hand. She sighed.

"I don't see the point, seeing as how you're going to end up telling me about how she killed me anyway," she replied defiantly.

He looked up in astonishment. "I should have suspected that you'd already made the connection," he grumbled, shaking his head.

"It wasn't that difficult," she replied. "I want to know."

"I can tell you now, or you can wait a little longer and hear where it fits with the rest of the story. It's your choice," Harry replied, brushing a strand of blonde hair away from her face. "It doesn't matter either way, because I am going to prevent it from happening. I told you that I wanted you to fall in love with me, marry me, and live happily ever after. In order to have that, I need you to trust me and accept me for who I am, so I won't hold anything back."

"I'm starting to want that too," she thought to herself, sighing.

"I was happy, wasn't I?" she asked, and he nodded.

"I like to think so, at least you never gave me any reason to think that you weren't," he replied with a sad look, and she smiled back at him and caressed his face.

"I want it," she whispered to him. "I'd accept you after what you've told me without a second thought." She kissed him softly, smiling at how right it felt. "Keep going with your story, and tell me everything," she told him softly, and he nodded.

"We were making plans for what we were going to do once the summer was over, and we had a huge fight about it. There was no way I could go to Hogwarts, and you wanted to stay with me. I thought it would be safer if you went back to school, where you would be protected by your blood status, plus I wanted someone I could trust on the inside."

"We eventually managed to reach an agreement, though you weren't thrilled with it. You would go back to Hogwarts, along with Longbottom, Theo, Tracey, Millie, and Blaise, and work from the inside. Granger and Weasley would stay with me and work on finding the other Horcruxes. We had our bracelets so we could stay in contact, and I also gave you the Marauder's Map."

"That's the map of Hogwarts you showed me a couple of weeks ago, right? The one that was a relic from your father and uncles?" she asked, and he nodded fondly.

"Yeah, that's the one. We had to travel light, and I had no use for it outside of school. I even released Hedwig to the wilds, but she seemed to have stick around Longbottom Hall for a long time."

"You released Hedwig? Why?" asked Daphne, curious.

"Snowy owl. Too flashy, and too many people associated her with me," Harry replied, and Daphne understood his reasoning. "She hated it, of course, but she forgave us after we gave her some bacon," he added with a smirk.

"I can't tell you how much it sucked to be away from you," he continued. "I don't know everything that went on, but what I can tell you is that your plan worked, and your group held most of the power in Slytherin. You managed to coordinate a resistance of sorts to the Death Eaters, and even aided the other resistance group the DA had formed, although they didn't know it. What surprised me the most was that even Pansy, Greg, and Vince joined you for the final battle." Daphne flinched.

"That all sounds rather ominous," she admitted, and he looked back at her sadly for a moment before resuming the story. He went on to tell her how they stayed hidden in the country, but had no luck finding the remaining Horcruxes. They knew Hufflepuff's cup was last seen with Hepzibah Smith, but it had disappeared after her death, and the only other known founder's artefact was Ravenclaw's diadem, which had been lost for over a thousand years. Aside from Dumbledore's sparse notes, they had very little to go on.

Harry told her how Weasley had thrown a tantrum and deserted them, leaving them alone in the middle of nowhere. Granger stayed with him, which led to some bonding between them and the healing of some old wounds. Daphne listened to this apprehensively, fearing some kind of reconnection between the two, but she needn't have worried.

"No, nothing happened, Daph. I loved you too much to do anything that would jeopardise my relationship with you. I can even swear it if you want," he said, but Daphne shook her head. "Besides, we spoke every night through our bracelets, and I told you everything. In fact, Granger also had her own way of communicating with Longbottom."

"Then, something amazing happened," said Harry, pausing to smile at Daphne, who impatiently waved for him to continue.

"You sent me a message."

"And how amazing could a message possibly be?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How about 'Spoke with the Grey Lady. She's Ravenclaw's daughter and she helped me retrieve the diadem from the ROR, where Tom left it. Diadem destroyed with venom', or something like that, at least..."

Daphne's eyebrows shot up and her mouth dropped wide open, while Harry just sat there smiling at her. "You did it, all by yourself."

"But... How?"

Harry shrugged. "You were smart and cunning, as usual. You were researching the diadem and approached the Grey Lady for help, since she was the ghost of Ravenclaw tower. You somehow got her to admit that she was actually Rowena's daughter, Helena, and that she had stolen the diadem and fled with it to Albania, where she was murdered by the Bloody Baron. The diadem remained hidden for centuries, until Riddle manipulated her into trusting him and giving him the location. After defiling it, he brought the diadem back the school and hid it in the Room of Requirement."

"I... I see," Daphne replied, somewhat in awe of herself and beaming at the praise he had given her.

Daphne kept listening as Harry told her about how Weasley used Dumbledore's Deluminator to come back to them and ask their forgiveness, and how that led to them finding the sword of Gryffindor. She was fascinated to learn that Goblin-made blades absorbed substances that strengthened them, meaning Harry had accidentally imbued Gryffindor's sword with basilisk venom in his second year, making it capable of destroying Horcruxes.

She heard how they were captured by Voldemort's minions after breaking the taboo of the Dark Lord's name and taken to Malfoy Manor, where Granger was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange. That was when Draco Malfoy had told them about his mission to kill Dumbledore, and how Snape had killed the old man because he had made an Unbreakable Vow to help Draco.

"Up until then, we had assumed Dumbledore had succumbed to the curse on his hand. I was absolutely furious at Snape's betrayal, and I vowed to kill him myself," Harry said angrily. "We learned later on that it was all part of Dumbledore's plan, but that didn't make me any less angry. Old git and his bloody secrets," he muttered, before picking up the story again.

Harry described being tossed into the dungeon with the other prisoners, which included Mr. Ollivander, a goblin named Griphook, Luna Lovegood and her father, along with a few others, and how they were all rescued by none other than Dobby himself. Being the Malfoy's former house-elf, he was tasked to spy on the house by 'Old Headmaster Whiskers's Brother', who happened to be Aberforth Dumbledore, the owner of the Hog's Head. Dobby had helped them all escape, but he was critically injured by Bellatrix Lestrange while apparating them all to safety.

Daphne looked over at the elf, who popped in and was standing by his master like a valet. When he got to that part of the story, Harry placed his hand on the elf's shoulder.

"I was dying, Mistress," Dobby said in a low voice. "Master Harry remembered some of the lessons you had given him about my kind, and he pushed his magic into me to try to help me. He succeeded in feeding my magic enough to save my life, but that caused our magics to bind us together, and from that moment on I became a Potter house-elf. I didn't say anything at the time, because I didn't want the bushy-haired bitch to start raving about house-elf slavery."

"Was it then, when you became...?" asked Daphne, gesturing to his changed body, but Dobby shook his head. "That may have been the beginning, my real change occurred many years later, after we made an oath of loyalty and friendship. We made a pact, and my magic fed from my master's, changing me into what you see now - a wiser, more powerful Dobby."

"We will also cover that later on," Harry commented with a dark chuckle, and Dobby stood up straighter, losing his smile.

"I was loyal to the family, and Master Harry saw me as more of a friend than a servant. So did you, actually," the elf said, and Daphne nodded.

"What happened next?"

"Granger suspected there was a Horcrux in the Lestrange vault, based on some of the things Bellatrix said while we were at Malfoy Manor. We needed to move fast, and with no other options we decided to break into Gringotts." Daphne paled. Not only was that incredibly dangerous, but it was also incredibly stupid.

"Come again?" she demanded, rising slowly from her chair with a fierce look.

"We made a deal with the goblin we rescued to let us to enter Lestrange vault," he said quickly, trying to head off the anger that usually came with that look.

"How?" she asked, sitting back down, her expression changing to one of curiosity. Harry sighed in relief and exchanged looks with Dobby, who actually started laughing at him.

"What do you know of goblin law?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she replied.

"As it turns out, Gryffindor's sword was considered an heirloom of the Goblin Nation. We knew the sword was goblin-made, of course, but they alleged that the sword was stolen from a goblin king, and they wanted it back. I made a deal promising Griphook the sword and a significant quantity of galleons in exchange for his help destroying the Horcrux in Lestrange's vault. That, and an oath to keep our deal secret."

"How many galleons?" asked Daphne.

"Ten thousand," replied Harry.

"TEN THOUSAND GALLEONS?!" she shouted, and he just nodded and shrugged.

"I made that back with a couple of investments. As an added bonus, Griphook was declared a hero to the Goblin Nation for obtaining the sword, and was grateful enough that he provided us with some inside information to help increase my revenue. It was a win-win situation for both of us."

Daphne was still appalled, but Harry just chuckled and continued on.

"Granger used Polyjuice to look like Bellatrix, we transfigured Weasley to look like some foreign wizard, and I went under my Invisibility Cloak. We met Griphook in the atrium, and he brought us down to the Lestrange vault and opened the door. I identified the Horcrux and dropped a vial of basilisk venom on it, then we came back up to the surface. I handed Griphook the sword and a sackful of galleons, and we never spoke about it again."

"It was that simple?" asked Daphne, and Harry nodded.

"I know it seems hard to believe, but it's true. I did have to promise not to steal anything, of course, and we didn't. Aside from us, no one ever knew. There was no spell fire, no epic battle, and no stealing of dragons... only a successful stealth mission."

Daphne frowned.

"You infiltrated Gringotts, entered a vault that wasn't yours with a goblin's help - after bribing him with a huge sum, by the way – and you say that like it was nothing?" she replied, shaking her head in partial amusement.

"Nothing compared to what happened later," Harry thought.

"Then what? With the diadem and the cup destroyed, only you and the snake remained. What then? How did you even discover the one in your scar, by the way?" asked Daphne, her voice a mix of excitement and apprehension.

"After we destroyed the cup, we decided to come to Hogwarts. We figured our best chance to take out both the snake and Tom was to lure him into a trap, and we knew we had allies in the school. The plan was to get inside the school and take out all the Death Eaters, and then Voldemort would have no choice but to show up to quell the rebellion."

"Bold plan," Daphne pronounced, and he nodded.

"It was the only one we had," Harry replied, looking at her gravely. "I coordinated everything with you. We arrived at Hogsmeade the evening of April twenty-ninth and met up with Aberforth Dumbledore at the Hog's Head. We spent the night at his house, and he helped us infiltrate Hogwarts the following afternoon, using a secret passage between his pub and the dock house. We came out of the passageway and Longbottom was there waiting for us."

Him and Granger had a moment, and then he brought us to the Room of Requirement to meet up with the rest of the DA. Of course, the only person I wanted to see wasn't there," Harry said, smiling softly at Daphne. "You and your group had the junior Death Eaters mostly under control, which really only left Snape and the Carrow twins to contend with. I was really looking forward to getting my hands on Snape."

"What did you do?" asked Daphne, getting more anxious the longer the story went on.

"The DA put itself under my command, and our first objective was to neutralise the Carrows. I wanted to see you first, so while the others were preparing I sent you a message, and we met at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. All I'll say is that we were both very happy to see each other alive and well," he said with a grin, which Daphne returned while fighting a blush.

"You were updating me on everything that was going on, but then Myrtle showed up and started wailing. We hid under the Cloak and waited, and as luck would have it, both Carrows showed up to deal with the racket," Harry chuckled darkly. "They didn't survive point blank Reductos to the face." Daphne gulped but nodded in approval.

"We got a message to the DA about the Carrows, and told everyone meet us at the Great Hall doors in fifteen minutes. After a quick kiss you left to go rally the Slytherins, and I made my way to the Great Hall under the Cloak."

"What was the plan, then?" asked Daphne again.

"It was right around dinner time, so we figured everyone would be together in the Great Hall. You and your group would deal with the junior Death Eaters, and we'd storm the Great Hall and capture Snape, who was the only adult Death Eater left." Daphne nodded, starting to fidget.

"It worked almost perfectly," Harry scowled, rubbing his forehead.

"What happened?" she asked softly, getting up from her seat and walking over to him.

"As soon as we entered the Great Hall, you and the others - including Pansy, surprisingly - stunned all the junior Death Eaters."

"Pansy is not that bad," Daphne admonished, and Harry held his hands up and nodded.

"I know that now," he defended, "But the last time I saw her she was still on Team Draco, so it threw me for a loop."

"We were closing in on Snape, and he immediately surrendered when he realised what was happening," he continued. "It was my chance to pay him back for killing Dumbledore, but before we could do anything, McGonagall and the other heads of house came to his aid."

"What?" asked a shocked Daphne, not knowing what else to say.

"That was when we learned it was all Dumbledore's plan. He orchestrated his own murder to help Malfoy and secure Snape's place as a spy. He'd also predicted that Snape would be named headmaster, which would allow him to mitigate the damage done by the Death Eaters and protect the students. Snape also relayed information to Aberforth to help me with my quest and played a part in us finding the sword of Gryffindor."

"Wow," was all Daphne could say, and then they sat in silence for a while.

"Yeah… Apparently, he had told McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick all about it at the beginning of the year. Imagine our surprise when McGonagall revealed she knew about everything, told us she was very proud of us, and then gave everyone house points," scoffed Harry.

"I was livid. I was tired of being jerked around. I was angry at Dumbledore for withholding critical information, again. I was angry at Snape for going along with it, and I was angry with the other professors for their inaction, and for patronising us with their platitudes and their house points. McGonagall was thrown off by my reaction, but still called me, Granger, and Weasley into a meeting. We went, but I took you with me, and Longbottom came along too."

Harry chuckled, "Can you imagine the looks on everyone's faces when I kissed you in public that first time?"

"Would you show me?" Daphne asked softly. He shot her a smile and nodded, extracting a memory with his wand. They dropped into the Pensieve, and suddenly they were in the Great Hall, standing between the staff table and memory Harry, who was surrounded by several students from the DA.

"Fine, you'll have your meeting, but I want answers," Harry snarled, and McGonagall gulped. Memory Harry turned his back on the staff and spoke directly to the DA, "Nev, send word to Aberforth to call all the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix. We will need all the help we can get to defend the castle. This is for all of you as well. If you have friends or family that can and wish to join us, please, contact them in whatever way you can. We will need every able wand against the Dark Lord when he comes for us."

"What makes you think we would help you, Potter?" called a voice from the Ravenclaw table.

"Leave, if you want," Harry replied coldly, leaving no room for argument. No one else said a thing. "Madam Pomfrey can coordinate the evacuation of the younger students with Abe."

"And what makes you think you are entitled to order anyone around, Potter?" Snape sneered, clearly intent on berating him.

"Your predecessor's training, Death Eater. The man you killed, remember him?" Harry growled, making several people gasp and others nod in agreement. "Now, Hermione, Ron, Neville, come with me," memory Harry said, turning and walking to the Slytherin table.

"Potter, where are you going?" asked McGonagall, seeing him going the wrong direction.

"Hey guys, great job," Harry said, ignoring McGonagall and acknowledging the whole house, surprising the Slytherins with his appreciative words and attitude. He walked straight to memory Daphne, pulled her to him, and kissed her soundly, right in front of everyone.

Gasps rang out around the hall, while Ginny Weasley shrieked, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Memory Harry and Daphne ignored them all, the latter now with her arms around Harry's neck and enthusiastically returning his kiss.

"You foolish Gryffindor. If that wasn't a move to demonstrate your superiority and leadership, then I don't know what is," real Daphne said with a smile, and they both chuckled. "But I forgive you," she added with a wink.

"Come along, I'll need your help dealing with that," Harry said, pointing to the professors. Daphne lost the smile and nodded to Harry. Harry looked back to the Slytherins and saw that Nott, Davis, Bulstrode, and Zabini were all snickering, but almost all the others were blankly staring at him and Daphne. Astoria Greengrass was doing her best impression of a fish, wanting to say something, but completely lost for words.

"Ladies, gents... It's a pleasure to see you again," Harry said, approaching his Slytherin allies. "Great job, by the way."

"Glad to have you back, Potter," replied Nott. "Your girlfriend had been almost unbearable since you told her you were coming back," he added with a smirk.

The six laughed together, which was the only sound in the room until a very excited Astoria Greengrass shouted 'WHAT?!' so loudly that Daphne flinched. Her sister would no doubt be clamouring for all the juicy details. She wasn't the only one demanding answers either, the most vocal being a certain redheaded Gryffindor girl.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR GIRLFRIEND?"

With a wink, Harry climbed on the table and reached for Daphne's hand, which she gave him with an exaggerated sigh. In actuality, she knew exactly what he was planning to do and found it amusing, so she played along.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to explain..." Harry said, holding a smiling Daphne at his side. "This lovely woman, who you all know and fear, is Daphne Greengrass. What you didn't know is that she has been my girlfriend for almost two years. She is my partner in all things, and I trust her above all others," he declared, eliciting shouts of either anger, joy, disbelief, or some combination of the three.

"HOW COULD YOU? SHE'S NOTHING BUT A SLIMY SNAKE!" shouted Ginny Weasley, making everyone in the hall turn to look at her. Some of her fellow Gryffindors seemed to mirror her opinion, but most of the others found her outburst rather pitiful. Harry and Daphne just glared icily at the redhead, a look of distaste on both of their faces.

"For your information, Weasley, snakes aren't slimy at all," Harry answered with a cold look, making Daphne snort. "And yes, she's a proud snake, one of the greatest in her house. She's the one who inspired her housemates to stand with us today," Harry proclaimed. He looked around at those dressed in Slytherin robes, and he could see how much they appreciated him recognising their contribution. Many of them seemed to be completely in awe of him and Daphne, particularly the younger students.

Harry did a double take when he noticed Pansy Parkinson standing among the conscious Slytherins, looking at the two of them in total disbelief.

"And you know what?" he continued, "I love her with all that I am." Daphne rolled her eyes at his public declaration, but she didn't even try to hide the huge smile on her face. She tilted her head up and kissed Harry softly on the lips, caressing his cheek with her thumb.

"Enough with the speeches, there's a meeting to go to," she reminded him, and they climbed down from the table and walked towards the professors hand in hand.

Real Daphne couldn't keep the smile off her face during the memory, especially when Harry stood up and declared his love for her in front of everyone. She took a glance at the Slytherin table and saw Tracey cuddling into Theo's side and Millie leaning on Blaise. Her sister was practically bouncing up and down in her seat, talking animatedly to her friends. Daphne had no doubt that she and Harry were the topic of Tori's conversation. She looked around the hall and saw Weaselette fuming. She hadn't taken her eyes off of memory Harry and Daphne, she just kept glowering at them with a look of complete disgust on her face. Her brother also looked disgruntled, but he was hiding it slightly better than his sister was.

Some of the other dork girls were glaring at them too, but most of the others in the hall seemed just surprised or confused, talking amongst themselves about the revelation. Daphne found it amusing that she and Harry had delivered such a shock, that nearly everyone seemed to momentarily forget that they were in the middle of a war.

The memory ended and Harry and Daphne found themselves back in the Chamber's living quarters.

"Well, that was fun," she said with a soft smile, and Harry actually laughed.

"Yeah..." he said, giving her a soft smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked, having noticed his faraway expression.

"I'm thinking about how to tell you the next part," Harry said, sitting back in his chair with a pensive look. Daphne's amusement quickly faded, and she sat down next to him, looking at him intently.

"Promise me you won't curse me? At least not badly?" he requested. His face still held a stony expression, and she could tell that whatever was she was about to learn was going to be very serious.

"No," she replied, and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he said with a snort, and he took hold of her hand and started absentmindedly caressing the back with his thumb.

"According to Snape, Riddle was looking for the Elder Wand. He already knew that Dumbledore had been its previous master, and he suspected that he had hidden it somewhere in Hogwarts."

"But you had it, didn't you?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"No, I didn't have it. You did," he confessed, and Daphne's eyes widened in surprise. "We talked about it, and we decided that you should keep it safe. We were mostly afraid of what could happen if someone took it from me while I was on the Horcrux hunt," he explained, shaking his head. "You kept it in your trunk, and we were the only two who knew about it. Even if someone was searching for it, like Voldemort, who would think to look for it there?"

"Of course, we denied all knowledge of the Elder Wand to Snape, who didn't believe us one bit. He tried to use Legilimency on me, and I have to admit I took extreme pleasure in punching him in his greasy, hooked nose," Harry gloated.

"You approved, as well," he added with a wink. Daphne vaguely nodded, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she kept the most legendary wand in history in her school trunk.

"You punched him?" she asked, catching up with the conversation.

"Broke his nose, too," Harry replied with a smile. "After I got an earful from McGonagall and Granger, we all calmed down and discussed our next steps. We decided to lure Voldemort to Hogwarts while we held what little advantage we had. Snape summoned him with his Dark Mark and requested backup, telling him I was at Hogwarts inciting a student rebellion. He then left and went to join Voldemort so he could keep up his disguise a little longer."

"So?" asked Daphne, spurring him to continue.

"Reinforcements for our side arrived, mostly the Order of the Phoenix and some trustworthy Aurors. The students that supported Riddle were locked in the dungeons, and we waited around making our final preparations. It was around nine o'clock when the wards reported the first arrivals," Harry explained.

"Death Eaters and Snatchers engaged in a frontal assault, but there was no sign of Voldemort yet. We managed to repel them, but we lost several people, including my uncle Moony. He threw himself in front of a Killing Curse to save his wife. She took Remus's death badly…very badly. She completely lost herself in her despair and threw herself into the battle, and she ended up dead the same night. They left behind a small child, Teddy, who at that point was only a couple months old." Daphne saw the pain in Harry's eyes and tried to comfort him as best she could.

"When the first battle was over, Voldemort sent us all a message saying he would enter the fray and kill us all, unless I surrendered myself to him before midnight. The message was ignored, and we kept preparing for the next skirmish and tending to our dead. Seeing my uncle and his wife lying dead side-by-side was hard for me, but you helped."

That's when McGonagall approached me with a vial of Snape's memories, which she said had very important information from Dumbledore, and that I needed to view them as soon as possible," Harry snarled, making Daphne narrow her eyebrows suspiciously.

"Believing it was something important that would help us win, we rallied the group and went to the headmaster's office," Harry explained with a sigh. "The delegation included us, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Theo and Tracey, Blaise and Millie, and Granger and Longbottom. Weasley was off doing something else, I'm not sure what."

"I brought you into the Pensieve with me, but no one else. Basically, it was a memory of Dumbledore and Snape talking. I discovered several things by watching that memory, the first being that Snape was the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy that set him on my family. Apparently, he had been in love with my mother since they were children. Once Snape found out who his master believed the prophecy referred to, he begged him to spare my mother's life. I guess he didn't trust Riddle, so he went to Dumbledore and asked him to protect all of us."

Harry snorted to himself, staring at the ground. "His Patronus was even a doe, which was supposed to represent my mother, I suppose. My father was a stag, after all. That wasn't the important part, though…"

"The kicker was when Dumbledore revealed that I was a Horcrux, that a piece of Voldemort's soul had attached itself to my scar. He was very clear that in order to kill Voldemort permanently, it was essential that Tom killed me by his own hand, as that was the only way to ensure that the piece of soul inside my scar was destroyed," Harry divulged, still playing with Daphne's hand.

Daphne froze. She was terrified for a moment, and she had to remind herself that this Harry had already safely removed the Horcrux from his scar. She was still horrified that he had been put into that situation at all. "Why?" was all she could say.

"As usual, Dumbledore spoke in riddles..." Harry said, shrugging. "It was sort of a plan for my survival, but I don't think he was really sure it would work."

"But...but...how?" she questioned. Harry gave her a half smile and drew his wand, pulling a memory from his head and dropping it into the Pensieve.

"I was absolutely furious," Harry said, ignoring her question and gazing into the Pensieve. "McGonagall already knew...the bitch knew everything, and actually tried to reassure me that it was necessary, that my sacrifice was necessary." Daphne was so angry for Harry that she was shaking, and she squeezed his hand tightly. It was this that caused him to finally look up at her and see how distressed she was. "It's better if I show you," he said remorsefully.

"No," she cried, and threw her arms around his neck, close to tears.

"Daph, please, I need you to see it," Harry pleaded softly, wrapping his arms around her.

"Why?" she asked in a whisper.

"Because that was the first time I spat on the Light side," confessed Harry. Daphne pulled back from him and looked at him in surprise, her sapphire eyes still glistening.

"You what?" she asked again, apprehensively.

"Don't be afraid, Daph, please. Let me show you what happened." Daphne looked into his eyes and saw how important it was to him, and she reluctantly agreed. He caressed her lips and kissed her gratefully.

When the kiss ended, he took her hand and walked back to the Pensieve.

"Daph, this memory will be long and emotional. Please, don't think any less of me," he implored her, and she nodded and squeezed his hand.

The two teens went into the Pensieve, and Daphne saw herself in what must have been the headmaster's office. There were several shelves filled with books and trinkets, and the magical portraits of dozens of former headmasters and headmistresses lined the walls. In other circumstances it would be a very nice office - cosy, even.

However, there was nothing pleasant about the head's office at this particular moment. McGonagall was currently on the receiving end of a tirade by an irate Harry Potter, and Daphne's slightly older self was looking completely inconsolable, standing by the Pensieve and crying. As for the rest of the room's occupants, the other students stood as far away from the angry teen as they could get, with the exception of Granger, who was attempting help her teacher by calming Harry down. Professor Flitwick was leaning against the wall with a neutral expression, and Professor Sprout seemed like she was appalled by Harry's behaviour.

"THIS WAS YOUR PLAN?" Harry bellowed, "LETTING ME HAVE A SHITTY LIFE ALL FOR THIS MOMENT? BREAK ME, SO THAT I WOULD ACCEPT IT WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT?"

"Mr. Potter, please..." tried McGonagall, while Flitwick shook his head in disappointment.

"Harry, watch your language!" tried Granger, not making any headway.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, AND THE FUCKING DEATH EATER, AND THE FUCKING MEDDLING OLD BASTARD! YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO DO THIS TO ME!"

"I GAVE ALL I HAD - BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS. IN FIRST YEAR, I HAD TO DO YOUR FUCKING JOB AND SAVE THE FUCKING STONE, ALL BECAUSE YOU WERE SITTING ON YOUR ASS AND REFUSED TO BELIEVE ME. IN SECOND YEAR, EVERYONE ACCUSED ME OF BEING THE FUCKING HEIR OF SLYTHERIN, AND GET THIS, I AM! THROUGH MY MOTHER'S SIDE!" he shouted, and everyone's jaw dropped. Real Daphne looked at real Harry inquisitively, and he nodded in confirmation and turned back to the memory.

"YOU LET THEM MAKE ME A PARIAH, AND MADE ME GO ALONE AGAIN TO THE CHAMBER, BECAUSE NONE OF YOU COULD BE BOTHERED TO DO YOUR FUCKING JOBS - AGAIN! IN THIRD YEAR, INSTEAD OF EXPLAINING EVERYTHING ABOUT SIRIUS, YOU KEPT ME IN THE DARK, AND GUESS WHAT? MY PARENTS' BETRAYER WAS A RAT ANIMAGUS AND HAD BEEN SLEEPING IN MY DORM FOR ALMOST THREE YEARS! SIRIUS WAS INNOCENT AND WAS LOCKED IN AZKABAN FOR TWELVE FUCKING YEARS FOR FUCKING NOTHING, ALL BECAUSE NO ONE COULD DO THEIR FUCKING JOBS PROPERLY!"

"IN FOURTH YEAR, AGAIN, YOU ALLOWED THE ENTIRE SCHOOL TO MOCK ME AND FORCED ME TO COMPETE IN THE FUCKING TOURNAMENT. WHAT ELSE HAPPENED? OH, I REMEMBER, I GOT KIDNAPPED DURING THE THIRD DASK AND USED FOR A RITUAL TO BRING FUCKING RIDDLE BACK! LET'S NOT FORGET YOUR BRILLIANT ADVICE TO KEEP MY HEAD DOWN IN MY FIFTH YEAR, AND THE STUPID LESSONS WITH SNAPE WHO DID EVERYTHING TO ME BUT FUCKING TEACH ME!"

"AND LET'S NOT FORGET LAST YEAR, WHERE INSTEAD OF TEACHING ME HOW TO SURVIVE, THE OLD FART MADE ME WATCH MEMORIES FOR HALF THE YEAR. BUT NOW I KNOW WHY, DON'T I? IT ALL FINALLY MAKES SENSE! MY LIFE SUCKED BECAUSE YOU WANTED ME TO DIE, BUT YOU WERE ALL TOO COWARDLY TO DO IT YOURSELVES, WEREN'T YOU?" raged memory Harry, not showing any sign of calming down. Memory Daphne was whimpering and being held up by Tracey, and the rest were all staring at Harry in varying degrees of shock or distress. "GIVE ME REASON. GIVE ME ONE FUCKING REASON WHY I WASN'T TOLD. TELL ME WHY YOU DRAGGED THIS OUT FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS! TELL ME!"

"I... I didn't know," replied McGonagall, herself already in tears.

"I just want to say that I only discovered Dumbledore's plan at the beginning of this year, and I found it abhorrent," Flitwick said with his arms crossed. "I know it means little to you at this point, Mr. Potter, but I fully understand and agree with your reaction." Sprout lowered her eyes to the floor in shame, saying nothing.

"Harry, calm yourself down and behave!" Granger admonished, stepping forward. "What is so wrong that would justify all this shouting?"

"It's not only the snake that needs to be destroyed before Riddle can be killed. So do I," memory Harry spat. The Slytherins were looking at each other doubtfully. Longbottom didn't seem to understand what was happening, but Granger gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

"No... No, it can't be," she said fearfully, and memory Harry actually nodded.

"It makes sense when you think about it, and it explains the link between us. It may have been done accidentally, but like it or not, I am a Horcrux. AND DUMBLEDORE KNEW, AND HE DID NOTHING!"

Granger turned around to embrace Longbottom and cried into chest.

"What's a Horcrux?" asked Blaise, drawing everyone's attention.

"Riddle's little secret. In an attempt to become immortal, he tore his soul into pieces and bound them inside items. While these items remain intact, he can't be killed. That's what we've been doing for the past year, locating his Horcruxes and destroying them. We believed we had destroyed all of them except one, his snake, but apparently, I am one too. I have been living with a piece of him in my scar for seventeen years, and never knew it. Now that I've done my job, or at least most of it, I am once again expendable - just like always. Only this time, I'm not getting sent back to the muggle filth I live with, instead I'm actually expected to allow Riddle to kill me."

Harry's revelation left everyone floored. No one dared make a sound, until Professor Flitwick spoke up.

"I hope you're proud of yourself, Albus Dumbledore, you idiotic old fart," he grumbled, glancing over at the previous headmaster's painting, which was hidden in a corner, apparently still asleep.

"It finally all makes sense, doesn't it? Harry said. "Why my life sucked so much, why I was always made the scapegoat and a punching bag. It was necessary for me to accept this moment, because this way, my life would be so hard that I would welcome the release of death. ALL THIS TIME I HAVE BEEN RAISED AS A PIG FOR THE SLAUGHTER!"

"STOP! No more," memory Daphne begged between sobs, and memory Harry stopped shouting and turned to her. She was still being supported by Tracey, looking at him with a mix of desperation and fear. Harry's anger disappeared in a flash, and he ran to her and pulled her into his arms, holding her possessively. Daphne buried her face in his neck and broke into sobs, and he felt her tears running down while her body trembled. There was nothing Harry could say at that moment, so he just held her tighter.

"It's not fair," Harry mumbled after a while, and all Daphne could manage in response was a choked, "No…"

Neither of them suggested they flee; it just wasn't in their character. They remained in that spot holding each other for several minutes, with no shortage of tears on either side. The others felt like they were intruding on something private, but they couldn't bring themselves to look away either.

"I hate them," Harry confessed. "Both of them, Tom and Dumbledore...He had seventeen years..." Daphne hugged him tighter and shook her head, clearly not wanting to talk about the two old men who had ruined Harry's life. Harry refrained from saying anything further and refocused on Daphne.

"I love you, Daph," Harry said after some time. "I wanted nothing more than to marry you, for you to be the mother of my children and grow old together. I wanted to us to be all we could be and find out how far we could go together. Partners, as always. I'll always love you, Daphne. Forever."

"No. You are not going," she sobbed, attempting to sound forceful.

"You know I have to," he whispered in a broken voice. It was obvious that he didn't want to go, and that he was holding on to his resolve by a thread.

"I love you," she bawled, and the two kissed for several minutes. "You helped me become who I am..." Daphne said in a whisper, leaning her forehead against his.

"Had it not been for you, I wouldn't be who I am today either."

"Lord Potter-Black, heir of Slytherin," she joked, attempting a small chuckle, which was immediately drowned by a sob. "I love you so much, my Harry."

"If I could, I'd stay with you forever," he mumbled.

"I know," memory Daphne said, looking into his eyes and seeing the decision there. "I'm going with you," she declared, shocking the others in the room out of their stupor.

"But...but Daph..." attempted a panicked Tracey, who now being held in Theo's arms. Daphne ignored her friend and looked Harry in his eyes again.

"I am going with you, and that's final," Daphne stated again.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, my love," Harry replied with a small, teary smile. Daphne leaned in and kissed him again, then they pulled back and regarded one another again, each of them seeing the resolve on the other's faces.

"Always remember, my Daphne, I love you and I always will," he said. Daphne looked slightly puzzled, then her eyes widened slightly as she felt something poking her in her ribs.

"Stupefy."

A flash of red surrounded memory Daphne, and she collapsed into Harry's arms. He lifted her up, bridal style, and glared at McGonagall while ignoring the confused shouts and questions coming from the others.

"Make yourself useful and transfigure a bed for me," he ordered spitefully, and McGonagall complied at once.

"Why?" asked Flitwick, approaching the young man.

"Because she doesn't need to die tonight," replied Harry to the diminutive professor, placing Daphne gently down on the bed. He sat with her for a moment, caressing her face, then kissed her one last time in the lips, and again on the forehead.

Harry took something from his pocket and placed it into Daphne's hand, curling her fingers around it. "Make sure she gets this," he asked, looking to the Slytherins. Blaise and Theo nodded to each other, and Millie and Tracey nodded to Harry.

"She loves you," said Tracey. "She would have gone with you to the end."

"I know," he replied with a soft smile. "And that's why I need her here, to make sure someone sees this through to the end and kills the bastard. That, and I don't want her to have to watch me die," he sighed.

"Tell her I love her, and I'm sorry," he requested the other teens in the room. The girls were all openly weeping, and the boys were trying to keep it together but didn't bother hiding their tears. "I guess this is it. Oh, and please don't wake her before you see the sign. I don't want her coming after me."

"What sign?" asked Theo.

"Don't worry, you'll see," Harry said ominously, getting up and walking to the door.

"Potter…Harry, wait," McGonagall pleaded, and Harry stopped without turning around to face her.

"I'm sorry," the elder witch said, unable to come up with anything else.

"I'll walk with you to the doors," Theo said, after whispering something to Tracey.

"I'm going too," replied Flitwick.

Harry nodded to the others, and the three left the room in silence.

"It may not mean much, Mr. Potter, but I am incredibly proud of you and grateful for everything you've done for us. Your parents would feel the same way," Flitwick said.

"Do your best to kill the son of a bitch, Professor," Harry responded, and the professor actually chuckled.

"I will, Mr. Potter."

"I can't promise you that she'll be safe, but I promise you we'll have each other's backs," Theo told him, echoing the same oath Harry had given them several months before.

"I wouldn't expect any less from you, my friend," Harry replied with a smirk.

"Thanks for giving me the chance to actually redeem my family's name, Potter... Harry."

"Tell that to Daphne. She was the one who proposed bringing you into our group, and I trust her with all that I am."

"You're so whipped," Theo joked.

"Very much so, yes," replied Harry with a smile. The trio reached the castle doors, and Professor Flitwick opened them with a wave of his wand.

"You have a plan, don't you?" Theo asked Harry, who simply nodded. "Give them hell."

"I intend to," Harry replied. Theo extended his hand, and the two teens shook hands as the memory started to shift.

"Why did you stun me?" real Daphne asked tearfully. "I would have gone with you."

"I know," Harry replied, as the location of the memory transformed into the Forbidden Forest.

"Then why?" she asked again, but Harry didn't answer, and she turned her attention back to the memory.

Harry stood near the entrance of the forest. In his hand was the snitch that Dumbledore had bequeathed him in his will.

"This is it, you old bastard. All your fucking plans brought me to this moment. The moment of my own death," he snorted. "But don't worry, I'm ready. No thanks to you, though." He heard a metallic click, then looked down to see that the snitch had opened, revealing a small black stone hidden inside. As much as he despised the old man, Harry knew that he didn't do anything without a reason. Harry picked up the stone and held it in his palm, focusing his magic into it. When he looked up, he realised he wasn't alone anymore, and his eyes grew as wide when he recognised the faces surrounding him. His mother, his father, Remus, and Sirius were all standing before him, each of them looking back at him proudly.

"Wha..." he mumbled, looking around.

"You've been so brave, my son," Lily Potter pronounced with a smile.

"Mum? Dad? Padfoot? Moony?" mumbled Harry.

"That's us, son," James Potter replied, also with a large smile on his face.

"Is this real? Are you real?" asked Harry, and Remus smiled back at him.

"You're holding the Resurrection Stone, Harry," the werewolf replied, and it seemed that memory Harry understood. Real Daphne had also made the connection, and she was completely astounded by what she was seeing.

"I never wanted this to happen. Remus, you and Tonks...your son, he..."

"He'll be fine," Remus said with a sad smile. "We knew it was possible we wouldn't survive, but we came, nonetheless. One day, hopefully, he'll understand that we did it for him, that we were fighting for his future." Harry nodded.

"Your death was kind of anti-climactic, wasn't it Padfoot?" Harry asked Sirius, who smiled back at him. "I'm sorry I..."

"Your heart was in the right place, Harry. Had I fought more 'me-ly', I would have survived, and I would still be around to help you, so I'm sorry." Harry grinned and rolled his eyes at Sirius's horrible pun, then turned to his parents.

"Thank you for giving me a chance at living," he said, and his parents beamed at him. "It wasn't long, but it was...thank you," he whispered, mostly thinking about his time with Daphne. "I have to know, though, why didn't you have the Cloak with you that night? Why didn't you have escape plans in place? Why Godric's Hollow instead of Potter Manor?" Lily and James looked at each other sadly.

"We never considered the Cloak, actually," James revealed. "We went to a smaller cottage because few people knew about it, and it was more well-hidden. Dumbledore actually added extra wards to the house, your mother cast the Fidelius on top, and we never thought we would need more than that."

Harry sighed.

"Daphne was right, as usual. We Gryffindors always charge ahead with the least amount of planning possible," he lamented, and the four apparitions smiled.

"I'm sorry you won't be able to be with her, honey," his mother said. He nodded and looked up to the sky.

"So am I," he replied, looking down again with teary eyes. "Are you fine with it? That she's a Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"She is?" asked a surprised James, earning both a glare from his son and an elbow in the ribs from his wife. "Of course, son. All that matters is that you're happy. I hope you've been respectful with her?" his father asked.

Harry smiled and nodded. His mother seemed to like that reply.

"Does it hurt?" Harry asked, and Sirius shook his head.

"Faster and easier than falling asleep."

"Then I guess we'll meet again in a bit," Harry said with a resigned smile, which was returned by the apparitions of his family.

"Good luck darling/son/pup/cub," they all chimed, before vanishing into the air. Harry had to admit that his brief meeting with his family made him feel better, and now he felt ready to face what was coming. He considered throwing the Stone into the forest in hopes that it would never be found, but instead he decided to affix it to the root of a tree with a Sticking Charm and left it there.

Harry started walking deeper into the forest, then smacked himself in the forehead when he remembered he hadn't said goodbye to Dobby.

"Dobby!" he called, and the hyperactive house-elf appeared before him. Harry's little friend must have been secretly keeping tabs on him this whole time, because he had tears in eyes.

"Master Harry Potter sir called?" the elf sobbed, and Harry put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Dobby. I've never really thanked you for everything you did for me, have I, my friend?"

Dobby was completely overcome, wailing through his tears that, "The great Harry Potter sir wanted to thank Dobby! Dobby is honoured that the great Harry Potter sir called Dobby his friend!"

Harry looked at the elf with a serious expression and asked, "Can I ask one last favour of you, Dobby?"

Dobby nodded.

"When I fall, please take my body and my wand to a safe location inside Hogwarts. After that, I want you to tell Daphne where my body is and bond with her, all right?" Dobby nodded tearfully, and Harry bent down and hugged him, making Dobby start bawling again.

"Kreacher!" Harry called, and the ancient elf appeared before him.

"Master called?" the old elf asked, clearly distraught.

"We didn't actually see eye to eye at first, Kreacher, but I think we eventually managed to understand each other. I want you to go to Andromeda Tonks née Black, and help care for her grandson, Teddy, whom I name my heir."

"Kreacher will, Master," the old elf said, his ears drooping.

"Don't forget, I may still need you, so remain hidden but be ready for my call. If I don't call you, then go, my friends, and farewell." The two elves disappeared, and Harry sighed and drew his wand.

The memory shifted again, and Daphne saw memory Harry walking into a clearing with his head held high. She let out a gasp when she crossed into the clearing behind him and saw dozens of Death Eaters there, not to mention the Dark Lord himself.

"Harry Potter," the Dark Lord said solemnly.

"No, Harry, what are you doing here?" shouted Hagrid, who was apparently a prisoner of the Death Eaters.

"Shit..." Harry mumbled after noticing his half-giant friend, bound to a tree.

"The Boy-Who-Lived...Comes to die." Voldemort raised his wand, and Daphne looked back and forth between real Harry and memory Harry. She could hear loud hissing coming from where one group of Death Eaters was standing, and judging by the shift in his posture, memory Harry had heard it too.

"Dobby, Kreacher, take Hagrid away from here," whispered memory Harry, and at once there were two audible pops, followed by confused shouts from the Death Eaters. Even Voldemort looked back, trying to see what was happening. Harry saw Hagrid disappear and knew that both him and the elves would be fine, so he held his wand aloft and pointed it in the direction of the hissing.

His wand immediately began spewing fire from the tip. The flames grew unnaturally quickly, and started taking the shapes of flaming serpents, chimaeras, and dragons, all of which started consuming everything in their path. Screams of pain and terror rang out across the clearing, as the Death Eaters closest to Harry were reduced to ashes by the Fiendfyre.

For a few moments, the Dark Lord seemed to be stunned. He clearly wasn't expecting this tactic from his young adversary, but he quickly recovered and started furiously casting dark curses at Harry, who was doing his best to defend himself against the onslaught.

All of a sudden, a loud hiss could be heard over the din. Harry chanced a look in the direction of the sound, and he saw a greenish black cloud hovering above the roaring flames for a few seconds, before it dissipated with a pained shriek. Harry internally celebrated at the destruction of Nagini, Voldemort's final Horcrux. He had done everything he could, and he could now meet his fate knowing his sacrifice would ensure the Dark Lord would once again be mortal.

In the meantime, Harry's Fiendfyre had started raging out of control. Among those gathered in the clearing, only three of them had the power to rein in the flames, and two of them were busy dueling each other. The other was Bellatrix Lestrange, and she seemed too preoccupied watching her lord's duel to bother dealing with the cursed fire herself. At this point, most of the gathered Death Eaters had either been incinerated or had fled.

Daphne was thoroughly captivated by the memory, looking on in complete astonishment. She recognised the spell and was in awe of its power, not being able to cast it herself. She understood Harry's plan at once, and celebrated with him when she realised he had succeeded in taking out the snake. Daphne looked at real Harry out of the corner of her eye and her heart swelled with pride. She let out a deep breath, and then turned back to the duel between the two mortal enemies, who were now trading spells inside a ring of Fiendfyre.

Harry dodged Voldemort's spell chain and cast a Reducto and a Confringo in close succession, which were easily stopped by the Dark Lord's shield. Voldemort retaliated with a Crucio, a Blood Boiler, and a Flaying Curse, but Harry managed to duck the first and deflect the others. Voldemort stopped long enough to order Bellatrix to deal with the fire, then resumed his attack. Harry hadn't been able to deal any real damage to the Dark Lord, but he'd at least succeeded in keeping him occupied long enough to let his Fiendfyre do its work.

"Curse you, Potter!" shouted the Dark Lord, and Harry smirked. He knew he was outclassed, but winning the fight wasn't his goal.

"Less servants for you means less problems for my friends back in the castle," Harry replied.

"Ah, you realised my deception. Yes, after I kill you, I will of course make my way to Hogwarts. Let me assure you that I will make an example of your meddlesome friends, and then there will be no one left alive foolish enough to oppose the might of Lord Voldemort."

"We'll see about that. I'm still here. All that bravado from you, and the Boy-Who-Lived is still alive," Harry taunted, intentionally provoking him.

"You insolent boy! Avada Kedavra!" the Dark Lord shouted. It was time.

"I love you, my Daphne," Harry whispered, a moment before the green light impacted his chest. The memory started to shift again, changing from the orange glow of the cursed flames to a blinding white.

Daphne was crying again. It was all so overwhelming. Harry had been so brave, marching alone into the lion's den and inflicting a critical blow against the Dark Lord, knowing he would pay for it with his life. She was so proud of him, proud of being the one that this man had chosen to love, and heartbroken at all the hardship he'd had to suffer. She looked around as the white space surrounding them started to take shape, and curiously resumed observing memory Harry, hoping to find out exactly where this unusual place actually was.

Memory Harry was cautiously walking around the white hall, which seemed to have vaguely taken the form of King's Cross Station. As he was trying to figure out exactly where he was, he saw something under a bench that caught his attention. Curious, he walked over to the bench and knelt down, only to recoil in horror at what he saw.

It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground. Its skin was raw and rough and looked mutilated and weak, as if it had been flayed, and it was making rattling, gasping sounds from its mouth. Harry almost felt like he should help it, but it repulsed him. He shuddered as he was suddenly reminded of the childlike form Voldemort had occupied at the beginning of his resurrection ritual.

"What the..." he asked himself.

"You can't help him, Harry," he heard a voice say. Harry froze in place, not bothering to turn to the source of the voice. "You wonderful, brave boy."

"Dumbledore," sneered Harry, rising slowly and glaring at the source of his anger. Dumbledore was obviously taken aback by Harry's reaction, clearly not anticipating his anger.

"You bastard… Why? Why did you do this to me? Why did you condemn me to a miserable life? Why did you allow me to live with that thing in my forehead? You knew all along, didn't you? ANSWER ME!"

"Harry, I didn't..."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Harry shouted, walking to the older wizard and grabbing him by his robes. "YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME! YOU KNEW BEFORE YOU DIED!" he shouted, and to his surprise, Dumbledore shed a tear.

"Yes, I knew, Harry, but what was I supposed to say? I didn't lie to you when I told you that I didn't know of any other means to destroy a Horcrux."

"Didn't you perform tests on me when I was a baby?" asked Harry, starting to calm down slightly.

"We did, but we made the mistake of believing that what we were detecting was only a leftover trace of the curse. It wasn't until your fifth year that I started to suspect Horcruxes, Harry, even considering the incident with the diary in your second year. It was only your visions that year that confirmed my suspicions, particularly the one of Arthur Weasley being attacked."

"And you still said nothing," he snarled, and Dumbledore dropped his head.

"To my shame, I admit that is true. I was terrified by what I had just learned, and I had no answers. I didn't want to burden you further, and I'd hoped that I'd be able to find a solution before it was too late."

"Why should I even believe you?" Harry asked with a glare, then let go of Dumbledore's robes. "Bah, it's too late, now. Maybe I don't really hate you, but you sure screwed up a lot of things for me. You could have told me more. You could have trained me better. You could have realised that the blood wards that kept Voldemort out did nothing to protect me from the Dursleys themselves. You could have done more to help Sirius, then maybe I could have stayed with him instead..." Harry looked away from Dumbledore, failing to notice the old man's satisfied expression.

"Tell me, Harry, are you happy?

"No," he replied.

"And why is that?" asked Dumbledore.

"Because I died, and instead of meeting my family while I wait for Daphne, I'm stuck in Limbo talking to you," Harry replied sarcastically, and Dumbledore cracked a smile.

"Ah, yes, the lovely Ms. Greengrass. I admit that I did not know her well, perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me a little more about her?" Dumbledore requested.

"She's unbelievably beautiful, but there's so much more to her than that," Harry said longingly. "For one, she's a natural leader. She recruited part of Slytherin house to our cause this year and kept Tom's supporters under control. She's brave, too. For months, she's been resisting Voldemort and the Death Eaters right under Snape and the Carrows' noses."

"Right now, however," Harry sighed, "She's probably devastated, because instead of letting her die by my side, I stunned her and left her behind to sacrifice myself."

Dumbledore replied with that maddening smile of his. "And why did you decide to go face Voldemort alone?" he asked.

"I had a plan - Figure out where the snake was and torch the area with Fiendfyre, then let him hit me with the Killing Curse. If I managed to land a shot or two on Voldemort, all the better. If I had let Daphne come with me..." Harry's face sank into a melancholy expression, and he sat down on one of the benches.

"She would've died a meaningless death if she'd come with me. There's so much more she could do... She should survive, and live a long life, and..." Harry trailed off for a moment, not even noticing his tears until he felt them drip off his cheek.

"I just didn't want her to die. I wasn't afraid to die, and I know she wasn't either, but I didn't want her to die. She's amazing, the smartest and kindest person I've ever known. She wants to be a healer, you know?" he said, looking up at Dumbledore. "She actually studied under Poppy the last couple of years. There's so much she could do for the world, and I didn't want to see her give it all up just for me."

Memory Harry's unguarded confession of what he really thought about her had Daphne's heart racing. "You foolish idiot," she tearfully whispered, gripping real Harry's hand.

"Foolish idiot in love, you mean," Harry replied with a smile, and pulled her closely to him with one arm. Daphne leaned her head against his chest and kept watching.

The more Harry spoke about his feelings for Daphne, the happier Dumbledore seemed to become. By the time Harry had finished, he was absolutely beaming.

"Love truly is an amazing power, is it not? Perhaps it was your love that guided your actions?" the headmaster posited, then stood back and looked around, examining their surroundings. "Tell me, Harry where would you say we are?"

"I don't know, Limbo?" the young man questioned, throwing Dumbledore off for a moment.

"Well, yes," he said, recovering. "But I meant to ask you about the physical manifestation of Limbo we're currently experiencing." Harry looked at Dumbledore as if he was mad. "You see, this is, as they say it, your party. Why do you think your Limbo manifested itself as such?"

"How would I know? And it seems to be King's Cross Station," the teen replied, not in the mood for the old man's antics.

"Good gracious, is it really? Well then, what happens in a train station, Harry?" asked Dumbledore, making the teen sigh in frustration.

"It's a hub for trains and people," Harry replied, noticing the amused look on Dumbledore's face, urging him to go on. "Trains arrive and depart to their destinations?"

"So, hypothetically, should you want to go on, might you hop on a train?" asked the old man.

Harry stiffened. Dumbledore may enjoy his word games, but he always had a reason.

"I suppose so. So does that meant that if I, hypothetically, should want to go back..."

"Then I suppose you could board a train in the opposite direction..." the old man hinted.

"But I'm dead," Harry replied flatly.

"Ah, you see, only one soul needs to move on, Harry, and as fortune would have it, we have a piece of a soul here that can make the journey," Dumbledore replied, gesturing to the flayed-looking thing under the bench.

"So, I could go back and..."

"Be with your lovely girlfriend? I don't see why not," replied an amused Dumbledore, while Harry picked the piece of soul up by the ankle and willed a train to "go on," as Dumbledore had put it. When the train arrived, as flawlessly white as everything else, the carriage doors opened, and Harry chucked the piece of soul inside. The door closed, and the train departed.

"I want a train to go back to the world of the living, I want a train to go back to the world of the living, I want a train to go back to the world of the living..." Harry willed, and as the first train exited the station, another arrived from the opposite direction.

"I guess this is it," said Dumbledore, losing the smile and looking mournfully at Harry.

"Yes," replied Harry, looking at Dumbledore. "Can you tell me if all the Horcruxes are gone?"

"Only Tom remains now, Harry," replied Dumbledore, and Harry nodded.

"I don't know if I will ever be able to forgive you for all the manipulations in my life, or all that was lost because of your negligence. I'll always wonder how much better everything might have been if you had just tried a little harder." Dumbledore looked down in shame, accepting Harry's words. He, in fact, wasn't amused in the least by Harry's difficult life, but he believed it to be necessary. He was wrong, though. Very wrong.

"However," Harry continued, "I am grateful for the help you gave me. It wasn't perfect, but I don't think we would've had a chance of succeeding without it, so thank you," Harry said, extending his hand to the older man, who was momentarily stunned. His surprised expression was soon replaced with a grateful smile, and he gladly shook the teen's hand.

"I wish you a long and happy life, Harry Potter," the former headmaster said.

"May you finally find the peace you desire," replied Harry, turning back and moving to board his train. Had he looked back, he would have seen a look of pride on the older man's face, but instead, the doors closed behind him, and his train left the station. The memory started changing once again, this time to a darker setting.

Harry woke up in his bed in the Chamber of Secrets. His hands were folded across his chest, with his wand tucked between them. He moved to get up so he could find out what was going on, but then Kreacher shrieked from somewhere next to him, making him jump. Harry sat up in bed and turned his attention to the elf, who was currently gawking at him with his overlarge eyes.

"Ma...Mas...Ma…Master?" the ancient elf questioned, before fainting on the floor. Harry held back a chuckle and stood up, but he felt a little dizzy and had to lean against the bedpost for a minute. Once he regained his balance, he went and picked up Kreacher and placed him on the bed. Having just dealt with one distressed elf, Harry soon found himself with another one on his hands. Dobby popped in right behind him and shrieked even louder than Kreacher, then started rambling something about Master Harry Potter sir being a nasty dead who walks...or something odd like that.

Harry ended up ignoring Dobby's vocal tirade, because his eyes were immediately drawn to Daphne, who had just entered the room. Her eyes were red and swollen, her makeup smudged, and she still had tears running down her face. She was standing motionless in the door, gawking at him with her mouth forming an 'O' shape.

"Harry?" she asked uncertainly.

"Your name is Daphne Persephone Greengrass, after your mother, whom you're not that fond of. Your heroes are your grandparents, who died fighting together. You want to be a healer. We met in our fifth year, when you asked for my help with DADA. We started dating at the end of that year, on the night my godfather died. I love you. We lost our virginities to each other in this very bed on Halloween of our sixth year…"

That was all Harry managed to get out before Daphne leapt into his arms and started kissing him passionately. The two fell on the bed together at the same time that Kreacher woke up, the elf flailing as he rolled off the other side of the bed. Dobby went to help him, and both elves stood looking at their master in shock. Their eyes suddenly bulged when they realised what the teens were up too, and both elves popped away in embarrassment.

"We don't really need to see everything," said Harry in a hurry, drawing his wand and forcing the memory to advance to the next segment. Daphne smirked and lowered her eyes. She wasn't really that embarrassed, she was just thinking about what she had just heard and how well Harry really knew her. That, and seeing herself ripping older Harry's clothes off made her feel a little hot and bothered, more than she ever got when she touched herself.

"I don't mind," she mumbled with a tiny blush, earning a naughty smirk from her boyfriend.

"I know you don't," he said, and she blushed, wondering exactly how he knew that. "If you want, you can watch it later," he chuckled.

"Would you watch it with me?" she asked hopefully, not having any idea where she got the courage to ask him that.

"If you want me to," he replied, tilting up her chin and looking into her eyes. "But you'll have to keep me in line to make sure nothing unwanted happens."

Daphne nodded demurely, and Harry gave her another a kiss that did no good whatsoever for her excited condition.

The next memory started with the two of them dressed in basilisk hide battle armour. They were huddled under the Invisibility Cloak, right behind the Hogwarts defenders as they awaited the approaching Dark Lord. They listened in to the conversations around them, and they could tell morale was low. It seemed that Hagrid had returned and announced that Harry was killed in the forest by Voldemort, and there was also talk of how no one had heard from Daphne Greengrass.

"Are you ready?" whispered Harry, and she kissed him softly.

"I'll be waiting for my marriage proposal," she replied with a grin, trying to hide her nervousness.

"I love you, Daph."

"I love you too, Harry."

The Dark Lord entered Hogwarts and started making his victory speech, claiming to have killed Harry Potter and burned his body. Still hiding behind the crowd, they chose that moment to remove the Cloak and give it to Dobby for safekeeping. With a nod, Harry cast a Sonorus on himself and stood up taller.

"OH REALLY, WHAT WOULD THAT MAKE ME, THEN?" The Hogwarts crowd parted for Harry and Daphne, jaws hanging down to the ground.

"IMPOSSIBLE! I KILLED YOU!" shouted Voldemort, ignoring the disquiet among his own Death Eaters.

"Clearly you didn't do a very good job," Harry replied with a grim look, having eyes only for Voldemort. "I'm curious though, how many of your Death Eaters died in the Fiendfyre?"

Voldemort screamed in rage, and immediately turned his wand on Harry, who deftly avoided the incoming spells. Bellatrix decided to focus on Daphne, who had just given the order to retreat into the castle. Disheartened by Harry's reappearance, some of the more cowardly Death Eaters fled to the field. The newly emboldened defenders started providing support to Daphne and were launching curses at the remaining Death Eaters.

"This memory doesn't show your duel with Bellatrix, but I may show it to you later," Harry said. "Let's just say that it was quite impressive. You hit her in the knee with a Reducto, and then took her out with a Confringo to the face. When your duel was done, you turned your attention to helping take out the other attackers, and many of them fled. It turned out that nobody was eager to take on the witch who just killed Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Did…did you face him alone?" Daphne asked, and Harry nodded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't think I want to see it. Just give me the overview, please." Harry nodded once more and waived his wand, breaking the memory and forcing them out of the Pensieve. Back in the Chamber, they both got comfortable again while Harry thought about what parts to tell her.

"We fought along the east wing and wound up in the main courtyard. By that time, we were both getting tired. We'd both landed several blows and were bleeding in multiple places. The duel culminated in us get locked into Priori Incantatem again, just like in the graveyard in my fourth year. While our phoenix wands were connected, I drew the Elder Wand with my other hand and hit him with a Light Spear. He wasn't expecting it and couldn't manage a shield in time, but I put everything I had into that spell with the Elder Wand, so I'm not sure it would've mattered either way. Voldemort was dead, for good this time, and the battle was over. Some reinforcements arrived, late as usual, but by then the Death Eaters that hadn't already fled or died had dropped their wands and surrendered."

"I ignored everyone around me and ran around until I found you. As soon as I did, I got down on one knee and proposed in front of everyone. There was no ring to give, because you already had it with you. That's what I put in your hand after I stunned you before I went into the forest. You said yes, and pretty much everyone either cheered or squealed, but there were probably some groans from the dorks too."

"Tori was there when it happened, and she was so excited that it looked like she was going to pop," he added with a grin. "Anyhow, we rested for a while then jumped right into helping repair the castle. Your parents showed up later that afternoon. They had already found out about us from Tori, and they were very supportive of us and accepted me immediately."

"I bet they did…social climbing bastards…" Daphne spat. Harry smirked.

"Let's see…Snape died defending some students from Death Eaters, and Malfoy Sr. burned up in the Fiendfyre. Our friends were fine, nothing worse than a couple bruises. Theo dueled to kill, and Tracey acted as his shield. They made a heavy team. Blaise and Millie fought well, too. Neither of them is a particularly skilled fighter, but they worked well together and made a good team. Millie also helped with brewing potions for the healers." Daphne nodded approvingly.

"After a while, the damage was repaired, and things started slowly getting back to normal. The Ministry needed to make sure they were involved, so they decided to start giving out awards. I was given an Order of Merlin, First Class, you got a Second Class, and everyone else who fought in the final battle got a Third Class. We spent every day together, either in Potter Manor, in Greengrass Hall, or out and about. As you might expect, we had a hard time going out on dates without being mobbed by well-wishers, so we decided to go explore the muggle world. You loved it." Daphne was very surprised to hear that, but didn't interrupt him.

"The powers that be decided the previous school year had to be repeated, so we all reconvened at Hogwarts in September, and all in all we were content. For some reason, they named me Head Boy…"

"Yeah, I'm sure there was no reason at all," Daphne thought to herself, rolling her eyes.

"And Granger got Head Girl. That I really didn't get, since you'd proven you were better than her. I mean, you did kill Bellatrix Lestrange, after all. Anyway, we had a picnic every Sunday at the place I showed you by the lake. We graduated as the best students, and we were both very happy. It was around that time that Malfoy started courting your sister. He and his family had fallen into disgrace, but he still had money and was using it to try to rehabilitate his image. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to learn that your parents had no objections to your sister being courted by a wealth pureblood, even one with a reputation like Malfoy's."

"No, I can't say that surprises me at all," Daphne scowled.

"Once school was finished, we took a trip around the world. I decided on pursuing a mastery in DADA while you studied to be a healer. Once they read my name on the application, they just handed me the mastery, so you suggested I go for another. I studied Light, Grey, and Dark Arts as an associate student at the Munich Academy of Sorcery, and you went on to earn your Healing qualification from St. Mungo's."

"Your parents nagged us constantly about the wedding, so we married on the summer solstice in the year two thousand, but you already know about that. Our lives didn't change much after we were married. You still worked as a healer, and the people absolutely loved you. Our Lady Healer, they called you."

Daphne smiled, liking what she was hearing. "I studied and worked as an Auror as well," Harry continued. "We had each other, and we were happy. Between our studies and our work, we only considered having kids about five years later…" Daphne made a mental note of how Harry hesitated when children came up.

"Theo and Tracey didn't want to wait, so they got married before we came back for our eighth year. Millie and Blaise married shortly after we did, and then Granger and Longbottom the year after us. Blaise ran an import/export company, Millie became a successful Potions Mistress, Theo became an Auror, and Tracey worked as a prosecutor. We were happy, our world was at peace, and we were living our lives."

Even though Daphne knew that bad things were still coming, she felt relieved. Experiencing the harrowing story of Voldemort's rebirth up through his final defeat had been incredibly stressful for her, so it was nice to hear that those closest to her had gone on live happy lives, at least for a while.

"I think we should stop here for today," Harry said, looking at Daphne to make sure she agreed. She nodded with a bright smile, and kissed Harry with all the passion that had been building up inside as she viewed Harry's memories of her.

"That's for everything you did, both the amazing and the stupid," she said, and he grinned.

"You know, if it earns me more of that, I think I may have some more stories to tell," he said cheekily.

"Not today," she smirked, pulling him up into a standing position. "Tell me, how different is the training you're putting me through now, compared to the training you did in your past?"

"Hmm. It's not really much different, to be honest. We're working a little more on your magic control and nonverbal casting this time, but otherwise it's basically the same program."

"Do you think I'll become as powerful as…"

"Even more so," Harry replied confidently, and Daphne smiled. "Do you want to do some training while we're down here, or would you rather go take a walk? We skipped lunch and it's nearly four o'clock."

"Let's go outside," said Daphne, and with a wave of Harry's wand she was cloaked. Harry did the same to himself, and they were ready to go.

"Why are your sleeves shorter?" she asked, looking at his robe sleeves, which cut off halfway down his forearm.

Harry looked at his sleeves and smiled.

"Well, there was a stupid fashion trend for a while with longer, baggier sleeves. Wearing them this short is a countertrend that got its start because of a little girl who hated getting her sleeves in her food."

"Must be an important little girl, then," she said with an amused look, shaking her head.

Harry gave her a sad smile and said, "Yeah, she sure was. That aside, these are much more practical for combat - believe me, I would know." Daphne remembered what he had said earlier about the three wars. With Voldemort gone, there were still two wars remaining, and Harry had fought in both. She hadn't.

"Let's go," she said, her good mood evaporating.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, noticing her change in demeanour.

"I was just thinking about everything. You said you lost me… You just finished telling me about how happy we were. I'm starting to wonder if I even want to know what happened to me… Why, and how I…" Daphne couldn't bring herself to verbalise the rest of her thought, so Harry hugged her gently to try and comfort her.

"It's up to you," he replied with a haunted look. Figuring she could decide later, she gave him a noncommittal nod and sank back into his hug.

"Let's go," she said a moment later. Harry called for Dobby, and he popped them to the lakeshore, where the two started walking side by side along the water.

"What do you want to do now?" Harry asked, enjoying the feeling of the cold breeze in his face after being down in the Chamber for most of the day.

"You can start by explaining how you're the Heir of Slytherin," she said.

"As it turns out, my mother was a direct descendant of the main Slytherin line, unlike Tom and the Gaunts, who married into the family through one of the daughters of the house. The Slytherin line officially died out a long time ago, but the magical bloodline remained intact through a line of squibs that can be traced all the way back to the main Slytherin branch. When my mother was born a witch, she became an heir of Slytherin."

"An heir, not the heir?" asked Daphne, curious about the distinction.

"There is a test to earn the Slytherin lordship. It's rumoured to involve a demonstration of cunning, but no one knows anything else about it, not even the goblins. Whatever it is, old Salazar's real descendants hid the secret very well. Even in my past I wasn't able to claim anything. In fact, I didn't even know about the lordship test until I went to Gringotts with my uncles after our date."

"Interesting," she said, glancing over at him and smiling. "So, two years ago, when everyone was calling you the Heir of Slytherin, they were actually right."

"Yes," he smirked, looking back at her. "There is no such thing as normal for me, I suppose."

Daphne laughed, and the two continued to their walk, talking about a variety of topics, including their homework, the upcoming ball, their friends, and Harry's impending tests for Arithmancy and Runes.

They eventually were feeling tired and hungry, so they walked back to the Great Hall for dinner. The moment they passed through the doors, the eyes of the entire hall were upon them.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN, YOUNG MAN?"