A/N: Well, here is the second and final part of this story. Hope you like it!

October 31st, 2022, Present Day:

"No!" Tom whispered, agony wrecking him as reality sunk in. "No! Harry please!"

Harry sighed.

"Tom, we've long discussed this. Let me go."

Let's rewind back to see what happened before this, shall we?

Six months after Harry left:

"Son?"

Harry stilled. He could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead. Could feel the ache in his muscles and the drain in his core.

Necromancy it seemed was extremely taxing.

Bracing himself, Harry forced himself to look up so that he could view the result of his efforts. It was strange. He had done the whole thing to see them. But now, at the moment his dream was coming true, he was vaguely filled with nerves. Almost like the times he was panicky right before a quidditch match.

All I gotta do is lift up my head. Not as bad as trying to snog a girl who is crying, he tried to comfort himself.

It didn't work.

"You know, we won't bite you pup," a teasing voice called out.

Harry's head snapped up, shocked to his core at that familiar voice.

He had not been specific in his choice of calling when he had reached out to the other realm. He had deliberately stuck to being vague and had just called out for his immediate family. He had been curious to know who would appear. Just his parents or more.

Nobody had bothered to tell him much about his family after all. The idea to be vague had seemed spectacular then.

Of course, he should have known Sirius would come too.

The idea was brilliant, indeed, he thought.

"Siri!" he whispered out, eyes drinking in the form of his godfather greedily even as his vision blurred with tears.

He couldn't tear his sight from the man. A part of his brain whispered to him, reminding there were others waiting for him. Others who were family in the room. Family he had always yearned to know and have. But Harry couldn't bring himself to care. The others could wait for a bit more. He had yet to know them to miss them for a few more minutes.

But his Sirius was different.

Sirius had been the only person Harry knew as true family. The only person he had missed fiercely in his life. The first person Harry remembered mourning for. Sirius was the first father-figure that Harry could remember loving him for him.

"The one and only, pup," Sirius Black laughed, opening his arms.

Harry didn't need much more of an invitation. He lunged over to the man, stepping past rune circles without a care. He didn't look around to see the fond looks exchanged between the other souls that were gathered. He didn't catch the mock pout his mother and father gave Sirius at getting his attention. Nor did he see the smug smile Sirius sent back towards them.

All he could care about in that moment, eyes closed, arms wrapped around the one person who had been his family was that he finally felt complete. In his beloved godfather's arms. Despite the fact that the man's hug was cold as ice. Despite the fact that Harry knew his Sirius was but a shade in truth.

He didn't care.

He had his godfather back.

"I missed you Siri," Harry chocked out pitifully. "I missed you lots."

Harry didn't see the way Sirius' face crumpled slightly at his voice, sharing his pain. But he felt the tightening of the cold, loving arms of his godfather around his torso. And that was enough.

He broke down completely.

"We don't know why the magic is dropping, My Lord. We're still researching."

"Contact the Unspeakables, Lucius. I believe this is one situation they will work with us."

"As you say, My Lord."

Ten minutes to marking a full year of Harry's escape:

Albus Dumbledore stared up from where was bound, watching the brunette witch before him in fear. In all his life, no one had scared him more than the witch before him.

Hermione Granger-Weasley smiled, her entire countenance oozing malice. Albus' wand was being twirled casually in her left hand.

"You have no idea Albus Dumbledore, how much seeing you like this is making me happy," the witch said to him.

Her voice was soft but they almost stilled his heart with how much venom they contained.

"I've spent quite some time this year, stripping away your life achievements one by one. Starting with your Chief Warlock position."

The witch circled him and Albus shivered as she trailed his own wand's tip against his neck from behind.

"But I admit, seeing you lose that or your Headmaster seat or even your ICW position had not brought me as much joy as the whole process of tearing down your reputation. I certainly have a better appreciation for that bug Skeeter now, really. She's proven that her skills to dig out secrets are useful after all."

Hermione Granger came back to stand before him.

"But right here, right now, is probably going to be the icing on the cake for the whole year, dear ex-Headmaster," the witch confessed with a crazed whisper, dangling an innocent looking pocket watch from her left hand.

She threw it at his chest, using his own wand to cast a sticking charm so that it stuck to his robes. Then with another wave of her wand, summoned some curious shackles from her robe pockets. Albus' eyes widened as he realised what they were. He struggled against his bindings but they didn't budge.

Hermione Granger gave a mirthless chuckle. The sound sent shivers down Albus' spine.

"Recognised them, haven't you? How convenient. Then I won't have to explain how they'll bind your core and magic, do I? Wonderful! That saves me so much time!"

She bound his wrists with the blasted manacles and Albus screamed at the unimaginable pain that shot through his old body as his connection to his magic and core vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Thank Merlin I put you under a silence charm. I wouldn't want to hear your pathetic screams, honestly."

Albus whimpered silently.

"Now, let me just do a couple more things before I explain to you what that lovely pocket watch is."

Granger stepped forward towards him and Albus shrunk back in his seat out of fear.

"Oh, hold still, you old goat. Some wizard akin to Merlin you're turning out to be."

Albus watched helplessly as his old wand – that which was known as the Deathstick itself – was used to carve something unknown on his forehead. If he had the energy to do it, Albus would have whimpered more at the pain that that caused.

Granger stepped back.

"There. Now you'll never be able to use your blood for runes or even somehow access your mind magics. It's a bit of an overkill but I really don't want to take any extra chances with you, you see. I mean you had two wands with you after all!" Granger said, fishing out another wand – his first wand; his original wand – to wave it at his face.

"You're really pompous, aren't you?" Granger put away his original wand in her pocket again, twirling the Deathstick in her left hand. "But I suppose I can see why you latched onto this wand ever since you got your hands on it. It is rather powerful."

Granger made a disgusted face.

"And like the power-hungry whore you are, you used it shamelessly once you got it, despite already having a perfectly functional first wand."

Albus watched as Granger shot him a menacing glare before continuing.

"So honestly Albus, I have to take all these extra, extra precautions to be certain you won't escape your new prison, you see –"

Granger seemed to pause at Albus' obvious confusion.

"Ah right! You don't know about your new prison! Well allow me to enlighten you!" Granger gave him a sweet smile that Albus thought was filled with termites rather than roses. "You see, me, Ron, Luna and even Neville don't believe that letting you retire to an old age home for the rest of your life is a good punishment, no matter what the Wizengamot say. Therefore, we have decided to give you our own punishment and send you over to a very special prison. You should know about it. You helped built it to house your ex-lover Grindelwald."

Albus renewed his struggle in vain at what he heard. No way was he going there. No! Not in his vulnerable state!

"Oh, stop that! Gellert was oh so excited to hear you were moving over. Don't worry though, he is under the same restrictions as you. Plus that pocket watch is only going to portkey you over to a cell beside him. I'm not that cruel to put you in the same cell, Albus!" Granger said with mock innocence.

She conjured herself a chair and sat across him gracefully before waving her wand to undo the silencing spell on him.

"You won't get away with this!"

Granger smiled viciously and Albus had to wonder where the law and authority abiding girl within her had disappeared to.

"Oh but I already have, Albus Dumbledore. Right now as we are speaking, a life sized magical puppet of you has been admitted into the old age home you are supposed to have retired to. All its strings, I assure you, are in my control and the thing is set to "die" in its sleep seven months from now. Your phoenix, Fawkes, has been under a forced burning since two hours ago, entered entirely through its own free will, let me tell you. It seems even that bird has become tired of your actions and manipulations. In a few months' time, it will cease its flames and be born anew with no bonds attached to you or anyone. So, if you think Fawkes will come for your rescue, think again. Not that any phoenix could since there will be wards to prevent phoenixes, house elves and any potential help from reaching you in your new prison.

Nobody will even realize what I've done, Albus. And those who know have already given me unbreakable vows even though they are my most trusted. I've taken all the precautions. And I hold all the aces. You've thoroughly lost, Albus Dumbledore. Checkmate."

Albus felt his face pale.

"No, no, no!" he whispered in denial.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Hermione Granger whispered back maliciously. "You played God with innocent people's lives. You played God with my Harry's life! So, this is what you get!"

Albus shook his head.

"I still have people who believe me!" he cried out in denial.

"I destroyed all your life achievements in the span of a year while you held some power, Albus. How long do you think it'll take me to eradicate your lingering reputation with you out of the picture?"

Granger scoffed.

"Your arrogance is truly abysmal if you still believe you have hope."

Granger leaned back and cast a silent tempus. Albus watched her unseeingly, the truth of his reality finally sinking in.

"Now, before you leave, I have a special guest who wants to say farewell to you."

Albus looked at the witch with fear, not even daring to ask who.

"Come out now. You have a minute and forty-five seconds to do what you want."

Albus watched in shock as one Tom Marvalo Riddle stepped out of the shadows to stand beside Granger's chair.

"You!" he sputtered in a combination of disgust, surprise and fear.

"Me," Tom grinned, showing too many pearly teeth that glinted under the venom in his smile. "I have a farewell gift for you Albus. I designed it myself."

Tom started to wave his wand, casting his curse silently as he explained to Albus what he had in store for him. The red-eyed man's magic weaved a sickly green cage around Albus, shining sinisterly.

"It lets you relive all the pain and misery that you have indirectly or directly caused others all your life through your own actions. You will spend every waking and sleeping moment being plagued by those who you left to die, to starve, to be beaten and bruised in the name of the Greater Good, when you could have chosen to extend a hand and save their lives instead. Now, till the day you die, you will be living through those poor victims' pain. You'll be living through my Harry's pains. My pains."

Tom brought down his wand in a harsh slash down the air. The cage of green light imploded into Albus, sinking down into his skin. Albus screamed, feeling a thousand knives impale into his flesh.

"I hope you live a good few more years, Albus," Tom whispered to him when Albus's screams died down. "If only to live through this curse for some time. Rot in hell afterwards, you old coot."

Albus whimpered, not having the strength to retort.

The pocket watch stuck to his robes glowed blue.

"Goodbye and good riddance, Albus," Hermione Granger called out to him.

The last thing Albus saw before his surrounding blurred was Granger's smirking face and Tom Riddle's malicious smile. Then he landed in a dark, dank cell, alone and magicless.

Albus screamed in vain.

Hermione breathed out a sigh as the tempus she cast struck midnight. It was officially a full year since Harry had left.

When she felt more composed, she turned to give her companion a sharp look.

"There is roughly a minute left before the calming draught in my body wears off Riddle," she stated coldly. "Leave now. Or you'll find yourself dead once my restraint disappears and I punish you for what you did to my best friend."

Riddle gave a small smile but the usual arrogance was missing behind it.

"As you wish. But thank you for allowing me to be a part of that old man's downfall."

Hermione turned away with a blank expression.

"I only called you because you were the next worse victim after Harry and I needed that fool to be taken down by one who he had tried to sabotage," Hermione replied coolly.

And I know Harry would have wanted you to find some peace in that turbulent heart of yours despite all you've done to him, Hermione finished in her head.

"Now leave. If I have to see anywhere else other than within Ministry territory in the future, I might just kill you with my bare hands."

14 months since Harry had left:

Hermione Granger-Weasley looked up to greet the fire phoenix that flamed into her bedroom with a smile.

"Well, hello there, you look different," she told the bird who flew down to perch gently on her left shoulder.

It was true. Where once Fawkes had fiery red-orange feathers tipped with gold edges, it now was a magnificent golden colour with emerald wingtips. Even its tail ends were dominantly green despite being rainbow-themed. Its crest feathers had a similar colour scheme.

All in all, the phoenix looked –

"Brilliant," Ron breathed from beside her.

Hermione gave her husband a small smile as she agreed.

"Indeed, you look brilliant, Fawkes."

The phoenix trilled happy notes in thanks.

Hermione and Ron chuckled.

"Well, let's move on to business, yes?" Hermione asked.

She signalled to Ron who scrambled out of bed to head to their room's drawer. Hermione rubbed Fawkes belly gently as she watched her husband retrieve a long, thin wand and a box and brought it over to her.

"Thank Ron."

She smiled as the man re-joined her on their bed, sitting on her right.

"Fawkes, this was Dumbledore's old wand. I want you to deliver this and the box to Harry. The box contains a letter that has details on all that has happened in the wizarding world since Harry left, along with memories and a shrunk Pensieve. I know Harry doesn't read the prophet no more, so he would be unaware of the old man's doom or the manipulations the traitors did to him and Riddle to try and end their marriage. I need him to know."

Hermione gave a small sigh and leaned into Ron who placed a supportive hand around her waist.

"You are the only being that will be able to find Harry despite all his wards. So, you are my only hope to give this gift to him. I know he didn't want anyone to contact him, but this is necessary. I need to gift him the old coot's wand. To let him know that we served him justice."

Hermione stared into the phoenix's eyes.

"I need him to realise we still love him."

Hermione gave a bitter smile.

"He's probably already bottled up his feelings and memories and have started to wonder if he has anyone in this world for him, despite being happy in his solitude. I need him to know that despite the distance between us, we care for him still. And we will always care for him."

Hermione gave the phoenix a pleading smile.

"Help us achieve that please? Send this over to Harry, Fawkes. Please."

The phoenix nudged its head against her forehead gently with a soft croon. Then in a flash of flames, Fawkes disappeared, taking the wand and box from Hermione's hand along with it.

Hermione melted further into her husband.

"I miss Harry," she whispered to Ron, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I miss him too love," Ron replied, voice cracking as he hugged his wife. "But he is happy where he is. That's what matters."

The two spent the night cuddled around each other, providing silent support and comfort to the other as each of their minds thought of the missing member from their Golden Trio with bittersweet sadness.

Harry came to consciousness with a gasp, vision wavering.

All his senses were groggy. He could feel his limbs taking eternity to respond to his mind, which was not very alert itself. A strong feeling of disorientation and detachment was overwhelming him.

Harmonious trills rung through the air, carrying with them a sense of calm. Harry took a deep breath at the sound. His soul itself seemed rejuvenate at the song he was hearing.

When he felt more relaxed, Harry started to take notice of his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was the faint thrumming he felt in his soul. A thrumming that seemed to be connected to something that he was clutching his left hand. Harry looked down to find out what could cause it. Only to be greeted by the sight of his hand holding on to a wand that most certainly wasn't his own.

For that matter, Harry realised his own wand was on the floor, just a few feet away from him. He supposed that must have happened after he fainted. Executing and completing the ritual had taken a lot out of –

Harry snapped his head upwards towards the twin cribs lying quietly in front of him. As memories flooded his mind, he scrambled to his feet to check on the twins.

They had to be fine! He had spent so long trying to save them. They just couldn't die on him. They couldn't! They were still children! They deserved to live –

Harry let out a relived breath as he saw the two young children sleeping peacefully on their cribs. Never had the sight of chests rising and falling made him feel more relieved.

They were alive! His children were alive!

Harry smiled tearfully at the thought.

My children, he repeated in his head. What wonderful words.

Soft trills brought him back to his reality.

With a start, Harry noticed the magnificent avian sitting on the crib on the right. He blinked in surprise.

"Fawkes!" he cried. "Oh Merlin! I'm so sorry for not noticing you! Dear Merlin, have you been there the whole time? I'm sorry!"

Harry reached out to pet the phoenix that seemed to coo at his words in amusement. An intense wave of heat travelled from his fingers to the rest of his body as he touched the phoenix.

"Whoa," he breathed, relishing in the feeling of rejuvenation that washed over him. "That's new."

He looked at the avian before him, taking in the difference in its colours and overall energy.

"You seem new," he told the phoenix. "A good new but still new. Are you happy?"

The phoenix cooed at him and Harry knew it was affirming that it was indeed happy. He smiled.

"That's good."

A memory flitted across his mind. It was of a flash of gold that appeared right before he had lost consciousness. He remembered feeling a weight fall onto his left arm, his finger closing around the object out of instinct before he lost hold on consciousness.

Harry stared at the phoenix before him and then at the wand in his hand before shifting his gaze to the sleeping babies on the cribs.

"Did you save them Fawkes?" Harry asked, as he remembered the Phoenix had trilled to soothe him when he had regained consciousness. "Did you help save my twins?"

Fawkes trilled in the negative before bobbing its head at Harry.

"Oh. My ritual worked after all?"

Harry smiled as the phoenix nodded in confirmation at that.

"That's good I suppose."

Fawkes gave a trill that was both happy and sad at the same time. Harry blinked at that. He inferred the phoenix to be saying something along the lines at "That depends" to his last words.

Harry frowned.

"Why does you say that Fawkes?"

Fawkes trilled urgently, bobbing at Harry's left hand. Harry understood the phoenix wanted to tell him something about the wand he was holding.

"What about this wand?" Harry asked curiously, bringing the familiar yet foreign wand closer to his eye level. "I know I've seen it somewhere before, honestly."

Fawkes trilled encouragingly, letting Harry know he was on the right track. Harry furrowed his brows, racking his brain to figure out who he'd seen this wand with. He came up short.

"I've got goldfish memory about this, Fawkes," he told the avian sheepishly.

Fawkes rolled his eyes much to Harry's slight indignation. Then the bird bounced a bit, before using a wing to gesture at itself.

"Um," Harry fumbled, not understanding what the bird wanted to convey.

Fawkes trilled in a rather exasperated tone. Harry smiled sheepishly.

The phoenix then seemed to puff and ruffle its feathers, acting all important.

Harry blinked.

Acting huh?

"Are you trying to mimic who had this wand?" he guessed.

Fawkes bobbed its head in confirmation.

"Um, so it's someone who was important?"

Fawkes seemed to make a face that conveyed disgust.

"Ok, not important."

Fawkes shook his head.

"So important?" Harry asked confused.

Fawkes bobbed his head affirmative then shook it to convey "no" after a beat.

"So the person is important but not important?" Harry frowned as Fawkes seemed somewhat happy at the guess. "Um, so they thought they were important?"

Fawkes brightened.

"Alright," Harry said as he finally got the answer. "So they were someone who thought they were important when they really weren't?"

Fawkes trilled happily.

"Hmm, someone that I knew who also happened to be that egoistical?" he wondered out aloud.

It wasn't Tom. Harry would know Tom's wand anywhere.

There was only one person that fit.

"Dumbledore," Harry said, suddenly feeling rather disgusted to hold a wand that that old goat had used.

Fawkes bobbed his head again in confirmation.

"I suppose it was dumb of me not to guess that man beforehand, since you were in the room," Harry muttered. "But you seem rather different that before that I can't associate you with that coot, no offense to your master."

Fawkes seemed to make another face at the word 'master'.

Harry blinked.

"Oh, you're free from him now?"

Fawkes nodded. Harry beamed.

"Oh good job, Fawkes! I knew you had it in you to leave the fool sooner or later. He honestly wasn't worth sticking around. That is one man who is never going to realise he isn't correct or all-knowing."

Fawkes trilled sadly.

"But come to think of it, how did his wand get here? And why is it very much in tune with me?"

Fawkes puffed his feather again in a distinct impression of getting electrocuted. The image was rather funny. Harry had to stifle his laughter at how the bird looked all frizzy and bushy. It rather reminded him of his –

"Hermione," Harry breathed, understanding the phoenix.

Fawkes trilled happily.

Harry stared down at the wand he was holding in amazement, suddenly understanding the significance of its presence away from its old owner. Hermione had long written him a letter, along with Ron, to promise him that she would get him justice even though he had long given up on the wizarding society and hidden himself away. It had been the last letter he had received from his friend before he had raised up his mail wards for the year.

Harry felt a warmth bloom in his chest.

It seemed his best friends had gotten him that justice after all, if his new wand was any indication.

Hermione certainly knows how to make a statement, Harry thought as he examined his gift with a newfound appreciation.

Harry looked back to the fire bird before him, remembering that they had a conversation going on.

"But back to the point again, why is my ritual working something that is potentially both good and bad, Fawkes? What does Dumbledore's wand got to do with it?"

Fawkes bobbed his beak at Harry's right hand this time. Puzzled Harry brought his hand up to examine it, trusting Fawkes to have a point, only to stop and stare at his wrist in utter shock.

There, at the juncture where his forearm joined his palm, near to his wrist's right corner, was a tattoo that Harry had not had before.

A tattoo of a triangle which held a perfect circle within, which happened to be cut through by a straight line.

Harry had not slacked when he had researched his Necromancy studies while in the Peverell mansion. He knew exactly what the tattoo before him was.

The reason why Fawkes thought his new wand was important clicked.

Because the phoenix had brought Harry the third Hallow.

Harry stared at Death's own claim on his wrist, feeling rather lightheaded.

Thoughts swirled through him, emotions running high, even though everything seemed to feel a bit distant at the same time. He wanted to be angry. He knew what the mark truly meant for the one who united all three Hallows – at least he knew a better version of the real truth than what Beetles' the Bard had written. And Harry didn't want anything to do with it. No matte what others thought, Harry didn't see good in uniting the Hallows. He had read between the lines and he had realised that the whole thing likely had a far more sinister truth than even what his ancestors may have put together.

And Harry didn't want to find out if his theories were true. No. Not at all.

He stared at the symbol of Death that was now forever engraved into his wrist, despair and frustration coursing through his veins.

He really, really felt like smashing something.

Harry forced himself to calm.

Getting angry wasn't wise. He was alone in the room with his baby twins and a phoenix. While he would never hurt his babies, Harry didn't want to find out if truly losing his cool would make him capable of harming the phoenix, be it knowingly or unknowingly.

But Harry knew getting angry at the phoenix wouldn't do him any good. It was not like the bird knew about the fact that Harry had two thirds of the Hallows before.

Or did Fawkes know? A voice questioned in Harry's brain.

Harry bit his lip.

It was plausible.

The cloak Fawkes likely knew about since he had been with Dumbledore then. And Harry did remember Fawkes visiting while he had been wearing his engagement ring – a family heirloom, Tom had told him before. Harry had only known the significance of the stone on the ring while studying Necromancy in the Peverell library.

(He had gone to stare at the stone – which had mysteriously appeared with his belongings while he had unpacked in his current new home – afterwards, wanting to reach out and use it but knowing better. Necromancy in any form was dangerous business and Harry knew himself well to know that calling over his parents and family without preparation would only lead to bad things for him.)

Harry looked back at Fawkes. He remembered the bird having been intrigued by his engagement ring when it had visited him alone. (Alone because Fawkes knew Harry didn't like Dumbledore by then and had the decency to not speak of the man or bring him over when it felt like visiting Harry.) By all means, if the phoenix knew of the Hallows' symbol and importance, it had likely recognised him being the owner of two thirds of the damned things beforehand.

Now that I think about, Harry thought, Fawkes could have waited for me to wake and then warned me before passing me the wand instead of handing it over while I fainted from exhaustion.

Harry looked up with a frown at the Phoenix before him. He was angry at his current situation and slightly angry at his realisations. But he couldn't bring to dump those feelings on the bird before him. At least not without giving it a chance to explain. Despite who it had been bonded to previously, Harry knew Fawkes never wished harm onto him. He knew too that the phoenix had many a times went against Dumbledore's wishes and visited him because of that – and to show the old man that just because Fawkes bonded with him, didn't mean the man had control over the phoenix in any way. Fawkes had only deigned to help the old coot when he knew he could help someone for actual good.

Harry's frown deepened. Which begged the question why Fawkes thought letting Harry unite the Hallows without realising was a good thing.

"Why?" he whispered confusedly to the phoenix. "Why did you hand me over the last Hallow? You knew what it would cause, Fawkes!"

Fawkes wasn't the one to answer.

"I believe I can answer your questions, Hadrian James Potter," a deep, rich voice responded from behind him.

Harry stilled.

"Or perhaps I should say Master?"

Harry turned with absolute dread to face what's behind him, only to pale at what he saw, despite a part of him already knowing what he'd see.

"No," he whispered, voice breaking.

"Prongslet?"

Harry looked up to see his father standing at the doorway to his new room.

"Yes dad?"

"Why have you shifted rooms?"

"It's closer to the nursery," Harry replied softly, deciding to stick to telling part of the whole reason.

James Potter seemed to realise there was more to the answer but didn't press, knowing he would not get more.

"Alright then. Winky has finished preparing dinner. She's called for you to come eat."

Harry gave a weak smile.

"I'll be there in a few minutes, dad."

James nodded and left him be.

Harry bit his lip, looking at his clear wrist that he had unknowingly tried to hide despite having it under a glamour. He knew that he had to tell his family sooner or later but he was scared.

All in good time, he told his heart with a deep breath. All in good time.

When the twins' were two months' old:

Harry closed the door to his old room gently and cast a silencing and locking spell over it. His twins were sleeping in their rooms on the other wing of the mansion and his parents and Sirius wouldn't be able to appear without his will. But it never hurt to be cautious, just in case.

He scratched the phoenix perched on his right shoulder.

Keeping it all in was killing him, which was ironic considering his new status. And Harry, as much as he wanted to tell his family the truth, still had too many insecurities to simply fall onto them for support. He only knew one way to do the right thing.

"Get Hermione and Ron for me please, Fawkes."

Hermione stumbled and barely managed to hold onto her husband for balance.

"What the hell Fawkes –"

She stilled, eyes widening as she finally took notice of her third companion.

"Harry," Ron breathed out from beside her, voice thick with emotion.

Hermione felt her eyes glaze over with tears.

"Harry," she repeated after Ron in a broken voice.

"This is my fault!" Hermione cried, clutching onto Harry in a death grip. "This is my fault, I'm so sorry Harry! I'm sorry!"

Harry rubbed the hysterical witch's back, making soothing sounds. He locked eyes with Ronald, seeking help but the man seemed to be seconds away from following his wife's actions of launching at him. Harry was surprised already that Ron was crying openly. He usually preferred to cry in solitude.

He felt his chest ache at the thought that he had brought his two best friends to such despair.

"Come now Mione, that's not true. You saved me and the twins from being in a much more terrible fate. Besides, you didn't know what Dumbledore's wand was. Nor did you know I already had two of the other Hallows in my possession."

Hermione pulled away from him slightly, tears flowing like two rivers down her cheeks.

"Harry how is this," the woman gestured around wildly, "A better fate?"

Hermione grabbed his right arm and let out a chocked sob at the Deathly Hallows' mark on his right wrist.

"How is this a better fate? You hate it!"

I take personal offence to that, a deep baritone voice whispered in mock indignation within Harry's brain.

Harry ignored it, not wanting to deal with the voice's owner yet. Instead, Harry cupped his muggleborn friend's face lightly and tilted it up.

"It's better because I still get to stay and watch my twins and Teddy grow. I get to have a family. Mione, this is best thing I've had all my life. It's true that I'm not fond of it, but I'd prefer this to the other option, which is complete and utter death had you not gifted me the wand in time."

He wiped her tears and opened his arm with a pointed look at Ron.

"I called you two here not to make you sad, you idiots. I called you here to thank you for what you did for me knowingly. And for what you accidentally did for me too. I called you over to ask if you'll come watch my twins and Teddy grow. I'm going to need a lot of back up plans for those three just in case. Because life has not gone the way I've planned so far."

He gave Hermione and Ron a small smile.

"Besides, I've always made more sensible decisions with you two around."

Hermione and Ron chuckled at that.

"Also," Harry said with a sheepish smile. "I have no idea how to tell my dead family about these new developments. Matter of fact, I don't know how to break it to Teddy. Or the twins once they grow up and – "

Hermione and Ron enveloped him into a group hug to stop his rambling.

"We'll figure it out, sweetie," Hermione whispered.

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "We always do, mate."

"Aunty Mione?"

Teddy blinked. Rubbed his eyes then blinked again. He had been certain he had portkeyed over his godfather's house.

"Uncle Ron?" he called out, confused.

Harry chuckled at his godson's perplexed face.

"They're got permission to come over, sweetie. You'll be seeing them more over here."

Teddy's jaw dropped, hair turning a brilliant shade of black in his shock.

"Do you have a fever godfather?"

Harry laughed at the question.

"No sweetheart. But go get settled down quickly, will you?" Harry's grin slipped and he exchanged a glance with his best friends who nodded encouragingly at him. "Godfather has something he needs to confess."

Harry threaded his fingers through Teddy's blue hair gently.

"Are you feeling better, love?" he asked the boy.

Teddy had spent quite a few hours crying.

"Why does everything happen to you, godfather? It isn't fair! If you didn't want to be Death's Master, you shouldn't have been forced into it!"

Harry gave the boy a gentle smile.

"Sometimes, you just take what happens to you without question, Teddy. It's easier that way. Besides, this isn't the worst thing to happen to me. I would have preferred for it not to have happened, yes but it's not terrible. Considering what might have occurred otherwise, I think I got a lucky deal out of it, Teddy."

He ruffled the boy's head slightly.

"Think about it. I still am living and staying here as I planned and will still be watching you and the twins grow up like I've hoped. All in all, it's a better unplanned occurrence than most."

"But you have restrictions!"

"But I also have new advantages," Harry reminded him. "Don't worry Teddy love. Godfather is still going to be happy and still going to stay happy. I've had a couple of months to think over this and I have come to terms with it. The question here is Teddy, how do you feel about the whole thing?"

Harry bit his lip.

"I mean, if you feel uncomfortable, I can understand that you may not want to visit often –"

Teddy lunged up from his lap to give him a fierce hug. Harry startled but returned the embrace, albeit more gently.

"Don't be silly, godfather. There is nothing in this world that could make me stop visiting you. I love you! You're my favourite godfather."

Harry tightened his hug.

"I'm your only godfather, silly," he whispered fondly to the boy, even as his chest warmed with affection at his godson's words.

A hand at his shoulder had Harry looking up from where he was still hugging Teddy.

He met the gaze of his parents and godfather, who were all giving him loving smiles. He had long them his situation with Ron and Hermione's help. They had accepted the truth easily.

The dead – they had told him – had way much ease accepting things since they didn't truly have power or need to react to mortal affairs. As long as Harry was happy, his family said they would support him.

His house elves had taken a much longer time to accept the truth. Like Teddy, the three beings had wailed and cried – even Kreacher to Harry's surprise had bawled. But they had eventually come to accept it.

"We love you too, Prongslet," his dad mouthed in front of him.

Harry smiled and the next thing he knew, Teddy and him were in a group hug with the other three shades.

Ron and Hermione stood a few feet away, watching it all with a fond smile.

Harry cooed at his little princesses, smiling at the way they sent gummy smiles at him.

"You're so whipped."

Harry raised an eyebrow at Teddy.

"Like you aren't?" he asked the boy. "You spent an entire hour changing your appearance to entertain them when you don't even like to "waste energy like that" a few weeks ago."

Teddy turned away with a sheepish expression.

"That's different. Plus you need to thank me for that. If I didn't do that, we wouldn't have found out the twins own metamorphmagus abilities sooner!"

Harry smiled. It was true. When Teddy had changed his hair to make the girls giggle, they had all found the twins smiling at Teddy before copying him to change their hair colours too. It had been a shocking revelation that the twins had the Black family gift but Sirius had crowed smugly a while later that his blood adoption of Harry when Harry himself was a toddler had obviously been a smart idea on his part.

"Well, I do admit we have you to thank for that," Harry conceded. "But the situation still isn't different, Teddy bear."

"It is!" Teddy replied earnestly.

"No, it really isn't, Teddy," Sirius piped in from the side.

Teddy scowled.

"Uncle! You're supposed to be on my side!" Teddy pouted.

"Oops, sorry," Sirius apologised with a look of panic as Teddy's lips started to tremble. James snickered at his blunder mercilessly.

"Stop playing him, Teddy," Harry laughed.

Teddy dropped his acting immediately and laughed as Sirius' jaw dropped.

"You little sneak!"

"What can I say Uncle?" Teddy gave an exaggerated shrug. "The hat had good reason to have tried to sort me into Slytherin."

Harry howled in laughter as both Sirius and James gaped at that information.

"What's this?"

Harry looked up to see his family peering over from the kitchen counter.

"Another letter from the Weasleys?" Sirius asked with a chuckle. "They sure love writing to you, ever since you let down the mail wards."

Harry gave a small smile at that.

"So, who wrote this time?"

"Riddle," Harry replied softly.

Silence engulfed the kitchen.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up at his mother's voice.

"Are you alright?"

Harry nodded.

"Yeah."

"How did he manage to send it to you?"

Harry shrugged.

"My mail wards weren't the specific kind. Now that I've dropped them, anyone can mail me as long as the mail isn't harmful. Then it cannot pass the wards."

"Won't that be troublesome? Anyone can mail to you now. People out there may still want to mail you their opinions."

"It's been more than a year. I'm pretty sure everyone has given up contacting me," Harry gave a mock laugh. "Well except for Riddle it seems."

Lily, James and Sirius exchanged worried glances but Harry missed it, too intent on the letter in his hands.

"Are you going to open it?"

"I don't think so."

Harry gave a weak smile.

"I'm going to burn it."

Tom Riddle watched in elation as his owl returned with no letter in its claws. He scratched the black-coloured bird fondly.

"Finally, we succeeded, haven't we Artemis?"

The owl hooted happily.

"Did you get to see if he opened it?"

Artemis shook his head with a sad hoot.

Tom gave a soft smile.

"That's alright. At least we managed to send him the letter. That's progress. We'll take it one step at a time, won't we? And hopefully, we'll get Harry back home."

Artemis butted his head softly against Tom's hand with a happy hoot. After plenty of petting, the owl flew away, leaving Tom with his thoughts.

He finally managed to send Harry a letter. He had no idea if the man had read it yet. Tom supposed he wouldn't be surprised if Harry had burnt it as soon as Artemis had flown away but he didn't care. He had finally sent Harry a letter.

He finally had some contact with his husband after more than a year of failed scrying spells and unopened letters.

He was certain the rest of the journey towards getting his Harry back was still going to be uphill. But Tom would persist. If there had been one thing Tom had learnt in his life, it was that good things lasted longer when earned through hard work and honesty. He had learnt the lesson late, only realising its benefits after having married Harry and working legally to gain control of the wizarding world. But he had learnt it alright.

He just had not realised that he hadn't applied the lesson when it had come to his Harry until it was too late. Sure, he had put effort into creating a proper relationship with Harry, but Tom was only now realising he had never been honest in the relationship. He had kept his insecurities and fears to himself, never bothering to bare his soul to Harry.

And where had that let him?

To a broken marriage.

Sure, the whole situation had been catalysed by an idiotic group and a bloody potion, but Tom had long laid the seeds to it by never allowing himself to trust Harry fully.

And it taken losing the man he loved for him to realise his mistakes.

Tom grabbed a piece of parchment and quill.

He had a long way to go to earn forgiveness and many letters to write to help him in the journey.

He had to start on his next letter to Harry. Hopefully, the man would read one – if not all of it – sooner rather than later.

When the twins were three months old:

Harry stared at his children in concern.

"Hey Ron?" he tapped his friend's shoulder urgently, internally thanking that it was the weekend and that his friends were visiting because he didn't know what he would do if he were alone when witnessing what he was seeing currently.

Probably panic.

"Yeah?" Ron looked up from where he was caressing Hermione's hair while she was curled up in his lap, reading a book.

"Is that normal?" he pointed at his twins.

"Uh," Ron blinked and turned to look questioningly at Hermione who had looked over as soon she had heard the concern in Harry's voice.

The witch gave a helpless shrug clueless herself. None of them had any experience with children anyways.

Harry panicked.

"Mum? Mum! MUM!"

Lily appeared in a swirl of black shadows with Sirius and James fading into existence beside her. Harry rolled his eyes at her entry.

"What?"

"You need to stop copying my style of entry and exit," Harry deadpanned at her.

Lily pouted.

"But's so cool! And you gave me the power to do it anyways."

Harry rolled his eyes as Hermione giggled from Ron's lap at Lily's antics.

"Anyways, what did you call us for, Prongslet?" James asked from the side.

"He called me, James. You two are extras," Lily corrected.

James and Sirius gave mock pouts at that. This time Ron snickered.

"Guys, stop it. I called you to show you this," he said, pointing at the twins behind him.

The six of them stared at the two giggling babies.

"What's wrong? They seem fine," Lily said.

Harry frowned along with Ron and Hermione.

"How is this fine? They seem to be having a fit on the floor. The only reason I'm not panicking is because they are smiling."

Lily chuckled along with James and Sirius.

"Pup, nothing's wrong with them. They're just trying to crawl."

Harry gave his babies a hard look, observing how the two were keeping their heads, arms and legs up and waving it around in sync. He exchanged looks with his best friends who were equally perplexed.

"That doesn't look like crawling. They look like they're trying to swim on land and failing," Harry replied.

His older companions chuckled.

"Sweetheart, they'll get to the actual crawling in a few more months. But they have to start somewhere, no? Let them be. They're evidently trying to figure out their own arms and legs."

Harry reluctantly left the twins to do their suspicious wiggling at that.

"Was I like that too?" he asked curiously.

Sirius snickered.

"Oh pup, you looked a lot like that, except you kept flopping down to kiss the floor too."

"Hey!" Harry cried out in indignation while everyone else snickered around him.

"Are they alright?"

"Apparently they are trying to figure out how to crawl," Harry replied.

Teddy looked up at him from where he was shamelessly curled up on his godfather's lap like a puppy.

"Seriously?"

Harry nodded, threading his fingers through his godson's hair.

"I'm still trying to comprehend it, trust me."

"They look like their trying to swim but are failing, godfather."

"That's exactly what I said too," Harry replied earnestly, glad to have some think like him.

"You both are so weird," Lily added from the other side of the couch.

Harry and Teddy shot her twin looks of affront.

"Are not!"

"Godfather! Godfather! Godfather! Oi Harry James Potter! Get your arse over here quickly please!"

Harry stopped from opening the oven to get his brownies out and rushed towards the twins' room to check on them and Teddy, worried. Teddy never shouted like this before. Nor did the boy ever call Harry by his name unless he was miffed at him.

Shadows swirled around him as Lily, James and Sirius appeared alongside him from different parts of the house to check on the kids too.

"What happened?"

"No idea," Harry replied as he turned into the hallway of the kids' playroom.

He rushed inside to find Teddy sitting in the middle of the room serenely as Lydia and Raksha sat beside him with their own toys, clearly in their own world.

"What?" he asked, confused.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with any of them, from what he could see.

"She did it! Raksha did it!" Teddy cried in happiness, pulling out a building block that was on its way to Raksha's mouth out of instinct, even as he kept looking at Harry.

"Did what?" Harry asked, exchanging confused glances with the rest.

Teddy certainly could not mean that the twins finally figure out how to crawl. Because, unless his eyes were deceiving him, he could see Raksha swimming on her spot of the floor again, clearly having abandoned the grim-shaped plushie she had been gifted a few weeks back.

Teddy's exuberance did not deflate however at his audience's lack of comprehension.

"Raksha did it!" He repeated. "Her first accidental magic!"

Harry blinked before indulging in a squeal session with his mother who on his right as Sirius and James cheered from the back. He hurried over and settled onto the floor, the rest of his family following excitedly.

"What did the tyke do?" Harry asked as he scooped Raksha into his lap. The baby gave a gummy smile at him. Harry saw Lydia frown adorably from across him. He tried to reach out to grab the girl when Lydia disappeared with a soft crack and reappeared on his lap, beside Raksha.

Raksha squealed and grabbed her sister who smiled gummily back.

Harry stared.

"Well, that's one way to show what Raksha did," Teddy laughed.

Harry looked up at Teddy in wonder.

"Raksha apparated too?"

Teddy nodded.

"I put her in her cot over there and came back over here to grab Lydia but someone apparently wasn't done playing for the day," Teddy recounted with a fond smile.

"She apparated back to her twin and after that I was too excited to put them back into the cot."

"Well, that's brilliant magic for their age," Sirius crowed from Harry's left. "The two of them are going to be excellent witches when they grow up."

Harry beamed happily at that and pressed the twins closer to him, brightening more when the two turned their gummy smiles at him, spitting saliva as they made gibberish noises.

"Hear that, loves? You two are going to be great witches."

Harry pressed a kiss to both their foreheads lovingly, heart filled with happiness. He couldn't wait to watch his children grow up.

When the twins were six months old:

"Shouldn't they have figured it out by now?" Harry asked as he watched his little Lydia and Raksha wiggle more on the floor.

"Shouldn't you have stopped denying your feelings by now?" Lily replied back with a pointed look at the letter clutched in his hands, the distinct handwriting of one Tom Riddle standing out on the cover.

Hermione and Ron, who were sitting beside Harry, snickered at him. Harry huffed.

"What are you guys laughing at?" Teddy asked as he walked into the room, Fawkes perched on his shoulder.

"Harry's denial," Lily replied without missing a beat.

"Godfather's what?"

"Don't listen to her, Teddy. Aunty Lily is going senile," Harry cut in, shooting sullen glares at his companions.

Teddy blinked.

"How dare you! I'm completely sane!"

"You put salt in my morning tea just yesterday, mum."

"That wasn't my fault! Your idiotic dad thought it'd be funny to switch the bloody labels on the bottles!"

"Well that still makes you insane for having married an idiot like him," Harry replied.

Across the room, James shouted in indignation while the others, barring Lily and Harry who were still glaring at each, laughed.

Teddy gave the phoenix perched on his shoulder a sigh.

"How about we go back to play with the twins?" he whispered to the avian. "They are much saner I think."

Fawkes trilled in agreement.

When the twins were seven months old:

"Another letter? From Tom?" Lily teased.

Harry rolled his eyes as he moved towards the fireplace.

"I don't know why you're doing this. You could easily place mail wards against the man," Teddy piped up from the couch where he was reading his astronomy textbook dutifully.

"Oh no, Teddy bear," Lily gasped in mock fear. "Harry can't do that!"

"Why not?" Teddy asked innocently, completely oblivious to Lily's teasing of his godfather.

"Well, your godfather can't sigh longingly at his ex-husband's elegant handwriting if he has no letters from the man to look at, now can he?" James said in exaggerated solemnness to Teddy.

Sirius snickered at the Potter couple's antics from the other side of the room.

Teddy blinked.

"Wait, he still likes Riddle?"

James, Sirius and Lily burst out in laughter at that innocent question.

"Oh honey, you have no idea –"

"Ok enough!" Harry snapped from the fireplace as he threw the letter in his hands into the fire. James, Lily and Sirius were too busy snickering to acknowledge him. Harry glared at the three.

"Teddy, love. Why don't you go check on the twins for me, will you? Fawkes should be there too, you can play with the phoenix if you want."

Teddy took the hint and left without protesting but Harry caught the contemplating look on the boy's face as he left.

He groaned.

"Great. Now this is going to circulate amongst the Weasleys, the Lupins, the Delacours and then the entire world by sundown," Harry muttered in despair.

Lily patted the distraught man on his shoulder as he settled on the couch.

"Don't worry love. The Weasleys, Lupins and Delacours know better than to share it with the rest of the world. They wouldn't dare risk incurring Hermione's wrath."

"Plus, you could always put up a mail ward that refuses the rest of the world from mailing you, just in case that does happen," James added.

"Don't worry, you can still have Tommy dearest added to your approved mail senders so that you still get his letters," Sirius snickered.

Harry glared at the three as they all descended into laughter again.

"I'll think about it," he hissed.

"Oh no need to lie. We know you'll do it, especially the part that allows Tom to write you," Lily replied between wheezes.

Harry huffed, wondering if it was too late to send his parents and godfather far, far away into death's realm again.

Not at all Master, Death whispered in his mind.

Harry ignored the entity.

When the twins were six and a half months old:

Harry paused as he felt twin tugs on his robes. Looking down, he was greeted with twin sets of smiles and spit.

"Well, hello, there. Where did you two come from?"

"Godfather I lost our twins – oh," Teddy wheezed as he stopped his running. "These two are too bloody good at apparating. They disappeared from the playroom."

Harry gave the boy a sympathetic look.

"I'll watch over them for a while Teddy. You go and rest for a bit. Your Aunty Mione and Ron just flooed into the living room a few minutes ago. You can go talk to them if you want."

"Thank you!" Teddy said with a relieved sigh and went off, muttering under his breath that whoever said children could not apparate were idiots.

Harry giggled, then stared down at the two babies still at his feet.

"What do you two lovelies say to pranking your grandpapas?"

Lydia spit bubbles and squealed while Raksha smiled serenely at Harry.

"Yes, I thought that was an excellent idea too."

Harry grinned.

"Oh Merlin!"

Harry dropped the book he was clutching in excitement.

"Teddy! Get here quick!" he hollered out.

Thumping footsteps signalled Teddy was running to him from the second floor. Lily, James and Sirius simply appeared beside him uninvited.

"What happened?" Teddy called out panting as he reached the living room. Fawkes flew in behind him and swooped over to land on Harry's shoulder.

Harry waved towards the twins with one hand as the other petted Fawkes in greeting.

Teddy brightened up as he spotted them, walking to stand beside Harry once he caught his breath.

"Ohh, they are crawling – somewhat," Teddy cheered.

Harry nodded, squatting down to wait patiently as the twins dragged themselves over the floor towards Harry and Teddy. He felt his godson mimic his position.

"I'm so glad I stayed here for Yule holidays," Teddy muttered.

Harry chuckled and gave the boy a fond ruffle to his head.

They turned back to watch the twins.

"They look like seals, don't they?" Harry commented as Lydia flopped onto the floor halfway before giggling and resuming her awkward sliding across the floor.

"Absolutely. Seal pups with a handicap," Teddy replied.

"Oh, shut it, you two," Lily admonished from behind them as James and Sirius snickered at their description.

"It's true though!" Harry and Teddy chorused.

The family cheered together as the twins finally reached Harry and Teddy three minutes later. Lydia crawled into Harry's arms as Raksha claimed Teddy.

"Good job, you two! Papa's proud of you," Harry cooed at Lydia before turning to shower attention to Raksha too, Fawkes purring with pride at them from his shoulder.

When the twins were eight-months old:

"Honestly, just open the goddam letter, Harry!" Lily whined.

Harry shot her a glare from where he was going to throw said letter into the fire.

"No."

"What are you resisting for?"

"Mum, it's bad enough I can't ward against the man."

"Won't," James corrected from where he was stroking Lily's hair.

Harry turned his glare on his father.

"Fine, won't," he conceded with a hiss. "What do you think will happen if I actually open the letters and read them?"

"Sigh longer with longing, eventually melt into a puddle of bittersweet, mushy feelings, and later contemplate writing a letter or two back and then actually writing a letter or two back and then contemplating inviting the man over, and then actually inviting the man over, and then having heart-to-hearts with the man with an even longer denial period, consisting of occasional fights and tears and then finally getting back together and moving back in with the man whom you clearly still hold feelings for," Sirius summarized from James' other side.

Lily and James snickered.

Harry shot them all a furious look.

"Get back together? Move back in? You actually think that's going to work?"

The trio quietened at the anger on Harry's face.

"Harry –"

"Have you forgotten exactly what kind of situation we are in?" Harry asked incredulous. "Have you forgotten the twins?"

"Harry –"

"You know just because I forgave that man for it, doesn't mean I forgot anything he did, including his murders. You sit there and joke about me getting back with your murderer, have you lost your marbles?"

"Harry calm down!" Lily stood up and moved towards her clearly frustrated son, wrapping him in a hug. "What's gotten into you, love?"

"Stop with your bloody teasing and maybe you'll know," Harry snapped back, even though he melted against his mother's embrace.

Feeling a pressure on his shoulder, he looked up to see James and Sirius hovering around his chair.

"What?" he asked, turning back to bury himself into his mother's shoulder, hiding the tears gathering in his eyes.

"Son, what's wrong?"

"You're teasing," Harry replied without missing a beat.

"Now don't lie," Lily admonished. "You're clearly bothered with more than our teasing if you are out here reopening old wounds."

Harry pressed his face further into Lily's neck.

"I don't know," he whispered brokenly, the sentence coming out muffled.

"What was that pup?"

"I don't know," Harry repeated, pulling away from his mum.

"About what exactly?" Lily caressed his hair as Harry rested his head against the dead woman's shoulder.

"This," Harry waved the letter in his hand.

Sirius and James settled on either arms of his chair.

"Well, let's talk about it then. What's bothering you about it?" James asked.

"Your teasing," Harry repeated.

"Why? We only tease you because you clearly hold feelings for the man," Lily replied.

"He murdered you guys," Harry shot Sirius a glance. "Well, two out of the three of you guys. But he was indirectly the cause of the other third of your trio."

"But you forgave him for it, didn't you?" Sirius pointed out. "Pup, you were married and led an eventually peaceful married life with the guy."

"Correction: I was forced into a marriage with that man," Harry replied. "And I had no choice but to forgive because otherwise I would have been even more miserable than I already was."

"We know that, love," Lily said softly, "But that was at the beginning, was it not? Can you truly say that along the way, you didn't forgive the man genuinely, despite the marriage forcing you to be civil?"

Harry bit his lip.

"But he murdered you guys. Why are you vouching for him, mum?"

"The dead don't have any purpose holding grudges, Harry," Lily replied.

Harry tensed at her words.

"Prongslet," James ruffled Harry's hair fondly, "We've seen how the man eventually made you happy in your forced marriage. Your past with him and the circumstances that eventually forced you with him in a bond may have been fabricated and manipulated by others, but the relationship you built between the two of you was genuine."

Harry snorted in disdain.

"Yeah, very genuine until someone accuses me for infidelity and the idiot believes it without hesitation," Harry muttered bitterly.

Lily, James and Sirius exchanged worried glances.

"You've never talked to anyone about this before," Lily probed gently. "Are you willing to talk now, darling?"

Harry shrugged.

"Why not? We've already stepped into the water. Might as well keep going and eventually drown," he replied dejectedly.

Lily hugged him tightly.

"We love you, Harry. We won't push you but we want you to be happy. And that involves talking about these things so that you can heal."

"I was happy a few minutes ago," Harry pointed out stubbornly

"But you're sad now because you're clearly have unresolved demons within you," James countered. "You have to talk instead of bottling things up, son."

Harry sighed in defeat.

"What do you want me to talk about, dad?" he asked despondently. "You want me to tell you how humiliating it was? To be sold off like a trophy to the man who murdered my parents and godfather? To realise when I was only seventeen that I had no one in the world who loved me after all the bullshit they expected from me? That not even one of the people I knew and trusted bothered to fight for me? For what I wanted? Even the Weasleys were more concerned over marrying me off to Voldemort – a man they hated – than out of true concern about my feelings on the matter. It makes me wonder if the groom had been some Death Eater with less blood on their hands, would they have stood by like the others? Like Lupin did?"

Harry gave a bitter laugh.

"Hermione and Ron love you for who you are, Harry," Sirius pointed out softly. "Even if you cannot trust the others, you can trust those two."

Harry gave another bitter laugh.

"And what good did that do for the three of us? They weren't able to help me at all, the poor things. All they could do was cry with me the night before the wedding, when the realisation that one third of the golden trio was going to be bonded off to another man forever," Harry broke down into a sob. "You were right. They loved me for who I was, the two of them. Only problem was, the three of us realised it way too late."

James, Lily and Sirius exchanged confused glances.

"Prongslet? What do you mean?"

"I loved them, dad," Harry choked out. "I realised it the moment I was never ever going to get the chance to be theirs. I loved them. I was in love with my two best friends. It was the reason why I didn't work out with anyone else I'd dated. It was the reason why even when Ginny offered me her virginity, I couldn't take it. Yes, marriage was sacred and all but I realised had Ron and Hermione been in Ginny's position, offering, I wouldn't have hesitated that day."

"Oh."

Harry let out a derisive sob.

"Oh indeed. We were messed up, we were."

"No, you weren't," James cut in. "It's completely natural that you fell in love with your best friends. They were the only two people who had shown you true care and concern. And giving your heart to someone isn't easy. You have to trust them to take care of it. Hermione and Ron were the only two people who loved you and the only two people you trusted completely. There's nothing wrong with you or them."

Harry hiccupped against his mother's neck.

"Is that why you're sad now?" Lily asked. "Do you still have feelings for them."

Harry shook his head, sobbing even more.

"Not exactly. Back when I was seventeen, I wished I could have been with those two. But in the ten years into the marriage with Tom, I learnt to get over it. All three of us did. I was stuck in a bond that I couldn't escape, that we all knew I wouldn't be able to escape. They didn't deserve to hold back their lives waiting hopelessly for someone who could never be with them."

Harry gave an unhappy smile.

"We decided together that we'll move on. It was terrible. "Let's stay friends. Siblings in all but blood." Bloody terrible decision, I tell you. I hated that I only realised I loved them when I was lost to pursue them forever. Took me years to get over the unfairness of that. But I did. Eventually, seeing Ron and Mione was like looking back at a first lover. Bittersweet but not agonizing. I even managed to stay happy at their wedding," he whispered out with a miserable chuckle.

Sirius, James and Lily cuddled Harry in a group hug.

"Oh pup," Sirius whispered. "Did you guys revisit this topic after you left the bond with Tom?"

Harry shook his head.

"We didn't have to. We knew whatever it was between us, it was not going to happen. I meant it when I said it, Siri. We moved on. We forced ourselves to move on initially, yes but we learnt to genuinely let go along the way. I love them both. I will always love them both, as they would both love me always. But none of us are in love with each other, no longer. At least between me and the two of them. I'm sure Ron and Hermione still are in love with each other," he chuckled weakly again, a slight bitterness buried in his tone at lost opportunities.

The quartet sat in silence for a few minutes.

"They sold me like a trophy," Harry muttered out a while later, voice breaking as he voiced out the hurt that haunted him for years. "Why did they do that to me? Why? Mother I never did anything against those people in the wizarding world. Why did they do that to me?"

Lily hugged her son fiercely, silent tears rolling down her own face. Her heart broke at the despair her son's voice held. She cursed herself for not having been fortunate enough to live. To have not been fortunate enough to stay by the boy through his life.

"Because they didn't want to fight, love. The Light side didn't want to continue shedding blood and let's face it, they were lazy sheep anyways. When they heard there was an easy way out without compromising their own wants, they took it like the selfish people they are," Lily explained, voice dripping with disdain for the people who had abandoned her child. "The Dark side on the other hand didn't want to lose, because it was obvious that they were losing. Yet they had too much pride to surrender, so they chose the easy option that guaranteed them freedom for their sins yet allowed them to continue their agenda. So, they took that easy option too, like the selfish people they are."

Harry snorted in disgust.

"They are selfish, alright. Selfish bastards. Stood behind me so that I would fight their wars and then stabbed me in the back to save their own coward lives. I wish they would all rot like they deserve."

Sirius ran a comforting hand against Harry's hair.

"Careful there, pup. You hold a lot of power remember? You're going to end up cursing the lot of them, not that I would be against it if you did. But you're sadly too nice that you may regret it later if you did something rash."

"Oh, let him curse them, Padfoot. They deserve it."

Harry curled further into his mother's shoulder.

"What about Tom Riddle, love?" Lily asked softly. "What do you hold for him in your heart now."

Harry snorted.

"Tom bloody Riddle," Harry felt his eyes warm up again with a fresh batch of tears. He let out a hollow laugh. "Tom bloody Riddle."

His laugh turned hysterical.

"Oh, how I want to curse and kiss that man at the same time," he spat out frustrated.

Beside him, Sirius snorted as his parents gave weak chuckles.

"That's one way to put things into perspective, pup."

Harry gave a miserable smile, eyes blurry with his tears.

"I hated him at first. No much surprise there. I hated him so, so much. Laying blame is so easy you know? And he was right there, with all the convenient reasons to blame and hate on. Why was I an orphan, treated worse than a house elf, raised loveless, used like a pawn? Well, we have Voldemort to blame for having killed my parents and leaving me vulnerable to the vultures of the wizarding world. Why was I always in danger, never able to sleep with my eyes closed, always checking my back for incoming curses, always targeted? Voldemort again. Why was I crying the day before my wedding night, pulling vainly on a wretched engagement ring that just won't come off, wishing I were dead instead of standing at the altar when all my life I had dreamed to be doing just that? Oh look – we have Voldemort again."

Harry looked at his father with dead eyes.

"Did I mention that Dumbledore had wanted to walk me down the accursed aisle in your stead, dad? I had never felt more strongly to use the Cruciatus curse on someone than that man in that bloody moment when he dared to suggest it. Ron walked me down on the actual day, though, after arguing with the old coot till he conceded. He even punched the old man in his face too. I think he learnt that move from Hermione. But it did the trick. The old goat had never look more shocked in his entire life."

For the first time since speaking out on his past, Harry gave a true smile.

"But let's get back to Tom bloody Riddle," Harry's mood plummeted quickly. "Why do I want to curse him? Oh right, because he was the root of all my life's problems."

Harry didn't realise it but his magic had long started to swirl around him in his anger and depression. The ghosts of his dead family exchanged concerned glances as they noticed the angry swirls of green and gold were starting to lash out on the objects in the room in Harry's rage. They had no qualms in letting Harry release his feelings but they knew the twins – who still apparated in and out of rooms unexpectedly – may not be ready for this if they decided to spontaneously come in search for their papa.

"You mentioned you wanted to kiss him too, Prongslet," James interjected quickly, wanting to calm his son someway in hopes to calm his magic too. "What brought that on?"

Harry slumped back onto his chair, abandoning Lily's shoulder.

"His bloody handsome face," Harry muttered petulantly, his magic simmering to a lethargic flow that seemed strangely like a magical equivalent of a shrug. "Nobody should have such a bloody handsome face. It should be illegal, I tell you. I wish he had stuck with his snake face instead of absorbing his horcruxes to return back to his prime. Then he wouldn't have gotten back his stupidly bloody handsome face."

Sirius, James and Lily laughed silently at the change in mood of their charge.

"So, you like him for his pretty face?" Sirius inquired between snorts.

Harry rolled his eyes, wiping half-heartedly at his cheeks.

"Don't make me sound so cheap, will you, Siri?"

"But you do, don't you?"

Harry sighed.

"Initially yes."

"Initially?" Lily asked with a way-too-curious look.

"Merlin, did you lot not watch in on me from above? Didn't you see all this already?" Harry asked exasperatedly.

"We did and we have. But when we crossed over to the mortal realm under Necromancy, the knowledge became faded sweetheart. We only remember the gist of things," Lily explained patiently.

Harry groaned.

"Of course. Nothing ever goes easy for me."

Lily patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"So, about Tom Riddle's bloody handsome face?" Lily pressed with an eager look.

"Mum," Harry whined as James and Sirius laughed.

"Well, you left us at the good part!" Lily defended.

Harry sighed in defeat.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Everything," his family chorused.

Harry slapped his palm across his forehead, utterly done.

"Nosy gits," he muttered.

"Hey!" three voices cut in.

Harry sighed.

"Yes, I liked him for his face, initially," Harry admitted in defeat.

He rolled his eyes at how his three companions leaned closer to hear more, clearly intrigued. For adults, his family clearly behaved like teenage kids.

"How? You hated him a lot," Sirius pointed out.

Harry shot the man a sullen glare.

"Thanks Captain Obvious. I hadn't realised."

"Well then how pup?" Sirius pressed on, shamelessly interested.

Harry sighed.

"It happened about our third year into our marriage. I had just returned to our house, after officially deciding with Ron and Hermione that the three of us needed to move on," he replied, voice growing soft.

Harry gave a small smile.

"I don't really know what came over me or Riddle. I was frustrated and angry from all that I had been dealt with in life and I think that day Riddle was also in a terrible mood, likely because some of his bills must not have gotten passed in court," Harry snorted derisively. "We each got home and were in the middle of our usual snarky arguments when it got to a full-blown fight for the first time."

Lily tilted her head.

"You've never fought before that during your marriage?"

Harry shook his head.

"It was more arguments and petty insults. Neither of us wanted to spend much time with each other so even our arguments were rather short. The house was always filled with silence and tension otherwise."

Harry stared out unseeingly at the air in front of him.

"That day had been the first time we had butted heads full on. What started out with the initially insults soon turned into a full-blown duel," Harry chuckled darkly. "You should have seen the two of us. We hadn't even fought that way during the war. Flinging chairs, shooting spells, breaking tables. We destroyed an entire floor to Kreacher's horror, mind you. Somewhere along the fight, our wands had left our hands and we were down to swinging punches and exchanging kicks."

Sirius whistled low, eyebrows rising high.

"You two certainly don't do things by half, do you."

Harry snorted again.

"I suppose not."

"What happened next?" Lily asked.

Harry's cheeks tinged a light pink.

"Well, we ended up on the floor at the end of the fight. He was somehow on top of me, straddling my hips," Harry's blush deepened. "And well, I'm not sure who moved first but the next thing I knew, we were kissing. One thing led to another and soon both of us were naked and shagging hard on the floor."

This time Sirius' whistle was high and appreciative. Harry swatted at the man, cheeks aflame.

"It wasn't all that amazing. Both of us had been frustrated in life, angry at each other, very much sex-deprived and completely at our wits ends. It was a bad time and what we did was certainly not the best way for two virgins to learn how sex worked."

James and Sirius sputtered in indignation.

"Voldemort was a virgin?"

Harry laughed.

"Apparently. It seemed that the man had been so obsessed with his visions and then later misled by his desires for immortality, that he had never bothered to get laid."

"Bloody hell," James and Sirius muttered.

Harry snorted.

"Yeah. I was surprised myself. Our first time was sloppy and messy, not to mention we were both exhausted from our duel and brawl. It was stupid of us to have done that but it helped. If only to give the both of us new avenues to vent our frustrations."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Are you telling me you became – what's the term? – fuck buddies?"

Harry gave a mirthless laugh.

"Yes, we did. For the next two years, we were solid fuck buddies, despite being married to each other under irrelevant oaths on "love" and "family" and all that jazz. We traded the worst of insults between kisses, spat out pure venom at the other during both of our climaxes and full out made sex a hard and unforgiving affair between the two of us. I was never able to walk for weeks, but I assure you, I fucked him twice as hard over for that. It was satisfying."

Harry paused at the confused faces of his family.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? Tom and I switched occasionally. We didn't really give a shit about who was top or bottom, as long as the sex was rough and merciless. We were sadist, I'm not going to lie."

Silence reigned in the room for a while.

"What changed?" James eventually asked.

Harry looked at his dad with a raised brow.

"You said you were fuck buddies for two years, son," James pointed out, not at all batting an eye at how the conversation had turned. Harry idly wondered what his parents would have done had they actually been alive when hearing all this from him. Then again if they had been alive, he likely would not have even been put through a quarter of the shit he had been in. "So, what changed after two years?"

Harry frowned in contemplation.

"I wouldn't say it changed after two years. But more changed over the two years. While we had been fuck-buddies," he clarified. "I don't know exactly. I suppose the sex helped but after the first year in our new relationship dynamics, things started to change bit by bit. For one, the insults turned milder, the hatred less intense. We still hated each other but we were moving towards being able to see past that."

Harry paused, lost in his thoughts. A wistful smile graced his lips.

"I suppose it was sometime before our fifth anniversary. We sat down and managed a decent conversation, you see. We had the occasional argument but for the first time, we talked. It was the first time I heard about his vision for the Wizarding World too. Not all of it. But some. They were very different from what the Light side had always preached."

Harry smiled a bit more.

"One thing we agreed upon was the opening of an orphanage. Having a place for little wizards and witches who didn't have a good home. We worked on it together. I helped him pass the bills. Helped him set up the necessary department in the Ministry and recruit eligible people to run it and also run the orphanage. And by the end of the year, we had established the first ever Wizarding Orphanage in Britain," Harry tilted his head up slightly in pride. "I named it. Haven. It just made sense to name it that way. Our little Haven for kids that needed it. A place where children who had a home life like me and Tom could find sanctuary in."

A tear rolled down Harry's face silently.

"We made love that night after the opening ceremony was all wrapped up. It was," Harry searched for the right word. "Sweet."

He turned to look at Sirius and his parents with a tear-filled smile.

"That was the first night I fell for him." Harry laughed brokenly through his new tears. "And after that, falling for him all the way had been easy."

Harry reclaimed his spot on his mother's shoulders.

"I fell for him hard, you know?" Harry closed his eyes, remembering all the tender moments he had shared with the man. All the butterfly kisses in between meetings, the impromptu make-up sessions behind closed Ministry rooms, the time they both finally agreed their marital house was finally their home.

"We celebrated Beltanes together, learnt to look out for one another and have each other's backs, spent countless nights making new laws to improve the wizarding world and explore each other's body," Harry whispered out.

He opened his eyes.

"I forgave him for his wrongdoings by the time our seventh anniversary had rolled around. I had loved him completely by then. Even his short tempers and his over ambitiousness. I loved everything about him. I gave him all of me, mum. All of me."

Harry closed his eyes again, misery coursing through his veins.

"That's why it had hurt so bad when I realised, he didn't do the same in return for me," Harry whispered out, voice cracking and heart breaking again as he relived the moment that completely broke him again.

I trusted you.

Harry let out a hysterical sob.

"Three words, mum," he turned despairing eyes to his mother, who was crying silently with him. "He made me all alone in the world again with just three fucking words, the bastard."

Harry broke down completely, clutching his dead mother desperately as his sobs wracked through his entire body. His magic swirled around the room in despair, unable to soothe its master yet too miserable to break anything in a rage. James and Sirius closed in to hug their heaving charge in a hug, embracing Lily too since she was already glued to Harry in a fierce embrace.

The quartet stayed that way for a long time, letting Harry cry out his heart for the years of torment and pain he had been dealt with in life.

Tom Riddle shot up in his bed, gasping.

"Harry!"

He clawed at the aching in his chest, silent tears rolling down his face.

His Harry was hurting. He was sure of it. But he had no way to reach the man and comfort him.

Tom snarled in frustration. The wedding band on his left ring finger tightened like a noose, reminding him of his failure as a husband, mocking him for his helpless state. Harry's own ring, which he had kept hung on a necklace around his neck, seemed to burn into his skin, punishing him for failing Harry.

Tom let out a broken sob.

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry, my love!"

His words were lost to the silent night.

An hour later, Harry, James, Sirius and Lily were curled up together in Harry's chair, said chair finally expanded magically to fit all of them snugly.

"Do you know what's more pathetic?" Harry hiccupped. "Even after all this, I still want to go back to him."

Harry gave a bitter laugh.

"Right back to the person who hurt me most. Because ironically enough, I loved him most in my life too."

Lily ran a gentle hand through Harry's hair.

"That doesn't make you pathetic in any way, my dearest. Love is never pathetic." Lily kissed the crown of Harry's head. "I'm proud that you are still capable of feeling so much love for someone else despite all the adversities you've gone under. You never crumpled into bitterness and resentment. That shows your strength, Harry. Don't be ashamed by it."

Harry melted further into his mother's side.

"I want him back so badly, mother. But even if I wanted to, I can never go back to him again," Harry whispered brokenly.

Lily's arm tightened around him.

"You can, Prongslet," James replied gently from Harry's left. "His persistent letters show that he wants to talk to you. That he wants to make amends. You've probed enough through Teddy to know the man has never taken another into his life yet. He is obviously pining for you as much as you pine for him."

Harry shook his head silently as a single tear followed its ancestors down his tear-stained left cheek.

"You don't get it dad. I can't go back to him even if I wanted to."

"What do you mean pup?" Sirius eventually asked after exchanging worried glances with his two best friends.

Harry's eyes glazed over in pain and more tears.

"I just can't."

When the twins were nine months old:

"Come on!" Harry cheered. "Almost there."

Hermione bounced beside him in excitement.

"Yep, you got it Lee-lee! Whoo!" she added her own two cents of encouragement.

Lydia fell to her knees again before giggling and standing up shakily on her little legs.

"That's it! Come to papa, princess."

It took a while but the curly-haired child eventually fell into Harry's waiting arms. Harry scooped the giggling child up with a happy laugh, Hermione squealing beside him in excitement.

"You did it, love! You walked! Now let's get your sister up and walking too, yeah?"

Lydia squealed and smacked his lips.

Harry chuckled.

"Yep, I think it's brilliant too."

Harry turned to Hermione with a wicked smirk.

"Ron's going to be so jealous he missed this due to work, by the way."

Hermione laughed.

Tom watched in silence as Artemis flew away into the evening sky, clutching his latest letter for Harry in his claws.

It had been months and Harry had yet to reply to Tom. It spoke of how much his lover was hurt by him that the usually forgiving man had yet to open even one letter from him.

And Tom was certain Harry had not opened any of his letters.

He knew his lover.

If Harry had opened his letter, the man would have broken his silence by now to say something – anything – back to Tom's apologies and begging, be it to admonish, curse or even verbally slap Tom across his face.

The lack of letters only proved how angry and disappointed Harry was that he could not bring himself to even read Tom's words, probably dismissing them to be ingenuine.

But Tom was persistent. He would write an infinite number of letters if he could get Harry to talk to him again. He would wait years if it meant he could have one more day with his Harry. He realised too late of what a treasure he had had within arm's reach.

There was simply no one Tom could love like he had Harry. Despite their history and all their differences, Harry was the only person Tom truly had brought himself to love and care about. It had been why he had lashed out so stupidly when the idea that his Harry could have betrayed Tom's trust. In a fit of irrationality, where his past fears of insecurities crept up, he regaled back to the foolish wizard he had been as Voldemort, after splitting his soul. He had lashed out unjustly on the one man who he had given his hear to and who had gave his heart to Tom in return.

But where Harry had guarded and cherished Tom's heart, Tom had unwittingly shattered Harry's in his own flaws.

Tom closed his eyes, breathing out against the pain in his chest.

He had been having strange dreams the past few months. Mixed amongst the memories of his Harry that resurfaced during his sleep, he kept seeing the shadows and figures of children. Two children. With features that Tom couldn't grasp other than their glowing eyes – eyes that were a stunning replica of his once husband's own emerald orbs.

The dreams made Tom fear. He wondered many nights if Harry had perhaps moved on. Without him. Unlike the man, Tom had yet to rescind his marriage vows. Had yet to remove the wedding band on his finger. But Harry was not tied down to him so. And his Harry had every right to move on without him if he wanted.

Tom felt his heart stutter again.

Even when he had split his soul, he had never felt this empty within.

Another part of him wondered if perhaps the strange dreams he were having were a mocking. Gifted to him by some higher power that was showing him what could have been. Telling him how if he had not made such a huge blunder, he would have had been living the dream he had kept close to his heart ever since he had been a child, cramped beneath a bomb shelter during the muggle's war, praying he wouldn't die an orphan. That he wouldn't die as another face who nobody would miss or weep for.

A single tear ran down his cheek, unbeknownst to him.

Tom very much wished he could reverse time and stop himself from having let the man of his dreams and hope slip away. That he could have learnt to let go of his insecurities without having to have lost his lover first.

"I miss you," he whispered out to his silent room. "I miss you terribly, my love."

Harry stilled as a gentle breeze brushed past him from nowhere.

A shiver ran through his spine and he felt as though someone had whispered to him in his heart. Crimson eyes flashed through his vision, along with smirking full lips.

Harry swallowed at the longing that coursed through him.

The breeze vanished.

Harry blinked as the chilly feelings went away as unexpectedly as they had come.

"Well, that was weird."

He went back to the book he had been reading but soon found he was unable to focus on the words. He groaned as lust-filled red eyes and sinful lips swam across his mindscape relentlessly. Apparently, they had decided to stay unlike the sudden breeze.

Harry glared at his book sullenly before accepting defeat and going to his room.

If he was going to think sinful thoughts, he might as well make sure he was away from the children. Lydia and Raksha may not understand him, but Teddy – who was visiting again – certainly would. He did not want to be one to scar the boy with the birds and the bees talk, no thank you. He wanted to remain as the cool uncle.

"I'm so pathetic," he muttered to himself, passing by his dad and godfather unknowingly. "Stupid thoughts. Stupid, stupid, stupid thoughts and red eyes and kissable lips…"

Sirius and James snickered at the man who walked by without noticing them.

"You think he got another letter?"

James shook his head, patting the phoenix who was perched on his shoulders. Fawkes crooned in delight.

"Nah, I reckon something triggered his memory more likely. Let's go tell Lils. She loves blackmail material more than us."

When the twins turned one-year-old:

"Ayee!" Harry cheered as Lydia blew out her candles and watched with happiness as Raksha did the same from his father's arms.

"My little princesses are a year old!" He twirled Lydia happily, laughing as the girl squealed at his action, evidently delighted.

"Pa-ah," a little voice called out from his side.

Harry paused in shock before whirling to look at his little Raksha in amazement. The girl was holding out her arms for him, a pout on her face.

"Come again Rakki?"

"Pa-ah," Raksha called out again, lips wobbling in a clear signal that she was going to cry.

Harry rushed over with a bright smile, handing over a smiling Lydia to his father in exchange for Raksha.

"Call me that again, love?" Harry jiggled his daughter gently. "Come on. Call me papa again, please?"

"Pa-ah," Raksha called out, smacking Harry's cheeks with her pudgy hands happily.

Harry beamed, covering the girl's face with kisses before twirling her happily in the air.

"Yes, Rakki love. I'm your papa."

He was so happy.

"Well now that you are talking, we need to get your sister up to date too! Then you can both talk to each other. What do you say?"

Raksha giggled and gave him a sloppy kiss.

Harry smiled.

"Well, I'm glad you're on board, sweetie. Between the two of us, we'll have little Lee-Lee speaking in no time!"

Harry laughed as Raksha repeated her butchered pronunciation of the word "Papa" again in response.

"My Lord, it's still happening. We can't find out the reason why. But the magic in our environment is clearly dwindling, albeit at a very slow rate. The Unspeakables have contacted us too, verifying their own observations with ours. This only highlights that this phenomenon is serious. They never bother to contact the Ministry with their findings unless it is a threat to magic itself. If we don't figure out how to counter this, years from now our future generations will suffer."

Tom Riddle sighed, staring out hard at the endless sky and green fields from his window's view.

"We must take action immediately then. We'll have to push for the Olde Ways more persistently now. Obviously, our slow approach is no longer a good method. Teach more of the rituals and their importance to the public, make this issue transparent with them. Let them know that unless they stop being ignorant and prejudiced, they are going to turn out weak. That should scare them into being more responsible for the sacred magic they have."

Tom turned to give a sharp look at Lucius Malfoy.

"We are going to have to encourage the Board of Governors to allow Hogwarts to practice wizarding holidays and rights too. Rituals must be reinstated during the equinoxes when the students are still at school."

Tom turned back to face the world outside his window.

"Contact the Granger-Weasleys, Longbottom and Lovegood through your son too. We are going to need all the help we can for this move. Our world's fate depends on it."

When the twins were two-years-old:

"Why don't you open the letter, Harry?"

Harry gave his godfather a small smile.

"I don't want to give him false hope. I refuse to do that to him. Or anyone for that matter."

Sirius gave a sigh.

"Do you really think you haven't already been leading him on? Or leading the others on?"

Harry turned to Sirius with a frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Harry do you really think none of the Weasleys or Delacours or Lupins have believed that you may one day visit them or allow them to visit you ever since you led down the mail wards? And if by nay chance they figure out Ron and Hermione are allowed to visit you, do you think they'll not hope more?"

Harry frowned.

"That's different." He bit his lip, unsure. "Isn't it?"

Sirius gave a soft smile.

"No, pup. It isn't all that different."

"Oh."

Harry looked down at the letter in his hands.

"I didn't mean to lead anyone on."

"You've been leading yourself on, pup."

Harry turned confused eyes to his godfather.

"If you truly believe you can hide away here for the rest of your life, you're leading yourself into an illusion," Sirius warned. "If you had been alone, maybe you could have done that. But you have two healthy children to think about. They can't be holed away forever here. And you as their parent cannot hide away either due to that."

"Oh."

Harry slumped down into his sofa, stunned.

"You haven't thought these things though, have you?"

Harry shook his head, laying his head on his hands with a groan.

"I messed up."

"Not yet," Sirius reassured. "You have a few good years more to live through before your biggest nightmares turn into reality."

With that, Sirius left Harry to his own thoughts.

Tom forgot he had company.

He was too busy staring in horror at his owl, who was hooting at him sadly, an unopened letter clutched in its talons.

Tom's unopened letter.

"No, it can't be," he whispered out to Artemis. "He can't have raised wards again. No!"

Tom didn't feel the tears pour down his face. Didn't hear the sound of his office door opening and closing as his companion left him to be vulnerable in privacy, being nice enough to cast a charm to ward off visitors for the next few hours on his door.

He was too busy feeling his heart shatter at his one connection to his Harry close.

Tom cried and crumpled to the floor.

"No, it can't be," he whispered brokenly.

Hermione sighed as she closed the door to Riddle's office, wiping away the lone few tears that had strayed down her face at Riddle's despair. She cast a ward on the door. Riddle deserved to have some privacy while he grieved.

She could relate to the man, honestly. She had felt that way just months before, when she had no way to contact her best friend despite Hedwig flying over to give rare letters. She had never thought he would feel this deeply however. Despite knowing the man had held genuine affection for her best friend, it was something else entirely to witness it with her own eyes.

Despite herself, Hermione found herself forgiving the man for his past deeds slightly. She sighed. She was going to turn into Harry at this rate, forgiving people left and right despite the cruelty they showed him.

Hermione smiled.

Yet that was Harry's most admirable quality in the end. The ability to forgive and the ability to see good in everyone. Unlike people like Dumbledore who faked it, Harry was true in his generosity to shower care and concern.

"Do you even realise that you've made a human out of a monster, Harry?" Hermione whispered with a sad smile as she gave Riddle's door one last look.

She walked away after that, clutching the report she had meant to show the man. They could wait a few more hours.

Tom looked up as Artemis flew down to his shoulder from his desk, hooting soft notes.

"What?" he asked dully.

He didn't know how long he had cried. But he was feeling a rather hollow ache within his chest and his tongue felt like lead from all the sobbing he had done. Tom wasn't sure what to feel about himself. He had never cried ever since the orphanage. Yet he couldn't despise his vulnerability because it was caused by Harry.

He couldn't despise anything that was related to his Harry.

Merlin, I'm pathetic, he thought.

Artemis' hoot brought his focus back to the owl. It was dangling his own letter from its left feet.

"That's mine, yes, I know. I wrote it, Artemis."

The owl shook its leg still, insistent on something Tom didn't understand.

Finally, he relented and moved to remove the letter from its leg, only to notice the folded parchment attached behind his own letter.

"Oh," Tom breathed out.

With trembling fingers, he took the parchment and unfolded it to read its content. For the first time in years, he saw his Harry's messy scrawl greet his sight. Tom let out a broken sigh.

He had always teased the man on his chicken scrawl of a handwriting. But seeing that same handwriting with loopy 'y's and curved 'h's for the first time in years, Tom thought he had never seen anything more beautiful.

Tom,

Please stop this. I beg you.

I thought all this time, just letting you send me your letters and not replying would give you my message but you are ever so persistent, aren't you?

Stop it Tom. Please. I can't give you what you want. I don't want to rekindle lost flames. I don't have it in me to be tested in anymore trials. Leave me be.

Leave us be, love. If you loved me at all, let me go.

I don't want to lead you on. I'm not allowing you to continue sending me your letters – letters I have not opened, which you very well know.

I can't do it Tom. Please. I just can't. We were doomed from the very beginning, don't you see? I can't be yours no more. Not in this life, Tom.

Don't make this difficult. Just stop, Tom.

– Harry

Tom clutched the parchment to his chest.

"If you wanted me gone so bad, why are there tears smudging your words, you idiot?" Tom choked out, glancing down to read the tear-streaked letter again.

He had no words to explain the joy he felt at having Harry direct words at him, even if they happened to try to dissuade him from reaching out to the man.

"I can't give you up, Harry," he whispered. "I just can't."

Harry didn't really want to do it. But if there was one thing he knew about Tom, it was that the man was persistent. He had to be to have survived for over a half a century of manipulative old coots, prophesies and mortal enemies and still come out with his good looks and prime age – which had been twenty-one – and push his goals successfully throughout the wizarding world.

So, Harry knew that despite his letter and his mail wards, Tom would not cease to try and contact him or find him.

He couldn't have that.

Harry hadn't been lying when he told his family that he couldn't go back to Tom despite all the feelings. Some things just are better left alone after being broken. This, Harry knew, was one of those things. He was sure. And he would know. Harry had had many broken things in his life.

Taking a deep breath, he walked forwards and sent his magic into the iron doors before him, speaking in a clear hiss to the serpents entwined around its edges. The beauty of a mind gift that is Parseltongue was that even after the horcrux within was absorbed, the language had left its imprint in Harry's mind, forever gifting him with the ability to speak and understand it.

"Open."

Harry watched patiently as the doors to his ex-husband's mind opened at his hissing. Unsurprisingly, he found the man he had been both dreading and hoping to speak to already waiting on the other side.

Harry met Tom Riddle's gaze squarely and gave a polite smile.

"May I come in?" he asked.

Tom drank in the sight of his beloved greedily.

He knew well enough why Harry had come to him. Like Harry knew him well, he knew Harry well.

If Tom was persistent, Harry was stubborn.

And that meant, Tom was likely going to be given an ultimatum tonight. Usually, he wouldn't be worried. But this wasn't the usual circumstances where he and Harry were home, bickering over some trivial topic. This wasn't a situation where Tom could use soft words and cajole his lover to a compromise.

This was a situation where Harry could well and truly disappear – like he had already proven he could – and leave Tom alone. This was where Harry held all the aces.

This was a situation where Tom knew he had limited time to take in his lover's face.

So, Tom sat quietly, delaying the conversation in the hopes that he could spend a millisecond longer in Harry's presence after a year of feeling the brunt of the man's absence.

Harry sighed, knowing Tom wouldn't break the silence anytime soon. Not with the way the man was staring intently at Harry's face, as though he was convinced Harry would disappear if he even blinked once.

In a way, it was true. Harry was going to disappear in the blink of an eye once he got what he needed from Tom.

Harry sighed.

"Tom –"

"Five more minutes."

Harry blinked at the request.

"What –"

"Don't start speaking until five more minutes. Allow me to delay this for at least a while, Harry. Please."

Harry felt his heart clench at the pain in Tom's voice. He didn't reply, deigning that his silence would show his allowance of the request itself.

If five minutes was what the man wanted, five minutes will be given to him. He supposed he owed Tom at least that as solace.

Harry sighed as ten minutes passed by.

You're so weak, Master, a voice teased in his head.

Harry tensed slightly, wondering if Tom heard it. Considering the man didn't even twitch, he supposed not.

"Tom, you know what I want," he spoke out, finally breaking the silence as he turned to look the man in the eye.

Harry watched with a grimace as pain flashed through his ex-husband's face.

"Harry –"

"Please Tom. I'm begging you. Don't negotiate in this matter. I said it already. I don't have the strength to be tested by more trials by fire."

Tom seemed to take a calm breath, ignoring the fact that his glazed eyes betrayed the despair he was feeling. Harry for his part didn't point them out.

"Harry, I'm sorry for what I put you through."

Harry gave a small smile at that.

"I –"

"No," Tom cut in, eyes shining in despair, "Allow me to finish."

Harry stayed quiet.

"I've never had anyone love me before you, Harry. Back when I was young, I had a mother whose own selfishness left her destitute and weak, resulting in her death right as she gave birth to me. I had a father who didn't want me – and for good reason after what my mother had put him through, but I never realised it then. The orphanage I grew up in was no good and only furthered added its own wounds to twist me into the monster I would later become in my life.

I grew up insecure and pathetic and I drew all that to make myself into a monster, believing it would protect me somehow."

Tom had long abandoned his seat to kneel before Harry, tears streaming down his face.

"You were the first person to show me love. To teach me what it was like to have affection for something for selfless reasons rather than obsess over something for selfish gains. I may have absorbed my horcruxes by the time were married, Harry but it was you who taught me how to be human again."

Harry stared back at his lover, helplessly. He knew what Tom wanted to say. He knew where this would eventually lead to. But Harry didn't know how to make the man understand.

"What I did to you was not right. You, whom I'm well aware sacrificed the most out of all of wizarding Britain during the war and the treaty, didn't deserve the lack of trust I showed you when you've proven that you had long abandoned your own happiness to make things right for others.

I have no bloody excuse for what I did, other than the fact that I let my insecurities from decades back take control. The potion that had been administered may have been mild, but it was enough to strengthen the venomous mistrust dormant in me.

I'm ashamed of that Harry but it is true.

And right here, right now, I have no excuses to tell you for what I did."

Harry found himself sliding from the couch he had been, mirroring Tom's position silently, wanting to reach out yet unable to make himself touch the man before him.

"Tom I –"

"I am sorry," Tom cut in, raising a shaking hand to stop Harry from breaking his words. "The only thing I can tell you is that I've learnt from my mistake, Harry. That I know how selfish and stupid it was of me to have not even bared a fraction of my soul to you when you gave me all of you without expecting anything in return.

I am sorry.

I understand you not being able to want anything to do with me. Yet I can't help but beg here – out of my own selfish need to have you by my side again. Is it really that impossible for us to ever become one again?"

Harry stared back at his ex-husband in pain, silent tears flowing down his cheek against his wishes.

"No," he replied to the man in a broken whisper. "We can't, Tom."

Harry watched as Tom's face crumpled in despair and he reached against his own instinct to grab the red-eyed man's hands.

"Despite all the terrible history we have between us Tom," Harry spoke out with a bitter chuckle, "You are the one person I've loved the most in my life. You still are, you bastard."

Harry reached out to place a palm over Tom's lips, stopping his questions and protests before they could start.

"But no matter how much I still love you, Tom, I can't bring myself to re-establish our broken bonds."

Harry let his hand slide down from Tom's lips to the chord hanging around the man's neck, fishing out his old wedding band that was held there.

"An eternal bond of union, Tom," he whispered out brokenly to his lover. "That was the vows we had exchanged half-heartedly in our façade of a marriage. It was meant to be unbreakable. Yet here we are. Broken."

Harry searched the man's eyes, seeing the pain he knew was mirrored in his own eyes. But unlike his own, Tom's eyes were also shrouded by denial.

"Accept it," he pressed. "This is the proof that you've been denying but it's right here, dangling around you're neck for us to see. We were never one in the first place Tom. Even the magic binding us broke to attest that."

Harry stared as Tom crumpled further. He cupped the man's face lightly, tilting it up so that the man would be forced to meet his eyes again.

"Tom, I forgave you long ago for this," he gestured at the ring hanging off Tom's chain. "I knew long before you even apologised, exactly why you reacted the way you did. Even before the potion was mentioned and I realised how your insecurities were exacerbated."

Harry gave a broken smile.

"You and I are not that different, Tom. You're fears and insecurities are not that different from my own. Probably because we got screwed over in similar ways as orphans by Dumbledore."

Harry gave a sigh.

"But forgiving you doesn't mean I can forget. I've not forgotten anything that has been done to me all my life, Tom. I've spent most of my life knowing these things and being forced to try and let go of them. I don't want to do that anymore.

Let me be selfish for once Tom. Let me go."

Harry let his hands cling onto Tom's again, a desperate and pleading look in his eyes.

"You love me, don't you? Then do this for me? Let us go."

Tom broke down before him and Harry felt his heart squeeze at causing the man pain.

"I don't know how to live without you Harry," Tom whispered out. "I've held on so long because I had hope that I'll see you again. That I'll be near you again one day. I've lived like a walking corpse these past few years. I – I don't know how to let you go, Harry. You're the only person I love."

Harry wiped the tears that were leaving a wet trail down the normally stoic man's face.

"Then you're going to have to learn. It'll be hard, but you'll do it."

Harry leaned closer to the crying man.

"Tom, I'm willing to bargain –"

Harry shook his head at the desperate light that entered the man's eyes.

"Not on our relationship, but on your presence in my life."

Harry gave him a soft smile.

"If you can promise not to try to rekindle our broken marriage and bonds, I'll let you in to the new life I've created during the past few years, Tom. I can't accept you back as a lover no matter what. I'm far too broken to trust that much. But I can have you over as a friend. Even if it will take us years to find ourselves comfortable in that new status."

Harry found Tom searching his eyes. He knew what the man was hoping for. But for once in his life, Harry didn't find himself wavering to Tom. Not in this matter.

Harry had long become tired of trying to force himself to be happy over broken things.

The lesson had been hard learnt over his life. But he'd finally accepted it.

Tom gave a defeated sigh.

"I'll take it, love. Having you in any way is better than a world without you."

Harry chuckled softly. It was ironic how the two of them had ended up in such a position in life for being arch nemeses.

He leaned in to press a kiss to his Tom's lips, letting himself memorize the softness of those full lips one last time. The deal they'd made cast a golden glow around them.

Harry broke away with a sad smile.

"Perhaps, love, I'll be yours truly in another life. Another life where you and I wouldn't need to worry about turbulent histories and broken things."

Harry gave a gentle caress against Tom's cheek.

"I'll reach out in a few months, once you and I have both let our new reality sink."

Harry gave the man one last smile.

"Thank you for letting us go, love."

Harry let himself fade away from Tom's mind after that, drinking in the last few moments of his lover's visage with a bittersweet smile. He opened his eyes later to the darkness of his old room in the Peverell Manor, alone and tired.

When the twins turned five years old:

Harry blinked as twin missiles latched onto him, shaking.

"What's wrong loves?"

Two sets of emerald eyes looked up at him in tears. Harry felt his heart squeeze.

"What happened? Weren't you two doing your birthday ritual?"

A pop alerted Harry's to Dobby's presence.

"Master Harry!"

Harry blinked.

"Dobby. What happened? Are they hurt? They're not telling me anything!"

Harry tightened his grip on his children.

"Young mistresses were unhappy with the ritual's end, Master Harry," Dobby explained, twisting his ears in his anxiety.

"Don't twist your ears, you'll hurt yourself," Harry told Dobby firmly before turning back to his girls. "Why were you upset? Did something hurt you at the end?"

Raksha and Lydia shook their heads vehemently.

"No papa," Raksha sniffed.

"We we'ern hu't," Lydia continued, butchering her words due to her crying.

"But magic is hu't," Raksha explained with more sniffles.

"Magic be sad," Lydia finished with a hiccup.

"Is magic sad with us?" the twins asked in sync, lips trembling at the very thought.

Harry gave a weak laugh, internally glad that his children weren't injured.

"Magic isn't sad with you, loves. If it was, it wouldn't bother showing up in the first place during your ritual. Isn't that right Dobby?"

Dobby who had been listening in concernedly nodded his head vigorously.

"Master Harry be right young mistresses! Master Harry be right. Magic loves little younglings! Magic blessed little mistresses after all when they were teensy, tiny babies!" Dobby explained hurriedly, eager to reassure his favourite twins.

Raksha and Lydia seemed to blink at that.

"Really?" they asked in sync, twin looks of hope and disbelief aimed at Dobby.

Dobby nodded again, bouncing in excitement when he noticed his young mistresses had stopped crying.

"Yes, oh yes! Ask Master Harry! He be there too! He saw magic bless little mistresses in their cribs!"

Harry chuckled as four big, round eyes turned to him.

"Dobby tells the truth, my princesses. Lady Magic blessed you when we first did the ritual on you. It's why we celebrate your birthdays on this day, even though you weren't born this day."

Twin eyes widened at that.

"What?" two voices asked in surprise.

Harry smiled.

"You two were very sick once, my loves," Harry explained with a sad smile. He pressed the twins closer in a hug. "Papa had almost thought he would lose you both years back. But you made it out alive in the end."

Harry kissed each twin on their crown.

"Papa had been so happy then. So relieved. I was so glad," he looked down with a smile at his two children who were listening to him with rapt attention. "The day after you survived, we did your ritual on you the first time, to seek Magic's blessing for the both of you. The Lady had swirled around you with so much happiness and joy. She had stayed the whole day with you that day, even after the ritual had come to an end. That's how much she had adored you. She stayed despite not having to."

Raksha and Lydia smiled in wonder.

"Really papa?" They chorused.

Harry smiled.

"Yes, really. And do you know," he whispered to them in a secretive manner, even though his whisper carried to all corners of the silent room. The twins leaned closer anyways in curiosity. "This particular ritual you do every year, it is only meant to be done once. People don't do it for their children more than once because all throughout history, Lady Magic only deigns to come bless the children once through this ritual that seeks good fortune and health. But she comes every time the two of you do it, because she loves you very, very much. You are one of her favourites, it would seem."

Lydia and Raksha gasped at that.

"Really papa?" they whispered out again in unison.

Harry nodded, leaning to bump noses with Lydia and ruffle Raksha's curls.

"Yes, my loves. You really are."

He pulled back to give the two a stern look.

"But you must promise me, you won't use this knowledge selfishly."

The twins blinked and tilted their heads in confusion.

"What do you mean, papa?" Raksha asked in her sweet little voice.

"Magic favouring you means you will great power, my loves. You cannot use this power for bad, alright? No using your powers to hurt other beings – be they muggles, magicals or even creatures – just because you the power to do so. Even when you are feeling very upset, you mustn't use your gifts for such actions, alright? Unless you are defending yourselves, do not misuse your power to hurt other for your own gain. Promise me that, will you?"

"We promise papa," the twins as they hugged him.

Lydia eventually pulled back to ask him a question.

"But papa, why was magic sad just now?"

Harry sighed as he felt Raksha pull away too to wait for his reply.

"Your Aunty Mione works at a place where they keep track of such matters. She said that for some reason, magic in our land has been dropping slowly."

Lydia and Raksha gasped in horror.

"Don't worry. It's happening, very, very slowly. But people are taking action to figure out why it's happening." Harry gave his twin girls a reassuring smile. "That must be why magic had been sad when she visited you. She probably couldn't come at her full potential due to whatever she is doing."

"Is magic sick, papa?" Lydia asked fearfully.

Harry chuckled.

"Sweetie, Lady Magic is more powerful than us. She will exist and thrive no matter what we do. If she is disappearing, that doesn't mean she is dying. It just means she's refusing to show herself to us any longer. This often happens when she is angry with the people of the land. It may be all the people, or it may be just some people. She will reappear when the people who have done wrong have atoned for their mistakes."

"Are we part of the people who did wrong, papa?" Raksha asked, new tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

Harry laughed.

"No love. If you were, magic wouldn't come visit you, remember?"

The twins relaxed against him after that. Harry held them close, rubbing a comforting hand down their backs until they eventually fell asleep against him. He smiled at their peaceful faces before locking eyes with Dobby who was still watching them with a happy smile.

I'll be leaving now Master, Dobby mouthed silently to him before popping away to focus on some other chore.

Harry stayed cuddling with his princesses for the rest of the afternoon.

Harry blinked in surprise as he stared at his living room. Or more particularly, at the unexpected presence of one Luna Lovegood.

"Luna?" he called out uncertainly even as he walked closer to her. "How did you get here? And are you alright? You look rather pale."

"I am as well as I can be, Harry. And the wrackspurts helped me reach you," the blonde replied dreamily from where she had made herself comfortable on his couch. "I have terrible yet not-so-terrible news to deliver. But I was unsure on who I could deliver it to, afraid the one I would tell would betray me. The wrackspurts reminded me that you would not do such a thing and that you know best what to do anyways."

Harry blinked again, not even bothering to question further. Luna had always been special anyways. Plus, the woman had never done Harry harm, even though Harry had no idea what she spoke of most of the time.

"I won't betray you ever, Luna," he reassured her. "What is the news you wish to deliver?"

Luna's eyes rolled back at hi question and Harry took a step towards his peculiar friend in alarm. Then, in a manner that very much reminded him of Trelawney, Luna's voice carried out across the room in a deep but mystic tenor manner.

"Till the day her Childe returns

Hecate will scorn this soil.

The Mother will punish the betrayers

Who do not feel remorse.

For too long she feels she has waited

For her children to right their wrongs.

Punishment will come as a curse

Yet redemption will lay hidden within

As a blessing in disguise

For hearts who abandon their prides.

Be forewarned however

Good fortune will come only aftertime.

For Life can only renew

Once Death is set right.

But remember in the end

Hecate shall not relent

Till her Childe returns alive"

Luna's head fell onto the couch gently and she remained unconscious as she lay there. Harry moved forward by instinct to check on his friend. With a few simple charms, he ascertained that the blonde witch was only sleeping, exhausted from the prophecy she had had to divine.

Harry supposed that it had likely taken a lot out of Luna to have kept from spilling it to anyone else but him.

After making sure Luna was comfortable and wouldn't wake up sore from her sleeping position on the couch, Harry sat himself across her and let his mind wander on what he had heard.

He had many doubts but a rather easy theory had long settled in his mind.

He didn't know what to feel about it.

On one hand, Harry was certain he didn't need to do anything to let fate play out for this particular prophecy. On another hand, he knew one line of it pertained to his decision to play in the whole debacle. A line he didn't want to play out yet.

You don't have to rush, Master, Death's voice whispered in his head. When the time comes, things will play out as they should.

Harry sighed.

He honestly got way too much things going on in his life than was fair.

When the twins were six-years-old:

Harry let the twins in on the 'Family Secret' as Teddy called it when they turned six. It was done against the protests of all his ghost family and Hermione and Ron. But Harry had stood his ground.

The twins were young, yes.

But they deserved the truth.

Besides, he rather thought the situation was honestly not as bad as it had initially seemed six years back when he had first faced it. And he did his best to point that out to the twins with Teddy's help. His godson was the only one who had supported his decision in spilling to the twins.

Lydia and Raksha had honestly taken the news as well as six-year-olds could.

They had listened as patiently as they could to the story Harry had to tell, grew concerned when some of its magnitude dawned on them, then settled down to give Harry a soul-searching look.

"Papa is not leaving us?" they had asked in sync, confused and concerned.

Harry shook his head.

"Papa will never leave us?" they pressed.

"No darlings," Harry reassured verbally.

Twin rockets launched themselves at him.

"Then we good," Lydia and Raksha chorused happily.

"It's 'We are good' you guys," Harry correctly gently as he hugged his twins fiercely.

And that had been that.

Harry knew over time the twins will become more aware of their family's reality. They had to, considering the two grew up – literally – with ghosts. But he was certain they'll pass all the hurdles smoothly together as a family.

"Sweetie?"

Harry paused and lowered the heat of the stove before him before turning around to face his mother, wondering why she was calling out so cautiously.

He blinked when he was met with the whole family, from his grandparents to his great uncles, parents, godfather and a couple more others.

"What?" he asked curiously.

"Say love, you are a wonderful parent," Lily started lightly.

Harry narrowed his eyes, wondering where this was going. He didn't like the way his family were squirming and fidgeting behind his mother's ghost.

"And really, we think you've raised the twins amazingly," Lily carried on, ignoring how exaggeratedly sweet she was smiling. "But don't you think it's high time they started school?"

Harry blinked. That was all? Couldn't they have just told that upfront.

"Yeah sure, we can start schooling for them."

Harry shot an amused look at how his parents and family brightened at that, equally happy and relieved, for some reason.

"Why are you all so surprised? I'm not going to jeopardise the twins' learning," he turned back to the lunch he had been cooking with a chuckle. "Besides, it's not that hard to call over people who have been kindergarten teachers and whatnot from the other side."

Harry missed the face-palming most of his family did.

"Sweetheart?" Lily started again.

Harry turned his head to look at his mother again.

"What?" he asked.

"We mean schooling with the living."

Harry turned the heat up to the maximum in his shock.

"What?!"

"Have they become tired of your presence?"

Teddy Lupin turned about to face his godfather.

"As if. What do you want?"

Harry gave a mock gasp.

"Can't I check in on my godson without having ulterior motives?"

"Well, that would be a first, wouldn't it godfather?" Teddy teased.

He dodged the swat the older man aimed at him.

"Kidding, kidding. Chill."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"When does your apprentice start?"

"In three weeks. Why?"

Harry sighed.

"I need a favour."

Teddy straightened up at the serious look he was being given.

"What is it?"

"Well, I was planning to sign up the kids to muggle primary school nearby. I was hoping you would keep an eye on them before you leave, to ensure they don't face any problems fitting in. Would you do that for me?"

"Sure, do you want me to enrol in, disguised as a kid?"

Harry blinked.

"No. Merlin no, Teddy. I just feel that the kids will open up to you more than to me if they ever face any problems at school, like not being able to make friends or if someone taunts them. I don't want to risk them keeping secrets and ending up stressed. Whenever they come home, just keep an eye for me?"

Teddy gave a mock salute.

"Got it, captain."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"But what happened to their ghost pals and ghost nursery teachers?" Teddy inquired curiously.

"Me!"

Teddy jumped as Lily Potter appeared out of the shadows with a cheeky smile.

"I happened Teddy bear."

Teddy raised an eyebrow.

"Pardon grandmother?"

"Mum believes I am being a Mother Gothel to my own kids because they've no contact to the outside world," Harry explained with a grumble. "Just because I find it so much more convenient to home-school them."

Teddy snorted.

"Tell him Teddy, that a child needs more than just their parent, a godbrother and the occasionally visiting aunt and uncle! They need friends and teachers and the chance to learn to socialise!"

"They had all that with the ghosts! Those ghosts were excellent teachers, unlike Binns, let me tell you. Plus the dead children deserved as much chances to play as our twins, in my opinion."

"Harry bear, the twins have no living contact with the outside world other than Teddy and your best friends. And Teddy will come by less as his apprenticeship starts in a year or two and Ron and Hermione are hard pressed to visit already nowadays, since Hermione is pregnant. That's limiting their social interactions with the living even more! However will our twins learn to integrate into society if they don't see what's beyond the Peverell wards?"

Harry pouted and looked away, unable to reply.

"See you are such a Mother Gothel!"

Harry glared at his mum.

"I am not a Mother Gothel!"

"I can understand where grandmama comes from, godfather."

Harry gasped as Lily smirked in triumph.

"You morons, I am not a mother Gothel!"

"You are, a teensy, tiny bit."

"Teddy Lupin! How dare you!"

"Shit."

Heather Williams wasn't sure what to make of the man before her. He had a certain charm to him, she wasn't going to lie, with his lazy, lopsided grin and his rather attractive looks and lithe form. Plus the way the man handled and looked after his twin daughters certainly made him rather adorable.

But there was something in the man's eyes. They seemed far older than his age. Seemed far too tired despite the happiness that shone within them every time he looked at his daughters. The somewhat detached aura around him despite his attentive gaze only served to further confuse Heather's perception of the man.

She really didn't know what to make of him.

A part of her soul screamed he was dangerous, that she had to take caution with him.

But nothing of the pale and quiet man before her betrayed anything to be wary of.

"I trust everything would go well then?"

Heather nodded.

"Of course, Mr Peverell. We're more than happy to welcome children as bubbly and bright as your twins into the school. Term starts at fall. We'll see you then."

Heather watched as the man left with his spirited twins in tow.

Harry James Peverell confused her, honestly.

Harry watched as the twins bounded away to their playroom before he collapsed into his mother's arms.

"You should have just let Teddy join you!" Lily admonished, even as she helped him slowly to his old room.

Teddy who was hovering nearby nodded, hair turning different shades of red and blue in his anxiety.

Harry simply gave the two a weak smile.

Tom didn't know what to say. He had certainly not expected his first, real-life meeting with Harry to be like this.

The raven-haired man was truly at another level when it came to shocking the life out of Tom.

"So, let me get this straight," Tom muttered out loud. "You created one half of them, linked the two together and succeeded in completely making them magical twins with twins cores and links and all that, all by yourself?"

Harry nodded, confirming the hugely edited tale that Tom was repeating.

"Do you even realise you've revolutionised magical births?" he asked incredulously.

Beside him Weasley – Ronald, Tom corrected himself – snorted.

"That's exactly what Mione was spluttering about when she first heard about this."

Tom watched his ex-husband play with his two kids.

It pained him, just as much as it had pained him during his last meeting with Harry, to watch the man. Just watch and not be able to touch or reach out to him.

But Tom was learning to deal with the pain, bit by bit. It hadn't lessened anytime over the years, no. But Tom learnt to live with. Learnt to be at peace with the despairing knowledge that he and Harry weren't going to reunite.

Not in this life, as Harry had told him.

Tom smiled bitterly, watching Harry spin one of the twins around only for the other to pout and nag him for equal attention.

He wondered if things had played differently, he could have been there with Harry, entertaining twins who reflected features of both him and his lover.

Tom sighed.

This meeting was turning out to be equal parts heart-warming and heart-wrenching for him.

When the twins were seven-years-old:

Harry stared at the three in front of him with a blank face, internally enjoying how they squirmed uncomfortably at his attention. He loved doing this.

"We need to talk," he said in a solemn voice, looking at them with a disappointed look. He didn't have to wait long before the three snapped in their guilt.

"We didn't mean to eat all the brownies papa –"

"We only stole one slice of the treacle tart, we swear –"

"God father I tried to stop them during the treacle tart –

"We won't do it again –

" –But the brownies were too tasty to resist – "

"We're sorry papa we –"

Harry raised a hand, stopping all the words that his children were vomiting.

"Well, I'm disappointed," he said with a shake of his head. He snickered internally at how Lydia, Raksha and Teddy withered at his words. "Not only do you break the rules, but you got caught. That's disappointing. Two half of the dead marauders are rolling in their graves at you right now."

His three children withered further at that.

"We're sorry," they chorused in humiliation.

"Sorry isn't going to change the fact that you got caught. And that you're going to get punished."

Harry summoned the "Mischief Mismanaged" notebooks that the three owned and handed it out.

"One week for the twins to write seventy lines of "I shouldn't break rules" each. But only two days for you Teddy to write the same thing a hundred times since you are honestly an adult."

Harry waved off the three who each looked like their souls had left their bodies.

"Go now. And I better not catch you in such disgraceful situations again. Honestly. Stop getting caught so many times."

Lydia and Raksha squealed together as little Rose sent them a gummy smile. Harry, Hermione and Ron chuckled from their seats nearby, watching them.

"She's so cute!" Lydia cooed.

Raksha nodded in agreement with her twin.

"We have to take her under our wing, sister!" Raksha told her twin seriously.

Lydia nodded.

"Yeah! She must learn to grow up to be a good pranking member of society."

"And we are responsible to teach her that as her big sisters!" the twins finished excitedly before going back to coo at the little baby in the crib.

"Oh no," Harry groaned along with his best friends.

"I'm coming after you Harry James Potter," Hermione warned. "If my child ends up losing way more Hogwarts house points that you and your father put together!"

Harry gulped.

"What's this godfather?"

Teddy stared at the ruby drop pendant attached to a beautiful silver chain.

"A gift," Harry replied with a shrug.

"Why?" Teddy questioned. "Are we celebrating anything?"

Harry shook his head.

"No. The twins are very magic sensitive you see. They often get upset after a ritual celebration because by the end of it, they don't like it when the awakened magic hides back into the environment. Plus, they also don't like it that magic is slowly dropping, no matter how minutely it happens. So I created similar ruby drops that will enable them to reach out to the magic in the air when they feel like sensing magic even when there are no rituals. And well, I thought you'd like one too. It may help you in your future job, who knows?"

Teddy gave Harry a small smile.

"You don't have to keep giving me gifts when you give the twins something, godfather. I won't get jealous. I'm too old for that."

Harry smiled.

"But I want to. You are still my first child and first heir," he replied back evenly.

Teddy stared at his godfather for a moment, feeling his eyes get mysteriously misty. He lunged into the man's arm eventually, disregarding the fact that he was no longer a kid to be clinging onto the man so hard.

"I love you, godfather."

Harry's arm circled around him tightly.

"I love you too Teddy bear. Stay safe during your apprenticeship, ok?"

Teddy pulled back with a smile, wiping at his moist eyes.

"Yes godfather."

Harry gave him a gentle smile.

"Oh and just a side note, the ruby is charmed to have a quota on how many times you can keep using it a day. I thought it would be safe because I didn't want any of you to become too dependent on sensing magic while living you lives. That may turn the gift into a disadvantage. But exercise your own restraint despite the charm, ok? Don't get addicted to using it."

Teddy laughed.

"I won't, godfather."

Harry smiled.

"Good."

When the twins were eight years old:

Harry rubbed his unhappy children's back comfortingly, letting them curl around him with their pudding plates sullenly with their hair a deep blue.

"Come now," he whispered to them. "Teddy only had to leave for his apprenticeship. He'll come back soon!"

"But papa! Big brother will be gone –" Lydia started with wobbling lips.

"For two whole years! What are we to do then?" Raksha ended, equally as miserable as her twin.

Harry gave a quiet chuckle.

"Live life as usual. Sweethearts, these kinds of things are part of life. You have to just get used to them. Remember our 'Family secret'?"

Harry sighed as he felt both his girls tense.

Over the years, they had understood more on the matter and had been equally as distraught as Teddy had initially been. But they'd still learnt to accept it along the way, used as they were to their families' oddities, what with ghosts for grandparents and Death for an uncle during Samhains. (Death was especially amused and pleased at the twins acceptance of him as an uncle since the two's sixth birthday. The entity liked the novelty of his new status very much after years of monotonous routine of simply being Death, it seemed. Harry didn't get the being.)

"Just like that, this is something to get used to. It's not like Teddy isn't coming back, sweethearts. Plus, your big brother worked hard to earn an apprenticeship with the Unspeakables. We must support him! If he succeeds, Teddy is going to get his dream job of joining them in two years!"

Lydia and Raksha melted against him, part sullen and part resigned.

"Come on you guys, cheer up! You can use this time to make more new friends at school, spend more time with little Rose and even take up new hobbies!"

Raksha and Lydia seemed to pout and glare at each other at the last bit. Harry blinked, surprised.

"Won't work –" Raksha started off this time.

"We want different hobbies –" Lydia continued.

"We can't do it!"

Harry blinked.

"What do you mean? You both can have different hobbies."

Raksha and Lydia blinked back at him in sync.

"We can?"

Harry laughed.

"Of course. Why can't you?"

The twins seemed to be confused.

"We're twins?" they replied unsurely.

Harry chuckled.

"Darlings, you may be twins but you are also different people. You're both the same in looks and very similar in tastes but you're also different."

Harry gave them both a small smile.

"I know the both of you have done almost everything together growing up. Plus, having lived at the Manor without outside influences also limited your chances to maybe do things more independently. But that doesn't mean you cannot. At the end of the day, you two are Raksha and Lydia – not two Lydias or two Rakshas."

He ruffled their heads fondly, smiling at how it changed to their normal raven coloured.

"Now tell me what each of you want to try for new hobbies. We can maybe work out something before you go back to school after the weekend is over. I heard your school gives swimming lessons and some art workshops…"

Back in Britain, things had taken an unexpected turn.

The public had been worried over the dwindling magic that their government had been reporting since a few years ago. Though the change was slow, many had felt that the satisfaction and rejuvenation that they usually got after performing the rituals for their magic dwindle bit by bit every year. The people had started to feel it every time they used their magic too – the way the energy swirled, dissatisfied and almost angry at their owners.

It made the people worried.

They had been cursed, they feared, despite the government's reassurance that they weren't. They wondered what could have triggered it. Wondered how they could be spared from it.

It was the Daily Prophet that spun some theories over the phenomenon. And one of those theories hit the nail right in the coffin, even if the newspaper didn't realise it. And the people ate it up almost immediately, for it gave them an easy scapegoat to blame. A scapegoat that was not new but had long hidden away from their world.

Their Saviour.

It didn't matter to them that the man had long disappeared due to their own harsh rumours and disloyalty. It didn't matter to them that their very behaviour of pinning unwanted blame on the man had been the reason for his leaving.

The Prophet's theory of Harry leaving in an anger must have somehow cursed them all made sense to the people. And that the phenomenon with magic had started sometime around the Saviour's disappearance only served to strengthen their belief.

Outrage spread amongst the masses as they called out for the man to reappear.

To fix matters as was his duty.

Not one of them bothered to think that perhaps he had every right to have abandoned the wizarding world or even curse it for its actions.

They didn't realise how the magic in the air swirled in anger even more as they unjustly cursed one Harry James Potter's name for all their self-inflicted sufferings.

"I'm Lydia!" the twin on the right huffed indignantly.

Tom faltered, confused.

"Yeah, she's Lydia! I'm Raksha!" the other twin pouted, hands folding across her chest in mock anger.

"And I bathed the two of you since you were wee babies, so drop your charade. We all know Tom got you right the first time," Harry's voice came from behind him.

Twin sets of shoulders sagged in defeat.

"Papa!" the twins chorused. "You weren't supposed to spoil the fun!"

Tom sighed, wondering how Harry put up with the two. They were worse than the Weasley twins when it came to mischief and chaos. He was starting understand why Teddy Lupin had referred to the two as devils.

"Well it's simply rude for you to make Tom so confused. He's our guest!"

"But Uncle Tom didn't mind it," Raksha stated earnestly.

"Right, Uncle Tom?" Lydia added.

Tom gave a weak chuckle, unable to deny the pouting set of twin emerald eyes aimed at him. It had been bad enough when Harry looked at him with those eyes. The twins however took puppy eyes to another level.

"No, I didn't," he said with a defeated sigh, even as Harry, Ronald and Hermione snickered around him.

The twins beamed at him however.

"Alright you two. Go and finish up your school homework before you return to torture Tom," Harry told the two children with a stern glare, daring them to protest.

The twins set off with huffs after that.

"Sorry about that. But they really love teasing you," Harry turned to him with a cheeky grin. "They've confessed you're easy to rile up, you know?"

Tom pouted.

"Easy there, pup," Sirius Black popped out of nowhere beside Tom who stiffened out of shock. "You and the twins are going to ruin Tommy's reputation at this rate."

Tom rolled his eyes at that. It had been awkward at first to meet Harry's family, dead as they were – because of his past actions. But after the first meeting filled with threatening looks and well-justified jibes, the lot of them had warmed up to Tom without any problems. Harry had told him after a few visits that the initial coldness had genuinely been all play because his parents and godfather had apparently long come to terms with Tom's presence in Harry's life. That and Harry mentioned that as dead people, they didn't really couldn't hold much grudge against the living for long, especially when the living change over time in their characters and behaviours, like Tom had changed for the better.

Not that they wouldn't had Tom not changed, Harry's parents and godfather had told him privately once. They were well capable of holding grudges. Just didn't see the point any longer in Tom's case.

Tom was relieved.

Things were complicated in life without the dead adding to it, in his opinion.

"You should worry over your own reputation first, Black," Tom muttered back. "I heard two little girls managed to scare the dead of out you last Samhain."

Tom smirked as the late Black Lord gasped in outrage at that, interrogating the others to find out who had leaked the information to Tom about that night. It had been Hermione actually. But Tom wasn't going to risk the witch's wrath by ratting her out.

Besides, he rather liked the tentative friendship he had built with her and her husband over the past couple of years with Harry's help.

"That bad, huh?" Harry asked casually.

Tom shrugged along with the other two people in the room.

"You don't really have to worry, mate," Ronald spoke up from beside Harry. "They can only complain. They can't really do anything else."

Harry frowned.

"I don't know Ron. I feel like I should have a back up plan, just in case. I don't want to risk the twins or even Teddy's safety when he returns. I'd rather be prepared for the worst."

"Well what do you want to do?" Hermione asked from Harry's other side.

Tom listened attentively.

"Well for starters, do you think you can help me get a few emergency portkeys?" Harry questioned.

Tom frowned at the emergency plan, a dreadful feeling creeping up his spine.

"Harry, I don't understand some of the things you're doing."

Harry gave him a small smile.

"I think you do, Tom. You just don't want to accept it or can't manage to stomach to logical reason that that head of yours is telling you."

Harry smirked.

"You're going to have suck it up when the actual time comes for this emergency plan activates."

Tom frowned.

"If," he corrected the man before him.

"No, when," Harry replied with a solemn tone. "Trust me Tom. There is no question that things will sooner or later hit the fan. That's always been the norm with me, anyways."

Tom found himself facing Harry's suddenly worried countenance.

"You'll – you'll help them out, won't you? My twins and Teddy, I mean?" Harry asked. "If something ever happens to me –"

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Tom interjected seriously, unsure where this worry was coming from. "And you can be certain I'll watch over those three like my own if need be. I'm sure your two best friends will be competing in that matter with me too."

Harry chuckled at that but Tom still caught the anxiety that was hidden beneath those emerald orbs of the man.

"You'll be fine Harry."

When the twins were eleven-years old:

"Why don't you let them go to Hogwarts?" Teddy pouted. "It's been much better since Dumbledore left!"

Harry chuckled.

"Yeah but it isn't worth risking anyone finding out Lee-Lee and Rakki are my heirs, is it?" Harry replied.

"But we can always hide that fact if you want, papa!" Raksha countered.

"Yeah, we are able metamorphs!" Lydia added to the argument, changing her hair to that of a pixie cut to prove her point.

Four-years-old Rose, who was watching them argue from her seat on her mother's lap squealed at Lydia's action in delight, clapping her hand happily.

The twins sent simultaneous smiles towards the little girl before focusing back on their papa.

Harry sighed.

"The whole point of your grandmama having discouraged me to having you two home-schooled for the rest of your lives, despite my fears, is so that you two can learn to socialise and integrate with others. What's the point of learning that if you can't do that as yourselves?" Harry asked.

He gave the twins a sad smile.

"I know your grandparents and even Teddy has regaled you with lots of tales of their Hogwarts days but not all children learn magic from there! Beaxbatons is a nice school too, you know? Your Aunty Fleur was from there remember?"

"But we want to –" Lydia started.

"See the school –" Raksha continued.

"That Teddy had his first kiss with Victoire with!" the twins finished miserably.

Harry and the others snickered as Teddy's hair turned a deep, mortified red.

"We promised not to ever mention that!" Teddy hissed at his godsisters.

Harry waved a hand placatingly at Teddy.

"Oh don't worry darling. We all already knew of you and Victoire's shenanigans even though the both of you tried to hide it."

Teddy's hair turned a deeper red.

"Godfather!" the man hissed.

"Come on, you're engaged already to the woman. Stop acting so shy!" Ron spoke out from beside Harry.

Teddy pouted.

"Anyways, back to the matter at hand," Harry continued. "I don't want to risk your safety, you two. Seriously, papa would feel so much better here at home if the two of you are nowhere near magical Britain for the time being. At least, not until the whole 'hate Harry Potter' wave is over for the time being. Your safety comes first! And trust me, you'll have a much better life if you don't have to live it pretending to be people you're not. You can do that in Beauxbatons than at Hogwarts where you'll have to keep you identities hidden."

The twins and Teddy sagged simultaneously and Harry knew he had won.

"Thanks, you three," Harry beamed at his children.

When the twins were thirteen-years old:

Death had long warned Harry a year before it was set to happen. For the first time in his life, Harry was glad for the entity's presence in his life, if only because he could deal with fate's ways with a more secure footing than ever before.

He revealed Death's warning to his family without delay. It helped them prepare.

The twins spent a week off from school and Teddy took a week likewise off from work. The four of them spent the time cuddling, going over plans, steeling their hearts.

Harry didn't try to reach out to the others he had left behind, however. Didn't try to reach out to the other Weasleys or the Delacours.

He had long told them, after Sirius had pointed out his folly, that he couldn't bring it in himself to give up his isolation and visit. Or allow them to visit him one day.

He had known then that it would only serve to make things difficult in the end for all of them. Unlike his Hermione and his Ron, Harry didn't know how to make them understand the truth.

But Harry did send over the twins ever since Death's warning.

Disguised under their metamorphmagi abilities, the twins had visited them under the pretence of being Victoire's cousin sisters from France. They had only dropped their disguises whenever they had been under the Burrow's wards while visiting. They spent the time getting to know the aunts and uncles and other family they had only known through papers.

They came home each visit to tell Harry of how the family he had left behind had grown. How they welcomed them and how they missed him.

Harry listened with a smile, glad to hear of the love the others still held for him despite his leaving their world years back, broken-hearted.

Tom was unsure of what was wrong. The entire past year he had seen Harry preparing for something. What that something was, he wasn't entirely sure. But he had a feeling it wasn't good.

Even hearing that Harry had started to let the twins visit – albeit under disguises – magical Britain and the Weasleys had not eased him. Though what some would assume would be Harry opening up more and shedding his isolation, Tom felt as if Harry had started to retreat even further into his shell.

He knew Ron and Hermione thought the same thing.

But what confused him was that unlike him, they weren't worried. Rather, they seemed to have an air of resignation around them.

That made Tom even more nervous and the dread in his gut only increased.

Don't do anything stupid, he thought, hoping somehow Harry would hear him. Please don't love.

October 31st, 2022:

Tom Riddle woke with a gasp as he felt the dread that had been pooling in his gut all year long reach some sort of peak. He knew then and there, that something had long gone wrong.

Harry, was his first thought.

He didn't bother wasting time afterwards. Not bothering to change, he apparated out of his chambers to the Granger-Weasleys apartment. He wished Harry had given him a way to reach the man immediately before this. But Harry had not and no matter how much Tom wished he hadn't screwed up with the man, the reality remained that he did.

Hermione and Ronald opened up their apartment with sleep still clouding their eyes. But at his frazzled appearance, the both did become more alert.

"Tom?" Hermione asked.

"Harry," he cried out, clawing at his chest, unable to explain the sheer wrongness he was feeling.

But it seemed the other two didn't need an explanation. Their posture straightened as soon as they heard their best friend's name and they exchanged looks of horrified comprehension between themselves.

"It's time," Hermione whispered, broken-hearted, seemingly forgotten Tom's presence.

"What time?" Tom snarled, confused, worried and a whole bunch of other emotions.

He needed to see Harry now.

"Tom –"

"Hermione," Ronald interrupted. "Let's bring over. There is no point explaining right now. We need to make sure the twins are fine anyway. Come."

Tom didn't care that they didn't explain anymore. He only cared that Ron had reached over to grab his arm and the familiar feel of being squeezed through a tube enveloped him.

They were apparating to Harry.

That was all that mattered.

The Peverell Mansion was deserted for a lack of better words.

Tom looked around in pure confusion at the bare walls, where photos of mischievous twins and a lanky Teddy Lupin didn't smile down at him. Where the floors were no longer strewn with random parchments or toys, where the rooms no longer housed furniture of any kind.

"What's going on?" he asked Hermione and Ron, who unlike him didn't seem surprised.

"They evicted, obviously," Ron replied, looking around at the desolate house. "Man this feels creepy to have nothing left here."

Tom watched in silence as the man walked around, taking in the peeling paint on the wall. Obviously the house had been evicted in a hurry, despite all the emergency plans.

Tom's eyes widened.

The emergency plans! Those dratted things –

"What about Harry?" he asked, remembering how bizarre the plans for emergency had been. It had never included Harry, despite the man having planned it himself.

"I'm still here."

Tom whirled around with his other two companions to meet the amused gaze of one Harry James Potter.

"Wha –"

"You three should leave," Harry interrupted Tom with a smile. "They are still at it at the wards."

Harry's statement made sense when a beat later the entire mansion shook slightly, the wards surrounding it obviously being under some form of attack.

"You should leave too," Tom pointed out, taking a step towards the man, only to find one Hermione Granger-Weasley's arm holding him back.

"We need to leave Tom," Hermione told him.

Tom stared at her incredulously.

"Woman, your best friend is literally still in this dratted house alone while it is being attacked!"

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I know that, idiot. But we really need to leave before this place collapses on us. Harry knows what he's doing."

Tom pinched his nose with his free hand.

"Since you lot seem to know what's going on, why don't somebody enlighten me?" Tom snapped out. "Why are you under attack? Who's attacking?"

Hermione – and Ron who had silently come to stand by her other side – turned to glance curiously at Harry much to Tom's surprise and the red-eyed man realised neither the witch nor her husband knew the answer.

"Some of the witches and wizards from Britain, I've been told," Harry replied amicably as all three of them looked at him. "They've taken a step beyond simply demanding my service, it seems. They've come looking for me and hope to force me to fix the magic."

Tom sighed in annoyance and felt Hermione and Ron reciprocate his feelings as they muttered curses under their breaths.

The mansion shook again.

"We need to get you out –"

"Tom, do you really think I wouldn't leave if I could?"

Tom stilled.

"Well why can't you?"

The mansion shook again.

"I can't." Harry repeated unhelpfully, purposely not elaborating. "You three need to leave. It's dangerous for you right now."

Tom snarled.

"And it isn't for you? Harry you could die!"

The response seemed to amuse Harry.

"Don't worry about me. Leave. Now."

Tom sighed.

"You're being ridiculous."

The manor shuddered, the tremors somehow getting greater.

"And these people are ridiculous!" Tom snapped.

He locked eyes with Harry's stubborn ones.

"Well if you can't leave, then we'll simply have to put those miscreants troubling you to stop, don't we?"

"Tom –"

"Wait a – "

"No – "

Tom didn't hear the protests of his companions and simply chose to apparate to the ward perimeters of the Peverell Mansion, furious. He had enough of the people's craziness, honestly. He had tried to stop them from their spiraling theories for so long and yet they hadn't ceased their foolishness.

With a crack, he appeared before the twenty to thirty wizards trying to stupidly take down ancient wards that were beyond their expertise.

Cries of "Minister Riddle!" rang out amongst the assembled group and Tom shot them all a dirty look.

"Pray tell, what are you lot doing?"

"We're trying to get Potter out, sir!" a voice shouted from the back.

Tom reigned in his desire to simply lash out at the people before him as he felt two people apparate beside him, staying a few steps away from the end of the wards like him.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Ron blurted out.

"They seem to think bringing down ancient wards is a splendid idea!"

"Well, someone had to force Potter out of hiding!" a witch from the middle of the group called out. "Since you are here, why don't you make him come out? He needs to fix what he did!"

Hermione seemed to lose it at that.

"Now listen here, you lot! Harry doesn't have to fix anything since he wasn't the one to create any problems! I don't know what you lot did to find him in his private home – probably some illegal scrying spell that invades privacy – but cease your foolishness this instant!"

The legendary Hermione Granger's wrath seemed to make the group before them shrink. Obviously, they hadn't forgotten just how vicious the witch had been in hunting down and punishing the people who had caused her best friend to leave the wizarding world. Nobody had outright accused the witch but many had speculated she was behind Dumbledore's downfall after Harry Potter's disappearance from wizarding society.

But still, the reminder wasn't enough to back them down however.

"If you knew where he was already, you should have made him come out to fix his doing beforehand Granger!" a wizard's voice called out from the middle of the group, where his identity was hidden.

"Yeah! Then we wouldn't have to force the traitor out like the coward he is for cursing us all behind our backs!"

Tom watched with suppressed glee as Hermione's magic lashed out at the entire group at that last insult to her friend, throwing the whole lot of their hoods back and marking their revealed faces with the words 'betrayers in bold red.

Tom was decidedly impressed.

"You've decided to mess with something bigger than yourselves, fools," the witch snapped out. "Be prepared to lie on the graves you've dug for yourselves. And if by tomorrow morning any of you betrayers remain alive, I'll drag you out to the Ministry and get you kissed by the Dementors for having successfully pushed our entire world to the last stage of its doom."

With that Hermione grabbed hold of his and her husband's arms each and apparated them away from the wards' edge, much to Tom's consternation. The last thing Tom saw as the world around him distorted was someone flinging a rather familiar curse at the wards, causing the structure to catch flames.

Flames that took shapes of Dragons and Thestrals and roared in vengeance for fuels.

Tom was about to protest when he realised Hermione had apparated back inside the Peverell mansion, rather than away.

He sought out a familiar raven-haired man immediately.

"Harry, the fools have cast fiendfyre, you must leave with us!" Tom whirled around desperately to his two other companions when Harry remained standing where he was. "Tell him!"

Hermione seemed to break.

"Oh Harry, just tell Tom. He isn't going to listen otherwise!"

Tom frowned.

"What are you on –"

"Tom."

The exhaustion in his lover's voice ceased Tom's question.

"I can't leave, Tom."

Tom grew tired.

"Why the hell not?"

Harry didn't reply. Instead Tom found shadows curling around him, reaching out to trap and devour him.

"Harry –"

Tom didn't get to finish. He was enveloped fully by the darkness.

Tom took in a deep breath as he found himself deposited in front of a door. A beat later, he found Hermione and Ron apparating beside him.

"What's going on?" Tom cried out, confused.

Honestly, he just wanted to grab his stubborn lover and apparate away with his obviously suicidal arse. Why the hell didn't the man leave this house yet?

"This is Harry's first room," Hermione replied, unhelpfully. "It's the place where he conducted the ritual to try and save the twins while they were on the brink of death."

Tom frowned.

"Why are we here? Where is Harry?"

"He's inside Tom," Ronald replied calmly. "You wanted to know why he can't leave. The answer to that lies inside. Go find out for yourself."

Tom hesitated.

"You both knew this already," he pointed out the obvious.

Hermione gave him a bitter smile.

"We've been unfortunate enough to know this for the past thirteen years, Tom."

"Harry wanted to save you the pain, honestly," Ronald added. "But you're even more stubborn than him sometimes, it seems. Go on. We only have a few minutes before this whole building collapses on us."

Tom stared at his companions – friends, honestly for the past couple of years – for a beat before simply pushing open the plain, old door in front of him as another shudder shook the whole mansion.

The first thing he saw was his Harry, standing slightly off centre in the room with a pained and resigned expression on his face.

The next thing he noted was also his Harry.

Lying on a thin mattress in the centre of the room.

Tom eye's widened.

"I believe I can answer your questions, Hadrian James Potter," a deep, rich voice responded from behind him.

Harry stilled.

"Or perhaps I should say Master?"

Harry turned with absolute dread to face what's behind him, only to pale at what he saw, despite a part of him already knowing what he'd see.

"No," he whispered, voice breaking.

There, laying in the centre of the room, right where he had woken up from a few minutes ago, was his own body. Harry shuddered, the feeling travelling down his entire soul.

His soul that was not attached to his body.

The words he had read from the Peverell Grimoire washed over his brain.

While it is true that Lord Death ascertained that the one who united all three Hallows would become the Master of Death, the situation is not as glorious as it seems. The act of owning all three Hallows is simply not enough, in truth. And no matter what, there is only one way to truly master death. The Hallows only bless such a mastery by gifting the mortal who is worthy enough to unite the Hallows with Death's own favour and attention once he manages to master death.

Harry wasn't certain what to do with his theory that was proven correct. He had long understood what his ancestors had meant. It had been why he had tried to get rid of the stone after realising its origins – not that that had worked out in his favour when the bloody thing had kept reappearing.

He knelt before his body, reaching out a shaking hand to touch himself. His arm simply passed through, as though he were trying to grasp air.

The only way to master death was to die.

And Harry hadn't – didn't – wanted to leave the mortal plane so soon.

Harry let out a choked sob.

"No. Please no!" he cried out.

"Relax Master. You are not in a terrible position!"

"I am dead!" Harry cried out as he finally looked up to the entity standing near his mortal body.

Death was a strange being to look at, its appearance shifting every second to show different faces, be it of a child, adult or elderly. Sometimes it shifted into that of a creature's skin. All its appearance however had one distinct commonality.

Death's eyes were always an eerie abyss.

"That's not a terrible position to be in, Master," Death replied from the guise of a huge White Wolf, sounding miffed at his outcry.

"I am not your Master," Harry snapped, hating the term. "I am only a mortal soul and right now I'm dead, no longer able to stay and watch the two children I've fought to keep alive grow up!"

Harry gave the entity before him a dirty look, uncaring of the fact that it was a rather powerful being that could trap him forever in hell if insulted.

"How is this not a terrible position to be in?"

Death knelt down casually to reach his level, as it shifted into the image of a tall, lanky man.

"Because unlike normal mortal souls, Harry Potter, you have mastered Death's Hallows – my Hallows. And the one worthy enough to master my Hallows under fate's guide and master death, earns my favour for their forever immortal soul."

Harry choked.

"I- Immortal?" he whispered horrified.

Death cocked her head in the form a toddler, endless black eyes eerily detached.

"Does that scare you to be immortal? Many mortals do wish to earn that boon."

Harry shook his head.

"Immortality is but a curse."

Death smiled at him with the pearly white teeth of a Veela female in her twenties.

"But it also can be a boon. Besides, you will be in control of how you wish to live it, Harry Potter."

Harry frowned at the entity, confused and also somewhat getting a headache at its shifting forms.

Death seemed to notice, for it shifted into the appearance of a skeletal figure dressed in black, hooded robes – the typical Grim Reaper appearance that mortals associate it with – and didn't shift its form again while speaking to Harry.

"You, unlike other souls, will forever hold the boon to walk with me across time Harry Potter. You can choose to wander, choose to be reborn, choose to remember your past lives, choose to forget them till you meet for the first time in your new life. You can choose to assimilate into me, as souls that have reached their last lives do, and choose to break free later if you wish to live again. Even now, though you have departed from your body in soul, you may continue to live like a mortal if you so wish."

Harry snapped his head up to face the entity again at the last bit, eyes betraying his hope.

"I can live?"

"With some restrictions but yes. You are in my favour, child. If life is what you wish for, I can grant you it."

Harry frowned.

"What restrictions?"

"I can allow you to live on as a mortal for as long as you can keep this body of yours in good condition, despite your soul being unattached to it. You will be able to touch others, eat, do any mortal routines while you do so. You may use magic and you may even travel far from this body's presence, though it may cause you some strife to do so. And you will not, unfortunately be allowed to move it from this mansion, Harry Potter. The Death Magic soaked in this mansion will be necessary for me to enable this boon for you despite your disconnection from your body.

It is the best offer I can give you until you pass over to my realm and accept your status whole-heartedly.

On that note, be forewarned: The moment your body perishes here, you will pass over to my realm, Harry James Potter. And when that happens, your status will be sealed. That claim I have on your wrist will darken, forever making you the Master of Death, forever marking you as mine."

Death leaned closer, casually caressing his dead body's hair as it tilted his head at him.

"Would you like to take this deal?"

Harry bit his lip. It was the better deal than anything else, like moving on right away and sealing his immortality sooner rather than later.

He looked behind as he felt encouraging trills flow through the air, reminding him of Fawkes presence in the room. Reminding him that the phoenix was perched atop the cribs of two healthy twins.

His twins.

Harry felt his heart ache, even though he no longer was attached to one.

He wanted to watch those two grow up. For however long he could, even if it was for a few short years.

"I'll take it," he whispered quietly.

Death smiled. Harry wasn't sure how he knew but he was certain Death smiled from under his hood.

"As you wish, Master."

Harry ignored the entity's address of him and focused instead on the golden glow surrounding him and the being, before he felt Death's mark on his wrist burn coldly. In a burst of shadows, the entity vanished from before him.

His body on the floor gave a stuttered gasp and Harry felt his own heart give a weak pulse, signalling his body was functioning.

"See you in some years, on the other side, my marked," a quiet voice whispered across Harry's mind.

Harry let out a shaky breath, ignoring the entity blatantly and setting out to magically stabilize his soulless body. Somehow. Anyhow.

Tom fell to his knees, reaching out to grasp the cold hand of his lover's corpse.

His corpse.

Harry's corpse.

"W- what? How?"

Tom looked up at the Harry kneeling beside him, noting the coldness of his presence, the almost ghost-like translucency of that skin.

How had he not noticed it before? How had he not noticed that it had been his Harry's soul that had been interacting with him the past few years.

"It happened when I saved the twins from death. I died from the magical exhaustion and drain the effort took out of me. But death was merciful enough to grant me some years to watch my twins grow. For as long as I could keep my body safe and functioning, I was allowed to live like a mortal on this plane."

Harry turned his gaze to Tom.

"I've lived on borrowed time all this time Tom. And now it's come time for me to move on. You have to leave now."

Tom shook his head.

"No!" he whispered out brokenly. "Your body is still here! Your heart still beats! You don't need to leave!"

Harry gave him a sad smile.

"Tom, my body will burn along with the rest of this mansion in a few more minutes. The flames have reached the kitchen as we speak. It will take but a few minutes for the cursed fire to reach this room."

Tom shook his head in denial too.

"Then we'll take your body with us as we go –"

"Removing the body from its place of death only seals my complete death, Tom," Harry interjected calmly.

Tom stared at him in shock.

"This day has been coming since the moment Death granted me a few more years to live and watch the twins grow. I've long mastered Death, Tom. I've long died. I'm only in appearance here. My time has long come and gone."

Harry sighed, letting his eyes stray to where Tom held his body's hands tightly.

"Let me go, Tom. Leave with Ron and Mione and let me go."

Tom shook his head, tears streaming down his face.

"No," he repeated brokenly. "Harry, I can't live life without you."

Harry's eyes blazed.

"Yes, you can!" the emerald-eyed man replied heatedly. "Don't you realise? You already have lived without me for the past few years. I am but a dead soul, Tom. You haven't lived with the living me in years."

Harry gave him a small smile.

"Besides, you promised me, remember? That you would watch over my Teddy and my twins if anything happened to me."

Harry laid his hands over Tom's, tightening his cold fingers over Tom's warm ones which were wrapped around his own corpse's arms.

"Now it is time for you to fulfil that promise for me."

"Harry –"

"I'm begging you Tom. Please. I don't want my twins or Teddy wanting for their papa's and godfather's presence in misery. Don't let them remember me in grief. Be there for them. Teach them to move on. Learn to move on and live with them. Please!"

Tom broke down, leaning his forehead onto their clasped hands with broken sobs.

"Harry!" he wailed.

Harry watched the man with a shattered heart. He couldn't comfort the man. There was no reassurance he could give.

"You guys! We need to move!"

Harry turned his head to take in the flames licking at the doorway before turning back to his ex-husband who was still crying over their clasped hands.

"Love, let me go."

Harry removed his hands from atop Tom's.

"No!" Tom replied, agony wrecking through him completely. "No, I can't Harry!"

"Tom, we've discussed this before," Harry whispered back sadly. "Let me go."

The flames were closing in on them. Hermione and Ron had long moved over to the centre of the room with them.

Ron placed a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"Come on Tom. We have a set of twins to go console."

Tom looked up at the red-haired man with blurry eyes.

"How are you okay with this?"

"I'm not," Ron replied with a bitter smile, kneeling down beside Tom as Harry made space for him. "But that's the thing about life, Tom. You learn to take things that are dealt out, as unfair as some of them are. You learn to move on."

Hermione knelt down beside Tom, laying another hand on his shoulder for support.

"Harry taught you to love, Tom and we understand how hard it is to let someone you love go. Especially for you, who we know got a taste of love and affection rather late in life."

Hermione gave him a small smile filled with both sadness and determination.

"Harry taught you to love," Hermione repeated. "Now let us, as your friends and new family, teach you how to let go, Tom. Allow us to teach you how to move on and live on with the death of a loved one."

Hermione laid a hand over Tom's, Ron following suit beside her. The both of them gently pried away Tom's fingers from Harry's cold ones. Tom let out a heart-wrenching sob, shaking his head as more tears fell from his crimson eyes.

"Come home with us Tom," Ron whispered from the side, a lone tear betraying his own despair.

"Grieve with us," Hermione finished from his other side. "We'll be here for you."

Tom sobbed and leaned into the two as they enveloped him in a hug, eyes staring brokenly at his lover's dead body.

"Thank you," Harry whispered from the other end.

Hermione and Ron met his gaze from where they were still hugging a crying Tom Riddle, their eyes both misty and their cheeks wet with tears.

"Goodbye Harry," they both whispered together, voices breaking.

But they never took their eyes off his soul.

Harry gave them his own tear-stained smile.

"Goodbye my loves," he whispered back, letting his eyes take in all three of them hungrily.

The three people in his life who had taught him what falling in love was.

A beat later, Hermione, Ron and Tom disappeared from his room with a crack. Harry smiled sadly and sat alone in his room, a hollow ache spreading where his heart would have been. For the first time since he had died, he felt death's cold touch embrace him.

The flames of the fiendfyre licked the mattress his body lay on, roaring with a never-ending thirst to burn.

Harry looked down at himself, watching as his soul started to blow away like golden dust as his mortal body burned in flames.

He smiled.

I'm coming over at last, Death, he called out silently.

I'm waiting for you, Master, a quiet reply rung across his mind.

Harry let out a small sigh and felt himself fade away completely to Death's Realm.

His body burnt to ashes in the mortal realm.

Outside the shambled remains of Peverell Manor, twenty- five people flinched as magic started to swirl around in angry waves, glimmering to visibility in the air. A high, cold, female voice rang out in the clearing.

"You've tested the last of my patience! You've killed my Childe, despite all he has done for you!"

The witches and wizards in the area shrunk back in terror.

"No more! I will watch your sins no more! Suffer from henceforth, you traitors. Suffer the pain and misery my Childe has undergone at your selfish deeds. Suffer the humiliation and despair other children of mine have received at your arrogance and cruelty.

Suffer and learn, you traitors to my blessings!

And till the day my Childe returns, to live in this world that repents its misdeeds, I shall not relent this curse, traitors.

So I curse, so mote it be on my will – the will of Magic."

The witches and wizards present watched with wide eyes as the energy burned a bright white before bursting forth in millions of tendrils. Twenty-five of the tendrils rushed forward to implode onto them and the twenty-five that were present screamed as Magic's curse sunk into their veins.

All of Britain, similar incidents repeated as tendril of magic, containing the curse of Lady Magic herself, reached out and sunk within those who had wronged Magic and her gift over the years.

Hermione, Ron and Tom were at the Burrow, surrounded by the other Weasleys who had been woken up by their arrival when magic's curse reached them too.

Tom found himself receiving the longest of the strands, though compared to many of the rest of the wizarding world, his was still mercifully shorter. The others present received shorter strands than him, but the potency of the curse it carried was not to be belittled, for just like Tom, everyone in the house – who weren't children under the age of eleven at least – screamed out in agony.

Over the years, Britain's wizarding populace will relive the sufferings of the ones they had neglected over their history.

The squib children who were humiliated and disowned. The werewolves who were hunt down and killed for an affliction that was beyond their control. The vampires that were shunned and kept weakened by a ban on legal allowance to drink some blood for their survival. The goblins who had to fight with blood, sweat and tears for acceptance, only to be treated with disrespect despite being granted the right of a separate Nation in a blood-signed treaty.

And many such others' pain.

One Harry James Potter's devastating life, especially, was a common nightmare that many of the cursed witches and wizards relived. The boy's homelife after he had been abandoned the night of his parent's death, his pain as he sacrificed his life and happiness for the wizarding world's benefit, the strife he underwent as he was belittled and betrayed for crimes he didn't commit. Every misery that the wizarding world caused their Saviour came back to haunt them.

Including the fact that their actions resulted in his early death, causing him to live a half-life where he had drifted about the walls of an ancient mansion, watching and loving his two twin daughters as they grew, yet not being able to stay and see them through a lot of their lives.

Britain's wizarding society suffered through that all, again and again. Over and over.

The curse haunted them for every moment they rested, shaming them for their selfishness, their inability to put others need before their rather unhealthy need to gossip and be entertained.

It would haunt them for years to come, spreading over to their younger generations as the children turned eleven, not sparing anyone its lessons.

And till the day came where its wizarding society learnt remorse for its actions and sought to rectify its mistakes, Britain would find itself haunted by the curse forevermore.

Many centuries into the future:

Thomas Black was certain he hadn't been expecting his day to go about as such.

Tom – as his closest friends and family called him – had been honestly just trying to follow the lead of his latest case. It was on a stolen heirloom. The thief – whom Tom had long found out and arrested – had sold the Brown family's ancient bracelet which was embedded with fire crystals and apparently held old enchantments that was meant to protect the wearer from most of the world's deadliest poison and potions.

The problem was, the thief that had stolen the bracelet to a muggle pawn shop, rather than a magical one.

This made Tom's life both easy yet miserable.

Easy because tracking goods exchanged between muggles was easier than tracking them in the magical world.

Miserable because he had to travel around muggle London, being discreet about his magic usage as he searched for the stolen heirloom.

Tom sighed as he walked into the local café named 'Little Delights', having found from his last search that the bracelet's latest owner frequented this particular café on Sunday afternoons. Which meant Tom had to suck it up and watch the people who came and went by the café like a creep, with only a cup of coffee and maybe a plate of sandwich to defend his reputation as an honest to Merlin, decent man.

After placing and collecting his order, Tom sat down at an isolated corner of the indoor café, making sure to position himself so that he could observe anyone who walked in.

He waited patiently, making sure to stay alert despite the echoes of the curse that still haunted him and the rest of wizarding Britain threatened to overwhelm his mind, wanting him to relive the pain of those that had been abandoned due to his ancestors' selfishness and self-importance.

Tom honestly didn't mind the curse, knowing its presence was what helped wizarding Britain proceed and progress so much from what it apparently had been many centuries ago, which was a country divided in its people and magic. Tom couldn't even imagine what such a bigoted land must have been like, where wizards and witches didn't socialize or mingle with other magicals like goblins, vampires, werewolves, veelas and the like freely.

It sounded terrible.

So truly, he was grateful that no matter how drastic and how long lasting the curse was, that it had been cast in the first place.

But what Tom didn't appreciate was how the curse often threatened to take over whenever he was in some state of relaxation.

Honestly, he was still working, even though he was trying to sip his coffee calmly. The curse didn't have to disturb him right now.

The doors to the café opened, naturally chiming the bells attached to it in its wake.

Tom glanced up discreetly, only to stop and stare in shock as his eyes locked with the most beautiful emerald orbs he had ever seen.

He felt the magic within him sing. A haunting melancholy filled his soul and Tom felt as if he should know this stranger before him.

Job forgotten, Tom watched shamelessly as the mysterious man walked over to the café's counter, breaking their eye contact after a beat. He watched as the man – apparently a regular, from how the server at the counter greeted him jovially – placed and collected his order within minutes.

He watched as the gorgeous man walked over with his tray to him.

Tom swallowed his suddenly dry throat.

"May I sit here?" a soft and slightly deep voice asked politely.

Tom nodded mutely, watching the man settled across him.

"The name's Hadrian Mort. People call me Harry for short though."

Tom shook the hand that was offered, trying not to show how his breath hitched when he felt sparks erupt along his skin where his hand touched Hadrian's.

"Thomas Black. My friends call me Tom," he replied, doing his best to not lose control of his metamorphmagus gift.

It really wouldn't do to scare off his – very obviously muggle – companion by changing his hair into a brilliant shade of red due to his nervousness at speaking to the man.

Tom idly wondered if he was having a fever. He'd never felt his heart race so much before.

He realised only a beat after shaking Harry's hand that the man's right wrist was adorned with a beautiful bracelet that dangled with red and white fire crystals. But despite the realisation, Tom found himself hard pressed to care about his job.

No.

What he cared was for the emerald-eyed beauty before him to continue talking. And perhaps join Tom a few more times on some lunches.

And eventually perhaps walk down the aisle with him.

"Oh I don't know about walking down aisle with you yet Tom," an amused voice spoke out.

Tom realised a moment later that he had spoken his thoughts out loud. He groaned and let his head fall into his hands.

"I'm sorry!" he bit out, mortified.

Harry chuckled before him.

"It's alright, love. I'm rather down for the lunch dates you mentioned however."

Tom's head snapped up at that and he stared at the man before him who was smirking slightly.

He smiled.

"That's nice to know."

Harry smiled sweetly in response to that.

Tom leaned back in his chair as Harry started a light conversation between them.

Well, this was certainly not how he had expected his day to be. But Tom wasn't going to deny that it seemed to turn out perfect from what he could see.

"Aww, do you really think I'm perfect already, Tom?"

Tom groaned once more as he realised that he had spoken out aloud again.

Harry laughed at him and Tom found his soul singing some hauntingly beautiful melody again. He smiled, making sure to keep his next thought strictly in his head.

He may have just met Harry. But Tom was certain he was going to cherish the man for the rest of his life.

A/N: Welp - that all happened. I hope you guys enjoyed that!

Leave a review and share your thoughts if you have the time please :)

Stay safe yall!