My standard sorry for the mistakes, grammar errors, blah, blah, blah.
Sorry for the lateness also. My computer went boom and I didn't have time to fix it.
.-.
Harry looked over the grounds of Hogwarts, silent and still this late at night. The night shroud the landscape like a thick blanket but Harry could see all he desired. He gripped the metal railing beneath his fingers and gently lifted himself onto it, balancing with inhuman skill on the round, narrow thing. He looked down at the ground far below him and noticed it was all dreary stone and wicked vines climbing up the wall.
"Roses would look nice right there." He said softly. "Blood red ones."
"Any sort of flowers would make this place look more welcoming as they do to any place."
Harry didn't even glance at Dumbledore as he inhaled the sharp spring air. Easter was here and with it a warm wind. Dumbledore leaned against the rail next to him and gazed at his legs over half moon glasses. As if he was contemplating how much balance he had and how easy it would be to destroy.
"Summer is almost upon us." Harry said.
"Yes, I suppose." Dumbledore hummed, turning to look at the waning moon.
They shared another break of silence.
"I had thought this path was long lost to me."
Harry once again, didn't bother looking at the man. The little emotion still remaining in his voice told Harry all he needed.
"I thought I lost it the day I fell in love." Dumbledore sighed softly.
Harry gave a mirthless chuckle and threw his legs out, sitting on the railing with a twist that made Dumbledore wince.
"I had been like you." Dumbledore continued softly. "Powerful, intelligent, emotionless. I was a heartless efficient machine. Even my family didn't make my heart beat. But then I met someone just like me, but dark. I was so sure he was the second half to the equation. He was the dark to my light. I thought for sure that I would ascend for the Light and he for the Dark and we would cure the world."
Dumbledore gave a heartfelt sigh.
"But he didn't. And somehow dragged me from my path. He made me feel and damned me to a human life."
"You do not sound regretful." Harry pointed out.
"In a way I am not." Dumbledore said softly. "To have lived my life has been a great experience, to be human has been invaluable. But now that the change has started again…I am almost relieved. Like something missing has suddenly returned. I hadn't even notice the gaping hole before now."
"We weren't meant to be human." Harry agreed. "Sometimes we fail, or deviate from the path, but we are still not all human. We were meant to be more, so to be less hurts us."
"Could not have said it better myself." Dumbledore said wryly. "When do you think we will ascend?"
"Summer." Harry said, smiling widely, a grin of teeth and dark promise. "But first we need the triggers."
"Triggers?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"We need something to trigger the change. Something that would have destroyed us as humans and in a way will."
"Oh." Dumbledore frowned. "Do you know what they are? I take it it is different for each of us."
"They are different because we are different." Harry shrugged. "And yes, but you must figure it out on your own, or wait for it to happen."
"That does not sound promising." Dumbledore said uneasily.
Harry turned glowing green eyes on the aged wizard.
"Don't worry. It will only destroy you."
.-.
"It is beautiful." A woman breathed softly, somewhere near him. "So emotional."
Harry quirked his lips wondering at the irony. His music was devoid of emotion, and thus it was something very different. But people couldn't comprehend a void of emotion, so they labelled it as so filled with emotion they couldn't even label them.
He drew the bow across the strings in a final quivering note that echoed through the room long after he'd stopped. There was a sort of wistful, almost weary silence, afterwards, only broken as someone started to applaud.
Harry took a bow and watched from his perch on the fountain as everyone resumed their previous activities. A few came and gave him a few words of appreciation, but they to left soon. When the last had started to move again, Harry gathered his case up, he put the violin away amidst the jostle of the crowded square, careful not to damage the gift from Maen and Noir.
"Touching." Marvolo sneered sarcastically.
"Now Marvolo." Harry smiled. "They are ignorant, do not blame them."
"I very well will blame them. Stupid muggles." Marvolo grumped.
Harry gave a polite laugh and shouldered the instrument case.
"What is it you wish to know Marvolo. I'm pressed for time."
"Pressed for time?" Marvolo blinked. "What are you doing in Bulgaria that is so important?"
"Picking up a companion."
"Hmm." Marvolo said looking off.
There was a moment of silence.
"You know that task you gave Snape." Marvolo said suddenly.
"Yes?"
"Can I help him with it?"
Harry turned his gaze on the now fidgeting man.
"Did you know, Marvolo, that you are half a soul."
Marvolo blinked at the words and at the suddenness of them.
"Of course I know that." He hissed.
"And did you know Voldemort is approximately 0.007 of a soul?"
"What? No he's half a soul like me." Marvolo said.
"He divided his soul in half and made you. So half a soul for each of you. But then he divided that half in half to make a second Horocrux. And so on, until he had divided his half seven times. So no. He's not half a soul."
Marvolo stared, dumbfound.
"That means you are more Tom Riddle then he is." Harry smiled. "You are smarter, stronger, better. He is just more insane."
Marvolo gaped for once in Harry's memory, full on working his jaw.
"So you don't have to fear him." Harry smiled. "Because you are the dominant half of Tom Marvolo Riddle's soul made even stronger by the anchoring of my magic."
There was a long stretch of silence.
"You may still go help Severus if you wish. But please take Barty. He needs the attention." Harry said, sounding amused.
"….Yes. Thank you." Marvolo said softly in a voice that told Harry he was thinking deeply.
Harry watched him vanish into the crowd and smiled.
.-.
"Oh Harry." Hermione breathed, eyes bright and sparkling.
"I take it he asked." Harry said mixing in a large red bowl.
"Yes." She blurted out. "You knew of course."
He eyed the large pink diamond ring on her finger, embedded in white gold, shaped like a flower.
"Of course. He has good taste. It befits you."
She smiled at the compliment and accepted the spoon covered in cake mix when he offered it.
"I think… I think I shall love him." She said. "Not that I don't now, but I think Victor and I shall be together for many years to come."
"How many years of school does he have left?" Harry asked suddenly.
"Two years. Drumstrang has a few extra years then Hogwarts for people looking for more specialization. The charms professor asked him to become an apprentice of sorts."
"And you yourself have two years also." Harry smirked.
She stared at him for a moment then her eyes grew wide.
"I couldn't." She said. "You…Blaise…"
"I am done this year," Harry said simply as he poured batter intro a pan. "And you can still write and visit."
"Drumstrang tuition would be higher since I'm not from their usual catchment area." She said softly. "And they have more classes, more supplies. Hogwarts is already taxing my parents."
"You have to but ask Hermione." Harry hummed, "Of I, or Victor. I would give should you ask, and Victor would give you the world even if you do not ask. Even Blasie would if you asked."
She stared at him and then slowly licked the spoon again.
"I'll think on it." She said softly.
.-.
"You can enter now." The nurse said softly.
Harry stood alongside his two godfathers (the one disguised as he was still a wanted fugitive) and walked calmly for the door while they practically bowled over one another in an effort to get in there as fast as possible. Stepping into the room he laid eyes on an exhausted looking Tonks, her hair a limp grey and her eyes a tired black. But she was smiling, propped up on pillows as she held a small blue bundle. His godfathers were already right beside her, cooing and awing and generally being impressed.
Harry took a seat in a wooden chair against the wall and waited for the parents to finish.
"Harry! Harry! Look!" Sirius said fairly soon after he had sat. "My Son! Our Son! Your Godson!"
"I can see Sirius." Harry said, voice leaking amusement he didn't know if he felt or not.
"Hold him." Sirius said holding the wrapped infant forwards.
Harry took the child and looked down at the wrinkled red baby.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Remus sighed happily.
"Nah! He's ugly!" Sirius howled with laughter.
"Well he will be beautiful." Tonks huffed tiredly.
Harry looked down at the child that was his godson. The child yawned and lifted tiny arms towards him. His magic already hummed inside his tiny body and harry used his own to sooth it. The child's magic was beautiful to Harry, dark and tempting, filled with ancient blood and the power of the moon.
"What is his name?" Harry asked softly.
"Theodore Lupin-Tonks-Black." Sirius grinned cooing at his child.
"We actually agreed on Theodore Lupin." Tonks smiled softly. "We decided to let Black die and Tonks is more my first name now."
"Fitting." Harry said looking at the child that was his godson.
"Would...would you give him a middle name Harry?" Remus asked, smiling softly.
"...Nox. For night. He shall be a child of the night and the darkness." Harry said smirking. "Theodore Nox lupin. My Godson."
His magic purred at the announcement and wrapped about the child, coaxing his own magic into forming a bond between them.
"You are mine, child."
.-.
Harry watched calmly as Dumbledore stood at the head table and walked out the door to the side. No one else noticed. Most were far more caught up in the newspapers that blazed of a newly collapsed Azkaban. The papers were trying to pass it off as a series of freak accidents but even the first years understood it was something far more dangerous than that.
Harry stood and headed out the doors with just as little notice as Dumbledore. His feet carried him quickly down the stone halls, making nary a sound. He turned a corner and Dumbledore drew back, startled at his appearance.
"Ah, Harry." He said, quickly gaining his calm back. "Finished breakfast already. May I also congratulate you on your godson."
"Who is the letter from." Harry said, ignoring the pleasantries and gesturing at the crumpled parchment in his hand.
Oh, he had an idea, a very good idea, who it was from, but he wanted conformation.
"...An acquaintance."
"From Nurmengrad?" Harry smirked.
Albus gave him a sharp look but didn't question him.
"Grindelwald has vanished." He said."Not escaped?" Harry asked smirking. "Wouldn't one use that word in such a situation?"
"No." Dumbledore said looking away. "He wouldn't leave. He knew he was beat."
"And how are you so sure?" harry prodded smiling.
"...Because he promised to stay there for both our sakes." Dumbledore whispered.
"Hmm. Well, best watch out. It's like third year again, but our positions are reversed."
Dumbledore tucked the letter away, as if dismissing it.
"Would you like some tea?" He asked politely. "I wish to discuss with you an interesting letter I got from Ms Granger."
.-.
End of Chapter 50.