Sorry that this is a week later than I said it was going to be, folks. But sometimes real life just gets in the way of fanfiction writing, or in this case fanfiction planning, which meant it took longer than I anticipated. Still, it's all sorted now and I'm back to writing. I will try to update every Monday as I did before, but if for whatever reason I do not do so then I will probably have a good reason for it.

So, without further ado, the second act of this story can now begin.

Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 51:- Voldemort's Soul

*CRASH*

Morgana's fist slammed down on the bannister at the helm of the airship, a little magic leaking into her hand enough to dent the ironwork a little. The ancient sorceress was angrier than she'd been in a millennium, every fibre of her being seething with rage right down to the last hair on her head.

"Those damn dragons," she snarled to herself, her hands trembling with the weight of her fury. "Why do they have to interfere in my business? I would see them ascend to their rightful place as rulers of the sky if I could and yet they continue to skulk in the shadows with Merlin until they wish to oppose me."

"You failed to mention that we would also have two mighty, talking dragons as our opponents as well, Lady Morgana," Voldemort said gruffly, inspecting some of the singe marks on his cloak from where Kilgharrah's flames had almost torched him to a crisp. "I'd never seen or heard of those two before today. They left me alone when I was undertaking my conquest of this country twenty years ago but now they show up because you're here. And you believe the great Merlin will get involved after years of isolation in the near future as well. I'm starting to wonder if this alliance with you is even worth the effort if you bring such powerful beings raining down upon us like this."

"And yet without me," Morgana turned to glower at him icily. "You wouldn't have been able to make allies out of Grimoire Heart. I led you to that island to revive Azuma and Zancrow. I resurrected Master Hades, who is more powerful than any solo Fairy Tail member. Without their support, how long do you expect your Death Eaters to last against Fairy Tail now that all of their members that entered this world have been reunited with each other?"

Voldemort had little to say to that wouldn't wound his own pride, but he still looked angry. The Death Eaters that were still conscious were milling around, watching the staredown between the two powerful beings with rapidly increasing apprehension and wondering if one of them was about to attack the other. It certainly seemed like it was a possibility.

But eventually Morgana sighed and took a deep breath to calm herself. "You are right though," she said. "I should have told you about Kilgharrah and Aithusa. But though my presence has brought them into the fray early, if you had succeeded in conquering the country it is likely they would have moved against you or your descendants eventually."

"Why have they not before?"

"That I cannot say but its likely they don't believe the events of the modern world are any of their business now that most of the world has forgotten or doesn't believe they ever existed. It probably takes a significant event amongst mankind to even get their attention anymore. As to Merlin… well… I've given up trying to figure out what he's thinking a long time ago but I suspect the main reason he's never interfered with anyone is because he feels guilty for failing to protect King Arthur from me. He always did blame himself for a lot, though in this case he is right to. But I never expected for the dragons to make their move against me before he did. I always thought he'd show his face first."

Before the conversation could proceed any further, Master Hades strode out onto the deck, his cloak billowing out behind him and the remaining members of Grimoire Heart moving out behind him. This included Zancrow, who was lolling from side to side and staring blankly at nothing, while the other members of the guild were giving him a wide berth.

"It is quite remarkable," said Hades. "Just as you said, Lady Morgana. When you revived my body you also revived the Devil's Heart at the centre of the ship. I am just as powerful as I ever was now that that has been fixed up."

"Well that is your own heart, is it not?" Morgana smirked. "The resurrection process brings back every part of your body, including parts that happen to be outside the rest at the time. And as I understand it that heart supplies you with much of your phenomenal magical strength. It's natural I want you to be at your best giving the battles to come."

"And I am grateful for that. And for your promised assistance to get us back home… and of course in the fight against Fairy Tail. As I understand it, six years have passed since we last fought against them back in our world. Doubtless everyone will have heard about how we lost to the Fairies by now. Our name will have been sullied, and I will not have us return home until we can undo the damage to it. Which we will do by taking the dead Fairies home with us."

"A grand plan indeed," Rustyrose pushed his glasses further up his nose. "How much my fragment will tremble when we prostrate their corpses before the Magic Council."

"We will really fly on that day," Bluenote agreed gruffly.

"Perhaps, but I must ask," Azuma stepped forwards, raising his arm to jab it accusingly in the direction of Zancrow. "What are you planning to do about this?"

"Planning to do?" Morgana raised a brow.

"Look at him," Azuma growled. "I am grateful that you have revived Master Hades from the grave, but why have you not done the same to Zancrow? I never liked him much, I admit. He was practically insane and had not a scrap of honour. But nevertheless he is still my comrade and this… thing… this is not Zancrow. You have desecrated his body and turned him into this… thing! So back to my question, do you plan on keeping him like this?"

"For now," Morgana replied smoothly. "But you have to understand, my dear Azuma - there is nothing else I can do for him at the moment. I was able to resurrect Master Hades through a special Coin of Necromancy, forged by the High Priestesses of the Old Religion back before I was even born. Such a coin can only revive one soul each, and to my knowledge that was the last of those coins. I made a choice, and Master Hades was the one I chose to resurrect. But I assure you, I have every intention of raising your comrade from the grave properly at my first opportunity."

"You do?" Azuma asked sceptically. "And how will you do that?"

"I shall forge a new Coin of Necromancy of course. But as of now, I cannot do this for two reasons. The Old Religion's power must rise much higher before such things can be crafted once more. But when I have retaken Albion for my own and brought the practice back, this I should be able to do."

"But you intend to keep him a soulless creature until then?"

"Why not?" Hades asked, drawing Azuma's attention "Oh, I agree it is an abomination upon him, but it is still a way for him to help our guild from beyond the grave. To do his part in the upcoming battles even if he is not doing so of his own volition. He will help out our cause still, until he can finally return to us as a complete man once again."

Morgana nodded. "Indeed. If anything he can do even more like this as Inferi are immune to practically anything. Even if someone cut off his head now he wouldn't stop moving, and his head could be re-attached at a later stage easily. But I make yet another promise to you all - I will bring him back when I can."

"…I see," Azuma nodded, disgruntled but placated. "But you are certainly making us a lot of promises."

"He has a point," Rustyrose nodded. "Are you certain that you can fulfil them all?"

"Woo-wee… even Master Hades' magic had almost no effect upon that dragon," Kain pointed out. "Even without taking Fairy Tail into account, how can we beat them?"

"We can't," Morgana said simply. "Not with raw power anyway. They are more powerful than myself or Merlin, or any of you, so fighting them head on will be impossible. But they are not infallible, nor are they omnipotent. For instance, the Great Dragon Kilgharrah spent twenty years chained up in a cave beneath Camelot, unable to leave. And they are not immune to common steel. A completely normal sword thrust into the right place on their chests would kill them. The only problem is getting close enough to do such a thing is next to impossible."

"But when I used my Jet Black Sword it bounced right off him," Rustyrose pointed out. "And that blade can cut through almost anything."

"Because it is a magical blade. As long as an attack is imbued with magic, the dragons will have a strong resistance to it."

"Then what do you suggest we do to combat them?" Voldemort asked dourly.

"I don't know. It was easier in Camelot when magic was still outlawed as Kilgharrah could not openly assist Merlin and Arthur without Arthur trying to hunt him down. And after she was born, Aithusa sided with me for a long time and even though she was never as strong as Kilgharrah she could still help me oppose him when Merlin's magic did become common knowledge."

"I did wonder why you called her a traitor," Voldemort noted.

"Yes, Merlin eventually swayed her against me as well. It all became much harder after that, but when I sealed Merlin in the Crystal Cave for the Battle of Camlann that finally killed Arthur he was left unable to summon the dragons to the fight, which was why it was a success. This time they showed up without Merlin appearing, which is very surprising. But my point is, while I currently have no plan to counter the dragons, I will find one. And you, Voldemort. You can help me do it while I train you and your Death Eaters in the ways of the Old Religion."

"Then you mean to do it?" Voldemort's eyes lit up greedily. "When do we begin?"

"As soon as you are ready. But as well as bolstering our strength we must also bolster our forces. We are not done recruiting yet… far from done."

"Kid… what the hell is wrong with your soul?"

Harry took two steps backward in alarm. He was familiar with the phrase 'eyes that seemed to pierce the body and stare right into the soul' but never before had he encountered a situation that could so literally represent the phrase. Bickslow's eyes were glowing a slight greenish colour and he seemed to be staring at Harry's chest in abject horror, as if he'd just spotted some sort of terrifying monster within.

"My… my soul…?" he blinked. "What… what do you mean?"

"Bickslow has the ability to see people's souls," Laxus said, looking more than a little perturbed himself as his gaze tracked from Harry to Bickslow and back repeatedly. "But I've never seen him act like this before."

"That's because I've never seen anything remotely like this before," Bickslow croaked. "This is… this is all kinds of messed up!"

"Why?" Harry asked, his throat rapidly drying and his heartbeat picking up. Had this been the first time he'd encountered a Fairy Tail mage he would probably have thought Bickslow was a complete nut job and not taken him seriously. But he'd seen enough amazing things from these guys to believe Laxus' claim and if a Dementor could suck a soul out then why couldn't this guy see them? "What is it? What's wrong with my soul?"

Before Bickslow could reply though, a hand suddenly gripped Harry's shoulder, all but making him leap out of his own skin. It was Dumbledore, and the elderly Headmaster was looking about them urgently. Harry did the same, but it was clear that nobody else but the four of them had really noticed this little altercation - being too busy attending to each others' injuries or recounting what they'd seen to one another. Even Gajeel had turned away to begin a verbal confrontation with Natsu.

"You can see people's souls, you say?" Dumbledore asked in a low whisper.

"Yeah, I can," Bickslow nodded. "And…"

"Don't say another word," Dumbledore cut him off quickly. "Not here. Harry, I understand you must be feeling perturbed right now but just wait a moment. We will discuss this in my office later when there is nobody else around."

"But Professor, what…?"

"Later, Harry," Dumbledore said sternly, before turning to look up at Laxus and Bickslow respectively. "Please, you two. I know that we do not know each other yet but for the moment I will ask you to trust me and keep this quiet. I would like you both to come with Harry and I to my office to talk this over when we return to our school. And nobody else."

"No," said a voice above them and suddenly Mavis levitated down to stand next to them, her expression somber. "Some others may come to, Headmaster. If we suspect the same thing, then I would also like for the third and current Master of the guild to be present at this gathering. And from what I know about these two, it would not be right to exclude Freed and Evergreen either," she nodded to where Evergreen was fiercely hugging Freed, enough to almost literally choke the breath out of him. "They may come too."

"…Very well," Dumbledore nodded. "But nobody else."

"Nobody else," Mavis confirmed.

Harry was both confused and scared, unable to process what was happening. Whatever it was it was clearly something big for both Dumbledore and Mavis to be so cryptic and secretive about it and he felt like he was about to burst at the seams with questions. But for now at least he held his tongue.

Bickslow didn't.

"Who are you?" he asked Mavis with a frown. "You don't have a soul at all. But I saw you fly over the battlefield earlier."

"…I know who she is," Laxus said, his eyes wide and his jaw slack. "Gramps showed me a picture of her once. A photograph… standing next to his own father. This is…"

"The First Master…" said Makarov Dreyar, the diminutive first Master now standing a few feet away, staring openly at Mavis with obvious awe. "Mavis Vermillion… it's… is it really… you?"

"Hello Makarov," Mavis smiled warmly. "It's so good to see you again, it really is."

"Then… was it you? Were you the one that cast the Fairy Sphere that saved us all from the Black Dragon?"

"Kinda. There's a lot of things we need to catch you up on… and now seems to be a pretty good time to do so."

The hubbub in the aftermath of the battle eventually died down and Wendy was kept busy healing the injuries of the DA members and the teachers. It was imperative that their injuries be treated first, as any sign of this battle had to be eliminated before they returned to the school so Umbridge's suspicions wouldn't be raised. Fudge already believed Dumbledore was trying to raise an army against him and the very last thing they needed was anything that would make him or Umbridge even more convinced that that was the case.

Kilgharrah and Aithusa also made short work of Morgana's spell to disable magical transportation, breaking it within a few seconds so they could make their way back through the portkey cage.

"You know, I rather like this island," Aithusa said, taking a deep whiff of the sea air and stretching her wings out as wide as they could go, blanketing most of the group in shadow in the process. "I think I'll make this place my new home for as long as it stays in this world."

"As will I," Kilgharrah nodded. "Morgana knows where it is and may try to return. Aithusa and I cannot do much to aid you as of yet. For one thing we are rather conspicuous and would draw a lot of attention on the mainland. And that time is not yet ripe for us to reveal ourselves to the world once again. But for now we can remain here and keep this island safe, and if ever you have any questions for us you may seek us out here."

"Thank you, both of you," Lisanna smiled brightly. "For everything."

"Charlie will be over the moon," Fred chuckled. "I was thinking he'd be devastated at missing out on a chance to meet you again if you decided to leave."

"Would have been funny to see his reaction though," Fred snorted.

"Yes, but be warned, if you do ask old Miseryscales here a question he may end up being infuriatingly cryptic with his answer," Aithusa grinned impishly. "Merlin would always complain about that.

"I gave him everything he needed to solve things on his own," Kilgharrah rolled his golden eyes.

"Just please don't eat the wildlife that lives here," Lisanna asked. "I'd like for all of them to get back home as well one day."

"We will do more than that. This island is meant to be a tropical one so we will make sure it stays nice and warm throughout the winter."

"Anything for our little Dragon Lady."

"You guys are the best," Natsu grinned, and Lisanna covered her mouth to hold back a giggle when she mentally heard Igneel gasp while Metalicana laughed at him.

Once everyone was back in the Room of Requirement, Harry quickly gathered the DA back together and left Ron and Hermione in charge of answering the questions that many of them had at this point. He also made the Hufflepuffs promise to keep a very close eye on Zacharias Smith. He'd heard all about how he'd panicked and thrown Luna in front of Nagini in a bid to save his own skin and he'd have to figure out exactly what he was going to do about that later.

For now though, his primary concern was finding out exactly what Bickslow had been talking about. So as soon as he'd made his excuses to Ron, Hermione and Sirius, he allowed Dumbledore to guide him through to his office. Mavis was already there waiting for them, as was Makarov, Laxus, Freed, Evergreen and Bickslow, all of whom had carefully entered through the window under the cover of darkness.

"I apologise for pulling you away from your fellow Fairy Tail mages when you should be enjoying your reunion with them," Dumbledore said when they arrived. "But… if I understand things correctly… what transpires here today must be handled with a very high degree of discretion. For Harry's own sake."

"He's quite right," Mavis nodded. "I know you've only just truly entered this world as of today, Third Master, but the rest of the guild have been fighting for it for some time now.

Evergreen agreed. "Harry has become a trusted friend of ours and if there is anything we can do to help him…"

"…Then we must do it," Makarov nodded sagely. "I understand, First Master. I won't pretend I'm not still a little overwhelmed by all of this, but I now owe you a great debt for taking care of my brats in my stead, Albus Dumbledore. It is only fair that I do my part to take care of your children in turn, for as long as I am here."

"Thank you," Dumbledore nodded with a light smile.

"Can we please just get to the part where there's something apparently wrong with my soul?" Harry blurted out, unable to contain himself for much longer. "What the hell does that even mean?"

Dumbledore took a deep breath and moved over to his desk. "I was hoping that if this day ever came, it would be better handled. And that I would be in possession of all of the facts. But since you have already been soundly disturbed by our new Fairy Tail friend here… we will have to make do with what I already know. I will tell you the truth, Harry - I have considered wiping your memory so you don't remember any of this until the time is right. But… that would be unfair to you so, as they say, here goes nothing. I take it you remember well this particular artefact."

He reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a tattered old book with a large hole stabbed through the middle of it and covered with ink stains. Harry recoiled a little at the sight of it. "Tom Riddle's diary," he said. "The thing that possessed Ginny into opening the Chamber of Secrets three years ago."

"The very thing," Dumbledore nodded. "Mister Bickslow, what do you see when you look at this book?"

"…Nothing," Bickslow frowned in bemusement. "Just a regular but badly damaged book. Why?"

"That is what it is now. But a few years ago, this book had a life of its own. It used to be owned by the Dark Lord of this world - Voldemort, back when he went by the name of Tom Riddle. It seems that he was somehow able to preserve a memory of himself in this book which was capable of thinking for itself and influencing the world around it to a certain degree. When this book fell into the possession of a young girl you happen to have met today, it was eventually able to control her actions and make her do terrible things without realising what she was doing, or remembering what she'd done when she'd finished it."

"Much like your own Seith Magic, Bickslow," Freed mused. "You're saying it turned her into a puppet of sorts?"

"Something like that," Dumbledore nodded. "Until Mister Potter here discovered what was happening and killed the memory by destroying its vessel - the book. But when you brought me this, Harry, I was baffled by it. I have lived a long life but never before have I heard of a memory stored in an inanimate object coming to life in such a manner. It was very dark magic, so I set out to find out more about it. And while I have had to make some very educated guesses along the way… I believe I may have discovered exactly what this book was."

Harry wasn't entirely sure where this conversation was going, but it sounded important so he made no attempt to interrupt. His mouth was getting progressively drier though, staring at the diary as if it was about to leap off the tabletop and try to attack him at any moment.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A very dark artefact known as a Horcrux," Dumbledore said, as he summoned another book from across the room to place it on the desk beside the diary, though this one was intact and much older looking, entitled 'Secrets of the Darkest Art.' "Mister Bickslow, explain to me exactly how your branch of magic works, will you? What is making those dolls of yours float behind you like that?"

"My Seith Magic allows me to fabricate a soul out of thin air and implant it into a doll, which I can then control at will." Bickslow explained, his wooden puppets rotating in a slow ring around him as if to prove his point. "The general rule of thumb is that it had to be something with a face though, because while I can control them they still need eyes to be able to properly see where they're going. They're like little life forces in their own right - not exactly alive but definitely conscious. It is a kind of Black Magic, which are usually regarded to be a little sinister in nature, but it is not Dark Magic."

"I see. Well, that principle is very similar to that of a Horcrux, with a few minor differences," Dumbledore said, resting his hand upon 'Secrets of the Darkest Art' wearily. "A Horcrux also involves planting a soul into an inanimate object. But it is most definitely a Dark Magic and any object can be made into a Horcrux. But perhaps the most key difference is the soul inside a Horcrux is not created out of nothing like your dolls. When a Horcrux is created, the soul of the one who creates it is split into two pieces, and it is one of those pieces that gets removed from the creator's body and implanted in the Horcrux. Do you understand, Harry? It was not a mere memory of Voldemort that was possessing young Ginny Weasley…"

"…It was… a piece of his soul?" Harry whispered in utter revulsion. "A piece of his actual soul was… embedded inside the diary?"

"It would certainly seem that way, yes," Dumbledore nodded gravely. "According to the book, Horcruxes can have something of an effect on those in their immediate vicinity. But most of them would not become so strong. The only reason that this one was able to have such a direct influence on its surroundings was because Ginny kept communicating with it, pouring her own soul out to it and effectively giving it a way into her heart. That allowed it to leech off her until it could become the physical presence you saw down in the Chamber of Secrets.

"And I believe Voldemort created this particular Horcrux in his teenage years, which was why said presence still looked like he did when he was seventeen. Because in order to split the soul in such a manner and create a Horcrux, the man in question must first commit an act of extreme evil. He must murder someone. And I believe that this Horcrux was created with the death of your friend Myrtle Warren."

"Warren?" blinked Harry in momentary bemusement. "Wait a minute… is that Moaning Myrtle's surname?"

"Good gracious, you mean she never told you that?" Dumbledore asked, with a momentary twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "I suppose she must have gotten so used to her nickname that it never occurred to her to do so."

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" Laxus asked.

"A ghost who happens to have made her home in one of the girls' lavatories in this school," Harry explained quickly.

"A girl's lavatory?" Evergreen pushed her glasses up her nose with a smirk. "And whatever are you doing going into a girl's lavatory, Harry?"

"My, my, sounds like someone's being a bit of a peeping tom," Freed grinned, somewhat impishly, and Harry coloured slightly as he beheld the amused and rather suggestive expressions of all the Fairy Tail mages in the room.

"It's… it's not like that!" Harry said. "Nobody ever goes in there because of Myrtle anyway! Look… it's… it's a long story, I'll tell you about it later."

"Yes, best stick to the facts for now," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "Because what's more important is that this diary finally answered a question I had been puzzling over for some time and that is how Voldemort was able to survive the night that he killed your parents, Harry?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, his embarrassment evaporating into dread once again.

"You know full well that it was the protective spell that your mother placed over you when she sacrificed herself for your sake that kept you alive that night," Dumbledore sighed. "It is what made the Killing Curse rebound off you and strike Voldemort instead… but as you know Voldemort himself survived the curse as well. But unlike you he was reduced to a mere shadow of himself. His body was killed but somehow his soul did not depart for the next world like it should do when you die. And ever since I learned that he was indeed still alive, I have been trying to work out how that might have happened. And then you brought me this Horcrux… and I had my answer."

"You're saying this dude was kept alive because a piece of his soul was trapped in that book?" Laxus asked.

"It sounds kinda plausible to me," Bickslow murmured. "If part of his soul couldn't pass on then the rest of his soul could easily have remained anchored into this world."

"Precisely," Dumbledore nodded. "A Horcrux acts like a host body of sorts and as long as one exists, the creator cannot truly die… though most would say that death is preferable. But more questions rose up after that Harry. Because you destroyed this diary before Voldemort regained his body. Theoretically the moment you destroyed the diary then the rest of him should have died too… unless…"

"There's more than one," Harry caught on quickly. "He made more than one of these things."

"Possibly," Dumbledore nodded, his expression . "I cannot say for sure - I have been searching for any evidence that he might have done for some time now. All that I could say for certain was that there was another piece of his soul out there somewhere… and…" in the space of about five seconds his seemed to age by about another hundred years right before Harry's eyes. "I have a theory… about where at least one of those pieces might be."

Harry stared blankly at him but Dumbledore made no further elaboration. He just stared at Harry meaningfully, his eyes flicking down to lock on Harry's chest sadly. And then Harry understood, and it was like a mountain of pure horror had suddenly been dropped on top of his head. He spun around and looked to Bickslow, who was also staring at him gravely now and that look practically seemed to confirm his suspicions right then and there.

But nevertheless he had to ask.

"…Please tell me…" he croaked. "What's wrong… with my soul?"

"Well…" Bickslow sucked his lips against his teeth momentarily. "At first I wasn't too sure what I was looking at but… it's not really your soul that's the concern. It's the small, black shard of a soul that's also in your body, clinging onto your own soul like a parasite that's the concern."

Harry felt his knees buckle underneath him, his stomach heaving as he realised the connotations of what Bickslow was saying. He felt sick… and then he was sick - throwing up all over Dumbledore's carpet right then and there. Dumbledore quickly vanished the sick a moment later but Harry felt like more could be on the way at any moment. In that moment his entire soul had been turned upside down… for now he knew the truth…

…he had a piece of Voldemort's soul inside him.

"Why…?" he eventually forced out, looking up at the ashen-faced Dumbledore with a mixture of anger and terror. "Why!? Why didn't you tell me about this!?"

"Because I was not sure," Dumbledore replied grimly, looking at Harry with pure sorrow. "It was only a theory I had. There were many things that seemed to point to it, such as your inexplicable ability to see through Voldemort's eyes in your dreams on occasion, as well as your ability to speak Parseltongue. You may recall I told you back in your second year, that I suspected that Voldemort somehow transferred some of his powers to you when he gave you that scar? I suspected then that that happened because a piece of his soul had lodged itself in your body.

"But I didn't have any solid proof to back it up, and until I had some I did not want to burden you with this news when it might not even be true. And even if it was true, I didn't want to tell you until I'd found a way to remove the piece of his soul from you without harming you. I wanted to avoid… giving you the reaction that you're having right now."

Harry's emotions were going on a proverbial helter-skelter. A very large part of him was furious beyond words that Dumbledore had kept this from him and he wanted to lash out, hit something, punch something… maybe even try to hit Dumbledore himself right in the face. And yet he could understand Dumbledore's reasons for doing so, and the rest of him was wishing that he'd not found this out at all, desperately wishing for Dumbledore to Obliviate him so he could go back to blissful ignorance once again. And then there was was the fraction of utter revulsion, which came with a rapidly growing desire to thrust his hand into his own chest and claw the piece of Voldemort's soul out of himself, as if that would actually work.

He spent a good two minutes on the floor hyperventilating, trying to get control of himself enough to concentrate through this whirlwind of feelings and make sense of it all. Getting his stomach under control, he managed to shift himself into a sitting position, not yet feeling enough strength in his legs to be able to stand back up again. He needed to know more… he needed to understand.

"So… I'm… a Horcrux then?"

"Yes and no," Dumbledore sighed. "In order to create a proper Horcrux, Voldemort would have had to prepare a specific ritual right after murdering you or one of your parents that would turn you into one. But I don't think that happened here. I think that when the Killing Curse rebounded off you and hit him, his soul fractured on its own and one little piece of it sought out the nearest living thing it could find while the rest of it fled. And that's why it entered you. It is also why you, despite having a piece of Voldemort's soul inside your body, don't have a negative impact on the people around you as the diary did to Ginny."

"But why would Voldemort's soul splinter like that on his death with him preparing the ritual?" Evergreen asked, stepping across the room and kneeling down beside Harry to place her hand on his shoulder consolingly. Harry tried to pull away feebly, but in that moment he was just glad to have the comfort of her presence. "How does that make sense?"

"Most likely it's because his soul had already become extremely unstable," Mavis mused. "It would have to be for it to just… break… like that."

"That probably wouldn't happen if he'd only created one of these Horcrux things out of that book," Bickslow murmured.

"Hmmm…" Makarov hummed to himself. "You're saying its likely he created multiple of these Horcruxes before the night he tried to kill Harry?"

"Certainly sounds that way," Bickslow nodded. "Which means that as long as there is any piece of his soul left outside his main body…"

"He can't be killed," Freed finished. "At least not properly anyway."

"So…" Harry gagged. "Does that mean… that as long as I'm alive…?"

"No," Dumbledore said firmly. "It means as long as there is a piece of Voldemort in you, and in any other object, he can't die. But now that I know that there truly is a piece of his soul in your body, but top priority now is to find a way of removing it from you without harming you. Mister Bickslow, is there any chance at all that you can do that?"

Bickslow shook his head. "My Seith Magic doesn't work that way," he said. "I can place souls I create into a doll to remotely control it and I can take control of other people by possessing their souls through eye contact, but I cannot remove a soul from a person's body. Nor can I put a soul into something that already has a soul. I can't help here."

"Perhaps not," Makarov said, as he stepped forward. "But there might be something that I can do to help."

"What?" Harry looked up sharply, desperate for any kind of good news at this point. "Please tell me, what?"

"I know what you're about to suggest, Third," Mavis nodded. "Harry, you have heard of two of the Three Great Fairy Magics unique to our guild. The protective spell, Fairy Sphere, and the offensive spell, Fairy Glitter… but has anyone mentioned to you the third of our Great Magics?"

"Fairy Law," Makarov confirmed.

"No… no, I'm not familiar with that spell," Harry murmured quietly. "What does it do?"

"It's known as the Absolute Judgement spell," Makarov said. "An ultra-powerful magical light that destroys what is evil but spares what is good from the perspective of the person who casts it, and in an extremely wide radius around him. It's highly advanced magic that takes a great amount of power to cast and it is not a spell to be used lightly, but I can't help but wonder if it could be put to use here. Whether I could use it to destroy the piece of this Dark Lord's soul within your body while leaving the rest of you undamaged."

"…That sounds like quite the spell," Dumbledore said, extraordinarily impressed. "Is it not possible that you could have destroyed most of the enemy on Tenroujima if you had used that spell?"

"It is, but like I said, it is not to be cast lightly because it would work solely on my own perspective," Makarov said. "If I happened to be wrong, if I thought someone was an enemy when they actually weren't or they were not truly evil and had the chance to redeem themselves in the future, I would end up destroying them too. And as soon as Master Precht entered the battle using Fairy Law was out of the question for he has his own variant of the spell - Grimoire Law - which does the same thing. If I tried Fairy Law, he would most certainly have used that spell to wipe everyone on our side out as well. But theoretically… it may work here on getting rid of this… Horcrux within Harry here."

"Well… well then what are you waiting for?" Harry asked quickly, instantly clinging to the coat-tails of this new hope. "Do it! Get this thing out of me, please!"

"Not so fast," Mavis shook her head. "It's not so simple as that. Dumbledore, remind me what needs to be done to destroy a Horcrux."

"The container of the soul must be hit with something that would destroy it in a manner that's impossible to repair magically," said Dumbledore gravely. "Only then will the fragment of soul within it die."

"Yes. And that's what concerns me here," Mavis tapped her chin. "As you say, Third, theoretically it should kill the Horcrux while sparing the host but this isn't just some evil possession. If the host container must be destroyed for a Horcrux to die then what if the spell decides to kill Harry as well, judging it to be the lesser of two evils? Or it could decide that killing Harry is out of the question and therefore do nothing to the Horcrux. Or it could just work perfectly and kill the Horcrux - we don't know. We're dealing with two opposing magical rules here; a spell that should only destroy the evil part versus a spell that can't be destroyed unless the good part dies too. It's like a sword that can pierce anything versus a shield that can't be pierced. Which one would win out over the other?"

"But if Harry is not a true Horcrux then surely Fairy Law would be the one that wins, right?" Freed asked.

"But are we prepared to take that risk?" Bickslow pointed out. "From what I can see that piece of Voldemort's soul is latched onto Harry's pretty tightly. Can we accurately predict the outcome with total certainty?"

"Take the risk!" Harry shouted, surging to his feet so fast that he almost knocked Harry over. "Do it! Take the risk! I don't care if I die as long as this piece of him is gone! Gone as fast as possible!"

"And that is what makes you so noble, Harry," Dumbledore smiled. "But that fact is the rest of us do care if you die. As will a great many other people."

"That is true," Makarov nodded. "If there is one thing that a good Fairy Tail mage knows is that you do not die for your comrades if you can avoid it. You do your absolute best to live for your comrades, because in doing so you spare them the sadness of your passing. Dying should only be done when there's no other alternative. And at present, we don't know if there is no other alternative yet."

"Well… I guess…" Harry said slowly. "But… but… this thing…"

"…Has been doing you no real harm for the last fourteen years you've had it," Mavis pointed out. "We can hold Fairy Law in reserve for now. Dumbledore and I will try hard to find a way to remove the Horcrux within you without killing you, Harry but if all else fails we will try Fairy Law. Who knows, we could be worrying about nothing and it will work fine. But we won't gamble with your life unless absolutely necessary."

"But what if Voldemort finds out about this?" Harry asked frantically. "If I can see into his head because of this Horcrux thing then what's to stop him from looking into mine. Morgana knew that I was watching when she first made contact with Voldemort - she spoke to me directly."

"Morgana knows much but I doubt she knows all," Dumbledore said. "She might have known you were there but she may not have known why. But the thought that Voldemort might find out had occurred to me… that's why I've been so distant with you as of late, Harry. I felt that if I was right and Voldemort found out he might try to use to spy on me if he suspected we had a close relationship. But there are ways that would help to keep him out…"

"Indeed," Freed said, the green-haired man stepping forwards. "There are. If you would, Harry, please remove your shirt."

"Remove my… why?" Harry blinked in sudden, utter confusion.

"I'll explain why in a moment," Freed said. "Just please do it."

"I think I know what he has in mind," Evergreen chuckled. "Go on, Harry. You can trust him."

Harry was a little confused, and frankly a little embarrassed considering both Evergreen and Mavis were watching, but in the end he did as bid and took off everything from the waist up except for his glasses. Freed then stepped around to Harry's back and pressed one of his fingers against Harry's shoulder blades. Harry flinched, but Freed seemed to draw his finger in little patterns across Harry's skin, almost as if he was writing.

Because that was exactly what he was doing. Although Harry couldn't see it, Freed was drawing small purple glowing letters across Harry's back in a language that Dumbledore had never seen before. Eventually though Freed stepped back and said, "That should do it."

"What should do it?" Harry asked, trying to look over his shoulder. "What have you done?"

"Freed here is proficient in Rune Magic," Laxus chuckled. "He can created magical barriers and traps through the use of ancient letters that force anyone who encounters them to obey the rules he sets out in them."

"Indeed," Freed said, steering Harry over to a nearby mirror so that he could look over his shoulder and see the lettering properly. "And these Runes say; 'No presence wishing to cause this boy harm may enter here.' If this Voldemort does find out about his connection with you and tries to use it to look into your mind, he should be instantly repelled by these runes. And don't worry," he snapped his fingers and the lettering slowly vanished from sight until it was like they'd never been there. "They'll keep working even while invisible."

"…Thank you," Harry said slowly, a certain sense of relief washing through him. "Seriously, thank you."

"You're most welcome. If you like, Master Dumbledore, I could also create a runic barrier around the perimeter of this school," Freed suggested. "I understand you already have many wards in place but if you'd like me to add my own then I won't mind at all."

"And in the meantime," Laxus said, hefting himself off the wall he'd spent the whole conversation leaning on. "Sounds to me like we've got ourselves a mission."

"A mission?" Harry asked, as he pulled his shirt back on. "What mission?"

"Well we already established that this Voldemort guy probably made a lot more Horcruxes before a piece of his soul found its way into you," Laxus smirked. "If you want to defeat this guy, we're going to have to find them all and wreck them. And since we've been sworn to keep this whole Horcrux thing a secret…" he looked questioningly at Mavis.

"Yes, the fewer people who know about this the better. It would be good if we didn't let Voldemort know we were onto him."

"Then it looks like we'll have to be the ones to help you do it," Laxus smirked.

"And we're right behind you, Laxus," Freed said firmly.

"The Raijinshuu reunited at last and already with our first job in hand," Evergreen grinned.

"I should be able to recognise a Horcrux on sight," Bickslow nodded. "We'll do whatever we can to find them and ensure that this bastard can eventually be brought down for good."

"What do you say, old man?" Laxus turned to look at his grandfather with a slight quirk to his jaw. "Can I hang around for a bit longer?"

"Hmmm…" Makarov muttered, not really looking his grandson in the eye. "Well…" he said. "We are trapped in another world. I suppose… I have no choice but to let you stay with us. I can't very well send you away here."

Laxus snorted lightly but said nothing else.

"Looks like the two people with the lightning scars will be working together on this," Mavis beamed. "Though having said that, I suppose it couldn't hurt to loop in a couple of your own friends, Harry. Those two, Ron and Hermione, they're like your own personal Raijinshuu right? If Laxus has his own then you should too."

"Yeah… yeah maybe…" Harry muttered. "I'll… I'll think about it. Thank you… for your help."

"Not a problem," Freed said assuredly.

"Good," Dumbledore nodded. "But Harry, I am afraid there is more."

"More?"

"Yes. As we are revealing things… I must now be completely honest with you and tell you everything I know. And that… includes the Prophecy…"

While all this was going on the Room of Requirement was abuzz, with the last few students getting the wounds healed by Wendy. The Sky Dragon Slayer was exhausted, having used up most of her magic setting everything right for the staff and students, which meant that the other mages were going to have to wait a while before she had enough energy to treat their own injuries.

Perhaps the worst off of them was Levy, who was sitting in the corner and cradling her chest and stomach from where Gajeel had been forced to stamp on it. Gajeel himself was hovering nearby, leaning against the wall and not looking at her, as if afraid to see the damage that he'd caused.

Or maybe there was another reason he couldn't quite look her in the eye.

The both of them knew that they had to talk about what Levy had said back on the island, but neither of them were quite sure how to start doing it. Levy found herself almost wishing she was back in the middle of a fight - the heat of the moment had made it so much easier to let everything loose in one go. Now that things had died down, picking up the conversation where they'd left off was suddenly a lot more difficult.

But since it looked like Gajeel wasn't about to say anything anytime soon, it fell upon her to begin.

"So…" she cleared her throat.

"Hmm?" Gajeel grunted, still not looking at her.

"Well… what do you think?"

"'Bout what exactly?"

"You know what. Those things I said. I did mean it you know. It might seem hard to believe considering how much I've been shying away from you recently, but I really do trust you more than anybody in the world. In any world," Levy muttered, twiddling her fingers nervously. "And… well… I don't… I don't love you but… I mean, if you wanted to… we could always… well… how do you feel about it?"

She finally mustered the courage to look up at him but his expression was inscrutable. He had his eyes shut and appeared to be brooding, mulling over Levy's question with an extremely calm facade. Though Levy was convinced there was just an ever-so-slight tinge of red in his cheeks.

"Jeez," he eventually said. "This is messed up."

"…Yeah, I suppose it is in some ways," Levy sweatdropped slightly. Even though she knew how guilty he felt about it there weren't many girls out there who'd ever consider someone who beat them half to death as boyfriend material. "But… well… look, I'm not asking you to come up with a be-all end-all decision right now. But if I was to ask you if you… wanted to go get something to eat or something one day… would you consider saying yes?"

Gajeel slowly opened his eyes and glanced across at her, wrinkling his nose slightly when he saw her earnest expression. If he was being perfectly honest with himself he didn't really know how he felt. Love was an alien concept to him. Never once during his time at Phantom Lord had he thought about finding a girlfriend. If he had then heck, for all he knew he might have eventually tried asking Juvia out. It was only after entering Fairy Tail that his feelings had started to open up bit by bit… and a great many of them were focused about the little bookworm sitting before him.

But love? Even now that hadn't really been on his agenda until Levy had brought it up. Love was soft and Gajeel was hard. He was the Iron Dragon Slayer… and yet somehow this small girl had managed to get under his metallic carapace.

"Well…" he said slowly. "I dunno… I mean, maybe if there were a few choice spoons I could chew on or something. I… I don't… ah shit, I'm really not good at this kind of mushy stuff," he threw his hands up into the air exasperatedly.

"No, you're really not," Levy said, slightly deadpan. "Especially if you swear in the middle."

"Shaddup," Gajeel grumbled.

"Well… how about I let you think about it a bit more, shall I?" Levy asked with a sigh. "It may be a bit unfair for me to expect an answer so fast after springing it on you like I did." She tried to stand up, but winced visibly at the pain in her chest. Instantly Gajeel was at her side, gripping her shoulder and lowering her gently back down into a sitting position, his hand firm and unyielding to quite clearly tell Levy that she wasn't going anywhere.

The two knelt there together for a moment, their gazes locking and holding each other for almost a minute straight. And looking into Levy's eyes like this seemed to make it a little easier for Gajeel to say:-

"Yeah, I'll think about it. I dunno what my answer would be… but off the top of my head… I probably wouldn't say no."

And with that he stood up and walked away, but Levy felt her insides swell with such a surge of happiness that she almost felt like she was levitating. She hadn't expected such a positive response at all - if anything she'd been expecting him to just let her down gently. But for him to not only not reject her, but suggest he might not reject her again later… maybe Erza was right. Maybe there really could be a thing between her and Gajeel eventually.

Though she did face fault a little when Gajeel marched straight over to Natsu and decked him in the face, evidently trying to get the mushiness out of his system. At least she knew then that if she and Gajeel ever became an item she could throw out every fantasy of a blissful romantic partnership of candle-lit dinners and canoe rides. Gajeel would never be romantic.

But even as she watched another full scale brawl breaking out across the room, she had to admit that she'd always found the romantic novels to be the most boring. So perhaps she could live with that… no, she definitely could.

In another part of the room even as most of the guys piled onto each other in a flurry of flying fists, Erza and Lucy were sitting with Cana as the Card Mage inspected the Allosaurus Rider card which she'd utilise in her previous battle against Rustyrose.

"So you really have a new magic now, Cana?" Lucy asked.

"Well, not properly," Cana said. "I just sort of… gave birth to it, metaphorically speaking, back there on the island. I channelled my Card Magic with Rustyrose's Embodiment magic to produce a new result. It was quite easy that time because he was feeding his power directly into me. It'll be much harder to do again for now, but I've opened the doorway and got my foot in it to keep it from closing. If I work at this, I should be able to fully develop this new power until it becomes a second nature to me as switching clothes is for you, Erza."

"It was certainly impressive," Erza nodded. "Will we need to go out and get you some more of these Magic: The Gathering cards then?"

"Well I could probably get an idea or two from them, but that won't be necessary," Cana said with a slight smirk. "That guy's Arc of Embodiment allows him to create anything he wants out of thin air, so if I do this right then I might not need to rely on the cards made by other people anymore. It's entirely possible I could design and create my own cards from scratch and then use them in battle later on. Who knows what kinds of things I could come up with for that?"

"So you could technically create anything you wanted just like him?" Lucy asked.

"Technically. But unlike him I wouldn't be able to make something up on the fly. I'd still need a specific card to create a specific effect - after all I could only channel his magic by melding it with some of my own. Which means I'll need to get my thinking cap on and see what kinds of awesome stuff I can come up with," Cana grinned, her expression like that of a cat that had just learned how to use a tin opener.

"You could do all kinds of things with that," Dennis said eagerly, evidently having been eavesdropping on the conversation. "The Magic: The Gathering cards don't just have awesome looking creatures. They also have lots of neat spells, upgrades, traps, weapons… all kinds of stuff that you could give yourself to help out in the upcoming battle."

"Perhaps you could even use it to transform your own body in the same way that he does to give himself that sword and shield," Erza suggested.

"Wow, this could be quite a power up if you utilise it properly," Lucy whispered.

"And it's all thanks to you, kid," Cana grinned at Dennis, stepping over and ruffling his hair gratefully. "I better get cracking. And I come up with my best ideas when I'm roaring drunk. Bring out the Firewhiskey!"

"Of course," Lucy laughed. "I wondered how long you would take before asking for that."

With Harry absent, Ron and Hermione had to deal with a veritable deluge of questions from the DA as to what they'd seen on the island that day. There was certainly no doubt in any of their minds that Voldemort was alive no - they'd all set eyes on him after all.

But more prominent in their concerns was the presence of Morgana. None of them doubted that it was her - the words of the two dragons had been enough to abolish all of that. What they wanted to know was:-

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ernie was demanding, looking positively affronted just as all the others did. "If you knew that Morgan Le Fay herself had returned to this world then why the heck didn't you tell us about it?"

"Yeah, I thought this whole thing was about learning how to defend ourselves," Dean agreed vehemently. "How are we supposed to do that if we don't know what we're up against?"

"I'm sure they had their reasons," Neville's voice rose above the accompanying din of assent from the rest of the DA. "You did have your reasons, right?"

"Well yeah, but you've all completely missed the point of what we just said," Ron said. "We didn't really know that Morgana was back at all. Not for sure. Yeah, we kinda suspected it but we didn't know. And even if we did, we had no way to prove it."

"Would you have believed us if we'd just told you she was back?" Hermione agreed. "Many of you doubted Harry when he said Voldemort returned and he's a far more recent evil to be inflicted on the world. How would you have reacted if Harry had come forth and told you that another evil from thousands of years ago had also come back. I bet many of you here would have decided he really was just seeking attention after all."

There was some uncomfortable shuffling amongst the crowd at that. Many of them couldn't deny the truth behind Hermione's words.

"What made you suspect that she was back anyway?" Cho eventually asked.

"Harry had a dream about it," Ron said. "That's literally all the proof we had. Not much to go on, is it? The only reason we ever gave it a second thought was cos Harry's occasionally had dreams that have been true in the past, but equally he has nonsense dreams as well just like the rest of us. What were we supposed to do? If we'd told you lot then either you'd have thought we were loopy or we'd cause a panic about something that could a been a load of rubbish?"

"Well, regardless, now that we know she is back, how do we stop her?" Luna asked matter-of-factly.

"We?" Hermione frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I think she means what are Dumbledore's Army going to do to help contribute in taking her down," Ginny smirked.

"What? But… no, hang on," Hermione said. "Dumbledore's Army is just a name. We're not an actual army, we're just a bunch of children that are trying to learn how to defend ourselves considering our government's being stupid enough not to teach us. We're not meant to be doing anything to stop Voldemort or Morgana - we're meant to be focusing on our OWLs."

"And what good are OWLs going to be if Morgana takes over the world?" Parvati asked stoutly.

"So… what… you want to fight?" Ron asked. "But you saw how powerful that lady was, right? She was taking on Dumbledore and Gildarts at the same time and seemed to be pretty evenly matched with them. There's absolutely nothing that we can do to stop her."

"No, but we can help stop You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters," Lavender pointed out. "I think we did pretty well against them today, all things considered."

"But that's not what this was about," Hermione protested. "We brought you all together so you could learn defence, not offence."

"Well too bad," Ginny snorted. "Harry's going to go on the offence when he can, isn't he? That's what he does after all. And if he's going to do that then what would we be if we just let him without backing him up?"

"Yes, but Harry's still in school just like the rest of us are. What happened on Tenroujima was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's not as if the Order is going to take us out on missions with them."

"Well I'd like to see them try and stop us," Fred said confidently. "They won't even let us be members even though we're of age. But there's no way they can stop us from doing our bit if we want to."

"I think that if anyone in Dumbledore's Army wants to stay and just learn how to defend themselves, they can," George chimed in. "But if you want to do more, if you want to take part in the bigger fight, then woe betide anyone who tries to stand in our way."

There were several voices of assent and Ron and Hermione had no idea what to say. After being in the middle of a warzone on Tenroujima, both of them had expected the DA members to go running for the hills. But it actually seemed to be having the opposite effect on some of them. Having been a part of one battle, now they felt directly involved in the war. Even Marietta Edgecombe appeared to be standing a little straighter, though she also looked like she was going to wet herself, as did several of the others.

It seemed that Dumbledore's Army had just been drafted.

A short while later and the students had dispersed, hurrying back to their dormitories before the after-hours curfew set in and Umbridge could find out that they weren't where they were supposed to be. Ron, Hermione and Ginny were sitting together in the Gryffindor Common Room waiting for Harry to come back from his impromptu trip to Dumbledore's Office. And Ginny was particularly incensed.

"What do you mean?" she demanded quietly, trying very hard not to raise her voice and alert the rest of the Common Room to their discussion. "You're not going to kick Zacharias Smith out of the DA? Why the heck not? You did hear what he did to Luna, didn't you?"

"Yes, I heard," Hermione nodded, "And ultimately I think the decision should be Harry's, not ours. He's the leader of the DA after all. But I don't think we should throw him out. The original purpose of the DA was to let anyone who wanted to learn how to defend themselves do so. We can't deny Smith that just because he happens to be a coward."

"He deserves a lot worse than being kicked out if you ask me," Ron muttered darkly. "But… I think Hermione's right… unfortunately. We can't kick him out, but I think we can all agree that if we ever do get to go on missions with the Order then he won't be coming with us. That spineless sack of crap sure as heck can't be trusted in a fight."

"It is a little unfair to call him that, Ron," Hermione chided him. "Considering what he was suddenly confronted with it's understandable he panicked. If he'd been thinking rationally and he'd still thrown Luna in front of the snake then that would be an entirely different story. But you're right - I wouldn't trust him in a fight after that, but he was the only DA member down there who had no interest in joining the war whatsoever so I doubt that will ever happen."

"Some of the others didn't exactly look keen either," Ginny pointed out.

"Well it's a big thing to ask of them, putting their lines on the line, especially with someone like Morgana as the enemy. And we're not Fairy Tail - we don't possess the immense power and skill that they do, we're not as close-knit a group as they are and we don't all have their resolve and spirit to do the right thing."

"Yeah, but I reckon most of them will be up for it," said Ron.

"Oh yes? And why's that?" Ginny asked.

"Cos we've got Harry as our leader," Ron grinned. "He may not like it, but he's the Boy Who Lived. And I think that when they see his determination to fight, they'll rise up to follow him."

That was the exact moment when Harry finally entered the Common Room again. And when Ron got a look at his face, his grin immediately died.

"Harry?" he asked, getting to his feet. "Are you all right?"

"No," Harry said blandly, his face pale and devoid of emotion as he walked straight past his friends without even looking at them.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, standing up as well and trying to intercept him. "Harry, what did Dumbledore want you for?"

"Stay away from me," Harry snapped and pushed her hand off roughly before she could get a grip on his shoulder and all but ran up towards the dormitory. Hermione stepped back, looking a little hurt, while Ron and Ginny looked to each other in utter bewilderment.

"What the heck was that about?" Ginny voice what they were all thinking.

"Not a clue…" said Ron. "I know today hasn't been the best day in the world but considering what happened… he should be happy right now."

"But he looked thunderstruck," Hermione agreed. "…Just what did Dumbledore want to say to him?"

Harry sat on the side of his bed, wringing his hands and staring into space, his mind buzzing with the sheer enormity of everything that had just been revealed to him. The words of the Prophecy that Dumbledore had revealed to him through the use of a Pensieve memory, in the same rough voice that Professor Trelawney had used that night in the Divination Tower in his third year, were replaying over and over again in his mind.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…."

It was truly an enormous revelation… an entire Prophecy detailing that he, and apparently only he, could kill Voldemort. Dumbledore had explained everything - how it had to be him thanks to Voldemort's decision to come after him as a child when it could so nearly have been Neville, and how he had had the Order guarding the official record of it kept in the Department of Mysteries until Gildarts had gone and destroyed the place and vaporised the Prophecy with it. But as Mavis pointed out, it was likely that Morgana was aware of the contents of the Prophecy and would most likely have told Voldemort by now, or would soon if she hadn't already… so now they were both fully informed of the fact that it would eventually boil down to the two of them.

Still, this wasn't really that surprising. Given the number of times Harry had faced Voldemort now in various different forms, the idea that their fates were entwined was actually small news. The fact that he apparently had a piece of Voldemort's soul… his parents' murderer's soul… locked inside his body, carried far more weight. And never had Harry felt self-loathing and revulsion as strongly as he did now. He felt tainted, twisted… and he found himself questioning every decision that he had ever made and wondering if that little piece of Voldemort could have been affecting him somehow along the way.

Now, the fact that the Sorting Hat had thought he would fit very well in Slytherin made perfect sense.

For a moment, he even wondered whether the fact that the Dursleys had always been so vile to him was because of the pseudo-Horcrux inside him warping them somehow. But Dumbledore had been adamant before he left the office that the piece of Voldemort's soul had absolutely no effect on him other than connecting him to Voldemort himself and providing him the ability to speak Parseltongue. And that all the good he'd ever done in the fight against Voldemort, along with his ability to pull the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, proved that without a shadow of a doubt.

But Harry still took little comfort from those words, and even the relief of Freed's protective runes keeping Voldemort from entering his head had now worn off. Because they didn't change the fact that ever since his parents died, he'd been carrying a piece of their killer around with him and, in doing so, was helping to keep him alive.

"I'm sorry, Mum," he croaked, staring at the picture of his parents dancing on his bedside table. "I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

And he kept apologising over and over again, stopping only when he was no longer alone in the room.

"Do you think that lad will be okay?" Makarov asked quietly as he sat on the Roof of the Shrieking Shack some hours later, watching the sunset. There was currently a party going on in the Room of Requirement, which had started the moment Makarov and the others had returned from Dumbledore's Office, to celebrate the complete reunion of the guild members that had travelled to Tenroujima for that fateful S-Class Exam. It was getting extremely rowdy, in traditional Fairy Tail style, and more than one fight had broken out amongst its members. Makarov had spent a couple of hours catching up with all his brats, hearing the stories of their exploits ever since they emerged from their own protective bubbles, and for some time it had almost felt like he was back at home in Magnolia, where they all belonged.

But eventually he had stepped away from the party. Because there had been one particular person that he had been wanting a chance to speak to alone for some time.

"Harry's a strong-willed child," Mavis said as she stood next to him - her golden hair billowing out in the faint wintery breeze. "But he will need the support of his friends very much indeed now. There is not a person in the world that would not be heavily affected by what they'd just heard. It must have been the shock of his life. But I have every confidence that he'll get through it. Somehow."

"His burdens are many," Makarov agreed. "I hope that we can support him… but equally I hope that we can find a way back home." He glanced up at the ghostly First Master. "Where you are right now."

Mavis' lips tightened - she'd guessed what Makarov had wanted to talk to her about some time ago. "You're referring to Lumen Histoire," she said matter-of-factly.

"I don't understand it," Makarov nodded. "Tenroujima may have moved to another world but from what we know, our guildhall is in exactly the same place it's always been. Which means that you… your real body… should still be enclosed in a crystal in the secret basement, shouldn't it? So how is it possible that you have a presence in this world while the rest of you is not?"

"I do not truly know," Mavis shrugged. "This astral body is my true consciousness. It took me some time for my dormant self to muster together enough energy to let my project outside of myself. Otherwise I would have appeared much sooner. And I have tried to project myself back into our world and return to my body but for some reason I cannot. I am as stuck here as you are."

"But you're still connected to your body, aren't you?"

"Yes. The magic required to project myself in this manner stems from my real body after all."

"Then I would have thought that your presence in this world would have been cut off as soon as the breach that brought us here closed."

"But that's the thing, Third Master," Mavis turned her gaze down to him soberly. "I'm not entirely sure it has closed. Not properly anyway."

Makarov's eyebrows raised urgently. "What do you mean?"

"We know very little about the power that brought us here, but there is one thing we know - and that is that the mages of Grimoire Heart have been brought through to this world one at a time. All of us in Fairy Tail appeared at once, but their arrival here has been staggered. Which means that a breach between our worlds and this one still exists in some manner. And my theory is that that is because of me."

"Because of you?"

"Yes. I believe the connection between my real body and my astral body is actually holding the breach between our worlds open, like a tunnel leading from our world to this one. It should have collapsed the instant that the rift at either end disappeared and if that had happened perhaps the Grimoire Heart members would have been trapped in the space between our world for eternity, like Morgana's Crystal Cave. But the tunnel is being sustained by the magic of Lumen Histoire, except the gates at either end are shut. Whenever one of the Grimoire Heart Mages crash into this universe they are blasted through, but otherwise the ends of the tunnel are closed off."

"But if the tunnel is there… then does that mean there is a way back home after all?"

"It means there is a path. But we can't access that path until we find a way to open the gates. And even though I'm holding open the tunnel I don't have the power to open the gate from this end, and I don't have the mobility or presence of mind to open it from the other end. And even if I had either, I don't know how to do it. Opening portals was one thing I never got the chance to study.

"But I can promise you now, Third Master," she said, raising her hands up and clenching her fists with steely resolution. "We will find a way. The way home is right in front of us - we just need to figure out how to use it. We'll do all we can to help Harry find these Horcruxes and put a stop to Voldemort, but we will not stay in this world forever. One way or another, I will guide you home. I will guide all of us home."