It was strange, and probably alarming when Harry thought about it, how easy it was to get used to the idea that he was about to die. It wasn't as if he actively wanted to die. No, Harry would have been jumping from the rooftops (he could probably literally do that now, couldn't he?) if he survived. He especially did not want his friends and boyfriend to die. As much as Harry ached to see his parents again, especially after getting a taste of what it would have been like if they'd been there, he very much wanted to live.

But Harry simply could not think of a way out of his current predicament. A crazed Dark Lord was holding everyone hostage with a Fiendfyre spell that looked so terrifying Harry wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. He had a hunch his boggart had a new form now. Grindelwald had issued absurd demands to a man who seemed completely incapable of doing anything vaguely helpful. Harry was absolutely certain Cornelius Fudge, the man who'd dumped Hagrid in Azkaban without a trial just because he could, would sacrifice every single student in Hogwarts to save himself.

What's worse, Harry wasn't entirely convinced it was the wrong decision. Giving in to Grindelwald's demands would be calamitous. The end of the Statute of Secrecy would be a disaster on an unparalleled level. People like Uncle Vernon would hunt down mages wherever they found them. More people would ultimately die. Did the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the comparatively few students who were about to be roasted to death? Harry had no idea.

Of course, there was a strong possibility Grindelwald would simply kill everyone anyway out of sheer, unrelenting spite. Harry had never thought it was possible for someone to hold a grudge better than Voldemort, but Grindelwald had him beat on every single front. The kind of anger, of hatred that it took to sustain such a deception for decades, to kill and manipulate and subvert and do every crime under the sun, just for the sake of revenge was just unfathomable to Harry.

So, yeah, Harry was certain that either way, he was about to die. And attacking Grindelwald was completely useless. All Grindelwald had to do was reverse the flame freezing charm and he would be utterly gone. His death would be everything he'd always feared it had been. Fiery. Prolonged. Painful. The only solace would be that he knew for a fact he'd reunite with his parents in the afterlife, and nearly everyone he cared about would die at the same time. Except for Sirius, of course.

Harry and his friends huddled over at the Gryffindor table. Or what had once been the Gryffindor table. The threat Grindelwald posed seemed to have at least had the pleasant consequence of temporarily disintegrating house divisions. Students mixed and matched with abandon now. House, blood status, age…none of it seemed to matter anymore compared to their imminent deaths at the hands of an insane Dark Lord.

"I'm scared," a younger student who Harry was going to guess, based on her resemblance to Daphne, was Astoria Greengrass. God, she looked so tiny. Everyone that age did, but especially her. "I don't want to die!"

What the hell did you say to that? The Harry of a few years ago might have shied away from trying to talk to a Slytherin (though even back then, he probably would have made an exception for one as terrified as her), but now the colors on her tie were as important to him as her blood status. That was to say, not at all.

"Astoria, it'll all be fine," Harry promised, lying through his teeth. "The adults will save us." Everyone cast a skeptical look at him, as this flew straight in the face of…literally everything he'd ever encountered at Hogwarts. He returned a ferocious glare. He would not have them depriving her of hope, no matter how false it was. "And if they don't, I will."

Harry almost stood up and tried to rush Grindelwald at the hopeful look in Astoria's eyes, but he restrained himself. That'd only get him killed. There was really only one thing left to be done, and he had no idea it would work. "Goyle," he said, snapping his fingers. "Invisibility Cloak, now."

"Why should I give it to you?" Goyle demanded. Much to Harry's surprise, Grindelwald had let Goyle rejoin his fellow students and didn't even bother trying to kill him.

"It belongs to me," he said as if explaining something to someone as thick as he'd once thought Goyle was. "If you don't give it back to me, I will hurt you and then you will give it back to me." He'd be damned he was going to let Goyle get away with stealing his most prized possession.

Harry expected Goyle to protest further, but instead he just handed over the cloak with a grin. "This one's a keeper, Draco!"

Draco put a possessive arm around Harry. "I know," he said with an impish smile.

Harry reluctantly pulled away from Draco. It was not the time. "Astoria, take this, and hide near the door. The moment it opens, run. Just get the hell away from here."

Astoria opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. "But why? You could use it to escape!"

"No, I can't," Harry lamented. "He'd notice if I disappeared." He couldn't use it to protect any of his friends either. Grindelwald would notice that too. But Harry would be very surprised indeed if Grindelwald even knew who Astoria was. "Go, quickly!"

Astoria hurriedly took the cloak and was gone. Harry just prayed he'd be able to save her. It was the least he could do, and unfortunately right now, also the most. He turned his head to see Daphne looking at him in awe. "You saved her…" she whispered. "A Slytherin you didn't even know and you saved her."

"It's not a big deal," Harry said, genuinely meaning it. He would have done the same had it been literally anyone else.

"And that's why you're a hero," Daphne said, no room for doubt in her voice.

Neville scooted over to him. "Uh, sorry about punching you, Harry. Well, I guess it was Draco I really punched…but still."

"No worries, Neville," Harry said. He really meant it. There was no bad blood between them. "I deserved it. And considering how awful Draco used to be, he probably did too. Though I won't be so forgiving if you do it again, you understand."

"Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" Neville asked calmly. Harry almost laughed hysterically at that. Things had really come full circle, hadn't they?

Harry shook his head. "Sorry about leading you all on like that. I just…went along with things. It was a Death Eater pretending to be Professor Moody." Neville's head shot over to him with alarm. "Don't worry, we took care of the Death Eater. That's the real Professor Moody."

"Looks like constant vigilance wasn't enough," Neville said glumly.

A somber silence descended upon them, one broken only by Grindelwald's endless ranting. The man hadn't stopped monologuing since he gave the ultimatum. He was constantly bragging about all the horrible sins he'd committed. Harry had turned it all out, especially after Grindelwald started randomly lapsing in and out of German. It would probably be important for posterity's sake, but right now, Harry didn't want to hear any of it. He'd listened to enough villainous monologues to last a lifetime. There'd be more than enough of other people's memories for the DMLE to get anything relevant.

"At least they got Voldemort," Hermione offered weakly. "I'm sure he won't get away with his crimes this time around. And with his…trinkets gone, he won't be able to come back again." Harry supposed that was some small consolation. He did not like at all how tiny it was.

"You're welcome," Goyle said with a smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Being a celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be, Goyle. You'll find that out for yourself soon enough."

"Yeah, cause you never wanted to be one. I do." Harry didn't bother correcting him, partially because he wasn't even sure he was wrong.

Every moment dragged on endlessly. A Ravenclaw sixth year tried to sneak her way over to the door, but Grindelwald caught her and held her under the Cruciatus until she dropped. She may have been dead or unconscious. Harry couldn't tell. He was too busy comforting Neville, who was screaming in almost as much pain as if he had been under the Cruciatus himself. Fortunately, his screams blended in with the Ravenclaw's, so Grindelwald didn't notice. When he was done, he walked back to his throne and continued monologuing as if nothing had happened.

Finally, the doors opened. Harry prayed Astoria took that opportunity to flee. Fudge walked in, accompanied by a wizened woman in even more elaborate robes than Grindelwald's, a toad like woman dressed in the most hideous pink outfit Harry had ever seen, and several people wearing Muggle suits. They had to be representatives from the Muggle governments. Harry's heart sank. Fudge had really done it, then. He'd decided to destroy the Statute of Secrecy to save them. What was going to happen to them now? Was Grindelwald really going to win after all? Was everything they'd fought for about to be for naught?

The Fiendfyre shrank back, paving away for the entourage to approach the throne. Fudge, trembling uncontrollably, walked towards the throne. The old woman cast one of the most terrifying glares Harry had ever seen at Grindelwald, who was completely unfazed.

"As Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, I have reluctantly decided to accede to your threats and abolish the Statute of Secrecy," the old woman said venomously, practically spitting the words. "We have brought the leaders of the most powerful Muggle nations to bear witness to this moment. The presidents of Russia and the United States. The premier of China. And, of course, the prime minister of Britain. Gentlemen, may I introduce the Dark Lord Grindelwald, presently inhabiting the body of my predecessor Albus Dumbledore?"

There was a chorus of whispers from the Muggleborn and with good reason. Professor Moody thankfully shushed them before Grindelwald could notice. Hope leapt into Harry's heart. Harry may not have kept very up to date on Muggle news, but he certainly knew what the prime minister looked like, and he wasn't there. This whole thing was nothing more than a ruse! A clever trick. Harry couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. This had Lady Malfoy written all over it! He should have known Draco's mother wouldn't sit idly by while her son was in danger. He wasn't sure why he hadn't expected it in the first place.

Grindelwald stood up from the throne and eyed the so-called Muggles hungrily. "Yes…yes, the moment of triumph is here!" he said with a mad, high pitched giggle. "But these are just the leaders themselves. What proof do I have that they have broken the Statute?"

The Supreme Mugwump conjured a Muggle newspaper. Or what appeared to be one. It looked like the Times of London. The front page article was on the fake prime minister giving a press conference revealing the existence of magic and how he intended to surrender his government to the magical equivalent. After getting used to magical newspapers where the people in the photographs moved, it was almost unsettling to see stationary photographs again. It was a very convincing fake. Harry probably would have been convinced if he was in Grindelwald's shoes.

A beatific smile formed on Grindelwald's face. "I finally did it, Albus," he whispered. "You mocked me. You locked me up. But my cunning is stronger than your so-called morals. I am superior in every single way." His face was one of pure ecstasy. He had become madness given flesh. "I am a god made manifest! Magic chose me! I am the one who will lead this world to utopia! Or dystopia should I choose it."

Grindelwald's smile twisted into something incredibly ugly. "And I do!" he said with a crazed cackle. "FINITE –"

"WAIT!" Harry screamed.

Much to his surprise, instead of killing him in a fiery blaze, Grindelwald decided to oblige him. "Ah, Mr. Potter!" he said jovially, as if they'd just bumped into each other on the street. "I haven't had a chance to congratulate you on your survival. Not that it will do you much good soon enough. You truly had me fooled. If you had stayed away, you would have survived."

"That's not who I am," Harry said. He stood up and slowly started walking towards Grindelwald.

"No, it's not," Grindelwald said. "You're a hero, Mr. Potter. Just like your parents before you. And that is why you will always lose." He pointed his wand at the large group of first years huddled together near the front of the room. "My boys," he snarled. "My girls. Stand before me and defend me."

A very large portion of the first years had the strength to resist the atrophied mind control, but that still left over a dozen first years putting themselves in a ring around Grindelwald, making themselves human shields. The toad like woman fired a cutting curse directly at one of the first years, who took it straight through the heart, dying on his feet with a beatific smile on his face. The Supreme Mugwump, fury coursing through every feature on her face, immediately knocked the toad woman out.

"There was a prophecy about you, Harry," Grindelwald said. This was not news to Harry, but he pretended to be surprised anyway. "It said you had the power the Dark Lord knows not. Tell me, Harry, what do you think that power is? What is this great power that I, the mightiest wizard to ever live, do not possess?"

"Sanity?" Harry suggested glibly. Curse his tendency to run his mouth without consulting his brain first!

Grindelwald threw his head back and laughed merrily. For a second, Harry thought that maybe Dumbledore had gotten back control. It sounded so like him. But no such luck. "Oh, Harry. You're such a jokester. But you won't manage to joke your way out of this one. I'll start hurting people if you don't tell me the truth. You don't have any control here."

It took all of Harry's composure to start laughing like a hyena. Control? When had he ever had control over his life? He'd been manipulated by two Dark Lords, abused by the people who were supposed to love him, subjected to the fickleness of the public. The idea of him ever having any control of a situation was laughable.

And then out of nowhere, an idea popped into his head. It was utterly mad and even more illegal. He could easily get thrown into Azkaban if it worked. But then again, these days, you could be put into Azkaban because you breathed wrong in the minister's presence. He wasn't even sure if it would work. The idea of him ever casting an Unforgivable Curse had been completely unthinkable beforehand. More skilled mages than him probably were incapable of it. But Harry was otherwise out of tricks.

"Okay, okay!" Harry said. He knelt down on the ground. Grindelwald's eyes glittered even more maliciously than usual. He was savoring his enemy's defeat. "It started when I was in the Chamber of Secrets. I discovered a portrait of Salazar Slytherin and he – IMPERIO!"

Instantly after casting the Unforgivable Curse – thank God he remembered the movements Crouch had used to put him under in class – it seemed to Harry like he was being plunged into a pool of water as he entered Grindelwald's mind. Or, technically, Dumbledore's. He blinked and he saw a battlefield before him. A city in flames. Harry didn't recognize it, though it reminded him of a documentary he'd seen about World War II back in the day.

Before him, Dumbledore and a ginger haired man who could only have been Grindelwald were locked in battle. It was a short battle, but it kept on repeating on loop. The same motions, the same spells over and over again. Each time, it ended with Grindelwald hurting Dumbledore and binding him and then he released him and let it happen again. Dumbledore never came close to winning. He hadn't for the last sixteen years.

Until now.

Harry cast a cutting curse in Grindelwald's direction. Grindelwald stared at him, his face blanching with shock. "Unmöglich…" he whispered.

Dumbledore gave a nod at Harry, both of them knowing there was not time for conversation. The two of them cast a flurry of spells in Grindelwald's direction. Grindelwald did his best to avoid them, but he was dancing an unfamiliar dance now, to an unfamiliar tune. And Harry would not rest. He was younger and he was angrier and, as he had stated, he was also sane. Evil would not win. He would not allow it. There had been so many deaths, so much suffering at Grindelwald's hands. He refused to let it all be in vain.

"You had my parents murdered!" Harry screamed at Grindelwald as he sprayed boiling water on the Dark Lord, who screamed in pure, unrelenting agony. "You hurt my friends! You ruined my life! You're going to pay for every sin you've ever committed!"

"We could be here all day if we're going to do that," Grindelwald complained.

"Face it, Gellert," Dumbledore said, calm and casual as if they were out for a stroll instead of fighting a battle that would decide the fate of all humanity, mage and Muggle. "You're not quite as young as you used to be."

Grindelwald's face twitched. "WHAT IS THE POWER I KNOW NOT, HARRY?!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE PROPHECY?!"

"Prophecies are bullshit!" Harry said chirpily. "You'd think the same thing if you had to take a class with Trelawney. Sorry, headmaster. Professor Trelawney."

"Think nothing of it, Harry," Dumbledore said with an airy wave of his hand. "It was certainly not my choice to hire her."

Harry and Dumbledore, moving absolutely in sync, cast a severing curse at Grindelwald's hands, one each, and they tumbled off of his body. Dumbledore strode over to Grindelwald's wand, a mirror to the one in his hand, and he snapped it in two. "No! You silly fool! That was one of the Hollows!"

"You did not truly understand the Hollows, Gellert, or you would have recognized the Invisibility Cloak when you held it in your hand," Dumbledore responded evenly.

Grindelwald opened and closed his mouth repeatedly. "Then you know where the others are. Oh, Albus, we do not have to be adversaries. You know there was a time when you loved me."

"Wait, what?!" Harry shouted. Though it made total sense when he thought about it. Grindelwald's obsession with Dumbledore was beyond that which a Dark Lord would feel for the man who'd defeated him.

Dumbledore sighed deeply. "Harry, this is really, really not the time." He turned to face Gellert. "You are a plague. I deeply regret not being able to fight you off until now. But now, thanks to Harry, I am free, and I will banish you back to your physical body. You will not be able to hurt me or get me to hurt anyone else ever again."

"Harry, don't let him hurt me!" Grindelwald begged pathetically. "I can give you the world! Power, immortality, money, status, it can all be yours! Anything you want, I can give you!"

Harry gave a seriously impressive smirk. Draco would have been hard pressed to beat it. "The only thing I want you to do is die."

Dumbledore raised his wand and said a word in a language Harry didn't recognize and Grindelwald's body started to disintegrate. Grindelwald started blubbering away in a disappointingly undignified fashion. Say what you like about Voldemort, he never would have lowered himself to beg for mercy in such a manner. Grindelwald gave ineffectual threats, promises of power, pleas to Dumbledore that made him flinch but not relent, and so much more. But Dumbledore was relentless, inexorable, the wizard that Dark Lords feared, and soon enough, Grindelwald had gone. Grindelwald may not have been dead – they still had to destroy his physical body at Nurmengard – but they'd still won.

Harry blinked and then he was in the headmaster's office. Had he passed out? "Sir…?"

Dumbledore sat down behind his desk and gave a sad smile at Harry. Even though Harry knew it was the real Dumbledore, it still made him a little scared. It would be a long time, if ever, before he felt comfortable around Dumbledore. But he'd press on regardless. "We are still in my mind, Harry," he said. "I thought you'd prefer this setting to the ruins of Dresden to talk. I imagine you have many, many questions. I'd be happy to answer any of them, fully and unreservedly. You have earned that much."

"Why didn't you…?" Harry began and trailed off. The question he was about to ask seemed incredibly rude.

"Why didn't I fight him off?" Dumbledore asked kindly and gently. Harry hesitated and then nodded. "I have tried many times, Harry. But Gellert is superior to I in the mental arts. He always has been. And he knows me. Down to my soul. Only when you showed up and threw him off was I able to regain control. No one regrets these facts more than I do. I will regret it until the day I die."

"Are my friends safe?" Harry demanded, feeling incredibly guilty he hadn't asked the question first.

Dumbledore nodded. "I have dispelled the Fiendfyre. You should be proud of all your friends, Harry, especially young Mr. Malfoy. Gellert believed people could not change. Draco is living proof of just how wrong he really is."

"I don't…I don't understand how you could be in love with that…that thing!" Harry shouted.

Dumbledore's eyes seemed like they were looking far away from him. He looked older than ever before, seeming to have a bone deep weariness. "People do not always change for the better, Harry. Sometimes, they change for the worse. Gellert was not always the monster who nearly destroyed us all. There was once a good man underneath it all, before he methodically smothered that part of him beneath his heel."

Well, Harry supposed he didn't have too much room to complain there, given that his boyfriend was a former blood supremacist and bully, but still, it seemed incredibly weird. It was probably better that he didn't even bother trying to understand further. "What was the power he knows not?"

"Oh, how the hell should I know?" Dumbledore complained, sounding uncharacteristically annoyed. "It could be literally anything. The power of love, the power of loyalty, the power of sanity. Maybe even the power of reverse psychology for all I know. What I do know is that prophecies are an irritant we can all do without. I wouldn't waste a second longer thinking about it."

"Couldn't agree more with you," Harry said. "Can I live with Sirius when this is over?"

Dumbledore blinked. "Well, of course. I hope you don't think it was I who had you placed at the Dursleys. I knew quite well they were unsuitable guardians. Lily would not stop complaining about her sister. Dreadful woman. Though, of course, I wish I had not been forced to kill her."

"Is Goyle really going to win the Triwizard Tournament?" Harry complained.

"According to the rules, yes," Dumbledore said with an indulgent chuckle. "He deserved it, in my opinion." Harry scowled, but could not argue with that.

Dumbledore stood up. "Though I do not believe much time has passed, it is probably best we return to the real world. Your friends, I am sure, wish to see you, and I most likely have a very long engagement with DMLE and maybe the Department of Mysteries before I am cleared."

"I'll put in a good word for you, sir," Harry vowed. "You didn't deserve any of this."

Dumbledore snapped his fingers and Harry was back in the great hall. As Dumbledore said, not much time had passed. Probably only a few minutes. During the time that had passed, Professor Moody had bound Dumbledore in ropes and had his wand firmly pressed against the back of his head. The children, including Harry's friends, had been led away from the hall.

"You don't need to do that!" Harry shouted. "It's the real Professor Dumbledore! I've seen it with my own eyes. Grindelwald isn't possessing him anymore."

"No, no, Alastor is quite sensible for taking precautions," Dumbledore said, seeming remarkably unbothered. "I would do the same thing in his situation. Thank you for protecting my students, Alastor." Professor Moody just grunted.

Fudge cleared his throat. "Well, Mr. Potter, it would appear we all owe you a great debt. Again."

Harry gave him a skeptical look. "Really? You're not going to cart me off to Azkaban because I used the Imperius Curse?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Fudge said in a more deadpan tone than Harry thought him capable of using. "In such a chaotic situation, who could truly say what spell you used? Mr. Potter, whatever can we do to repay you?"

"I want to finish this," Harry said immediately. He wouldn't be able to rest until he could see Grindelwald die with his own eyes for real. "I want to be there for the attack on Nurmengard." Dumbledore looked weary and disappointed at that statement, but didn't say a word. He knew just as much as Harry did that he had a right to see Grindelwald's final defeat through. "And where are my friends?"

"They're out in the hallway…" Fudge began, and Harry didn't even bother saying anything else before running out into the hallway.

Hermione immediately slapped Harry across the face and then pulled him into a hug. "Don't you ever do that again, you hear me? You could have died!"

Harry shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Also, it worked, so there's that."

"It was a terrible idea!" Ginny shouted. "It should not have worked! How do all these dumb ideas of yours keep succeeding?"

"Maybe that's the power he knows not," Harry suggested, only partially joking.

He let out a gasp as Draco stepped in front of him, giving him a fearsome glare. "You are in so much trouble."

Harry sighed. Well, he should have known things were too good to last. Nothing good in his life ever stayed. At least he had some fond memories of snogging Draco to compensate him for the heartache he was about to endure. "I'm sorry, Draco. I suppose if you think it's best we don't see each other anymore…"

"Oh my God, you are such a drama king," Draco complained. Harry gave him a deadpan stare. That was the most hypocritical thing he'd heard in ages, since it was coming from a boy who challenged him to a duel because Harry wouldn't shake his hand. "Harry, of course I'm not gonna break up with you. Not over this. Look, I have accepted you have absolutely no sense of self-preservation and make incredibly dumb, impulsive decisions that should have left you dead ten times over."

"Hey, that's not true! Right, guys?" Harry's friends became remarkably interested in looking anywhere else but him. He just scowled.

"So in order to dissuade you, I'm just going to have to withhold kisses from you for a while whenever you do something rash," Draco went on.

Harry gasped. "For how long?"

"Longer now."

"Rats. Well, good news! The minister is going to let us join the fight against Grindelwald. I don't suppose any of you want to join me?"

Daphne rolled her eyes. "As if you even have to ask, Harry. He murdered my father."

Luna slammed her fist into the palm of her hand. "He made my girlfriend cry. That's a capital offense, in my book."

"I'm not going to let you run off and fight a Dark Lord without my help," Ron vowed. Harry beamed at him. Who could ask for a better friend?

"I think this is an excellent opportunity to teach him a valuable lesson," Hermione said with a beatific smile. Harry couldn't help but shiver a little and he also noticed most of his friends took a step backwards.

Draco threw his hands up in the air. "Fine! If you're going to do something as dumb as fighting a Dark Lord in his own stronghold, then I suppose I have to be there to make sure you don't get hurt! But wouldn't you rather stay here and get some kisses?"

Harry would. He absolutely would. But he couldn't. He had to finish it. He had to get closure. He had to be the one to finally end the bastard. "Sorry, Draco. But I've got a hero complex, and you're the lucky soul who gets to deal with it."

"Well, they do say understanding you have a problem is the first key to fixing it," Ginny joked. At least Harry hoped it was a joke. "And I'll be there too, naturally. I owe him pain."

"I am surrounded by scary, badass people and I love it," Harry said with a warm smile. "Let's do this. Let's destroy Grindelwald once and for all."