Nothing is mine.

I actually have something vaguely interesting for this AN.

As some may already know, I paid for the professional recording of an audiobook of A Cadmean Victory to be made a little while ago, because it seemed like a nice thing to have for everyone who enjoys the story. It's been racking up numbers on Spotify, so people have been asking me about whether this sequel will be made into one as well.

Unfortunately, I don't have another £7000 lying around to spend on this, but we do have a chunk of chapters already recorded and will set up a crowdfund to see if we can afford to get across the line. I also don't really have time beyond working and writing and other stuff to run this crowdfund, so if one of my beta editors very kindly agrees to keep it working, we'll see if we can get the sequel made as well. I'll keep people posted via Discord and probably another AN here when details get nailed down.

Also, I've been looking forward to this chapter xD

Cone-Demned to Death

Soft red light pulsed from the slim shard of glass sat between Violette's ring and Lemon Sorbet's pale yellow mask.

Daphne and Astoria are calling. Harry watched it flash from the edge of the bed, spinning his wand in his fingers. But I can't risk facing Grindelwald again.

Fleur wrapped her warm arms around him and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. 'What are you thinking, mon Amour?'

'They stayed,' he murmured. 'For me. When Grindelwald trapped us in the Sunset Princedoms. I should go. This one last time. To kill Lemon Sorbet. And to help them. They would, if it was me.'

'But…' Fleur whispered.

'But if it's Grindelwald, it's a risk of really dying,' Harry said. 'His magic, it just… changes everything it touches. If he realises what my horcrux is and sees its magic, he might be able to destroy it and we need that for La Victoire Finale.'

'It might not be him.' She held him tight and kissed the back of his neck. 'Go. Go and see. Go and help your new Katies, mon Coeur. If it is not Grindelwald, then it is no risk to La Victoire Finale and nobody will suddenly grow suspicious of us.'

'You don't mind?' He twisted around to stare into her eyes. 'Really?'

'I am a very jealous bird-girl,' Fleur murmured. 'But you are mine. We are married. We have our little chick. And you would hurl yourself into the oblivion you once feared more than anything for a second time to protect us. It is hard to feel jealous watching you help some nameless unspeakables for a couple hours when I know that for certain.'

'Well.' Harry grinned. 'What if I told you that one of those unspeakables was Daphne Greengrass?'

A little heat smouldered in Fleur's blue eyes and a faint pout crept onto her lips. 'That might well do it, mon Amour. After La Victoire Finale, you will make this up to me, non?'

His humour wilted. 'Of course, mon Rêve.'

If I can.

Her expression softened and she pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. 'Go on, mon Coeur. I will test and hopefully finish the last part of La Victoire Finale while you are away.'

Harry slid off the edge of the bed and pulled on his robes, slipping the thin iron ring onto his finger and transfiguring his face. 'With a little luck, I won't even be gone long enough for that.' He placed Lemon Sorbet's pale yellow mask over his face. 'Au revoir, je t'aime.'

'Je t'aime,' Fleur whispered.

He apparated onto the Normandy beach and into the corridor outside Susan Bones's office.

Alicia folded her arms. 'You again.'

'Me.' Harry snorted. 'I was summoned this time, so…'

She yanked the door open. 'Fine.'

He rolled his eyes and strode past her into the office.

Susan's eyes flicked up from between the dark-robed figures of Daphne and Astoria. 'Lemon Sorbet. Thank fuck.'

'Oh.' Astoria poked her sister in the side. 'Looks like we were wrong, Smooth Mint. Lemon Sorbet is here.'

'Hello Smooth Mint and Pistachio Surprise,' Harry said. 'What's going on?'

'We have a problem,' Susan snapped. 'A potentially big one.'

'I'm not going off to duel Grindelwald.'

'No. You are not.' Susan sighed. 'He went through France's Les Inconnus single-handedly according to the rumours we're hearing. Including Violette. We provided them with the portkey, but apparently Grindelwald was not deceived by our ruse or was just cautious enough to check. The good news is we have learnt they did at least barbecue most of the eldest vampire princes before Grindelwald killed them.'

Daphne and Astoria exchanged a quick glance.

'So if not Grindelwald…?' Harry frowned. 'It better not be the U.S. I warned them what would happen if I had to go back and waste time on them.'

'It is the U.S., but it's not their fault.' Susan snatched a gold-and-crimson-edged envelope off her desk. 'This is from the Spanish auror captain, De Mendoza. He and his compatriots have, with the emergency powers granted to them by their minister to fight Grindelwald, elected to attack and reclaim their former colonies the US liberated half a century ago before joining us. Which is fucking stupid and I have told them exactly how fucking stupid I think it is.'

'Oh.'

Astoria snickered. 'Yes. Oh.'

'It is important in matters…' One of the portraits trailed off as Susan reached for her wand.

'And stay quiet.' Susan glowered at the picture. 'The Spanish aurors bypassed Panama and are planning to secure Yaxikua, an abandoned city within the southeast tip of the Independent Aztec Kingdoms from which they'll be able to attack all across their former protectorates. Our auror forces are locked into positions to oppose Grindelwald, including American volunteers under Grant Hardsworth who was just fighting De Mendoza in Panama. If Spain upsets them and they defect or even just leave, everything's fucked.'

'So…?' Harry asked.

'We stop the Spanish getting hold of Yaxikua,' Susan said. 'The gateway temple is also abandoned and if we seal it off, they can't get through into their old colonies without taking Panama, which won't be easy and should put them off and get them to focus on Grindelwald fully.'

'The Spanish haven't entered Yaxikua's gateway temple yet; we've been watching them. They're carefully checking out the old wards on it first,' Daphne murmured. 'They're very dangerous; ritualistic sacrifice was involved in their creation.'

Like Kart Hadasht…

'Right,' Astoria chimed in. 'So we go now before they get in. We turn the wards back on, so they can't get to Yaxikua from the gateway temple or we otherwise ensure they can't get there by alternative means. And then we get out through the summit of the temple to avoid being seen by the Spanish.'

'And problem solved,' Harry said. 'Okay.'

'Are you rested enough to come?' Daphne asked. 'We would prefer it if you did.'

Susan shrugged. 'I said they probably didn't need you, but they insisted you were one of the team.'

A touch of warmth lit Harry's heart. 'I'll come.'

Lemon Sorbet needs to die and dangerous ancient blood wards are as good a way to fake your death as any. He took a deep breath. And if I come back and want to fight against Grindelwald, it won't matter if Harry Potter returns. There'll be nothing left to take away from him once the sunset is sacrificed.

'Then let's go!' Astoria checked the clock and passed him an ice cream stick. 'All the other scoops are waiting in Jamaica by now so don't be slow, Lemon Sorbet, you shouldn't leave ice cream lying around in the sun for long.'

Daphne sighed.

Cornetto. Harry blinked at the word written on the ice cream stick. Cornettos don't have sticks.

Susan glanced between the three of them. 'Go on. Be quick. Don't start a fight. We need the Spanish to fight against Grindelwald all the more now.'

Daphne and Astoria disapparated with a loud crack. Harry pictured the windswept, salt-scarred towers and apparated across the Atlantic, hopping from one storm-weathered tower top to the next until he appeared above white sand and still blue seas in the thick Caribbean heat.

'And we're all here!' Astoria waved him over. 'The portkey word is on the stick. It will take us from here in Jamaica right to Yaxikua's temple gateway. The Spanish are keeping careful watch, but we'll disillusion first and slip inside to do the fun stuff.'

Daphne sighed.

'Right, sorry, Smooth Mint.'

'Once we are inside—' Daphne's pale green mask turned to Anthony '—you need to restore the wards or reactivate them.'

'That could well be impossible,' he said. 'I've never even seen them before.'

Astoria snickered. 'Don't worry, I have a feeling we'll get lucky.'

'When the wards are restored, we will go up to the temple summit. There's a terrace at the top that's unwarded. We can leave from there.'

'Can't we just apparate in there?' Harry asked.

'We could, but we don't know the current state of the old wards or if the Spanish have tinkered with them,' Daphne said. 'It's safer to sneak in.'

'Makes sense,' he said.

'Is that it?' Colin asked. 'Just slip in, sneak about, turn the wards on, get out?'

'That's it,' Daphne murmured.

'We're not to pick a fight with the Spanish,' Astoria said. 'They'll be keeping a careful eye out, and if they spot us, we're going to lie to them and tell them we're there to help. At which point we'll pretend to be there to help with the wards, turn them back on, and claim it was always impossible to get through.'

'Sneaky,' Luna said.

'Everyone ready?' Astoria thrust out her hand. 'Let's do the chant this time.'

Colin groaned. 'Do we have to?'

'Yes.' She wagged her finger at him. 'That's an order, Tame Raspberry.'

Colin stuck his hand in beside Astoria's and Luna held out hers with a quiet laugh.

'Come on, Smooth Mint,' Astoria chimed. 'You can grab yourself a handful of sorbet.'

Daphne extended her arm with a quiet sigh.

Anthony shook his head and put his hand in. 'You might as well get it over with, Lemon Sorbet. She won't relent.'

Harry snorted and laid his hand on top of Daphne's. 'Fine.'

Astoria laughed. 'I scream. You scream. They all scream when it's Team Ice Cream!' She thrust her fist into the air. 'Alright. Then let's go!'

'Cornetto,' Harry said.

The Jamaican beach lurched right and he stumbled over thick tree roots into a knee-high pile of leaves at the foot of a tall trunk. The birdsong and chirping insects fell silent in the swathe of sweltering green surrounding him.

'Disillusionment time,' Daphne murmured, flickering out of view. 'Head for the steps up to the entrance. You can't miss it.'

'There's only one.' Astoria's voice drifted from a shimmering patch of air between two large green shrubs as Colin wavered out of sight beside it.

Harry disillusioned himself and picked his way through the thinning rainforest to the flat shore of a big lake. A flat-topped stone pyramid rose over the still water in thick, broad tiers of liana-swathed stone, its steps broken halfway up by a dark passage. Spanish aurors in white jackets stood in its shadow at the shore, patrolling around a cluster of red tents.

'Just walk right around the edge and then head in. If we're quick, nobody will see the shimmer,' Astoria said.

Harry followed two faint ripples in the air across the open lake shore through the mud, winding through the tents as the Spanish aurors chatted and laughed on the other side.

Colin flickered back into view. 'Fuck,' he hissed. 'Pistachio!'

Spanish shouts rang out and with a loud crack, a ring of white-jacketed aurors appeared around them.

Astoria and Daphne wavered back into sight.

'Strawberry, Vanilla, Lemon,' Daphne murmured.

Harry let his wand slide down into his hand and allowed the Disillusionment charm to fade.

De Mendoza stepped through the ring, his wand raised and his brown eyes hard. 'Quién eres?' he snapped.

'British unspeakables,' Astoria said. 'Here to help!'

'Our allies would not come sneaking in and we would be expecting their arrival.' De Mendoza rubbed at his goatee and raised his wand. 'I think this is a trick. You are agents of Grindelwald, come to assassinate me for refusing his offer.' He gestured with his left hand. 'I lead Spanish aurors because Basque and Spain are one and the same people. Basque independence is not worth betraying all my brothers and sisters in Spain.'

Daphne stepped forward. 'It is no—'

De Mendoza thrust his wand forward, conjuring a blinding wall of white magic. 'Atácalos!'

Blue and yellow hexes flashed through the shield from the wands of the dozen Spanish aurors. Grey mist swept the volley of curses aside, bursting them in showers of sparks.

'Back into the temple, slow and steady and safely,' Astoria said, pushing a swathe of fog out past them. 'This is no time for flaking!'

A storm of spells hammered into her magic, exploding in bright flashes of colour. A blue spell punched through, hissing into Colin's shield and splashing across it in a ripple of azure light. Luna and Anthony backed up the steps, shielding against the spells streaking over Astoria's magic.

Harry backstepped with Astoria to the foot of the steps, batting away a trio of orange curses as they flashed through her shield. 'What's the plan?'

'We pretend to be Grindelwald's assassins,' Daphne murmured, grey fog pouring from her sleeves to reinforce the warding cloud. 'We seal the gateway temple. We leave.'

'It all works out the same,' Astoria chimed in, stepping back over the thick roots to the base of the steps. 'Don't kill anyone, Lemon Sorbet. We'll need them to fight Grindelwald later.'

'Watch out!' Luna cried from above them.

The roots shuddered and lunged.

No. Ice flashed through Harry's veins and black mist tore from his sleeve, ripping through the snaking wooden tendrils in a spray of splinters.

The grey fog snapped back, sweeping the roots away from Astoria and Daphne.

Yellow and blue curses hissed from the wands of the Spanish aurors as they spread out. Harry stepped in front of Astoria and Daphne, swatting them aside, forcing his arm faster and faster as he batted the spells back. De Mendoza jabbed his wand forward, conjuring a whip of red flame and lashing it forward.

Stumbling back up the steps, Astoria and Daphne thrust out their arms and a flood of grey fog smothered the flame. Orange curses flashed past Harry's shoulder as he retreated toward them, throwing up a bright white shield. The Spanish aurors' hexes burst on it, washing across it in waves of colour.

One final defeat for Lemon Sorbet. He glanced over his shoulder. Then nothing.

Grey fog curled around his waist and yanked him back into the cool dark, flooding past him to blot out the light streaming in through the entrance.

'Lumos,' Luna whispered, throwing soft white light down the passage.

Anthony lay face down on the weathered stone floor, blood pooling from his throat into the faded carvings of coiled serpents. Faint flashes of light flickered through the swirling ball of grey fog as spells hammered against it.

'Vanilla Delight is gone,' Colin said. 'Two of those orange boring spells collided behind him and one bounced back right through his neck.'

'Change of plan, right, Smooth Mint?' Astoria chirped. 'We can't mess with the wards now.'

'Yes,' Daphne murmured. 'Kill them. They can't attack the US if they are all dead. Kill all of them but De Mendoza, the chaos his death will cause between Spain and Basque is too dangerous to risk right now.'

Harry flexed his fingers on his wand. 'Are we still going back to the top of the temple?'

'Yes, it's a lot of steps, but the best place to fight them is up there.' Astoria pointed up the shallow slope of the passage. 'Smooth Mint and I will go first, our magic's good on the defence in case there are traps. Lemon Sorbet, hold the rear with Strawberry Sundae and Wild Cherry. Don't hold back.'

The grey fog streamed back past him and their quiet footsteps echoed up the passage.

Spanish shouts drifted up the steps and spells streaked up into the roof, scorching glowing holes into the stone ceiling.

'Let's go,' Harry said. 'Lure them into the passage where we can get them all together.' He back-stepped up the shallow slope over serpent carvings, tracking the shadows flickering in the entrance.

Colin slashed his wand forward.

Jagged gashes tore through the stone walls.

'Lemon Sorbet!' Astoria called. 'It's safe. Come this way and up the central stairs. They're enchanted. Take them in threes and you go further than you seem.'

'You heard our glorious leader,' Harry said as blue spells streaked down the passage. 'Go. I'll watch your backs.' He swatted a curse into the wall and threw up his shield, watching the spells burst on it in ripples of colour and showers of sparks as he retreated up the slope.

'There are steps,' Colin called. 'It's a square sort of spiral.'

Harry glanced over his shoulder at the weathered stone stairs and dropped his shield, flinging bone-splintering curses at the Spanish aurors, forcing his arm into a blur as he buried them in a hail of hexes.

White shields sprang up.

He turned and ran up the stairs, bounding past the carved walls three steps at a time and bursting out onto the terrace.

Astoria pointed at a shallow stone basin. 'Get on the far side of that, but don't mess with it. I'm pretty sure the altar is connected to the wards.'

Harry leapt over the symbol-covered depression and spun around, levelling his wand toward the top of the stairs. Luna and Colin spread out on his right, and Astoria and Daphne on his left.

'Remember,' Daphne said, the grey fog of her magic swirling in three circles around her waist. 'Not De Mendoza. We need him alive.'

'Kill the rest.' Astoria stepped beside Daphne, her charcoal mist melding into her sister's. 'All of them.'

A shimmer of wards settled over the terrace.

We're warded in. Harry spun his wand in his fingers. That's very bold for thirteen aurors against an unspeakable team.

A bubble of white magic rose from the steps. Colin and Luna fired curses into it, pummeling the shield with a relentless stream of spells.

Time for Lemon Sorbet to die. Harry watched it flicker, letting cold dark mist curl through his fingers and watching the frost creep across the stone at his feet. The moment that shield fails, they'll hurl every spell they can. He inched back toward the edge, glancing down at the distant ground beneath the tree tops. All it will take is an unfortunate little slip.

The bubble burst.

Orange and blue curses hissed across the terrace, bursting against Colin and Luna's spells. A Spanish witch collapsed, red soaking through the stomach of her white jacket. Grey fog swept through the spells, scattering the white-clad aurors and sending a handful screaming over the edge.

Colin put two red spells through the ribs of one dark-haired auror and slashed his wand at the next, ripping great chunks out of his chest, spraying crimson across the terrace, and Luna banished another off the roof, sending her screaming down through the trees.

Merde. Harry flicked his wand, sending tendrils of dark mist lancing through the ribs of the last three.

'De Mendoza!' Astoria called out. 'Come on up. We won't hurt you.'

De Mendoza stepped out of the dark, picking his way over the sprawled bodies of the Spanish aurors with his wand raised above his head. 'I surrender.'

'Strawberry Sundae, Wild Cherry, take his wand,' Daphne said. 'Be careful of him.'

De Mendoza glanced around. 'Did any of my aurors survive?'

'They fell.' Astoria waved a hand at the edge as Colin and Luna strode forward. 'And it's a very long way down.'

'What now?' De Mendoza asked, holding his wand out toward Colin in two fingers. 'You take me to Grindelwald?'

She snickered. 'All our enemies… are cone-demned to death!' A tendril of grey fog lunged from Astoria's sleeve, smashing Luna into the ground and knocking Colin back across the terrace into the basin at Harry's feet.

Harry threw up his arm and black mist deflected Daphne's magic away; it smacked Colin's head back into the stone, shattering it like an egg and sending his maroon mask skittering across the terrace.

'Ruptura,' Astoria said, putting a green curse through Luna's stomach as she crawled toward her wand. 'De Mendoza, help us with Lemon Sorbet.'

'Si debo.' De Mendoza conjured a whip of red flame.

'Traitors…' Luna stared into the glyph-marked basin with wide eyes, hysterical laughter bubbling through her lips. 'We all scream… for Team Ice Cream.' She giggled and slapped her blood-drenched hand down onto the runes. 'We all… scream...'

The temple lurched, hurling Harry to his knees; his wand slipped from his fingers, bouncing away across the terrace and rolling into the basin.

Grey fog lifted Daphne, Astoria, and De Mendoza into the air.

A flash of red hammered into Harry in an explosion of searing pain. The terrace floated away from his feet, shrinking as the sky grew. He twisted around.

Green trees rushed up to meet him.

Merde. Harry threw himself into the form of the raven and spread his wings, smashing through branches and crunching into the rainforest floor.

Agony tore through him, washing through him in white-hot waves as he spread his wings and leapt aloft, dragging himself up above the roof terrace and swooping down into the cool dark of the passage.

They betrayed us. A little ball of ice settled on Harry's heart as the pain throbbed in his ribs. Staying behind against Grindelwald. Asking for me. Saying I was one of them. It was just a lie. He hopped closer to the entrance, scanning the terrace for his wand with one eye and clacking his beak. They're nothing like Katie or my sisters. Nothing like Liliana.

'It's safe,' De Mendoza said, pressing Luna's head into the basin with the heel of his boot. 'There wasn't enough of the wards left for anything more.'

Harry's ebony wand lay caught in her pale blonde hair.

'We were lucky,' Daphne murmured, lifting her mask off her face and staring at Luna's corpse with cool blue eyes. 'But we planned for that.' Her grey fog lashed out and shoved De Mendoza back. 'Do not disrespect our friends.'

'Disrespect them?' De Mendoza stared. 'You just murdered them.'

'Because we had to,' she said. 'We made them an offer. They refused. They were still our friends.'

Astoria snickered. 'Lemon Sorbet refused twice.' She pointed her wand at De Mendoza. 'You go back to Spain. To Basque. When the moment is right, Grindelwald will contact you to complete your bargain.'

De Mendoza rubbed at his goatee. 'He had better,' he replied, disapparating with a loud crack.

Astoria lit the pile of bodies in the basin on fire with a jab of her wand. 'It's a good thing we suggested bringing Tom with us to make it obvious we didn't know he was dead, Daph.'

Daphne sighed. 'His name was not Tom.'

'Lemon Sorbet, Violette, Tom Gaunt, Henri Dufort. Whichever.' Astoria beamed and chucked her mask into the fire. 'It's a shame, really, I hoped he'd join us. I thought you two got along well.'

Lemon Sorbet. Violette. Tom Gaunt. Henri Dufort. Harry watched the flames crawl along his wand. They're just names. What matters is your soul. Your purpose. What's important. He let himself feel the cold, razor sharp hunger of his fury. And I am still here fighting for our dream. Harry swallowed his rage, fed it into the emptiness beneath his heart. But Katie first. Always.

'It is a shame,' Daphne murmured. 'He was a great wizard. What a waste…'

'He had to die, he nearly ruined our plans by killing Julien, and again by liaising between Neville Longbottom and Présidente Desrosiers to stop Britain and France fighting despite the Resplendent Sun's best efforts, and he evaded Grindelwald twice somehow,' Astoria said.

'But not that drop. Not without a wand.' Daphne strode to the edge and peered over. 'It's two hundred metres from here to the trees. We were lucky the wards hit him after we didn't catch him off guard.'

'Felix felicis,' Astoria chimed. 'The old slug is occasionally as useful as he is slimy.'

'Let's go,' Daphne said, tossing her pale green mask into the flames and shaking out her blonde braids. 'The fire's going well. And it doesn't really matter now. Britain will think we're all dead.'

They vanished with a loud pop.

Harry held his breath and hopped out.

The birdsong and chirping of insects swelled in the surrounding jungle.

They're gone. He shifted back into his own form and thrust out his hand, summoning his burning wand from the pile of smouldering corpses and snatching it from the air.

Black mist snuffed out the flames, curling through his fingers.

'Gone back to Grindelwald to tell them everyone's dead and they can use all of Britain's outposts themselves.' Harry weighed the little flutter of temptation, tasting the sharp cold edge of his fury. 'Wouldn't they be upset to find me waiting for them at Mal Hadasht…'

No. He slipped his wand back into his sleeve. Katie first.

Harry knelt down and pulled Daphne's mask out of the edge of the fire with a soft pang of loss. 'You should've known better,' he whispered, staring into its vacant smile as the twist of pain bit deep. 'You shouldn't have forgotten. It's always your dreams or theirs. And they always choose their own.'

He pushed the mask back into the flames with the tip of his boot and watched it blacken and bubble; his ribs stung and throbbed as glowing hot tears wept from the corner of its eyes and mouth, and Daphne's mask melted away.

AN: Self promo! Everything I do can be found via my profile and the links there. There's a lot of it across all genres (contrary to popular belief, not everything I write is the sort of bleak, thematic piece this one is!) so do check it out!