Nothing is mine.

This one's a long one for me, but scenes should be as long as they need to be, so enjoy!

A Drop of Golden Sun

Scalding hot water sprayed his back, cascading down his skin and drumming on the shower floor, streaming away into the plughole with a quiet gurgle.

Harry watched it disappear down into the dark, swirling away through the plughole's silver strainer. The world spiralled after it, shrinking down into that small spot of black, and the glass walls closed in around him like the darkness of the cupboard beneath the stairs.

Gone again.

He pressed one hand against the condensation-misted glass and lifted it away. Little drops of water ran from his handprint, trickling down the door like blood and into the water streaming past his toes.

But not really gone. Harry tugged his eyes away from the handprint and plucked the slim, white bottle out of the shower alcove, snapping it open. Just missing.

A soft wash of honeysuckle caught his nose and a stab of yearning tore through him. He cupped the bottle in his hands, breathing in the sweetness; it fed the sharp heat clawing at his heart, goading it into a whirling frenzy of razors.

'Fleur,' he whispered.

Water drummed against the shower floor, gurgling down into the dark, and condensation crept back across his handprint, fresh mist filling in the mark.

The storm stirred; it hung on his tongue, the last long lingering breath before a scream stuck in the back of this throat.

Harry swallowed it down. 'Fleur?' he called.

Soft footsteps approached and the bathroom door creaked.

Fleur's hand pressed against the glass, her slim fingers and palm within the fading print of Harry's. 'Mon Amour?'

The storm eased and a long soft sigh escaped him. 'It's okay. I was just… for a moment…' He pressed his hand to the glass over hers.

Fleur's fingers vanished.

A stab of panic snatched the breath from Harry's lungs; his arm fell to his side.

The door swung open and she stepped in, sliding her arms around him. 'Better, mon Coeur?' Fleur murmured. 'I am here.'

Water splashed off his shoulders, beading on the silver hair falling over her bare breasts and the crystal-encased wisteria blossom hanging from her left ear, clinging to her eyelashes and the slim line of her eyebrows, and trickling together to run through her cleavage over the rose tattooed on her hip and down her legs.

'Sorry.' Harry pulled her close and held her tight, resting his forehead on hers and brushing the tips of their noses together. 'It just felt…'

'Je sais.' She cupped his cheek, a gleam of worry in her soft blue eyes. 'You are still not quite okay, are you?'

'I'm sorry,' he murmured.

'It will take some time again, I think,' Fleur said. 'But when our baby bird comes back, you will be okay, non?'

'Better than okay,' Harry whispered. 'It's just… when you're gone… and she's so far away beneath that mirror…'

'I know.' Fleur's thumb stroked his cheek. 'I remember what you said. All the light. Like the sun. The one perfect wish that came true.'

'You are,' he breathed, pressing a light kiss to the centre of her palm. 'Without you and our baby bird, there's just nothing.'

'But nothing will ever take us away now,' she said. 'We saw to that. La Victoire Finale.'

'But they'll try.' Harry smothered a little trickle of ice in his veins. 'They always do. They have their dreams. And we have ours—'

'We have ours,' Fleur murmured. 'Let them chase theirs far away from us.'

Anxiety churned in the pit of Harry's stomach. 'But that's not how it works,' he whispered. 'They always think to get theirs, they have to take ours away. The Resplendent Sun did. Grindelwald does. And—'

She placed a finger over his lips. 'But they cannot. Not anymore.' Black bled into Fleur's bright blue eyes and little wisps of steam rose from her pale skin. 'But we can get rid of the last of the Resplendent Sun. Maybe, when they are gone, you will feel less like I might vanish each time you close your eyes.'

'Maybe,' he said.

Fleur took his face in her hands, her irises lightening. 'Non?'

Harry sucked in a deep breath. 'I don't know. I don't know if it will ever go away.'

Maybe it won't. Maybe that's just the price we paid. A trickle of dread slid down his spine. Maybe it'll get worse.

He drew himself up and turned the water off, brushing warm drops off Fleur's rose-pink lips with the edge of his thumb. 'Even if it doesn't go away, it's a few less people trying to take away others' dreams. Katie will wake up to a better world.'

Like I promised. Just in case I came back different.

'We should find some clothes, mon Amour,' Fleur murmured. 'We cannot go through the British Ministry looking like this.'

Harry snorted. 'It would be a bit cold, though I'm sure nobody would complain about you doing it.'

'Much too cold.' She drew back and stepped out of the shower, plucking her light blue towel off the rack and wrapping it around herself as she drifted into their bedroom. He followed, grabbing the other towel and patting himself dry.

Fleur swept her silver hair around over one shoulder and lifted it on her forearm, raising a shimmering left hand up beside it.

'Cheating veela magic,' Harry said, rubbing his hair with his towel as he watched hers dry.

She laughed and lowered her hand, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. 'You would if you could, mon Amour.' Fleur threw her towel onto the bed and slipped on her underwear, pulling on the loose black robes of Les Inconnus over the dark lace. 'Now…'

Harry watched the bright summer sky blue of her irises darken to ink black and the smile slide off her face. 'Percy Weasley.' He dragged on his robes and dug Lemon Sorbet's ring from his pocket, snatching his wand from under their pillow. 'I will be back in a moment, mon Amour. I'll see if they've changed the wards.'

Maybe I should just do it myself. Let Fleur stay here, where everything will be perfect again soon. He grappled with it. But if I go, then she's gone again…

'Mon Coeur—' Fleur unhooked the wisteria earring and hung it over the edge of the rose vase '—if, for some inexplicable reason, you were to end up going off and doing all of this by yourself, can you imagine how furious I will be?'

He winced. 'Are you sure you're not some kind of sneaky veela legilimens?'

'If I am,' she murmured, fixing him with a piercing look. 'It only works on you, mon Amour. I will wait two minutes for you. And then if you are not back, I will come myself.'

'I guess I'd better be quick then.' Harry shot her a rueful grin. 'Pardon, please don't peck me, my beautiful bird-wife.'

Fleur's lips curved and the pitch black of her eyes lightened to midnight blue. 'Go, before I throw fire at you for being stupid again, mon Coeur.'

He disillusioned himself with a flick of his wand and wrenched the world back past him, stepping out before the whispering shimmer of the Veil.

No fireworks yet. Harry strained his ears.

Faint voices drifted down the dim corridor.

He strode to the door and cocked his head.

'Stop asking me what time it is!' Alicia snapped from beyond the flickering white torches and the arch. 'We're not going anywhere for another three hours at least.'

'Damn it.' A low groan echoed along the passage. 'Why can't Susan just ward this whole place off instead of making us watch the door all the time?'

'Because, Justin,' Alicia retorted. 'We don't know which unspeakable betrayed us to Grindelwald and came in through here and we're hoping they'll come back so we can ask them really nicely.'

'Whichever one Charlie Weasley was, obviously.' Justin snorted. 'And why would they come back? They left the bodies down here. Bit stupid to try and come back in this way, don't you think?'

'Don't talk so loudly,' Alicia hissed. 'You know we're not meant to know he was an unspeakable.'

'He was one of us.' Justin coughed. 'You know. Us. A fair few of the Unspeakables were. Haven't heard from any of them in weeks now.'

'They're dead, like Angelina and Ernie.'

Tense quiet descended.

'Neville thinks one of them was involved too,' Justin said. 'He thinks one of them has been a traitor the whole time. Working with Grindelwald. Not many of them left now, though...'

Harry held his breath as silence hung over the gloom-filled corridor.

'Just other Weasleys,' Alicia said.

'Yeah…'

So far, so good. Harry spun the world back past himself and stepped out into their bedroom, abandoning his disillusionment.

Fleur's midnight blue eyes snapped up, their hue lightening back to summer-sky. 'Mon Amour?'

'The way is being watched,' he said. 'I'm pretty sure it's some kind of trap, but it wasn't set off when I apparated in, so we can probably still get through somehow.'

'If not, we can always apparate out and go another way.' She pulled her wand from her waist and stuck out her hand. 'Allons-y.'

Harry slipped his fingers through hers, squeezing her warm hand, and apparated them onto the plinth within the concentric stone benches with a soft snap.

Fleur strode to the door, pulling him after her. 'There are new wards all over this place,' she murmured. 'You can apparate into rooms, but the moment you step outside of them, you will trigger the wards. This is a trap.'

Harry pressed a finger to his lips and pointed along the corridor; he bent forward, tilting his ear toward her.

'D'accord,' she whispered, her gaze flicking toward the arch at the far end of the corridor and back to him. 'These wards are well made; if anyone tampers with them in a conventional manner, they will alert whoever the other end is tied to.'

'What about an unconventional, cheating veela manner?' Harry asked.

Fleur shot him a small smirk. 'I can pull the different parts of the wards apart and tamper with the anti-apparition wards to allow us to apparate but nobody else.'

'And we can just apparate right up into Dean Thomas's office. Nobody will be in there anymore.' He nodded. 'Whenever you're ready, mon Trésor.'

She raised her wand and closed her eyes.

Percy is Minister for Law. I think that's floor eight.

'Mon Amour,' Fleur murmured, wavering out of view into a faint shimmer of air. 'I am ready.'

Harry slipped his wand from his sleeve and disillusioned himself as her hold on his hand tightened. 'Let's go then, mon Rêve.' He pictured Dean Thomas's desk and the green-shaded standing lamp, spinning the world back past them with a soft snap.

The empty drawers of Dean's desk hung out and the doors of all the filing cabinets sat open.

Neville or someone has searched this room from top to bottom.

'Bon,' Fleur murmured. 'Nothing triggered and there are no new wards here.'

'Percy Weasley is Minister for Law,' Harry said, leading her to the door and putting one hand on the handle. 'I think he's one floor down from here, so we can just ride the elevator down and slip into his office.'

'And he was the one, non?' she whispered. 'It was him.'

'That's what Dean and Zacharias Smith said,' Harry murmured. 'We'll find out soon enough if they're right.'

He twisted the door handle and inched it open, peering out through the gap into the corridor.

A pair of undersecretaries bustled down the corridor and into one of the offices.

'Let's go,' Harry murmured, pushing the door open and giving Fleur's hand a gentle tug. 'Close the door after us, mon Amour.' He stepped through.

Fleur's fingers twisted in his and her hip brushed against him as the door clicked shut.

Harry strode forward, sending a gentle Banishing Charm down the corridor. The lift button lit up.

'Good aim,' Fleur whispered, clutching his hand.

A faint hum of conversation rose from within the surrounding offices as the lift whirred.

'We'll just wait for a good moment and walk right through into his office,' Harry murmured. 'Stun him, but don't take him back down where we were, go to the chamber. It's safer there.'

'And why will you not be able to do that?' Fleur's fingers flashed hot in his hand. 'Mon Amour?'

'I'm going to mess with his office, to make it look like he's run off to join his brother with Grindelwald. It will keep Neville chasing after the Greengrasses rather than writing us any more letters.' Harry chuckled. 'No need to pout, my perfect bird-wife, I'm not doing anything I deserve to get set on fire for.'

'Not yet.'

The lift doors rumbled open. 'Floor Nine, Department of Justice.'

They stepped in and Fleur poked the button for floor eight.

'Ready?' Harry drew her close as the doors slid shut, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her warmth against him.

Fleur's head rested back on his chest. 'I just want to have our little angel back, mon Coeur. We have our dream. Nobody can take it away. We paid the price. Now it is meant to be perfect.'

'It will be,' he whispered into the soft sweet scent of honeysuckle and cherry blossom. 'When our baby bird wakes up, it will all be perfect for her.'

I'll make sure of it.

'Floor eight, Department of Law,' the lift voice announced as the doors rattled open.

Fleur stepped away; cool air washed away the warmth of her as he followed the faint shimmer along the corridor past closed undersecretaries' office doors to the open one at the end of the corridor.

Low voices drifted from the deputy minister's room as they passed it.

Harry glanced at the bronze plaque and stepped into the end office. Percy Weasley. Minister for Law.

An empty chair sat behind a mahogany desk heaped with piles of parchment and files.

'Merde,' he muttered, pushing the door shut.

'We wait.' Fleur's shimmer drifted around the desk. 'He will come back.'

'It could be a while,' Harry whispered.

'Non. He has a neat little schedule of meetings here. He is meant to be meeting his undersecretaries here in a few minutes.'

'I guess we should quickly stage his hurried departure, then.' He slid his ebony wand from his sleeve and scattered the papers across the room with a swish of his wrist.

Fleur wavered back into view as she pulled all the drawers open, dumping stacks of parchment on the floor. 'Anything else?'

Harry let his Disillusionment Charm unravel. 'No, I think this looks pretty convincing as it is.'

Fleur stared down at the scattered pages with ink-black eyes. 'I want to turn him to ashes,' she whispered. 'For taking my little sister away from us.'

'You will,' Harry promised, leaning back against the wall. 'Everyone who took her dreams away will be wiped away.'

'Minister Weasley?' A deep voice called. 'Are you ready for our meeting?'

Harry pressed a finger to his lips and pointed his wand at the door handle as Fleur vanished. 'Come in.'

You can be another distraction for Neville.

The handle rattled and the door swung open.

'What in the actual fuck?' the wizard muttered, stepping in and drawing his wand from his waist.

'Stupefy,' Harry whispered.

The wizard thudded down into the scattered papers.

He pushed the door shut and dragged the body around behind the desk, lifting the face by the hair. 'Terry Boot. He must be deputy minister or something.' Harry dropped his head onto the floor. 'We may as well just leave him.'

'You do not want to kill him, mon Amour?' Fleur reappeared in the chair. 'Just in case.'

He shook his head. 'He saw nothing. Leaving him alive might even make it more convincing it was Percy Weasley. And…'

And dreams shouldn't be taken away for nothing.

'He isn't part of the Resplendent Sun,' Harry said. 'He never did anything to us. He doesn't matter.'

She shrugged her slim shoulders. 'D'accord.'

Brisk footsteps rang along the corridor. 'Terry!' Percy Weasley called. 'My office. We better get started, I'm running late already.'

Harry stepped back beside the door and raised his wand. Fleur shook her head and narrowed her eyes, levelling her wand at the door.

You want to do it. Okay.

He held his breath as the handle rattled and the door swung open; Percy Weasley hurried in and skidded to a half, slipping on a sheet of parchment and crashing into the desk.

'Stupefy,' Fleur hissed.

'What was that?' someone called down the hall.

'The chamber,' Harry said, grabbing the back of Percy's black formal robes. 'Quick.'

Fleur flickered away as footsteps echoed along the corridor.

He pictured the staring eyes of the serpent effigies and wrenched the world back past him, stepping out onto the serpent tongue bridge with a soft snap and dropping Percy onto his face.

Fleur stood in the centre of the chamber, gripping her wand in white-knuckled fingers, her eyes huge and black as pitch. 'Give me his wand, mon Amour.'

Harry dug through Percy's pockets and pulled out his wand, tossing it to Fleur. She snatched it from the air, shivering blue flames bursting through her fingers and searing it to ashes.

'Enervate,' Harry murmured, flicking his wand at Percy.

Percy twitched and scrambled to his feet; he caught sight of Fleur and froze like a rabbit. 'This is the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny told us what it looked like.'

Fleur's chin sharpened and little tufts of white feathers poked through her skin.

'It is,' Harry said. 'I tidied it up a bit since she was last down here though.'

Percy's head snapped 'round and his eyes widened. 'I wasn't expecting to see you today.'

'Or ever again, I would imagine.' Harry pointed his wand at the floor. 'I killed that basilisk right here, you know. When Tom had turned all Ginny's dreams to dust and she was one of two, I came down and nearly died saving her just like everyone expected me to.'

'She never forgot. I think she thinks about it every day.' Percy's gaze swept over the serpent effigies. 'She wanted to be a hero just like you, so you'd fall in love with her. But I doubt that's going to happen now, not seeing the two of you together again.'

'Happily married and with a little girl,' Harry replied.

'Congratulations,' Percy murmured. 'I always quite wanted a little girl of my own. Blonde like Penny was, and with her blue eyes, but maybe a few of my freckles or something. It didn't work out.' He sighed. 'Still, I'm glad it did for someone.'

Fleur let out a sharp hiss and raised her wand.

Percy studied the end of it. 'If there's something you want, I'm happy to help without any need for drama. Unless you're fighting for Grindelwald, of course. Perhaps, Harry, we can even come to some sort of long-term agreement; I could sorely use the help of someone like you.'

'I want you to burn,' Fleur hissed. 'So you never get to hold the little girl you dream of in your arms.'

Percy flinched.

'The Resplendent Sun came to France not long back and killed Fleur's parents and sister and cursed our daughter.' Harry strode around Percy to Fleur's side and wrapped an arm around her waist, ignoring the heat pouring from her hands. 'We really aren't very happy about it.'

'Fleur Delacour.' A sombre, grim expression settled on Percy's face and he nodded to himself. 'I forgot your surname after all this time. Bill mentioned you a few times after we saw you with Harry all those years ago, but he was being… very immature and rude.' He glanced between the two of them. 'I guess you two are the reason that the last meeting of the Resplendent Sun was just a small family affair.'

Harry caught his eye, letting his mind go blank and drawing their thoughts together. 'You and Ginny.'

Percy licked his lips; little flashes of Ginny's red hair and hot-tempered shouting flashed across Harry's mind's eye. 'Slughorn couldn't make it.'

'He has not denied it,' Fleur snapped, stepping forward and raising her wand.

Harry caught her arm. 'Not yet, mon Amour. We should hear what he has to say first.'

'What I have to say about what?' Percy asked. 'The Resplendent Sun?'

'To start with.'

Percy shrugged, the quiet weight of his resignation settling on Harry like snow. 'Why not. You know about our dad? Ron? Fred and George?' Percy sighed, a deep sorrow tugging at Harry's heart. 'And now Bill and Charlie too?'

'Yes,' Harry said.

'They died to stop Voldemort and save our country,' Percy said. 'But really, it wasn't Voldemort's fault alone, was it? I remember my first year as an undersecretary, Fudge and Umbridge and Malfoy… I couldn't believe the Ministry would really be so stupid and irresponsible as to just pretend there was no problem. I found it so hard to believe, I thought you were all being deceived by Dumbledore.'

'But they were,' Harry said. 'If Amelia Bones hadn't got her hands on Rita Skeeter's collection of blackmail material, I doubt Voldemort would have had any trouble overcoming the Ministry at all.'

A thin smirk crept onto Percy's lips. 'I know. I was there when Amelia slapped it down on Fudge's desk and told him to clear his stuff out of her new office.' He straightened the high collar of his dark robes. 'After the Battle of Hogwarts, Amelia was focused on rebuilding the aurors so Britain wasn't vulnerable, but the Ministry was gutted of personnel and needed rebuilding too. Amelia and I agreed that the sleaze of Fudge's era must never be allowed to return. She made me Minister for Law and I carefully created a large number of regulatory laws to ensure there could be no abuse of power by ministers—' his lips twisted '—only, of course, Amelia refused to let me put them to the Wizengamot. And that was when I knew something was wrong.'

'So you helped get her kicked out.'

'Helped?' Percy sniffed, a flash of indignation tearing through their thoughts. 'It was my idea. I explained to Ginny that Amelia had too much control over the democratic institutions and could just do whatever she wanted at this point. I convinced the rest of the Resplendent Sun she had to go before she stopped us doing what we were brought together to do. It was my idea to get Ginny to get Neville to convince Susan to speak about her aunt's declining mental state before the Wizengamot to force it through and allow Amos to take her place.'

'And then you murdered Amelia to get control over the Resplendent Sun,' Fleur hissed. 'And you murdered Amos Diggory to try and supplant him. And you sent Tracey Davies and Angelina Johnson to France to stop Neville ending the war and they killed my sister.'

A jolt of shock rippled through Percy and he grimaced, wrinkling his freckled nose. 'No. No, I passed all my laws and I did my job.' He raised his arms and stared at his palms, his guilt chewing away at Harry. 'My hands aren't clean. Not even close to it. Amelia shed a lot of blood and I stood by and watched her do it. And sometimes you have to smile at and shake hands with detestable people to get important things done. But I'm not guilty of killing her or Amos or your sister.'

'Liar.' Fleur's face shifted, twisting her speech. 'There is almost nobody else left but you and your sister.'

Percy froze, seized by sharp, cold fear. Snatches of Ginny's furious brown eyes and the bronze sun on her red robes flashed through their thoughts. 'Only Slughorn, who was involved with Amelia before I was, and Ginny. But Ginny is part of Neville's group of well-intentioned people; she would never—'

'You're lying,' Harry said. 'Aren't you?'

Percy drew himself up. 'I rarely lie.'

'But you are now.' Harry pulled their minds apart. 'You're afraid for Ginny.'

Fleur tensed.

I saved all her dreams. She learnt to fight for them from me. A bittersweet tangle of sorrow and cold rage twisted in his breast. And in the end, she just came to take mine away.

Percy crumbled. 'Legilimency. I didn't even notice…'

'I'm quite good at it,' Harry said. 'You might as well tell me why she did it, though I think I already know.'

'She didn't want our family's pain to be all for nothing,' Percy muttered. 'She saw you stop Voldemort and she decided that she was going to fight too.' He shuddered. 'She was my baby sister. I remember her tottering around after me and Bill and Charlie when she could barely walk—'

'And now?' Harry asked.

'Amelia plucked Ginny from school at Slughorn's recommendation and put her into accelerated auror training with the others who burnt with the desire to make something good come out of the ashes of the civil war. Duelling. Tactics. Combat. She learnt fast and Amelia made her captain of half her aurors and the fist of the Resplendent Sun.' Shadows rose in Percy's eyes. 'I never had the heart to check the truth of the other rumours. The Greengrasses. The Carrows. The werewolves that were meant to be relocated but just disappeared…' He swallowed hard. 'And the aurors watching Neville for us, they were her aurors; they would have first reported to her if he went to France and then she should have told us, but we were never told...'

'So it was her in the end after all, mon Amour,' Fleur murmured, the dark draining from her eyes. 'I had a feeling it would be.'

Fierce burning cold clenched about Harry's heart. 'I guess she's going to find out that all those dreams I gave her back can be taken away again.' He levelled his wand at Percy's ribs. 'She remembers that sometimes dreams are just dust.'

'Would it be too much to ask for you to just kill me instead?' Percy asked. 'Kill me and just… stop her. But don't—' he caught Fleur's pitch black gaze and offered them a helpless little shrug '—she's my little sister. I love her, no matter what she's done.'

Fleur's lip trembled and the darkness in her eyes drained away and bled back again. 'Non,' she whispered. 'I cannot forget. I cannot. If I have even half a chance…'

'I suppose that's fair.' Percy straightened his collar and smoothed out his robes. 'You might as well do it, then. I'm sure everyone will think whichever unspeakable betrayed us to Grindelwald is responsible again.'

'Lacero.' Harry sliced a long deep cut from Percy's elbow to his wrist with a flick of his wand.

Percy gasped and clenched his jaw, clutching at the broad gash. 'Why? Why not just do it?'

'Because this is how Gabby died, bleeding slowly away, fading into the emptiness, left waiting to disappear, left hoping that somehow those she loved would be okay even though she knew it was nearly impossible.' Harry watched the blood soak through the sleeve and pour from Percy's fingers to the floor. 'There's no way out of here for you without your wand, Percy. We'll go find Slughorn, but you'll be dead before we're back.'

Fleur stared at the spreading pool of red and shook her head, a lock of silver hair slipping over her eye. 'I'm going home, mon Cœur. I… I just want it to stop hurting like we promised. It's supposed to be perfect now, but…'

'It will be.' He pulled her close and breathed in the faint sweet scent of Gabby's cherry blossom perfume. 'It will be. Je te le promets. Je t'aime.'

'Come with me,' she whispered, her eyes huge and soft and blue. 'None of them are worth hurting for. None of them can take our dream away anymore. It's not important, mon Amour.'

'What about Ginny?' Harry murmured, cupping her cheek. 'What about Gabby?'

Percy sank down on the stone floor and crossed his legs, cradling his arm in his lap, pale-faced and shaking in his blood-soaked robes.

Fleur's irises darkened a few hues. 'She deserves to have all her dreams taken away, but if you go after her, there's Grindelwald and his followers and then all the little people will want you to be their hero again. It won't ever end.' She took a sharp breath. 'And we promised Gabby that it would. We promised.'

Grindelwald will still try to ruin our sunset. And my sisters will try to fight him, like Liliana did. A cold sickness churned in the pit of Harry's stomach. He wants to take away all those dreams from all those people.

'I'll get rid of Slughorn. Then the Resplendent Sun is finished and we're done with Britain forever.' He pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose. 'I'll be careful, my beautiful bird-wife. I'll always come back to you.'

Fleur turned her head away and stepped back. 'No risks.' She disapparated.

No risks, mon Rêve.

Harry turned to Percy. 'Slughorn is still teaching here, isn't he? I'm sure I remember someone mentioning he was still here at some point.'

Percy's head flopped onto his shoulder and he slumped over onto his side; slow shallow breaths sent little ripples across the crimson pool beneath him.

'I'll take that as a yes,' Harry said.

'Not many hands left on the clock now,' Percy whispered. 'Poor mum.' He closed his eyes. 'Poor poor mum.'

Guilt gnawed at Harry's heart. Poor Molly Weasley. All her children have been taken away. A hot lump swelled in his throat and the storm stirred, a razor-sharp swirl of molten yearning. She just has her little girl left.

Harry transfigured Percy into water and watched it drain away into the pool beneath the bridge. 'No invisibility cloak now.'

He strode up the steps to the entrance, opening it with a low whisper.

And I'm not on the student list now, so I'll have to sneak through like Sirius did.

A short, dark-haired girl smeared her tears away in the door as the chamber's entrance slid open, small sobs slipping through her lips as she blew her nose and stumbled out into the corridor. The door thudded shut after her.

Merde. People have started using the bathroom again.

Harry stepped to the edge of the stair. 'Close,' he whispered in parseltongue, drawing himself down into the raven as the entrance to the chamber bumped his heels.

His office is probably still where it was when I was here. Harry hopped around behind the sinks and fluttered up to the window, shoving it open with his beak and tugging the hook out to catch it. There.

He wriggled through the gap and leapt, spreading his wings and drifting around and down through the main doors, soaring over the heads of the milling students and an exasperated McGonagall.

'Whose familiar is that raven?' McGonagall cried. 'Mr Dobbins, is it yours? Mr Dobbins?'

Harry swooped around a corner past the students streaming out to lunch, weaving down through the moving staircases and into Slughorn's potions lab, alighting beside a box of crystallised pineapple.

'Oho!' Slughorn trundled out of his office, fiddling with the brass buttons straining across his belly. 'What a handsome looking bird you are. Did you see my little box of treats and come in to steal a morsel for yourself?' He chuckled and waved a hand. 'Go on. Help yourself.'

Harry leapt off the desk and stretched back into his body, slipping his wand from his sleeve and closing the door with a flick of his wrist. 'Thanks, professor.' He plucked a piece of pineapple from the box and slipped it into his mouth. 'My sweet tooth has definitely grown worse, but in my defence, I'm surrounded by bad influences.'

Slughorn gaped. 'But - but… how?'

'I think you already know the answer to that.' Harry smiled as the crystallised fruit melted into sweetness on his tongue. 'Don't you, professor?'

Slughorn shuddered and slumped back onto a stool. 'So you've come to kill me? Because I know and you think I might one day tell Neville or Susan?'

'No.' Harry shook his head. 'I would like you to tell me about the Resplendent Sun.'

'I wouldn't get involved with them, Harry,' he mumbled, his shoulders drooping. 'I have made many mistakes, but I never thought there would be one I regretted more than telling Tom about… well, you know—' he flapped a weak hand '—but he was already rotten and dark. He did a lot of damage to others because of what I told him, but it wasn't me who made him that way.'

'I know what you did. Amelia asked for people who'd do well in certain places for her…'

'And I gave them to her on a silver platter.' Slughorn ran his fingers over his scalp. 'I wanted desperately to help undo the damage I had a hand in causing, so I sent all my best and brightest and bravest students to help. I convinced them, one way or another, that it was the right thing to do. And they trusted me.' Deep dark shadows hung in his eyes and in all the lines of his face. 'And before a year was gone, I barely recognised some of them anymore. The things they did.' He let out a long, tired sigh. 'But that's probably why you're here. Dean. Maria. Zach. That was you, wasn't it? I remember the rumours about you and the Delacour girl; nobody believed them then, you and Miss Bell seemed so close and she was so obviously smitten…'

'I didn't die when I chose to,' Harry sat on the edge of the desk. 'I found my way back to Fleur. We got married. We had a little girl. Everything was nearly perfect. And then…'

'The attack on France.' Slughorn twisted his hands in his lap. 'I know the handiwork of my former favourites when I see it, though I wasn't sure if it was the Greengrass sisters and sanctioned by Amelia's niece, or Ginny Weasley's covert terror after she took over the extreme part of the Resplendent Sun.'

'The latter. She killed Amelia. Amos. And then she came to France just in case.'

'If it makes any difference to you, I am sorry,' Slughorn said. 'I tried to help fix it. I tried to convince better people to balance things back out, but it was too late.'

'You all took so many dreams away for nothing,' Harry whispered. 'I'm glad you regret it, dreams shouldn't be stolen away for no reason.'

Should I even kill him? He glanced down at the smooth dark wood of his wand. He hardly seems a threat.

'D-Don't leave me here.' Slughorn's voice trembled and cracked. 'I don't want my students to see that.'

He knows too much. If he thinks fixing his mistakes requires it one day, he'll send Neville after me. Or someone else. Harry thrust his magic into the air, wrapping it around Slughorn's neck. It's his dream of redemption or our sunset. It's just inevitable in the end.

'I won't.' He held out the box of crystallised pineapple. 'One last treat, professor?'

'Thank you.' Slughorn grabbed a handful and fed them into his mouth one by one with shaking fingers, gulping them down. 'I am—' his icing-sugar-smeared lips quivered '—I am so very sorry. Please do believe me.'

'I do.' Harry twisted his wrist.

Slughorn's neck snapped with a dull crunch and he flopped off the stool with a loud thump.

Harry stared down into his dull blank eyes, cold disgust bubbling in his belly. It's done. He transfigured Slughorn into a comfortable armchair and levitated it across into his office. I promised no more hurting. That it would be perfect. Even if I had sacrificed the sunset for myself. Cold fear trailed the tip of its finger down Harry's spine, sending all the hairs prickling across the nape of his neck. That means no crucible. No Grindelwald. No amber-masked figure.

'And if you don't keep your promises to those you love—' he set the box of sweets down on the desk and stole a last piece '—then you don't really love them, do you?'

Harry shifted into the shape of the raven and leapt, flapping up and away through the corridors past paintings and gleaming suits of armour.

Paintings… He swerved through the main doors and fluttered up toward the headmaster's office, landing on the ledge before the ajar window. Perhaps there's still one way to learn how to stop Grindelwald.

Harry poked his head in, tilting it this way and that. Portraits lined the walls, snoozing in their frames, and a small soft basket sat where Fawkes's perch had been at the side of the desk. Dumbledore snored into his long silver beard, overlooking the desk.

Harry wriggled through the gap and drifted down to the floor, changing back and pulling Violette's ring from his pocket. A strange sense of nostalgia crept over him as he slid the ring onto his finger.

'Professor Dumbledore,' he murmured, tapping the frame.

Dumbledore jerked awake and blinked his sharp, electric blue eyes. 'The headmistress's office is out of bounds for students,' he chided. 'Did Professor McGonagall give you permission to come up here?'

'Not exactly,' Harry replied. 'But then I'm not a student, either.'

'I see.' Dumbledore frowned and folded his hands. 'For what purpose have you sought me out, then?'

'I wanted to ask you about Grindelwald.'

'Ah.' Dumbledore sighed. 'Professor McGonagall informed me he has broken free and begun to wage war once more in pursuit of his Greater Good. I am merely a painting, young man, I cannot help you stop him this time.'

'Can't you?' Harry asked. 'You were his dearest friend.'

'I lost every duel I fought against Gellert save one,' Dumbledore replied. 'I did not best him with magic or cunning, I prevailed because he believed in me and, in his heart of hearts, he hoped I might be able to do what he decried as futile.'

The figure of bright amber flame hovered before Harry's mind's eye, tangled up with the soft sadness of Grindelwald's small smile. 'That which issues from the heart alone—'

'Will bend the hearts of others to your own,' Dumbledore murmured. 'You have spoken with him.'

'Several times.'

His bright blue eyes pierced through Harry. 'He is a most eloquent speaker. I consider myself to hold some small talent when it comes to words, but Gellert… Gellert's arguments have a passion of the heart in them that is hard to deny.'

'Is he wrong?' Harry asked. 'What he says about people? About human nature? About it being inevitable? Us or them?'

'To be perfectly honest, I do not know,' Dumbledore said. 'There has perhaps been no wizard or witch born with his talent in millennia. As a child, he worked wonders adults thought impossible. Indeed, I do not think Gellert ever came to comprehend the concept of impossible in quite the same way as so many of the rest of us must. For him, there are no limits but those we impose on ourselves. He has never come across a problem he could not fix or a trouble he could not solve.'

'His solution is to wipe them all away. To take away all the dreams of billions who don't even know we exist.' A sick feeling coiled in Harry's gut. 'It's awful.'

'He knows that.' Dumbledore smoothed his beard out with a sombre expression. 'He knows full well.'

'Part of the evil that works to bring about a greater good.'

'Exactly so,' Dumbledore said. 'When I was young and full of bitter rage at the injustices I perceived us suffering, he reminded me muggles were people, as flawed and fearful as any of us, and that our struggle is not against some alien people but the very nature we share with them. By then, he had already dedicated himself to working one great wonder for our divided and dwindling world, and together we pursued it. We came to realise that it was not at all a wonder, but purest horror. Yet, for Gellert, the problem required a solution; he could not be prevailed upon to turn away from the issue for he knew of no others as likely to find an answer and was utterly convinced of the inevitable failure of the Statute.'

'How did you convince him to stop?'

'Gellert loved me. As I loved him. He has a particular magic, one that cannot be stopped—'

'I have seen it.'

'If you have seen it and still live, you have done as well as I or any other have ever done. I tried to replicate it in that final duel we fought against one another, but the belief in my right to change things as I see fit is not in me as it is in Gellert. I failed. In the end, I told him that if he changed the world, he would have to remove me from it. And Gellert could not bear to do it.' Deep sorrow hung in Dumbledore's blue eyes. 'I convinced him to imprison himself and at least see if my way would work first. Often I would visit and speak with him to seek his thoughts and he devoted all his time and energies to aiding me in achieving our great endeavour my way. For half a century, we did our utmost.'

'But you failed. The Statute comes at a higher cost every year and Voldemort tore Britain apart and started a world wide struggle.'

Dumbledore bowed his head. 'Even now, I know Gellert is likely right. People without power fear those with it and unless those in possession of it are truly benevolent, which even at best cannot be guaranteed beyond doubt, the seed of the conflict remains, merely awaiting the spark to ignite into worse.' He folded his hands before his beard. 'But I could not find it in myself to do what Gellert believes must be done and my own example of what one ought to do with power was not sufficient.'

'But if the collision between worlds is inevitable, if the conflict that continues to divide the magical world can't be stopped, what can you do?' Harry replied.

'In my experience, human nature is its own worst enemy more often than not. The best approach is simply to ensure the worst of it is restrained and the best allowed to flourish. Gellert, for all his brilliance, does not appreciate that the cure can be worse than the disease. He believes muggles will be unable to tolerate us once we are discovered for fear of what we might do to them. And, indeed, there are many centuries of evidence to support his rationale that I cannot refute, for the moment the muggles lost full faith in our magic coming from the divine, they lost trust in us.' Dumbledore polished his palms together. 'For my lifetime, I worked to unite the magical world through the ICW, to embrace muggleborns, who one day might prove a bridge between those with magic and those without, and to reduce the stress the growing muggle world places on our own to ease the resentment among magical peoples. If we can be strong enough to show the majority of them there is no reason to fear us, to weather the fearful mistakes of the few on either side of our divide, then none of what Gellert intends will be necessary…'

'But he doesn't agree and he's going to set the world on fire…'

'To stop him, you will have to do what I could not,' Dumbledore murmured. 'He is older now, perhaps his will is not what it once was, and should you learn to cast the same spell he uses, you might manage to overcome him with it.'

Except I gave him more time. Harry's heart sank. And the only magic I had to match those amber flames is gone with my horcrux.

'Or,' Dumbledore said, 'perhaps it is not his power and skill you need to overcome, but his heart. Convince him there is a better way, as I once did.'

But there isn't one. Harry shoved the emptiness down into the dark place far below. You fight endlessly for hope and the Statute, or you kill for despair and just want to make it stop. And he chose despair.

He turned to leave. 'Thank you, professor.'

'Harry…'

Harry twisted around, slipping his wand from his sleeve.

'Your enchanted disguise is most ingenious, but there are very few wizards who know how to evade the wards of Hogwarts and you still speak in the same fashion. Your second wand, too, I remember quite well.' A small smile hovered on Dumbledore's lips as Harry pulled Violette's ring off and dropped it into his pocket. 'I am glad my plan to spare you worked; I hope you can forgive me for keeping so much of the truth from you for all those years.'

'Forgive you?' Harry lowered his wand. 'You could have easily killed me and rid yourself of Voldemort's horcrux. You could have snuffed out all my dreams to make sure of yours, but you tried to do something harder. To save me and the dreams I might one day have had.' Roxie's tearful smile and whispered thanks echoed from the back of his mind. 'I understand.'

A single tear slid down Dumbledore's cheek. 'Thank you, Harry. I may just be an echo of myself, snared in paint and canvas, but it means more than you can know. I feared, when young Mr Longbottom's search proved fruitless, that all those sacrifices and hardships I put you through had been for nothing.'

'Neville…' Harry frowned. 'I can't let you tell him I'm alive.'

'I am just a painting, Harry. You could rip the memory of these minutes from me and I have not the magic to restore it.' Dumbledore smiled. 'But I will not tell him, you have my word. Should you wish to aid the Order of the Gryphon, it will come at the moment and in the manner of your choosing.'

'I don't want to be a hero for Neville and all those selfish people,' Harry said. 'I know what happens to heroes. They die. I did it once before. For Fleur.'

'I have yet to meet anyone who desired to be a hero that went on to accomplish more than their own selfish ambition,' Dumbledore replied.

'I have my own dream to accomplish. I promised my daughter I would make a better world for her to wake up to. For her, there will be no crucible, no hurting, no watching everything she wishes for be snatched away.' Harry raised his wand. 'I will give her that. Whatever it takes.'

And Grindelwald is in the way. Before Katie wakes, he must be somehow stopped.

'It does not do to dwell over much on some dreams, Harry. They are simply beyond reach and chasing them is but a bittersweet torment.' Dumbledore closed his eyes. 'Don't forget to live.'

'I won't,' Harry murmured, ripping the memories from the shadow of the mind woven into the canvas and paint. 'I promised. No more hurting.'

AN: Self-promo. Self-promo. Self-promo. Check out the profile.