Nothing is mine.

A shorter one as we get into the last five chapters of this part of the story.

All Your Perfects

Harry paced the edge of the warped, ruined pensieve, tapping his fingers against his thigh in time to the hammering of his heart.

The clear, crimson-threaded wedding band hung against the willow bark in the corner of his eye.

She never wears it. Ever. Not even when we're here and it's safe. Small stabs of panic tore at his stomach and he stopped dead to stare at the ring dangling beside the vial of tears. And she's not here much, either. Always off looking at wards. The bright red thorns of Fleur's rose tattoo shone slim and sharp in Harry's mind. Did she do what I tried to do? Did she sacrifice the sunset before I could?

Cold thick sickness bubbled through the jabs of fear. 'Don't fret,' Harry whispered, shoving it all down. 'Don't make it worse.'

It just hurts, to wait and hope it all worked. She wants her perfect moment. She would never give up. She's just impatient for it all to work out.

He took another step, placing his heel against toes, pacing back around the ruined pensieve.

But it can't really work out perfectly. Not until Grindelwald and the crucible that made him are gone. Not until I keep my promises.

Harry drummed his fingers on his thigh, speeding up his steps as he strode in circles beneath the bare brown willow branches. 'Alchemy,' he murmured. 'How do you change the intent of magic? It doesn't even make sense. It does what you intend. And you intend because of what you feel.'

Heat flashed through his thumb and he froze, twisting around.

Fleur stood on the far side of the pensieve, her midnight blue eyes sharp beneath the silver hair cascading down over her ebony dress. 'Harry.'

'Fleur,' he breathed.

'Were you visiting our baby bird?' she murmured. 'Or are you just here to do your planning?'

He watched her irises bleed black. You're angry with me again. What did I do? A little ice crept through his veins and settled on his heart. This is the only way. If I don't do this, Grindelwald will steal all our daughter's dreams. And if it's not him, it will be whoever rises from the crucible to take his place. Why can't you see? Why don't you understand anymore?

He swallowed the little ball of ice and conjured a bright red rose in his left hand, holding it out by the smooth green stem. 'Mon Amour?'

Fleur turned her nose up. 'I already have one of those.' She drew her wand, transfiguring her black dress into loose dark robes and flicking the slim rosewood. 'Accio.'

Sarcelle's ring zipped into her hand.

'I will be in Arduenna Silva, checking on the wards,' Fleur said, wavering out of sight.

Harry stared at the red rose trembling at the end of the slim green stem. Is that really where you go when you leave me?

He pulled the crimson petals off one by one, letting them tumble through his fingers and drift down the warped, twisted silver of the pensieve into a small puddle at the bottom.

Or do you just want to leave? Harry's heart sank, spiralling down into that cold dark empty place and the welcoming embrace of that small sad knowing smile. Perfect wishes do come true, just not for me.

Before his mind's eye, curving thorns of sharp red runes sprouted from the slim green stem in his fingers.

She really did it. Harry tossed the rose stem into the river, watching it bob over the ripples and around the bend out of sight. It's the only thing that makes sense. If the price had been paid by me, I couldn't have escaped the ritual and still loved them like I do.

Despair tugged at his heart with numb gentle fingers. 'It's going to be just you and me, baby bird, I—' a thick lump stuck in his throat and hot tears blurred on his lashes '—I'm sorry. It was meant to be you and your maman. You're going to need her much more than me.'

But she's going to leave. One day, I'll watch her go and she'll just… disappear. The world ground to a halt, caught in the ice cold grip of dread. What if she takes our daughter with her?

Panic seized hold of Harry, tearing through his gut in cold, ragged, jagged stabs; the bare brown willow branches above his head closed in around him, coiling tight and thick; smothering and stifling as the still dark silence beneath the stairs of Privet Drive.

He grappled with it, clawed against the hammering of his heart and its throb in his head for shallow gasping breaths. Out. Dark spots swirled before Harry's eyes as panic crushed the air from his lungs and goaded his heart into dashing against his ribs. I have to get out. He pictured the bright blue summer sky and the swaying green fronds before the rippling river and wrenched the world back past him.

Harry stumbled to his knees in the cold white pebbles, staring down over the lip of the ruined pensieve at the scatter of crimson petals fluttering in warped silver.

There's nowhere to go. Without them, there's just nothing left.

He pressed his fingertips into his ribs until they turned white and pain flared through his chest, but the despair bit deep, ripping pieces from his pounding heart with cold sharp teeth and dragging them down into the swallowing dark.

'I wish this would stop,' Harry whispered. 'I don't want to feel like this.'

But wishes aren't granted. A wry bitterness twisted the corner of his mouth up. They're made.

He took a deep breath and let the rose petals fade into the distance; the world sank into the warped, ruined runes of the silver pensieve, swirling down into it like little wisps of blood washed from the blade of Petunia's Japanese knives whirling through the stainless steel plughole.

It's only pain. Harry took another deep breath and fed it all to the emptiness. No more real than I am.

He stood up, slipping his wand from his sleeve. Red. Like blood. Harry left the rose petals to flutter in the breeze. I can endure. She's not left yet. Don't fret. I always make it worse when I fret.

'The more it hurts now, the more perfect it will be when you're reborn, baby bird.' He turned to the Mirror of Erised. 'If that moment when Grindelwald is gone and you finally come back to us isn't perfect enough, then that's just the price. Either Fleur gave up, and it will be you and me, little chick, or I did, and you and your maman will enjoy the sunset together. One of the two of us has to have given up.'

I guess we'll have to wait and see, Katie. Harry reached out, brushing the soft smooth black silk with his fingertips. I'll finish this ritual as soon as I can. So it's all ready for you. There're just a couple of holes. And then Grindelwald.

'And then all those people sacrificing will make it happen together,' Harry murmured, curling his fingers into the dark veil, his knuckles grazing the cold glass beneath. 'But I can make it happen faster, so it's finished when you come back, baby bird. I can disappear off like Fleur is.'

My sisters are still fighting. And Grindelwald might not even agree to do it this way. Harry's heart sank at the thought of those golden flames. No. No fretting. No giving up. He cut it free and swept the silk aside. If Grindelwald can't be convinced to hope, then he can die for his despair and feed the magic of the ritual anyway.

Beneath the shining silver surface, Katie sat on Fleur's shoulders, a red macaron clutched in her small hands as she babbled and beamed and bounced her little feet against Fleur's chest, her green eyes big and bright. Katie's silver curls shone in the golden sun blazing above her head like a halo. Its light washed across the world beyond her in hues of soft pink and gentle orange and warm yellow.

'How long do I have?' Harry murmured. 'Are you sleeping still, baby bird?' He reached out his arms toward the mirror. 'Come to your papa for a moment.'

Fleur's soft warm smile and bright, summer blue eyes met his from the other side of the glass and she lifted Katie off her shoulders and held her out.

A warm weight appeared in his arms.

Frozen tears hovered in his daughter's wide, fearful green eyes, caught on her lashes, and deep purple bruises hung beneath them. Pitch black veins snaked across Katie's pale sunken cheeks, dark as the magic of his horcrux and the bubbling power of Roxie's obscurial; they spread over Katie's fair skin beneath the faint shimmer of Gabby's magic like a web of ink, spidering through the limp silver curls dangling from her head and creeping along her little arms, fading away at her wrists and where her small striped socks hung off her feet.

'Look at you,' Harry whispered; a fist of ice clenched about his heart. 'Look what they did to you.'

He bent his ear to her pale lips, brushing her cool cheek. Faint breaths tickled his skin.

Still sleeping.

Harry pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and tucked her silver curls back behind her ear, tugging her little striped socks back up. 'Sweet dreams, little chick.' He passed her back into the embrace of Fleur's reflection. 'When you come back, I'll make sure all those dreams are waiting for you.'

It won't be long now. Weeks. A couple of months at the very most.

Katie jammed her red macaron in her mouth and burbled crumbs over Fleur's shoulders and down the front of her sapphire dress, grabbing at her silver hair with her small hands.

A small smile crept across Harry's face. I'll make it happen as fast as I can, baby bird.

She reached for him, her fingers caught up in Fleur's cascade of silver hair, scrunching her face up and squirming over Fleur's head.

The storm stirred, a burning swirl of razor sharp yearning, molten hot and slicing deep; it snatched the breath from his lips, a whirl of searing screaming.

'I promise.' The whisper hung on his tongue, caught like a feather on the winds of the howling hurricane. 'I promise, little angel.'

A small pout crept onto Katie's face as she reached for him and her bright green eyes darkened a few hues. Harry pressed his hand to the glass over the blazing golden sun; pink and orange and yellow and red spilt through his fingers, their bright light washing over the world.

AN: All my links are on my profile or in this linktree: discord, early access to chapters, website, how to support me and all that good stuff.

linktr . ee / mjbradley