Nothing is mine.

Is now gone, not Constantinople! xD

The Legacy of Rome

Beneath a crimson-streaked sky of blazing pink and orange clouds, the last sliver of the sun sank behind the sea. Its dying light gilded the white honeysuckle and the blooms of the opening queen of the night flowers pale gold and threw long dark shadows across the hanging gardens from the trunks of the ancient floating oaks.

Harry watched the waves shrink to small ripples as they lapped across the marble roof of the palace beneath the Nymphaeon's hanging gardens, swinging his legs from the gnarled root and as the water broke beneath them against Marzanna's black scales and jagged spines.

'Mithras?' Hestia squirmed forward in the floating seat beneath the arch of honeysuckle. 'What now?'

'Grindelwald hasn't returned from his task yet,' Harry replied. 'I am sworn to aid his cause.'

'His… genocide?' Grant scowled in the deep shadow of a younger oak trunk. 'Why swear such an oath if you don't agree with him?'

'Because I needed him for the dawn. And that still requires sacrifice: ours, theirs, everyone's together. His Greater Good is just another dream to turn to dust before the rising sun.'

He will betray me before the end. Or the Greengrasses will. Neville is no killer. Charlie didn't disappear at his hands.

'None of that matters,' Harry murmured. 'We fight for hope of a better world. And so is everyone else. They all were fighting and dying for it already; we're just making sure that everything they sacrifice happens for something worth turning dreams to dust.'

'Are we going back to Atlantis?' Flora's copper hairpin flashed in the dying sunlight as she swung the seat back and forth beneath the pale honeysuckle.

Harry glanced up at the two heads of the great bronze eagle spouting a cloud of water over the floating tangle of green surrounding them. 'I quite like it here. If you want, you can go back.'

'We go where you go,' Cedric said. 'You're right. Britain. France. The States of Magical America. All of us. We were already killing each other for stupid reasons.' His hands curled into fists. 'I want it to stop. Grindelwald will only keep making it worse and the rest are only going to start killing each other again when he's gone.'

Grant nodded, prying the red, white and blue threads from his grey jacket and shaking them free to float down into the sea. 'I'd rather fight for this than go back to doing it for anything President Lee said.'

'Stay here with me then.' Harry ran his fingers along the rough bark of the oak roots. 'We may have to leave here when the last of the magic finally fades, but I don't think we'll be here for more than a week or so. Grindelwald plans carefully and moves swiftly.'

'Where is he?' Hestia let the floating seat swing to a stop.

'Carrying out the next step in his plan in Africa, or South America, or Asia. He needs control over the ICW and for the ICW to have real power over the rest of the magical world, so he can do his necessary evil.' A small sad smile crept across Harry's face beneath the amber mask. 'The power of Britain, France, the Ottoman Magical Caliphate, and other major nations that oppose him is nearly spent here in Europe, so he is making sure the vast majority of the remaining nations on the ICW are represented by those who will favour his cause in the right moment.'

Cedric swallowed. 'That sounds…'

'I imagine a lot of blood has been or is being shed to ensure it,' Harry murmured. 'But in the end, all the horror Grindelwald works will only work to bring about our beautiful dawn.'

'Where will we go next?' Grant asked. 'Paris?'

'Novimagus or Beauxbatons, I suspect.' A fierce pang tore through Harry at the memory of sneaking through the school with Fleur. 'That does remind me, can you retrieve the Mirror of Erised and bring it here? I may yet need that if others wish to join us.'

Cedric nodded. 'Which one of us? I can go.'

'Go all together. I don't trust the Greengrasses; they've betrayed everyone they've ever fought with and Charlie vanished at Novimagus. Neville doesn't make his enemies disappear like that.'

'No,' Cedric muttered. 'He doesn't.'

'Shouldn't we attack back?' Grant demanded.

'I don't think so,' Harry replied. 'Perhaps it's my oath speaking, but I see no reason to until they openly betray us. We'll only splinter our own cause and start killing each other for revenge and anger instead of something greater.'

'Let's go, then,' Cedric said. 'We'll be careful. Four of us is enough to hold our own and escape back here if they do attack.'

'Wipe the island clean,' Harry ordered. 'Leave it looking like we were never really there. It will hinder the Greengrasses if they don't know where we are.'

And now we're done there, we should just disappear.

They vanished with a series of loud cracks, leaving him among the faint rustle of the leaves and the cool mist drifting from the eagle's two-headed waterfall.

Harry watched the little waves break against Marzanna in small crashes, the white foam clinging to her spines and the sharp ridges of her black scales. 'Now what?' he whispered.

'Now I devour you and your dream, world-changer.' The sphinx curled together between the oak trunks at the heart of the floating gardens, a wide sharp smile upon the symmetrical features of its female face. 'I will drink every drop of your despair as you die and your dawn just disappears.'

Harry slid his wand from his sleeve. 'I solved your riddle. Tom and I are one, together.'

'Neither can live while the other survives.' Long, curved glasslike claws scored deep gouges through the bark as the sphinx stretched like a cat. 'But that was not the answer I wanted to hear last time we spoke. No more secrets, you said.' Its green eyes blazed with fire. 'Another unworthy world-changer stumbling through the ruins of Rome, trying to tear me down.' The sphinx bared countless, curved fangs and a bright blue tongue in a smile so wide it stretched from ear to ear. 'I will feast on your bones, last son of Kart Hadasht.'

Harry slashed his wand, sending the hazy basilisk tearing through the trees, scattering shreds of honeysuckle and splinters down into the waves.

The sphinx faded away from it like smoke in the breeze. 'You trust everything you see to be truth…'

A splitting pain ripped through Harry's skull and clapped his hand to his forehead, stumbling to his knees.

Five lines of fire tore across his back.

'But your mind is bare to me, Mithras.' It reappeared upon the roots of the oak. 'Every thought you have, every feeling you know, are mine to savour.'

Harry hurled piercing hexes at it, but they burst upon its golden hide like raindrops, bouncing off and streaking past Marzanna as she uncoiled, spreading her tattered dark wings and leaping aloft.

The sphinx sprang forward, glassy claws out-stretched, but Harry spun the world back past him, apparating atop the bronze beak of the two-headed eagle.

'Vulnera sanentur,' he whispered, releasing a soft sigh as the burning stinging pain across his back faded.

The breeze rustled through the hanging gardens beneath his feet as Marzanna circled overhead, her shadow sweeping across the bare branches of the ancient gnarled oaks.

'If you're in my head,' Harry called, 'then you can drown… as I drowned.'

He let the eye of the storm swallow him; eleven years of emptiness and one endless sunset alone on icy white pebbles, a wordless breathless tangle of burning yearning and bitter wasted wishes; all the numb despair waited with its small knowing smile, ripping at his tired heart with countless cold needle-sharp teeth.

Mocking laughter drifted across the waves and the sphinx shimmered into view among the trees. 'To me, your despair and fury are no secret; they only taste sweet...'

Marzanna folded her wings and dived, talons poised. She smashed through the hanging gardens in a spray of red, cracking and splintering the branches of the oak at the centre of the Nymphaeon, scattering the floating trellises of flowers and shrubs away into the waves and crashing into the palace roof.

The sphinx appeared above her thrashing, ragged broken wings, its glasslike claws cut deep red lines across the dark scales of Marzanna's neck like Petunia's shrill yell slicing through the quiet morning gloom of his cupboard.

Harry layered his magic into a thick web of wards over the Nymphaeon. 'Lacero. Ossasula.' He forced his wrist faster, burying the sphinx in a storm of spells as it shredded Marzanna's flesh with its claws.

They burst on its thick golden hide and ploughed into the sea in snatches of steam.

Merde.

Marzanna's tattered dark wings crunched back into shape and she heaved the sphinx off, whirling and sweeping her jagged-spined tail at it, but it spread black-feathered wings and leapt above, diving back down upon Marzanna as her tail splashed into the water and sinking all four sets of claws into her neck. Marzanna slammed her wings into its shoulder and they rolled across the palace roof through the shallow water, but as they crashed into the feet of the bronze eagle below Harry, the sphinx ripped her head free and faded away like smoke, dropping the severed head into the water.

I need to stop it doing that. A fierce pang tore through Harry's heart as he scoured the sky, watching Marzanna's head creep back to her neck, the sickly yellow glow bright upon her scales. I wish I was better with wards.

'No…' The sphinx appeared upon the eagle's other head, flowing into being like swirling mist. 'No more wishing, Harry Potter. No more waiting. No more hoping. Did you forget?' Its sharp smile spread wider and wider, baring all its curving fangs, and its green eyes blazed like emerald flames. 'You know what happens when you forget…'

Harry swallowed a cold stab of fear. 'How long have you been watching me?'

Mocking laughter floated to his ears. 'I watch each would-be-world-changer who dares to try and spill my secret. Each and every one of the dwindling firstborn sons of Kart Hadasht.' Its glassy claws cut deep into the bronze and its muscles coiled. 'I watched the ragged lonely boy drag himself from orphanage to seaside, to shred his soul and spread terror and death. I saw him struck down before a boy marked by blood and prophecy, and I knew it would be one of you. The last children of little Salazar, who sought me out so long ago.'

Marzanna launched herself aloft, powering up into the sky and sweeping toward the sphinx.

If I can keep it from using that magic, Marzanna can fight it and win. But I can't.

'I watched it all, last son of Kart Hadasht, and I waited—' the sphinx faded away as Marzanna's claws whistled through, screeching deep scores through the bronze beak '— waited to savour the sweetness of your sorrow, for you to be worthy of devouring.' It appeared once more, swirling together like thick fog. 'I am a Keeper of Secrets and a Seeker of Truths, the Scourge of Ephesos and the Legacy of Rome; my secret is the secret that swallows your world. There are none strong enough to slay me, none with the fortitude or skill to solve the riddle of their own pitiful nature. Your pyre of dreams will burn for nothing. I will drink your despair today and your great ritual will never be cast.'

'It's already cast,' Harry said. 'If you were always watching, you should know that.'

The sphinx's symmetrical face twisted in fury. 'That cursed turret. The one place I could not be. The one thing I could not see. You cast it in there.'

'It's already certain.' A small smile crept across Harry's face beneath the amber mask. 'It cannot be stopped.'

The sphinx hissed and screamed; its shriek tore at his ears like nails screeching across glass, a splitting pain ripping through Harry's skull.

See for yourself. A hot wet trickle of blood crept from his ear and he let the memory of the runes swirling in the tower rise before his mind's eye. I have already done it. All that's left is to just disappear.

The sphinx lunged, lashing out with one huge paw. Searing pain exploded through his ribs as it batted him off the eagle's beak.

Harry clutched his wand tight and thrust his magic into the air, wrapping it around his body and catching himself a few metres above the shallow water over the palace roof. 'Vulnera sanentur,' he gasped through the burning agony, the slick metallic tang of blood on his tongue. 'Ossere sanentur.' Something crunched in his chest and the pain flared white-hot, fading away. 'That wasn't fun.' He kept one eye on the sphinx as he fixed the slashes in his loose dark robes.

Marzanna's shadow fell over the sphinx and it vanished.

Merde. What can stop it using that magic? Wards? Blood wards? Harry shook his head, clawing through the ringing in his ears. The turret was the only place it couldn't get into. It's like a phoenix.

His heart sank.

The one thing we couldn't do, mon Rêve.

The sphinx's hot breath tickled the back of his neck as it laughed. 'You know how this will end, Harry. You always knew...'

Pain stabbed through his left thumb as he swept himself away and twisted around.

A bead of crimson trickled from the ball of his thumb.

Blood.

The sphinx stared back with a smile as sharp as shattered glass. 'Found lacking,' it hissed, its tail lashing back and forth behind it as it hovered before him on huge dark-feathered wings. 'Left wishing.'

'No, I'm not,' Harry murmured. 'Not anymore. I did it. I made sure it wasn't all for nothing.' The corner of his mouth curved up into a bittersweet smile. 'It will stop hurting soon. When I see the sun rise.'

'You will never see it.' The beautiful symmetrical features contorted into a vicious glower. 'I will devour you, every bit of you: all your thoughts, each drop of blood, the last scraps of your flesh. You will be nothing. You cannot deceive me, I am a Seeker of Truth—'

Marzanna swooped toward the sphinx and it vanished.

Truth. Realisation struck Harry like lightning tearing through the storm. Suleiman's spear.

'Accio.' He thrust his wand at the splinters and shredded green floating over the palace roof.

'I can still smell your despair.' The sphinx curled together atop the Nymphaeon roof. 'At the heart of the storm, it hangs, waiting for the inevitable; it will swallow you. As always.'

The curved blade smacked into Harry's hand and the sphinx's green eyes flashed, its muscles tensing.

'You should've come to devour me at the end, then.' Harry frowned down at the golden runes as he drew the sword and dropped down into the cold, knee-high waves. 'You were going to, weren't you? At the end, when I was on the cusp of success, you were going to snatch it all away and revel in doing it. But then I killed Suleiman and kept this…'

'A wretched weapon,' the sphinx hissed. 'A nuisance.'

Harry slipped his wand into his sleeve and took it by the blade, drawing the gleaming steel tip across his palm; it sliced through his skin as smooth as Petunia's Japanese kitchen knife across the back of his finger, tracing a line of fire through his hand.

A thin bead of crimson clung to its edge trembling at the sword's tip.

Change. Harry held his breath. Change, or I will never see the sun rise.

The blade melted into a swirl of silver, flowing into a shining spear, and a haze of magic burst from it, flooding past the sphinx and the diving form of Marzanna.

'I'm going to watch you now,' Harry said, leaning on the spear as the cold waves lapped at his legs. 'I'm going to watch you die.'

The sphinx spread its wings and leapt at him, but Marzanna slammed into it, smashing it into the vast bronze wing of the eagle. They bounced off, rolling through the shallow waves, the glasslike claws of the sphinx shredding Marzanna's wings to ribbons and slicing through the tendons of her legs.

Kill it. A touch of ice crept through Harry's veins. Kill it, Marzanna.

Marzanna's tail slammed into the sphinx's side, the pale spines piercing the thick golden hide, and she lunged, sinking her fangs into its foreleg. The sphinx hissed, digging its claws deep into Marzanna's throat and ripping the scales free to bare raw, pale flesh. She tore its left foreleg off with a wrench of her neck and the sphinx screamed, a screech like jagged scoring steel.

Kill it.

The sphinx hissed and buried its sharp teeth deep into Marzanna's neck.

The eerie poisonous yellow glow died in her dull eyes and guttered out across her dark scales.

Marzanna slumped into the waves.

Merde.

The sphinx tore itself free from Marzanna's tail and limped toward Harry, its green eyes full of flames. Blood as dark as ink poured from its wounds, spurting from the stump of its leg and spreading like oil across the sea, staining the white foam black as tar.

'No more secrets,' the sphinx hissed, its whisper sharp as stainless steel and its symmetrical face smeared with thick red dragon blood. 'No more secrets. Dreams and secrets. Secrets and dreams.'

It doesn't matter, I already did it. Harry wrapped both hands around the haft of the spear and waded forward. If I die before I see the dawn, I deserve it.

The sphinx prowled around him in a circle, its blood turning the water dark as night around Harry's legs, its burning green eyes never leaving his face. 'What are you thinking? Where are your thoughts? Hidden. Hidden from me, a Seeker of Truth—' it swiped mid-step at the air with its remaining forepaw, the long curving claws gleaming like glass '—hidden in this wretched false fog.'

'I was thinking about how this doesn't really matter,' Harry said. 'Because I already won. Even if I die now, I've already won.'

The sphinx's face twisted in fury and it lunged.

He thrust the spear forward.

Its gleaming silver blade crunched through the golden fur and the sphinx's ribs like the sword of Gryffindor into the mouth of the basilisk, and cold black blood sprayed across his face, soaking his robes.

'World-changer.' The sphinx shuddered and dragged the amber mask from Harry's face with the tip of one glass-like claw. 'They will kill you in my stead. I too have already won.'

Harry wrenched the spear out and stepped back, plucking the mask of swirling rays of golden light and burning willow embers from the waves.

Ink-black blood poured from the deep wound in the sphinx's ribs and dribbled from the corner of its mouth. 'Spilling my secret will only bring you bitterness and ruin,' it whispered. 'No more secrets—' a last sharp smile spread across its blood-smeared symmetrical face and the fire in its green eyes dimmed '—no more secrets… but one.'

AN: Self promo link! Because otherwise you are all left at the mercy of FFN's filtering system and will never find all my other stuff xD

linktr . ee / mjbradley

Oh, and a brief note for Xanfire, who feels the focus is moving away from the plot. This did make me chuckle. The plot in a story is, by definition, solely what happens in that story. So, also by that definition, the focus can't really move away from it. The plot could get bogged down in details, or a long number of other things that you don't feel serve the purpose of the story - and at this point it's important to note for those few people it hasn't quite yet dawned on, that the plot is not just what the reader wants to see happen, either - but they'd still be a part of the plot, if you see what I mean. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth than the focus moving away from the main plot at this point in the story, and if you don't believe me, just read the chapter title again of this one again, it sounds a bit familiar, right?