Nothing is mine.

A slightly shorter one, I'm afraid.

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Zoë the Magnificent

Four grey tents clung to the spread right wing of the great bronze eagle, their flaps fluttering in the gentle breeze. The morning light threw Harry's faint shadow across the bronze beak of the eagle's left head as he watched the waves ripple away across the horizon; it gleamed on the simple steel hilt of the curved blade lying across his lap.

They will kill you in my stead? Harry turned the sphinx's words over in his head. Grindelwald will certainly try. Once he's got as much use out of me as he can. He ran a finger along the plain leather sheath. But this will be my trump card.

A red spell flashed past him and ploughed into the waves.

'Sorry!' Hestia called.

Harry stood up. 'Bring Cedric and Grant out here, will you, Hestia and Flora? I need to warn you about what's going to happen.'

They nodded, picking their way across the smooth bronze left wing toward the tents on the other.

Harry apparated into his tent, sweeping the black silk off the Mirror of Erised and dropping it onto his small, simple bed.

A single shadow shimmered in the smooth silver surface, faint as summer shade, soft and silent as the snow falling upon Nurmengard's turrets. Golden light poured past it from beyond a dark distant horizon, dawn-bright, tinged with streaks of bright crimson and shivering with searing heat.

He drew a ring of runes across the glass and touched the hilt of the Spear of Truth against the mirror; it appeared upon that dark distant line before the horizon, a shining silver spear in the eye of the dawn.

Just in case. Harry pressed one hand against the cold glass, letting the crimson-streaked, golden dawn shine through his fingers. It will be everything I promised, baby bird. A world you would've loved.

'And if I die before I get to see it, I deserve it,' he whispered.

The vision of Fleur and Katie in Ba'alat Tanit's Looking Glass welled up from some dark corner of his mind, rising on the hot razor-sharp winds of the stirring storm, but shattered, over and over, by a wave of emerald light that washed all the world away.

'Maybe that's what it means. When this final victory is realised, there'll be no dreams left.'

And when there are no dreams left, there's no point; I might as well just disappear. Harry dragged the black silk back over the mirror and swallowed the murmur of yearning, letting his heart sink back into the numb emptiness at the eye of the storm. I don't belong in that world. But neither does Grindelwald. We should both be left behind in the crucible that created us.

A quiet knock echoed through his tent.

'Come in.'

Cedric, Grant and the Carrows twins slipped in through the fluttering white flap, gathering in a loose semi-circle just inside the entrance.

'You should all be warned,' Harry said. 'When I came to Grindelwald, I struck a bargain with him. I found a better way to close the gulf between those with a chance to wish and those without than turning millions of dreams to dust, and with his help, we realised it. But the price was my oath, that, just in case it might somehow fail, I would fight for Grindelwald's cause.' He shrugged, wry bitter humour tugging at the corner of his mouth. 'It's the same anyway, really. Fighting for it and fighting for the dawn.'

'What's the warning?' Grant asked.

'I'm expendable to Grindelwald,' Harry said. 'I have already done my part of our bargain; the ritual is cast, I have already won. While I can help him accomplish his plans, I am useful, but Grindelwald has nearly won too. The magical nations with the strength to defy the ICW have been bled dry and he is ensuring that the ICW believes in his cause. We are a loose end.'

'The Greengrasses,' Hestia murmured.

'I owe them a surprise,' he murmured. 'But I swore an oath; I cannot turn against Grindelwald's cause. And I don't wish to, his cause is a part of my own; my purpose is bound to it until the dawn comes. Soul magic is abstract tricky stuff, too; I might not be able to even perceive turning against it, only taking the best option to serve it.'

Cedric swallowed hard. 'So you can't help us if the Greengrasses attack.'

'No, I can.' Harry tucked his wand back into his sleeve. 'I am the greatest wizard Grindelwald can call upon to fight, and sworn to the cause. Anyone other than Grindelwald attempting to dispose of me and those loyal to me before the conflict ends, is making me choose between the capability they have and I have to serve the Greater Good.'

'Then we have nothing to worry about,' Flora muttered. 'Only Grindelwald can do what you do.'

'Not even him,' Hestia whispered.

'When Grindelwald returns, we will probably leave here to fight at Beauxbatons. Half of magical France's children are trapped there; Desrosiers has no choice but to attempt to rescue them and Britain will have to help or risk their forces being divided and defeated. Victory for us there is likely the end of British and French resistance. And then Grindelwald will betray me.'

'Why?' Cedric asked. 'Why can't he just… not?'

'Because he doesn't want to leave dangerous loose ends,' Harry replied. 'He will sacrifice all of them to bring the dawn and ensure his plans cannot be derailed. He did it at Chateaux D'Acier and I did it for him at Azkaban.'

The Carrow twins' pale green eyes flashed.

'We only need to worry about his Walküren and, of course, Grindelwald himself. After Beauxbatons, everything will be in place.' A stray thought welled up from the back of Harry's skull. 'There's no difference for the Greater Good between Grindelwald and myself, not once all his long and careful plans are completed and the ICW is ready to lead the fight. He probably intends to fade into the background, advising them like he did Dumbledore.'

And I am much younger than he is. I could do it for far longer if need be.

'We're not duelists,' Hestia said. 'We've been practising, but…'

'I'll find somewhere you can retreat too. A secret place…'

Kart Hadasht? Unease stirred in the pit of Harry's stomach. No. That place is best left beneath the sea. Nobody should disturb it.

'We can't go back to the United States,' Grant said. 'Not now we've switched sides.'

'Or anywhere else,' Cedric murmured. 'They're either for Grindelwald and will give us up, or against him and will go after us themselves.'

Harry nodded. 'I know. Maybe the best thing for us to do is fight. Everything we sacrifice brings the sun a small step closer to rising. And with all that we've done, we probably deserve to die before we see the dawn.'

Cedric shrugged. 'I'd rather live, but I'll die if that's what it takes to fix this mess. Britain started all of this, with Voldemort, and then Amelia Bones and her nationalist idiocy.'

The Carrows nodded, clutching each other's hands

'We can't fight too well,' Hestia said. 'But we'll help. With wards.'

'There are only four of them,' Flora said. 'Bellatrix Lestrange is on our side, right?'

Harry nodded.

'We should turn it around on them,' Grant said. 'Let them think they're coming to ambush us, but have Bellatrix betray them when they do.'

'I'll find somewhere for you to be able to retreat too,' Harry murmured. 'Just in case. Somewhere they won't think of…'

It has to be somewhere I don't go. He slipped his wand from his sleeve, spinning it in his fingers. The sphinx has been watching, if it spoke to Grindelwald, he'll know everywhere I've been.

'What about somewhere they won't expect because it's obvious?' Grant asked.

'Like Nurmengard?' A brief laugh escaped Harry. 'Or one of the British Unspeakables' towers?'

And I did ward the archway at Mal Hadasht with Zoë de Medici's blood. He blinked. But she owes me a favour. What was the name she gave again? Harry wracked his brain. Merde.

'I might have a way,' he said. 'Wait here.'

The Carrows glanced at each other and ducked out, Grant striding after them.

'Wait… Harry…' Cedric lingered.

'What?'

'After Beauxbatons, after the Walküren are defeated, after Grindelwald is dead, what then?'

'The sun rises.' Harry allowed the storm's searing whisper to tug at his heart. 'Grindelwald, his Greater Good, and his absolute will to change the world will feed the dawn just as everything else has. All the ambitious, selfish nations like Britain will be broken, the crucible will be destroyed, and the ICW will be united and ready to handle the two souls of our world becoming one. Two souls in conflict cannot coexist, so one must come to dream the dreams of the other.'

'And us?'

'You go home. If you want to.'

'And you?'

A wry raw bitter little smile twisted the corner of his mouth up. 'I think I'll just disappear.'

'And do what Grindelwald was going to? Nudge things from the shadows?' A gleam of sadness hung in Cedric's eyes. 'I remember when your name came out of that cup and everyone treated you so awfully. You just disappeared for a bit. But you came back. And you did it again after Katie Bell was killed and we all thought Voldemort had won. And again after we thought you'd died and Grindelwald was going to win. You always come back just when our hope has run out.'

'I always came back for a reason.'

But I ruined that.

Harry wrenched the world back past him, hopping across Greece and to Bari, Rome, and stepping out under the shade of trellises of grape vines with a soft snap.

An auror in deep purple robes stumbled through the orange and lemon trees in their terracotta pots and froze, snatching his wand from his pocket.

Harry raised his hands. 'I am looking for Zoë de Medici; she owes me a favour.' He clawed his way through his memories of her beside the restaurant bar to the name she'd given him. 'She gave me a name to tell her.'

The auror narrowed his eyes. 'I can find my captain, who can reach Madame de Medici, but you are staying here.'

'I can wait.' Harry took a seat at the table. 'The name is Cesare Alfonse de Medici.'

The auror's gaze lingered on the amber mask covering Harry's face. 'Do not leave this balcony.'

'I'll be right here.'

With a loud crack, the auror vanished.

She must have somewhere out of the way. Harry spun his wand around on the table, pushing it with the tip of one finger. Somewhere we can just disappear.

A pop rang through the house and Zoë de Medici swept through the side door in a dark green dress, her wand in her hand.

'Zoë…' Harry placed his wand on the table and pulled his hand back across. 'You told me once you owe me a debt of life.'

'Violette.' Her dark eyes swept over him. 'Or is it Mithras now? You have changed sides just as we have, it seems. One does feel the wind shift; in the ICW as the names of representatives change to those known to support Grindelwald's ideas, and here in Europe as the great old powers that have for so long dragged little Firenze after them coming crashing down.'

'That doesn't matter. Can you help me?'

'I will do what I can to honour the debt of life owed to you by my family,' Zoë said, flicking her long black hair over her shoulders. 'What do you need?'

'Somewhere quiet and safe a small number of my followers can escape to if need be. Or me.'

She pursed her lips. 'Firenze is a network of small magically concealed hilltop towns, strangers are swiftly noticed. Hiding in the muggle world will not work for long, we stand out too easily there. But my manse in the hills is… set apart, so I can host visitors in private.'

'As long as it's secret.'

'It is secret enough. The only way in for guests is by portkey and we do not give them out lightly.' Zoë smoothed her dark green dress down. 'How many do you need?'

'Five.'

'I will return in a moment.' She dipped her head, flashing him a smile. 'Ciao.'

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