Nothing is mine.

Onto the next part of the story, Phlegethon's Fury, and maybe, a solution to the riddle! I hope everyone was reading carefully, because, as I know some of you have realised, nothing you read up until this point was quite what it seemed.

Dreams and Secrets

Sunlight streamed through slender green willow leaves, falling in slim bright bars across the scorched, blackened feathers fluttering in the warped smoking silver pensieve and burning through the fading cloud of pale mist; it shone on the white pebbles at the water's edge, flashing back from the little ripples on the river.

'Mon Cœur?' A soft voice drifted to his ear and a warm gentle hand rested on his shoulder.

Fleur. Harry's heart lurched and the breath slipped from his lips. I escaped. He dragged his gaze up, his heart hammering against his ribs. I really escaped.

Katie beamed back from beneath the shining silver surface of the Mirror of Erised in her baby blue dress, chomping on the opal pendant hanging from her neck with a huge grin.

I made it back. Again. He sucked in a trembling breath of wildflowers and willow as heat crept through the soles of his boots; sharp fatigue bit through him to the bone, fogging his thoughts. How?

Fleur's warm fingers cupped his cheek, turning his head to her. 'How do you feel, mon Cœur?' Her soft blue eyes held his through the scattered veil of her silver hair, her lips curved into a gentle smile.

'Tired,' he whispered. 'Really tired.' He took a step toward Fleur and his legs gave out, sending him stumbling to one knee on the hot smooth surface of the pensieve.

Molten metal smoked in the runes, cooling where it wept from the deepest parts of the glyphs into shining silver tears.

Fleur tucked her wand away and slipped a hand under his arm, lifting him to his feet. 'What do you remember?'

Harry glanced back over his shoulder into the Mirror of Erised. 'Not much,' he murmured with a little shiver. 'I remember seeing the mirror as I went in. And a voice… Back again…?' A soft insistent murmur of need echoed in the back of his mind. 'And there was something—' Harry tugged his gaze away from Katie's reflection and slid his wand from his sleeve; it sat in his palm, cold and quiet and still as a stick '—there is something. Something… important.'

'Us,' Fleur whispered against his cheek, pulling him into her warm arms. 'That is us. The sunset we dreamt of.'

'I know.' He breathed out through the fatigue and a small smile spread across his face. 'How could I forget?'

Triumph flashed through her blue eyes. 'It worked, mon Amour. It worked.'

'La Victoire Finale,' Harry murmured.

Did it? A little niggle of doubt wormed about beneath his ribs. I came back, but it was supposed to cost everything. Even if I escaped through the loophole.

Fleur pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and wriggled beneath his arm. 'Come on, mon Cœur. I will take you to bed.' The corner of her mouth curved up into a small smirk. 'Although not quite how I was planning.'

He staggered forward as the world lurched with a soft snap and slumped onto cool, soft pillows and silk sheets. 'That's much more comfortable.' Harry squirmed onto his side to face her. 'Can I stay here for a bit or is there something we have to do?'

'Lie still,' Fleur said, pulling out her rosewood wand. She hummed as she ran its tip over him, a small, soft smile on her lips. 'There is nothing I can find. No magic but your own.'

Harry stared down at the ebony wand in his fingers. Just one of one now.

'You do not need that right now,' Fleur said, easing it from his fingers and placing it on the desk beside the red rose. 'Rest, mon Cœur.'

'I'm not going anywhere.' He leant his head back and let the weight of his fatigue drag his eyes shut. 'I feel like I could sleep forever.'

I wonder how long I was in there?

'Non, you are not going anywhere ever again,' she whispered. 'It hurt so much. But now. Now it will all be perfect.'

The bed shifted and Fleur snuggled into his side, burying her face into the crook of his neck and wrapping her warm arms and legs 'round him with a faint wash of a light sweet flowery scent.

Did it really work? The little niggle of doubt coiled in his heart, eating away at it. How will we know?

'Did anything happen?' Harry asked. 'While I was inside?'

'Non.' Fleur's embrace tightened. 'It was only moments. Not even a minute.'

He clawed for something beyond that fierce yearning and the faint memory of soft darkness dancing beneath the surface of the Mirror of Erised, but nothing rose through the fog.

'I don't really remember it,' Harry admitted. 'I don't even know how long that moment was for me. It could have been decades.'

'It does not matter, mon Amour,' she whispered. 'You came back. And it worked.'

'Did it?'

'I know it did.' Fleur kissed his bare neck. 'You will see. When Gabby's magic fades, our little chick will be reborn.' Heat washed across his chest as her hands curled into fists. 'And while we wait for the sun to set, mon Cœur, we will burn the ones who hurt us to ashes. Those shallow bitter little people will never take anything from us again.'

The Resplendent Sun. A small ball of ice settled in his heart. Ginny and the rest.

'We'll find them.' He cupped her hot hands in his. 'But carefully. No risks. Not now.'

Fleur hummed and tugged at his hands. 'Come here, mon Amour. Hold me.'

Harry pulled her close to his chest, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

She smiled up at him, her soft blue eyes fluttering shut. 'Je t'aime.'

'Je t'aime, mon Rêve,' he whispered, his heart melting into a small puddle as she snuggled into him. 'Je t'aime à la folie.'

And I do. A chill trickled down Harry's spine. But if I didn't give it all up, I couldn't have escaped. And if I did give it up, how can I love her and our baby bird so much? It should be impossible. I made sure it was impossible. He took a deep lungful of soft sweet-scented air and let out a long quiet breath. I'll have to wait. A niggle of anxiety wriggled beneath his ribs, gnawing at his heart. And hope.

'I can feel you fretting,' Fleur murmured, sliding her hand up his chest to cup his cheek. 'It worked. I promise.'

Somehow. The niggle chewed its way deeper. Maybe. I just don't know.

She sighed. 'You are hopeless, mon Amour.'

'Pardon,' Harry whispered through a soft stab of guilt. 'It's just…'

'You don't know for certain,' Fleur breathed. 'Je sais. But I do. I know. It worked. Trust me.'

Ba'alat Tanit's Looking Glass might show me more now. Or something. He caught the sharp gleam in Fleur's eyes as he lifted his lips from her hand. But I'd better not let Fleur see. A cold twist of dread coiled in the pit of his stomach. Just in case.

'I trust you,' he murmured, turning his face and pressing little kisses into her palm. 'I just don't like waiting and hoping.'

Her irises darkened. 'We will not just be waiting. They tried to steal our sunset. They killed Gabby—' her fingers crept from his cheek to the crystal-encased wisteria blossom dangling from her ear '—and they deserve the fire that is coming now our little chick is safe.'

'We'll turn all their dreams to dust, they'll never be able to try and hurt our baby bird again.'

I promised. He crushed the fear and the anxiety down, burying it deep beneath his vow. If I came back, I'd make sure. There'll be no crucible for our Katie. No more hurting. A soft warm glow tugged the corners of his mouth up into a faint smile. So even if my sunset has been sacrificed, theirs will last forever.

'No more fretting,' Fleur whispered, covering his eyes with her hand. 'Sleep, mon Amour. Soon our little chick will wake up and it will all finally be perfect.'

Harry let her brush his eyelids shut and breathed in the faint sweet scent of fruit blossom as Fleur's wrist bumped his nose. 'I'm sleeping.' Soft deep darkness tugged at his thoughts, drawing them down into thick gentle quiet.

A faint, fading shade swirled there beneath shimmering silver, dancing like heat haze above a ribbon of tarmac. The darkness writhed just out of reach, like shadow lingering beyond the stars; it called, a tug upon his heart and a soft insistent whisper in his sleeve, less than a murmur, silent as his daughter's tears and outstretched arms within the Mirror of Erised, but a breathless sharpness in his breast and burning hot against the skin of his wrist.

'Back again?' Dumbledore's voice echoed from gloom-shrouded stone walls and pale flagstones, bouncing back again and again and again and again, pouring past Harry like the rush of golden grains of sand through the small neck of the hourglass, each whispering reverberation another speck of dust slipping into oblivion, flooding away year after year after year.

And on the shadow spun, dancing like a desperate candle dying in the dark.

AN: My profile's the place to go for all the links to the rest! Other stories, early access, original stuff, audiobooks, etc etc