Nothing is mine.

This one is a super short one, it works best this way as a scene, but I apologise regardless, because I know even with me updating every four days, it's frustrating to only get a short chapter. The goods news is that the lengths kind of even out, there are some pretty long ones (for me) coming fairly soon!

It Happened One Autumn

The red rose shone in the morning light between Gabby's smiling, silver-framed face and the spinning silver cogs of Fleur's clock; light soaked into the crimson petals and the world sank after it, drifting down off into the distance.

No. Harry clawed it back. We promised. I promised.

Gabby beamed and waved from her photo. Beside her, a small warm smile hovered on Fleur's lips.

I haven't seen that smile in a while. A worm of doubt gnawed at his heart, chewing away like a little fat dark caterpillar on the leaves of Petunia's roses. No more hurting…

Harry stepped across, his shadow falling over Fleur. 'Mon Amour,' he murmured, brushing her silver hair off her face. 'Are you sleeping?'

'Non.' Her midnight blue eyes snapped open. 'I was waiting to see if you were going to leave me to go do your project again.'

He winced, pulling his hand back as little cold stabs of guilt jabbed through his gut. 'I was thinking maybe today… maybe today we could try going back to Paris together again?'

Fleur threw back the covers and rolled from bed, her breasts bouncing as she landed on the balls of her feet. 'What about your plan?' She slipped on dark blue underwear and hooked her bra strap together, sliding her arms through. 'Don't you need help?'

Harry fought a flash of relief, a smile creeping across his face. 'You want to help? I thought…'

'Non.' She pulled on loose dark robes and snatched her wand off the desk. 'I have to go do the wards in Belgium.'

'And after—'

Fleur vanished.

The bottom fell out of Harry's stomach.

'Gone again,' he whispered, reaching out his hand into the empty space.

The storm stirred, a surge of searing yearning and razor sharp claws; it ripped the breath from his lips and clamped his heart in a fist of ice, goading it into hammering to the howl of its winds.

'Did Fleur just…' Harry felt the words well up from the little hollow space in the eye of the storm; their weight hung on the tip of his tongue.

Disappear?

He let his hand drop back to his side.

The world spun, seized by the swirl of the storm, and little dark spots danced before his eyes.

Harry pressed his fingertips into his ribs as the need surged, sinking down the side of the bed to the carpet. The room closed in on him, the thick silence as heavy as Vernon's angry pacing up and down the stairs above his cupboard.

Out.

He clawed himself away from the bed and ripped the world back past him, stumbling to his knees on the white pebbles beside the river as heat flashed through his thumb. Harry rested his forehead on the cold stones and watched the little black willow tree below his nail fade, taking huge gulps of cool air.

I'm out. He squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. It's fine. Fleur's not really gone. Just missing for a little while.

Harry opened his eyes, pushing himself to his feet beneath the brown willow fronds.

Fleur's wedding ring hung beside the vial of tears on the tree beyond the warped, ruined surface of the pensieve and the cold rain pattered down through the few dying leaves of the willow, bursting on his bare skin and soaking into his robes.

Black silk whispered against the Mirror of Erised and the yearning surged, sticking in his throat, a raw hot lump of need.

Katie. The eye of the storm settled over him, still as the white stones beneath his toes. I just have to keep my promises. When I've kept them, it will all be perfect for Fleur. And the more it hurts now, the more perfect that moment will be for her. It'll be okay.

Harry dragged the dark veil down to pool on the pebbles and stepped back.

Beneath the gleaming glass, a bright sun shone, a circle of glowing golden light hovering above Katie's silver curls and smiling face. She sat on Fleur's shoulders before the green fields and gentle river bend and beneath a sky of pink and gold and orange clouds, cramming two fistfuls of Fleur's long silver hair into her mouth as she swung her small feet back and forth in the sun.

'Look at you, baby bird,' Harry whispered. 'Aren't you just perfect? You and your beautiful maman. What could be more important than you? Fleur's right. You're what's missing. You're what's important.'

Don't fret. He took a deep breath. Fleur's just testing you to make sure you're the same. Like she did before. He let the breath out in a long, soft sigh and the storm subsided, fading back to a soft murmur of yearning. Just keep your promise.

A soft breeze rustled through the dead willow leaves; the wedding ring clinked against the vial of tears.

'And yet…' Unease slithered in the pit of Harry's stomach as he watched it sway. 'She's so sure. Like she knows.'

The clear, crimson-threaded ring swung back and forth across the bark of the trunk.

Harry stared at it, the unease swelling, creeping up toward his heart like cold dark water welling through the winter ice and frozen lilies of Petunia's pond. 'And I never specified who it is that has to give up on our dream for me to escape. Only how…'

Maybe it doesn't make any sense how I can have escaped and still love them because I wasn't the one who paid the price. Maybe Fleur's so sure it was paid because she knows she's paid it.

He opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat, snagged on the sight of the abandoned wedding band like a small white feather on the thorns of Petunia's roses, choked on a cold little ball of despair. The weight of it dragged his heart down toward that small knowing smile in the dark empty place within.

It was only an instant for Fleur. Harry clawed his heart back. Less than a second of real time passed while I was in the ritual. How could she have given up?

'It's…' Doubt and fear caught the word on the tip of his tongue.

Impossible. It has to be. It can't be true. The sad knowing little smile down in the dark empty place beneath Harry's heart whispered familiar words back. Perfect wishes don't come true. Not for me.

Katie reached for him from beneath the shining silver surface of the Mirror of Erised, leaning over Fleur's head and stretching out her little fingers.

But they will for you, little angel. If I keep my promise and don't fret or panic and ruin things. He swept the black silk back over the mirror and sucked in a long deep breath of cool air, closing his eyes and letting the cold rain wash over him. Waiting and wishing and hoping hurts Fleur too, but when it's all done and you come back, baby bird, then we'll both know for sure. He opened his eyes, smothering the stabs of panic and the tug of the storm on his heart. I'll keep my promise and prove it to her. And to me. And when it all comes together… In the eye of Harry's mind, golden light washed across the green willow and the river, bathing Katie and Fleur in a soft warm glow and spilling over a quiet, gentle world. It will be the most perfect moment she could ever hope for.

Harry apparated back into the kitchen, ignoring the flash of warmth across his thumb. He dug out a single sheet of parchment amidst all the stacks and smoothed it out, glancing at the crossed out rune designs.

'A collective soul…' He slid his wand from his sleeve and spun it around on the table with one finger. 'If we all have the same dreams or something close enough…'

One of many. And from them, like Tom forming from the sacrifice of Ginny and the diary's dreams, something great enough to change the world. Harry frowned at the piece of paper. Because if enough people want to change the world, it can be changed. It has been before.

Dumbledore's words rose from the well of Harry's mind. 'It's not one person's place to decide what the world should be.' A small smile crept onto Harry's face. 'I guess you were right in a way; nobody can really change the world alone, not even Grindelwald. You convinced Grindelwald of that once, maybe I can use this to convince him again.'

And better to do it for hope than despair. Nobody should sacrifice all their dreams and die for nothing.

Harry scribbled a note on the parchment. 'It has to be a separate collective, an obscurial created by everyone in all the world who just wants to make the crucible stop. And it can take everything everyone casts with that dream in mind and change it. Like Grindelwald's golden flames—'

Fleur wavered into sight before the sink, tossing her silver hair back over her shoulders. Her blue eyes flicked from the parchment to Harry and her forehead creased into little wrinkles. 'You were not so keen on Paris after all, non?' She turned her nose up and swept past the table. 'I am tired after fixing the wards in Belgium, so I am going back to bed, Harry. You stay here and play with your project.'

Harry swallowed the stab of panic, listening to the creak of her steps up the stairs. Don't fret. She said that it will be perfect and I'll make sure she's right. A niggle of anxiety wormed through his heart as their bedroom door slammed. There's no time. I promised Fleur it would all be finished when Katie comes back.

He turned back to the piece of parchment and underlined the word change in purple with the tip of his wand. 'Alchemy.' Harry shoved the storm down deep inside and released a long, trembling sigh. 'Where did I put all Gabby's books?'

AN: Check out my profile for links to find Discord (and at least one more early access chapters if the short one was super annoying), how to support me and get to read all my original stuff and read all the draft chapters I have stockpiled on my website!