Nothing is mine.

Onto Cocytus's Cruelty, the penultimate part of this story. I should warn you all that this chapter contains character work and things are presented to you exactly as they are to Harry, so if it's confusing for him, you're not going to know for certain either! So, in other words, it's more of the same xD

And This Sun Shines Upon My Sorrows

Golden light shone deep within the glowing amber mask like brilliant beams of light bursting through the clouds; it swirled like the eye of a storm, slicing through the soft flickering embers bright like dawn sunlight through the cold dark. Harry clutched it tight, staring into the smooth featureless face.

There's nothing left.

Beyond the warped, ruined silver pensieve, the space where the willow tree had stood gaped open among cold white pebbles and flecks of ash spread.

She's gone again. Forever.

The river and the rustling slope of grass drifted off into the distant night.

Harry let it go.

'Nothing can ever change that much pain into something perfect,' he whispered, closing his eyes. 'It just hurts.'

And you deserve it. You ruined it all because you were afraid of yourself. The emptiness swallowed a small stab of bitter self-loathing as he dug his nails into the amber mask. You should've just disappeared before you ruined something so perfect.

A faint warmth crept across his face.

Harry opened his eyes.

A sliver of sunlight slipped over the edge of the world; its golden brilliance washed across the trees at the top of the hill and down the slope, sparkling on the ripples of the river. He stared down at the flickering motes of light in the amber mask.

The storm stirred, a whisper of searing yearning.

It can't all be for nothing. They deserved more than that. It can't all just disappear because of me.

'It was always meant to be for you, baby bird.' Harry stretched, forcing the numb cold from stiff limbs. 'I suppose it still will be, you just won't get to see it.'

But I promised there'd be no more crucible to steal anyone's dreams away. And there won't be.

He slid his wand from his sleeve and pressed the amber mask to his face, poking threads of magic through that swirl of burning, razor sharp yearning. The haze of whirling golden motes of light faded from sight as he watched the sunrise shine in Ba'alat Tanit's Looking Glass.

Harry stuck out his left hand, summoning it from under the pebbles.

The amber-masked figure stared back from the shining silver oval.

'Nothing lasts forever,' he murmured, slicing the ball of his thumb and pressing it to the glass. 'But dreams shouldn't just disappear.'

Not for nothing.

The light of the sunrise blinked out, plunging him into the gloom.

Who will try to stop me? Grindelwald? Neville? My sisters?

Fleur stepped from the dark.

I wish it could be you, mon Rêve. But you're gone.

She stared at him with soft warm blue eyes, her silver hair cascading across the shoulders of her dark green dress. 'Je t'aime, mon Cœur,' she whispered, levelling her wand at his heart.

Harry's heart wrenched. Je t'aime.

A wave of emerald washed the world away, leaving Harry alone on the white pebbles before the brightening dawn; warm tears slid down his cheeks.

It's like before. It's not someone else. The amber-masked figure was always me. And La Victoire Finale was the only way. He turned the mirror over and smeared a streak of dark red across the glass. So how do I overcome that there's always going to be something important missing?

The world drifted off into the distance, the bright golden light of the dawn swirled away like streaks of crimson down the stainless steel sink.

How do I endure losing the one perfect wish that came true? What do I need?

Fleur stepped from the dark.

Harry's heart sank. Of course.

Katie poked her head around from behind Fleur's elbow, her wide emerald eyes bright and warm; shoulder length silver hair brushing Fleur's waist.

Look at you, baby bird. Somewhere in his heart, the storm stirred, swelling from a desperate whisper to a yearning scream. Look how beautiful you would've grown up to be if I hadn't ruined everything.

Fleur raised her wand, covering Katie's eyes with her other hand. 'Je t'aime, mon Cœur,' she whispered, levelling her wand at his heart.

Je t'aime.

Emerald light washed Fleur and Katie away; it flashed again and again and again until Harry found himself sinking to his knees on the cold white stones before the river.

Death. The final enemy. The emptiness. He stared into the smooth silver surface of the Herald of Foes. I wish I'd left you in that vault. I wish I'd never looked at you.

'No.' Harry bit back the rest of the words as they hung on the tip of his tongue and cut his heart free into the stillness of the eye of the storm. 'No more wishing.'

I can't change anything I did, but I can change what made me.

A single blazing spark of gold burst into life at the tip of his wand; the mirror shivered, shuddered, and unravelled into a swirling cloud of amber notes.

You were right, Tom. Dreams are dust. Harry slashed his wand, squashing the golden lights. But you were wrong, Voldemort. Power's not the only purpose. It's not purpose at all.

'Can you hear me, now there are no dreams left?' he whispered. 'They are gone, but it's still just me. We are the same at last, just like you wanted. Shouldn't you swallow me up like you did Ginny?' He spun his wand in his fingers. 'But even dreamless, I'm still me.'

Was it really me, and Tom, and then our horcrux? The emptiness took the small stab of fear before it struck deep, snatched it away into the bottomless black beneath Harry's heart and swallowed it whole. Or was it just me, Harry and Tom together, and my horcrux.

'Does it even matter?' he murmured.

A single shadow swirled in the Mirror of Erised, faint as summer shade, silent as the winter snow; it danced itself out beneath the smooth shining silver and died.

Harry turned away to watch the golden dawn light wash across the fields, over the river and through the world.

Perfect dreams shouldn't die for nothing. And they won't.

He picked a smooth white pebble from the ground and pictured the snow-swept mountainside beneath Nurmengard's spires. 'Portus.'

It's all spent now. All for something important. I'm as strong as I will ever be. So here I come, Grindelwald. Ready or not.

'For the Greater Good.'

The golden sky lurched and Harry stumbled through knee-deep snow beneath the bent, ice-crusted boughs of scattered pines.

He tossed the stone away, watching the white pebble sail off the mountain and disappear into the snow drifts below. Pushing his magic into the air and wrapping it about him, Harry lifted himself off the mountainside over the walls and set himself down before the broad oak doors of Nurmengard's hall.

A gentle breeze swept eddies of fresh snow from the roofs across the smooth white shrouding the ground and thick grey clouds veiled the sky and the rising sun.

Now I'll see if Grindelwald is convinced or if he chooses to die for despair.

He waded forwards and up the short steps, shoving open both doors.

Four pairs of eyes snapped up.

'Guten Tag.' A wry bitter humour tugged at the corner of Harry's mouth as Charlie Weasley snatched his wand from his white robes. 'I came to speak to Grindelwald.'

The tall slim woman with deep red eyes reached out with her long broadsword and poked the young witch with gold thread in her dark hair in the cheek with the steel tip. 'Chasca, wake up.'

Chasca jerked awake and leapt from the bench. 'Enni, everyone agreed you're not allowed to do that!'

The bald Chinese wizard snorted. 'Focus, Chasca, we have an unexpected guest.'

She studied Harry with almond-shaped eyes and a small grin. 'Didn't your bones tell you they were coming, old man?'

'Didn't your giant golden wind chimes tell you?' he retorted.

'One of you go get Grindelwald,' Harry said. 'I have a bargain I would like to offer him—' a faint smile spread across his lips '—an evil that will work to create a Greater Good.'

'No.' The slim, short Indian witch set the black pawn in her hand back down on the chess board and stood, drawing her wand. 'Only the Unspeakables and Les Inconnus cover their faces like that. Neither are friends.'

Charlie shook his head. 'The only one of them left alive is the one maintaining the wards over France…'

The five exchanged a look.

'Prey.' Enni prowled forward, baring engraved fangs. 'It was foolish to come here, little rabbit. You have blundered into the den of the wolf.'

Harry raised his wand, thrusting his magic into the air. 'I've killed wolves before. Vampires too.'

A savage grin spread across Enni's face and she blurred forward. Harry flicked his wand, smashing her back through the table into the wall, and poured his magic into the splintered planks, twisting them into rough wooden serpents; seizing her limbs, they yanked them away from her sides and held her spread-eagled across the floor. Glimmering yellow curses streaked past Harry as he turned away from Enni; he slapped three back at Charlie but they vanished against a wave of bright bronze magic.

The old Chinese wizard closed his eyes and shivered. 'Get Daphne and Astoria, Charlie. We will need them to stop the fury of this storm.'

The Greengrasses. A little ice settled on Harry's heart as Charlie vanished with a loud pop. I do owe them a surprise. He slashed his wand.

The wooden serpents coiled tight around Enni's limbs and wrenched, ripping her arms and legs away and spraying gushes of crimson across the floor. Uncurling from the severed limbs, they lunged for the Indian witch, but a pair of glowing bronze arms burst from her shoulders and caught the first, sweeping it into the other three and hurling them across the room.

'Inti's snare!' Golden threads sprouted from Chasca's fingers, weaving into a shining net and sweeping forward, snaring the wooden snakes and snapping tight, slicing them apart.

Harry wrenched the world back past him, stepping out behind them and pouring magic through his wand. White sparks swirled around the slim piece of ebony in his fingers.

'Chasca!' The Chinese wizard yelled.

'Fulminis,' Harry hissed.

A searing flash tore at his eyes, but the crackling white beam of lightning bounced off a wall of golden threads and burst through the window at the hall's end, sending sharp shards of glass skittering across the blood-drenched stone floor around Enni's sprawled limbs and torso. Bolts of blue magic hissed from Chasca's wand through the shifting weave of golden magic and sharp ripples of air tore from the fingers of the Chinese wizard.

Harry conjured a stream of black butterflies, sweeping them into a swirling sphere of dark wings; they burst from the whirling ball in ones and twos, streaking into the sapphire spells and exploding into wisps of dark mist. Forcing magic through the air, he swept the ripples aside with a swish of his wand, hammering at the Chinese wizard with short swipes. The wizard stumbled back, spitting blood from each blow and clutching at his ribs, one arm hanging free from his shoulder.

A cloak of bronze magic illuminated the old Chinese wizard and with a dull crunch, his arm snapped back into place.

That should have turned him into a smear. And she healed everything in a second. Harry released his hold on the air and twisted on his heel as butterflies burst all around him, firing purple cutting curses at the Indian witch. You have to go first, or you'll wear me down before Grindelwald even appears.

They faded out into shimmering bronze light.

A weird shield. Harry slashed his wand forward.

The Chinese wizard's eyes widened. 'Chas—'

The hazy basilisk ripped through the Indian witch's bronze magic, sending her bouncing back through the broken glass. Glistening purple entrails sprawled across the floor from the gaping gash in her belly, dangling from the points of her broken ribs, and the bronze arms faded.

Harry spun on his heel, stepping out of the swirling ball of butterflies, and swatted Chasca's spells back into the tapestry of golden magic; the threads snapped closed and the curses burst on them in showers of bright white sparks. Swivelling back around, he transfigured the butterflies into gleaming steel spikes, sending them hissing across the hall. They punched through the Chinese wizard, tearing great gaping red holes through his ribs and tossing him back into the wall.

Harry turned on Chasca, levelling his wand at the hovering weave of golden threads.

A hand closed around his wrist; with a loud crack, the hall lurched sideways and he smacked headfirst into cold snow.

Merde. Harry threw up his shield and clawed his way out, swiping snow from his eyes.

Bellatrix Lestrange beamed down through the shining wall of silver magic from the roof of the summit, her violet eyes burning like stars. 'Cousin Harry!' She bounced on the balls of her feet and clapped her hands together. 'You came to play! We were getting so bored of hide and seek, but now you finally came to play with us!'

Bellatrix Lestrange is dead. He let the shield fade. Is it polyjuice? Transfiguration? Some strange trick?

Bellatrix cocked her head, her dark curls falling over the shoulder of her white robes. 'We came to play here because we couldn't find our family to play with.' She patted the winged golden sword on her chest. 'Grindelwald has a plan. To get rid of all the boring stupid cattle clay people. Come help. Come play with us. We could play together forever. And we'd never be bored or lonely again!'

It's really her. Nobody else is mad like she was. Or is.

'I killed you,' he said, brushing the snow off his robes and slipping his wand back into his sleeve.

She scowled and stomped her bare foot in the snow. 'We're not a ghost!'

'I still watched you die,' Harry said. 'They pulled your body from that fountain and buried it somewhere. Voldemort thought you were dead. Yet you look no older than I am. How are you alive, Bellatrix?'

Did she do what I did? He thought back to the selfish cruelty of her games. She might have been able to make a horcrux. In her own mad way.

'Just Bella!' She pouted, crossing her arms. 'Voldemort didn't know we had a trump card. He was the best player until you beat him, but you can't tell the other players all your secrets, silly Cousin Harry.' Bellatrix giggled. 'And we shouldn't tell you, should we, Bell?' She twirled. 'But we don't have a trump card anymore, Bella. We used it up. The next time we lose, we die, like Andi and itty bitty baby Cissy and stupid mangy Sirius, who hated our singing, and everyone else but us and Cousin Harry and his itty bitty baby Katie.'

Harry's heart sank into the stirring storm, crumbling into molten flame and swirling razor sharp need. 'My daughter is gone.'

'She lost?' Bellatrix stared up at him and stuck out her hand, the light in her purple eyes bright and wild. 'It's okay! Don't be sad, Cousin Harry! You can find another game. Play with us! While we play together, we can't be bored or lonely or sad anymore.'

'What happened to you?' he murmured. 'I know I killed you.'

'We lost! But we didn't want to die, so we didn't, did we, Bell?' Bellatrix beamed and bobbed her head. 'Sometimes, Bella, the players we think are dead… aren't.'

AN: Self promo, self-promo, linktree!

linktr . ee / mjbradley