Nothing is mine.

Another delightful pun chapter title (and yes, also we're going back to Spain to see some old friends) xD

Life is Spain

Snow veiled the steep valley, a crisp thin white layer crunching beneath Harry's boots as he paced back and forth below the bare branches of the forest. The narrow river gushed past frosted dead ferns and icicle-lined banks, rushing from beyond the square tower perched upon the mountainside beside the slim track winding over the pass.

'Mithras?' Hestia edged forward, her dark hair fluttering around her face in the breeze.

'Daphne and Astoria said De Mendoza and the Spanish would meet us here,' Harry replied. 'But if they're not here soon, I'll do it without them.'

Flora shivered. 'It's cold.'

'Warming Charms,' he murmured.

But there's no point standing around waiting for De Mendoza really.

'I think I'll just do it without them.' Harry slipped his wand from his sleeve and Marzanna uncoiled, snapping branches as she snaked her head through the trees toward them. 'You two stay here, put wards over the valley and let De Mendoza know where to find me if he does turn up.'

They exchanged a quick look, worry gleaming in their pale green eyes.

'We aren't good duellists,' Hestia said. 'If they go after us while you're away…'

You'll die, like Charlie. Harry smothered a stab of cold bitter rage. I wanted him to go home. But either Neville finally decided to do whatever it takes, or the Greengrasses somehow managed to get to him. He mulled it over as the ice melted from his veins. I swore a vow, I can't do anything to Daphne and Astoria unless I know for certain they betrayed me and Grindelwald's cause.

'They won't have the chance to reach you,' Harry said. 'But stay hidden.'

'Sorry,' Flora whispered. 'We're trying to get better, Mithras.'

'Every spell counts, Flora.' Harry reached out and patted her on the shoulder. 'If enough people want to change the world, it can be changed. As long as you keep fighting for that, it has to happen.'

She shuffled her boots in the snow, hiding behind her long dark hair. 'Wards now?'

'Now.' Harry wrenched the world back past him and stepped out atop the square tower with a soft snap.

A shimmer of magic fell over the valley as he strode across the stone roof to the stairs, making his way down to a cosy room packed with conjured chairs and tables, full to the brim with wizards and witches in American Auror robes talking, drinking and laughing.

They all came to stop Grindelwald. To fight for whatever they believe a better world is.

Harry knocked on the open door. 'Bonjour.'

The room froze.

'Who are you?' Grant Hardsworth rose from a chair by the small fire, his wand in his fist. 'What do you want?'

'He calls himself Mithras.' Cedric Diggory stood up from the corner, drawing his wand from a rough fur-lined brown leather jacket. 'You didn't even trigger the wards.'

'I can get through them,' Harry said. 'And it's everyone else that calls me Mithras now. I don't much care what name they use.'

A thicket of wands pointed at him.

He raised his.

'You can't be serious.' Grant stared at him. 'It's one against thirty. Say whatever you came to say and leave before we turn you into a smear on the ground.'

'That wand…' Cedric murmured. 'I know that wand.' Horror blossomed in his eyes. 'Harry, what have you done?'

I ruined everything. The storm stirred, clawing at Harry with searing winds as sharp as shards of glass. I ruined it all. And it hurts.

'It doesn't matter,' he whispered as his heart crumbled into that swirling inferno of molten need. 'Because I'm going to make it all worth it.'

Spells flashed from the thicket of wands.

They broke against a single shining spark of amber light like waves upon rocks, sucked into a whorl of gold that burst into a swirling cyclone of countless bright glowing butterflies.

Harry stood at the eye of the storm as it tore through the walls around the doorway, ripping chairs and tables to splinters, slicing Shield Charms to ribbons, scything through aurors and scattering them into motes of bright amber light. The tower trembled as the survivors dived through the windows, smacking into the snow and rolling to their feet, and the butterflies flocked together, melding into a searing silhouette of golden flame.

All the air slipped through his lips as the tower melted away from her scorching, shimmering heat and the yearning wrenched at his heart, a twisting burning blade, white-hot; slicing deep and bittersweet.

'Fleur,' Harry breathed, black spots dancing before his eyes as he stared at the figure of amber fire.

I'm sorry. The scream of the storm choked the words in his throat and hot tears blurred on his lashes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I promise it won't be for nothing. Je te le promets.

Screams rang out from the track and a bright green spell flashed past his face.

The silhouette of searing golden flame crumbled into glowing amber motes and faded away.

Harry sucked in a deep breath and smeared his tears away, striding to the edge.

Marzanna tore through the wizards and witches fleeing down the track, pouncing on them one after the other and biting them in half, flinging ragged corpses into the crimson-stained snow.

Grant fired a string of green curses up from the road.

How many will it take before the ritual activates? Harry apparated down, swatting the spells away at Cedric and a trembling American witch as he strode forward; they punched smoking fist-sized holes through the witch and ripped across Cedric's ribs. Hundreds? Thousands? A little shiver swept through him. Kart Hadasht must have taken hundreds of first-born sons. How many dreams have to die for this?

A low snarl escaped Grant and he forced his arm faster. Harry flicked the curses away into the snow as he strode closer and caught Grant's wand in his hand, ripping it from his grasp.

'Fuck you!' Grant swung his fist.

Harry smashed him to his knees in the snow with a swish of his wand and watched him curl up with a groan.

'Harry…' Cedric clutched the shallow gash across ribs with both hands, smearing his wand with blood. 'Harry, why?'

Marzanna stalked across the snow, dripping crimson from her long, curved fangs, the poisonous yellow magic dancing across her dark scales like mist in the wind.

'Because it can't all be for nothing,' Harry murmured, a stab of bitter guilt lancing through his gut. 'You were all killing each other. Amelia. The Resplendent Sun. Neville's Order of the Gryphon. Julien. Grindelwald. Stealing dreams to help you snatch at your own. Trying to make the world how you want it. All for nothing. Always.' He swallowed the swell of the storm and its soft hot murmur of yearning. 'But not anymore. Now there are no dreams left, we have the chance to change the world. To give everyone a chance to wish.'

Grant dragged himself up to his knees, taking great gulps of air. 'Do you know how fucking insane you sound?'

Marzanna snaked her head out.

No. I want to show him.

She drew back, coiling up on the track.

'I remember you,' Harry said. 'On Sint-Maarten. Fighting for the United Magical States of America. Is that why you're here? To free Europe from dark magic and backwards ways?'

Grant glared at him. 'Fuck you. You know that bullshit isn't why I'm here.'

'Why are you here then?'

'Because stopping Grindelwald from destroying everything is more important than fighting for any of the bullshit President Lee spread.'

'Something more important than the selfish wishes of wizards and witches and their nations,' Harry murmured. 'But Grindelwald believes the same thing, you know. He is absolutely resolved to change the world, to do whatever is necessary to save the magical world from destruction at the hands of the muggle one. He is a part of those who will evil to work a greater good.'

'I think I'd rather we all just died than do what he wants to do,' Grant spat. 'We just… we aren't worth that. And you're a monster for thinking we are.'

'I'm sworn to fight for him; I don't agree with him.' Harry turned to Cedric. 'All those dreams turned to dust. All those children desperately wishing for something more just disappeared.' A cold sickness churned in the pit of his stomach. 'It's not good enough. It has to be something greater than that to be worth it all. A better way.'

'Like what?' Cedric asked. 'Why did you swear to fight for him if you don't agree with him?'

'Because fighting for him and against him are the same thing,' he said. 'He fights to save the magical world from the muggles. You fight to save the magical world from him. Every spell, every sacrifice, they're spent toward the same dream of a better world. And if enough people wish to change the world, then it can be changed.'

'Changed how?' Cedric asked.

'Grindelwald is right, you know, about the collision being inevitable or the magical world bleeding away to keep the muggle world from its fear. But we can't just take all their dreams away; better for us to bleed, if we're so set on bleeding, for something greater than just slaughter. Better to fight for hope than despair.'

Harry extended one arm toward Cedric. 'Your wand.'

Cedric's shoulders slumped and he dropped it into Harry's hand, leaving a smear of crimson upon his palm. 'You going to take us back to Grindelwald, Harry?'

'No…' He weighed their wands. 'I have a test for you. For both of you.'

A loud crack tore across the valley.

'Mithras.' De Mendoza's eyes widened. 'You did this alone?'

'Not entirely.' Harry patted Marzanna's blood-smeared maw. 'She's quite useful.'

'My aurors will push on,' De Mendoza said. 'The Duforts will eventually have to come to face us if we threaten Beauxbatons and then Ansgar Fürstenburg can go back on the attack against Novimagus.'

My sisters will make short work of you. But if you die, you die to bring a bright new dawn, so what does it matter?

'I'll return to Atlantis,' Harry replied. 'Tell the Carrows to come back there too.'

Where they're safe from Daphne and Astoria. Just in case.

De Mendoza scowled. 'As you wish.' He disapparated with a loud crack.

Harry thrust his magic into the air, wrapping it around Grant and Cedric, and took hold of one of Marzanna's blood-stained fangs. 'Let's go find out if you don't see what I think you'll see.' He spun the world back past him, hopping across Britain's towers and out onto the white sand beach before the Mirror of Erised. 'This is the test…'

'I don't give a fuck,' Grant muttered.

'You will.' Harry drew runes across the smooth silver surface, circling the bright golden sun blazing beneath the glass and the single shivering shadow dancing beneath it. 'You need your wands to fight. If what your heart desires requires fighting for, you will see your wand in the mirror and be able to take it back. If you can do that, you pass the test.'

And there is only one fight to fight in. You're either for the Statute of Secrecy and despair, or you want there to be no more secrets. And either way, it's the better version of the world you believe in that you're bleeding for.

The Carrows appeared on the beach with a loud crack.

'Are they…?' Hestia crept closer. 'Did they pass?'

'They haven't tried yet, Hestia.' Harry pressed their wands against the glass. 'But I think they will. They volunteered to fight for a better world. They can help me put an end to this for good, to make sure that everything that's happened so far has been for a reason and that this endless struggle over secrets stops forever.'

'An end to the fighting?' Cedric stared into the glass. 'I can see my Dad. He looks young again, like he did before the civil war. And Cho…' His voice shrank to a whisper and his blood-stained hand slipped from the torn damp robes over his ribs. 'I want them back. I want it all to be how it was supposed to be. I wish—'

'No wishing,' Harry murmured. 'We're going to make it happen, not hope that it does happen. Our dreams are all dust, but we'll turn that pain into something perfect enough to keep all our promises.'

'I'm not telling you what I see in this thing.' Grant tore his gaze away from the glass, his knuckles white about his wand. 'But—' he swallowed hard '—but you have my wand.'

Cedric's wand appeared in his fist. 'You swear you're telling the truth. This isn't some trick?'

'Je te le promets. We just have to keep sacrificing, keep fighting; until we die, or until it's finally dawn.'

AN: Self Promo! Follow the linktree to Discord for more chapters, all my other stories, or support me to get access to the rough drafts and my stack of original novels, web serials, and short pieces!

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