Chapter 28 - Kismet

Harry's eyes flicked open exactly five seconds before his alarm clock went off. Bright and early - eight a.m., he swung his legs around, got out of bed, and headed straight for the shower. Today was going to be a good day, he could feel it in his bones, in his magic, though he didn't recognise it for what it was, the threads of fate converging on his timeline as they had done so many times. To him, he was simply so excited and happy that in only four hours he'd get to spend time with Daphne, safe and out of the hospital. But four hours! It seemed like forever away. What should he do with his time? He didn't really need to be down for breakfast for a while. Breakfast sittings always ran til ten on the weekends, to allow the students to have a nice lie-in on the days they didn't have classes. He stretched and reached over to grab the tome of his mother's research that Dumbledore had given him the day before, opening it to read the page that he'd been reading last night before Daphne had messaged him on the tablet.

'Like the Adoption Ritual, the Entwining Marriage spell begins with initial Sanskrit phrasing that purifies the soul, except with a slight grammatical difference.' Lily wrote, Harry again tracing his fingers over her looping handwriting.

'This must be the reason why the Adoption Ritual is legalised. That part causes a complete purification of the soul to prepare it for the second part of both spells - in both cases to ensure that no external magics are leeching from the soul. Reference - Familial Magicks: The Arcane Adoption Ritual and its Effects on Family Magic by Ohanus Anam, Page 17, paragraph 2. Need to see if Dumbledore will let me borrow his copy again to ratify the incantation. Perhaps he could cast it? The power exponential seems off the charts.

Looking through the original scrolls, there is a massive difference between the Entwining Marriage spell and the current common Familial Marriage Connection Spell used with the goblin seal magic - the 'Common Spell.'. The Common Spell creates a Lux Nervo - Latin for Light Tether, as coined by Herpo the Foul in the Dark Scrolls. Gotta get those out of Mum's house and give them back to Sirius, they've been putting me in a bad mood every time I use them. Seems like the Lux Nervo is present in a lot of soul magic, including the Familiar Connection.

The Common Spell allows the sharing of family magic through a partial familial magic merging - the Lux allows the family magic and some enhanced emotional connection between husband and wife, the magic flows between the two across the Lux, hence why when the husband or wife dies, the other often loses connection to the family magics of the spouse.

The Entwining Marriage spell doesn't create the Lux Nervo and in the second part of the spell adds a further level of cleansing, creating a kind of cocoon around the souls of the spouses before the final part of the spell, the couple kissing, which merges the two's magic entirely.

Cocoon properties -

- The cocoon brings out the strongest emotions of the spouses, and allows the merging through the connection of those with similar emotions through the act of the kiss and is the only place where outside the Dementor's kiss the soul may be physically visible to the naked eye.

- The cocoon is a shell that allows the soul to protect itself and allow it to change its resonance, see Arithmancy Table Three, and is the only time when the witch or wizard's magic intertwines with the soul itself completely.

- Each spouse's cocoon will have a different frequency of resonation and Arithmancy Table Seventeen shows how the closer the frequency of the spouse's souls before the spell is cast, the more powerful the merging and the more potential benefits that could occur. When the couple gets physically closer together, culminating in the kiss the souls then resonate in the closest synchronicity possible and thus they then merge, each soul becoming part of the other. The degree of similarity of frequency increases the potency of the results. There's potential for the sharing of emotions across distances, potential for each spouse to be able to locate the other and potential for some levels of telepathy, but to what extent seems uncertain. Maybe try and work this out before presenting to DoM.

- The forming of the cocoon around the soul seems to literally slice off all Lux Nervo leashes, including the connection with familiars.

- The tether isn't severed at the familiar's end, and also possessing a soul, through holding the familiar while the ceremony is taking place, the Lux shouldn't disintegrate and should theoretically still reattach. If James and or I had one, I'd try to work out the probability.'

Harry was without a doubt impressed at his mother's work. Flicking through the Arithmancy tables at the back of the book, he couldn't make heads nor tails of what was going on. His mum seemed to be able to write in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit for a start. Maybe Daphne would get a kick out of reading it sometime, he thought, or Hermione. He wondered how far they were getting with their project before what had happened. They'd been working on it so hard lately, he wished he had such a work ethic, but he'd been so distracted, what with…Shit! He needed to get his Transfiguration essay done… his potions one… and his charms one! Oh God, he'd fallen so far behind! Neither of the three professors was likely to give him any leniency. Okay, which essay could he get done in an hour?

He decided the charms one was nearly done anyway so set to work on that, sitting in his boxers at his desk while he finished the assignment and feeling lucky that a lot of the theory work was also intrinsic to the elemental magic books he'd been reading recently and he'd built up a good amount of understanding. He ended up completing it about a quarter past ten, not caring that he would miss breakfast by the time he would finish getting ready now. He was too excited to see Daphne to eat anyway, but what to do next? Time seemed to be passing at a glacial drip. Might as well get ready. After a quick shower and a painstakingly careful shave, he donned a simple white shirt, some blue jeans, his boots and the leather jacket that the Weasleys had bought him for his birthday. He stuffed his invisibility cloak and Marauder's Map in one of the two inside pockets, thankful for the expansion charms that he'd had built into the jacket that day in Diagon Alley. When he was done with his daily battle with his hair and with it once again not caring what he wanted it to look like, Harry was again at a loss for what to do. Ten twenty. Still far too long to go. Well, he might as well get out of his room.

Twenty minutes later he found himself at the hospital wing, looking forward to telling Madam Pomfrey the good news, if she wasn't aware already. He knocked on the double doors and entered.

"Hello?" the kindly matron called.

He entered the familiar hospital wing to find no one in sight. Initially, he saw the very same bed that they'd treated Daphne in over two weeks ago. The bay was no longer an area that haunted him and now felt like a battleground upon which he'd thankfully been victorious.

"It's just me," Harry called, making his way over to the office door.

"Harry," Pomfrey said with a smile from her desk as he popped his head around the door, "You sound like you're in a good mood, does that mean what I think it means?"

"She's all better and she's coming back today," Harry replied with a smile, "I'm gonna go and meet her in Hogsmeade for twelve."

"Lovely," the matron replied, "Tell her I'm glad to hear she's well but keep an eye on her. The Cruciatus is a malevolent thing."

"I will," Harry said with a nod, "I'm heading down in a few, just thought I'd let you know."

"Actually," Madame Pomfrey said, getting up and making her way around her desk, "Why don't you take something with you? Just a moment."

She crouched, opened a locked cupboard and then pulled out a small crystal phial filled with an acid-green potion and placed it into a small wooden box.

"The Soul Visualisation Potion. I finished it. I'm sure you'll see Astoria, what better a time to use it? It needs to be taken straight after food or it will burn off too quickly, and even then it will only last ten minutes."

"Wow!" Harry said, gratefully taking the phial box and placing it in his free inside pocket, "I can't believe you finished it."

"I've had the Greengrasses on my mind, just like you and needed to keep busy. Sorry for brewing it without you."

"Don't worry about it, I wouldn't have been able to concentrate anyway. This is brilliant."

"I'm glad you think so. I look forward to hearing the results.".

"Me too. Thanks again, Poppy."

"Anytime," Poppy said, and Harry smiled and nodded, reciprocating his mentor's friendly wave as he left to go and meet Daphne. He had about an hour til he had to see her, the balloon of anticipation and excitement within him on the long steady walk down to Hogsmeade seemed to swell with each step he took and with the excited atmosphere of the other students also making their way down to the picturesque village.

He saw her step out of the door of Greengrass Apothecary from the bottom of the street, he'd recognise that luscious blonde hair anywhere. She looked wonderful in a red plaid merino wool dress that fell to mid-thigh atop soft, black leggings. On her feet, she wore a pair of fashionable, thickly-heeled ankle boots and slung over one shoulder she displayed a simple black leather handbag. His heart skipped at the squeal she let out the moment she saw him making his way up the cobbled street and then she ran towards him, beaming. A moment later, they collided and her lips were upon him. Their hearts skipped together and Daphne revelled in the feeling of protection just having his strong arms wrapped around her once more while Harry breathed in the intoxicating aroma that always came from her hair.

"Hi," Harry said a few moments later once they'd reluctantly broken their kiss after a bit of tutting from an elderly couple who'd walked by.

"Hi", Daphne echoed, "It's so good to see you. And I'm so happy to be out!"

"I'm so glad you're out as well and that you're okay. You sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Daphne said shortly like she was annoyed slightly at the question, making Harry frown.

"Sorry," she said, correcting herself, "Mum and Dad must've asked me that question about twenty times today."

"Shall we go and see them? Make sure they know I've got you?" Harry asked. He understood why they would be worried.

"Nah, they've just got a new load of popular ingredients in that people have been after and with it being a Hogsmeade weekend they're gonna be rammed."

"Okay," Harry replied with an easy smile, "What do you wanna do first?"

"Is that a serious question? Someone promised me a trip to my favourite clothes shop," she said with a cheeky grin. Well…wizarding clothes shop."

Harry rolled his eyes and they turned in the direction of the destination, taking her by the hand.

"Come on then," Harry replied, "I guess we're playing let's see how much of Harry's vault we can drain in one day."

"Sounds like a great game," Daphne replied with a grin as they began to stroll back down the high street, beginning a light-hearted conversation about school and if she'd missed anything while she was gone.

Twillfit and Tattings, as the most upmarket of the clothes shops in Diagon Alley was as usual not as busy as the other Hogsmeade shops when Harry and Daphne entered. It catered primarily to witches, and although it did also cater to wizards, the sheer volume of witch-centred products that lined the many racks and shelves of the magically expanded store simply dwarfed the number of products for the men. It was a wise business decision, after all, wizards, particularly purebloods wore mainly robes that were made bespoke to them and to suit either work, home life or to be worn at Ministry functions. The fashion for witches, on the other hand, was becoming more and more intertwined with muggle fashion. There were two simple reasons why the more staunchly traditionalist purebloods let the stores and fashion designers in the Wizarding World get away with this and didn't push for reform regarding this evolving of women's fashion. Firstly, because they didn't change the male clothing and thus the traditionalist robes that would be displayed by the Heads of House and secondly because the more muggle-inspired female clothing was often more form-fitting, revealing and generally more visibly appealing than womenswear used to be.

Harry, of course, had no idea of this and simply saw a clothes shop. While he was initially very engaged as he followed Daphne as she eagerly flitted across the many clothes racks, pulling out and feeling the different outfits and pieces of fabric and sometimes holding articles of clothing up to herself to ask what he thought, his enthusiasm did start to wane after the first thirty-five minutes. By that point, they must've circled the shop three times and while Daphne had filled her basket with a few simple items she didn't need to try on, she was umming and ahhing about which of three different dresses she should try on for the Christmas Party that they always held at the Greengrass estate. He was beginning to empathise with the moaning and complaining that he'd heard the older guys at the school when they talked about having to go clothes shopping with their girlfriends. Still, he played the part of the dutiful boyfriend and truth be told he was just pleased to be in her presence and see her so happy and full of vigour. Another twenty minutes and she'd finally made her decision, a silk lilac dress with a plunging halter neckline that was completely backless, but flowed down to her ankles. Apparently, as Daphne said, in order to not be labelled a slut, one must show boobs or legs, but never both.

"Ready to go to the tills then?" Harry said with a smile, wondering how much this all was going to cost, not that he cared. He could easily afford it and would pay anything to see her happy.

"Not yet, I need to go try it on," Daphne replied like it was a stupid question.

"Aren't they all self-fitting?" Harry asked, "Most of the robes in the men's section seem to be."

"Well yeah, but how do I know what I'll look like when it's on?" Daphne asked with a roll of her eyes. They made their way towards the girls fitting rooms, Daphne leading the way, wondering how boys could be so dense sometimes.

The changing area was simply four small tall boxes in a line, with enchanted floor-length mirrors and long black curtains on rails that would ensure privacy. Only one of the four was already taken, and Daphne marched down to the end carrying the dress over one arm and her wicker basket of planned purchases in the other. Turning to Harry, she thrust the basket into his hand and pointed to a cushy black leather sofa opposite the curtains.

"You sit there, this won't take too long."

Harry nodded and sat down on what he dubbed 'the boyfriend sofa' while Daphne disappeared behind the curtain. He looked down at the items in the basket, inspecting another pair of black boots, a very unusual feeling cream blouse with gold plated collar edging and an intricately woven dark brown waist belt. He tapped his feet impatiently, waiting, daydreaming about what state of dress she could be in on the other side of that curtain. There was the sound of some curtains opening and to the right of him, the person that had been in the other changing room emerged, a tutting middle-aged witch with severely scraped-back greying hair carrying a wicker basket of her own in one arm and a black set of robes in the other. She paid him no heed and walked back into the main store and Harry was again left alone in his thoughts.

"Psst, Harry. Come here, I need help," came the whispering voice of Daphne from behind the curtain. Harry got up and walked over.

"What?" Harry whispered back. Daphne's head popped out of the curtain and she had a glance around before Harry felt her grasp him but the scruff of his shirt and drag him into the changing room. Steadying himself, he blinked and realised her back, her bare back was towards him and she was examining herself in the mirror. She looked outstanding in the dress and knew it by the smirk on her face as her ice-blue eyes pierced his through the mirror. With their proximity, the smell of her hair was almost as pronounced as her generous cleavage in the plunging neckline, yet he felt like he'd forgotten to breathe.

"What do you think?" Daphne said softly, "Good enough for the party?"

"Definitely," Harry replied just as quietly, "Good enough to eat."

Daphne giggled and felt herself shiver as he stroked the smooth ivory skin of her back.

"I dunno," she said, "Do you think it looks better like this?"

Reaching up, she unclipped a shining silver clasp behind her neck and let go of the fabric. Harry watched in the mirror as the two wide strips of fabric fell away and her large breasts were bared to him, the magnificent orbs of flesh sitting high on her chest and their pale pink nipples that were almost ghostlike in comparison to her skin tone looking unbelievably soft.

Harry wrapped his arms around her, and brought up his hands to them, massaging the soft, supple flesh as he whispered in her ear, "Much better."

Daphne felt her breathing quicken and her core moisten as he trailed kisses down her neck. She turned to face him and pushed him against one of the walls of the dressing room, kissing him passionately. Gods, she missed this. They'd only had sex twice before she'd ended up in hospital, only had a taste of what it could really be like and now they could start up again. It felt so naughty doing it in the changing room, she was glad she'd had a quick look around before pulling him, it wouldn't do if -

"Excuse me, only witches are allowed in the changing rooms," a voice called loudly from the other side of the curtain.

They froze and stared at each other in panic. Daphne opened her mouth to apologise but Harry covered it quickly with his hand. With the other, he pulled his Invisibility Cloak out from his inside pocket and seeing her recognition, he dropped his hand from her mouth.

"There's only me in here," called Daphne through the curtain, smirking at Harry who was quickly putting the cloak over himself.

"The room detects when there are two people in a changing room man. He'll need to leave," called the voice, curtly.

Daphne fixed herself back properly into the dress and marched out, making sure there was enough room for Harry to get past. Glaring at the woman.

"See," Daphne said indignantly, "Just me in here. Can you see anyone? Sense any disillusionment charms? I am the Heiress of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass. You need to check your charms. My boyfriend is in the men's section."

"My, my apologies, Heiress," the young lady who'd called them out said with a nervous bow, "The charms - "

"Need re-casting," Daphne interrupted, "Can I get changed back into my normal clothes now?"

"Yes, I'm sorry," the lady flustered. Daphne felt a bit cruel, but at least they'd get away with it.

A couple of minutes later, Daphne, now redressed came back into the main store carrying the wicker basket that had been left on the sofa and the new dress on its hanger. Harry, just as she'd hoped, she found in the menswear section, having crouched down, removed the cloak and pretended to have been tying his shoe when the lady had wandered over to check his location. They made their way over to the till and Harry purchased the items, Daphne waving off the repeated apologies from the shop assistant and the manager when they came over.

Stepping outside into the Autumn air, they rounded the corner before bursting into laughter.

"I can't believe we got away with it!" Harry said with a grin, "I'm so glad I packed my cloak."

"Me too, the look on her face," Daphne laughed, "You could've stayed in the room though, we weren't done."

"Later," Harry replied with a look that made Daphne's breath catch before he offered her his arm. Pointing out Draco and Astoria going into the Three Broomsticks, he continued, "I'm starving, do you wanna get some food?"

Daphne agreed and a couple of minutes later, they were inside the famous pub, looking to see where her sister and Draco had gotten off to. Spotting them in a small booth, they made their way over. Draco, on the inside of the booth, got up and bowed from his seat on their approach.

"Daph!" Astoria said, getting out of her seat and hugging her sister I'm so glad you're out! Mum said it would be today or tomorrow. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm just glad to be out. Have you seen Tracey today?" Daphne asked.

Draco grimaced awkwardly. "She's in the castle, she kinda blames herself for what happened," he said.

"Ugh, doesn't she know it wasn't her fault?" Daphne replied in frustration, "She was literally imperiused."

"It doesn't matter apparently," said Astoria, "She's barely been out of her room except for classes and the odd meal. Neville's only just been able to get her to come out of her shell since we heard you woke up.

"I'm glad you're okay, Daphne," said Draco, "And…Harry, well done, you know. For saving her. Rookwood was a right bastard."

"Thanks, Draco." Harry nodded curtly, "Shall we order some food? I'll just go to the bar."

They sat for a moment and Harry memorised their orders before heading up to order from Madam Rosmerta. As she slid four bottles of butterbeer across the bar towards him he looked around him. The pub was busy and Astoria and Draco were both here. This would be a prime opportunity to use the potion. He just needed to eat something first. Twenty minutes later they were on the second butterbeer each and were served their food. Harry sat and quietly ate his steak and ale pie with peas and mashed potatoes, just happy to hear Daphne so peppily conversing with Draco and her sister. Once most of them finished, Astoria announced that she needed the toilet and Daphne went with her, leaving Draco and Harry sitting alone in the booth.

"Sorry, Harry," Draco said quiely, "Gonna go talk to Blaise over there for a minute, appearances, you know."

"Of course," Harry said, it would look weird to those walking into the pub to just see him and Draco sitting opposite each other, even if there were four empty plates still sitting on the table. Remember he'd only have ten minutes once he'd swallowed the potion, he waited a few minutes, trying to maximise the amount of time he'd have with the girls once they'd come back before reaching into his pocket for the box. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he didn't look at the swirling green liquid in the phial and simply uncorked it before draining its contents in one go. He winced, it tasted disgusting, but the effects were almost instantaneous. Around him, everyone he could see glowed a different colour. It was wild, and almost too much for his senses with so many people in the pub, but he quickly steeled himself and tried to make as many observations as he could.

Looking over at Draco, he saw a deep royal purple around him, his soul-aura seemed to be in constant flux and seemed to undulate around him. Next to him, Blaise's was a more solid and barely moving pale tropical pinkish-orange. At the table next to them at the bar was a couple he didn't recognise, their colours were light blue and light green, and between them a long gleaming white thread, connected to the centre of their chests. 'A Lux Nervo!', Harry thought with recognition. His mother was right. He could even see small beads of the other's magic make their way down the thread between them, their contrasting colours merging for a moment to become a vibrant turquoise as they passed each other. He smiled, he wondered what happened when they had children, what colour did their children take?

He got his answer a moment later when a young Ravenclaw entered the pub and darted over to her mother and wrapped her in a warm hug, yet her magic had the same light green glow of her father's, the mother's family magic didn't seem to be passed along at first, but as they touched both of their auras reacted, fading and beating in time with each other in some sort of magical synchrony, but when their daughters pulse, it pulsed with the same light blue glow of her mother. The mother's family magic was there as part of her soul, but her father's was dominant, on the surface.

"Who are you staring at?" Daphne asked and Harry eagerly snapped his attention towards her. Her soul aura was a brilliant gold colour, almost the same colour as her hair and seemed to flow like water somehow.

"Just looking around," Harry smiled at her, but then he blinked as a deep, angry-looking black orb orbited around her, connected to her soul by its very own Lux Nervo. His eyes widened. They were right. It's connected to her soul, but what about…

"Where's Astoria?" Harry asked eagerly, Daphne looked at him strangely, tilted her head and said, "Over there", pointing to where Draco was standing.

He snapped his head over so quickly he nearly cricked his neck, but as he turned his head over to her he felt instant regret. The very sight of Astoria's soul looked utterly repulsive. It still had the brilliant gold of her sister, but the curse wasn't connected to her by a Lux. Somehow, around that soul, pulse in an asynchronous pattern to the gold was the same black curse that was attached to Daphne. It was part of her but wasn't. It was horrible, foreign. It felt so horribly other, just looking at it that he felt like he might nearly throw up, this perversion of her soul. Just looking at her filled him with the thought that he needed to cleanse the stain, remove the filth, purify her entirely so that just her true Greengrass soul remained. But how could he possibly do that? It was part of her, sort of, but then it wasn't. It was alien to her magic and felt wholly unwelcome. The only way he knew of that would purify a soul he'd read just that morning in his mum's boo-"

Harry stopped dead. He forgot to breathe, his eyes wide. He rushed out of the booth and snapped to his feet. This was it. He knew it.

"Harry!" Daphne asked, panicking at the ferocity of her boyfriend's movement, "What's wrong?"

"I…I've gotta-" Harry stuttered, blinking as he tried to process, his mind swimming. He needed to see Madam Pomfrey, immediately. They had to cleanse the stain, it was vile, and it was a disease. He daren't look at Astoria again, couldn't feel that same revulsion. The image of it was seared into his memory and he felt an uncontrollable compulsion to fix it now. He looked at Daphne, her brilliant gold aura flaring erratically. The black orb whizzed past her, swirling around her chest by its thread. He needed it gone, he needed the connection to be severed, couldn't let that cancer be a part of her, he would need to find a way to remove it to break the connection. His second revelation in the space of a minute hit him like a freight train, but that wasn't his priority at the moment. He needed to get that thing off Astoria.

He grabbed Daphne by both arms and looked deep into her eyes, "Daphne. Stay right here. I'm going to be back as soon as possible. Promise me that you will not let Astoria leave. I'll answer your questions soon but there's no time. We need to get it…Just promise me,"

"You're scaring me, Harry," Daphne said, in panic.

He tried to give her an encouraging smile, but he still had a bit of a crazed look in his eyes.

"I promise, no need to be scared. Just promise me." Harry ordered.

"I…I promise," Daphne said. Harry nodded and activated the pendant, disappearing instantly from the Three Broomsticks and back to the Chamber of Secrets. After grabbing his mum's book, he sprinted to the hospital wing in less than ten minutes and was panting when he slammed open the double doors of the hospital wing for the second time that day. Madame Pomfrey sprinted from her office and into the main ward, wand raised and ready to receive a patient.

"Harry?!" she said, looking worried, "What is it? What happened?"

"I used the potion," Harry said panting after each couple of words, "And my mum's research, the adoption ritual. I think I've…I think I've solved the curse."

"Harry," Madam Pomfrey said with a gentle smile, "I don't think - "

"Look," Harry pressed, turning to the page he'd read that morning and thrusting the book in front of her nose, "I've seen it, the curse, around both of them. Daphne is connected by the thread but Astoria, it's other, it's not part of her but it's around her soul, it's disgusting… it's unholy. It needs to be gone."

"Alright, hold on," Poppy said, trying to calm him while she read his mother's notes.

"You're sure it's different? It's not part of her?" she asked after a minute of Harry bouncing on his feet by her side.

"Certain, it sort of flows around her but it pulses completely out of time. It's so not part of her it's blindingly obvious."

"I…I think you're right, from what you're saying at least" Madam Pomfrey said, her eyes going wide. "We need to get that book from Dumbledore, in fact, he probably knows the Adoption Ritual better than anyone in the castle."

Harry whipped out the Marauder's Map and activated it, ignoring the look Madam Pomfrey gave him and locating Dumbledore upon it.

"He's in his office," Harry said, "Let's go now, Astoria and Daphne are waiting for me at the Three Broomsticks. Honestly, Poppy, we need to start the process of getting rid of the thing, you have no idea how evil it is. Dumbledore's in his office"

"We will," Poppy said comfortingly, "And if you'd calm down a moment I could've told you that."

Harry was grateful for the urgency that Poppy too had as they marched through Hogwarts and up to Dumbledore's office. Of course, if it were him, they'd have mounted brooms and shot off up the Grand Staircase, but they were as fast as could be expected.

The headmaster was thankfully alone when Madam Pomfrey spoke to password to his office and he was delighted to see them, even more so when Harry pulled out the tome he'd given them just the day before and told the headmaster everything, the story of Harry's experiences with the curse from start to finish. A bit of wandless magic later and the tome that Lily had mentioned in her research zoomed into his hand and a few moments later they'd found the passage she'd included in her referencing.

"You're right, my boy. Do you mind if I borrow your memory for a moment of what you saw? I wish to verify it if we wish to be certain."

Harry quickly acquiesced and soon the two Hogwarts staff members plunged their heads into Dumbledore's pensieve for a few minutes before they removed them, their faces displaying a mix of utter revulsion and wide-eyed excitement.

"We need to go to the Greengrasses right away. They'll need to get that thing out of her as soon as possible and I'm certain this will work, my boy. I'm so proud of you," said Dumbledore, reaching into a drawer in his desk and pulling out the basilisk fang Harry had used in his second year and pocketing it.

"Thanks," Harry smiled, "Daphne and Astoria are waiting for us in the Three Broomsticks."

"Excellent, we'll take the Floo. Poppy, you and Harry go and get the girls and Ellanore and Cyrus and I'll sort a private room with Madame Rosmerta, but wait."

Three whooshes of green fire later and they were standing back at the busy pub. Dumbledore pushed passed them beelining straight for the bar as Madam Pomfrey pointed out Daphne and Astoria, who were sitting by themselves in the same booth they'd been eating in earlier.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Astoria asked, "What's happening?"

Daphne looked at her boyfriend confusedly, not sure how to gauge the strange look he had on his face.

"There's a lot to explain," Poppy said, "You need to go and get your mum and dad and bring them here right now."

"We can't do that," said Daphne, "It's one of the busiest days of the year."

"It will be worth it," Harry said, "Dumbledore himself is sorting us a private room. Please. It's urgent."

Both the Greengrass girls blinked but nodded.

"We'll…we'll go and get them now," Daphne said, "Give us ten minutes or so. They might need to close up the shop as they're short-staffed."

Ten minutes later Harry was in the private room, sitting next to Dumbledore at a large square table surrounded by eight chairs. In the centre were placed the two tomes, the basilisk fang that Harry had used on Tom Riddle's diary, the empty potions flask, eight goblets, eight smaller glasses, a bottle of firewhiskey and a pitcher of pumpkin juice. Dumbledore had said nothing initially as they tentatively waited and Harry read and reread the passage in his mother's research, but then the old man explained something that Harry hadn't accounted for. By the end of the short conversation, Harry's mind had come to another decision and having informed Dumbledore of it, he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, his eyes twinkling madly as they smiled proudly at him. The headmaster opened his mouth to speak when the door opened abruptly.

The headmaster's words interrupted, Harry and Dumbledore got to their feet as Madame Pomfrey led a very confused-looking Greengrass family into the room.

"It's the busiest day we've had this year, Albus," said Cyrus Greengrass stiffly as they marched into the room, "And you Harry, this could cost us a lot of revenue."

"Please, everyone," said Dumbledore, "Sit. I'll let Harry explain everything and pour us all a few drinks."

Once everyone was seated, Harry felt very nervous with all the Greengrasses sitting opposite him, confused looks on all their faces. All of a sudden this felt very intimidating.

"This will require a bit of an explanation," Harry said, "So please don't say anything until I've got this all out."

"Okay, Harry, you have our attention," said Ellanore with a soft smile. She was sitting to the right of him, she and her husband bookending their daughters around the table.

"It all started at the end of last year, when I witnessed the curse, came into the House of Slytherin and then at the start of this year began my Healer training with Madam Pomfrey. That morning after I saved her with the ropes, Astoria and I had a conversation, and she told me that what happens when the curse activates is a type of magical eclampsia. I'd been doing some research in the muggle textbook she'd gotten for my birthday and then Madam Pomfrey had called me in to work on a patient who had a magical infection and set me to work reading through some textbooks. After reading through the textbooks, I came up with a theory. The Draught that Daphne had been using to calm the seizures seemed to be the answer, or at least the start of an answer and I ran to Madam Pomfrey with my report."

"We already looked into this, Harry," Cyrus said shortly with gritted teeth, "You think generations of Greengrasses haven't tried to cure the curse? It's impossible and has nothing to do with the seizures themselves, it's to do with -"

"Soul magic, I know, Madam Pomfrey assured me as such," Harry interrupted, "But she also told me that there was no way anyone had been able to have a look at it, as there hadn't been enough of a volume on the market of the main ingredient, basilisk venom. I slayed a basilisk in my second year. Here is one of its fangs."

Harry gestured across the table to the long pointed tooth in the centre of the table as Ellanore, Cyrus and Astoria gasped.

"By Right of Conquest and in my Chamber of Secrets, I owned a large amount of basilisk venom and Poppy and I decided to set to work on brewing the potion, but then the attack happened that left Daphne in hospital."

"You have a completed potion? Please Harry," Cyrus said desperately, thinking he'd put two and two together, "I'll give anything for it - I'll."

"Cyrus, can't you see the boy isn't done?" said Ellanore in frustration.

"Sorry," Cyrus said curtly, his hands now trembling around his glass of pumpkin juice.

"Now yesterday," Harry continued, "Sirius, Albus and I watched the memory of my Mum and Dad's wedding in a pensieve. Ellanore do you remember when we were talking about a form of marriage that didn't include goblin magic before the party? My Mum researched one from an ancient set of scrolls and Dumbledore performed a different kind of wedding spell, used before the Wizengamot at their wedding. These are her research notes."

He gestured on the table at the tome that was still sitting open across the table. Please, all of you, read the page. Two by two, Astoria and Ellanore and then Daphne and Cyrus read the page before Daphne slid the tome back across the table.

"I don't understand?" said Daphne, "What has this got to do with the curse, apart from it being soul magic."

"I used the potion today when you came back from the loo," Harry replied, "I've seen the curse. It's attached to your souls, but not part of them. It's attached to you by a Lux Nervo, but Astoria, it's a shell around her soul, but not part of it, it's resonating out of flux. It's disgusting. I've never seen anything like it."

"What Harry is trying to say," Madam Pomfrey said, "Is as it is not part of the soul it can be cleansed. Lily herself provided the answer. Professor Dumbledore provided the reference textbooks and we viewed Harry's memory of taking the potion to be certain."

Harry nodded, "I discovered that there's a really simple way to get rid of the curse that no one would ever think of. Why would they? Why would anyone think of casting an Adoption Ritual on a family member who was already their daughter?"

The atmosphere in the room went very still.

"Is that really it?" said Ellanore after a moment staring unblinkingly at the wall behind them, a tear trickling down her face, "Is it really that simple?"

"It is," said Dumbledore, "I did a lot of research on soul magic myself preparing the cast the Entwining Marriage spell on Lily and James Potter."

"But…" started Cyrus, not allowing himself to dare to think that his utmost wish had been granted, "But no one has conducted an adoption ritual on someone in their own family before, why would they? Are we sure it will work?"

"They have," Dumbledore replied, "And I have overseen it. After the war, several people were adopted by their relatives, aunts and uncles. There was even a case where a witch had found a way to safely separate her child's magic from his body and hide them in the muggle world, before restoring it to them and adopting them into the family again. In each case, they had the very same family magic. Astoria has no Lux Nervo, so once the soul is cleansed for the adoption, while the spell must be completed, only the Greengrass family magic will remain."

"This…" Daphne said, tears streaming down her face, "You were looking into all of this without me, Harry?"

"I was, and I'm sorry for not saying anything."

"I told him not to tell you," Madam Pomfrey interjected, "I didn't want him to get your hopes up when we found we could brew the potion."

Ellanore's arms were suddenly wrapped around him and she sobbed into his shoulder. He held her tightly and couldn't help but shed a small tear himself.

"Thank you, Harry. Thank you so much. We can never thank you enough."

She pulled away to see everyone sitting at the table, their eyes brimming with tears.

Harry swallowed down the emotions and sat back in his chair, wondering if anyone would make the connection to the one remaining issue.

"But Daphne will still have the curse attached to her won't she?" Astoria said meekly a minute later, "It's attached by that 'Lux' thing."

"It is," said Daphne with a sad sigh, "The curse will live on whenever I have children."

"It doesn't have to," said Ellanore, reaching her hands into her hair in astonishment. "Lily Potter's research. The cocoon."

The expressions on their tear-stained faces went wide again.

"Harry, Lord Slytherin-Potter," said Cyrus swallowing and making an effort to sit proudly in his chair, "You've done us a great service and yet again have created a Life-Debt between us, or will have when we've completed the ritual. All of us could never thank you enough, and I could never think of a man more honourable or suited to my daughter. Please…will you?"

"Do you remember what I said to you that day in the Ministry, Cyrus?" Harry said with a smile, "I will never force it through a life debt.

Daphne didn't even look at her father, didn't see the rolling eyes at Harry's response. She only had eyes for her boyfriend. Harry was the man who'd saved her life, her father's, her sister's and would do so again, for no other reason than being the man he was. Sure, now they had the answer, theoretically, she could choose anyone, but she'd already made this decision that night on the tower before Rookwood had attacked. She smiled and the usual fluttering butterflies became soaring eagles in her stomach as she got up and made her way around the table. Harry turned to her, fresh tears in both of their eyes as she dropped onto one knee next to him.

She swallowed and asked quietly, "Curse or no curse, I swear to you either way I would still ask you this question. I love you, Harry. Will you marry me?"