The Home For The Lost Ones

by umathebookworm

The war is won, but at what cost? The Wizarding World wanted her to become their beacon of hope, their shield, their leader. But she was done saving people who were okay with children fighting their wars. She was drowning in grief and self-hatred... and she was tired. What will she do when she learns the truth about her ancestors and the old tale suddenly appears in a new light.

2. What do I need to do?

"Mama! Mama look!"

Diana was snapped out of her thoughts by Teddy's joyous screams, as he flew around the room on his toy broom, followed by House Elves Minnie and Ellie, who ran after him with outstretched hands and fear stricken looks on their faces, as if ready to catch him any second if he were to lose control of his broom and fall.

She smiled gently at her almost two year old son's antics, happy to see him having a good time. The toy broom was a Christmas gift from Sirius, which was a few days ago, who claimed that it was their family tradition now and it became almost impossible to coax the toddler to get back on the ground ever since, much to his nannies' dismay.

"Say cheese, Moonpie!" Sirius asked the toddler, pointing a camera at him and taking a picture with a loud snapping sound and a small cloud of smoke.

"Moonpie? Really, Padfoot?" Diana asked with a raised eyebrow, to witch Sirius just shrugged. He was coming up with these nicknames for Teddy lately, which were getting ridiculous with each day.

"Well, yeah. Moon in honor of his father and pie because he's so yummy that I could just eat him up! I mean, look at him!"

She chuckled and did as he said, watching as Teddy zoomed right past them with happy giggles, his green eyes alight with mischief and a smile, that made his chubby cheeks look even more adorable. Add to that a mop of dark hair and cute little dimples on his cheeks and the result will be just as Sirius described it - yummy.

"Young master Teddy should slow down or he will fall and hurt himself," Minnie bemoaned, anxiously wringing her hands.

"It's okay, Minnie. Everything in this room is covered in cushioning charms, he'll be fine," she tried to reassure the panicking Elf, but it seemed like her words fell on deaf ears.

All of the Peverell Elves were beyond happy ever since she had found the Peverel Castle and moved in along with Sirius and Teddy. After all the years spent alone, diligently performing their duties around the sanctuary, following the orders of the last Head of the House, without any new Lords or Ladies in hundreds of years, it wasn't a surprise that all the Peverell Elves had been starving for human attention. They were in complete awe of their new mistress and immediately fell in love with little Teddy.

"The dinner is ready, mistress Diana," Kreacher declared primly, appearing beside them with a pop.

"Thank you, Kreacher. We'll be there shortly." As Kreacher vanished with a nod, Diana turned to her son. "Come on, pumpkin. Let's go yum yum!"

"Yum yum!" Teddy squealed and let go of the handle of his toy broom to clap his chubby hands in delight.

"Young master Teddy!" Ellie cried out as the toddler lost control of the broom and toppled over, only to freeze in mid air.

Having expected something like that, Diana was ready and caught the toddler with her magic before he could touch the floor. With an excellent show of wandless magic and under the awed gazes of the House Elves, Lady Peverell summoned her giggling son right into her outstretched hands.

"Got you!" Diana exclaimed and began smooching the toddler all over his chubby cheeks, much to her son's delight.

She heard another snapping sound but paid it no mind, as she knew her godfather wouldn't miss the opportunity to snap their picture.

Her son's joy didn't last long however, as the second they sat down to eat their meal, he encountered his worst enemy, the bane of his very existence - the vegetables...

"No mama, no veggies," Teddy gave her a pleading look, which, along with his pouty lips and huge innocent eyes full of silent plea, was an ultimate killer move.

"Bloody hell, the kid is smooth," Sirius mumbled under his breath and took a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"You need to eat your veggies, pumpkin. Look, the cooks even cut them to look like cute animals," Diana said and showed him a piece of carrot, shaped like a unicorn.

"No mama, veggies no yummy," the toddler couldn't be swayed, and seeing as his mother wasn't budging, decided to go to the extreme measures and use his secret weapon.

And sure, as if right on cue, the tears started slowly welling up in his huge green eyes and his lower lip began to quiver, completing the picture of a sad little angel.

"No, moonpie, don't use your trump card so soon!" Sirius whispered to him dramatically, only to receive an eyeroll from his goddaughter.

"You know what, pumpkin? If you finish your meal, mama will take you flying on a big broom," Diana whispered conspiratorially and suppressed a smile, seeing the tears disappear from the toddler's eyes as if they were never there.

Sirius on the other hand, was never known for his self-restraint and immediately started laughing, when Teddy began stuffing his face with the vegetables as if they were the most delicious thing that he'd ever tried.

"More butterbeer, Mistress?" Minnie asked, appearing by her seat with a pop and holding a jug of chilled butterbeer in her small hands. Even while addressing her mistress, the Elf's gaze was on the toddler, as she watched him with a gentle smile. Least to say, little Teddy had all the House Elves wrapped around his little finger.

Watching lovingly as her son made a mess on his face and shirt, as he tried to finish his meal as soon as possible in order to go flying on a broom, Diana couldn't quite suppress her smile. They played this game almost every day, him refusing to eat veggies and her having to "bribe" him to do it at the end, even though they all knew that he didn't really mind vegetables and wasn't an overall picky eater.

An hour later, after finishing their meal and a quick bath for Teddy, Diana lazily flew above the Peverell sanctuary, with her son securely strapped to her chest in a makeshift child carrier.

The weather wasn't windy, but nevertheless, Diana casted some shielding, warming and safety charms over the two of them, even though she was confident in her flying skills, she was carrying a child after all.

Teddy squealed and giggled as they flew over the various padlocks with livestock, the fields with grazing Abraxan horses, unicorns and hippogriffs, the farming lands that were bare in this time of the year and the numerous greenhouses.

The Peverell Castle was located on a relatively small island somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean, the exact location unknown, due to the island being under the Fidelius. The only way to reach it was with the help of her Head of the House ring, that served as a portkey and to which were tied almost all of the wards around the island.

Lulled by the smooth flight, Diana slipped back into her musings over the mystery of the origins of the Peverell family. She visited the cave five more times over the past week, but wasn't anywhere near getting answers to any of her questions.

Did the Peverell brothers really come from another world? What was their connection to the dragons? What happened to their world? Why were their bodies preserved till this day instead of being buried in the family crypt or in the cemetery in Godric's Hollow, where she thought at least Ignotus was buried?

Those and many more questions were plaguing her mind, along with the dreams that seemed to have intensified after her first visit to the cave. Were they somehow connected to all this? And if so, how?

But the thing that bugged her the most was the mystery of the Hallows. It was confirmed that the three brothers from the story were indeed her ancestors, who seemed to flee from their world to ours, with the assistance of the Death itself and were given the Hallows as a gift. But why? And what was about this whole Master of Death business? She really doubted that any regular human being could become a master of such a humongous entity...

Yet something had changed in her, after she died and came back to life. It was weird enough that the Hallows suddenly disappeared inside of her body, leaving a small tattoo of their symbol on her wrist, but her magic had changed as well. Wandless magic had always come easily for her, but after her resurrection, it seemed like her control over her magic became ten times better, as if she received some kind of a boost. The same happened after she killed Voldemort as well, the weird feeling as if suddenly her understanding and control over her magic had increased dramatically in a matter of minutes.

But maybe it was just a coincidence, she mused, while hugging the squealing toddler closer to her chest as she did a small dive in the air, maybe her sudden boost in control had nothing to do with the Hollows, and everything to do with the... right of conquest.

Diana had been pondering over that thought for quite a while now and it seemed plausible. She unknowingly claimed the right of conquest after slaying the Basilisk in her second year and, as a result, her reserves, control and even her magical core itself had received a significant boost, so significant in fact, that she had spent the summer between her second and third year suffering from the painful consequences of having her body adjust to the changes. Being as curious as she was, she immediately researched that weird phenomenon and learned everything there was to learn about the topic, so what happened after her resurrection did feel like her receiving the spoils after claiming the right of conquest, but it wasn't her who destroyed Voldemort's horcrux that time, it was Voldemort himself. So how come she was still able to get the spoils? Was it because the soul shard was inside of her when it was destroyed?

The new Lady Peverell spent the next few days mulling over those topics while she saw to her everyday duties. As the days passed without her being able to find any answers, she was becoming more and more frustrated and confused. Add to that the never ending dreams, the faint murmur in which started to become louder, thus making her able to distinguish a few words, but still very much confusing and tiring, and you would get a very sleep deprived and pissed Diana.

One of those days, she had finally found some time to inspect the storage rooms in the dungeons, while Sirius and Teddy were busy playing outside in the snow. Upon arriving to the second underground floor, first thing that came to her mind was how many doors there really were down here. They looked basic enough for her to ignore when she came here the first time, but she really should've know by now that nothing was basic when it came to magic.

Behind the very first door that she randomly chose to inspect was found a vast space, the size of several Quidditch pitches combined, filled with the mountains upon mountains of foodstuff and harvests from the farms, that the Elves had been collecting for Merlin knew how long, preserved under the stasis charms. With a rapidly beating heart, Diana realized that it was more than enough to sustain a small city for a few decades or so. Remmie, the Head of the Peverell House Elves, had told her that it was one of their main orders to collect the foodstuff and magical ingredients, which was given by Ignotus Peverell and, for whatever reason, was never canceled by any of his successors.

"What was Ignotus planning on doing with all this food?" Diana asked herself absentmindedly, still a little shocked by the sheer size of her "inheritance". Little did she know - it was just the beginning!

Her confusion kept growing as she visited the rest of the rooms. It turned out that the first storage room wasn't the only one that contained foodstuff, there were two more! And equally enormous ones in size as well! Then there was a huge room that stored the potions ingredients as well as various pre-made potions even though not in the same quantities; a fully stocked potions lab; a room that stored various artifacts, starting with the hundreds of wands (WANDS!), brooms (however outdated those were), trunks and bags with the expansion charms on them and even wizarding tents with their inner space the size of a manor (!) and finishing with the countless numbers of warding stones. The last one literally blew her mind, since acquiring even one of those wasn't something that the majority of the wizarding population could afford.

With each opened door, Diana felt herself becoming numb with shock. A huge room full of medieval weapons and armor to equip a couple of thousands of warriors; another full of fabrics and leather, as well as the finished clothes for men, women and children; one other gigantic room full of furniture, cutlery, decorations and Merlin knew what else; and the last room full of gold, precious metals, stones, jewelry, and paintings...

"How... what... how...?" Diana was at a loss of words. The whole discovery was literally blowing her mind.

What was the meaning of all this? Why would her ancestors need this much resources? What were they planning to do? To conquer the world?

"And the gold too", Diana thought in bewilderment. "I remember being shocked with the amount of gold I found in the Peverell vaults at Gringotts, what was the reason of having it stored in two places? I just don't understand..."

Needless to say, this little inspection left Diana with even more questions than before. Deep in her thoughts, she didn't even realize that she once again had ventured to the cave with the bodies of three brothers, until she found herself standing beside Ignotus' coffin, looking accusatorily at his body, as if it would suddenly come alive and give her the answers she needed.

She wasn't able to find any personal studies or chambers that belonged to him anywhere in the castle and the Elves couldn't help her as well, since none of them were old enough to remember or know anything. There was no information in the library too, no diaries or journals were left lying around to explain what the hell was going on within the castle.

It seemed that Ignotus was the only one who could give her some answers, but she couldn't find his painting in the treasury, so there was really no way of reaching him, unless...

The young witch thoughtfully traced the Hollows symbol on her wrist, struck with the sudden idea. The first and last time when she used it was on her way to the Forbidden Forest, as she was walking towards her death and she swore to herself to never use it again, as it was too painful. But it wasn't her parents and Remus that she wanted to summon this time...

As if hearing her thoughts, a small black stone appeared in her palm as if emerging from under her very skin, its sides ominously gleaming under the lights of the magical orbs that illuminated the cave. The Resurrection Stone.

Diana closed her eyes and twisted the stone three times. When she finally opened them again, there, right beside the coffin containing his own lifeless body, stood a tall, handsome man in his mid thirties and watched her with a gentle smile. Adorned in the same leather armor, with two long daggers strapped to his hips, long silvery white hair and deep amethyst eyes, Ignotus Peverell looked regal and proud, like a king from a fairytale.

"I've been waiting for your summon, my dear child, my Diana, the blood of my blood," he spoke calmly, looking at her like a proud parent, with a loving gaze of his purple eyes.

"Grand-sire," Diana greeted him and bowed her head in respect.

It seemed like a distant dream, like it wasn't her who stood there and calmly conversed with her long dead ancestor, as if her heart wasn't beating like crazy in her chest from excitement and awe, like she was watching this unbelievable scene to occur from a far away distance. It was utterly surreal.

"You must have so many questions..." he assumed, his smile getting bigger, as if he knew that her calm exterior was just a simple act.

"You talk to me, as if you know me," the young witch spoke confusedly.

"I've known you your whole life," Ignotus confessed wistfully. "I've been watching you, just like I watched all of my descendants. I've watched you cry and suffer, heal and endure, learn and get stronger, fight and triumph. I've watched you become the powerful witch and warrior you are today, my little dragon. I never doubted that you will find this stronghold, that it will be you - the Peverell, who will finally return and restore Valyria."

"Valyria? So it is true then? You and your brothers really came from another world? How is this even possible?" Diana suddenly felt lightheaded, from the sheer excitement of finally getting the answers she's been dying to get.

Ignotus nodded and turned to the mural, his eyes trailing the scenes illustrated on the wall with sadness and longing.

"Valyria was the strongest and wealthiest empire in my world. It rose to its power when the humble shepherd communities found dragon lairs in the nearby volcanoes. They found a way to bind the dragons to their will with magic and blood and ever since kept becoming stronger and stronger, using dragons to conquer kingdom after kingdom, empire after empire, until it eventually stretched for thousands of miles along the coasts of Essos and far inland, expanding into the far western coastal regions. With the aid of dragons we established the Valyrian Freehold. For five thousand years Valyria prospered, governed by the forty Houses of dragonlords, until the disaster occurred. Fourteen volcanoes, that represented the Fourteen Flames, our gods, exploded all in one day and destroyed Valyria."

Ignotus fell silent for a few moments, his unseeing gaze aimed at nothing in particular, as he seemed to be relieving the unpleasant memories.

"But how did you and your brothers survive? Who is that man on the mural?" Diana asked, referring to the man on the painting, who was depicted "showing" Ignotus and his brothers the vision of the upcoming catastrophe.

"That is Balerion, the God of Death and the Underworld. The Peverells had always been his devoted followers, even though other dragonlord Houses had long lost their faith and considered themselves to be gods with all their wealth, dragons, slaves and lands they've conquered, which essentially became the reason why only a few houses were able to survive the apocalypse. The gods couldn't tolerate such arrogance and disrespect and punished the Valyrians, who thought themselves to be above them, by only ever helping those who remained faithful to escape the Doom. Balerion came to me and my brothers in our dream and warned us about the upcoming catastrophe. He offered to help us escape to the faraway land blessed by magic, but with one condition: we were to return when our land was safe once again, restore Valyria and save the dragons, for dragons were the source of magic and with them gone, the magic of our world would die out as well, which would then lead to the true apocalypse."

"So you fled?" He nodded. "But judging by the power schematic over there, our banner is among those on the very top, which means that our House was one of the strongest and wealthiest, so how come there were only three of you?" Diana couldn't help but ask.

"Good observation, my child," Ignotus smiled, giving her a proud look. "House Peverell was separated into two parts: the main house, headed by our late Lord father and the branch house, led by our uncle. In the ten years before the doom, the members of the main house started dying from different circumstances, until it was only the three of us left. We suspected it to be our uncle's doing, but there was no evidence. Neither he, nor the rest of his family were devoted followers of Fourteen Flames, so you understand how none of us had any reason to save them."

Ignotus' smile twisted into a predatory grin, and Diana suddenly understood, why it was him, who became the Lord of the House at the end.

"So what happened next?" she found herself urging him to continue his tale, entranced by the long-forgotten history of her family.

"Balerion enchanted the arch in his temple to serve as a doorway to Earth, so sadly none of us could take our dragons with us, since the archway was only big enough for a human to pass through," Ignotus' grin vanished once again, leaving behind a mask of sorrow and grief. "My Vethrax, my loyal companion, my best friend. He was with me since I was no more than a babe, his egg hatched in my cradle and we were inseparable ever since. It broke my heart to say goodbye to him, his sorrowful cries rang in my ears till my dying breath. Balerion warned us that we won't be able to take our dragons with us, so we ordered them to flee to one of the farthest islands and to return only when Valyria becomes safe for them to live once again and asked them to preserve as many dragon eggs as they could. I don't know if it helped, if they managed to escape or not, but I preyed for them to die a painless death if they didn't."

"I'm sorry," Diana murmured quietly, not able to ignore the pain in his voice, to which he nodded in thanks. "What about the eggs in your coffins?"

"It was Antioch's idea. He thought that we could take the eggs with us and hatch them here and they would help us become stronger and prepare for when the time comes for us to return, but none of them ever hatched. We'd been warned that the time flows differently in this world, and we assumed that for each year spent on Earth it would be five years gone in our world, but we didn't know for certain. Since Cadmus was the most adept at blood magic, he performed a ritual that bound Eirax, Melus and Vethrax to our blood, ensuring that they would live as long as our line exists, giving them a chance to survive, in case it turned out that the time moved faster in our world. Sadly, we had no way of knowing whether the connection would still hold, while separated by the unknown amount of distance between two different worlds." Ignotus approached one of the pedestals with a painting of their dragons and gently traced the black and purple one with his fingers. "You must've noticed that the egg in my coffin is placed differently than those in my brothers'. That was because I could never stomach the idea of bonding with anyone except for my Vethrax, so while my brothers tried their best to hatch their eggs, I store mine away and kept it out of my sight."

Diana couldn't help but admire the absolute loyalty that her ancestor held for his dragon, making her wonder if she would ever be able to establish that kind of connection herself.

"Can you tell me about the Hallows?" The young witch asked hesitatingly, disturbing the somber silence that fell around the cave. "Why did Balerion gave them to you?"

"Ah the Hallows, yes..." Ignotus drawled out sadly and shook his head. "It wasn't Balerion who gave them to us, they were a gift from the Death itself. Balerion told us that she offered her help and suggested to hide us in one of her worlds, but her only condition was that she would give us the gifts that we were to preserve and cherish. I don't know till this day why she gave us those artifacts, it's not my place to question such a powerful entity's decisions. The only thing I know for sure, is that they cost me my brothers, leaving me alone to find my way around this new, unknown world..."

"So, the story speaks truth?" Diana inquired. "Antioch received an all powerful wand and got killed because he boasted about it, while Cadmus was tormented by his lover's soul that he summoned with the help of the resurrection stone and took his own life?"

Ignotus sighed and gave her a look, he didn't seem angry with her interpretation, just exasperated. He then walked towards the coffin, which contained the body of his oldest brother and put his hands on the lid, as if trying to reach him through it.

"We were the last three living members of the main house and even despite it being only three of us, our grip on the House, it's power and wealth, has never loosened. Antioch was the strongest warrior and dragonrider of our House, he was our sword, the one who was supposed to become our future Lord. Death gave him the Elder Wand, as if knowing beforehand that he if given choice, he would still ask for a weapon to make him more powerful in order to protect our family. But the wand, despite all its power, was just a tool. It could empower his spells, reduce the energy loss and amplify his control, but it didn't give him any knowledge, so in order to unleash the wand's full potential, he needed to learn the local magic. But he wasn't given enough time to do that... Someone overheard us talking about the wand in the tavern and spiked our drinks with the sleeping potion, which allowed them to sneak into his room and slit his throat, in order to get their hands on the powerful wand. That unfortunate event taught me a very important lesson, child: no matter how powerful and strong you are, you should never let your guard down."

Ignotus hung his head, as if saying a prayer for his brother's soul, then shook himself and turned towards the coffin of his second brother. "Cadmus... he was Balerion's priest and a blood mage and since his gift, the stone that amplified his affinity to the necromancy, or rather the spiritual aspect of it and empowered his blood magic, ended up complimenting both of his titles, none of us questioned it. The day he found out that it allowed him to talk to the dead became the beginning of his downfall... As I mentioned earlier, we lost almost all of our family before coming to this world, including our parents, two sisters and another brother, but Cadmus had lost much more. His pregnant wife died during the childbirth, along with his newborn babe, leaving my brother empty with grief. He was already teetering dangerously close to the abyss, but the second he summoned the spirit of his wife, I knew he was done for... And I learned another lesson: never hold on to the past... cherish it, learn from it, accept it, but never live it."

Those words tugged on something deep within her soul. His story resonated with her, opening her eyes to the similarities between them. Both of them lost their loved ones, both were the last living members of their family, albeit in different timelines, carrying the heavy weight of their House's future on their shoulders. She just hoped that she would be strong enough to learn from his lessons and stop holding onto the past until it was too late...

"What about you and your gift?"

"The Cloak wasn't powerful enough to draw the unwanted attention and get me killed, like the Elder Wand, neither it possessed the mystic properties that could drive me insane, like the Stone did with Cadmus. It was the most useful gift thus far, since it kept me hidden and gave me the time to learn and adapt. I traveled around for some time, searching for someone to teach me magic, until I heard the rumors of a powerful wizard who's been looking for the apprentices. And so began my pursuit of knowledge. Though older than other apprentices, I was by far the most studious of them all, since I had the future of my house weighing on my shoulders, urging me to become better. I learned and learned, soaking any and all information that my master gave me, until he had nothing more for me to learn. So then I left, ventured out to search for more knowledge, power and a way to increase my wealth. I didn't know when the gods would call me back, so I needed to be prepared. This world fascinated me, with its magic, which was different from ours and much more powerful, its magical creatures and plants and its powerful wizards who were able to perform impossible feats. This world had a lot to offer," Ignotus grinned roguishly, his eyes full of awe, that mirrored her own, every time when she thought about magic. "Since I was quite a skilled warrior, I became a mercenary and fought in wars as it was the fastest way to earn money back then. I earned and invested, then earned more and invested again, thus effectively increasing my wealth, all that while I never stopped increasing my magical knowledge as well. I've found this island in one of my travels and turned it into a stronghold. I designed and built this castle by myself with the help of my magic, as I had an idea to use this place to harbor anything and everything I could possibly need to rebuilt my home. I collected the magical plants and useful magical creatures, collected food and artifacts, fabrics and weapons, everything I deemed useful to be brought back to Valyria. I never stopped working to achieve my goal, not even when it became obvious that I wasn't likely to return, still I knew that one of my descendants was destined to bring our House back home. So it was my dying wish to my children to never stop harboring wealth and knowledge and to be ready to depart when the time will come."

"And you think that the time has come? Now, after a thousand years?" Diana asked him incredulously.

"The gods have been calling for you for the last couple of years, child," he said with a knowing look. "Who do you think has been trying to invade your dreams this whole time?"

Diana felt a growing headache wrapping her head in its tight grip. Even though her ancestor's words sounded ridiculous, she instantly knew that he was telling the truth.

"So you are telling me, that some unknown gods want me to pack my things, leave my whole life here behind and move to some far away world?" She asked angrily.

"Don't tell me you haven't been feeling out of place your whole life. Don't tell me you are not disappointed in the Wizarding World. You were considering staying on this island for the rest of your life, were you not?" Those words hit the mark, as he just blatantly voiced the thoughts that had been plaguing her mind for the last five years or so. "But now you have the way out. A huge abandoned island, filled with the ruins of the ancient civilization, that belongs to you as the rightful heir, since the only other Valyrian House of dragonlords that survived the doom is nowhere near our level of power to have any claims for it. You can turn that island into the safe haven for yourself, your child and your family, build the place you can finally call home, help save dragons, the majestic creatures that we share our blood with, from the brink of extinction."

"But why does it have to be me?" she asked desperately, even though the things he offered sounded like a dream come true, she knew that there was a negative side as well. "I highly doubt that there's no one out there waiting for an opportunity to salvage the treasures your powerful civilization had left behind. If I agree to this, I will be forced to defend myself and my new land again and again and it is not something that I want for myself nor for my family. I've fought my wars! I've been fighting the battles that no child should be battling and..."

"And you won! Again and again!" Ignotus cut her mid sentence, his purple eyes shining brightly under the magical lights. "There's no doubt that your life had been full of hardships, my little dragon, but you triumphed every time. Because you are a warrior and somehow, the blood of the dragon runs thicker in you than it did in any of my descendants. It's calling for you, burning you from the inside. You're the Savior, the Executioner, the Conqueror. Can you even imagine yourself sitting idle for the rest of your life, locked away in a self-appointed exile? Well I, for one, cannot!" Diana looked at him stubbornly, refusing to admit the truth. Her ancestor then sighed and shook his head. "You don't have to give the answer right now, my dear child. At least promise me, that you will think about it."

And Diana promised. And kept her promise.

She thought about it on her way out of the cave, thought as she walked outside to tell her boys that it was time to get back, thought while giving her son a bath, smiling absentmindedly at his joyous squeals, and she still thought about it two hours later, while sitting in front of a fireplace with a glass of firewhiskey in her hand. She didn't know why she was so adamant about that idea, however tempting it was. Maybe it was because she didn't like being left without a choice, it irked her that someone would give a promise on behalf of their distant descendants. She understood that she wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for that man, that she should be grateful, but still...

"Drinking alone, pup?" She was startled out of her thoughts by her godfather, who gave her a smirk and poured himself a glass of whiskey as well, before taking a seat in the nearby armchair.

"I needed to think..." Diana trailed off, eyes staring unblinkingly into the roaring fire.

"Is everything alright, Prongslet? You look like you've seen a ghost," Sirius looked at her with barely hidden concern.

The young witch snorted at his choice of words and took a small sip of her drink. How weirdly accurate...

"You could say so," she muttered quietly and snickered, finding the amusement in the absurdity of the situation she had found herself in. "I spoke to Ignotus today..."

It was enough to make Sirius choke on his whiskey, as he certainly didn't expect her to utter those words.

"What...?" he managed to gasp through his burning throat and coughed, trying to get rid of the alcohol that got stuck in his windpipe.

Diana let out a tired sigh and told him everything that had happened while he was busy playing with Teddy. As her story progressed, Sirius' expression grew more and more astounded, as he froze in place and listened to her attentively, with his fingers tightly gripped around the glass with his long-forgotten drink.

"...he said that I don't have to give the answer right away and I promised to think about it." Diana turned back towards the fireplace as she finished retelling what happened.

"This is madness..." Sirius rubbed his face, still having a hard time wrapping his head around what he had just learned. "I know I joked about you being an alien, but this...!"

"Yeah..."

"So are you going to leave for that new world now?"

"No... I don't... I don't think so..." Diana sighed, frustrated. "I don't know if I really have a choice..."

"Do you want to?" Sirius asked her... seriously. "Choice or no choice, do you want to leave this world behind and build a home in another one?"

"I don't... I don't know..." Diana muttered stubbornly, avoiding his gaze.

"You do want that, don't you?" Her godfather's question didn't sound accusatorily, yet she still felt the need to defend herself.

"I don't know, Siri! It's just... this world has been nothing but unkind to me, to you, to Teddy. I mean, I've been seriously considering staying here on this island forever! We've lost so much... so many! The Wizarding Britain had two devastating wars back to back, yet nothing seems to change! Hogwarts had easily opened its doors for the next school year, right after the massacre that they had called a battle and I can't even visit Diagon Alley without having the image of the maimed and dead bodies of my friends clouding my vision! And here I am, given the opportunity to go somewhere far away, where I can build a place where no children will be forced to fight wars, a place with no bigotry and prejudice and all this pure-blood nonsense! But I don't like the fact that I am not given any choice! I'm just scared! Scared of falling into a trap and ending up losing whatever little family I have le..." she couldn't force herself to finish and broke down in tears.

"Shhhh..." Her godfather appeared by her side and kneeled in front of her armchair, taking her hands into his and stroking them soothingly. "It's okay, pup. You're not going to lose me, or Teddy, do you understand? Everything will be alright..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cry I just..."

"Don't you ever apologize for being vulnerable, Diana," Sirius told her sternly. "You can be as vulnerable with me as you want, it doesn't make you weak and it surely will never make me think any less of you. You're just overwhelmed, I know, and I'm actually glad that you've finally let it all out. It's not healthy to bottle up emotions the way you and me were doing for the last two years. You're still grieving, still healing and you're tired, especially since all these dreams had been wearing you down for far too long. What I am trying to say is, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, you are doing great. You deserve a break and you deserve a place where you feel safe... even if that place is in another world."

Diana looked at her godfather and couldn't help but be grateful for having him in her life. He was by her side ever since they've found each other at the end of her third year. She was the one who forced the ministry to give him a fair trial, after which they spent the rest of the summer together, fixing up the Grimmauld Place, in order for her to move in with him. It was there that he had promised her to always be there for her and he never once broke that promise.

"Thank you, Padfoot" she sniffed and gave him a small smile.

"You're always welcome, Prongslet," he smiled back and gently wiped her tears. "So when do we leave?"

"You... you would come with me? Into the unknown? Leaving everything you have here behind?" Diana asked in amazement and shock. Somewhere deep down she knew that he would, but him confirming it was another thing altogether.

"Of course I would. We are family, you and me. And wherever you go, I follow. You are my daughter in all but blood and I love you."

"I love you too."

"Now," he clapped his hands and sprung to his feet. "If we are really going to do this, there are a few things that need to be taken care of."

They sat there for hours after that, discussing what needed to be done to prepare for their departure. It turned out to be a lot. First and foremost they needed to visit Gringotts to empty their vaults and to sell whatever properties they owned, there was no reason to leave it all behind since this journey they were about to take was a one way ticket. Then they needed to visit the Grimmauld Place and empty it of anything valuable, mostly books, artifacts and family heirlooms.

The Peverell library had one of the fullest collections of books on all the different professions and magical subjects, history, etiquette, dueling, war and much more, but they still decided that it would be best to complete the collection with anything new that came out in last couple of hundred years, including the books on mundane subjects as well.

They needed to audit the storage rooms, the greenhouses and the sanctuary, to see what items, magical plants and magical creatures they needed to acquire to become completely self sustainable, since there will be no way for them to buy anything after they leave. It was a lot of work, but thankfully, the proceedings in the castle had been long systemized by her ancestors, which meant that almost each of those aspects had an appointed House Elf responsible for them.

Speaking about the House Elves, there was a whole community of them (about two hundred) on the island, tied to the castle's warding stone. They were divided into different groups and each group had their own specific job. For example, there were groups appointed to each greenhouse with the magical and mundane plants; groups that tended to the livestock and magical creatures, with one group appointed to each species; the groups responsible for collecting and harvesting the potion ingredients and the groups responsible for the castle itself (cleaning, cooking, etc.). The House Elves in charge of the castle and the people residing inside, had been left without much work, since no one lived there for too long, so they were the most ecstatic when Diana first got there with Sirius and Teddy, even though they didn't need much space and had been mostly occupying the hastily furnished guest rooms on the second floor (even though Remmie was adamant about them moving to the family wing) and a small living room, the same one where the preparation plans were being discussed at the moment.

It was decided to visit Gringotts first thing in the morning, so they had to call it a day and retire to their respective bedrooms. Diana took a quick shower, avoiding looking at the reflection of her scarred body in the mirror, changed into a simple tank top and shorts she usually wore to sleep, checked on little Teddy in the neighboring room and only then allowed herself to finally crawl under the duvet on her comfortable bed.

She could feel her eyelids getting heavy, the tension that seemed to creep into her very bones was slowly leaving her body, but before she could finally let herself slip into the arms of Morpheus, the witch took a deep breath and lowered her occlumency shields...

She opened her eyes with a gasp and tensed, her mind immediately going into battle mode. Diana panicked a little, when she realized that she couldn't recognize her surroundings, but then the memories of the last day had finally resurfaced and she forced herself to relax. It was just a dream and besides, she knew what she was getting herself into, when she lowered her mental shields.

Lady Peverell finally allowed herself to look around and took in her surroundings. She was standing right in the middle of a huge, perfectly circular room, which was empty, aside from the stone statues near the wall, fourteen in total, an intricately carved archway made of stone, which served as an entrance and a tall, narrow window, right across the archway. She gave the arch a closer look, thinking that she saw it somewhere before, but she couldn't quite recall where.

It looked like she was in a tower, which proved to be true, once she approached the tall window and looked outside. Diana gasped, as she soaked in the scenery that greeted her on the other side.

The room was located at the top of the tower, which meant that the city below was in full view: luxurious palaces and mansions made of light grey stone, busy streets, bustling with activity, the bey full of moored ships and boats, mountain peaks, or rather volcano peaks, in the distance and... dragons of various shapes, forms and sizes, flying freely in the sky, almost each of them carrying a silver-haired rider on its strong back.

The view was truly breathtaking, but then suddenly, the ground below shook, as if from a strong earthquake, forcing Diana to grab onto the window sill, and the volcano peaks exploded, raining down burning rocks, fire and lava... It happened so fast, that even the dragonriders in the sky weren't able to escape...

The tower shook violently, as Diana just stood there holding onto the window sill, mesmerized by the gruesome scene below, until the stone under her fingers started cracking, making her quickly remove her hands and take a few steps back towards the center of the room. It was at that moment when she saw one of the burning rocks flying right towards the tower that she was currently in. Diana tensed and closed her eyes, dreading the inevitable impact, when suddenly everything stopped: the shaking of the tower, the choking scent of smoke, the sound of human and dragon screams from below...

When she opened her eyes once more, she was startled to see that the room had changed. The marble floor was dusty, covered in cracks and small debris, the statues of the gods looked mostly intact, with just a few cracks here and there, the wall with the archway had collapsed, but the archway itself wasn't damaged. She also noticed that the window was gone, along with a huge chunk of the wall and ceiling, opening the view at the ground below, which was covered in greenery and pieces of grey stone sticking out of the green ocean. It seemed that the nature completely overtook the ruins of the ancient city, as even the tower had vines growing out of the cracks and covering a small piece of the wall. She tried to discern the volcanoes in the distance, but the dark grey clouds in the sky and the weird smog that obscured the vision, made it almost impossible.

Overwhelmed by the sudden change, Diana didn't realize right away that she no longer was alone in the room.

"You sure did take your time, little dragon."

The deep voice disturbed the heavy silence of ancient ruins and Diana immediately snapped back into reality. With one last calming breath she turned her back to the hole in the wall and observed the previously empty room. There, right in front of each stone statue, stood tall figures of fourteen men and women, all sharing the same features of silvery-white hair and eyes of different shades of purple. Their gazes aimed at her differed from annoyance and curiosity, to impatience and even indifference. The one who spoke to her stood a little closer to Diana than the others and was the only one who seemed happy to see her, judging by a small smile on his face.

"I could say that I'm sorry for the delay, but that would be a lie. I will only say that I had a very bad experience with people trying to force their way into my mind," Diana spoke, her voice even and calm, respectful but without unnecessary servility. "You must be Balerion."

"Indeed I am," the god's smile widened, as if pleased with whatever it was that she did. "And you are Diana Peverell, the last blood of House Peverell, the one who is destined to bring her House back home and restore it to its former glory... and even more."

"I don't know what glory you're talking about, but I was told that the only thing that is required of me is to save the dragons from the brink of extinction, but for what reason is yet to be explained. Though my grandsire mentioned something about the magic dying in this world, I'm still not quite sure what he meant by that."

She saw the gods sharing some glances, but no words were exchanged, even though she was certain that there was a whole conversation going on, that wasn't meant for her ears. Balerion was the only one who kept staring at her, his smile only getting bigger as if he was absolutely satisfied with how the events were unfolding, which did nothing to put her at ease. He must've noticed something in her eyes as he suddenly let out a short laugh.

"My apologies, little dragon, I did not mean to unsettle you. You are simply much more than any of us had been expecting." Diana frowned at that, but did not say anything, simply waiting for him to continue. Seeing this, Balerion sighed and suddenly his whole demeanor changed and his expression turned somber and grave. "It looks like the tale needs to be told from the very beginning. Very well. Do listen closely, the blood of Old Valyria, for the information we are about to give you has never been shared with a mortal before. When any new world is created, magic serves as the primordial force that shapes and sustains it. It is an ethereal essence that intertwines with the very fabric of existence, enabling the manifestation of realms, both seen and unseen. The potency of this magic is directly linked to the abilities of its wielders; the more advanced the magic users, the greater the magical influence upon the world. When the first sorcerers emerge, their understanding of magic is rudimentary and as they hone their skills, the world responds in kind, flourishing under the weight of their power. As the sorcerers evolve, so does magic. And the more powerful the magic of the world, the stronger the world itself and its creators. That's why the technically advanced worlds, without an ounce of magic in them, are considered dead, since the absence of magic means the core of the world is no longer alive and sometimes even its creators die and perish along with it. To prevent that from happening, we gods, try to create any and all means to give the world a chance to flourish, but we can only do so during the process of creation and are very restricted by the Ancient Laws from any further involvement. Thus, when creating this world, in order to give our child a push towards it becoming a magically flourishing world, we conducted a very dare experiment. To enrich the magic of a new born world, Aegarax, God of all creatures, created first dragons, for dragons had always been the living embodiments of magic and one of its natural sources, and when the first Valyrians stumbled upon their nesting grounds, Tessarion, Goddess of knowledge and prophecy, planted the idea of taming the dragons into their minds, while Tyraxes, the Goddess of intelligence and skill, blessed them with the skills required to accomplish that."

It took Diana a few moments to let all that layer of information to sink in. As the god's story progressed, she became more and more aware of what profoundly enormous entities she was in the presence of... The mere thought, that these... beings created a whole world, the one her bloodline originated from, gave her actual chills. She was so immersed in the story, that she became a little impatient, when Balerion made a short pause.

"But what was the purpose of that? What did you want to accomplish?" She heard herself asking.

"The purpose being to empower the inherent magic of the local sorcerers with the dragon blood, which theoretically, was supposed to be enough to create a new stage of evolution of magic users, but practically... The supposed to be great sorcerers completely ignored the actual sorcery, aside from the blood magic, and concentrated more on their connection to the dragons, becoming the dragonriders. Because of that, the Valyrian Peninsula, despite having such a great potential of becoming the most powerful stronghold of magic thanks to the dragons that inhabited it, spent the five thousand years of its existence in stagnation. But even despite not getting the results we were expecting, we were mollified by the side effect of such a development: the increasing of the population of dragons. Thousands of years of housing such powerful sources of magic turned the Valyrian Peninsula into a magically enriched land, triggering the development of the ley-lines, which soon enveloped the world, but were still the strongest in Valyria, thus creating the rudiments of the future transition of the magic of this world to the next stage of development, after which more and more magically blessed children would've began to be born, but..." Balerion sighed and shook his head. "What do you know about the Doom of Valyria?"

His sudden question took her aback, so she was only able to respond once the image inspired by Balerion's tale finally vanished from the forefront of her mind.

"I only know that the fourteen volcanoes just exploded all at once one day, annihilating all the life on the Peninsula, but something's telling me that there's more to that story..."

The God of Death nodded: "And you'd be correct. Thousands of years of practicing blood magic in the depths of the local volcanoes, led to the Valyrian sorcerers, who were ignorant in the other branches of magic, opening the rifts into the Planes of Fire and Darkness, which caused the immediate eruption of all fourteen volcanoes and the destruction of the greatest empire, along with almost all living dragons, thus marking the beginning of the end..."

"But how does the death of dragons lead to the end of the world? You said that the ley-lines had been formed all around the world, so the situation couldn't be as dire as you describe it to be." Diana inquired, trying to understand the situation.

"The ley-lines were not strong enough, not completely developed even, so the sudden death of that many dragons, the only source of magic, had frozen their development on the last stages and caused their deterioration, which had only just begun, so there's still some time to fix everything, until it became too late."

Diana looked at him incredulously, surely they weren't expecting her to fix something this huge?

"But you are gods, are you not? If the dragons were so important for your world, why didn't you do anything to prevent the Doom from happening in the first place?"

"Because we cannot interfere directly. Ancient Laws forbid us to meddle in the affairs of mortals," the God of Death confessed with a sigh, it was obvious that it was a touchy subject. "Yes we did know about the Doom, but we couldn't have prevented it, with how the things were going in Valyria, the Doom was inevitable. But even then, Tessarion took a great risk and sent a prophetic dream to one of her most devoted followers, the maiden named Daenys, of house Targaryen, who managed to convince her father to leave Valyria fifteen years before the Doom, but when he tried to warn other dragonlords as well, no one had listened. Since recently, the Targaryens were our only hope of saving the magic and this world from meeting a gruesome end. As the only dragonlord House to survive the Doom with some of their dragons, we thought they would succeed in bringing back the dragons and they actually did, for a couple of hundred years. They conquered the kingdoms in the west with three dragons and combined them into one big kingdom, which they ruled over like kings, but in all of the reflections of this reality, they had only ever managed to buy this world a couple of hundred years at most, causing the death of the last surviving dragons due to their inner squabbles and the struggles to keep their family on the throne, so we knew that we needed to try something new."

"And you ended up sending my ancestors to another world, in order for them to get stronger so they could do all the saving once they get back," Diana mused thoughtfully and the god nodded.

"Essentially, yes. But, as I said, we cannot interfere directly, thus the original plan was to send them the similar prophetic dream that was sent to Daenys, to convince them to fly away with their dragons, but then came Lady Death with a proposal that was too good to pass up."

"And you expect me to go there and fix all the consequences of the ancient catastrophe? I mean, the rift into the Planes of Fire and Darkness? Really? How am I even supposed to deal with that? You sure must be mistaking me for Merlin, or some other powerhouse of his caliber." The witch asked incredulously.

"Do net sell yourself short, little dragon. We've been watching you fight and conquer and are aware of your magical prowess. You don't seem to understand that the dragon blood is one of the reasons why your magic is so potent and strong, making you one of the most powerful sorcerers to ever walk the Earth and potentially putting you on the same level as that Merlin wizard that you spoke about. Surely, you cannot deny the fact that your magical power is growing at a ridiculously high speed, especially compared to your peers."

Diana frowned at him mentioning watching her. It was rather heartwarming when Ignotus confessed to doing the same, but the mere thought that some strangers, no matter gods or not, had been watching her, made her feel uncomfortable, as if completely naked while standing in the middle of a busy street... Then she finally caught on to what he had just said. So she decided to ignore the bullshit about her being potentially as powerful as Merlin (yeah, as if) and decided to concentrate on something else that he had just mentioned.

"One of the reasons? So there's more than one? If you tell me that the other reason is because of some master of death bullshit, then excuse me for not believing in that load of crap..."

Before she could even finish her sentence, the room suddenly went dark. Diana turned to the right and saw some inky black, writhing tentacles made of shadows creeping from the archway, which instead of the flight of stairs that could be seen through it before, now seemingly led into the bottomless abyss. She was about to ask what was going on, when suddenly all the gods in the room kneeled on the spot, leaving her utterly speechless.

"My Mistress..." Balerion spoke, his voice filled with respect and devotion, as he gazed at the archway from his kneeled down position.

Following Balerion's gaze, Diana turned towards it as well, just in time to witness a tall figure, draped in a flowing cloak that seemed woven from the very fabric of night, emerge from the abyss. Even though she had never seen her before, Diana instantly recognized who the mysterious woman was and felt the sudden urge to follow the example of the Valyrian gods and kneel down as well. The sheer aura of the cloaked figure was enough to make her knees buckle, but Diana managed to withstand its oppressing power and remained on her feet.

"Lady Death," she had found herself greeting the figure with respectfully bowed head. For a fraction of a second Diana dared to gaze into the depths of her haunting eyes - an abyss that reflected the myriad of souls she had guided through the veil of existence, only to glimpse the faces of her lost loved ones in them and break the the eye contact with a pained gasp.

"We meet again, the Child of the Prophecy," Death greeted her back as if nothing happened and walked towards her, without even acknowledging the kneeled gods, as if she was used to seeing the powerful beings drop on their knees in her presence.

"Again, my Lady?" Diana managed to ask, even though she felt like she couldn't even breathe from the sheer power of Death's presence.

"Why, I thought we had a lovely chat on the train station, but you seem to have forgotten about it," Death answered and Diana could swear that she heard the hint of amusement in the entity's ethereal voice.

"I... I didn't know it was you, my Lady," Diana confessed, remembering her conversation with someone she had thought to be Dumbledore after her death, still not daring to look up.

"Since the mortals cannot withstand seeing my true face, I usually take on the image of someone who triggers the strongest emotional response whenever I meet them. You walked towards your death that day, after finding out the truth that Dumbledore had been keeping from you, thus even though your emotions that associated with him weren't positive, at that moment of time they were stronger than anything you've ever felt before, so it was natural that it was his image that I took, rather than the image of your loved ones..." Lady Death explained, her voice exuding serenity and somberness.

To her own surprise, Diana felt relieved after receiving that information. All this time she had been wondering, why it was that old fool who came to visit her in the place between life and death, why not her mom or dad... Now she new that it was all because of the emotions of betrayal, anger, pain and grief, that had been overwhelming her after she watched Snape's memories.

"I see... Well, nevertheless, I'm happy to learn that it was you, my Lady," the witch said and bowed her head once again. "I assume you are here for the Hollows. They somehow disappeared into my body and I don't know if I can summon them in a dream, but if you just give me a moment I'll just..."

Diana raised her hand with the symbol of the Hollows and was about to try and summon them, when Lady Death stopped her.

"There's no need for that, child. They were a gift and they had already served their purpose. And besides, despite all those stories of them being able to control me, they are nothing more than simple artifacts, powerful ones, yes, but artifacts nevertheless. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"I had my suspicions, yes. It always seemed ridiculous to me that anyone would think that the Death can be controlled and with some questionable artifacts at that," Diana shook her head, somehow feeling that her answer amused the powerful entity.

"Ah, yes," Lady Death chuckled, the sound sending ripples through the shadows that seemed to overtake the room. "You've always been a smart child, my dear Diana. And you must be wondering why I am here. The reason for my visit is simple: as a reward for the service you have rendered me, you can ask me three questions and I shall answer them truthfully. I owe you that much."

Diana almost raised her head from surprise, but stopped herself in time, not wishing to make another mistake of looking into Death's eyes. The offer seemed too good to be true, but she wasn't about to refuse such a generous reward. The first thing that came to her mind was to ask what service the entity was talking about, but Diana then assumed that it was probably for killing the madman who wanted to cheat death and came up with another question.

"What is the reason why you gifted the Hollows to my ancestors? Ignotus said, that them keeping the Hollows was your only condition for helping them escape to the Earth." She asked her first question, clasping her hands together in the attempt to rein in her growing excitement from finally getting the answers she was long waiting for.

Lady Death gave her a small nod, as if pleased with her choice of a question.

"I am a cosmic entity, the personification of "death", and it is my sacred job to keep the balance between life and death. Time is of no essence to me, be it past, present or future, I am omnipresent. With that said, I am always aware when emerge those who think they can defy me and who wish to obtain immortality. Believe it or not, but that happens more often than you would think, the more powerful the being, the stronger their thirst for immortality, for they cannot bear the thought of having to lose that power. I do not always interfere, since there's no such thing as true immortality, for even I myself am mortal, but in the case of your world, I felt it necessary to step in. You see, my dear Prophesized One, in the original timeline of your world, the war against that vile creature that called himself Voldemort, was supposed to be much more destructive and last twenty more years. It would've soon spilled over into the mundane world, making them aware of the existence of the hidden society of magic wielders and led to the eradication of the sixty percent of the population of the Earth, wiping out almost every witch and wizard in existence."

Lady Death made a short pause, as if letting that information to sink in. And Diana was grateful for that, since the picture that appeared in her mind was far too horrifying. She felt her insides turning into ice, as she listened to the Lady Death's answer with abated breath.

"The only thing I had to do, was give a few powerful artifacts to the ancestors of the Chosen One, who was prophesized to end the Dark Lord once and for all and to spread the rumors of one of those artifacts being the all-powerful wand, that could grant its wielder the unimaginable amount power, thus creating a legend that carried on throughout the centuries. Voldemort was already slowly going insane after splitting his own soul into so many pieces, but then he became obsessed with the Elder Wand and finally fell into the abyss, making him easier for you to destroy. And to spare you from wasting another question: even if he had managed to "win the loyalty" of the Elder Wand, he still would've lost against you, for I tied all three Hallows to your bloodline, making it impossible to use them against their true masters. For that reason, you are the only one who can achieve their true potential. It is also why they disappeared into your body, for if combined together and serving one master they can be stored in their wielder's aura for a more convenient use."

Lady Peverell stood there, soaking in the information she was given, part of her happy with finally receiving some answers to the questions that had been bugging her ever since she learned about the existence of the Hallows. Then she thought about her next question, something that has been a mystery to her ever since she was introduced to the magical world.

"Why am I this powerful?" Diana blurted out and cringed at the sound of it. "I mean, magic had always been as easy as breathing for me, any new spell, charm, jinx and hex, it would only always take me one try to cast and perfect them. And these sudden power boosts that I've been having? I always thought that it was through the right of conquest, but maybe there's another reason?"

Diana still felt that the question came out somewhat wrong, but there was no turning back. She needed to know for sure. Everyone has been taking her ever growing power for granted, thinking that it was a most natural thing for a Chosen One... But she couldn't help but worry, thinking that there was something wrong with her, especially since her powers grew at such a weird, ragged rate... nothing seemed natural about it. She could still remember how easy it was for her to defeat Voldemort and the strongest wizards of his inner circle during the last battle, how seamlessly she fought against all of them at once... how she could feel her magic literally coursing through her veins...

"Another good question, child. But there is not one simple answer to it. You are just one big mix of lucky coincidences, so to say," Lady Death chuckled once again and began circling around the witch as she proceeded to answer her question, all the while still ignoring the kneeled gods, as if they weren't even there. Something told Diana that none of them minded such neglect. "One of the reasons for your extraordinary magical prowess is the dragon blood that courses through your veins. Even after so many generations, it is still very much potent, making you a pure blooded Valyrian. The reason for it being the powerful magic in the blood of the local sorcerers, which mixed well with the dragon blood and only amplified its properties, making you even closer to the dragons than any pure blooded dragonlord of Old Valyria could ever wish to become. That's why the Peverells and the Potters were always known for their magical prowess. But in your case the already powerful mixture in your blood was even more amplified due to your father marrying a "new-blood", which is a term in your world used to describe those witches or wizards who never had magic users in their family, making them the first generation sorcerers. New-bloods are considered to be blessed by Lady Magic and, when married into a magical family, have the ability to cleanse their magic of any impurities and curses that they've gathered through generations and amplify the magical abilities of any future descendants. So, you can see, that considering all these circumstances you were inherently much more powerful than any witch or wizard your age, with that power only growing as you became older, making you potentially one of the most powerful sorcerers in your world."

Diana listened closely to Death's words and realized that everything she had said appeared to make a perfect sense.

"Those are not the only reasons, I take it?" She asked then thoughtfully, feeling that Lady Death wasn't done yet.

"Those were the circumstances of your birth, that explained your inherent power, but there are also some enhancements, that were acquired by you under various circumstances," Lady Death hummed thoughtfully, all the while circling around her like a lion circles around its prey.

"You mean the right of conquest?" Diana asked, even though it didn't really sound like a question. She already knew that some of her power boosts came by way of claiming the right of conquest.

"Among other things, yes," Lady Death nodded, thus sparking the young witch's interest. "You unknowingly claimed the right of conquest in your second year, when you boasted to the shard of Voldemort's soul about slaying his most powerful weapon and stated that you owned it. Usually it wouldn't have been enough, since if it was, then every witch and wizard would've been going around and killing humans and beasts alike, to become more powerful. The only reason it worked in your case, was the enormous difference in power between you and the ancient beast. Such an impossible feat, a twelve years old child managing to slay a thousand years old Basilisk, not even with magic, but with a sword at that, couldn't have gone unnoticed by Lady Magic. Thus she approved your claim and you ended up getting rewarded with the enhancement of your core, magic channels and reserves, even though it was a much weakened version due to you not performing the proper ritual. The similar situation happened after you've finally killed Voldemort: since your fates were connected by the Prophecy, you ended up receiving the spoils of war in the form of a power boost, which still could've been greater if he wasn't just a mere shade of his past self after tearing his soul to shreds," Lady Death shrugged.

It was pretty much as Diana had suspected, still it was very nice to finally receive some conformation. Then she remembered something else.

"But what about the surge in my power right after I came back from the dead? It was far stronger than those two instances," she asked perplexedly.

"That was just a result of the soul shard residing in your body finally getting destroyed. It has been leaching on your core for your whole life, thus forcing your magic to use almost half of your reserves to battle any negative side effects it could've caused. The power boost that you felt when you came back to life was just your core finally working to its full capacity."

Diana took a deep, shuddering breath, feeling utterly stupid for overlooking such an important thing. She knew what the Horcruxes did to those who wore them on their bodies, how come she had never wondered, what would happen if someone should carry one inside them for fifteen years? The mere thought had almost sent her into a panic attack. She imagined that... that vile thing residing near her magical core, impending its growth and forcing it to use almost all of its resources to negate any side effects it could cause her...

She snapped out of her near panic state when Lady Death had halted her pacing and stopped right in front of her. Diana couldn't see, since she hadn't dared to look at Lady Death's face once again, but she could still feel the entity's expecting gaze with her very being.

"Well, now, unto your last question. What will it be? I should warn you to choose wisely," the personification of death told her

Diana felt her mind racing, as she tried to come up with a suitable question. She had already received the answers to the questions that had been really bothering her so nothing else seemed to come to mind, but it wasn't every day when the Death herself offered someone such a generous reward, so she couldn't afford wasting the last question. Then an idea appeared in her mind.

"How... how do I close the rift into another Pla...?" she began asking hesitatingly, when Lady Death interrupted her.

"I will stop you before you waste this opportunity and insult me by asking such a mundane question, the answer to which could be easily found in your own library," the entity said sternly, but her amusement was quite clear to Diana, and she understood that Lady Death had just saved her from wasting her last question and answered the one she had almost asked at the same time. "Pick another question, Child of the Prophecy, and be wiser about it this time."

The silence in the room became too thick to breathe, but Diana, being the only mortal among the all-powerful entities, was the only one to suffer from it. It seemed to her that even the shadows around them were vibrating from the anticipation of her next question, so she really needed to step up her game. She had already asked a question about past and a question about present, so maybe this time she should ask a question about her possible future...?

"If I really do return to Valyria, what fate will await me and my family there? Will I be able to protect my loved ones from the dangers of that accursed land?" Diana asked at long last, after racking her brain for what felt like hours.

This question seemed to finally draw some semblance of a reaction from the kneeled Valyrian Gods, who till this moment stood completely still, just like their own statues that were placed along the round wall. They seemed to hold their breath in the anticipation of the Death's answer, their concern for the future of their world evident in the palpable tension that they seemed to exude. Even the shadows seemed to freeze mid movement, as they patiently waited for their Mistress to answer.

Lady Death hummed thoughtfully, before uttering the following words: "If you let go of the past, accept the present and finally start looking straight ahead, you will build a home for the lost souls, a safe haven for those who are grieving, those who are suffering and those who have nothing left to live for... If you accept the fact that you were born to leave your mark in the history of both worlds and become the leader that you were always destined to become, there will be no force able to stop the birth of the Dragon Mage, the Protector of Magic."

While those words still hung in the air like a heavy morning mist, the shadows in the room dissipated as if melted by the first rays of sunlight at dawn and along with them vanished the cloaked figure of Lady Death...

No one dared to move for good few minutes until Balerion slowly raised to his feet, closely followed by his fellow gods, his face a mask of deep contemplation. One after another, the Valyrian Gods finally focused their gazes on Diana's lone figure, which stood frozen in the middle of the once grand room, until she shook herself and raised her head, only to look straight at Balerion, her expression calm and resolute.

"What do I need to do?"