Alan and Beggar.

"Alan, I have something to show you. But first, read this article. I bet you will be stunned like I am." - it stated with its magical mouth and directly spat out a newspaper into his face, hitting it like it was meant to do so from the start.

"Read you say..." - Alan took it in his arms, looking at the letter losing its effects and falling to the ground. He unwrapped the bindings and found a glaring title of the article on the first page.

A title that made him freeze and drawn his attention completely.

- Traitor and instigator. Percival Clintwood. From hero to zero. -

Alan read everything and was silent for a long time. He didn't know what to feel. It was too sudden. Everything was pinned down on the head of this man, even Tedd's confession said to be forged by him. Alan copied his memory of the events when he was five and gave it to the Walling Cavern and the Grey Broker. He did so, to take proper care of Percival, but never thought it would be like that.

Surprisingly, he was stripped of magic power, oblivated and exiled to the muggle society with no money, property, or lease for a proper life, as even there he was branded to be a murderer and vicious criminal. He literally was left on the streets to rot and die, as oblivation of most of his life memories to purge knowledge of magic made him nearly a vegetable. A broken idiot.

But there is also the next article about himself.

- A son of heroes. Captured and tortured, but still not with them. -

It was a very frustrating read, to say the least. He was made some kind of martyr, a symbol of resilience and strength. Ministry needed a hero, the next one, and they decided it will be him. That made Alan understand how cheap all he had been through was in the eyes of wizards with power. They did what they wanted and what was convenient to appease the public. He was just a tool to do that.

A good tool with an unordinary story, but still a tool.

Nothing more.

Is one hero gone? Pick out the other. No one cares who it will be and what he's been through, just make it sound nice for the crowd to empathize.

Honestly, it made him sick. The last thing he needs is to make people cheer over his figure as if they had any idea what it all cost him.

Alan gripped the paper and then willed for incineration spell to turn it to ashes.

He sighed and heard a noise in the living room. It was a sudden arrival of Selena through the fireplace that alerted him. She stormed in with a furious expression and looked at Alan with a gaze full of anger for the others that were gradually dying down and replaced with guilty helplessness.

They stared at each other and she felt like her face was burning with shame for her brethren, for wizards in general.

"Our society is merely so." - she finally muttered with a sigh.

"So, what happens now?" - he asked evenly. After all shit that happened and he saw here, Alan already lost strength to care. There is only purpose in his eyes, as he had several more targets to bring down.

"Let's go, I want you to see something." - she said and walked out the regular way. Looks like it was either close, or she herself had a huge chunk of rage to extinguish before they reach the place she intended to go.

They traveled down the street in silence, boarded the bus, which led them out of London into rural areas. Selena led the way, Alan followed, while inside his mind he was writing a journal. Something he wants to leave here before he will be gone. He wanted to be known and remembered at least by a couple of people the way he is, not how he portrayed to be.

And he wanted to give guidance for Harry Potter to prevent the war in case he is unable to do it himself in the future. To make sure Fleur will live a happy life without seeing death and blood. Even if she will never know that once she was his most cherished person.

He willed a simple pen fly over the paper of a little notebook inside his space. It was nothing precious, just your everyday textbook.

"We are here." - he was awakened from writing by a low voice of Selena. - "I put prevention charms around here. Do what you see fit. You can kill the bastard if you like, I will cover you."

Alan was clearly shocked by what she said and looked around.

It was a dirty corner between houses, full of garbage, and blackness of hopeless atmosphere. The foul smell assaulted his nose but didn't even make him frown. He had known worse. Alan looked at the corner, where a man sat in rags. He was absentminded and a bit out of it.

Alan walked up to him and just watched. His legs were clearly crippled, but not physically. Seems like such deep oblivation caused some adverse effects of a neural system as a whole and made him paralyzed down the waist. He can't even hold his own excrement and smelled really bad.

"Please... mercy... give me food." - he said with a strange tone, intonations of it were childish, but the voice is one of the hoarse old man.

Alan gritted his teeth and looked at him. Beggars around stared and waited for the food to appear. Clearly they will be very eager to have it.

"Are you here to beat me?" - Percival shrank and looked at Alan with fear.

The latter looked at the man who used his parents' death as a way to be successful and only turned around and made two steps away to freeze in place again.

"This punishment is enough." - he said in a low voice and went out of the corner of the street.

"I thought you will either kill him or give him food." - she said and there was only a sad smile on her face. - "You are surprisingly forgiving to do neither."

"Forgiving? I think this life is worse than death." - said Alan in return.

"For a coward like him, anything is better than facing the fear of death. As long as he is alive there is still hope." - she said, looking at the dark alley they left behind.

"Whatever. There is one last thing I want to do." - he said suddenly.

"Last?" - Selena turned around and stared at him with a forceful gaze full of worry. - "What are you up to? Don't do anything stupid!"

"I will tell you when it is time. It is not what you think, Selena." - he said. - "Can you help me one last time?"

"Whatever you want, Alan." - she said pensively.

"I want you to adopt a person and to help a man to clear his name. Can you do this?"

Her eyes went wide for a second, but later she nodded when Alan gave her a stack of papers, map, and several newspapers of different times.

"Well, train well in what I left for you. When we see each other again, I bet both of us will have lots to do." - said Alan with a smile. A sad smile of separation with no clear duration known.

He looked at her standing in the wind under the tree while fixing the loose strand of her hair behind the ear. She was picturesque, beautiful, warm, and slightly reluctant to let him go. A woman who was always on his side. A woman he can call family.

"I guess it is a goodbye." - said Alan finally and received an embrace. A strong one that smelled like fire and strawberries. The one only she can give him. He closed his eyes, marveling at the feeling. It didn't bring him peace but engulfed in the flame of motivation to grow stronger and be better. It encouraged him to survive and return.

"If you ever feel tired, feel free to come by for a bottle of beer." - she finally released him and slapped his shoulder. - "You are a good boy. Alan. A boy who soon will be an amazing man. Know that no matter what this aunt here will believe and wait for you." - she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"I will be back." - he said stoically. He won't forgo this world. There is a real culprit behind this all to talk with and perform some brain surgeries using a brick as a primary instrument and boot as a helping hand.

'The universe is large! I not only might find a solution to this flimsy barrier around the world, I can as well search for a cure for Fleur and a way to remove that brand on her soul. Even if her memories won't come back, I can create new ones with her. From the very beginning.'

Waving his hand Alan disappeared in a flash of unique apparating magic.

Selena looked at the place he was in a moment ago and sighed, adorning a sad smile and again became engrossed in the papers. The more she read the more she felt her heart bleeding after so many years. She locked it all, but now, reading about the man, her emotions went hawking.

"S-Sirius... you idiot... I finally can free you..." - she whispered with very complicated emotions and barely hold her tears.

But Alan was never there to see it.