Chapter 20.

The portkey took me to Britain, but not to Hogwarts. No, it took me home. It took me back to my roots, where it had all started and where it would all finish.

If Natasha was a phoenix to rise from ashes, I simply needed to lay a bed of ashes for her.

Godric's Hollow. The place was less than a memory to me, like a nightmare I had long forgotten, today become dull compared to truer nightmares. When was the last time I had set my eyes upon this little town, I couldn't tell. It hadn't changed at all, though, as I could have expected. The streets were as quiet as ever, the chimneys were spouting smoke like always, and a warm, friendly orange light emanated from the ancient magical lanterns.

While walking down the grassy and snowy hill and toward my purpose, I took Natasha's crystallized soul out of my belt pocket and brought it to my eyes.

Natasha's soul was in this crystal. I had brought her back. It was done.

I still had a hard time believing it. She was shining like a thousand stars, blinding the twilight sun like it was no more than a lit wand. It shouldn't have been possible, but this crystal I had brought, this neutral ground between the mortal realm and the demon's world, was gleaming upon the world; at home.

Right here, in my hand, she's here.

She was glowing a magnificent white, illuminating my scarred and disheveled face, tearing tears out of my old eyes.

I was fifteen this morning, I'm... eighteen tonight. I chuckled. It didn't matter in the slightest, not one little bit. Only she had ever mattered to me.

Bathing in the light of both suns above Godric's Hollow tonight, I noticed the true colour of my attire for the first time. My sturdy cloak wasn't grey like I had always thought but more brownish and blueish, and the various leather belts and pieces of cloth I had scavenged to fix my armour or simply replace it weren't as dull and somber as they had seemed to be in the Demonic realm, even if now stained with the blood and dirt of a hundred battles.

Not much remained of my armour, after all this time spent dodging death in the demonic wars. Only the cuirass , a gauntlet and the my left cuisse were still here to protect me, bumped and scratched to the point of being unrecognizable.

I brought my eyes back to the soul of Natasha, still in her peaceful stasis.

"I won't need an armour anymore, now that you're here, princess." I muttered .

I carefully set it back in my pocket, checked the straps, and made course downhill, to the empty spot that hid our house from well-wishers and enemies of the Potter family alike.

Our house, heh? Such a foreign concept, now. Or perhaps it always was. I mused, my steps echoing in the empty streets like a sinister omen. I was coming, and the town seemed to realize it. Dogs barked as I got closer to their garden, switching to a scared whine when I walked past them; drunkards suddenly felt the wind get chillier and started to get home. Lamps flickered.

I stopped. I was here, in front of the seemingly empty spot where the Potter Household stood. The town was now beyond quiet, as if nothing dared to breath anymore.

I walked right into the wards and let them wash against me. I was a Potter, despite everything I had done and went through, and I would stay a Potter.

I went around the house, letting my had brush against the vegetation I had known so well, and reached the backyard. The place I had grown in. And yet, I barely remembered it.

I approached the sliding window that linked the kitchen to the garden, feeling the life from the house, a suffocating warmth of life I had forgotten in the Demonic realm.

I opened the glass window with a wave of my wand and stepped into the kitchen. I could hear voices from the living room. To my right, a glass of amber liquid. Apple juice, surely. Without thinking about it, I grabbed the glass and swallowed its content.

When the taste overtook me, I had to grab the wall to maintain myself. It was so good I almost fell to my knees, shivering at the sugary nectar flowing down my throat. This was, without a doubt, the best thing I had ever tasted.

I shook my head and wiped stray tears I couldn't explain, glanced at the food box which was probably full of drinks and food, and shook my head again.

I can't do that right now... I thought, almost too tempted to dive in the food. I can't risk it, not now. First Natasha, the food comes after...

As much as I wanted to, this wasn't the time nor the place. I gave up the idea and creeped to the door connecting to the living room. I pushed it ajar, slowly, and peered inside.

"… couldn't believe it, but the evidence is as strong as can be. They are investigating at Hogwarts, I'm sure it's gonna be alright." reassured Tonks, her face worried. She was talking to James and Lily, both sitting in the couch in front of her.

I couldn't see their faces, but from Tonk's expression and body language, I could tell this was serious. I slipped in the room stealthily and unsheathed my wand, staying in the dark.

"Our own child … doing that kind of thing to his classmates? … How … " muttered Lily darkly, holding her head in her hands., her voice teary and confused.

It's about me. I'm in trouble. I noted, aiming my wand at James.

"Lily, Har-" started James as I silently shot the first stunner, the darkness suddenly replaced by a bright flash of red. He felt it coming and ducked low, throwing himself out of the couch in the process. The stunner hit Lily in the shoulder, her body fell limp.

I took two steps toward James, keeping Tonks in my eyesight. She only realized what happened now, and started to move her hand to her pocket. James took his own wand out, I kicked him in the stomach.

He flew across the room and smashed against the wall, shaking the house and making a cupboard drop, along with plates and other vases from the shelves, shattering on the floor in a deafening cacophony. I turned to Tonks, who was about to finish her stunner.

"STUPEFY", she screamed, as I let the stunner hit my cloaked cuirass. It blew up against me in a multitude of sparks, smoke and cracking sound following. Taking a step to her, I slapped her stretched arm, breaking it. Her wand flew away, she screamed in pain and slumped to the ground.

I took notice of James and Lily, they were both out of it. Tonks focused out of the pain and stood up, shivering slightly.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking at me incredulously. They sure didn't expect to be assaulted in the Potter house, likely on of the most warded private estate in Britain. She squinted at me and shook her head when I took my hood off. "Harry? That can't be!" she whined, nearly crying.

"Right on spot, Tonks. It's me." I stated simply, holding her at wand point.

"What happened to you Harry? Oh I didn't want to believe what they said, I didn't want to!" she almost sobbed, "What happened to you?"

"What did they say?"

She swallowed and steeled her eyes.

"They say... Aurors came to Hogwarts for you, but they wouldn't tell us why, it was a secret team, commanded by unspeakables."

I motioned her to go on.

"They couldn't find you so they asked about you around school, and they said... they said most of those that should know about you have traces of obliviation."

Talk about bad fucking luck, today of all days.

"Fucking hell... anything else I should know?"

"Harry, what the fuck is going on?" she begged me. "What did you do? What happened to you?"

I shrugged.

"They say stress can make one's body age faster than usual, don't they?"

She didn't laugh.

"Harry, you don't have a chance against the Aurors, give yourself up to me, and I swear we'll find a way out of this." She tried, giving me her best pleading look.

"Tonks, you have no idea of how fucked I am." I smiled and stunned her faster than she could open her mouth to answer.

Tonks dropped to the floor like a wet sock. I summoned the three wands in the house, pocketed them all, and turned to Lily. She sure was a beautiful woman, I had to admit.

"Well, Dad, Mom. We have work to do."

I waved my arm, made my wand dance on her immobile shape, and she eventually shrunk. She shrunk until she was no bigger than my wand itself. I walked to James, made sure I hadn't killed him by accident, stunned him for safety, and shrunk him to match his wife.

I looked around at the living room, a place that held awful memories, but also extremely treasured ones, a place that reminded me of Natasha more than ever. I thought about burning it, but decided against. I simply bid farewell to the place, and apparated out from the backyard.

I popped out of the void and on the not-so-familiar-anymore soil and breathed my good old Forbidden Forest. I had missed the place more than any other, strangely enough.

This was my forest, nothing could reach me here. This was my true home, my safe haven.

At first, I strolled through the vegetation, taking in the amazing smells of earth and magic with delight and appreciating the sight of every piece of familiar vegetation I could set my eyes on.

But after a few minutes, I was running, crazed, eager to finally begin the last step.

While running across the forest, I thought about Alyson, the girl I had let to keep my work safe for a few hours. If Aurors came in asking about me, I hoped she'd have the good sense of hiding.

I eventually reached the castle, too intoxicated with my thoughts to take the time to notice how magnificent it was, and disillusioned myself.

Invisible, I raced to the Hufflepuff corridor and soon reached the main corridors. When I set foot in one of the four principal corridors, things changed. Students were now watching me, eyes open wide, some backed up, some laughing. Not stopping to run, took a look at myself, I wasn't disillusioned anymore.

Concealment removal wards. That's Auror handiwork.

"Who the hell…" muttered a small girl.

I realized I had stopped to run, and the crowd was getting thicker around me. I broke into a sprint, hearing yells behind me as I turned into another corridor. They had figured it out.

I ran down three series of stairs and two corridors, and stopped suddenly. A group of students was facing me, their wands out. They had cut my path from the west corridor, wherever they came from.

"Potter! Stop right there!"

"Harry, it's all over!"

Zachary, Hermione, Ron and a bunch of other I didn't remember the name of were in front of me, looking determined. Some of them started to look scared, too.

About forty in number, none of them posed a threat to me at this point, Zachary included.

"Move." I commanded, getting my wand out of my pocket with no hurry.

"What the hell happened to you, Harry?" muttered Zachary, staring at me gravely. "So, that's where Dark Magic gets you. You're no different from Voldemort, just another fool to fall for the lies of Dark Magic." He concluded hatefully.

I hadn't the time nor the will to talk with him, I shrugged. "Get ready, I'm gonna slaughter you, now."

"In position! Shields first, we don't know what kind of shit he's gonna throw!" he shouted, bending his knees and aiming his wand at me. His followers obeyed, some backing up slightly to get behind the crowd.

"Mister Potter! Drop your wand right now!" hissed a stern voice from behind me.

I saw McGonagall behind me, she was pointing her wand at me and walking her usual pace, her face a mask of stone.

"Aurors are already looking for you, they will be there shortly. I suggest you drop your wand and think about what you have to say for yourself." she continued, sounding rather pissed at me.

Feeling like I had lost enough time standing there, I closed my eyes. I ordered my heart to stop beating. Death could only come from Death. And I knew Death. In a second, silence reigned in my body, I was dead, the universe knows as Harry was in a state of decay. And thus, I inhaled deeply, charged my throat with the whisperings of Death, and shouted.

More like a shrill wail than a human shout, the piercing whine seeped in their unprepared minds and bones, chilling them to the core and momentarily locking them in a morbid hypnosis of the mind and the soul.

Most of the student simply fell to the ground. McGonagall turned blank as a sheet but managed to stabilize her footing with effort, she stuttered a bit, shook her head and rose her wand to me.

"Now for the real fun." I announced, slashing my wand to her, forcing her to shake out of the bone-chilling haze.

As my Secaferox raced to her, I raised my left hand, and focused on the third circle carved on my forearm. Mentally casting the spell I had created from scratch in the demonic world, a hybrid of demonic magic and wizard magic, a sudden light exploded from my palm, hissing terribly. The light danced and screamed, until it erected itself into a humongous bolt of lightning.

McGonagall deflected the cutting curse with her wand, showing me that she was no slouch, even with the mental attack she had suffered and raised her wand.

I threw the fuzzing spear of golden electricity at her. It sped through the corridor, closing the distance in a single moment.

She had reacted fast enough, the floor in front of her was transfigured in a thick shield of Hogwarts stone, protecting and hiding her. When the golden lightning hit it, it seemed to bury itself into it, melting the stone instantly. It ate through half of it and exploded, blasting pieces of rock everywhere at the speed of light. The sound of the lightning releasing all of its power shattered every window and ceiling lamp as far as I could see.

McGonagall was thrown on the floor like a ragdoll, bleeding. I squinted my eyes and saw that she had lost her wand in the process.

I turned around and set to tear through the students. The battle seemed to have waken them up quite a deal, but a good majority was unconscious. One was picking himself up and turned to me. I waved my wand, his body was flung across the corridor and out through a window. A girl came running to me, maddened, and tried a spell. I sent a curse to her guts before she could complete it, she screamed and fell on the ground, rolling in the corpses. Someone moved next to me, I used my arm to punch them back, I head bones crack. I turned to my left and pushed fire out of my wand, without aiming. Cloth caught on fire, a spell fizzled next to me, screams started to echo.

"Zachary! Step back!" screamed McGonagall from the other side.

I ducked under the cutting spell from my twin and hit the floor with my left fist, focusing on the first circle of Demonic magic, the dark flame.

A flame of obsidian sprouted from the ground, dancing around my fist for a moment before crawling to them like a mad snake. It spread into their ranks quickly, and started to eat them. Their cloth, their body, their soul, it vomited its torrent of despair on them.

McGonagall successfully protected my twin and some others with a deft transfiguration of the tapestry into an agile sheet of steel mesh. She used it to push them to the side and ripping the fire off them.

Completely killing it would take some intensive work, even from McGonagall. Finally out of the crowd, I resumed my sprint toward the sanctuary.

Hostilities were officially open, I had to make it quick.

Kids are one thing, but I'd rather not have to deal with aurors.

Thankfully, Hogwarts was huge. I ran for a few minutes, turning sharply and jumping down stairs furiously. I hadn't forgotten the path. Some things were too important to forget. After a while, I was in the lower section of castle, where every room was unused. There was no sounds, no yells, nothing to be heard anymore.

I calmed down a bit and trotted to the hidden entrance.

Knowing exactly where it was, I found it easily. I unraveled the transfiguration with a few waves and stepped inside without further ado.

I appraised the place. It was exactly the way I had left it, not a single gram of dust had settled on the ground. Yes, it hasn't even been a day...

The ambient wind in the room was still as strong, and the charged anchor seemed to buzz faintly, it was definitely ready.

"It's you? W-what... "

I turned to my left. Alyson had been sitting in the teacher's chair, next to the oversized desk, covered with potions, ingredients, parchments and other books. She was standing and carefully approaching me now.

"What's going on? Why are you... older?"

I shrugged. "Things happened, don't worry about it. I'm fine. To be perfectly correct, I am beyond fine, I'm fucking ecstatic, Alyson."

She didn't say a word, she was looking at me, extremely confused.

"How has it been going, here? I heard they're all looking for me."

"I have no idea... I hid here when I heard Aurors were after you. I…Your twin was after me, Marie told me so. So I quickly left the scene."

I nodded, only half listening. I walked across the lines of moondust we had laid on the floor, checking every carving, every rune, every crisscrossing and every curve of the ritual. It was fairly scary to realize that I didn't even remember all that much, but it all came back as I watched it. I have to be absolutely certain it's all good. I repeated to myself as a mantra.

"You did well." I mumbled. "The main parchments, bring them to me." I waved to the desk, making mental calculations of the sum of all the rune number in the southern curve of the third layer.

She looked at me silently, obviously dead worried, but obeyed and went to fetch the blueprints.

"Harry, Aurors are seriously looking for you, aren't we in massive trouble?" she asked, pushing a mount of parchment aside.

I acknowledged her with a hum.

"Besides, you already checked it like ten times this morning, do you really need to go through it again?" She held the parchment to me.

"Well that much is true, but it was so long ago… I'd rather make sure." I commented, not thinking about it.

She stood silent next to me as I checked a few last things. It was perfect, of course it was. Not a single thing was amiss, I had made doubly sure of it in the morning, a few years ago.

"Alright, Let's start. We've gotta do this and get out the damn country." I clapped the parchments together and tossed them to the desk.

"A-are you gonna tell me what we're doing, at last?"

I looked at her. It couldn't really hurt, at this point. I walked to the salamander heart, still beating in the enchanted pot, and placed my wand on the glassy surface. I pushed magic out, charging the rune slowly with my intent to create life.

"Well, how to say it... basically, it's Necromancy." I explained to Alyson as the heart started to beat faster.

She squeaked and stumbled back a few steps, to hold herself against the desk. I estimated the charge on the main rune to be enough, and started to work on the secondary anchors.

"What... what are you trying to create?" she asked, pale.

I stood up, pocketed my wand, and brought two little dolls out of my robes. I placed them on the stone and started to unravel the shrinking charm.

"Harry, I'm scared shitless!" she begged, watching me work with wide eyes.

I finished the last strokes and watched James return to his usual size. Next came the levitating spell, I brought him against one of the main pillars, the chains started to clang as his head hit them.

"Keep him at this level, will you?"

"Merlin help me." She mumbled, but she nodded and dutifully kept James where I had levitated him. I waved my wand a few times and James was effectively bound to the stone pillar.

We repeated the process for Lily, and once she was pinned on her pillar as well, I summoned the first potion from the teacher's desk.

"Harry... those are your parents..." realized Alyson, trembling slightly. "This… this is too much." She whispered.

"Yes. Those are my parents." I answered. "It had to be them, you don't understand."

I checked the phial's content, smelled it, and confirming that it was ready, performed a force-feeding spell on James to make him swallow the yellow liquid.

"Sacrificial righteousness." I stated, giving the moment some kind of substance. There was no crowd, no one but Alyson and me, but it had to be more than a few final wand strokes. It had to be more, so it could become a miracle.

I made Lily swallow her own dose, and followed with the next potion.

"Regret and penitence." I whispered out loud, my voice echoing in the amphitheater. Alyson had stepped back, trapped in her contract with me, and watched with a serious and scared frown.

"Gift of flesh, Ease of mind." I announced dramatically. The last and most potent potion, one that would soak their very soul with the mission they had been given. To give themselves to her.

I tossed the empty phial away, it shattered on the floor.

In the center of the circle, was a small stone that I had pulled off the ground. I approached it and crouched. I carefully opened my belt pocket and brought it out.

I placed it on the stone.

"Can you tell what's that, Alyson?" I all but muttered, standing up.

She shook her head, getting closer behind me, attracted by the amazing light. "It's beautiful."

"My little sister." I stated, my eyes never leaving the shining star.

I tossed her the adamantine phial I had kept around my neck so long it had carved its nest in my bones. She grabbed it and looked at me apprehensively.

"And that's her blood. That spell you created, you're going to cast it to the perfection. Can you do it?"

She stood up, dried her tears and answered in a shaky voice.

"Yes."

"To the perfection." I repeated, this time staring into her eyes.

She recoiled, but nodded with confidence. "To the perfection."

I stepped back and observed the place one last time.

"Let's do it. It's going to be just fine." I reassured, both myself and Alyson, whose face was screaming why did I get into this mess.

I placed myself to the back of the circle, directly facing the beating heart, and waved Alyson to begin. On the other side, she cast her spell. Natasha's blood carefully left its phial for the first time since it had been robbed of its home, and danced around the unholy result of my several alchemic operations on Phoenix tears and Dementor saliva until it formed a tight two-toned swirling string.

I slashed my wand toward the glass jar in front of me, it exploded, breaking the enchantment that kept the heart beating, and transferring the task to my own heart, linking both together by magic of the most forbidden lore.

The now glowing heart was beating faster and faster, mimicking my own. Alyson, aware of her task, guided the mixture into it, looping it around the heart several times, making it enter and exit infinitely.

The wind in the room had started to grow heavy, moondust started to spread as the stone itself rumbled, feeling the forces I was about to call.

I sent a couple of Ennervate, waking Lily and James up. They opened their eyes groggily, under the effects of the heave potions I had just fed them.

"Z-Zachary… is that you?" mumbled Lily, squinting at me.

I shook my head. "Your day has come, do you accept your fate, do you accept your final mission?" I asked.

Drugged, they nodded and mumbled weak yeses.

I started the incantation.

I had studied this one so deeply, I could understand the language, I knew exactly what each syllable meant, instead of simply learning the words like I had done for any other. I gave meaning to each syllable .

I stomped on the stone, the secondary anchors obeyed. They vomited the energy, the life force they had been storing, gathered from the Hogwarts population. Invisible, the freed energy roared and raced across the different patterns, giving them life.

The world started to shake. Moondust lit up, flames of the purest white rose up, fire of another time, another reality, and arcs of electricity sprouted sporadically, scorching the stone around me. The insane power pushed the very ground under my feet, slowly dislocating the centuries old stones, as if an ancient dragon had been awakened below.

I shouted my words even louder, without any sort of rhythm. It didn't matter anymore, I pushed power and emotion into each word, giving them more sense than life had ever held.

I reached the end of my plead, the end of my prayer to magic itself, and whispered into the chaos.

"O'rr dekii ne." Be reborn.

The white flames flared strong and high, they fused together to form a blinding wall of white, glowing brighter and brighter, until, power exploded out of the circle, buzzing and hissing madly.

The column of solid light roared and the ceiling started to crack, dropping pebbles everywhere on the ground, which was crumbling on itself as well.

I couldn't see through the light, but at some point, I knew it, the ceiling had been vaporized.

It has to work, it will work! I thought as the castle quaked like it was the end of the world.

The light died slowly and after a few seconds, only a thin trail of light was still visible, linking the ravaged ground to the clouds and beyond.

Above the floor, held by that thin string of light by her chest, Natasha was hovering.

Her long hair flowing in the wind, her naked body glowing a magnificent white and her pretty eyes closed in serene slumber. She was simply hovering over us like a goddess emerging the void.

Above us, a tranquil blue sky lazily watched the miracle. The ritual had dug a vertical tunnel all the way to the sky, through every floor of Hogwarts.

I opened my mouth but no sound came, I stumbled to Natasha, arms open. It had worked. It had to had worked. Everything was here, her soul, the sacrifices, the blood, everything.

I stumbled on the overturned, cracked and scorched stones, feeling weaker as I took every step, my eyes never leaving her perfect form.

The light suddenly died, like someone had murmured Nox, and Natasha dropped to the ground. I hurried forward and caught her in my arms with all the care in the world. I noticed that I was shaking, I was shaking so much I thought I would break her.

I walked drunkenly to the desk and carefully placed her upon it, pushing everything else to the ground. The sound of phials breaking and parchments shuffling woke me up. My head jerked up, Alyson was watching, from the same spot I had last saw her, motionless.

"Alyson! Give me the potions and the banshee cloth!" I barked. She jumped and looked around her.

I ran my wand over Natasha's left breast, creating blue smoke over it. As her heart bumped, the blue smoke jumped up in the air, only to fall back upon her silk skin. She was alive.

"She's alive…" I said out loud, already casting a charm to check her lungs. Alyson stopped what she was doing to stare at Natasha unbelievingly.

"Call the unspeakables, we have a situation here!" shouted a voice from above. I looked up.

Only now I noticed numerous voices shouting, and heads watching us from the numerous opening in the well I had dug.

"Aurors are coming, hurry up Alyson!"

I carefully slipped the necessary potions through Natasha's lips, rolled her in the imbued banshee cloth and set the tip of my wand on her chest, damning myself for having to hurry up at such a crucial moment.

A single shock... I breathed shakily and focused on the spell.

"Ennervate." I whispered it, feeling faint.

The second the spell left my wand, he body tensed and her eyes sprang open. She took a huge breath and started to grab life, panicking. She was flailing like a newborn baby, grasping for air with difficulty.

"Natasha!" I couldn't help but hug her tightly, crying profusely. It took her a few seconds to stop panicking and her rasping breathing quieted down.

"Ha...ry." she whispered in my ear.

At this moment, I travelled back in time, I went back to my old self. I went back to Harry, simply Harry. I forgot all about dark magic, I forgot all about Necromancy. I forgot everything,

I was simply Harry, and I was holding Natasha. I cried silently in her hair for some time, forgetting about the urgency of our situation.

"Harry... we... we should move out..." hesitated Alyson behind me, her own voice soaked with tears.

"Harry!" bellowed a familiar voice from above. Zachary.

I raised my head and watched him.

"You killed them!" he roared madly, pinned on the floor by a couple of Gryffindors

"You killed our parents!"

I turned my head to the strong pillars, still standing straight in the destructed room, were the remains of James and Lily dangled peacefully. The ritual had taken both hearts and a fair amount of flesh and bones, but their faces had remained recognizable.

"I'll kill you!" he roared furiously.

I stood up slowly, holding Natasha against me, her frame didn't weight much. She was still breathing with a lot of difficulty, and probably had a very hard time thinking, even with the numerous potions I had made her swallow. It would take her a few days to get used to life, and to her body.

"Alyson, we're taking the corridor."

We quickly left the destroyed room behind us. As we got into the corridor, we could already hear the Auror's steps echoing in the staircase. They were close.

I focused on my rage for a moment, rekindled by the idea of getting caught now of all time, and called Loerderth, my flaming alter ego from within my breast. Like me, it had been heavily influenced by the demon world, and was today nothing like the fiendfyre I used to know.

'Loerderth.' I whispered in the void. 'Conjure yourself and devour, there are humans after me, and a place to erase...' it was spoken in demonic, whispered like a death omen. Satisfied with my spell, I started to trot in the opposite direction, Alyson on my heels.

The black flame seeped from my feet as we fled, forming innocent looking shapes of black on the floor. The puddles of black material slowly grew larger and larger, but we weren't here to see them transform in a torrent of cold fire and fury.

We ran for a few minutes and changed corridor twice to avoid Aurors coming from adjacent pathways, they were closing in from all directions, even though fiendfyre was rampaging in an aisle of the castle.

"We're fucked!" screamed Alyson. "I came with you to be protected, and now I'm fucked through and through!" she shouted, still following me.

"You've got no choice now!" I answered, taking notice of how close were the Aurors.

I stopped and took Natasha off me. She was peacefully sleeping, her breathing still harsh. She was going to feel tired for a while, I expected.

"Take her, and stay close to me, under any circumstances. Your job is to protect her, I'll protect you." I told her. By this point she surely had understood that having Natasha in her arms was the best way to ensure that I'd protect her.

"This way." I said, poiting to stairs leading up. "We need to get out of the castle, into the forest."

We took a flight of stairs and, surprisingly, immediately encountered a attack squad. A Mage Knight was standing at the front, onto his shining golden cuirass was engraved a roaring lion, which looked amazingly similar to the man himself, especially the beard. He looked at us haughtily, his wand pointed at the ground, and the other hand lazily left upon the hilt of his sword. The few Aurors around him seemed slightly more concerned with facing us, and at least pointed their wand to me.

"He's here, seize him!" yelled one.

He isn't taking me seriously. I snorted, looking at the Mage Knight.

I focused magic inside the circles engraved on my forearms, and channeled the demonic magic out, dragging my arm in the air. The black fire spawned from my fingers and followed my hand, I dragged it in a S shape, and grabbed the end. The fire whip flared strongly as I made it crack in the air.

I swung it to the Mage Knight, who, surprised, ducked and grabbed the other end. He pulled on it, probably confident that he could tear it away from me. After all, it looked like a mix between black fur, smoke and cloth and didn't emit any warmth. He realized his mistake only when the fire had swallowed his hand and raced up his arm to devour him whole.

I held the whip and kept feeding it my power as the Mage Knight fell to the ground, wrestling with it. Aurors had started to react and spells were flying around me. I dodged one to my left and aimed my wand with my left hand.

"Mocnahladit!" I shouted.

Aurors dodged it, but rhe explosion curse was aimed at the stairs. They exploded under the group and blasted the closest Auror in the ceiling, saved only by his quick shielding.

Burning stone flew everywhere, Alyson screamed, hiding behind me. I swung my whip back and vanished it. Nothing remained the mage knight. Two Aurors were still standing, when the stone rain stopped. One sent a stunner to me, and the other cast a wide area steel net over our head.

I jumped forward, took the stunner in the torso, ignoring the smoke and knock-back effect, I swung my wand toward one, sending a banisher. He failed to avoid it and crashed into the wall, bones crushed. The one in front of me jumped to the left, I hit a stone with my foot, it went right through his head and into the wall.

I turned to Alyson.

"Go, go!" I barked, running again.

A few aurors picked themselves up and sent a few spells at our backs but didn't give chase, knowing what would happen to them if they did.

We kept running through the tricky castle and finally reached ground level. We blew up a window and jumped out.

"To the forest, we can portkey from here!" I yelled to Alyson, who was now seriously trying to save her skin.

"Mage Knights!" she yelled before throwing a spell to our right.

I avoided a massive jet of water by stopping dead in my tracks and turned to its source. The guy was fast, he was on me in a second and slapped my hand just in time to deviate the banisher I had cooked for him.

He jabbed his wand to me and opened his mouth to yell the incantation, his eyes and mine made contact.

It was enough. During that single moment, I showed him the madness of a demonic eye. I called my own madness forth, and I showed him Death, in its purest form, the deep and cold nothingness, and its rotting, decaying eternity.

He opened his eyes wide and stopped completely what he was doing, entranced. I grabbed the handle of his sword with my left hand and unsheathed it, kicking him away from me.

It had all happened in an instant, but another Mage Knight had already snuck behind me and was about to start a spell chain. I used the momentum of having unsheathed the sword to turn around and throw it to him. Breaking his spell, he swore and blocked it with his arm, letting the blade pierce his armour and stab his flesh.

As he removed the heavy weapon from his arm, I started a chain of explosion curses. He directly blocked two, deflected one to his left side and swiftly jumped out of the way of the others. It seemed that being surrounded by these powerful explosions didn't faze him in the slightest.

I closed the distance between us, ignoring the shaking ground and shrapnel flying everywhere, and pretended to not see him reaching for his morning star behind his blue shield. He swung it to my face. Prepared, I ducked under it just in time and punched his armor.

"Darshhh" I hissed, forcing death in my punch. His body was flung back, then fell to the grassy ground. I observed him for a second, he was screaming , clutching at his belly as his skin cracked and decayed and his blood dried. The exercise had been taxing, but it was nothing like attempting it on a demonic undead, largely more resistant to any kind of magic.

I turned around, the first knight had backed up considerably but was now flanked by a number of people. Aurors were getting here one after another, running and panting.

"Catch him, kill him if you need to!"

Fuck.

"Fuck, Harry! What do we do?"

I watched the Auror spread out to surround us and noticed the students watching from the windows. Some were even outside, a bit further along the castle, watching us.

I raised my wand and called forth my most useful ally, Loerderth. The fiendfyre sprouted out of me for the second time today, spread in the air and formed itself in Loerderth, the impressive demon of cold fire. Many spectators stepped back at the sight of the beast I had called. Its black fur dancing like smoke and billowing in the wind like cloth, but wiggling savagely like the fire it was, it absorbed light itself, a black hole with two eyes and a malicious grin.

"Listen up!" I yelled. "You think you can probably handle Loerderth, if you all work together on it." I made a dramatic pause. "But none of those students will survive, if I release him!"

The Aurors watched me with grim eyes. They knew I was right. There was no way they'd stop Loerderth before it'd burn half of the student population, if they could stop it at all. Even I wasn't sure how I would go about it if I was them, but I knew better than to underestimate them.

"Aurors, lower your wands!" commanded an imperious voice. Kingsley. I hadn't noticed the black skinned Auror sporting the badge of a captain on his breast.

"Start evacuating the students, don't let the boy move a single inch!" he yelled to his subordinates, staring in my eyes. His bald head was covered in sweat, but he held his ground, determined to catch me.

I snorted. By the time they evacuate, I'll be out of there.

On that, I started to run, leaving Loerderth behind to watch my back. Alyson followed me, still hugging Natasha.

Some Aurors made to follow me, but wouldn't dare risking to anger the demonic wolf standing guard.

As we got closer to the Forest, I heard a voice yelling behind us. I turned around, Loerderth couldn't possibly have vanished already. Looking at the boy running to me, I understood why had my magic let him come.

"Keep running, Alyson. Get out as soon as you're out of the wards." I told her and tossed her the portkey I had bought years ago. She grabbed it and ran away without so much as a look back.

"I'll kill you! Sectumsempra!" I deflected the spell into the sky and cast one of my own in a flash. Zachary blocked it with a strong shield, but my spell was stronger than he expected. The shield gave out and he had to duck to avoid being cut in half. Temporarily disoriented by the explosion of his shield, he didn't see me sprinting until I was upon him. Surprised, he tried to stun me, I dodged the stunner with a sidestep and punched him in the guts. He fell on his knees and spat blood.

"What's done is done, Zach, we're going to disappear, and you'll never hear about us again." I said, feeling strangely sad for him. I had hated him, so far, but right at that moment, I couldn't anymore. Everything was now right, I had made everything right again, and I could feel only pity for him to not realize it.

I grabbed his wand out of his hand and tossed it away before turning around.

"Nata-Natasha..." he muttered, holding his guts. "You brought her back..."

I turned and watched him.

"Is it worth it?" he asked, tears in his eyes. "Was it really worth it to kill out parents to bring her back?" he shouted in my face. I grabbed him by the collar and brought him up.

"I'll never forget what I did, Harry, I'll never forgive myself for it!" he continued. "But what's done is done! The dead are dead, and the living are –"

I raised my fist and punched my hate into his face. Or so I thought I did, but he suddenly escaped my grasp and flew back, leaving only his ripped collar in my hand. He then landed on the grass, at the feet of an old man.

Dumbledore. I readied my wand and looked behind me. The forest was still so far away. Something in my mind clicked. Loerderth had attacked. I watched behind the aged wizard and saw the many aurors trying to fight Loerderth. The students had been evacuated.

"Harry... what you have done today, no, what you have done throughout your time in Hogwarts is... inhuman." he stated, pointing his wand to me.

I replied in kind, leveling my wand to him.

"It saddens me to no end to have to do this, but perhaps this is fair punishment. I must admit something to you, Harry."

"I don't have time to chat, old man. If you're not willing to fight, fine by me." I took a step back, not tearing my eyes from him.

His facial features hardened in a split second and he attacked. The floor under me was suddenly quicksand. Flabbergasted at the sheer speed of the transfiguration, I jumped back and aimed a few cutting spells at him to see how he would react. He slapped both spells with his left arm, wandlessly, and let them rip huge gaps in the ground.

I was starting to be slightly unnerved by him, he had just displayed a control of magic I had never imagined possible, and the fight had just started.

I spawned a ball of demonic flame in my hand and shot it to his feet before conjuring myself a large knife and running toward him. The old man surely wasn't too good at close range fighting.

He conjured a massive glove of earth to receive my fireball, and buried it in the ground, killing it instantly. I only had time to swear before he blasted water on me. The sheer pressure would have killed me instantly, I avoided it by diving to my right, and froze it with a wave of my wand.

"Oh oh!" he commented.

I immediately followed with a fireball and a cutter, sprang back on my feet and started to run again, determined to close the gap. I couldn't see if I had hit him, since he had conjured a wall of marble in front of me. Unable to stop my momentum, I crashed against the wall and immediately jumped to the side. Aware that he had probably cooked something more than the block of marble, I jumped back two times more to get out of his medium range.

A dozen spears plummeted on me from the sky, I tried to focus on one and block it, but somehow, the crazy old man was controlling every each one.

I spat, this was beginning to get on my nerves.

Running out of time and options, I gave up a good amount of stamina for a massive banisher. I cast the strongest banisher I could think of, overpowering it and pushed the spears back.

Dumbledore didn't stop there, he quickly chained over-potent stunners and forced me to shield.

I'm never getting in his close range if I have to shield. I thought, enraged, as I fell on my back, pushed back by a particularly strong stunner. I broke the shield and threw the knife in a swift motion, surprising him. He moved fast enough to avoid getting killed, but the knife stabbed him in the lung. Having broken the shield, I had to eat a stunner. It hit my cuirass, and exploded. A cuirass that had held killing curses and all sort of strong magic, simply blew up under the strain of Dumbledore's stunner.

I screamed as hot adamantine shrapnel bore into my flesh, dived to my left to avoid another stunner. Overtaken by the fury of battle, by my pride and rage, I shouted like a madman and sprung on my foot, facing more stunners.

Uncaring about the spells racing to me, I focused magic in my left hand, raising my fist as the golden lightning started to shape itself in my palm. The stunners caught up to me, I deflected one to my right, feeling the power and strength of it resonate in my whole body, then one to my right, my wand screaming for a break.

Dumbledore hadn't planned to see me deflect his strong spells, he opened his eyes wide as he realized he shouldn't have stopped casting.

I hurled the lightning spear to him. It was over, he had no time to cast anything, nor to dodge.

The spear exploded in a screaming thunder, illuminating the bright sky with wicked threads of blinding gold.

I swore. Dumbledore was still standing, his Phoenix pet had popped in front of him and took the blast of him.

The old man jabbed his wand to the sky. I looked up - there was nothing.

I yelled in pain, something had hit my arm. I looked down, a spear had sprouted from the ground and stabbed through my right arm. As soon as I saw it, it buried itself in the ground again, pulling my arm and forcing me down. I quickly grabbed my wand with my left hand and aimed at the ground to blow it up, but a second spear, this time from above, pinned my left arm to the ground and buried itself deep in the earth.

A second later, Dumbledore had conjured six other spears and successfully pinned my four limbs to the ground.

I roared furiously. I tried to stood up, but it was impossible, even with all the strength I could muster, the spears were too strong and deeply buried, all I could do was wiggle and grit my teeth at the pain. I tried to create some more black fire but the spears were no usual steel spears, they held control over me, they sealed me. Dumbledore knew what he was doing, and I had been a fool to doubt it.

Dumbledore walked to me. Only now, he took my knife out of his torso, and dropped it on the floor, pain readable on his traits.

"What a duel, Harry…" he mumbled, crouching down in front of me. "It's been a long time I've had to fight for my life."

"Just kill me, old man." I spat.

He sighed.

"James Potter and Lily Potter... had anyone witnessed the way the Potter household lived, I am sure this could have been avoided..." his voice was full of sorrow, as if soaked with regret. I looked up at him, confused. I could read profound sadness in his eyes.

"You see, Harry, your twin is part of a prophecy." he started.

"Do tell." I answered, thinking quickly. The only thing I can do now is win time for Alyson.

"Zachary and Voldemort, yes, the both of them are linked by that prophecy, and I..." he paused and sighed.

"I have done something that I regret so deeply, but cannot undo. Zachary had to become a man of the purest light, do you understand? He had to become the Savior of light, the Hero of all that is good..."

I had no idea where this was going, I stood silent. Behind him, in the distance, Aurors were running to us. I couldn't feel Loerderth anymore, neither could I remember when I had stopped to.

"Back then, back when Zachary destroyed Voldemort, I... cast an old brand of magic on your parents." Said Dumbledore, bringing my attention back to him.

"Looking back, it was foolish to do so, but you have to understand this is a kind of magic that was often used in the past, yes, a pureblood tradition, even... but this is no excuse." He shook his head.

"Just…what did you do?" I asked, having a feeling that I wouldn't like it.

"The magic I cast was simply designed to make your parents... more inclined to care for Zachary." he concluded.

I said nothing. There was nothing to be said.

"I needed to make sure Zachary would receive all the love necessary and I never... I never imagined it would turn that way, no, never. I have seen it in Zachary's mind, Harry, and I want to apologize... but I cannot. I have made a horrible mistake and I must live with it. Nothing will make up for it."

He stood silent for a moment, his eyes closed, as if weeping.

"You... you ruined our whole family, Dumbledore." I started, making up my last plan as I talked, "I won't forgive you."

He stood up. "I wouldn't ask for forgiveness, Harry."

"Zachary! James! Lily! Me!" I growled as loud as I could. "We're all as good as dead, yes, even your precious Zachary is destroyed forever! He's never coming back from this, he'll always bear hatred toward me and that's no one's fault but yours!" I stared in his eyes from his feet.

"But there is one left, one who has a second chance. Dumbledore, only you can do this! Take Natasha away, give her a life! You destroyed us, but I gave my all to protecting her, save her, Dumbledore!"

He looked behind me, at Alyson running toward the forest with Natasha in her arms.

"You've lost your right to meddle in this world's affair any longer, but there's one last thing you can do right. Let your last action be a good one, Dumbledore! Take her and hide her!"

He sighed. "Yes... yes this is the very least this old man can do..." he muttered, staring at his hands. He chuckled, his voice getting slightly teary. "I thought I knew all about it, but I was a fool... I didn't get it at all."

I stared intently at him.

He looked in my eyes one last time and spoke aloud. "I can hardly call myself better than you, after all, Harry. We both destroyed many innocent for purposes we believed just. Neither of us has been doing the right thing, even though we were so sure of ourselves… I will take Natasha away and leave this world."

He peered down at me. I nodded. There was nothing I could do anymore. Having Dumbledore hide her was better than I had hoped, even though I hated the thought.

"I'm sorry, Harry." He said finally. He whistled, and in a flash, the phoenix took him away.

I was left here for a few seconds, alone, bleeding in the grass, until the Aurors arrived, panting and sweating.

"Stun the damn kid and get the healers down here! Where's Dumbledore?"

"His phoenix took him and the girl away!" squeaked a panicked female Auror.

"We'll get to him later - any last words, motherfucker?" spat Kinsley, staring at me with unbridled fury.

I grinned.

I did it.