Unofficial Portkey Archive

"Do you expect me to believe that the molten mess down in your cellar is not what we know it is?" the cloaked figure asked incredulously.

"It's nothing more than what it seems," Harry replied smugly, "an old cellar filled with junk and leftover bronze and iron from the old family forge."

The figure, though cloaked, was visibly shaking with anger and frustration.

"We may not be able to prove anything, but mind you, we are watching you. We will catch you in the act and when that day comes, we will make you… disappear."

With a flick of his wand the wizard made the cage around Harry vanish. Then the man spun around and apparated away, with the remaining others soon behind him. Harry raised his hand and clutched his chest, breathing heavily. That was way too close. If he had not finished destroying the machine only moments before then he would have been carted off, locked up, and the key thrown away. He sat down on the old chair behind him and closed his eyes. What a complete disaster this had all been. It was fun and educational, but a complete and utter waste.

After thinking it over, he really did not have any regrets. Coming here and connecting with his mother's side of the family, meeting Amelia, meeting Teebel, rebuilding the machine, and most of all admitting his love to Hermione had been worth every moment of it all. He could have done without the ending, but who is to say that it was not all for the best. Maybe toying with life and death was not his calling. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and began to laugh to himself. What was going to irrevocably change the future will now not even be a footnote in history.

--- ---

Colette and Hermione were deep in conversation with one another. Bili had Ginny and Neville transfixed by his tales of traveling the world in search of the elusive cure for his love. Teebel on the other hand was doing his best to be inconspicuous, concerned that there might still be some ill feelings about the whole kidnapping incident. All in all, the mood in the room was much more relaxed.

Bili coughed loudly to get Colette and Hermione's attention.

"Ol' Dumbledore said he would be dropping in a bit later. He told me that he had to iron out a few wrinkles down at the ministry. I told him about the letter that Colette sent and he winked at me and said that he had temporarily delayed it. Something about redirecting it to the wrong ministry offices from what I recall. Anyway, he told me that he had been in touch with Harry this whole time."

"Why didn't Harry tell us that?" Hermione asked.

"Well, you see that's the strange thing of it. Dumbledore never let Harry on to the fact that it was him. Kept signing them ~a friend~, so as to keep it a bit of a secret."

"Why would he do that?" Neville replied.

"I'm not exactly sure the answer to that," Bili said truthfully. "From what I could glean, it had something to do with letting Harry go through this on his own. Dumbledore felt that Harry was trying to exert himself into the adult world and needed to learn some confidence in himself. He said that he wasn't going to be around forever, so Harry needed to feel like he could face things without his old schoolmaster looking over his shoulder."

Hermione nodded her head in agreement. It made perfect sense. Harry was trying to be an adult now and having Dumbledore in every aspect of his life could easily cause him to not grow into the man he needs to be. It made her laugh to herself, to think that when Dumbledore was Harry's age he probably had someone he looked up to and trusted. The thought of Albus Dumbledore needing guidance from someone else seemed odd, but was still a most certain truth.

"So what about the strange old wizard that scared Colette? What does he have to do with all this?" Ginny asked.

"Griltskin! That piece of work. I didn't even know that bag of bones was still around. Apparently that curse of his really was a doozy. You know how he got that curse? He tried to force an old swamp hag out of her home. He was overcome with hatred against the woman. Apparently she had a pet dragon that he was crazy to make his own. The first time he tried to take the beast, she cursed him. The second time he tried, she let old Narlroot swallow him right up. If it wasn't for one of Harry's family, he would probably still be in its belly to this day."

The others began to laugh hysterically at the thought.

"Well, what does he want and what can we do about him?" Neville said thoughtfully.

"He wants what he thinks is rightfully his, the Eye of Narlroot. Apparently it will cure the old codger of his curse. Rumor has it, that the thing has a great deal of power. And what we're going to do is let him have it."

"What?!" everyone cried out.

"Well, you see, if the curse is lifted, well let's just say that there won't be much left of a man who is hundreds of years old, if the magic that is keeping him alive is gone. He's gone so batty he probably doesn't even realize that. The sapphire does have a lot of power, but Dumbledore assured me not enough to keep him alive once he's cured," Bili smiled.

"Did Dumbledore know The Great Machine would not work?" Hermione queried.

"That's the thing of it," Bili answered, "he seemed sure that it would. He had a lot of respect for Heaglevert Leakwood and his work. He was quite surprised that Colette wasn't healed right up by it. Guess he doesn't know everything. Though I always kind of thought he did."

Teebel jumped up and down and shouted, "The mean wizards from the ministry are being gone now. Harry is calling for me. We can all be going to see him now."

"Well, I guess we should go and see him then," Ginny announced.

--- ---

Everyone had since gone to bed. It had been a long day and even she and Bili had elected to stay the night at Harry's home. She had been covering her bitter disappointment from the others, but now that she was alone with her thoughts she mulled them over. She was still embarrassed that she had been so easily manipulated by this Griltskin fellow. She also felt a deep sense of giving up on her own well being. She was happy enough, she guessed, but it was time she faced the truth that she would never be whole again.

Harry had agreed to find a way to get Griltskin to use the Eye. Thinking about that strange, pathetic creature drew an involuntary shudder from Colette. It was as if everything he said was more believable to her, then her own conscience. The thought that magic could somehow bend the mind of another human being did not sit well with her. How did the normal world know whether it was being controlled or not? Maybe witches and wizards had been behind the scenes of power for generations. What if the Queen of England had a witch who was a maid? What if key members of Parliament were under the spell of dark wizards? Who would know if they were doing the bidding of some evil purpose? Again her own thoughts caused her whole body to react negatively. Too many questions were left for her and not enough answers.

She stood near the sleeping form of Bilibaum. The room felt so serene with him just lying there. She decided then and there, that the next time he decided to travel that she would go with him. She was tired of being a prisoner of her own body. Why should she feel that way, just because she was sick? If these were her last days, then she wanted to spend them going to all the places that Bili had always told her about. The thought of traveling the world made her pulse race. So what if she could not see it. She could hear it, touch it, feel it and take all of these places in through her own ways. Then she would have her dearest use his marvelous gift for story telling to describe it with his eyes.

Her fear of magic would have to be put away for another day. She had other things to think about now. She reached down to grab her Braille pocket watch. Bili had set it down on the nightstand. Her fingers came to rest on the smooth wood surface and began to search. She felt her knuckles gently bump against a rounded piece of some sort. She touched it with her fingers and gently ran them the length of it. It was like a director's baton. It was Bili's wand she thought. Though she had never seen it and he had never spoken of it, she knew that he had one from his lengthy talk with her about how magic worked. Most of what he said flew right over her head, but she knew in time that she would understand it a little better.

She lifted the wand and it felt strangely balanced; as if it were meant to be held in the hand. She grinned as she waved it around. What was it like to be a witch? She stepped carefully away from the bed and began to swish the wand around in earnest. With each flick of the wrist she imagined letting loose some ponderous spell. She began to twirl around in place as she pretended to be conducting an invisible orchestra. She had a hard time not laughing at loud, for fear of waking up the others. Then she remembered a word that Hermione had used earlier. With a giddiness and a quick wave she called out quietly.

"Lumos."

She stopped spinning. There was a blinding light coming from somewhere. She could not see, but she could definitely tell the difference between light and dark. The room had suddenly gone from night to day. Her voice faltered as she whispered.

"Is someone there?"

There was no answer. What if it was him? What if Griltskin had come for her? She began to scream for help.

Bili shot straight out of bed in a confused stupor of sleep. There were pounding feet coming from down the hallway. Bili called out to her just as the door burst open. It sounded as if everyone had come in.

"What's wrong?" Bili exclaimed.

"There's someone else in the room with us," she cried fearfully. "I was just playing a bit, because I couldn't sleep and then the room lit up all of the sudden."

Ginny, Neville, Harry, Hermione and Bili all stopped dead in their tracks. There in Colette's hand was a wand and the wand was lit up as bright as it ever had.

"Dearest," Bili started, "how did the wand light up? What did you just do?"

"I… I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have been playing with it," Colette stammered.

Harry reached over and took the wand from her. With a flick he doused the light. He then handed it back to her.

"Whatever you were just doing," he said, "do it again."

Colette felt fearful.

"It's alright dearest," Bili told her reassuringly, "go ahead."

Colette hesitated at first, but then began to wave the wand around, spun around and said, "Lumos."

The wand responded immediately. It grew bright enough to show the shock and amazement on every face there in that room.

"What's happening?" Colette asked with fear coloring her voice.

No one answered. After a moment of silence Harry finally spoke up.

"Now I understand… this is why Heaglevert tore out the pages. When he realized that the machine could not heal his daughter, he discovered another use for it. That knowledge died with him. Now, we have brought it to light once more. The machine with the Eye of Narlroot…"

"Harry, it's just not possible," Hermione intoned. "In all the history books, in all the tomes of knowledge, there has never been a time where a muggle has been given the gift of magic."

"…and yet, here it is right in front of us," Ginny replied thoughtfully.

"What does it mean?" Neville asked.

"It means nothing," Bili answered, "the machine is destroyed. This moment will never again be repeated. This is what the Ministry was truly afraid of. This is why they were so hell bent on silencing the Leakwood family."

"She's a witch now, "Hermione said breathlessly, "the healers at St. Mungos will have to help her now."

The reality of her words struck everyone like a resonating chord. There was not a dry eye in the room.

--- ---

"Harry you did better than I ever could have hoped," Dumbledore told him thoughtfully.

"To be honest, I'm not sure what I would have done if I had known that the Leakwood family secret could bestow such a thing on a person. Heaglevert was very close to my dear friend Nicolas Flamel. Nicolas was ever the fan of his work and he later told me how much he admired your great, great grandfather and his ideas. It seems it has all come full circle now."

"Except for one thing," Harry mentioned, "Griltskin is still out there. I tried as hard as I could and could never find him."

"His story is far from over," Dumbledore nodded, "perhaps you will encounter him another day. My advice is to always be ready. Never let your guard down."

"I could never tell this to anyone else, but it felt sort of strange spending so much of my life worrying about Voldemort, that I felt a bit off not having a dark villain hiding in the wings. Knowing that an evil wizard is out there somewhere, feels almost… normal," Harry confided.

"That is a good thing," Albus replied, "In my experience there is always an evil witch or wizard lurking in the world. One must never become complacent."

Harry nodded his head.

"So, what great adventure are you going on to now?" the headmaster asked with a smile.

Harry looked on as his old school mates and Bili were gathered around an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Each of them in turn hugging and laughing and crying with her. Colette had been healed after years and years of suffering. To see her standing there made Harry feel deeply happy.

"Well, we got an owl the other day. Apparently there is a wedding happening at some Sherpa temple in the Himalayas. A shape-shifting monk apparently agreed to marry Ron and Luna. We were all going to attend that and then I figured a bit of a rest is in order. Hermione and I have decided that we are going to go back to Leakwood Manor and spend some time together with Amelia. Then we might tag along with Bili and Colette. They are planning an around the world trip. It might be fun to see everything there is to see."

"Indeed," Dumbledore responded with a warm grin.

"Albus?"

"Yes Harry?"

"I still know how… I have every single detail memorized. I could… rebuild it. I still have the Eye… what… what should I do?"

"Ah, I knew this question might come," Dumbledore said softly. "I cannot tell you what to do. Your secret would always be safe with me. However, a word of caution. If you were to do this all over again, how would you choose who was 'worthy' of magic and who was not? Would you give the gift to every muggle? Or perhaps just some; ones you think deserve it? How would you decide who does deserve it and who does not?"

"I thought about the same kinds of things and I don't think I would be able to do that. How would I choose? What right would I have to make that decision?" Harry offered back. "For now, I guess it is enough to know that we've helped Colette. Perhaps this machine is like the Philosopher's Stone. It carries too many moral questions to be allowed in the world."

"Harry, you are growing wiser each and every year. I have every confidence in you. I hope that someday, when I am gone, that you will carry the torch on. Knowing you are in this world makes it easier for me to face my own mortality."

Harry did not know exactly what to say to that. So, he just stood there next to him. His whole life stretched out in front of him, but in the end he always knew that he would come back to where his fondest memories lie. He closed his eyes and could almost imagine himself standing in the great hall of Hogwarts and welcoming the students to another school year. For now though, he would take the time he had been given and live life to its fullest.

--- ---

"Deprive me of my jewel will you?!" Griltskin hissed.

Griltskin was peering into a small pool of murky water. Harry's face looking quite pleased with himself.

"The Himalayas? A wedding? A wedding to die for I would say. I will be there waiting for you. I am still here Harry Potter. Do not rest too easy, your enemy still lies hidden in the darkness."